Our Board of Directors includes a range of corporate experts and community leaders with sensitivity regarding the special population we serve. We appreciate their ongoing support.

BOARD BIOS

Phil Bookman
Phil is a retired software entrepreneur who now spends his time writing fiction and non-fiction. In addition to a long career in the software industry, where he started, led and sold several companies, he spent ten years in human services as a clinician and manager. Phil received his BS degree in math from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, MS in math from Adelphi University, and MA in counseling psychology from Santa Clara University. He lives with his wife, Lois, in Los Gatos.

"I joined the board of Achievekids because I believe that a society can be measured by how it treats its most vulnerable members. The children served by Achievekids are terribly vulnerable and the agency's programs successfully help each child maximize his or her potential. I am honored to be able to contribute to this effort."

Terry Conner - Secretary
Terry has been on the Achievekids Board of Directors since 1991. He has worked as an attorney at the law firm of Thoits, Love, Hershberger & McLean since his graduation from Santa Clara University Law School in 1979. As a shareholder of the firm, his practice includes forming and advising corporations, limited liability companies, partnerships and joint ventures, as well as representing creditors and debtors in financing transactions, sellers and buyers in business acquisitions and sales, and structuring licenses and other contracts involving intellectual property rights. Terry is a past-president and former member of the Board of Directors of the Palo Alto Community Fund and currently serves on its Advisory Board. He also has been active in the Palo Alto Area Bar Association, was the Chair of its Legislation Committee and a member of the Tournament Committee of the Association's benefit golf tournament. In addition, Terry is a former Board member and President of the Palo Alto Chamber of Commerce, and a former Board member of the Santa Clara University Law School Alumni Association.

Charles Hess
Charles L. Hess is a Senior Vice President and Investment Officer with Wachovia Securities in Palo Alto. Before joining the financial-services industry, Charles served in the savings and loan industry as Vice President and Director of Marketing at H.F. Ahmanson. He also managed various branch offices of that firm before joining Dean Witter in 1984 as an account executive. In 1987, he became a financial advisor at Prudential Securities, where he worked for twelve years. He joined a predecessor firm of Wachovia Securities in 1999. Charles holds a Bachelor’s degree in Business and Social Sciences from Michigan State University. He also has an insurance license and is a member of the Investment Management Consultant’s Association (IMCA). Active in his community, Charles was awarded the California Red Cross Clara Barton Award for Meritorious Volunteer Leadership and the Distinguished Volunteer Fundraiser Award from the National Society of Fundraising Executives. He is a former member of the Palo Alto Red Cross Board of Directors; President of the Los Altos Rotary Endowment Fund Board of Trustees; and a member of the West Bay Opera Board of Directors.

Marilyn Kanas - Co-Vice President
Marilyn is the co-founder and Managing Director of STRe Solutions, a staffing and executive search firm that recruits professional talent for CFOs and their teams. She specializes in senior level executive search at the director level and above recruiting in finance, accounting and human resources. In addition, Marilyn is passionate about health and wellness and helping people make choices about their health. She is the owner of Healthy Results, and a personal wellness coach. Marilyn has a B.A. in Sociology from the University of Pennsylvania. She is an active member of the Forum of Women Entrepreneurs and Executives and the Marketing Executive Network Group.

"Community involvement has always been important to me, and specifically education. Without an education a person has no future. 'Give a man a fish and he eats for a day; teach a man to fish, and he eats for a lifetime.' "

Kathy Kriese - President
Kathy was a committee member and active donor of Achievekids prior to joining the Board. She currently works as a senior product manager for RSA, the Security Division of EMC. Her past positions include tenures at Adaptec, Clarke American, and Xerox. She holds an M.B.A. from University of Michigan and a B.A. from University of Rochester. Kathy is a member of the community service group Hands on Bay Area and the Western Wheelers Bicycle Club. She also participates in community theater with the Lyric Theatre.

"Both education and community involvement are important values in my family. I am glad to be of service to Achievekids, to help the organization in its mission of providing individualized programs to help students succeed and contribute to their school, family, and community."

Sreeram Kumar
Sreeram was elected to board in 2007. He has worked in the IT industry for the past 10 years holding roles from software engineer to project lead in various companies like Cisco, Broadcom, Wipro, Infosys, and Raza Microelectronics. Sreeram and his wife have a long history of doing non-profit work by raising money and tutoring children. Sreeram lives in Santa Clara with his wife and son.

