Board of Directors
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Officers
Dianne Lamendola, President (term expires April 2014) 
Dianne is the current Board President of the Girl Scouts of Northern California. She has been a board member of the GSNorCal since the merger and previously led the information technology task group. Dianne served on the board and fund development committees of the former Girl Scouts of San Francisco Bay Area council. Her involvement with the Girl Scouts began as a Brownie, with her mother as troop leader, and continued as a girl member through junior high school. Dianne is an Information Technology Executive Advisor with over 25 years of experience developing and executing technology strategies to solve business problems. She previously served in the role of Group Vice President of Information Technology Optimization, Planning and Strategy at Safeway Inc. where she was responsible for establishing strategic technology and business capability roadmaps, IT governance, the program management office and communications. During her 18 year tenure at Safeway, Dianne held many roles in the IT organization increasing productivity and finding cost-efficiencies through technology solutions. She started her career at IBM providing business solutions for county government and retail clients. As an avid road and mountain biker, she also serves on the board of Wicked Events, the community outreach branch of Diablo Multi-Sport Connection (dmc), a local women’s team empowering women to improve themselves through participation in competitive endurance sports. Dianne earned an MBA from the University of Detroit and a B.A. in Business Administration at Wayne State University. She resides in Contra Costa County.
Diana Bell, First Vice President (term expires April 2014)
Diana is an accomplished businesswoman, a civic and community leader in the San Francisco Bay Area. She currently serves as a director on a number of boards including Girl Scouts of Northern California, Corsair Memory, Inc., Emily’s List, and the State of California’s Board of Accountancy. Until her retirement in 2007, Diana was a senior vice president for the Hewlett-Packard Company. In that role, she led the company’s total customer experience & quality functions as well as corporate affairs. She served on HP’s Ethics Committee and the HP PAC. During her 32-year tenure at HP, Diana held a number of senior leadership roles in a range of business segments. She joined HP as a programmer analyst in 1975. A native of Baltimore, MD, Diana holds a BS degree in mathematics from Michigan State University, an MBA degree in finance from Clark Atlanta University, and an executive MBA from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business. An adventurous traveler, Diana’s business and personal journeys have taken her to all 7 continents and over 50 countries.
Ellen Richey, Second Vice President (term expires April 2014)
Ellen is chief enterprise risk officer of Visa Inc. She has a background in law, risk management and financial services. Prior to joining Visa, she served as a senior vice president of card services at Washington Mutual and as vice chairman, chief legal officer and corporate secretary of Providian Financial Corporation, one of the leading bankcard issuers in the U.S. Ellen has served as first vice president of Girl Scouts of Northern California and currently heads the property task group. Previously she served as a director and member of the fund development committee of the former Girl Scouts of San Francisco Bay Area Council, and was a key member of the council realignment committee for which she chaired the finance subcommittee. She holds a Juris Doctorate from Stanford Law School and a Bachelor’s degree from Harvard University, where she graduated summa cum laude. Ellen was a Girl Scout in Massachusetts as a child, but she first experienced the pleasure of organized Girl Scout camping when she served as a volunteer mentor at the former San Francisco Council's "Camp CEO" program for at-risk girls. Ellen is a resident of Berkeley.
Debra Rossi, Third Vice President (term expires April 2014)
Debra Rossi is an Executive Vice President of Wells Fargo and CEO of Wells Fargo Merchant Services, LLC, responsible for one of the largest payment processing businesses in the U.S. Throughout her career, Debra has been instrumental in changing the payments landscape. She was one of the early trailblazers in banking to launch the first U.S. point-of-sale debit and credit solution for grocery and quick-service restaurants. Through her leadership Wells Fargo became the first bank to process a secure credit card transaction on the Internet. In 2001 Debra was named one of the year’s most influential executives by Future Banker magazine. Most recently, in 2011 she was the first woman to receive the Electronic Transaction Association’s highest honor, the Distinguished Payments Professional Award. Debra has been on the Maestro, Star and Interlink Boards of Directors and in addition to the Girl Scouts of Northern California, she currently serves on the board of the Electronic Transaction Association. She graduated with honors from Ohio University.
