WESTPORT – Westport Library Board of Trustees Senior Vice President Robert Boroujerdi has succeeded Pat Wieser as the board’s president. At the same time, the board has added four members for the 2025-2026 term.
Krishna Patel will succeed Boroujerdi as senior vice president. The new board members are Christy Charise, James Corgel, Darcy Travlos, and Ashley Zwick.
The other officers for the fiscal 2025-26 term are Treasurer Ben Chan, Secretary Sheri Gordon, Finance Committee Chair Scott Bennewitz, Governance and Nominations Committee Chair Martina Sze, and Development Committee Chair Mark Silverstein.
Boroujerdi is a former partner at Goldman Sachs and later joined Third Point LLC, an institutional asset manager, as the head of markets. He is an active investor and advisor across public and private markets. He and his family live in Westport.
“We’re incredibly fortunate to have such a remarkable library at the heart of our town,” Boroujerdi said. “Alongside my fellow board members, I’m honored to help steward this shared resource — a gift we all benefit from and help shape. The Library truly stands as a reflection of our community itself: curious, welcoming, and always learning.”
Those cycling off the board are longtime contributors Andrea Berkely, Randy Herbertson, Celeste La Croix, Jay Norris, and Andrew Wilk.
“We look forward to the new ideas and energy that we know this outstanding group of new board members will bring, but we’ll of course miss seeing our longtime board members at our regular meetings,” said Westport Library Executive Director Bill Harmer. “The great news is that they’ll stay on as patrons and volunteers, and we look forward to working with everyone — new and old — for this coming term and in the many years to come.”
Christy Charise
Charise started her career at Goldman Sachs, leaving to pursue her MBA at Cornell, where she was selected as one of 26 Park Leadership fellows in her business school class (a fellowship recognizing professional and academic excellence). After completing her MBA, Charise joined Bain & Co. as a strategy consultant in their New York office, spending time in both the general practice and their private equity group. She subsequently joined the Connecticut-based boutique consultancy Casey Quirk, focusing on strategy work for public and private asset managers and hedge funds. In 2009, Charise and her husband co-founded Saugatuck Financial, where she led the daily operations and growth initiatives for more than a decade.
James Corgel
Corgel is an experienced business executive who has been involved with several nonprofits in leadership and team roles since his retirement. His focus has largely been education, management excellence, and career development. Corgel retired in 2013 after an extensive career at the IBM Corp., where he served in a number of key general manager roles with global responsibility. He was appointed a member of IBM’s Integration and Values team in 1997, a senior management group responsible for strategy implementation.
Darcy Travlos
Travlos is a capital markets specialist, investor, and entrepreneur with deep experience across technology, media, industrial, and consumer sectors. A former investment banker and equity research analyst, she has advised more than 200 companies and led more than 70 technology and consumer-related transactions. She was one of the most-read contributors to Forbes.com and has appeared on CNBC, Bloomberg, Fox Business, and national radio.
Ashley Zwick
Zwick has more than 20 years of experience in the nonprofit and education sectors. She currently serves as the executive director of the Tuck Initiative on Workplace Inclusion at Dartmouth and teaches courses on social impact at NYU. When Zwick moved to Westport in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, she had one non-negotiable: to live within walking distance of The Westport Library. Fortunately, she and her family of passionate readers found a home on Evergreen Avenue.
