Joohee Rand, VP, Community Investment and Strategy, Santa Fe Community Foundation
Joohee Rand is the Vice President for Community Investment and Strategy at the Santa Fe Community Foundation. She is responsible for Foundation’s strategy development and impact investing and oversees strategic strategic initiatives including birth to career collective impact initiatives and the Foundation’s education and economic opportunities areas of impact. In her previous career, Joohee was a management consultant at McKinsey & Co advising cross-sector clients ranging from global corporations to national foundations in various areas including strategy, mergers and acquisitions, organization, and performance management. She was a member of the Corporate Finance & Strategy Practice and the Nonprofit Practice at McKinsey. She also worked as an independent consultant for philanthropic and educational organizations in New Mexico prior to joining the Foundation, was an Executive Director at a San Francisco-based nonprofit start-up focused on college access and financial literacy education for low-income youth, and worked as a Summer Associate at the Echoing Green Foundation in New York during her business school years. Ms. Rand holds a MBA from Harvard Business School, a MPP in International Economic Policy from Korea, and a BA in General Management from Thailand.
Ramsay Ravenel, Executive Director, The Grantham Foundation for the Protection of the Environment
Ramsay Ravenel is the Executive Director of the Grantham Foundation for the Protection of the Environment. He manages all aspects of the foundation, including grantmaking and endowment management. He was previously an investor at MissionPoint Capital Partners, an alternative energy private equity firm and originated Series A investments in SunEdison and EcoSecurities at Marshall Street Management, a family office. Ramsay has also worked in timberland investment, conservation finance and he began his career in Indonesian Borneo developing a community-based sustainable forestry project. He was born and raised in Charleston, SC and holds a Bachelor's degree in Environmental Science and Public Policy from Harvard College and Master’s degrees in Forestry and Business Administration from Yale University.
Mark Reed, Principal & Founder, The Contact Fund
Mark Reed of New York City is a community development investor and real estate developer. In 2005 he founded the Contact Fund, a private debt investment fund focused on expanding high-impact community-based organizations in New York City. Since 2006 he has acted as an investor and co-general partner in the development of over 2,100 units of affordable housing across 20 projects. He is a director of a fourth-generation, family-owned timber company, Green Diamond Resource Company based in Seattle, Washington. Prior to moving to New York, Mark managed an after-school program for public housing residents in San Francisco’s Mission District and managed a community youth center. He currently serves on the board of the US Endowment for Forests & Communities, SeaChange Capital Partners, Corbin Hill Food Project and is former as Chair of the Board of the Rudolf Steiner School in Manhattan. He holds a bachelor of arts in Anthropology from Stanford University and an MBA in Finance from the Stern School of Management at NYU.
Lisa Renstrom, Trustee, Bonwood Social Investment, and Confluence Board Member
Lisa Renstrom identifies as a Nebraskan, but a decade in the hotel industry in Mexico enhanced her world view while she focused on a business bottom line - not a triple one. Back in the US she discovered the concept of social returns, first as a local Sierra Club group chair, then Executive Director of Voice & Choices, later, as President of the national Sierra Club and then Rachel’s Network.
Lisa currently serves as a Board member to Bonwood Social Investments, ecoAmerica, Interfaith Power & Light, and Confluence Philanthropy while chairing the Management Committee for DivestInvest Individual. Her formal education derived from the University of Nebraska at Omaha, Owner President Management (OPM) at Harvard Business and MC/MPA from the Harvard University Kennedy School of Government.
Lisa Richter, Co-founder and Managing Partner, Avivar Capital
Lisa Richter is a co-founder and managing partner of Avivar Capital, a national consultancy and SEC-registered investment advisor focused exclusively on assisting institutions and families to design and execute impact investing strategies. Lisa brings three decades of fund management and impact investing experience spanning asset classes, return expectations, geographies and issue areas, and frequently incorporating place-based or sector focus to increase equitable access to opportunity. Clients range from small to the nation's largest independent and community foundations, banks, institutional investors and families, with interests ranging from place-based or thematic impact investing outcomes to applying social criteria to traditional asset allocations targeting market-rate expected returns. Lisa authored the Grantmakers In Health Guide Impact Investing and co-authored Equity Advancing Equity (a guide to community foundation impact investing) and a rural community foundation impact investing guide. She co-designed and led the Mission Investors Exchange Impact Investing Institute for over a decade and continues as a lead impact investing trainer with partner organizations nationwide. Lisa holds a BA and an MBA from the University of Chicago.
