Presidio School of Management has assembled a committed, passionate team of leaders to collaboratively build and manage our innovative MBA, MPA and Executive Certificate programs in Sustainable Management. The team consists of university administrators, leaders in sustainable business organizations and non-profit agencies, and a wide array of professionals from diverse fields.

Administration | Board of Directors | Advisory Board

Seyed M. Amiry, Presidio President and CEO, is the former dean of the School of Technology at Golden Gate University. Seyed is a graduate of West Coast University and participated in the MBA program of Cal State University at Los Angeles. He has been president and CEO of Core Microsystems in San Jose, CA, and for four years was Chief Operating Officer of the 13-campus system of Heald College in San Francisco. With wide financial and IT experience, he has also been Executive Vice-President and CFO of Tri-Valley Growers and COO/CFO of California Gold Dairy Products.

Eva Auchincloss, Board Chair, was Associate Publisher of a women's sports publishing company and Founding Executive Director of the Women's Sports Foundation, as well as a Principal of Auchincloss & Turner. She was a delegate to the U.S. Olympic Committee and has served on numerous boards, including the Foundation of the California Bar Association, Junior League, Lifeplan Center, Lifeprint Career Center, and the International Diplomacy Council of San Francisco. She holds a B.A. from Vassar College.

Kathye Citron, Board First Vice-Chair, has hosted a Gourmet Food Radio Show and founded a highly successful gourmet catering business. She has also served as Executive Director of the Career Planning Center in Southern California, expanding its services and income more than twelve-fold in seven years. She was a Project Manager for Los Angeles County and West Coast Manager for Fine Arts Expositions, and also President and C.E.O. of Lifeprint Career Center in San Francisco. She earned her B.A. from UCLA.

Margot Fraser is the founder of Birkenstock Footprint Sandals, Inc., now in its fourth decade as the major U.S. distributor of Birkenstock footwear. Raised in Germany, she started the business after discovering the comfortable contoured cork footwear in Bavaria. Her vision for the future of Birkenstock is for it to remain a people-oriented company that honors the participation and contribution of each employee.

Lee F. Gotshall-Maxon, J.D., is an attorney specializing in real estate transactions with Allen Matkins Leck Gamble & Mallory. A graduate of Dartmouth College (cum laude) and Hastings College of the Law (Order of the Coif, Hastings Law Journal), he was with the law firm Lillick & Charles for 20 years, where he was also a Partner. He has served as board president of the Volunteer Center of Marin and San Francisco Hospitality House, and as a director of the San Francisco Legal Aid Society.

Richard M. Gray, Ph.D., Founder and Board Secretary, holds the B.A. (Phi Beta Kappa) from Bucknell University, the M. Div. (summa cum laude) from San Francisco Theological Seminary, and the Ph.D. from the University of California Berkeley. He was with N.W. Ayer, a national advertising agency, for 16 years, and was Ayer's Detroit Creative Director. As founding president of World College West, Dr. Gray raised $13 million in 15 years to establish the college and build its environmentally designed 200-acre campus.

Jeff Hamaoui, managing partner of Origo, Inc., is a graduate of Swansea University with a Master's degree from London University. The founder of Origo Social Enterprise Partners, he has been a leader in the field of social enterprise, focusing on economic growth, ecological balance, and social progress. He helped establish the AVINA Foundation in Spain to invest in sustainable development projects there and has lived and conducted business in more than a dozen countries.

Lizbeth Hasse, J.D., Board Treasurer, is Senior Partner of Creative Industry Law Group, with an international practice in intellectual property, business, media, entertainment, and constitutional law. A former Fulbright Professor of Law at the University of Paris, she is a magna cum laude graduate of Wesleyan University (Phi Beta Kappa) who also holds the M.A. degree in Jurisprudence & Social Policy from U.C. Berkeley and the J.D. degree from Boalt Hall Law School at U.C. Berkeley.

Elliot Hoffman, a Bay Area business and community leader for 30 years, was the co-founder (with his wife Gail Horvath) and CEO of Just Desserts, a leading model of business and social responsibility, locally and nationally, operating eleven stores and serving 600 wholesale accounts. His B.S. degree is from New York University. Winner of many business awards, he is currently the Co-Founder and CEO of New Voice of Business.

Walter Link, M.B.A., is a former partner of B. Grimm, a 125-year-old South-East Asian Industrial Group with roots in his native Europe. He studied business administration, economics, law, and political science at the University of Geneva. Currently an investor and venture capitalist, he was also the co-founder of the Social Venture Network in Europe (SVN Europe) and of EMPRESSA, a Corporate Social Responsibility network in Latin America, the Caribbean, and North America.

Judy Lipsett is a graduate of Sarah Lawrence College who has also studied at U.C. Berkeley and San Francisco State University. Membership Director and Special Events Coordinator for 8 years of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, she organized the first Bay Bridge Run. She later co-founded, with two partners, a public relations and events management company. She has served on the boards of LifePlan Center, Friends of Langley-Porter, and LifePrint, a career counseling center.

Amy McCombs is a Chief Executive and business leader with broad based experience in the information media, financial service, higher education and nonprofit sectors. She was the President and CEO of Chronicle Broadcasting, and was the President and CEO of Heald College in San Francisco. Ms. McCombs holds a M.A. in Journalism and B.A. degrees in both Journalism and Political Science from the University of Missouri. She continued her education at the Senior Executive Program of Graduate School of Business at Stanford University and the National Association of Broadcasters General Management Program at Harvard University. Ms. McCombs resides in San Francisco.

Susan Orenstein is a student member of the Board. She is a seasoned writer making a career shift to focus on sustainability and is currently in her second year at Presidio. Susan has worked professionally on sustainability projects for such organizations as the Gap Foundation (part of Gap Inc.) and the New Voice of Business. She spent last summer working for a leading social enterprise focused on creating green collar jobs and helping people move out of poverty. Before returning to school, Susan worked as a journalist for national publications, including the New York Observer, the San Jose Mercury News, the Industry Standard, and Business 2.0. She is especially passionate about helping organizations clarify their strategies and tell their stories in new and compelling ways.

Hugo Steensma, Board Second Vice-Chair, is a Director of Sustainable Asset Management USA, a company with a unique research and investment focus on corporate sustainability. During his 27 years in corporate banking he started and managed three banks, including Rabobank's entry into the U.S. and a joint venture for Bank of America in The Netherlands. He is a graduate of Nyenrode Business Universiteit in The Netherlands and the Harvard Business School / University of Hawaii Advanced Management program. Mr. Steensma is on the board of several for profit and not-for-profit organizations.

Steven L. Swig, J.D., Co-founder and President Emeritus, is a graduate of the University of Oregon and the University of Santa Clara School of Law. Formerly with the Law Office of Joseph Alioto, he was Partner and Managing Director of Titchell, Maltzman & Mark; Executive Vice-President of Swig, Weiler & Dinner Development Co.; and Counsel with Howard, Rice, Nemerovski, Canady, Falk & Rabkin. He has served on many boards including the University of Oregon, ACLU and ACT.

Jørgen Vos, M.B.A. is a graduate member of the Board. He is the Director of Sustainability Analytics at Natural Logic and founder of Sustainability Planning Partners, creator of Footprint Scanner™. He has also been Manager of Product Marketing for Cisco Systems, as well as a founding team member of Global Footprint Network, Biomass Energy Corp., Eco-Leaf and LiveNeutral. He earned a Master's degree in Electrical Engineering from Eindhoven University in the Netherlands, and an M.B.A. from Presidio School of Management.

back to top