National Board of Trustees
Nadine Terman-Chair [bio]
Director, Solstein Capital Partners L.P.
San Francisco, California
Melissa Buckley-Vice Chair [bio]
Health Care Consultant
San Francisco, California
Elizabeth Hannaford-Vice Chair [bio]
Community Volunteer
Wayzata, Minnesota
Trevor Watt- Treasurer [bio]
Managing Director, Hellman & Friedman, LLC
San Francisco, California
José Davila-Secretary [bio]
Vice President, Field Human Resources, Gap
North America
San Francisco, California
Andrew Ach [bio]
Partner, Norcross Hill & Ach
San Francisco, California
Timothy Barton [bio]
Managing Partner, Barton Executive Search
Atlanta, GA
Alex Bender [bio]
Audit Partner, Ernst & Young
San Francisco, California
Lyné Brown [bio]
Vice President, Customer Capability Development, The Clorox Company
Oakland, California
Mark Desjardins [bio]
Headmaster, St. John's School
Houston, Texas
Matthew Gunn [bio]
MBA Candidate, University of Chicago
San Francisco, California
Charles Johnson [bio]
General Manager of Mobile Advertising, Microsoft
Redmond, Washington
Sheila Larsen [bio]
Community Volunteer
San Francisco, California
Robert Macrae [bio]
Head of School, Cincinnati Country Day
Cincinnati, Ohio
Elizabeth Fisher Marshall [bio]
Vice President, Real Assets, Hall Capital Partners LLC
San Francisco, California
Robert Morse [bio]
Partner, Oak Hill Capital Management
Portola Valley, California
Eve Niquette [bio]
Community Volunteer
San Francisco, California
Kausik Rajgopal [bio]
Principal, McKinsey & Company
San Francisco, California
June Rimmer [bio]
Program Director, Stupski Foundation
San Francisco, California
Van Sapp [bio]
Senior Vice President, PepsiCola
Chicago, Illinois
Michael Schweitzer [bio]
Deputy Head of Products and Services and Head
of P&S Consulting, UBS Financial Services Inc.
New York, New York
Nerine Torres [bio]
Assistant Vice President, Chubb Insurance
San Francisco, California
Glen Tripp [bio]
Chief Executive Officer, Galileo Learning
Oakland/San Francisco, California
Mike Van Leesten [bio]
Executive Director, Breakthrough New Haven at the Hopkins School
New Haven, Connecticut
Joanie Wattles [bio]
Committee Member, Breakthrough Kent Denver
Denver, Colorado
Tania Wilcox [bio]
Executive Director, Breakthrough Silicon Valley
San Jose, California
Eric Fischer [bio]
Interim Executive Director,
Breakthrough Collaborative
San Francisco, California
Andrew Ach is a partner at a public finance advisory firm, Norcross Hill & Ach, and has been advising public agencies, in particular public school districts, on how to raise money through municipal bonds and other instruments for the better part of two decades. He served for nine years on the Board of Trustees of The Urban School of San Francisco, an independent high school, as Treasurer, Chair of the Finance Committee, and member of the Executive Committee. He has also served on the boards of the Haight Ashbury Free Clinic and the Fromm Institute for Lifelong Learning at University of San Francisco. Andy received a B.S. in Political Science from UC Riverside, and an M.B.A. from the Anderson School of Management at UCLA. Andy and his wife, Linda, live with their three children in San Francisco.
Timothy Barton is the founder and Managing Partner of Barton Executive Search in Atlanta, Ga. Under Tim's direction, Barton Executive Search has become a recognized leader in the executive search industry. Prior to founding Barton Executive Search, Tim functioned as a sales executive with Procter & Gamble. Tim also serves on the board of Breakthrough Atlanta, which is an affiliate of Breakthrough Collaborative. Tim received his B.S. in Business Administration from Bryant University.
