Advancing the Development of
For-Benefit Enterprises and
Their Supportive Ecosystem
Program Participants
Ross Baird
Executive Director, Village Capital
Ross Baird is the executive director of Village Capital, a global organization that develops enterprises who Ross developed the Village Capital concept in 2009, and has led the development of programs worldwide. Before launching Village Capital, he worked with First Light Ventures, a seed fund focused on impact investments. Prior to First Light, Ross worked on the development of four education-related start-up ventures in India and the US. He has a MPhil from the University of Oxford, where he was a Marshall Scholar, and a BA from the University of Virginia, where he was a Truman Scholar and Jefferson Scholar, and he also teaches entrepreneurship at the University of Virginia.
Victoria Bjorklund
Founder, Exempt Organizations Group, Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP
Victoria B. Bjorklund is Of Counsel at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP where she founded and headed the Firm’s Exempt Organizations Group, which advises public charities, private foundations, boards, and donors. Ms. Bjorklund was named “2014 Nonprofit Lawyer of the Year” by her peers in Best Lawyers Magazine. The 2013 Legal 500 described Ms. Bjorklund as “[t]he highly respected … dean of the practice.” In 2012, Ms. Bjorklund received the Vanguard Award for Lifetime Achievement and Commitment to Nonprofit Law from the American Bar Association’s Business Law Section, recognizing her role in development of the field. She was honored in 2002 as the ABA Tax Section “Pro Bono Lawyer of the Year” in recognition of her 9/11 work. Ms. Bjorklund serves as a director of the Robin Hood Foundation, where she chairs the Robin Hood Sandy Relief Fund. She is a founding director of the U.S. arm of Doctors Without Borders, the emergency medical relief organization which was awarded the 1999 Nobel Peace Prize. She is a director of the American Friends of the Louvre, the Louvre Endowment, Friends of Fondation de France, the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, Princeton University, and the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. Ms. Bjorklund speaks and writes frequently on exempt-organization subjects. She is the co-author with Jim Fishman and Dan Kurtz of New York Nonprofit Law and Practice (LexisNexis, 2d Ed. 2007 and annual supplements). She also teaches The Law of Nonprofit Organizations at Harvard Law School. She earned her J.D. at Columbia University School of Law, a Ph.D. in Medieval Studies from Yale University, and a B.A., magna cum laude, from Princeton University, where she graduated in three years and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa.
Matt Bogoshian
Senior Policy Counsel, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Matt Bogoshian is Senior Policy Counsel at the US EPA’s Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention providing advice and analysis on program and policy initiatives to prevent pollution and advance sustainability. Serves as White House representative on the IMC Partnership and leads the E3 Initiative to accelerate more sustainable economic development in American communities with smarter manufacturing as a key component. Helps to lead efforts to create safer products with labeling and procurement efforts that result in reduced risk to human health and more competitive manufacturing companies and communities. Builds partnerships with associations, governments, foundations, educators, business leaders, capital providers and others to advance sustainable growth in an emerging low-carbon economy in ways that strengthen the middle class. Works to enable measurable triple value impact investment by private, public and non-profit sector partners and those for-benefit enterprise entities in the emerging fourth sector. Matt previously served as US EPA’s Deputy Assistant Administrator in the Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance, as the California EPA’s Deputy Secretary for Law Enforcement and Counsel, as an environmental and consumer protection prosecutor in California, and an officer and trial attorney in the US Navy JAG Corps. Matt began his career as a high school teacher, served two terms as a local school board president and is an adjunct professor at Georgetown University Law Center.
Elizabeth Boris
Director, Center on Nonprofits and Philanthropy, The Urban Institute
Elizabeth T. Boris is the founding director of the Center on Nonprofits and Philanthropy at the Urban Institute in Washington, D.C. where she conducts and oversees research on and evaluations of nonprofit organizations and the policy issues that affect them. The Center includes NCCS, the National Center for Charitable Statistics, which monitors trends in the nonprofit sector, creates databases from IRS Forms 990, and makes those data available to practitioners and researchers in easy to use online formats. As Vice President for President for Research at the Council on Foundations, she developed research products to assist foundations in building their governance, planning, management and investment capacities. The author of many research publications on philanthropy and nonprofit organizations, Dr. Boris is actively involved as an advisor and board member for a variety of organizations in the nonprofit sector.
