Board

Non-executive directors

David Blood
Chair, Finance and Investment Committee

David Blood is co-founder and Senior Partner of Generation Investment Management. Previously, he spent 18 years at Goldman Sachs including serving as co-CEO and CEO of Goldman Sachs Asset Management from 1999-2003. David received a B.A. from Hamilton College and an M.B.A. from the Harvard Graduate School of Business. He is on the Board of Harvest Power, New Forests, SHINE, Social Finance UK, Social Finance US, The Nature Conservancy, Fondation 1796 and Hamilton College; the Advisory Board of Bridges Ventures and the Harvard Business School Visiting Committee.

Sir Ronald Cohen

Sir Ronald Cohen is Chairman of Big Society Capital, The Portland Trust and Bridges Ventures. He chaired the UK’s Social Investment Task Force (2000-2010) and Commission on Unclaimed Assets (2005-2007). He was a co-founder and chairman of Apax Partners. Founded in 1972, Apax Partners is now one of the world’s leading private equity investment groups. He is a member of the Harvard Board of Overseers and the Board of Dean’s Advisers at Harvard Business School, a Vice-Chairman of Ben Gurion University and a member of the University of Oxford Investment Committee. He is also a Trustee of the British Museum. In 2007, Sir Ronald published The Second Bounce of the Ball – Turning Risk into Opportunity. He is a graduate of Oxford University, where he was President of the Oxford Union and is an Honorary Fellow of Exeter College, Oxford. He holds an M.B.A from Harvard Business School.

Alexander Friedman

Alexander Friedman is the Chief Investment Officer of UBS Wealth Management, the world's largest wealth manager, and chairman of its global investment committee. Prior to joining UBS, Alex was founder and managing partner of Asymmetry LLC, a private investment company. Previously he was the Chief Financial Officer for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and a member of its management committee during a period when the foundation more than doubled in size. Earlier in his career, Alex was an investment banker at Lazard and also served as a White House fellow and as an assistant to the Secretary of Defense in the Clinton administration. Alex is chairman of Safeboats International and is a non-executive director of Actis. A member of the Council on Foreign Relations, he serves on the boards of the Seattle Art Museum and the Access Fund. Alex received a J.D. and an M.B.A. from Columbia University and a B.A. from Princeton University.

Luther M. Ragin, Jr.

Luther M. Ragin, Jr. is Chief Executive Officer of the Global Impact Investing Network. Previously, he was Chief Investment Officer of the F.B. Heron Foundation, a national foundation with assets of $250 million. Prior to joining the Foundation in 1999, Luther was the Chief Financial Officer of the National Community Capital Association, a trade association of community development financial institutions that provide access to capital in low-income communities. Other significant experience includes eight years as Chief Financial Officer of Earl G. Graves, Ltd., and seven years with Chase Manhattan Bank, including three years as Vice President of Syndications/Assets Sales for the North American Corporate Finance Sector. Luther is a member of the Board of Directors of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, ShoreBank Corporation and The Threshold Group. He holds a B.A. and Master of Public Policy from Harvard, and is a graduate of Columbia University's Executive Program in Business Administration.

Sonal Shah
Vice Chair of the Board

Sonal Shah was appointed by President Obama to start and lead the first White House Office of Social Innovation and Civic Participation. She also served on President Obama's Transition Board overseeing the Technology, Innovation, Government Reform working group. Before joining the White House, Sonal led Google’s global development initiatives for its philanthropy, Google.org. Prior to Google, Sonal was a Vice President at Goldman Sachs, Inc. Sonal also co-founded a non-profit, Indicorps, which offers fellowships for Indian-Americans to work on development projects in India. She has worked at the Center for American Progress focusing on trade, outsourcing and post conflict issues. She also developed and managed policy and advocacy programs for the Center for Global Development. From 1995-2002, Sonal was an economist at the Department of Treasury, where she directed the office for African Nations, worked on the Asian Financial Crisis and post conflict development in Bosnia and Kosovo. Sonal received her M.A. in Economics from Duke University and B.A. in Economics from the University of Chicago. She is an Aspen Crown Fellow and a Next Generation Fellow.

Dana Smith
Chair, Governance and Nomination Committee

Dana serves as Trustee for two active family foundations, including the Richard and Susan Smith Family Foundation.   Her past professional experience includes work at the Boston Housing Authority where she was Deputy Director of Services, Boys and Girls Clubs of Boston where she was Director of Operations and the City of Boston where she was a youth outreach and street worker.  Dana is currently the incoming Chair of the Board at the Boys & Girls Clubs of Boston and the Chair of the Board of Trustees of Facing History and Ourselves. She also serves on the boards of the Park School and the Dean’s Leadership Council at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.. Born and raised in Los Angeles, California, Dana moved to the east coast to attend Tufts University and graduated in 1988 magna cum laude.  After graduation, she received a fellowship to teach in SOWETO, South Africa.  She returned to Boston and completed her Masters in Education at Harvard University Graduate School of Education with a concentration in Children and Adolescents at Risk.

Bracebridge H. Young, Jr.
Chair of the Board

Bracebridge H. Young, Jr. is Mariner's Chief Executive Officer, a Partner and is a member of Mariner's Investment and Management Committees. Brace is also a General Securities Principal for Mariner Group Capital Markets, Inc. (Mariner's limited-purpose affiliated broker-dealer "MGCM").  He joined Mariner directly from Goldman Sachs, where he retired as a Partner, head of European Debt Capital Markets. Brace also headed fixed income and foreign exchange sales in London beginning in 1992. In 1989, he moved to Tokyo to run all of the firm's fixed income activity in Japan. Brace first became a Partner at Goldman Sachs in New York City in 1988 where he was the Co-Head of the Money Market Sales and Trading Department in 1988. He was the Head Trader for institutional money market funds from 1983 to 1988 and started at Goldman Sachs on the Commercial Paper trading desk in 1980. Brace received a Bachelor's degree from Bowdoin College in 1977 and an M.B.A. from the Stern School of New York University in 1983. He is the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Buckingham Browne & Nichols, a coeducational day school in Cambridge, Massachusetts.