Our Board
CFED's Board of Directors in Winter 2010.
Asheesh Advani
Janie Barrera
Don Baylor
Melissa L. Bradley
Tanya Fiddler
Robert Friedman, Chair
Michelle Greene
Ronald Grzywinski
Dan Letendre
Andrea Levere, President
Brandee McHale
Torod Neptune
Bill Purcell
Douglas Rosen
Sarah Rosen Wartell
Asheesh Advani
Asheesh is a business builder and investor with a passion for financial innovation, particularly when it makes a meaningful impact and improves lives. He is the CEO of Covestor, a financial services company that is democratizing active asset management. Covestor provides an open platform for everyday investors to get access to top money managers by mirroring their investments.
Asheesh began his career as a management consultant at the Monitor Group, a strategy consulting firm based in Cambridge, MA. He subsequently worked with the World Bank in Washington, DC, then returned to Monitor as an Entrepreneur-in-Residence and founded CircleLending in 2001. The company pioneered the business of managing peer-to-peer loans online between relatives and friends, a simple but powerful concept that helped spawn a global cottage industry of social lending companies. CircleLending was acquired by Richard Branson's Virgin Group in 2007.
In addition to serving on CFED's board, Asheesh was the Founding Board Chair of Credit Builders Alliance and is on the Board of Advisors of Core Venture Capital, a firm which invests in innovative companies serving underbanked consumers. Asheesh is the subject of a Harvard Business School case study and is an occasional commentator in media outlets such as the Wall Street Journal, NPR, and the New York Times. He is the author of two books published by Nolo Press and is the Financing columnist for Entrepreneur Magazine.
Asheesh is a graduate of the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, and Oxford University.
Janie Barrera
Ms. Barrera is Founding President and Chief Executive Officer of ACCION Texas. ACCION Texas began in 1994, and is now the largest nonprofit micro-lending organization in Texas. The organization provides small loans and management training to micro-enterprises throughout Texas. As President and CEO, Ms. Barrera is responsible for the organization’s financial management, oversight of its annual budget and the development of methodology and loan delivery procedures. Ms. Barrera has received recognition for her accomplishments including the Small Business Administration Financial Services Advocate of the Year, and the Minority Enterprise Development Consortium's Corporate Advocate of the Year. In addition, Ms. Barrera has served on many national, state and local boards including the Federal Reserve Board, and the National Consumer Advisory Council.Ms. Barrera holds an M.B.A. from Incarnate Word College. Ms. Barrera began her career as Director of Telecommunications for the Diocese of Corpus Christi in 1977. There, she helped form the area's first nonprofit radio stations, KLUX and KHOY, as well as two television production studios. In 1989, Ms. Barrera was hired as the Marketing Director for the U.S. Air Force Morale, Welfare and Recreation Division.
Don Baylor
Don Baylor, Jr. - Senior Policy Analyst, Economic Opportunity—Center for Public Policy Priorities (Austin TX). An eighth-generation Texan, Don Baylor joined the center in 2004 and focuses on asset building, postsecondary education, and labor markets within the mission of expanding economic opportunity in Texas. He directs OpportunityTexas, an statewide initiative to increase income, create jobs, and promote savings.
Before coming to the center, he served New York ACORN as Legislative Director. From 1998-2000, he served as Senior Consultant for KPMG Consulting’s Public Sector practice, performing strategic planning and performance audits for several public entities.
He earned a Bachelor of Arts from Georgetown University in 1994 and a Master of Arts in African American and Southern History with honors from The University of Wisconsin at Madison in 1997.
He currently serves on the Board of Directors of CFED, RAISE Texas, and Texas C-Bar. He also serves on CLASP’s Advisory Committee on Postsecondary and Economic Success and on the United Way Capital Area Financial Stability Leadership Council.
Melissa L. Bradley
Melissa L. Bradley was named CEO of Tides in September 2010. Tides chose Bradley to continue the organization's work to find creative solutions to society's most critical issues – from economic justice to human rights to environmental challenges. Bradley replaces Tides' founder, Drummond Pike, who will step down after 34 years of leadership.
