Kaye later founded her own vacation rental company,
Benchmark Rentals, and I spent a lot of weekends
on the island helping her. My memories are stuck
in the 90s, and it has changed so much in the last
20 years. Kiawah is a beautiful island and one of
Charleston’s jewels. I look forward to interacting
with property owners and helping to preserve the
island for future generations.
KICA has an active finance committee that provides
member input and guidance on KICA’s financial
decisions. What do you think your role looks like?
To me the role of the finance committee is more
strategic. My job in interacting with them is to
provide them accurate financial information in a
timely manner and a format that makes sense to
them. It’s important that they can get that 30,000
foot view of where the organization is going in
5 years. That’s what I tried to do at Porter-Gaud
— keep them focused on the long-term financial
health and not so much on what we spent last
month on the water bill.
What are you going to miss about Porter-Gaud School?
Porter-Gaud is like a family. I have built wonderful
relationships with both faculty and staff, and will
miss them greatly. I will also miss the students. If I
was having a bad day, I could just walk down to the
1st grade house and suddenly all was well with the
world again.
You spent a few years on the board of the Charleston
Wine + Food Festival (CWFF), which is such a great
showcase of Charleston’s food community. What was
your favorite moment?
I actually spent 10 years on the CWFF board, starting
in their second year. My two highlights would be
leading the search for the current executive director,
Jillian Zettler, and serving as board chair for the
10th anniversary of the festival.
You have a lot of experience with cooking for fundraisers,
is that right?
I used to do charity dinners in Charlotte with a
fraternity brother Mike Gminski, who was playing
in the NBA. We’d auction off a dinner for 12 at his
house and I’d do most of the cooking while he took
the credit. The first time we did it, the dinner sold
for $2,000 and we thought we were hot stuff. 15 years
“Kiawah is a beautiful island and
one of Charleston’s jewels. I look
forward to interacting with property
owners and helping to preserve
the island for future generations.”
later, it sold for $65,000. We brought in Branford
Marsalis to entertain — he lived in Durham, and he
and Mike were both on the Duke Hospital board.
That evening just about killed me so I retired from
cooking for large groups, but over the many dinners
we raised over $250,000 for children’s charities in
Charlotte so it was worth it.
Can you share any great festival food memories?
When I was chair, I had this idea for the chairman’s
dinner. There’s this winery in California that I’m
particularly fond of, Bond (my dog is named for
the winery). I asked them to come to the 10th
anniversary and do this dinner. They don’t do a lot
of festivals because their wine is crazily expensive.
We got a private home on Colonial Lake, had two
James Beard chefs in the kitchen, and my favorite
wine was being poured. It was a black tie dinner.
Bond the dog was actually at the front door meeting
people when they came in. It was a highlight for me.
And I didn’t have to cook it.
What is your favorite thing to cook or eat?
This past Saturday, we went to the John’s Island
farmers market and we bought a bunch of produce.
Then I had to figure out what to do with it! I love the
little mystery basket concept. I judged a few of those
things at Johnson and Wales back in the day. The
produce coming in right now is just amazing.
I love to cook any type of seafood or wild game. If
there’s a cuisine I like to cook, it’s probably French
cuisine. My wife does not cook. That’s something we
learned early on in our dating — I was going to be
the guy doing the cooking.
What’s one thing you can’t live without?
Other than my wife, of course: Duke basketball. Go
Devils!
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