THE BOARD

Meet the board

Think of Us is governed by a volunteer, Board of Directors, a diverse, qualified, and caring group of individuals who advise on strategy, policy, finances, and fundraising.

Matthew Gemello

Board Chair

Matthew Gemello is a corporate partner and the chair of Orrick’s global corporate business.  A seasoned M&A lawyer, Matthew guides global technology companies and their financial sponsors through transformational domestic and cross-border transactions.

Matthew has been recognized as a leading lawyer by numerous legal publications and rankings, by the Financial Times as an innovation leader in North America and by the San Francisco and Los Angeles Daily Journal as one of the top 10 Innovative Corporate Lawyers in California.

Kathleen Holt-Whyte

Owner of Success Strategies

Kathleen is the owner of Success Strategies; a training and consultant enterprise. Kathleen has vast experience in the areas of foster care, healthcare, banking, retail, and media industries as well as experience in management training, staff development, custom design training, video training, and executive education instruction. Holt has also received a master's degree in Human Resource management from Webster University.

Andrew Karsh

California Public Employees’ Retirement System

Andrew Karsh is the Portfolio Manager of Fixed Income & Commodities at California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS). Andrew began his career in derivatives trading for Banco Santander and has a successful track record across global markets while working in London and New York for Credit Suisse. He holds a degree from Columbia University’s Business School.

Megan Smith

Founder & CEO Shift7

Megan is an award-winning entrepreneur, engineer, and tech evangelist. Megan Smith was the 3rd Chief Technology Officer of the United States (U.S. CTO) and Assistant to the President, serving under President Barack Obama.

She was previously a vice president at Google, leading new business development at Google for nine years, was general manager of Google.org and the former CEO of Planet Out. She serves on the boards of MIT and Vital Voices. She is also a member of the USAID Advisory Committee on Voluntary Aid and co-founded the Malala Fund. On September 4, 2014, she was named as the third (and first female) U.S. CTO, succeeding Todd Park, and serving until Jan 2017.

Kim Syman

Managing Partner, Systemic Solutions Initiative, New Profit

Kim is helping to invent how New Profit supports social entrepreneurs who are tackling complex problems in holistic, systemic ways – not only scaling programs or shaping public policy, but shifting deeper conditions, like mental models and power dynamics, to create sustainable, equitable progress in areas like health and wellbeing, economic mobility, or our democracy. 

As a member of the New Profit’s founding Idea Team, Kim has had the chance to build, test, learn from, and help to evolve New Profit from the early days. Her experience at City Year was a springboard. But before that it was the serendipity of a volunteer public service role in New York City, along with working on a documentary series about the state of healthcare in America that deeply revealed how much the chance of birth shapes a life trajectory in so many ways.