About Staff Board Donors Partners
2012 students at Alliance High School
Tom Friel, Board Chair
Tom Friel retired as chairman and CEO of Heidrick & Struggles International Inc. in 2007 after 28 years with the company in a series of leadership roles. Among the positions he held were Managing Partner of the Silicon Valley Office, Managing Partner International Technology Practice, Regional Manager of Asia Pacific, and President of Heidrick & Struggles Ventures. He served as a Board member of the company from the time of its IPO in 1999 until his retirement in 2007. Among the honors he received from the industry was the Gardner Heidrick Award from the Association of Executive Search Consultants (AESC) for outstanding leadership in the profession. Mr. Friel is an honors graduate of Purdue University, where he majored in industrial engineering. He also holds an MBA degree from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. His board experience includes several private and nonprofit organizations including the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, Sigma Chi Fraternity, and the Children’s Health Council of Palo Alto, California. In addition, Mr. Friel is currently serving as a senior advisor to the Bridgespan Group, a Boston-based organization providing consulting services to hundreds of nonprofits nationwide.
Ron Gonzales
Ron Gonzales is President & CEO of the Hispanic Foundation of Silicon Valley and also the Founder, Chairman and CEO of Presencia Technology, LLC and Presencia, LLC. He has over 35 years of technology and public policy experience. Ron served as Mayor of San Jose, the Capital of Silicon Valley and the nation’s 10th largest city from 1999-2006. His achievements included nationally recognized initiatives that strengthened neighborhoods, improved public education, and ensured the economic vitality of the city with high quality public services and effective solutions to affordable housing and regional traffic congestion. Before his election as Mayor, Gonzales worked as an executive with the Hewlett- Packard Company, in the areas of marketing, human resources, and corporate philanthropy. Gonzales served for eight years (1989-1996) on the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors. While Chairman of the Board of Supervisors, he introduced technology into county government and launched the County’s performance- based budgeting system. As a two-time mayor and member of the Sunnyvale City Council (1979-87), Gonzales helped initiate governmental efficiency measures that were recognized in the best-selling book “Reinventing Government.”
Eric Hanushek
Eric Hanushek is the Paul and Jean Hanna Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution of Stanford University. He has been a leader in the development of economic analysis of educational issues, and his work on efficiency, resource usage, and economic outcomes of schools has frequently entered into the design of both national and international educational policy. His research spans such diverse areas as the impacts of teacher quality, high stakes accountability, and class size reduction on achievement along with the role of cognitive skills in international growth and development. His pioneering analysis measuring teacher quality through student achievement forms the basis for current research into the value-added of teachers and schools. He is chairman of the Executive Committee for the Texas Schools Project at the University of Texas at Dallas, a research associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research, and a member of the Koret Task Force on K-12 Education. He was recently appointed to the Equity and Excellence Commission of the U.S. Department of Education, and he served as chair of the Board of Directors of the National Board for Education Sciences during 2008-2010. He is currently the area coordinator for Economics of Education of the CESifo Research Network. He is a Distinguished Graduate of the United States Air Force Academy and completed his Ph.D. in economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He served in the U.S. Air Force from 1965-1974.
Garrett Neiman
Garrett is the co-founder and CEO of CollegeSpring. Garrett incubated CollegeSpring at Stanford University, where he majored in Economics and realized that his experience could help other students prepare for college. During his time at Stanford, Garrett interned at the U.S. Department of Education, conducted research with America’s most prominent education economist, served as an advisor to Google’s Education Applications Team, and co-directed Stanford Dance Marathon, the largest student-led philanthropic event in the Bay Area. He also served as a voting member of Stanford’s Board of Trustees and Public Service Student Advisory Board and Co-Chair of the Senior Gift Committee, where he led an effort that doubled the previous class gift record. Garrett has been honored as an East Palo Alto Social Venture Fellow, Stanford Nonprofits Board Fellow, Public Service Leadership Fellow, and Young People For Fellow. His work has been profiled in the New York Times, BusinessWeek, the Orange County Register, the Stanford Daily, and the USC Trojan, and he has served as an invited speaker at events hosted by The College Board, Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and Stanford University, among others.
Mindy Rogers, Treasurer and Secretary
Mindy Rogers began her career at Bain & Company. She later joined Wells Fargo Bank as Vice President, where she held a variety of managerial positions in banking operations including General Manager of Northern California check processing, a 24/7 operation with over 300 employees and an $11 million budget. After leaving Wells Fargo, she became a consultant to the bank on a range of issues, including merger integration support, cost reduction, operational management, marketing, and new product launches. Mindy is very involved in her community. At Sacred Heart Preparatory Atherton, Mindy served in a variety of volunteer capacities, including for seven years as a member of the Board of Trustees. For four years, she chaired the Board, where she led a strategic planning process, worked with the administration to implement numerous key initiatives and launch a $95 million capital campaign, led a search for a new head of school, and worked to improve governance and financial reporting. Currently, she is a Board Member for Stanford New Schools-a network of charter schools in East Palo Alto run by the Stanford School of Education-and an active volunteer with Project Read, the Boys and Girls’ Club of the Peninsula, Big Brothers Big Sisters, and Stanford University. Mindy earned her B.A. in Economics, with Honors and Distinction, and her M.B.A. from Stanford University. She is married to Jesse Rogers, with three children.