Alex Bender is an Audit Partner with Ernst & Young with over 15 years of experience providing assurance and advisory services to technology and life science clients. He has effectively designed and executed integrated audits for multinational clients, including providing detailed analysis and consultations regarding PCAOB regulations, and has extensive experience in public stock and debt offerings, including initial public offerings, business combinations and private placements. Alex has played a key role in helping his clients work through the details of a variety of corporate transactions, including revenue agreements, restructurings, and mergers and acquisitions. In addition, Alex has extensive experience with Securities and Exchange Commission rules and regulations. Alex holds a B.S. in Accounting from University of Southern California, is a Certified Public Accountant, licensed in California, and is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the California Society of Certified Public Accountants.
Lyné Brown is Vice President of Customer Capability Development at The Clorox Company. She brings 25 years of experience in consumer product sales, general management, strategy, supply chain management and planning. Lyné has held a variety of cross-functional assignments with Clorox, including Vice President of Sales Laundry & Homecare Division, Director - Manager Information Process and Director of Corporate Sales Planning. Prior to joining Clorox in 1999 Lyné functioned as the Senior Director of Sales at Tropicana Products, Inc., and previously worked at The Clorox Company and Procter & Gamble in sales and sales planning roles. Lyné holds her B.S. in Mathematics from University of Florida, Gainesville.
Melissa Buckley works with the California Healthcare Foundation, building their capability to do mission and program related investments. She formerly served as an independent strategic consultant to non-profits and healthcare companies. Her clients include Room to Read, the California HealthCare Foundation, and the United Way Bay Area. Prior to working independently, Melissa was a consultant at McKinsey & Co in New York and San Francisco. She has also worked in Investment Banking at J.P Morgan and at the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights in Washington DC. Currently, Melissa is also a Trustee for the SMART Program, a non-profit organization that provides scholarship and social and academic support to low-income middle-school students. Melissa graduated from Stanford University with a degree in Human Biology and from Harvard University with a Masters in Public Policy. She and her husband, Raj Atluru, reside in San Francisco with their three young children.
José Davila leads human resources functions for all of the Gap stores in the U.S. and Canada. He recently returned from an expatriate role in Japan where he served as the human resources leader for the domestic business including both Gap and Banana Republic. Prior to Gap, José was responsible for driving the people integration agenda for Diageo during their acquisition of the Joseph E. Seagram business. During his career he has also served in various global human resources leadership roles in Godiva, Campbell Soup and Nabisco. José holds a Masters Degree in Adult and Workplace Education from Columbia University, and a B.S. in Industrial and Labor Relations from Cornell University. He currently resides in Mill Valley, California with his wife, Meghan, and their two children.
Mark Desjardins is Headmaster of St. John’s School in Houston, host institution to Breakthrough Houston. Mark taught, coached and performed administrative duties at Hotchkiss School and Cushing Academy; served as Assistant Headmaster, then Headmaster, at Texas Military Institute where he led a very notable turnaround, and; served as Headmaster of Holland Hall in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He joined St. John’s last year. Mark serves on the Executive Committee of the Southwest Preparatory Conference, as a trustee of the Independent School Association of the Southwest, and as President of the Southwest Association of Episcopal Schools. He has also been involved with KIPP for 10 years, having served as a founding board member of KIPP Tulsa and currently serving on the Executive Board of KIPP Houston. Mark, who was a distinguished student-athlete at Bates College and graduated with a B.A. in East Asian Studies in 1989, earned a Ph.D. in 1995 from the University of Virginia in the History of American Education. Mark is also a Klingenstein Fellow.
Matthew Gunn served as a research assistant to former Secretary of State George Schultz at the Hoover Institute from 2005 to 2009. Among the works he has co-authored include analyses of energy, social security, and health care policy. Matt is a graduate of Stanford University. As a graduate student at University of Chicago, Matt is eager to spread the Breakthrough message to a new generation of supporters.
Elizabeth Hannaford currently serves on the boards of The Guthrie Theater and Graywolf Press, and is an active volunteer at The Blake School in Minneapolis. She is a former board member of Planned Parenthood of Minnesota and the Ripley Foundation. Betsy graduated from Pomona College and NYU School of Law.
