Lawrence H. Gennari
Chair of the Board of Directors
Lawrence H. Gennari, Chair of the Board of Directors
Lawrence is a corporate and transactional lawyer and the co-founder of Gennari Aronson, LLP, a boutique law firm serving public and private companies in a variety of industries, as well as entrepreneurs, investors, executives, and board members.
Larry started his career at Ropes & Gray and prior to forming Gennari Aronson, he was a Partner at Choate Hall & Stewart in Boston. He carries a Martindale-Hubbell AV® Preeminent™ rating and has been named a New England Super Lawyer for both mergers & acquisitions and securities and corporate finance since the inception of the publication. In a recent New England Super Lawyers edition, Larry was ranked in the New England Top 100 Lawyers category.
For more than fifteen years as an Adjunct Professor at Boston College Law School, Larry taught courses on Mergers & Acquisitions, Corporate Finance, and Advising Entrepreneurs. He developed one of the Law School’s newest courses, Project Entrepreneur, a student-led business fundamentals bootcamp for entrepreneurs with criminal records, many of whom were previously incarcerated. Larry frequently comments and contributes on corporate finance, venture capital, and entrepreneurial topics in publications and as a guest speaker at industry events and seminars.
He earned a J.D. from the College of William and Mary, where he served as editor-in-chief of the William & Mary Law Review, as well as a B.S. in Accounting, summa cum laude, from North Adams State College, where he was the Massachusetts Society of CPA’s outstanding student.
Carol Fulp
Vice Chair of the Board of Directors
Carol Fulp, Vice Chair of the Board of Directors
Carol is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Fulp Diversity Consultants, where she assists CEOs and their organizations in advancing diversity and inclusion. She previously served as President and CEO of The Partnership, the nationally recognized professional services firm that helps organizations advance and retain multi-culturals. She is also the author of Success Through Diversity: Why The Most Inclusive Companies Will Win, a book praised by Publishers Weekly and Booklist.
Given her own experiences in the workplace and in advising companies on diversity practice, Carol is deeply committed to promoting how people of different races and ethnicities represent an essential asset to contemporary companies and organizations.
She serves on the board of trustees for Eastern Bank and as well as the board of directors for the New England College of Business and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. Her civic involvement includes the Harvard Kennedy School Women’s Leadership Board, trustee of the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library Foundation, as well as founding co-chair of the Massachusetts Conference for Women, the largest professional women’s conference in the country.
Carol received the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce Distinguished Bostonian Award, was noted as one of the “50 Most Influential Bostonians” by Boston Business Journal, and named one of the “21 Most Powerful People in Boston Business” by Boston Magazine in 2017.
A graduate of the University of the State of New York, she also received honorary doctorates from New England Law Boston, Salem State University, and Suffolk University Sawyer Business School, where she served as commencement speaker.
Stephanie Crimmins
Board of Directors
Stephanie Crimmins, Board of Directors
Stephanie is the Chief Executive Officer of Volvo Car Mobility, USA, a shared mobility service dedicated to providing city residents a high quality alternative to car ownership. She is also the Founder & CEO of SMC Ventures, a strategy and management consulting firm that specializes in scaling businesses, funding sources, and marketing and partnership strategies. Stephanie is a passionate advocate for mentoring and empowering young women.
With more than 25 years business experience in investing and operating roles, she is known for her excellent interpersonal and communication skills and for building and leading teams with track records of achieving sales and operational goals, creating strong cross-functional relationships, and coaching and mentoring across all levels of an organization.
Stephanie’s early foundation was in money management and private equity when she led strategy, business development and built and ran a business unit for a large publicly traded company.
Stephanie is an Advisory Board member of Sasaki Foundation, a Babson College WIN Lab Mastermind Executive in Residence, and an angel investor. She holds a B.A. from Mount Holyoke College and an M.B.A. from the Harvard Business School.
Thomas R. Graf
Board of Directors
Thomas R. Graf, Board of Directors
Thomas was appointed by the Massachusetts Educational Financing Authority (MEFA) Board of Directors as its Executive Director in December 1999. MEFA is a not-for-profit, self-financing state authority whose mission is to promote the economic development of the Massachusetts higher education industry by helping families plan, save, and pay for college. For nearly twenty years, Thomas has led MEFA in expanding education financing services to the students and families in Massachusetts.
Thomas began his public service career in 1979 as a legislative aid. Since then, he has served as Co-Director of the Governor’s Legislative Office, Deputy Budget Director of the Fiscal Affairs Division, and Budget Director for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
In addition to his current role at MEFA, Thomas also serves on a number of local community boards. He holds a B.S. in Business Administration from Merrimack College.
