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Social Advisory Board

Edward Tasch, Chairman

Edward "Woody" Tasch is Chairman of Investors’ Circle. From 1992-1997, he was Treasurer of the Noyes Foundation, which has undertaken a range of initiatives to integrate its asset management and philanthropic purpose, including shareholder activism, portfolio screening and mission-related venture capital. In this role he managed a venture fund making mission-related early and later stage private equity investments. He was founding Chair of the Community Development Venture Capital Alliance and he serves as President of the Blue Dot Foundation, which promotes sustainable development in Nantucket, MA. Previously, he was a principal with Prince Ventures, a medical venture fund. He has served on the boards of a number of private companies and non-profit organizations.

 

Alan AtKisson

Alan AtKisson is the President and Founder of AtKisson + Associates. He is the author of Believing Cassandra: An Optimist Looks at a Pessimist's World, published by Chelsea Green in the fall of 1999. He is Director of Arts & Culture for the Sustainability Institute in Vermont, and a former Senior Fellow and Executive Director with the independent policy institute Redefining Progress. He is also a member of the international Consultative Group on Sustainable Development Indicators.

 

Joan Bavaria

Joan Bavaria is founder and CEO of Trillium Asset Management, an employee-owned investment advisor with thirty-four employees and approximately $700 million under management that services clients with a concern for the social and environmental impacts of their investments. The company has published research on social issues and investments since 1982, works with clients and companies on their social and environmental management issues, contributes significant resources to social activism and community work, and donates 5% of its before-tax profits to charitable causes. Ms. Bavaria is also the Founding Chair of the Coalition for Environmentally Responsible Economies (CERES) and served as Chair from 1989 to 2001. In 1981, she co-founded the Social Investment Forum, an organization of research, advisory, banking and community loan fund organizations engaged in socially responsible investing. She served as President of the Forum for four years and served on the Board for eight years.

 

Cathy Clark

Cathy Clark is Founder and President of the Flatiron Foundation, and Adjunct Professor at the Lang Center for Entrepreneurship and Social Enterprise Program at Columbia Business School. Previously, she was Vice President of the Markle Foundation, helped manage the Communications and Society Program of the Aspen Institute, and worked on international development aid to Pakistan. She is currently teaching, doing research, and developing curriculum in social entrepreneurship for Columbia University, and is the east coast Faculty Advisor to the National Social Venture Competition, which motivates and rewards MBA students around the country involved in new social ventures. In addition to her work with several nonprofit organizations working to help technology address public needs, she also serves as advisor to the New Schools Venture Fund, board member of Investors’ Circle, and New York host for Springboard Enterprises, which has helped women entrepreneurs raise over $450 million since late 1999.

 

John P. DeVillars

John P. DeVillars is Executive Vice President of Brownfields Recovery Corporation, a real estate investment and development firm that acquires, remediates, and redevelops environmentally impacted properties. Prior to this, Mr. DeVillars served as the New England Administrator for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Secretary of the Environment for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. He has also been Chairman of the Board for the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority, Chief of Operations for Governor Michael S. Dukakis, and Director of the Environmental Services Group for Coopers & Lybrand. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of four environmental businesses and several environmental non-profit organizations. Mr. DeVillars holds a Masters of Public Administration from Harvard University and a BA from the University of Pennsylvania. He is currently a Visiting Lecturer in Environmental Studies in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

 

Jed Emerson

Jed Emerson is a Senior Fellow with the Hewlett Foundation as well as a recent Bloomberg Senior Research Fellow in Philanthropy at Harvard Business School. In September 2001, Jed will join the faculty of the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University. He has been the Executive Director of the Roberts Enterprise Development Fund (where he is currently an Advisory Board member). The Nonprofit Times has twice selected Jed as one of the "Top 50 Most Influential People in the Nonprofit Sector," individuals whose thoughts and work are felt to have significant impact on how the sector evolves in the coming century.

 

Gary Hirshberg

Gary Hirshberg has been the President and CEO of Stonyfield Farm Yogurt since 1983, just a few months after the company was founded. In the early days, Gary wore many hats—from yogurt maker to bookkeeper. He even doubled as Director of the Rural Education Center, the small organic farm school from which Stonyfield Farm was spawned. Today, Gary oversees the nation’s fastest growing yogurt company with distribution in all 50 states. His signature style of social entrepreneurship includes using his yogurt business (and yogurt lids!) to show that business and industry can and should adopt social and environmental practices.

 

   
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