Friday morning, March 28
Drew Kessler
Past Director, Rotary International 2022-2024
Rotary Club of North Rockland, New York
Drew Kessler is Senior Vice President of the Commercial Real Estate division at M&T Bank, where he manages a large loan portfolio of real estate and commercial ventures with major businesses in the New York City area.
Kessler has led numerous professional real estate organizations, serving as president of both the Rockland County Board of Realtors and the 10,000-member Hudson Gateway Association of Realtors (HGAR) as well as director for both the New York State Association of Realtors and the National Association of Realtors. As a sign of his stature in the real estate community, Drew regularly appeared on Fox Business News from 2008-2013 for his expertise on the finance industry and the real estate market.
While At HGAR, he launched the HG Realtor Foundation. A passionate fundraiser, Kessler has raised millions of dollars for organizations including The Rotary Foundation, Habitat for Humanity March of Dimes, and Feeding Westchester.
Kessler joined Rotary in 2001, at the age of 20. He went on to serve as President of the Rotary Club of North Rockland at age 25 – at that time the youngest president in the club’s than 80-year history. At age 32, he served as District Governor for Rotary District 7210. “For anyone who says that you have to be retired to serve in these positions, I’d like to show that there is another path,” says Kessler.
Drew was a member of the Rotary International Young Past District Governor’s Committee as well as a representative to the Council on Legislation and RI president’s representative. Kessler also has served in numerous Zone leadership positions, including general chair of the Zone 28/32 Summit & Symposium. He served as Rotary International Director from 2022 – 2024 and was a member of the Executive Committee as well as the organization’s Treasurer for the 2023-2024 Rotary year.
As a husband and father to five children, Kessler prioritizes finding a way to incorporate family into Rotary events, projects, and meetings whenever possible; all his children have been touched by Rotary either through Earlyact, Interact, RYLA and Rotary Youth Exchange. Kessler and his wife, Vicki – also an Active Rotarian – reside in Apollo Beach, Florida.
Friday lunch, March 28
Brian Hall
Director-Elect, Rotary International 2025-2027
Brian is a member of the Rotary Club of Covington, LA. He has served his club and district in many positions, including as District 6840 Governor in the 2014-2015 Rotary year. Brian was active with the Host Organizing Committee of the 2011 Rotary International Convention, where he served as the chair of the Technology Committee, and as a member the RI Promotions Committee for the 2019 Honolulu convention. He served Rotary Zone 31 as Assistant Regional Rotary Public Image Coordinator in the 2013-2014 year, as an Assistant Regional Rotary Foundation Coordinator in the 2016-2019 years, and as End Polio Now Coordinator from 2019 to 2022. Brian served as a Training Leader at the International Assembly in both 2018 and 2019 and a Training Leader Support in 2021 and 2022. Brian is currently serving as the Chair Elect of the board of the Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene Rotary Action Group and board member and past chair of the Past District Governors Fellowship. Brian is also serving as chair of the Joint Rotary International/Rotary Foundation Technology committee, reporting to the RI Board of Directors and The Rotary Foundation’s Trustees. Brian received Rotary’s Service Above Self award in the 2021-2022 Rotary year. Brian will be serving as a member of the Board of Directors of Rotary International in the 2025-2027 Rotary years from Zones 30 and 31.
Brian has been married to his wife, Lynn, for 31 years. They currently reside in Madisonville, Louisiana. They have two children, Keely and Patrick.
Brian was born and raised in Jackson, Mississippi. Brian worked as a CPA for several years before changing careers to become a computer programmer. In 1998 he and Lynn relocated to New Orleans, where Brian decided to merge his backgrounds and begin consulting with companies regarding business and financial systems.
Friday dinner, March 28
Mário César Martins de Camargo
2025-26 President of Rotary International
Mário César Martins de Camargo, a member of the Rotary Club of Santo André, São Paulo, Brazil, is the selection of Nominating Committee for President to become Rotary International’s president for 2025-26.
De Camargo plans to boost Rotary’s public image by working from the top down.
“Rotary today has strong competition for members and funds,” he says. “We need to rejuvenate the brand, especially in some zones. We should utilize post-pandemic meeting tools … to allow the president to address Rotarians all over the globe. We also need to develop more long-term partnerships with political, community, and business leaders. Let’s emphasize our greatest asset: 1.4 million volunteers.”
He also hopes to improve Rotary’s process for appointments and governance.
“Rotary should adopt a more transparent system to appoint volunteers for positions, with clear criteria and data-based evaluation of results,” he says.
De Camargo was president of Gráfica Bandeirantes and has been a consultant to the print industry in Brazil. He has also served as president and chair of several printing and graphics trade associations, including the Brazilian Association of Graphic Technology and ABIGRAF, the Brazilian Printing Industry Association.
He has served on the board of Casa da Esperança (House of Hope), a hospital sponsored by his Rotary club that serves 150,000 children with disabilities every year.
De Camargo studied in the U.S. and Germany and holds degrees from EAESP-Fundação Getulio Vargas in business administration and Faculdade de Direito de São Bernardo do Campo in law. He was a Youth Exchange participant to Minnesota, USA, in 1974-75, which inspired a lifelong commitment to the program.
A Rotarian since 1980, de Camargo served as his club’s Youth Exchange Officer in 1981, at age 24. He has served Rotary as director, trustee, RI learning facilitator, committee member and chair, and task force member.
De Camargo and his wife, Denise, are Major Donors and Benefactors of The Rotary Foundation.
Saturday lunch, March 29
Martha Peak Helman
The Rotary Foundation Trustee 2022-26
Marty Helman spent her career as a writer for business executives and as a magazine editor at McGraw-Hill and the American Management Association. Later, she served as president of the Otto and Fran Walter Foundation, a nonprofit that has helped build schools in developing nations, provided scholarships for at-risk youth, and supplied humanitarian aid to Holocaust survivors, among other initiatives. The Walter Foundation partnered with The Rotary Foundation to fund the new Rotary Peace Center that will be located at Bahçeşehir University in Istanbul.
Helman and her late spouse, Frank, joined the Rotary Club of Boothbay Harbor in 2003. She has served Rotary as chair of the Peace Major Gifts Initiative and on the working group to select a site for the new peace center.
A keen fundraiser for The Rotary Foundation, Helman initiated an effort to support the Sakuji Tanaka Rotary Peace Fellowship, which raised $1 million for the Rotary Peace Centers.
Helman is an Arch Klumph Society member, and she chooses to support Rotary as a member of the Paul Harris Society and PolioPlus Society. She and Frank were charter members of the Legacy Society of The Rotary Foundation.
