The Leadership Council

The CLASSY Awards Leadership Council is a unique group comprised of some of the most well respected and forward thinking leaders in the world of philanthropy. Serving as the democratic voice of the CLASSY Awards, the Leadership Council brings great depth and expertise to the judging process with its members collectively determining the sixteen national CLASSY Awards winners.
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Adam Braun, CEO of Pencils of Promise
D Adam founded Pencils of Promise with a "For-Purpose" approach to blending nonprofit idealism with for-profit business principles. Adam speaks on global education, finding one's passion and purpose, youth empowerment, and international development. He has been featured at the Clinton Global Initiative, Google Zeitgeist and Wired Magazine's 2012 Smart List of 50 People Changing the World.
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Adam Garone, CEO & Co-Founder of Movember
D Adam served as an officer in the Australian Army, and has a corporate background in developing & marketing emerging web & mobile technologies. Adam 's corporate and military experiences have given him the perfect skill set for his role as CEO of Movember. In 2008, Adam won the Ernst & Young "Entrepreneur of the Year" award in Australia.
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Alvaro Rojas, Director of Marketing for The Chronicle of Philanthropy
D Alvaro provides strategic leadership to create brand awareness, drive traffic, maximize engagement, promote products, and build loyalty across all of The Chronicle's publications and platforms, including print, digital (site, social, and mobile), and live events. Alvaro also served as Marketing Manager for The National Academies Press where he received the 2006 Distinguished Service Award from the presidents of The National Academies.
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Amy Smith, President of Points of Light Action Networks
D Amy leads the organization's largest business enterprise and is responsible for the success of a network of more than 250 HandsOn Volunteer Action Centers; 200 AmeriCorps Alums chapters, and a Corporate Institute that helps Fortune 500 Companies engage their employees in volunteer service. She also works to scale youth civic responsibility and social action through generationOn, Points of Light's youth service division.
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Barrington Irving, Founder of Experience Aviation
D Captain Barrington Irving, secured his place in history as the youngest person at age 23 to fly solo around the world. Barrington founded Experience Aviation, a nonprofit introducing youths to career paths in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math. Barrington is preparing to make history again by transforming a jet into the World's First Flying classroom and conducting expeditions with NASA and National Geographic.
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Bob Ottenhoff, President and CEO of Guidestar
D Bob is responsible for the strategic execution of the GuideStar mission, fundraising to support this mission, and is the liaison with GuideStar's board of directors. He has 25 years of management experience in broadcasting & high-tech companies, including 9 years as COO of PBS. Bob serves on the board of Vision TV, Grameen Foundation USA, Link TV, and has been quoted in the NY Times, Chronicle of Philanthropy, WSJ and Forbes.
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Brian Sirgutz, Senior VP of Impact at Huffington Post
D Brian Sirgutz is the Senior Vice President of Social Impact at AOL/ Huffington Post Media Group, where he leads all aspects of the company's impact content and engagement strategy. He is the General Manager of the Impact, Green, Education, and Teens sections and is leading the development of impact-related business and product development innovations on the Huffington Post's platform. Prior to Huffington Post, Brian was the President of Causecast.
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Charles Best, Founder & CEO of DonorsChoose.org
D Charles leads DonorsChoose.org, a nonprofit providing a simple, personal, and accountable way for people to address educational inequity. DonorsChoose.org received the Amazon.com Nonprofit Innovation Award, been elected by TechCrunch as the website "most likely to make the world a better place," featured as one of Oprah's "Ultimate Favorite Things," & listed by Fast Company as one of the "50 Most Innovative Companies in the World." Charles was featured twice by Fortune Magazine in the "40 under 40" list of "business's hottest rising stars."
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Clam Lorenz, Director of Nonprofit Engagement at PayPal
D Clam Lorenz leads nonprofit engagement for PayPal. Clam was co-founder and head of operations for MissionFish, an award-winning social enterprise that powers fundraising programs for eBay and PayPal users. Through programs like eBay Giving Works, MissionFish has generated nearly $300 million for the nonprofit sector in the U.S. and UK. MissionFish was acquired by eBay, Inc. in May 2011.
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Darian Rodriguez Heyman, Co-Producer & Head of Community Partnerships, Social Media for Nonprofits
D After 5 years, Darian recently stepped down as Executive Director of Craigslist Foundation. His new book, Nonprofit Management 101: A Complete and Practical Guide for Leaders and Professionals, includes practical tips and tools from 50 recognized experts across 35 topics, and he recently launched a global Social Media for Nonprofits conference series. He also blogs for the Huffington Post and Skoll Foundation's Social Edge.
