Board Officers

Robert Frank is the TechSoup Board Chair and has served on the board for five years. He is Vice President of Strategy and Business Development for Banana Republic, a division of Gap Inc. He is responsible for developing new growth ideas and business models for the retailer. Prior to that, Robert worked for McKinsey & Company in San Francisco and was a leader of the firm's West coast retail and consumer group. Robert has an MBA from The Anderson School of Business at UCLA and a Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering from the Colorado School of Mines.

Anthony Lee is a General Partner of Altos Ventures, a first-stage technology venture capital fund. He serves on the boards of several high-growth, global technology companies, including Accelovation, CrownPeak, Demandbase, GuardianEdge, and Xignite. Prior to Altos, Anthony served as Vice President of Marketing for social Web search pioneer Clip2.com. Previously, he was Vice President of Marketing for Evolve Software, which achieved a successful IPO in late 2000. Anthony also co-founded Signature Wines, an Inc. 500 distributor of private label wines. Anthony began his career as a management consultant at McKinsey & Company and has published a national magazine. Anthony serves as a Director of the National Association of Investment Companies (NAIC) and as a Trustee of FSC Business Today. He is a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations, a member of the Pacific Council on International Policy, and a founding member of the Full Circle Fund. Anthony earned his MBA from Stanford University and BA in Politics and Economics from Princeton University.

Serving as Secretary is Daniel Ben-Horin, the founder and co-CEO of TechSoup.

Board Members

Michael Brown, well known for his interest in evolving the Social Web,became one of the first supporters of TechSoup's NetSquared initiative to bring Web 2.0 tools to nonprofits worldwide. He contributed significantly to the success of the NetSquared conference in May 2006. Mr. Brown runs Corporate Development at Facebook. Michael is a graduate of Stanford Business School where he was an Arjay Miller scholar.

Jeffrey Hamaoui, Founder and Managing Director Origo Social Enterprise Partners.

Jeff Hamaoui is an expert and thought leader in the social enterprise field. Founding Origo Social Enterprise Partners in 1999 as a global center of excellence in social enterprise design naturally extended Jeff's career learning journeys. He has advised a variety of nonprofits such as the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), the World Economic Forum, the Global Exchange for Social Development (GEXSI) and Charity Bank, and a number of bilateral and multilateral donor agencies.

In 1994, Jeff worked with industrialist and "green billionaire" Stephen Schmidheiny to establish the AVINA Foundation in Mallorca, Spain to invest in sustainable development projects in Spain and the Mediterranean basin in partnership with leaders of civil society and the business sector.

He began his career in 1990 as a teacher at Collegio Internacional de Caracas in Caracas, Venezuela and then at Laurentian International College in Quebec, Canada. While in Quebec, he set up Northside House, a school for children with learning difficulties.

Jeff is a board member of several organizations including: Elements International, a sustainable development services company that was organized and staffed by faculty and students from Cambridge University; and Television Trust for the Environment (TVE) in London, an independent nonprofit production and distribution company specializing in films and other broadcast programs on the environment, development, and health and human rights issues.

Jeff holds a BA in literature and philosophy from Swansea University and a MA in education from London University where he also had an Associate Fellowship.

When not working, Jeff likes to spend his time on the California coast in a surf kayak.

Reto Jauch is the founder and lead partner of the independent Executive Search boutique Jauch Associate AG in Zurich, Switzerland. Prior to establishing Jauch Associates, Reto lead Executive Search businesses for Robertson Associates and A.T. Kearny Executive Search, coming to head A.T. Kearny Executive Search Europe, a business operating in 10 locations. Clients of Jauch Associates AG include large multinational companies as well as highly competitive international niche players and start up companies.

Leila Chirayath Janah first developed the idea behind Samasource while working as a management consultant at Katzenbach Partners (now Booz & Co.), where her clients included global leaders in the outsourcing and telecom sectors and a number of prominent non-profits. Along with Professors Thomas Pogge and Aidan Hollis, she founded Incentives for Global Health; and helped produce a plan for incentivizing the development of new drugs for neglected diseases. As an undergraduate, Leila authored background papers for the World Bank's Development Research Group and Ashoka; on equity and social rights. Leila is a recipient of the Rainer Arnhold and TEDIndia ellowships, and serves on the San Francisco board of the Social Enterprise Institute. She is a former Visiting Scholar at the Stanford Program on Global Justice; and the Center for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics at Australian National University. When she's not running Samasource, Leila blogs on Social Edge; and tries to keep up with her Twitter; account. She holds a B.A. from Harvard University.

