Nicole grew up in a military family living in three foreign countries and five states before her 17th birthday. Her father retired in Virginia her senior year of high school and she went on to attend Virginia Tech. The first month there she met her husband Steve and they married soon after graduation. They lived in Baltimore, Maryland for the first fourteen years of their married life, where their children Phillip, Zachary, and Anna were born. In 1998 a job brought the family to Richmond. Besides a wonderful ten year span where she devoted her time to being a stay at home mom, Nicole has worked primarily in public accounting. She is a CPA and has been with the Richmond office of Mitchell, Wiggins and Company since 2001. There she is a manager and specializes in taxation, and trust and estate administration. Professional memberships include the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), Virginia Society of CPAs (VSCPA), and Accountant's Society of Virginia. She is a member of Third Presbyterian church where she was introduced to CHAT.

Ben is a native of Portsmouth, Virginia and moved to Richmond after completing his B.S. in Biology from Virginia Tech. After his marriage to Mary Kate Carroll in 1995, the two briefly relocated to Winchester, VA for Ben to pursue a Doctorate in Pharmacy and Master of Business Administration at Shenandoah University. The two returned to Richmond in 1999 when Ben took a position with VCU Medical Center Department of Pharmacy Services and became members of Third Presbyterian Church. He is currently employed as a Pharmacy Supervisor at VCU Medical Center and has served on the nomination committee, as a Sunday School teacher and Deacon at Third Presbyterian Church.

Gina Bottoms Maio, Church Hill Academy’s new Head of School, recently graduated from Richmond’s Union Theological Seminary with a Masters of Divinity degree. She is currently pursuing ordination as a Minister of Word and Sacrament in the Presbyterian Church (USA).

Gina and her family have lived in the City of Richmond since 2004. Her husband, Matt, is a co-leader of Nehemiah’s Workshop, a weekly CHAT program. Both of their children attend City of Richmond public schools; their son is an 8th grader at Albert Hill Middle School and their daughter is in 4th grade at Mary Munford Elementary.

G.F. Pendleton, III founder and Principal of Vero Consulting has over 30 years of experience in banking, investments and insurance, including more than 16 years as a Principal and Director of Clark/Bardes.

Since 1974, Penn has worked with large and medium size banks, and private and public companies designing and implementing non-qualified retirement plans. He has placed over $1 billion of Bank and Corporate Owned Life Insurance and has active policies on over 15,000 employees. Currently he holds memberships in the Richmond and national chapters of the Association of Life Underwriters, the Association of Advanced Life Underwriters, and multiple state banking associations. He is an associate member of the National Bankers Association who recently recognized him with the 2006 Donald H. Alexander Trailblazer award for distinguished service to the minority-owned banking community. He frequently speaks at banking association meetings and has led sessions on split dollar and BOLI at the Federal Reserve’s Insurance Learning Center in Boston, Massachusetts. He is a registered representative with Securities America, Inc., and an Investment Advisor representative with Securities America Advisors, Inc.

Doug is a Richmond native, educated at St. Christopher’s School, Hampden-Sydney College and the Law School of the University of Virginia. He has been a lawyer with Sands Anderson Marks & Miller for 35 years and concentrates in commercial mortgage finance, commercial real estate, contract law and civil litigation, with an emphasis on defending lawyers and real estate professionals. In 1996 Doug served as President of The Virginia Bar Association and has been a member of the Boyd-Graves Conference for twelve years. He is a Fellow of the Virginia Law Foundation and the American Bar Foundation and has been named to Who’s Who in American Law, Best Lawyers in America, Virginia’s Legal Elite and Virginia Super Lawyers.