Thomas Fitzgerald
Distinguished Golf Destinations, Managing Director
Thomas is the Managing Director of Distinguished Golf Destinations, whose parent, Boardroom Magazine also manages the Distinguished Club Network.
Thomas is well respected in the golf industry when in 2003, he designed a program for the then fledgling airline, JetBlue Airway’s to market their brand to the private club industry & premier resort properties. Thomas was able to forge lasting relationships with some of the country’s most prestigious private clubs & industry leaders.
Thomas served honorably in the US Marine Corps & had a 20 year career as a New York Air Traffic Controller.
Paul Levy
President of Distinguished Golf Destinations
40th President PGA of America
CEO of PKL Golf Management and Club Services
Paul Levy served as President of the PGA of America 2016-2018. Previously, he served two-year terms each as PGA Vice President and PGA Secretary.
Paul was President of Club Operations and Development for Sunrise Company, where he served for over 18 years. During that time from 1999-2004, he was General Manager and COO at Royal Oaks Country Club in Houston. After moving to Southern California, he became the CEO and General Manager at Toscana Country Club in Indian Wells, California. Paul was responsible for the development and management of many other private and resort properties in California, Colorado, Nevada and Texas in his time with Sunrise.
Paul is passionate about our industry and Distinguished Golf Destinations is a natural extension of his passion to leave the industry better than when he started. Levy earned PGA membership in 1986, and has served in a leadership capacity at both the Section and National levels since 1992.
A native of New Orleans, Levy is a 1983 graduate of LSU, where he was a golf team member. His community involvement has included creating scholarship foundations for employees of both Royal Oaks Country Club and Toscana Country Club. He was the creator and director of the Fort Bend ISD PGA First Swing Program; and a member of Katy (Texas) School District Partners, which presented him with its Education Award of Excellence.
Paul and his wife, Heidi, are the parents of three sons: Nathan, Kristopher and Travis; two daughters: Nakayla and Destiny; and have five grandchildren.
Christine Fitzgerald
Colana Sports Group, Inc, President/CEO
Smithtown Children’s Foundation Founder/Executive Director
Distinguished Golf Destinations, Director
Christine is President & CEO of Colana Sports Group since 2005 delivering golf tournament enhancement programs that cater to charities looking to raise funds & to private country clubs looking to entertain their member/guests. In 2008, Christine founded the Smithtown Children’s Foundation, a not for profit, dedicated to providing financial & emotional support to families in crisis.
Prior to this, Christine spent fifteen years on Wall Street. In 1987, she was hired by Credit Suisse First Boston as VP, Equity Research, orchestrating the daily Institutional Equity Research meetings & marketing this product to CSFB’s Global Institutional & Retail Salesforce, Traders, Sales Traders & Investment Bankers. She also chaired the Equity Research Stock Selection Committee. In 1994, she was recruited by Deutsche Bank as VP, North American Equity Product Manager where she continued to run the daily institutional meetings as well as being tasked with revamping equity research products such as the Weekly Portfolio Manager’s Summary.
Christine holds an MBA Finance/International Business from Fordham University and a Bachelor of Business Administration/Management from Adelphi University. She was named Suffolk County’s 2020 Woman of Distinction, Fortune52 2012 Woman of Excellence and has received numerous community service awards.
John Fornaro
CEO of Distinguished Clubs
Co-Founder, Owner, & Publisher of BoardRoom magazine
John G. Fornaro is President & CEO of The Association of Private Clubs and Directors and the Publisher & Owner of Boardroom magazine LLC, which publishes BoardRoom magazine, a bi-monthly publication founded 22 years ago and aimed at educating and informing boards of directors in the private club industry.
He is also CEO of Distinguished Clubs, LLC, and CEO of the Association of Private club Directors / Boardroom Institute LLC, where the latter provides online training and orientation programs for private club boards of directors with the objective to help clubs operate efficiently by optimizing the relationship between the volunteers and the paid executives through collaborative governance. John is also co-founder of Professional Club Marketing Association, an organization aimed at furthering the interests of private club membership marketing directors. John has visited over 1,500 private clubs during his 24 years in the private club industry, and is a part owner of Bella Collina Towne and Golf club in San Clemente and a speaker, writer, and consultant for the private club industry.
John lives in Laguna Beach, California.