We could not run the annual NH Social Venture Innovation Challenge (SVIC) without the distinguished Preliminary Round and Final Round judges, who lend valuable time and expertise to the process. Their feedback and encouragement to our students is an incredible asset in their educational experience.
Thank you 2021 Final & Preliminary Round Judges!
Final Round Judges
Paul Anderson ‘90
Paul Anderson, CFA is President of Ironwood Investment Management, a Boston-based investment boutique focused on small cap equity strategies. Paul leads the business activities of the firm as well as the sustainable investment research and analysis effort and sits on the investment committee. Paul joined Ironwood in December 2020 after 12 years at Natixis Investment Managers where he developed and led the U.S. institutional distribution group at Natixis Distributors L.P. Paul started his career in 1991 as an investment analyst working for the founder of Ironwood. Over the course of 30 years of professional experience he has held roles in investment research, business development, executive management and product management with experience in public equities, fixed income, private equity, private credit, real estate and quantitative hedge fund strategies. Paul holds a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from the University of New Hampshire, and an MBA from Vanderbilt University. He is a member of the Committee on Investor Responsibility at the University of New Hampshire, which advises the UNH Foundation on sustainable investment practices.
Kaeleigh Barker
Kaeleigh Barker has been connected to cooperative business for over a decade. Currently Barker serves as the Director of Cooperative and Special Projects at CCA Global Partners, managing the cultivation of new ideas both inside and outside of CCA. Before that she started and directed Cooperatives for a Better World, still serving a strategic role with the organization. Through all her work, she dedicates herself to elevating awareness of and utilization of cooperative and shared ownership business models. She is well versed in the diversity of business today and the evolving global influences on community economics. She looks to actively connect what individuals can do together to enhance sustainable business development and equitable community growth. In 2020, she was recognized in the Union Leader’s 40 Under 40 Class of 2020.
Barker grew up in New Hampshire, where she first interned at CCA Global Partners in 2005, working thereafter to conduct research for the purchasing cooperative that would lead to multiple expansions of the business. Today CCA Global Partners consists of 14 divisional businesses under one cooperative umbrella. Subsequently her background also includes rural & urban teaching experiences in special education and competent communication. Barker’s passion for learning, communication, and storytelling has compelled her involvement with Toastmasters International, a global public speaking program, in which she was recognized in 2016 for her accomplishments.
Andre Beaupre ‘75
Entrepreneur and communications strategist Andre Beaupre has worked closely with hundreds of founders and C-suite leaders of B2B companies, venture-backed startups, and privately held corporations, helping them increase purpose, credibility, and valuation.
He is the author of The Purposeful Nine and Soulful Advantage, which tells the stories of nine inspiring founders, CEOs and sustainability leaders who share why they became more purposeful, what they did and how it created remarkable competitive advantage.
In 2017, he co-founded Soulful Advantage, a strategic communications consultancy intersecting purpose and profit. The firm helps businesses authentically expand social impact, increase stakeholder support, gain competitive advantage and meaningfully communicate purpose.
Edward (Ned) Dane ‘88
Ned is the Chief Strategy Officer at Aidentified, LLC. He has served as a senior executive in the wealth and asset management industry for nearly 30 years. Over his career, Ned has built businesses, lead high performing teams, and developed innovative products and solutions to meet the needs of high net worth investors. He is an expert on the topic of multi-generational wealth and is a highly sought-after speaker on issues facing wealthy millennials. Prior to joining Aidentified, Ned’s career comprised senior roles at OppenheimerFunds, Merrill Lynch, AXA Advisors, and Putnam Investments. Ned also serves on the boards of several philanthropic and cultural organizations including The University of New Hampshire, where he serves on Foundation Board and co-chairs the Sustainability Advisory Board, The Frick Museum in Pittsburgh, where he is Vice Chairman, and The Helen C. Frick Foundation.
David Ferran ‘78
Success came early in David Ferran’s career. At the age of 23 he raised his first million dollars in venture capital. By the time he turned 33 he had bought his first public company and by his 40th birthday he had taken his fist company public with an IPO on the NASDAQ. For nearly four decades David Ferran worked, played and fought with Venture Capital investors, Private Equity investors and Wall Street analysts. Having been President, CEO and or Chairman of four publicly traded companies gave David an inside view of how Capitalism really works in America. Founding seven companies of his own gave him a chance to understand the challenges faced by young entrepreneurs.
These days, David Ferran is committed to creating and empowering a new generation of Conscious Entrepreneurs while also seeking to impact the flow of global investment capital towards more socially responsible businesses and conscious business leaders.
Peter Handy
Peter Handy is president & CEO of Bristol Seafood, a processor and distributor known for its uncompromising Maine standards. Bristol is the first seafood company in America to earn a Fair Trade designation and has been named to the Top 25 Seafood Sustainability & Conservation and Top 25 Seafood Product Innovations lists. In addition to his role at Bristol, he serves on the boards of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Southern Maine, Maine Public Radio and Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences, and the investment committee of the Portland Museum of Art. Before joining Bristol, Peter co-founded BoxMyDorm.com, a national storage and shipping company for college students, and held financial services roles in New York. He is a graduate of the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and a Chartered Financial Analyst. He lives in Yarmouth, Maine with his wife Jocelyn and three daughters.
