Meet the Team

Sara Olsen (Founding Partner) founded SVT in 2001 to make impact visible to the capital markets so that it pays to restore the environment and make people healthy and happy. Sara's recent work includes collaboration with: Nemours, one of the largest pediatric health providers in the US, to create a system for measuring and managing the net social and economic benefits of its multi-million dollar childhood obesity prevention efforts; the Environmental Investment Advisor to CalPERS, Environmental Capital Group, to design and pilot the Environmental Performance Reporting System used in its $1Bn environmental technology private equity portfolio; and HIP Investor on the development and launch of the Human Impact + Profit (HIP) Framework for investors, publicly-listed corporations and other institutions.

Sara considers impact management to be an emerging business discipline, and works to promote its awareness and spread its adoption. She co-wrote Social Return on Investment: a Guide to SROI Analysis (Lenthe Publishers, 2006), “Social Return on Investment: A Standard” (California Management Review, May 2004), and “The Double Bottom Line Methods Catalog” (The Rockefeller Foundation, February 2004).

Sara is co-director of NonprofitMapping.org, which maps the availability of data on nonprofit organizations; co-founding steering committee member of Xigi.net (pronounced “ziggy”), a community-driven network and map of the emerging capital market that funds good; and is an advisor to Calvert Foundation’s Social Enterprise Fund, ChangingthePresent.org, Mobile Media and Aflatoun: Child Savings International. In 1999, Sara co-founded the Global Social Venture Competition (GSVC) and has conducted workshops on SROI analysis for the GSVC each year since.

Sara holds an MBA from UC Berkeley, an MASW from the University of Chicago and a BA from Dartmouth College. She lives and works in San Francisco.

Brett Galimidi (Partner) brings to SVT Group an expertise in using information technology and market-based approaches for solving environmental and social problems. With the understanding that people and the environment cannot be separated, Brett has led groundbreaking projects to maximize the positive human benefits of environmentally responsible activities.

Brett’s work has included developing the ECOframe for Humanity United—a sustainable tourism/ecotourism framework to help managers and investors ensure their projects achieve the maximum positive social and environmental impact possible while maintaining financial stability. He also helped Mexico’s Grupo Ecologico Sierra Gorda establish a process for measuring and managing the ecological, social and economic impact of conservation for pricing carbon offsets according to both social and environmental benefits. In addition, he has created impact management and valuation process for various programs including environmental education, non-timber forest products and micro-enterprise. Brett has also consulted to professional services firms such as Morrison & Foerster LLP on Cleantech initiatives.

Brett has conducted research in South Africa and at the Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy on the use of information and communication technology to address the complex relationships between social, political, economic and environmental issues.

Brett is the co-author of Social Return on Investment: a Guide to SROI Analysis (Lenthe Publishers, 2006), co-author of the Social Edge blog SVT on Impact (produced by the Skoll Foundation) and author of several research papers on development- and environment-related topics. He holds a Master's Degree in Environmental Management from Yale University and a BS in Anthropology from UCLA.

Brett lives in San Francisco with his wife, Caitlin, and is an avid fan of live music and the outdoors.

Bill Davis (Information Systems and Business Intelligence Consultant) provides leadership and IT consulting services to marketing, financial and operational executives. He has earned the "Go-To" label by CFOs and CIOs in organizations that are facing tough decisions, tight budgets and deadlines that have an option or goal to leverage technology. He specializes in the financial services, banking and consulting industries, including major projects with IBM and American Express.

Bill believes that sustainability is at heart a matter of customer service, where all key stakeholders are “customers” for the value organizations create - environmental, social and economic. Over his 20-year career, he has provided leadership that resulted in financial, technical, operational and most importantly cultural transformation (work ethic, quality of work, timelines and governance) to his clients. Bill has extensive experience providing merger and acquisition due diligence, performance management analysis, customer and product profitability analysis and other business intelligence services. He brings extensive project management and technology application experience to ensure projects adhere to strict disciplines within the relevant life cycles for minimizing risks and guaranteeing success.

Bill studied Cognitive Science at Cornell University. He is fluent in Spanish, and is an accomplished Latin music-recording artist whose work has been aired internationally.

Pin Kwok (Corporate Strategy and Operations Consultant) specializes in visioning and development of long‐term strategic partnerships between social entrepreneurs and corporations for leading social entrepreneurship organizations. She has led research on the topic for clients including Rubicon National Social Innovations, Volans Ventures and Ashoka. In developing the business cases for these sorts of partnerships, she has seen the practical importance, and facilitated definition of, impact metrics for different stakeholder groups. Prior to devoting her career to the social impact space she held various roles in Citigroup – strategic planning, business development and compliance, process optimization & organizational consulting – and has worked in New York and Singapore, with consulting experiences in most countries in Asia. Citigroup honed her sharp focus on performance measurement, from the financial, employee and customer satisfaction perspectives. While at Citigroup, Pin was co‐chair of one of the New York branches of the Women’s Council and mentored youths in the community through various mentoring programs in Citigroup. It was through her banking experience that she saw how powerful the movement of money was, and wanted to use it to create social impact.

Pin received her MBA from UC Berkeley, where she co‐chaired the Global Social Venture Competition. She holds a B.S. magna cum laude from New York University, is fluent in Mandarin and speaks basic French.

Hearty congratulations to Julia Tran (Program Manager emeritus) who will be enrolling in the MBA program at the University of Michigan Ross School of Business! In an intensely competitive year, Ross knew they couldn't do without Julia! We will miss you and wish you the best.

During the next few months, Julia is collaborating with our other former colleague, the exceptional Amie Vaccaro, on her brand new startup, Cobblestone Solutions.

Social Enterprise Associates is a consulting firm offering business acumen, managerial experience, financing opportunities, and practical research to business and community efforts seeking social good. SEA and SVT often partner on client projects, pitches and field building efforts.

Paladin Law Group is a boutique multidisciplinary environmental law and policy legal practice and professional sustainability services firm. The firm's lawyers and sustainability professionals, who hail from prominent national law firms and consultancies, have created a sustainable, local business model where clients can hire the talent of an internationally recognized firm yet receive the personal service and comfort of a small firm. Given a natural alignment, SVT and Paladin Law Group make for good strategic partners in seeking and servicing sustainability projects.

Tracy Greene is the designer of SVT's website and other marketing materials. She is a graduate of Laguna College of Art + Design, where she earned a BFA in Illustration. Tracy has also performed design work for 1105 Media, Little Owl Workshop, Coast Kids Magazine, and Trader Joe's. Her diverse portfolio includes editorial and children's illustrations, websites, t-shirts, posters, board games, and toy designs.