Vanessa Roanhorse, Founder, Roanhorse Consulting
Vanessa Roanhorse (Diné, Navajo), returned to the Southwest region and launched Roanhorse Consulting LLC in 2016 in order to focus her work on providing access to overlooked communities. Roanhorse Consulting is dedicated to working with unheralded communities, businesses, organizations, and individuals to achieve and aspire their self-determination through forging communities of practice, creating equity through entrepreneurship, and encouraging economic empowerment from within. Vanessa works with Indigenous founders and founders focused on Indigenous-led solutions to create opportunities for a dignified and healthy life. She got her management chops working for 7 years at a Chicago-based nonprofit, the Delta Institute, focused throughout the Great Lakes region to build a resilient environment and economy through creative, sustainable, market-driven solutions. Vanessa oversaw many of Delta’s on-the-ground energy efficiency, green infrastructure, community engagement programs, and workforce development training. She’s had the chance to work with incredible organizations such as Zebras Unite, Black and Brown Founders, Womadix Fund, Institute of the Future, Native Realities, Indigenous Comicon, Delta Institute, Cultivating Coders, Changing Woman Initiative, IDEO, 1871, Center for Neighborhood Technology, ReBuilding Exchange, Living Cities, Startup Champions Network, ICLEI, Urban Sustainability Directors Network, and the Cities of Albuquerque, Chicago, Miami, and the Navajo Nation. Vanessa sits on the local Living Cities table, is a Startup Champions Network member, is an Advisor for emerging Navajo incubator, Change Labs, is the co-chair at Siembra Leadership Highschool in Albuquerque and is the co-founder of Native Women Lead, an organization dedicated to growing my Native women into positions of leadership and business. Her academic education is in film from the University of Arizona but her professional education is from hands-on experience leading local, regional and national initiatives.
Vanessa hopes to foster a community of empathy to solve our greatest challenges one action at a time. She is a big fan of tacos, specifically Al Pastor tacos and is a Chicago Bulls fan for life.
Nina Robinson, Buen Vivir Finance Fellow, Thousand Currents
Nina Robinson is an impact capital convener with over 10 years of experience working with mission-driven entrepreneurs and innovative investment models including The Runway Project Oakland, Homestake Ventures, and as a RSF Integrated Capital Fellow in 2017-2018. Nina has advised numerous small businesses on strategic growth, capital raising, impact and organizational development which has resulted in creation of 400+ local good jobs, and the facilitation of over $10M in capital investments. At ICA Fund Good Jobs, Nina managed a $2.2M investment portfolio and provided consulting, capital raising support, and board participation to seed portfolio companies. Nina received her MBA from the Lorry I. Lokey School of Business at Mills College, and holds a Bachelors degree in High Technology Management from California State University. Nina holds a Certificate for Board Directorship from the Anderson Graduate School of Business at UCLA. Nina sits on Credit Committee of The Runway Project and when she isn’t working towards economic justice, you can find her spinning records around the globe as Nina Sol.
Jeff Rosen, Chief Financial Officer, Solidago Foundation, and Confluence Board Member
Jeff Rosen is the Chief Financial Officer for the Solidago Foundation and its affiliated Foundations, where he oversees all of the financial systems as well as managing the MRI and PRI portfolios. Jeff is a graduate of Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations and holds a Masters in Resource Economics and Policy from the University of Maine, where he worked to pioneer sustainability focused impact assessment techniques. He has worked in the private sector as a serial entrepreneur, developing and selling food sector businesses, and as a chief financial officer for several restaurant chains and food manufacturers. He is a founding member of PVGROWS, a local food system collaboration located in Western Massachusetts, and participates pragmatically in Solidago’s Inclusive Economy efforts to build community designed and governed, flexible capital funds. Jeff served as an Adjunct Faculty Member in the Antioch University Sustainable MBA program, teaching Ecological Economics for Social Entrepreneurs from 2007 to 2015. Jeff lives in Northampton MA, with his wife and three children.
