About | Forward Impact

DUBUQUE, IA

MEET OUR TEAM

CHRISTOPHER GERGEN

Forward Impact’s Founding Partner Christopher Gergen has over 25 years experience building, scaling, and supporting systems-based solutions in communities globally. With a growing passion for the positive impact that food can have on our local economies, the health of families, and our warming climate, Christopher was named Chief Growth Officer of 4P Foods. The work with 4P Foods is an extension of Christopher’s commitment to helping deploy capital towards systems changing ideas. To date, Forward Impact has helped direct over $30M in public/private capital to place based systems change efforts.

Christopher is also co-host of Moving the Needle featuring guests driving innovative solutions to address economic inequities and create generational wealth. He is the co-founder and past CEO of Forward Cities – a national nonprofit that has worked with over 30 cities to strengthen their equitable entrepreneurial ecosystems and founding partner of Raleigh Founded, an entrepreneurial co-working community in North Carolina with more than 400 member companies, as well as Founding Chairman of Blue Co., a co-warehousing company based in Raleigh. Additionally, Christopher is a Henry Crown Fellow at the Aspen Institute, a Senior Advisor with the Algernon Sydney Sullivan Foundation and has been a fellow and faculty
member with Duke University’s Innovation & Entrepreneurship initiative, the Innovator in
Residence at the Center for Creative Leadership, and a regular columnist for the Raleigh News & Observer. He is co-author of the nationally acclaimed book Life Entrepreneurs: Ordinary People Creating Extraordinary Lives (Jossey-Bass, 2008), and has started and scaled several social ventures including co-founding SMARTHINKING - an online tutoring company that served 1,000 universities and colleges before being acquired by Pearson Education. Christopher graduated with honors from Duke University and has an MPP from George Washington University and an MBA from Georgetown. He currently serves on the Governor’s NC Works Commission in North Carolina and lives with his wife and two children in Durham, NC.

JOHNATHAN HOLIFIELD

Johnathan M. Holifield helped transform forgotten rural and urban communities into sources of U.S. global competitive advantage through access to leading innovation, education, economic, and workforce opportunities. He is a senior executive with 20+ years of experience in local and federal government and the private sector. His expertise in strategy formation and execution has effectively translated inclusive economic competitiveness concepts and actions into presidential policy, federal law, and federal agency, institutional, and local development plans.

Johnathan served as executive director of the White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities, where he was also a policy advisor with the White House Domestic Policy Council and senior advisor at the U.S. Department of Education. A Non-career Senior Executive Service member, he advised the President, U.S. Secretary of Education, and Executive Office of the President and:

Conceived of historic bipartisan congressional action to codify E.O. 13779 into federal legislation, the HBCU PARTNERS Act aligned institutions with the educational and economic competitiveness priorities of the United States and for the first time translated inclusion and competitiveness into federal law.
Developed new federal engagement resulting in the first Federal HBCU Competitiveness Strategy to guide actions of 32 agencies to meet student needs and promote inclusive prosperity.
Nurtured a new federal ecosystem, improving impact in every area of accountability and supporting record investment.

In addition to achieving landmark government and education reforms and impacts, Johnathan led formation of $40M venture capital fund, enabling a $250M network of early-stage risk capital and designed community benefits for $1.4B of public and private development projects. He also:

Architected the Inclusive Competitiveness framework, authoring the first detailed treatise linking STEM education, economic, and innovation ecosystem inclusion to improved U.S. competitiveness, inspiring establishment of the nation’s first Center for Inclusive Competitiveness at Temple University.
Authored The Future Economy and Inclusive Competitiveness®: How Demographic Trends and Innovation Can Create Economic Prosperity for All Americans.

Authored the Ohio Department of Higher Education Statewide Report, Inclusive Competitiveness: Improving the Performance of Underrepresented Ohioans in the Innovation Economy.

Convened of the nation’s first Economic Inclusion & Competitiveness Summit with Clark Atlanta University; the first National Minority Biomedical Entrepreneurship Conference with BioEnterprise, Ohio’s leading bioscience venture development organization; and the first national summit on minority angel investing and entrepreneurship with Center for Urban Entrepreneurship & Economic Development at Rutgers University.
Published perspectives on notable platforms, including International Economic Development Council, PolicyLink, Governing, Initiative for a Competitive Inner City, Views & Visions, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Case Foundation, and Forbes.

A national competitiveness leader, Johnathan received Ohio gubernatorial appointments to the Kent State University Board of Trustees, the Midwest Governors’ Association Investments for the Knowledge-based Economy Project, where he co-chaired the Increasing Research Capacity team, and the Ohio House and Senate Joint Commission on High-Tech Business, which led to the Ohio Third Frontier, a $2.1B state innovation investment.

Earlier in his career, Johnathan was vice president of Inclusive Competitiveness at NorTech, founding executive director of CincyTech, vice president of New Economy Enterprise at the Cincinnati USA Chamber of Commerce, chief executive of the Cleveland Urban League, and member of the NFL’s Cincinnati Bengals.

