Board of Directors
Muneer A. Satter (Co-Chair)
Muneer Satter is a Managing Director at Goldman Sachs in the Principal Investment Area (the "PIA") which manages the firm's private equity investments. The PIA is one of the largest private equity investors in the world, investing in the U.S., Europe and Asia. Muneer joined Goldman Sachs in 1988 and became a Partner of the firm in 1996. He sits on the Investment Committee of the PIA and he is the Global Head of the Mezzanine Group.
Muneer serves on the Boards of CCC Information Systems, Inc. and Grupo Clarin, S.A. He also serves on the Board of the Nature Conservancy.
Muneer received a B.A. from Northwestern University, a J.D. from Harvard Law School, and an M.B.A. from the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration.
Hilary Valentine (Co-Chair)
Hilary Valentine is a partner at Black & White Design and serves on the Board of Directors of the Donald and Rachel Valentine Foundation and Breast Cancer Connections. Her primary focus has been to evangelize the Room to Read mission in front of high net-worth donors in the technology world. The Donald and Rachel Valentine Foundation provided the initial multi-year seed funding for Room to Read's girls' scholarship program, Room to Grow.
Herb Allen
Herb Allen is President of Allen & Company, LLC in New York. Prior to working at Allen & Company, Herb was with T. Rowe Price and Botts & Company Ltd. A graduate of Yale University, Herb resides in Manhattan.
Marc Andreessen
Marc Andreessen is Chairman and Co-founder of Opsware Inc., the leading provider of data center automation software. Marc is widely recognized for his role in launching the Internet revolution in 1993, with his creation of the Mosaic browser while at the University of Illinois. After graduation, Marc co-founded Netscape Communications, and played a critical role in the company's hypergrowth. Marc later became CTO of AOL when the company purchased Netscape in 1999.
As one of the technology icons of our time, Marc has received numerous accolades, was named one of the "Top 50 people under the age of 40" by Time Magazine in 1994, and graced the magazine's cover in 1996.
With Mosaic and the Netscape browser, Marc's ideas created a platform that enabled individuals to access the Internet. Similarly, today Opsware is enabling businesses to take advantage of the massive business opportunities created by the web and new web-based architectures.
Christopher Beer
Christopher S. Beer is the founding member of Ironmark Law Group, PLLC, a firm providing legal services and counsel to companies, creatives and lawyers in the fields of intellectual property (copyrights, trademarks, trade secrets) and corporate law. Chris serves a variety of individuals and entities within the United States and throughout the World.
Chris received a B.A. from Pacific Lutheran University, a J.D. from the University of Washington and M.A.I.S. from the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies, University of Washington.
Marjorie Craig Benton
Marjorie Craig Benton has been a U.S. Commissioner, International Year of the Child, U.S. Ambassador to U.N.I.C.E.F., Board Chair of Save the Children Federation, Board Chair for the Chapin Hall Center for Children at the University of Chicago, a Trustee of the Bernard van Leer Foundation and the Van Leer Group Foundation in Holland, and was appointed to a commission to look into the future of children's programming on PBS.
She is the Co-Founder of the Chicago Foundation for Women and served as Board Chair of the Council on Foundations. She was the Public Delegate to the United Nations, a Delegate to the Special Session on Disarmament, a Co-Chair of Americans for SALT, and Special Advisor to the United Nations Disarmament Commission. She was also Co-Founder of the Peace Museum in Chicago, Illinois.
Marjorie spent forty years working in the Democratic Party - as a delegate to the National Conventions and its special commissions. She served for eight years as Chair of the White House Fellows Commission. For her service in government, Marjorie received the U.S. Office of Personnel Management Award for Meritorious Service.
Craig Bruya
Craig Bruya has been Chief Financial Officer of Microsoft Business Solutions at Microsoft headquarters since returning to the company in 2004. During a three year sabbatical, he taught accounting and management classes to MBA students at Seattle University and the University of Washington. Prior to this, he spent 12 years at Microsoft in executive finance positions as well as nine years with the audit division of Arthur Andersen & Company in Seattle, Brussels, Belgium and Athens, Greece. Craig is an active contributor to Room to Read and has endowed multiple schools, local language books and Room to Grow scholarships.
Alastair Mactaggart
Alastair Mactaggart is President of Emerald Fund Inc., a San Francisco residential real estate developer. Since 1998 Emerald has developed in excess of US$1 billion of real estate, including over 1,300 units of new housing, and 1,700 units of condominium conversions.
Alastair is the Chair of the Physicians' Foundation of the California Pacific Medical Center and serves on the boards of the California Pacific Medical Foundation, the Ploughshares Fund, and the Swig Corporation. He serves as co-chair of his undergraduate class fundraising effort.
Alastair received a BA from Harvard College and an MBA from Harvard Business School. He lives in San Francisco, CA with his wife Celine.
John Ridding
John Ridding is the Chief Executive of the Financial Times newspaper and FT.com. He was formerly Editor and Publisher of the Financial Times, Asia, as well as Chairman of Pearson in Asia. John led the launch of the Asia edition of the FT in 2003. It won the award for the best newspaper from the Society of Publishers in Asia in its launch year and picked up top awards for business reporting, scoops and newspaper design at the same ceremony in 2006. He also led the development of the FT's Chinese language website.
