Moneythink Announces New Board Members

OAKLAND, Calif., Aug. 26, 2019 Moneythink is thrilled to announce the election of two new members to its Board of Directors, Patrice Berry and Gary Pelissier.

Moneythink's CEO, Joshua Lachs, stated, "Patrice and Gary are going to be tremendous assets for Moneythink. They will add a lot to our already strong Board culture as each of them bring unique and diverse experiences, expertise, and networks that will significantly help shape our organizational growth and impact. Our entire organization - Board and staff - is excited to welcome them to Moneythink and get to work!" Greg Nance, Moneythink's Board Chair, echoed the sentiment, adding, "We are delighted to welcome Patrice Berry and Gary Pelissier to Moneythink's Board. Our mission is to help build a more inclusive economy and Patrice and Gary are both exceptionally well equipped to contribute and lead in our next chapter."

Patrice Berry: For over a decade, Patrice Berry has cultivated public-private partnerships to design initiatives that continue to help hundreds of students tackle such barriers in their pursuit of postsecondary education and careers. Today, as a FUSE Corps Executive Fellow in Oakland's Office of Mayor Libby Schaaf, she is building a college affordability strategy for the city that emphasizes the importance of cross-sector collaboration, technology and early preparation for diverse postsecondary options. Before joining the Mayor's Office, Patrice was the Director of College Track East Palo Alto, where her team helped grow the 4- ear college acceptance rate to 100%, and the 4- year college matriculation rate to 93%. Prior to College Track, she held leadership roles at Upward Bound, the Netter Center for Community Partnerships, and Leaders of Change, a social entrepreneurship program that she co-founded that helps prepare first generation and low-income students for success in college and in their careers. Patrice earned her BA in political science from Swarthmore College and holds an MEd from the University of Pennsylvania's Graduate School of Education, where she was a Woodrow Wilson-Rockefeller Brothers Fund fellow. She serves on the Board for the Prison University Project and is a member of NationSwell Council. "When tech is student-inspired and data-driven, it looks like Moneythink," Patrice stated. "And what we get is sound information and guidance placed directly in the hands of young adults - where they can truly own it; this is the ultimate empowerment. As someone for whom education access is so deeply personal, I'm thrilled to join the Moneythink movement as a board member and I'm excited to get to work."

Gary Pelissier: Gary Pelissier's mission is to use finance to preserve the American Dream. After starting his career in Public Finance investment banking at Morgan Staney, he worked for several years at Social Finance US, helping raise funds and scale data-driven national nonprofits via social impact bonds. After Social Finance, Gary has helped build the strategy to support rapid growth at several scaling fintech companies. He currently works at Stripe on the Finance and Strategy team, supporting Stripe's mission in building the infrastructure to increase the GDP of the Internet and support global entrepreneurs. Prior to Stripe, Gary led the Strategic Finance team at SoFi where he worked to increase access to financial products (student loan refinancing, personal loans, mortgage, banking, and asset management). Gary graduated from Harvard College magna cum laude and holds an MBA from Stanford's Graduate School of Business. On joining Moneythink's Board, he stated "College affordability is one of our generation's most difficult problems. Moneythink has a proven scalable solution to address that problem, and I am energized and inspired by the opportunities that lie ahead."

About Moneythink:
Founded in 2008, Moneythink's goal is to dramatically increase the number of first-generation and low-income students graduating with post-secondary degrees with little to no financial burden - empowering those who have been traditionally underserved. We tackle the student debt issue up front. Moneythink specifically designs for Pell-grant eligible high school seniors with plans to pursue higher education. Through our current virtual technology enabled coaching program, we provide direct, high- touch, personalized college advising and financial guidance to students over the course of 15 months, beginning when they enter 12th grade through their first semester of college. Our students receive direct advising and support whenever and wherever they need us most along the college matriculation process: FAFSA completion; college fit and matching; financial aid award letter comparison; and personal financial planning after enrollment. We are reimagining personalized, integrated, student-centered college affordability advising at scale; and with our next- generation product tools our vision is to empower over one million students by 2027, helping them avoid unnecessary debt while preparing them to succeed in college and beyond.

SOURCE Moneythink