Board of Trustees

Michael Merriman
Trustee and Founder of True Hero

Michael Merriman founded True Hero, Inc. with the goal of increasing the visibility, recognition and funding of the numerous student service projects happening across the country and the world. Merriman found his inspiration to pursue this endeavor after participating in his son's high school service trip to an orphanage and AIDS clinic in Honduras during March 2008.

The former chief executive officer of two public companies, Royal Appliance Mfg./Dirt Devil, Inc. and Lamson & Sessions Corporation, Mr. Merriman is currently an operating advisor with Resilience Capital Partners in Cleveland. 

He serves an advisor to early stage consumer products companies, including Evolution Robotics (the "MINT"automatic floorcleaner) in Pasadena, California and RhinoSystems (the "NAVAGE" nasal hygeine system) in Elyria, Ohio, as well as serving on the public company boards of American Greetings Corporation, Nordson Corporation, and OMNOVA Solutions, Inc., and on the board of MTD Products, Inc.

Mr. Merriman is also a trustee on the non-profit boards of John Carroll University, Boys Hope Girls Hope, and the Friends of E Prep Charter School.  He is the past national chairman of the board of Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE).

John Zitzner
Trustee

John Zitzner is the founder and former CEO of Bradley Company, a software firm that began in 1983 and was acquired by Xerox in 1998.  After selling Bradley Company, Zitzner collaborated in 2002 with NFTE, The National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship, and started E CITY (Entrepreneurship: Connecting, Inspiring and Teaching Youth), a nonprofit corporation that provides entrepreneurship education to Cleveland high school students.

In 2006, Mr. Zitzner and Marshall Emerson co-founded Entrepreneurship Prepatory School (E Prep), an Ohio Community School (6th-8th grade).  E Prep was the result of a year of intensive research and visits to dozens of the highest performing urban charter schools on the east coast.  E Prep had a highly successful first year, boosting student proficiency in reading from 7% to 75% and proficiency in math from 12% to 62%.  Its second year results were equally impressive.  Mr. Zitzner received the Nortech Innovation Award for his work in founding E Prep.

Mr. Zitzner is also a member of the Youth Entrepreneurship Group which was organized by the Aspen Institute.

Richard Bongorno
Trustee

Rich Bongorno is the chief financial officer for Zapis Capital Group and also serves in that capacity for its portfolio companies, Symphony Publishing Group and O-Web Technologies, Ltd.  Prior to joining Zapis, Mr. Bongorno was a certified public accountant for 25 years with Cohen & Company where he served as its managing partner.  His duties at the firm over his career ranged from responsibility for technical tax matters in a variety of disciplines and industries to management and strategic planning for the entire firm.

Mr. Bongorno is very active in the Cleveland community and especially with educational initiatives.  He is a member of the board of regents at Beaumont high school and just ended a six-year term as a member of the board of regents at St. Ignatius high school, serving as chairman of its finance committee and as a member of the executive and endowment committees.  Mr. Bongorno serves as the chairman of the True Hero finance committee.