Carolyn Worth, Treasurer (term expires April 2014)
Carolyn is a CPA and retired partner with the firm of KPMG LLP, a global provider of audit, tax, and advisory services. She is currently the finance committee chair and treasurer of Girl Scouts of Northern California. She previously served as a director of the Girl Scout Council of Hawaii. Her governance experience outside of Girl Scouts includes the Marin General Hospital Board of Directors and Finance Committee and Marin Country Club Board of Directors and Finance Committee. Carolyn is a resident of Marin and a lifelong Girl Scout.
Leslie Miller, Secretary (term expires April 2014)
Leslie is a Financial Advisor with Financial Connections Group, Inc., a registered investment advisor firm with offices in Corte Madera and Berkeley. Leslie provides investment management and financial planning for individuals, families and their businesses. Her goal is to help her clients achieve financial peace of mind. She is an MBA and a Master of International Management, and earned a BA in Economics. Leslie’s daughter, now a pre-med student, grew up in Girl Scouting with Leslie serving at times as co-leader and cookie manager for her troop. She has served on the Board Development committee of our council and previously served as chair of the Finance Committee and the Nominating Committee of the former Girl Scouts of San Francisco Bay Area. Leslie is a member of the Financial Planning Association, Marin Forum, the board of directors of Marin Symphony, and is past president of the Financial Women’s Association of San Francisco. She lives in Marin with her husband and their daughter when she is not away at college.
Directors-at-Large
Tina Amber, Ex Officio (term expires April 2014)
Tina is retired from Macy*s where she managed regional operations for twenty five years. In that role she was responsible for operating stores profitably. She is currently the chair of the board development committee. As a member of the former Girl Scouts of Francisco Bay Area Council she served as a member of the nominating committee, the governance task force and the strategic planning committee. Her volunteer operational positions included chair of the Crossroads Association, association cookie chair, troop leader and council trainer. She volunteers at a Girl Scout resident camp each summer where she leads a backpacking unit. She has been active with many community organizations in the East Bay communities of Pleasanton and Danville where she has resided. She is the mother of six young women, two who obtained the Gold Award. Tina is a lifetime member of GSUSA. She is a graduate of UC Berkeley with a degree in biology and the University of Oregon with a graduate degree in public administration.
Donna Arevalo (term expires April 2013)
Donna was appointed to the board in 2010, between elections, to fill a vacancy. She has been the vice president of human resources with See’s Candies, Inc. since 1992. Donna has worked for See’s since 1978. She earned a B.S. in Business Administration and Labor Relations from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, and an MBA in Human Resources Management from Golden Gate University. She attended the Stanford Executive Program in the School of Business, Stanford University. Donna was a board member of Big Brothers & Big Sisters program of San Francisco and the Peninsula, 1996-2004. She served on the board of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, Northern California Chapter from 1999-2001. Donna was a Brownie and a Junior Girl Scout.
Kim Barrier (term expires April 2014)
Kim is the chief information officer for Bio-Rad Laboratories, a $1.9B multi-national manufacturer supplying instrumentation, laboratory apparatus, reagents, test kits and informatics to the life science research and clinical diagnostics markets. Headquartered in Hercules, CA, Bio-Rad serves more than 85,000 research and industry customers worldwide through its global network of operations. An information technology executive with global experience in IT strategy, application delivery, technical operations, and infrastructure support, Kim has led IT teams at Johnson & Johnson, Lucent Technologies, and Space Systems/Loral. She also served in the United States Army for 10 years as a helicopter and airplane pilot where she commanded two aviation companies. She has served in Germany, Korea, Panama, and Washington D.C. Kim graduated from the United States Military Academy and holds a Masters of Business Administration from Strayer College. Kim was a Girl Scout during her 1st – 7th grade in Southern California.