Bradley brings extensive knowledge of Tides, having served on the board of the Tides Foundation and as chair of Tides, and a strong background in creative and innovative leadership. She is Founder and former Managing Director of New Capitalist™, whose mission is to leverage human, financial and social capital to create economically profitable and sustainable individuals, businesses and communities. In this role she facilitated over $20MM in private equity transactions for seed stage companies, generated an average of 20 percent return on behalf of investors, and created proprietary investment vehicles instrumental in capital sourcing for minority-owned firms.
As a Senior Strategist at Green for All, a national organization dedicated to building an inclusive green economy strong enough to lift people out of poverty, she created the Capital Access Program, which works to provide human, social and financial capital to entrepreneurs and businesses in an effort to create, scale and sustain green jobs. There she also assisted in the creation of the Energy Efficiency Opportunity Fund and the Green Jobs Award Program. Bradley was selected as a Soros Justice Fellow for her innovation in the area of criminal justice.
Bradley is also the founder of Positive Impact™ - a collaborative initiative to promote diverse voices and visions within independent media launched at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival. As part of this initiative Bradley authored "Introduction to Media Investing for the Creative and Investment Communities" - a practical step by step "how to" guide designed to give media makers detailed instructions on prospecting, receiving, managing and returning an investment.
In addition, Bradley is also Founder and President of Reentry Strategies Institute (RSI), the only national criminal justice intermediary explicitly focused on reentry. Through the provision of training, networking, and best practice, RSI is facilitating a national dialogue on reentry and generating human and financial support for formerly incarcerated persons and their local communities.
Her prior work experience includes serving as Vice President at UBS in the Private Client Group and serving as a Financial Regulatory Affairs Fellow with the US Department of Treasury.
Ms. Bradley’s educational background includes graduation from Georgetown University in 1989 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Finance from the School of Business, and a Master’s in Business Administration in Marketing from American University.
Tanya Fiddler
Executive Director, Four Bands Community Fund, Cheyenne River Lakota Nation
Tanya Fiddler is the executive director of Four Bands Community Fund, a Native community development financial institution (CDFI) focused on entrepreneurship and financial literacy development on the Cheyenne River Sioux Indian Reservation located in north central South Dakota. Ms. Fiddler, an enrolled member of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, has served as the executive director of Four Bands since 2002 and has built the organization from the start up phase into a successful, innovative and award-winning organization. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Interdisciplinary Sciences from South Dakota School of Mines & Technology and has 15 years of experience working with Native organizations. Ms. Fiddler is the recipient of several awards including the 2008 Bureau of Indian Affairs “Entrepreneur Advocate of the Year,” the 2007 Small Business Administration “Minority Small Business Champion for South Dakota and Region VIII,” and the 2007 “Visionary Leader Award for Outstanding Achievement” in recognition of her impact in the CDFI field. She received a Fellowship in the Aspen Institute’s Ideas Festival in 2008 and has been an active voice in Native community and economic development. Tanya is also the Co-Chair for the Native CDFI Network and is a board member of the South Dakota Indian Business Alliance and Mazaska Owecaso Otipi Financial.
Robert Friedman, Chair
Robert Friedman is general counsel, founder and chair of CFED's board.
Since 1979, CFED has worked to foster widely shared and sustainable economic well-being by promoting asset-building and economic opportunity strategies that bring together community practice, public policy and private markets in new and effective ways. Mr. Friedman and CFED have helped lead the U.S. development of innovative economic development strategies including microenterprise, flexible business networks, individual development accounts, and economic health assessments. Mr. Friedman's current work focuses on the Savings for Education, Entrepreneurship, and Downpayment (SEED) Policy and Practice Initiative to assess the potential of long-term savings and investment accounts established at birth.
Among Mr. Friedman's other major publications are:
- The Return of the Dream: An Analysis of the Probable Economic Return of a National Investment in Individual Development Accounts (1995)
- The Development Report Card for the States (co-author, 1986-1995)
- The Safety Net As Ladder: Transfer Payments and Economic Development (1988)
- Expanding the Opportunity to Produce: Revitalizing the American Economy Through New Enterprise Development (Co-editor, 1981).
