Angelica M. Banks, Chief Operating Officer
Angelica has over eleven years of experience in management positions within small and medium sized businesses and nonprofits in areas including
human resources, compliance, strategic planning, client relations, marketing, and staff development. She has worked in diverse settings including law, retail, technology, design, and education. Angelica is currently the COO at Katovich & Kassan Law Group and Community Ventures, CEC’s sister nonprofit.
Nate is a corporate and securities attorney and entrepreneur with over seven years of experience working with start-ups, real estate ventures, and social enterprises. He is also a licensed real estate broker who has represented clients in residential purchase transactions and commercial and residential leasing. Nate served as associate general counsel to a Fortune 200 residential developer and also to a small private equity real estate investment company. Nate has a law degree from the University of San Francisco School of Law and an economics degree from the University of California at San Diego.
Lisa K. Kiefer, Managing Director – Marketing Services
Lisa began her corporate marketing career after completing her MBA from Southern Illinois University, working in oil products marketing and economics for Royal Dutch Shell, then becoming an oil and banking industry specialist and national account manager for AT&T Information Systems. During her childrearing years, she was a teacher, event manager and fundraiser, and writer/editor for various independent film education projects including PBS American Experience, San Francisco Film Society, and the California Film Institute. She currently produces a bi-weekly public affairs program on KALX called Method to the Madness that focuses on Bay Area innovators and is working on the Sacred Lands Film Project with Berkeley filmmaker Toby McLeod, a film project that examines the importance of protecting sacred spaces around the globe.
Zach Cohen, Chief Financial Officer
Zach Cohen, the Chief Financial Officer of Katovich & Kassan Law Group and Cutting Edge Capital, has over six years of experience working in public accounting, small business, social enterprise, and nonprofit environments and is a CPA. After receiving a Bachelors of Science in Accounting from the University of Florida, he began his career in the international tax practice of Deloitte Tax LLP in Atlanta. He transferred to a small local firm when he moved to the Bay Area, where he practiced tax until 2009. In addition to his accounting work, Zach is the founder and Executive Director of Biketopia Community Workshop, a community bicycle education nonprofit. He also spent a year in a mountain retreat center studying traditional Chinese martial arts including Kung Fu, Tai Chi, and meditation.
Kristin York, Chief Development Officer
Kristin has over fifteen years experience in strategic planning, finance, operations, marketing, training, and business transformation. Recent projects including Climate Action Plans for local governments, Sustainable Operating and Implementation Plans for the private sector, and Greenhouse Gas Inventories using the Local Government Operating Protocol from ICLEI. Kristin’s technical background includes seven years at a Big 6 Accounting and Consulting firm where she worked as a Senior Manager specializing in the hospitality, real estate, and manufacturing industries. Kristin holds an MBA from the University of San Francisco and an Executive MBA in Sustainable Management from the Presidio Graduate School where she is an adjunct professor of Sustainable Urban Economic Policy and Development.
Tamara Drossart, Marketing & Business Development Associate
Tamara’s passion for socially responsible business practices started while taking graduate coursework on systems thinking and sustainable business at the University of Wisconsin. While in school, she also spent 2 years as a campaign organizer for a regional green energy campaign, where she learned essential marketing and outreach skills. Upon graduation, she spent a year working abroad in Nairobi, Kenya, leading youth empowerment groups, interning for a microfinance bank, conducting research for a social entrepreneur, and managing events for a health nonprofit. Before coming to work at Cutting Edge Capital, Tamara completed a year-long Residency in Social Enterprise at New Sector Alliance, where she attended workshops in nonprofit management and consulting and used her data collection and analysis skills to inform program improvement and expansion at an Oakland nonprofit. Tamara received a B.S. in Conservation Biology and Community Sociology from the University of Wisconsin.
Natalia Falcon, Staff Accountant
Natalia Falcon is Cutting Edge Capital’s Staff Accountant. She graduated cum laude from Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, with a degree in Art History and Biology. Before moving to California, Natalia was an Americorps volunteer with New York Restoration Project, a not for profit organization dedicated to restoring parks and community gardens is underserved neighborhoods in New York City’s five boroughs. She is currently completing San Francisco State University’s Certificate in Public Accountancy and hopes to be a CPA candidate in 2015.
Rebekah Helzel, Business Strategy and Financial Consultant
Rebekah is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) with over 20 years experience in a wide range of capital market activities. She has been a consultant on strategy, funding, and finance to a variety of start-ups, small businesses, and nonprofits that pursue environmentally and socially responsible strategies. An entrepreneur herself, Rebekah founded a workforce housing nonprofit in Idaho and has co-founded two other socially responsible ventures. She volunteers as an advisor to start-ups and small businesses through her association with the Clean Tech Open and Pacific Community Ventures. She currently assists in teaching Capital Markets to MBA candidates at Presidio Graduate School, where she received her MBA in sustainable business management practices.
Sarah Isabel Parriott, Strategy & Sustainability Consultant
Sarah Isabel specializes in strategic planning, sustainability, diverse stakeholder engagement, community outreach, and behavior change initiatives. Sarah Isabel has facilitated conversations (in English and Spanish) around global issues with diverse stakeholders from various nations, multinational companies, nonprofit organizations, and governments. She has worked with several cities and counties on the strategic design and implementation of climate action and sustainable community plans. Sarah Isabel works with the private sector offering management consulting, start-up business launch support, strategic planning, innovative metrics, and sustainability management system development. She also assists in teaching sustainable venture creation in the capstone MBA course at Presidio Graduate School, and has taught in the green MBA program at Dominican University of California. Sarah Isabel has an MBA from Dominican University of California.
Kimberly Morris, Strategy & Sustainability Consultant
Kim’s experience spans from sustainable business strategy development to technical environmental engineering expertise. Her past engagements with triple bottom line focused initiatives include management support for citywide green business programs, development of environmental health and safety plans for industrial clients, environmental oversight for energy transmission projects, and consulting on California’s proposed High Speed Rail line. Kim has a BS in Environmental Engineering Industrial Processes from the University of New Hampshire and an MBA in Sustainable Management from the Presidio Graduate School.
