CDVCA’s Board of Directors is composed of leading practitioners and outside experts in the community development venture capital industry all of whom operate funds focused on low-income communities and populations.
Alan J. Bernstein
Alan Bernstein is Senior Advisor at the Community Development Venture Capital Alliance (CDVCA), responsible for advising on investment activities including the $45 million Puerto Rico Fund for Growth, investing in locally managed funds that provide equity and debt financing to Puerto Rican businesses. Mr. Bernstein has served as a member of CDVCA’s Board of Directors since 2008.
From 1999 to 2018, Mr. Bernstein was a partner at the Wall Street law firm, Carter Ledyard & Milburn LLP. His corporate practice concentrated on transactions involving venture capital investments, public offerings and private placements representing issuers and underwriters, mergers and acquisitions, secondary offerings, negotiated stock and asset purchases representing buyers and sellers, and licensing and strategic partnering.
From 2014 to 2019, Mr. Bernstein was the President of the New York Network of Investors Circle, the national angel impact investing group focusing on early-stage companies with a strong social or environmental mission. Mr. Bernstein also serves on the Board of Directors of Or HaLev, an Israel-based center for Jewish mindfulness.
Mr. Bernstein received his B.A. from Stanford University and his J.D. from the University of California, Berkeley School of Law.
Nathaniel V. Henshaw
Nat Henshaw is Managing Director of CEI Ventures, which he co-founded in 1994 to manage socially responsible venture capital funds. He capitalized CEI Ventures’ first fund at $5.5 million in 1996, its second fund in 2001 ($20 million), its third fund in 2011 ($10.1 million), and its forth fund in 2016 ($10.1 million). In 1993, he co-founded the Community Development Venture Capital Alliance (CDVCA) and serves as its corporate Secretary. CVI has invested over $30 million in 58 companies employing over 3,600 people.
Prior to forming Coastal Ventures, Mr. Henshaw was a Loan and Investment Officer at Coastal Enterprises, Inc. (CEI), now a $100 million community development corporation headquartered in Brunswick, Maine. During eight and a half years at CEI, Mr. Henshaw loaned and invested social investment capital in over 125 projects totaling over $6.0 million, including environmental clean-up, child care, electronic instrument, publishing, marine products, medical equipment and computer service industries. From May 1984 to June 1986, Mr. Henshaw was an Analyst and Assistant to the President of Chemical Venture Capital Corporation (now J.P. Morgan Partners). He also served as an Associate at Intersouth Partners, L.P. (Research Triangle Park, NC) and Kitty Hawk Capital, Ltd. (Charlotte, NC).
Mr. Henshaw holds M.B.A. (1988) and B.A. (1984) degrees from Duke University and a Certificate from the NVCA Venture Capital Institute. Mr. Henshaw serves on the Boards of: Tilson Technology Management, Inc. (telcom IT); Pika Energy (Solar Inverters); Coast of Maine Organic Products, Inc. (compost); Gelato Fiasco (local food) Navigator Publishing (magazines); Taction (call center); Red Zone Wireless (Internet Services); and Smart Pak, LLC (equine pharmacy). He is also Past Commodore of the Harraseeket Yacht Club (where he represented the club in the Marion-Bermuda, Marblehead-Halifax, Yarmouth Cup and Monhegan ocean races) and a Trustee of Maine’s Episcopal Diocesan Funds.
Randy Kahn
Randy Kahn is Executive Vice President and Co-Founder of Greenline Ventures. He is responsible for helping determine the strategic direction of the company and assisting with oversight of operational and fund management activities. Mr. Kahn has raised and deployed over $1 billion of debt and equity funds from/for not-for-profit entities, government instrumentalities and private clients. As part of his work at Greenline, Mr. Kahn co-manages Greenline’s GAP Fund, an evergreen community development venture capital fund, focused on benefiting low-income communities and people that have historically lacked access to capital. Prior to co-founding Greenline, Mr. Kahn worked for Denver Public Schools (school evaluation), Aetna (insurance), Birch and Davis Consulting (healthcare consulting), Seslia Securities/VI Capital Resources, Inc. (a community development venture capital fund in the Virgin Islands) and GMAC Commercial (low-income housing banker/NMTC practitioner).
Mr. Kahn has a B.A. in Computer Science from Dartmouth College and an MBA from the University of Pennsylvania Wharton Graduate School of Business.
Tom Loy
Tom Loy is a banker, professor, consultant, author, public speaker, and entrepreneur. He is the founder, chairman, and CEO of MetaFund, and he also serves on the board of directors and as chairman of the audit committee of First Bethany Bank, a community bank in Oklahoma City. Additionally, Mr. Loy serves on the boards of directors for the Community Development Venture Capital Alliance and the CDFI Coalition.
Mr. Loy served at Oklahoma City University as Executive Director of both the Graduate Banking School and the Bank Directors’ College, as well as visiting and adjunct professor of finance and banking. In 1992-93 he was the Resident Banking Advisor for U.S. Treasury Dept/KPMG in Prague, Czech Republic, where he helped establish banking schools in Prague and Bratislava (the capital of Slovakia), taught banking courses, and advised bankers and government officials.
