Board of Directors

Becky Beckman - Board President

Becky Beckman is happy to be returning as President of the Board of Directors for Grateful Friends and commends the excellent job done by Julie Low during the past two years.

Becky remains passionate about the mission of Grateful Friends to support local cancer patients. She is excited to see the recent interest of incredible new board members.

Her plans for going forward include celebrating successes, and bringing the fun back to fundraising. Becky looks to expand our donor base through new pathways of engagement.

As always, Becky says her motivation to support cancer patients is to honor her husband's late wife, Mary Beckman.

Alan Temkin - Treasurer

Alan has been in the Financial Services Industry for 44 years. His focus is on estate and retirement planning. He has lived in Beverly for 35 years with his wife, Francine. He has two daughters, a son-in-law and three granddaughters.

Steve Vesey - Board Member

Steve has been a CPA for 40 years and a CBEC for 16 He sold his practice to devote full time efforts to business valuations, exit planning, and expert witness work. He is currently a managing partner in the firm : Exit Boston ; Mergers and Acquisitions. He works in the lower middle market with businesses with top line revenue of $5 million -$50 million and EBITDA of $1million -$10 million.

As a CVA he prepared hundreds of business valuations and assisted baby boomer business owners in creating successful plans to exit from their enterprises.

Steve is also the proud recipient of the National Excellence in Exit Planning award from Pinnacle Equity Solutions and speaks at National Conferences on methods to increase Valuations and work with Private Equity firms in the transition process. 

His mission is to help the baby boomer business owner get to the finish line Like all of us, cancer has touched Steve’s life via friends and family. He recognizes that not everyone has someone to help in the journey to fight this disease, That is the role of Grateful Friends.

Besides his volunteer work with Grateful Friends, Steve has been the President of the Foundation at North Shore Community College and President of the board of directors of Citizens Inn.

Lee Miraglia - Co-Founder and Board Secretary

Lee co-founded Grateful Friends because she wanted to give back after being blessed with wonderful support from her family and friends during her own cancer experience. 
Lee is especially grateful to her late husband, Steve, for providing his love, strength and encouragement through her cancer diagnosis and the beginnings of Grateful Friends! She has a wide variety of experiences that she brings to the organization such as starting a business from the ground up, working as a cost accountant in a manufacturing facility and being involved in her children’s PTO as a Member and President. She lives in Peabody, has four great kids, a wonderful son-in-law and two grandchildren that she absolutely adores.

Gwen Mahan Ryan - Co-Founder

Gwen is a Co-Founder of Grateful Friends who has an entrepreneurial spirit with a knack for identifying unmet needs and acting upon them. From treats for horses to support for adult cancer patients, she’s a boot strapper and a strategic networker whose resourcefulness and persistence leads her to new adventures. Her great joys are dogs, horses, music, her lifelong friends and sharing her seaside home with her husband in Gloucester.

Walter Hartford - Vice President
A lifelong resident of Massachusetts, Walter lives in Ipswich with his wife, Marianne and children, Amelia and Anthony. With over thirty years of experience in the financial services industry, he is a Financial Advisor with Edward Jones, serving clients and families all over the North Shore. Walt enjoys kayaking, long walks around Great Neck, and sampling many of the craft breweries that are popping up in the area. He considers his volunteer work central to who he is and has served on numerous boards of non-profits, including the Sierra Club, Beverly Rotary and Expect Miracles Foundation. In his community he has served on the Ipswich Finance Committee for the past six years, where he is affectionately known as “The Numbers Guy”. Like so many others, Walter’s family has been forever changed by cancer. A chance meeting with Gwen and Lee in 2018 left Walter feeling deeply touched by their story and inspired by their positive energy. He immediately jumped in to help facilitate a grant for Grateful Friends, awarded by the Expect Miracles Foundation.

Debi Bright - Volunteer Coordinator

Debi recently retired from a career as the US Operations Manager for an Australian technology company.  She volunteers her time for Grateful Friends and dedicates her commitment to a close friend who recently died from pancreatic cancer.

Debi lives in Beverly with her husband, Michael.  She is Mom to 3 adult children and Grammy & Mimi to 4 active grandchildren.

Robin Foster

Robin Foster recently retired after 14 years as the Assistant Director of the Greater Beverly Chamber of Commerce, with major responsibilities being member relations and communications.

Robin graduated from Salem State University with a B.S. in Business Administration. A native of Philadelphia and South Jersey, Robin has lived in Massachusetts for over 45 years. She and her husband Mark are longtime Beverly residents who raised two daughters here. 

Jon Gray

Jon Gray is President & CEO of J Barrett & Company, an independent real estate brokerage with 6 offices in Essex County. His philanthropic background includes having sat on numerous boards to include The YMCA of the Northshore, ECTA, Montserrat College of Art and currently The Cabot Theatre. Jon resides in Beverly with his spouse and 2 Yellow Labs.

Nancy Purcell

Nancy Purcell is a lifelong Danvers resident who lives with her husband James who works in recycling, daughter Paige, an oncology nurse in Boston and her son Thomas, a senior Biology major at Merrimack College. You can find Nancy each morning at the front desk of Endicott College's Post Center and celebrating across the North Shore as "Miss Nancy" with her popular party, camp and event business of almost 20 years. Nancy has been a supporter of Camp Stepping Stones with Care Dimensions, Griffin's Gift, and the Best Buddies Walk. She has been on our BOD since August and looks forward to helping wherever she can with Grateful Friends!

Peter Lawler

Pete was born and raised in Beverly and just moved back in 2022 with his wife Sharon. They lived in Lexington for the last thirty years where they raised their daughter Paige. Pete recently sold his businesses and now has more time to spend helping others . He has been involved with The Cabot and Change is Simple and wanted very much to be part of the Grateful Friends team. He will focus on organizational strategy and fundraising.