GARRY CUTRIGHT

Founding Partner of Forward Impact’s impact investment fund, Forward Carolinas, Garry Cutright, is the co-founder and principal broker of commercial real estate firm, Calculus Commercial. In addition to his extensive experience in assembling and acquiring off-market real estate assets, Garry specializes in cash flow modeling, cash forecasting and return on investment analysis, having spent several years as a senior leader in corporate finance. He currently serves on Durham’s Planning Commission, appointed by the City Council to propose and make recommendations regarding city and county-wide plans. Garry also serves on Durham’s Built2Last initiative, designed to create inclusive and equitable development of the city. Garry has a BA from University of Cincinnati, an MBA from Xavier University, and currently lives with his wife and three children in Durham, NC.

JESS PORTA

Jess Porta is a consulting associate at Forward Impact and the Executive Director at Raleigh Founded. She currently leads several economic development efforts across the Carolinas including programs that connect rural communities and traditionally under-represented communities with the same resources that are accessible to scaling businesses. She also works with start-up companies to help solve problems and connect them with unique opportunities. Jess has been an instrumental part in Raleigh Founded’s success during her five years with the organization.

Prior to her work with Raleigh Founded Jess served as a consultant and interim Director of Development for several organizations to include: The North Carolina Commission of Inquiry on Torture, the United Way, the Triangle Diversity Business Council, and Know My World. Her background is in Human Rights. She also served as the Training and Education Manager for the Salvation Army of Wake County where she worked with survivors of human trafficking and educated law enforcement statewide about how to best identify and serve victims. She received her Masters of International Studies from North Carolina State University where she traveled abroad to work on issues of Transitional Justice in communities who were recovering from mass atrocities. In her spare time she is a mural artist and a children's book author.

COLLABORATORS/PARTNERS:

BRUCE KATZ

Bruce Katz is the Co-Founder (with Jeremy Nowak) of New Localism Associates. The mission of the firm is to help cities design, finance and deliver transformative initiatives that promote inclusive and sustainable growth. Katz regularly advises global, national, state, regional and municipal leaders on public reforms and private innovations that advance the well-being of metropolitan areas and their countries. Katz is also the founding director of the Nowak Metro Finance Lab at Drexel University. Katz is the co-author of The New Localism: How Cities Can Thrive in the Age of Populism (Brookings Institution Press, 2018) and The Metropolitan Revolution: How Cities and Metros are Fixing Our Broken Politics and Fragile Economy (Brookings Institution Press, 2013). Both books focus on the rise of cities and city networks as the world’s leading problem solvers. Katz was the inaugural Centennial Scholar at the Brookings Institution from January 2016 to March 2018, where he focused on the challenges and opportunities of global urbanization. Prior to assuming this role, Bruce J. Katz was a vice president at the Brookings Institution and founding Director of the Brookings Metropolitan Policy Program. Before joining Brookings, Katz served as chief of staff to U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Henry Cisneros and was the senior counsel and then staff director for the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Housing and Urban Affairs. Katz is a visiting Professor at the London School of Economics and in 2006, he received the prestigious Heinz Award in Public Policy for his contributions to understanding the “function and values of cities and metropolitan areas and profoundly influencing their economic vitality, livability and sustainability.” Katz is a graduate of Brown University and Yale Law School.

LYNEIR RICHARDSON

Lyneir Richardson is the founder of Chicago TREND, a social enterprise formed in 2016 with a mission to strengthen neighborhoods by catalyzing and accelerating strategic retail and other commercial development. TREND uses sophisticated data and analytic tools to identify strategic retail opportunities and provides advisory services and capital to expedite deals. Lyneir is a Black entrepreneur with a track record of working with Black entrepreneurs and strengthening the economic conditions in underserved areas across the United States. As an entrepreneur, Lyneir developed, built and sold over 300 residential units in Carolina neighborhoods. As former Vice President of Urban Development at General Growth Properties, Lyneir led the effort to redevelop Mondawmin Mall (bringing in a Target Store, full service grocer, restaurant and other new services and amenities) and negotiated and structured the deal that resulted in the first commercial TIF deal in Baltimore. Lyneir has substantial shopping center industry relationships and experience.

MARYANNE SPERONI

Maryanne Speroni is the Key Principal of Linden View, specializing in affordable housing and related programs that address health inequity. Prior to forming Linden View, Ms. Speroni was Fund Manager at Vitus Group. There, she managed a private equity fundraising effort across a spectrum of impact investors. She developed a related program for social impact promoting the health of the residents, and arranged for Vitus to become a leader in the movement to incorporate Active Design into affordable housing. Prior to joining Vitus, Ms. Speroni served in a variety of leadership positions at two of the nation’s leading affordable housing finance providers, The Richman Group and Related Capital Company. There, she held senior executive roles in tax credit equity fundraising, mortgage lending, asset management, underwriting, and equity originations. Ms. Speroni holds a Bachelor of Arts in Applied Mathematics from Brown University and a Master of Business Administration from Harvard University. She is a member of the Responsible Property Investment Council at the Urban Land Institute.

