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Team

Randy Haykin

Founder & Chief Purpose Officer Board of Directors

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Randy Haykin

Founder & Chief Purpose Officer Board of Directors

Randy is a well-known Silicon Valley entrepreneur, investor, and coach. Randy left a successful career as a serial entrepreneur and venture capitalist in 2013, when he created the Gratitude Network. Prior to that, he held early digital media leadership roles at Apple, was the founding Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Yahoo, and has worked closely with CEOs at more than 120 early- and mid-stage companies as an investor, advisor, mentor or coach. Randy has also taught courses at UC Berkeley Haas School of Business and at the University of Cambridge. In addition to running Gratitude Network today, Randy coaches several prominent for-profit CEOs. He holds a BA in Organizational Management from Brown University and an MBA from Harvard.

Steve McCoy-Thompson

Executive Director

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Steve McCoy-Thompson

Executive Director

Steve has worked for 30 years at the nexus of business, government and the nonprofit sector to effect positive change in the world. He has supported Gratitude Network since inception, including as a coach for several amazing Gratitude Fellows, and is honored to help lead this incredible network of people and partner institutions who want to make a positive impact. Previously, he has served as Executive Director of two successful non-profits (focused on urban development and education, respectively) and also co-founded the Three Valleys Community Foundation, which serves the Tri Valley region in California. Previously, he worked in senior positions with Bechtel Corporation and Deloitte Consulting, providing management consulting to large companies and governments around the world. He is happily married with two children and has enjoyed working and living in over 50 countries, including years in China, India and Togo, West Africa. He has a graduate degree from the international Fletcher School at Tufts University and an undergrad degree from Duke University, where he also studied at Beijing Teacher’s College and Nanjing University.

Arwen Thiel

Vice President, Programs

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Arwen Thiel

Vice President, Programs

Arwen has nearly 15 years experience working in the nonprofit sector – specializing in supporting community-based leaders and solutions through grantmaking and capacity building. She has previously served in the nonprofit education sector supporting students, families, and teachers. Arwen is proud to serve as a volunteer grant/application reviewer for World of Children, Echoing Green, the Unfunded List, and more. Arwen also volunteers with the Red Cross and a local domestic violence shelter. She lives in Livermore, California, USA with her partner Todd, two young children, and several doggies.

Morgan Banaszek

Program Manager

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Morgan Banaszek

Program Manager

Morgan has centered her 8 year career on non-profit program management for children and youth focused organizations. Her experience includes working for a grassroots non-profit in China providing education for rural children. Morgan cares about empowering others to excel and most recently advised students in advocacy for children’s healthcare access. Working for The Gratitude Network allows Morgan the opportunity to support non-profits around the globe with amplifying their impact. Based on the South Coast of Massachusetts, USA, Morgan enjoys hiking in the White Mountains, volunteering for a local farm and coaching lacrosse.

Agatha Altarovici

Marketing & Outreach Manager

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Agatha Altarovici

Marketing & Outreach Manager

Agatha is a highly respected Franco-American Marketing professional with 20 years of experience (12 in the US) in various industries. She has worked as an independent consultant, in agency setting, as well as holding the position of Head of Marketing & Publicity at international film sales company Cinema Management Group for half a decade.
Before moving to the US in 2011, Agatha was a Paris-based talent agent for actors and filmmakers at AgenceA.

When referring to her work at Gratitude Network, she says that she has found her “IKIGAI”, where her talent, passion, vocation and mission meet!

She received her Master’s in Creative Business & Social Innovation from EDHEC Business School in Nice, France, where she grew up.
Agatha lives in Woodland Hills, CA with her 2 children Liam & Julia. Outside of work, she enjoys yoga, running, meditation and is also engaged with several associations ultimately benefiting women & children’s rights.

Board

Dr. Jackie “Bouvier” Copeland

Board Member

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Dr. Jackie “Bouvier” Copeland

Board Member

Dr. Jackie Bouvier Copeland specializes in the art, science, technology, and finance of personal, social, and environmental transformation. Dr. Copeland is presently founder and president of The Women Invested to Save Earth Fund (WISE), a financial inclusion and equity enterprise supporting women and people of color climate change technology entrepreneurs saving the planet worldwide. An award-winning global innovator, executive, author, and singer-songwriter, she is also a certified life and career coach. A lifelong learner, she has a doctorate in cultural anthropology and four other degrees, all from Georgetown University and University of Pennsylvania. She also earned a diploma in social finance from Oxford University.

Amy Cole

Board Member

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Amy Cole

Board Member

Amy Cole is an entrepreneur and driven leader with 30+ years of expertise consulting on business growth, financial and marketing strategies. As President at ABI Group, a boutique M&A advisory firm, she works closely with business owners and advisors to prepare for exit or sale, seek Acquisition candidates and achieve an ideal transaction structure. Prior, Ms. Cole enjoyed a 20 year progressive background in Vice President and leadership roles with venture backed start-ups, mid-market firms, public companies as well digital agencies.
Amy has 20+ years of board experience including President roles with both CABB (California Association of Business Brokers) and as founding prescient of Hawks Education Fund. She holds an MBA from Santa Clara University, lives in the SF East Bay with her husband, is a proud mother of 3 boys, an active community volunteer, fundraiser and enjoys hiking, horseback riding, yoga, reading and family adventures.