Julie Pietrantoni is an associate in the Technology Transactions practice group and a member of Cooley Godward Kronish's Business department. She joined the Firm in 2001 and is resident in the Palo Alto office.

Ms. Pietrantoni's practice focuses on technology related transactions, including software licensing, product procurement, hardware and software distribution agreements, development and technology transfer agreements and strategic alliances. Ms. Pietrantoni has also assisted in a number of the Firm's information technology outsourcing transactions. Ms. Pietrantoni represents a variety of clients ranging from start-ups to large public companies.

Ms. Pietrantoni earned a J.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, Boalt Hall School of Law in 2001, where she served as a senior editor of the California Law Review . During law school, Ms. Pietrantoni clerked for the Office of the General Counsel of the United States Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Attorney's Office in San Francisco, California. She completed her undergraduate education at California State University, Hayward, where she received a B.S. in Business Administration with an emphasis in international finance, cum laude , in 1992.

Before her studies at the University of California at Berkeley, Ms. Pietrantoni founded and owned her own financial services practice specializing in investment, retirement and tax planning counseling. Ms. Pietrantoni is a Certified Financial Planner, she holds the Enrolled Agent designation from the Internal Revenue Service, and she is a Registered Investment Advisor.

Ms. Pietrantoni is admitted to practice in the State of California, and is a member of the State Bar of California, the San Francisco Bar Association and the Santa Clara Bar Association

Michael Quinn has been involved with the Internet industry for over 13 years. He has experience in sales, engineering and technical support. After working for the Federal Government, GTE and Amdahl Corporation, Michael became one of Cisco Systems earliest employees. As Vice President, he currently leads Customer Advocacy's engineering effort in the deployment of advanced technologies such as Voice over IP, WiFi, IPv6 and Network Security. Michael also leads Customer Assurance Programs that provide business continuity for clients and the corporation. His position also provides him the ability to assist in philanthropic endeavors such as the placement of Cisco Academies at Native American communities, and Net Hope (NetHope.org) a collaborative organization with significant interest in the deployment of technologies to facilitate communications infrastructure in developing countries. Michael is currently a Delegate to the United Nations World Summit on the Information Society(WSIS). His education was completed at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (MSIE) and George Washington University's Elliott School of International Affairs (M.I.S.).

Steven B. Sacks, an attorney, is a partner in the San Francisco office of the law firm of Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton LLP where he handles complex civil litigation and business bankruptcy cases. He has a strong interest in technology and helping others use it.

Michael Saunders was the Executive Officer at HandsNet for 6 years. During that period he oversaw the effort to make the shift from HandsNet Classic, a proprietary online service, to a totally Web-enabled platform, WebClipper, to support more than 3,000 online members. Mr. Saunders has sixteen years of private industry experience, most recently prior to HandsNet as a Principal Consultant in the Organizational Change practice with Price Waterhouse. He has also worked with Reuters Information Service, and in marketing and systems engineering with IBM. He holds an MBA from Stanford University and an AB in Engineering and Applied Science from Harvard University.

Buzz Schmidt, Senior Strategic Advisor to TechSoup Global management, is founder and chair of London-based GuideStar International (GSI). GSI, a UK charity registered in 2006, illuminates the work of the world’s nonprofit organizations through online repositories of reports about nonprofits in each country. It now operates within the TechSoup Global network. In 1994, Buzz Schmidt founded GuideStar USA, which he led for 10 years. In 2003, he founded GuideStar UK. He was named 1999 U.S. Nonprofit Executive of the Year by The Nonprofit Times and one of six visionary leaders in philanthropy by Time Magazine in 2001. He serves on the boards of The FB Heron Foundation (Chair), TechSoup Global, The Institute for Philanthropy (London), and Preservation Virginia. He is a graduate of Princeton and Stanford’s Graduate Schools of Business and Education.

Sandra Whisler is Director of Finance and Operations at Public Health Law and Policy (PHLP). She comes to PHLP from PolicyLink, where she oversaw financial management, human relations, information technology, and facilities. Prior to PolicyLink, Whisler was first the launch director for www.techsoup.org; and then vice president and managing director responsible for finance, human resources, IT, and facilities at CompuMentor. Previously, she had a long career in academic publishing, including serving as Director of Electronic Publishing and associate director, Journals Division at the University of California Press and assistant director and director of Journals Marketing at the University of Chicago Press. She holds a degree in anthropology from the University of Chicago.