Kelly Ryan, President and CEO, Incourage Community Foundation
Kelly Ryan is President and CEO of Incourage, an innovative community foundation in rural Central Wisconsin that has been in the vanguard of place-based philanthropy and impact investing for over two decades. Under Kelly’s leadership, Incourage has advanced initiatives to build a diverse, inclusive and sustainable local economy – including advancing a culture of ownership and corporate social responsibility through place-based shareholder engagement. Through its Wisconsin Shared Stewardship Equity Fund, Incourage invests in regional companies and major employers, and is partnering with national leaders in shareholder engagement to advance principles of place-based active ownership and responsible corporate restructuring. Named one of the “most influential leaders in the nonprofit sector” by the NonProfit Times, Kelly is widely regarded for her expertise in philanthropy and rural community development. She has served on numerous national boards and taskforces during her two decades of field leadership. Incourage, under her leadership, was the recipient of the Council on Foundation’s “Critical Impact Award” – its highest honor for member foundations. She currently serves on the Aspen Institute’s Rural Development Innovation Group and the National Fund for Workforce Solutions Partners’ Council.
Deborah Sagner, Senior Advisor, Movement Voter Project
Deborah Sagner, LCSW, is the president of the Sagner Family Foundation, whose mission is to support non-profits working to make structural change in order to advance social, economic, and racial justice. She is also the vice president of The Sagner Companies, Inc., a residential and commercial real estate development company. Ms. Sagner practiced as a family and play therapist working primarily with children and families, She is the author of The Family Play Genogram (1999), a guidebook for the play therapy technique she pioneered and popularized. Ms Sagner is on the Steering Committee of Solidaire and is a Senior Advisor at Movement Voter Project.
She has four grown children and four granddaughters.
Régine Roumain, Co-Founder and Executive Director, Haiti Cultural Exchange
Régine M. Roumain is the co-founder and Executive Director of Haiti Cultural Exchange (HCX). Over the past 10 years, Ms. Roumain has spearheaded the artistic vision of HCX, developing programs highlighting the cultural richness of Haitians; programs rooted in community, collaboration and dialogue. Through HCX, Ms. Roumain has become a leading figure in the presentation of arts and cultural programs focused on Haiti and the Diaspora. Her efforts have been recognized by a Union Square Award for the Arts and the Haitian Roundtable. Ms. Roumain previously served as the New York Women’s Foundation Program Officer for two of the Foundation’s largest portfolios: community organizing & advocacy and economic security. Previously, she has worked as a management consultant for nonprofit organizations and as the coordinator of a community based organization engaged in civic education, youth development and advocacy for the Haitian-American community. Born in Brooklyn, NY, where she currently resides with her family, Régine was raised between Port-au-Prince, Haiti and NYC.
David Sand, Chief Investment Strategist, Community Capital Management
David has more than 35 years of investment management experience and is a trailblazer in the socially responsible/impact investing arena. In 1994, he co-founded Access Capital Strategies and served as its president and chief investment officer from 1994 to 2010. In this capacity, he pioneered the development of market-rate, fixed income impact investments for institutional investors. He then worked as a consultant to Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI’s), non-profits and social enterprises. David serves on the following boards: New York Advisory Board for Enterprise Community Partners, Croatan Institute, and AERIS®: The Information Service for Community Investors. He is also a former board member of U.S. SIF: The Forum for Sustainable Investment.
David received his A.B. in American History from Princeton University and an M.P.A from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. He holds FINRA licenses: Series 7 & 63.
Dr. Jocelyn V. Sargent, Executive Director, The Hyams Foundation
Dr. Jocelyn V. Sargent became the Executive Director of The Hyams Foundation, Inc. in 2016. A co-founder of the innovative Center for Social Inclusion in New York, Dr. Sargent has over twenty years of experience in public policy; program design; project and grants management; place-based grant-making, community capacity building; and research and evaluation in the non-profit and philanthropic sectors. She has worked for several influential national and regional foundations, including the Open Society Foundation, The W.K. Kellogg Foundation, and The Hogg Foundation. Dr. Sargent serves on the boards of the Philanthropy Massachusetts and the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy.
