Advisory Board

We are so pleased that the following individuals have become part of our valued inner circle.

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  Amber Chand is a co-founder and strategic advisor with Prosperity Candle. She is a visionary Business and Life Coach who supports women who are living in a time of transition and seeking to create more purpose, passion and prosperity in their lives. She also founded and leads the Women’s Peace Collection, a social enterprise that supports women’s micro-enterprises primarily in regions of conflict and post-conflict, including Afghanistan, Palestine, Rwanda and Sudan. The company sells high quality gifts created by talented craftswomen rebuilding their lives in the shadows of war, genocide, civil strife and crippling poverty. Recently, she launched The 100 Women: 100 Hopes Campaign to support women who are struggling in a Western Darfur refugee camp to earn a dignified livelihood.
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  Andrew Bellak brings a unique combination of trading experience, business acumen, and personal passion for SRI to all of his work.  His Wall Street career started in 1993, when he began trading equity options. In 2007, Andrew and a colleague incubated an investment portfolio called The Sustainable Fund, which focused on three main global needs: alternative energy, clean water, and sustainable agribusiness — using options as part of the core strategy.  Andrew started his own business consulting firm in 2002, Stakeholders, Inc., which specialized in issues of corporate responsibility. Andrew also co-organized the first-ever Pioneer Valley Sustainable Investment Summit in summer 2008.  The organizers share a common interest in corporate social responsibility (CSR) and socially responsible investing (SRI).  Over 60 area representatives attended from all sectors of society: private, public, non-profit, and social venture organizations. Andrew has a BA/BS from the University of Virginia and a Masters Degree in Education from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. He holds the FINRA Series 65 Investment Advisor registration.
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  Anita Brearton is the Executive Chair for FashionPlaytes.com, the first experiential commerce companyto fuse mass customization, gaming and community to create a compelling shopping experience for thenext generation of consumer, the digital girl. A seasoned marketing executive with extensive technology marketing experience, Anita has served inexecutive and consultative roles for a broad range of successful early-stage, high growth technology companies. Passionate about supporting women led enterprises, Anita is a Managing Director of Golden Seeds, anangel investment group that provides early stage and growth capital to women led businesses across all industry sectors. Her investments include FashionPlaytes, Carnegie Speech, SweetRiot Chocolate,Gracious Eloise, Honestly Now, Lark and Crimson Hexagon. Anita is also the founder of the Women’s Entrepreneurial Council in Boston, and an Entrepreneur in Residence at Simmons College. In addition toher work supporting female entrepreneurs, Anita serves on the board of the Angel Capital Association, the Massachusetts Technology Development Corporation, The Sunflower Initiative and the advisoryboards of Altruik, Inc. and Connect2 Communications.
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  Brandon Gilvin is the Associate Director of Week of Compassion. Throughout his academic career (including Divinity school) Brandon found passions for innovative, imaginative ministry and working to ask (and occasionally answer) difficult questions about globalization, human rights, and engagement with grassroots issues.   Brandon has worked with the Quaker Peace Centre in Cape Town, South Africa, with the Central Christian Church in Lexington, Kentucky, Global Ministries, serving the All Africa Conference of Churches in Nairobi, Kenya, and with the World Student Christian Federation in Toronto, Ontario. Throughout, his focus has been on social justice. Brandon joins Week of Compassion after serving for two years as the Associate Pastor at Saint Andrew Christian Church in Olathe, KS, where he focused on adult education, social justice programming, and mission. Brandon and his wife Lisa live in the Kansas City Metro area.

• Cheryl Musch – bio is coming soon!
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  Fiona Wilson has professional experience in for-profit, not-for-profit and academic environments around the world. She is currently Assistant Professor of Strategy, Social Entrepreneurship, and Sustainability at the Whittemore School of Business and Economics at the University of New Hampshire.  She was recently part of the Simmons College School of Management  where she taught courses in both the MBA and Executive Education programs. Her research is focused on “socially conscious capitalism”, examining mission-driven organizations which embed earned income (through the sale of goods and/or services) into their core approach.

