Nizar Abdallah, MBA, PhD, is Engineering Director at Actel Corp. He was Co-Founder and Executive Director of a European scientific applications start-up and professor of Computer Science at a French engineering school. He is also external co-director of an international program organized by UNESCO for researchers and engineers in developing countries. His M.B.A. degree is from Presidio Graduate School, his Ph.D. from Pierre & Marie Curie University in Paris, France.
Rich Goode, MBA, is Senior Director of Sustainability for Alcatel-Lucent, having established the first office of Climate Change and Sustainability at a Fortune 500 company. He has also served as Director of Business Development for A.T. & T. Co. A summa cum laude graduate of the Univ. of Massachusetts, he graduated first in his M.B.A. class from Nichols College in Dudley, MA., and earned the Executive Certificate in Sustainable Management at Presidio Graduate School.
Richard M. Gray, PhD, an honorary life member of the Presidio board, holds the B.A. Phi Beta Kappa from Bucknell Univ., the M. Div. summa cum laude from San Francisco Theological Seminary, the Ph.D. from U.C. Berkeley. He was with N.W. Ayer, a national advertising agency, for 16 years, and was Ayer’s Detroit Creative Director. As founding president of World College West, he raised $13 million in 15 years to establish the college and build its environmentally designed 200-acre campus.
Peter Liu, MPP, is Founder and Vice-Chair of New Resource Bank, financing environmentally conscious projects. Formerly Senior Vice President at Credit Suisse First Boston and Vice President of Chase Manhattan, he completed $6 billion in financing transactions. Before that, he worked at Chevron, then joined California's Air Resources Board and helped put into practice the state's Clear Air act. A graduate of U.C. Berkeley, he also holds a master's degree in Public Policy from Princeton University.
Amy McCombs, MA, Interim President, has broad-based experience in the information media, financial service, higher education, and nonprofit sectors. She has been president and C.E.O. of Chronicle Broadcasting, also president and C.E.O. of Heald College in San Francisco. She holds the M.A. in Journalism and B.A. in Journalism and Political Science from Missouri University. She has participated in the Senior Executive Program at Stanford and National Broadcasters General Management Program at Harvard University.
Susan Orenstein is the Student Member of the Board. She is in the Presidio MBA class of 2009. An experienced journalist with such publications as The New York Observer, she was Senior Writer for Business 2.0 and a Feature Writer for The Industry Standard. A Magna Cum Laude graduate of Yale University, she has also done significant communications work for the Gap Foundation and has edited stories for the Stanford Social Innovation Review.
Teresa Pahl, JD, heads the Business & Corporate Section at the Hanson Bridgett law firm. She has served as a judge of the Social Venture Network Innovation Award and has been a member of the Board of Governors of the Lawyers' Club of San Francisco as well as the National Association of Women Business Owners. She received her Bachelor's degree from the University of California Berkeley and her law degree from the University of San Francisco School of Law.
Toni Rembe, JD, is president of the van Loben Sels Foundation. A senior advisor/retired partner at Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pitman LLP, she has served on the boards of AT&T. Inc, AEGON, Potlatch, Transamerica, Pacific Telesis, Safeco, and APL Ltd. She advises the Rock Center at Stanford, is past chair of ACT in San Francisco, past president of the Commonwealth Club. She was an undergraduate at Geneva Univ. in Switzerland and the Univ. of Washington, where she also received her law degree.
Steven L. Swig, JD, Co-Founder and President Emeritus, is a graduate of the University of Oregon and the University of Santa Clara School of Law. Formerly with the Law Office of Joseph Alioto, he was Partner and Managing Director of Titchell, Maltzman & Mark; Executive Vice-President of Swig, Weiler & Dinner Development Co.; and Counsel with Howard, Rice, Nemerovski, Canady, Falk & Rabkin. He has served on many boards including the University of Oregon, ACLU and ACT.
