Joe Sweeney
District Governor 2026-2027

Larry A. Lunsford, a member of the Rotary Club of Kansas City-Plaza, Missouri, USA, is the selection of the nominating committee to become Rotary International’s president for 2027-28. He will officially become the president-nominee on 15 September if no other candidates challenge him.

Lunsford attended Truman State University in Kirksville, Missouri, on an academic scholarship, earning bachelor’s and master’s degrees in accounting. He first encountered Rotary when he received a Rotary Foundation Ambassadorial Scholarship to spend the 1981-82 academic year at the University of Newcastle in Australia.

A certified public accountant, Lunsford spent seven years working for Ernst & Young before joining a family-owned business, Bernstein-Rein Advertising, in 1990. He is currently executive vice president and chief financial officer for the Bernstein group of companies. He has held positions on the boards of the Kansas City Spirit Festival and the Variety Club as well as serving as director of a local bank and treasurer of the Epilepsy Foundation for the Heart of America. He has also served on Truman State University’s alumni and foundation boards and received the university’s Distinguished Service Award.

Lunsford joined the Rotary Club of Kansas City-Plaza in 1991 and has since served as district governor (2001-02), RI director (2013-15), and trustee of The Rotary Foundation (2021-25, vice chair 2024-25). He has been a member of RI committees, including the Executive Committee (chair 2014-15), Membership Growth Committee (chair 2016-18), and Nominating Committee for President of RI (chair 2023-24). He also has served on The Rotary Foundation’s Executive Committee (chair 2023-24), Finance Committee (chair 2022-23 and 2024-25), and Participant Experience Committee (chair 2023-24).

Lunsford has been awarded The Rotary Foundation Distinguished Service Award, The Rotary Foundation Citation for Meritorious Service, and the RI Service Above Self Award. He and his wife, Jill Lunsford, have two children and one grandchild. They are Major Donors, Bequest Society members, multiple Paul Harris Fellows, Benefactors of The Rotary Foundation, and Sustaining Members.

The members of the Nominating Committee for the 2027-28 President of Rotary International are:

Ann-Britt Åsebol, Rotary Club of Falun-Kopparvågen, Sweden (chair); Mahesh Kotbagi, Rotary Club of Pune Sports City, Maharashtra, India (secretary); Basker Chockalingam, Rotary Club of Karur, Tamil Nadu, India; Jose Sepulveda Fayad, Rotary Club of Pachuca Plata, Hidalgo, Mexico; Hans-Hermann Kasten, Rotary Club of Aachen-Frankenburg, Germany; Muhammad Faiz Kidwai, Rotary Club of Karachi Karsaz, Sindh, Pakistan; Katerina Kotsali-Papadimitriou, Rotary Club of Pendeli, Greece; Roger Lhors, Rotary Club of Pont-Audemer, Eure, France; Chi-Tien Liu, Rotary Club of Yangmei, Taiwan; Anne Matthews, Rotary Club of Columbia East, South Carolina, USA; Pat Merryweather-Arges, Rotary Club of Naperville, Illinois, USA; Akira Miki, Rotary Club of Himeji, Hyogo, Japan; Julio Silva-Santisteban Ojeda, Rotary Club of El Rímac, Lima, Peru; Vicki Puliz, Rotary Club of Sparks, Nevada, USA; Nicki Scott, Rotary Club of Hub of West England District 1100, Gloucestershire, England; Elizabeth Usovicz, Rotary Club of Kansas City-Plaza, Missouri, USA; Young Suk Yoon, Rotary Club of Seoul Hoehyon, Seoul, Korea

Francesco Arezzo, a member of the Rotary Club of Ragusa, Italy, has been selected by the Board of Directors to become Rotary International’s president for 2025-26. Arezzo will become president on 1 July.

The Board conducted a special session following the unexpected resignation of RI President-elect Mário César Martins de Camargo on 8 June. Guided by the RI code and policies, the Board selected the new president-elect from a pool of candidates who were considered by the Nominating Committee for President of Rotary International in August 2023.

The 2025-26 presidential message, announced at the 2025 Rotary International Assembly in February, will remain Unite for Good, which calls on Rotary members to be a force for unity in a world increasingly divided by politics, geography, and ideology. Through service projects, Rotary brings together people of every background — across races, religions, and professions — in a shared mission to do good in their communities.

