Officer and Board Biographies

(Alphabetical Order)

Jane Albrecht: President Emerita

Jane is a Democratic activist, film industry executive, strategist, attorney and international relations expert. Jane began her career at the US International Trade Commission in Washington, DC, working on trade disputes between countries and industries. She continued practicing international trade law in private practice, representing US interests before the White House, the Executive Branch, Congress and the Federal Courts. She subsequently spent 13 years in Brussels and London, representing US interests.

For 10 years, she served as a Vice-President in the Motion Picture Association (MPAA) headquarters for Europe, Africa & the Middle East, where she worked with filmmakers, distributors, studios and governments in the region. After returning from Europe, she founded The Albrecht Group for political and policy work in Washington, DC, and the Global Entertainment Network (GEN), a consultancy to help film-makers, producers and creative talent get their projects developed, produced and distributed.

Jane has volunteered for many political and charitable efforts, including efforts to stop apartheid in South Africa, and serving for 10 years on the Board of  the Hartley-Merrill International Screenwriting Prize for screenwriters in Eastern Europe. She has worked for every Presidential campaign since the Clinton campaign of 1992, and has supported several Congressional and state campaigns. She served 2 terms as President of Democrats Abroad Belgium.

Marilyn Green: Board Member

Marilyn basically inherited involvement in the Malibu Democratic Club from her parents, Chuck and Dorothy Green, who always modeled political activism (taking her as a child to her first political rally for Adlai Stevenson) and who were active participants in the Club from the 1980s until they passed away. A Santa Monica native, much of her teenage years were spent in Colombia and the Dominican Republic. Marilyn worked as a bilingual teacher in Mexico, Colombia, Colorado, and Los Angeles and then as a school district administrator in SMMUSD and Moorpark Unified Schools.

After retiring, Marilyn moved to Malibu, where she enjoys exploring the Santa Monica Mountains (completing the Backbone Trail in sections), walking on Zuma Beach (while cleaning up trash), and making new friends. She did swing state canvassing for Kerry, Obama, Clinton in Nevada and Arizona, volunteered on the Katie Hill campaign with a grandchild in tow, and more recently hunkered down in Palmdale/Lancaster to turn out Latino voters for Christy Smith (now starting to canvass for George Whitesides). Together with her husband Larry, they started a Zoom postcard group during Covid which is still active today, writing to voters for the 2024 election.

Marilyn writes grants for school districts and non-profits and is happy to use those skills to support the Malibu Community Labor Exchange and CART. As someone who believes that food and shelter are basic human rights, she supports the work of Kay Gabbard and the People Concern to find housing solutions for all.

Hap Henry: Co-President

Born and raised in Malibu, Hap has developed a keen understanding of local history and political issues. After attending local public schools and serving as President of Malibu High School’s Associated Student Body, he earned a bachelor’s degree in Political Science from the University of California, San Diego (UCSD).

Hap briefly attended law school before pursuing a career in business, and has volunteered to serve on numerous public commissions and non-profit Boards. He recently co-founded an online marketplace for art and media sales and licensing, and enjoys spending his time gardening, hiking, cooking, and bodysurfing.

Larry Jones: Board Member

Larry Jones moved to Malibu as a toddler in 1952, which was the same year as his first political memory – seeing a prize-winning photo of a hole in Democratic presidential candidate Adlai Stevenson’s right shoe.  Larry’s youth in Malibu included Cub Scouts, Little League, the Presbyterian Church, La Costa Beach Club, coaching Malibu PONY and COLT League teams, and jobs on PCH at Frosty Freeze, The Country Store, and The Wine Cellar.

His first of 45 years teaching students was at Our Lady of Malibu in 1969-70.  Larry got a teaching credential at CSUN and later a Masters’ Degree at Cal Lutheran University.  Mr. Jones was a history teacher at Malibu Park Jr. High in the 1980s, where his father Al Jones had been the first PTSA President who helped open the school.  Larry taught history at Moorpark High School for 25 years until his retirement in 2011. For 18 of those years he coached the school’s Academic Decathlon Teams, winning four U.S. National Championships, five California State Championships, and thirteen Ventura County Championships.  Jones was named Educator of the Year several times, received lifetime service awards from the Moorpark City Council and the Ventura County Boys and Girls Club, and earned Citizen of the Year from KNX Radio and the Amgen Award for Teaching Excellence. In 2011, Jones was inducted into the Ventura County Educators Hall of Fame.

During the last five years of his career, Larry was Director of the federal Teaching American History Project through which he taught skills and content to 170 U. S. History teachers throughout Ventura County. Over the last decade, he has taught in Malibu about local, national, and international history through the Dr. Charles Green Community History Series, named in memory of his father-in-law Chuck Green, a teacher, foreign service officer, and president of the Malibu Democratic Club.

Larry is the proud father of adult sons Alex and Nathaniel, the devoted Grandpa of Henry, and the lucky husband for 43 years of Marilyn Green, which whom he lives on Point Dume.

Garen Kosoyan: Board Member 

Garen Kosoyan is a California attorney and alumni of Malibu’s Pepperdine University. At his alma mater, he helped revitalize the College Democratic Club and encouraged the use of civil discourse to reach across the political aisle.

Garen has conducted work and research regarding international human rights, genocide, the freedom of religion or belief and the right of self-determination. Garen has been a board member of the Malibu Democratic Club since 2019.