JASON WIDEN

Jason Widen brings an extensive background as an investor, developer, and entrepreneur to his current role as Founding Partner and CEO of Raleigh Founded, an award-winning entrepreneurial co-working space located in Downtown Raleigh. Raleigh Founded boasts 400 member companies and 800 members including key partnerships with NC State, Campbell Law, and Meredith College to name a few. Seeking to develop sales talent for startups and established companies, Jason Founded REVGEN in 2013. REVGEN boasts having hired and trained over 600 employees with a number of notable clients- Citrix, Redhat, Dude Solutions, and Filter Easy. Jason has raised millions of dollars as an entrepreneur and real estate developer including over 103 projects, most recently having raised capital for the purchase and development of expansion space for Raleigh Founded. In addition, Jason was instrumental in the creation of Leadership exCHANGE, an award-winning organization dedicated to training the next generation of leaders and global citizens to change the world. Jason currently sits on a number of noteworthy Boards to include: Innovate Raleigh, Raleigh Chamber of Commerce, and Downtown Raleigh Alliance. He lives with his wife and daughter in Raleigh.

ADVISORS:

SHEILA HERRLING

Sheila Herrling is a Fellow at the Beeck Center, where she pursues initiatives in impact investing and measurement, inclusive entrepreneurship and social innovation at scale. Previously, Herrling served as Senior Vice President for Social Innovation at the Case Foundation, where she drove social campaigns in impact investing and inclusive entrepreneurship, deployed tech-for-good platforms across multiple initiatives and built cross-sector alliances for impact at scale. Prior to that, Herrling served as Vice President for Policy and Evaluation at the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) where she oversaw country selection, economic analysis, evaluation and a large policy reform program. Previous appointments include Senior Advisor to the Obama administration’s foreign policy transition team, Senior Policy Director at the Center for Global Development (CGD) and a range of senior management positions at the U.S. Department of Treasury and the African Development Bank. Herrling has over 25 years of experience in international development, U.S. foreign policy, innovative finance, and entrepreneurship in a career that has spanned government, nonprofit and philanthropy. Through both her professional and personal philanthropic engagements, she has focused squarely on inclusion and equity. She chairs the Energy for Growth Hub and serves on the National Board of SEED Spot; she serves on the Advisory Boards of Halcyon Incubator, Forward Cities and George Mason’s Center of Innovation and Entrepreneurship Council.

VICTOR HWANG

Victor Hwang is founder and CEO of Right to Start, a new campaign fighting for everyone’s right to be an entrepreneur as a national policy priority. Previously, he was Vice President of Entrepreneurship at the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, the world’s leading philanthropy supporting entrepreneurs, where he managed a budget of $40 million. At Kauffman, he led initiatives that impacted over 200,000 entrepreneurs in 200 cities, including efforts in catalyzing capital formation, transforming economic development practices, launching a national policy roadmap, and breaking barriers for underserved entrepreneurs. Hwang was co-founder and CEO of Liquidity, a Silicon Valley venture-backed firm making safe drinking water filtration based on nanotech manufacturing and T2 Venture Creation, a venture firm that built startup companies and designed ecosystems that fostered entrepreneurial innovation in dozens of countries and cities. In addition, Hwang was executive director of the Global Innovation Summit, a conference focused on building innovative ecosystems with delegates from over 50 nations. He is co-author of The Rainforest, which explains how any region can replicate the historical innovation dynamics of Silicon Valley. He also wrote the follow-up book, The Rainforest Blueprint, a practical design guide for innovation ecosystems. Hwang is a graduate of Harvard University and the University of Chicago Law School.

JAN RIVKIN

Jan Rivkin is the C. Roland Christensen Professor of Business Administration, the Senior Associate Dean and Chair of the MBA Program, and a Professor in the Strategy Unit at Harvard Business School. Rivkin previously worked as a consultant for the Monitor Group.He has published research about strategy, competitiveness and income inequality in the United States.Rivkin received his PhD in business economics from Harvard. Earlier, he studied chemical engineering and public policy at Princeton and obtained an MSc in economics from the London School of Economics on a Marshall Scholarship.

JEFFREY WALKER

Jeffrey Walker is Chairman of New Profit, a social change investment fund and is Vice Chair in the United Nations Envoy’s Office for Health Finance and Malaria. He also currently serves on the Boards of The University of Virginia, Berklee College of Music, The Miller Center, Grammys Music Education Coalition, JUST Capital, AmpUP, AMP for Health and University of Virginia’s Undergraduate Business School, where he was President for ten years. Previously, Jeff was Executive-in-Residence at Harvard Business School, focusing on social enterprises and collaboration as well as system change and System Entrepreneurship. Jeff co-founded and was Chairman of Npower, an organization that provides shared technology services to nonprofits. Jeff co-authored a book, The Generosity Network, about new approaches to gather resources to address causes each of us are passionate about. For twenty five years Jeff was CEO and Co-Founder of CCMP Capital, the $12 billion successor to JPMorgan Partners, JPMorgan Chase & Co’s global private equity, Vice Chairman of JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Chairman of the JPMorgan Chase Foundation. He has an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BS from the University of Virginia, is a Certified Management Accountant and a Certified Public Accountant.