Steve Barr – Founder and Chair Emeritus
Marco Petruzzi – President and Chief Executive Officer
Cristina de Jesus – Chief Academic Officer
Ken Zeff – Chief Operating Officer
Sabrina Ayala – Chief Financial Officer
Megan Quaile – Vice President of Education
Peter Kilmarx – Vice President of Human Resources
Emily Vaughn Henry – Vice President of Information Technology
Steve Barr – Founder and Chair Emeritus
See bio under Board of Directors.
Marco Petruzzi – President and Chief Executive Officer
Marco Petruzzi is the Chief Executive Officer of Green Dot Public Schools. He originally joined Green Dot as President and Chief Operating Officer in January 2007, and was promoted to CEO in October 2008, succeeding Green Dot Founder Steve Barr, who remains Chairman of The Board. During Marco's tenure, Green Dot won Los Angeles School Board approval to rejuvenate Locke High School in Watts and began operating it in fall 2008, re-structuring it into eight smaller, college-prep schools. Green Dot also established itself as a leading agent of reform, creating a world-class school and instructional leadership model as well as an efficient central office to support the schools in many areas including accounting, human resources, knowledge management, information technology, and real estate development. The Locke Transformation Project is the realization of Marco's work on Green Dot's Board of Directors, where he served from 2002 until 2006, in which he led a pro bono Bain & Company consulting project to develop a model for the transformation of overcrowded, under-performing urban public schools.
Prior to joining Green Dot, Marco founded r3 school solutions, an organization that provided management and administrative services to charter management organizations. Prior to founding r3 school solutions, he was a Partner at Bain & Company, a global management consulting firm. Marco has fifteen years of consulting experience working with top management of major international groups in corporate and product-market strategy, channel management, pricing strategy, commercial organization, operations, R&D management and supply chain management assignments, in the USA, South America, and Europe. Prior to joining Bain & Company, Marco also worked at McKinsey & Co. and for Enichem Americas, a petrochemical trading company based in New York. Marco earned a B.S. in Industrial Engineering at Columbia University, where he also earned an M.B.A. He has extensive international experience, having lived in six different countries, and is fluent in English, Spanish, Portuguese and Italian. Marco, an active community member, is married and has two children, both attending public schools. He is also the Venice chapter president of the Los Angeles Parents Union.
Cristina de Jesus - Chief Academic Officer
Cristina de Jesus is Green Dot's Chief Academic Officer. She currently oversees all academic programs, curriculum development, training programs for administrators and teachers, human resources, operations, and security. She previously served for two years as Vice President of Curriculum and Instruction, and for four years as the founding principal at Ànimo Inglewood Charter High School, Green Dot's second school. Prior to joining Green Dot, Cristina was an English and History teacher for seven years in the Santa Monica/Malibu School District. While in Santa Monica, she earned National Board Certification in Early Adolescent/English Language Arts. She has earned a Masters of Education, a Masters of Education Administration, and recently earned her doctorate in Educational Leadership from UCLA.
Ken Zeff – Chief Operating Officer
Ken Zeff is the Chief Operating Officer of Green Dot Public Schools. He previously served as Chief Operating Officer of ICEF Public Schools, a charter management organization that serves disadvantaged students in south Los Angeles. Previously Ken had been appointed as a Senior Consultant for Policy Development in the Office of the Secretary at the U.S. Department of Education. In that role, he worked primarily on the Administration's blueprint for No Child Left Behind reauthorization. Ken was also awarded a White House Fellowship which he spent at the White House Office of Management and Budget. Before his time in Washington, Ken worked for the Superintendent of San Diego City Schools as a Broad Resident where he managed the campaign for universal preschool access for all four year olds in the district. As a manager at Deloitte Consulting, he led process redesign, strategic planning, and financial management projects for Fortune 500 companies. Ken also took a leave of absence from Deloitte to create computer learning centers in the inner city of Seattle as a member of AmeriCorps*VISTA. Ken received his BA in Economics from the University of Michigan and his MBA from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.
Sabrina Ayala – Chief Financial Officer
Sabrina Ayala is the Chief Financial Officer of Green Dot Public Schools and is responsible for managing all financial aspects, including financial strategy, budgets, cash management, accounts receivables, accounts payable, facility financing and purchasing. She brings to Green Dot ten years of Wall Street experience. Prior to joining Green Dot in 2006, Sabrina was an Institutional Equity Trader with Merrill Lynch, a Valuation and Compensation Consultant with Stern Stewart & Co. and an Investment Banker with Kidder, Peabody & Co. All were based in New York City. Her areas of expertise include natural resources, cyclical chemical industries, consumer products, REITS and arbitrage. Sabrina, an Eli Lilly Scholar, received her MBA from the Kellogg School of Management in 2002 with majors in Finance and Entrepreneurship. Her Bachelor of Science degree in Finance, with minors in Accounting and Sports Management, is from Northern Illinois University, where she graduated with honors, cum laude and Outstanding Woman Graduate of the Year.
Megan Quaile – Vice President of Education
Megan Quaile became the Vice President of Education in June 2009. She began her career at Green Dot in August 2007 as a Cluster Director responsible for overseeing the leadership teams at the five Jefferson Schools. Before joining Green Dot, Quaile worked as Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of Civitas Schools, the Chicago-based Education Management Organization that operates the two high school and two elementary school campuses serving 2200 students in grades Pre-Kindergarten through 12. Quaile began her work with CICS by serving as the founding principal of CICS Northtown Academy Campus, the first CICS high school opened with a grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Prior to her role with CICS, Quaile served for three years as the principal of an urban private school. Her educational experiences further include positions as Assistant Principal, English Teacher and coach. She has also served as an elected member of the Chicago Archdiocesan High School Leadership Council, President of Women's Schools Together, and administrative representative on DePaul University's Professional Education Council. Quaile has earned a Master's in Education from DePaul University where she is currently completing doctoral work in Educational Leadership.
Peter Kilmarx – Vice President of Human Resources
Peter Kilmarx is Vice President of Human Resources and has been Green Dot's lead Human Resources executive since 2006. He is responsible for compensation, training and development and workforce planning. Prior to that, he was the senior HR executive with Vendare Media, a leading provider of online advertising, for six years. He brings more that twenty years of experience in management and human resources to his role with Green Dot. Peter has a BA in Business Administration from Principia College.
Emily Vaughn Henry – Vice President of Information Technology
Bio coming soon.
