SBIG Board of Trustees
Tony Appiah – Managing Director and Client Portfolio Manager at Nuveen, a TIAA Company. Tony was born and raised in Ghana and moved to the US after graduating high school and is now a U.S. Citizen. He holds a BA in Mathematical Economics from Colgate University in Hamilton, NY. Prior to Nuveen, Tony was Head of UK Fixed Income Investment Specialists at UBS in London and had been with the firm since August 2015. Prior to joining UBS Tony held other senior investment roles at UBS Global Wealth Management and Brown Brothers Harriman Private Bank. Tony and his family have been actively involved and supportive of SBIG for many years prior to joining the Board.
Matthew L. Killian – Business Development and Strategy for Ridgeline, a fintech enterprise software startup founded by Dave Duffield focused on the asset management industry. Since joining SBIG, Matthew has managed the organization of book drives at The Delbarton School and other schools and libraries in NJ, and recruited his classmates on multiple trips to SBIG’s five schools in Ghana. He is involved in SBIG’s fundraising efforts, and in the fall of 2014, organized a 16-mile run as a member of the Amherst Lacrosse team to raise almost $30,000 for SBIG. In 2021, Matthew was elected as SBIG’s Treasurer and runs the SBIG website. Before Ridgeline, Matthew worked on the High Yield Capital Markets and Leveraged Finance desks at Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation and Stifel Financial Corp in New York City. He holds an MBA from the University of Virginia Darden School of Business and BA from Amherst College in Massachusetts.
Richard Killian – Chief of Party for the ACQUIRE Tanzania Project (ATP) based in Dar es Salaam. ATP is the flagship family planning partner for the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) mission in Tanzania. Mr. Killian was previously the Project Director/Chief of party for 5 years for EngenderHealth’s Quality Health Partners project (QHP) in Ghana. While in Ghana, he served on the Board of the Trustees for the Ghana International School that has been very supportive of SBIG’s efforts in Ghana. Mr. Killian is a seasoned international health professional with almost 30 years of experience in the U.S. and Africa. He has a BA degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Master of Health Care Administration degree from George Washington University. Mr. Killian has been involved with SBIG since its formation and participated in most of the group visits to Ghana.
Tom Killian, Jr. – Vice President, Head of Corporate Development at Basin Holdings, an energy and industrial company based out of New York City. Previously served as an analyst and associate in the Investment Banking Group at JPMorgan. Mr. Killian has managed the organization of book drives from Delbarton and other schools and libraries in NJ and helped develop the original sbigonline.org
Tom Killian, Sr. – Managing Director in the financial services group at Piper Sandler. Previously, he was a principal at Sandler O’Neill + Partners, L.P. His 41-year career in commercial and investment banking includes seven years of commercial banking experience with NationsBank, structuring and arranging leveraged finance transactions, two years with Salomon Brothers transacting capital markets and advisory assignments for a variety of major corporations, five years with J.P. Morgan managing financial advisory and capital raising activities for banks and thrifts in the Western region of the United States, and 27 years with Sandler O’Neill advising banks, thrifts, and insurance companies on a variety of capital markets, strategic advisory and M&A assignments. He functioned as a primary resource in structuring and implementing complex capital markets transactions for financial institutions. He has also established two Killian Family Old Well Scholarships for students from New Hanover High School in Wilmington, North Carolina to attend the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Joe Nyamekye – CEO of three NJ based small businesses Joe Nyamekye was born and raised in Ghana and has now established himself as a successful small business owner with three registered companies in the state of NJ. Joe’s son Kenny attended Delbarton School with Thomas and Matthew Killian and has been an active supported of SBIG efforts for many years. He has been helpful in organizing the shipment of donated books, clothing and other gifts to children at the SBIG schools in Ghana. Joe is also actively involved with the Ghanaian Society of New Jersey