Our Board of Directors
Zion Astro Board of Directors is a group of caring business and community leaders who are committed to providing opportunities that leads to victorious lives for youths in the US and Africa. Members are advocates for the organization and play an integral role in Zion’s development and program efforts.
Eugene Harmon
Eugene Harmon is Chief Executive Officer at Zion Astro Football Academy, an education and developmental programs provider to Youth in the US and Africa. He is responsible for the overall management of Zion through strategizing, planning, implementing, monitoring, and evaluating all academic and recreational programs of the organization.
Prior to joining Zion, Mr. Harmon worked as an Information Technologist at the Cleveland Clinic and the State of Ohio. Over his career, he has acquired extensive experience in corporate, nonprofit, government institutions, and the Sports industry. Eugene Harmon played soccer at Bucks County Community College in Bucks County Pennsylvania PA, where he also served as an assistant coach at the end of his soccer career.
Dr. Jim Krause
Dr. Krause brings 40 years of experience in the sports industry to Zion-Astro Soccer. His lengthy resume includes coaching, administration, recruiting, advising, and developing programs and athletes at multiple levels. His consulting companies, Title IX Consultant Services, and Winning Sports Programs enjoyed clients around the world. He has also completed 20 seasons working with the NABC and the NCAA are at the site of the Final Four.
For the past seventeen years, Dr. Jim has been preparing students and clients for professional opportunities with Sports Management Worldwide. His courses include Sports Administration and Coaching at the Next Level, as part of the SMWW core certificate program. It was in one of these classes where he took an interest in the career of Eugene Harmon and the idea of Zion-Astro Soccer really blossomed. In his new role as a Member of the Board, Dr. Krause will be charged with recruiting, fundraising, and placing a team of professionals who have served our global sports industry in a variety of roles.
One experience that has prepped Dr. Krause for this new role has been the Presidency of the Ultimate Indoor Football League. The UIFL was a development league for players, coaches, front office personnel, and scouts with franchises from the northeast to southern Florida. This was a unique challenge as the leadership of the league required goals and objectives as a whole, but for each individual franchise as well. “Constantly rebuilding and retooling is an exhausting task. Building a strong foundation on basic business principles supports the development of the franchise. I always tell my students, and I will repeat this to the owners and coaches in the UIFL; “I will supply the knowledge base and some expertise, but you must supply the work ethic and the passion for any goals to be realized.”
Dr. Krause has experience coaching at multiple levels and in many different sports. His basketball experience spans middle school through NCAA Division I, but he has also coached college football, golf, baseball, and softball, and his resume stops also includes high school basketball, soccer, and softball. His years as an athletic administrator at multiple levels have created this mental framework that he believes makes sports a manageable and profitable enterprise
Dr. Krause is a graduate of Ithaca College and Elmira College in the Northeast and is also the author of Guardians of the Game – A Legacy of Leadership and a co-author of Hoops Heaven commemorating the 50th Anniversary of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. His third and final book was the memoir of Hall of Fame Coach Ted Owens and is called “At The Hang-up”. LinkedIn
Janine M. Mason
Janine is originally from the twin-island Republic of Trinidad and Tobago in the Caribbean currently residing in New York. Janine’s previous 15-plus years of career life were invested in management and operations which attributed to her involvement in sports. As part of a Football/Soccer organizing committee, Janine supported two teams to championships at the annual Interdepartmental Football Cup of the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service.
Janine was engaged in a team of analysts concerning the developmental stages of young soccer players and through a media capacity, participated in the advertising campaign of Trinidad and Tobago’s SMNT for the FIFA World Cup- Germany 2006.
Janine has greater love for football/soccer. She believes it crosses all borders, touches all ages, and exudes excitement like no other. It is Janine’s intent to use Soccer as an instrument and a vehicle to change lives for the better, all over the world.
Theo Economides
Theo Economides is a techno-creative enabler. With more than 30 years of experience in TV and radio, audiovisual, higher education, telecommunications, and legal environments protection firms plus a lifetime of musical and theatrical performing, he brings an unconventional blend of expertise to the Zion Astro board.
Mr. Economides is an AudioVisual Engineer for the Vedder Price law firm, and formerly for Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management. His degrees are in electrical engineering from Texas A&M University, but he is also a videographer, accomplished pianist, singer, musical conductor, and educator.
He is also a skilled communicator, fluent in English and Greek, and able to translate between the two for any audience. Mr. Economides will develop a course module for accent training etc. LinkedIn
MAYEL HADI
Mayel is a graduate and postgraduate in Social work from India. He has also studied Comparative Social Change at Trinity College Dublin and University College Dublin, Ireland.
