Speaker Biographies

January 27 - 29 Foundation Forum

A. Marshall Acuff, Jr., president, AMA Investment Counsel, LLC, senior advisor to The London Company, and investment committee chairman, Cary Street Partners
Prior to starting AMA Investment Counsel, LLC, in 2001, Mr. Acuff was senior vice president and managing director at Salomon Smith Barney. He is the past chair of the Association of Governing Boards of Colleges and Universities (AGB), past rector of the College of William and Mary board of visitors and chair of the college’s financial affairs committee. He is a past member of the board of directors and chair of the finance committee of Sweet Briar College, and is a past member of the board and treasurer of the Episcopal Church Foundation. He is currently vice chair and chair of the investments committee of the William and Mary Foundation and the chair of the investments committee at the Virginia Theological Seminary. He holds a bachelor’s degree from the College of William and Mary and a M.B.A. from the University of Michigan Graduate School of Business Administration.

Gary Bloom, former chairman and CEO, VERITAS Software, former vice chairman and president, Symantec Corporation, and chairman, Cal Poly Foundation
Gary Bloom is the former vice chairman and president of Symantec Corporation, where he led the company’s line of business organizations and the company’s corporate development efforts.  Bloom joined Symantec through the company’s merger with VERITAS Software. As chairman, president and chief executive officer of VERITAS, Bloom successfully led the company to become a global leader in storage software and a leading provider of software and services to enable utility computing. Under Bloom’s leadership, VERITAS grew its revenue to $2.04 billion in 2004.
 
Before joining VERITAS, Bloom held senior executive positions at Oracle, where he most recently served as executive vice president. During his 14-year career at Oracle, Bloom led Oracle's database business, worldwide marketing, support, education, and alliance organizations, and was responsible for mergers and acquisitions. Bloom is currently a consultant of TPG, a leading global private investment firm and is also the Program Coordinator for California Urban Search and Rescue Task Force 3, a Department of Homeland Security FEMA disaster response team sponsored by Menlo Park Fire District. Bloom is also an active volunteer with the San Mateo County Sheriff Emergency Services Division and Rock Medicine, a volunteer organization providing emergency medical services at concerts in the San Francisco Bay Area. Bloom earned his bachelor's degree in computer science from California Polytechnic State University San Luis Obispo, where he currently serves on the President's Cabinet and is the chairman of the Board of the Cal Poly Foundation.  Bloom also serves on the board of directors of Taleo Corporation and BMC Software.

John M. Cash, senior consultant, Marts & Lundy
John joined Marts & Lundy in 2001 as a senior consultant, following eight years as associate vice chancellor for university relations and campaign director at the University of California, Berkeley. John oversaw Berkeley’s “New Century Campaign,” a comprehensive, university-wide development program that
ultimately raised more than $1.4 billion for the campus. He also served as vice president of the University of California, Berkeley Foundation. Before joining UC Berkeley, John was associate dean for development in the School of Humanities and Sciences at Stanford University. He was the lead fund-raiser for Stanford’s largest school during the nation’s first $1 billion+ campaign. Prior to that he was executive director of development and campaign director at Mills College in Oakland, California. John has led the firm’s pioneering research into the evolution of public university development programs and he has been active as a speaker for CASE and other professional organizations. He has a B.A. from the University of California, Berkeley, and a master’s and Ph.D. from the University of Chicago.

Genie Chamberlin, principal, Snyder Remarks, Inc., and trustee, Georgia College & State University Foundation
Genie is a consulting professional with over 25 years of organizational development and facilitation experience. Since 1994, she has served as principal of a private consulting and educational firm, Snyder Remarks, Inc. She has offered training courses, facilitation, and consulting services across the United States, as well as in Canada and India. She works with universities, colleges, businesses and organizations of various sizes and fields.  The organizations and companies with which she has partnered include higher and secondary educational institutions, local and state governments, chambers of commerce, governing boards, professional associations, service industries, retail organizations, real estate/development firms, sales and distribution teams, and manufacturing companies.

