Alexandra Peters joined her first board 32 years ago, became chair a year later, and got hooked on the possibilities for changing the world through nonprofit governance. 13 boards and 5 more chairs later, she is still learning all she can about nonprofit leadership. She thinks serving on the board of Creating the Future, and getting to talk to brilliant people and think about the highest potential of community benefit organizations all the time, is about as much fun as anyone can have. Find her at http://www.boardseye.com

Mark Riffey After 17 years in the software business as both a corporate developer and product developer at several independent software vendors, Mark acquired a failing software company. During the next 7 years, Mark expanded the company to over 1000 clients, established new markets in Canada, Australia and New Zealand, created development and co-marketing relationships with two Fortune 500 firms, acquired two failing competitors and grew annual revenue 1200%. Since selling the business in 2005, Mark has focused on helping business owners get control of their businesses and grow them. Mark’s business blog, “Business is Personal“, is read by the editorial staff of the Wall Street Journal, Business Week and Fast Company as well as by thousands of business people every week. “Business is Personal” has also been published as a weekly newspaper column since 2006. Mark has served the charitable sector as a software vendor and a volunteer, including boards of the Montana Boy Scouts and CharityChannel.com. You can learn more about him at MarkRiffey.com.

Gayle Valeriote Gayle Valeriote’s background in leadership, community development, citizen participation and education is combined with more than 25 years’ experience working with a wide variety of community benefit organizations and boards of directors in Guelph as well as beyond.

Just a few of these include:

Manager of Training & Consultation with the Volunteer Centre of Guelph/Wellington, working with boards and senior managers to develop organizational leadership and governance.

Manager with Onward Willow – Better Beginnings, Better Futures (Community Development & Family Visiting programs)

Chairperson and member of the Guelph Police Services Board

Board member of the Ontario Council for International Cooperation, Action Read Community Literacy Centre, Guelph Food Cooperative and many more

Teacher and adult educator in international development and global education with the Guelph International Resource Centre

Gayle’s educational background includes an Honours B.A. in History and International Development from the University of Guelph and a B. Education from the University of Toronto. During her career, she has taken supplementary training in areas such as transformative mediation, social economy & innovation and her most recent training in Community-Driven consulting and leadership.

Gayle was a recipient of the YM/YWCA Women of Distinction Award for Voluntary Community Service in 1997.

Co-Founder: Creating the Future

Hildy Gottlieb
Hildy Gottlieb, co-founder of Creating the Future, has been called "the most innovative and practical thinker in our sector." Her book, The Pollyanna Principles: Reinventing “Nonprofit Organizations” to Create the Future of Our World, details her groundbreaking approach to aiming the work of the Community Benefit Sector at its highest potential - creating the future of our world.

A prolific writer and advocate for the sector’s potential and a consultant to community organizations since 1993, Hildy helped develop the current Masters degree program in Community Leadership at Duquesne University, where she and partner, Dimitri Petropolis, have taught as professors. Hildy’s workbooks have all become industry standards and are used as texts in both undergraduate and graduate programs around the world.

Hildy began her career as the legislative aide to Tucson City Council Member Tom Volgy. A serial entrepreneur, after leaving politics, Hildy started and operated several successful for-profit ventures, including a commercial construction company, a plant nursery, and along with Dimitri, a commercial real estate brokerage, management and business turnaround firm

In 1993, Hildy and Dimitri co-founded the consulting firm Help 4 NonProfits & Tribes, assisting community organizations with strategy, governance and resource development. By 1998, Hildy and Dimitri had grown frustrated with the lack of significant long-term community improvement being created by “nonprofit” community benefit organizations around the world. Aiming their business turnaround skills at social change and leadership systems themselves, the result has been the world-changing work now being advanced by Creating the Future.

Hildy's numerous awards include a Points of Light Citation from President Bill Clinton for her work in co-founding (along with Dimitri) the world’s first diaper bank- an effort that grew to spark the Diaper Banking movement across the U.S. Her writing has been seen in dozens of publications throughout the community benefit sector, including the Chronicle of Philanthropy, where she hosts the monthly podcast, Making Change - interviewing change leaders from around the world.

When not working, Hildy can be found in the garden, at the movies, shooting photos, or watching the Daily Show.

