Three Executives Join Benetech Leadership Team and Board of Directors

Benetech’s core programs are brimming with exciting projects, cross-sector collaborations, and new social good technology applications at different exploration and design stages. This year, we will be celebrating our fifteenth anniversary, and we continuously cultivate our innovation culture so that we can make even bigger impact with more solutions that improve more lives. Such growth is made possible thanks to the passion, skills, and hard work of our teams.

Today I am delighted to welcome three leaders who join our senior management team and Board of Directors. Sukhi Nagesh joins Benetech as chief financial officer and vice president of finance, Brad Turner as vice president of our Global Literacy Program, and Sam Bright as a member of our Board of Directors. Their expertise and experience in technology and business will be invaluable to our efforts to increase our social impact at scale.

Sukhi comes to Benetech from Marvell, a NASDAQ-listed semiconductor company, where he served as vice president of finance and, for much of last year, as interim CFO. Previously, he held multiple leadership positions in finance, marketing, and engineering at SG Cowen, Applied Materials, and Asyst Technologies. Sukhi succeeds Teresa Throckmorton, who held the role of Benetech’s CFO and VP of finance for nearly fourteen years and is retiring. We are very lucky to attract such a senior financial leader from Silicon Valley as Sukhi to help us spearhead our mission. Sukhi has been searching for a role that would allow him to give back and make greater social impact, and we are thrilled to be the beneficiaries of that passion.

We are also excited to welcome Brad Turner as vice president of the Benetech Global Literacy Program, the role vacated when Betsy Beaumon became Benetech’s president. Having helped grow both early-stage and industry-leading companies, Brad has over twenty years of experience in technology, marketing, and management. Most recently, he was vice president of marketing and business development at Inkiru, a big data predictive analytics platform acquired by Wal-Mart. He also served as the founder and CEO of Through the Lens, Inc., the creator of premier digital image management systems for medical practices. His career includes executive marketing and business development roles at education technology startups such as Udacity, search engine companies such as Inktomi, and networking companies such as Novell. At Benetech, Brad is responsible for creating and managing the strategic direction of the Global Literacy Program, including partnerships, products, services, and funding. His leadership in successfully delivering products and services and his experience in developing partnerships and revenue sources are a perfect fit for our Global Literacy team.

Finally, we are delighted to welcome Sam Bright as our newest board member. Currently Sam leads the North America Strategic Partnerships team at eBay. He has over a decade of strategy, investment banking, corporate development, market research, and business development experience spanning dozens of investment transactions and deal processes valued at over $15 billion. Prior to eBay, Sam was a technology M&A associate at Merrill Lynch and an industry analyst at Forrester Research. Passionate about technology as a force for social good, Sam also led market research for the Northeast Indiana Innovation Center, a high-tech, nonprofit business incubator. He is a strong addition to our Board of Directors, and I expect him to be a great help to our Benetech Labs and Fund Development teams as we evaluate and create new software enterprises for social empowerment.

Welcome to the Benetech family, Sukhi, Brad, and Sam!