Benetech Hires New Senior Managers Gerardo Capiel and Thomas L. Stephenson

Expanding Engineering and Development Staff to Meet Increasing Demand from the Social Sector

Benetech, Silicon Valley’s intentionally nonprofit technology company, announced the addition of two seasoned professionals to its senior management staff. Gerardo Capiel will serve as Benetech’s new Vice President of Engineering and Thomas L. Stephenson is the company’s new Chief Development Officer.

“Benetech attracts committed professionals who want to make a difference in the world and we are delighted to welcome Gerardo Capiel and Thomas Stephenson to our senior management team,” says Benetech CEO Jim Fruchterman. “Benetech is on track to grow 20% this year as it did in 2009 and their extensive business experience and keen judgment will allow us to meet the increasing demand for our technology products and services that address important social needs.”

Capiel has more than 15 years of experience leading the development of innovative Internet and enterprise software. He formerly served as Co-Founder, Director and CTO of Digital Impact, a publicly traded e-marketing software vendor. Capiel was also Co-Founder and CEO of Gydget, which created social network marketing products for the entertainment and non-profit sectors.

An accomplished engineer, Capiel has worked at MySpace, Altro Solutions, BroadVision and HP. His software industry experience spans SaaS, data mining and analytics, e-marketing, e-commerce and social networking. His pioneering achievements in e-marketing include being awarded a key patent related to web measurement. Capiel has a BS from M.I.T. in Engineering Systems and Computation and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Stephenson is an experienced fund development officer who has served both the private and not-for-profit communities for two decades. During his early career he worked in sports television production with ABC Sports and in the public affairs group for a major land development company, The Irvine Company of Newport Beach, California.

Stephenson led fundraising, strategic planning and marketing efforts for several nonprofit organizations including the SETI Institute, the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences, Project Concern International and the Neuroscience Group of the University of California Irvine School of Medicine. He has worked as a consultant on several political campaigns, advising candidates and managing various regional and statewide initiative campaigns. He has also served as legal counsel to a diverse portfolio of nonprofit organizations and private businesses.

A graduate of California State University, Fullerton, Stephenson earned an undergraduate degree in Political Science and a Master’s degree in Administration. He is a graduate of Western State University School of Law and is licensed to practice law in the state of California.

About Benetech

Benetech is a nonprofit technology company based in Palo Alto, California, with an annual budget exceeding $10 million. Benetech pursues projects with a strong social, rather than financial rate of return on investment, harnessing open source technology and private sector management techniques to create innovative, non-traditional solutions to challenging social issues. Benetech’sBookshare service is the world’s largest accessible online library for people with print disabilities. The Benetech Human Rights Program designs and builds information management solutions and conducts statistical analysis on behalf of truth commissions and large human rights projects around the world. The program includes both the Human Rights Data Analysis Group and the Martusproject. Benetech’s most recent project, Miradi is a user-friendly software program that helps environmental conservation groups design, manage, monitor and learn from their projects.