Stacey Faella, Executive Director, Woodcock Foundation, and Confluence Board Member
Stacey Faella is the Executive Director of the Woodcock Foundation, a progressive family foundation that supports efforts to improve the educational, economic, and environmental circumstances of communities in need. Stacey works across the foundation’s programs, which span social enterprise, food systems, large landscape conservation, gender equality, media reform, and civil society. In addition to advancing the foundation’s programs through both grants and program-related investments, Stacey works with others in the sector to foster collaboration in philanthropy and support grantee capacity building efforts. She originally joined the foundation in September 2011. Stacey also serves on the board of Spark Microgrants as well as steering committees for Community Food Funders and Confluence Philanthropy. She previously served on the Board of the League of Women Voters of New Jersey, where she was also founding chair of the Young People’s Network.
Patricia Farrar-Rivas, CEO, Veris Wealth Partners
Patricia Farrar-Rivas is a founding principal and CEO of Veris Wealth Partners, a wealth management firm committed to aligning wealth with values. She has been providing investment advisory and wealth management services since 1992. Prior to Veris, Patricia led the effort by Silicon Valley-based public accounting firm, Frank, Rimerman + Co. to launch its new investment advisory subsidiary. She also co-founded the New York office of Progressive Asset Management in 1994.
Earlier in her career, Patricia worked on economic development, local empowerment, and social justice. She realized the degree to which economic factors were embedded in those challenges, and, as the responsible investing industry was emerging in the U.S., turned her attention to advising asset owners on the potential impact of their investment policies and decisions.
Patricia served on the board of As You Sow, a nonprofit organization promoting corporate responsibility through shareholder advocacy and innovative legal strategies. Patricia is a principal consultant to the Envestnet Sustainability Platform and a member of the Envestnet Advisory Board. She is also a member of the Standards Council for the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB), a nonprofit that works on developing and disseminating industry-specific sustainability accounting standards for material, nonfinancial (ESG) information. Patricia is based in San Francisco, where she lives with her family.
Natalie Bridgeman Fields, Founder and Executive Director, Accountability Counsel
Natalie Bridgeman Fields is the Founder and Executive Director of Accountability Counsel. She leads the organization of community-driven lawyers, policy advocates, and researchers working to amplify the voices of people to defend their environmental and human rights. She lectures and has published on the topics including accountability in development finance and impact investing. Previously, she served as a consultant on accountability for two development banks. Natalie spent a decade as a lawyer at a large firm and then through her own law office litigating corporate, human rights, and environmental cases in U.S. courts. Natalie is as an Echoing Green Fellow, Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation Entrepreneur, and has been a Stanford CDDRL Fellow. Natalie is a graduate of Cornell University, where she was a Udall Scholar. She received her law degree from UCLA School of Law. Natalie lives in the Bay Area with her husband and three kids.
Anna Fink, Executive Director, Amalgamated Foundation
Anna Fink is Executive Director of the Amalgamated Foundation, where she leads the foundation’s grant-making and donor advised fund services. She previously directed the Wyss Foundation’s program on Women’s Equality in the U.S. and Latin America. With 20 years of experience in public policy advocacy and philanthropy, she has served as a senior advisor on innovation and philanthropy to the president of the AFL-CIO, a senior program officer at the New World Foundation where she founded the LIFT Fund, a collaborative fund dedicated to supporting the future of worker representation, and as a consultant and organizer in community, philanthropy and labor. Anna was a trustee of the Berger-Marks Foundation and currently serves on the boards of the National Employment Law Project, The Workers Lab and New Media Ventures.
Nick Flores, Director of Impact Investing, The Caprock Group
Nick Flores is the Director of Impact Investing at The Caprock Group. Caprock is a family office that provides customized, comprehensive and strategic financial solutions for a select number of families and foundations. The company is also a founding B Corporation, which certifies that they meet the highest standards of verified social and environmental performance, public transparency, and legal accountability to balance profit and purpose. In just over ten years, Caprock has grown its assets under advisement to $3.7 billion, nearly one-third of which are invested for impact.
