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Andy Bursky
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Chairman, Atlas Holdings
Mr. Bursky has been Managing Partner of Atlas since its inception in January 2002. From June 1999 to April 2002, Mr. Bursky was a Co-Managing Partner of Pegasus Capital Advisors, L.P. ("Pegasus"), a private investment partnership with approximately $2 billion of capital under management, focusing on control investments in middle-market companies at points of stress or significant change. Mr. Bursky joined Pegasus in 1999 after 19 years with Interlaken Capital, Inc. ("Interlaken"), a private equity concern focusing on contrarian style, value-oriented investments in middle-market companies. Mr. Bursky was one of the founding principals and the Senior Managing Director of Interlaken. While at Interlaken, Mr. Bursky was responsible for all investments and business development activities, with a primary focus on industrial manufacturing and distribution, business services, financial services and distribution. Mr. Bursky serves on the Board of Managers of Atlas Industrial Services LLC, CanAmPac ULC, Capital Equipment Resources LLC, Finch Paper Holdings LLC, Forest Resources LLC and Wood Resources LLC and also serves on the Advisory Board of Atlas International Investors, L.P. In addition, Mr. Bursky serves as a Trustee of the Eisenhower Fellowships, the Skin Cancer Foundation and Washington University in St. Louis. Mr. Bursky is a graduate of Washington University in St. Louis and Harvard Business School.
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Michael J. Carter
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Founder, President & CEO, Strive for College
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Michael founded Strive for College in his freshman year of college, and since then has grown Strive into a national movement with chapters at college campuses across the country. Michael raised over $200,000 during the recession and hired his first full-time employee for Strive while he was a junior in college. Since its inception, Michael has raised over $2.5 million for Strive and helped hundreds of low-income high school students gain admission to universities across the country.
While in college, Michael taught at-risk middle school youth during the summer, ran the initial Strive model at his university, interned for a venture capital firm and Google, and did public policy research and analysis at American Enterprise Institute. He wrote his senior honors thesis on a history of admissions to elite universities in the US and UK. He received a full-tuition merit scholarship to attend Washington University in St. Louis as an Annika Rodriguez Scholar. Michael graduated cum laude from Washington University in St. Louis in May, 2010. He also studied at Oxford University in England, and Georgetown University in Washington, D.C..
Michael's work with Strive has been featured widely in the media, including Forbes, Education Week, and the Chronicle of Higher Education, and he has spoken on various panels, including at the Brookings Institution and as a featured speaker at the Points of Light National Conference on Volunteering and Service. Michael was named a 2011 Echoing Green Fellow, a highly competitive award given to those identified as some of the world's most promising social entrepreneurs. Michael was also named a 2012 Bluhm Helfand Social Innovation Fellow. Michael strives for a day when college students across the country mobilize to ensure that all qualified, underserved high school students who have earned the right to go to college make it there, and achieve their dreams.
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Eric Chen
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Partner, WI Harper
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Eric was one of the first employees at E2open, a Silicon Valley supply chain software startup and a pioneer of the on-demand software model, where he was Director of Asia Business Development.
Eric works closely with WI Harper's offices in the U.S and Greater China in assisting portfolio companies with cross border business development, operational, and strategic activities. Within WI Harper, Eric is actively involved with portfolio companies.
Mr. Chen earned an M.B.A. from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and a B.S. in Industrial Engineering from Stanford University.
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Don W. Kassing
- Presidet Emeritus, San Jose State Univeristy
As a former president of San José State University, Don W. Kassing headed the oldest and one of the largest universities in the 23-campus California State University system. Appointed in 2004, Kassing moved the university forward in numerous key areas. Under his leadership, the campus engaged in university-wide strategic planning, increased enrollments and efforts to increase student success, received high commendations from its accrediting agency, stabilized athletics funding, and greatly increased private giving to the university.
In 2006-07 San José State received more than $50 million in private support, leading the 23-campus California State University system in giving, and bringing the university's three-year total for giving to $100 million. As president and in his former role as vice president for administration and finance, Kassing led the development, construction and successful opening of two major campus facilities: the award-winning Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Library, based on a first-of-its-kind and highly successful partnership with the city of San José; and Campus Village, a state-of-the-art residence complex for students, faculty and staff, the largest such project in the California State University system, and the focus of a renewed sense of community on the campus.
