The Community Foundation of Utah

Board of Directors

Greg Warnock, Ph.D. Chairman, is a founding Managing Director of Mercato Partners, a growth equity investment fund that blends financial capital with world class sales execution.  Dr. Warnock was a co-founder of vSpring Capital, a regional venture capital firm now managing over $300 million for early-stage investment where he served as Coordinating Managing Director during critical formative years. He is recognized as one of the most prolific regional angel investors, and is the creator of Junto Partners, which provides younger entrepreneurs with relevant training, experience and ongoing assistance for new business launches.  He holds a degree in Computer Science, a Master’s degree in Business Administration and a PhD in Entrepreneurship and Venture Finance from the University of Utah.

Mary Hall, Vice Chair, is a civic leader in Ogden. Mary has created, built and served in positions of leadership in many of Weber County’s most important institutions, including Weber Pathways, Boys and Girls Clubs, the Chamber of Commerce, Golden Spike Empire Travel, Junior League of Ogden and Ogden City School District Capital Facilities. She currently serves on the boards of Weber State University and the American Red Cross. She is an avid hiker, fly fisher and political volunteer. She holds a BS from Weber State University.

Jeramy Lund, Treasurer, is the CEO of Cairn, Inc., a private wealth management firm and serves as the President of the Board of Trustees for Recycle Utah, on the Young Ambassadors board for The Nature Conservancy of Utah and on the University of Utah Business Alumni Association.  Mr. Lund is a trustee of the Lund Foundation. He holds an MBA from Harvard University and a BS Magna Cum Laude from the University of Utah.

Brent Andrewsen, Chair of the Professional Advisors Committee, a shareholder with Kirton & McConkie's Corporate and Tax Section. His practice includes estate planning, probate and trust administration, gift taxation, tax-exempt organizations, charitable trusts and foundations. He is a member of the Utah Bar association and is a frequent speaker on issues regarding tax-exempt organizations, planned giving, and estate planning. Brent has sat on the boards of various charitable organizations including the Utah Planned Giving Roundtable, Hawkwatch International, Boy Scouts of America, and the National Planned Giving Council.  Mr. Andrewsen Chairs the Professional Advisors Committee.

Trish Coughlin is a philanthropist and community volunteer. She retired in 2012 from Goldman Sachs, where she was a Managing Director, most recently in the Salt Lake City office. She is a CPA and CMA , with a B.S. in Accounting and a B.A. in International Relations from Lehigh University. In addition to the Community Foundation of Utah, Trish serves on the boards of the YWCA of Salt Lake City and the McGillis School. She is also co-Chair of the Womens Giving Circle of Utah.

Sharon Cook is senior vice president of marketing and public relations at Mountain America Credit Union and previously served as director of marketing for the AlphaGraphics global franchise and as director of brand strategy for Beneficial Financial Group.  Sharon has served on committees or in board positions for the Huntsman Cancer Institute, Primary Children’s Medical Center, Coldwell Banker Community Foundation, Boys and Girls Club, United Way and currently serves on the Board of Trustees for the Utah Technology Council, the Executive Committee of the American Heart Association, the Women’s Advisory Committee for the David Eccles School of Business at the University of Utah, and Women in Business at the Salt Lake Chamber of Commerce.  She is a summa cum laude graduate of Westminster College with a bachelor's degree in Communications and Public Relations and Chairs the Development Committee.

Stephanie Harpst is a civic leader in Salt Lake City. She retired in 2010 from Wells Fargo where her responsibilities included corporate giving and government relations. A native of Minneapolis, she has a B.A. in Psychology from St. Olaf College in Northfield, MN and a Masters Degree in Social Work with an emphasis in community planning from the University of Utah. Before joining Wells Fargo, Stephanie worked for Salt Lake City managing its Community Development Block Grant, HOME and other federal programs. She has over 25 years in experience working in the community arena including urban planning, affordable housing, technical assistance for nonprofits, corporate responsibility and meeting facilitation.

Lewis Hower is the Director of the University of Utah Impact Fund. Lewis served as the Marketing Manager for the Sorenson Housing Opportunity Fund, an affiliate of Huntsman Gay Capital Impact Partners, where he focused on fundraising and finance operations and has managed finance and operations for Unitus Investment Group where he worked with the founding team of Unitus Capital in their spin out from the international microfinance accelerator Unitus, Inc. Lewis holds a B.S.E. in Bioengineering from Arizona State University where he spent time working in biotechnology research and small business operations.

