Board Members

Larry practices law in the St. Louis firm Thompson Coburn. He focuses in the private client services area with a concentration on estate planning and charitable giving as well as representation of exempt organizations. He is a nationally known authority on estate planning and planned giving and a frequent speaker around the country to professional groups. He has been retained by the Internal Revenue Service to provide continuing legal education programs to Internal Revenue Service estate and gift tax attorneys. Larry appears annually on several American Bar Association-American Law Institute estate planning programs and has spoken at many other national tax institutes, including the Notre Dame Tax Institute, the University of Miami Heckerling Estate Planning Institute and the Southern Federal Tax Institute. He is an adjunct professor at the Washington University School of Law where he has taught both estate and gift taxation and fiduciary income taxation. A former chair of the American Bar Association Tax Section Fiduciary Income Tax Committee, Larry is current chair of several Tax Section charitable planning subcommittees. He is a fellow of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel and a member of its Charitable Planning Committee. He is listed in Best Lawyers in America® 2009 (Copyright 2009 by Woodward/White, Inc., of Aiken, S.C.) in the field of Trusts and Estates. He was selected in the 2009 edition of Chambers USA in Wealth Management: Eastern Region – National. Larry is also the creator of Tiger Tables actuarial software, which is widely used by tax lawyers and accountants as well as the Internal Revenue Service. A passionate devotee of classical music, Larry is an accomplished pianist and has studied conducting. He conducts the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra on a yearly basis in a Special Events concert that he sponsors. He has serves on the Executive Board St. Louis Symphony and on the Board of the St. Louis Zoo as well. Larry lives in St. Louis with his wife Cheryl and daughter Nina.  

Charles has enjoyed a varied career as both a musician and optometrist. As an undergraduate he studied piano at Penn State University, beginning his harpsichord studies through private lessons with the legendary Igor Kipnis.   In the process of earning a Ph.D. in Historical Performance Practice at Washington University in Saint Louis Missouri, he studied with Trevor Pinnock.   More recently, Charles has worked with Webb Wiggins and Lisa Crawford at the Oberlin Conservatory.  He plays regularly in Saint Louis with ensembles and has performed across the country with recent concerts in Chicago IL, Saratoga NY, Bennington VT, Louisville, KY and Liberty Mo in their Baroque music JEMS Fest.   In April 2010, he performed a solo recital at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C. and in October 2011 performed a solo recital and Master class on Elizabethan Virginal Music at Oberlin Conservatory. He also recorded the “Tisdale Virginal Book”, music of the Elizabethan period, on his 400 year old Italian Virginal which will be released as a CD in 2012.     His international appearances include performances in The Netherlands, Germany and Costa Rica. In addition to his musical career, Dr. Metz graduated from University of Missouri School of Optometry.   He established his own practice, Metz Eyecare in O’Fallon Missouri.   Nine years later he became a franchise affiliate of Clarkson Eyecare and opened two offices in the O’Fallon area.    In 2002 he sold his offices to Clarkson Eyecare and joined the Board of Carkson Eyecare.    Now retired from seeing patients on a regular basis, Dr. Metz continues to do charitable work seeing patients through the Clarkson  Eyecare Foundation in community outreach programs and the Herbert Hoover Boys & Girls Club.  

