Apr
17
Wally Hawley, Jeremy Rivera, Karin Stahl
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Wally Hawley, Co-Founder, Interwest Partners
Wally is a co-founder of InterWest Partners (1979) one of the larger venture capital partnerships in the United States. Mr. Hawley’s prior experience includes seven years as president of SHV North America Holding Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of a Netherlands corporation and several years as a consultant with McKinsey and Company in their San Francisco and Amsterdam Offices
He is currently devoting the majority of his time to non-profit (ministry) endeavors.
His present affiliations include:
- Chairman of the Advisory Board of the Stanford Institute of Economic Policy Research, Stanford University
- Guest lecturer at Stanford Business School
- Board of Directors member for Voyager Expanded Learning
- National Board Member of Young Life
- National Board Member of FaithWorks
- Elder, Menlo Park Presbyterian Church
Wally has a B.A. from Stanford University and a M.B.A. from Harvard University.
He has been married to Alexandra Hawley for 37 years. They have two daughters and two grandsons. His hobbies are hiking, fly fishing, and reading.
Wally currently resides in Atherton, California.
Jeremy Rivera, The Door
Jeremy Rivera serves as the founder and teaching pastor of The Door, a ministry of Menlo Park Presbyterian Church that is embracing the post-modern generation on the Peninsula with the gospel of Christ. While finishing up a degree in Finance and International Business from Hawaii Pacific University, Jeremy had originally intended on working in investment banking. He had served a four-year summer internship with the Federal Reserve Bank and had no plans to enter the vocational ministry. However, while surfing in Hawaii, he was struck by Walt Whitman’s striking words, “the powerful play of life goes on and you may contribute a verse.” God revealed to him that his “verse” to the play of life would best be invested by giving his life away to those things that would last for all eternity, Christ and people. Jeremy graduated from International Theological Seminary with an M.A. in Biblical Studies while starting a ministry in Hawaii called The Bridge, which continues to thrive in reaching the next generation with the unchanging gospel. He enjoys playing guitar, fly-fishing, golf and writing.
Karin Stahl, eBay Foundation & Project Faith
Karin Stahl first went to Guatemala in July of 1997 to meet the eight-year-old boy she sponsored through Compassion International. Her life was changed when she went to San Pedro La Laguna on Lake Atitlan and saw the way God was using a Mayan pastor, Emilio Battz to empower the children of his community. With very little money, Pastor Emilio donated his land, the inheritance for his children, to start a Christian School called Colegio Bethel. The school was created not only to teach the shy Mayan children to read and write, but also impress upon them their worth as humans, made in the image of God.
Karin immediately realized though watching the children, that her visit to Guatemala was much more than a short vacation. It was an invitation by Christ to get involved in a dynamic and blessed ministry.
The school appeals to the poor children in the village, and therefore keeps tuition very low, so teachers at Colegio Bethel were being paid 25% of national minimum wage. Karin, committed to raising teacher’s salaries. Karin partnered with Alaskan supporter Joe Lomonaco, who called the project, “Project Faith”, (or Proyecto Fe in Spanish).
Since 1998, Karin has gathered mission teams of individuals to go to the school to work on a variety of projects, including the implementation of a computer center, financial planning courses for the community, make-shift medical clinics and training seminar, construction and more.
As an early employee of the online auction service, eBay, Karin Stahl had access to the executives, and was able to share her vision of empowering this Mayan community. The company donated computers, and as a result of her efforts, they invited her to head up the eBay Foundation. She now dedicates her professional time managing the eBay Foundation, and her volunteer time working on Project Faith.
Karin keeps her roles in these two organizations separate in that the Project Faith ministry is not an official grantee of the eBay Foundation. However, eBay has recently accepted Karin’s proposal to fund an Internet Café in the village, where community members will receive access to computers and the Internet. Proceeds from this business will help fund the school that Project Faith works with.