Development Team

Daniel Ben-Horin, CompuMentor's founder and President, feels very fortunate that his job has evolved over the years (since 1987!) to allow him to spend the bulk of his time trying to think about cool and transformative things that this organization can do in the world. The rest of his time is spent trying to sell these ideas to the people here who will have to implement them and the people outside who we need to convince to partner with us and/or to fund us.

After graduating from college in 1969, Daniel spent 7 years as a journalist (Arizona Republic, New York Times, New Times) in Arizona. It was an important time for him, during which he realized that much as he liked to write and edit, he is more interested in what those skills can be deployed for, specifically in social change. Gradually, his work moved in the direction of becoming an organizer, administrator, fundraiser and what would today be called a social entrepreneur. He worked for Pacific News Service, directed Media Alliance in the early 80's, took a wild swing at writing fiction, took a couple of basic programming classes (Cobol! Yeah!) and, in 1987, founded CompuMentor, with the notion that people who understood technology were an undervalued but potentially tremendous resource for social change organizations.

Daniel married late, at 41, and now, at 57, has two teenage sons, 16 and 13. He is a total jock, both participatory (tennis, skiing) and as a fan (Maysfield). Daniel's wife, Jamie Stobie, is a wonderful documentary filmmaker (Freedom Machines). Daniel has lived on the same corner of SF's Potrero Hill since 1976, but became a homeowner only in 2004. So now, he and Jamie are discovering their inner Martha Stewarts in the garden and tearing up the house. Daniel is also passionate about music (Dylan, Springsteen, Lucinda Williams, Mary Gautier), though he can't carry a tune in a bucket (the kids, on the other hand, are ace musicians; clearly Jamie's genes at work). Daniel loves San Francisco and the Sierra, where he and Jamie have a cabin in MiWuk Village, and hopes his generation can remember its idealistic coming of age and become idealistic elders in the years to come.

Gayle Samuelson Carpentier, CompuMentor's Director of Business Development, gets the fun of helping some of the world's largest technology firms create or expand product donation programs that benefit nonprofits in the US and beyond. Her degree in Journalism actually works as the basis of her sales efforts - she says it's more like interviewing than selling (really!). Gayle is far more interested in learning how to have our vendor partners be engaged and excited about making sure their donation programs are a triple win (for them, for the nonprofit sector and for TechSoup's mission of helping NPO's understand and use technology effectively so they can better achieve their individual missions.) Beyond CompuMentor, Gayle enjoys spending her time improving her cooking skills, improving her way too weedy garden or finding some quiet time to read or walk. Gayle's best fun times are with her family, especially her 10 (almost 11) year old son. Greatest regret - that she's unlikely to ever figure out swimming (at least in this lifetime anyway!)

Bennett is CompuMentor's Director of Institutional Development. He brings with him a rich background in both the non-profit and commercial sectors. He has worked as a grantwriter and fundraiser, program manager, web developer, and technology entrepreneur. Prior to his arrival at CompuMentor in 2001, Bennett gained valuable grassroots experience as Director of Programs and Fund Development at the Richmond District Neigborhood Center in San Francisco, where he managed the highly successful Richmond District After School Collaborative, was a key founder of the Richmond Village Beacon and helped grow the organization's annual budget from $175k/yr to 1.5 million/yr in just a few years. Bennett also functioned as the center's "accidental techie" who built the organization's first Web site. During the dot com boom, Bennett deepened his technical experience as a Web Developer at the popular Web search engine, LookSmart, where he managed a web maintenance team that included a graduate of the OpNet job placement program. After writing a successful buisness plan to secure seed capital, Bennett left LookSmart in 2000 to become a founding partner of Booksellersolutions.com, an open source web development and hosting company that provides bundled e-commerce and inventory management solutions for independent booksellers. Bennett has been with CompuMentor for nearly 4 years and now draws on this entire range of skills and experiences in his current capacity as Director of Institutional Development.

Catherine is the Senior Grantwriter for CompuMentor. Lots of proposals. Lots of grant reports. Before joining CompuMentor, she was a Legislative Analyst for King County in Seattle, Washington. She also worked as a freelance development editor and tech writer for several months before the dot com implosion.

A native San Franciscan, she is happy to once again call The City by The Bay her home after 8 years in the very pretty but very soggy Northwest. When not cranking out grant-related prose, she can be found working the swing dance floor or training in the ballet or pilates studio.

As Program Manager of CompuMentor's Computer Recycling and Reuse center, Jim Lynch helps represent the computer refurbishing and reuse field in policy discussions around developing a computer recycling system for the US. Jim created and maintained TechSoup.org's listing of recyclers and refurbisher for use by schools and organizations seeking used IT equipment, and also for equipment donors.

A chief triumph in Jim's CompuMentor career was his role in working with Microsoft to design and launch the Micrsoft Authorized Refurbisher (MAR) Program that supplies Windows operating systems to computer refurbishers in the Americas. Jim currently runs a computer refurbisher's listserv which hosts approximately 140 refurbishers who use the listserv to talk shop, opinionate on issues that concern them, and ask technical questions. He is especially committed to working on new programs at CompuMentor that serve to divert a larger percentage of computers from companies and institutions into the donation stream so they can used by schools, nonprofits, and low-income families.

Jim's experience in the field of computer recycling and reuse has lead him speak on the subject at conferences and he has been interviewed extensively over the years on computer recycling and related issues by the Wall St. Journal, National Public Radio, PC World Magazine, Fox TV, NBC TV, New York Daily News, The San Francisco Chronicle, San Jose Mercury News and many other news outlets. Prior to his position as Recycling & Reuse Manager, Jim Lynch was CompuMentor's development director, though his commitment to helping non-profits utilize technology predates his work at CompuMentor. Before coming to CompuMentor, Jim worked with immigrant serving organizations in California's Central Valley to develop their computer systems, and taught computer job skills to high school dropouts and welfare moms. His interest in computer recycling began when he created and ran homeless education programs and computer training labs. Jim has also taught US History and US Government to high school students, and has written novels, none of which ever got published. Outside of work, Jim loves Brasilian and other Latin music, avidly follows environmental issues and events and meditates to stay sane.