Karen retired as Division Director of the Capitol Litigation Division of the Missouri Public Defender System in August of 2016 having served more than 30 years. She received her B.A. in History from Xavier University and Juris Doctor from St. Louis University School of Law. After graduating from law school, she worked in the St. Louis City Public Defender’s Office. In1989 Karen joined the team in Capitol Litigation Division and was soon appointed Supervisor handling capital murder cases and supervising an office staff of thirteen. In 1996 she was appointed Division Director where she continued to handle a caseload of capital murder cases, supervised a staff of over 100 in offices across the state and participated in upper-level management decision-making as well as personnel decisions. Karen has presented at training conferences for the following organizations- Missouri State Public Defender System, Illinois State Public Defender System, Western Trial Advocacy Institute, Missouri Association of Criminal Defense Attorneys, National Association of Criminal Defense Attorneys, Bryan Schechmeister Death Penalty College, The Missouri Bar, Missouri Juvenile Justice Association and Missouri Office of State Courts Administration. Karen serves on the board of the Scottish St. Andrew Society of Greater St. Louis, currently as Secretary, and chaired several of its committees. She has received numerous professional awards including the Clarence Darrow Award, St. Louis University School of Law Lew Kollias Award and recognition from the Missouri Association of Criminal Defense Attorneys. Karen lives in University City with her husband Allan Stewart who is a Principal in the law firm of Stewart, Mittleman & O’Rourke, LLC.  

Wendy is a Senior Vice President and Senior Portfolio Manager with Bank of America Private Bank in St. Louis, Missouri. Wendy combines deep investment acumen, technical insight, and a passion for helping people, designing tailored portfolios to pursue their objectives more effectively. With more than 30 years of experience, she works closely with high-net-worth families, and nonprofit foundations and endowments. Her special interests include Environmental, Social, Governance (ESG) Investing; traditional and alternative investments, including private equity; and non-profit governance. Prior to joining Bank of America Private Bank, Wendy served as Executive Vice President at a boutique investment advisor, Terril & Company, in St. Louis. Previously, she was an Executive Director and Client Advisor with J.P. Morgan. Her career also includes 10 years of experience consulting to nonprofits in St. Louis, first with Mercer and then with Asset Consulting Group. Earlier, Wendy served as a Banker with J.P. Morgan Private Bank in Houston. She gained valuable institutional consulting knowledge with State Street Global Advisors in Boston, where she was a Principal. She began her wealth management career in 1992 at Ameriprise Financial (IDS/American Express), also in Boston. Wendy earned her M.B.A. in Finance from Vanderbilt University and her B.A. in East Asian Studies at Wesleyan University. Wendy holds the Chartered Financial Analyst® (CFA®) designation and the Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst® (CAIA®) designation. She is a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™, CFP® certificant, a designation awarded by the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards, Inc. Wendy holds a number of volunteer leadership positions. She serves on the board of the Chamber Music Society of St. Louis, is a co-founder and current board member of the St. Louis Women in Investments Network and is a co-founder of the Responsible Investing Collaborative of St. Louis.  

Carter is a veteran communications and management consultant who advises leading business, financial and non-profit organizations. Over his career, he has managed strategic communications efforts for Fortune 100 companies and others, including the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, Southwestern Bell, Emerson Electric, Anheuser-Busch and Advantage Capital Partners. At the St. Louis Symphony, he served as director of communications where his role included supporting fund-raising and marketing efforts by helping the news media and other stakeholders understand the institution’s financial issues and business plan to address them.   Carter’s career includes 14 years at Fleishman-Hillard, one of the world’s leading full-service public relations firms.  From 1990 to 2000, he managed worldwide support for two of the firm’s largest clients. He also has worked at Advantage Capital, a specialized venture capital firm that uses state and federal tax credits to raise private funds for investment in economically distressed communities. Before moving to St. Louis, Carter served as an editor at the Chicago Tribune, Dallas Morning News and Miami Herald. (As a result, he still takes grammar and punctuation seriously.) In addition to joining the USO of Missouri advisory board earlier this year, his community, non-profit and professional affiliations have included the United Way of Greater St. Louis, Gateway Center for Giving, and the Better Business Bureau. He also served three years as national sponsorship chairman for the Porsche Club of America, an independent, non-profit organization with more than 75,000 members in the United States and Canada. He has been active in entrepreneurial education and mentoring through the Missouri Venture Forum and the Center for the Acceleration of African-American Business. Carter and his wife, Cathy, live with their two dogs in Des Peres.