About Us
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 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.
Michael Shuman, Director of Research
Michael is an economist, attorney, author, and entrepreneur. His books, The Small Mart Revolution: How Local Businesses Are Beating the Global Competition and Going Local: Creating Self-Reliant Communities in the Global Age, are considered essential reading for social entrepreneurs. Michael has worked with communities throughout the world to create more sustainable local economies.
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.
Marjorie Kelly, Director of Ownership Strategy
Marjorie is author of the forthcoming book Owning Our Future: The 
Emerging Ownership Revolution, due out June 2012 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,” exploring alternative 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 have appeared in many magazines and newspapers, including Harvard Business Review, Strategy and Business, Chief Executive, Boston Globe, and San Francisco Chronicle.
Joel Martinez, Business Advisor
Joel is a business developer and financier with over fifteen years of experience raising money for big and small ventures. Joel has worked at large New York investment firms, managed sales teams, served as CFO for several small emerging companies, and helped businesses obtain financing and upgrade their management systems. Joel enjoys matching companies to financing strategies and coaching entrepreneurs to help them meet their business and social goals. Joel earned his MBA from Stanford and his BS from UC Berkeley.
Elizabeth U, Financing Strategy Consultant
Elizabeth has extensive experience at the intersection of social finance and sustainable enterprise. She has provided strategic guidance to institutional financiers, foundations, individual investors, nonprofits and social entrepreneurs on projects including investment fund creation, investment strategy development, and capital raising. Elizabeth recently served on the management team at RSF Social Finance, helping them launch their newest loan fund, and is executive director of the nonprofit Finance for Food. She is currently writing a book to assist food system entrepreneurs identify mission-aligned financing opportunities.
Sarah Isabel Parriott, Strategy & Sustainability Consultant
Sarah Isabel specializes in strategic planning, sustainability, diverse stakeholder engagement, community outreach, and behavior change initiatives. Sarah Isabel has facilitated conversations (in English and Spanish) around global issues with diverse stakeholders from various nations, multinational companies, non-profit organizations, and governments. She has worked with several cities and counties on the strategic design and implementation of climate action and sustainable community plans. Sarah Isabel works with the private sector offering management consulting, start-up business launch support, strategic planning, innovative metrics, and sustainability management system development. She also assists in teaching sustainable venture creation in the capstone MBA course at Presidio Graduate School, and has taught in the green MBA program at Dominican University of California. Sarah Isabel has an MBA from Dominican University of California.
Kristin York, Sustainable Enterprise Strategies Consultant
Kristin is a change strategist focused on sustainable solutions for businesses and communities. With over 15 years experience in finance, operations and marketing strategy, Kristin’s unique perspective brings a holistic, systems approach to complex situations. She works with clients to embed best practice models and harness value through sustainability initiatives. Focused on both the business case and the experiential dimension of sustainability, she is a creative problem solver and natural team builder with an innate ability to bridge communication gaps within organizations. Kristin holds an MBA from the University of San Francisco and an Executive MBA in Sustainable Management from the Presidio Graduate School where she is an adjunct professor of Sustainable Urban Economic Policy and Development.
Kimberly Morris, Strategy & Sustainability Consultant
Kim’s experience spans from sustainable business strategy development to technical environmental engineering expertise. Her past engagements with triple bottom line focused initiatives include management support for citywide green business programs, development of environmental health and safety plans for industrial clients, environmental oversight for energy transmission projects and consulting on California’s proposed High Speed Rail line. She has dedicated her efforts towards leveraging sustainability-focused tools to assist new ventures, as well as public and private organizations to operate responsibly and cost effectively. Kim has a BS in Environmental Engineering Industrial Processes from the University of New Hampshire and an MBA in Sustainable Management from the Presidio Graduate School.
Our Partner
Katovich & Kassan Law Group – Katovich & Kassan Law Group is Cutting Edge Capital’s law firm partner and handles all of the legal services connected with capital raising efforts.
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