Her background in higher education includes positions on four campuses.  She worked for ten years at the University of Georgia, most recently as Assistant Director of Alumni Relations.  Her responsibilities included alumni chapter development, leadership training, fundraising, special events, association management and speaking on behalf of the University.  She also has held positions in student work and admissions on three Georgia campuses.  She has served as strategic planning consultant and facilitator to multiple higher education organizations and campuses. 

Genie has served on the Georgia College & State University Foundation Board of Directors, where she is chair of the Trustee Development Committee, and on the Alumni Board of Directors of the University of Georgia.  She is a past president of the Georgia College & State University Alumni Association.  She has been a part of programs for the Association of Governing Boards and the Hawaii International Conference on Education and has been a speaker at multiple conferences for higher education associations including CASE and GEAC.  She has a doctoral degree from the Institute of Higher Education at the University of Georgia, a Masters in Education in Adult Education also from the University of Georgia and a B.A. in Public Administration from Georgia College & State University.

John S. Griswold, executive director, Commonfund Institute
John S. Griswold directs Commonfund’s educational, market research and professional development activities as head of Commonfund Institute. John joined Commonfund as head of Client Services in 1992, and has led the Marketing Services group at the firm since 1998. John initiated and has supervised the Commonfund Benchmarks Studies® of the performance of educational endowments, foundations, operating charities and healthcare institutions, which collectively survey the investment performance and practices of over 1400 nonprofit institutions annually. In addition, he supervises and speaks at Commonfund’s annual Endowment Institute, Commonfund Forum, monthly Trustee Roundtables and nonprofit investment conferences in the U.S., Europe and Canada. John has authored many articles and book chapters on endowment management, governance and the management of investment committees, and has spoken at numerous investment industry conferences and seminars.

Prior to joining Commonfund in 1992, John spent seven years as a partner in an investment management firm, Jefferson Financial Group, where he helped develop and market hedge funds of funds. John is a member of numerous non-profit boards and investment committees, including the boards of trustees of The Boys and Girls Clubs of America, Pomfret School, the Greenwich Roundtable, the Regional Plan Association of New York, and the Colony Foundation. He is a graduate of Yale University and attended Columbia Business School, is an Accredited Investment Fiduciary (AIF) and holds a certificate from the Endowment Institute at Harvard University.

William F. Jarvis, managing director, Commonfund Institute
Bill serves as managing director of Commonfund Institute, responsible for the Institute’s research, written analysis and client publications. A financial services executive and attorney, Bill has worked with J.P. Morgan, where he spent 13 years as an investment banker in New York and Tokyo; Greenwich Associates, where he advised leading investment management firms and led the fielding of the first Commonfund Benchmarks Study; and Davis Polk & Wardwell, where he provided legal advice to global banks and securities firms. Prior to joining Commonfund in 2006, Bill served as Chief Operating Officer of Lime Capital Management, a privately-held hedge fund firm based in New York City. Bill holds a B.A. in English Literature from Yale University, a J.D. from the Northwestern University School of Law, and an M.B.A. from the J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management.

Thomas J. Mitchell, vice chancellor of university advancement and president, University of California, Irvine Foundation
Thomas J. Mitchell joined the University of California, Irvine as Vice Chancellor of University Advancement and President of the University of California, Irvine Foundation in July 2002. Under his direction during the last five years, annual private gift/grant support to the university has increased nearly 243 percent to more than $120 million; the number of gifts has increased by more than 57 percent; and the endowment has increased 88 percent. Additionally, Mr. Mitchell’s University Advancement team is nationally recognized and has been honored with 27 CASE (Council for the Advancement and Support of Education) awards, and the University of California, Irvine Foundation has recruited many of Orange County’s most prominent business and community leaders as trustees.

In addition to his work with the University of California, Irvine, Mr. Mitchell serves as a member of the CASE Philanthropy Commission, the CASE Institutional Related Foundation National Committee, the Association of Governing Boards Leadership Forum Planning Council, and the Orange County Performing Arts Center Board of Trustees. He is a frequently sought-after speaker for national conferences on organizational management, strategic planning, capital campaigns, leadership gifts, and stewardship. He has authored and presented more than 200 papers on institutional advancement and managing institutionally-related foundations.