Robert David

Board Member

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Robert David

Board Member

Robert David brings more than forty years of academic, executive and non-profit management experience to his participation on the Gratitude Network’s Board. Robert is currently Executive Director of CSHRP – the Community for Strategic HR Partnership. Before CSHRP, he was Managing Director of Corporate Education for the University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley). Robert is also Professional Faculty and Founder for Silicon Valley Executive Education (SVEE). He advises on ExecEd best practices and defining, then implementing Executive/Director/Manager-focused learning programs. Robert holds a Bachelors of Business Administration degree from the University of Illinois – Champaign Urbana and lives with his wife in Half Moon Bay, California.

Randy Haykin

Executive Committee Founder Gratitude Network

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Randy Haykin

Executive Committee Founder Gratitude Network

Randy is a well-known Silicon Valley entrepreneur, investor, and coach. Randy left a successful career as a serial entrepreneur and venture capitalist in 2013, when he created the Gratitude Network. Prior to that held early digital media leadership roles at Apple, was the founding Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Yahoo, and has worked closely with CEOs at more than 120 early and mid-stage companies as an investor, advisor, mentor or coach. Randy has also taught courses at UC Berkeley Haas School of Business and University of Cambridge. In addition to running Gratitude Network today, Randy coaches several prominent for-profit CEOs. He holds a BA in Organizational Management from Brown University, and MBA from Harvard.

InaMarie Felix Johnson

Board Member

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InaMarie Felix Johnson

Board Member

As part of her tenured career, Ms. Johnson served as Zendesk’s Chief People and Diversity Officer from 2018 to 2022, leading the company’s vision for delivering a great employee experience. She spearheaded Zendesk’s 2020 pivot to a digital-first culture where all employees can thrive regardless of location and created a leader-led diversity model for its employees, customers, and communities worldwide, gaining top-level support and establishing programs in pursuit of true social equity. Before Zendesk, from July 2015 to June 2018, Ms. Johnson was Senior Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer for Plantronics, an audio communications company, where she led a cultural transformation and successful CEO transition to jumpstart growth. Previously, from September 2011 to June 2015, she held the role of Chief Human Resources Officer at UTi Worldwide Inc., a supply chain management company. Before that, Ms. Johnson held senior leadership roles at Honeywell International Inc., an international technology and manufacturing company for 10 years, including Vice President, Human Resources Functional Transformation and Vice President, Human Resources, Communication, and Six Sigma.
Ms. Johnson holds a B.A. in Social Sciences, with an emphasis in Human Resource Management, from the University of California, Berkeley, and an M.A. in Organizational Development and Management from John F. Kennedy University in California.

Harry Kellogg

Board Member

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Harry Kellogg

Board Member

Harry has a 30-year career at SVB. He serves as the Vice chairman of the board of Silicon Valley Bank and Head of strategic relationships for SVB Financial Group. He is responsible for overseeing SVB Financial Group’s venture capital, private equity, private banking and premium wine activities. Named one of Upside Magazine’s “100 People Who Changed Our World.”

Actively involved in many civic and industry organizations and serves on many of their boards and advisory boards, including TechNet, Joint Venture: Silicon Valley Network, Financial Executives International, Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research, California/Israel Chamber of Commerce, The Tuck Center for Private Equity and Entrepreneurship, and is an emeritus board member of the Technology Museum of Innovation

Steve Kirch

Executive Committee Treasurer

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Steve Kirch

Executive Committee Treasurer

Steve has spent more than 30 years as a manager and leader in high-tech (at IBM and Intel). He also Founded, Business Culture Advantage, productivity coaching. Certified to teach the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Steve has been married to Donna for more than 35 years and has two wonderfully intelligent and talented daughters. He also has a passion for music – singing with two award-winning Bay Area barbershop choruses.

Steven Lund

Board Member

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Steven Lund

Board Member

Steven Lund is a serial entrepreneur and angel investor who has funded and helped launch four AI technology companies. He is currently head of Sales, Business Development and Marketing for Exponential AI. Prior to Exponential, Steven was the Chief Revenue Officer for Auger.AI, the VP of Business Development and Sales for iguazio, the CEO of SourceThought, the President of Primex Wireless and the Chief Operations Officer at Resilient Networks. Steven started his career in successful stints at larger companies such as Cisco Systems, HP and Apple. He holds a Masters degree in Architecture from the University of Utah with an emphasis in Computer Graphics/Computer Aided Design, and he has a Bachelor of Science in Business Management/Marketing from Brigham Young University with minors in Economics and Accounting. Steven has served as an advisor to BYU’s Marriott School of Management for the Center of Entrepreneurship, Thanksgiving Point Children’s Museum of Natural Curiosity, on the Board of the Royal Business Academy and several startups in AI/ML. He speaks Spanish, has lived in Spain, traveled extensively internationally, and as the father of six sons, enjoys golfing, water skiing, snow skiing, mountain biking, and hiking.