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David Risher, CEO of Worldreader
D His dream is to use technology to spread the transforming power of education to every corner of the planet, and his most immediate goal is to reach 1 million children by 2015. With this mission in mind, he founded Worldreader, an initiative launched in Barcelona to unleash the potential of millions of children in developing countries using digital books. The falling costs of technology together with the growth of mobile telephone networks in many countries enable all the books and educational resources to be distributed to even the most isolated schools. He was also Vice-President for Worldwide Retail at Amazon.com and a senior executive at the Microsoft Corporation.
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Elizabeth Gore, VP of Global Partnerships, United Nations Foundation
D Elizabeth currently manages partnership and cause marketing strategies implemented in programs and campaigns of the United Nations. She directs large-scale partnerships with global corporations and organizations to bolster support for UN programs. She leads strategic grassroots efforts such as the innovative Nothing But Nets and Girl Up campaigns, the Shot@Life global vaccines campaign, and a faith-based campaign for malaria programs and the Global Fund. Additionally, she manages partnerships with members of the UN Foundation's Global Entrepreneurs Council and with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. In 2010 Elizabeth joined Summit on the Summit and climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro to raise awareness for the global clean water crisis on behalf of the United Nations. In 2008, Mrs. Gore was named by People Magazine as one of the top 100 Extraordinary Women.
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Emily Davis, Author of Fundraising and the Next Generation, Founder of YNPN San Diego
D Emily Davis has worked in the nonprofit sector as an executive director, staff member, consultant, founder, board member, and volunteer for over 15 years. She is President at EDA Consulting, a consultant firm for nonprofit organizations, the author of Fundraising and the Next Generation, and serves numerous advisory roles including Nonprofit World Magazine, Nonprofit Cultivation Center, and Social Venture Partners of Boulder County.
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Jake Wood, Co-Founder and President of Team Rubicon
D Jake served four years in the United States Marine Corps, where he was awarded the Navy-Marine Corps Commendation Medal with "V" for valor in the face of the enemy. As a leading veteran advocate, Jake speaks around the country on the issues facing returning veterans. He is a member of the Clinton Global Initiative, Veteran Innovation Center Executive Operating Committee and the VA Emergency Response Committee. In 2011, Jake was awarded GQ Magazine's 'Better Men, Better World' Award for his work with Team Rubicon, and was recently nominated as a 2012 CNN Hero.
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Jason Rzepka, Vice President of Public Affairs at MTV
D Jason "uses MTV's superpowers for good." He marshals the network's forces to engage and activate America's youth on the biggest challenges facing their generation. He's responsible for the strategic direction of all of MTV's "pro-social" campaigns, including the Peabody-winning "It's Your (Sex) Life," Emmy-winning "Choose or Lose," and "A Thin Line." Jason serves on the board of directors of PopTech, and on the advisory board of Coffee Party USA.
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Jeff Shuck, President and CEO of Event 360
D Jeff has led the production of more than 200 fundraising events involving hundreds of thousands of participants, which have collectively raised more than $600 million for charity. Prior to Event 360, Jeff was the VP of Productions for Pallotta TeamWorks, where he was responsible for event production for large-scale fundraising events. Jeff serves on the boards of the ACLU of Illinois, the Giving Institute and the Giving USA Editorial Review Board.
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Jim Gibbons, President and CEO of Goodwill Industries International
D Prior to serving as president and CEO of Goodwill, Jim served as the president and CEO for the National Industries for the Blind as well as Campus Wide Access Solutions. Jim has received the National Jefferson Award for Greatest Public Service Benefiting the Disadvantaged, the SmartCEO EcoCEO Award, the Young Presidents' Organization Social Enterprise Leadership Award, and was appointed by President Obama to serve two years on the White House Council for Community Solutions.
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Jim Moriarty, CEO of Surfrider Foundation
D Jim is the CEO of Surfrider Foundation. He brings to the position a love of environmental awareness and action sports, along with a wealth of fundraising and team-building experiences and innovative business approaches that translate to leading the Surfrider Foundation into the future. His vision at Surfrider Foundation is clear: create a global movement of coastal environmental awareness and action.
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Katya Andresen, Chief Strategy Officer of Network for Good
D Katya is a speaker, author of Robin Hood Marketing: Stealing Corporate Savvy to Sell Just Causes and blogger about nonprofit marketing, online outreach, social media and fundraising. She is an adjunct professor of communications at American University's Key Certificate Program and serves on the board of NTEN. Previously, Katya worked as a foreign correspondent for Reuters News in Asia, for the AP and major US newspapers in Africa.
