At the start of the Savannah Music Festival’s 29th season, the non-profit performing arts organization welcomes three additional members to its Board of Directors and names the 2018 slate of Officers. SMF’s 2018 Officers include David T. Neises in his second year as Chairman, Stephen Rabinowitz as Vice Chairman (board member since 2011, Treasurer 2013-17), Vicki McElreath as Treasurer (board member since 2017), Harold Yellin as Secretary (board member since 2007, Secretary 2008-12, Chairman 2012-14), Ron Whitaker as Immediate Past Chairman (board member since 2011, Chairman 2015-16) and Bob Faircloth as Chairman Emeritus (board member since 2006, Chairman 2010-12).

New Additions to SMF Board of Directors:

Melissa Bouchillon is Senior Vice President at Merrill Lynch of Skidaway Island. With a bachelor’s degree in Psychology from University of South Carolina and master’s in Special Education from College of Charleston, Bouchillon began her career as an educator at Marshpoint Elementary School. She has served on the UWCE Allocations Committee and the board of Park Place Outreach Youth Emergency Shelter, as COO for the Regional Chapter of Women’s Exchange at Merrill Lynch, and is involved in the Landings Military Relief Fund. Bouchillon chairs the nominating committee at the Marshes of Skidaway Island and the development committee at SMF.

Thomas Oxnard, Jr. is a Savannah native and graduate of Harvard College. As a journalist, he worked at the Delta Democrat-Times in Greenville, Mississippi, and was the Editor and Publisher of The Weekly Star in Atlanta. For more than 30 years, Oxnard worked as a Commodity Broker, serving as Vice President at EF Hutton, PaineWebber and Smith Barney. He was Board President at Citizens for a Better Allendale, a board member at Morris Land Conservancy and Savannah Country Day School, and Foundation Board Member and Chairman at Horizons Savannah.

W. Rex Templeton, Jr. is a Savannah native and graduate of the University of Georgia. As President with Morris & Templeton Insurance, Templeton has been very involved in the insurance industry as a member of the Million Dollar Roundtable, the Independent Insurance Agents and Brokers of America, the Board of Directors of the Independent Insurance Agents of Georgia and the Life Underwriter Training Council. He has served on numerous community boards including the Boards of Saint Mary’s Home for Children and the Memorial Health Trust, and as the Chair of the Advisory Board of the George & Marie Backus Children’s Hospital. Templeton currently serves on the board of Memorial Health University Medical Center, and is a member of the Chatham County Hospital Authority, where he served as Chair from 2006-08. He was President of the Landings Association in 2016.