Nick joined Caprock in 2014 to support the continued growth of their industry-leading impact investment practice. In his role, he advises families and foundations that seek to generate competitive financial returns while aligning their assets with their values. Prior to Caprock, Nick worked with several organizations to source, screen, evaluate, and invest in companies around the world. The commonality amongst all of these enterprises was that they sought to generate measurable social and/or environmental benefits as well as a financial return. In these previous roles, Nick worked with countless social entrepreneurs, providing them with mentorship, as well as strategic planning and capital raising assistance. He holds an MBA and BA (with honors), both from Stanford University.
Rodney Foxworth, Executive Director, Business Alliance for Local Living Economies (BALLE)
A nonprofit leader and social entrepreneur, Rodney Foxworth is Executive Director of BALLE (Business Alliance for Local Living Economies), a network of entrepreneurial leaders working to advance equitable economic opportunities through entrepreneurship and local business ownership in marginalized communities throughout the U.S. and Canada.
Previously, he was CEO and Founder of Invested Impact, a consulting firm focused on economic development, philanthropy, and social innovation, and co-founder and Strategy Advisor of Impact Hub Baltimore. Prior to founding Invested Impact, Rodney was community manager at BMe, a national network of black male leaders and entrepreneurs. Rodney has also served as program manager at Job Opportunities Task Force, a policy advocacy and workforce development organization. Additionally, he has been a consultant to the Annie E. Casey Foundation, Calvert Impact Capital, and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, among others.
Rodney is a BALLE Fellow, Next City Vanguard, and Baltimore Business Journal “40 under 40” honoree. He is featured in the Washington Post bestseller, “Reach: 40 Black Men Speak on Living, Leading, and Succeeding.” Rodney serves on the board of Justice Funders and SOCAP.
Deborah Frieze, Founder & President, Boston Impact Initiative
Deborah Frieze is founder and president of the Boston Impact Initiative, an impact investing fund focused on economic justice, which means investing in opportunity for all people—especially those most oppressed or abandoned by our current economic system—to lead a dignified and productive life. The fund takes an integrated capital approach, combining investing, lending and giving to build a resilient and inclusive local economy. Deborah is co-author (with Margaret Wheatley) of Walk Out Walk On, an award-winning book that profiles pioneering leaders who walked out of organizations failing to contribute to the common good—and walked on to build resilient communities. She is also founder of the Old Oak Dojo, an urban learning center in Boston, MA.
Sampriti Ganguli, CEO, Arabella Advisors
As the CEO of Arabella Advisors, Sampriti Ganguli is responsible for enhancing systems and policies that enable Arabella to deliver on its mission—to help family foundations, individual donors, and impact investors achieve the greatest good philanthropic with their resources.
Prior to her career in philanthropy, Ms. Ganguli advised Global 1000 companies to develop stronger risk management and governance processes, launched a government practice for a consulting firm, and worked in the healthcare and telecommunications industry as a management consultant. Ms. Ganguli has also worked at JPMorgan Chase’s Emerging Markets Research division in Singapore and as a consultant for the World Bank’s East Asia Environment and Social Development Unit.
She received a BA with distinction in economics and political science from Swarthmore College. She earned an MA with distinction in international affairs from Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), and an MBA from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School.
Arturo Garcia-Costas, Program Officer, Local, National, and International Environment, NY Community Trust
Arturo manages The Trust’s national and New York City environmental grantmaking program as well as our Appalachia grantmaking. He serves on the board of Friends of the Earth – US. He has a B.A. in International Affairs and Theater from the City University of New York, a J.D. from Stanford Law School, where he focused on international and environmental law, and an M.S. in Urban Policy and Leadership from Hunter College.
Tracy Gray, Trustee, CSUDH Foundation
Ms. Gray is currently the Founder/Managing Partner of The 22 Fund, an impact, growth venture capital firm with a job creation mission and investment strategy to increase the export capacity of Southern California manufacturing companies, targeting women- and minority-owned businesses. She is also an Executive in Residence at the Los Angles Cleantech Incubator (LACI) and chairs LACI's Diversity in Entrepreneurship Advisory Council. In addition, Ms. Gray is the founder of the non-profit We Are Enough (WAE). WAE's only mission is to educate ALL women on how and why to invest in women-owned, for-profit businesses or with a “gender lens." Ms. Gray was named one of the 50 “Women of Influence" in business in Los Angeles and is featured in the recently released book “200 Hundred Women: Who Will Change the Way You See the World".
