Presenters

Jane Wei-Skillern

Jane is a Senior Fellow at the Center for Social Sector Leadership at the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley. Previously, she has served on the faculty at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, Harvard Business School (HBS), and London Business School. She has studied and published extensively on nonprofit networks for more than two decades. She has also taught courses on social entrepreneurship, nonprofit strategy, and network leadership to MBAs and executives, and is the author and coauthor of dozens of articles, HBS and Haas UC Berkeley case studies, and book chapters. 

For the past several years, Jane has taken a leave from teaching in the MBA classroom to focus on supporting social impact leaders in the field to grow their impact through networks. She is frequently invited to present keynote speeches, workshops and webinars to share her research on network leadership and to facilitate the development of trust based collaborations within organizations and communities.

Jenny Hodgson

Jenny has been the Executive Director of the Global Fund for Community Foundations (GFCF) since it was established in 2006. She has overseen its emergence as the leading global voice on community philanthropy as a core strategy for people-led development and shifting power closer to the ground. Based variously in Uganda, Kenya, Russia, Singapore, Thailand and South Africa, Jenny has been involved in philanthropy development in emerging markets and developing contexts for the past two decades. She has a BA (Hons) in English from Emmanuel College, Cambridge and an MA in International Relations from Johns Hopkins School Advanced International Studies (SAIS).

She is a trustee of Comic Relief and the Mazi Project.

Alexandra Stef

Alexandra Stef is the Collective Learning and Innovation Director at Inspire Institute, a partner for builders and supporters of futures-focused philanthropy infrastructure, including community foundation movements. 

With a background in community organising, participatory urbanism, and asset-based community development, Alexandra supported the growth of the community foundation movement in Romania. Now based in Spain, she has spent the last four years learning with emergent community foundation leaders and incubators across Africa, Europe, and Latin America as a community of practice weaver. She views community foundation movements as vital infrastructure to seed and nurture hopeful collective futures.

Barry Knight

Barry is a social scientist and statistician who works as an adviser to the Global Fund for Community Foundations. Barry has worked with and advised funders, such as the Ford Foundation, the CS Mott Foundation, the Webb Memorial Trust, the Arab Reform Initiative, the H & S Davidson Trust, and the European Foundation Centre (now Philea). He is a management team member of Philanthropy for Social Justice and Peace and works with Foundations for Peace.  A central part of his work is to work with activists as part of the #ShiftThePower campaign. Barry has held appointments at Cambridge University and in the British Government, and is co-chair of Compass.

Barry is the author or editor of 15 books on poverty, civil society, community development, and democracy, including Rethinking Poverty: What makes a good society?. He has published more than 100 articles on topics as diverse as economic development, crime and delinquency, family policy, children’s services, peacebuilding, voluntary action, civil society, and philanthropy, writing frequently for Rethinking Poverty and for Alliance Magazine. Barry takes a particular interest in the issue of measurement in social science and was honoured with a doctorate from Staffordshire University for his work on combining statistical, qualitative, and participatory methods of research that led to “excellence in research on poverty.”

Arron Perriam

Inelegantly pale, male and stale, of Rongowhakaata Māori whakapapa (ancestry), Arron grew up wanting to be a jet pilot, or a world-renowned jazz drummer. Somehow this ambition led to his becoming the national director for Community Foundations of Aotearoa New Zealand. Whānau (family) and making mokopuna (next generation/grandchildren) decisions are very important to CFANZ, as are connection, our culture, community and cake!  

Lori Luke

Lori moved to New Zealand from the US in 2009 and is a dual citizen. After graduating with a Bachelor of Arts from Stanford University, majoring in Economics and German Studies, she spent her early career in executive roles in marketing for large corporations in the US. 

Lori is CEO at Acorn Foundation in the Western Bay of Plenty and serves as Deputy Chair for CFNZ. She is a Board Member and a member of the organising committee of TEDx Tauranga. She is very involved in the local community and enjoys working alongside both donors and charitable organisations to support a healthy and vibrant region. 

Lori is married to Michael and has three children and five grandchildren.