Amber Nystrom, Executive Director
Ms. Nystrom is the Founding and Executive Director of Social Fusion (www.socialfusion.org) an incubator dedicated to increasing the number and impact of social enterprises globally. Social Fusion's philosophy rests on three premises: first, a sustainable future is possible, and entrepreneurs will build it. Second, the best innovation is local innovation. And third, rising entrepreneurs require a cluster of support integrating the business competence and capital required to reach sustainable scale.

Ms. Nystrom brings to Social Fusion fourteen years experience launching and scaling social change and small business ventures in the U.S. and internationally. Her background includes ten years of senior level nonprofit and public policy experience in women's health and microfinance; and several years private business consulting. As an independent business consultant, Ms. Nystrom concentrated on technology valuation, and small and medium business enterprise growth in the U.S. and Latin America. Prior to consulting, she built and directed several multi-national projects focused on human and business infrastructure for economic development and women's rights initiatives, and co-founded two successful social enterprises dedicated to women's health priorities.

Ms. Nystrom has worked in the U.S., Latin America, Africa and Europe, specializing in multi-sector initiative building, public-private alliances, and social enterprise / SME capacity development. She is a PI International Population Studies Fellow, a Fritz Fellow, and has spoken and led workshops on social enterprise capacity and capital development at the Commonwealth Club, The World Affairs Council, Stanford, Berkeley Haas, Yale and other national and international venues. In addition to directing Social Fusion, Ms. Nystrom consults to the World Bank and Ashoka on social enterprise capital growth.

Mike Griffin, Senior Investment Fellow
As a development and investment professional within the clean technology sector, Michael Griffin passionately strives to secure a sustainable environment with economic progress. His professional experience is in early stage investing, financial advisory, and business development for clean technology companies. Throughout his career, Mr. Griffin has designed and implemented investment strategies, strategic initiatives, financial structurings, project financings, and capital raising initiatives for a variety of companies. As a principal of Power Factors, Mr. Griffin provided financial and business development advice for companies in the solar, clean fuels, energy efficiency, and utility services sectors. He continues to explore and develop new financing vehicles such as a public/private finance fund for distributed generation projects, a commercialization group that spins out new technologies from research labs, and a nonprofit VC fund. With the Engineering Finance Corporation (EFC), the venture arm of the HSB Group in Hartford, CT, Mr. Griffin invested approximately $20 million in several environmentally based companies and participated in the raising of an additional $130 million in secured debt. Also, Mr. Griffin was named Director of Business Development for a portfolio company of EFC that specialized in hazardous waste remediation. Over the years, Mr. Griffin has acted as financial advisor on several project financings in the amount of $60 million. Mr. Griffin attended Columbia University, where he received his BA in Liberal Arts and BS in Civil Engineering in addition to his MBA in Finance.

As a Senior Investment Fellow with Social Fusion, Mike is continuing to develop Social Fusion's pipeline and enterprise review processes. He is heading up all new-client reviews for fall, 2005, and is leading an advisory team to build out the strategy for an eventual enterprise investment fund to support social enterprises in Social Fusion. He is also building partnerships with leading universities to establish a "Trifecta Model "of engagement between university innovation; enterprise incubation; and investment.

Anna Jaffe, Programs & Relationships Manager
Ms. Anna Jaffe is the Programs & Relationships Manager of Social Fusion. She is responsible for ensuring that our San Francisco hub is a living laboratory of social enterprise excellence, and a platform for global social entrepreneurial leadership and growth. Anna brings to Social Fusion a strong track record in local and international community development, and experience in program evaluation and both organizational and personal development. Recently, Anna designed and executed an Organizational Development training curriculum for Ashland Community Hospital Hospice; and served as a researcher for Oregon Health Sciences University Office of Rural Health Research.

She participated in designing and implementing Brandeis University's recycling program, and successfully organized a national conference on Youth Civic Engagement. Anna's international experience includes designing and putting into action several international projects including program evaluations for the Women's Empowerment Microfinance and Literacy Project in Nepal, that serves over 11 communities in rural Nepal; and the Gender Advocacy Programme's Domestic Violence Project in South Africa, that offers trainings and resources for thousands of South African women.

Anna holds a B.A. in Political Economy from Brandies University and a M.S. in Organizational Training and Development from Southern Oregon University. She graduated with High Honors, Summa Cum Laude, and Phi Beta Kappa. Anna is a Coexistence Fellow of the International Center for Ethics, Justice and Public Life. She is a Certified Mediator and has completed a professional training in Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction with the University of Massachusetts Medical School.

Jennifer Smart, Operations Manager
Ms. Smart is the Operations Manger of Social Fusion, where she relies upon her keen business sense and operational expertise to manage Social Fusion and the client relationships of 15 Social Fusion client companies. Jennifer gained her operations experience at the non-profit incubator the Women's Technology Cluster where she developed and executed business processes crucial to the success of the incubator. Jennifer was a key member of the incubator management team that executed the first incubator replication for The Women's Technology Cluster, the San Jose Bio Center a full-service business and laboratory space in San Jose, CA.

Prior to her work with the Women's Technology Cluster, Jennifer managed the Los Angeles offices of Viant Corporation, a professional services firm. In addition to Jennifer's professional expertise she is passionate about the industry as demonstrated by her plans for a 6 week trip to Kenya where she will work with members of Social Fusion client company GivingGlobal in non-profit management abroad.