The NAFUSA annual conference was held in Boston October 9-11, 2014, and opened with a successful cocktail reception honoring Bob Mueller. NAFUSA President Don Stern contacted the Boston Red Sox after he learned that Bob was a true fan, and Red Sox Vice President David Friedman, shown below right, presented Mueller with a Red Sox jersey with his name and the number “12” representing Bob’s 12 years as the Director of the FBI and a bat autographed by the Red Sox manager, John Farrell.

One of the highlights of the conference was the presentation of this year’s J. Michael Bradford Award to John Gay, Joseph Minish and Steven Sanders of the District of New Jersey for their outstanding prosecution of United States v. Paul Begrin. Paul Fishman, the United States Attorney for the District of New Jersey was on hand for the presentation to his nominees. Shown below: President Don Stern, John Gay, Joe Minish, Steve Sanders and Paul Fishman.

The conference concluded with a dinner and business meeting on Saturday night featuring the keynote address by Ed Davis, former Boston Police Department Commissioner, who spoke on “Lessons Learned from the Boston Marathon Bombing”.  Don Stern turned the gavel over to Matt Orwig, the new president for 2014-2015. In the photo below, Matt is presenting Don with a gift of a new golf bag.

In addition, the membership voted the following members to offices: President Elect: Gregory Vega, SD of California; Vice President: Bart Daniel, District of South Carolina; Secretary: Doug Jones, ND of Alabama; and Treasurer: Terry Flynn, WD of New York. The newly elected directors for the class of 2017 were: Zach Carter, ED of New York; Karen Hewitt, SD of California; Chuck Stevens, ED of California; Bob Miller, District of Colorado; and Neil MacBride, ED of Virginia.

Matt Orwig closed the meeting by promising to organize a great conference next year to be held at The Phoenician in Scottsdale, Arizona on October 15-18, 2015.