who we are > board of directors
Kristin Groos Richmond, Cofounder + CEO
Kristin cofounded Revolution Foods in 2005 and is a member of the White House Council for Community Solutions and is a board member of KCCL, Lighthouse Community Charter School, and U.C. Berkeley’s Global Social Venture Competition. She is also an Aspen Institute Entrepreneurial Leaders in Public Education Fellow, an Education Pioneers Fellow, and an Advisor to the Kauffman Foundation Entrepreneurship Program. She began her career at Citigroup in investment banking and later co-founded the Kenya Community Center for Learning (KCCL) in Nairobi where she lived for two years. Just prior to founding Revolution Foods, she was Vice President of Resources for Indispensable Schools and Educators. In 2010, NewSchools Venture Fund named Kristin and her co founder, Kirsten Tobey, Entrepreneurs of the Year. In 2007, she won the Global Social Venture Competition for the Revolution Foods model.
Kirsten Saenz Tobey, Cofounder + Chief Innovation Officer
Kirsten Saenz Tobey cofounded Revolution Foods in 2005 and is an Aspen Institute for Environmental Leaders Catto Fellow. She began her career as a teacher, garden educator and coordinator of experiential education programs, including work at Phillips Academy in Massachusetts and with Amigos de las Americas in Ecuador. Her passion for sustainability and community health led her to run a public health campaign for Earthjustice. Prior to graduate school, Kirsten managed the operations of a field station for the School for Field Studies in Mexico that focused on studying the environmental and socioeconomic impacts of the fishing industry. While writing the business plan for Revolution Foods, Kirsten worked with the United Nations Hunger Task Force to evaluate the scalability of school feeding programs in Ghana and with the McDonald's Corporation to incorporate social and environmental responsibility into the supply chain. In 2010, NewSchools Venture Fund named Kirsten and her co founder, Kristin Richmond, Entrepreneurs of the Year. In 2007, she won the Global Social Venture Competition for the Revolution Foods model.
Mark Perutz, Director
Mark Perutz is a Partner at DBL Investors, a double bottom line venture capital firm. He is on the board of Revolution Foods and has worked with the following portfolio companies: Primus Power, SolarCity, Tesla Motors, PowerLight, eMeter, Solaria, Solexant, Labcyte, XDx, Bentek and ReShape. Prior to co-founding DBL Investors in January 2008, Mark was an investment professional at JPMorgan where he helped manage the Bay Area Equity Fund since its inception in 2003. Previously, Mark was an equity research analyst at Robertson Stephens. At Robertson, Mark focused on the enterprise software sector, where his area of coverage included companies such as: BEA Systems, Inktomi, Documentum, Interwoven, BroadVision, Allaire, SilverStream, Iona, Persistence and iManage. Mark has also worked in business development at Interwoven, a web content management company; performed technology and market research at the Tower Group; and built computer systems as a systems integration consultant for Accenture. Mark received a BS and MS in Mechanical Engineering from MIT, and received a MBA from the Sloan School of Business at MIT.
