GuideStar Simultaneously Bolsters Web, Systems, Strategy Capabilities and San Francisco Presence with New Hires
Former Leaders of Global Citizen Year and UC Santa Barbara’s SeaSketch Platform Bring More than Three Decades of Experience to GuideStar’s Senior Leadership Team
Washington, DC—October 16, 2013—GuideStar today announced the hire of Mizmun Kusairi as senior director of strategy, and Evan Paul as senior director of marketing and products, both working from San Francisco, California. The addition of Kusairi and Paul builds on top of the deep expertise of GuideStar’s senior leadership team, significantly expands the organization’s operations on the West Coast, and strengthens its strategy, product, and marketing teams.
“Miz and Evan come to GuideStar at a crucial time in our evolution as an organization,” said Jacob Harold, president and CEO of GuideStar, the leading source of nonprofit information. “We’re stepping up our work to ensure that the stakeholders of social change have the information they need to make good decisions. Miz and Evan will play vital roles in leading our team to success.”
Kusairi is responsible for the strategic alignment of GuideStar’s vision with financial planning, business execution, programmatic operations, and monitoring and evaluation systems. She draws on more than a decade of international cross-sector management experience having worked in the philanthropic, nonprofit, and financial services sectors. Before joining GuideStar, Kusairi served as vice president of operations, strategy, and talent at Global Citizen Year, a fast-growing and acclaimed nonprofit social enterprise in youth leadership development. Kusairi also managed nearly $1 billion in investments and served in the chairman’s office at Usaha Tegas, a $10 billion business conglomerate in Malaysia, and spent time at the Fannie Mae Foundation, Citigroup, and social investing firm Acumen Fund. She holds a BS in Commerce from the University of Virginia’s McIntire School of Commerce and an MBA from Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business.
“When I began looking for my next professional adventure, I immediately thought of GuideStar,” stated Miz Kusairi. “I firmly believe in its mission and in Jacob as its leader. I am thrilled to join the great team already in place there.”
Paul is responsible for product design and development, as well as marketing and e-commerce. He has more than 17 years of experience leading product and project teams in membership based, grant funded, and fee-for-service nonprofit organizations. Before joining GuideStar, Paul co-founded the first software as a service web application in the University of California system, called SeaSketch, which is used by agencies around the world for collaborative planning of ocean resources. He has written multi-stakeholder negotiation simulations published by the Harvard Program on Negotiation and worked with leading stakeholder engagement firms such as AmericaSpeaks, the Consensus Building Institute, Kearns & West, and Concur. His work has enabled diverse interests to reach agreement on issues including climate change adaptation, disaster recovery, and health care. At the beginning of his career, Paul worked as a campaigner for ForestEthics and field organizer for the Public Interest Network. He has a Masters in City Planning from MIT and a BA in Political Science from the University of Missouri.
“I am excited to put my expertise in the intersection of nonprofit management, stakeholder engagement, and technology to good use for GuideStar,” said Evan Paul. “The future is bright for GuideStar; it’s an exciting moment in our organization’s history.”
Kusairi and Paul are the latest in a recent slate of new strategic hires aimed at building GuideStar’s capacity and expertise to enable it to deliver on its new five-year strategic plan. The new hires include:
- Sarah Blackwelder, business intelligence report developer, based in Williamsburg, Virginia
- Whitney Brooks, assistant nonprofit program manager, based in Menlo Park, California
- Jack Cowardin, software engineer, based in Williamsburg, Virginia
- Krystal Kavney, business development associate, based in San Francisco, California
- Bettina Kurtz, special projects fellow, based in Washington, DC
- Michael Lambert, database contractor, based in Williamsburg, Virginia
- Ben Negron, software engineer, based in Williamsburg, Virginia
- Anisha Singh, business analyst, based in Washington, DC
- Jessica Walker, development coordinator, based in Washington, DC
“The nonprofit sector is capable of tackling the great challenges of our time,” added Harold. “GuideStar’s 2.2 billion pieces of data can provide the key information and knowledge to enable that the sector achieves success. Getting the right people in place is critical to our success. We also know that we need to reflect the sector we serve, and our data tells us that California is a huge player in philanthropy. Our expanded presence in that state allows us to champion efforts locally and strengthen our outreach nationally.”
Media Contact:
Lindsay J.K. Nichols
(202) 637-7614
About GuideStar
GuideStar, www.guidestar.org, connects people and organizations with information on the programs, finances, and impact of more than 1.8 million IRS-recognized nonprofits. GuideStar serves a wide audience inside and outside the nonprofit sector, including individual donors, nonprofit leaders, grantmakers, government officials, academic researchers, and the media.
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