Community Wealth Ventures: Our Board

Shari Berenbach, Executive Director of the Calvert Social Investment Foundation, has over 20 years experience spanning microcredit to international business. She joined Calvert Group in l997 to lead its Foundation. As Executive Director of the Calvert Foundation, Ms. Berenbach is dedicated to maximizing the flow of capital to disadvantaged communities. She is responsible for developing innovative financial instruments and raising investments from individuals and institutional investors. Ms. Berenbach oversees a staff of twelve professionals and administers a $45 million portfolio of loans to more than 170 community development institutions in the US and micro-finance lenders overseas. Total Calvert Foundation assets exceed $65 million.

Prior to joining the Calvert Foundation, Ms. Berenbach worked with the International Finance Corporation - the private sector side of the World Bank. Focusing on Central America and the Caribbean, she concentrated in project finance for the banking, power, telecommunications, tourism and agribusiness sectors, placing more than $250 million in project funding in the region.

Ms. Berenbach has also held private sector positions at Citibank, Salomon Brothers and a start-up international telecommunications company, Radio Movil Digital. In the non-profit sector, Shari served as Program Director for the US based non-governmental organization, Partnership for Productivity International. Ms. Berenbach began her professional career as an Officer of the National Cooperative Bank, where she was responsible for technical services to U.S. production cooperatives.

Ms. Berenbach has published numerous articles, including a l997 study on banking regulations for micro-finance institutions worldwide and a 1991 paper on solidarity group lending methods. Ms. Berenbach serves on the board of directors of the Social Investment Forum (the trade association for socially responsible investment professionals) and the Neighborhood Funders’ Group (a foundation affinity group).

Ms. Berenbach has an MBA in Finance from Columbia Business School and an MA in Latin American Studies from UCLA.

W. Lyles Carr III is Senior Vice President of The McCormick Group, a full-service executive search consulting firm. In 27 years with The McCormick Group, Mr. Carr has handled searches across a broad spectrum of specialties as diverse as accounting and finance, marketing and sales management, technology, law, and government affairs. He is particularly well recognized for negotiating mergers of law firms and other professional service providers.

While maintaining an active executive search practice, Mr. Carr handles consulting assignments in related areas. Particular areas of expertise include individual and organizational business development, marketing strategies, career transition guidance, and merger and acquisition advice. Additionally, Mr. Carr serves on the Board of Directors of Social & Scientific Systems, Inc. and as Chairman of its Compensation Committee.

Mr. Carr believes strongly in community service. He is currently active on the boards of directors or advisory councils of The Greater Washington Board of Trade, The Federal City Council, The Economic Club, Greater D.C. Cares, Workforce Organizations for Regional Collaboration, Jubilee Housing, Community Wealth Ventures, the Darrell Green Youth Life Foundation, A Greater Washington, The DC Heritage Tourism Coalition, and the Linowes Leadership Awards. A past president of Leadership Washington, he has been acknowledged as the organization’s Volunteer of the Year, has been honored by the Jubilee Support Alliance with the Jim & Patty Rouse Award, was the 2001 recipient of the Golden Links Award from The Greater Washington Board of Trade, and a Washingtonian 2002 Washingtonian of the Year.

Lee A. Carter founded Local Marketing Corporation, a marketing consulting firm which serves such major consumer products companies as Procter & Gamble, Coca Cola and Quaker Oat. He sold Local Marketing Corporation in 1989 to Grey Advertising in New York and continued to run the company until his retirement in 1995.

Mr. Carter is chairman of the Cincinnati Children's Hospital board of Trustees, and has served on the board since 1979. He also chairs the board of the American Institute for Public Service and has chaired the boards of the Cincinnati Institute of Fine Arts and the Urban Design Review Board. He has served as a board member of the Cincinnati Art Museum, the Cincinnati Symphony, the Seven Hills School, the Cincinnati Arts Association and the Greater Cincinnati Community Foundation.

George Gendron is the Entrepreneur-in-Residence at the Graduate School of Management at Clark University in Worcester, MA. Gendron teaches a course in the MBA program, works with Clark’s Small Business Development Center (SBDC), and is leading an effort to create a strategy for Clark’s commitment to entrepreneurial education in the future.

Gendron served as the Editor-in-Chief of Inc. Magazine for two decades, guiding the publication from a start-up through its sale to Bertelsmann, the $20 billion media company. Under his direction, Inc. became the world’s premiere business magazine for leaders of small- to mid-sized growing businesses.

