Board of Directors

Ray’s personal philosophy in founding BAFB has been to help promote hope, dignity, and stability for veterans and families in need in the community. Over the last 4 years, the charitable organization has grown to providing all the furniture essential for an individual or family transitioning from homelessness. As a seasoned Marketing and Business Development executive, he has 25+ years of proven success with responsibility for growth strategy and P&L responsibility. Ray worked at Xerox and Apple for 13 years each and has also held senior sales management positions with Autodesk, Diversified Software, and Hilti.

Ray holds a Bachelor of Science in Marketing from Boston College. In addition to his business career, Ray served for 27 years in the U.S.Navy as a Naval Aviator while also holding senior positions of Command.

Renee has extensive experience within the non-for-profit world as a volunteer and mentor.

Public policy expertise includes economic and community development, economic competitiveness, infrastructure, energy, regulations and community reinvestment. In addition to being a guest lecturer on entrepreneurship at San Francisco State University, Richard also holds a master’s degree in public policy from Harvard’s Kennedy School and a bachelor’s degree in economics from Boston University.

With over two decades of international senior leadership experience in enterprise sales and sales operations in technology companies, Bob consistently delivers strong results through customer focus, personal integrity, strategic planning, urgency of execution, stakeholder collaboration and transparency, and developing and leveraging talent.

Brian co-founded DIGISTOR a Secure Data Storage firm in 2001. As the Sales Leader for DIGISTOR Brian led his team to over $100mm in sales. He was responsible for brand management, marketing, and overall board-level accountability for investor return. Brian led his team through a successful acquisition to a competing firm in 2020. Prior to founding DIGISTOR, Brian was responsible for helping to build FusionStorm a large IT Services company focusing on secure database management and scalability. Brian holds several advisor and board roles including Managing Director of LFCF and a Board of Director seat with CDSG. Brian resides in Silicon Valley with his wife of 20 years and two teenage boys.

Joe is a well-established, community activist based in San Jose. He has worked for over ten years promoting the City by serving in Development roles with several local non-profits including the San Jose Downtown Association, Christmas in the Park and the City of San Jose’s Parks Recreation and Neighborhood Services Department. Prior to pivoting to non-profit, Joe held key roles in several tech startups and established corporations including JDS Uniphase, SPI Lasers and G2 Planet.

Marilyn Winkleby is the Faculty Director of the Office of Community Health at Stanford University and was a Professor of Medicine at Stanford for 30 years. She received her MPH and Ph.D. from the UC Berkeley School of Public Health and at Stanford led a NIH-funded research group that shed light on the ways in which social factors impact health. Dr. Winkleby is widely recognized for founding and directing the Stanford Medical Youth Science Program that has brought over 650 low-income high school students together to participate in an innovative summer biomedical mentoring program. Her book, Healing Journeys: Teaching Medicine, Nurturing Hope, and a documentary film, Opportunity of a Lifetime, demonstrate the transformations that happen when youth are afforded the chance to excel. In 2011, the program received the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Mentoring, the highest honor bestowed by the U.S. government for mentoring in these fields. Dr. Winkleby is the recipient of numerous awards including the Athena Award for Outstanding Woman Leader of the Year, City of Palo Alto.

She has been active on many non-profit boards, including Loaves and Fishes Family Kitchen, Emergency Housing Consortium, and Hope’s Corner. Most recently she founded Access to Achievement Education Foundation whose mission is to enhance academic success among low-income and under-represented minority students through school and educational partnerships.