He has worked both in India and Ireland in various non-profits, government, and CSR projects. Throughout his career, he has worked on the intersection between child rights, education, and skill development. He is passionate about building a society where education moves beyond the classrooms and focuses on the holistic development of every child. He is a firm believer in providing equality of opportunity in education, sports, and cultural aspirations of each child. He is currently working with the Government of India for skill development and entrepreneurship amongst youth and women.
As a member of the Board of Directors, Mayel is responsible for the strategy, program development, and growth of the organization. LinkedIn
John Sachau
Mitchell started his career as a personal trainer and spent eight years as an Airborne Infantryman in the United States Army.
Prior to joining Zion Astro, Mitchell worked as a coach for the Fort Carson Youth Soccer Program and served as The Director of Soccer for Colorado Military Academy. In addition, Mitchell conducted area scouting for local UWS and USL clubs while working with their talent development teams in order to help grow the sport in less focused areas of the world.
Mitchell Kazanjian became a member of Zion Astro Football Academy Liberia in 2022 as the Director of Coaching. As the director of coaching, he is responsible for developing the coaches’ ability to assess, train, and further educate the coaches on different approaches and styles of play.
DR. Anas Maqbool Khan
Dr. Khan is a development professional with a special emphasis on education and child rights. Dr. Khan has undertaken his Ph.D. on ‘Children in Begging: Violation of Right to Education. In the past, Dr. Khan was involved with many NGOs, CSO, and Ministries.
Dr. Khan is working as a Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning Officer in the Department of Justice, Ministry of Law and Justice, Government of India, and designed the overall analytical frameworks for conducting evaluations to measure the long-term impact of the Tele-Law Scheme. He has also designed and maintained management information systems to report high-frequency quantitative and qualitative data through mobile-based systems and online dashboards that also include design log frames and theory of change as per the program requirement and focus. As an achievement, Dr. Khan has assisted the Secretary (Justice) of the program team in designing a budget of 4.5 billion rupees and MEL plans for the upcoming five years (2021-26). Dr. Khan has joined Zion Astro on the Board of Directors and is responsible for developing monitoring and evaluation tools for the organization. LinkedIn
Atty. Preston Chea Doe
Founder and Senior Partner at Attorney-At-Law with Thelma Law & Associates. Prior to this, Attorney Preston Chea Doe has over twenty years of experience as a Senior Auditor/Accountant and fifteen years as a Chief Accounting Officer. Attorney Preston Chea Doe is a graduate of the Boston University School of Law, with a Master of Law (LL.M), emphasizing American Law. He is also a graduate of Loyola School of Law, in collaboration with The Foundation for Sustainable Rule of Law Initiatives and The World Bank Group, with an emphasis on Dispute Resolution. Attorney Preston Chea Doe was a beneficiary of both the Liberian National Bar Association and the American Bar Association (ABA) scholarship program.
Mr. Doe served as a President for three years at the Louis Arthur Grimes School Law Student’s Association (LAWSA), at the University of Liberia. Attorney Preston Chea Doe wrote the publication “The Dual Currency and its Impact on the Importation of Petroleum Products” on the Liberian market. LinkedIn
John Sachau
A partner in Trinity Global Holdings, LLC. This company is an outdoor video conferencing company that initially created content for fire, police, and military training purposes. Prior to this, he has over twenty years of experience in the financial securities business as an institutional bond research salesman for a major underwriting firm in N.Y.C. Mr. Sachau will develop a course module for financial education and international business for the Academy school.
John Ellie Kollie Jr
John started his career as a volunteer at the NASSCOM (National Association of Software and Service Companies) office in Monrovia, Liberia. He later got employed as an auditor for the Liberian Government Internal Audit Secretarial Board where he audited the Liberia Coca-Cola Factory. John worked for KPMG from Senegal Dakar where he was contracted to Audit all NGOs in Liberia. John became a member of Zion Astro Football Academy Liberia in 2020 where he served as a regional manager.
MR. Abraham B. Feika
Mr. Feika is a graduate of the A.M.E Zion college where he studied Business Administration and Accounting. After his graduation, he decided to return to playing active football ( Soccer) where he played for the St, Joseph’s Warriors Football Club in Liberia and the East End Lions Football in Freetown Sierra Leone at the Division One level. Mr. Feika retired due to medical issues and attend CAF coaching courses in 1996 and 1997.
Mr. Feika traveled to Ghana in 2005 where I attended two coaching seminars in 2006 and 2007 respectively. In 2007 he return to Liberia and took over the second division Mighty Electrons football team, and was promoted to the 1st division in 2007 and came 2nd on the 1st division league table in 2010.