Mr. Friedman was founding chair of the Association for Enterprise Opportunity; and currently serves on the board of Levi Strauss & Co., Ecotrust, Friedman Family Foundation, and the Rosenberg Foundation. Mr. Friedman is a graduate of Harvard College and Yale Law School.
Michelle Greene
Michelle Greene is Vice President and Head of Corporate Responsibility for NYSE Euronext, overseeing the company’s global corporate responsibility efforts. She is responsible for NYSE Euronext’s internal corporate responsibility policies and initiatives, and for developing programs to leverage and enhance efforts of NYSE Euronext listed companies, promoting collaboration and cooperation on issues of common interest. In addition, she is the Executive Director of the NYSE Foundation. Until last summer, Ms. Greene served as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Financial Education and Financial Access at the U.S. Department of the Treasury, where she advised senior Treasury and Administration officials on policy and legislation involving all aspects of financial access and financial education and helped drive the development of major new policy initiatives in this area. She also served as Executive Director of the President’s Advisory Council on Financial Literacy and as a member of the White House Council on Women and Girls. She began her service in the Obama Administration as a Senior Advisor in Domestic Finance focused on the financial crisis. Previously, Ms. Greene was Senior Policy Advisor to the Assistant Secretary for Financial Markets at Treasury from 1998 through 2001.
Ms. Greene’s professional experience includes working as a consultant for McKinsey & Co., Inc. and Blaqwell, Inc. and serving as the Executive Director of the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. She began her career practicing law in Washington, D.C. Ms. Greene received her J.D. from Harvard Law School and her A.B. from Dartmouth College.
Ronald Grzywinski
Ronald Gryzwinski is Chairman and a co-founder of ShoreBank, established in 1973. Before creating ShoreBank Corporation, Mr. Gryzwinski had been president of the Hyde Park Bank and Trust Company and of the First National Bank of Lockport, Illinois, and served as a U.S. Army officer.
Along with sitting on the Board of CFED, Mr. Gryzwinski is a board member of the Center for Community Change, the Enterprise Foundation, Ecotrust, and various ShoreBank affiliates.
Dan Letendre
Dan Letendre is the CDFI Lending & Investing Executive for Bank of America. In this capacity, he is responsible for managing the bank’s lending and investing activities with Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs). Bank of America currently has over $1 billion of loans and investments to these community-based intermediaries that provide financing for affordable housing, small businesses, and community facilities providing health care, education, childcare and other needed social services.
Prior to this role, Mr. Letendre was Managing Director of the Merrill Lynch Community Development Company, a subsidiary of Merrill Lynch that provided capital, liquidity and technical assistance to underserved communities. He also managed the New Markets Tax Credit Program and focused on expanding the firm’s Socially Responsible Investment products focused on the community development sector.
Before joining Bank of America, Mr. Letendre was Vice President at JPMorgan Chase, where he managed the bank’s lending and investing activities with CDFIs. He also managed JPMorgan Chase’s portfolio of community development venture capital investments and the New Markets Tax Credit Program.
Prior to his work with the bank’s community development division, Mr. Letendre worked within Chase’s Financial Institutions Group, which provides lending and advisory services to banks, thrifts and credit unions. He was a management consultant with Booz Allen & Hamilton in their Financial Institutions Practice and a research analyst with Paine Webber, focusing on financial institutions in developing countries in the Asia-Pacific Region.
He has served on the boards of several community development institutions including Low Income Investment Fund, Corporation for Enterprise Development, the New York Community Investment Company, as well as on the advisory boards of Local Capital Markets Investment Fund and the Opportunity Finance Network - CARS Program.
Mr. Letendre received a BS from Manhattan College and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Andrea Levere has led the Corporation for Enterprise Development (CFED) as its president since 2004. CFED is a private nonprofit organization with the mission of building assets and expanding economic opportunity for low‐income people and disadvantaged communities through matched savings, entrepreneurship and affordable housing.
Through Ms. Levere’s vision and leadership, CFED designs and operates major national initiatives that aim to expand matched savings for children and adults, bring self‐employed entrepreneurs into the financial mainstream and turn manufactured housing into an appreciating asset. CFED operates a comprehensive public policy program to build and protect assets at the local, state and federal levels, and produces the nationally recognized Assets & Opportunity Scorecard.
