New Board Members Named to Sonoma Valley Fund

Two Sonoma Valley residents with extensive national and international business experience have joined the Board of Sonoma Valley Fund.  They are Manuel R. Merjil and Susan Hoeffel.

Manuel R. Merjil has held a variety of positions with , including SONOMA Magazine’s first Executive Editor.  Manuel attended the University of Texas at El Paso where he majored in Public Relations and Advertising and has more than 28 years experience in sales and client services-related areas.  An active member of the Sonoma Valley community, he has been a mentor with the Sonoma Valley Mentoring Alliance for nine years and served on the Roundtable Committee of the Wells Fargo Center for the Arts. He is a founding member of Sonoma GayDar, the Sonoma County Mariachi Festival, and has been a member of the Sonoma Valley Museum of Art’s Advisory Council. 

Manuel lives in Glen Ellen with his partner Paul, surrounded by a vast array of pets – Max, their eight year-old cat, as well as finches, doves, parakeets and many koi and goldfish.  Manuel, a native of México, enriches Sonoma with his bilingual and bicultural background.

Susan Hoeffel was born in Texas and came to the San Francisco Bay Area as a child. After earning a BA degree and secondary teaching credential from the University of California at Berkeley, she began her professional career teaching at a junior high school in Oakland. In 1980 she entered the financial services industry and grew to hold executive-level marketing and communications positions, at Equitec Financial Group in Oakland CA and at The Bank of California. In 1992 Susan joined the San Francisco office of SEI Investments Co., a leading national public financial and technology services firm, where she is currently Senior Vice President and Senior Relationship Manager working with the investment arms of large banks. She is a Certified Financial Planner and is currently a Registered Representative and Registered Principal with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority. Locally, she is a member of the Sonoma Valley Rotary Club.

Susan and her husband Jan have lived in Sonoma since 2004. They have four sons and five grandchildren. They are members of the Sonoma Valley Film Society and the Sonoma Valley Museum of Art and are active supporters of the Mentoring Alliance and Sonoma Valley Boys and Girls Club.  They are also partners in Deerfield Ranch Winery in Kenwood.

"We are so pleased to welcome Manuel and Susan to our Board of Directors," said Harriet Derwingson, President of Sonoma Valley Fund.  "Both are very active and devoted members of our community, and each brings specific and important business skills that will further strengthen the depth and deliberations of our current Board." 

Continuing board members include Barbara Young (President-elect), Thomas Haeuser (Secretary), Whitney Evans (Past President), Joe Aaron, Peggy Bair, Karen Collins, Tony Garcia, Steve Pease, Joshua Rymer, Martha Rosenblatt, and Scott Smith.

An affiliate of Community Foundation Sonoma County, Sonoma Valley Fund was created and is managed by respected community leaders to help sustain and improve the Valley’s unique socioeconomic, environmental, and cultural qualities for generations to come. Sonoma Valley Fund promotes and facilitates local philanthropy and legacy giving by serving as a bridge to the future, helping nonprofits build successful legacy and endowment programs, encouraging estate-planning professionals to discuss Sonoma Valley bequests with their clients, offering a set of prudent investment options for donors and non-profits, and providing trustworthy, responsible, and thoughtful stewardship of donor gifts. For more information visit www.sonomavalleyfund.org.