"Kids are the most precious ones and I cant see kids undergoing any pain. I got inspired by what Achievekids is doing for the special needs children. I applaud the efforts by the various people involved with Achievekids and I would like to contribute in whatever way I can."

Leland Levy - Treasurer
Le has been a member of the Board of Directors since 1988. He is currently the immediate past-President. A long time resident of Palo Alto, Le was Mayor of Palo Alto in 1985 and served on the Palo Alto City Council from 1979 to 1991. Le has also served on the Boards of Rotary of Palo Alto (President from 2002 to 2003), United Way, Neighbors Abroad (President from 1994 to 1995), The Palo Alto Art Center, the Palo Alto Historical Association and Congregation Beth Am (President from 1975 to 1977). A graduate of the Harvard Business School and the University of California, Berkeley, Le is a senior vice president at Wachovia Securities in Palo Alto. He and his wife, Judy, live in Palo Alto.

Shubham Maheshwari
Shubham is responsible for Corporate Development function at KLA-Tencor Corporation. He joined KLA-Tencor in 1998 and has held various senior management roles in finance, including Corporate Controller, FP&A, and business finance. Prior to that, he held various positions at American Airlines and Britannia Industries. Shubham and his wife, Archana, live in Palo Alto with two children.

“Achievekids not only provides education and self-sustaining skills to the most needy, but more importantly gives hope for a better tomorrow. I am extremely impressed by the work at Achievekids – an outcome of years of focus, energy and passion. I feel honored to have an opportunity to help Achievekids reach its goals.”

Mario Mariasch
Mario joined the Achievekids Board of Directors in May 2006. He is the founder, and former President and CEO of the Northern California Chapter of the National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD). Mario is President of Full Spectrum Ventures, specializing in board consulting and education. He works with NACD and the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation as well as with the Inter-American Development Bank teaching corporate governance in Latin America.

Mario retired from The Gillette Company, after having served in many positions. He was President and Chairman of the Board of Gillette Espanola, and a member of the Gillette European Management Committee. Mario worked for Oral-B Laboratories in California as Area Vice President, Group Vice President and Senior Vice President.

Mario graduated with degrees in Accounting and Business from Buenos Aires University (Argentina) and earned an MBA from Babson College. Mario is a member of the Babson College Board of Overseers, and the San Mateo Rotary. He resides in Hillsborough with his wife, Patty.

“I am extremely impressed with the caliber of the faculty and Board. They are a group of very caring and dedicated individuals. I feel proud to be able to serve, and hope to contribute to the continued success of the school and its special students.”

Stepheny McGraw - Co-Vice President
Stepheny was elected to the Achievekids Board of Directors in 1999 and is currently Co-Vice President with Marilyn Kanas. She has over 20 years’ technical experience in account management and public relations. In Massachusetts, she was a journalist and columnist for a daily paper and handled public relations for Assabet Valley Vocational Technical School. She holds a B.A. from Wells College and has taken graduate courses at Boston University and undergraduate courses at Tufts University. She was one of the founding members of the League of Women Voters of Stow, serving on their Board in several capacities. After coming to California, she was active in alumnae fundraising for Wells College and now sits on Wells College Alumnae Council. At present, Stepheny serves on the Storm Drains Oversight Committee for Palo Alto and the Steering Committee of the Midtown Residents Association.

Doug Stewart
Doug has been on the Board of Directors since 2007. Doug is a senior attorney with Intel Corporation, specializing in securities law, corporate governance and compliance matters. Before joining Intel, Doug was a corporate attorney at the law firm of Fenwick & West, representing clients such as Cisco Systems, Inc. and Symantec Corporation. Doug graduated from Boston University School of Law in May 2000 and the University of Massachusetts-Amherst in May 1997. Doug lives in Los Altos, California with his wife and two sons.

”I was inspired to join Achievekids by my Aunt Dottie who has worked as a teacher of students with special needs for decades. Special needs teaching is a demanding, frustrating and yet ultimately rewarding profession. I know how much energy, dedication and hope is required of our teachers and students. I want to support their development and learning as best I can through my commitment to Acheivekids.”

