OCEAN PINES—After Dan Stachurski decided to give up his post on the Ocean Pines Association Board of Directors to pursue his life-long dream of sailing the waters of the Atlantic Ocean and points south, the board, on Jan. 16, voted in a special closed meeting to appoint G. Jeffrey Knepper to fill the vacancy.
According to a biography he provided to Bayside Gazette, Knepper and his wife Kim have owned property in Ocean Pines since 2001 and have lived in the community as a full-time resident since 2006. He is a member of the Ocean Pines General Manager’s Contract Review Group and has attended most OPA Board meetings since 2006, it said.
Based on his vitae, Knepper will bring specialized skills in accounting, tax and information technology with him to the board. He was an Ohio-based tax attorney with the public accounting firms Arthur Anderson & Co., Deloitte & Touche, Touche Ross & Co., and J.K. Lasser & Co.
He retired as general manager of Intel Corporation’s Information Technology Risk Management group, with responsibilities of overseeing risk management for information systems, IT strategic procurement, and ensuring compliance to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.
“In addition, he was a leader in the design and implementation of Intel’s ethical Code of Conduct, and a frequent instructor on topics related to that and Intel’s management techniques,” it said.
Also, according to the biography, “He is one of the founders of the internationally based Microcomputer Managers Association, and a charter member of the Citizens’ Academy of the Sacramento, California office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.”
Knepper was officially sworn in by OPA’s Corporate Counsel Joseph Moore during the Jan. 22 regular meeting. He is filling the vacancy of Stachurski whose term was ending in August.
Asked about his service to the Ocean Pines community as a member of the board of directors Stachurski said he first ran for the board in 2001, but that candidacy failed. He tried again in 2002 and was elected to the first of two terms. He pointed out that while on the board he has served and as president for three years, vice president for two years, and as secretary for one year. “After this six-year period of service, I stepped away from active involvement in the operations of Ocean Pines, played a lot of golf, and spent quite a bit of time travelling,” he said.
Then Stachurski discussed his reason for stepping down from his board seat eight months early:
“I have been pleased to be a part of the OPA Board as the community undergoes much needed renewal while not increasing assessments any more than absolutely necessary. At the same time, I celebrated my 69th birthday in June of 2013 and decided that it was time for me to do something I have wanted to do all my life: go sailing in a fairly serious fashion.
My health was and is adequate but not great, my pocketbook big enough to purchase a Bavaria Cruiser 36 (36 feet of cruising sailboat) and I felt that I had, with my participation in the new Yacht Club and particularly my focus on driving the initial development of a workable Capital Improvement Plan for OPA over the next 10 years (not yet complete, but certainly well started), made the contribution I was capable of making to OPA. Initially, I had intended to cruise down the Inter Coastal Waterway to Florida, base the boat in Ft. Pierce, and cruise from this base through the Bahamas while still completing my last year as an OPA director.
But Stachurski said the deciding factor for him to completely leave the board came when “a very well qualified OPA member stepped up and said he would complete my term, should I decide to resign, and then run for his own first term in the 2014 Board election process.” He added, “This was a very attractive alternative for me, and a good one for Ocean Pines—the rest is history.”
(See related story on page 15 of Stachurski’s travel log from the beginning of his trip.)
According to a biography he provided to Bayside Gazette, Knepper and his wife Kim have owned property in Ocean Pines since 2001 and have lived in the community as a full-time resident since 2006. He is a member of the Ocean Pines General Manager’s Contract Review Group and has attended most OPA Board meetings since 2006, it said.
Based on his vitae, Knepper will bring specialized skills in accounting, tax and information technology with him to the board. He was an Ohio-based tax attorney with the public accounting firms Arthur Anderson & Co., Deloitte & Touche, Touche Ross & Co., and J.K. Lasser & Co.
He retired as general manager of Intel Corporation’s Information Technology Risk Management group, with responsibilities of overseeing risk management for information systems, IT strategic procurement, and ensuring compliance to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.
“In addition, he was a leader in the design and implementation of Intel’s ethical Code of Conduct, and a frequent instructor on topics related to that and Intel’s management techniques,” it said.
Also, according to the biography, “He is one of the founders of the internationally based Microcomputer Managers Association, and a charter member of the Citizens’ Academy of the Sacramento, California office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.”
Knepper was officially sworn in by OPA’s Corporate Counsel Joseph Moore during the Jan. 22 regular meeting. He is filling the vacancy of Stachurski whose term was ending in August.
Asked about his service to the Ocean Pines community as a member of the board of directors Stachurski said he first ran for the board in 2001, but that candidacy failed. He tried again in 2002 and was elected to the first of two terms. He pointed out that while on the board he has served and as president for three years, vice president for two years, and as secretary for one year. “After this six-year period of service, I stepped away from active involvement in the operations of Ocean Pines, played a lot of golf, and spent quite a bit of time travelling,” he said.
Then Stachurski discussed his reason for stepping down from his board seat eight months early:
“I have been pleased to be a part of the OPA Board as the community undergoes much needed renewal while not increasing assessments any more than absolutely necessary. At the same time, I celebrated my 69th birthday in June of 2013 and decided that it was time for me to do something I have wanted to do all my life: go sailing in a fairly serious fashion.
My health was and is adequate but not great, my pocketbook big enough to purchase a Bavaria Cruiser 36 (36 feet of cruising sailboat) and I felt that I had, with my participation in the new Yacht Club and particularly my focus on driving the initial development of a workable Capital Improvement Plan for OPA over the next 10 years (not yet complete, but certainly well started), made the contribution I was capable of making to OPA. Initially, I had intended to cruise down the Inter Coastal Waterway to Florida, base the boat in Ft. Pierce, and cruise from this base through the Bahamas while still completing my last year as an OPA director.
But Stachurski said the deciding factor for him to completely leave the board came when “a very well qualified OPA member stepped up and said he would complete my term, should I decide to resign, and then run for his own first term in the 2014 Board election process.” He added, “This was a very attractive alternative for me, and a good one for Ocean Pines—the rest is history.”
(See related story on page 15 of Stachurski’s travel log from the beginning of his trip.)