Allen Bromberger
Partner, Perlman & Perlman, LLP
Allen R. Bromberger, a partner with the firm of Perlman & Perlman, LLP in New York City, has been representing nonprofit organizations, private foundations, and for-profit businesses in a wide variety of matters and transactions for 35 years. His practice currently focuses on “hybrid” legal structures and arrangements that permit the pursuit of economic and social goals simultaneously. This includes the creation of socially responsible companies, nonprofit commercial enterprises, non-profit/for-profit joint ventures and strategic partnerships, cause marketing, commercial co-ventures, program related investments, and structuring socially responsible investments.
Kathy Calvin
President and CEO, United Nations Foundation; Leader, The B Team
Kathy Calvin is President and CEO of the United Nations Foundation. She is a passionate advocate for multi-sector problem-solving, U.S. leadership on global issues, and the inclusion of women at all levels and in all sectors. The UN Foundation, created in 1998 with entrepreneur and philanthropist Ted Turner’s historic $1 billion gift to support UN causes, advocates for the UN and connects people, ideas and resources to help the UN solve global problems. Kathy’s career has spanned the public, private and nonprofit sectors. Before joining the UN Foundation as Chief Operating Officer in 2003, she served as President of the AOL Time Warner Foundation. She previously served in senior positions at AOL, Hill and Knowlton, and U.S. News & World Report. From 1976 through 1984 she was Senator Gary Hart’s press secretary. Kathy was named one of Newsweek’s “150 Women Who Rock the World” in 2011 and listed in Fast Company’s “League of Extraordinary Women” in 2012. Her innovative work in the philanthropy and international development sectors has been featured in the New York Times and the Washington Post, and she has received numerous other awards for philanthropy and leadership. She is a graduate of Purdue University.
Jean Case
CEO, Case Foundation
Jean Case is an actively engaged philanthropist, investor and a pioneer in the world of interactive technologies. Her career in the private sector spanned nearly two decades before she and her husband, Steve Case, created the Case Foundation in 1997. The Case Foundation is recognized for its leadership in leveraging new technologies and applying innovative approaches to increase giving; catalyze civic and business participation; and promote innovation, collaboration and leadership in the nonprofit sector. Jean serves on the National Geographic Society Board of Trustees, as well as on the boards of Accelerate Brain Cancer Cure. She also serves on the advisory boards of the Harvard Business School Social Enterprise Initiative, the Stanford Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society, Georgetown University’s Beeck Center for Social Impact & Innovation, the Brain Trust Accelerator Fund and the U.S. National Advisory Board to the Social Impact Investing Task Force established by the G8. Jean and Steve joined The Giving Pledge, started by Bill Gates and Warren Buffett in 2010, and publicly reaffirmed their commitment to give away the majority of their wealth to fund worthy charitable causes. In 2014, Jean was conferred an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy.
Sir Ronald Cohen
Chairman, Big Society Capital; Chair, G8 Social Impact Investment Taskforce
Sir Ronald Cohen is Chairman of The Portland Trust and the Social Impact Investment Taskforce established under the UK’s presidency of the G8. He is a co-founder director of Social Finance UK (2007-11), Social Finance USA, and Social Finance Israel, and of Big Society Capital. He was co-founder Chair of Bridges Ventures (2002-2012) He chaired the Social Investment Task Force (2000-2010) and the Commission on Unclaimed Assets (2005-2007). In 2012 he received the Rockefeller Innovation Award for innovation in social finance. He co-founded and was Executive Chairman of Apax Partners Worldwide LLP (1972-2005). He was a founder director and Chairman of the British Venture Capital Association and a founder director of the European Venture Capital Association. He is a graduate of Oxford University, where he was President of the Oxford Union. He is an Honorary Fellow of Exeter College, Oxford. He has an MBA from Harvard Business School to which he was awarded a Henry Fellowship. He is a director of the Harvard Management Company and the University of Oxford Investment Committee, a member of the Board of Dean’s Advisors at Harvard Business School and Vice-Chairman of Ben Gurion University. He is a former member of the Harvard University Board of Overseers (2007-2013), former Trustee of the British Museum (2005-2012) and a former trustee of the International Institute for Strategic Studies (2005-2011). In 2007, Sir Ronald published: “The Second Bounce of the Ball – Turning Risk into Opportunity”.