Mr. Loy has been a lecturer and public speaker for many banking organizations, including the American Bankers Association; Federal Reserve System; Comptroller of the Currency; Office of Thrift Supervision, and executive education programs at universities throughout the U.S. He has organized and taught at more than one hundred banking schools and conferences on a wide range of topics, including community development venture capital, bank performance and financial analysis, bank asset/liability management, mergers and acquisitions, strategic planning, banking history, investments and cash management, and business ethics.
Mr. Loy served for twelve years in various positions as an Oklahoma City community banker, including Auditor, Chief Financial Officer, and Executive Vice President. He was also Chairman/President of a check and data processing company, co-founded a fully-registered broker/dealer of which he was Chairman/President, and coordinated a bank holding company’s IPO. He earned general securities principal, registered representative, and various insurance licenses, and has served on the boards of numerous banking, securities, and civic organizations.
Mr. Loy has also lived and worked in Dallas, Hawaii, and Switzerland, been a coin-op laundry developer, dog food manufacturer, bank stock and tennis ball arbitrageur, and speed reading and mnemonics teacher. He is the author of many published articles and opinion columns, a monograph for the Oklahoma Academy entitled A Macro Vision for Civil Society (1996), and two books: Merger/Acquisition Handbook For Community Banks (1994), and Cash Management Handbook For Community Banks (1989).
Mr. Loy holds a B.A. in Letters and a Master of Liberal Studies from the University of Oklahoma. He was named an Outstanding Alumnus of the College of Arts & Sciences at OU, and he has received the National Association of Community Leadership’s Distinguished Leadership Award.
Myrna M. Rivera, CIMA
Myrna M. Rivera, Founder and Senior Adviser of Consultiva Wealth Management Corp. (“Consultiva”), is a 40-year veteran in the field of investment management consulting.
A Certified Investment Management Analyst (“CIMA™”), Ms. Rivera is recognized as a pioneer in the industry, having contributed early on to developing standard investment management practices employed nationally today, for middle market endowments and foundations, public and private pension and insurance entities, credit unions, Taft Hartley Benefit plans and individuals and families. In 1999, she founded Consultiva Internacional, the first locally owned independent asset management advisory firm in Puerto Rico. Under her leadership Consultiva grew its asset oversight to more than $3 billion and gained national prominence, appearing on Wealth Management’s roster of Top 10 US Women- Registered Investment Advisers, ranked #1 in 2015. She has been listed in the “Top 100 Influential Hispanics” of Hispanic Business Magazine (www.hispanicbusiness.com).
Ms. Rivera began her career as a financial advisor at Merrill Lynch Pierce, Fenner and Smith in 1981, and quickly chose the path of investment management consulting, joining EF Hutton & Co. in 1983, for its expertise in her chosen specialty. As Consulting Services Coordinator for the Puerto Rico office, she was part of the organization’s initiative in pioneering the establishment of best practices for investing institutional assets. In 1985, she was given an opportunity to use that expertise when the Puerto Rico Automobile Accident Compensation Administration (AACA) hired Myrna M. Rivera of E.F. Hutton to advise in designing and implementing its investment policies. A year later, the University of Puerto Rico Retirement System did the same, and Ms. Rivera ushered in professional investment management into Puerto Rico. In the process, she paved the way for the Government Development Bank to establish a public policy for investing in public funds.
For 17 years, she kept on track, deftly moving through the changes brought about by EF Hutton’s successors, namely Shearson Lehman Hutton and ultimately Smith Barney. In 1990, she was promoted to Senior VP and Consulting Group Director, responsible for leading a team of researchers, analysts and administrative personnel in providing technical, research and business development support in delivering investment management consulting and personal financial planning services to clients.
As Consulting Group Director, her concerns about the potential conflicts between her fiduciary role with her clients and the underwriting and distribution of investment products by the brokerage’s parent company motivated her to leave Smith Barney in 1999 to establish Consultiva Internacional Inc, today Consultiva Wealth Management, Corp., an independent Registered Investment Advisor under the Securities and Exchange Commission. She served as CEO and Board Chair until April 2019, when she divested her shares in the company and transitioned her management responsibilities. She continues as Senior Advisor, working with the firm’s most important institutional and retail clients, and also as internal counsel to Management, the investment advisers and the Board of Directors.
Ms. Rivera is well known for devoting significant time and efforts to educating fiduciaries and the investment community, in general, on fiduciary duty in investing, basic investment principles, how to develop investment policy and objectives and current risks and opportunities in the global capital markets, including Impact Investing in Puerto Rico.
Her investing philosophy reflects her belief in investing “in-situ” for financial returns as well as economic development. She believes that within the framework of fiduciary duties of care and loyalty exists the opportunity to invest for financial return, while simultaneously impacting the landscape from which the investment assets are derived.