Charles Johnson, General Manager of Mobile Advertising at Microsoft, manages the overall Mobile Advertising division and is responsible for developing the Mobile Advertising and partner syndication strategy. He works directly with the Mobile Advertising research and development team to develop product requirements for a variety of customers, including advertisers, publishers, mobile carriers, and device makers. He drives cross-company efforts with the Windows Mobility team to develop a comprehensive Microsoft Mobile Advertising monetization strategy and leads the execution of thought leadership initiatives, trade marketing and sales execution in concert with Sales, Marketing and the Consumer & Online teams. Charles earned his B.A. in Business Administration from the United States Military Academy, West Point.
Sheila Larsen has been long involved in Bay Area civic affairs. She has been affiliated with San Francisco School Volunteers, the Northern California chapter of Achievement Rewards for College Scientists, the San Francisco Educational Fund, and the Children’s Theatre Association of San Francisco. A graduate of Stanford, Ms. Larsen earned a master’s degree from Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism and an M.B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business. A professional actor, she also worked as the director of operations for Levi Strauss and director of volunteer activities for the San Francisco Symphony.
Robert Macrae is the Head of School at Cincinnati Country Day School in Cincinnati, Ohio. He previously spent seventeen years at The Pingry School in New Jersey where he was Assistant Headmaster, Head of the Middle School, Head of the Upper School, teacher, advisor, and coach. In addition to being a member of the Board of Trustees for Breakthrough Cincinnati, Inc., he is also currently a member of the Board for The Fund for Independent Schools of Cincinnati, Inc. (FISC) and Queen City Foundation. Rob received his Doctor of Education degree and a M.A. in educational administration from Teachers College, Columbia University. He graduated from Wesleyan University with a B.A. in economics, mathematics and computer science, and holds an additional M.A. in educational administration and policy analysis from Stanford University.
Elizabeth Fisher Marshall is a Vice President at Hall Capital Partners LLC focusing on Real Assets. Ms. Marshall is responsible for research, identification, due diligence, and monitoring of investments. Ms. Marshall joined Hall Capital's Private Equity Research group in 2007 as an Associate and was promoted to Vice President in 2009. She moved to the Real Assets group in 2010. Prior to joining the Firm, she worked at Goldman Sachs where she was most recently an Associate in the Equities Division in London, and previously worked in the Investment Management Division in Chicago. Lizzie holds her A.B. in International Relations from Brown University and her M.B.A. from Stanford Graduate School of Business.
Robert Morse is a Partner of Oak Hill Capital Management and has been with the firm since 2001. He focuses on investments in the technology industry, and he is a member of the firm’s Investment Committee. He currently serves on the board of directors of Aerion Corporation, Monsoon Commerce, Oversee.net, SVTC Technologies, TelecityGroup plc (London stock exchange: TCY) and ViaWest. Prior to joining Oak Hill, he worked at GCC Investments, a growth private equity firm based in Boston, at Loudcloud, an internet infrastructure provider, and at Morgan Stanley. Mr. Morse earned a BSE degree in Civil Engineering & Operations Research, summa cum laude, from Princeton University and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business, where he was an Arjay Miller Scholar. He serves on the board of the Baby Alex Foundation, a non-profit organization supporting pediatric brain injury research, and on the Advisory Council for the Windmill School, a non-profit preschool. He lives in Portola Valley, California with his wife and three daughters.
Eve Niquette taught middle and high school mathematics in the Piedmont Unified School District for 7 years. She holds a B.S. in Computer Science, as well as, a B.A. and an Ed.M. in Mathematics Education from Boston University. Since starting a family, Eve has devoted considerable time to the Bay Area Discovery Museum – initially serving on the Discovery Council for 4 years and then serving 6 years on the Board of Trustees, where she was Board President. Eve additionally served on the Board of Lone Mountain Children’s Center and is actively involved in her daughters’ school. Eve grew up in Vermont and currently resides in San Francisco with her husband, Charles Pohl and three daughters.