Tito Jackson ′99, ′18HD
“My experiences connecting with other people in student leadership and even just in the dorms gave me the skills that I needed to move into the workforce, and also to help change my community. I want to open the doors of educational opportunity for other young people. I have always believed that we want to make sure our young people can compete with young people at other schools that might be more diverse. That’s my passion, and I look forward to working with the board in that work.”
Raised by two parents who were community organizers, Tito Jackson ’99 ’18H says activism is in his blood. At UNH he majored in history, served as student body president and as vice president of a revived Black Student Union, helping to lead a protest sit-in that garnered national attention in 1998.
After graduating from UNH, Jackson worked in pharmaceutical sales and marketing for more than 10 years before realizing his dream of public service by joining the administration of Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick. He was elected to the Boston City Council in 2011 and served for seven years. In 2017, he ran for mayor of Boston against incumbent Marty Walsh.
He is currently CEO of Verdant Medical Inc., an adult-use cannabis organization based in Boston, and has been active in leading demonstrations as part of the Black Lives Matter movement in Boston.
Greg Jansen ‘81
Greg serves as Managing Member of Terrain Private Capital, a private capital investment and strategic advisory firm. Prior to Terrain, he was Managing Director at Commonfund Capital, a private capital investment firm, where for over 20 years he focused on leading portfolios and investments in private equity, natural resources and venture capital. Greg was a member of the firm’s Investment Committee as well as dozens of private capital advisory committees/boards. Prior to the investment business, Greg worked in the banking industry in New York City. Before graduating from business school, he was an Exploration Geophysicist.
Greg obtained an M.B.A. from Tulane University Freeman School of Business and a B.S. in Geology from the University of New Hampshire. He has served on the board or in leadership positions of several non-profit organizations.
Atlanta Mcllwraith
Atlanta McIlwraith is the director of global community engagement and activation at Timberland. She leads the brand’s efforts to bring its Purpose to life for internal and external stakeholders through authentic and purposeful activations. Atlanta drives Timberland’s global community engagement strategy, leads the NGO partnership strategy, pilots innovative ways to engage consumers in the brand’s values, and directs the Global Stewards program to ensure the company’s service and corporate social responsibility (CSR) agendas play out with consistency and impact worldwide. Atlanta also leads the Community Pillar of ‘The Work’ -- Timberland’s ongoing commitment to advance racial and social justice.
Prior joining Timberland, Atlanta's professional roles included political and community organizing, leading consumer engagement campaigns for The Body Shop, program management for an international NGO, grant writing, and more.
In her free time, Atlanta enjoys being outside with her family and tending to the trees at the organic cut-your-own Christmas tree farm that she and her husband have owned since 2013.
Clara Miller ‘72
Clara Miller speaks, writes, and advises on investing and finance in the social sector. She is President Emerita of the Heron Foundation, which she led from 2011-2017. Prior to assuming Heron’s presidency, Miller founded and was President and CEO of Nonprofit Finance Fund from 1984 through 2010.
Miller is a member of the University of New Hampshire’s Sustainability Institute’s Advisory Committee, the board of The Song Cave (a publication dedicated to literature and graphic art), the advisory board of the U.S. Impact Investing Alliance, UpStart Co-Lab (Impact Investing for the Creative Economy) and Open Road Alliance. Recently she has been a Bridgespan Fellow, and an advisor to the Impact Management Project (IMP) and Family Independence Initiative.
In 1996, Miller was a Clinton appointee to the U.S. Treasury’s first Community Development Advisory Board for the then-newly-created Community Development Financial Institutions Fund. She later became its Chair. She chaired the Opportunity Finance Network board for six years during her nine-year tenure (1992-2001) and was a member of the Community Advisory Committee of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York from 2001-2007. She was a member of the inaugural Nonprofit Accounting Advisory Committee of the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) from 2010-2014. Miller was a board member and on the Executive Committee of the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) from 2014 to 2019 and now serves as an outside committee member.
Miller was awarded a Bellagio Residency by the Rockefeller Foundation in 2010. In 2015, she received the Prince’s Prize for Innovative Philanthropy, the “Shining Star” Award by NYC performance venue PS 122, and Institutional Investor Magazine’s Investor of the Year. She was named to Nonprofit Times “Power and Influence Top 50,” from 2006-2010, 2016 and 2017 and to Inside Philanthropy’s “50 Most Powerful Women in U.S. Philanthropy in 2016 and 2017. In 2017 she was honored as Social Innovator of the Year by the University of New Hampshire and named the “Foundation President We’ll Miss Most,” by Inside Philanthropy.