Suzanne Bell (term expires April 2013)
Suzanne was appointed to the board in 2010, between elections, to fill a vacancy. She is a partner in the law firm of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati. She joined the firm in 1988 and was promoted to partner in 1995. Suzanne handles technology and intellectual property transactions for companies in a variety of industries, including software, Internet, communications and cleantech. She has advised many of the Silicon Valley’s most prominent companies from start-up to maturity. Suzanne has participated in the management of the law firm in various capacities: she is currently a member of the policy committee, and has also served as chair of the nominating committee and on the board of directors, operations committee, member compensation committee, management committee and strategic planning committee. She received her B.A. from Middlebury College, a M.S. in engineering from Columbia University and a J.D. from Stanford Law School. She is a former member of the board of visitors, Columbia University School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and the national board of directors, Watermark (formerly Forum for Women Entrepreneurs and Executives). Suzanne has received many honors and recognitions, including being named a 2009 Woman of Influence, by the Silicon Valley/San Joe Business Journal. She is a frequent speaker and author; recent topics include cloud computing and intellectual property transactions for cleantech companies. She is the mother of three daughters, ages 14, 18 and 22. Suzanne was a Girl Scout leader in Palo Alto for her middle daughter’s troop, where two girls (including her daughter) earned their Gold Awards.
Ellen Bermingham (term expires April 2014)
Ellen was the director of marketing at Cisco Services at Cisco Systems where she created and rolled out sales programs to grow product and service revenue globally. Previous experience includes marketing roles at Oracle, business process consulting at Arthur Andersen and financial advisory services at Coopers and Lybrand. Prior to business school, Ellen completed the finance and accountant’s development program at Chevron and worked in New York as well as in the Bay Area in different finance roles. She holds a MBA with a concentration in finance and accounting from University of Chicago and a bachelor’s from University of California, Davis. Ellen started as a Brownie Girl Scout in the Pleasant Hill and earned the honor of First Class Scout in high school. Through Girl Scouting, she developed a love for the outdoors and a sense of adventure. Her favorite badge was the Dabbler. Ellen and her husband reside in San Francisco and Napa and enjoy the outdoors, running, skiing, and cycling.
Arletta Cortright (term expires April 2013)
Arletta is serving her third term as a director-at-large. She recently retired as the elected city clerk for the City of Fairfield (Solano County). Prior to her election as city clerk in 2003, she held a variety of volunteer positions with local community groups, including PTA president, president of the United Methodist Women in Fairfield, and lay leader for the Community United Methodist Church. She was elected to the Girl Scouts of Northern California Board of Directors in 2007, and also served as property task group chair. She holds a master’s degree in city and regional planning, and worked for 10 years as a planner for the city of Benicia. Arletta served on the board of directors for the legacy Napa-Solano Girl Scout Council, and held numerous volunteer positions with the council, including troop leader, camp director, and service unit director. She is a lifetime member of Girl Scouts, and received her 40-year pin last year. Arletta began her Girl Scout experience as a Brownie Girl Scout, with her mother as her troop leader, and was active as a girl member through her graduation from high school. Arletta resides in Fairfield.
Laurie Deaton (term expires April 2013)
Laurie is vice president of Loomis, Sayles & Company. She is based in the company's San Francisco office and works with endowment, foundation and pension fund institutional clients. Laurie's role is to help clients implement their investment objectives and to communicate portfolio positioning and strategies. Laurie’s investment career has spanned several decades and has included senior level positions at institutional investment firms such as Wellington Management Company (2000 to 2008), Oppenheimer Capital (1997 to 2000) and Barrow, Hanley Mewhinney and Strauss (1995 to 1997). Laurie has also had experience overseeing the investment of a $2 billion pension plan at Pacific Enterprises. Laurie earned both a BS and an MBA from Pepperdine University. She is a chartered financial analyst and member of the CFA Society of San Francisco. Laurie enjoys skiing, Arabian horses, travel, residential construction and remodeling, and outdoor activities. Laurie especially enjoys spending time in the greater Yellowstone area and believes her experiences growing up as a Girl Scout was key to developing her love and appreciation for the great outdoors. She currently serves on both the investment and finance committees of Girl Scouts of Northern California. Laurie resides in Mill Valley.
Karen Derr Gilbert (term expires April 2014)
Karen has 25 years of financial services experience and currently is a managing director at FTV Capital, a $1 billon growth equity firm with offices in San Francisco and New York. Karen manages business development, investor relations, fundraising and marketing for the firm. She is a member of the board of directors of one of FTV’s private company investments, Rezolve Group, a provider of technology and services to the higher education market. Prior to joining FTV Capital, Karen spent nearly a decade with Wells Fargo in a variety of senior marketing and product management positions. As head of the online financial services group marketing division, she helped Wells Fargo become the first bank in the world to implement internet banking. Before joining Wells Fargo, Karen held sales, trading and marketing roles at Merrill Lynch Capital Markets and Shearson Lehman Brothers in New York. Karen holds a BA in Economics from UCLA and a MBA from Cornell University. She lives in Orinda and has a son and a daughter, a former Brownie and Junior Girl Scout. She enjoys long distance hiking, skiing and is a master swimmer. Karen was an active Girl Scout from 2nd – 9th grade.