Under Gendron’s direction, the magazine developed the Inc 500, the first list of America’s fastest-growing private companies. The Inc 500 quickly became a brand in its own right, and identified many of the world’s leading entrepreneurial organizations when they were still in their infancy and virtually unknown, companies such as Microsoft, Oracle, Patagonia, Timberland, Domino’s, Intuit, Charles Schwab, and countless others.

In 1997 Gendron formed a joint venture with Michael Porter, of the Harvard Business School, to publish the Inner City 100, a ranking of the fastest-growing companies in America’s inner cities. This list has played a major role in focusing public attention on the role of entrepreneurship in creating jobs and wealth in America’s most economically distressed areas.

Mr. Gendron co-authored and narrated Inc.’s best-selling video, “How to Really Start Your Own Business,” which won the American Film Institute Award for outstanding business and economic programming. Gendron is a well-known speaker before groups of business leaders in the U.S., Europe, and Asia, and has lectured at many of the country’s leading universities. He is also a frequent commentator on entrepreneurship on television and radio and in print. Appearances include 20/20, 48 Hours, CNBC, CNN, and National Public Radio. He has also been quoted extensively in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, and other major publications.

Gendron has appeared on the TJFR list of “The 100 Most Influential Business Journalists in America” every year since the list was created, and was named one of the ten most influential magazine journalists in the technology arena in 2001 and 2002.

Mr. Gendron began his career in publishing as an arts and entertainment editor for Clay Felker’s New York Magazine. At the age of 26, Gendron took over as editor-in-chief of Boston Magazine, where he transformed a failing magazine into one of the top city magazines in the country.

Publications under Gendron’s leadership have been nominated three times for a National Magazine Award (the Pulitzer Prize for magazines), and won numerous magazine awards for editorial excellence as well as outstanding graphic design.

Gendron is at work on a book titled “The Art of the New,” designed to demystify entrepreneurship and innovation. The book will synthesize Gendron’s 20 years of documenting the rise of many of the world’s leading entrepreneurial organizations, and explore the process of transforming an idea into something tangible, in business, the arts, education, and government.

Ira A. Jackson is the Henry Y. Hwang Dean of the Peter F. Drucker and Masatoshi Ito Graduate School of Management at Claremont Graduate University. The Drucker School engages in extensive research and teaching, designed to produce more effective managers and more ethical leaders for all sectors of society. While offering MBA and EMBA degrees, the Drucker School considers itself an “M” School, not a traditional “B” School, and focuses on both competence and compassion, analysis and intuition, leadership and teamwork, and doing good and doing well.

Throughout his career, Jackson has brought entrepreneurship and excellence to government, higher education, and the nonprofit sector. At the age of 26, he was chief of staff to Boston’s Mayor Kevin White. At 32, he was the Senior Associate Dean of Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, where he helped lead the School during its period of rapid growth and institutional transformation.

He left the Kennedy School to become Commissioner of Revenue for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, where he was credited with being one of the architects of the “Massachusetts economic miracle.” Jackson established an innovative model of “honest, fair and firm” tax administration that restored public confidence in the integrity, professionalism, and responsiveness of the agency through vigorous reforms. His leadership was recognized by the Massachusetts Taxpayers’ Association with their first Lyman Ziegler Award for Outstanding Public Service, and his management style and experience is the subject of a widely used, management case study written by Prof. Robert Behn of Duke University.

Jackson served as Executive Vice President of BankBoston for a dozen years. During his tenure at BankBoston, the company consistently received Outstanding Community Reinvestment Act ratings from federal regulators for leadership in strengthening inner-city communities. This leadership was recognized by the Conference Board with the Ron Brown Award for Corporate Citizenship at a ceremony at the White House. Jackson’s role in helping to support and expand CityYear earned him their “Big Citizen Award.” For his work in the public, private and nonprofit sectors, the Kennedy School presented Jackson with its Outstanding Alumni Award in its second year.

Jackson returned to Harvard as the Director of its Center for Business and Government at the Kennedy School and later became the first president of the Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation in Atlanta.

Prior to coming to Claremont, he was President and CEO of the Arizona State University Foundation. Under Jackson’s leadership, the Foundation achieved close alignment with the University, restructured and strengthened its board and governance structure, and made strides toward becoming a highly professional, donor-centric, and entrepreneurial institution. The Foundation, an independently governed 501(c)3 organization whose chairman is Craig Weatherup, former chairman and CEO of PepsiCo, has $621 million in assets.

During his tenure, ASU’s endowment grew by 45% to $403 million, investment returns on the Foundation’s pooled endowment fund increased 22%, and fundraising from individuals, corporations and foundations virtually doubled from its historic base, to $150 million.

