COMMONGOOD SECURITIES - Key Persons
Anya oversees full cycle corporate accounting for the firm and holds an outsourced FinOp position with a 10 year track record in the industry. She supervises overall fiscal responsibility and liquidity management, monitors net capital and ensures compliance with internal controls. She also prepares annual audited financial statements, files FINRA required reports at the BD level, and consolidated financial statements at a holding level. Also, she is the President, and Founder, for both the Wings of Hope Foundation, a 501c3 non-profit organization; and LYNX Principal Solutions, LLC.
Anya has a Bachelor's Degree in Finance with a Minor in Accounting from Ryerson University, and she has earned a CMA Professional Designation along with active licenses Series 27, 7 and 66.
Recently, Anya and her family returned to the DC area after briefly experiencing a slower pace of sunny Hawaiian living. She spends her free time raising her son and daughter, and supporting her hardworking husband. With a little time left to herself she enjoys ballroom dancing and yoga.
Anya oversees full cycle corporate accounting for the firm and holds an outsourced FinOp position bringing a 10 year track record in the industry to the CommonGood team.
Diane serves as the director of operations and has over 20 years of experience working in the non-profit sector. She served as the administrator of a house building organization that provided homes for the impoverished people of southern Ensenada, Mexico while living in San Diego. Diane also has over a decade of experience volunteering and serving on the board of GenerateHope, a nonprofit organization that provides safe housing for survivors of sex trafficking to heal and find restoration. In addition to her work with non-profits, Diane has served as a real estate agent, a legal assistant, and in small-scale property management. However, Diane's primary vocation has been raising her three amazing children, who are her joy and delight.
Following Fortis Green Renewables Green Fund I's investment in the Hydrobox AssetCo in August, Kiamahindu, the 3rd of 8 small hydropower projects in Central Kenya is currently under construction. Hydrobox is an innovative provider of off-grid...
Job Titles:
- Head
- Marketing Consultant
- Marketing Specialist
James is a marketing specialist that has worked in media and advertising for 19 years. A programmer and designer by origin, and a Creative Director, Producer, and Project Manager by experience. He has a degree in the digital arts, and deep experience in digital-based design, web-design and development - as well as all types of digital advertising. James also frequently works offline, creating tangible things such as full brand identities (logo, print materials, etc), ride films, ride concepts, live corporate presentations, government simulations, and much more - for clients big and small. In his free time James enjoys spending time with his son, travel, keeping his pulse on Internet trends and culture, finding and evangelizing interesting movies to his podcast audience, charitable volunteering, and launching creative personal projects.
James serves as marketing consultant and head of content creation. James has 15 years of experience as both an independent marketing consultant and as a corporate creative director.
After graduating from Wheaton College (IL) with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology and Biblical Studies, Jeff married Shelly, his wife of over 20 years. Jeff has always been passionate about the financial industry and has worked with Morgan Stanley and TriLinc (a leading impact investing fund sponsor), while spending the majority of his time, 18 ½ years, with CNL, a leading alternative investment asset manager. Jeff served in multiple senior leadership roles, and as President, led his team in raising nearly $9 billion in capital. During his time at CNL, Jeff earned a Master of Business Administration from Crummer Graduate School of Business at Rollins College (FL) and also holds the Certified Financial Planner and Chartered Financial Consultant designations, as well as FINRA Series 7, 24, 63 and 79 licenses. Today, Jeff is co-founder and CEO of CommonGood Capital where he sets the strategic direction and leads the team day to day on this exciting journey.
Jeff has served on numerous boards including the United Way and Board of Advisors for Crummer Graduate School of Business, Rollins College. Today he serves on the Doug Holliday Ministries Board, NCF Advisory Board, Chair of Elevation Scholar Foundation, Alumni Board of Wheaton College and The Geneva School Board of Directors.
Jeff and Shelly settled in Winter Park, FL in 2004 where they love doing life together, whether around the dinner table, or keeping up with their two children, Ellie and Nick, who are both college-bound shortly. You will often find Jeff reading non-fiction books, cycling, cheering on his beloved Oregon Ducks or tinkering around on their acreage out in the country with the family dog, Calvin, a black and tan coon hound. He also is deeply passionate about men and women who are incarcerated, and one day wants to create an impact fund that benefits both these ex-offenders and investors.
With 25 years of financial services industry experience, Jeff leads business development, distribution, and strategy. He is a Co-Founder, Chief Executive Officer, and sits on the Investment Committee.
Jeff and Jonathan have built an all-star team of professionals, fund partners, managers, educators, and facilitators, and have seen success in the pursuit of this mission. A doubling of participating investors in 2019 over the previous year, a 500% increase in the amount raised over the same period, and this across capital raised for 5 funds and one operating company proves that CommonGood Capital is full steam ahead in its initiative to transform investors, financial markets and the world through the power of stewardship and capital.
CommonGood Capital CEO Jeff Shafer was recently a guest on the Avant-Garde Entrepreneur podcast, chatting with host Trisha Bailey about investment readiness from the impact investor standpoint and the metrics, values, and opportunities impact...
Jonathan Shafer - Chief Investment Officer, Founder
Job Titles:
- Chief Investment Officer
- Co - Founder
- Board Member of World Hope International
- Co - Founder and Chief Investment Officer of CommonGood Capital
Jonathan is Co-Founder and Chief Investment Officer of CommonGood Capital. He is also Co-Founder and Managing Director of CFL Africa Group, a holding company based in Rwanda that acquires, creates, and operates durable companies for the future of the African continent. Prior to CommonGood, Jonathan was Senior Vice President of Operations at CNL, where he directed all operational aspects of CNL's $4 billion alternative investment product line, including both private credit and private equity.
