BOARD MEMBERS
 

 

Our Founder, Linn Boyke

When I was three, my mother abandoned me, leaving me with an abusive father. His job required him to work 24-hour shifts at least three days a week. Many of those days I was left alone to decide for myself what was right and wrong. When I was eleven, I was taken away from my father because of child abuse. I bounced around a few foster homes, but ended up in a group home for boys. All I could ever think about was that one day, my mother would come and rescue me. Although I believed that in my bones, it never happened. Eventually, my uncle allowed me to stay with him. He was a good man but couldn’t control me, so I burned that bridge when I was sixteen.

Living totally on my own in this little town in Kansas, I held down three jobs. Most of the time, I slept through school. I felt different from the other kids and I acted different, too. I didn’t grow up following many rules and laws, so I eventually faced a judge who told me I needed discipline. He gave me a simple choice: join the military or go to jail.

I chose the Marines. Maybe this was my chance to start over. Be a new person. In boot camp I was promoted for having the highest physical fitness test score. I was promoted again and named Company Honor Man out of six hundred other Marines at infantry training school. When they chose me among 60 volunteers for a special operations unit I felt strong and secure for the first time in my life. I gave everything I had during the indoctrination and by the end I was among only six who remained. We went on to amphibious reconnaissance school. At this point, I had only been in the Marines for six months. If only they could see me back home!

But that good feeling didn’t last. One of the instructors sexually assaulted me, as he had numerous others. But none of the others ever agreed to testify against him. I did. As a result, I was put into a protective kind of custody for my own safety. This triggered another downslide. I got into fights, rebelled against superiors, and lost those promotions that I worked so hard for. I felt different again and was drinking a lot.

Eventually, I was promoted again and was selected for a more elite unit at Camp Pendleton. From here, I attended naval underwater dive school. I also attended army jump school and HALO (high altitude-low open) school. I have jumped out of airplanes more than two dozen times. These schools are coveted by all Marines. I felt pride in myself again. But no matter how much I achieved, I could not escape myself.

When I got out of the Marines I felt like a quitter with no discipline. Drinking was no longer enough, so I graduated to drugs. During the next couple of years I sold drugs and made fake I.D.s so I could do more drugs. I was out of control. I ended up without a home and without hope.

Then a mutt named Ginger changed my life. The first thing I learned from her was responsibility. I had lived my life believing I could do everything myself. I didn’t want or need anything from anyone. But Ginger did. She depended on me completely. I had never felt unconditional love before Ginger and I didn’t want to let her down. I was beginning to understand what discipline meant. Unfortunately, Ginger died at a very early age. I was numb. Broken. And completely unaware of the path that Ginger had set for me.

After many years in the restaurant business, I started to walk other people’s dogs. Like Ginger, these dogs all loved me. But I was always frustrated and angry. I began to notice how sensitive these dogs were to my behavior and how my behavior was affecting them. I discovered that when I was calm the dogs were more willing to follow my lead. So I began to train all the dogs that I walked and over the next few years I built a successful dog business.

I have found that the more I learn about dog behavior the more I learn about human behavior. Most importantly, I learn more about my own behavior. Another valuable lesson dogs continue to teach me is patience. I believe that if I share this knowledge with young people who were raised like I was, they might have a better understanding of themselves so they can avoid a life of crime and drugs, and enjoy a happy, productive life.

William Ernest Brown is founder, Chairman and Chief Executive of William Ernest Brown, Inc. in Beverly Hills, a positionn he has occupied for the past 35 years. His company has an international reputation as a designer and manufacturerr of high fashion, quality invitations and social stationery.

Mr. Brown was born on Cape Breton Island in the Atlantic Ocean off the east coast of Canada. His family has been in the stationery, jewelry and book publishing business since the eighteenth century when his ancestors established the first book printing business in Norway.

He lives in Beverly Hills with his Standard Poodle Chloe, and in the spring and summer in Tuscany, Italy where he pursues his hobby of marble sculpture.

Bret Saxon is the bestselling author of a number of business communication and relationship books, the most recent being "It's Who You Know", a Penguin Putnam release. Mr. Saxon is a graduate of Loyola Marymount School of Law and a member of the California State Bar.

He owns an entertainment marketing company based in Santa Monica, California with additional offices in New York, Palm Springs, Philadelphia, and Tampa.

He is also the proud dad of a two year old Bernese Mountain Dog named Norman. Mr. Saxon resides in the Pacific Palisades and Palm Springs with his wife and three children.

Coni Zingarelli is the Catering Sales Manager for Grill Concepts, Inc. for Daily Grill and Grill on the Alley Restaurants. Over the past ten years, Coni has worked in the hospitality industry in Philadelphia, New York and San Francisco, where she earned her Certified Meeting Professional Designation (CMP) in 2001.

Coni holds a B.A. from Penn State University (University Park, PA). She lives in Los Angeles with her two dogs: Fletcher, a West Highland White Terrier from Hungary and Bogey, a Cairn Terrier mix she rescued in Philadelphia.

Bjorn E Rebney, a leading authority on the marketing of professional athletes, teams and leagues, is president and CEO of Sugar Ray Leonard Boxing, LLC (SRL Boxing). In this position, he is responsible for managing all of the company's business ventures.

Prior to founding SRL Boxing with partner Sugar Ray Leonard, Mr. Rebney created, executed and managed diverse business, marketing and publicity programs for some of the world's top athletes including Sugar Ray Leonard, Oscar De La Hoya and Steve Young. In 1998, he began representing Sugar Ray Leonard exclusively.

Expert in creating comprehensive business, marketing and publicity programs, his work for Leonard and De La Hoya resulted in long-term corporate relationships with companies such as S.C. Johnson, Colgate-Palmolive, Levi's, The Milk Processor's Board, B.U.M. Ewuipment, Salant Menswear Group, Productivity Partners, EA Sports, Anheuser-Busch, Vartec Telecom, Centrum Multivitamins, Track, Inc., ESPN and Dunkin' Donuts. His multi-faceted brand building strategies have resulted in great financial gain as well as tremendous benefit to all aspects of his clients' careers.

In addition to working with top atheletes, Mr. Rebney represented the NFL's San Francisco 49ers from 1995 through 1998. In this capacity, he designed and implemented strategic marketing and corporate partnership programs which resulted in highly integreated, multi-year partnerships with Wells Fargo, Citibank, Paramount's Great America, VISA, USPS and 3Com Corporation. He also handled all aspects of procurement, negotiation and execution for 3Com Park in San Francisco, one of the largest yearly stadium-naming-rights agreements in history.

Mr. Rebney has a yellow lab named Soupy that lives up to it's name.

Todd Parkin is a Software consultant for large windows based applications. He is currently working with Linn Boyke to make Ginger's House a reality. He has two dogs named Shale and Brie..