Bob Alig
Bob is a Strategic Enrollment Consultant at Liaison International, supporting their launch of BusinessCAS. Formerly, he was the executive vice president, School Products Group, of the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC) and vice president of the College Board’s middle states regional office, where he and his team promoted college and career readiness for all K-12 and higher education students. He also held numerous positions at his alma mater University of Pennsylvania, including Director of MBA Admissions and Financial Aid at the Wharton School and Assistant Vice President of Alumni Relations.
Brent Ashton
Brent joined EY as a staff member in 1994 upon graduation from Washington University in St. Louis. He has been a Partner in the Assurance Services practice since 2006. In this role, Brent has served both publicly-owned and privately-held companies with regional, national and global presence. His client base is comprised of companies from a variety of industries including but not limited to technology, diversified industrial products, manufacturing and distribution. He has also been involved in numerous acquisitions and divestitures, public and private debt and equity financing transactions. He also ran the EY Entrepreneur of the Year program in New Jersey from 2011 to 2016.
In addition to his professional role as a CPA and partner at Ernst & Young, Brent is an active participant in a variety of non-profit organizations. Brent is a current member of Strategic Planning Committee for the New Jersey Society of CPAs (NJSCPA). He also currently serves as a Board Member for Junior Achievement of Central New Jersey.
Jon Bernstein - Vice Chair
Jon Bernstein is a founding Member of BlackBern Partners and a board member of Westfall Technik, Zentech and Value Foodservice. Prior to founding BlackBern, Jon worked for First Manhattan Consulting Group and Pershing Square Capital Management. He holds a BS in Electrical Engineering from Cornell University and an MBA with Honors from Columbia Business School.
Why Minds Matter? I was inspired to volunteer with Minds Matter by my mother who was a high school teacher and my family’s commitment to education as a socioeconomic equalizer; my twenty-year connection to Minds Matter has been furthered by countless wonderful mentee interactions.
Avi Fernandes
Avi is a Senior Vice President and Founding Member at ICONIQ Capital, a privately-held investment firm based in San Francisco, CA that serves some of the world’s most influential families and organizations. Avi is primarily responsible for advising ultra high-net-worth families on their investment strategy, trust & estate structuring and philanthropy planning. Avi also serves on the Leadership Committee for the Family Office and ICONIQ Impact, the firm’s collaborative philanthropy platform to dramatically scale ‘big bet’ giving for social change.
Avi began his career at Goldman Sachs in their Investment Management and Investment Banking Divisions. In Investment Management, Avi was part of the Investment Strategy Group in New York where he advised ultra high-net-worth families on their portfolio strategy and served as the product specialist for the West Coast Region. In Investment Banking, Avi worked in the Industrials and Natural Resources Group in San Francisco where he advised companies on their M&A and financing strategy. After business school, Avi worked in Morgan Stanley’s Private Wealth Management Division before he and his team spun out to form ICONIQ Capital.
Avi earned his MBA at INSEAD and Bachelor of Arts in Economics-Philosophy at Columbia University.
Melanie Girton
Melanie Girton is a founding partner of Odell Girton Siegel, LLC advising startups and growth stage companies. She focuses her practice exclusively on the entrepreneur's journey. Ms. Girton is a graduate of the University of Southern California and a magna cum laude graduate of the New York Law School, where she was an Articles Editor of the Law Review. She comes from a family dedicated to the mission of education and shares their passion for the unique role it can play in unlocking opportunities through the realization of individual potential, and the aggregated power of a society equipped with learned citizens.
Why Minds Matter? As a Minds Matter mentor 25 years ago, I felt first hand the compelling impact of connecting with a bright young student. While much has changed in the decades since, the deeply meaningful experience of the personal connection that develops for thousands of mentors and mentees remains as rewarding as ever.
