San Francisco Food Bank - Board of Directors

Jack R. Bertges, Senior Vice President, New Resource Bank

Jack Bertges is a Senior Vice President at New Resource Bank specializing in commercial lending. With a long term interest in the environment, Jack joined New Resource Bank in 2007 after having originally transferred to San Francisco in the mid 1980’s in his role with Mellon Bank of Pittsburgh. For more than ten years he has organized a golf tournament for the San Francisco business community that has raised funds for the San Francisco Food Bank. He is on the Board of the Hanna Boys Center in Sonoma, the Rose Court in San Francisco, and serves on the Advisory Board of San Francisco Baykeeper. He continues to support the Second Harvest Food Bank in his hometown of Erie, Pennsylvania.

Jack received his B.S. in Business Administration at John Carroll University in Cleveland and his masters in business administration from Pennsylvania State University.

Jack and his wife, JoAnn, reside in San Francisco.

Jeffrey P. Braff, DrPH, MBA, Director of Human Research, Kaiser Permanente

Jeff Braff is a public health professional with experience in academic, nonprofit and public institutions. Currently he is director of the Human Subjects Research, responsible for human research protections for Kaiser Permanente nationwide. He was formerly a research director at UC San Francisco's Department of Medicine, a member of the Kaiser Permanente Northern California Biomedical Institutional Review Board, and a doctoral fellow at the UC Berkeley School of Public Health and AIDS Research Institute at UC San Francisco. Jeff has also been an adjunct faculty member at UC Berkeley's School of Public Health since 2001.

Jeff earned a doctorate in public health at UC Berkeley and also holds a master's degree in business administration from the University of Ottawa. In addition to serving on the San Francisco Food Bank's board of directors, he has been the board chair of the AIDS Emergency Fund in San Francisco.

Elize M. Brown, DrPH, J.D., Managing Director, Research

In her role as Managing Director, Dr. Brown has primary responsibility for all fiscal and administrative operations, research privacy compliance and external relations for Kaiser Permanente's Division of Research. The Division of Research is a non-academic research center with an annual research budget of $72 million and 470 employees. Prior to joining Kaiser Permanente, Dr. Brown was a program officer with The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, where she specialized in community health, the safety net and vulnerable populations.

Dr. Brown received her DrPH from the University of California, Berkeley, her J.D. from the University of California, Los Angeles and her B.A. in Sociology from Williams College.

Lesley Eckstein, Executive Vice President & Group Head, Community Lending and Investment Group, Wells Fargo Bank

Lesley Eckstein is an executive vice president and group head of Wells Fargo’s Community Lending and Investment Group. Based in San Francisco, she oversees more than 100 team members doing business nationwide. Previously, Lesley led Wells Fargo’s Debt Capital Markets group where she managed structuring, pricing, underwriting and syndicating of all short-term, floating rate debt financings for the Wholesale Bank lines of business, including Capital Markets, Commercial Banking, and Commercial Real Estate. She also managed private placements. Prior to joining Wells Fargo in 1989, she was with Bankers Trust and Manufacturers Hanover Trust Company in New York for ten years.

Lesley graduated with a B.A. in economics and sociology from Williams College.

Shari Freedman, Chief Financial Officer, Worldwise, Inc.

Shari Freedman is the Chief Financial officer at Worldwise, an environmental consumer products company. Before joining Worldwise, Shari served as the chief financial officer at Niman Ranch, Inc. She has over 20 years of experience heading finance and strategy initiatives in leading retail and consumer brand companies. She dedicates her time to a number of causes and is a member of the San Francisco Jewish Community Federation Caring Commission and Northern California Holocaust Center Board of Directors. She is also the former president of the board of Jewish Vocational Services and a former board member of the San Francisco Jewish Community Federation.

Shari earned a bachelor’s degree in international relations/economics from American University and a master’s in business administration from Georgetown University. She lives in San Francisco with her daughter.

Timothy Geraghty, Senior Vice President, Northern Trust Corporation

Timothy Geraghty oversees Northern Trust's Wealth Advisory Services Group in Northern California. Additionally, he serves on the board of directors of the United Way of the Bay area where he is a member of the Executive Committee and is Chairperson of the Working Families Issue Cabinet. While living in Atlanta, Tim served as Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Atlanta Community Food Bank. Tim was also active on the boards of Big Brothers/Big Sisters and the Bobby Dodd Center for Disabled Adults in Atlanta.

Tim received a bachelor's degree from Emory University and a master's degree in business administration from Loyola University in Chicago. He lives in Tiburon with his wife and three children.

John Koeppel, Partner, Ropers, Majeski, Kohn & Bentley

John Koeppel is a partner at Ropers, Majeski, Kohn & Bentley, a litigation and transactional firm. John's practice involves commercial litigation, product liability, construction defect, and general casualty matters. John also volunteers as a mediator for the San Francisco Superior Court and Federal District Court.

In addition to his membership on the San Francisco Food Bank's board of directors, John has been involved with several local organizations including Stonestown YMCA, San Francisco School, Chicken Soupers and Or Shalom. John has also been active in the San Francisco Bar Association's Volunteer Legal Services Program.

John graduated with honors from the University of Notre Dame, received a master's degree in international trade from the Fletcher School at Tufts University, and earned his law degree from Hastings College of Law. He lives in San Francisco with his wife. His son is a mechanical engineer in Northern Virginia and his daughter is a nutrition researcher in Washington, DC.

