We’ve made some additions to our team at Bellwether, one of which – a fifth partner – I’ll highlight below and several others – two associate partners and an analyst- I’ll post about soon.
But first we’re saying goodbye to three terrific people who were part of our D.C.-based team this summer. Alana Laudone and Rhonda Henderson were Education Pioneers with us working on some internal projects as well as some research, analysis and strategy work. Rhonda, a former teacher in D.C. is heading back to the University of Virginia for her second year in business school. Alana a former consultant among other gigs and also in her second year of B-School at Yale, is off to China for a semester. They’re both outstanding and rising stars to keep an eye on. We’re also saying goodbye to the thoughtful and quite dynamic Jamie Rees. He’s heading back to Harvard for his final year where he’s studying economics. Jamie’s on the Harvard soccer team and you can look for him to be playing professionally here or in Europe next year if we can’t lure him back into the education sector instead. Finally, on the west coast Abby Gillespie, an Education Pioneer data fellow and former North Carolina teacher, is leaving after a year + on our team as part of that fellowship program. Abby worked out of BW’s San Francisco-based team and is another one with a lot of potential. She’s deciding between a few opportunities for what’s next for her but is staying in the education sector.
We’re also really excited to announce the addition of the first non-founding Bellwether partner: Rex Varner. Rex is joining Bellwether this fall, coming from Teach For America where he is Vice President for Strategy, Administration, and Human Assets. A native of West Virginia Rex has worked at McKinsey, the Corporate Executive Board, and is a former Peace Corps Volunteer in Mali. He’ll be working on a few fronts but primarily helping us expand our strategy work further and be based out of our D.C. office.