John has also served as Deputy Editor, Hong Kong bureau chief, Paris correspondent, Korea correspondent, UK companies reporter and foreign desk correspondent. Between 1986 and 1987, he worked at Oxford Analytica on the Asia Pacific desk. He graduated from Oxford University with a first class honours degree in philosophy, politics and economics.
John Wood
John Wood is Founder and CEO of Room to Read. His full bio is available on the Leadership Team page.
Advisory Board
Robin Richards Donohoe
Robin Richards Donohoe has over fourteen years of experience in international venture capital as the General Partner of Draper International and Draper Richards venture funds. She and her partner, Bill Draper, gave a three year grant to Room to Read during its critical start up phase through the Draper Richards Foundation. She has personally funded libraries, computer labs and girls scholarships in Nepal and India.
Dr. Cory Heyman
Dr. Cory Heyman is Deputy Director of Academy for Educational Development's Center for Gender Equity. Having worked at the nexus of public, private, and non-profit sectors for more than 15 years, he has managed large-scale educational projects in the United States, Latin America, Eastern Europe, the Middle East, South Asia, and southern Africa. He has served as a professional staff member in the United States Senate, executive director of a DC-based educational non-profit organization, research scientist, and president of a small educational consulting firm. As a specialist in applied quantitative and qualitative research methods, Cory's research and project work has focused on strategies to increase access to quality educational opportunities for disadvantaged children in developing countries. Cory has been advising Room to Read on Monitoring and Evaluation design for more than 4 years.
Ernest G. Ludy
Ernest Ludy founded Medstat Systems in 1981 and served as its Chairman and CEO until 1995, when it was acquired by Thomson Corporation. Currently, he invests in and advises early stage healthcare companies through EGL Investments, LLC. Ernie also serves on the Board of Directors of Wellmark Blue Cross Blue Shield of Iowa, on the National Health Council's Advisory Commission on Patient-Centered Care, and on the Leadership Advisory Council of the University of Michigan's Life Sciences Institute. The Ludy Family Foundation has made a long term commitment to fund the growth of Room to Read's educational programs throughout the developing world.
Melissa J. Ma
Melissa J. Ma is Co-Founder and Managing Director of Asia Alternatives, an Asian private equity fund-of-funds. With offices in Hong Kong, Beijing, and San Francisco, Asia Alternatives has over $750 million assets under management and invests across Asia in local fund managers. Asia Alternatives is a corporate partner of Room to Read. Previously, Melissa was a Director at Hellman & Friedman, a leading US private equity firm, and has also worked at McKinsey & Co., Inc. in Hong Kong and San Francisco. Melissa holds a M.B.A. with Distinction and a B.A. in Economics and East Asian Studies, magna cum laude, from Harvard. She also serves on the Board of Trustees for the Asian Art Museum and the Bay Area Discovery Museum.
Patte McDowell
Patte McDowell is a former trading, sales and marketing executive with the Charles Schwab Corporation. She is the Founder and Board Chair of the Cloud 9 Foundation and an early supporter of Room to Read's work. Patte has participated in three Room to Read country visits, endowed three schools in Vietnam, and is an enthusiastic supporter of the Room to Grow scholarship programs. She recently joined the Board of Hospice of Marin.
M.R. Rangaswami
M.R. Rangaswami co-founded Sand Hill Group LLC, and has been a strategic advisor to fast-growing technology companies. He has held global VP marketing positions at Baan and Oracle Corporation. M.R. was profiled on the front page of the Wall Street Journal and was named in Forbes' "Midas 100 List" as one of the most influential investors in technology. He holds an MBA from Kent State University and a bachelor's degree from the University of Madras.
Dr. Carol Knuth Sakoian
Dr. Carol Knuth Sakoian has served for 14 years as Scholastic Inc.'s Vice President of International Business Development. She focuses on emerging market opportunities for Scholastic in developing countries, currently specializing in Africa and the Middle East. Prior to joining Scholastic, she was an International Negotiations Representative for Conoco, Inc. and worked on oil exploration and production acquisitions in politically challenging countries. She has helped Room to Read obtain culturally appropriate low-cost books and donations from several Scholastic companies and assisted with Room to Read's strategy for publishing local language/English bilingual books.
Gavin Tritt
Gavin Tritt is Director of The Asia Foundation's Books for Asia program. As Director of Books for Asia, Gavin oversees the distribution of more than 700,000 books per year in more than 14 countries around Asia. He has been with The Asia Foundation since 1993 in various capacities and has lived in the Philippines, China and Hong Kong. His primary focus is to ensure Room to Read's partnership with The Books for Asia Program runs smoothly and allows us to jointly ship over 100,000 books to Asia each year.
Tim Wood
Tim Wood specializes in applying information technology to address the problems of poverty and health in developing countries. After 12 years at Microsoft working on software development, Tim spent two years working with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, where he defined the Information Technology Strategy for their Global Health Program and reviewed grant proposals. He joined the Grameen Foundation in 2002 to focus on replicating the Grameen Village Phone program. Tim brings a broad range of technical and business expertise, and a valued pragmatic perspective on projects for developing countries.
