Catherine Berman (CEO, CNote)

Catherine Berman is the CEO and Co-founder of CNote, an impact investment platform delivering competitive returns by investing in women, people of color, and low-income communities across America. She’s a three-time entrepreneur with experience building scalable businesses. Her last startup grew into a multi-million dollar firm in less than four years. Prior to CNote, she worked as a Managing Director at Charles Schwab focused on new market segments and predictive analytics. At the vanguard of impact investing, Catherine has spoken at events hosted by Stanford, Oxford, Google, The Economist, SoCap, Coinbase, and others to challenge conventional thinking about money and meaning. 

Mark Doherty (Director of Investments, SF Foundation)

Mark is the San Francisco Foundation’s Director of Investments and leads a team which stewards $1.5 billion of charitable capital. Mark’s team is responsible for the analysis, operations, and communications related to the Foundation’s core investment portfolios, externally managed funds, and impact investing portfolios. He helps evaluate and implement investment and liquidity management strategies to best support SFF’s mission.   Prior to joining the Foundation, Mark lived in London and was Operations Director at UK Community Foundations, an organization supporting the 46 community foundations in the UK. Before London, Mark served as Director of Investments at Silicon Valley Community Foundation. Prior to his career in philanthropy, Mark was a private banker in San Francisco to high net worth clients.   He holds an MA in International Policy Studies from Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, and a BA in Political Science from Colorado College. When not standing with his wife on the sidelines of their sons’ soccer games, Mark enjoys ultra-distance trail running.

Sheri Flanigan-Vazquez (COO, Justine PETERSEN)

Sheri Flanigan-Vazquez, MSW, is the Chief Operating Officer of Justine PETERSEN where she joined the staff in 1998. She was instrumental in the planning and implementation of Justine PETERSEN’s Individual Development Account Program and U.S. Small Business Administration Micro-Loan Intermediary Program. She is also a founder of Great Rivers Community Capital. GRCC is a Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI), a lending organization wholly owned by Justine PETERSEN. Sheri has a Master of Social Work from the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis and a Bachelor of Arts from Knox College in Galesburg, IL. She dedicated a year of service as a Volunteer in Service to America (VISTA) coordinating English as a Second Language classes. Prior to joining Justine PETERSEN staff, Sheri was the Executive Director of La Casa Latina, a grassroots organization that assists non-English speaking Latinos, for three years where she managed a staff of five and oversaw agency operations. She was a founding board member of Choices Federal Credit Union and is currently a member of the Community Advisory Board of the Illinois Facilities Fund (IFF). Sheri is married to Jesus Vazquez and has two children, Claudia and Gabriela.

Rita Fuerst Adams (Charitable and Philanthropic Management Counsel)