Ms. Gray was formerly Senior Advisor to the LA Mayor, an investment professional at a venture capital fund and a systems engineer on the Space Shuttle program. Ms. Gray holds a B.S. in Mathematical Science with an aeronautics emphasis from the UC Santa Barbara and dual MBAs from Columbia University and UC, Berkeley.
Catherine Green, Founder and Executive Director, ARTs East New York Inc. (AENY)
Catherine Green-Johnson is the Founder and Executive Director of ARTs East New York Inc. (AENY), a non-profit arts organization whose mission is to provide access, affordability and exposure to the arts for the East New York community while using the arts as a tool for social change. Founded in 2009, AENY has served more than 10,000 constituents and 1 million dollars in charitable assets under management to date, is the only arts CBO in the East New York, Brooklyn area, one of the largest arts specific providers of services to youth, and among the community’s top organizations.
Her innovative and thought-provoking approach to programming has gained the attention of media outlets such as The New York Times, New York Daily News as well as Good Morning America, and garnered support from Pratt Institute, Union Square Awards, and the Rockefeller Foundation. In 2015, alongside the New York City Economic Development Corporation, Green - who has background in retail anagement and previously launched her own clothing line - spearheaded the opening of the reNew Lots Market and Artist Incubator, a pop-up marketplace and artist incubator located on formerly vacant lots and featuring food and retail from local entrepreneurs, an artist incubator and exhibition space for local artists, and diverse programming and events for community members.
Heather Grady, Vice President, Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors
Heather Grady is a Vice President in the San Francisco office of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors and leads the organization’s strategy and program development in global philanthropy, including collaboratives and research. Heather advises clients from the US and other countries on strategy and a variety of thematic areas. She also leads the Scaling Solutions initiative, which encourages funders to collaborate to place longer-term, adaptive resources to accelerate scalable solutions and impact that target systemic changes, and she helped to create the SDG Philanthropy Platform to engage philanthropy in the Sustainable Development Goals. Heather also serves as an Adjunct Professor at the China Global Philanthropy Institute. Heather’s approach has been shaped in part by two decades of living in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, managing long-term development and humanitarian programs for Oxfam Great Britain and Save the Children that focused on a range of sectors including education, livelihoods, gender equality, health, agriculture and microfinance. Following her time outside the US she served as the Managing Director of Realizing Rights: The Ethical Globalization Initiative, founded by former Irish President Mary Robinson, and was an Adjunct Professor at Columbia University. In 2010 she joined the Rockefeller Foundation as Vice President for Foundation Initiatives where she oversaw an annual grantmaking budget averaging $65 million. She managed initiatives spanning several themes including health, agriculture, employment, climate change, transportation policy, and impact investing.
Alex Haber, Philanthropic Advisor, RSF Social Finance
Alex Haber is Philanthropic Advisor at RSF Social Finance. He is responsible for cultivating giving to and through RSF by providing strategic and advisory support to RSF’s donor clients and stewarding individual and foundation donors to RSF’s collaboratives and field-building initiatives. He has a passion for philanthropy as a tool for economic transformation. Prior to RSF, he held positions in donor services and program management at The San Francisco Foundation, Tides, and Jewish Funds for Justice (now Bend the Arc). He received a BA in Comparative Literature from Cornell University.
Lisa Hall, Fellow-in-Residence, Beeck Center
Lisa Hall is a Fellow-in-Residence at Georgetown University at the Beeck Center, which engages global leaders to drive social change at scale. In collaboration with the Beeck Center, Lisa also serves as a Senior Fellow at the Case Foundation, where she helps lead the organization’s impact investing work. She has dedicated her 25-year career to economic justice, social impact and community development. Using the tools of impact investing and philanthropy, she has served in executive roles across multiple sectors in the United States and abroad. Her area of focus at the Beeck Center is the inclusive economy. She is leading the center’s work on Opportunity Zones and Opportunity Funds.