Joseph Cordes
Professor of Economics, Public Policy and Public Administration, and International Affairs; Associate Director, Trachtenberg School of Public Policy and Public Administration
Professor Cordes is Associate Director of the School of Public Policy and Public Administration and Professor of Economics, Public Policy and Public Administration, and International Affairs and co-director of The George Washington University Regulatory Studies Center. He received his Ph.D. in economics from the University of Wisconsin, Madison in 1977, and joined The George Washington University faculty in 1975. His academic specialization in economics is in the area of public economics and policy analysis. Dr. Cordes was a Brookings Economic Policy fellow in the Office of Tax Policy in the U.S. Department of the Treasury in 1980-81, and served as a senior economist on the Treasury’s Tax Reform project in 1984. From 1989 to 1991 he was Deputy Assistant Director for Tax Analysis at the Congressional Budget Office. He was a Visiting Fellow at the Urban Institute in 1998-1999, and is currently an Associate Scholar in the Center on Nonprofits and Philanthropy at the Urban Institute. Prof. Cordes is the co-editor (with Eugene Steuerle) of Nonprofits and Business (Urban Institute Press, 2008. His research interests focus on the economics of philanthropic and nonprofit organizations, impact investing by nonprofits, regulatory policy, and the comparative analysis of welfare state institutions.
Congressman John K. Delaney
Congressman John K. Delaney (MD-6) is the only former CEO of a publicly traded company in the House of Representatives. Congressman Delaney founded and led two NYSE-listed financial services companies before the age of forty and is a past winner of the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award. In 2010, Delaney’s company, CapitalSource, received the Bank Enterprise Award from the Treasury Department for lending to disadvantaged communities. Delaney serves on the Financial Services and Joint Economic Committee. Delaney was first elected in 2012 and is a member of the Board of Directors of Georgetown University and the National Symphony Orchestra. Maryland’s Sixth District includes the Washington D.C. suburbs and Western Maryland.
Nathan Dietz
Senior Research Associate, Center on Nonprofits and Philanthropy, Urban Institute
Nathan Dietz is a Senior Research Associate at the Center on Nonprofits and Philanthropy and the Associate Director of the National Center for Charitable Statistics. Prior to joining the Urban Institute in April 2013, he served as Assistant Professor of Political Science in the School of Public Affairs at American University, as Senior Program Manager at the Partnership for Public Service, and as Associate Director for Research and Evaluation at the Corporation for National and Community Service. Dr. Dietz received his Ph.D. in political science from the University of Rochester.
Joseph Firschein
Deputy Associate Director and Community Affairs Officer, Division of Consumer
and Community Affairs, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System
Joseph Firschein is Deputy Associate Director and Community Affairs Officer at the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. In this capacity, he leads the Board’s community development and policy analysis teams that are responsible for analyzing emerging consumer and community development policies and practices in order to understand their implications for the economic and supervisory policies that are core to the central bank’s functions. These teams also promote economic growth and financial stability for low- and moderate-income communities and individuals through a range of activities, including convening stakeholders for discussions on issues, conducting applied research, and gathering information on financial conditions and emerging issues. Prior to joining the Federal Reserve Board, Joseph served as a Director in Fannie Mae’s Housing and Community Development Division where he managed the business segment responsible for financing community development financial institutions and led the company’s efforts to sell foreclosed single family homes to public entities and nonprofits. Prior to joining Fannie Mae, Joseph managed lending to community development financial institutions at the U.S. Treasury Department Community Development Financial Institutions Fund and served as lead community development analyst at the U.S. Office of Management and Budget. Joseph is an adjunct professor at Georgetown University and George Washington University, where he teaches courses on community development finance and policy. Joseph has an MBA in Finance from the University of Maryland, Robert H. Smith School of Business; a Masters in Public Policy from the University of California, Berkeley, Goldman School of Public Policy; and a B.A. in Psychology from Stanford University.
