Greenwich Harbor Partners was retained to partner with Thrive Scholars Chicago to expand its Regional Advisory Board. New members identified by GHP include Jared Banner, Vice President, Player Development for the Chicago Cubs, Teedra Bernard, SVP, Chief Talent and Diversity Officer at TransUnion, Sedhu Krishnamurthy, General Manager, Data and AI at Microsoft, and Talvis Love, SVP, Chief Information Officer at Baxter International Inc.

“We are excited to welcome our new board members – each with diverse expertise and experiences from various sectors–to join our effort to strengthen opportunities toward economic mobility for high-achieving students of color in Chicago,” said Kylia Kummer, Executive Director of Thrive Scholars Chicago.

Jared Banner is Vice President, Player Development for the Chicago Cubs and has 15 years of experience in baseball operations.  Mr. Banner started out as a fellow in Boston’s baseball operations department and rose to the rank of VP, Player Personnel, overseeing international professional scouting. After receiving three World Series rings with Boston, he worked for his hometown team, the Mets, for two years in player development before joining the Cubs. Mr. Banner earned a bachelor's degree in Psychology from Amherst College.

Teedra Bernard is Senior Vice President, Chief Talent and Diversity Officer at TransUnion, responsible for all global talent and diversity functions across the associate lifecycle. Ms. Bernard previously served as their VP of HR for Global Technology. Prior to joining TransUnion, she held a series of HR leadership roles at Hewlett Packard, including Head of HR for the HPE Pointnext Global Client Services organization. Her diverse industry experience includes Operations, Sales, Retail, Investment Banking, and Pharmaceuticals. Ms. Bernard holds a Master of Science in HR Management & Development from New York University and a Bachelor of Arts in Business from Michigan State University.

Sedhu Krishnamurthy is a business and technology executive with over 10 years at Microsoft, where he currently leads the Data and Artificial Intelligence business for US Retail and Consumer Goods. Prior to joining Microsoft, Mr. Krishnamurthy has served in technical leadership roles at Innovex Technology, Insuresoft, and Allstate Insurance. He has an MBA from Northwestern University, a master's degree in Computer Science from Illinois Institute of Technology, and a bachelor's degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from College of Engineering, Guindy.

Talvis Love is SVP, Chief Information Officer for Baxter International Inc. Mr. Love joined Baxter in 2020 from Cardinal Health's Pharmaceuticals, where he was CIO responsible for overall IT service delivery. Previously, he held the positions of SVP, eCommerce, Governance Execution, Enterprise Architecture & Chief Information Security Officer of Cardinal Health. His career has also included several executive and management positions within TD Bank Group, Ford Motor Company, Oracle Corporation and Quaker Oats Company. Mr. Love holds an MBA from Michigan State University and a bachelor's degree in Information Systems Management from the University of Maryland.

Greenwich Harbor Partners was retained to partner with IDEA Public Schools to expand their National Board of Directors and Regional Advisory Board. New members identified by GHP include Michael Adams, Partner at DeCuir, Clark & Adams, L.L.P., Dr. Nanette Cocero, formerly Global President of Pfizer Vaccines, and Sali Osman, formerly Chief Security Officer, International Monetary Fund

Greenwich Harbor Partners was retained to partner with Teach for America-New York to expand its Regional Advisory Board. New members identified by GHP include Laurent Desmangles, Retired Senior Partner and Managing Director at BCG, Julian Gonzalez, Managing Director of Accenture's Innovation Practice, Mike Henry, Founder and CEO of OpenSlate, Toretha McGuire, Global Head of Diversity, Inclusion, Equity & Belonging at PayPal, and Anthony Ross, Managing Director, Head of Real Estate Private Equity Product Strategy at State Street.

Greenwich Harbor Partners was retained to partner with Soho Rep to expand its Board of Directors. New members identified and recruited by GHP include Aretha Marshall, President and CEO of Lincoln Drive and former Senior Vice President, Casting/Talent Development and Executive Producer for NBC Universal, Sidney Madison Prescott, Global Head of Intelligent Automation for Spotify, and Anne O’Grady, former Executive Vice President, Marketing for CBS.

Greenwich Harbor Partners was recently retained to partner with Teach for America Miami-Dade in order to expand the Miami-Dade Board of Advisors. Candidates identified and recrutinted by GHP include Romina Rosado, Executive Vice President and General Manager, Hispanic Streaming for NBCUniversal Telemundo Enterprises and Deena LaMarque Piquion, Chief Marketing Officer for Xerox.