Gary Maxworthy, Consultant

Gary Maxworthy has worked with a wide variety of companies in the food industry as a salesman, regional and national sales manager and food broker. He has worked as a manager at a regional level for both Lever Brothers and Phillip Morris U.S.A.( non tobacco products), two of the largest grocery manufacturers nationwide. From 1986 to 1994 Gary served as president of Bromar Northern California, the largest food brokerage company in the West at that time. He has strong relationships with West Coast food industry top and middle management, retailers, distributors, wholesalers and brokers.

Gary’s work with the San Francisco Food Bank spans from 1994 to present. His efforts in food solicitation and donor development have helped to increase the Food Bank's food distribution from 3.5 million pounds a year to more than 33 million pounds yearly. Gary founded the statewide "Farm to Family" program that distributes fresh produce to families in need. Because of this work, Gary was one of 15 people out of 60 national nominees to be awarded "The Purpose Prize" in 2007. In addition to his membership on the San Francisco Food Bank's board of directors, Gary has also served on the board of the Food Industry Crusade against Hunger.

Tricia McCarthy, Nonprofit Consultant

Tricia assists small nonprofit organizations in their legal formation, including incorporation and IRS status. Additionally, she consults in board creation, strategic planning and fundraising.

Following a career as an attorney, Tricia now focuses exclusively on nonprofit work. Tricia founded the Bridge of Books Foundation, a nonprofit organization providing free books to at-risk children. She assists grassroots organizations and local schools in need with fundraising, nonprofit formation and annual drives.

Tricia serves on the Board of the San Francisco Food Bank; the University of San Francisco’s Public Interest Law Foundation, which provides mentoring and grants to law students working in the nonprofit/public interest sector; the Bay Area Advisory Board for New Leaders for New Schools; and was the past Board President for The Food Pantry located on Potrero Hill in San Francisco.

Tricia earned her bachelor’s degree from the University of Southern California followed by her Juris Doctor and Masters in Nonprofit Administration from the University of San Francisco.

Dean Ornish, M.D., President and Founder, Preventive Medicine Research Institute

Dean Ornish, M.D., is the founder, president, and director of the non-profit Preventive Medicine Research Institute in Sausalito, California, and Clinical Professor of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. He received his medical training from the Baylor College of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, and the Massachusetts General Hospital. For the past 32 years, Dr. Ornish has directed clinical research demonstrating that comprehensive lifestyle changes may begin to reverse coronary heart disease, prostate cancer, and other chronic diseases without drugs or surgery. His current research showed that comprehensive lifestyle changes affect gene expression. He is the author of six best-selling books, including his latest, The Spectrum.

He has received several awards, including the 1994 Outstanding Young Alumnus Award from the University of Texas, Austin, and the “National Public Health Hero” award from the University of California, Berkeley. Dr. Ornish was recognized as “one of the most interesting people of 1996” by People magazine, selected as one of the “TIME 100” in integrative medicine, and chosen by LIFE magazine as “one of the fifty most influential members of his generation.”

Hyun Park, Senior Vice President and General Counsel, PG&E Corporation

Hyun Park is Senior Vice President and General Counsel for PG&E Corporation and its businesses. Hyun oversees all regulatory and securities law compliance, litigation strategy, all legal matters related to significant corporate transactions, as well as corporate governance and the corporate secretary functions. Prior to joining PG&E Corporation in 2006, he was Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary at Allegheny Energy, Inc., in Pennsylvania. He also previously served as Senior Vice President, General Counsel, and Secretary of Sithe Energies, Inc. in New York, and was a partner with the law firm of Latham & Watkins, where he specialized in corporate transactions and finance. He is a member of the State Bar of California.

Hyun earned his law degree from Harvard Law School. He earned a master's degree in economics from Oxford University and a bachelor's degree in economics from Columbia College.

Curt Sigfstead, Managing Director, JP Morgan

Curt Sigfstead is a Managing Director in JPMorgan's Technology Investment Banking Group. He has worked on a wide variety of strategic assignments including buy sides, sell sides, joint ventures and private placements for a variety of clients. He has also worked on a number of capital raising assignments including convertible debt, bank and bond financings, follow-ons, IPOs, and venture investing.

Curt earned his bachelor's degree from Brown University and has an MBA from the Richard Ivey School of Business. He resides in San Francisco with his wife and two daughters.

David M. Steinberg, Managing Director, Deutsche Bank

David Steinberg is a Managing Director at Deutsche Bank. His area of expertise is in Specialty Pharmaceuticals. During his 18 year career he has consistently been ranked as a top analyst by the Wall Street Journal's "Best on the Street" survey and Institutional Investor's "All American Research Team." His research on various topics within the global drug industry has regularly been referenced in such national publications as The New York Times, Barrons and Fortune.

David earned a BA from Colby College and a masters in business administration from the Harvard Business School. David is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Northfield Mount Hermon School and the Board of Overseers of Colby College.

Bernice R. Welles, MD, Head of Development, Enject, Inc.

Dr. Welles directs all aspects of development for Enject, Inc., a privately held start-up which is developing a novel delivery system for emergency glucagon treatment of severe hypoglycemia in insulin dependent diabetes patients. Her previous positions include Vice President of DiObex, Inc. (2005-2008), a biotechnology start-up, and Venture Partner at MPM Capital (2003-2005) where she focused on evaluating potential investments in the health care industry. After a brief academic career at the University of California San Francisco, Dr. Welles joined Genentech, Inc. in 1995 and spent 8 years at Genentech involved in all aspects of biotechnology drug development. She ultimately served as Vice President of Product Development with responsibility for all development projects and portfolio planning. Dr. Welles is a member of the American Diabetes Association and the Endocrine Society.

Dr. Welles received her master’s in business administration from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania, her medical degree from the Albany School of Medicine, and her bachelor’s degree from Brandeis University.