George R. Roberts

Chair

George R. Roberts graduated from Culver Military Academy in 1962. He attended Claremont McKenna College, graduating in 1966 and attended the University of California (Hastings) Law School, graduating in 1969.

He is one of the founding partners of KKR in 1976. KKR specializes in finding, financing and investing its own capital in management buyouts. Since its inception, KKR has invested approximately $100 billion in more than 75 transactions. Prior to founding KKR & Co, Mr. Roberts was in the corporate finance department of Bear, Stearns & Co. from 1969-1976, having become a partner at the age of 29.

He has been the director of several public and private corporations as well as cultural and educational institutions. Civic organizations include: Board of San Francisco Symphony, Board of San Francisco Ballet, Board of Fine Arts Museum and the Board of Trustees for Claremont McKenna.

Stuart Davidson

Vice Chair
Secretary/Treasurer

Stuart Davidson has been investing in early stage companies for over 15 years. He is a Managing Director of Labrador Ventures. Previously, Mr. Davidson was CEO of Combion, Inc., which was acquired by Incyte (NASDAQ:INCY), and President of Alkermes (NASDAQ:ALKS). Mr. Davidson also worked for MCI Communications and for Warner Communications, where he was responsible for the development of a number of information technology business opportunities. 

He is a Trustee of the Phalarope Foundation, which focuses on enterprise development, and the Woodcock Foundation. He is an advisory director of the Cancer Research Institute and serves on the boards of The Acumen Fund, Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors and REDF. Mr. Davidson is a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Business School.

Lande Ajose

Lande Ajose is Managing Director of BTW informing change. BTW provides a variety of information based consulting services to nonprofit and philanthropic organizations. At BTW, Dr. Ajose uses her expertise in research, evaluation, analysis, and communication as she designs and directs complex organizational planning and evaluations related to poverty and educational issues. Prior to joining BTW, Dr. Ajose was a Researcher at MDRC, where she specialized in qualitative and implementation research. Dr. Ajose has also worked as a Senior Program Officer at the James Irvine Foundation, where she managed the workforce development and civic culture programs, and helped to establish the Foundation’s leadership awards program.

A graduate of Occidental College, she earned a master’s degree in urban planning at the University of California, Los Angeles, and holds a doctorate in urban and regional studies from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She also serves on several nonprofit boards, including the Coro Center for Civic Leadership, Northern California and Common Sense California.

Harris Barton

Harris Barton co-founded HRJ Capital in 1999, when he and co-founder Ronnie Lott successfully raised their first fund of funds, focusing on the venture capital sector. Mr Barton and Mr. Lott followed their model with a successful expansion of HRJ Capital's investment strategy into the buy-out, hedge, real estate and special opportunities sectors. Mr. Barton became a public and private equity investor during his football career, investing in both publicly traded stocks and private equity partnerships, most notably Sequoia Capital in the venture capital arena, beginning with Sequoia Capital VII in the early 90's. The relationships he developed in that process have been instrumental in building the network of top-tier fund managers throughout the financial services industry available to HRJ Capital. He is a graduate of the University of North Carolina, where he received a Bachelor's Degree in Finance.

Elizabeth Y.A. Ferguson

Elizabeth Y.A. Ferguson is Executive Vice President and Managing Director of the Bay Area Family of Funds at the Bay Area Council. She manages private equity and venture capital funds: Bay Area Smart Growth Fund I and II, Bay Area Equity Fund I and DBL Equity Fund – BAEF II. The Family of Funds are “double bottom line” funds created to deliver market rates of return, and at the same time, significant social, economic and environmental returns to low- and moderate- income communities.

Prior to joining the Bay Area Council, Ms. Ferguson was a financial executive with Bank of America for over twenty years. She most recently served as Managing Director and Head of Marketing for Bank of America’s Global Corporate and Investment Bank. Ms. Ferguson's broad background in financial services includes management positions with Bank of America in the U.S. and Asia, with industry expertise in technology, energy, construction, manufacturing, healthcare and consumer products. She has held senior roles in corporate and investment banking, strategic planning, marketing, and finance.

Ms. Ferguson is a native of San Francisco and a resident of the Bay Area. She is a summa cum laude graduate of UC Berkeley with a B.A. in political science and has an MBA from Stanford Business School. Ms. Ferguson serves as Board President of California-Asia Business Council and on the boards for the Alliance for Community Development, Drew School, On Lok, Inc., REDF, Summerbridge and the Bay Area advisory board of US Bank.

Julia I. Lopez

Julia I. Lopez is the President and CEO of College Access Foundation. Prior to joining the Foundation, Julia served as Senior Vice President of the Rockefeller Foundation. In that position she had overall responsibility for strategic oversight, management and integration of the Foundation’s programmatic and administrative functions. Prior to being named Senior Vice President, Ms. Lopez was Vice President, and before that she led the Working Communities unit as Program Director for nearly nine years. Prior to joining the Rockefeller Foundation, Ms. Lopez served in various senior level positions in state and local government, including General Manager of the San Francisco Department of Social Services, several senior staff positions in the California Legislature and Director of Planning and Administration for the New Mexico Department of Criminal Justice.

 

Richard M. Rosenberg

Richard M. Rosenberg is the retired Chairman and Chief Executive officer of BankAmerica Corporation.

Under Mr. Rosenberg’s leadership, BankAmerica significantly strengthened its retail franchise as well as its corporate operations with the acquisitions of Security Pacific Corporation and Continental Bank Corporation. The company also achieved record earnings, stock price and dividend levels during his tenure, and firmly established itself as a leader in Community Reinvestment programs.

He was appointed to chairman and CEO in 1990 and served until 1996. Prior to joining Bank of America in April 1987, Mr. Rosenberg served as President and Chief Operating Officer of Seattle-First National Bank and Seafirst Corporation. He served as Vice Chairman and Director of Wells Fargo Bank and was with that organization for 22 years.

A native of Massachusetts, Mr. Rosenberg holds a bachelor’s degree from Suffolk University in Boston, and both a master’s degree in business administration and a doctorate of jurisprudence from San Francisco’s Golden Gate University.

He is a retired commander in the U.S. Naval Reserve, a member of the California Bar Association, a Trustee of the California Institute of Technology, a past president of The Bankers Roundtable, the Bank Marketing Association, the Federal Advisory Council of the Federal Reserve System and a past Chairman of MasterCard International.

He is a member of the Boards of Directors of the Buck Institute for Age Research, Health Care Property Investors, Inc., the San Francisco Symphony, the Naval War College Foundation and chairman of the University of California San Francisco Foundation and the Executive Council of the University of California Medical Center. He has served as the Chairman of the Board for ABX Air, and as a director of Airborne Express Corporation, Bank of America, SBC Communications, UCSF-Stanford Health Care, Chronicle Publishing Company, Northrop Grumman Corporation, Pacific Life Insurance Company, Premier Pacific Vineyards, Exigen Group, and the United Way of the Bay Area.

Adam Smith

Adam M. Smith is a Director of Product Management at Google. He joined Google in 2003, and he currently manages several Search products including Google Book Search, Google News, Google Finance, and Google Scholar.

Prior to Google, Adam was a VP of New Media for Random House Inc., where he was responsible for working with the publishing divisions on digital strategy and new technology initiatives including digital distribution and print on demand . He also participated in the Random House's venture capital and corporate development activities and was Director of Corporate Development for Bertelsmann, Inc. Previously, he worked in media and telecommunications investment banking in New York and Hong Kong.

Adam received an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and a B.S. from the University of California at Berkeley.