Board Members

Sharon Dhall leads the development and execution of the Institutional Financial Services (IFS) modernization roadmap across the Operations and Technology organizations at TIAA to outline how the company will develop, automate and transform the infrastructure and key processes for IFS to scale and deliver best-in-class services for plan sponsors and participants. Partnering with TIAA business and technical leadership, Sharon is responsible for rationalizing the platforms and applications that support our overall service processes, and for the development and implementation of our workflow strategy to drive participant and plan sponsor self-service and deliver an improved customer and employee experience. She is also instrumental in the continued progress achieved by the Robotics Center of Excellence and in developing a community of practice to share learnings with her counterparts across the enterprise.

Sharon has more than 20 years of experience and a proven track record of success in technology, operations, business / process transformation, and finance leadership roles. She joined TIAA in 2017 from JPMorgan Chase, where she was Technology CFO/COO for the Corporate Investment Bank division, responsible for $3.6 billion in annual technology spend and the delivery of a $200 million, multi-year efficiency program. Sharon held other technology and process leadership roles of increasing responsibility at JPMorgan, including managing transformational initiatives across the $1 billion banking technology portfolio and driving process re-engineering efforts in the wholesale business. She also spent more than 12 years with General Electric in the GE capital and finance divisions in roles that ranged from project management to chief information officer, where she managed a $25 million IT budget and more than 400 resources.

Sharon has a Bachelors in Information Sciences & Technology from Syracuse University, an Executive MBA from the University of Connecticut, and a Masters in Organization Psychology from Teachers College at Columbia University. She is active in her community, Operation Walk Maryland, several Asian and Women’s Diversity Networks, and Syracuse and JPMorgan alumni groups. She has served as a member of the board of Emma Willard All Girls High School since 2015, and authored a book about information technology in higher education.

Steven A. Elkes serves as the Chief Executive Officer and President at Makeover Solutions, Inc. Steven served as Chief Revenue Officer and an Executive Vice President of Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A) at TheStreet, Inc. (also known as TheStreet.com Inc.) from March 26, 2007 to March 2009. He served as Executive Vice President of Operations and Business Affairs at iVillage Inc., since July 2000 and also served as its Secretary since October 1999. He served as Chief Financial Officer of Ivillage Inc., since June 2004. From April 1999 to July 2000, he served as Senior Vice President of Business Affairs of iVillage Inc. From August 1996 to April 1999, he held various management positions at iVillage, including a Vice President of Business Affairs.

While managing all phases of The Street’s capital raising efforts including private placements, IPO, and secondary offerings used for acquisition purposes, Steven oversaw the strategic implementation and integration of those acquisitions into iVillage. In addition, he managed the public sales process of iVillage to NBC Universal. He is a seasoned executive with more than 20 years of solid experience, he has a stellar record of improving results in varied businesses. He served as Chief Financial Officer of Azoogle (azoogleads.com), where he oversaw the financial, legal and human resources functions in addition to their M&A activities. From August 1993 to August 1996, he served as Vice President Credit and Structured Finance at CNA Insurance Company. From August 1991 to August 1993, he served as Assistant Vice President of CNA Insurance Company. Steven received his M.B.A. from Baruch College and his B.A. from Grinnell College.

As co-founder and member of the board of directors for Ripcord, Alex Fielding is responsible for the leadership, vision and execution of the company. Fielding started his career as an engineer at Cisco Systems and Apple, where he worked on multiple generations of MacOS, PowerBook, Network Server and was part of the first iMac team. Shortly after departing Apple, he worked at Exodus Communications with Ellen Hancock, Exodus’S CEO who was Apple’s former CTO.

He co-founded Wheels of Zeus with Apple’s co-founder Steve Wozniak in 2001, which was sold to Zontrak in 2006. Alex was Chief Technology Officer, Federal Government at Power Assure and then Vice President at Vigilent before starting Ripcord. Alex sits on the Board of Directors of The Institute for the Study of Knowledge Management in Education (ISKME), is a Board Member of the Code Warriors Foundation and is a founding member of Singularity University.

Marshall (Mike) Smith Senior fellow at the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching
Years served: 2010-2016 | More About: Linkedin

Greg Anderson Dean and Associate Professor, Morgridge College of Education
Years served: 2010-2013 | More About: Temple University

Mary Furlong President, Mary Furlong and Associates
Years served: 2008-2012 | More About: Linkedin

Lance Izumi Senior Fellow, Pacific Research Institute for Public Policy
Years served: 2006-2015 | More About: Linkedin

Xiaonan (Shawn) Cao Senior Education Specialist, Education Global Practice, World Bank
Years served: 2005-2010 | More About: World Bank Blogs

Linda Powell, Ph.D. Senior Fellow, Research Center for Leadership in Action,
Wagner School of Public Service, New York University
Years served: 2002-2006 (Founding Board Member) | More About: Richmond Times-Dispatch