[vt_page_title]PHILANTHROPY[/vt_page_title][vt_experience_field title=”Chicago Center for Music Education” designation=”Board of Directors” duration=”September 2010 – November 2015″]For 27 years, the Suzuki-Orff School of Music has built a tradition of music in the lives of our students and their families. We provide an engaging, relaxed approach to music education that helps children develop a healthy love for music that will last a lifetime.

The board holds primary responsibility to oversee the finances and delegate management of the school to the Executive Director, while being ambassadors for the school among the community.[/vt_experience_field][vt_experience_field title=”The Nabu Foundation” designation=”Chairman” duration=”September 2004 – January 2012″]Served as Chairman of the Board of the 503(c)(3) philanthropic arm of Nabu Group, Ltd., The Nabu Foundation, from the inception of the board until 2010. After stepping down as Chairman, was appointed Chairman Emeritus by the remaining board, given non-voting rights to attend board meetings, and allowed to provide guidance and insight into governance of the board until our sale to an undisclosed, for-profit organization in Q1 2012. As Chairman, I oversaw distribution of licensure funds from for-profit clients to non-profit ventures, as well as distributed free licensing of patent portfolio owned by Nabu Group, Ltd. to non-profit and public universities and schools around the country. The board consisted of five members, including myself, plus an executive director that ran the day-to-day operations of the Foundation in our absence.

Over the course of 8 years, the Foundation donated close to $9.7 Million in licensing fees to non-profit ventures, such as charter and alternative schools, educational research grants, and to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation for the furtherance of education inside of the United States. Proceeds from the funds helped to provide college and high school educations to tens of thousands of students across the nation, fulfilling the Foundation’s goal to help bring education to the inner-city, and bridge the gap between the served and the underserved with the same educational excellence for students from every walk of life.[/vt_experience_field]