Lisa previously served as Managing Director at Anthos Asset Management, headquartered in Amsterdam, the Netherlands where she was based for three years. She also served as CEO and President of Calvert Foundation from 2010 to 2013, following her tenure as head of the investment portfolio from 2005 to 2010. Lisa served in the Clinton Administration in 1999 as a policy advisory at the National Economic Council where she worked on the creation of the New Markets Investment Tax Credit. Lisa currently serves on several boards including City First Bank, in Washington, DC; Toniic; and Habitat for Humanity International. She is also an independent member of the Investment Committee of the Nathan Cummings Foundation, which has committed to 100% mission alignment for their portfolio. Lisa earned an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BS in Economics from the Wharton School at University of Pennsylvania. She is active on Twitter @lisagreenhall
Lisa Hammann, Chief Operating Officer, Tara Health Foundation
Lisa Hammann is the Chief Operating Officer of the Reproductive Health Investors Alliance and the Chief Operating Officer of the Tara Health Foundation. In these roles, she leads teams focused on bringing capital and enterprise to the reproductive health field in the United States. Lisa joined the reproductive health community after a 16-year career at Genentech/Roche, where she held P&L accountability for Genentech’s $400M+ cystic fibrosis business, and was the head of the North American supply chain region, accountable for $20B+ of medicine across the United States and Canada. Prior to these roles, Lisa led Genentech’s patient access services, serving over 100,000 patients annually, and led the company’s strategic marketing function for managed care organizations. She has also worked in health services research and strategic consulting. Lisa holds an English degree from Yale University and a Master of Health Services Administration from the University of Michigan School of Public Health.
Susan Hammel, Founder, Cogent Consulting Inc
Susan Hammel is the Founder of Cogent Consulting Inc., an independent, Minneapolis-based strategic, financial, and impact investing consultant serving nonprofit and for-profit purpose-driven organizations
which focus on making a tangible social impact. Long a leader in impactful philanthropy beginning with the Prudential Foundation, Susan is an experienced, results oriented executive currently serving as Executive in Residence with the Minnesota Council on Foundations. She has served as Executive Director of the Delta Dental of Minnesota Foundation and CFO for Ashoka: Innovators for the Public. She has advised a diverse group of foundations including the Opus Foundation, Blandin Foundation, Minnesota Philanthropy Partners, the Women’s Foundation of Minnesota, the Ford Foundation, and the Minneapolis Foundation.
Using her Masters in Public Policy degree from Harvard and as a Chartered Financial Analyst, she combines financial expertise and a grounding in public policy with the big picture view of a philosophy major from Carleton College, where she graduated cum laude.
Recently appointed Chair of the Citizens League Board of Directors, Susan also serves on the Sunrise Banks’ Advisory Board. She has extensive board experience including leadership posts with NPH USA, where she served as Board Chair, and Finance Committee Chair for Asian American LEAD. Her past board service includes the Arts Council of Fairfax County, Theatre de la Jeune Lune, the St. Paul Arts Partnership, Family Service Inc., and Pro Mujer: Programs For Women. An accomplished fundraiser, Susan serves as Gift Committee Chair and Agent for her Carleton class.
Passionate about helping others, Susan’s teaching credentials include an appointment as Lecturer in Nonprofit Management for the University of Chicago and faculty of the Center for Nonprofit Advancement in Washington D.C. She is an accomplished and engaging presenter on impactful philanthropy and financial sustainability.
Susan and her family reside in Deephaven, a lakeside community outside Minneapolis where she enjoys sailing, powerwalking and skiing.
Brad Harrison, Director, Tiedemann Wealth Management
Brad has direct responsibility for managing client relationships primarily working with foundations, endowments and nonprofit organizations. He works closely with clients to understand their goals and objectives; manage their investments, including impact investing; and integrate their investment strategy, philanthropy, and estate planning into a cohesive wealth management plan. Brad leads the environmental sustainability impact strategy.