Jeff Scheer, Director, Pathstone
Jeff, a Director of Pathstone, develops portfolio advice and handles day-to-day client-related operations for several high net worth individuals and non-profit clients. Jeff is a member of the firm’s Impact Investing Committee. He is a Chartered Financial Analyst and a member of the CFA Society Boston.
Jeff is a member of the Board of Directors for Casa Myrna. Casa Myrna is Boston’s largest provider of domestic violence awareness efforts and of shelter and supportive services to survivors. He is also a member of the Investment Committee for the Fair Food Fund, which provides financing and business assistance to good food enterprises that connect small and mid-size farms with consumers hungry for local, sustainably grown food.
Jeff grew up in Albany, NY and received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics from Union College. At Union, Jeff was a Liberty League All-Academic Team performer as a member of the football team, as well as a member of the Omicron Delta Epsilon Economic Honor Society. Jeff’s prior experience includes the role of Senior Client Advisor at Federal Street Advisors. Jeff currently lives in South Boston with his wife, Estefanía, son, Gabriel, and dog, Maeve.
Eva Kathleen Schulte, Vice President for Economic Opportunity, Travois
Eva Kathleen Schulte, vice president for economic opportunity at Travois, supports the capital priorities of American Indian, Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian communities. As a proven community organizer, executive, and social change leader, Eva secures economic and policy solutions to move human dignity to the center of public life.
Eva directly leveraged investments for housing stabilization, public health, and community resilience. She founded and grew non-profit organizations and leads the Travois impact work. As vice president, Eva builds on the $1.4 billion of value Travois has helped create for affordable housing and economic development.
Eva began her career supporting migrant farm workers in Iowa and wrote her master’s thesis on women’s cooperatives in Mayan Indigenous communities of Mexico. Accomplishments include supporting the co-founding of an NGO in Rwanda, building new loan models for community credit, and leading one of the largest nonpartisan civic engagement campaigns in metro Kansas City.
Arjan Schütte, Founder and Managing Partner, Core Innovation Capital
Arjan Schütte is the founder and a managing partner of Core Innovation Capital, a leading venture capital fund investing in financial services companies empowering everyday Americans. Arjan is a sought-after consumer finance expert and a passionate advocate for market-based financial inclusion. He blogs for Forbes, and has been quoted in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, and Economist, among others. Arjan is a Senior Advisor to the Center for Financial Services Innovation, which he helped start in 2004. Arjan also serves on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s Consumer Advisory Board. A number of Arjan’s investments have been successfully acquired, including AccountNow (by Green Dot), CircleLending (by Virgin Group), L2C (by TransUnion), RentBureau (by Experian), and TIO Networks (by PayPal). He is based in Los Angeles and San Francisco.
Shally Shanker, Founder and Managing Partner, Aiim Partners Fund
Shally Shanker is the Founder and Managing Partner of AiiM Partners Fund which invests in companies building technologies that solve complex social and environmental issues, with a focus on oceans and how they affect and are affected by land/agriculture and air/energy.
The AiiM team has combined 160 years of experience and the team’s portfolio strategy has yielded top quartile performance while benefiting 3 million people worldwide. Women CEOs and founders comprise 50% of the AiiM portfolio.
Prior to launching AiiM this year, Shally Shanker, CFA, was the Director of Mission Investing at the Schmidt Family Foundation and seven years prior to that, she was the Investment Officer at The Schmidt Family Foundation and Vice President of Investments at Hillspire, LLC. In addition to her investment experience, she also worked at the Stanford Solutions Science Lab at the Stanford School of Medicine building a community-based intervention program for childhood obesity prevention among low income, at-risk communities. She was recently invited to join the Queen's Commonwealth Trust Advisory Board.
Shuaib Siddiqui, Director of Impact Investing, Surdna Foundation
Shuaib A. Siddiqui serves as the Director of Impact Investing at the Surdna Foundation where he manages Surdna’s impact investing portfolio, leading an effort to better align the foundation’s investment policies and practices with its mission. He works with the program teams to investigate ways to realize both social and financial returns through program and mission related investing.
