Eric Joseph

Advisory Board Chair

Eric’s passion for tennis led him to a competitive career as a junior in the USTA Mid-Atlantic Section, an active player in national adult tournaments and, more recently, his deep involvement and commitment to the mission and development of JTCC.

Ray Benton

Secretary

One of the most experienced executives in the tennis industry, Benton began his tennis career as an instructor in the public parks and became a club teaching professional. Benton was involved in a number of grassroots initiatives before becoming the first National Executive Director of the National Junior Tennis League, and organization founded by Arthur Ashe that provides low-cost tennis and life skills to all children, regardless of social economic circumstances. As the first National Executive Director, Benton led the organization’s growth from three to fifty chapters.

Benton’s career in professional sports began as a partner in the Washington, D.C.-based law firm Dell, Craighill, Fentress, and Benton. The firm evolved into ProServ, one of the largest sports marketing companies in the world.

A veteran in sports marketing, Benton is noted for his accomplishments in creating and managing worldwide events such as the senior tour for men’s professional tennis. Benton came to JTCC in 2009 and oversees all aspects of the organization. He is the main force behind JTCC’s fundraising initiatives and grassroots efforts, and strongly believes in JTCC’s holistic approach to developing Champions on and off the court.

Joe Wilkerson

Treasurer

With more than 20 years of professional experience in the health and tennis industry, Joe has an impressive track record of growing memberships and the game of tennis.

Joe held key management positions with Midtown Athletic Clubs and Midtown Health from 2003-17. He was hired as a tennis coach and moved quickly through the ranks to become Regional Tennis Director. In that role, Joe oversaw all tennis operations at two of Mercy Health’s clubs and three area country clubs. Joe was then promoted to General Manager for Mercy HealthPlex Anderson, the flagship of Midtown Health, where he operated a 150,000-square foot Health Wellness & Tennis Club in Cincinnati and led a team of 225 associates dedicated to creating the best athletic club environment in the greater Cincinnati area.

From 2017-19, Joe was General Manager of the Raleigh Racquet Club, a 31-court facility on 20 acres with more than 1,000 members in North Carolina.

As Senior Vice President, Joe immediately created Learn Tennis Now, JTCC’s new adult tennis program. He is responsible for oversight of club operations, programming and staffing. In addition, he manages capital projects and seeks new business development opportunities for JTCC nationwide.

Joe was recruited to play collegiate tennis for Methodist University in Fayetteville, NC where he graduated with honors with a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration and a concentration in Professional Tennis Management,

Joe holds certifications from USPTA, PTR, and USTA Sports Science.

Gail Lione

Vice Chair

Gail Lione is a senior executive with business strategy, intellectual property, human resources, and corporate governance experience in the C-Suite. She is Senior Counsel at Dentons US LLP, where she currently co-chairs the firm’s ESG Task Force and is the immediate past co-chair of its Diversity and Inclusion Committee. Ms. Lione is an adjunct professor of intellectual property law at Georgetown University Law School and she previously taught at Marquette University Law School and American University Law School. Ms. Lione is also a Fellow of the ESG Center (formerly the Governance Center) of The Conference Board.

Ms. Lione is a sought after corporate board member. She has been a member of the Board of Directors and Audit Committee of Sargento Foods Inc. since 2006 and now serves on its Compensation Committee; and she also served for 10 years as a member of the Board of Directors of Badger Meter, Inc. (NYSE:BMI) until April 2022 and was its Lead Director from April 2015 to April 2017. Ms. Lione formerly served as a director of Imperial Sugar Company (NASDAQ:IPSU) and a director of The F. Dohmen Co, a Wisconsin private company in the life science services business. As a current corporate director, she is a member of Women Corporate Directors, Washington DC chapter.

Kathleen Horvath

Chair

Kathleen Horvath brings a wealth of tennis and management experience to JTCC. She was a prominent WTA player from 1980-89, achieving a top 10 world ranking and earning 10 professional titles. Horvath holds the record for being the youngest US Open participant, at 14-years-old and five days. One of Horvath’s greatest accomplishments was defeating Martina Navratilova in the fourth round of the 1983 French Open, which marked Navratilova’s only loss of the year.

