MEET THE BOARD

Our multidisciplinary board members includes experts in finance, political science, environmental resources, and communications.

  • IDEATE California

    José Atilio Hernández has worked for the past twenty-two years developing and implementing policy solutions at the local, state, and federal levels. Currently, Mr. Hernández serves as the Founder and President of IDEATE California, a public relations and policy management firm, and is the founder of ideateLABS, a non-profit policy think tank and training lab. At IDEATE, he works with a team of consultants to manage policy development for public, private, non-profit, and philanthropic clients as well as build diverse coalitions and networks.

    Prior to IDEATE California, Mr. Hernández served a Director for External Affairs and Community Relations for ConnectEd: The California Center for College and Career. Mr. Hernandez assisted in developing ConnectEd’s state-wide and federal legislative agenda as well as establishing and managing an intentionally diverse coalition of community and equity organizations, business leaders, and educational practitioners.

    Mr. Hernández worked for six years in the California State Senate as the Director of Policy and Development for the 20th Senate District, serving as a member’s consultant to the Utilities and Energy Committee, the Principal Consultant to the Senate Select Committee on College and University Admissions and Outreach, a Consultant to the Joint Committee to Develop a Master Plan to End Poverty in California and staffed the Education and Health Committees.

    Mr. Hernández is currently the Board Chair of ideateLABs and the Board Chair of Pacoima Beautiful. He is a member on the California Neighborhood Through Empowerment Board.

    He is the former Board Chair of the California Public Utilities Commission’s Low-Income Oversight Board, the former Board Chair of the Salvadoran American Leadership Educational Forum, and the former Board Chairman of Brightline Defense Project. Mr. Hernández has provided support to the California Assembly Select Committee on the Status of Boys and Men of Color since 2012 and was recognized as an Equity Fellow by the Education Trust West in 2018.

    Mr. Hernandez began his public engagement, and community-relations work at Latino Issues Forum, a statewide public policy and advocacy organization in San Francisco. He received his B.A. in Sociology from the University of California at Berkeley.

  • The Trust for Public Land

    Guillermo Rodriguez is the California State Director for The Trust for Public Land. Hebrings over 20 years of successful nonprofit, private sector and local governmentexperience to the organization. He is responsible for developing, managing and leadingthe Trust’s land acquisition, park development and policy activities throughout the state.

    Before joining The Trust for Public Land, Guillermo worked for the City and County of San Francisco starting his public service career with Mayor Gavin Newsom where he was responsible for local hiring programs, workforce development and the City Build program.

    Guillermo continued with Mayor Ed Lee as the Policy & CommunicationsDirector for the San Francisco Department of the Environment where he was responsible for managing local, state and federal environmental policy and communications.

    Prior to his public service, Guillermo held senior level positions at Pacific Gas and Electric Company and served as Executive Director of the Latino Issues Forum, a nonprofit public policy and advocacy institute.

    Guillermo remains active with several local and statewide nonprofits including Brightline Defense Project, Chinese for Affirmative Action, Meals on Wheels San Francisco and served on the California Postsecondary Education Commission, Mono Lake Committee, founding director of the Greenlining Institute and Trustee with the California State ParksFoundation.

  • Innovate America

    Christine is the co-founder of America Innovates, a platform focused on accelerating innovation and social impact in America. She is a also a co-founder of Cross Border Lab, an accelerator of brands and companies into new markets which is a partner of True Family Enterprises.

  • THE WILLOUGHBY GROUP

    Named by California Diversity Magazine as one of the Most Powerful and Influential Women in California, Denita Willoughby is the President and CEO of The Willoughby Group. Willoughby is an experienced and inspiring business leader with 25 years of senior management and executive experience at Fortune 200 companies. She was responsible for transforming billion-dollar supply chain operations, including supplier diversity, fleet, facilities, and real estate departments. She also led the development of business strategy and operational excellence for commercial and national business sales organizations and call centers. She successfully oversaw the introduction of communication and technology products, including AT&T U-Verse programming, and start-up digital wallet solutions. She possesses extensive experience in government and community affairs and has helped organizations design and implement Diversity/Equity/Inclusion Action Plans.

    She is currently the CEO of The Willoughby Group, a consulting firm that helps companies grow their business by implementing clean energy solutions, with a focus on green hydrogen. Willoughby is also a motivational speaker that engages audiences on topics that include leadership, career navigation, work/life balance, and living their dream.

    Prior to the Willoughby Group, she held roles as vice president of Supply Chain & Support Services for Southern California Gas Company and San Diego Gas & Electric, both are Sempra Energy’s California utility companies. She was responsible for a $2 billion supply chain, fleet and facilities’ operations and managed SoCalGas’ $6 billion real estate portfolio. Willoughby has strong crisis management experience and was appointed to serve as Logistics Chief during the Covid-19 pandemic. Willoughby also led the relocation team during the Aliso Canyon gas leak, successfully relocating 8,200 households. Willoughby previously served as regional vice president of external affairs for SoCalGas, where she managed the Company’s community relations, public affairs, and media & employee communications efforts.

    Willoughby spent over 15 years in leadership roles at AT&T/SBC/Pacific Bell. Willoughby led external affairs, and sales organizations with p&l responsibility. Willoughby began her career at IBM as a sales representative and earned recognition in the 100% Club.

    Willoughby has served on corporate and non-profit boards. She was the interim CEO and board member for WikiLoan, a publicly traded, micro-loan and mobile payment company. The Company was purchased by Source Financial in 2013. She also served as the Chairman of the Board for the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce and UniteLA, an education non- profit. Her other board service includes Green Dot Public Schools, The Los Angeles Urban League, United Way of Greater LA and California Institute of the Arts. She also served as an advisory board member for Vicente Capital, a private equity firm focused on growth-stage businesses. Currently she serves as the founding board member for Vision to Learn and board member for UniteLA. She has led and served on the executive, nominating, and various versions of environmental, social and governance (ESG) committees.

    Willoughby earned a master’s degree in business administration from Harvard University and a bachelor’s degree in engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison where she also received the Engineering Distinguished Alumni Award.

    Willoughby is married with two adult sons and lives in Los Angeles, CA.

  • Analysis Group

    Mr. Gold specializes in finance and statistics, and he has been involved in all phases of the litigation process, from pretrial discovery to expert report and trial preparation. His case work has included economic analyses and calculation of damages in many areas, including class actions, white collar securities fraud, intellectual property, and breach of contract cases. His expertise includes conducting event studies, valuing closely held businesses, and in addition, he has conducted statistical analysis in construction defect and Medicare fraud cases, and he has performed valuations of complex securities in both litigation and non-litigation assignments.

    Mr. Gold's prior consulting engagements have covered a variety of industries, including financial services, telecommunications, entertainment, health care, Internet, automotive, and oil and gas. He coauthored a chapter on areas of expert analysis in securities fraud cases in the Litigation Services Handbook.