Ken Jones
Board of Directors
Ken Jones, Board of Directors
Ken is the Vice President and Chief Financial Officer at John T. and Catherine D. MacArthur Foundation, the ninth-largest foundation with $6.8B in assets. He oversees the finance, accounting, and administrative functions. Ken has worked in the nonprofit sector for the last 15 years, most recently as VP and CFO of the Annie E. Casey Foundation. He previously held corporate finance positions at Prudential, Ford Motor, Pfizer and Mirant corporations.
In 2018, Ken was recognized by DCA Live as a Star CFO recipient and he was selected as a Presidential Scholar at Concordia College New York. In 2017, Ken was an Arthur Vining Davis Fellow for the Aspen Ideas Festival. Ken also participated in the Council of Foundations’ Career Pathways Program and the Johns Hopkins University Foundation’s Program. In 2010, Ken was selected as a Who’s Who Black Baltimore recipient.
Ken holds a B.A. degree from Boston University, an M.A. from the University of Buffalo and an M.B.A. from the MIT Sloan School of Management.
Alex Rappaport
Board of Directors
Alex Rappaport, Board of Directors
Alex is an entrepreneur with a focus on education and social enterprise. In 2004, Alex co-founded Flocabulary, a music-based learning platform for students in grades K-12. Under Alex’s leadership as CEO for the past 15 years, Flocabulary reached millions of students around the world and grew into one of the most unique and recognizable brands in K-12 education. In addition to partnering with some of the nation’s largest school districts, Flocabulary also formed partnerships with Turnaround Arts, Bill and Melinda Gates, and The UN. In 2019, Alex led Flocabulary through a successful acquisition by Nearpod. Together, the two companies support students and educators through a comprehensive learning and engagement platform.
Alex currently serves as a Senior Advisor to Future Now, a political organization focused on elections and policy at the state level. He is also on the advisory board of Music in Schools Today, a nonprofit that supports and develops music programming to help underserved students achieve. Fast Company magazine named him one of the Most Creative People in Business, and he is an Executive Member of the International Association of Digital Arts and Sciences (IADAS). A frequent speaker on education, innovation, and entrepreneurship, Alex has presented at the World Knowledge Forum in Seoul, Korea, the Yidan Prize Summit in Hong Kong and at dozens of education and business events across the United States. He graduated from Tufts University with a degree in music and lives in Brooklyn, NY with his wife and two daughters.
Carla Thompson Payton
Board of Directors
Carla Thompson Payton, Board of Directors
Carla is Vice President for program strategy at the W.K. Kellogg Foundation in Battle Creek, Michigan where she supports efforts to promote thriving children, working families, and equitable communities.
Carla provides leadership and management for the creative and strategic direction of programming from design through implementation, evaluation, and dissemination. As a member of the executive team, she is also responsible for the overall direction and leadership of the foundation.
In 2012, Carla was deputy director of the Office of Child Care at the Administration for Children and Families in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in Washington, D.C. There, she was responsible for developing national early childhood education policy, managing the $5 billion annual budget of the Child Care Development Fund and providing oversight to 10 regional offices serving states, tribes, and territories. Previously, she was assistant superintendent for early childhood education for the District of Columbia, where she initiated the first publicly funded pre-kindergarten program. She has held former positions with the Department of Education and Department of Public Welfare for the state of Pennsylvania, United Way of Southeastern Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, and the U.S. Department of Education.
Carla has been honored for her leadership in early childhood education by the Administration for Children and Families, the Children’s Defense Fund, and the Temple University Institute on Disabilities. She also has served on boards and committees for nonprofit associations and professional organizations. In addition, she is the author of three publications related to school readiness and advocacy. The Huffington Post features Carla as a regular blogger, and she has been cited in numerous news media for her expertise.
Carla received her B.A. from Syracuse University in New York. She holds an M.A. in social work and a Ph.D. in educational leadership from the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.
Daniel Acheampong
Board of Directors
Daniel Acheampong, Board of Directors
Daniel Acheampong is a Co-Founder and General Partner at Visible Hands, a venture capital firm that funds and empowers underrepresented founders launching high-growth startups. At the earliest stages of company-building, Visible Hands provides meaningful funding, personalized support, and social capital, helping our founders build exceptional technology startups. Daniel oversees investment processes at Visible Hands as the firm has made over 100 investments across multiple industries.
He received a dual Masters in Business Administration from the Wharton School and Public Administration from Harvard Kennedy School. Prior to graduate school, Daniel was an associate at Summit Partners, a premier investment firm, where he managed the firm’s due diligence process to raise investment funds. Previously, he was a financial analyst at Goldman Sachs, where he supported senior management in supervising the New England Private Wealth Management business.