Prior to Surdna, Shuaib spent 9 years at Acumen where he most recently was the Director of Global Portfolio. He managed the organization’s global investment process, management of its global investment committee, and helped manage is $100m portfolio. He also directly managed a portfolio of companies and represented Acumen’s investment on several boards. Acumen, an impact investing pioneer, raises charitable donations and investor capital to invest in companies, leaders, and ideas that are changing the way the world tackles poverty.
Prior to Acumen, Shuaib worked for two years in the Quantitative Alpha Generation Group at Citadel Investment Group, a hedge fund based in Chicago, where he focused on developing trading strategies utilizing fundamental company data. Prior to that, he was an Assistant Vice President at Merrill Lynch working on The Global Analytic and Thematic Research team. He holds a BA in Economics from New York University.
Ian Simmons, Co-Founder and Principal, Blue Haven Initiative
Ian Simmons is Co-Founder and Principal of Blue Haven Initiative, a single-family office focused on making investments that generate competitive financial returns across asset classes and address social and environmental challenges. Blue Haven, which Ian founded in 2012 with his wife, Liesel Pritzker Simmons, is one of the first family offices created with impact investing in its mission. A champion and practitioner of impact investing for two decades, Ian advances Blue Haven's investment, policy, philanthropic, and innovation strategies.
Ian is committed to starting and contributing to projects that advance the impact investing ecosystem and strengthen democracy. Initiatives that Ian has jump-started or co-founded include Foundation for Civic Leadership, Students Learn Students Vote, ActBlue, and The ImPact. Results of these initiatives have been recently recognized or featured in major media outlets, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Financial Times, The Economist, and CNN. In 2017 and 2018 alone, they reached 1,150 colleges and universities, studied the civic engagement of 9.8 million students, engaged 4.9 million donors, and channeled over $1.6 billion.
Ian is currently President of Foundation for Civic Leadership and Chair of the Youth Engagement Fund. He serves on the boards of The U.S. Impact Investing Alliance, Social Finance, Issue One, and Karibu Homes, an affordable housing company in Nairobi, Kenya.
Ian graduated with honors from Harvard College in 2000. He lives in the Boston area with his wife and children.
Gaithiri Siva, Buen Vivir Finance Fellow, Thousand Currents
Gaithiri is a finance professional with over 15 years of progressive leadership experience in investments, management consulting, risk advisory, and operations. She played a key role in the North America expansion and diversification of a $40B Malaysian strategic investment fund into the technology sector, where she partnered with teams across North America and Asia to execute on critical strategic investment decisions. She has closed over multi-million dollars of investments to-date and led diligence for numerous deals totaling over $300M. In previous roles, Gaithiri has consulted for the UN in Indonesia, Laos, and Myanmar, predominantly to improve reach and efficacy of spending. She led large teams under difficult conditions in these remote areas of Asia for the oversight of disaster-relief fund management and micro-financing for women. As a minority in her country of origin, Malaysia, Gaithiri is familiar with ethnic discrimination and is very keen on closing the inequality gap, especially amongst minorities. She has a Bachelor of Accounting (Honors) degree and a CPA. An avid reader, she also enjoys the beach and film photography but now spends all her free time chasing after her 2-year-old daughter.
Raoul Slavin Julia, Managing Director, Treehouse Management
Raoul Slavin is co-founder and co-managing Director of Treehouse Investments, LLC, a privately-owned investment fund dedicated to supporting long-term sustainable and scalable solutions that address some of the most critical global challenges; and the founder of Aspenall Energies, LLC, a developer of community-scale renewable energy projects in the American Midwest. His areas of focus are renewable energy, climate change mitigation, and gender inclusion, and he evaluates and supervises investments ranging from companies that provide micro grids in West Africa to utility-scale projects in the United States. Part of the philosophy of Treehouse is that all investments have impact, and that in order to be positively impactful, investments that address the world’s most pressing needs must compete financially with negatively impactful investments in similar risk categories. We also believe that fields where impact is easy to measure unambiguously can yield the most meaningfully impactful investments.