Ms. Rivera has been an advocate for such investments for over a decade. Today, thanks to a shared vision with trustees of some of Consultiva’s clients, as well as local entrepreneurs who are committed to Puerto Rico’s economic growth, investment management firms manage over $300 million of local assets, which in turn invest in Puerto Rico companies. In 2015 she spearheaded the creation of the Puerto Rico Fund for Growth, the first fund-of-funds that invests in local private equity and private credit funds based in Puerto Rico, or from elsewhere with an interest in investing in Puerto Rico. Her aspiration is to continue to participate in building out this eco-system to at least $5 billion. Puerto Rico has the assets to do this, she says, as our universe of investable assets stands at close to $40 billion.
Kerwin Tesdell, President
Kerwin Tesdell is president of the Community Development Venture Capital Alliance (CDVCA), which promotes the availability of startup and growth risk capital for businesses that create good jobs, productive wealth, and entrepreneurial capacity to advance the livelihoods of low-income people and the economies of distressed communities. CDVCA builds the capacity of the community development venture capital impact investment industry by providing education and networking opportunities, developing best practices, and supporting positive public policy. CDVCA manages $320 million, including the $45 million Puerto Rico Fund for Growth, the $46 million Innovate NY Fund, smaller funds focused on Arkansas, Kentucky, Florida, Illinois, Nebraska, Nevada, and Mississippi, as well as national pools of capital. Kerwin has been an adjunct professor at New York University for more than 25 years, teaching Social Venture Capital at the Stern School of Business and Community Development Law at the School of Law.
Prior to joining CDVCA, Kerwin was a program officer at the Ford Foundation, where he had primary responsibility for the Foundation’s investments and grantmaking for small business finance and job creation. Before that, he was the Director of the Community Development Legal Assistance Center, an associate with the law firm of Debevoise & Plimpton, and a law clerk to federal judge Constance Baker Motley, Chief Judge of the Southern District of New York. Kerwin is a board member and past board chair for seven years, of the Coalition of Community Development Financials Institutions (CDFIs). He serves on the boards or advisory boards of eleven impact investment funds around the nation, as well as the Financial Innovations Roundtable at the Carsey Institute and Impact Reporting and Investment Standards (IRIS) of the Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN). Kerwin graduated from Harvard College with a degree in economics and holds JD and MBA degrees from New York University, as well as a certificate from the Venture Capital Institute.
Grady S. Vanderhoofven
Grady Vanderhoofven is Founder, President & CEO, of Three Roots Capital, with more than 25 years of experience in company creation and financing. Between 2003 and 2016, he cofounded and invested multiple private investment funds, including Meritus Ventures, the first Rural Business Investment Company (RBIC) in the United States, and Southern Appalachian Fund (SAF), a New Markets Venture Capital Company (NMVCC). Together, these funds raised approximately $53 million and invested equity and debt in 16 companies, which attracted more than $300 million of aggregate investment. The portfolio companies were located in rural and/or low-income areas throughout central and southern Appalachia and have created more than 500 jobs to date. In addition to the capital directly invested by Meritus and SAF, the funds provided more than $4 million of technical and operational assistance to portfolio companies.
In 2016, Mr. Vanderhoofven founded Three Roots Capital, which is a 501(c)(3), certified Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) and Community Development Entity (CDE), established to make loans and equity investments in companies and projects in predominantly low-income areas of central and southern Appalachian. Three Roots Capital has raised more than $200 million to date and has deployed more than $170 million to companies and projects in Tennessee, Kentucky, and South Carolina. In addition, 3Roots has been awarded $95 million in New Markets Tax Credits (NMTCs) and has successfully deployed the NMTCs to multiple projects in Tennessee, Kentucky, and southwest Virginia.
In 2019, at the culmination of a multi-year, collaborative effort, Mr. Vanderhoofven and his partners launched the TennesSeed Fund as an evergreen, seed-stage, investment fund focused on proof-of-concept opportunities in Tennessee-based companies.
Prior to becoming an investor, Mr. Vanderhoofven worked for more than a decade at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), where he participated in the creation of 12 start-up companies based on innovations developed at ORNL. He previously served on the Advisory Council of the Yale University School of Engineering and Applied Science. He received a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree in mechanical engineering from Yale University and has completed an Executive Education Program in private equity and corporate governance at Harvard Business School.
Anthony L. Williams
Anthony L. Williams has over 20 years of experience in venture capital, law, and economic development. He is Vice President of the Meridian Management Group, Inc. (MMG), a leading investor in businesses in Baltimore and throughout the state of Maryland. Prior to joining MMG, Anthony was President and Chief Executive Officer of Broadcast Capital Fund, Inc. (BROADCAP), a leading venture capital company specializing in broadcast properties. Before joining BROADCAP, he served as Director of the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) Office of Communications Business Opportunities. His other venture capital experiences include serving as Vice President of Syndicated Communications, Inc. and serving as Vice President of Fulcrum Venture Capital Corporation. Mr. Williams has also worked as Senior Business Analyst and Corporate Secretary for the Cooperative Assistance Fund (CAF). Mr. Williams is a licensed attorney, having graduated from the University of Southern California with both a law degree and a Masters in Public Administration. He received a B.A. in Economics from the University of California at Irvine.
