Board of Directors

Michelle M. Rahm, Founder/President

Michelle RahmAfter seven years in corporate management, Michelle decided she needed a change. She founded her first Internet business in 1997, becoming a pioneer in online business and a recognized expert in credit card fraud prevention. The Company established JewelryImpressions.com as a division of QMB in 1999, EngravingShop.com in 2003, which she sold in 2007, and OurCustomWeddingRings.com in 2009.

Michelle holds a Graduate Gemologist degree through the Gemological Institute of America. She is also a graduate of the University of Wisconsin – Platteville, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration, with emphases in marketing and management and a minor in Spanish. She was honored by UWP as an outstanding business alumnus of its College of Business, Industry, Life Science and Agriculture in 2003. Michelle was active in helping her alma mater establish an e-commerce curriculum at the school.

Michelle and her husband have an adult son, Joshua, and in her spare time she enjoys playing golf, hiking, watching movies, skiing, gardening, watching football, entertaining, traveling and health and fitness.

Dick Shiffer, Treasurer

Don VerMeerDick Shiffer has spent his entire 40 year career in the field of architecture after graduating with a Bachelor of Architecture degree from Penn State University in 1971. Since 1981 he has been an integral member of RNL Design, an international architecture, interior design, planning and landscape architecture firm with offices in Denver, Phoenix, Los Angeles, Washington, DC and Abu Dhabi. In 2000 he was promoted to the position of Principal, and in 2010 to Senior Principal. Over the last 34 years he has also held a variety of leadership positions within the firm including directing several studio groups, and helped to lead and build RNL’s regional offices in LA, Phoenix and Washington, DC. Throughout his RNL career he was responsible for the planning, design and/or management of a variety of facility types including over 30 evangelical churches, over 75 transit or public works operations and maintenance facilities and transit centers, and several dozen governmental and civic facilities throughout the United States.

In July, 2015 Dick retired from RNL Design to devote more time to several of his passions which include volunteering with his church, LifeBridge Christian Church, participating in both local and global missions work, spending more times with his two young grandchildren, working around his home, and participating in his hobbies including photography, hiking, biking and golfing.

Dick has been an active member of LifeBridge Christian Church since 1981 and has held various leadership positions within the Men’s Ministry over a 20 year period.

Don Vermeer, Member at Large

Don VerMeerDon was born and raised in Iowa. After graduating from Dordt College, Sioux Center, Iowa, he taught high school math and coached for two years in California. He then changed careers and entered the computer industry, focusing on computer storage products and international sales. After living in Minneapolis for 8 years, he accepted a job with StorageTek in 1978, and he, his wife Donna, and 4 children moved to Boulder. For two years, they lived in London while Don worked at StorageTek’s European Headquarters. Later he was General Manager of StorageTek Middle East. After leaving StorageTek, Don worked for Exabyte, Cornice, InPhase Technologies, and other computer storage companies and retired in 2010.

Don is a mentor of elementary students with Kid’s Hope. He also coached 5th grade basketball for several years in the Upward Basketball program at Lifebridge Church.

Don and Donna have 4 adult children and 8 grandchildren, all living in Longmont and Loveland. He enjoys traveling, racquet ball, golf, and being grandpa.

Jennifer Holst, Member at Large

Jennifer HolstJennifer comes to the Board of Directors of Gems of Madagascar after having an extremely colorful and varied career spanning the last 25 years.
Following the completion of her college education, Jennifer began her professional life in the legal industry in 1995 and held multiple different support positions in law firms located in Denver, Boulder and Longmont, Colorado, eventually gravitating to the role of office management. During her time working in the legal industry Jennifer acquired a significant interest in business and banking, and after several years made the leap into the world of banking, ultimately settling in the role of Manager of Loss Mitigation.

Jennifer was persuaded to leave the banking world when she laid eyes on her son Nick (now 18) at the time he entered this world, to turn her attention to the vocation deemed most important to her, that being CEO of the Holst household and full-time mom to Nick and his two older sisters. Never one to rest on her laurels however, even while dutifully planning and fulfilling the role of superintendent of life for her family, Jennifer couldn’t resist also filling her plate with numerous charity and volunteer activities to make life interesting. As time allowed, Jennifer eventually yielded to the call of re-entering the business world, and founded her own online children’s clothing store.

Jennifer currently resides in Longmont with her husband Brian, and enjoys spending time with her three children and three grandchildren, all of whom live in Colorado. Jennifer enjoys reading and traveling, decorating, and watching her son Nick tear up the basketball court. During the summer months you can usually find Jennifer engaged in some form of sporting activity in or on the water.