ANDREW LAFFOON
Andrew is the CEO and Co-Founder of Mixbook, the #1 rated photo book company. Recognized by Inc. Magazine’s “30 Under 30” and Forbes as “America’s Most Promising CEO Under 35,” Andrew started coding at age 10, started his first tech company at 15, and has co-authored more than 20 patents. Before Mixbook, he received a BS in Industrial Engineering and Operations Research from UC Berkeley.
BEN CHELF
Ben and his partners bootstrapped Coverity, a software company that employed hundreds of people, and, in 2014, was acquired by Synopsys. Ben approaches venture with a deep technical background and recent startup know-how. He’s lived every part of the entrepreneurial cycle, served as COO and CTO, and is passionate about sharing his knowledge and experience.
BILL COUGHRAN
Bill is a technologist in large-scale computing and networking systems with general management experience. His career in computer science spans more than two decades. He has contributed to large-scale Web service systems and products as well as client software. He serves as an investor and coach for developing companies.
CHI-HUA CHIEN
Chi- Hua is Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Goodwater Capital, the largest consumer-tech focused VC firm in the world. His passion is supporting entrepreneurs who are building amazing digital utilities that promote human flourishing and seek to change the world for good. These products provide better global access to healthcare, food, financial services, housing, etc.
CURTIS CHANG
Curtis bridges the worlds of secular institutions and theology. He is the founder and CEO of Consulting Within Reach (CWR), a firm serving nonprofits and government agencies. His consulting work has won an award in social innovation from the Obama White House. He is a consulting professor at Duke Divinity School and a Senior Fellow at Fuller Theological Seminary.
DAVID JACKSON
David is a community leader by its most classic definition. He celebrates the complexity, accomplishments, potential, hopes and dreams of his people while also advocating for them, and grieving their tragedies and losses. David founded Evolve Oakland, a shared workspace/membership/events. He is hopeful about the collective rise of local entrepreneurs and creatives in his community.and invests in them.
EARL SMITH
Pastor Earl Smith became the youngest chaplain ever hired by the California Department of Corrections when he was asked to become the chaplain at San Quentin in 1983. In 2000, Earl was named National Correctional Chaplain of the Year. He currently serves as chaplain for the San Francisco 49ers and the Golden State Warriors.
HENRY KAESTNER
Henry is a Managing Principal at Sovereign's Capital LLC, a private equity fund focused on making investments in Indonesia and the US, particularly in the IT, Healthcare and Consumer Goods/Services industries. Sovereign's invests in leaders whose faith and values create a workplace culture that is about business excellence and community citizenship.
JAKE CHACKO
Jake is in the “retirement” phase of life after a 40+ year executive career in technology with stops in communications companies like Bell Labs, Cisco, and one startup. Today, Jake focuses on communications at a deeper level. He is involved with several non-profits that promote human flourishing via learning, dialogue, and reflection. Jake’s most fulfilling role is riding the CalTrain on Tuesdays with his 2 grandsons.
JEFF CHERNISS
Jeff has served as a ministry and business executive in the Bay Area for 20+ years. He is the CEO of the Financial Administrative Support Services in San Jose, which outsources accounting for 80+ nonprofits. Jeff served as a founding Board Member and CFO for TBC. Jeff received his MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.
DR. JO VITALE
Jo is a Christian speaker and evangelist. For the last decade, she has ministered to skeptics and those wrestling with doubt by engaging with their intellectual objections and emotional barriers to the Christian faith. From 2016 to 2021, Jo worked in the role of the Dean of Studies at the Zacharias Institute in Atlanta, Georgia, and as an itinerant evangelist for Ravi Zacharias Ministries.
JOHN DEARBORN
John is an orthopedic surgeon and joint replacement specialist in the San Francisco Bay Area. He is the founder of the Institute for Joint Restoration and Research, which serves patients from all over the world. His blending of integrated systems with a compassionate one-patient-at a-time approach has been emulated widely by hospitals and healthcare systems across the country. He considers his many accomplishments rubbish in comparison with all that he has been given in Christ.
JOHN KIM
John is the Chief Operating Officer at Sage, a faith-led technology company developing an infrastructure-agnostic public good to re-imagine the way companies manage and deploy their business logic, and the way communities manage their ecosystems, with current deployments in Europe and Africa. John also serves as Regional Lead for FaithTech in the Bay Area.
DR. KATE LONG
Kate is a Research Associate at the Human Flourishing Program at Harvard University. Her current work focuses on determinants of well-being, group dynamics of religion on human flourishing, and the development of tradition-specific spiritual well-being measures. She completed her post-doctoral fellowship at Harvard and her doctoral studies at Boston University School of Public Health.
