Meet the Team
Sara Olsen (Founding Partner) is the founder of Social Venture Technology Group, and has led the firm to become a world leader specializing in the development of frameworks for measuring the value of intangibles, and communicating this value in terms practical for entrepreneurs, managers and investors. Most recently Sara worked with the Environmental Investment Advisor to CalPERS, Environmental Capital Group, to design and pilot the Environmental Performance Reporting System used in its $1Bn environmental technology private equity portfolio; and has teamed with HIP Investor to develop and launch the Human Impact + Profit (HIP) Framework for investors, publicly-listed corporations and other institutions.
Sara views strategic impact analysis to be an emerging management discipline and works to promote its awareness and spread its adoption. She co-wrote Social Return on Investment: a Guide to SROI Analysis (Lenthe Publishers, 2006), “Social Return on Investment: A Standard” (California Management Review, May 2004), and “The Double Bottom Line Methods Catalog” (The Rockefeller Foundation, February 2004).
Sara is a co-founding steering committee member of Xigi.net (pronounced “ziggy”), a community-driven network and map of the emerging capital market that funds good, and is an advisor to Calvert Foundation’s Social Enterprise Fund, ChangingthePresent.org, Mobile Media and Aflatoun: Child Savings International. In 1999, Sara co-founded the Global Social Venture Competition (GSVC) and has conducted workshops on SROI analysis for the GSVC each year since.
Sara holds an MBA from UC Berkeley, an MASW from the University of Chicago and a BA from Dartmouth College. She lives and works in San Francisco.
Brett Galimidi (Partner) brings to SVT Group an expertise in using information technology and market-based approaches for solving environmental and social problems. With the understanding that people and the environment cannot be separated, Brett has led groundbreaking projects to maximize the positive human benefits of environmentally responsible activities.
Brett’s work has included developing the ECOframe for Humanity United—a sustainable tourism/ecotourism framework to help managers and investors ensure their projects achieve the maximum positive social and environmental impact possible while maintaining financial stability. He also helped Mexico’s Grupo Ecologico Sierra Gorda establish a process for measuring and managing the ecological, social and economic impact of conservation for pricing carbon offsets according to both social and environmental benefits. In addition, he has created impact management and valuation process for various programs including environmental education, non-timber forest products and micro-enterprise. Brett has also consulted to professional services firms such as Morrison & Foerster LLP on Cleantech initiatives.
Brett has conducted research in South Africa and at the Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy on the use of information and communication technology to address the complex relationships between social, political, economic and environmental issues.
Brett is the co-author of Social Return on Investment: a Guide to SROI Analysis (Lenthe Publishers, 2006), co-author of the Social Edge blog SVT on Impact (produced by the Skoll Foundation) and author of several research papers on development- and environment-related topics. He holds a Master's Degree in Environmental Management from Yale University and a BS in Anthropology from UCLA.
Brett lives in San Francisco with his wife, Caitlin, and is an avid fan of live music and the outdoors.
Bill Davis (Information Systems and Business Intelligence Consultant) provides leadership and IT consulting services to marketing, financial and operational executives. He has earned the "Go-To" label by CFOs and CIOs in organizations that are facing tough decisions, tight budgets and deadlines that have an option or goal to leverage technology. He specializes in the financial services, banking and consulting industries, including major projects with IBM and American Express.
Bill believes that sustainability is at heart a matter of customer service, where all key stakeholders are “customers” for the value organizations create - environmental, social and economic. Over his 20-year career, he has provided leadership that resulted in financial, technical, operational and most importantly cultural transformation (work ethic, quality of work, timelines and governance) to his clients. Bill has extensive experience providing merger and acquisition due diligence, performance management analysis, customer and product profitability analysis and other business intelligence services. He brings extensive project management and technology application experience to ensure projects adhere to strict disciplines within the relevant life cycles for minimizing risks and guaranteeing success.
