Board of Directors
Thère du Pont
Chairman
Thère is President of the Longwood Foundation. He formerly served as President and Chief Financial Officer of Wawa, Inc. and Chief Financial Officer and Senior Vice President, Operations, of drugstore.com. He currently is on the Boards of Burris Logistics, the DuPont Company and WSFS. He received a BS in Mechanical Engineering and an MBA from Stanford University.
William E. Manning
Secretary
Bill Manning is a partner with Saul Ewing LLC, and as Co-Managing Partner of its Wilmington office, Mr. Manning brings extensive experience in business management. He also serves as Co-Chair of Saul Ewing’s Higher Education Practice Group, and with his partner, Jim Taylor, he provides legal advice to many of Delaware’s charter schools.
He is the former president of the Red Clay Consolidated School District (RCCSD) Board of Education, and has long been a champion for diversity issues relating to quality education, student recruitment, and charter schools. Under his leadership, RCCSD became the first – and remains the only – local school district in Delaware to authorize charter schools.
Margie López Waite
Director
As one of the founders, Margie was instrumental in opening the first dual language (English/Spanish) charter school in Delaware. She has been involved with ASPIRA of Delaware as a volunteer and/or board member since 2004. Margie transitioned into the Head of School role shortly after the school charter was approved in April 2009. With the expansion to high school and a second campus in 2020, Margie took on the role of CEO with a Head of School assigned to each campus. Margie previously was a Spanish teacher in the Appoquinimink School District and also worked at MBNA/Bank of America for sixteen years. Her last position was as a Senior Vice President in the Hispanic Market Sector.
She earned her Master’s Degree in Secondary Education and School Leadership certification from Wilmington University in May 2008. Margie earned a Bachelor’s degree in Marketing from Delaware State University in May 1990, and proudly serves on their Board of Trustees.
Eli Sharp
Director
Eli serves as President and Chief Executive Officer of Eleuthèrian Trust Company, a multi-generational family wealth services firm. Previously, he served as a Sr. Relationship Manager in Wilmington Trust Company’s Managed Wealth Advisory Group. In that role, Mr. Sharp was responsible for managing substantial private client relationships. He is currently also a board member for the Longwood Foundation, Delaware Wild Lands, Inc. and is a Trustee of Christiana Care Health Systems.
Paul McConnell
Director
Paul’s career in real estate development began in 1974. Since that time, he has developed office buildings, residential and apartment communities, and industrial parks. His development projects of the past 38 years total over 5 million square feet. Paul is an active member of the community, with direct involvement in many local organizations. He is Chariman of the Board for Layton Preparatory School in New Castle, DE, Member of the Board for Nativity Preparatory School in Wilmington, DE, and Member of the Board and Development Committee for St. Edmond’s Academy in Wilmington, DE. He is also the founder of the school’s Opportunity Fund. Paul is Executive Chairman of FMP Media Solutions, he is a Member of the Board for the following organizations; Delaware State Chamber of Commerce, First State Innovation, and The Siegfried Group, LLP.
Paul also belongs to the British American Business Council, the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce, the Chilean American Chamber of Commerce, the Philadelphia Israel Chamber of Commerce, and the Delaware Business Round Table.