Brad is a frequent speaker on impact investing, total portfolio activation and environmental investing topics. He is involved with the Global Impact Investing Network, Social Venture Partners, Confluence Philanthropy, Mission Investor’s Exchange, and a number of other effective organizations raising the efficacy of impact investing. Brad joined Tiedemann when the firm merged with Threshold Group, where he served as Director of Wealth Advisory.
He earned a Bachelor of Science in Applied Economics and Management from Cornell University and a Master of Environmental Management from Yale University. Originally from Massachusetts, Brad resides in Portland, Oregon, with his family.
Meredith Heimburger, Board Member, Cynthia and George Mitchell Foundation
Meredith Heimburger is the Director of Impact for Global Endowment Management (GEM), an outsourced investment office stewarding $9 billion on behalf of 35 mission-driven non-profits.
In her role, Meredith engages with clients to align their investment program with their values and missions and co-leads GEM’s impact investment team. Prior to joining GEM in 2012, Meredith spent seven years with Teach For America, first as a classroom teacher, then as a member of staff leading the expansion of the organization’s presence in new and developing regions across the US.
Meredith is a trustee and finance committee member for the Cynthia and George Mitchell Foundation, which promotes sustainable solutions to human and environmental problems. In 2018, she completed the World Economic Forum’s Impact Investing for the Next Generation program. She is an active member of several organizations focused on leveraging assets for positive impact. Meredith lives in Charlotte with her husband, John, and their two sons, Ansel and Drew.
Lisa Hayles, Vice President, Institutional Investment Services, Boston Common Asset Management
Lisa is responsible for client relationship management and business development focusing on foundations, endowments and their consultants. She co-ordinates Boston Common's shareowner engagement work around inclusion - focusing on dialogues with portfolio companies and policy initiatives supporting gender equality in the workplace. Lisa serves on the board of the Thirty Percent Coalition, a national non-profit committed to raising the number of women, including women of color, on public company boards across the U.S. She also serves as a resource person on responsible investment issues with the executive committee of the Intentional Endowment's Network, and Confluence Philanthropy's Asset Owner Working Group.
A native of Toronto, Canada, Lisa worked in the UK as an advisor to institutional investors on responsible investment approaches for a decade before relocating to New England in 2013. An enthusiastic traveler, dancer and yoga practioner, she supports Womenade, a philanthropic giving circle funding community-based organizations serving women and girls in the greater Boston Area and also serves on the board of the Boston Impact Initiative, an impact fund focused on economic justice.
Oran Hesterman, President and CEO, Fair Food Fund
With more than 35 years in the field, Oran B. Hesterman is a national leader in sustainable agriculture and food systems.
He currently serves as president and CEO of Fair Food Network, a national nonprofit that pioneers solutions that support farmers, strengthen local economies, and increase access to healthy food—especially in our most underserved communities. Since 2009, Fair Food Network’s signature program, Double Up Food Bucks, has become a national model for healthy food incentives. Hesterman’s 2011 book, Fair Food: Growing a Healthy, Sustainable Food System for All, was heralded by The New York Times as “an important, accessible book on a crucial subject” and is required reading at 25 colleges and universities. Before launching Fair Food Network, Hesterman served as a program director in food systems at the W.K. Kellogg Foundation during the time that the foundation helped seed the local food systems movement with more than $200 million in investments. Prior to his work in philanthropy and nonprofits, Hesterman taught at Michigan State University.
Wendolyn Holland, Director, Holland Consulting, LLC
Wendolyn Holland’s work with clients in the clean energy sector is driven by purpose and passion. As Managing Director of Holland Consulting, LLC, she advises at the nexus of finance, technology, and policy, focusing on early-stage clean energy and sustainability technologies, the back end of the nuclear fuel cycle, and Native American communities. She has a particular expertise in tax strategy and policy.