Kausik Rajgopal is a principal in the San Francisco office of McKinsey & Company and serves banks, asset managers, processors, private equity firms and insurance companies on a board range of organization and change management issues. He is the leader of the West Coast Payments and Organization practices and is co-leader of the Financial Services Organization Practice in North America. Kausik’s recent experience includes developing and designing a front-line transformation to enhance the customer orientation of a bank branch network; assessing cultural enablers and barriers and implementing a range of interventions to enable a successful merger integration; redesigning the organization of an asset manager to improve speed and effectiveness of decision-making; and identifying and addressing “blind spots” in the risk management culture of a large financial institution. Prior to McKinsey, Kausik graduated with distinction from Stanford University with degrees in Political Science and Industrial Engineering. He received his MBA from Stanford’s Graduate School of Business, where he was an Arjay Miller Scholar.
June Rimmer serves as Program Director at the Stupski Foundation. June joined the Stupski Foundation in 2004 after serving in urban education for over 30 years. She began her career as a high school English teacher in Indianapolis, where she also served as a high school principal, staff developer, multicultural consultant, grant writer, and program evaluator. In 1999, she moved to Seattle, where she served as chief academic officer of the Seattle Public Schools for five years. All of these experiences have enhanced her passion for education and social justice in America. June completed her undergraduate degree in English at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana, her master’s degree in Counseling at Butler University in Indianapolis, and her doctorate in Educational Leadership and Curriculum and Instruction from Indiana University in Bloomington.
Van Sapp spent 20+ years with Kraft Foods and has since worked for 10+ years with PepsiCo, focusing on product sales, brand building and strategic planning. In his current position with PepsiCo, Van is responsible for revenue of $11 billion across some of CPG’s most respected brands: Quaker, Tropicana, Dole Juice, Gatorade and Propel. He leads a diverse team across two go-to-market systems; traditional warehouse and a chilled direct store delivery. He heads a sales force of 1,200 direct employees and 1,300 broker store representatives who cross all the major sale functions including strategic accounts, sales planning, shopper marketing, field management, capabilities, category management/insights retail execution and logistics. Van earned a B.A. in Business Administration from Tuskegee University and an M.B.A. in Marketing from Atlanta University.
Michael Schweitzer is Managing Director of Private Wealth Services at UBS. Prior to UBS, Mr. Schweitzer worked for 14 years at Merrill Lynch, most recently as Head of Sales for Private Wealth Management. He spent three years previous as a CPA with Deloitte and Touche. A San Diego native, Mr. Schweitzer received his B.S. in Business Administration from San Diego State University. He lives with his wife, Lisa, their two boys and two dogs.
Nadine Terman and her husband are strong believers in the link between education and lifetime achievement. Although she learned a significant amount through her husband's leadership positions at several Bay Area, education-focused non profits, Nadine wanted a more direct impact on improving educational opportunities for our youth and, thus, joined Breakthrough Collaborative. She is currently a Director at Solstein Capital Partners L.P. Previously, Nadine was a Partner with Blum Capital, an investment firm focused on both public and private equity markets, working extensively with portfolio companies' management teams and boards of directors on business, financial, and governance initiatives. Nadine has a B.A. with Honors and with Distinction from Stanford University, and she has an M.B.A. from the Stanford Graduate School of Business, where she was an Arjay Miller Scholar.
Nerine Torres is an Assistant Vice President at Chubb Insurance, a leading global property and casualty insurance firm. Nerine has been with Chubb for over 13 years and is currently an Executive Underwriter for Specialty Insurance focused on Directors and Officers Insurance for publicly traded corporations. Nerine leads Chubb’s Technology Group on the West Coast. Prior to her executive underwriter position, she held various management positions within the Company. Nerine is active in the Bay Area community. She is currently an auxiliary member of Edgewood Center for Children and Families and is responsible for organizing an annual luncheon, which is one of the major fundraising events for the year. Nerine was previously involved with Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation in various leadership and volunteer roles. Nerine and her husband, J.C., live in San Francisco. Nerine holds her B.A. in Business from University of Washington.