Before his appointment to the presidency, Kassing had served for more than a decade as vice president for administration and finance and as chief financial officer. As CFO, he had responsibility for all business and financial affairs of the university. His previous 18 years in higher education included service as vice president for university relations and administrative services at Murray State University, in Kentucky, and vice president for development and public affairs at Western State College of Colorado. He also served for two years as president of the Granite City Campus of the Belleville Area College, Belleville, Illinois. Before that, he worked for 11 years in private industry, including eight years in corporate finance and operations management for Brown Group, Inc., and three years with General Motors Corporation.
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- Joe Lonsdale
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Co-founder, Palantir
Founder & CEO, Addepar
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In 2004, Joe co-founded Palantir Technologies — a software company in Palo Alto, California which develops mission-critical analysis systems used by government and financial organizations around the world. Palantir is a market leader in several government segments, is widely used by large hedge funds and banks, and is one of the fastest growing mid-size companies in Silicon Valley.
Joe Lonsdale currently serves as CEO of Addepar, an emerging leader in private wealth management technology, and is the President of Anduin, which specializes in early-stage venture investing. He is also the Chairman of the Board for ONEHope Wine, a national wine brand partnered with the Mondavi family and a leader in cause marketing technology, and is an advisor to several Silicon Valley technology companies. Previously, he worked with the financial arm of PayPal while at university and then joined as an early executive at Clarium Capital, and was a key player in growing Clarium into a $5-billion AUM world-class global macro hedge fund during his five year tenure.
Joe has a variety of philanthropic pursuits including sitting on the Board of Strive for College and The Seasteading Institute. He earned a BS in Computer Science from Stanford University in 2003, where he also studied Economics and Mathematics.
Connie L Lurie
Connie Lurie has served on many nonprofit boards including the SF Zoological Society, Asian Art Museum, and Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation and continues to be involved as a Director Emeritus at DRCRF and at the Zoo, creating Zoo 11. She is on the advisory board of Wildlife Associates and chairs the annual fundraiser. She has been a camp volunteer at The Painted Turtle, a Paul Newman Hold in the Wall Camp for children with life threatening illnesses. She has been an advisory board member of California State Parks Foundation for over 30 years.
Mrs. Lurie is a co-founder of the CME Society and the Research Institute for Foster Youth Initiatives at San Jose State University, serving on the President's Board, and created and chairs the Spartans in the Desert annual 2-day event. The College of Education is named in her honor. In 2006, she received the Tower Award from SJSU, the Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society Distinguished Alumni Award in 2008, and the California Attorneys for Criminal Justice, Citizen Involvement Award.
After graduating from SJSU, Connie taught elementary school, was an Admissions Counselor at Heald Business College and was Executive Director of Who's Who International. She is a long time Jr. League member and President of a charitable Foundation and serves on a company board.
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Jacob Stiglitz
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Founding Chief Operating Officer, Strive for College
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Jacob joined Strive for College Collaborative as its first full-time, paid employee. Jacob helped build a foundation upon which Strive could build a national movement, setting up Strive's first office and staff. Jacob oversaw curriculum and chapter expansion, as well as helped product manage Strive's alpha version of its college admissions search tool.
Prior to Strive, Jacob worked at QuestBridge. At QuestBridge, Jacob worked on the Recruitment and Retention Team, responsible for identifying students and helping them successfully complete QuestBridge programs. As a member of this dynamic team, Jacob worked on everything from preparing mass communication emails to conducting business intelligence analysis. All of these experiences helped him realize his passion for improving education systems, namely increasing accessibility and the effectiveness of higher education.
Prior to QuestBridge, Jacob was in the Peace Corps, teaching English in a small town in rural Mongolia. Jacob graduated from Pomona College with a degree in Cognitive Science with an emphasis in Computer Science.
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Tom Vander Ark
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Managing Partner, Learn Capital
Tom Vander Ark is author of Getting Smart: How Digital Learning is Changing the World and founder of GettingSmart.com. Tom is also a partner in Learn Capital, a venture capital firm investing in learning content, platforms, and services with the goal of transforming educational engagement, access, and effectiveness.
Previously he served as President of the X PRIZE Foundation and was the Executive Director of Education for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Tom was the first business executive to serve as a public school superintendent. Tom is a director of the International Association for K-12 Online Learning (iNACOL) and several other nonprofits. Tom received the Distinguished Achievement Medal and graduated from the Colorado School of Mines. He received his M.B.A. in finance from the University of Denver. He continues his education online.
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