  Previously, Fiona spent a 15 year career working in global strategic marketing firms, including several roles at Ogilvvy & Mather Advertising in the UK and Spain, and as VP of Marketing for CMGI, a prominent Internet incubator and holding company. Fiona serves on the board of Strong Women Strong Girls, and is an advisory board member to a number of entrepreneurial and social ventures including Chop Chop, Big Tent.com, and CMN Design. She holds an MBA from the Simmons School of Management and a Doctorate of Business Administration in Strategy and Policy from Boston University’s School of Management.
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  Jackie Vanderbrug is Managing Director at Criterion Ventures where she manages multiple programs including Structure Lab and Women Effect Investments. With an MBA and a diverse career path, Jackie has worked in multiple sectors on youth education, strategic management, organizational change, social impact investing, marketing and much more. Her background spans working with Fortune 500 companies to launching start-up social ventures.  Her work with Criterion Ventures led to the creation of Good Capital and has now lent a stronger voice for investing with a gender lens to the social capital market space.
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  Linda Strohmeyer has over 20 years experience in corporate Human Resource and  the Health and Wellness industry. She served as Vice President of Human Capital Management (HCM) at Goldman Sachs & Co., New York where she created and launched a global Wellness organization that served 22,000 employees around the world. Linda’s diverse responsibilities included the oversight of Medical Services, “Work and Family”/ Diversity Programs and Policies, Fitness, Mental Health, Disability, Wellness Education, and Environmental Safety. Since her tenure with Goldman Sachs, Linda has been actively involved in a number of causes she feels deeply about with priorities ranging from the empowerment of women and girls to orphans care to hungry children in America.  Linda considers herself blessed to be a part of the Prosperity Candle family and their mission to empower women entrepreneurs throughout the world.
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  Siiri Morley is a founding partner of Prosperity Candle and, until recently, directed sales, marketing, and partnership development. She is Prosperity Catalyst‘s Founder and Executive Director. Before Prosperity, she worked on poverty reduction and sustainable economic development projects in Afghanistan, Croatia, Ecuador and Kenya with DAI, SERRV International, and Africancraft.com. She began her career as a business capacity development advisor with the Peace Corps in Lesotho. She received her MBA from the Heller School of Social Policy & Management at Brandeis University in 2009, and has consulted on social impact measurement to design firm IDEO, and interned at Preserve, an eco-friendly home products company that promotes socially responsible business practices. In 2012, Siiri was recognized as 1 of 60 notable women in Fast Company’s “League of Extraordinary Women.” Siiri lives in Boston, MA with her husband and puppy. In the spare hours outside of her work with Prosperity Candle, she loves to hike, snowshoe, garden, play with fiber, practice yoga, & host potlucks with a home full of friends.
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  Steve Garrow is the CEO of Rushmore Associates. He has held positions in private equity, investment banking, and consulting, and has founded and run two institutional broker/dealers and a private equity platform company, launching a registered investment advisor, a technology company, a public sector plan administration software solution product, and has invested in a number of small to mid-size enterprises. He was the Founder and CEO of GaveKal Securities, Tegrit Financial Group, and served as Special Advisor to Wafra Investments, a Kuwaiti owned investment firm.

  He is a coach and judge for the Business Plan Competition at the Berkley Center for Entrepreneurial Studies at New York University and he teaches, mentors and counsels small business owners with WIBO (Workshop in Business Opportunity), a Not-For-Profit agency assisting entrepreneurs in the underserved communities of New York City.
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  Terry Mollner is one of the pioneers of socially responsible investing as a new asset territory in the professional investment community. He is a founder and member of the board of the Calvert Family of Socially Responsible Investment Funds. Dr. Mollner is also the Founder and President of Trusteeship Institute, Inc., a think tank and consulting firm in economic and social development. In existence since 1973, its current focus is on the development of “common good corporations”, business corporations where the highest priority is the common good of humanity and nature.

  He also stepped in to keep Ben & Jerry’s Homemade, Inc. from being bought by Nestle and eventually facilitated the company being bought by Unilever, his minority partner in his earlier effort to buy the company himself. He now sits on that board which has primary responsibility for the social mission and brand integrity of Ben & Jerry’s.

  His latest book, The Love Skill: Welcome to the Relationship Age! will be available soon. He is also one of the founders and chair of Stakeholders Capital, Inc., a socially responsible asset management firm in Amherst, MA, and Chair of yourolivebranch.com a website designed to unite and assist peace, environmental, and social activists around the world.