Jed Smith, Director
Jed is a Partner of Catamount Ventures. He has dedicated his business career to the art of entrepreneurship and to making a difference. Prior to launching Catamount, Jed founded drugstore.com (NASDAQ: DSCM) in 1997, serving on its board of directors with John Doerr, Brook Byers, Peter Neupert, Howard Schultz and Jeff Bezos. Before that, he co-founded and spent four years at Cybersmith, a retail store chain that showcased the latest advances in information technology and multimedia software. Jed was also Vice President of Sales at Tribe Computer Works, a networking hardware and software company that was successfully sold. He began his career in technology working for Tom Siebel and, later, Marc Benioff at Oracle Corporation, ultimately serving as District Manager for the Eastern Region. Jed has advised many private companies and currently serves on the boards of Linden Lab, Seventh Generation, Numi Organic Tea, Banyan Water, Nest Collective, and Revolution Foods. He has also served on the boards of several education and non-profit institutions, including the Board of Trustees of Middlebury College, the Monterey Institute for International Studies, Shackleton Schools and the Cambridge Center for Adult Education. Jed earned a BA from Middlebury College and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Jerry Gallagher, Director
Jerry Gallagher joined Oak Investment Partners in 1987 as a General Partner after more than 20 years of involvement in the retail industry. His career includes a Wall Street background at Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette where he was the retail industry research analyst and an Institutional Investor Magazine 'All American'. Just prior to joining Oak, he was Vice Chairman of Dayton Hudson where, over a ten-year period, he served in both operating company and staff positions. Six of those Dayton Hudson years were spent in California as a member of the Mervyn's management team that increased profits at a compound annual rate in excess of 30%. Jerry has sponsored over 40 retail and restaurant investments including Baja Fresh, Chamate, Cheddar’s Casual Café, Dick's Sporting Goods, Jamba Juice, Lucy Activewear, Office Depot, One Medical Group, PETsMART, P.F. Chang's China Bistro, Potbelly Sandwich Works, Revolution Foods, Ulta Salon Cosmetics & Fragrance and Whole Foods Market. He is currently a director of six privately held companies. Jerry served as an officer in the submarine service of the U.S. Navy between receiving an undergraduate engineering degree from Princeton University and an MBA from the University of Chicago, where he was the Executive Club Fellow.
Mike Dorsey, Director
Mike Dorsey is a Managing Partner at the Westly Group, a leading venture capital firm, and has served on the Company’s Board since the inception of Revolution Foods, due to the founding investment of his prior fund, The Bay Area Equity Fund. For five years he co-managed this double bottom line venture capital fund, achieving top quartile financial returns. Prior to this he worked for 20 years as an investment banker, principally to technology companies, serving as Head of Technology Investment Banking at Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette and Cowen & Co. Mike received an A.B. from Stanford University and an MBA from Yale University. He serves on the Board of Directors of United Way of the Bay Area and several advisory boards of Stanford University.
Jordan Meranus, Director
Jordan brings a wealth of experience in the education, nonprofit and private sectors. Prior to joining NewSchools, Jordan was a Managing Director at Imagitas, a company which partners with government agencies to launch revenue-generating businesses that demonstrate that entrepreneurial ventures can help the public sector better serve citizens. At Imagitas, he helped launch and lead MoversGuide Online, a collaborative, e-government business with the U.S. Postal Service. Jordan is also a co-founder of Jumpstart, a nonprofit organization that provides intensive early literacy services to low-income children. As a co-founder, he helped develop Jumpstart’s core service model, put in place the education program and evaluation process, and developed many of the original educational partnerships that endure today. Jordan serves on the Board of Trustees for the Excel Academy Charter School in East Boston, the Board of Directors for Mass2020, and the Board of Advisors for DukeEngage, an effort by Duke University to significantly increase the number of students engaged in public service. He received his bachelor’s degree in history from Duke University and earned a master’s degree in both Education and Public Administration from Harvard.
Anthony Berkley, Board Observer
Anthony (Tony) Berkley is the Director of the Mission Driven Investments (MDI) team at the W.K. Kellogg Foundation in Battle Creek, Mich., where he leads a team that makes mission-aligned and market-rate investments from the Kellogg Foundation Endowment across asset classes. Tony served as a core member of the design and implementation team that successfully took MDI from concept to reality (2007-8), winning support at the staff, senior leadership and Board levels, and resulting in a $100-million initial allocation. Over the last three years, Tony has been responsible for sourcing, reviewing, structuring and presenting investments to the MDI Investment Committee resulting in $95 million in debt and equity transactions. The portfolio includes both direct investments in for-profit social enterprises as well as double-bottomline funds in the United States and Africa. Tony serves on the boards of the social enterprises in which MDI invests: Southern Bancorp (Trustee), Acelero (Observer), Revolution Foods (Observer) and Wireless Generation (Observer, exited 2010). He also serves in an advisory capacity in the funds: Agri-Vie and Renaissance Ventures. Tony is an anthropologist with 15 years of domestic and international experience in impact investing, program design, strategic planning, and education research. Previously, he was Program and Portfolio Officer for Mission Driven Investments and the Deputy Director for Education & Learning at the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. He also served as National Director for the Supporting Partnerships to Assure Ready Kids (SPARK) initiative and managed the Foundation’s evaluation process. He has been a past grantee of The Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research, The Spencer Foundation for Research Related to Education, and The Tinker Foundation. He has held faculty positions at the University of Chicago and the University of Michigan. He is the author of numerous publications and presentations in the fields of mission investing, knowledge management, education, and anthropology.
