We are excited to announce this year’s updates to the Global Heritage Fund Board.

Ro King has been elected Board Chair, Ben Sihota has joined the Board as Secretary, and Lisa Sardegna has rejoined the Board after a one year hiatus and serving as a Senior Advisor.

 

Ro King Elected Board Chair

Ro brings more than 25 years’ experience in strategic marketing using big data, initially in financial services as Senior Vice President with Signet Bank (later Wachovia, then Wells Fargo) and across a broad range of industries as a co-founder of Quaero. She is a trustee of the Menokin Foundation in Virginia – seeking to re-imagine the ruins of an historic American home by re-creating the missing sections in structural glass — and serves on the Development and Education Committees.

Ro also serves as a national trustee and on the Development Committee of the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia and is former Chairman of the Indonesian Heritage Society in Jakarta, an advisor to SOKOLA and former board member of the Sampoerna Foundation, supporting educational initiatives in Indonesia.

“Ro’s presence on the Board will fortify our organizational mission, and I am delighted to be working with her,” says Executive Director Nada Hosking. “Her experience will drive momentum and prepare us for a more dynamic future.”

While living and working in Indonesia, China, Portugal and now Switzerland, Ro has edited more than a dozen books, written numerous articles about vanishing ethnic groups, and produced photography exhibitions on Balinese and Papuan rituals. She holds an AB in History from Harvard, an MBA from the Darden School and has received both the Diplôme de Sommellerie en vin and Diplôme de Juré Expert from L’Ecole d’Ingénieurs de Changins, Switzerland.

 

Ben Sihota Joins Board as Secretary

We also welcome Ben Sihota as Secretary of the Board. Ben is the founding and Managing Partner of Trikona Partners, an investment and advisory firm located in Palo Alto. He brings three decades of experience in successful start-ups, turn-arounds, mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures, and integration in the B2B and B2C spaces.

“Ben’s leadership and business expertise and his international perspective will help Global Heritage Fund prepare for future challenges,” said Ro King, Global Heritage Fund Board Chair. “Stepping into the role of Board Secretary, Ben is already strengthening our organization’s governance practices. The entire board is excited to be working with him.”

Born in India, Ben moved to the USA as a teenager. He is both a strategic and results oriented leader with multicultural and multifunction perspectives. During his career he has had opportunities to lead businesses and work with people and cultures across the globe including in Europe, China, Japan, Korea, Middle East, Africa, ANZ, ASEAN, Russia, and Turkey.

Prior to setting up Trikona Partners, Ben retired from Stanley Black and Decker, a diversified industrial S&P 500 company with $14+ billion in revenues. At SBD he held senior roles including Senior Vice President-Corporate, was an elected Corporate Officer, and also a member of the Corporate Operating Committee.

A true globalist, Ben feels extremely privileged to have had the opportunity to live in London, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Tokyo. He now resides in California, where he connected with Global Heritage Fund through NuRole, a global platform for board-level recruitment matching talented leaders to charitable and corporate boards.

 

Lisa Sardegna Rejoins Board

We are honored to welcome Lisa Sardegna back to the Board after a one year hiatus. Lisa also serves on our Senior Advisory Board.

Lisa is an architectural conservator who specializes in the analysis and conservation of historic finishes. After interning for two years in the paintings conservation department at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, Lisa earned an M.S. in Historic Preservation at the University of Pennsylvania. During her studies, she participated in overseas projects in Puerto Rico and Rome, ultimately continuing work in Rome to investigate historic plaster finishes in the Orto Botanico. A love of ancient architecture, diverse cultures, and languages has driven Lisa to work on projects where she can explore the world and make a positive impact. She is involved in conservation projects and development at the local, national, and world levels.

Through professional and charitable activities, Lisa works to preserve for future generations the cultural heritage that enriches communities at home and around the world. To that end, she is particularly focused on supporting conservation education to ensure that local communities have the tools to preserve their heritage. Lisa has served as a trustee of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, and devoted her efforts to building a robust conservation department. She served on the Board of Overseers for the University of Pennsylvania School of Design, where she supported programs for advanced training for recent graduates, and worked to create international educational exchange opportunities for the historic preservation students. Internationally, Lisa works on diverse projects, including volunteering at several Global Heritage Sites, providing expertise and training for local workers.

Presently, Lisa is working to create opportunities that foster a more diverse conservation community, through supporting conservation education at both universities and at the community level.

“It’s been an honor for Lisa to serve as a Global Heritage Fund Senior Advisory. I am thrilled that she is now rejoining the Board,” says Executive Director Nada Hosking. “Her presence strengthens our commitment to mission-critical solutions to better meet the needs of the communities we serve.”

When she is not in the field, Lisa is an amateur cordwainer. She lives in San Francisco with her husband, David A. Carrillo.