Board of Directors

  • A smiling man in a suit and tie sitting with his hand on his chin near a window.

    Mr. Jean Manas

    Co-Founder and Board Chair

    Chief Executive Officer of Foros, a premier strategic and M&A advisory firm which he founded in New York  City in 2009. Advisor to key decision makers at leading corporations on mission critical matters. Formerly a senior investment banker at Deutsche Bank and Goldman Sachs & Co. Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Robert College in Istanbul, Turkey.  B.A., Princeton University; J.D., Harvard Law School.

  • Close-up portrait of a woman with straight black hair, wearing a dark blazer and a polka-dot blouse, smiling at the camera.

    Ms. Mimi Alemayehou

    Managing Partner of Semai Ventures and Senior Advisor to Three Cairns Group. Advises governments, corporations, and development institutions on public-private partnerships and cross-sector initiatives. Formerly served as Senior Vice President for Public-Private Partnerships at Mastercard. B.A., West Texas A&M University; MALD, The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University.

  • Black and white portrait of a man in a pinstripe suit, white shirt, and polka dot tie, looking confidently at the camera.

    Mr. Ezana Bocresion

    Managing Partner of Portunus Capital Advisors, LLC. Senior financial services professional with more than 30 years of experience across investment banking, private equity, fintech investing, and public accounting. Serves on the board of StoneCastle Partners, LLC. B.A., Dartmouth College; B.S.B.A., Boston University.

  • Smiling woman with gray hair, wearing glasses, a black top, a light-colored cardigan, and layered necklaces, outdoors in front of blurred background of trees and buildings.

    Ms. Caroline Brown

    Founder of Brown & Peisch, PLLC in Washington, D.C. Former co-chair of the Health Care Group at Covington & Burling. Former law clerk to U.S. Supreme Court Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sandra Day O’Connor. Alumna and former Trustee of The Hotchkiss School. B.A., Harvard College; J.D., Harvard Law School.

  • A professional woman with brown hair and earrings, smiling in an office setting.

    Ms. Rebecca Haile

    Co-Founder and Executive Director

    Senior Advisor at Foros, an independent strategic and M&A advisory firm she helped found in 2009. Formerly practiced law at Davis Polk & Wardwell in New York and Williams & Connolly in Washington, DC. Author of Held at a Distance: My Rediscovery of Ethiopia. Chair of the Board of EMILYs List. B.A., Williams College; J.D., Harvard Law School.

  • Portrait of a woman with short curly hair smiling outdoors.

    Dr. Sossina M. Haile

    Murphy Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at Northwestern University. Recipient of the American Competitiveness and Innovation Fellowship from the U.S. National Science Foundation. Co-founder of the Joint U.S.–Africa Materials Institute. Fellow of the African Academy of Sciences and Associate Fellow of the Ethiopian Academy of Sciences. B.S. and Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

  • A man in a suit with a red plaid bow tie and a matching pocket square, smiling with a white background.

    Dr. Liben Hailu

    Chief Technology Officer of Duracell, a Berkshire Hathaway company. Previously held a variety of research and development leadership roles at Procter & Gamble, including supporting the growth of the company’s businesses in sub-Saharan Africa. B.Eng., University of Surrey (UK); Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering, University of Cambridge (UK).

  • A woman with short brown hair, wearing pearl earrings, a black sleeveless top, and a layered necklace with circular pendants, smiling outdoors with blurred green trees in the background.

    Ms. Anne T. Melvin

    Senior Learning Consultant in Alumni Affairs & Development at Harvard University. Founder of Dynamic Fundraising Training, LLC, an educational resource for nonprofits nationwide. Formerly practiced law at Widett, Slater & Goldman in Boston, Massachusetts. B.A., Williams College; J.D., Boston University School of Law.

  • A woman with long, wavy brown hair, wearing a red top, resting her chin on her hand, against a plain light background.

    Ms. Helen Mesfin

    Host and Executive Producer of the Amharic-language talk show The Helen Show on EBS TV (Ethiopian Broadcasting Services), with a global audience of more than 30 million viewers. Senior Vice President of Sales at Meet Virtuals. Formerly held sales leadership roles at tourism, destination sales, and marketing firms.

  • A headshot of a middle-aged man with gray hair, blue eyes, and fair skin, wearing a dark suit jacket and a white dress shirt against a dark background.

    Mr. Kelley Murphy

    Chief Financial Officer and advisor to three spouse-owned ventures. Formerly co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of People’s Genetics. Previously served as a consultant at Monitor Company and Managing Director at Parthenon Group, leading management strategy consultancies. B.A., Williams College; M.B.A., Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth.

  • A woman with short curly hair and earrings standing against a dark gray wall, wearing a gray and black baseball-style shirt.

    Dr. Elizabeth Nega

    Internist and Kaiser Permanente physician practicing hospitalist medicine at Providence Health Care in Spokane, Washington. Earned an M.D. from the Addis Ababa University Faculty of Medicine in Ethiopia and completed an internal medicine residency at Howard University Hospital. M.B.A., Northeastern University (Boston).

  • A smiling woman with glasses and earrings stands in front of a carved wooden background.

    Dr. Aleesha Taylor

    Founder and Principal of Herald Advisors, a strategic advisory firm that helps clients advance equity and maximize impact through capacity building, strategy design, and partnership development. Former Deputy Director of the Open Society Foundations’ Education Support Program. Former Senior Advisor to the Minister of Education in Liberia. Former Lecturer at Teachers College, Columbia University. B.A., Spelman College; Ph.D., Teachers College, Columbia University.

  • A smiling older man with a white beard and short white hair, wearing a blue suit and white shirt, standing outdoors with trees and houses in the background.

    Mr. Benjamin Williams IV


    Former Headmaster of Cate School, a highly regarded coeducational boarding and day school in Carpinteria, California. Brings extensive teaching and administrative experience at schools in Massachusetts, Texas, and California. Vice Chair of the Board of The Association of Boarding Schools and Trustee of Westminster School. B.A., Williams College; M.A., Brown University.