Executive Committee

The faces of The Snook Foundation

Capt. Jim Bandy, Chairman

Capt Jim Bandy is Territory Manager for Port Supply in Southwest Florida and has been professionally involved in marketing Marine Supplies since 1996.

Jim is a graduate of Indiana University in Finance and Personnel Management, and holds a USCG 100 Ton Master License with Towing.

Jim began serving on the Snook and Gamefish Foundation board in 2009, employing his talents and experience in non-profit organization, community outreach and volunteer coordination to assure the future of inshore fishing.

He became Chairman in 2011.

Maria Quasius, Secretary

Maria Quasius has been catching snook in Southwest Florida for almost 30 years. Originally from Boston that she fled to escape the cold, after raising a family of five and a decade as a golf pro, she joined the staff of Everglades Angler in Naples and began fishing in earnest. A skilled flytier and accomplished fly caster, she has earned several trophies in local tournaments. She served as an officer in the local chapter of the Coastal Conservation Association and on the board of the Naples Fishing Club and Back Country Flyfishers, where she also managed to catch her husband, Capt. Pete Quasius. They moved to Fort Myers and Maria then worked at the Orvis outfitters shop at the Hyatt resort on Estero Bay and later at Lee Island Outfitters near Sanibel.

Over the years Maria helped introduce and outfit countless thousands to snook fishing. She is also a past president and member of the board of Audubon of Southwest Florida and member of the board of Eco-Voice, Inc., an environmental website. A superb Italian cook, she watches for action on the Caloosahatchee from her kitchen windows and has been known to turn off the stove and head to the seawall with her fly rod when a snook (or school of jacks) are working the shoreline. The reason she is smiling in this photo is because after finally catching a salmon in Wisconsin she could head back to sunny Florida.

Rick Roberts, Executive Director

Rick Roberts has been the volunteer Executive Director of the Snook and Gamefish Foundation since 2006, and in this role has helped lead the organization to fulfill founder William Mote's vision of informed anglers taking accountable action to assure the future of game fishing

Rick's first fishing trips were in Florida waters of the late 1950's. He managed a fishing retail shop in high school and credits the joy of thinking about fishing for sustaining him through two tours in Vietnam aboard a Navy Carrier. His love for surfing and fishing created his life-long passion for the marine environment. Two of his favorite accomplishments: helped establish the striped bass hybrid, the Sunshine Bass, in Florida in the 70s, and in 2010, he received the Florida Association of Environmental Professionals’ 'Directors Award'!

Brett Fitzgerald, Managing Director

Brett served as Chairman from 2009-2011, and as Regional Director (SouthEast) for three years prior. He is a contributing editor to Florida Sportsman Magazine, and a special instructor at Pine Jog Elementary in Palm Beach County Brett promotes an academic curriculum through environmentalism and resource conservation. Brett served in the United States Army in both Intelligence and as a Paratrooper with Special Forces Operations. He attended University of South Florida and holds a Bachelor's and a Masters degree in Communications Sciences and Disorders. He is an expert guitar player, fly tyer, photographer and fisherman. Brett was chosen as Snook and Gamefish Foundation's 2009 Person on the Year, for his accomplishments on behalf of inshore fishing, and in that year he also completed the book, Sportsman's Best: Snook.

Brett began serving as on the executive team as Managing Director in 2013.