Jeffrey Gedmin
Senior Fellow, Georgetown University, and Senior Fellow, Institute for Strategic Dialogue
Jeffrey Gedmin is Co-Director of the Transatlantic Renewal Project at the World Affairs Institute and Journal in Washington, DC. He also serves as Chairman of the Global Politics and Security program at Georgetown University, and as Senior Advisor at Blue Star Strategies, LLC. Additionally, he is a Senior Fellow at the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service Masters Program and a Senior Fellow at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue in London. From 2011 to 2014, Gedmin was President and CEO of the London-based Legatum Institute, where he was responsible for the Institute’s strategic direction, budget, board relations, fund raising, research and programmatic agenda. Prior to joining the Legatum Institute in early 2011,Gedmin served for four years as President and CEO of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL). He shaped the company’s strategy and oversaw its budget (100 million dollars) and multi-media broadcast operations, including radio, television, web and social media. As RFE/RL President and CEO,Gedmin reported directly to the bi-partisan Broadcast Board of Governors (BBG), whose membership includes the U.S. Secretary of State. Before RFE/RL, Gedmin served as President and CEO of the Aspen Institute in Berlin. In this role, Gedmin reported to the Institute’s Board of Trustees and was responsible for vision and strategy, fund raising, budget, personnel, and programs in Germany and abroad. Before that, he was Resident Scholar at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) in Washington, D.C and Executive Director of the New Atlantic Initiative. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations (New York), a member of the National Endowment for Democracy’s Research Council (Washington, D.C.), a member of the Board of Directors for the journal Turkish Policy Quarterly (Istanbul), and a member of the editorial board of the World Affairs Journal. In addition, he is a board member at the Institute for State Effectiveness (Washington, D.C.) and the Berkley Center for Entrepreneurship and Development, University of California. He has been an Honorary Professor at the University of Konstanz in Germany and currently serves on the board of the Masters Program of Georgetown University’s Foreign Service School.
Richard Geisenberger
Chief Deputy Secretary of State, State of Delaware
Richard J. “Rick” Geisenberger is Delaware’s Chief Deputy Secretary of State reporting to Secretary of State Jeffrey W. Bullock. His primary responsibility is managing and marketing the state’s Division of Corporations. Since his appointment in 2001, the number of business entities in Delaware has increased 105% while market share has continued to grow. The Division earned ISO 9001 certification in 2012 and won the Delaware Quality Award’s prestigious W.L. Gore Award of Excellence in 2008 in recognition of the Division’s world-class quality management system. He serves ex officio on the Delaware Corporation Law Council that develops proposed amendments to the state’s business entity statutes and recommends their adoption to the Delaware General Assembly. Mr. Geisenberger is also responsible for overall policy, planning, legislation, and administration for the Delaware Department of State -- one of the most diverse department’s in state government with responsibilities in Archives, Historical and Cultural Affairs, Libraries, Professional Regulation, and Veterans Affairs to name a few. He serves on Governor Jack Markell’s Policy Group and was appointed in 2009 as Deputy Program Director of the Delaware Government Performance Review, which set in motion dozens of successful initiatives to make state government more efficient and cost-effective. Mr. Geisenberger earned his M.G.A. degree from the University of Pennsylvania, his B.A. from Franklin & Marshall College, and has completed the Wharton Executive Program in Mergers and Acquisitions.
Joel Getzendanner
Principal, Commons Consulting
Joel Getzendanner advises social-purpose enterprises and their investors on business strategy, ownership and governance structures, and technology infrastructure. He also provides policy analysis on related legislative and regulatory matters. Joel is known for innovative approaches to large-scale collaboration among potential competitors, drawing on a decade-long association with Dee Hock, the founding CEO of Visa International. Most recently, Joel has worked as Integrity Architect for two software startups building distributed data commons applications, one focused on the control and availability of personal information when sharing with businesses or healthcare providers, and the other on the exchange and aggregation of proprietary information among industry competitors for benchmarking best practices and performance. Joel has a long history in philanthropy and social investment. He was the Vice President for public policy-oriented grantmaking programs for the Joyce Foundation in Chicago for seven years, and established the impact investing practice at the F.B. Heron Foundation in the late 1990s as Assistant Executive Director. He began his career in production planning in the manufacturing sector, and received his education at the University of Chicago (MBA) and Dartmouth College.
