2012 National Conference

President & Founder

Aaron Hurst is the founder of the Taproot Foundation, a nonprofit organization building a national pro bono marketplace and leading the global service movement. He is also a creative force behind the conception of the national Billion + Change initiative and the Service Enterprise model. Recognized by the NonProfit Times as one of the "Top 50 Social Entrepreneurs in 2011", he currently sits on the International Advisory Board of Directors of CiYuan and serves on the boards of Reimagining Service and BoardSource. You can read his latest thoughts at The Huffington Post or find him on twitter @Aaron_Hurst.

Executive Director

Matthew Klein is the executive director of Blue Ridge Foundation New York and an adjunct professor at NYU Stern School of Business, teaching courses on venture philanthropy and the nonprofit capital market. Klein's experience prior to Blue Ridge includes work in non-profit management and civil rights law. He helped co-found Leadership, Education, and Athletics in Partnership (LEAP), a Connecticut-based youth development agency, and performed legal work with the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. and the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice. He currently serves on several boards, including Groundwork, Inc., iMentor, Single Stop USA. Klein has been a fellow of the Echoing Green Foundation and the Next Generation Leadership program of the Rockefeller Foundation, and he is a member of the bar in New York and Massachusetts. He attended Yale College and Yale Law School.

CEO

Mike O’Brien is the chief executive officer of iMentor, which uses the power of mentoring to help students from underserved communities graduate high school college ready and succeed in college. Since joining iMentor in 2003, he has worked across many functions of the organization, supporting mentor-mentee pairs, developing curriculum, and establishing strategic partnerships. O'Brien has helped grow the organization from six employees serving 400 New York City high school students to more than 70 employees who serve 2,400 local students. Under his leadership, the organization launched iMentor Interactive, which has formed partnerships with 30 non-profits across the country to help them implement effective mentoring programs in the iMentor model. He began his career as a teacher in East New York, Brooklyn, where he also coached the boys’ basketball team and launched an after-school writing program. O'Brien is a graduate of Bucknell University.