Apr 09 2010
Our Team
Donald J. Fedorko
Founder and President
As the Founder and President of Living Patriot, Donald J. Fedorko is responsible for the overall vision and leadership of the business and the initiative and leads the management and consultant teams. The entire Living Patriot team, and family of strategic partners, works tirelessly to achieve and surpass their goals. Our mission, integrated into everything we do, is to give back to our American veterans and first responders who provide our freedoms and keep us safe every day.
Donald’s career is a rich blend of architecture, product design, business development, art and science. He has over 22 years of leadership experience working with and within large organizations as well as smaller, entrepreneurial ventures. His primary asset is his ability to rapidly conceptualize ideas and strategies then direct and motivate teams to turn them into reality.
As an entrepreneur, Donald co-founded ImprovEyes, Inc., which provides product design and development, creative and visualization services and architectural design services for a variety of clients including The American Red Cross, AT&T, State Farm Insurance, Anheuser-Busch, Ford Motor Company, Edward Jones, GPX and Nordyne Corporation.
He also co-founded and was president of worldmember, Inc., and was responsible to fourteen shareholders. worldmember designed, developed and launched a product line of In-Touch Machines ® (ITM’s ®), which were live, interactive kiosks with custom-written interface and backend database software applications. Clients included Miller Brewing Company, Coca-Cola, Novartis Pharmaceuticals, The American Red Cross, E*Trade, Bootlegger retail stores in Canada and Alltel.
As a senior architectural designer and innovator, Donald has worked on a variety of domestic and international architectural design projects while holding key leadership positions with Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (New York), HOK (Tampa and St. Louis) and Jacobs Sverdrup (St. Louis). He has been on teams and has lead teams that have won many domestic and international architectural design competitions.
Donald lives in St. Louis with his wife, Sarah, and their four children, Vincent 11, Adrian 10, Olivia 8 and Nina 5.
Dante J. Laurino
National Sales Director
Dante J. Laurino is currently the National Sales Director for Living Patriot as well as the President & Chief Executive Officer of Laurino Group / Laurino Consulting.
Dante has been president and managing director of firms in the U.S. and in Europe. He is a solution-based executive with a unique ability to provide the most knowledgeable people and integrate them with technology, management expertise, and best practices to create a framework for success. He holds degrees in Business and Management from New York Institute of Technology as well as advanced certifications from Kodak, Canon, Ricoh and Hewlett Packard. He is a certified United States Coast Guard Auxiliary Instructor and instructs throughout the United States, and is a certified by New York State as an instructor.
With over 20 years experience in uncovering inefficiencies in company operations, Dante has helped eliminate bad practices and improved administrative and document management processes. He has recruited, trained, and developed sales teams for many Fortune 500 companies.
Dante is well known for his expertise and has spoken to many professional groups, and belongs to many business organizations in New York and nationwide. He is the President and CEO of Laurino Consulting and DataSecure Live, a home and business computer backup company. He is also a Director for Data Storage Corporation, headquartered in Garden City, New York, which specializes in disaster recovery solutions worldwide.
A former Air Force pilot, Dante is currently the Assistant National Commodore, Readiness Support, in the United States Coast Guard Auxiliary. He belongs to many professional groups across the United States, such as The Executive Network, American Business Association, The American Legion, The Rotary, ExecuLeaders, and the Health & Business Alliance.
Dante resides in the seaside community of Brightwaters, NY with his 14-year-old son Michael, and his lovely Donna.
Stuart D. Patterson
Business Development and Project Management
Stuart D. Patterson’s role with Living Patriot is focused on business development and project management. Stuart is actively involved in daily operations and interaction with the entire Living Patriot team, clients, consultants and vendors to insure quality assurance and quality control.
Stuart has over 16 years of experience in architecture and construction administration and has worked for companies both large and small, in capacities ranging from designer to Principal-in-Charge. His primary strengths and focus are his ability to manage and complete projects of all scales on time, within budget and with project intent, while fostering a collaborative environment that promotes team members’ development and professional growth.
With a broad background in all phases of design, new construction and renovations, Stuart’s experience also includes client financial and contract management, design-build, in-house and consultant team coordination and project development from conception design through construction administration and project completion.
Stuart’s architecture project experience includes a wide range of corporate office, justice, aviation, commercial, educational and residential facilities. He holds a B.S. Architecture degree from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale and a Masters of Architecture degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
As a business owner, Stuart co-founded and served as Vice President in charge of business operations for Huff-Patterson, Inc., an architecture firm focusing on education and small-scale commercial building and planning projects. In addition, he has worked as a project manager for companies such as HOK, Inc, Teng & Associates, Inc. and Legat Architects, Inc. His clients include State Farm Insurance, TD Ameritrade, Chicago Department of Aviation, City of Chicago, United Airlines and American Airlines, and others.
Stuart resides in St. Louis and is closely involved with United Sates National and Youth development swimming programs.
Frank C. Befera
New Media and e-Commerce
Frank C. Befera, Director of New Media and E-Commerce, has extensive experience in radio, cable television, technology, banking, and law over the past 27 years.
Frank’s Father, Frank P. Befera, served as an officer in the US Army in WW II in a special forces unit called Merrill’s Marauders slogging nearly 3,000 miles through the Eastern Theater of China-Burma-India receiving the Silver Star and Purple Heart. As a Captain, he accepted the Japanese surrender in Shanghai, China. Frank P. Befera was a true patriot.
As a radio station owner, Frank built and operated a number of stations in the Midwestern US. As a tribute to his father and a testament to his own patriotism he built Radio USA, Country Music’s Best Programmed Station of the year in 1999 and 2000 (radiousa.com). He has continued his involvement in broadcasting as Frank is still hosting the #1 morning radio show in Duluth, MN.
In the mid 1990’s Frank designed and built one of the first HFC Cable networks in the US and went on to launch the first commercially available high-speed cable modem service in the US. He also developed the first true video on demand (VOD) system in the US in partnership with Silicon Graphics and Scientific Atlanta. He later went on to market a turnkey data solution for cable operators throughout North America.
Frank has also been involved in WISP hot spot development and the design, installation, and operation of wireless high-speed data (802.11x) networks. His success has been rewarded as the recipient of the 1998 Joel Labovitz Start-Up Entrepreneur of the Year Award.
Over the last decade Frank has applied his extensive breadth of business acumen into his finance and law endeavors. Through his company Nations Trust, Frank has financed thousands of business and residential real estate transactions. He recently formed the Befera Law Group, specializing in wrongful death, personal injury, and loan modification cases.
Frank lives in Duluth, Minnesota with his two teenage daughters Jessica and Grace.
