Board of Directors
Dianne Tittle de Laet - Executive Director
Dianne is the founder and executive director of The Arete Fund. Arete was initiated with the proceeds from her memoir, Giants & Heroes: A Daughter’s Memories of Y.A. Tittle, published by Steerforth Press in 1996. The Arete Fund was meant to be the last and best chapter of a book based on a question: What is a hero? This unwritten chapter was intended to play out in real time in the lives of largely unsung heroes whose day by day excellence deserved recognition and support. In the last decade, The Arete Fund has expanded its educational mission to include cultural outreach and humanitarian projects. Dianne serves this mission with her own creative work. As a poet who cross trains, it might be said that she works for a single word – Arete.
Steven de Laet - President
Steve has had two professional careers. He was president and owner of Peters-de Laet, Inc., an industrial distributor of parts and equipment covering the western United States, from 1973 to 2004. In 2000, Steve founded PartsRiver, Inc., a software company based in Fremont, California, which provides data quality management for large companies that procure or sell MRO and spare parts.
Steve’s professional experience has focused on business management and development. As president of the Arete Fund, he applies this experience to help the organization grow in a scalable and sustainable way.
Marian Hubler - Secretary Treasurer
Marian Hubler has significant dedicated experience in cultural programming, special event planning, marketing communications and public relations for non-profit organizations, the federal government and the private sector. Since 1996, she has worked as communications manager and producer for Bread & Roses Presents where she is responsible for organizing 200 plus annual performances for people isolated in institutions throughout the San Francisco Bay Area and for increasing awareness of the need for hope and healing through live music.
Prior to this, she was a National Park Service ranger managing special events and cooperative activities for the Golden Gate National Recreation Area in San Francisco and Marin County (1995-1996). She worked as the conference center director at the Fort Mason Center in San Francisco (1991-1992) and public relations director of the Peabody Essex Museum, formerly the Essex Institute (1986-1990) in Salem, Mass. She served on the advisory board of the Arete Fund (2005-2018) and is a past board member of the Acoustic Vortex (2007-2012).