Scott Huntsman is President and CEO of GlobalSim, a technology and simulation company. Prior to joining GlobalSim, he spent 11 years on Wall Street as an investment banker, most recently at Credit Suisse, where he focused on mergers, acquisitions, and corporate finance transactions. Mr. Huntsman earned a Bachelor's Degree from Columbia College and an MBA from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. He also studied at the London School of Economics as a Kohn Fellowship recipient. An avid backcountry skier, Scott serves on the Boards of ClearOne (NASDAQ: CLRO) and Ballet West.

Kimberley Jones founded Vérité based upon a vision for taking media to a digital communications platform.  As CEO of Vérité she is focused on digital production for sales, marketing and training communications as well as web-based business applications.  For over twelve years she has been the driving force behind the company's growth and project accomplishments.   She is also the Chairman of the Board for the Utah Women Technology Council and a Trustee on Westminster College's MBA Advisory Board.

Kym McClellland is a Realtor with Chapman Richards and Associates. Kym grew up in Colorado Springs, Colorado and moved to Utah in 1977 after obtaining  a Bachelors and Masters degree from Colorado State University. She has been a full time REALTOR for the past 34 years: the last 20 years at Chapman Richards and Associates where she helped to establish Chapman Richards Cares, a Corporate Advised Fund through the Community Foundation of Utah. Kym has chaired numerous committees for the Salt Lake and Utah Board of REALTORS and was instrumental in establishing the Utah Association of REALTORS Housing Opportunity Fund which funds various housing projects throughout the state, including Habitat for Humanity, The Road Home and others. Kym is an active volunteer and has served on the Boards of The Fourth Street Clinic, Mark Eaton’s Standing Tall for Youth, The Rape Crisis Center and The Work Activity Center. She is currently on the Board of Directors of The Maliheh Free Clinic.

Scott McQuarrie is the president and majority shareholder of BTS Investments, Inc.  Scott has over 25 years of experience in real estate development, project management and business management and is respected in the development community for project quality and advanced building techniques.  He is involved with several private foundations and has a particular focus on education. Scott received his BS degree in Finance from Brigham Young University. 

Eric Shaw is the Director of Community and Economic Development for Salt Lake City. He is a recent arrival to Utah from Louisiana, where he served as Vice President of Programs and Policy at Foundation for Louisiana, leading grantmaking, advocacy and policy work on issues of civic engagement, affordable housing, small minority business development and community wealth building. He served Director of Community Planning for the Louisiana Office of Community Development Disaster Recovery Unit and has held economic development and planning positions in Miami, Washington D.C., and at the Silicon Valley Foundation. He has an undergraduate degree from UCLA and a master's degree in urban planning from Harvard University School of Design.

Elizabeth Tashjian, Ph.D. investment Committee Chair  is an Associate Professor of Finance at the University of Utah. She is Director of the Garn Institute of Finance and a David Eccles Fellow. Dr Tashjian received her Ph.D. in Finance from Purdue University and her B.A. in Mathematics from Boston College. Her primary research interests are in corporate financial distress and futures contract design. She won the Marvin J. Ashton Teaching Excellence award in 1999 for her work in developing the University of Utah Student Investment Fund. She serves on the Academic Advisory Council of the Turnaround Management Association. Dr. Tashjian is Vice President for Education and Youth at Congregation Kol Ami and serves on the board of the United Jewish Endowed Trust of Utah. Dr. Tashjian is a member of the Investment Committee.

Brent Thomson is the co-founder and former CEO of Jive Communications, a voice over IP telephone providers. He is a gifted problem solver with the technical and operational skills to take an idea from inception to roll-out to long-term execution. Brent has a BS in computer science from Brigham Young University.

Investment Committee

Sterling Jenson is the Regional Managing Director of Wells Capital Management, a unit of Wells Fargo & Company. Mr. Jenson is responsible for separate account portfolio management in the mountain region states from Idaho to Texas with combined assets of over $4 billion. Mr. Jenson has extensive experience in both investment management and financial services. Mr. Jenson is a member of the Board of the Hale Theater and an actor.  He is the chairman of the National Advisory Council of the Marriott School of Management at BYU and a member of the Investment Advisory Committee of the Utah Permanent School and Institutional Funds. Mr. Jenson received a Bachelor's degree in Economics and an MBA from Brigham Young University.