Horvath has been heavily involved with the game off the court. She is currently a member of the Business Advisory Council for USTA Player Development, and she previously served on the WTA Board, the WTA Investment Committee, and the US Open Tournament Committee.

Horvath’s experience extends beyond tennis. She has worked in fixed income institutional sales at Merrill Lynch and as Vice President of Private Wealth Management at Goldman Sachs.

A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business with a BS in Economics and an MBA in Finance, Horvath resides in Bradenton, FL. She has three children — Erika, Andy, and RJ.

George Walker

George Walker IV is co-founder and CEO of Air Ventures LLC, a company that specializes in Airport Concessions. George oversees all aspects of Air Ventures, a food and beverage airport concessionaire, including setting company strategies and goals, implementing financial objectives, business development and hiring management team members. George has over 20 years of experience in the airport concession business. In 1997 he started OSI-MB, Inc., an airport retail concession business. In 2003 Walker partnered with Bill Newlin and formed Air Ventures. Walker has led the expansion from one concession to 27 concessions in eight U.S. airports.

In March of 2020, Emirates Leisure Retail Group (100% wholly owned subsidiary of Emirates Airlines) purchased a majority stake in Air Ventures. Walker and Newlin retain a minority stake in the business and continue to oversee the management, business development and operations for the United States.

Walker has served on the boards of the Opportunity Systems, Inc, Edmund Burke School, Capital Bank, N.A, RICH (a non-profit that provides high quality educational resources, free of charge to inner city schools in Washington DC). He currently serves on the advisory board for the Junior Tennis Champions Center (JTCC) in College Park. He is a graduate of Pomona College where he captained the Men’s Tennis team to a 6th place ranking in the nation.

Walker and his wife Robin reside in Washington and are parents to Alexandra and George.

Charlie Brody

Brody most recently worked as an analyst for Sutton Square Partners in New York. His previous professional experience includes three and a half years at Manor Road Capital and two at Peter J. Solomon. Brody attended Kenyon College where he starred on the tennis team for four years. He was also one of the first students to train at JTCC when the doors opened in 1999 therefore bringing this unique experience to the Board of Directors.

Vesa Ponkka

Ponkka has trained top junior players in the United States and Europe for national, NCAA, ITF and professional competition for the past 30 years. He is widely acclaimed as one of the top international junior coaches and has been the driving force behind JTCC’s coaching philosophy as the Senior Director of Tennis since the facility was founded in 1999. His students have won numerous professional and national titles, achieved the #1 ITF Junior World Ranking, several #1 USTA National Rankings, and NCAA All-American honors. He was selected as the 2011 USOC National Developmental Coach of the Year and is a strong believer in Long Term Athletic Developmental Stages and Long Term Progressive Training Methods. He holds PTR, USPTA, and USTA High Performance certification.

Richey Reneberg

Richey Reneberg competed for 13 years on the ATP professional tennis circuit reaching a career high of No. 20 in the world in singles and No. 1 in the world in doubles. He was a member of the United States Davis Cup Team from 1933-95 and in 1997-98, and represented the United States in the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta. Reneberg also served two terms on the ATP Tour Player Council from 1994 to 1996. He attended Southern Methodist University for three years before pursuing a career in professional tennis. He joined Taconic Capital Advisors in September 2000, where he is currently a Director, Investor Relations.

Rushern Baker

Baker recently concluded his eight-year term as County Executive of Prince George’s County.

During his time in office he worked towards improving the county’s economic development. Baker created more jobs, reduced crime rates, and increased property values in order to make Prince George’s County one of the leading economic engines in Maryland.

Baker received both his bachelor’s and law degree from Howard University.

While in office Baker was also successful in increasing school enrollment and improving test scores.

Ginny Ehrlich

Ginny Ehrlich was the founding CEO for both the Clinton Health Matters Initiative as well as the Alliance for a Healthier Generation. She is currently the Chief Revenue Officer with US Soccer Foundation. Ginny earned her Bachelor of Arts in Community of Health Education, Master of Science in Special Education and Doctorate of Education in Education Leadership all from the University of Oregon. She also received her Master of Public Health from Boston University. Ginny is committed to improving the health and wellbeing of children and families. Ginny is a devoted tennis player and continues to display her passion on the court.