BiddingForGood is led by a management team of seasoned professionals committed to providing non-profits with resources and guidance they need to maximize their fundraising potential. Our Chairman and CEO Jon Carson has founded and profitably sold three companies, including Family Education Network, which became the largest education website on the Internet.
An eight-member Board of Directors is distinguished for its collective nonprofit service and successful ventures. BiddingForGood team draws upon the expertise of an Advisory Committee comprised of industry and thought leaders.
Executive & Senior Management
Jon is a serial entrepreneur with over 20 years in building and scaling for-profit enterprises that serve a broader social purpose. Other than brief stints at Boeing and McKinsey & Company, he has always worked on new ventures.
Jon has started 4 companies with over $175 million of returns to investors. His last company, FamilyEducation Network (Fen.com), used a unique public/private partnership model to become the largest education website on the Internet. Over 20% of all U.S. school districts built their first website on the FEN platform.
He is currently on the boards of Taunton Press, a mid-sized specialty publisher of magazines, books, TV, and websites (Fine Cooking, Threads, Fine Woodworking, Fine Gardening, Fine Homebuilding), the Lewis Institute of Social Entrepreneurship at Babson College, and The Trinity Boston Foundation.
He has previously served on the boards of Net-Impact, a national organization of 240 college and MBA chapters promoting corporate social responsibility and social entrepreneurship, The e-Philanthropy Foundation, National PTA, National School Boards Foundation, and the Small Business Association of New England (SBANE).
He is a participant in Renaissance Weekend and holds a deep interest in sustainability and equilibrium dynamics in political and economic systems as well as an interest in social entrepreneurship.
In 2008 Jon was one of the initial 3 inductees into the Babson College Alumni Entrepreneur Hall of Fame. In 2009 he was a finalist for Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year (New England region).
Jon lives in the Boston area with his wife and is thoroughly enjoying the joys of fatherhood and helping his kids build their cupcake delivery business.
Hutch has worked with a number of high- profile emerging and publicly held companies within diverse industries including software, telecommunications, and new media.
He has served as the founding CFO of the following companies: Sonus Networks (Nasdaq-SONS), the Family Education Network (acquired by Pearson), Viaweb (acquired by Yahoo!), Winphoria Networks (acquired by Motorola) and VideoServer (Nasdaq-EZEN).
Hutch, a certified public accountant, was previously a senior manager at Deloitte & Touche and co-founder of the Boston office’s High Technology and Emerging Business Group.
Perry Allison is the VP of Sales & Marketing at BiddingForGood. A pioneer in the media business, she served on the executive teams of several early stage companies - AltaVista, one of the first search engines on the web, Skygo, an early and innovative mobile marketing company, and Eons, a media company which built a social networking platform for the Baby Boomer generation.
She began her career in the publishing industry working for such venerable brands as Sports Illustrated, INC Magazine and Body and Soul Magazine (acquired by Martha Stewart Omnimedia.) She has combined her deep media experience with solid nonprofit experience as well. Prior to BiddingForGood, Perry was Managing Director of Northern Stage, a professional theater company in White River Junction, VT.
She has served on several nonprofit boards including the Aloha Foundation in Fairlee, VT, Young Audiences of MA and also served as the Global Chairperson for the Mobile Marketing Association in the early days of mobile. Perry graduated from Skidmore College. In her spare time, she sings in a professional acapella group, Custom Blend and raises chickens.
Lisa Besteni joined BiddingForGood in May of 2003 to develop and manage the BiddingForGood suite of products from the ground up. Lisa came to BiddingForGood following nine years in leadership and management positions in the software and Internet industries.
Lisa helped build several web-based businesses from start-up to liquidation during the dot-com roller coaster. She has a healthy attraction to vibrant start-up environments and specializes in leading teams in large-scale projects from vision to delivery.
Prior to joining the BiddingForGood team Lisa worked at Pearson Education (Addison Wesley, Prentice Hall, Benjamin Cummings) in its higher education textbook courseware division. Lisa also managed four online product offerings for Family Education Network, the web's leading source of educational content, resources, and products and the largest education website on the Internet.
Lisa’s career has also included corporate crisis management and corporate sales for Six Flags Atlantis.
Greg has been working in internet-related businesses for 15 years. He joined BiddingForGood in June of 2003 as the 7th employee. He led the QA group before becoming a member of the management team in November 2008.
Before BiddingForGood, Greg was the Release Engineering Manager at Solbright, an online ad campaign management startup in New York City. Previous to Solbright, he was a QA contractor working for companies such as Kodak, Open Market, GTE/BBN, Boston Communications Group, Biztravel, and Namestake.com.
He began his career at Shawmut Bank before joining pioneering ISP Delphi Internet/Newscorp in 1994. Greg is a graduate of the Carroll School of Management at Boston College.
Board of Directors
Foster Aborn
Foster has spent his career in the financial services industry, recently retiring as vice-chairman and chief investment officer of John Hancock Financial Services, Inc. where he oversaw an $80 billion portfolio.