David M. Kramer: Treasurer

David spent most of his career as CFO and EVP for Budget Rent-a-Car of Southern California. A very complicated business.  David retired in 2016. David brings to the Club over 45 years of business, financial, accounting, and operating experience. He is an IRS Enrolled Agent and has a great tax background.

He has strong organisational skills and helped build Budget Rent-a-Car of Southern California into a successful operation with well over 100 million dollars a year in revenue  from franchising and operations. He and his wife Shelley Kramer (self-employed) have lived on Point Dume in Malibu for over 30 years. They raised their son Andrew here. He has been part of numerous Malibu school and other organisations.

Lou LaMonte: Vice President

Lou  was elected to the Malibu City Council in 2010 and was re-elected in 2014.  He served as Mayor in 2012-13, and again in 2016-17.  He also served as President of the California Contract Cities Association representing 75 Southern California cities.

He is currently President of the Alumni Council of the Democratic Municipal Officials, a sister organization of the DNC that represents 40,000 Democratic Mayors and Councilmembers throughout the nation.  Lou is also a member of the LA County Commission on Alcohol and Other Drugs, representing the League of California Cities LA Division.  He is a delegate to the California Democratic Party and the Democratic State Central Committee.

A member of the Directors Guild of America, Lou has Directed and Executive Produced over 3500 commercials and corporate films in 45 countries for a wide variety of US companies, including  ATT, Pepsi, MacDonalds, P&G, Ford, GM, Chrysler, Mattel and many others.  He is also a member of the American Film Institute and the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. He was also President of the Big Rock Mesas Property Owners Association for 8 years.

Gina Muscatel: Co-President

Gina has worked as an Advocate for foster youth with CASA of Ventura County for the past 12 years and served as a supervisor for other Advocates for the past 6 years.

In 2021, Gina moved from the Thousand Oaks to Malibu. She has been a Democratic organizer for years working to support local, state, and national elected officials by organizing, volunteering, and fundraising. In 2012, she worked as a volunteer organizer with President Obama’s reelection campaign in Chicago and in 2016 she served as the Conejo Valley team leader for Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign. In 2017 she co-founded and directed Indivisible: Conejo to organize activists, as well as support progressive groups locally and nationally.

She was a founding member of Conejo Together, the group that successfully ousted the far-right wing conservatives on the CVUSD board in 2018. Gina was appointed in 2019 and elected in 2021 and 2023 to serve as a CADEM delegate representing Assembly District 42. Also, she was elected to serve as a Joe Biden delegate in 2020 and attended the Democratic National Convention virtually to cast a vote for the Democratic presidential nominee.

Harmeeth Nijjar: Board Member

Harmeeth is in his final year at Pepperdine Caruso School of Law. He is driven by learning about the legislative process with a passion for public interest work.

Prior to law school, he interned in the public sector for the Congressional Office of Representative Zoe Lofgren. Harmeeth also received a Bachelor of Arts in Global Studies from the University of California, Santa Barbara.

In addition to his work with the Malibu Democratic Club, Harmeeth serves as the Political Director of the Ventura County Young Democrats, coordinating the organization’s candidate endorsement process. 

Outside of law school and politics, Harmeeth has a strong  love for producing music and creating content on social media. 

Lance Simmens: Vice President

Lance currently serves as Public Works Commissioner for the City of Malibu, is a member of the Malibu Community Emergency Response Team (“CERT”), a regular contributor to the Malibu Times column From the Left, and is past President of the Malibu Adamson House Foundation.  Lance has spent four decades in senior level positions in public policy, politics, and government. He has served in two Presidential Administrations (Carter and Clinton), two U.S. Senators, two Governors, the Georgia State Senate, the U.S. Conference of Mayors, the U.S. Senate Budget Committee and the Presidential Commission on Year 2000 Conversion.

He received his Bachelor’s degree in Political Science from Georgia Southern University, his Masters in Public Administration from Temple University, completed his doctoral courses at George Washington University and has received certification in Environmental Economics from the Harvard Institute   or International Development and the Senior Managers in Government Executive program at the John F. Kennedy School at Harvard.

William Swartout: Board Member

Bill is Chief Technology Officer at the University of Southern California’s Institute for Creative Technologies. He is also a research professor at USC’s Computer Science Department.   Prior to helping found the ICT in 1999, Swartout was the Director of the Intelligent Systems Division at USC’s Information Sciences Institute.   Swartout was the Principle Investigator for the ICT’s New Dimensions in Testimony Project which recorded Holocaust survivors in an interactive, conversational format, preserving their stories for future generations.

He is currently leading the ONR-funded Personal Assistant for Lifelong Learning project, which is developing a learning coach to help service members with career transitions and knowledge decay.  Swartout is a Fellow of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI), and in 2009,  received AAAI’s Robert Engelmore Award  for his contributions to knowledge-based systems, groundbreaking research on virtual human technologies and outstanding service to the artificial intelligence community.

He has served as a member of the Air Force Scientific Advisory Board, the Board on Army Science and Technology of the National Academies and the JFCOM Transformation Advisory Group.  Swartout received his Ph.D. and M.S. in computer science from MIT and his bachelor’s degree from Stanford University.  A 30-year resident of Malibu, Swartout has volunteered for over 20 years with LA County’s Disaster Communications Service, serving Malibu and surrounding areas.

Ted Vaill: Vice President/ Secretary