Sir Malcolm Williamson

Chairman of CDC, appointed in January 2004. He is Deputy Chairman of Resolution plc, a main Board member of National Australia Bank and Chairman of National Australia Group Ltd. He is also a Board member of Group 4 Securicor, JP Morgan Cazenove Holdings and Signet Group plc. He is also Chairman of The Prince’s Youth Business International.

Until March 2004, he was President and Chief Executive of Visa International. He held various positions with Standard Chartered Bank in the 1990s, including that of Group Chief Executive from 1993 to 1998. He also served as a member of the Post Office Board and was Managing Director of Girobank. He started his career with Barclays Bank.

Alexsis de Raadt St. James

Alexsis is the Founder and Chairman of The Althea Foundation, a social venture fund based in San Francisco and London. She has a rich background in technology and international business development that spans 20 years and 25 countries. Alexsis and her foundation team have designed pioneering software in the mental health sector that is used daily by the U.S. Army, Scotland Yard, Ministry of Defence ( UK) and thousands worldwide.

Her foundation funds diverse social initiatives ranging from providing free psychiatric treatment to adolescents San Francisco, California to funding an Internet based children’s newspaper to promote global literacy. Prior to creating The Althea Foundation, she spent 13 years with Shell International and Royal Dutch Shell in London and The Hague in various management positions including Director of Mergers and Acquisitions and Senior Treasury Advisor. Before joining Shell Alexsis worked for the Investment Bank Kidder Peabody in London and Boston.

She is currently Trustee of Autism Speaks U.K., Chairman Osher Endowment for Integrative Medicine, Chairman Kid Scoop Foundation, Trustee of International Business Leaders Forum North America and United Kingdom, Founder’s Circle Astia - Women in Technology and Life Sciences and Board member of Youth Business America. Alexsis was awarded a Commendation by Scotland Yard in 2007 for her innovative design and development work in software. In addition to her M.S. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, she has an M.B.A. from Erasmus University, B.A. from University of Texas at Austin.

Jon Eldan

Jon Eldan is an attorney at the law firm of Coblentz, Patch, Duffy & Bass LLP in San Francisco, where he practices civil litigation at the trial and appellate level.

Jon served as legal coordinator for the non-profit Life After Exoneration Program, which provided social and legal services to exonerees - those who have proven they were innocent of the crimes for which they had been convicted and incarcerated. He continues that work on behalf of individual clients. Jon has also represented an Ethiopian man in his application for political asylum, and is currently supervising a number of pro bono cases involving expungement of criminal records. He has been a guest lecturer in American law at the Facolta' di Giurisprudenza at the University of Trento and at the University of Foggia, in Italy.

Jon is a member of the Board of Directors of the non-profit Survivors International, which provides social and psychological services to victims of torture and gender-based violence who reside in Northern California. He is on the steering committee for Slow Food Berkeley.

Jon received his B.A. degree in History, with High Honors, from the University of California, Berkeley. After graduation, he lived in Rome, Italy where he wrote travel guides and worked for the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization. He returned to Berkeley and received his law degree from Boalt Hall in 2002.

Darcie Lamond Cookson

Darcie Lamond Cookson worked as an advisor to Youth Business International in London from September 2007 through August 2008. Upon her return to the U.S. she has continued to develop a strategy for a Youth Business Program in this country.

Ms. Cookson started her career as a banker with Bank of America, becoming a Senior Vice President of the First National Bank of Chicago with global responsibilities for the bank’s derivative products trading business until taking a break to raise her family in 1992. She served as a consultant for Arthur Andersen in their Derivatives Practice from 1997 till 2000 when her second son was born.

Ms. Cookson’s experience with starting a chocolate company in 1995 taught her how difficult even a successful small enterprise can be and has instilled in her an undying respect for entrepreneurs. Darcie is a graduate of University of California, Berkeley.

Leigh Wasson

Leigh has worked in the financial services business for 22 years in client development and relationship management positions in the US, Australia and the UK. Most recently, Leigh was Regional Managing Director of Northern California for Citi Private Bank. In this role, Leigh’s responsibilities included expanding and deepening the Private Bank's presence in Northern California and coordinating the team of bankers and specialists focused on providing a solutions oriented approach to the wealth management needs of high net worth individuals and families.

Before joining Citi, Leigh worked for Bessemer Trust in San Francisco. Leigh spent 16 years at JP Morgan with both the private bank and the institutional investment management division, where her various roles included regional manager, relationship officer, emerging markets client portfolio manager, and equity research assistant analyst. Her career with J.P. Morgan included assignments in Australia and London, in addition to New York, San Francisco and Silicon Valley.

Leigh has a BBA in finance from The University of Texas and an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. She is a volunteer at the Boys and Girls Club of East Palo Alto where she facilitates a youth leadership and empowerment program. Leigh has been a member of the Women's Leadership Board, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University since 2003 and was development chair from 2004-2007. Leigh is on the Board of the International Museum of Women and the Advisory Board of the Stanford Social Innovation Review, the signature publication of the Center for Social Innovation at Stanford. Additionally, Leigh is a member of the Silicon Valley Advisory Board of Astia and serves on the Education Committee of the San Francisco Symphony.