Leanne Huebner - Co-Chair
Leanne is an award-winning leader, a start-up consultant, and a seasoned social entrepreneur with over 15 years of board experience on various nonprofit boards. In 1991, Leanne Huebner co-founded Minds Matter of New York City, the pioneering organization in college access & success and Minds Matter's founding nonprofit. She also served as the Founding Board Vice President for Minds Matter of Los Angeles for its first three years and has since served on Minds Matter National's Board. As Founding Board Chair, Leanne led efforts to launch an early-start charter middle school in an underserved area of South Los Angeles in 2013. Previously, she led Central Business Development at Yahoo, Inc!, where she closed over $90 million in new revenue and oversaw a $500 million+ trading portfolio in her role as an Associate at Credit Suisse. Today, along with her work with Minds Matter, she serves on the boards of the University of Pennsylvania’s Southern California Regional Advisory Board and Trustee’s Council of Penn Women, and previously served on the board of Manhattan Beach Education Foundation. In recognition for life's work of service to others, Leanne was named 2014 “Woman of the Year” at the California State Assembly; 2017 L'Oreal "Women of Worth" Honoree, and 2013 “Woman of Distinction” by Soroptimist International and 66th Assembly District. A first generation college graduate herself, Leanne earned a B.S. in Finance from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and an M.B.A. degree from Harvard Business School.
Deborah McGinn - Secretary/Treasurer
Deborah McGinn retired in 2017 from the William T. Grant Foundation, where she held the position of vice president for finance and administration and assistant treasurer. Deborah has a strong track record in nonprofit finance and administration working in education and environmental organizations. She held the position of Vice President of Finance and Administration at the ExpandED Schools, the Fund for Public Schools, EDF and E+Co. The first 25 years of her career were spent in the public sector at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, where she started her career as an accountant and rose through the organization to hold the position of Deputy Treasurer. Deborah earned a BA in Economics from Douglass College of Rutgers University.
Why Minds Matter? I was inspired to be a part of Minds Matter because, as a first generation college student myself, I understand the power of a college education as the driver for success in life.
Connie Miller
Board Member Emeritus
Ms. Miller retired in 2012 as the Managing Director and Head of Global Human Resources. She was responsible for a staff of 17 HR professionals handling all functions relating to the management of people including but not limited to recruiting, compensation, benefits, and employee relations. Ms. Miller moved to PineBridge Investments, a company that was carved out of AIG and sold in 2010 to the Pacific Century Group located in Hong Kong. She joined the firm as part of AIG Investments in 1996 with 20 years of experience in human resources management in diversified financial services companies. At its peak AIG Investments had a population of 3000 people around the globe and $750 Billion in assets under management. Ms. Miller was a founding member of AIG Investments.
In addition, she held Human Resources Managerial positions with Wells Fargo Bank, Bank of America, and ITT Financial Services all in San Francisco. Ms. Miller holds a BS in English/Education from Western Connecticut University and an MA in English from George Washington University. Prior to her human resources career she taught high school English.
Shari Noonan
Shari Noonan is Rialto Markets CEO and has more than 20 years of experience in the financial services industry. Rialto is a Finra registered broker dealer and SEC registered Alternative Trading System (ATS) focused on private market digital securities. Shari has extensive experience in building and scaling operations and products with Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, and Instinet and was directly involved in the electronification of the Equities market. She worked to develop many of the initial products in equities electronic trading, including the first ATS’s, advanced algorithms, and electronic negotiations. She received a BS in Accounting from Marquette University and MBA from Columbia University and holds Series 3,7,24,55,63 registrations.
Why Minds Matter? I believe strongly in the mission and ability of Minds Matter to enable capable students to reach new heights and experiences that will prepare them for lifelong success. Having been involved with the organization for 25 years, I have seen firsthand the remarkable achievements of our students, who go on to act as role models within their community and beyond.
Michael Recht
Mr. Recht has been actively involved with Minds Matter since 2005, when he began the process of co-founding the Chicago Chapter. Over the last 12 years, he co-founded the Chicago Chapter, served as its Director of Mentees and sat on both the Chicago and National Governance Boards.