Teresa Gisske (term expires April 2013)
Teresa has completed two terms as a director-at-large. She owns Gisske Insurance Services of Chico, CA, specialists in health insurance. Her areas of expertise include human resources and corporate strategy and planning. She is a member of the National Association of Underwriters and Soroptimist International in Chico. She earned her undergraduate degree at UC Berkeley and an MBA at Santa Clara University. Teresa is currently in her third term with the Board of Girl Scouts of Northern California and also serves on the property task group.
Derek Kingham (term expires April 2013)
Derek has served as a director-at-large for three years. He is a resident of McKinleyville in Humboldt County, the far northwest corner of our council. He is a finance and operations advisor for small and medium sized entrepreneurial companies. His business experience encompasses finance, operations, distribution, human resources, and information technology. Derek is also a principal of North Coast Adventure Centers Inc, which provides experiential adventure activities and outdoor vocational trainings. He is a ropes course instructor, outdoor adventure trainer, and wilderness first aid instructor. As a youth in England, he was a Boy Scout earning his Chief Scout’s Award. Today, he is actively involved in Girl Scouting in the US. Derek co-leads troops for his two daughters, serves as an adult learning facilitator, and residential camp director.
Shoba Krishnan (term expires April 2014)
Shoba is an associate professor with the department of electrical engineering at Santa Clara University, Santa Clara, California. Her research interests include analog and mixed-signal integrated circuit design. She received her Bachelor of Technology from Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University in India and her M.S. and Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Michigan State University. Her current curriculum and research development is in electronic instrumentation for bio-engineering and power electronics for renewable energy systems. She has a strong interest in engineering education, and has several ongoing community based activities to increase the participation of underrepresented groups in engineering. She is actively involved in outreach programs to engage school youth in age-appropriate science, technology, engineering, mathematics (STEM) concepts. Shoba is a troop leader and lives in Fremont.
Karen Luey (term expires April 2014)
Karen is executive vice president and chief financial and administrative officer for Jamba, Inc., a leading destination for specialty better-for-you beverage and food offerings with over 750 locations nationwide. Her expertise encompasses the restaurant, specialty retail and consumer products industries, all in publicly traded companies. She has led her organizations through high growth, business model transitions and turnaround life cycles. Prior experience includes global corporate controller and principal accounting officer for Leapfrog Enterprises and 12 years at the Sharper Image as vice president finance and corporate controller where she led the company through two follow-on public stock offerings. After graduating from California State University East Bay, she spent four years in public accounting with Laventhol & Horwath. She is board treasurer of Bay Area Leadership Foundation and is an active volunteer at Ascend. Karen lives in San Ramon with her husband and eight year old twins. Karen was a Girl Scout from 1st-6th grade.
Robin MacGillivray (term expires April 2014)
Robin became senior vice president – “One AT&T” in January 2010. In this role, she is overseeing the world-wide implementation of several corporate initiatives designed to further integrate merged organizations and operations for optimal customer service and financial performance. Prior to that, she was senior vice president – regional and local markets, responsible for service and sales to AT&T’s small business customers nationwide. Robin has extensive experience in managing complex businesses in highly competitive and rapidly changing environments and has cultivated this experience in a variety of functional areas, including operations, construction, finance, and human resources. She joined AT&T after receiving her bachelor’s degree in journalism from the School of Journalism and her master’s degree in telecommunications management from the Annenberg School of Communications, both at the University of Southern California. Additionally, she completed the executive program at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business. The inaugural council president of Girl Scouts of Northern California, Robin is a life-long Girl Scout and resides in Alamo, CA and Dallas, TX.
