Board Members 2024-25
Annette Dennet — President
Annette Dennett is the daughter of an educator father from Ivory Coast and a business graduate mother from France. Since graduating with her Masters in Developmental Psychology, with a focus in at-risk education, she has worked advocating for equal opportunity to solid education; something so simple, yet unfortunately, so challenging. A director for an educational community based non-profit in San Francisco, her organization, PACT, Inc. has placed nearly 65,000 students in college since 1963; the majority coming from under-served low income families. Although her work involves primarily high school, motherhood has offered the opportunity to become involved at the primary level. Her children, along with her niece and nephew, are all bilingual in French and English. They’ve gone through Les Petits Francophones immersion preschool, and are in the first cohort at Francophone Charter School of Oakland. Joining the school’s Board offers new opportunities to advocate for more families who may not otherwise have the opportunity to take advantage of bilingual education; a probable correlate to higher academic success. She is honored to have the opportunity to be part of a grassroots effort promoting Francophone education in the Bay!
Hervé Bruckert
Hervé Bruckert is a financial management professional with 25 years of experience in healthcare, biotech/pharma and higher education. For the last 10 years Hervé worked at UC Berkeley as a Divisional Finance Lead and an Associate Director in the central budget office. Hervé holds a Mechanical Engineering Degree from ENSAIS in france and an EMBA from the University of San Francisco. Hervé is also a financial consultant for a Biotech start up and has served on the board of the charter school for over 5 years. Hervé enjoys spending time with his family as well as kitesurfing and growing trees from seeds.
BiG Al Darnell Jr. — Chief Financial Officer
I’m BiG Al and I love my Momma. I’m a tax and business advisor, as well as an investor that started in the financial services industry in 2002. I’ve got a Mechanical Engineering Bachelor’s and an MBA in Finance. I’ve also completed some doctoral courses in Tulsa, New York City, Cape Town, Shanghai and Sao Paulo. My experience stemmed in insurance in AL, to mortgages in GA, then to accounting, taxes and business valuations in CA. I’ve been an entrepreneur since 2002 as well and I’ve taught undergrad and graduate Finance courses for 9 years in and around San Diego. My wife and I have two beautiful daughters that attend Francophone and I’ve been a volunteer here since 2022! Happy to be here and happy to be alive! GOD is Great!
Rebecca Scheel — Parent Liaison
Nishan Najjarian — Secretary