2022 Corporate Philanthropy Institute

Steve has a long history with NCG including stints on various committees as well as the NCG and Forum of Regional Associations of Grantmakers boards. Over the last several years he’s been a consultant on special projects, corporate philanthropy and social responsibility and briefings. As Vice President of Strategic Initiatives, he’s focused on programs, initiatives and projects that address the issues affecting our region from displacement and gentrification to income inequality to the arts, climate change and disaster resiliency. 

In addition to his consulting practice, Steve has been the Director for Foundation and Corporate Giving at Gap Inc., a program officer at the Marin Community Foundation, and served in Mayoral administrations in both San Francisco and Oakland. When he’s not working you can often find him at Amoeba Music, traveling abroad, binge watching an amazing series, exploring the Bay Area or at some wine bar.

Lynelle is a business executive, investor and board member with 20+ years of corporate experience helping large and small companies capitalize on market opportunities related to ESG, sustainability, social impact and climate change.  She is passionate about transforming business risk into stakeholder value for investors, customers, employees and society.  
 
As Vice President of Sustainability at Autodesk, Lynelle is on a mission to embed sustainability into the technology platform that is used by architecture, engineering, construction and manufacturing companies to design and make products, buildings, highways and even cities.. Under her leadership, Autodesk consistently ranks as a global sustainability leader and is now the 4th most sustainable company in the world according to Barron’s. 

Lynelle is the founding CEO of the Autodesk Foundation, the first of its kind to invest in system entrepreneurs and innovators who are using design and engineering to tackle the twin challenges of climate change and rising inequality. She is on a mission to unlock philanthropic capital to support a portfolio of companies accelerating the transition to a sustainable and resilient economy this decade.   

Lynelle also leads Autodesk’s Global Crisis Management Team and is tasked with preparing the company and the workforce to thrive in the turbulent decade ahead.  Previously Lynelle was in a similar leadership role at Hewlett Packard designing and building their sustainability strategy and team.   

A cultural anthropologist by training, Lynelle has lived and worked in frontier markets of Africa, India and other parts of Asia with several nonprofit organizations.  She has served on a number of boards working at the intersection of climate, health, education and business.  She has an MBA from UC Berkeley, an MS from University of Michigan and a BA from Middlebury College.   

She is a business strategist, systems thinker and cautious optimist. She believes in humanity and believes business can and will accelerate the transition to a sustainable economy this decade.

John Harper, Managing Director,is the newest member of FSG’s senior leadership team, bringing an explicit focus and commitment to racial equity and uplifting the voices of historically marginalized communities. His work focuses on the intersecting systems impacting the lives of individuals, and as such, he works with an array of foundation, corporate, and nonprofit clients in education, youth development, and cross-sector collaboration. John helps social change agents clarify their vision for impact and develop the strategies to support that vision, blending authentic stakeholder engagement and strategic design thinking to help leaders achieve their goals for change.

Prior to joining FSG, John worked as a consultant with a variety of clients including the New York State Education Department, Facebook Education, and the Roddenberry Fellowship. For more than a decade, he has worked with some of the nation’s leading voices in education reform and youth development, including senior leadership and development roles with America’s Promise Alliance and Turnaround for Children. He began his career in public charter schools, working with Friends of E Prep Schools (now Breakthrough Schools) and Uncommon Schools, where he helped to support the growth and expansion of both networks

Tolu Lawrence is the Managing Director of Programs and Partnerships at JUST Capital. She leads the Programs team in developing cross-sector collaborations with America’s largest companies to advance just business practices. Tolu has over a decade of experience bringing together leading brands, nonprofits, and foundations to improve corporate performance on stakeholder issues, shape narratives, and develop mission-driven initiatives that further social good.

