Board of Advisors

Russ Ball

Russ is Chief Executive Officer at Wind River Holdings, a private investment company that manages businesses in manufacturing, services, real estate and other industries. Russ is a board member of the United National Group, The Haverford School, and the Boys and Girls Club of America. Russ earned a B.A. from Harvard University, where he was an All-American and captain on the varsity squash team. A resident of Philadelphia, Russ plays squash regularly and is a supporter of SquashSmarts.

Bruce Brickman

Bruce is Principal and co-Founder of Brickman, which invests in transitional office buildings in six major markets. Bruce has over 30 years of experience in a broad array of real estate investments, including the development, acquisition, and management of office and residential properties. Bruce was an original board member of StreetSquash Harlem, the country’s second urban squash program. Bruce earned a B.A. from Middlebury College and a J.D. from Fordham Law School.

Samuel Chu

Sam is the co-founder, Managing Partner and Chief Investment Officer of Phoenix Property Investors, an independent private equity real estate firm that focuses on first-tier Pan-Asian markets. Previously, Sam worked in investment banking in Hong Kong, New York, Frankfurt, and Tokyo. Sam graduated from Georgetown University and earned an M.B.A from The University of Chicago. Sam is an active supporter of Brooks School, the boarding school in Massachusetts which is partnered with SquashBusters and from which he graduated. Sam’s son, Janson, attends high school in New Hampshire and is a volunteer for SquashBusters.

Ned Edwards

Ned is Vice President of Development at Park America, a parking management company based in Philadelphia. A former world No. 2 hardball squash player, Ned captained the U.S. national team and won numerous professional titles, including the North American Open. Ned earned his M.A. in public health from Columbia University and his B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania, where he was an All-American and captain of the varsity squash team. Ned later returned to the University of Pennsylvania to coach the men’s varsity squash team. Ned is a member of the U.S. Squash Hall of Fame and joined US Squash in 2017 as the Executive Director of the Arlen Specter US Squash Center.

Evan Goldberg

Evan is a co-founder of NetSuite, a cloud business software company established in 1998. In 2016, NetSuite was acquired by Oracle, and Evan continues to oversee the NetSuite division of Oracle as the merged company’s Executive Vice President of Development. Before founding NetSuite, Evan spent eight years at Oracle, where he rose to the level of vice president. Evan holds a B.A. from Harvard University. In 2018, Evan co-founded Squash Zone, a community squash facility in Redwood City, CA, which is the home of Squash on Track, an urban squash program serving children from public and charter schools. Evan is also a co-founder of the Oracle-Netsuite Open, one of the largest professional squash tournaments in the country, which is held every fall on a glass court next to the Ferry Building in San Francisco. Evan is the board chair of the BRCA Foundation, which works to prevent and cure BRCA cancers, is on the board of the V Foundation for cancer research, and is a Trustee of Crystal Springs Uplands School.

Jennifer Holleran

Jen has spent over two decades in education, initially as a teacher and principal. After a decade in the classroom and school leadership, Jen worked in Oakland Unified School District to create small schools and to train their principals. Jen was the founding executive director of the Bay Area region of New Leaders for New Schools, which attracts, trains and supports principals to dramatically improve district and charter schools that serve low income communities in Oakland and the Bay Area. Jen was also a consultant – first for McKinsey & Company, and then independently for foundations focused on leadership in urban schools. She launched and led Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan’s education philanthropy in its first five years, initially in Newark then in the Bay Area. Jen holds an MBA from Yale, and a B.A. and M.Ed. from Harvard, where she was a national champion on the squash team. She is a Pahara/Aspen Institute fellow in the Entrepreneurial Leaders for Public Education Fellowship and a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network. Jen is or has served on the boards of Phillips Exeter Academy, Newark Charter School Fund, the National Academy of Advanced Teacher Education (NAATE) and The Braven Accelerator. Jen lives in Boston.

Jeff Laikind

Jeff spent his career working primarily in asset management and was a managing director at such firms as Shikiar Asset Management, Prudential Securities Asset Management, and Furman Selz Asset Management. Jeff’s numerous corporate directorships have included Riversource Mutual Funds and the American Progressive Insurance Company. Jeff has served on the boards of such nonprofits as Harlem School for the Arts, Choate Rosemary Hall, and StreetSquash, where for eleven years he served as the founding chair of SEA’s second oldest member program. Jeff also served as the general chairman of Maccabi USA and represented the U.S.A. as a squash player in the international Jewish athletic competition. Jeff earned a B.A. from Cornell University and an M.B.A. from New York University. He lives in Westport, CT, and New York City and plays squash regularly.

