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Leaders & Board

Bob Woodruff

Bob Woodruff

Though not engaged in our day-to-day operations, Bob Woodruff will always be the spirit behind the foundation. On Jan. 29, 2006, while reporting on U.S. and Iraqi security forces for ABC’s “World News Tonight,” he was seriously injured by a roadside bomb that struck his vehicle near Taji, Iraq.

In February 2007, just 13 months after being wounded, he returned to ABC News with “To Iraq and Back: Bob Woodruff Reports.” Since then, he has reported from around the globe for the network.




Lee Woodruff

Lee Woodruff

As co-author of the best-selling book In an Instant, Lee Woodruff garnered critical acclaim for the compelling and humorous chronicle of her family’s journey to recovery. Her second book, Perfectly Imperfect: A Life in Progress, was published in April 2009.

Lee has written numerous articles about her family and parenting in magazines such as Health, Redbook and Country Living. She is a contributing editor and spokesperson for Family Fun and a contributor to ABC’s “Good Morning America,” reporting on home- and family-related topics.

Woodruff speaks to groups nationwide to raise awareness of traumatic brain injury and the sacrifices of our military troops and families.

René Bardorf

René Bardorf

Executive Director

Since joining BWF in 2007, René Bardorf has helped steer the organization’s evolution from a small family foundation to a national nonprofit at the center of issues related to the return of America’s heroes from combat to civilian life. She helps identify the challenges that military families have and helps find and fund the most effective programs to address them.

René served as the senior civilian adviser for injured support to the U.S. Marine Corps and as a liaison and strategic planner with leaders at the Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs for injured service member programs. She co-founded the Injured Marine Semper Fi Fund, which raised more than $10 million for injured service members. She is currently studying nonprofit organization strategy and management at Harvard University.

Our Board of Directors

  • Colin Heffron

    Colin Heffron

    President, GFI Group Inc.

    Colin Heffron, President and Director, GFI Group Inc. has been GFI’s President since February 2004. Mr. Heffron is responsible for all brokerage, data and analytics businesses. He joined GFI in 1988 as a broker of foreign currency options in New York, before moving to London to assist in the establishment of the GFI London office. From 1991 until 1994, Mr. Heffron headed the currency options business. From 1994 until 1997, Mr. Heffron ran the day-to-day operations of all of our European businesses. From 1998 until February 2004, Mr. Heffron was head of all operations in Europe and joint-head of Asian operations. Mr. Heffron has been a director since November 2001. Mr. Heffron graduated from St. Lawrence University in 1985 with a BA inGovernment.

  • Bob Jeffrey

    Bob Jeffrey

    CEO, J. Walter Thompson Worldwide

    Bob Jeffrey is the chairman and CEO of JWT Worldwide, the world’s best-known advertising agency brand for close to 150 years. As JWT’s CEO, Jeffrey is responsible for over 200 offices and 10,000 employees in more than 90 countries; working with blue-chip clients such as Ford, HSBc, Johnson & Johnson, Nokia, Nestlé, Microsoft, Unilever and others.

    Jeffrey believes the network should focus on three key elements: work, reputation and growth. It is this determination to continually improve creative output, agency perception and business development that has delivered a freshly reinvigorated network prepared to guide and build some of the world’s most powerful brands.

    Today, JWT continues to pioneer in the world of marketing. The agency’s growth is well reported under Jeffrey, including undoubted new business success, a search for the very best talent that is ongoing and naturally an absolute focus on creativity. This fact is proven by JWT’s largest ever collection of awards from the cannes Lions Festival 2008: 39 Lions across a multitude of global and local clients.

    Jeffrey is regarded as an ambassador of advertising and is widely respected for his views and achievements. His knowledge and experience of the industry has led him to become a regular contributor to Fox Business Network, CNBC and CNN, as well as a frequent source of quotes for leading trade and business publications. Jeffrey serves on the board of the Center for Disease Control, as well as the Atlantic Council. He lives in Manhattan and Rhode Island.

  • Martha Raddatz

    Martha Raddatz

    Chief White House Correspondent
, ABC News

    Martha Raddatz was named ABC News Chief White House Correspondent in November 2005. As White House Correspondent, she reports on all aspects of the Bush administration for “World News with charles Gibson,” “Nightline,” and other ABC News broadcasts. She has also traveled to Iraq nearly twenty times since 2003, spending weeks embedded with US Forces.

    Raddatz joined ABC News in January, 1999 as the network’s State Department correspondent. There she covered the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, as well as traveled to Africa, Pakistan, and India with the U.S. Secretary of State. Her coverage at the State Department after the attacks of September 11th was recognized, along with other ABC News recipients, with a Peabody Award as well as an Emmy Award.

    In May of 2004, Raddatz was named senior national security correspondent. During her time at the Pentagon, Ms. Raddatz reported exclusively on a number of stories, including the near capture of al-Zarqawi in April 2005, plus the discovery of his laptop computer. She also broke the story that the attack on a U.S. military dining hall in Mosul, Iraq in December 2004 was the work of a suicide bomber.