He has extensive experience in the nonprofit sector, having served on the trustee and overseer boards of numerous nonprofit organizations, including the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Bay Cove Human Services, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, and Huntington Theatre Company, among others.
Foster received his undergraduate BA degree from Dartmouth College and his graduate MBA degree from Amos Tuck School of Business Administration.
Rick Faulk
With more than 20 years of experience in executive management, sales, and marketing for some of the most successful companies in the high-tech industry, Rick is a nationally recognized high technology executive. Immediately prior to Mzinga, Rick was Chief Marketing Officer of WebEx Communications and President of WebEx Small Business, where he was responsible for the company’s worldwide go-to-market and customer acquisition strategies.
Previously, Rick served as president and CEO of Intranets.com, which was acquired by WebEx in 2005. Under his leadership, Intranets.com secured more than 300,000 users and was named to the Inc. 500 list of the fastest growing technology companies for two consecutive years. Before joining Intranets.com, Rick was Vice President of Corporate Marketing at PictureTel, where he was responsible for all aspects of corporate marketing.
Prior to joining PictureTel, Rick was Vice President of Worldwide Sales and Marketing at Shiva Corporation. He was instrumental in growing Shiva’s worldwide revenues by more than 50 percent, expanding distribution channels and effectively positioning Shiva as the market leader in the remote networking market.
Rick also spent four years as Vice President of Corporate Marketing at Lotus Development Corporation, where he was responsible for all marketing communication functions, VAR development, database marketing, channel marketing, and OEM marketing. Before that, Rick founded First Software, a software distribution company, which grew to more than $175 million in revenue in less than four years. In 1985, First Software was ranked second in Inc. Magazine’s list of fastest-growing companies.Rick holds a BS in Business Administration from Bowling Green State University.
Anthony P. Morris
Tony has been involved in the information technology (IT) industry since 1979 as entrepreneur, investor, independent Director, and consultant on both sides of the Atlantic. Since 1988 he has provided business strategy and venture development counsel to IT companies and investors, ranging from the largest computer industry companies to high potential startups.
In 2000, Tony relocated to London from Boston to work with promising UK and European IT companies and their investors both on venture development in local markets and on US market entry strategy. He has made two dozen direct investments in private IT companies and is a limited partner in several widely recognized venture capital firms in the US and the UK.
In 1980 Tony founded Morris Decision Systems, an early "value added" PC reseller and network systems integrator in New York, ranking #9 in the Inc. 500 when it was sold. He is a Director of Phoenix Technologies Ltd. (NASDAQ:PTEC), Nexagent Ltd. (UK), and Datanomic Ltd. (UK). He has been profiled as a successful angel investor in Winning Angels by Harvard Business School’s Howard Stevenson and David Amis (Financial Times/Prentice Hall - 2001).
He holds an AB from the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from Stanford University. Tony is a member of the Board of Global Advisors at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. He lives in the Kensington section of London with his wife and two daughters.
Stephanie Monaghan O’Brien, Esq.
Ms. O’Brien represents Morningside Venture Investments. Ms. O’Brien has extensive experience working with venture backed technology companies. She focuses on early stage companies, working with CEOs on building the management team and developing business plans.
She currently serves on several private company boards, including Natural Polymer International Corp., Alacer Biomedical, Inc., Inimex Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and BiddingForGood. She received her A.B., cum laude, from Harvard College and her J.D. from New York University School of Law.
Prior to attending law school, Stephanie worked for Chase Manhattan Bank, N.A, where she completed the loan officer credit training program and then worked in international portfolio analysis. After law school, Stephanie spent nine years as a corporate lawyer with Hale and Dorr in the Boston and Washington, D.C. offices, working primarily with venture capital finance and start-up companies.
Leslie Charm
Professor Charm teaches at Babson College and has been a partner in the firm of Youngman & Charm since 1972. The firm specializes in directorship functions for firms owned and operated by entrepre- neurs and in assisting companies that are experiencing operating and/or financial problems. Youngman & Charm has operated in a variety of industries, channels of distribution, and has been involved in numerous successful financings and acquisitions and mergers.
From 1977 through 1990, Leslie was chairman and president of a major distributor and specialty retail chain with several hundred retail outlets. He has been active in other specialty marketing companies, and served as a member of the Board of Directors of the International Franchise Association from 1983 to 1988. He is currently director of the National Association of Corporate Directors-New England, as well as director of several public and privately-held firms.
Leslie has taught throughout the world on a variety of topics regarding entrepreneurship. He is on the President’s Council at Babson, and is the recipient of the Appel Award for Entrepreneurship. He is a graduate of Babson College and the Harvard Business School.
Robin A. Brown
Robin is a principal of CWB Boylston, LLP, the developers of Mandarin Oriental, Boston, known as a high-end mixed development that includes retail, dining, the Mandarin Oriental hotel, and the Residences at Mandarin Oriental, Boston. The project has revitalized Boston’s Upper Boylston Street and has brought a new standard of luxury to Boston.
