Walter P. Roura, President

Walter P. Roura, a native of New York City, is the son of a Catalan father and a Puerto Rican mother.  He is a graduate of Manhattan College in the Bronx and Fordham University Law School in Manhattan.

With his partner, Martin Melamed, he opened Roura & Melamed in 1980 as a full service law firm with an emphasis on serving the Hispanic community.  During his legal career, Mr. Roura has become a well-known trial lawyer.  He has served as a member of the Board of Directors of the New York State Trial Lawyers Association and is a member of the Puerto Rican Bar Association, the Association of the Trial Lawyers of America, the Brooklyn Bar Association, the Metropolitan and Women's Bar Association and other legal groups.  He is a member of the New Jersey Bar Association and of the Federal Courts in New York and New Jersey. 

  Mr. Roura is in his fifth year as a member of the Alpine Board of Education and is currently its President.  His wife, Susan Hernandez, a former A.H.S.A. president is also a lawyer.  They have three children in our school system.  Alexis is a senior and Christopher is a sophomore at Tenafly High School.  Michael is a seventh grader at The Alpine School.  Walter Roura is an avid sports fan and continues to coach and referee soccer, baseball and basketball.

Philip Simotas, Vice-President

Philip Simotas is a cum laude graduate of Yale University.

Mr. Simotas is President and Director of Investment Management at FX Concepts. Mr. Simotas heads up all aspects of the firm’s investment management activities, which include trading, portfolio administration, client servicing, investment research functions and marketing.  In addition, he is also chairman of the product development committee, which is responsible for directing the firm’s research efforts with respect to enhancing and creating new trading strategies.

Mr. Simotas began his career in derivatives at Dean Witter in 1986, where he was Foreign Exchange Strategist.  From 1987 to 1993, Mr. Simotas was Assistant Vice President and Senior Trader on Dean Witter's foreign exchange desk.  Mr. Simotas also served as Deputy Chief of the foreign exchange department.

Himself an alumni of The Alpine School, Mr. Simotas has three children currently in the school and another entering Kindergarten in September.  His wife, Linda is currently the president of the A.H.S.A.  Both of them also serve on our Foundation.  He was originally elected for two years to complete a vacated seat on the Board of Education and was reelected for a three year term in May 2008.  He is currently the Vice President of Alpine Board of Education.

Elizabeth Herries, Board Member

Elizabeth Herries is a graduate of Princeton University and New York University School of Law.  She is currently an in-house attorney at Mount Sinai Medical Center in Manhattan.

Ms. Herries has lived in Alpine for 12 years, and has one son who attends The Alpine School.  She was first elected to the Board of Education for a three year term in 2005.  She served as President of the Board from May 2006 until May 2008.  She was re-elected in 2008 for another three year term and is currently serving as a Trustee. 

Richard A. Serko, Board Member                                                                 

Richard A. Serko is Graduate of Dartmouth College, with Dean’s List Distinction, and The Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, Yeshiva University.

Mr. Serko, his wife Terri, and their two children have been residents of the community since 2003. Mr. Serko has been a Board Member since 2006, and has served as its Vice President for the past three years.

Mr. Serko is presently Chief Operating Officer and Executive Vice President for Wharton Equity Partners, LLC, a real estate investment firm.  He is a member of the Investment Committee, and Head of Acquisitions, Asset Management, Investment Analysis, Project Management, Leasing and Property Management for the firm.

Prior to joining Wharton, Mr. Serko was Head of Corporate Real Estate for Unilever/Bestfoods, N.A., and for GAF/ISP, both multinational corporations, with responsibilities for US and International Portfolio Management, respectively. He has been a commercial real estate executive for the past twenty seven years, and has been a licensed NYS Real Estate Broker since 1982.

Mr. Serko’s children both graduated from The Alpine School.  His son Ronald was the Valedictorian at Alpine (Class of 2004), then at Tenafly High School (Class of 2008), and is now a freshman at Harvard.  His daughter Lianna is a freshman at Tenafly High School, and a member of the Track Team. 

Joyce Sonpal, Board Member

Joyce Sonpal holds a Bachelors degree in Psychology from City College and a Masters degree in Public Administration from New York University.  She has worked for Fortune 500 companies in the field of health care marketing and owned her own health care business for 20 years.  Currently she has a small consulting business and manages her husband’s health care practice.