Arturo Gonzalez
Manager, Consumer & Community Development Research, Division of Consumer
and Community Affairs, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System
Arturo Gonzalez is the research manager in the division of Consumer & Community Affairs at the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. Prior to joining the Board in 2014, he was an economist at the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, Ernst & Young, the Public Policy Institute of California, and a tenured associate professor at the University of Arizona. He also was a visiting professor at Universidad Carlos III de Madrid and University of Colorado at Denver. His research interests include the acquisition of human capital by low-skilled workers and immigrants, and housing markets in low- and moderate-income communities. Aside from publishing articles in economics journals, he is also the author of Mexican Americans & the U.S. Economy: Quest for Buenos Días. Arturo received his Ph.D. in economics from the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Don Graves
Deputy Assistant to the President and Counselor to the Vice President
Don Graves serves as Counselor to Vice President Bidden and as his domestic and economic policy director, providing advice on a range of policy issues including ways to create jobs, opportunity, and widening the path to the middle class for the American people. He was also appointed by the President as Executive Director of the President’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness at the White House and was appointed by the President to lead the Administration’s efforts in the city of Detroit, coordinating and facilitating the federal government’s investment in Detroit and working with City, State, Business, Non-profit and community stakeholders. Mr. Graves previously served as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Small Business, Community Development and Housing Policy at the U.S. Department of the Treasury. In this role, Mr. Graves managed a portfolio of policy issues including business and small business finance and development, housing finance, community and economic development, capital access, job creation and issues related to underserved communities. In addition, Mr. Graves oversaw the Small Business Lending Fund, the State Small Business Credit Initiative and the Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI) Fund. Previously, he was a partner with Graves, Horton, Askew & Johns, LLC and is the former Director of Public Policy for the Business Roundtable. Mr. Graves holds degrees of Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and History from Williams College and Juris Doctor from the Georgetown University Law Center where he received the Dean’s Award. He is a fellow of the National Association of Public Administration. He served as volunteer Chief Executive Officer of Progress Through Business, a national nonprofit focused on economic development, supporting lower-income employees and sustainability. He also served on the Board of Trustees of the Community Reinvestment Fund and Board of Directors of the Center on Business and Poverty, the Advisory Boards of Wall Street Without Walls, and the Greater Washington Board of Trade’s Small Business Network.
Andrew Hewitt
Founder & CEO, GameChangers 500
Andrew Hewitt is the Founder of GameChangers 500, an organization that shines the spotlight on the world’s top For-Benefit businesses. Considered an alternative to lists like the Fortune 500, GameChangers 500 looks beyond revenue as the “point system” and awards organizations up to 9 badges that represent symbols of success in this “new game” of business. His research has led him to be featured in major media such as BBC World News, Forbes and Fast Company, speak at premier venues such as TEDx and the Social Entrepreneurship World Forum, and work with both innovative new companies like Zappos.com as well as consult century old corporations like Kraft Foods that are transitioning to the “new game”. Andrew’s passion to inspire young leaders to seek careers at For Benefit companies has him actively involved with universities such as Princeton, Harvard, and the United Nations University for Peace. After years of growing up in snowy Canada, Andrew now spends most of his time defrosting in Encinitas California where he is leading the charge to build a regional ecosystem to support local For-Benefit businesses.