Holland served as Senior Advisor for Commercialization in the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy at the U.S. Department of Energy from 2008 through 2011, as a member of the Senior Executive Service. Holland served in 2012 as Director for Strategic Development and Technical Partnerships at Savannah River National Laboratory, which serves DOE’s Office of Environmental Management. Prior to federal service, she worked with clean energy and water start-up firms. She responded to the terrorist attacks of 2001 by joining Global Options, a Washington, D.C. security, investigations, and counter-terrorism start-up, later serving as Vice President.
Holland received her JD and LLM in Taxation from Georgetown Law in 2017, her MBA in Finance and Strategy from Kellogg School of Management in 2001, and her BA in History and Studies in the Environment from Yale in 1991. In 1998, Holland published Sun Valley: An Extraordinary History, which grew from her Yale senior thesis. At Yale, she served as the fifth Director of the Yale Student Environmental Coalition and raced on the Women’s Alpine Ski Team. She is a frequent lecturer on U.S. renewable energy policy and Western Americana.
Lukas Haynes, Executive Director, David Rockefeller Fund
Lukas Haynes is Executive Director of the David Rockefeller Fund, a fifth-generation family foundation, and oversees all operations and grants programs for climate change solutions, art for social impact, and criminal justice reform. In this capacity, he has grown the endowment and forged new partnerships; developed new and impactful grantmaking, investment, and advocacy strategies; created the DR Fund-John Jay Criminal Justice fellowship; and created new policies and structures for long-term sustainability.
Previously, Mr. Haynes was a member of the State Department Policy Planning Staff and speechwriter for Secretary of State Madeleine Albright; Director for the John D. & Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation; and Vice President of the Mertz Gilmore Foundation.
Haynes is a board director of Independent Diplomat and serves on the advisory boards of the Center for Climate and Security, the Truman Project, and Protect Our Winters. He also advises individuals, families, and collective giving organizations on philanthropy.
Kristin Hull, Founder, Nia Community Foundation
Kristin is founder and CEO of Nia Impact Capital, a women-led Registered Investment Advisor leading the charge to change the face of finance by hiring and training women and people of color in sustainable and transformative investing. Kristin founded Nia Global Solutions, a gender-lens portfolio of solutions-focused companies, in her efforts to bring impact investing into the public markets.
An impact Investor since 2007, Kristin oversaw the investment process for one of the first family foundations as they moved their endowment assets into 100% alignment with their philanthropic mission. In 2010 Kristin went on to found Nia Community, a 100% mission-aligned impact investment fund focused on social change and environmental sustainability in her home town of Oakland, California.
Kristin is also a co-founder of Impact Hub Oakland and of the North Oakland Community Charter School, and served on the founding board of George Mark Children’s House. Prior to devoting her career to transforming our financial system, Kristin was a full-time educator, teaching bilingual classes in Oakland and San Francisco. She earned her PhD in Education at University of California, Berkeley, her Masters in Research in Bilingual Education from Stanford University and her BA and teaching credentials from Tufts University.
Kate Huntington, Managing Director, Athena Capital
Kate is a Managing Director focusing on alternative investments. She is a co-head of Athena’s research and manager selection team across asset classes. She previously worked as a Consulting Associate at Cambridge Associates where she supported Consultants in managing, advising on, and reporting on a variety of institutional client investment portfolios. Kate started her career as a Research Analyst at Stonebridge Associates, a real estate investment and advisory firm, and then transitioned to economic consulting with both Capital Economics and LECG where she was an Economist/Consultant providing economic analysis and market research to support high-profile anti-trust litigation. She has also worked in the global equity research group at Fiduciary Trust. Kate currently holds the Series 65 license.
Kate has a BA in Economics from the University of Virginia and received an MBA from Yale School of Management.
Ivy Jack, Head of Equity Research, NorthStar Asset Management
Ivy Jack is head of equity research for NorthStar Asset Management, a Boston-based wealth management firm specializing in SRI. Ivy previously worked on Wall Street as a vice president in the equity research department at Barclays Capital (formerly Lehman Brothers) and covered the food and drug industry.
Ivy graduated from Spelman College summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa, with a BA in economics. She received an MBA from Harvard Business School and an MPA from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.
