Tara Mohr, Chair, is a life and executive coach, working with nonprofit leaders and social entrepreneurs. Over the past ten years she has worked in diverse roles in the nonprofit sector, with a focus on organizational change, strategic planning and program design in the Jewish community. Tara is the co-author of The Women’s Passover Companion and The Women’s Seder Sourcebook (Jewish Lights Publishing 2003) and is currently at work on a third book on personal growth. She received a BA in English Literature from Yale University and an MBA from Stanford University. She lives in San Francisco with her husband and loves to spend time seeing art, reading poetry, cooking for friends, and writing.
Merrick Furst, Ph.D., Acting Treasurer, distinguished Professor and Associate Dean, organizes commercialization activities and new venture creation and directs faculty development in the College of Computing at Georgia Tech. He is a founder of the anti-botnet startup, Damballa, Inc. His most recent venture is a company that starts and invests in new companies, Profounder, LLC. Prior to GT he was at Berkeley where he was president of the International Computer Science Institute at Berkeley and CEO of Essential Surfing Gear, Inc. He served on the boards of the Jewish Community High School of the Bay and the board of the Brandeis Hillel Day School in San Francisco. Merrick is known for seminal research in algorithms, complexity theory and Artificial Intelligence. Although he lives in Atlanta with his wife, April Dworetz, and has two children, his regular visits to the Bay area have become even more frequent with his daughter’s matriculation at USF.
Michael Bergelson, Board Member, is on leave from his role as Strategy Director at Cisco, where he is responsible for new product and business model strategy for their line of unified communication products. Prior to this position, he managed Cisco's suite of customer care applications. Mike joined Cisco in June 2006 with the acquisition of Audium, where he was a co-founder and the Chief Executive Officer. He was also co-founder and CEO of Conducive, an online advertising firm. Earlier in his career, MIke was with First Manhattan Consulting Group where he advised clients on customer contact strategies, customer profitability and product development. In his spare time, Mike makes bagels and bialys, trying to prove, one friend at a time, that New York City water is not, in fact, a requirement.
Gesher Calmenson, Board Member, is Founding Director of Remember Us: The Holocaust Bnai Mitzvah Project, and a recent UpStart Bay Area alumnus. He is a Jewish Family Education Fellow, Director Emeritus of a synagogue school, past chairman of the Educators Council at BJE, and was a schools assessment specialist for the NESS Bay Area Initiative. Gesher retired in 1997 from a career in printing and publishing. He was the owner of an editorial production company specializing in college textbooks, and vice-president/graphics division manager of a major San Francisco printing company. In the 1970s he was Director of Esalen San Francisco and a Board member of Esalen Institute. He earned a second-degree black belt in Aikido at age 64. His social service work includes acting as founding facilitator for the Pioneer Network, a national organization that has shifted the paradigm of long-term care of the elderly.
Ralph Guggenheim, Board Member, is an animation producer and media consultant. As a co-founder of Pixar, Ralph produced Toy Story, the first feature length computer animated film. Subsequently, he was an Executive Producer at Electronic Arts. In 2003 he formed Alligator Planet, an animation production company in San Francisco, where he has produced several animated features, animated episodes for TV and the web, and consulted to a number of traditional and new media companies. Ralph has served on numerous film festival juries, as well as the San Francisco Arts Commission and the board of the Contemporary Jewish Museum.
Caroline Novak, Board Member, runs a Private Wealth Management practice at Merrill Lynch, where she and her team develop customized, multi-dimensional strategies to help preserve capital and coordinate financial affairs for a select group of high net worth individuals and families. Prior to Merrill Lynch, Caroline was with Morgan Stanley, where she initially started her practice in 2001. Before financial services, Caroline's experience was in financial analytics and product management roles at two technology companies: a Behemoth Telecommand a tiny Silicon Valley start-up. On the non-profit front, Caroline currently serves on the JCF Business Leadership Council Steering Committee and Co-Chairs its Nomination &Governance sub-committee. Caroline is a graduate of UC Santa Barbara, where she was a member of NCAA Division I, Women's Tennis team. She's been a member of the Olympic Club since 1995. In addition to playing tennis, Caroline enjoys golf, mountaineering, rock climbing, and distance running. She is married and lives in San Francisco.
Ric Rudman, Board Member, has over thirty years of board experience with non-profit organizations. He has served as the president of the Albert L. Schultz Jewish Community Center (now called the Oshman Family JCC), Congregation Beth Am in Los Altos Hills, Hillel at Stanford University and the Ecumenical Hunger Program in East Palo Alto. Currently, he is serving as an officer of the board of the Peninsula Conflict Resolution Center in San Mateo. Ric retired in 2006, after a 33-year career, as the EVP and COO of the non-profit Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI). Ric continues to pursue his interest in the energy field as a member of the advisory boards of two Silicon Valley energy efficiency start-up companies, Greenbox and GroundSource Geothermal. In 2009, Ric's volunteer activities as a mediator led to full-time employment with Project Sentinel, where he is managing community mediation programs for the cities of Palo Alto and Los Altos.
Randi Shafton, Board Member, is the founder of Girl 360, an on-line publishing site for "tween" girls. Over the past 25 years, she has worked extensively for non-profits and foundations in marketing, strategic planning, grant review, advocacy, and development. She also has worked as a legislative aide in Washington D.C. and Sacramento in health care policy and education reform. Randi received a B.A. from UCLA and a Master's in Public Policy from Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. She lives in San Mateo, and when she isn't playing soccer with her kids, Ellie, Zoey, and Jake, and husband Drew, she loves to run marathons, travel and read.
Wendy Verba, Board Member, has been an independent philanthropy and nonprofit consultant where she has designed and launched new programs; developed funding guidelines; managed grantmaking; and planned and executed marketing and fundraising strategies for Bay Area foundations and nonprofits. Representative clients have included the Jewish Community Federation, Jewish Vocational Services, Levi Strauss and Co., and the San Francisco Foundation. Wendy has served as Director of Development for Jewish Vocational Service and as the chair of the Development Committee at the Wornick Jewish Day School. She lives in Burlingame with her children and husband, Jeremy, who is the CEO of eharmony, having recently been the general manager at Zynga.
Joel Yanowitz, Board Member, is a management consultant known for his ability to help organizations accelerate business results and develop increased organizational capability. His clients include global corporations, entrepreneurial startups and non-profits. As a Vice President of Arthur D. Little, a global management consulting and technology development company, he led the Organization Practice in North America and co-led the Strategy Practice. Prior to that he was the Managing Director of Innovation Associates, a management consulting firm that pioneered approaches to organizational change and learning whose work was documented in the best-selling business book The Fifth Discipline. In the social sector, he is a founding Board member of The Red Tomato, and is on the Board of the African Food and Peace Foundation.
