Our Board of Directors

Kerry Anderson – former Executive Director of Swim Across America is currently a full time mom.  Kerry has been associated with SAA for the past 15 years.  She stays actively involved with the coordination of the Long Island Sound Swim, Co-Chairs the Greenwich, CT Swim and serves as Secretary on the SAA Executive Committee. Kerry is committed to finding a cure for cancer since her Mom lost her battle with the devastating disease in 1999.  An avid runner, Kerry has run numerous marathons to benefit cancer research at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.  Kerry and her husband Karl reside in Riverside, CT with their two young sons.

Craig Beardsley, a member of the 1980 Olympic Swimming Team bound for Moscow's Summer Games, was heavily favored to win the 200m butterfly. As history will now attest, politics intervened, and the US boycotted these Olympics. Craig and his teammates were, of course, forced from competition. So for the next three years, he held both the World and the American Records in the 200m fly, winning Gold at the Pan American Games in both 1979 and 1983. As a nine-time US National Champion, Craig captured still another Gold in the same event at the NCAA Championships while an All-American at the University of FL. A proud and devoted father, he and his two children Carter and Caroline live in NJ. Having been an inspirational Swim Across America participant since 1987, Craig is also the 2008 recipient of a Congressional Gold Medal of Achievement awarded to all members of the ill-fated 1980 Olympic Team in honor of their preparation and sacrifice before, during and after the Moscow boycott. Craig joined the Board of Directors in 2007.

Cliff Blaze, with Swim Across America since 1994, presently works alongside our organization at Williams Trading based in Stamford, CT. A graduate of Columbia University, Cliff has purposely centered his life around swimming. He served as captain of the Columbia varsity team [where he remains a current record holder], continues to compete with the Masters at New York Athletic Club, and remains committed to sustaining his relationship with us.

Robert "Bob" Coakley currently serves as chairman of SwimFutures, LLC; chairman of CO-ED Media Group, LLC; and member of the New York Mercantile Exchange. In previous years, Bob was the futures president of a commodity-trading firm on the New York Mercantile Exchange as well as the president of Kitchell Developers, a residential builder based in Southern NJ. A graduate of Fordham University, Bob received his bachelors in accounting and finance.  He currently resides with his wife Lisa in FL, NJ and CA. We're proud to say that Bob has been involved with Swim Across America for 19 years, having been a key player in the Hudson River event. 

Scot Mackie is a Managing Director at Macquarie Securities in NY, responsible for Asian Equties. Scot has 17 years experience in international equities, has lived abroad and travels regularly to the Asian region. Prior to Macquarie, Scot was a Managing Director at Morgan Stanley. He started his career at IBM in the NY area. Scot is a graduate of Fairfield University. Scot is a proud member of SAA and the Larchmont swim where he sponsors Team Norm in honor of his father who lost his life to cancer. Scot is an avid sports advocate and youth coach, currently coaching 3 lacrosse teams. Scot and his wife Cha have 6 children. 

Gerry Oakes has been the chair of the SAA Nassau/Suffolk Committee since it began in 2001. A year later, he created the Sound to the Cove Swim to Fight Cancer, which is based in Glen Cove, NY. And one year after that, Gerry initiated our first 10K swim in LI Sound. Professionally, he's senior vice president at the Mortgage Industry Advisory Company [MIAC], the leading provider of analytical software to the mortgage industry. Prior to MIAC, Gerry spent 23 years at Goldman Sachs & Company as a vice president of fixed income, specializing in municipal bonds. Graduating cum laude from the Carroll School of Management at Boston College, Gerry procured a BS degree in economics. He then went on to receive an MBA in Finance, Money, Banking and Accounting from the Graduate School of Business at Columbia University. For 17 years, Gerry chaired Boston College's Long Island Alumni Admissions Council and has generously served as a Board member of the Garden City Centennial Soccer Club. Gerry has served on our Swim Across America Board for many years.

Kevin Shine is the current vice president of Verizon Information Technology which promotes the Open Systems Engineering, Support and Operations for VerizonTelecom, VerizonBusiness and VerizonWireless.  He  previously lead the Verizon Information Processing Services [VIPS]  organization for Verizon Telecom and Verizon Business.  Kevin has 22 years of experience in the IT industry,  including a decade with IBM as a systems engineer, client manager, and  certified consultant. Present-day responsibilities include the management of  Verizon’s vast open-systems computing infrastructure and operations services for the three major Verizon network business units.  This includes  an installation base of over 30,000 open-systems servers in 19 domestic datacenters.  In addition to Swim Across America, Kevin is involved with many local charities, serving on the Board of MercyFirst Children and Family Services in Syosset, NY, and on the executive committee for our Nassau/Suffolk, Long Island, events.  Kevin graduated from Boston College in 1984 with a degree in computer science and mathematics and currently resides in Garden City, NY,  with his wife Loree and six children: Erinn, Bethany, Cathryne,  Brenna, Mackenzie and Meredith.

Linda Stevenson and her family currently reside in Seattle where, for the past ten years, she has been an accountant for Health-Marketing Solutions.  Prior to this, she worked in a similar capacity at Crowley Maritime.  She got her undergraduate degree from Sacramento State University and received her graduate degree in Business, Accounting and Finance from Thunderbird/ International Graduate School of Business in Arizona.   Linda has kept very busy volunteering her time locally in many organizations, including PTO treasurer, Seattle Investment Club treasurer, Booster Club President, and Little League World Series Team Mom.  She and her husband, Greg have 2 children.  Linda is looking forward to applying all her talents to SAA as she lends her skills to “make waves to fight cancer.”

Matt Vossler, co-founder of Swim Across America, is proud that his fledging enterprise, along with Jeff Keith, has raised $20+ million and counting. As our Chairman of the Board, Matt has overseen our charitable contributions make their way to Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center [MSKCC], The Babies and Children’s Hospital of Columbia Presbyterian, The David Perini Clinic at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, The Alliance for Cancer Gene Therapy (ACGT), and many others. Since 2004 Matt has been a Partner with Heritage Partners International, a retained executive search and consulting company based in New Haven, CT. Previously he was associated with a number of other search firms, including Heidrick & Struggles, Inc. Before entering the field of executive search, he was President of Home Buyers Assistance Corporation (HBAC). Matt, who is also a graduate of Boston College, calls Darien, CT, home, enjoying life there with his wife Pamela and their two children.