Advisory Board

With nearly three decades of experience in developing and implementing strategies in the institutional investment industry, Lauryn Agnew provides leadership and insight to public fund trustees, non-profit boards and committees and to investment consulting and advisory firms. 

Lauryn serves not only as a resource to non-profit organizations for investment consulting services and provides fiduciary education and trustee training for public fund and non-profit board and committee members, she also offers strategic marketing analysis and recommendations to firms with specialized investment strategies.

Currently, Lauryn is a Trustee on the Board of the San Mateo County Employees’ Retirement Association (SamCERA), is Chair of both investment committees at the United Way of the Bay Area and the Girl Scouts of Northern California, and is a member of the finance committee of the Immaculate Conception Academy of San Francisco. Lauryn has a BA degree in Economics from Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington and an MBA in Finance from the University of Oregon. She is a member of the CFA Society of San Francisco and the Financial Women’s Association of San Francisco.

Katherine Collins is Founder and CEO of Honeybee Capital, an investment research firm focused on sustainable investment issues. Previously, she had a long career at Fidelity Management and Research Company, where she served in numerous capacities; as Head of US Equity Research, she led one of the largest buy-side research operations in the world. As Portfolio Manager, she was solely responsible for investment decisions for the multi-billion dollar Fidelity America funds while based in London, and for the entire range of Fidelity Mid-Cap Funds while based in Boston. Every fund that Katherine managed at Fidelity outperformed its relevant benchmark index during her tenure. As Analyst, she managed several different industry-specific funds and researched over a dozen different industries. Katherine also spent two years at the Fidelity Foundations, acting as Program Officer for these large philanthropic organizations.

She has traveled the world as an active volunteer for Habitat for Humanity, and has held numerous volunteer positions with Wellesley College and its Business Leadership Council. Katherine serves as Co-Chair of the Board of Common Impact, a nonprofit that facilitates collaborations between global companies and local nonprofits, and as a member of the Board of Overseers of the Brigham and Women’s Hospital. She is an alumna of Wellesley College, holds a CFA designation, and is currently pursuing graduate studies at the Harvard Divinity School.

Dan Crisafulli created Potrero Impact Advisors in October 2010, building on a long career as an early stage investor focused on emerging markets. Previously, he served as director of investments at the Skoll Foundation, which he joined in 2007. A leader in “new philanthropy” and social investing, the Skoll Foundation was created by eBay founding president Jeff Skoll with the goal of driving large-scale change through entrepreneurial approaches. Dan led Skoll’s work in impact investing, including direct and fund investments, and he played a key role in creating partnerships to advance the field of social entrepreneurship.

Stephen DeBerry makes angel and venture capital investments in companies that align strong financial returns with positive social impact. He is the Chief Investment Officer at Kapor Enterprises and the Founder of Bronze Investments. His fiduciary responsibilities exceed $4 billion.

Previously, Stephen was Investment Director at Omidyar Network, the mission-based investment firm started by eBay Founder Pierre Omidyar and his wife, Pam. Before that Stephen was a Senior Manager of Business Development at Interval Research, the research lab established by Microsoft Co-Founder, Paul Allen.

Stephen is a Trustee and Member of the Investment Committee at The California Endowment. He is the Chairman of Friends of New Orleans and also serves on the boards of The Association of Marshall Scholars and The Dalai Lama Foundation. Stephen earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Anthropology with highest honors from UCLA as well as a Master’s Degree in Social Anthropology and a Master of Business Administration Degree from Oxford University. He is a Marshall Scholar and a Crown Fellow at the Aspen Institute.

Janice is a Portfolio Manager in the Corporate Governance unit at the California State Teachers’ Retirement System (CalSTRS). CalSTRS is a public pension fund established for the benefit of the California public school teachers over 80 years ago. CalSTRS serves over 800,000 members, retirees and beneficiaries. CalSTRS is a defined benefit plan. As of December, 2010, the fund had approximately $149 billion in assets; Corporate Governance represents about $3 billion of these assets. The remainder is allocated to fixed income, global equities, real estate, and alternative investments. Janice is responsible for the day-to-day management and the development of policies and guidelines relative to the relational investment managers and corporate affairs.

Janice is a graduate of Trinity College in Hartford, attended Albany Law School and has done extensive coursework in the Masters in Economics program at Trinity. Janice has over twenty years of experience in the investments area, almost equally split between the public and private sectors. CalSTRS’ Corporate Governance guidelines and most recent fiscal year domestic proxy votes can be found on the fund’s web site at calstrs.com.

