James is a senior consultant with 40 years of experience of nonprofit capacity building. From his early-career experience in helping to fire an ineffectual board to building its powerful replacement at a university, to building many development and campaign boards for organizations and multi-million dollar campaigns, to creating a strong and capable board from scratch for a prominent health-care center, Jim has learned there are many ways to achieve the objective of recruiting, training and utilizing strong boards. Today, Jim is a senior consultant with Brown Schroeder & Associates, a firm that specializes in organization development and advancement. Jim obtained a bachelor's degree and a master's level certificate in non-profit organizational management from the University of San Francisco, and is a Certified Fund Raising Executive (CFRE) since 1982. An AFP-Golden Gate Chapter board member, he has also served on and helped build capacity as a board member of other organizations including AHP, CASE, the USF Green & Gold Club, the Children's Book Project and San Francisco Little League.

Troy is currently working to transform the board at CRS from a founders' board with individuals who had served for the first ten years of the organization's life into a mature nonprofit board. His efforts have resulted in five highly qualified candidates being recruited for election as the class of 2010. While at the YMCA of San Francisco from 2003-2006, Troy oversaw the development of a recruiting program that resulted in a new process which proved to be highly engaging for the board development committee, and identified over 20 candidates per year, resulting in 5-8 new directors being elected annually. While at the San Francisco Maritime National Park Association, Troy employed the same recruiting strategy and was able to help the board better focus on the qualities they need in new Directors. All of his work has always been done with an eye to providing more financial development strength at the board level. Troy holds a MA in History from Binghamton University in New York and a BA in Social Thought and Political Economy & History from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

William has been involved in development for 44 years. In his current position, he is responsible for developing and motivating governing boards for client institutions. Previously, as Founder at IDC, and as Senior Vice President at C.W. Shaver Co. he worked on similar projects dealing with board development. William currently serves as Board Member for The Las Vegas Philharmonic, and The Las Vegas United Way Tocqueville Society. He earned Bachelor of Science in Foreign Service from Georgetown University. He is a member of The Association of Fund Raising Professionals, The NY Yacht Club, The Union League Club of NY and the Circumnavigators Club. He was one of the first CFRE's and is one of only six practitioners to be designated "Sage" by the American Association of Fund Raising Professionals. He is listed in the noted Marquis publications "Who's Who in the World," "Who's Who in America," "Who's Who in Finance and Industry" and "Who's Who in the West."

As a CEO for 23 years, Cole had the responsibility for some 150 staff members and a 14-member board. During his time at the Packard Foundation he assisted over a hundred organizations build their board. His foundation makes grants called Organizational Effectiveness grants that help non-profits build their boards, as well as their staff, reconsider their strategy, improve their IT abilities, etc. When the foundation was smaller he would often help the organizations with ideas and with grants to start or improve an existing board. Now in addition to the Packard Foundation he is also on the board of Colorado College, Philanthropic Ventures Foundation, Planned Parenthood Mar Monte, Institute for Global Ethics, the Stanford Theatre Foundation and the advisory boards of other non-profits. In some cases now and over the years it has been building a board from the beginning, in others it has been strengthening a board and improving its abilities. He earned MBA in Business from Stanford University and a BA in Political Science from Stanford University.