Suzanne Moshier (term expires April 2014)
Suzanne has completed two terms on the board. She is a former high tech sales and marketing executive with a master’s degree in mass communications. She chairs the regional delegate task group whose dedicated members are reviewing and advising the board on the important topic of council governance. Suzanne is a seasoned fund raiser with experience ranging from organizing special events to raising capital campaign dollars for Girl Scouts and other volunteer organizations. Prior to serving in a governance role, Suzanne was an active volunteer in Girl Scouts including board member of the former Girl Scouts of Santa Clara County Council, Silver Award advisor, service unit treasurer and troop leader. Both she and her daughter, Rachel, are life-long Girl Scouts. Suzanne lives in Sunnyvale.
Zain Oke, CPA (term expires April 2014)
Zain graduated in the fall of 1990 with a Bachelor's of Science degree from the Haas School of Business at the University of California at Berkeley. In 1991, Zain joined the audit practice of Deloitte & Touche LLP (Deloitte), one of the nation’s leading professional services firms. In her 20 plus years with Deloitte, Zain has served some of the firm’s largest healthcare clients. Zain also served as a board director on the National Board of the National Association of Black Accountants, Inc. (2004 - 2007) and has been a member since chartering the student chapter at UC Berkeley in 1988. Zain currently serves on the audit committees for Girl Scouts of Northern California, as audit committee chair, and Girls Inc., Bay Area.
Lori Rhodes (term expires April 2014)
Lori serves as strategic advisor at M Squared Consulting, a San Francisco-based business consulting firm. Prior to this role, she served as senior vice president, sales as well as general manager of the strategic solutions group. She joined the company in 2001. In these roles she built, directed and managed the company’s most profitable business unit, in the Silicon Valley as well as developed multiple long term consultant and client strategies and programs. Between 1978 and 1987, Lori held various leadership positions in sales and marketing at Xerox where she delivered consistent President’s Club performance. Lori has two daughters, both of whom were Girl Scouts and is married. She was a troop leader, and has participated in Camp CEO and served on the three year strategic planning committee for the Girl Scouts of Northern California in 2011. In addition, she is a member of the 100th anniversary campaign committee. Lori holds a Bachelor of Science, Communication Arts, California State Polytechnic University, 1978 - Dean’s List, 1974 – 1978.
Erika Rottenberg (term expires April 2014)
Erika is vice president, general counsel and secretary of LinkedIn Corporation, the world's largest professional networking company, where she helps drive LinkedIn's mission of connecting the world's professionals to make them more productive and successful. She is responsible for worldwide legal affairs at LinkedIn, including corporate, commercial, IP, litigation, compliance and privacy matters. She received her JD from University of California Berkeley's Boalt Hall School of Law, and her BS in special and elementary education from State University of New York. Prior to law school, Erika taught junior high special education for five years in Anchorage, Alaska. Erika serves on the board of directors of the Silicon Valley Law Foundation, the largest provider of pro-bono legal services throughout Silicon Valley, and serves on the association of corporate counsel value challenge steering committee. She previously served on the board of directors for Social Advocates for Youth, a Silicon Valley-based non-profit organization that provided residential and day treatment services for at-risk youth throughout Silicon Valley. Erika was an active Girl Scout in elementary and high school in Maryland. Her favorite memories centered around the outdoors, where she had ample opportunity to learn backpacking, camping, hiking and canoeing skills, but really learned leadership, resiliency and working with people. The outdoors remains an integral part of her life, and she attributes much of this passion to her experiences as a Girl Scout. Today, Erika is an avid cyclist who completed a 4,300-mile bike ride across the United States in 2002, raising $60,000 for breast cancer research.
Ylisa Sanford Seymour (term expires April 2014)
Ylisa is a certified financial planner (CFP) and senior financial advisor with Sanford, Jigalin & Seymour, a financial advisory practice of Ameriprise Financial Services, Inc. Ylisa has served Ameriprise, formerly American Express Financial Advisors, with distinction since 1999 earning select awards as being named one of the top advisors in the nation, receiving The President’s Award for Client Service, Quality of Advice as well as Circle of Success from 1999 to present. Ylisa graduated from the University of California Davis, 1993, with a dual degree in International Relations and Rhetoric & Communication. She is currently actively involved as President of the Board of Legal Aid of Sonoma County, Executive Leadership Committee of the American Heart Association, and served six years on the Steering Committee for Leadership Santa Rosa. Ylisa currently resides in Sonoma County with her husband and two children. They enjoy travel and an active lifestyle including a love for tennis, gourmet food and wine. Ylisa speaks upon request on financial topics designed to motivate not only women and children but all people to be good stewards of their assets.
