We’re excited to welcome two new board members, Mary Grove and Matt Kilian, who will begin their service at our next board meeting in February!

Mary is managing partner of Bread and Butter Ventures. She also co-founded and serves as executive director of Silicon North Stars, a nonprofit whose mission is to inspire young Minnesotans from economically underserved communities toward futures in tech. Mary spent 15 years at Google, and has been named one of Minneapolis/St Paul Business Journal’s 40 Under 40. Learn more about Mary.

Matt serves as president of the Brainerd Lakes Chamber of Commerce. He brings significant experience in rural philanthropy from the Minnesota Initiative Foundations, where he led fund development and marketing efforts as vice president of external relations. Matt holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in mass communications from St. Cloud State University. Learn more about Matt.

Our board of directors sets the overall direction for our work and is responsible for major strategy and policy decisions. Learn more about how we cultivate our board and the attributes we seek in board members from this 2019 Note from Jen.

As we welcome our new board members, we also express our thanks and gratitude for our departing board members: Jen Alstad, Dr. Eric J. Jolly, Michael Solberg and Curt Johnson.