Rajiv Joshi
Managing Director, The B Team
Rajiv Joshi is the Managing Director for The B Team based in New York. He formerly served as Acting Executive Director and Head of Programs for the Global Call to Action against Poverty (GCAP), the world’s largest civil society alliance working to end poverty and inequality. During this time he led global action towards achievement of the Millennium Development Goals, supported ‘The Elders’ with their Every Human Has Rights initiative and helped spearhead citizen participation in the establishment of a Post 2015 Sustainable Development Framework as a co-founder of ‘The World We Want 2015’ initiative. Rajiv also currently serves as a Trustee of Oxfam where he advises on policy, campaigns and global programs and served as an elected Board Member and Corporate Secretary of CIVICUS: The World Alliance for Citizen Participation based in Johannesburg, where he represents civil society organizations in more than 100 countries and is the youngest director in the organization’s history. He also serves on the Board of the Centre for Scottish Public Policy and has previously worked as a Senior Public Sector Consultant with CapGemini. From 2005-2007 Rajiv served 2 elected terms as Chair of the Scottish Youth Parliament, during which time he was also a Senior Advisor to the British Council and a publicly appointed member of the Equality and Human Rights Commission Scotland Committee. In 2008 Rajiv founded the CIVICUS Youth Assembly and continues to drive the development of a Youth Participation Index. Rajiv’s parents were born and raised in Kisumu, Kenya, with his family originating from Gujarat India, but migrating to Scotland after the spread of violence in neighboring Uganda. He holds a First Class Honors Degree in Economics from the University of Strathclyde and a Masters in Public Policy and Administration (MPA) with a focus on International Economic Policy from the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University.
Christopher Meyer
Founder and CEO, Nerve; Author, Standing on the Sun
Chris’s mission is to anticipate and shape the future of business, a goal he has pursued as entrepreneur, executive, consultant, author, and as the leader of Ernst & Young’s Center for Business Innovation. Chris’ fourth book, Standing on the Sun, was published by Harvard Business School Press in February 2012. The Financial Times called it “The antidote to pessimism of the post-crisis world,” and named it as one of the Best Books of 2012. Chris’ previous books include the BusinessWeek Best Seller Blur: The Speed of Change in the Connected Economy. He blogs on the Harvard Business Review site and is a judge of HBR’s McKinsey Award. Chris has contributed to publications including Harvard Business Review, Sloan Management Review, Fast Company, TIME, The Wall Street Journal, and BusinessWeek. From 2004 to 2009 he was the Founder and Chief Executive of Monitor Networks and of Monitor Talent, both Monitor Group companies. The business plan was based on another of Chris’ books, Future Wealth. Prior to joining Monitor Group, Chris was the Director of the Center for Business Innovation at Cap Gemini Ernst & Young. Earlier, he was a Vice President and Group Head at Mercer Management Consulting, where from 1984 to 1995 he founded and built the firm’s practice serving the digital industries. Chris holds BAs in both Mathematics and Economics from Brandeis University and a M.B.A. (with Distinction) from The Harvard Business School. In addition, he held a University Predoctoral Fellowship in Economics at the University of Pennsylvania. He serves on the Boards of Bios, the Bankinter Foundation for Innovation, the Business Innovation Factory, and the New Rep Theater, and the Advisory Boards of Innocentive, LaunchCyte and CyberKey.
Thomas Policelli
CEO, Minuteman Health
Mr. Policelli joined Minuteman Health as CEO in December 2012 after having served in an interim role. Minuteman is a new insurance offering in Massachusetts and New Hampshire. Co-sponsored by leading providers, Minuteman is the first member-governed healthplan in the market. Members vote for Board members, and any profits will be returned to members in the form of lower premiums or increased benefits. By working closely with physicians and hospitals, Minuteman is able to make quality care more cost-effective and accountable. Tom is a lifelong insurance and healthcare services executive who has operated in both the large company and startup arenas. He has worked at large insurers CIGNA (twice) and ran the iPlan business at United Healthcare, co-founded independent startups BenefitsFactory, Averde Health, and Braeburn Advisors, consulted to many health insurance and services providers while at Monitor Company and independently, and created new companies PNW and OnePay when working within larger companies. Tom graduated Wesleyan University with a BA in History and received his MBA from the Harvard Business School. He, his wife, and four children live in Connecticut.