Bill studied Cognitive Science at Cornell University. He is fluent in Spanish, and is an accomplished Latin music-recording artist whose work has been aired internationally.
Julia Tran (Program Manager) works on business development and marketing initiatives at SVT. She comes to SVT with a background in base of the pyramid (BOP) enterprise development and low-income market analysis. As a Research Analyst at World Resources Institute, an environmental and economic development think tank in Washington DC, she conducted research and authored publications on appropriate business models and opportunities in emerging markets, with a focus on the health sector. Julia earned a BA in English Literature with high honors from UC Berkeley in 2005. She is an avid traveler and is fluent in Vietnamese and Spanish.
Amie Vaccaro (Program Manager) brings a background in consulting, marketing and business development to SVT. Previously as an Associate Consultant with Bain & Company, Amie worked with Fortune 500 and nonprofit clients on critical business issues in the healthcare, retail, and utilities spaces. She focused on growth strategy, cost reduction and organizational performance improvement. While at Bain she also founded and led a Green Team for the 300-employee San Francisco office, which achieved significant strides in reducing the company’s carbon footprint. As part of this work, she oversaw more than half a dozen initiatives which included implementation of office-wide sustainable purchasing; assessment of the carbon offset provider landscape with an eye toward firm-wide carbon neutrality; and significant improvements to existing recycling efforts: these efforts resulted in enhanced office environmental awareness and engagement, significant reductions in landfill waste, green vendor support, and improved office quality of life.
Amie also brings social entrepreneurial experience from her work in market research and business development with a start-up green media company, Green Zebra, where she refined the venture’s sustainable savings guides, built and managed relationships with over 30 participating local businesses, created relationships with over 15 potential sponsors, and was instrumental in the development of seven important corporate, government and small business sponsor relationships.
Amie received a B.S. with high honors from Brown University. She is fluent in Spanish and loves to learn and travel. She writes for several green blogs, including her own, ecofrenzy.wordpress.com, about green business, enviro-savvy entrepreneurs, social innovation, and more.
Lea Oliver (Intern) brings management and marketing experience to SVT. In 2010, she will obtain her M.B.A. from UCLA Anderson School of Management, with a focus in business strategy and nonprofit management. During her first year at Anderson, she served as Executive Vice President of Net Impact, created a strategic plan for International Medical Corps, and worked in the Major Gifts department of Amnesty International. She also began her thesis project, which analyzes expansion strategies of microfinance institutions across Africa.
Prior to graduate school, Lea worked at Deutsch Inc., a nationally recognized advertising agency in New York City. As a Data Strategist, she analyzed and optimized online performance of Fortune 500 and nonprofit clients, including Ortho McNeill, Olympus, IKEA, and the Wildlife Conservation Society. Originally from California, Lea graduated Phi Beta Kappa from UC Santa Barbara with a B.A. in Business-Economics and Spanish. She enjoys playing soccer and looks forward to traveling to her 25th country in the spring.
Ben Hester (Intern) brings a background in technology project management, web development, and marketing strategy to SVT. Prior to joining SVT, Ben obtained an MBA in Sustainable Management from the Presidio School of Management where he explored how social and environmental impact management can facilitate more responsible investment and business management decisions. Ben believes that fostering a more sustainable world requires an unprecedented level of collaboration, and is intrigued by the role that technology can play in facilitating these efforts.
Social Enterprise Associates, is a consulting firm offering business acumen, managerial experience, financing opportunities, and practical research to business and community efforts seeking social good. Social Enterprise Associates fosters 'triple bottom line' solutions supporting entrepreneurs, their organizations, and the industries in which they operate.
Paladin Law Group is a boutique multidisciplinary environmental law and policy legal practice and professional sustainability services firm with offices in Northern and Southern California. The firm's lawyers and sustainability professionals, who hail from prominent national law firms and consultancies, have created a sustainable, local business model where clients can hire the talent of an internationally recognized firm yet receive the personal service and comfort of a small firm.