Education Reform Now (ERN) is national nonprofit dedicated to pursuing education policies that enable all students, particularly students from low-income families and students of color, to obtain a globally competitive education that empowers them to fulfill their limitless potential. Greenwich Harbor Partners was retained to partner with the ERN to help expand its board of directors. GHP identified and recruited Jim Anderson, Managing Director, Google Cloud and Andy Bluhm, Principal, Delaware Street Capital.

Jim Anderson runs the North American South Central business for Google Cloud. Prior to Google, Jim served as the Vice President of Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s Cloud Service Provider business. Jim was also the President of the Americas for BAE Systems Applied Intelligence. Before joining BAE, Jim spent led Sales for the Cisco Server – Unified Computing business. Previously, Jim was Vice President, Enterprise Sales for Dell’s Public Sector and spent 10 years in senior sales and management positions for Hewlett-Packard. Jim is currently an Independent Board Director for U.S. Olympic Synchronized Swimming and served as the Chairman of the Board for Make-a- Wish of Central Texas. Jim holds an MBA from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, and a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from Princeton University.

Andrew Bluhm is the Founder of Delaware Street Capital where he serves as a Partner and Principal. He is also the Co-Founder and serves as Chairman of Board of Managers at DSC Quantitative Group. He is a Co-Founder and CEO of Otus, a K-12 learning platform for administrators, teachers, students, and families. He previously served as General Partner at Walton Street Capital. He serves as a Non-Executive Director at HFA Holdings. He serves as Advisor at Groundbreaker. Andrew is the founder and principal of Chicago-based DSC Advisors which is the investment manager of Delaware Street Capital Master Fund. He also serves as Board Member at Elevate K-12. Previously, he was a founder and Principal of WSC and Vice President at JMB and an Associate at Goldman Sachs. Mr. Bluhm has a B.S. magna cum laude from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.

Greenwich Harbor Partners was retained to partner with Teach for America in order to expand their Twin Cities (Minneapolis-St Paul, Minnesota) board of advisors. New board members identified by GHP include Javier Alarcon, SVP Finance at CHS, Inc., Nina Goodheart, SVP at Medtronic, Joanne Knight, VP Finance at Cargill, Andrew Miller, COO at the Minnesota Vikings, Joseph Oppong, Consulting Partner at EY, Monica Schwarm, Partner at BCG, and Sherry Smith, retired CFO and EVP at Supervalu. This significant expansion of the Teach for America Twin Cities board was the result of a very strong recruiting effort by the Nominating Committee.

“Since the start of the George Floyd protests last spring there has been a heightened interest in addressing diversity, equity and inclusion issues across all for-profit and non-profit organizations,” said Ted Pryor, managing director of Greenwich Harbor Partners. “There has been significant fresh interest in hiring diverse candidates for C-suite roles and board of directors. There has also been an increase in effort to create more welcoming environments for diverse employees such as creating mentorship programs. I would say one-third have been very committed to diversity for a long time, one-third have been interested and are increasing their level of activity now. And one-third are still somewhat passive and just beginning to think about what more they can do.”

Mr. Pryor said there is a shortage of diversity in the C-suite partly because of the time it takes for people to development and partly because people tend to want to hire people like themselves. “It takes extra effort to hire someone with a very different background and style of doing business,” he said. “One of the common stated objectives is the desire to hire people who fit in, but this can be a not-so-subtle screen for people who look and talk and think in different ways. If the C-suite executives all need to be golfers to fit in, then you will screen out a lot of people. However, if you focus on skills and experience, you will find a lot of diverse talent. In truth, the C-suite has become a lot more diverse in the last 30 years especially in marketing, HR and legal as people have risen through the professions,” Mr. Pryor said.

Greenwich Harbor Partners was retained to partner with Teach For America Chicago-Northwest Indiana to help expand the Chicago Advisory Board and recruited Hilary Chidi, Executive Vice President, Head, Global Credit Risk & Chief Sustainability Officer, TransUnion.

Hilary Chidi is Executive Vice President, Head of Global Credit Risk and Chief Sustainability Officer for TransUnion. Previously, he was Senior Vice President, Chief Product Officer (Consumer) & Chief Sustainability Officer. He is based in TransUnion’s Chicago headquarters and lives in Hinsdale, IL, with his wife and two sons. Prior to joining TransUnion, Hilary was a vice-president at TIAA in New York, where he was focused on helping to drive the success of various financial products for the consumer market. Hilary is a seasoned executive, with a strong track record in overseeing high-visibility/high-impact initiatives and groups within complex organizations, including Goldman Sachs and the Federal Reserve Bank.

Hilary holds a master of liberal arts and a master of science from Harvard University and The London School of Economics (LSE), respectively, as well as an MBA from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management.