Prior to joining JUST Capital, Tolu co-created and launched the San Francisco Foundation's Bay Area Bold initiative as well as SFF's Voice: Bay Area listening tour. She also led the expansion of the Workplace Advisors program at Promundo where she served on the Steering Group of the Parental Leave Corporate Task Force, and orchestrated social impact partnerships with Archewell Foundation, Cummins, L'Oreal, Unilever, Procter & Gamble, etc. Tolu is a member of the California Bar, and a former SF Bay Area resident.io

Kaci is the Founder and President of Social Good Solutions (SGS), a boutique consulting practice she launched in 2014 after nearly 18 years of working in the nonprofit and philanthropic sectors. Always with an eye toward human and community development, SGS works with philanthropic institutions, nonprofit organizations, and public entities to co-create, operationalize and manage strategic initiatives from concept to implementation, using a racial justice and community-centered framework to guide the work.

Prior to consulting, Kaci held entry-to-executive-level roles within the nonprofit sector, leading capacity building, education advocacy and social justice initiatives where she facilitated networks of organizations and served over 1,000 civil society leaders and public officials worldwide. In addition to managing multi-million-dollar grant-making portfolios in the United States and abroad, Kaci has created programs recognized as breakthrough contributions in her field: the School Boards and Community Engagement Initiative (2011), B.L.A.C.C. (Building Leaders and Cultivating Change), a grassroots social activism fund (2014), and the Black Equity Initiative/Black Equity Collective (2017/2021). She was named a California Community Foundation Unsung Hero of Los Angeles for her work with the BLACC Fund (2016); named to the first 40 under 40 class by the Empowerment Congress (2016); honored with the Wally Marks Change-Maker of the Year award by Liberty Hill Foundation (2017); chosen as a LA CAN Freedom Now award recipient (2019) and was selected into the 2019 inaugural class of The Aspen Institute Civil Society Fellowship.

She has served as the Chief Strategist of the Black Equity Initiative since its inception in 2017, a racial justice philanthropic initiative she designed, and now serves as the Founder and Chief Architect of the Black Equity Collective, launching in 2021 under her leadership.

Kaci sits on the board of Social Justice Partners—Los Angeles, Tides Advocacy, and is a state commissioner in the Department of Consumer Affairs. She is a certified mediator, a graduate of Pepperdine and holds an MBA in Organizational Management & Leadership from the University of LaVerne.

In her 14th year, LadyRyan is a Bay area favorite — inspiring a sense of safety, joy, and belonging as a spiritual conductor and dedicated professional. Her music and voice have been riding the wave of partygoers from coast to coast.

In 2011, LadyRyan co-founded SOULOVELY, creating space for QTBIPOC community and packing in hundreds of people at one of the best seasonal outdoor monthly parties nine years strong.

A deep range of knowledge of multiple genres of music balanced with the right touch of nostalgia makes her ability to conduct high vibrations a sure shot! 

Ajai Scott is a Senior Consultant at FSG, and values seeing the human in each person. She seeks transformative solutions to complex societal and business problems centering equity. Ajai is a founding member of the Corporate Racial Equity Alliance for FSG and provides a joy and heart-centered approach to the Alliance’s multi-year effort to develop corporate performance standards on racial and economic equity. Ajai has worked across corporate and nonprofit spaces on a global and national level, focused on social impact. Before FSG, Ajai served as a Shield Emerging Leader at Blue Shield of California and co-created and facilitated racial equity, collective advocacy, healing, and amplification workshops. She also led an organizational strategy project for a youth-driven organization based in Mexico City. Ajai earned her MBA in Social Impact and MA in Sustainable International Development from the Heller School of Social Policy & Management at Brandeis University.

Carrie Varoquiers is the Chief Philanthropy Officer at Workday, where she leads the company's philanthropic grantmaking and impact partnerships. She launched Opportunity Onramps, the company’s flagship workforce development movement focused on closing the opportunity gap and creating economic mobility.   

Prior to joining Workday, Ms. Varoquiers served as President of the McKesson Foundation and Vice President of Corporate Citizenship at McKesson Corporation.  While there, Carrie developed the McKesson Foundation's "Mobilizing for Health" grant initiative, which encourages the use of mobile technologies in chronic care, and launched and led the environmental sustainability function. 

Carrie received her BA from U.C. Berkeley, her MBA from Golden Gate University, and her MPH from Johns Hopkins University.   She serves on the board of JVS in San Francisco and leads a philanthropic consultancy, Cool Planet Food, focused on cooling the planet through food system change.