Chase Adam is PCV’s Business Advising Program Coordinator. Chase is responsible for supporting the Business Advising Program, which helps small businesses gain access to capital, business advice, and critical business resources that accelerate company growth and ultimately create more jobs in California’s lower income communities. Chase works with entrepreneurs, business advisors and economic development organizations and supports the Business Advising Program in the areas of marketing and communications, data management and evaluation, event planning, business development and research.
In addition to working with PCV, Chase is the Co-Founder and Executive Director for Watsi, the first online peer-to-peer donation platform for global healthcare. Prior to joining PCV, Chase served as a Microfinance Advisor in the Peace Corps where he founded three legalized, community-owned and funded microfinance institutions located in indigenous communities in Costa Rica. Before joining the Peace Corps, Chase worked in Haiti where he established a national health program that resulted in the distribution of $150,000 worth of multivitamins to 13,000 malnourished children. Chase is a fluent Spanish speaker and graduated cum laude from the University of California Santa Barbara with a BA in Global Socioeconomics and Politics.
Carolyn Clarke Director of Finance and Lending Initiatives cclarke@pcvmail.org
Carolyn is PCV’s Director of Finance and Lending Initiatives with responsibility for the Nonprofit’s financial management, accounting, treasury, technology and Human Resources activities. In addition, Carolyn is developing PCV’s new lending initiatives.
Carolyn is a senior Corporate Finance Executive with over 25 years of experience in banking and corporate management in both the for profit and not for profit arenas. Prior to joining PCV, Carolyn worked in Nonprofit Healthcare and in general nonprofit financial consulting. She also has many years of domestic and international lending experience with Citigroup and has Corporate experience. Carolyn served on the Board of a domestic microfinance organization. A native New Yorker, Carolyn holds a BA with honors from Barnard College and an MBA with honors from Columbia Business School. After living Sao Paulo, Brazil, Los Angeles, New Jersey, and Florida, Carolyn moved to the Bay Area recently and looks forward to getting more involved with the vibrant nonprofit community here.
Allison Kelly joined PCV in 2008 and is the Director of PCV’s efforts to work with small business owners to help them access and deploy capital to grow their businesses. In this role, Allison is responsible for designing and implementing programs, engaging businesses and volunteers, and building and maintaining infrastructure to support entrepreneurs in growing their businesses. Allison is responsible for increasing the impact, scale and breadth of entrepreneurial engagement at Pacific Community Ventures. In Allison’s previous role at PCV, she launched and ran the organizations’ VidaCard product and directed a healthcare policy initiative engaging the voices of small businesses in the healthcare debates.
Prior to joining PCV, Allison worked in the private sector in the pharmaceutical and biotech industries directing strategy and product management for over four years. Allison also worked in the public sector doing social marketing of public health products in developing countries and serving as a Peace Corps Volunteer and trainer in Mauritania, West Africa. Allison is a contributing author to Dr. Steven Stralser’s book MBA in a Day. Allison holds a BA with honors in Psychology and English from the University of Oregon and an MBA in international management from Thunderbird, School of Global Management.
Shaffer McGee is PCV’s Manager of Finance. He is responsible for day-to-day finance and accounting operations, as well as providing assistance to the Director of Finance in matters of HR, financial reporting, and PCV’s new lending initiatives.
Having spent much of his career providing accounting and financial support for small companies throughout the Bay Area, he is excited to offer his talents to a company whose purpose is to support California’s small business community.
Shaffer earned his Master of Music degree from San Francisco State University studying classical voice and is an active member of the Bay Area music community.
Shawn Nguyen is PCV’s Office Manager where he manages the day-to-day operation to provide a comfortable working environment. Shawn also provides support to Business Advising and Pacific Community Management, which advise and invest in small businesses to create jobs in the much needed LMI communities in California. Shawn is also PCV’s Salesforce administrator, managing both PCV and PCM database.
Prior to joining PCV, Shawn was working with the technology-focus and community-centric non-profit Zerodivide. He assisted to secure a multi-million federal grant to expand broadband access and technology to underserved communities in 5 western states and Hawaii. Before the non-profit world, Shawn was the Media Development Coordinator for the publishing firm Pearson Education.
Shawn holds a BA in Asian American Studies from UC Berkeley and enthusiastically looks forward to continuing his education.
Kendra Ott is PCV's Business Advising Program Manager.
Kendra is responsible for connecting small business owners with the resources
they need to help them grow and create more jobs for California's lower income
communities. To this end, Kendra works with volunteer business advisors,
entrepreneurs, and partner community and economic development organizations. In
addition to developing and managing relationships with a diverse community of
stakeholders, Kendra supports the Business Advising Program through program
administration, marketing and communications, events and research and
evaluation.
Prior to joining PCV, Kendra completed her Masters Degree in International
Development in London, as well as a Fellowship with the Consultative Group to
Assist the Poor at the World Bank in Washington, DC, where she worked with the
Microfinance Gateway team. Her passion for community development and
microfinance has also led to her involvement on projects working with the
municipal governments in Tanzania and East London, as well as spending time
with BRAC in Bangladesh. She currently volunteers for the Silicon Valley
Microfinance Network.
