Band Together NC Adds Three Members to Its Board

Band Together NC, a local nonprofit organization that uses music to raise funds and awareness for select Triangle charities, has announced that Phil Gruber, Rich Lee and Hooker Manning have been added to its board.Gruber is currently the president of RPG Solutions, a full-service firm specializing in employee benefits and commercial insurance. Eight years ago, he co-founded Band Together in response to the tragic events of September 11 and sat on the steering committee that year. In addition to volunteering every year since, his leadership involvement with the organization has included co-chairing the 2003 Special Olympics event and serving as fundraising chair for several events including the 2005 Tsunami relief event.

Lee is the founder and chief executive officer of Hosted Solutions, an Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) company. In 2009, he received both the Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year award for the Carolinas and the Business Leader of the Year award for technology and communications. Lee has been a sponsor and supporter of Band Together since its inception and hosts the organization’s annual Casino Night event to introduce potential sponsors to the upcoming charity recipient.

Manning is vice president of leasing for Duke Realty Corp., one of the largest commercial real estate developers in the nation, where he has successfully negotiated sales transactions valued at more than $325 million. As Band Together’s 2009 fundraising chair, he helped lead its most successful event to date — more than $140,000 was raised for the Lucy Daniels Center. In addition, he oversees and leads both fundraising and marketing initiatives for Wake County’s Boys & Girls Clubs. He’s also an active member of both the National Association of Industrial and Office Properties and the Triangle Area Office Building Association.

The new members will join an existing board of business and community leaders. All 12 current board members will return for another term. Responsibilities of board members include but are not limited to the following: a three-year term, voting on important issues, committee involvement, recruiting and fundraising.

The board is in the process of choosing its 2010 charity recipient, which will be determined at a final board meeting on Oct. 5. Gruber, Lee and Manning will all have voting privileges at that meeting.

For more information on Band Together or its existing board members, please visit www.bandtogethernc.org.

Band Together NC
Band Together NC is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization composed of business and community leaders and volunteers from across the Triangle. Since its inception in 2001, the organization has helped raise more than $700,000 for philanthropic organizations through one mission: using music to raise funds and awareness for local charities. Band Together is run entirely by volunteer efforts. For more information, please visit www.bandtogethernc.org.