Arezzo is an orthodontist in private practice. He is active internationally as a member of the Italian, European, and American orthodontics associations. He is vice president of the National Association of Italian Dentists for the province of Ragusa and was the founder and head for seven years of the delegation for Ragusa of the National Trust for Italy. He is a Knight of Honor and Devotion in Obedience within the Sovereign Order of Malta.

A Rotary member for more than 30 years, Arezzo has served as vice chair of the Joint Strategic Planning Committee and as RI director, learning facilitator, and as district conference presidential representative.

Arezzo is a Major Donor and Benefactor of The Rotary Foundation. He is married to Anna Maria Criscione, an entrepreneur in the tourism field. They have two children.

Mário César Martins de Camargo

Rotary International President 2025-2026

Rotary Club de Santo André

São Paulo, Brazil

Mário César Martins de Camargo is a business consultant to the printing industry and former director of Gráfica Bandeirantes, a printing company founded by his father. Under de Camargo’s leadership, the company expanded to be a supplier of printed material for clients in Brazil and elsewhere in South America.

De Camargo attended military school and graduated from a secondary school in St. Paul, Minnesota, USA, during a Rotary Youth Exchange program. He had a yearlong internship at MAN Roland, a printing press manufacturer in Offenbach, Germany, before he earned his undergraduate degree at the Fundación Getulio Vargas’ São Paulo School of Business Administration. He also received his law degree from the Faculty of Law of São Bernardo do Campo.

He has led numerous professional associations, including as president of the Brazilian Association of Graphic Technology and ABIGRAF, the Brazilian Printing Industry Association. He was also delegate director of the Federation of Industries of the State of São Paulo (FIESP) in the National Confederation of Industry, vice president of FIESP, and vice president of the Latin American Confederation of the Printing Industry. He received the Printing Leader of the Americas award from the Printing Association of Florida and the Global Presidential Print Award from NPES, the Association for Suppliers of Printing, Publishing, and Converting Technologies.

De Camargo joined Rotary in 1980 at age 23. A past director and trustee, he will be the fourth RI president from Brazil. He has volunteered for numerous roles including RI learning facilitator, zone coordinator for the Avoidable Blindness Task Force, Latin American coordinator for the Health Concerns Task Force, RI president’s representative, and Council on Legislation representative. He has also served on committees including the RI Membership Growth Committee, The Rotary Foundation Programs Finance Committee, and the International PolioPlus Committee.

De Camargo says he is continually impressed by Rotary’s global reach. “With Service Above Self, Rotary has created a unique global identity that is unlike any other I know,” he says. “I think we all need to remember that we belong to an organization that opens up the world to us.”

During the start of the COVID pandemic in 2020, de Camargo took on two projects: studying for (and passing) the bar exam — 38 years after attending law school — and learning Italian. He also enjoys reading history and biography books and appreciating good wine.

De Camargo has received The Rotary Foundation’s Distinguished Service Award. He and his wife, Denise, are Major Donors and Benefactors of The Rotary Foundation.

Michelle Holcomb
District Governor 2024-2025

Kevin Pitts
District Governor 2023-2024

Kevin Pitts will serve as the District Governor for 2023-2024.

He joined the Rotary Club of Prescott in 2005 and has been an active member since, both at the club and district levels. He served as president of the club in 2007-08 and in 2018-19.

His experience living in Mexico gives him ties to that country and he has followed that passion, serving as international service chair for his club and as the co-chair of the Mexico-USA Friendship Conference and Global Grants Exchange.

He also has an interest and background in teaching and has served as District Rotary Leadership Institute Coordinator, as well as a PETS facilitator. He is currently serving as Assistant Governor.

He was awarded the district’s Champion for Peace Award in 2019 and served as a chaperone in 2018 for Interact Ambassadors traveling to Africa as part of the Crutches 4 Africa service project.

He is a financial advisor and partner at Stratos Wealth Partners and is married to Past District Governor Elizabeth Mahoney. In his spare time can be found in the wild, fishing and hunting with his three sons. In addition to his sons, he has four grandchildren and two dogs.

 Jan 19 - 22, 2023

Starting Thurs. at 12 noon, through Sun. at 3 pm.