Kent Misener is the Chief Investment Officer and treasurer of Deseret Mutual Benefit Administrators and president and director of research for Crossroads Investment Advisors. Deseret Mutual Benefits Administrators is the employee benefits arm of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and its affiliated organizations and manages its assets.  Mr. Misener received his bachelor’s degree in finance and economics and his MBA from Utah State University and serves on the Investment Committees of many organizations including the Foundation for Education and Self Reliance and Intermountain Healthcare.

Professional Advisors Committee

L. S. (Lee) McCullough, former Chair, is a member of the Board of Trustees,  Lee is Chairman of the law firm Callister Nebeker & McCullough, a firm specializing in banking, corporate, tax and commercial law. Lee's areas of practice include tax, estate and asset protection planning. Lee is a Fellow and State Chair in the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel (ACTEC), a member of the Utah State Bar and the American Bar Association and past President of the Estate Planning Section of the Utah Bar Association.

Bruce Olsen is a shareholder with Ray, Quinney and Nebeker. Bruce is a leader in Utah in organizing and advising nonprofit and tax-exempt organizations, including some of the largest private foundations, universities, health care institutions, and charities in the State, as well as small exempt organizations.

Barbara Ray is CEO of Vantage Point, a boutique wealth management firm that serves as a Private CFO to high-net-worth executives and business owners in Salt Lake City and surrounding communities

Stephen D. Swindle is a shareholder and Managing Partner of VanCott whose practice is focused on estate planning, probate, real estate development, professional corporations, non-profit corporations, acquisitions, tax planning and general corporate matters. Mr. Swindle is listed in The Best Lawyers in America® in the areas of Corporate Law, Tax Law, and Trust and Estates and he was selected by his peers and recognized in Utah Business Magazine as one of the 2007 and 2008 Utah Legal Elite in the areas of Wills, Trusts and Estates Law.

Staff

Fraser Nelson, Executive Director, has held positions of leadership in nonprofit organizations large and small in places as diverse as Appalachia and New York City and has a deep understanding of the role they play in improving civic welfare. Prior to founding the Community Foundation, Fraser led Utah's Disability Law Center for 10 years, where she established the agency's strong presence in the state legislature and helped create the legal services collaborative known as 'and Justice for all' and the nation's first Community Legal Center. She is a past president of the Utah Nonprofits Association, consults with nonprofit organizations in Utah and across the nation, and is an adjunct faculty member of the University of Utah David Eccles School of Business. In 2011, Fraser served as the first Professional in Residence at the University's Center for Public Policy and Administration. Fraser holds degrees in Medieval History and Political Science from Duke University, a MA in Human Development from St. Mary's University and was a Social Innovation Fellow at the Stanford University Graduate School of Business. 

Hilary Wilson, Donor Relations Manager, has been in the field of non-profit management for nearly fifteen years. A Pacific Northwesterner, she comes to the Community Foundation having maintained both donor and grantee relationships with diverse organizations from Seattle's arts, cultural and social justice communities and has extensive experience managing large-scale events, projects and programs. Additionally, Hilary has been a political campaign fundraiser in New York, a cultural festival producer in Los Angeles, a violinist in a Mariachi band, and a lifelong community volunteer. She holds an MBAfrom Bainbridge Graduate Institute, the nation's first business school to offer an MBA in Sustainable Business.

Blair Hodson, Programs Manager, has nearly six years of nonprofit experience, most recently working in the development and operations departments of Utah Food Bank where he created their social enterprise coffee initiative. Prior to his nonprofit experience he was a territory manager for two different Fortune 500 medical device companies. Blair has particular experience and enthusiasm for the development of partnerships between business and nonprofit organizations. He is a graduate of Yale University, a former professional baseball player, and lives in Salt Lake City with his wife, Amy Sorenson, and their two children (and dog).

Lauren Singer Katz Operations Manager, is a graduate of New York University's Gallatin School of Individualized Study. She dove immediately into the non-profit world at DoSomething.org, the largest online organization that enables youth to take action in their community through volunteerism. Lauren designed and managed the high school and college internship program, while ensuring that the fast-growing office and financial systems ran smoothly. In September 2011, she left the United States to volunteer in Israel for six months, teaching English and rebuilding a small town near the Lebanon border. She recently settled in Salt Lake City. Knowing that non-profit work was really her passion, she is thrilled to have found a perfect fit with The Community Foundation of Utah.