Bernard Moon

Board Member

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Bernard Moon

Board Member

Bernard Moon is a Co-founder & Partner at SparkLabs Group. Previously, he was Co-founder & CEO of Vidquik, a web conferencing & sales solutions platform. Bernard was a Managing Director at the Lunsford Group, which is a private investment firm with holdings in real estate, healthcare and other industries. Bernard was Co-founder & VP of Business Development of GoingOn Networks, a social media platform for companies, and also led their product development where BusinessWeek recognized them in their “Best of the Web” list.

Previously, Bernard was a Director at iRG, a leading boutique investment bank in Asia, where he focused on TMT companies. He serves on the advisory boards to Seoul National University’s Graduate School of Data Science and Nanyang Technological University’s EcoLabs (Centre of Innovation for Energy).. He is a frequent guest writer to various technology journals, such as VentureBeat, TechCrunch, and ReadWrite, and has been published in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and other publications.

He completed a post-graduate fellowship with the Coro Foundation. He received his MPA in Telecom and New Media Policy from Columbia University and a BA in English and Psychology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Elango R

Board Member

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Elango R

Board Member

Elango is President of the Global Hi-tech & Travel Business Units and New Client Acquisition in North America. As the Head of Business for these units, he is responsible for clients, financial performance, and people within these units across Global offices. He has been a member of the Mphasis Executive Committee since 2006.

Elango’s role is to orchestrate Mphasis’ deep technology expertise, domain and industry specialization and enable our customers to visualize and help drive their long-term strategic priorities. Elango excels in harnessing the collective power of the Mphasis internal and partner ecosystem to help solve our customers’ complex business problems.

Leaning on his diverse experience, Elango is the advisor and sounding board to CXOs as they navigate their organizations through complex technology and business transformation journeys. Elango works with them to find creative, workable solutions within the constraints of their competing priorities.

Elango re-joined Mphasis in 2006 and has worked in various capacities such as Chief Human Resources Officer, Head of Emerging Geo and has worn multiple hats as Head of Business Operations, Corporate Social Responsibility, and Marketing and Corporate Communications. He was instrumental in the divestiture of business divisions which were not core to the overall Mphasis strategy. In his most recent role, Elango helped transform the complex relationship with HP / DXC, driving growth and stability.

Prior to Mphasis, Elango helped set up the offshore captive for Bank of America as the Head of Human Resources and has worked with the UB group and Quality Inns India.

Elango has authored a book published by McGraw Hill titled “You Don’t need a Godfather”, and currently produces a podcast called “Epiphanies by Elango”. In the past, he has written for The Wall Street Journal, The Economic Times, and other publications.

Elango has completed an Advanced Management Program from INSEAD, France and holds a degree in Hotel Management from IHM-Madras.

Lauren Reilly

Board Member

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Lauren Reilly

Board Member

Lauren is cofounder and executive Director of SuitUp, which enables students from lower income areas to actively engage with corporate leaders to grow their career path. Lauren is a former Fellow of Gratitude Network and, since her Fellowship in 2019, has helped grow SuitUp to reach over 14,000 students across the U.S. with corporate partnerships with some of the greatest businesses in the country.

Lauren lives in the New York City area with her family and is actively involved in the community.

Rex Shoemake

Board Member

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Rex Shoemake

Board Member

Rex is VP of Sales and Owner of MadetoOrder. MadetoOrder partners with customers to provide creative sourcing and sales of branded products that customer marketing departments, in turn, use to further promote their company’s products and services.

Rex lives in Dallas and enjoys all that the region has to offer, as well as traveling as often as possible.

Brandon Taylor

Board Member

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Brandon Taylor

Board Member

Brandon Taylor is known for his passion for scaling in high-growth companies, and his view on growth changes lives for customers, employees, families, and key financial stakeholders. As a CRO/VP of Sales, he led growth efforts at Dell, Drillinginfo (Now Enverus), Sales Xceleration, Digital Globe, and Givewith. As an outsourced CRO, Brandon launched the systems, processes, and people to scale 15 companies in unique verticals. He led capital raises and mergers, and acquisitions throughout each phase. Brandon is a happy, dedicated father of two sons and calls Austin, TX, home. He loves hiking, mountain biking, travel, and tacos.

Laura Traxler

Executive Committee Secretary

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Laura Traxler

Executive Committee Secretary

Laura developed a long career at Bank of America, where her last role Senior Vice President and Managing Director Bank of America. Laura was also COO and Marketing Manager at Insight Resource Group, a marketing services organization. She also serves on boards for-profit and non-profit, including Teach for America, Education Foundation of Orinda, and Miramonte High School.

As an empty-nester, Laura enjoys her work in the non-profit world and seeing the difference she can make.