About Us - Advisory Board

John Bothamley

John Bothamley is an investor in property development and real estate holdings. He is also an accomplished architect and often designs the properties himself. In 1996 he founded Four Acre Trust, an organization that addresses the root causes of social problems by supporting charities that provide positive opportunities for youth. John strongly believes that foundations should build relationships with recipient operating charities and that they should work together to help people improve their lives.

Robin Richards Donohoe

Robin Richards Donohoe has over fourteen years of experience in international venture capital as the General Partner of Draper International and Draper Richards venture funds. She and her partner, Bill Draper, gave a three year grant to Room to Read during its critical start up phase through the Draper Richards Foundation. She has personally funded libraries, computer labs and girls scholarships in Nepal and India.

Rob Flaherty

Rob Flaherty is President and a Senior Partner of Ketchum, the global public relations firm with 70 offices and affiliates worldwide. Mr. Flaherty serves on the agency's Worldwide Executive Committee, is Managing Director of the firm's Global Corporate Practice and is responsible for the agency's Global Research Network. As a client counselor, Mr. Flaherty's areas of specialization are corporate positioning and issues management. He has helped companies prepare for and respond to challenging situations ranging from product liability and airline accidents to data security and anti-trust litigation. Mr. Flaherty is on the board of the Institute for Public Relations and serves on the Agency Management Committee of the Council of Public Relations Firms. He is an accredited member of the Public Relations Society of America and is also on the board of the Economic Crime Institute, which focuses on research and solutions to address cyber crime and identity theft. Mr. Flaherty joined Ketchum in 1989 after five years at Burson-Marsteller in New York, where he was vice president/group manager. Prior to that, he was director of public relations for the F.X. Matt Brewing Company in Utica, New York.

Dr. Cory Heyman

Cory Heyman is Vice President and Deputy Director of the Academy for Educational Development’s Center for Gender Equity where he leads the conceptualization and implementation of the Center’s business development activities. Having worked at the nexus of public, private, and non-profit sectors for more than 17 years, Cory has managed large-scale educational projects in the United States, Latin America, Eastern Europe, the Middle East, South Asia, and southern Africa. He has served as a professional staff member in the United States Senate, Executive Director of the Potomac Regional Education Partnership, and President of Surya Associates International, an educational consulting firm. As a specialist in applied quantitative and qualitative research methods, Cory's research and project work has focused on strategies to increase access to quality educational opportunities for disadvantaged children in developing countries. Cory received a B.A. and M.A. degrees in Public Policy from the University of California, Berkeley, and has a Ph.D. in Sociology from Johns Hopkins University. Cory is the author of more than 20 academic and professional publications and has been advising Room to Read on Monitoring and Evaluation design for the past four years.

Ernest G. Ludy

Ernest Ludy founded Medstat Systems in 1981 and served as its Chairman and CEO until 1995, when it was acquired by Thomson Corporation. Currently, he invests in and advises early stage healthcare companies through EGL Investments, LLC. Ernie also serves on the Board of Directors of Wellmark Blue Cross Blue Shield of Iowa, on the National Health Council's Advisory Commission on Patient-Centered Care, and on the Leadership Advisory Council of the University of Michigan's Life Sciences Institute. The Ludy Family Foundation has made a long term commitment to fund the growth of Room to Read's educational programs throughout the developing world.

Melissa J. Ma

Melissa J. Ma is Co-Founder and Managing Director of Asia Alternatives, an Asian private equity fund-of-funds. With offices in Hong Kong, Beijing, and San Francisco, Asia Alternatives has over $2 billion assets under management and invests across Asia in local fund managers. Asia Alternatives is a corporate partner of Room to Read. Previously, Melissa was a Director at Hellman & Friedman, a leading US private equity firm, and has also worked at McKinsey & Co., Inc. in Hong Kong and San Francisco. Melissa holds a M.B.A. with Distinction and a B.A. in Economics and East Asian Studies, magna cum laude, from Harvard. She also serves on the Board of Trustees for the Asian Art Museum and the Half the Sky Foundation (dedicated to improving the lives of orphans in China).

Patte McDowell

Patte McDowell is a former trading, sales and marketing executive with the Charles Schwab Corporation. She is the Founder and Board Chair of the Cloud 9 Foundation and an early supporter of Room to Read's work. Patte has participated in three Room to Read country visits, endowed three schools in Vietnam, and is an enthusiastic supporter of the Girls' Education program. She recently joined the Board of Hospice of Marin.

David Monk

David Monk is an economist with NERA Economic Consulting, a unit of Oliver Wyman Group, where he focuses primarily on the economics of health care. Dave testified at the DOJ/FTC Joint Hearings on Health Care and Competition Law and Policy and has spoken on hospital reform in New York State. For the past seven years, he has been a pro bono expert witness on behalf of homeless families in New York City. Dave has also been a Board Member for a Virginia-based not-for-profit providing affordable housing and social services to limited income individuals in the metropolitan Washington DC area. He currently serves on Oliver Wyman Group's Pro Bono Committee. The firm is partnering with three non-profits striving to improve socioeconomic conditions in developing regions - Room to Read, Acumen Fund, and Women's World Banking - and has committed a team of consultants to work with Room to Read on long-term planning and global operational issues.

M.R. Rangaswami

M.R. Rangaswami co-founded Sand Hill Group LLC, and has been a strategic advisor to fast-growing technology companies. He has held global VP marketing positions at Baan and Oracle Corporation. M.R. was profiled on the front page of the Wall Street Journal and was named in Forbes' "Midas 100 List" as one of the most influential investors in technology. He holds an MBA from Kent State University and a bachelor's degree from the University of Madras.

Dr. Carol Knuth Sakoian

Dr. Carol Knuth Sakoian has served for 14 years as Scholastic Inc.'s Vice President of International Business Development. She focuses on emerging market opportunities for Scholastic in developing countries, currently specializing in Africa and the Middle East. Prior to joining Scholastic, she was an International Negotiations Representative for Conoco, Inc. and worked on oil exploration and production acquisitions in politically challenging countries. She has helped Room to Read obtain culturally appropriate low-cost books and donations from several Scholastic companies and assisted with Room to Read's strategy for publishing local language/English bilingual books.

Tim Wood

Tim Wood specializes in applying information technology to address the problems of poverty and health in developing countries. After 12 years at Microsoft working on software development, Tim spent two years working with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, where he defined the Information Technology Strategy for their Global Health Program and reviewed grant proposals. He joined the Grameen Foundation in 2002 to focus on replicating the Grameen Village Phone program. Tim brings a broad range of technical and business expertise, and a valued pragmatic perspective on projects for developing countries.

Melody Zavala

Melody Zavala is Director of The Asia Foundation's Books for Asia program, the Foundation's longest running program. She has been with The Asia Foundation since 1991 in various capacities, mainly working on projects involving Russia and Central Asia. Before joining The Asia Foundation, Melody worked for Catholic Relief Services (CRS) as the country director in Vladivostok, Russia (1990-1992). Prior to CRS in Russia, she was based in Kolkata where, as the CRS project manager, she collaborated with partners on emergency relief and long term development projects in 12 states in northeastern India. Melody's primary focus is to ensure Room to Read's partnership with The Books for Asia Program runs smoothly and allows us to jointly ship over 100,000 books to Asia each year.