Suzanne Troxel, CPA (term expires April 2014)
Suzanne is a founding partner, owner and CFO of Pivot Point Capital, Inc., a private investment company. Its major investment, Rheodyne, designed and manufactured precision fluidic devices for the analytical instrument market. She was responsible for all of Rheodyne’s accounting, finance, administration, information services, human resources and manufacturing activities. Previously she was the Chief Financial Officer of Topix, a news website and one of the founders and directors of Innovadyne Technologies, Inc. Suzanne has been an audit partner with Ernst & Young in San Francisco. During her 17-year audit career, she worked with a number of both public and private companies in Northern California covering a wide variety of industries. She has been a certified public accountant since 1977 and is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. Sue brings extensive board experience to Girl Scouts of Northern California. She served on the board of trustees of the University of San Francisco from 2005 through 2012 and was the vice-chair of the audit committee, the vice-chair of the development committee and a member of the succession planning committee. She is currently on the board of directors and of Pets Unlimited and serves as the secretary, chair of the governance and nominating committee and is a member of the audit committee. She is also on the board of directors and treasurer of the San Francisco Garden Club. Suzanne graduated Magna Cum Laude from the University of San Francisco with a B.A. in political science. Suzanne resides with her husband in San Francisco and a Welsh Corgi named Max.
Girl Members of the Board of Directors
Girl Board Advisor
Varsha Sathappan (term expires April 2013)
Varsha’s main interests are debate and Indian dance. In addition, she is a youth correspondent for the San Jose Evergreen Times. Her career goal is to be a pediatrician.
Girl Board Participants
Bairavi Shankar (term expires April 2013)
Bairavi is a member of the business division in her local district-wide FRC robotics team. She has worked as an intern at the NASA Ames Research Center and as a program aide at Coyote Hills Day Camp. She aspires to become a surgeon and run her own surgical practice.
Zahra Surani (term expires April 2013)
Zahra’s main interests include dancing, playing tennis, reading and spending time with her friends and family. Her life revolves around Girl Scouts, speech and debate, and community service. Her ambition is to become part of the medical field either as a research scientist or a pediatrician.
Board Development Committee
Tina Amber, Chair (term expires April 2014)
Suzanne Bell (term expires April 2013)
Sharon Black (term expires April 2014)
Sharon is a senior district president for Robert Half International, the world's first and largest specialized staffing firm. In this role, she oversees operations for the company throughout Northern and Central California, Hawaii, Utah and Nevada. She first joined Robert Half International in 1994, and has more than 25 years of experience in the staffing industry. Since joining the company, she has held positions of increasing responsibility in both senior management and corporate training. Prior to joining Robert Half International, Sharon held high-level positions at other firms in the Bay Area, including president of a privately held staffing firm. She is also a committed member of the communities in which she lives and works. She has been a member of the Junior League of Palo Alto for over 25 and, during this time, has taken on various roles within the organization including board member. Sharon also oversees several major philanthropic efforts within her professional territory, including an annual holiday toy drive for the local Boys & Girls Clubs of America, for which she has collected approximately 2500 gifts for local at-risk youth since 2009. In addition, Sharon supports an annual suit drive for Dress for Success and similar non-profits, leading her team to collect almost 15,000 donations over the last nine years for low-income women looking to enter, or re-enter, the employment market. Since 2006, she has been named one of the Top 100 Most Influential Women in Business in the Bay Area by the San Francisco Business Times. In addition, in 2010, Sharon was named a Top Human Resources Leader by the North Bay Business Journal and one of the Top 100 Women of Influence by the Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal. Sharon graduated from San Diego State University with a Bachelor of Science degree in political science.