Victoria Hayden
Victoria Hayden brings more than two decades of marketing leadership experience to the table. She has worked for a number of Fortune 500 companies in the telecommunications, transportation and health insurance industries. She served as Vice President of Advertising for both Northwest Airlines and later Pacific Bell. She also has run Fortune 500 advertising accounts in Washington, DC, New York and San Francisco at such agencies as Ketchum Advertising and J. Walter Thompson. Currently Victoria is a partner in The Hayden Group, which specializes in brand facelifts and marketing launches for companies and products.

Recent marketing experience relevant to Achievekids include marketing and raising funds for such organizations as The Center for Education and the Infant Deaf, The Palo Alto Albert L. Schultz Jewish Community Center, and Red Rock Coffee, a non-profit Mountain View café owned by the Highway Community. Personal experience relevant to Achievekids includes having a sister who is deaf, a mother who was a special education teacher, and a son who has ADHD and receives services through Achievekids.

“I serve on the Achievekids board to identify revenue and donation-based financial sources that will allow Achievekids to grow commensurate with the growing needs of the community. I also want to help Achievekids support public schools by educating, training and providing resources to help principals, special education teachers, aides and mainstream teachers with the special challenges of teaching special needs children in public schools. As a parent, I want help Achievekids give hope to parents ignorant of resources and rights, and overwhelmed by the challenges of raising special needs kids. Finally, I want to help Achievekids be a voice for kids whom society would prefer to ignore. Every child deserves a chance to be the best he or she can be, to feel valued, and to be happy.”

Jennifer Vessels
Elected to the Achievekids Board of Directors in 2000, Jennifer has served on the Executive and Development Committees as well as leading the agency Strategic Planning process. In addition, Jennifer is CEO of Next Step, a professional services firm she founded in 1998. Next Step’s team of 38 seasoned consultants maximizes business results for companies at all stages of growth through practical results-oriented sales, marketing and management consulting services and training programs.

Prior to founding Next Step in 1997, she held a variety of senior marketing, business development and management positions for Ungermann-Bass, Triad Systems and DataTrak. From 1992 to 1997, Jennifer lived and worked in Europe, building the European subsidiary for Promptus Communications and International Sales for Tandberg Telecom in Oslo, Norway.

In 1988, Jennifer received her M.B.A. from San Jose State University and in 1997 she completed her M.S.C. in Organizational Development/Occupational Psychology through the University of London.

Hudi Podolsky
Ms. Podolsky is an education consultant and teaches in the Masters in Education Administration program at San Jose State University. After an unsuccessful first year as a middle school math teacher, she moved to the private sector. In 23 years at Hewlett Packard, primarily in Information Technology, she developed skills in management, planning, quality, team formation, and change management. HP gave Ms. Podolsky the opportunity to serve for two years as a loaned executive to a group of schools funded by Joint Venture Silicon Valley who were engaged in systemic school reform. This work allowed her to reconnect with her passion for education and also revealed the opportunities to transfer business management skills to educators. In 1999 she left HP and became the Executive Director of the Coalition of Essential Schools, a national school reform organization. She has served on the boards of the Bay Area Coalition for Equitable Schools in Oakland, Stanbridge Academy (a school for children with special needs) and the Ecumenical Hunger Program. She is a volunteer reading tutor at Eastside College Preparatory School in East Palo Alto.

"I joined the board of Achievekids in part to honor my late husband, Joe Podolsky's commitment to the school, and in part because my work with public schools has helped me understand the limits of their capacity to serve all children well. It's clear to me that Achievekids meets a critical need in our community."

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Lizbeth J. Martin, Ph.D
Lizbeth J. Martin, Ph.D., is the Vice President of Academic Affairs and Dean of Faculty at Holy Names University in Oakland, California. Dr. Martin has been a licensed psychologist since 1986 and has served as a research associate at the Mental Research Institute (MRI) in Palo Alto, and as a trustee on many non-profit boards including the MRI Board of Trustees (as President), the Alliance for Aging Independently (as Treasurer), the American Heart Association, and Achievekids. Dr. Martin taught in the Human Biology Program and the Department of Psychology at Stanford University. After completing a post-doctoral fellowship in Developmental Psychobiology in the Stanford Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science, Dr. Martin became a consultant to the pharmaceutical industry for five years before joining the faculty at Notre Dame de Namur University (NDNU) in Belmont, CA. In 2001, she became Dean of Sciences at NDNU and left in 2006 to become Holy Names University’s VPAA. Dr. Martin received her bachelor’s degree from Brown University and her doctorate in psychology from Stanford University.

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