Meet the District Governor, District Governor Elect and District Governor Nominee
District Governor Nomimee Designate
District Governor Elect 2013-14, Miles G. Petroff
Miles is a native Californian born in the city of Los Angles. He met his wife Teresa at the age of 17 and has been married for 35 years. Miles and Teresa have one daughter, Sara who recently married (name), July of this year.
Recently retired from Verizon after 33 years still enjoys working for H&R Block as a senior tax advisor for the past 19 years. During his tenure at Verizon and H&R Block he has also served as a Planning Commissioner for the City of Chino for 10 years and is currently serving on the Board of Director for the Boys Republic in Chino Hills.
Miles has been a Rotarian, member of the Rancho Del Chino Club since 1999, serving in many capacities at club level as well as District. One of his highlights of his membership of the Rancho Del Chino Club was the reading program that he implemented at local elementary schools and recognized by the San Bernardino County School District with a Medal of Honor Excellence Award.
Miles truly believes that there is no greater honor, no higher calling than the extraordinary opportunity to serve human kind. He is looking forward to serving with all the great Rotarians in our District to achieve the ultimate success of serving above one self
Schedule of Governor's Club Meetings (PDF)
District Governor Nominee 2014-15, Larry Skaggs
Larry was born in northern IL and grew up in the western Chicago suburbs. He began his lifetime of service by joining the Boy Scouts, where he attained the rank of Eagle Scout. In 1975, Larry was hired by the Aurora IL Police Dept. and during the course of his employment worked in nearly every division of the department. After a successful and enjoyable career, he retired as a Lieutenant in 2003.
While working for the police department, Larry continued his education, earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in Criminal / Social Justice from Lewis University and a Master of Science degree in Public Service Administration from DePaul University in Chicago.
Larry first joined Rotary as a member of the Rotary Club of Aurora Sunrise, serving for several years on the board of directors and he was named club president in 2001 - 2002.
Upon retirement from the police department, Larry moved to Henderson, NV and worked for several years as a college instructor, mainly teaching Criminal Justice courses.
Shortly after moving to Nevada, Larry joined the Rotary Club of Green Valley (Henderson). Since then he has been a regular member of the Board of Directors, he served as club president in 2009-2010, and has twice been named Rotarian of the Year. In addition to his active participation in club activities, he has edited the club newsletter and he established and still maintains the club's website.
Larry has served on a number of different District 5300 committees, including being an Asst. Governor, and in 2008 he was selected as the GSE team leader to Australia.
Larry has been married to Vicki since 2003. He has 2 adult daughters (Andrea and Amy who live in IL), and a stepson (Brian) and three grandchildren who live in Las Vegas.
Larry is also a member of the Board of Directors of the Trauma Intervention Program of Southern Nevada and during the Christmas season he volunteers as a train engineer at the Opportunity Village Magical Forest in Las Vegas. He is a multiple Paul Harris Fellow (Vicki is also a PHF) and both of them are members of the Rotary Foundation Bequest Society and Benefactors.
District Governor Nominee 2015-16, Randy T. Pote
Randy was born in Fort Collins, Colorado. and attended Denver Public Schools through high school graduation. He attended Metropolitan State College for a year before moving the the Los Angeles area, where he was a student at Pierce College.
While working several jobs, he began a long-time association with youth soccer, coaching in the West Valley Soccer League. He moved to Anchorage, Alaska in 1975 and for two years, worked his way to third manager at Safeway Stores, was a jazz-soul disc jockey and also a sports writer for the Anchorage Times. His favorite interview was the two and half hours he spent with Ray Kroc, the founder of McDonald's and owner of the San Diego Padres.
He wanted to pursue a professional soccer career and moved back to Southern California. He tried out for both the California Sunshine and Santa Barbara Condors in the old American Soccer League. He ended up as acting general manager for a very under-financed team in Santa Barbara that ceased operations in five months.
He moved back to Los Angeles and worked for several different companies owned by Nordskog Industries. He was stadium operations manager and assistant public relations manager for the Skyhawks professional soccer team, a writer for Powerboat Magazine and sold electric vehicles. It was in that time period, 1977-84, that he worked in two television commercials and appeared in one movie.
