Bill Brand - President
Bill was born in Dallas, Texas and moved to the South Bay in 1966. He grew up in Palos Verdes and first moved to Redondo Beach in 1979, where he currently resides.

Bill worked as a process engineer for Fluor Corporation and later as an Air Quality Engineer for environmental engineering and testing firms. He currently works for American Airlines as a crew chief. Bill holds a B.S. degree in chemical engineering from Long Beach State University and an MBA from USC with a concentration in finance.

He co-founded the South Bay Parkland Conservancy in 2004 and is dedicated to educating the residents about their 'park poor' status, and seeing the AES area converted to open space when they complete their current contract. In addition to his community work, Bill enjoys the outdoors and is an avid windsurfer, skier and cyclist. 

Dave Wiggins - Secretary
Dave Wiggins is a founding Director of the South Bay Parkland Conservancy and currently serves as the Secretary to the corporation. Dave grew up in the South Bay and has lived in Redondo Beach since 1991. He has been active in conservation and land development issues throughout his adult life.

After a seven year career as a teacher, Dave began practicing law in 1985. He holds a B.A. degree in History from Pomona College, an M.A. degree in Education from Claremont Graduate University, and a law degree from the University of California Hastings College of the Law.

Dave periodically serves as a Judge pro tem for the Los Angeles Superior Court. He also teaches law classes in the paralegal programs at UCLA and Cal. State Los Angeles. From 1999 to 2003, Dave served as a member of the Board of Education of the Redondo Beach Unified School District. He was elected by fellow boardmembers to serve as their President from 2001 to 2002. 

Irene Kurata - Treasurer
 

Jillaine Force - Board Member
Jillaine Force is a founding director of the SBPC and grew up in the South Bay. She attended the former Aviation High School in Redondo Beach and has lived and worked in the area for most of her life.

Jillaine is married with two school age boys and has been very involved in their education by volunteering in the classroom and assisting with the book fair, yearbook and landscaping committees. Jillaine is an entrepreneur, having patented a line of nursing brassiere wear she designed and now manufacturers for her web site and maternity retailers. In addition, Jillaine makes and sells jewelry using amber, sterling silver, leather and 14K gold. She enjoys camping, volleyball and the ocean. Family is most important to Jillaine and the environment comes a close second.

Jillaine attended the round table meetings at the Crown Plaza regarding “the Heart of the City” and became concerned with the density that was proposed. She became involved with SBPC where she learned of the feasibility of open space along California’s coastline and became inspired about the potential for the South Bay area. 

Mimi Marrs-Andersen - Board Member
Mimi Andersen has lived on both coasts but was born in California and grew up in the South Bay where she currently lives in Redondo with her husband Andrew.

Mimi feels that a large coastal park in Redondo would bring the community together providing needed spaces for play as well as contemplation. She can imagine strolling through the park meeting neighbors or maybe playing ball or frisbee there, community gardening, soccer games, nature watching, sunrise services, outdoor concerts or just going there to read or meditate.

Mimi loves working on the SBPC's Blue Heron newsletter. She also enjoys volunteering at the Manhattan Beach Botanical Garden in Polliwog Park where she serves on the board as the secretary.

Mimi has a BFA from Tufts University and the Boston Museum School and a 4-year Certificate in Gardening and Horticulture from UCLA. She works as a residential landscape designer for Garden Magic Company in Manhattan Beach. 

Florence 'Flo' Swiger - Board Member
Flo works in the health care field and sees first hand what happens in an unhealthy environment and how people's health is affected.

Flo is an RN with a degree in Education Majoring in Public Health. In the past she has worked as an RN in Critical Care and also has taught in a community college. She has set up several Cardiac Rehabilitation Programs. She currently does Cardiology Research working with cardiology patients as they come through the hospital. She clearly sees the need for the public to understand how to lead a healthy life before getting sick.

Flo has an interest in good health and an advocate of bettering the environment we live in. Because of this, she became interested in the SBPC as one good way to give our citizens, our children, and wildlife a better chance in this world by advocating more open space as a start to cleaning up our environment.

Flo has volunteered many hours to the Wayfarers Chapel in PV. She was on the Board of Directors for the Chapel for seven years. During that time, she attended many Palos Verdes City council meetings to convince the council that Wayfarers should be allowed to rebuild their Visitors Center in the northern most location instead of the southern most area where the land had slipped down the hill causing the old VC to be condemned by the city. She subscribes to the Wayfarers philosophy that the beauty of nature celebrates the presence of God in all things; therefore all of nature has its place on this earth & must be taken care of.

She has been an avid tennis and volleyball player as well as cyclist & skier. She loves the out of doors and has done a lot of camping in our great national parks. She is a member of several Ski and Tennis clubs as well as the Sierra Club. She supports several organizations that advocate preserving our environment, such as Rails to Trails, The National Park Foundation and the National Wildlife Federation. 

Charlie Szymanski - Board Member
Charlie Szymanski is a founding Director of the SBPC. He first moved to Redondo Beach Council District 1 from Torrance in 1982. After a few years away he returned two blocks away in District 2 with his wife, Kathy, Jesse, their 3 year old daughter, and Ava, a new addition in 2005.

His motivation to be involved in SBPC is his hope to take the family bird watching and running in the park across the street from our beautiful marina.

As a daily runner, Charlie sees the city from Herondo St. to Miramar virtually every day, and then views the city from 190th St. to Rosecrans Blvd. virtually every day in support of his software design and development business. He is a USC graduate in Finance and Marketing and believes the Heart Park legacy will survive a hundred years, if we give it a chance. Charlie feels that coastal resource that survives us for our children and theirs is the single most important civic decision any current resident or civic worker will make. 

Jim Vaught - Board Member
Jim Vaught is a founding Director of the SBPC. Jim is a California native who has lived in the LA area since 1976 and in the South Bay since 1994; he and wife Rosemarie now reside in Rancho Palos Verdes. He is the father of three grown children and an engineer who enjoys the clean outdoors playing beach volleyball, bike riding, hiking, bird watching and fishing.

Jim's first major community project in was to help break ground for a schoolhouse and community center in Birdsprings, Arizona in the heart of the Navajo Reservation. The project, begun in 1976 has successfully preserved the Navajo heritage which was near extinction because the children were intently taken off the reservation and put in western style boarding schools for many generations. Today, Birdsprings now has its own thriving School District.

Jim decided to become a founding Director of the SBPC to restore a part of Redondo Beach's real heritage when the Chowinga Indians inhabited the area surrounding the natural salt pond that used to exist on the current AES Power Plan site. Jim believes the park development and partial salt pond restoration will greatly improve the quality of his life and of his fellow community members through open space and natural rain water runoff percolation.