Don McGrath

Don is an Illinois native and joined Bank of the West in San Francisco in 1975 and spent 35 years with the Bank and its parent company Bancwest Corp, before retiring as Chairman and CEO of both in 2010. He has served on numerous Boards over many years including The Pacific Stock Exchange from 2001-2008, and the Financial Services Roundtable. He continues to serve on the Boards of Deluxe Corporation and The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation where he was Chairman in 2013 and 2014. He was appointed by President Bush in 2009 to The President’s Council on Financial Literacy. Other previous non-profit boards include Operation HOPE, Inc., the Resources Legacy Fund, the Commonwealth Club of California, and Dominican University of California.

Joan Boren

Joan Boren is the Director of the Obsidian Foundation, dedicated to extending educational opportunities and preserving access to the Idaho outdoors. Joan has worked in Public Affairs for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in the Boise area and has been active in the Boise community serving on the Board of Directors of the Boise School District and of the Boise Philharmonic. She has worked as a teacher in the Boise School District Gifted and Talented program and served as an instructor for adult religious courses. Joan has managed an employment program for high school and college students to learn ranching skills. She has worked with refugees both individually and through community organizations to help them improve language skills, find employment, and integrate into the community. Joan serves on the boards of Inspire Excellence, based in Meridian Idaho, The Wilford Woodruff Papers Foundation and The Ayaan Hirsi Ali Foundation. Joan and and her husband Mike live in Boise, Idaho and Idaho’s Sawtooth Valley. They are the parents of three and grandparents of seven. Joan enjoys the piano is the author of two books: Silent Stars and The Shepherd.

Fred Bates

Fred Bates began his career as a real estate developer and builder in 1976 and has been successful in developing residential, commercial and golf course communities in California and throughout the United States. Bates Homes is owned by Fred and five of his six children, where they are developing homes in the Mountain West including Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Nevada. Fred served on the board at Notre Dame High School and Santa Catalina School in Monterey. Fred has 6 children and 10 grandchildren, and his wife Becky has 3 children and 2 grandchildren.

Mia Benedict

Mia is a retired corporate communications executive, business consultant, and executive coach for challenging problem solving. She worked for the Wilson administration in California examining mandates and creating strategic plans. She is highly involved in Idaho education looking for ways to improve academic results and growing future active citizens. Her goal in co-founding the Sun Valley Policy Forum is to ensure citizens have access to different points of view when deciding how to vote, how to govern and how to have productive discourse with each other. She and her husband Tim Miller have three children and seven grandchildren. They are full time Sun Valley residents with a foot still in California.

Christina Culver

Christina Erland Culver is President and CEO of EdNexus Advisors LLC, a Washington, DC based government affairs and business strategy firm. A native of Kansas, she has worked on every Republican presidential race since Senator Bob Dole ran for president in the 1988 primary, and successfully continued working for President George H. W. Bush’s race and followed him to the White House. She served under five Education Secretaries and at the White House for President George H.W. Bush. In 2022, she co-founded the Sun Valley Policy Forum to bring conservative policy thought leadership and programming to Idaho so that Idahoans become more engaged in policy that impacts their futures. Ms. Erland Culver has a master’s degree in National Security and Strategic Studies from the U.S. Naval War College, and a BA in Political Science from the University of Kansas. She resides in and operates out of Sun Valley, Idaho.