Tim Smith, Director of ESG Shareowner Engagement, Walden Asset Management
Timothy is the Director of ESG shareowner engagement at Walden Asset Management, and leads Walden’s ongoing shareholder engagement program to promote greater corporate leadership on environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues. He is co-chair of Walden’s ESG Research & Engagement Committee and a member of the Corporate Governance Committee. Prior to joining the firm in 2000, he served as executive director of the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR) for 24 years. He is a board member of the General Board of Pension and Health Benefits of the United Methodist Church. He serves on the boards of The Thirty Percent Coalition and Shared Interest, and is the chair of the Kimberly-Clark Sustainability Advisory Board. Mr. Smith earned a BA from the University of Toronto and masters of divinity degree from Union Theological Seminary.
Cecilio Solis Librado, Founder, CIELO (Indigenous and Local Community Federation of Entrepreneurs of Mexico)
Since childhood, Cecilio has felt his life divided into two worlds. At the age of 7, dire economic conditions forced his mother to bring him from his childhood home in the mountains of central Mexico to Mexico City. Cecilio never lost touch with his community, returning to visit whenever finances allowed and living among other indigenous migrants in the city. Unlike the vast majority of his peers, Cecilio was highly successful in school and financed a college education in Geography at Mexico City’s UNAM University. Following several years as a well-paid teacher in Mexico City, a massive indigenous march on the capital helped Cecilio realize that his true calling was with his people and not with the comforts of city life. His involvement in Mexico’s indigenous movement allowed him to travel the world, spending time with indigenous groups across Latin America and building relationships throughout Europe, Asia, South Africa, and North America. After years as a leader in this political movement, Cecilio began realizing in the late 1990s that his 15 years spent pushing for political advances had not translated into any concrete improvement in his people’s quality of life. As he so succinctly states, “people can’t eat ideas.” To address this deficit in community-initiated economic development, Cecilio took a fresh look at what the indigenous movement could achieve. Cecilio founded CIELO (Indigenous and Local Community Federation of Entrepreneurs of Mexico) in 2014, a nation-wide network of small-scale business enterprises run by indigenous women and men from over 30 different Indigenous Peoples all across Mexico. CIELO is the result of years of organizing, shared visioning, and deep listening about what it means to lead economic initiatives that are firmly grounded in Indigenous communities' values and worldview. CIELO provides business-planning and marketing support, training workshops, and seed capital from their Fund for Indigenous Development with Identity. Beyond providing targeted support to specific community initiatives, CIELO also brings together their members to unite and amplify Indigenous voices to influence economic and policy debates in Mexico, and beyond. Cecilio is also a founding member of the Buen Vivir Fund.
Ismene Speliotis, Executive Director, MHANY Management Inc
Ismene Speliotis has worked for over twenty-five years in housing and community development; most recently as Executive Director of MHANY Management Inc. a not-for profit community and housing development organization founded on the belief that safe, clean, affordable housing is an inalienable right for all people. All of MHANY’s housing work is imbedded in the belief that by respecting and understanding our residents’ needs, we can strive to meet and raise their expectations; providing effective, quality housing accommodations, support services and an opportunity for mobilization for greater economic and social justice in their local community and across the city, state and country. We serve as a bridge for our residents, once housed by connecting them to organizing and advocacy efforts that help to improve social, economic conditions.
Prior to coming to MHANY, Ismene co founded Women’s Housing and Economic Development Corporation (WHEDCO) and the redevelopment of the Morrisania Hospital in the Bronx. Ismene, as a Project Director at Catholic Charities rehabilitated 23 buildings, 723 units through HPD’s Vacant Cluster Program. Her community development work began in Highbridge where she administered a lead poison testing and prevention program.
Ismene Speliotis has a Masters Degree in Urban Public Health from Columbia University. She has completed Masters level work in Urban Planning at Columbia University and Pratt University. She was an undergraduate of Barnard College with a degree in Urban Studies and Anthropology.
Steph Spiers, Co-Founder & CEO, Solstice
Steph is a social entrepreneur and community builder with management experience in the Middle East, South Asia, and the United States.