    In the early hours of June 8, 2006, Ms. Raddatz was the first correspondent to report that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of al Qaeda in Iraq, had been killed in a US air strike north of Baghdad. Al-Zarqawi’s death is considered a major development in the fight against the insurgency, and Ms. Raddatz broke the story more than thirty minutes ahead of any other network.

    Raddatz has also been awarded two Emmys for coverage of kosovo and the Elian Gonzales case in the news program “Weekend World News.” In addition to her work for ABc News, Raddatz is a frequent guest on PBS’s “Washington Week” and “charlie Rose.” From 1993-1998, she was the Pentagon correspondent for National Public Radio (NPR), where she reported on foreign policy, defense, and intelligence issues. During her tenure at NPR, she made numerous trips to Eastern Europe to cover the war in Bosnia.

    Prior to joining NPR in 1993, Raddatz was the chief correspondent at the ABCNews Boston affiliate WCVB-TV. In addition to covering several presidential campaigns, she reported from the former Soviet Union, Africa, the Middle East, the Philippines and Europe. Raddatz has been honored for her journalistic contributions many times, including a 1996 Overseas Press Club award for her live coverage of theassassination of Yitzhak Rabin. Her reporting was also recognized with the National Headliner Award for team coverage of the 1988 presidential campaign, and two Radio and Television News Director Association first-place awards.

    Raddatz is also the author of “The Long Road Home—a Story of War and Family.” The highly acclaimed book was released in March of 2007 making both the New York Times and Washington Post bestseller lists. The Washington Post described the book as “a masterpiece of literary non-fiction that rivals any war -related classic that has preceded it.”

  • Edward Toptani, Esq.

    Ed Toptani

    Toptani Law Offices

    Edward Toptani has operated a boutique law firm in New York city for the past eighteen years. His practice focuses primarily on transactional matters pertaining to complex securities and derivatives, hedge funds, private finance and start-up ventures. In addition, Mr. Toptani also litigates federal securities civil actions and frequently serves as an arbitrator for the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority. He also advises various not-for-profit organizations, including the kilimanjaro Education Fund and the NYPD Gaelic Football Club.

    From 1987-1992, Mr. Toptani was associated with the international law firm of Shearman & Sterling, where he specialized in mergers and acquisitions, structured work-outs and highly leveraged transactions. Mr. Toptani received his undergraduate degree (Magna cum Laude) and law degree (Honors) from the University of Michigan.

  • Dave Woodruff

    Dave Woodruff

    Group Advertising Director, Hearst Integrated Media

    Dave Woodruff is chairman of the Board of the Bob Woodruff Foundation. In January of 2006 Woodruff’s brother, ABC News Anchor Bob Woodruff, suffered a severe traumatic brain injury while covering the war in Iraq. A year after his brother’s injury and as his recovery continued, Woodruff and his family established the Foundation in thanks for the remarkable care Bob received from the military and civilian caregivers he encountered through his injury and recovery. Woodruff is committed to growing the Bob Woodruff Foundation into a nationally recognized leading military charity.

    Woodruff is also Group Advertising Director for the Hearst Integrated Media and Hearst Digital Media divisions of Hearst Magazines overseeing all corporate accounts in the Detroit territory. Woodruff has been very active in the Detroit advertising community and has been a member of the Adcraft club of Detroit since 1984 and a member of its Board of Directors since 2002. He just completed his term as the organization’s 101st President in 2007.

    He was a member of the Board of Directors of the Detroit Magazine Representatives Association from 1998-2001, serving two consecutive terms as the organization’s chairman in 2000 and 2001. He is also a member of the Detroit Advertising Association.

    In addition, Woodruff founded the children’s Hospital of Michigan Jeep claybird classic charity sporting clays tournament which ran for over 10 years and raised nearly $1,000,000, establishing an endowed chair in Pediatric Rehabilitation at Wayne State University and children’s Hospital.

    Woodruff lives in Birmingham, Michigan with his wife Lee Ann and children kyle and Ellie. He is an avid outdoorsman and golfer and serves as an Episcopal Eucharistic Minister at Christ Church Cranbrook in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan.

  • Lee Woodruff

    Lee Woodruff

    Freelance Writer and Public Relations Executive

    As co-author of the best-selling book, In An Instant, Lee Woodruff garnered critical acclaim for the compelling and humorous chronicle of her family’s journey to recovery following her husband Bob’s roadside bomb injury in Iraq. Her second book, Perfectly Imperfect: A Life in Progress was published in April 2009.

    As a freelance writer, Woodruff has penned numerous personal articles about her family and parenting that have run in such high-profile magazines as Health, Redbook and country Living. She also works as a contributing editor and spokesperson of Family Fun.

    Woodruff is currently a contributor for ABC’s Good Morning America, reporting on a variety of home and family related topics.

  • Marian Salzman

    Marian Salzman

    President of Euro RSCG Worldwide PR, North America

    Marian Salzman rejoined Euro RSCG Worldwide as president of its North American PR operations in August 2009 to empower the agency’s offer centered on social media and grassroots campaigning. She also serves as top communications officer for the Euro RSCG brand globally and as a member of its executive committee. She had previously spent five years as chief strategic officer of Euro RSCG Worldwide, where she gained international acclaim for the popularization of a concept that became the “word of the year” for 2003: metrosexual. That same year, she launched the agency’s buzz practice and published a book by the same name—Buzz: Harness the Power of Influence and Create Demand.