Jennifer Colosi (term expires April 2013)
Jennifer was appointed to the board development committee in November 2012, between elections, to fill a vacancy. Jennifer Colosi is the founder of Colosi Associates, an executive search firm specializing in assignments for executive officers and senior management, with a focus on finance. She began her recruiting career as an executive recruiter with AI Executive, the executive recruiting arm of Accountants, Inc. She was a significant contributor to building a practice around Internal Audit during challenging economic years. She was a Partner with Cornell International, the executive search arm of Adecco, where she focused on national Financial Officer searches across industries. She launched Colosi Associates to improve client benefits: through search process efficiency improvements and service offering flexibility. She has successfully placed key executive roles in diverse companies.. Most recently Colosi Associates has also placed executive human resource roles. Prior to her search career, Jennifer was a CPA in the independent audit practice of Arthur Andersen. She has also held the positions of Chief Accounting Officer for FiNet, a public mortgage bank and interim CFO for LoanCity.com, a private mortgage bank. She’s also worked for Oak Industries—where she focused on corporate accounting, Securities and Exchange Commission reporting, and divisional operations accounting. Jennifer is a past board member of the Financial Women’s Association of San Francisco. She actively contributes to the success of other professional organizations such as Financial Executives International and the Institute of Internal Auditors. Jennifer earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Accounting and a Master’s Degree in Accounting from the University of South Florida, Tampa. Her most interactive, high energy, current non profit project is coaching elementary school girls to run a 5k race, for the fall 2012 season of Girls on the Run. After taking care of her firm’s clients, Jennifer is a casual but committed triathlete.
Darlene Crane (term expires April 2014)
Darlene founded Project Concepts, a professional services company in strategic program management, product development and executive advising in 1989. She has focused on developing systemic solutions to grow women and minority owned businesses. She is also the executive director of the Alliance for Community Development which enables growing companies to acquire adequate capital. She has a vision of helping micro businesses and start-ups progress through the toughest growth steps to become established small businesses. Darlene has served the past three years as executive do-chair of the East Bay Women in Business Round Table, a committee of the Oakland Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce. In 2005 she led the “Breakthroughs for Business Project Report” which identified successful patterns for micro and small businesses. Darlene has 16 years of experience in financial services. She was a group product manager in Bank of America, Bankcard division and head of customer accounting in BankAmeriLease group serving customers of a $2 portfolio. In 2003 she published a textbook titled: Executive Accountability: Creating the Environment for Business Value from Technology which was used at courses she taught at John F. Kennedy University, and Golden Gate University. Darlene earned a B.A. in history and political science from Pitzer College, master’s degrees in library science and East Asian studies from the University of Michigan and an MBA from Golden Gate University.
Donna Davidson (term expires April 2013)
Donna is the founder of Davidson Associates, a client retained executive search firm based in San Francisco specializing in the recruitment of highly effective leaders for forward thinking non-profits, foundations and social enterprises. Previously, Donna served as director of executive recruitment for The Bridgespan Group, vice president executive recruitment for Bank of America and was in the nonprofit practices of two global search firms. Donna grew up in Girl Scouting in Memphis, Tennessee, attended college in Mississippi, and earned a Master of Librarianship at the University of South Carolina. She moved to northern California in 1981, and embraces the lifestyle through horseback riding, travel, wine education, volunteering and mentoring. Donna has served on the boards of directors of several local nonprofit organizations.
Mary Derner (term expires April 2014)
Mary joined the Girl Scouts as a member of the board of directors of the former Girl Scouts of Konocti Council in 2003, and served as first vice president. Mary chaired the council’s nominating committee, and expended great and successful efforts in fundraising for Girl Scouts, serving as co-chair of the annual Jewel of a Woman event for four consecutive years. Mary graduated from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and Hastings School of Law, and is an attorney in the Santa Rosa law firm Spaulding McCullough & Tansil LLP specializing in insurance law. She also has chaired the American Heart Association’s Go Red for Women event raising awareness of heart disease in women. Mary resides in Santa Rosa with her husband and three sons.
Julie Kimelman (term expires April 2014)
Julie has been a member of the board development committee for Girl Scouts of Northern California since the 2007 merger. Previously, she served as a member and board president of the former Girl Scouts of Konocti Council. During formation of our current council, Julie served on the council realignment committee and several subcommittees that designed and implemented the merger. During her past career as an attorney, Julie served as president of the Sonoma County Bar Association and the Sonoma County Fair Board, as well as chairing the Santa Rosa Chamber of Commerce. Julie has actively participated in council events and fundraising efforts since coming to Girl Scouts, and has attended the National Convention in Atlanta, GA. Julie has two grown children, enjoys collecting and selling antiques, and resides with her husband in Kelseyville, located in Lake County.
Shoba Krishnan (term expires April 2014)