Ms. Miller speaks and writes extensively and is currently a columnist for Impact Entrepreneur. She has been published in The Financial Times, Medium, The Atlantic Blog, Alliance, Stanford Social Innovation Review, The Nonprofit Quarterly and The Chronicle of Philanthropy. She has spoken recently at the Edinburgh International Culture Summit, Yale School of Management, Aspen Ideas Festival, Sciences Po, Stanford Graduate School of Business, Amos Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth, and Columbia Graduate School of Business.
Liz Torrance
Liz Torrance is the Community Relations and Social Responsibility Manager for Kennebunk Savings. She drives the strategic direction and execution of corporate social responsibility initiatives and the Community Promise program, through which the bank will contribute more than $1 million to local nonprofit organizations in 2021. Liz studied Environmental & Resource Economics at UNH. She proudly serves on the UNH Sustainability Institute Advisory Board, the Regional Advisory Board and Community Impact Investment Committee for United Way of the Greater Seacoast, and recently joined the Board of Directors at Hope on Haven Hill.
Preliminary Round Judges
Celina Adams | Founder, Celina Adams Consulting
Zack Angelini | Senior Manager of Environmental Stewardship, Timberland
Jeff Ashe | Author and Research Fellow
Ted Barber | Co-Founder, Prosperity Candle
Lisa Berghaus | Director of Marketing Communications, Monadnock Paper Mills, Inc.
Bryan Bessette | Co-Founder and Executive Director, Freedom Café
Courtney Bidwell | Director, Kelley Institute for Social Impact at Indiana University
Devon Cruz | Director of Admissions, Recruitment, and College Partnerships, College for Social Innovation
Kimberly Curry | Manager of Voice of the Customer, Goodwill Northern New England
Rebecca Darr | Co-Founder, BIG Acts
Ashley Davis | Senior Manager of Global Corporate Responsibility, Cole Hann; Founder, Ashley Davis Collective
Daniel Deane | Partner, Nixon Peabody LLP
Susan Dewhirst | Deputy Director, NH Progress Alliance
Jessica Forrest | Consultant, Environmental, Climate Change, and Spatial Planning
Holly Fowler | Co-Founder and CEO, Northbound Ventures Consulting, LLC
Jared Fuller | Principal/Head of Private Capital/Real Assets, Prime Buchholz
Sarah Glatt | Founder and Principal Consultant, Paper Crane Associates
Joe Harrison | VP of Project Development, ReWild Renewables
David Herring | Executive Director, Wolfe’s Neck Center for Agriculture and the Environment
Eric Holstein | COO, Streetlight Ventures
Heather Iworsky | Solar Foundations Coordinator, ReVision Energy
Chandler Jones | Managing Director, CEI Ventures, Inc.
Harry Lamberton | Area Vice President, Waste Management
David Loehwing | Vice President of Sustainable Investing, Impax Asset Management, Pax World Funds
Anh-Dai Lu | Educator and Management Consultant
Raili Marks | Independent Consultant
Scott Maslansky | Director of Clean Energy Finance, Community Development Finance Authority
Sean Matthews | Co-Founder and Managing Partner, LeftHook Digital
Julie McBride | Founder and CEO, Stage Six
Andrea McGrath | Principal, amplified impact
Mark McPeak | Senior Advisor, Kuja Kuja
Beth Meadows | Founder and CEO, Supply Hope
Moriah Meyskens | Adjunct Professor, University of San Diego
Brigid Murray | Investor, Vested for Growth, NH Community Loan Fund
Mark Newton | Head of Corporate Sustainability | Samsung Electronics North America
Casey Otis |Director of Custom Program, Harvard Business School Executive Education
George Parmenter | Sustainable Retailing Manager, RBS
Kevin Peterson | Director of Economic Development, New Hampshire Community Development Finance Authority
Brett Pierce | Executive Director, Meridian Stories
Jeff Pillet-Shore | Marketing Director, Allagash Brewing
Kevin Porter | Vice President of Loan Originations, ROC USA Capital
Tara Reardon | Vice President of ROC-NH, New Hampshire Community Loan Fund
John Rodat | President, Public Signals, LLC
Maggie Schmidt, JD, MPH | Staff Attorney, Maryland Legal Aid
Bill Seretta | Executive Director, Fork Food Lab
Bryan Sheehan | Managing Director for North America, Edge Environment
Doug Smith | Community Relations Coordinator, Kennebunk Savings
Keegan Smith | Recycling and Redemptions Specialist, Liberty Coca-Cola Beverages
Greg Starbird | Principal, Starbird Consulting
Erin Sullivan Ph.D. | Associate Professor of Healthcare Administration, Sawyer Business School at Suffolk University; Faculty, Center for Primary Care at Harvard Medical School
Lynda Toussaint | CEO, Unjani Clinics
Alyssa Trometter | Director of External Affairs, Clinton Global Initiative University
Mary Zwolinski | Executive Director, Wayside Food Programs