Jonathan spent the seven years prior to joining CNL in West Africa where he invested in and led multiple industrial businesses. During that period, Jonathan served as Managing Director of Africa Felix Juice, a manufacturer of fruit juices for the European market and co-founder of First Step, a 50 acre special economic zone in Sierra Leone focused on attracting manufacturing businesses to the impoverished nation. He also co-founded and served as CFO of Samshi Afrika Ltd., where he secured more than $200 million in investment capital for a greenfield steel mill and captive power plant.
Jonathan began his career in private equity with MCG Capital and Developing World Markets.
Jonathan serves as a board member of World Hope International, a Christian relief and development organization, and also as the Chairman of the Board of First Step Economic Opportunity Zone.
Jonathan holds a Master of Business Administration from the Yale School of Management where he was a recipient of the Henry F. McCance Entrepreneurial Fund Award. He also received a Bachelor's degree Summa Cum Laude in Economics from Loyola University (Chicago).
Jonathan and his family of four recently relocated from their home in Orlando, Florida to Kigali, Rwanda.
With a 15 year background in private equity, operations, and asset management in the US and Africa, Jonathan is a Co-Founder and sits on the Investment Committee.
Job Titles:
- Compliance Consultant
- Director of Compliance
- Director of Operations / Compliance
- Regulatory Compliance Consultant
Michelle is a Regulatory Compliance Consultant and Financial Services Professional with a 13 year proven track record in leading, training and developing effective broker-dealer compliance supervisory policies and procedures. In a previous role, Michelle worked with the Chief Compliance Officer for CNL Securities Corp., a registered broker-dealer, a subsidiary of CNL Financial Group, Inc. (CNL). She assisted in overseeing the regulatory compliance program for the BD, conducted monitoring, surveillance, testing of the controls and regulatory branch office examination. Michelle has a bachelor's degree in Risk Management from Florida State University and holds FINRA Series 7, 24 and 79 licenses.
Michelle serves as the Compliance Consultant, and brings 13 years of compliance experience in the financial services industry, most recently with CNL Securities Corporation.
Job Titles:
- Consultant
- Due Diligence and Investor Relations Consultant
- President of Rachel Smith Consulting, Inc
Rachel Smith is President of Rachel Smith Consulting, Inc. She specializes in real estate and securities due diligence and financial communication. For the past 15 years, she has worked in various capacities within the real estate and securities industry, with a focus on the management of the due diligence process for real estate and credit funds, broker-dealers, and money managers. In her current role as an independent consultant to real estate and securities companies, she works to maximize the effectiveness of the companies' capital market platforms as well as to protect the downside of the real estate investments.
Before Rachel became a consultant, she served for four years as the head of the due diligence team at CNL Financial Group, facilitating the due diligence that broker-dealers performed on the CNL-sponsored funds. During that time, CNL had over $9 billion in assets under management. Prior to that, she was on the acquisitions team for the CNL real estate group and also oversaw investor relations for two opportunistic REITs and ten private placements.
Rachel began her career with SunTrust Bank in 2004 as an underwriter and lender in the bank's commercial real estate group. Her experience at SunTrust taught her to underwrite conservatively to protect the assets in varying economic cycles.
Rachel earned her Bachelor of Science in Finance from the University of Florida in Gainesville, and her MBA, with a concentration in Finance, from the Crummer Graduate School at Rollins College, Orlando. While studying for her MBA, she interned for two years with CNL Realty and Development, and studied abroad in Nottingham, England.
Rachel brings over 15 years of due diligence and investor relations experience to the CommonGood team and specializes in financial services process management.
Job Titles:
- CommonGood Capital 's VP of Investments
- Joins CommonGood As New VP of Investments
- VP of Investments
Stephen's capital markets career began in the hedge fund industry and evolved toward complex and alternative investment analysis for large financial institutions. His latest roles were Director of Due Diligence at two $200 billion+ independent broker/dealer networks, Ladenburg Thalmann and Advisor Group, involving all aspects of investment and operational due diligence. He has presented institutional quality investment and risk analysis on opportunities in commercial and residential real estate, tax-driven special situations, private equity, private debt, and energy in over 100 investment committees in the past decade. He is experienced in the compliance requirements and characteristics of a wide range of investment vehicles including private placements, interval funds, and tax-advantaged structures such as Real Estate Investment Trusts and Business Development Companies. He's performed full cycle due diligence on offerings from The Blackstone Group, L.P., Bain Capital, Warburg Pincus, Brookfield Asset Management, KKR & Co., Apollo Global Management, The Carlyle Group, L.P., and Neuberger Berman, among others. Stephen has authored publications on subjects ranging from SEC and FINRA regulation to investment strategy and advanced engineering applications. He obtained his BA in Economics and MS in Energy & Earth Resources from the University of Texas at Austin. Stephen is a CFA charterholder, long-time participant in the Big Brothers Big Sisters program, and member of the Institute for Portfolio Alternative's Rising Leaders Council.
CommonGood Capital is proud to announce the addition of Stephen Hester to our team. Stephen serves as the VP of Investments. He leads CommonGood's Due Diligence and Investment committee for our Impact Investment Platform. Stephen's capital markets career began in the...
Stephen began in the hedge fund industry and evolved toward complex and alternative investment analysis for large financial institutions. He is a CFA charterholder.