Dr. Charly Kleissner is a philanthropic entrepreneur utilizing his high technology background in his venture philanthropy. Together with his wife, Lisa, he co-founded KL Felicitas Foundation (http://www.klfelicitasfoundation.org) which focuses on enabling social entrepreneurs, empowering rural communities, and advocating sustainability, mission, and social investment strategy. Charly is also Co-Founder of the Social-Impact Initiative (http://www.social-impact.org), helping social entrepreneurs worldwide to accelerate and increase their social impact. Charly serves on the Advisory Board of multiple not-for-profit companies such as Acumen Fund, Global Social Benefit Incubator at Santa Clara University, and Global Philanthropy Forum.

Charly is supporting multiple social venture and micro financing funds committed to double and triple bottom line returns. He is on the Advisory Council of MicroVest and Acumen Capital Market I.

Charly has over twenty years of experience as a senior technology executive in Silicon Valley. He held executive and senior engineering management positions at Ariba Inc., NeXT Software Inc., Digital Equipment Corp., and Hewlett-Packard Company.

Charly earned his MS and PhD in Computer Science from the University of Technology, Vienna. He authored two software patents and published numerous articles. Charly received the ‘Distinguished Alumnus’ award from the University of Technology, Vienna.

Lisa Kleissner is the president of the KL Felicitas Foundation, a family foundation she co-founded with her husband, Charly, in 2000. The Foundation is dedicated to supporting programs that: Empower rural communities and families through sustainable economic and social change; enable social entrepreneurs worldwide to develop and grow economically sustainable, scalable enterprises with high measurable social impact; and advocate their Foundation’s sustainability, mission, and social investment strategy with foundations and socially minded individual investors.

Lisa provides pro-bono architectural, project and construction management services for non-profits both locally and internationally with a focus on culturally appropriate and sustainable design. Additionally, Lisa has led fund raising efforts for a variety of both local and international non-profits focusing on capital and endowment campaigns.

Lisa was raised in Hawaii, attended the Kamehameha Schools and the University of Hawaii at Manoa graduating with a BArch in Environmental Design. She was the Vice President of an architectural firm in Hawaii doing work in Hong Kong, Singapore, Sri Lanka and Malaysia. Most recently, she was the President of The Kleissner Group, an architectural and project management firm in Silicon Valley.

For more information on their Foundation’s investment strategy, check out http://www.klfelicitasfoundation.org.

Raúl Pomares is a Senior Managing Director of Sonen Capital LLC, where he leads the firm’s overall investment and business activities, and maintains portfolio management responsibilities for select accounts. Prior to forming Sonen, Raúl served as a Managing Director at Springcreek Advisors, where he was in charge of the firm’s portfolio strategy. Previously, Raúl was a Portfolio Manager at Guggenheim Investment Advisors, where he developed integrated multi-manager portfolios for institutional and high net worth clients. In particular, Raúl applied his expertise across a broad range of impact investment themes to create an integrated manager research and portfolio construction methodology for investors. Earlier in his career, Raúl co-founded a boutique wealth management firm where he directed client services and portfolio management. He has also served as an investment advisor, international private banker and consultant on behalf of global financial institutions and private investors.

Raúl is the co-author of Solutions for Impact Investors: From Strategy to Implementation, published in 2009 by Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors. He is supporting author to Promoting Sustainable Food Systems through Impact Investing, published by the Springcreek Foundation in June of 2011. He is an internationally recognized speaker and contributor to numerous publications on innovative investment solutions for return-oriented investors seeking measurable impact. Raúl serves as a Mentor for the “Global Social Benefit Incubator” (GSBI™), the signature program of Santa Clara University’s Center for Science, Technology and Society. In addition, he is an advisor to the Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN) Impact Base, an initiative to assemble a global comprehensive database of impact investments; and to EKO Asset Management Partner, an environmental market focused asset manager He received his B.S. in International Business Management from the University of San Francisco. He is fluent in Spanish.

Christa Velasquez is a Senior Fellow with the Initiative for Responsible Investment (IRI) at the Hauser Center for Nonprofit Organizations at Harvard University. Her work at IRI includes the integration of industry networks More for Mission and the PRI Makers Network, impact investing advocacy and policy, and the development of social impact bonds.

For the past nine years Christa was the Director of Social Investments at the Annie E. Casey Foundation, a private charitable organization whose principal mission is to help build better futures for disadvantaged children and families in the US. She was responsible for managing the foundation’s $125 million social investment fund. Her work encompassed all aspects of social investing, including program design, developing investment strategies, underwriting and structuring investments and portfolio management. In addition to the investment portfolio, she helped develop the impact investing field and was a co- founder of the More for Mission Campaign and the PRI Makers Network.

Prior to joining the Foundation, Christa spent six years at the consulting firm Brody-Weiser-Burns, specializing in social investing, community development finance and business planning for social enterprises. She received a bachelor’s degree in Latin American studies from the University of Chicago and an M.B.A. from the Yale School of Management.