Keith Swayne served as CEO of Case Swayne Co. and the successor company, Universal Food Solutions, a subsidiary of BestFoods/Unilever. Following retirement, He, along with his wife, Judy, co-founded the Keith and Judy Swayne Family Foundation. Keith has remained active in the community, and in business, serving on a number of private company boards as well as non-profit boards; recently serving as Chair of the Orange County Community Foundation Board of Governors and currently as Chair of the Charitable Ventures Board. In 2022, in conjunction with the Orange County Community Foundation, Keith established the Orange County Social Justice Fund. In 1997, Keith was a regional winner of the Entrepreneur of the Year Award. The California Association of Human Rights Organizations also recognized him that same year for his work in the Human Rights field. He was named Orange County Philanthropist of the Year at National Philanthropy Day in 2019.

Rick Reiff is a Pulitzer-Prize winning journalist. He has been with the Orange County Business Journal since 1990. He served 10 editor and originated and wrote the paper’s “OC Insider column for 15 years. From 2004 through 2018, Reiff hosted and produced “Inside OC with Rick Reiff” and “SoCal Insider with Rick Reiff,” which aired on PBS SoCal, KDOC-TV, and Cox Cable. “Inside OC” won the Golden Mike Award for Best News Public Affairs Program in Southern California, Division B, in 2011 and “SoCal Insider” won the same award in 2012 and 2013.

Andrew (Andy) Horowitz is a twenty-year telecommunications entrepreneur and founder of Office Telephone Management (OTM), a Southern California telecom company he started in 1983 to provide voice and data services to tenants of multi-tenant commercial office buildings.  After selling the business in 1995, Mr. Horowitz joined the National Cost Reduction Strategy practice of Deloitte and Touche in 1997 where he managed its telecommunications unit until the practice was sold to a group of outside investors at the end of 1999. Since then, Andy has pursued an assortment of domestic and international telecommunications consulting engagements, mentoring activities, and investment opportunities involving local telecom and other startup companies.  Today, Andy spends most of his time mentoring social entrepreneurs and promoting educational reform in Orange County.  He was a founding member of Innovators OC, a nonprofit that invests in individuals in Orange County working in innovative ways to create self-sustaining enterprises that address social and community problems.

Pete Neumann has spent the last 17 years advising a Western Colorado real estate development firm with the acquisition, development and disposition of over one million square feet of retail, industrial and office properties. During the same time frame the firm constructed more than 1,000 residential lots and 750 manufactured homesites. Development clients included Natural Grocers by Vitamin Cottage a publicly traded specialty grocer headquartered in Denver Colorado, with 160+ locations, EOS Fitness a 100+ location fitness chain, Los Alamos National Laboratory and GE Oil and Gas. Prior to this position, he spent almost 18 years in the Banking industry as a commercial and private banker. He has owned and operated several businesses, in the publishing industry, human resources and automotive services. He spent time on the board of Habitat for Humanity, Home Builders Association, and Montrose Economic Development Corp.

Marshall Kaplan, Advisor Merage Foundations and El Sol Science and Arts Academy; formally Dean of Graduate School of Public Affairs, Univ. of Colorado; senior staff or advisor to 3 Presidential Administrations (Kennedy, Nixon, Carter) on urban policy and poverty; housing consultant to Don Bren, Mission Viejo; coauthor with California home builder, Edward Eichler, of Community Builders, co- developed first city of Irvine, cash flow analysis; National awards on Sustainability ( Univ, of Colorado) and civic leadership ( American Jewish Committee; Author of several books on urban issues and development ( MIT, Berkeley, Duke Presses) and many articles published by diverse national journals.

Gaddi Vasquez was the 8th United States Ambassador to the United Nations Agencies for Food and Agriculture, in Rome, Italy. He was nominated by President George W. Bush and unanimously confirmed by the United States Senate. Vasquez was the first person of Hispanic ancestry to head the Peace Corps.