Before going back to school, Kendra worked in marketing for two Silicon Valley
start-ups and managed fundraising campaigns and events for The Leukemia &
Lymphoma Society in San Francisco. Kendra holds a BA in International Relations
from Boston University and a MS in International Social Development from
University College London.
Rebecca evaluates the social impact of investments made by PCV and clients of InSight by providing data analysis and research support. She assists the InSight team by assessing the non-financial performance of investment portfolios through data collection, consulting and building relationships with clients, developing innovative metrics to measure investment performance, and preparing reports to convey findings.
Before coming to PCV, Rebecca worked in Washington, DC as a Research Associate with Economists Incorporated, an economic consulting firm that provides expert consulting and testifying services for antitrust litigation and investigations. She assisted PhD Economists on many cases by producing detailed market research and microeconomic analysis of various types of industry markets. Prior to EI, Rebecca volunteered for the Lawyer Referral Service with the Palo Alto Area Bar Association. With her help, the program was reestablished to assist those in the community seeking legal advice. Rebecca holds a B.A. in Economics from the University of Oregon.
Chuck Sinks Regional Director, Business Advising, San Diego csinks@pcvmail.org
For nearly three decades, Chuck has been an active owner,
investor and operator of fast-growing entrepreneurial companies in technology,
academic services, real estate and market research.Chuck's small business operations experience,
unique, innovative marketing strategies coupled with a disciplined financial
philosophy have resulted in a proven track record of small business success
across several industry verticals.
Over the past fifteen years, Beth has also been involved as a volunteer in a number of nonprofit organizations, including serving as Board Chair for the Jewish Community Center of the East Bay. Beth earned a B.A in political science at Brandeis University, an MBA at Boston University and a Masters of Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley.
Ben Thornley is the Director of
Insight – Pacific Community Ventures’ thought leadership practice in
high-impact investing. Ben is responsible for PCV’s policy research and social
performance measurement initiatives, advising some of the country’s most prominent
institutional investors and philanthropic foundations.
Prior to joining
Insight, Ben worked for over a decade in
the public, for-profit, and non-profit sectors – always with a focus on the
critical role of the financial services sector in economic development. This
included as editorial director and New York correspondent for Australia’s
leading investment industry publisher, as a policy associate with the United
Nations Association of the U.S.A., responsible for coordinating Wall Street’s
formal participation in the UN’s Financing for Development conference, and as
an investment director in the Australian Consulate-General, New York, charged
with positioning the country as a regional financial services center.
Ben is the Board President of Centerforce, the 501(c)(3)
based in San Rafael, CA, providing health and education services to
individuals, families, and communities impacted by incarceration. Ben has also
provided independent consulting services to the Federal Reserve Bank of San
Francisco and to Bay Area non-profits including REDF, SF Works, and ICLEI –
Local Governments for Sustainability. Ben received a Masters of Public Policy
from the University of California at Berkeley and a B.A. in Communications
from the University of Technology, Sydney.
Meredith Willa is the Project Manager for Insight,
Pacific Community Ventures’ thought leadership practice in high-impact
investing. Meredith contributes to the growth and development of InSight by
managing and administering PCV's policy research on social impact investing,
cultivating an understanding of the trends and research strategies impacting
the project, developing external relationships, and providing support to
clients.
Meredith’s experience in the nonprofit and public sectors
has a particular focus on advising organizations on making mission-related,
data-driven decisions to increase social impact and effectiveness. Prior to
joining PCV, Meredith worked for the US Department of Health and Human
Services, where she served as a management analyst on Head Start grantee
regulatory compliance. Previously, she worked at the College Access Foundation
of California, leading the effort to develop a comprehensive data and
evaluation system, and has also worked at the National Conference of State
Legislatures and the National Center for Children in Poverty. She started her
career at the Medical Health Research Association where she helped families who
had children with disabilities navigate the complex web of social services.
Meredith has provided independent policy and evaluation consulting services to
several Bay Area nonprofits and public agencies.
Meredith received a master’s degree in public policy from
the University of California, Berkeley, where she published research on the
effects of welfare receipt on children, and a bachelor of science degree in
human development from Cornell University. She also completed a practicum in
social policy at the University of Gothenberg in Sweden.
Tom Woelfel is the Project Manager for Insight – Pacific Community Ventures’ thought leadership practice in high-impact investing. In this role, he supports the evaluation and consulting practice in managing consulting relationships, providing social performance measurement initiatives providing social return on investment research and analytical services to PCV and external institutional investors. In addition to his analytical duties Tom also assists with policy research in impact investing and other issue areas affecting small businesses.
Prior to joining Insight, Tom served as an Associate at Development Planning and Financing Group, where he advised clients on development projects and worked with developers and municipalities on a wide-range of development issues. While at DPFG, Tom conducted a variety of financial analyses for clients, including economic benefit analyses, fiscal impact analyses, and development fee credit and reimbursement analyses. Prior to his work at DPFG, Tom worked for the Federal Office of the California Governor where he attended congressional hearings and policy briefings on issues of importance to the State of California and conducted federal policy research. Tom holds a BS with honors in Managerial Economics from the University of California, Davis.