Daniel received his Bachelor of Arts in Economics in from Brandeis University, where he was a Posse Scholar and Gates Millennium Scholar. He is an Entrepreneur In Residence at MIT’s DesignX and Venture Advisor at Tsai Center for Innovative Thinking at Yale University. He is a national board member of The Posse Foundation. He is recognized as a 2023 Boston Business Journal Power 50: Movement Makers.
Margaret (Mags) Ng
Board of Directors
Margaret (Mags) Ng, Board of Directors
Margaret (Mags) Ng is a battle-tested Video Game Production Executive, team leader and people-whisperer. With a career spanning over two and half decades in web products and game development, her games have brought joy to both the young and the young at heart.
Margaret’s skill set is deeply rooted in understanding audience needs, honing operations to peak efficiency, and nurturing team dynamics.
She has been at the forefront of launching and managing live products for industry leaders such as Snapfish.com, Electronic Arts, Zynga, and Riot Games. In her recent role at Riot Games as the Head of Production, she set the company-wide standard for Production acumen and sat on the Diversity and Inclusion Council to guide the company in matters dealing with BIPOC, LGBTQ+ and parent communities. Through her consultancy, she offers a guiding hand to companies from start-ups to established corporations as they navigate through the complex process of delivering creative projects and navigating through difficult change.
She holds a BA in Economics with a minor in International Area Studies from UCLA. She further pursued a Juris Doctorate at Loyola Law School and practiced law in California. She is a trained life and professional development coach through the Coaches Training Institute (CTI).
J.D. LaRock
Board of Directors
J.D. LaRock, Board of Directors
Dr. J.D. LaRock is President & CEO of the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE), a global nonprofit organization that teaches high school, middle school, and adult students from under-resourced communities how to launch businesses. NFTE is one of the largest entrepreneurship education organizations in the world; since its founding in 1987, it has served 1.25 million students and nurtured the careers of some of the nation’s most recognizable founders and CEOs. Since joining NFTE in 2019, J.D. has more than doubled NFTE’s student enrollment from 29,000 to a projected 60,000 students in the 2023-24 school year, and has also more than doubled its revenue and fundraising.
Alongside his leadership of NFTE, J.D. also serves as an executive and professor at Northeastern University in Boston, which he has been continuously affiliated with since 2010. As Senior Advisor to the President of Northeastern, he helps shape the ongoing evolution of the university’s curriculum and experiential learning model in response to artificial intelligence and other technological changes. J.D. has served on the senior leadership team of Northeastern and worked closely with its President for more than a decade, serving as Special Assistant to the President (2010-11), Chief of Staff to the President (2012-15) and Executive Director of Strategic Presidential Initiatives (2015-17). J.D. is Professor of the Practice of Law and Policy and master instructor for the university’s Doctor of Law and Policy program (2015-present).
In addition to his higher education and nonprofit leadership roles, J.D. has had a distinguished career in government service as a CEO, policymaker, and higher education board member. From 2006-2008, J.D. served as Senior Education Advisor to the late U.S. Senator Edward M. Kennedy in Washington, D.C., where he was the lead Senate staff member in charge of the 2008 reauthorization of the Higher Education Act, the 2006 reauthorization of the Carl Perkins Career and Technical Education Act, and the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act. From 2008-2010, J.D. was education policy director for former Democratic Governor Deval Patrick of Massachusetts, where he led efforts to pass the Achievement Gap Act, a major K-12 school reform law, and helped write Massachusetts’ winning application to President Obama’s “Race to the Top” competition, securing $250 million for Massachusetts public schools.
From 2015-2019, J.D. served in the administration of Republican Governor Charlie Baker of Massachusetts, first as a member of the state’s Board of Higher Education, and then as President and CEO of the Commonwealth Corporation, Massachusetts’ workforce development authority. During Governor Baker’s administration, J.D. also chaired the Governor’s Commission on Digital Innovation and Lifelong Learning and the Board of Trustees of North Shore Community College, a position he still holds (2015-present).
Since 2022, J.D. has served as a state Commissioner on the Education Commission of the States, the national association of state K-12 and higher education leaders. He is a regular speaker at top higher education and public policy conferences, including the World Economic Forum (Davos), SXSWedu, and ASU+GSV.
A scholar of education policy, U.S. history and politics, and technology, J.D. has authored, edited, and contributed to several books, including Special Education for a New Century (Harvard Education Press, 2005), Education at a Glance (OECD, 2012) and Robot Proof: Higher Education in the Age of Artificial Intelligence (MIT Press, 2017). J.D. earned his bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees at Harvard University and his law degree at Georgetown University. He and his wife Christina reside in Massachusetts with their daughter Callie.