In 1984 he relocated to Denver for six years. He married his late wife, Mary, and it was in 1989 his father-in-law introduced him to Rotary and he joined the Englewood club. He and Mary moved to Las Vegas in 1990 as owners of R & M Fundraising, and he joined the Rotary Club of North Las Vegas. He served as president in 1993-94 and was PDG Garrett's assistant governor in 1994-95.
He served on many district committees, chaired the Southern Nevada Foundation fundraising committee several years, ran the parking for the PGA tour to benefit Southern Nevada clubs for five years, and chaired the District Four Way Test speech contest for two years. He also served as president of the Southern Nevada Susan G. Komen Foundation.
His mother's health dictated a move back to Denver, where in 6 1/2 years, the Colorado R & M Fundraising company was started and he joined the Rotary Club of Centennial, Colorado. It was there that he helped start a "Santa Clothes" project with other clubs and served as its president between 2010-11. Mary lost her 12 year fight with cancer 11 days into his presidency. At the completion of his last meeting in June, 2011 he moved back to Las Vegas.
He is the president of the Rotary Club of North Las Vegas’ Foundation, served as Assistant Governor for the last portion of the 2011-12 year, attended RYLA and TLC, and participated in the Corazon Super Build. He traveled to India in February 2012 for the National Immunization Day and is presently the executive assistant governor for Southern Nevada. He also helped decorate the 2013 Rotary Rose Parade float and now serves on the Rotary Rose Parade Float Committee.
He is a multiple Paul Harris Fellow, as are his children and grandchildren, and he is a recent member of the Bequest Society.
District Governor Nomimee Designate 2016-17, Luciano de Sylva
Luciano (Lu), an American Citizen of Dominican/Haitian heritage, was born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. From an early age, Lu travelled extensively, living in South and Central America, personally experiencing and living through the chaos of two revolutions. He also traveled and lived in Europe and Canada, learning several languages before arriving in the U.S. to learn English, a requisite for the business world. Once here, he fell in love with “America”, its’ ideals, the philosophy upon which it was founded, and its system of government. The vastness and beauty of the United States was also a wonder and this prompted his travel to all 50 states. To refine his English language skills, Lu attended programs at several New England Colleges. Once confident that he was ready to take on a university curriculum presented in English, he headed west to Colorado. Anxious to learn the culture of the American West, he participated in rodeo, spent time working on a local ranch. He attended the University of Colorado and Colorado State University in Fort Collins.
After graduation, Lu owned several successful businesses, including a restaurant and a plant nursery and seed business but found that he was personally attracted to a career in service and pursued graduate work in Education at the University of Northern Colorado, earning a teaching credential. Lu had an extensive career in the field of Education, teaching at intermediate and high schools in Colorado before moving to California where he continued his education at The University of Redlands, UCLA and UC Riverside and the Harvard Principal’s Institute while working as a teacher and administrator in K-12, as a university researcher and an educational consultant. Always involved in the community, Lu served as a reader for the blind, a Regional Program Evaluator for the United Fund and Chair of the Community Holiday Basket Program, which he brought to the Rotary Club as a partnership.
Lu first joined the Rotary Club or Rowland Heights-Diamond Bar -Walnut in August of 1983 and has been actively involved at the Club and District level ever since, becoming President in 1990-91. He joined the Rotary Club of Walnut Valley in September of 1996, serving three times as Club President, the last time in 2011-12. Lu has been Rotarian of the year 3 times. He has served on numerous District positions, including three times as Assistant Governor. He also has been District Club Service Chair, District Trainer, California East Foundation Mentor, 4-Way Speech Contest Chair, and served on the Ambassadorial Scholarship Committee and Peace Conference Committee.
A multiple Paul Harris Fellow, Lu enjoys Rotary travel and hands on service. He has attended International conventions in Portland, Oregon, Osaka, Chicago and Los Angeles. Zone institute has taken him to Arizona. He served on the Rotoplast Team to Retalhuleu, Guatemala in 2011 and distributed wheelchairs in Hermosillo and Guaymas, Mexico in 2012.
Lu and Hazel have been married for 34 years and have 3 adult sons and 2 grandsons: Mike, the oldest, is the father to Zach and Josh and husband to Julie and they live in the Cincinnati area in Northern Kentucky; Rob, lives in Santa Monica and Steve, in Santa Cruz. Lu and Hazel are both committed to Rotary and are excited about the special opportunity to serve the District in 2016-17 when Lu will serve as District Governor.