Buffalo ReUse People

Staff: page being reconstructed changes starting 11/4/11. thanks for your patience.

James Green | David Haugh | Brandon Erick | David Hughes | Michele Johnson | Marsha Whipple | David Bennink |

Board:

Lorna Castanik | Keith James | Vincent Kuntz | David Laguerre | Alison Mueller | Franklin Redd |

#David Haugh

David Haugh - Store Manager (and more!)

Email: DVHaugh@buffaloreuse.org :: Phone: 716–882–2800 (store)

As you can see page being constructed. Thanks for your patience.

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David Haugh came to Buffalo ReUse with lots of retail management experience. His experience has helped us through a major move to the new facility at 296 E. Ferry. Dave is now working on stabilizing and expanding our salvage and deconstruction operations. Some time in between all his duties he will write us a proper bio!

#James Green

James Green, Executive Director

Email: JGreen@buffaloreuse.org :: Phone: 716.885.4131 (office)

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James Green, became our Executive Director on June 13, 2011.

#David Hughes

Marsha Whipple, Office/Finance Manager

Email: marsha@buffaloreuse.org :: Phone: 716–885–4131 (office)

Marsha has had the privilege of living, working and moving around our amazing country. Born in Vegas when it was a very small town she has lived in LA, Greenwich Village, Coconut Grove, Steamboat Springs, Denver, & Reno plus a few other places of varying size and notoriety. College graduation occurred in Colorado, followed by a year of being a ski bum. Of course the years in college included a lot of skiing and a lot of being involved in environmental/political endeavors. Colorado has long been a hot bed of recycling, regulating growth to balance with nature – “Heck,” she says, “I even got to be one of the people that voted against having the Winter Olympics there!” Even with all this moving and traveling Marsha has managed to be a WNY resident since 1979, albeit, her kids joke about the amount of property she has bought and sold in WNY. 17 years in Alden and a variety of homes led to the past 6 years as a city mouse in the Parkside area. It is not surprise with all this moving that Marsha became a Realtor® in 1994. Entwined with this 17 year long career are many other adventures. Just ask. One of the things she will tell you is that no matter what, everything that happens good, bad or indifferent makes life interesting; she has the stories to prove it.

Brandon Erick, ReSource Staff

Brandon grew up in rural Chautauqua County, where he quickly developed a love of the outdoors. His interests led him to a variety of outdoor jobs, most recently being a one year term with AmeriCorps, serving at Tifft Nature Preserve. Brandon has volunteered with numerous community clean-ups and tree plantings including some of the ones hosted by Buffalo ReUse. He is most often bringing in new inventory, picking-up donations, but he also enjoys salvaging and deconstruction. His many talents and dedication to our goals make him one of our favorite employees! ••

David Bennink, ReUse Consultant

Email: reuse@comcast.net :: Phone: 360–201–6977

David Bennink was instrumental in starting up Buffalo ReUse and remains one of our strongest supporters. As both a paid consultant and volunteer advisor, he’s guided us well for the past three years, based on his nearly twenty years of experience in both green demolition (he practically invented it), nonprofit management and reuse store operations. He’s always available when we have questions or tough operational decisions to make. Most recently, he led the “inside the house” team during the Extreme Makeover Green Demolition, helping Buffalo ReUse accomplish the task in fifteen hours, an amazing achievement.

David is the owner of RE-USE Consulting. He has been in the reusable building materials industry for almost 17 years. He helped to develop and run two non-profit reuse stores in the State of Washington, working there for 11.5 years. He and his wife started RE-USE Consulting in 2004 and now have clients in 36 states in all regions of the country, and were voted National Building Deconstructor of the Year – 2009, and runner-up for National Building Deconstructor of the Year – 2007. In 2009, they focused on expanding the deconstruction industry nationwide, helped create over 200 green collar jobs, and drew attention to the building reuse and deconstruction industry through mainstream media with over 20 articles or news stories. They also deconstructed a number of buildings including their 500th structure and ABC Television’s first full deconstruction on Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. ••

Lorna Castanik, Board Member

Lorna lives in Cheektowaga, New York and is the treasurer of the Cedargrove Neighborhood Action Committee. She has introduced Michael Gainer and Buffalo ReUse to the Cheektowaga Town Supervisor to develop a relationship for demolitions being scheduled in Cheektowaga. Lorna works as a customer service representative for Tectran Manufacturing, a manufacturer and distributor of heavy duty truck parts. Lorna is also a member, volunteer and foster home for English Springer Rescue America, a not for profit rescue organization that works to rescue, rehabilitate and re-home abandoned English Springer Spaniels. ••

Keith James - Board Vice President

Keith is a longtime resident of Buffalo’s East Side community and has spent many years volunteering in public service for his community and the greater City of Buffalo. Keith is also a Fire Fighter for the City of Buffalo. With Board of Directors experience, Keith first became interested in ReUse because of its concept and vision, which is to serve and strengthen an under-served community from within.

Michele Johnson, Board Member, Board Development Chair

Michele is a founding Member of the organization and also an original member of the Board of Directors for Buffalo ReUse. In addition to her longtime service and commitment to Buffalo ReUse, Michele is also a co-founder of both the Mayor’s Anti-Flipping Task Force and Broadway Fillmore Alive. She served as a Housing Court Liaison in the Fillmore District, was Producer of the local documentary “Flipped”, is a mother of four, and a longtime East Side resident.

Vince Kuntz, Board President

Vince is a building contractor, specializing in preservation, and as such, he has been salvaging, reusing, and recycling building materials since the 1980′s. Vince is also a certified Carpentry Instructor at the Construction Training Center of WNY. A supporter of ReUse’s business and mission since its inception, Vince looks forward to the challenge of making ReUse’s work even safer and more cost effective in addition to helping ReUse grow its educational outreach programs and training activities.

David Laguerre, Board Member

David is a longtime resident of Buffalo’s East Side community. He has spent the majority of his professional career working for one local company and has served in several capacities, including maintenance, collections, billing, and accounts receivable. David is looking forward to serving as a personal link between Buffalo ReUse and the people and community ReUse serves.

Alison Mueller, Board Secretary

Alison is Director of Merchant Supply Systems for a worldwide industrial gas and equipment technology company and has served as an officer in the Air National Guard. Having moved to Buffalo three years ago, Alison is excited by the renewal underfoot in this city. As a volunteer for ReUse, she believes in its mission and programs that offer opportunities and skill sets to those who might not otherwise have an opportunity to learn them. Alison also looks forward to bringing her corporate experience to ReUse, linking hands-on operations to defined business goals and objectives.

Franklin Redd, Board Member

Franklin blended social activism and financial advocacy throughout his twenty five year career in financial services. Franklin’s Firm, Embassy Capital Group, LLC is a former NY Registered Investment Advisory Firm and he has extensive experience in the mortgage banking, commercial lending, securities and insurance industries.

In December of 1999, Franklin founded Embassy Capital Group, LLC as a boutique financial advisory firm committed to financial literacy, asset administration and both strategic and tactical financial implementation services. In 2008, Franklin established ECG Private Equity Pool, LP (ECG PEP, LP) to maximize the use of tax qualified funds for targeted investment.

Currently, Franklin consults in the area of tax efficiency management/investment, loss mitigation and financial modeling. Franklin is committed to “Eco-Capitalism” and socially conscious investing as a means for sustainable economic development and financial empowerment while promoting the democratization of capitalism.