Mariposa
Team
Shay Girard,
Ms. Girard has spent her entire career in community service. As Managing Director of Mariposa Impact Partners, Ms. Girard sets our mission to serve communities. Ms. Girard oversees our community mission including our relationships with non-profit organizations and ensuring our projects meet their community objectives.
Prior to serving as Managing Director at Mariposa Impact Partners, Ms. Girard served as Director of Development for House of Shine (501c3). House of Shine is a leadership development nonprofit. Their mission is to strengthen communities by growing confident, self-aware and resilient leaders who are equipped with a deep understanding of themselves and why their contributions to the world matter. As Director of Development, Ms. Girard was responsible for raising its operating budget as well as the capital campaign to raise $4M to build a dedicated educational space in Texas. House of Shine trains roughly 100 educators a year and hosts roughly 5,000 students a year with its programs.
Prior to this, Ms. Girard served as Director of Development for Big Brothers Big Sisters Lone Star (501c3), the largest Big Brothers Big Sisters organization in the United States. In this role, she was responsible for raising $4M a year for the operating budget. Big Brothers Big Sisters Lone Star provides mentoring to roughly 1,000 at-risk youth a year. Prior to this, Ms. Girard served as Director of the North Texas Special Needs Assistance Partners (SNAP) (501c3). In this role, she was responsible for both operations and raising capital to fund the $3M annual budget. SNAP runs both community programs and a community home for adults with cognitive disabilities. Ms. Girard began her career by specializing in social work at battered woman shelters in North Texas.
Ms. Girard has a Bachelors in Childhood Development from the Texas Tech University.
James Hickey,
As Managing Director of Mariposa Impact Partners, Mr. Hickey is responsible for operations, and compliance. Mr. Hickey brings a deep background in investments and operations. Mr. Hickey also advises our NMTC recipients on business operations and financing.
In addition to Mariposa Impact Partners, Mr. Hickey serves as CEO of the SEC registered business development company X1 Capital Inc. Prior to this, Mr. Hickey served as Chief Investment Strategist at Avantax, an $80B BD-RIA platform with over 3,000 advisors. Before this, Mr. Hickey oversaw the illiquid investment strategies at the $3B quant investment firm FDO Partners.
Mr. Hickey received his MBA from the University of Pennsylvania – Wharton and his BA from Harvard University. Mr. Hickey is also a CFA Charterholder.
James Leakos,
Mr. Leakos serves as the Program Manager. In this role, Mr. Leakos oversees daily operations. Mr. Leakos also supports our partners with technology consulting.
Prior to this, Mr. Leakos was Director of Analytics at Tracksmith. Before that, Mr. Leakos was a Quantitative Analyst and Developer at the investment firm FDO Partners and Research Associate at Harvard Business School.
Mr. Leakos has a BA from Harvard University.
David Kelly,
Mr. David Kelly is a nationally recognized African-American business leader. Mr. Kelly has 35 years of real estate and capital markets experience. Mr. Kelly has arranged over $50B of financial transactions, developed over $3.5B in real estate assets, including over $600M in public-private partnerships.
Mr. Kelly has also served as the Chairman of the Texas Public Finance Authority for 2002-2006 and Chairman of the Teacher’s Retirement System of Texas for 2009-2017. Mr. Kelly is currently lead independent director of TCW Direct Lending and The Invesco REIT and is a director of Ashton Woods Homes.
Over his career, Mr. Kelly has developed over $3.5B in real estate assets, including over $600M in public-private partnerships.
Mr. Kelly graduated as a John Harvard Scholar in Economics from Harvard College and received an M.B.A from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business.
Stephen Kelts,
Professor Steven Kelts serves as an Advisory Board member. Professor Kelts is a Professor at Princeton University at the School of Public and International Affairs, and is affiliated with the University Center for Human Values (UCHV). He is also an ethics advisor to the Responsible A.I. Institute.
Professor Kelts is dedicated to first-gen and low-income (FGLI) student success. He has been the lead investigator on a UCHV-funded project looking at strategies to encourage FGLI student success at institutions beyond the Ivy League and the ethical obligation of faculty to adopt proven teaching methods. For four years, he was part of a team designing the curriculum for Princeton’s nationally-recognized FGLI program, the Freshman Scholars Institute. He recently published a review in Teaching Philosophy on pedagogy for first-gen students.
In 2020, Kelts banded together with former students at Princeton to found Kalos Academy, an all-volunteer non-profit mentoring FGLI students at colleges up and down the East Coast. Its vital work has been recognized widely, and now Professor Kelts represents Kalos on the Association of Governing Boards of Colleges and Universities’ National Council for Student Success.
Mr. Kelts has his PhD from Stanford University and his BA from Harvard University.
Michael Lessel,
ADVISOR
Mr. Michael Lessel is a nationally recognized leader in community solar development as well as U.S. Military Veteran with almost 20 years of service to the United States. Mr. Lessel is Managing Director of Serra National where he leads their solar development efforts. In particular, Mr. Lessel expertise is working with city and state leaders to develop community projects.
Prior to this Mr. Lessel focused on real estate development, where he focused civic projects, such as the developer for three Dallas County government center projects and a downtown parking garage project. Lessel’s previous roles include national outsourced development manager for Frito-Lay, Inc. and representative of major corporations such as The Walt Disney Company and PepsiCo in more than 400 commercial transactions. He was also responsible for domestic and international development and construction activities at Cushman Realty Corporation, now known as Cushman & Wakefield.
A veteran of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Lessel served as the senior military social aide to President and Mrs. Ronald Reagan for three years. He graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in engineering and economics from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and earned his MBA from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business. He is also a founding member of the Leader’s Circle of the National Library of Congress.
Marlin Smith
Mr. Marlin Smith is a well-regarded business leader in the African-American community. His 501c3 The Include Community Development Corporation developed the concept to convert abandoned warehouses in severely distressed African-American communities to greenhouses. As part of the program, there is a significant investment in training and education – so jobs are both accessible and quality jobs. Beyond education, the program provides sustained jobs (as compared to construction), addresses the nutritional deficit in inner cities due to a lack of fresh organic food, and revitalizes neighborhoods.
Mr. Smith has a BA from Harvard University.
David McMurry,
Mr. McMurry serves as an Advisory Board member for our CDE. Mr. McMurry is leading our efforts to bring access to the arts and agriculture (as well as job opportunities in these sectors) to severely distressed urban communities.
Mr. Murray is the Founder of McMurry & Monroe. McMurry & Monroe is an art investment firm based in Ithaca, NY. Mr. McMurry is very active with the Cornell Cooperative Extension, which is a collaboration between Cornell University’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and Cornell’s College of Human Ecology. From food and nutrition to economic vitality to environmental and social resilience, Cornell Cooperative Extension (CCE) is dedicated to improving lives across New York state. of particular interest to us is CCE’s focus on Urban Agriculture and Farm to School, which engages young people in hands-on learning and empowering school nutrition professionals to promote healthy, local food for school meal program.
Prior to Mr. McMurry’s current employment, Mr. McMurry was an investment professional on Wall Street, including serving as Vice President, Equity Research at Credit Suisse First Boston.
Mr. McMurry has a BA with high honors from Harvard University.