KEN KLEIN
Ken is the CEO and Co-Founder at Praisidio, a data infrastructure and analytics company powered by AI. He attended University of Southern California, where he currently serves as Chairman of the Audit, Compliance, Risk, and Privacy Committee and as a Member of the Board of Trustees. He has served on a number of boards, including MobileIron and Certify, Inc.
LANCE JOE
Lance is the founder and CEO of Payzone Systems Inc, a global leader in payment processing. Payzone offers card processing solutions in the US, Europe, Asia, and China. Previously, Lance held executive management positions with Heartland Payment Systems. Prior to working in the payments industry, Lance worked in commercial real estate. Lance is the executive director of the Christian Entrepreneurs Association (CEA).
LARRY LANGDON
Larry is a partner at Mayer Brown LLP, in Palo Alto, CA, where he advises clients in all tax matters. From 1999-2003, Larry served as commissioner of the Large and Mid-Size Business Division within the IRS. Prior to the IRS, Larry was the VP of Tax, Licensing, and Customs at HP for 21 years. Larry is currently an elder-at-large at Menlo Church and sits on several non-profit boards.
MICHAEL DITTMAR
Michael is passionate about increasing unity and partnership across Bay Area ministries and for increasing their collective impact. By profession, Michael is an entrepreneur and Managing Partner at Colabra, an innovative, boutique management consulting firm focussed on creating competitive advantage through data-driven go-to-market strategy, customer focus, and superior execution.
NIKI SANTO
A Harvard trained molecular biologist, Niki has 20 years of executive leadership at the intersection of academia and entrepreneurship. Niki is a deep tech investor focused on innovation and strategy. She is President of the Harvard Club of Silicon Valley and has invested in/advised startups in clean-tech, fintech, AI, e-commerce, digital health, and medical devices.
RICO ROSALES
Rico has practiced employment law for over 35 years, and his practice encompasses all aspects of the field, including counseling and representing clients in litigation matters. On a daily basis, he consults with human resources professionals, executives, and board members regarding all aspects of the employment relationship.
ROY GOBLE
Roy is a lifelong resident of the Bay Area. He is the CEO of Goble Properties, a family owned real estate investment company based in the Bay Area. Roy is also the co-founder of PathLight International, which serves at-risk students in Belize. He is the author of three books, the most recent being Junkyard Wisdom Rebuilt. He serves on the board of Westmont College.
DR. SHEROL CHEN
Sherol has studied AI for over a decade. Currently, she is part of Google Research working on building large Machine Learning models. She's taught AI for Stanford University Pre-Collegiate and around the world in Kazakhstan, China, India, Chile, and Peru. Sherol is a founding member of the Google Inter-Belief Network and served as an inaugural steering committee member for the Google Christian Fellowship.
SUSHIL CHACKO
Sushil has worked as a Finance analyst at Lehman Brothers and a Vice President in the M&A/Financial Advisory Department at JPMorgan. More recently, she was a Director in the Transactions Services group at PwC specializing in audit review of private company valuations and portfolio valuations of venture capital firms and private equity firms. Sushil has an MBA (concentration in Finance) from Harvard.
TOM DOWD
Tom co-founded and was the CEO of Dowd and Guild Inc., a chemical distribution company, for 32 years. He is a member of the Board of Directors for the John Muir Health Foundation. Co-founding Alliance Partners in 2011, an organization which supports Christian leaders in the community, has led Tom to working with the organization full time, since 2018.
TOM TOGNOLI
A Silicon Valley native, Tom co-founded Intero in 2002 and built it into the largest real estate company in Silicon Valley; and one of the top real estate companies in the US. His expertise is in leadership, building healthy teams and healthy cultures to maximize human flourishing and performance. Tom invests in and helps build impactful humans and companies.
TOM WILSON
Tom is the Associate Pastor at First Baptist Church Pittsburg. He serves as Board President for Village Keepers Contra Costa which is dedicated to ensuring the safety, health, education, economic/emotional stability of families impacted by racism and poverty. He is also the Director of Teacher Training and Curriculum for the National Evangelism Movement. In 2013, Tom retired from PwC.
VICTOR HO
Victor is the co-founder & CEO of Fivestars, a startup on mission to help businesses and communities thrive by turning every transaction into a relationship. Prior to Fivestars, he worked at McKinsey & Company, where he helped build out loyalty and customer engagement strategies for Fortune 500 brands. He started his career as an investment banker at Goldman Sachs, and holds three degrees from UC Berkeley.
VINCE VITALE
Vince serves as Faculty Scholar at CEO Forum. Previously, he served as RZIM’s Regional Director for the Americas. Vince has commended the Christian faith in numerous countries and on the campuses of many leading universities including Princeton, Harvard, Yale, Columbia, UPenn, UC Berkeley, MIT, Johns Hopkins, West Point, and Oxford. He has also spoken at Google, Amazon, and Facebook. He was keynote speaker at the 54th National Prayer Breakfast of Canada.