Pitsburgh Social Venture Partners Welcomes 7 New Partners

Part of national venture philanthropy movement, unique non-profit expanding to maximize positive impact on region’s at-risk youth Pittsburgh, PA, August 12, 2008 – Pittsburgh Social Venture Partners (PSVP), a partnership of philanthropic-minded individuals who invest their time, expertise and capital in innovative nonprofits serving at-risk youth, today announced that it has grown its roster of partners to 47. “One of PSVP’s objectives for 2008 was to grow and continue to diversify our group of partners and I am thrilled to welcome this new group of individuals,” said John Denny, founder and current board chair.  “These individuals recognize that PSVP is a different form of philanthropy as they are not simply expected to write a check and hope it has an impact, but rather commit their expertise, experience and capital to make social change.  By pooling their resources and talents with others, PSVP partners learn and see for themselves the hands-on outcomes of change.  In addition, PSVP is structured with the creativity and flexibility to allow people at almost every stage of life to become involved, as their lifestyle and career allows.” Tessa Nicholson, co-chair of PSVP’s Partner Recruitment team, added “PSPV has experienced a real surge in energy in the past year by creating new programs designed to better educate our partners on the challenges at-risk youth face and we have brought new partners aboard who are eager to be engaged in our efforts.  As our partnership continues to grow, so does the excitement, as we can have an even greater impact on Pittsburgh’s youth.” PSVP’s newest Partners are: 

• Girish Godbole, founder & CEO, CEO Ally, Inc., a company that leverages the experience of successful entrepreneurs and business executives to help CEO’s of small and mid-sized businesses face the challenges of a highly competitive and increasingly “flat” world.  Prior to his current position, he was responsible for founding and leading 3 high-tech companies in engineering and IT industries, including Integral Strategies, Inc. (ISI), a Pittsburgh-based software services company, and Ventive, LLC, a software product company.  Both companies were strategically merged with UBICS, Inc., a Pittsburgh-based publicly traded company that is affiliated with the $2 Billion UB Group, a diversified Indian business conglomerate. From 2004 to 2006, Girish served as President with UBICS, Inc.  Girish grew up in India and has made Pittsburgh his home since 1984. Girish holds a BS in Chemical Engineering from the University of Bombay, an MS in Chemical Engineering and an MS in Computer Science from the University of Pittsburgh.

• Dorna Javadi, originally from Iran, immigrated to Pittsburgh in 1999 and graduated from the University of Pittsburgh with a B.S. in biology.  She went on to study optometry at Ohio State University and now has a private practice in the West Hills of Pittsburgh.

• Dan Koett, a native of Pittsburgh, is an eleven year veteran of the YMCA Movement. After seven plus years serving with the Y of Greater Pittsburgh, he has spent the past four years with the Sewickley Valley YMCA and is recognized as a Senior Director by the YMCA of the USA. During his career Dan has worked in the fields of financial development, communications, public relations, administration, programming, government relations, and most recently, membership.

• Tom Kubilius, founder and President of Bright Innovation, a product research and design consulting company located on the South Side.  Prior to founding Bright, Tom was a product designer with Alcoa working on a variety of automotive and construction related products and worked at the Pittsburgh Tissue Engineering Initiative to develop entrepreneurial programs and research funding projects.  Tom was also an information technology consultant with both Accenture and Intelligroup and was a part of the first graduating class of the Master’s of Product Development program at Carnegie Mellon University.

• Kathy Risko, Senior Program Manager, Leadership Pittsburgh Inc.  A graduate of Leadership Development Initiative XI, Kathy joined the Leadership Pittsburgh Inc. team in February 2005.  Kathy is charged with the strategic development and management of the Leadership Development Initiative, a program that provides an opportunity for emerging leaders to focus on the major issues facing the region and enhance their leadership skills for heightened civic involvement.  Kathy also develops and manages numerous other programs for Leadership Pittsburgh Inc. including Leadership OnBoard, Opportunity Connections and various other collaborative community programming.   Kathy has a Master of Public Policy and Management from the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public and International Affairs, and a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and History, also from the University of Pittsburgh.

• Abby Robinson, a native Pittsburgher, is the Development Coordinator at The Children’s Institute and is working on the organization’s current capital campaign.   Her father, Stephen Robinson, is a PSVP partner and encouraged Abby to get involved; she now participates on PSVP’s grant review committee.  Abby is active with Winchester Thurston, encouraging young alumni to reconnect and get involved with the school.  Abby graduated from the University of Vermont in 2007 with a BA in Political Science and is an accomplished equestrian.

• Dana Schultz is a policy analyst at the RAND Corporation, where her research focuses on child welfare and children’s exposure to violence.  Her husband Steve is urologic surgeon and an associate professor in the Department of Urology at UMPC, specializing in laparoscopic and robotic surgery.  They live in Squirrel Hill with their two daughters. 

  PSVP is dedicated to impacting at-risk children and youth in Allegheny County through investing in nonprofits whose leaders have transformative solutions to, often, old problems. In evaluating a potential investment, PSVP assesses the value of the investment and its potential impact and the probability that it will be successful.  Once PSVP makes an investment, the organization focuses its resources (expertise, money and connections), over three to five years, working closely alongside the nonprofit to see their vision become reality.

ABOUT Pittsburgh Social Venture Partners

PSVP is a partnership of philanthropic-minded individuals who invest their time, expertise and capital in innovative nonprofits serving at-risk youth. PSVP provides a unique forum through which individuals can effect positive, lasting change in their communities.  By engaging Partners in hands-on activities with nonprofits, our Partners provide organizations focused on serving at-risk youth with the strategic and tactical support they need to achieve their missions.

ABOUT THE SOCIAL VENTURE PARTNER MOVEMENT

The Social Venture Partner movement was founded in Seattle (www.svpseattle.org) in 1997 by a group led by Paul Brainerd, the founder of Aldus. SVP branches already exist in more than 21 cities across North America (www.svpi.org) and are in the process of forming on other continents. The vision of the founders was to build a philanthropic organization using the venture capital model of investment where Partners actively nurture their financial investments with careful management, guidance and resources toward pre-defined outcomes and a social return on investment.