    Before returning to Euro in August 2009, she was a partner, chief marketing officer and member of the Worldwide Executive Committee at global PR giant Porter Novelli for 18 months. She drove Porter’s brand planning and positioning, oversaw all brand communication and business development, and created and executed thought leadership, reputation management and social media programs, including the creation of Porter’s pop-up agency Jack + Bill, which won PRWeek’s 2009 PR Innovation of the Year.

    Named one of the world’s top five trendspotters by global publisher VNU, she has lived and worked in the U.S. and Europe, and she has managed trendspotters around the globe for more than 15 years. Salzman served as CMO at JWT Worldwide from 2005 to 2008 and worldwide director of TBWA’s Department of the Future. She was director of consumer insights and emerging media at Chiat\Day and co-founded Cyberdialogue—the world’s first online market research company—in 1992 with business partner Jay Chiat. She spent nearly a decade in and around the Chiat (ultimately the TBWA) organization living and becoming its style of creativity: day and night, good enough never enough.

    Salzman has contributed regular trends columns to Forbes.com’s CMO Network and CNBC.com and written for industry leaders Adweek (U.S.) and Marketing Week (U.K.). She has blogged at pnintelligentdialogue.com and currently blogs at eurorscgprcampaign.com. Salzman is a member of the mentoring board of Brown University’s Women in Business and an adviser to the Berlin School of Creative Leadership’s M.B.A. program. She puts her greatest charity effort into ReMIND.org, for which she created Tweet to ReMIND (tweettoremind.org), the social media fundraising initiative that has become a community-based effort to raise money and awareness for the Bob Woodruff Family Foundation, on whose board she serves.

    Salzman has written or co-written 15 books on topics ranging from current affairs to the youth market to the commercial workplace. Most recent are Next Now: Trends for the Future and The Future of Men: The Rise of the Ubersexual and What He Means for Marketing Today. Salzman graduated from Brown University with top honors and studied sociology at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences; she now lives in Connecticut.

  • Anthony Viceroy

    Anthony Viceroy

    Global President and CFO, Porter Novelli

    Anthony Viceroy is global president and CFO of Porter Novelli. He is a partner and a member of the executive committee, where he helps drive strategic development and ensure delivery of the agency’s value proposition for new and existing clients. He heads Porter Novelli’s financial and operational groups to support the global focus of driving profitable growth and developing talent.

    Before joining Porter Novelli, Anthony served as senior vice president of financial management and client partnership for Omnicom’s Diversified Agency Services (DAS) group. In this role, he engaged with Fortune 500 clients on integration, growth opportunities and fee negotiation. Prior to joining DAS in 2002, Anthony served as the North American finance director and treasurer of the Danish biopharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk A.S. Earlier in his career, he held various financial and consulting positions within the Big 4 public accounting firms, where he worked on mergers and acquisitions and business development.

    Anthony is a certified public accountant who holds an MBA from Fordham University with specialization in global business management and corporate finance. He earned his undergraduate degree in accounting from Iona College.

    Anthony sits on the board of directors for ReMind.org/The Bob Woodruff Foundation, which provides resources and support to service members, veterans and their families so they can successfully reintegrate into their communities and thrive physically, psychologically, socially and economically. Anthony is also a board member of The Torch Program, which works to transform the lives of underserved New York City public high school students by providing intensive exposure to career training and opportunities in communications and the arts, all while facilitating a meaningful way of increasing the diversity of the workforce in those industries.

Our Honorary Board Members

  • James Woodruff

  • Michael Woodruff

Our Military Leadership Council and Advisory Board

  • Admiral Edmund P. Giambastiani, Jr.

    United States Navy, Retired Seventh
    Vice Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff

  • General Michael W. Hagee

    United States Marine Corps, Retired
    Thirty-third Commandant, United States Marine Corps

  • Dr. William Winkenwerder, Jr.

    Former Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs, Department of Defense
    Chairman, The Winkenwerder Company LLC

  • Shelia Casey

    United States Army, Spouse of the Chief of Staff of the Army

  • General John Abizaid

    United States Army, Retired
    Former Commander, United States Central Command

  • Vice Admiral Donald C. Arthur

    United States Navy, Retired
    Former Medical Corps
    United States Navy Surgeon General
    Chief, Bureau of Medicine and Surgery

  • Lieutenant General Gregory S. Newbold

    United States Marine Corps, Retired
    Former Director of Operations (J-3), Joint Chiefs of Staff

  • Rocco Armonda, MD

    Lieutenant Colonel, United States Army
    Director of Cerebrovascular Surgery,
 Interventional Neuroradiology and Neurocritical Care
    National Naval Medical Center

  • Susan Connors

    President and CEO
    Brain Injury Association of America

  • Mary Hibbard, Ph.D.

    Professor
    Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Mount Sinai School of Medicine

  • Elizabeth Chiarelli

    United States Army
    Spouse of the Vice Chief of Staff of the Army

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