Glen Tripp is the founder and CEO of Galileo Learning a summer camp program for K-12 students in the San Francisco Bay Area. While an undergrad at Stanford University, Glen ha his first camp job at Stanford Sierra Camp and discovered the joy of working with kids outside of school. A few years after graduating, he was named Vice President of Operations at SCORE! Educational Centers and helped lead its expansion over a six year period. In 2001 Glen returned to his camp roots and founded Galileo to fulfill a dream of developing a camp that nurtures creativity in young people. Glen and his wife Lauren are the parents of two boys, the oldest of whom has happily attended Camp Galileo for the past two years.
Mike Van Leesten left a career in finance, with companies such as Goldman Sachs and St. Paul Travelers after 16 years, to become a teacher. After teaching elementary grades at The Foote School, Mike moved to the Hopkins School in 2007 to become the Director of the Breakthrough New Haven site as well as a 7thgrade math teacher. Mike currently serves as the Chair of the Directors’ Council, a group of site directors who serve as a sounding board for the national office. Mike holds an A.B. in Economics and English from Dartmouth College and an M.B.A. in Finance from Columbia University.
Trevor Watt is Managing Director at Hellman & Friedman, a San Francisco-based private investment firm. Previously, he worked as an Executive Director in the Investment Banking Division at Morgan Stanley. Trevor holds an A.B. in Politics with high honors from Princeton University and an M.B.A. from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. His mother is a former teacher of romance languages at public schools in Los Angeles and Chicago, as well as in his original hometown of Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Joanie Wattles has a long-standing dedication to volunteering and has served as board and Committee member to organizations such as the Colorado Ballet, St. Paul’s School in Concord, New Hampshire, Kent Denver School, Breakthrough Kent Denver, Rio Grande School and Santa Fe Prep. Joan has been a long-time supporter of the Breakthrough Kent Denver and the Kent Denver School. She has seven kids and holds education as a top priority.
Tania Wilcox is Executive Director of Breakthrough Silicon Valley, has devoted her entire professional life to helping students overcome educational inequalities. As a Latina immigrant, as well as the first in her family to graduate from college, she has a clear understanding of the obstacles facing our students. She was the Director of the original Breakthrough site in San Francisco and led in the replication efforts of the Breakthrough model in the early ‘90's. By the time she left the organization in 1995, the program had been successfully replicated in 25 cities throughout the country. Tania went on to be the executive director of a social service agency for immigrant families, Families in Transition. She also supported the founding of Downtown College Prep and continues to serve on their Scholarship Committee. Tania has been a consultant, board member, and volunteer for various non-profit agencies serving under-resourced youth. Currently, Tania serves on the board of Reading Partners and is an SV2 partner. Tania holds a Bachelors degree from Wesleyan University and a Masters degree from Harvard University Graduate School of Education.
Eric Fischer, Interim Executive Director, brings over 15 years of experience in working with community-based, non-profit organizations in the areas of strategic financial & accounting management, organizational and fund development, and technological and human resource management. After graduating from Santa Clara University with bachelor’s degrees in accounting and decision & information sciences, Eric worked with a local CPA firm specializing in audit, accounting, and computer consulting services for professional services and not-for-profit organizations. He later spent 10 years with the Child Care Coordinating Council of San Mateo County as their Director of Finance & Administration, helping to facilitate the growth in their annual budget from $4 million to over $20 million during that time period. After moving to Marin County, Eric became the Chief Financial Officer for the Hospice of Marin (now Hospice By the Bay), assisting in the design and deployment of new financial, accounting, and budgeting systems that facilitated their strategic expansion into four Bay Area counties and the purchase of a new, modern headquarters facility in Larkspur, California. He also worked with other Marin-based community organizations including the Bernard Osher Marin Jewish Community Center and Dominican University of California. An advocate for excellent educational opportunities for all, Eric is the father of three children, an avid photographer, and an aspiring Latin jazz percussionist.