Beaufort-area residents Sarah Dyson, Drew Scallan, Marshall Bassett and John Tashjian join the Historic Beaufort Foundation’s Board of Trustees following action at the group’s annual meeting in May.
Each will serve three-year terms to advance the non-profit foundation’s mission to preserve, protect and present sites and artifacts of historic, architectural and cultural interest throughout Beaufort County.
“We are thrilled to bring these four new members to the Board of Trustees and they each bring a wealth of experiences and talents to move us forward while preserving the past,” said Cynthia Jenkins, executive director of the HBF.
The new members join veterans Wayne Vance, Kevin Cuppia, J. Wood Rutter, John Troutman,
Derek Gilbert, Rob Montgomery, Donna Dehncke, Patricia Battey, Cheryl Steele, Beth Grace, Anne Higgins, Dr. John McCardell, and Larry Haskell. Maxine Lutz continues as ex-officio (non-voting) on the HBF Board of Trustees per her role as a member of the City of Beaufort’s Historic District Review Board.
Board officers re-elected to a second one-year term include Vance continuing as chair, Cuppia as vice-chair, Rutter as treasurer, and Troutman filling his role as immediate past chair. Beth Grace succeeds outgoing Secretary Derek Gilbert who will remain on the board through completion of his term.
Meet the new members of the Historic Beaufort Foundation Board of Trustees:
Sarah Dyson is a graduate of Converse College in Spartanburg SC, with a B.A. in Art History. Between college and marriage, she worked as Assistant Tours Director for Historic Charleston Foundation and their internationally renowned Spring House and Garden tours. She is married to Greg Dyson Sr. and they have two sons and four grandchildren.
A resident of Beaufort County since 1990, Dyson brings local board experience including the YMCA of Beaufort County, Friends of the Beaufort County Library, and Beaufort Memorial Hospital Foundation. She serves as a docent for HBF at the John Mark Verdier House Museum and on the Foundation’s Development Committee.
Drew Scallan grew up in Cincinnati and is a 1969 graduate of The George Washington University in Washington, DC. He married his wife, Pamela, and they raised two children in the District of Columbia. Drew’s career centered around real estate, including construction, development, commercial appraisal, project management and investments. Many of these activities involved contributing structures in historic neighborhoods.
Scallan’s experience includes working with the Historic Tax Credits available to property owners who follow preservation standards and guidelines in restoring properties. Among his renovation projects is the conversion of the 1940 Winchester, Virginia Coca Cola Bottling Works building into loft-style apartments.
Marshall Bassett grew up in Durham, N.C. He attended Duke University undergraduate and business school and spent his career in investment management in New York and Philadelphia, retiring to Beaufort in 2016. He and his wife, Mary, are members of First Presbyterian Church and live in the historic district. Both Marshall and Mary provided great support during the recent renovations to the John Mark Verdier House. Bassett currently serves on HBF’s Finance Committee.
John Tashjian brings more than 30 years of experience in Wall Street private equity, investment banking, financial restructuring and capital markets focused on the real estate industry. In 2003, Tashjian co-founded Centurion Real Estate Partners where he currently serves as its Managing Partner.
Tashjian has served as a member of the Board of Directors to the Centurion Foundation Board (no relation to his company), a charitable foundation dedicated to the advancement of law enforcement in New York City and other municipalities. In Beaufort, he serves as a Board Member for the Beaufort Memorial Hospital Foundation and currently serves on HBF’s Operations Committee. He and his wife, Beaufort native Katie Cunningham Tashjian, permanently relocated to Beaufort in late 2019 and welcomed their first child this year.
For the Historic Beaufort Foundation’s committees, Rob Montgomery will continue as chair of the Preservation Committee; Patricia Battey as chair of the Verdier House Committee; Donna Dehncke replaces Kevin Cuppia as chair of the Development Committee and Wayne Vance will chair the Operations Committee.
HBF is a 501(c)3 nonprofit education foundation created to preserve, protect, and present sites and artifacts of historic, architectural, and cultural interest throughout Beaufort County, South Carolina. For more information on the entity’s mission and history, please visit www.historicbeaufort.org and follow them on Facebook and Instagram.