Our Board of Directors

Thomas Bird

Tom Bird is founder and president of the venture partnership Farm Capital Services, LLC. He was CEO of Farm, Inc. from 1988 until 1999, operating a venture-backed Silicon Valley information management firm that eventually provided data storage and retrieval services for more than one thousand clients. Tom is a trustee of the American University in Bulgaria, and also serves on the board of Microfinance International Corp and B Lab. Tom did his undergraduate work at Dartmouth College, and then went on to earn an MBA from Stanford University and a Master of Theological Studies degree from Harvard University. He frequently teaches a workshop at the Stanford Graduate School of Business that captures the essence of the Divinity School experience for interested MBA students and alumni.

Fran Hauser

Fran Hauser is President of Digital for Time Inc.'s Style and Entertainment (SEG) and Lifestyle Groups. In her role, she oversees PEOPLE.com , StyleFind, myrecipes.com and the digital properties for brands including Entertainment Weekly, InStyle, Essence, PEOPLEenEspanol and Real Simple. These sites reach over 38 million unique visitors each month and generate more than one billion page views. Hauser is also responsible for SEG's mobile and tablet strategy, which included the launch of over 20 products, reaching more than 4 million users, available on the mobile web or as applications. Hauser's career at Time Inc. began in 2003 when she was named Executive Producer, Time Inc. Interactive (TII) and she was later promoted to General Manager of TII. Prior to coming to Time Inc., she was a Vice President of AOL's Programming Group and also spent four years at Moviefone, where she played an integral role in the $400 million dollar sale of Moviefone to AOL. In 2011, Hauser was named to the FOLIO: 40, a list of some of the most distinguished magazine and media professionals from every corner of the industry. A summa cum laude graduate of Pace University, Hauser received both a BBA and MBA. She serves on the Board of Directors of both the Online Publishers Association (OPA) and the Young Women's Leadership Network.

A. J. Wasserstein

A. J. Wasserstein is a private investor, with a long-term orientation, interested in lower middle market businesses, and philanthropic organizations, where he can be positively impactful using his experiences, time and capital. A. J. was the founder and CEO of ArchivesOne, the third largest records management company in the United States. He successfully built ArchivesOne into a super-regional records management company employing 400 people before selling to Iron Mountain (NYSE: IRM) after 17 years of operation. At ArchivesOne, 38 acquisitions were successfully completed to supplement growth. A. J. graduated from Colgate University and received his MBA from New York University. He completed the Owner/President/Manager Executive Education Program at Harvard Business School. A. J. is the Chairman of American Auto Auction, LLC; a board member at Facility Maintenance, LLC; an Operating Partner at Baird Capital Partners; a trustee at the Connecticut Community Foundation and a trustee at Waterbury Hospital.

Dennis Whittle

Dennis Whittle is the co-founder of GlobalGiving. Before joining the World Bank in 1986, Dennis worked in the Philippines with the Asian Development Bank and with USAID. Until October 2000, Dennis was part of a troika that led the World Bank's Corporate Strategy and Innovation units. From 1992-1997, he led a variety of initiatives in the Bank's Russia program, including housing reform and energy efficiency projects. From 1987-1992, Dennis was an economist in the World Bank's Jakarta office advising the Indonesian Ministries of Finance and National Development, and managing projects in the agriculture and forestry sectors. Dennis graduated with honors in religious studies from the University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill and did his graduate work in development studies and economics at Princeton University. Dennis also completed the Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School.

Chris Wolz

Chris is President and CEO of Forum One Communications, overseeing overall business strategy and operations and advising clients in implementing innovative online services to accelerate their impact on important global problems. Chris is a regular speaker and trainer on online strategic communications for policy-focused organizations, web 2.0 for issue impact, the use of blogs and online collaborative tools, and building organizational structures to run successful web operations. Chris has worked in international development in rural Nepal, and as an environmental policy analyst in the Executive Office of the President/Office of Management and Budget. He has a degree in Civil and Environmental Engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and a Masters in Public Policy from Harvard's Kennedy School of Government.