Prior to his work with CWB Boylston, Robin served as a senior executive with Four Seasons Hotels for 20 years. While General Manager of the Four Seasons Hotel Boston, the hotel was awarded the Mobil Five Star Award, the AAA Five Diamond Award for hotel and restaurant, and was selected as the world’s top destination for service by the readers of Conde Nast Traveler.
Robin’s reputation as an outstanding hotelier is matched only by his commitment to the Boston community. He has served on countless boards and advisory groups, currently serving as a Director of the Boston Library Foundation, a Trustee of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Vice Chairman of the Back Bay Association. In addition, Robin has dedicated hundreds of hours to serving as a charity MC and auctioneer, raising well over $5 million for Boston nonprofits.
Advisory Directors
Steve Delfin
CEO, America’s Charities
Steve has a long career working with, and for nonprofit organizations. He is currently President and CEO of America’s Charities, a national leader in employee engagement and workplace giving technology solutions and is responsible for raising tens of millions of dollars for America’s Charities members as well as thousands of other charities.America’s Charities members include many prominent national organizations including Feeding America, Make-A-Wish Foundation of America, Wounded Warriors Fund, Human Society, Dress for Success, and Teach for America.
Prior to his current role, Steve was Executive Director of the National Credit Union Foundation where he was responsible for managing a $350 million dollar investment fund that generated grants for hundreds of credit unions working to provide responsible financial products and services to emerging and under-served populations.
Steve has also served as the Worldwide Community Relations Director for Booz Allen Hamilton, and has held senior communications and fundraising positions with the American Red Cross National Headquarters and United Way of America.
Steve is a sought after speaker on a range of issues and topics including workplace philanthropy, employee volunteerism and engagement, cause-related marketing, corporate social responsibility, non-profit governance and management, trends impacting the charitable sector, and social media. He has also served as Chairman of America’s Charities and the e-Philanthropy Foundation, and has served on the Advisory Council of Net-Impact.
Brian Rosborough
Founder Earthwatch Institute
Brian has a long history serving the non- profit sector. In 1972 he founded the Earthwatch Institute which became one of the leading scientific and environmental organizations around the world by matching donors with expeditions in scientific and environmental discovery.
He has also served as a special envoy to the United Nations, as well as serving on a wide variety of boards including Princeton University, the Fullbright Institute, Mt Holyoke College, the Rocky Mountain Institute, and numerous others.
Anne Bryant
Executive Director National School Boards Association
Anne has a long history in the nonprofit sector. She currently runs the 130-person National School Boards Association which has over 95,000 local school board members.
She is a national expert on education reform and has frequently testified before Congress on educational policy. Prior to joining NSBA, she was the executive director of the Association of University Women. Anne also serves as the chair of the Board of Trustees for Simmons College and is an advisory commissioner to the Education Commission of the States which provides non-partisan information about education policy.
Professor Deepak Malhotra Associate Professor Harvard Business School
Deepak Malhotra is an Associate Professor in the Negotiations, Organizations, and Markets Unit at the Harvard Business School. Deepak teaches Negotiation in a wide variety of executive programs including the Advanced Management Program (AMP), the Owner/President Management Program (OPM), Changing the Game, Strategic Negotiation, and Families in Business.
Deepak’s research focuses on negotiation strategy, trust development, auction behavior, and ethnic dispute resolution, and has been published in top journals in the fields of management, psychology, and conflict resolution. Deepak has done extensive research on charity auctions, focusing especially on how escalation of commitment and competitive arousal affects bidding behavior.
Deepak is the author (with Max Bazer- man) of the new book Negotiation Genius: How to Overcome Obstacles and Achieve Brilliant Results at the Bargaining Table and Beyond. The book can be purchased at Amazon.com
Deepak’s professional activities include training and consulting with firms across the globe in a multitude of industries, including banking, education, energy, financial management, healthcare, hotel, information technology, manufacturing, media, newspaper, non-profits, pharmaceuticals, printing, real estate, retail, and telecommunications.
Carol Cone
Chairman & Founder, Cone, Inc.
Carol Cone is nationally recognized for her work in the Cause Branding® and strategic philanthropy arenas. As the Chairman of Cone, Inc., she has embraced a steadfast commitment to building substantive and sustainable partnerships between companies and social issues for more than 25 years.
Cone has pioneered vibrant new alliances for private/public partnerships to create signature programs for a host of Fortune 500 companies, including the Avon Breast Cancer Crusade, ConAgra Foods’ Feeding Children Better, PNC Grow Up Great, the American Heart Association's Go Red for Women program, Reebok’s Human Rights Awards, Rockport’s Fitness Walking, and the Gillette Prostate Cancer Challenge, among others.
Overall, Cone’s signature cause programs have raised more than $750 million for various social causes. Today, Cone, Inc. is acknowledged as the nation’s leading Cause Branding consultancy.