Aspiration is led by Executive Director Allen Gunn, whose skills include software development, technology project management, and nonprofit program development and expansion, always with an eye toward sustainable innovation, and Director of Programs and Operations San Ng, who brings extensive non-profit experience in ICT and international development. In addition, Aspiration benefits from the expertise of an active and involved board of directors.
Staff Bios:
Executive Director Allen Gunn has over twenty years of software development, senior management, and capacity building expertise, and has spent the last fifteen years exploring how technology can most effectively empower and support social justice causes. Drawing on engineering, teaching, and volunteer experiences, gunner is a skilled communicator and facilitator in both the nonprofit and corporate sectors who is passionate about helping nonprofits and NGOs make better use of software technology. He has been closely involved with the US and international technology activist communities; the Silicon Valley engineering and venture funding world; social justice organizations, and academic communities, and currently sits on the boards of The Ruckus Society [1], Global Exchange [2], and Idealware [3]. He is a firm believer in melding hard work with serious fun.
Director of Programs and Operations San Ng has more than 13 years of non-profit experience in ICT in international development. Prior to joining Aspiration, she was the Program Director for ICT for Governance, Law and Civil Society at The Asia Foundation, a non-profit, non-governmental organization committed to the development of a peaceful, prosperous, and open Asia-Pacific region. San led the ICT Program which aims to provide new ways to address longstanding problems by increasing efficiency and productivity in the private sector, expanding the scale and influence of civil society, and increasing transparency and accountability in the public sector.
Before joining the Asia Foundation, San was the Director of Strategy and Programs at the International Medical Corps, a global humanitarian nonprofit organization dedicated to saving lives and relieving suffering through relief programs. San previously worked for CARE International in Thailand, China and Seattle. Born and bred in Singapore, San practiced as a court attorney in the early part of her career before becoming extensively involved in international development and ICT.
She is the holder of a Bachelors of Laws (LL.B) from the National University of Singapore, as well as a Masters of Laws (LL.M) and a Masters of Public Administration (M.P.A) from the University of Washington. She also holds various certificates in Information Technology.
Product Manager Social Source Commons Timothy Wescott earned a BS. in Electrical and Computer Engineering with a double-major in Mathematics from Carnegie Mellon University in 2001. Tim has spent the past 5 years working for Johns Hopkins University’s Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, MD, where he designed and tested hardware and software for spacecraft. He worked on several important projects at the lab including MESSENGER, New Horizons, and STEREO. Tim is a current member of the Americorps Community Technology Centers (CTC) VISTA project and excited to be devoting a year of service to Aspiration and helping others through technology.
Charles Stewart Mott Foundation [4]. Gavin oversees the administrative, developmental, and operational aspects of technology, and has overall responsibility for the Foundation’s worldwide information, library, and technical services. Gavin developed a keen interest in philanthropy and technology and an expertise in technology for non-profit organizations over the past 15 years of working with scores of non-profits and foundations. Before joining the Mott Foundation, he was vice president of the Telecommunications Cooperative (TCN), a not-for-profit information technology cooperative serving thousands of NGOs and non-profit organizations worldwide. Prior to joining TCN, in 1987, Gavin was director of research for the Washington-based Present/Futures Group (formerly TRAC, Inc.), a think-tank specializing in social trend analysis and issues management. He was also senior research associate with the Naisbitt Group in Washington, D.C., and associate editor of John Naisbitt’s Trend Letter. Before his formal association with the Naisbitt Group, Clabaugh was a personal consultant to John Naisbitt, and designed and managed the research process culminating in Naisbitt’s best-selling book, Megatrends.
Janet Haven is the Program Manager for the Civil Society Communications initiative at the Open Society Institute’s Information Program [5]. The Open Society Institute is a private, grant-making foundation focused on building open, democratic societies in developing and transition countries. The Information Program works to enhance the ability to access, exchange and produce information by civil society constituencies. Some of this work is done via policy interventions, or investment in libraries, publishing, translations. Civil Society Communications works on the problem at a hands-on level, looking at what the software tools, communications tactics, and capabilities that civil society groups need in order to communicate both with each other and with their target audiences, be that the general public, national governments, or international communities. Before coming to OSI, Janet worked with software development teams at Sun Microsystems and Vivendi Universal. She has lived in Central Europe since 1995, and received a Master of Arts at the Unversity of Virginia.
Jonathan Peizer, Aspiration Board Chair, was the developer and director of the Open Society Institute’s Internet Program as well as the original CIO for its systems operations. Jonathan has been in the technology industry throughout his career in both the profit and non-profit sectors and on technology-related projects in 75 countries. Recently he’s written a number of articles on the IT deployment in the NGO environment and philanthropic support of IT [6]. Jonathan has held management positions in this area at Citicorp, AFS, Cheyenne Software and OSI.
Steve Wright is the Director of Innovation at the Salesforce.com Foundation [7]. Steve joined Salesforce Foundation in September 2000. Steve and the Foundation believe that the most effective use of technology in this setting is as a creative tool to publish unheard voices. Prior to joining the Foundation, Steve worked for thirteen years in technology and education. He was a high school administrator for two years and a classroom teacher for seven years, beginning in the Peace Corps. While teaching in Pasadena, he became interested in the confluence of education and technology; specifically, in the role that electronic communication could play to encourage conversation between students in underserved communities and the rest of the world. Steve has a Masters degree in Education.