Under Ms. Levere’s guidance, CFED launched two new efforts this year to close the college completion gap by addressing key financial barriers low-income individuals face. The 1:1 Fund is an online marketplace that matches donor dollars to those of students saving for college in a matched savings account. The Partnership for College Completion is an innovative initiative by CFED, UNCF and KIPP that combines incentivized savings accounts, financial and college-readiness education, and scholarship assistance to prepare KIPP students for college success.
CFED has enjoyed significant growth under Ms. Levere’s guidance, expanding to a staff of 50 with offices in Washington, DC, Durham, NC, and San Francisco, CA. Ms. Levere has added resources and focus to CFED’s policy and communications efforts, leading to a number of policy victories in state legislatures and growing attention to the importance of asset building in the national media.
Prior to joining CFED in 1992, Ms. Levere was a director with the National Development Council. At NDC, she was a lead trainer for the Economic Development Finance Certification Program and designed and conducted “Taking Care of Business,” a financial management program for entrepreneurs while also working with cities and states to structure financing for small businesses, affordable housing and urban development projects.
Ms. Levere served as chair of the board of the Ms. Foundation for Women from 2002‐2005, after being on its board since 1998. Currently, she serves as the Chair of ROC USA (Resident Owned Communities USA), a national social venture that converts manufactured home parks into resident owned cooperatives. In 2009 she was appointed to the Bank of America’s National Consumer Advisory Council. Ms. Levere also serves as a founding member of the Morgan Stanley community Development Advisory Committee.
She holds a bachelorʹs degree from Brown University and an MBA from Yale University. In 2001, she received the Alumni Recognition Award from the Yale School of Management and in 2008 was named to the inaugural class of its Donaldson Fellows Program, which recognizes alumni who help educate business and society leaders.
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Brandee McHale
Brandee McHale is the Chief Operating Officer of the Citi Foundation. Brandee is responsible for all of the Foundation’s investment activity and Citi’s Office of Financial Capability whose mission is to leverage Citi’s people and products to increase low-income consumer financial capabilities. Brandee also oversees Citi Volunteers, which leverages the commitment of our employees to make a difference in their communities, reflecting the Foundation’s “more than philanthropy” approach to its investments.
Brandee joined Citi in 1991 and has a long history in both business management and philanthropy. Before joining the Foundation, she served as the Director of Operations for Citi Community Capital the largest community development financing entity in the United States.
In 2005, Brandee left Citi to spend two years with the Ford Foundation developing a portfolio of investments that support low-income households’ efforts to participate in the mainstream economy, attain economic self-sufficiency and fulfill asset development goals.
Brandee holds a Master’s Degree in Urban Policy from the New School for Social Research and is currently on the board of directors of the Corporation for Enterprise Development (current Vice Chair) and the Asset Funders Network. Brandee also serves as the co-chair for the Living Cities Local Integration Initiative, a ground breaking effort to promote neighborhood transformation innovations that focus on both people and place.
Torod Neptune
Torod Neptune joined Verizon Communications Inc. in May 2010 as corporate vice president communications, products and services. In this role, Torod is responsible for leading communications strategy and implementation for Verizon's telecom and business product lines worldwide, including media and industry analyst relations, social media and digital strategy, and public relations. Torod also serves as a key member of Verizon’s communications leadership on issues and initiatives affecting the company.
He previously was senior vice president and global public affairs practice leader for Waggener Edstrom Worldwide (WE), one of the world's largest public relations and communications firms, where he oversaw the company's Washington, D.C., and Brussels offices, its global public affairs, crisis and issues management practices, and managed several client relationships in the technology industry, including Microsoft, HTC, and T-Mobile USA. Prior to WE, Torod was Chief Communications Strategist for the U.S. Congress, responsible for developing the first post-Sept. 11 and anthrax crisis communications programs for the U.S. House of Representatives. Immediately preceding Capitol Hill, he was Senior Vice President Corporate Communications for Bank of America Corp., one of the world's largest financial institutions, where he held numerous senior corporate roles, including directing teams responsible for communications, issues management, and public affairs for its global consumer products division.