Steve Mandel

Steve is Managing Partner of Lone Pine Capital LLC, an investment firm based in Greenwich, Connecticut that he founded in 1997. Previously, Steve worked at Tiger Management, Goldman Sachs, and Mars & Co. Steve serves on the boards Teach For America and Dartmouth College, and is a founder of the Zoom Foundation and the Lone Pine Foundation. Steve earned a B.A. from Dartmouth College, where he played on the varsity squash team, and an M.B.A. from Harvard University. Steve and his family are longtime supporters of the country’s urban squash programs, including SquashBusters, CitySquash, and Squash Haven.

Bart Osman

Bart is a Partner of Lexington Partners primarily engaged in the origination, evaluation and management of equity co-investments. Prior to joining Lexington in 1998, Bart was a director of acquisitions and investments at Reuters America and an analyst in investment banking at Merrill Lynch. Bart graduated from Dartmouth College and earned an M.B.A. from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth. Bart plays squash and is a supporter of CitySquash, where his children volunteer as squash coaches.

John Palfrey

John is President of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, one of the nation’s largest philanthropies with assets of approximately $7 billion. Prior to joining the MacArthur Foundation, John served as the Head of School at Phillips Academy Andover for seven years. Previously, John served as the Henry N. Ess III Professor of Law and Vice Dean for Library and Information Resources at Harvard Law School, as well as the executive director of Harvard’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society. John also worked at Ropes & Gray, where he focused on intellectual property, Internet law, and private equity transactions. He also served as a Special Assistant at the U.S.Environmental Protection Agency during the Clinton administration. John earned a B.A. from Harvard College, where he was captain of a national championship squash team, and graduate degrees from the University of Cambridge and Harvard Law School. John serves as Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Knight Foundation and LRNG, and as a board member of the Data + Society Research Institute, School Year Abroad, and the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University. An active squash player, John is a longtime supporter of SquashBusters, which is partnered with and holds regular practices at Phillips Academy.

Jim Piereson

Jim is a Manhattan Institute Senior Fellow and Director of the Institute’s Center for the American University. Previously, Jim was the executive director and trustee of the John M. Olin Foundation. Jim is president of the William E. Simon Foundation, chairman of the selection committee for the VERITAS Fund for Higher Education, and a board of visitors member of Pepperdine University’s School of Public Policy. Jim is the author of many scholarly works, including Camelot and the Cultural Revolution: How the Assassination of John F. Kennedy Shattered American Liberalism and The Inequality Hoax.

Brian Roberts

Brian is Chairman and CEO of Comcast Corporation, the umbrella company of Comcast Cable and NBCUniversal. Brian is a member of the Business Roundtable and served on the President Obama’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness. Brian is the recipient of the Ambassador for Humanity Award from the USC Shoah Foundation Institute for his leadership and philanthropic work in education and technology. Brian earned a B.A. from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, where he was an All-American on the varsity squash team. Brian has represented the United States five times in the Maccabiah Games in Israel and is a longtime supporter of the country’s urban squash programs, including SquashSmarts in Philadelphia and CitySquash in the Bronx. Brian is a resident of Philadelphia.

Franco Tapia

Franco is a Portfolio Manager at Capital Group in New York. Previously, Franco was a co-portfolio manager of the U.S Income & Value team managing over $60 billion in AUM at BlackRock. At BlackRock, Franco was also the Co-Director of Research managing a team of twenty investment analysts. Franco graduated from Harvard University and earned an M.B.A from The Wharton School at University of Pennsylvania. Franco is a longtime volunteer at and previously served as a mentor for CitySquash. 

Andy Walter

Andy is a Managing Member and co-founder of Granger Management Holdings in New York. Previously, Andy was a principal at Select Equity Group and Blue Orchid Capital. Andy founded and served as co-chair of the Steamboat Foundation, served on the board of Eugene Lang College at New School University, and is a member of the leadership council of No Kid Hungry. A longtime supporter of SquashBusters, StreetSquash, and CitySquash, Andy earned a B.A. from Harvard University, where he was an All-American and captain of the varsity squash team.