She co-founded and runs Solstice, an enterprise dedicated to radically expanding the number of American households that can take advantage of clean energy using community-shared solar farms. She is a Techstars alum and was selected as an Echoing Green Climate Fellow, a Global Good Fund Fellow, a Kia Revisionary, a Renewable Energy World 40 Under 40 in Solar, a Grist 50 Fixer, a GLG Social Impact Fellow, a Cordes Fellow, and an Acumen Global Fellow.
She previously led sales and marketing innovation initiatives in India at d.light, a solar products company powering areas without reliable electricity; spearheaded Acumen's renewable energy impact investment strategy in Pakistan; developed Middle East policy as the youngest policy director at the White House National Security Council; and managed field operations in seven states for the first Obama presidential campaign.
She holds a B.A. from Yale, a Master in Public Affairs (MPA) with distinction from Princeton, and an MBA from MIT with a Certificate in Entrepreneurship and Innovation. She originally hails from Hawaii.
Robynn Steffen, Director, Impact Investing, Omidyar Network
Robynn leads Omidyar Network’s work to accelerate the global impact investing industry through investments, thought leadership, and strategic partnerships. In this role, she frequently advises high-net-worth individuals, family offices, and foundations on impact investing. She also serves on the board of Toniic and as a board observer to The ImPact and CapShift. Prior to joining the firm, Robynn spent six years in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, where she led efforts to advance the Administration’s global development goals through emerging market impact investments. She led the launch of Beyond the Grid under President Obama’s Power Africa initiative. She also worked closely with USAID, OPIC, the U.S. Treasury, and State Department to increase emerging market entrepreneurs’ access to early-stage risk capital, scale digital financial services, and accelerate the Administration’s use of incentive prizes.
Prior to the White House, Robynn served as deputy chair of the Clinton Global Initiative Education Working Group and as the first Executive Director of Universities Allied for Essential Medicines - raising seed funds, recruiting its first staff, and leading its advocacy to expand global access to university-developed medicines. Robynn received her J.D. from Yale Law School and holds a B.A. and an M.A. in political science from Yale University.
Linda Stephans, Managing Director, Graystone Consulting, A business of Morgan Stanley
Linda J. Stephans leads the Chicago office of Graystone Consulting, Morgan Stanley’s Institutional Investment Division. Her practice was No. 7 on Barron’s Top Institutional Consultants List in 2018 and represents one of the largest women-led Institutional teams at Morgan Stanley, responsible for $8.1+ billion* in client assets. Linda has 35+ years senior leadership experience at top financial institutions Northern Trust, Merrill Lynch, and Morgan Stanley. She has been at the forefront of the Responsible Finance movement, implementing sustainable/ESG/Impact investment strategies for the past 10+ years. Over 3/4* of her team’s assets under management are in mission aligned/sustainable investments. Linda has been named to Barron’s Top 100 Women Financial Advisors List each year since 2009.
*Figures as of 9.30.2018
Eric Stephenson, Co-Chair, Cordes Foundation
Eric Stephenson is Director of Client Services at Align Impact and member of its investment committee, advancing the firm’s work helping investors and their advisors form and execute effective impact investing and philanthropic strategies. For five years prior to joining Align Impact, Eric was the Portfolio Director at the Cordes Foundation, tasked with assessing, proposing and implementing a strategic plan towards 100% mission alignment across asset classes, and overseeing the Foundation’s philanthropic initiatives. He was previously part of the fund investments team at Hamilton Lane and started his finance career with the global leasing group at Xerox. Eric serves as co-chair of the Cordes Foundation, member of the advisory board for Duke University’s CASE i3 Initiative on Impact Investing, is a due diligence mentor at Harvard University’s Initiative for Responsible Investment, and is a frequent speaker at universities and industry conferences on the topics of impact investing and social enterprise. Eric earned his BBA from Temple University, MA from University of the Pacific and is an active CAIA charterholder and alumnus of the SEO Career Program.
Siddarth Thakur, Program Director, Confluence Philanthropy
Sid comes to Confluence with hands-on experience in corporate philanthropy, impact investing, development consulting, financial inclusion, and non-profit management. He is passionate about market led solutions to development challenges, and has held diverse roles in the social impact space.