Sidney R. Hargro Sidney Hargro is the Executive Director of Community Foundation of South Jersey, one the newest community foundations in the United States and the first one to serve the southern eight counties of New Jersey. Sidney leads the foundation’s effort to advance lifetime and legacy giving and offer visionary community leadership to help South Jerseyans create the community they want to see. In his first year, foundation grew to over $4 million and grantmaking topped $172,000. Currently, the foundation has 14 funds and over $6.5 million in assets. He moved to the foundation in November 2009 from The Columbus Foundation, one of the nation’s leading community foundations.

JSidney, who is the Foundation’s first leader, serves extensively on the governing boards and advisory committees of local, regional, and national sector organizations, including the Camden Police Foundation, South Jersey Cultural Alliance, Council of New Jersey Grantmakers, Grantmakers for Effective Organizations, and the Council on Foundations’ Community Foundation Leadership Team (CFLT), which provides strategic direction for the community foundation field.

He is the co-chair of the Camden Funders Affinity Group and a member of the Public Policy Committee of the Council of New Jersey Grantmakers and the chair of the Conference Planning Committee of Grantmakers for Effective Organizations.

Sidney joined The Columbus Foundation in May 2000 as a program officer. He later became the Senior Officer of Strategy and Organizational learning, responsible for managing foundation’s business and innovation strategy; organizational learning and performance; and grant evaluation. He also served as the personal philanthropic advisor to the Siemer Family Foundation, Paul G. Duke Foundation, and Central Benefits Healthcare Foundation.

Sidney is the author of “Lessons Learned,” a chapter in the Foundation Center’s fundraising guide titled, After the Grant: A Nonprofit’s Guide to good Stewardship, serves as a guest blogger for the Council on Foundations and also blogs at GivingSol.com.

Now in his second career, Sidney has a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University in Greensboro, NC, a master’s degree in mechanical engineering from The Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio, and a Master of Divinity degree from United Theological Seminary in Dayton, Ohio. He speaks frequently on Philanthropy and Social Movements, Organizational Strategy, and Social Media.

Co-Founder: Creating the Future

Dimitri Petropolis
Dimitri Petropolis, co-founder of Creating the Future, has dedicated his life to making the world a better place. Since 1993, that has meant working side-by-side with Hildy Gottlieb, to aim the Community Benefit Sector at its potential for creating the future of our world.

Prior to his work with Hildy, Dimitri spent twelve years as an organizer for the United Food and Commercial Workers Union, helping to grow the small local of 225 workers into a statewide organization of 6,000.

In 1993, Hildy and Dimitri co-founded the consulting firm Help 4 NonProfits & Tribes, assisting community organizations with strategy, governance and resource development. By 1998, Hildy and Dimitri had grown frustrated with the lack of significant long-term community improvement being created by “nonprofit” community benefit organizations around the world. Aiming their business turnaround skills at social change and leadership systems themselves, the result has been the world-changing work now being advanced by Creating the Future

In developing Creating the Future, Dimitri is the one who makes it all work. Whether he is designing and maintaining the organization’s multiple websites, directing and producing videos and other multi-media products, designing and ensuring production of the many books Hildy has authored, or any of a dozen other nuts-and-bolts efforts that ensure both a public presence and internal functionality, Dimitri’s significant creative talent, his years of well-honed skills, and his inquisitiveness about how things work ensure the operations run smoothly.

A serial entrepreneur, Dimitri has founded and operated a contract flower delivery service, and a commercial real estate brokerage, management and business turnaround firm - in addition to the community benefit organizations he has co-founded with Hildy. A natural teacher, Dimitri has been on the faculty in the Masters degree program in Community Leadership at Duquesne University, a program that he and Hildy helped to develop.

Among Dimitri’s many awards, the highlight is a Points of Light Citation from President Bill Clinton for her work in co-founding (along with Hildy) the world’s first diaper bank - an effort that grew to spark the Diaper Banking movement across the U.S. In addition, for his overall dedication to this sector’s work, Dimitri received the Inaugural Charity Channel Founder's Award, for "Contributions to the professional excellence of his colleagues, and the philanthropic example he sets."

When not working, Dimitri is taking apart computers, designing wacky artwork, cycling, or cooking phenomenal meals for the people he loves.