William B. Rosenzweig, Board Observer
William Rosenzweig has spent more than twenty years integrating the practices and perspectives of an entrepreneur, venture investor and educator. Will is the co-founder and Managing Director of Physic Ventures, the first venture capital firm dedicated to investing in keeping people healthy. As an entrepreneur, Will helped found and grow over 20 companies including Odwalla, Leapfrog Toys, and The Republic of Tea, where he was founding CEO, Minister of Progress, and co-author of a best-selling business book by the same name. Will served on the faculty of UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business for a decade, teaching the MBA course in Social Entrepreneurship. In 2010, Will was honored with the Oslo Business for Peace Award, 'the highest distinction given to a businessperson for outstanding accomplishments in the area of ethical business'.
Dick Beahrs, Board Observer
Dick Beahrs had a 35-year career as a media executive with Time Warner. During that time, he served as the President of Court TV and the Comedy Channel which evolved into Comedy Central. He also served as the head of New Business Development for HBO, where he oversaw the launch of Cinemax. As the Director of Sports Illustrated Enterprises, he also managed the development of ancillary businesses for the magazine. In 2001 he and his wife Carolyn funded the launch of the Beahrs Environmental Leadership Program at UC Berkeley. This multidisciplinary program has trained hundreds of environmental professionals from over 90 countries in sustainable development skills. Beahrs served on the UN Hunger Task Force as part of the Millennium Development Goals Initiative. He is currently focused on efforts to enhance school feeding programs with locally produced foods on the African continent. He served as a trustee for the University of California (Berkeley) Foundation as well as on the Advisory Boards of numerous University initiatives and programs. He has served on the Leadership Council of the Initiative for Global Development and the Boards of The School of Management at St. Petersburg University (Russia), The World Agroforestry Centre (Kenya) and as Chairman of The Arbor Day Foundation. His current business activities include serving on the Board of the San Jose Giants (a minor league affiliate of the San Francisco Giants).
Richard Schnieders, Director
Richard J. Schnieders is the retired chairman and CEO of Sysco Corporation, the global leader in selling, marketing and distributing food products to restaurants, healthcare and educational facilities, lodging establishments and other customers who prepare meals away from home. A 1970 graduate of the University of Iowa with a bachelor’s degree in mathematics, Rick was recruited in 1982 to join the executive development program at Sysco’s Memphis subsidiary. While there, he progressed through a variety of managerial and executive positions becoming president and CEO in 1989. In 1992, Rick was asked to move to Sysco’s corporate headquarters in Houston to serve as senior vice president of merchandising for the corporation. He was promoted in 1997 to senior vice president, merchandising and multi-unit sales, and later that year he became a member of Sysco’s Board. He was appointed executive vice president, foodservice operations in 1999, and in 2000 he assumed the added duties of chief operating officer. He was named president and COO of Sysco Corporation in 2000, and in 2003 he became the fifth chairman and chief executive officer in Sysco’s history. After a 27-year career at Sysco, Rick retired in June 2009. While at Sysco, Rick served as trustee with the National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation, as chairman of the University of Minnesota’s Food Industry Center, as board member with the Greater Houston Partnership, as fellow of the institute with The Culinary Institute of America, and as a board member of the public company Aviall, Inc. Rick currently holds community board positions at the Save the Children, and Stone Barns and sits on the Advisory Board of Newman's Own. Additionally, he serves as a director of a private company, Revolution Foods. In 2012 Rick joined the board of a public company, UNFI. He and his wife Beth have a continuing interest in food, agriculture and nutrition and have begun a mobile grocery, MoGro, LLC that provides healthy, affordable food to under served communities. The Schnieders reside in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
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