Before joining Bank of America Corp., Torod held several senior-level positions at public relations agencies, most recently serving as Group Director in the Washington, DC office of Powell Tate, a firm specializing in managing public policy issues, reputation and crisis management, and national public education campaigns, and that is part of Weber Shandwick Worldwide. A frequent speaker on corporate reputation and issues management, Torod is a member of the board of directors of the Corporation for Enterprise Development (CFED) and the Homeownership Preservation Foundation (HPF).
A native of North Carolina, Torod began his career as a reporter with The State newspaper in Columbia, SC and received a B.A. degree in Government & International Affairs and Journalism & Mass Communications from the University of South Carolina.
Bill Purcell
Bill Purcell has spent more than 30 years in public service, law, and higher education. During his eight-year tenure as Mayor of the Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County, Tennessee (1999-2007) the city saw unprecedented economic expansion, an increase in Metro school funding of more than 50 percent, and the development and preservation of more than 26,000 affordable housing units. He was elected to his second term as mayor by a record-setting 84.8 percent of the vote. Purcell’s accomplishments as a civic leader earned him “Public Official of the Year” honors in 2006 by Governing Magazine. Following his service as mayor, Purcell was a Harvard University Institute of Politics Fellow in 2007. He then served as Founding and Interim Dean of the College of Public Service and Urban Affairs at Tennessee State University before returning to the Institute of Politics as Director, and a Lecturer in Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School. In December 2009, Purcell was appointed by Harvard University President Drew Faust as co-chair of the Work Team for Allston and now serves as Special Advisor on Allston. In these roles, he recommends strategies for achieving a cohesive academic and learning campus environment situated in Allston. A decade earlier he was founder and director of the Child and Family Policy Center at Vanderbilt University (1996-99), a nationally-recognized center building a bridge between academic research, politics, and best practices to benefit children and their families. Purcell was elected to five terms in the Tennessee House of Representatives (1986-96), serving as Majority Leader (1990-96). He earned his bachelor’s degree at Hamilton College and his law degree at Vanderbilt University School of Law, where he has been honored as a Distinguished Alumnus.
Douglas Rosen
Douglas Rosen is Executive Vice President of Alco Investment Company, a Seattle, WA based company in the real estate and private equity business. Alco also owns and operates Alaskan Copper Companies Inc., a diversified industrial company which has wholesale metal distribution and custom fabrication businesses on the west coast.
Mr. Rosen has served on a number of community boards in the Seattle area. He is the past Board President of the Stroum Jewish Community Center of Greater Seattle, and is currently the incoming Board President of the Kline Galland Center, a non-profit community organization offering high quality skilled nursing care, assisted living, and adult day care services.
Mr. Rosen received an MBA from Harvard Business School in 1976 and a Bachelor of Science from the University of Washington in 1970.
Sarah Rosen Wartell
Sarah Rosen Wartell is Executive Vice President of the Center for American Progress and its advocacy arm, the Center for American Progress Action Fund, two organizations she helped to found in 2003. She was co-author of the original business plan to create a progressive “action tank” and has managed these organizations through rapid growth and evolution in a changing context. Sarah has overseen American Progress’ operations, hiring, financial management, and strategic planning. In the last two years, she has also directly guided the Center’s economic policy team, serving as editor of the Center’s multi-part economic strategy for the nation entitled “Progressive Growth.” She also built a program in housing finance, one of her own areas of policy expertise. In 2008, she assumed responsibility for managing the entire policy program, in addition to her other management duties.
Sarah served as Deputy Assistant to the President for Economic Policy and Deputy Director of the National Economic Council in the Clinton administration, where she advised the president, led interagency policy development, and negotiated with Congress on banking, housing and community development, consumer protection, pensions, bankruptcy, e-commerce, legal reform, and a host of other issues.
Prior to the White House, Sarah was a Deputy Assistant Secretary at the Federal Housing Administration in the Department of Housing and Urban Development. She has served as a consultant to the Millennial Housing Commission and the William J. Clinton Presidential Foundation. She also practiced law with the Washington, D.C. firm of Arnold & Porter. She is a graduate of the Yale Law School and Princeton University.
A native of New York City, Sarah lives in Washington DC with her husband and two young daughters.
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