Ivy currently sits on the board of directors for Brookview House, Inc., the only housing organization in the greater Boston area run by women of color that provides shelter and social services primarily to women of color and their children who have been victims of domestic violence. Ivy has conducted research on issues concerning race and gender, and has provided consulting services to organizations looking to achieve racial equity.
Sebastian Jaramillo, Co-Founder, Empanaderia
Sebastian Jaramillo, co-founder of Empanaderia is a 1st generation immigrant and grew up between Medellin, Colombia and New York City. The exposure to the plethora of exotic fruits and flavors in Colombia, paired with the culinary skills seen through internships in New York heavily influenced his culinary style. After graduating from the Wharton School of Business in 2010 he quickly worked his way up the culinary ladder in NYC. He Co-Founded Brooklyn FoodWorks, a 10,000 sq ft. shared kitchen in 2015. In 2017 he stepped back to focus full time on Empanaderia. Empanaderia is a producer of latin packaged products and traditional latin cuisine. Sebastian is responsible for the operations, business development and culinary innovation at Empanaderia.
Bruce Kahn, Trustee, Robert & Patricia Switzer Foundation, Confluence Philanthropy Board Member
Bruce is a Trustee of the Robert & Patricia Switzer Foundation, the Portfolio Manager at Sustainable Insight Capital Management, and a Lecturer at Columbia University’s Earth Institute in the Sustainability Management Program. Previously, Bruce was a Director in Deutsche Bank’s Asset Management division as an investment strategist. Prior to that, he managed assets at Smith Barney's Private Wealth Management Group in sustainable investments. He serves as a member of the Board of Visitors for the Gaylord Nelson Institute of Environmental Studies at the University of Wisconsin, Madison; the Technical Review Panel of National Renewable Energy Laboratory; and the Advisory Council of the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board. Bruce holds a BA in Ecology & Evolutionary Biology from the University of Connecticut; MS in Fisheries and Allied Aquacultures from Auburn University; PhD in Land Resources from University of Wisconsin, Madison; and is a recipient of both a J. William Fulbright Scholarship and a National Science Foundation Fellowship in ecological economics.
Yana Kakur, Global Managing Partner, Dalberg Advisors
Ms. Yana Kakar is the Global Managing Partner of Dalberg Advisors, an impact-driven firm with offices in 23 countries worldwide that provides strategy, investment, research, data analytics, and design services to clients across the public, private, and philanthropic sectors. Yana works with individual donors, foundations, endowments, non-profits and other forms of charities and trusts to develop strategy, design programs, structure impact funds, identify and execute charitable investments, establish partnerships with business and government, and measure the social and environmental return from philanthropic initiatives. To illustrate, in recent months Yana and the Dalberg team have (i) designed Asia’s first gender-lens impact investment fund with a large Japanese foundation, (ii) created a framework and tool to help governments in emerging economies know how to best leverage Blockchain for Social Good; and iii) developed The Human Account, a unique set of financial, psychometric and behavioral data of 35 segments representing ~2 billion people that significantly advances the application of technology tailored to financial needs and preferences. Yana’s perspectives have been published in a number of media outlets including the Financial Times, Devex, Bloomberg, Forbes, Huffington Post, and The Guardian. Yana holds a BA from McGill University and an MBA from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.
Tracy Kartye, Director, Social Investments, Annie E. Casey Foundation
As Director of Social Investments, Tracy Kartye leads the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s social investment portfolio. Casey has allocated 4% of its endowment to investments that achieve a financial return as well as a social returns that build brighter futures for children in the United States. In her tenure at Casey, Ms. Kartye has invested more than $150 million in projects and nonprofit organizations across the country. These investments have leveraged more than $1 billion for thousands of new jobs, affordable housing units and community facilities. Ms. Kartye sits on the boards of Episcopal Housing Corporation and Healthy Neighborhoods in Baltimore. Ms. Kartye is a graduate of Hendrix College and the Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service at New York University.