Mark Prater
Deputy Staff Director and Chief Tax Counsel, Senate Finance Committee
Mark Prater graduated from Portland State University in 1981 with a B.S. in accounting. He also obtained a J.D. from Willamette University in 1984 and an LL.M. in Taxation from the University of Florida in 1987. Mr. Prater became a member of the Oregon and Washington State bars in 1984 and a certified public accountant in Washington in 1986. He practiced with Touche Ross from 1984 to 1986 and a Portland law firm, Dunn, Carney et al. from 1987 to 1990. From January 1990 through November 1993, Mr. Prater served as a tax counsel on the Republican staff of the U.S. Senate Finance Committee. Since November 1993, Mr. Prater has served as Chief Tax Counsel on the Republican staff of the Senate Finance Committee and since January 2007, has also served as Deputy Staff Director of the Republican staff. In September of 2011, Mr. Prater was selected as Staff Director for the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction, (“JSCDR”) i.e. the Super Committee. Mark and his wife Lori live with their son James near Capitol Hill. When Mark isn’t working, he enjoys watching the Washington Capitals.
Robin Raj
Founder and Executive Creative Director, Citizen Group
As an award-winning creative director and copywriter, Robin has contributed to some of the world’s best-known brands and organizations for more than three decades. Today, Robin leads Citizen Group, by building ‘citizen brands’ and developing pro-social campaigns and initiatives for clients such as Amnesty International, Cisco WebEx, Driscoll’s Berries, McKesson/HealthMart, Major League Baseball, Pabst Brewing, Rock the Vote, NRDC, USA Network, United Nations, Wal-Mart (sustainability initiative), and WWF Climate Savers. Over the past decade, Robin’s work has helped give rise to the Green Sports movement through his defining work with NRDC and the Green Sports Alliance. Robin’s past credits include the “Imagine” and “Instant Karma” campaigns for Amnesty International, based on the songs of John Lennon, which ran in more than 65 countries, and his work at Chiat/Day in the 1980s, where he created the NYNEX Yellow Pages “Human Cartoons” campaign, voted one of Adweek’s 25 Greatest Ad Campaigns. Robin previously co-founded Collaborate, where he led creative development for Gore-Tex, Microsoft, Coca-Cola, Sierra Club, General Motors, Mastercard, PBS, and Virgin Records. He began his career at Hal Riney & Partners and Foote Cone Belding/SF, creating campaigns for AT&T, Levi’s, Coors, Gallo, and VISA. In 1990, Robin was named to AdWeek’s Creative All-Stars list; he currently serves on the Sustainable Brands Board of Advisors.
Heerad Sabeti
Convening Trustee, Fourth Sector Networks
As a serial entrepreneur and systems thinker, Heerad Sabeti is devoted to pursuing systemic solutions to complex social, environmental and economic challenges. For over 20 years, he has been working toward the development of a fourth sector of organizations at the intersection of the public, private and social sectors. The fourth sector is comprised of for-benefit enterprises that are designed to seamlessly integrate public purposes with business means, harnessing entrepreneurial energy to shape a more sustainable, inclusive, and resilient economy. To accelerate the fourth sector’s development, Sabeti has been a driving force behind numerous national and international initiatives. He has served as an advisor to governments, corporations and NGOs on multi-sector partnerships, sustainable economic development and entrepreneurial solutions to social and environmental challenges. He is co-founder and former CEO of TransForms, FB, a social enterprise that pioneered an innovative category of art and décor products for consumer and commercial use worldwide. TransForms served as a laboratory for the development of the for-benefit enterprise model, with embedded commitments to a social purpose, inclusive ownership and governance, social and environmental responsibility, fair compensation, and transparency. Sabeti serves or has served on the advisory boards of the Clinton Global Initiative, Center for International Business Education and Research at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business, the Aspen Institute’s Intersectoral Relations Initiative, and The B Team.
Russell Sullivan
Partner, McGuireWoods LLP
Russ is a former staff director of the U.S. Senate Finance Committee and has experience dealing with virtually every major sector of the economy. Russ has been at the center of every major tax policy debate in Washington for the past 15 years. He has directed the development of tax policy impacting non-profits and fourth sector entities, such as health Co-ops, during his tenure working for former Senator Max Baucus (D-MT). Russ serves on the board of Capital Area REACH, a mentoring non-profit with aspirations for developing fourth sector enterprises. He has served as legal or designated guardian for 18 teenage boys. McGuireWoods represents hundreds of clients in the non-profit and social enterprise space.