Before joining Confluence, Sid worked with Autodesk Foundation in their Investments and Portfolio Division, where he managed grants for investing in climate solutions. He also worked as a Senior Associate at Sorenson Impact, a social impact VC firm where he led due diligence for several social startups across the globe.
In the past, he has consulted for various funding agencies, microfinance institutions, government agencies, social startups in program strategy, operations, and business planning. He focused on disadvantaged communities in developing countries, with an emphasis on financial inclusion, agriculture development, and rural livelihoods.
In India he led a multi-million-dollar Gates funded non-profit dairy initiative, aimed at helping 85,000 farmers emerge out of poverty through a financially sustainable service model. He also worked for BASIX, an Indian micro finance institution, where he was involved in capital raising and project management.
Siddharth is an MBA and MS in Finance graduate from the University of Utah. He also has a Masters in Rural Management from IRMA, India. He is enjoying his U.S. home base in Oakland, California.
Rob Thomas, President, Social(k)
Social(k) has been bringing ESG screened investment options to retirement plans since 2005. Our mission has never changed — to provide people with the option to invest their money in conscionable companies which prioritize social and environmental responsibility alongside continued profit growth.
Rob Thomas retired as a stock picker March 13, 2000, and designed Social(k) and Social(k) Health Savings Accounts, focusing on ESG investing in tax-sheltered accounts.
Our current focus is finding a way to add local notes from community loan funds to ERISA accounts. Please feel free to reach out rthomas@socialk.com
Megan Thompson, Mission Investments Officer, Ford Foundation
Megan Walsh Thompson is a member of Ford Foundation’s Mission Investments team. As Mission Investments Officer, Megan is responsible for underwriting and managing investments for the Foundation’s Program-Related Investment and Mission-Related Investment portfolios. In recent years, Megan supported various strategic planning efforts related to the Foundation’s impact investing work, including the development and launch of the Foundation’s first ever $1 billion MRI allocation. Megan’s current work in impact investing builds on her background in traditional and social finance. Prior to joining Ford, she worked at Citigroup in fixed-income capital markets. She also interned with several social finance organizations, including Trickle Up and SJF Ventures. Megan serves on the credit committee of Living Cities Blended Catalyst Fund. She earned her bachelor’s degree in economics from The College of the Holy Cross and an MBA from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business.
Dianna Tremblay, Director of Acceleration, ICA Fund Good Jobs
Dianna Tremblay is the Director of Acceleration at ICA Fund Good Jobs which invests in high potential businesses to create economic freedom for those who need it most. She is ultimately responsible for scaling the impact of their Good Jobs Accelerator and cultivating the support and capital ecosystem necessary for entrepreneurs to scale their businesses. Prior to joining ICA Fund Good Jobs, Dianna's professional experience included sales, corporate relationship management, and business development roles in e-commerce and textbook publishing.
Diana Trump, Trustee and Treasurer, Penney Family Fund, and Confluence Board Member
Diana Trump is a Trustee and the Treasurer of the Penney Family Fund, a Berkeley-based foundation supporting human rights advocacy, government accountability, and environmental sustainability. The foundation’s main focus is on green jobs creation and youth-led efforts to improve the health and sustainability of local communities. As Treasurer, Diana has overseen the transition of the foundation’s corpus to a fully screened portfolio devoid of carbon-intensive assets. In her professional life, Diana is a Marketing Manager with the venture-backed analytics startup, Heap. Diana is based in San Francisco and received her B.A. from Duke University.
Richard Unger, Chief Strategy Officer, Urban Green Council
Russell ensures that Urban Green Council is positioned for maximum impact developing and executing key strategic initiatives. As Urban Green’s founding Executive Director (2007-2017), he built and guided the organization’s innovative programs, cementing its place as a leader in
advocacy, education and research. He was twice tapped by the City of New York to lead blue ribbon commissions – the Building Resiliency Task Force (2013) and the Green Codes Task Force (2008-2010). A lawyer by training, Russell previously worked at the New York City Council and Mayor’s Office.