Rajiv Khanna, Director of Philanthropic Partnerships, Thousand Currents
Rajiv is engaged in strategy development and effective execution of all activities related to cultivating a just, equitable, and inclusive philanthropic & impact investing sector that centers local solutions, forms learning partnerships with grassroots groups, and reimagines wealth, well-being, and giving. He provides overall leadership of the Philanthropic Partnerships Program at Thousand Currents, overseeing individual donor engagement and fundraising, institutional fundraising, the Thousand Currents Academy, and the Buen Vivir Fund. As part of the Senior Management Team, he also informs and guides Thousand Currents’ overall strategy and planning, ensuring collaboration and interconnectedness across all Thousand Currents’ programs. He currently serves on the Board of the Management Assistance Group, which strengthens individuals, organizations, and networks to bring about transformative change. In addition, he is on the Stewardship Circle of Thrive East Bay, a purpose-driven community of people committed to creating a flourishing world for all. A recovering academic, Rajiv is professionally trained as a historian of international relations with expertise in Modern Europe, South Asia, and the Cold War and has designed and taught college-level courses at universities across the U.S. He has also led the Indian Diaspora Oral History Project, a community-centered project focused on South Asian immigrants in Silicon Valley, as part of the Silicon Valley Immigration Center at San Jose State University. Rajiv has a Bachelor’s in English and History from Newman University in Wichita, KS, and a Master’s in history from The Ohio State University. A native of Bombay, he is a published poet and writer, enjoys cooking, the outdoors, the ocean, reading, traveling, and is a cricket fanatic.
Vince Knowles, Principal, Investments & Strategy, Ceniarth, LLC
Jay Koh, Managing Director and Founder at Lightsmith Group
Jay Koh is co-founder & Managing Director of The Lightsmith Group. Mr. Koh has over 20 years of experience in investing and public policy in the public and private sectors.
Prior to co-founding Lightsmith in 2016, Mr. Koh was a Managing Director and Partner of Siguler Guff, a global alternative investment firm with over $10 billion under management. Prior to joining Siguler Guff in 2012, Mr. Koh was the Head of Investment Funds and Chief Investment Strategist at the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC). In this role, Mr. Koh led the agency’s $2.6 billion active emerging markets private equity program. From 2007 to 2009, Mr. Koh led private equity and illiquid investing for Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) at R3 Capital, formerly the Global Principal Strategies Division of Lehman Brothers. Previously, Mr. Koh focused on direct growth equity investing as a Principal at The Carlyle Group, where he worked from 2000 to 2007 and also from 1993 to 1995. From 1998 to 2000, he served as a law clerk to Justice David H. Souter, United States Supreme Court, and to Judge Michael Boudin, United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit.
Mr. Koh serves on the Private Sector Advisory Group to the UN Green Climate Fund, the Board of the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA), and the advisory committee to the NY Green Bank. He is also Founder & Chair of the Global Adaptation & Resilience Investment Working Group (GARI), a private investor-led initiative that was launched at Paris COP21 and is an official partner of the UN Secretary General’s A2R Climate Resilience Initiative.
Mr. Koh serves as an adjunct professor at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He holds an A.B. magna cum laude in Economics from Harvard College, a master’s degree in Management from Oxford University and a J.D. from Yale Law School.
Sonia Kowal, President, Zevin Asset Management
Sonia Kowal is the president of Zevin Asset Management, with responsibility for corporate matters, business practices, strategic planning, and marketing. She is also a member of the firm's investment committee, where she incorporates sustainability issues into investment decision making. She oversees environmental, social, and governance research, proxy voting, and the corporate engagement strategies of the firm.
Previously, Sonia headed Ethical Investment Research Services' (EIRIS) U.S. office and was a portfolio manager and investment research analyst at Baillie Gifford in Scotland, where she had responsibility for investments in Emerging Markets. Sonia holds a BS in Zoology from the University of Edinburgh and an MS in Investment Analysis from the University of Stirling, Scotland. She is currently on the board of ICCR – the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility, a coalition of faith and values-driven organizations who view the management of their investments as a powerful catalyst for social change. She is also a mentor for disadvantaged youth through Year-Up. When not investing with impact or shaping the progressive minds of tomorrow, Sonia practices and teaches Ukrainian egg art (pysanky) in “a pretty hardcore way”.