Jenny Kassan, C.E.O.

Jenny has over fifteen years of experience as an attorney for and creator of social enterprises.  She has raised funds for and launched a public space cleaning and maintenance business, a landscapers’ cooperative, and a public market.  She has extensive experience with direct public offerings, nonprofit-for-profit joint ventures, cooperatives, and creative financing tools.  She has a law degree from Yale and a masters in city planning from U.C. Berkeley.

John Katovich, President

John has over 30 years of experience as a securities lawyer and entrepreneur.  John was General Counsel at the Pacific Stock Exchange for eleven years.  He also served as general counsel for two technology startups where he participated in both public and private financings.  He helped with the design of the Automated Credit Exchange (the precursor to the Chicago Climate Exchange), and was part of the team that introduced the iShares product to Barclays Bank.

Marjorie Kelly, Director of Ownership Strategy

Marjorie is author of the forthcoming book Owning Our Future: The Emerging Ownership Revolution, due out June2012 from Berrett-Koehler, which looks at how companies are using the design of ownership to preserve social mission over the long term. She is co-founder of Corporation 20/20, an initiative to envision and advocate enterprise designs that integrate social, environmental, and financial aims. Marjorie authored the Ford Foundation report “Keeping Wealth Local,” exploringalternative ownership designs used in rural areas. Marjorie was co-founder and for 20 years president of Business Ethics magazine. She is author of The Divine Right of Capital (Berrett-Koehler, 2001), named one of Library Journal’s Ten Best Business Books of the Year. Her writings and op-eds haveappeared in many magazines and newspapers, including Harvard Business Review, Strategy and Business, Chief Executive, Boston Globe, and San Francisco Chronicle.

Michael H. Shuman is an economist, attorney, author, and entrepreneur, and one of the world’s leading experts on community economics. He has authored, coauthored, or edited eight books.  His most recent book, just published by Chelsea Green, is Local Dollars, Local Sense:  How to Move Your Money from Wall Street to Main Street and Achieve Real Prosperity. His previous book, The Small Mart Revolution: How Local Businesses Are Beating the Global Competition (Berrett-Koehler, 2006), received as bronze prize from the Independent Publishers Association for best business book of 2006.  He helped co-found Business Alliance for Local Living Economies (BALLE) which represents 22,000 local businesses in North America in 80 communities, and is now a Fellow there.

Edward Quevedo, Director of Sustainability and Innovation Services

Ed has over 27 years of experience advising clients on domestic and international environmental and health & safety (EHS) law compliance and litigation matters, strategic sustainability, implementation of environmental management systems (EMS) and Sustainability Management Systems (SMS), and green building and sustainable master planning.  In January 2011, Ed joined the Faculty of the Presidio Graduate School, where he teaches the MBA Integrative Capstone Course, the MPA Capstone Course, and International Entrepreneurship.

Zach Cohen, C.F.O.

Zach Cohen, the Chief Financial Officer of Katovich & Kassan Law Group and Cutting Edge Capital, has over six years of experience working in public accounting, small business, social enterprise, and nonprofit environments and is currently a California CPA candidate. After receiving a Bachelors of Science in Accounting from the University of Florida, he began his career in the international tax practice of Deloitte Tax LLP in Atlanta. He transferred to a small local firm when he moved to the Bay Area, where he practiced tax until 2009.  In addition to his accounting work, Zach is the founder and Executive Director of Biketopia Community Workshop, a community bicycle education nonprofit. He also spent a year in a mountain retreat center studying traditional Chinese martial arts including Kung Fu, Tai Chi, and meditation.

Vinnie Bacon, C.T.O./C.C.O.

Vinnie is the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) & Chief Customer Officer (CCO) at Cutting Edge Capital.  He has over fourteen years of experience working in high-tech management. Vinnie has worked in small startups as well as Fortune 500 companies such as VeriSign and Nortel Networks. Prior to his career in high-tech, Vinnie worked as a transportation engineer. He has an undergraduate degree in zoology from UW Milwaukee and Masters Degrees in transportation engineering and city and regional planning from UC Berkeley.  Vinnie is very active in the Sierra Club San Francisco Bay Chapter where he serves on the Executive Committee. He is also the Vice Chair of the Economic Development Advisory Commission of the City of Fremont.