Throughout his career in business, government, and the university, Jackson has been active in civic and community life and has assumed leadership roles in a number of innovative nonprofit organizations, including CityYear, Jumpstart, and Facing History and Ourselves. He chaired the United Way’s award-winning Success by Six campaigns in Massachusetts, chaired the program and grants committee of the Boston Foundation, and has been a leader in a wide variety of other organizations, from the New England Council to the South Boston Neighborhood House.

Jackson received an A.B. from Harvard College and an MPA from the Kennedy School of Government, and attended the Advanced Management Program at the Harvard Business School. He is co-author (with Jane Nelson) of Profits with Principles: Seven Strategies for Delivering Value with Values (Doubleday, 2004), described by Tom Peters as “a stunning achievement….and a survival guide for business executives and a survival guide for capitalism itself.”

Ellen W. Lazar recently joined The Fannie Mae Foundation as Senior Vice President of Housing and Community Initiatives. In her new role, Ms. Lazar will direct many of the Foundation's grantmaking initiatives, manage the Foundation's five regional offices, and guide the Foundation's community development efforts in Washington, D.C.

Before joining the Foundation, Ms. Lazar was executive director of Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation, a public, nonprofit corporation established to promote reinvestment in older neighborhoods by local financial institutions in cooperation with the community, residents and local government. During her tenure at Neighborhood Reinvestment, Ms. Lazar led the corporation through a comprehensive strategic planning process and earned an increased appropriation from Congress each year. Ms. Lazar has directed the corporation to expand the programs to ensure the sustainability of homeownership, the affordability of rental housing, and strong economic development.

Before joining Neighborhood Reinvestment, Ms. Lazar, who is trained as a lawyer, was director of the U.S. Treasury Department's Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI) Fund. She was appointed CDFI Fund director in 1997 by Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin. The fund was created to expand the availability of credit, investment capital, and financial services in distressed urban and rural communities. As director, she expanded the fund's scope and outreach, and strengthened its congressional support.

Before the CDFI Fund, Ms. Lazar was executive director of the National Association of Affordable Housing Lenders (NAAHL). NAAHL is a national membership organization that promotes private investment in affordable housing to create and preserve sustainable communities.

From 1988 to 1995, Ms. Lazar was vice president and general counsel of The Enterprise Foundation of Columbia, Maryland, a nonprofit, publicly supported foundation dedicated to providing community services and affordable housing for the poor. She also was assistant general counsel to the National Corporation for Housing Partnerships, and served in the Office of the General Counsel, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Ms. Lazar is extensively involved in the community and with a variety of nonprofit organizations, including serving on the boards of the Nonprofit Finance Fund and the National Fund for Enterprise Development.

Ms. Lazar is a graduate of Queens College of the City University of New York and of the Indiana University School of Law at Bloomington.

Clara Miller is the President & CEO of the Nonprofit Finance Fund (NFF), a leading national community development financial institution that serves nonprofit organizations. NFF provides capital and advice to nonprofit organizations, helping them plan and implement sustainable growth and improve their capacity to serve their communities. NFF’s financial services include loans, asset-building financial products, and credit enhancement; advisory services include workshops and business analysis.

NFF has provided $72 million to nonprofits nationwide, leveraging a total of more than $270 million. NFF has made $59 million in loans for over $250 million in projects; provided approximately $1 million in loan guarantees for projects totaling $7.9 million; accrued $5.8 million in deposits and matching funds to nonprofits through its asset-building programs for building reserves and endowments; and awarded $9 million to support nonprofits’ recovery from September 11th. NFF has also advised funders on the disbursement of $32 million in capital grants and loans, and assisted more than 7,000 organizations.

Ms. Miller was appointed in 1996 by President Clinton to the U.S. Treasury Department’s first Community Development Advisory Board which was established to advise the then newly-created Community Development Financial Institutions Fund. In 1999, she became its Chair. She also chaired the Board of Directors of the National Community Capital Association for six years of her nine year term (1992-2001), and she served on the board of the Local Initiatives Managed Assets Corporation from 1997-1999. She is currently a member of the Community Development Advisory Council of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and serves on the advisory committee of the Working Capital Fund for Minority Cultural Institutions. Prior to founding NFF, Ms. Miller worked for New York Community Trust, the National Academy of Sciences, and as an economic development planner in Corning, N.Y. Ms. Miller has a Masters Degree from Cornell University College of Architecture, Art and Planning, and a certificate from the Institute for Nonprofit Management at Columbia University.