Professionally, Mr. Recht is a Managing Director at TowerBrook Capital Partners. Previously, Mr. Recht was a Senior Associate with the Retail & Consumer team at Apax Partners. Before joining Apax he worked for Thoma Cressey Bravo, focusing on investments in the consumer products and services sector. Prior to Thoma Cressey, Mr. Recht was a member of the Technology & Defense teams at CIBC World Markets. Mr. Recht earned his MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and his B.A. from Williams College.
Elvis Rodriguez
Elvis Rodriguez, is a Director with Bank of America's REIT Equity Research team. He began his career at Morgan Stanley, where he interned while completing his undergraduate studies. Mr. Rodriguez has worked in market data sales roles at Bloomberg and Tradeweb, as well as equity and fixed income research and trading roles at Adelante Capital Management, Barclays Capital and Goldman Sachs Asset Management.
Mr. Rodriguez received his B.S. in Engineering from Columbia University and his M.B.A. in Finance from the Darden Graduate School of Business, University of Virginia. Mr. Rodriguez has been an active Minds Matter alumnus and Advisory Board member, having served in a variety of roles. He is especially proud of having been a mentor to four students.
Why Minds Matter? Having participated in the mentorship program as a mentee and as a mentor, I believe Minds Matter is uniquely positioned to provide high potential youth with the access and the tools necessary to achieve academic and professional success.
Ashish Shah - Co-Chair
Ashish is co-head of Goldman Sachs Asset Management’s (GSAM) Global Fixed Income and Liquidity Solutions business. He also serves as global head of GSAM's Cross-Sector Strategy and is a member of the Fixed Income Strategy Group. Ashish joined Goldman Sachs as a partner in 2018.
Prior to joining the firm, Ashish was chief investment officer for Global Credit and head of Fixed Income for Alliance Bernstein, where he oversaw all credit-related strategies. He joined Alliance Bernstein in 2010 as the firm’s head of Global Credit. Prior to that, Ashish was a managing director and head of Global Credit Strategy at Barclays Capital from 2008 to 2010, responsible for the High Grade, High Yield, Structured Credit and Municipal Strategy groups and the Special Situations Research team. From 2003 to 2008, Ashish was head of Credit Strategy at Lehman Brothers.
Ashish has been a volunteer w Minds Matter since 1994 and National board member since 2015.
Ashish earned a BS in economics from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
Why Minds Matter? I am inspired by our students, volunteers and leaders who all want to drive social mobility through education and community.
Francisco Paret
Sean Stalfort
Philip Taylor
Mr. Taylor currently is the Chief Analytics Officer at FinMason. In his role, Taylor leads the firm’s elite analytics team in expanding the firm’s fixed-income and equity analytics offering from roughly 700 different analytics to more than 1400, and deliver sophisticated analyses on multi-asset, multi-currency portfolios to our swiftly-expanding global client base.
Taylor brings over 20 years of senior-level institutional investment experience, having run $1b+ portfolios at several prominent financial institutions across all asset-classes. Prior to joining FinMason, Taylor led the Capital Markets desk at Lazard. Before that, he worked for two decades as an arbitrage portfolio manager for prominent banks and hedge funds. He also recently served as Chair of the Board for the CFA Society New York. Taylor holds an M.A. and B.A. in Mathematics and Management from the University of Cambridge.
Kathy Herman
Peter W. Agnes III
Peter is a Consultant in the Boston office of the global Leadership Consulting firm Egon Zehnder where he advises clients on talent and leadership in the firm’s Financial Services, Private Equity and Sports practices. Prior to Egon Zehnder, Peter was a Partner and Portfolio Manager at Caxton Associates, a global macro hedge fund headquartered in New York City. Before joining Caxton, Peter was a Managing Director at Barclays Capital where he was the Global Head of the Credit Opportunities Group, a proprietary investing unit. Earlier in his career Peter worked at the UBS Investment Bank in Stamford, CT and Wachovia Securities in Charlotte, NC. He is a CFA charter holder. Peter earned his MBA from the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University and a BA from Dartmouth College where he also played varsity football.