About

Co-Founder and President of the Board of Directors, Delores Ramona du Houx is the editor of Maine Insights Newsmagazine, which she founded in 2005. A writer, photographer and illustrator, she is director of the Solon Center’s gallery Fukurou, and owns Insights, public relations. As a public relations specialist she’s put together campaigns, written grants, opeds, designed websites, logos and ads. Ramona is the communications director of Elected Officials to Protect America, a project of the Solon Center, and EOPA’s editor of Protect Earth Newsmagazine.

Co-Founder and Executive Director, Paul Cornell du Houx was born in Los Angeles and grew up mainly in Switzerland, the UK, and Southern Ireland. He is a graduate Amherst College ’73, with an honors degree in economics and French. In search of realities beyond the economics of academe, in his words, “threw myself into the marketplace.” He wrote currency reports for Maxwell Stamp Associates in the London Square Mile, audited a wide range of companies for PwC, sold desk-size computers with tiny memories, as well as studying law at the Inns of court and consulting. Arrived in Maine in 1991, Paul began to develop a new approach to the age-old question of whether there is any ethics in the natural world, including humans. To quote from his occasional blog, “The observation that nature is asymmetric allows us to introduce reasoning that is as organized as the logic of symmetries currently in use, by using symmetry as a foil in a proof by contradiction. One result is the discovery that nature, the universe, does indeed have a non-random sense of direction with fortunate ethical consequences and implications for political science and other fields of inquiry.” The newfound logic of asymmetry is given expression in his well-received works of fiction and nonfiction. In full circle, Paul is currently applying the discovery specifically to writing a book on the green economy.

Treasurer on the Board of Directors, Beau Alessi is an honors graduate of Amherst College in music, English and math. Since 2007, Beau has worked for Foot Locker as a strategic analyst and IT man. In his free time, he volunteers tax advice for underprivileged residents. As a musician and composer, his bands play a variety of songs from their albums in the New York music scene. Having lived in Maine, Beau and returns to bring music to the creative economy.

Secretary on the Board of Directors, John Crowley is the Chief Ranger and Pilot, flying several different types of airplanes and helicopters, including his beloved Huey. John is also Chair of the Public Relations Committee for the Betsy Ann Ross House of Hope. John graduated from the University of Maine at Orono in 1986 and was commissioned in the United States Marine Corps. In December 1988 he was designated an Unrestricted Naval Aviator and selected to fly the UH-1N (Huey) gunship at Marine Corps Air Station New River, North Carolina. He deployed to Honduras, then Northern Iraq for the First Gulf War and was later sent to Brunswick Naval Air Station to be a Watch Officer and then Department Head for the Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape School (S.E.R.E.). John left active duty in 1996 and joined the 112th MEDEVAC Co. with the Maine Army National Guard in Bangor, Maine, to fly Hueys. He deployed to Iraq again in 2003 flying UH-60 Black Hawks, mostly from Babylon. He retired from the Guard in 2006. After a stint in the private sector went to work for the Maine Forest Service.

Member of the Board of Directors, Takafumi Suzuki was a department head, former professor and assistant to the dean at Nihon University in Tokyo, Japan. He retired from a 37-year career in 2017, but was then asked to become the assistant dean at the new University of International Fashion & Business, which has branches in Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya. He took the position at UIF to help worldwide understanding of Japanese culture and traditions. Takafumi also owns Gallery Storks of Tokyo and has held cross cultural exhibits in conjunction with Gallery Fukurou – a project of the Solon Center. He is also the director of The Japan Society for Arts, as well as a member of Kokugakai (Society of Masters of Modern Japanese Art), the Japan Society of Image Arts and Sciences.

Member of the Board of Directors, Alex Cornell du Houx was elected to the Maine House of Representatives, where he became one of its most active members, sponsoring and co-sponsoring 155 bills his first term, and 136 his second. In total, he sponsored 14 successful pieces of legislation and co-sponsored 98 successful bills. Cornell du Houx won the Reed Award for the best public affairs campaign in 2011 after he co-founded and ran Operation Free, a coalition of veterans working on energy and climate security. He participated and led State Department delegations to Southeast Asia. He serves and advises on the board of the Veterans Campaign. He’s partnered with the Truman National Security Project, and founded the Maine New Leaders Council. Cornell du Houx is an instructor at the Veterans Campaign and at the University of San Francisco for their Masters in Public Leadership program. He is a certified trainer with the New Leaders Council, the Truman Project, and a leadership coach with ChoiceCenter Leadership University. He served in the Marine Corps infantry and has deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan. Cornell du Houx is currently a Public Affairs Officer with the Navy Reserve. Cornell du Houx earned his bachelor’s degree from Bowdoin College. Alex is Co-Founder and President of Elected Officials to Protect America (EOPA).