Chuck Scofield is Director of Development for Share Our Strength. He leads major donor and foundation programs as well as Hunger and Poverty related tours in the United States and abroad. Chuck has been with Share Our Strength since 1996 where he originally served as Executive Assistant to Bill Shore. Prior to his work with Share Our Strength, Chuck worked at Who Cares Magazine: A Journal of Service and Action. A cum laude graduate of Davidson College, Chuck has shared his strength as a volunteer at home and abroad.

Bill Shore is the founder and executive director of Share Our Strength, the nation’s leading anti-hunger, anti-poverty organization that mobilizes industries and individuals to contribute their talents to fight hunger and poverty. Shore is also the chairman of Community Wealth Ventures, Inc., a for-profit subsidiary of Share Our Strength.

Shore founded Share Our Strength in 1984 in response to the Ethiopian famine and subsequently renewed concern about hunger in the United States. Since its founding, Share Our Strength has distributed more than $70 million in grants to more than 1,000 anti-hunger, anti-poverty groups worldwide.

In 1997, Shore launched Community Wealth Ventures, Inc. to provide strategic counsel to corporations, foundations and nonprofit organizations interested in creating community wealth – resources generated through profitable enterprise to promote social change.

From 1978 through 1987, Shore served on the senatorial and presidential campaign staffs of U.S. Senator Gary Hart (D-Colo.) From 1988 to 1991, Shore served as chief of staff for U.S. Senator Robert Kerrey (D-Neb.) His transition from politics to innovative community service and his prescription for community change are documented in his first book Revolution of the Heart (Riverhead Press, 1995). Shore’s second book, The Cathedral Within (Random House, 1999) profiles a new breed of community leaders who are tapping every sector of society to improve community life.

A native of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Shore is 48 years old. He earned his B.A. at the University of Pennsylvania and his law degree from George Washington University in Washington, D.C. He currently serves on the board of directors of The Timberland Company. Shore is an adjunct professor and teaches a class on social entrepreneurship at New York University’s Stern School of Business and has been a guest lecturer at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business.

Julius Walls Jr. is the Chief Operating Officer for Greyston Foundation and CEO of the Greyston Bakery. Greyston Foundation is a values-driven network of not-for-profit and for-profit organizations founded to help transform the lives of individuals, families and communities. Greyston Foundation operates several self-sufficiency programs in Yonkers, New York. This includes permanent housing and support services for the formerly homeless, low-income and working families; a quality childcare program; an Adult Day Health Care center for individuals living with HIV/AIDS; a community gardens project and a residential program for homeless or very low-income people living with HIV/AIDS. The Foundation owns and operates Greyston Bakery, a for-profit enterprise that has been producing the finest cakes and tarts for twenty years. The Greyston Network includes 175 staff working in entry-level, supervisory, and management positions.

Mr. Walls' responsibility includes supervision of the operating divisions of Greyston: Business Enterprises, Health Services, Social Services, and Real Estate Development & Property Management.

Born in Bedford-Stuyvesant in Brooklyn, New York, Mr. Walls attended high school and college seminary before deciding to pursue a career in business. He studied business at Baruch College and began his career at a mid-size CPA firm where he worked in the accounting department. Soon after, he joined a chocolate manufacturing company and rose to the position of Vice President of Operations. While at the chocolate company, Mr. Walls founded his own chocolate company, Sweet Roots, Inc. Sweet Roots was marketed as the only chocolate bar manufactured using exclusively African cocoa, produced by an African-American and sold primarily in the African-American community for fundraising by schools and other organizations.

Mr. Walls first worked with Greyston Bakery to bring its cakes and tarts to the White House in 1993. In 1995, Mr. Walls joined Greyston as a marketing consultant in the position of Director of Marketing. Mr. Walls was appointed General Manager and CEO of the bakery in November 1997 adding the position of Vice-President, Business Enterprises for Greyston Foundation in January 2000.

A core ingredient in Mr. Walls' life and career is his spiritual practice. He encourages employees to actively bring their whole self to work, including their cultural and spiritual selves. His manner of being has motivated employees to be their most productive at work as well as supported their personal growth. Mr. Walls serves as the Vice-Chair board on the Workforce Investment Board in Yonkers. He is also serves as a board member of the Social Enterprise Alliance, the Yonkers Chambers of Commerce, the YMCA-Yonkers, Artisan Baking Center, and Groundwork's, Inc. Mr. Walls has spoken extensively throughout the country on the topics of social ventures and social purpose businesses, spirituality in the workplace and business development in the inner city. Mr. Walls resides in Yonkers with his wife, Cheryl, and three children.