Since September, 2020, Kevin Decker has been the Chief Executive Officer of Ocean Aero, which brings the ocean and its data to you, with novel hardware and software that is revolutionizing maritime exploration. Bringing 20+ years of leadership experience across a wide range of companies in dozens of cultures and countries, Kevin has a strong track record of building commercial teams, tailoring customer specific value propositions, and managing diverse groups of resources from frontline sales associates to in-field application engineers and program managers.
Prior to joining Ocean Aero, Decker was most recently the Chief Commercial Officer of Emulate, Inc., a biotech start-up producing and servicing organs-on-chips technology for use in pharmaceutical drug discovery and personal medicine, with the company’s technology being spun out of the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University. Before Emulate, Decker was with Rexnord Industries where he served as the leader of the Rexnord Business System’s Corporate commercial team.
Decker served for 16 years at General Electric (GE) in multiple business units and held a range of management positions at GE Corporate, GE Distributed Power and GE Measurement & Controls, where he developed global sales pipelines, cultivated cross-company customer pursuit teams, and championed the principles of Sales Force Effectiveness (SFE) across the portfolio while leading market development and commercial operations teams.
Earlier in his career, Decker spent 7 years in GE’s leadership training program in the finance and audit group, obtained a Six Sigma black belt certification, and received his undergraduate degree in business administration from Boston University.
The Club Calendar is at the end of this newsletter. Please refer to it to see the meeting schedule, social events and more. It will be updated when speakers and events are added.
The updated Greeters and Openers schedule is also near the end of the newsletter, so please check to see if you are on there!
Friday Meeting - December 5
Carmen Colon and Silvia Narvaez
Carmen Colon, President and CEO of Pacific House in Stamford, and Silvia Narvaez, Chief Program Officer were our speakers last Friday.
They updated us on the services provided by Pacific House and their future plans.
Mission: Preventing and ending homelessness in Fairfield County.
Vision: To provide emergency shelter and permanent supportive housing for men and young adult males, women, and families with children.
Congratulations to Rob Hauck on his retirement from banking and cheers to his next chapter!
Bruce Fritz was the lucky winner of the raffle and was intrigued by all the cool Mathias attic prizes!
Mark Mathias shared his Joke of the Day before Ken arrived with his!
GILLESPIE CENTER COOKING / SERVING SCHEDULE
One of our club’s ongoing and rewarding commitments to community service is our commitment to serving dinner meals on the first Saturday of each month at the Gillespie Center here in Westport.
We are back to serving meals at the newly renovated Gillespie Center. We have the option to drop off prepared meals at 4:30 PM or to bring meals to serve in person at 4:40 PM (allow extra time if the meals need to be reheated). Meal service should include a main dish, side dish, vegetable, and dessert (no nuts or shellfish please). The number of meals to provide, currently 25, will be confirmed to you to in advance when it is your turn to serve.
If you choose to drop off prepared meals at 4:30 PM you have the option to prepare homemade meals, purchase prepared meals at the store/restaurant of your choice, or you can contact Fresh Market on the Post Road in Westport where you can purchase prepared meals (protein, two sides and cookies for $7 - $10 per meal). If you choose the Fresh Market option call Mark at 203 227-2910 on the Monday prior to your meal service to place your order. You can pay for the meals when you pick them up.
If you are unable to work on your assigned Saturday you will be responsible to call other Rotarians on the list to switch dates.
January 3, 2026 Alma Sarelli Stan Plominski February 7, 2026 Joe Watson Mazie Zdanowicz March 7, 2926 Rachelle Norzelus Yvonne Senturia April 4, 2026 Joe Renzulli Mark Mathias May 2, 2026 Steven Chin Matt Mandell June 6, 2026 Joe Scordato Paul Keblish July 4, 2926 BBQ
Birthdays & Anniversaries
Member Birthdays
Charlie Haberstroh
July 21
Hal Levy
July 24
Jen Tooker Tooker
July 27
Join Date
Bruce Fritz
July 2, 2021
5 years
Mike Hibbard
July 5, 2019
7 years
Alfred Watson
July 7, 2017
9 years
Steven Chin
July 7, 2022
4 years
Aimee Monroy Smith
July 12, 2023
3 years
Jeffrey Kaufman
July 16, 2023
3 years
Matthew Mandell
July 25, 2014
12 years
Helen Appleby
July 28, 2025
1 year
Ruth Summers
July 28, 2025
1 year
Rachelle Norzelus
July 29, 2022
4 years
Rick Jaffe
July 31, 2009
17 years
MEETING OPENERS SCHEDULE
December 5 Holtz
12 Keblish
19 Wetmore
January 9 Mullen
16 Nair
23 Sarelli
February 6 Press
13 Fritz
20 Watson
March 6 Senturia
13 Bernhard
20 Renzulli
27 Klein
April 10 Summers
17 Augustyn
GREETERS SCHEDULE
December Augustyn; Ezzes
January Jaffe; Appleby
February Masumian; Jean-Baptiste
March Fritz; Zdanowicz
April Mandell; Violette
May Monroy-Smith; Zielinski
June Wetmore; Summers
2025
December
5: Carmen Colon, CEO and President, Pacific House
10: Holiday Party
12: Kevin Decker, CEO, Ocean Aero
19: Rachel Precious, Precious Oysters
26: NO MEETING
2026
January
2: NO MEETING
9: Susan Filan, Motivational Speaker
16: Carla Bercerra Sabrera, Yale Rotaract Club
23: Netta Levy, Lifecare Concierge
30: NO MEETING
February
6: Lexi Shereshewsky, The Azraq Education Fund
1: Laurence A. Caso, The Klein Memorial Auditorium, Bridgeport
20: Ceci Maher, State Senator
27: NO MEETING
March
6: Gavin MacMahon, FassForward 13: Ckiff Sirlin, Buy Build Fund 20: Bill Harmer, Westport Library Common Ground 27: Sharon Walker Epps, Rowan Center