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Meg Garlinghouse, Head of Social Impact, LinkedIn
D Meg is responsible for identifying partnerships and programs that leverage the LinkedIn platform to create positive social impact for the world. Meg has worked nearly 20 years in the tech and philanthropy sector. Prior to LinkedIn, Meg helped build and lead Yahoo!'s global community relations function. She also worked for the Asia Foundation as special assistant to the president and in the private sector development dept of the World Bank. Meg serves on the Boards of Network for Good and Volunteermatch.
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Meghan Murphy, Senior Director of Global Alliances of the X PRIZE Foundation
D Meghan is responsible for identifying new opportunities and partnerships for the X PRIZE Foundation and serves as the liaison with other non-profit organizations, corporations, partners, and the Board of Trustees and Vision Circle, the Foundation's largest financial supporters. Previously, Meghan worked in business development for several Bay area technologies companies and four years on Wall Street as an Equity Research Analyst for Salomon Smith Barney.
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Natalie Spilger, Dir of Community Building at Summit Series, Founder of GreenLaces
D Natalie leads several initiatives for Summit Series from greening event operations to overseeing social programs. She is the first female to join the "live together, work together" lifestyle of Summit Series, and is the driving force behind the supportive Summit Series' women's brand, "W+". Natalie specializes in discovering emerging social entrepreneurs, "fringe culture" trend leaders and incredible female professionals. Prior to joining Summit Series, Natalie founded GreenLaces and played as a professional soccer player.
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Pat Walsh, Co-Founder and Chief Impact Officer of StayClassy
D Pat is a board member and CMO of StayClassy, and leads the company's strategic growth, business development and marketing initiatives. He was selected by Businessweek as one of America's Top 5 Most Promising Social Entrepreneurs in 2011. Prior to StayClassy, Pat worked for General Dynamics Corporation as the Deputy Program Manager with previous positions in Engineering, Operations and Strategic Business Development.
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Premal Shah, President of Kiva
D Premal first began dreaming of "internet microfinance" while working at PayPal. After taking a 3-month leave to develop and test the concept in India, Premal returned to Silicon Valley to bring the Kiva concept to life and eventually to scale. Kiva was named a Top 50 Website by TIME Magazine in 2009. Premal was selected to FORTUNE magazine's "Top 40 under 40" list in 2009.
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Rod Arnold, EVP of Media Ventures Group, Former COO charity:water
D Rod Arnold has more than 20 years of experience successfully driving aggressive growth for cause-related organizations. Before Media Ventures Group, Rod served as COO and Head of Special Projects for charity: water. While there, Rod led a strategic approach to scaling and monetizing their online communities, including an innovative social fundraising platform that has helped the organization raise nearly 70% of its funds online.
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Ryan Scott, CEO and Founder of Causecast
D Ryan is an entrepreneur and technologist with a passion for leveraging capitalism to create positive social change. Ryan founded Causecast to bring sophisticated technology to workplace giving programs. Causecast helps businesses become more powerful corporate citizens through an easy to use platform for employee volunteering, donation, matching, rewarding and disaster relief campaigns, which support nonprofits and causes. Ryan is also the co-founder of NetCreations.
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Scot Chisholm, Co-Founder and CEO of StayClassy
D Scot serves as the CEO and Chairman of StayClassy. He has been recognized as one of America's Top 5 Most Promising Social Entrepreneurs by Businessweek and one of the Top 40 Young Leaders under 40 by San Diego Metropolitan Magazine. Prior to StayClassy, Scot worked as a Senior Consultant at Booz Allen Hamilton specializing in process improvement on the Economic Business Analysis team.
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Stephanie Kurzina, Vice President for Development and Communications for Oxfam
D Kurzina leads Oxfam America's fundraising, communications and constituent development programs, coordinating the efforts of more than 1 million supporters who work with Oxfam to create lasting solutions to poverty, hunger and injustice. Oxfam works with individuals and local groups in more than 90 countries around the world.
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Walter Philips, CEO at San Diego Youth Services
D As a social worker, Walter has been changing the lives of troubled youth for over 25 years. As CEO of one of the leading youth serving agencies in San Diego, he works to provide safety, shelter and support services to over 10,000 at-risk youth annually. Walter has been recognized as Social Worker of the Year (2002), received the Tariq Khamisa Foundation/Ghandi Award for Community Leadership (2004), and awarded Most Admired CEO for large nonprofits by the S.D. Business Journal (2011).
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Yael Cohen, Founder of F Cancer
D Yael founded F Cancer after her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer. She set out to create an organization that activates Generation Y to engage with their parents about early detection, and teaches supporters how to look for cancer instead of just find it. Yael went to the White House and UN to talk about the charity's unconventional methods and success and has attended the Clinton Global Initiative, TEDWomen, TEDMED, and spoke at TEDx Vancouver 2010.