Villa Esperanza Services is pleased to welcome Damon Eastman, Brian Hirrel, and Joseph Lee as the newest members to the board of directors, and announce our newly elected board chair, Hugo Nuno.
Damon Eastman is a director and head of portfolio risk management at Payden & Rygel, a privately owned institutional asset manager focused on fixed income investments in Downtown Los Angeles. From the northeast, he attended Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts, followed by graduate school in Boston University in Brussels, Belgium. Eastman is a Chartered Financial Analyst Charterholder and an active member in the CFA Society, CFALA chapter. He serves on the board of directors for an Irish domiciled mutual fund complex. He and his wife, Margarita, live with their three children in La Cañada Flintridge.
Brian Hirrel was born in Pasadena and now lives in Topanga Canyon. He attended the USC School of Theater and then later, culinary school at Le Cordon Bleu. Hirrel has been a chef for more than a decade and currently owns companies Dip Dip and Malibu Surf Sauce. He has cooked for several celebrities over the years, and helped start a Pasadena restaurant, Bistro de la Gare. Hirrel donates his time by auctioning off cooking experiences and teaching cooking classes. He is community minded and in addition to Villa, sits on the boards of the Ayrshire Foundation, the Gamble House Conservancy and Animal Tracks Inc.
Joseph Lee is the principal attorney at the Law Office of Joseph H. Lee. Lee is a current Villa parent, and his son, Danny, attends the Villa School. His experiences with having an autistic son have helped shape his career path, which has been wide and varied. In addition to being an attorney, Lee has been a school administrator and teacher and is also an ordained minister, with degrees from Princeton Theological seminary and Fuller Theological Seminary. Lee is heavily involved in the community as a Board member of Villa, as well as the Pasadena Bar Association, Estate Planning Council of San Gabriel Valley and Professional Child Development Associates.
Newly elected Board Chair, Hugo Nuno, welcomed the members sharing, “We are delighted to have Damon, Brian, and Joseph join Villa’s Board. They bring great knowledge and expertise to the organization. We are grateful to have them supporting Villa and advocating for those that cannot speak for themselves.”
Nuno is the chief banking officer of First Foundation Bank and began serving on the Villa board of directors five years ago. He is also a Villa family member, and his brother, Senen, has been a part of Villa’s Dimensions Adult Day Program for 16 years.
Kelly White, Villa’s chief executive officer, commented: “Hugo has been a fantastic asset to Villa’s board, bringing years of business experience and a deep appreciation and understanding of Villa’s mission, and we are pleased to have him as our new board chair.”
Villa would also like to extend its thanks to previous board chair, Peter Vaughn, who led the board through the COVID-19 pandemic and stayed on an extra year as well.
“We are grateful to Peter for his dedication to Villa and his outstanding leadership during an extremely challenging time,” White said.
First published in the Sept. 28 issue of the San Marino Tribune
