Board of Directors

Alexsis de Raadt-St.James

Alexsis is the Founder and Chairman of The Althea Foundation, a social venture fund based in San Francisco and London. She

has an extensive background in technology and international business development that spans 20 years and 25 countries. She and

her foundation team have designed pioneering software in the mental health sector that is used daily by the U.S. Army, Scotland

Yard, Ministry of Defence (UK), and thousands worldwide.

Her Foundation has funded 14 diverse social initiatives, which range from destigmatizing mental illness to promoting women in

technology. Her programs have won national and international accolades, have been recognized by the White House, and awarded

by the Clinton Global Initiative.

Prior to founding The Althea Foundation, Alexsis spent 13 years with Shell International and Royal Dutch Shell in London and The Hague in various management positions including Director of Mergers and Acquisitions and Senior Treasury Advisor. She was the recipient of the Scotland Yard Commendation Award in 2007 for her innovative design and development work in software and Astia’s Inspiring Woman Award in 2008. Alexsis earned her B.A. from University of Texas at Austin, M.B.A. from Erasmus University, Holland, and M.S. from Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Ellen Creane

ellen    Ellen Creane began her career as a high school journalism and English teacher in northern California. She was recruited into the
   educational publishing industry, where for 25 years she worked as a sales and marketing manager for Random House Education
   Division, Lee Canter & Associates, the Daily Breeze (Torrance, California), the Portland (Maine) Press-Herald, and The New York
   Times. She hired and trained sales representatives nationally and managed a staff of 38 consultants who presented more than
   1,000 teacher and parent workshops annually.

She has conducted dozens of training workshops for K-12 teachers on the inquiry approach to social studies and using the
newspaper for instruction in English/language arts, ESL, and social studies. She has also published freelance features on education in newspapers and education journals and has written and edited more than 25 curriculum guides for using the newspaper in the classroom. She was the co-author of a daily newspaper feature, "Help a Friend Learn English," published in several newspapers.

Now retired, she teaches adult ESL part-time in Connecticut. Ellen earned her B.A. in journalism at San Francisco State University and held a California General Secondary Credential for 35 years. She is now certified in adult ESL in the state of Connecticut where she lives with her husband, Frank.

Alton Irby

dscn5909-1    Alton Irby is a seasoned executive with a highly successful track record in the financial service and investment banking industries.
   After a successful career in the US insurance industry, Alton acquired Wigham Poland, a Lloyds Broker in London, and moved to
   the UK to become its Chairman. He left some years later to co-found Hambro Magan Irby, a London-based investment banking
   boutique that advised over $30 billion of transactions and became one of the most highly regarded M&A boutiques in Europe.

Over the course of his career as an investment banker, Alton would see Hambro Magan Irby through two sales as Chairman and
Chief Executive and eventually go on to found Tricorn Partners, another highly regarded M&A boutique, and finally settle in San Francisco, California to co-found London Bay Capital.

For more than 30 years, Alton’s investment banking partnerships have advised over $45 billion of transactions, including the sale of Jaguar to Ford Motor Company, the purchase of Morgan Grenfell by DeutscheBank, and the sale of Tiphook to Transamerica, among others. He is a trusted advisor to many of the world’s leading private equity firms.

In addition to his M&A advisory work, Alton has acted as a senior external advisor to many Chaimen, CEO’s and Boards of both public and private companies. He is a director of McKesson Corporation in the US and a Director of Stifel Financial. He is also Chairman of UK-listed ContentFilm, and serves on the boards of directors of McKesson UK, Penumbra, Edmiston, Lion Capital, SellingSource, and Vaultlogix.

Alton was born in Atlanta, Georgia, graduated from Georgia Institute of Technology, and served four years on active duty as an intelligence officer in the US Marine Corps.

Jon Eldan

Jon_Eldan Jon Eldan is an attorney at the law firm of Coblentz, Patch, Duffy & Bass LLP in San Francisco, where he practices civil litigation at
the trial and appellate level.

   Jon served as legal coordinator for the non-profit Life After Exoneration Program, which provided social and legal services to
   exonerees -those who have proven they were innocent of the crimes for which they had been convicted and incarcerated. He
   continues that work on behalf of individual clients. Jon has also represented an Ethiopian man in his application for political asylum,
   and is currently supervising a number of pro bono cases involving expungement of criminal records. He has been a guest lecturer in American law at the Facolta' di Giurisprudenza at the University of Trento and at the University of Foggia, in Italy.

Jon is a member of the Board of Directors of the non-profit Survivors International, which provides social and psychological services to victims of torture and gender-based violence who reside in Northern California. He is on the steering committee for Slow Food Berkeley.

Jon received his B.A. degree in History, with High Honors, from the University of California, Berkeley. After graduation, he lived in Rome, Italy where he wrote travel guides and worked for the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization. He returned to Berkeley and received his law degree from Boalt Hall in 2002.

Olivia de Raadt-St.James

oliviadrsj    Olivia is an accomplished 15-year-old who loves to write. In middle school she was the head of the Lifestyle section for her school
   newspaper, writing primarily about city culture. She is now a journalist for her high school newspaper, The Blazer, where she covers
   current issues that are affecting high school students. In recognition of her excellent writing skills, she was invited to attend summer
   writing workshops at Stanford University and Vassar College.

Olivia has been recognized by the White House for an article she wrote for Kid Scoop, and received a Certificate of Bravery from
the California Highway Patrol. She also speaks French at an Intermediate level. Olivia currently lives in San Francisco, California.