Our
People
Jerry
Hauser, Chief Executive Officer
Rebecca Epstein, Chief of Staff
Ethan Fletcher, Engagement Manager
Abigail Kim, Program Assistant
Peter B. Lewis, Founder and Chairman
Our
Values
We
launched The Management Center because we believe high-performing
organizations fighting for progressive causes have the potential
to create a more just and free society. We are inspired
by our clients’ efforts, by the continuous quest to
figure out how we can better meet their needs, and by the
values we bring to our work.
Excellence.
We strive for excellence in all that we do and
we seek to exceed expectations.
Results.
We articulate what we want to accomplish, measure
ourselves against our objectives, and focus on the ultimate
impact of our work.
Continuous
Improvement. We constantly learn from and improve
in our work.
Decency.
We treat others as we would want to be treated.
Humility. We
acknowledge what we do not know and approach clients with
deep respect for the difficulty of their work.
Integrity.
We align our actions with our words and we operate
with transparency.
Jerry
Hauser,
Chief Executive Officer
Jerry
brings to The Management Center his dual passions for promoting
social change and creating high-performing organizations.
His previous roles include serving as the President and
CEO of the Advocacy Institute and as the Chief Operating
Officer at Teach For America, where he helped the national
nonprofit grow from $8 million to $38 million in annual
revenue and from 3,000 to 17,000 applicants each year. Jerry
also learned about creating strong organizations while an
associate at the management consulting firm of McKinsey
& Company in Washington, DC. He began his career as
a high school math and history teacher in Compton, California,
and he holds a J.D. from Yale Law School and a B.A. from
Duke University. Jerry has appeared on a variety of panels
regarding nonprofit leadership; his article on “Organizational
Lessons for Non-Profits” appeared in The McKinsey
Quarterly in 2003.
Rebecca
Epstein, Chief
of Staff
Rebecca's
experience in organizing and policy analysis fostered her
deep commitment to supporting political and social justice
organizations by building their capacity to do good work.
She began her career as a community organizer on Chicago’s
west side, mobilizing low-income and immigrant residents
in campaigns for affordable housing, bilingual property
tax information, neighborhood safety, and improved public
services. Rebecca has conducted research for Demos and the
Taub Urban Research Center on economic disparities by race
and ethnicity and state-based affordable housing policies,
respectively, and has also explored factors influencing
awareness and uptake of the Earned Income Tax Credit. Prior
to helping to start The Management Center, Rebecca served
as Manager for Strategic Planning and Organizational Development
at the Advocacy Institute. She is the author of “The
Right to Know: How Latinos in Chicago Fought for Information
in Their Own Language and Launched a Movement” (Shelterforce,
2003), among other publications, and holds an M.P.A. in
Public and Nonprofit Management and Policy from NYU’s
Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service and a
B.A. in Anthropology from Amherst College.
Ethan
Fletcher, Engagement Manager
Ethan is committed to building a strong progressive movement and believes well-managed organizations
are a critical element. He brings to his work with clients
a diverse professional background in progressive politics,
entrepreneurship, and business strategy. Ethan worked in
national politics for several years, including at strategy
firms NCEC and Greenberg Quinlan Rosner. He has counseled
Democratic congressional delegations on redistricting efforts,
helped campaigns optimize voter contact plans, and served
as an Election Day special consultant for CNN and the National
Election Pool. As a consultant at McKinsey & Company
and Peterson Worldwide, he assisted companies in developing
strategic growth plans, building valuation models, and
managing the economics of large-scale contract disputes.
Ethan holds a J.D. from Yale Law School and a B.S. and B.A.
from Tufts University. While in law school he co-founded
the Social Change Network, a model for organizing graduate
students that leverages the power of school-based networks
to promote progressive change. Recently, Ethan co-founded
and served as CEO of UpGuppy, a social media startup.
Abigail
Kim, Program Assistant
Abigail's background in research and advocacy
helped her develop a passion for understanding social issues
and advancing practicable change. Her past research interests
include peacekeeping and the rule of law, humanitarian and
security concerns in North East Asia, and immigrant communities
in South America. She co-authored “Perilous Journeys:
The Plight of North Koreans in China” (Korea Yearbook,
2007) and also has experience teaching middle and high school
students in South Korea and the DC metropolitan area. She
received her B.A in International Relations at the Johns
Hopkins University in Baltimore, MD.
Peter
B. Lewis, Founder and Chairman
Peter
B. Lewis, born November 11, 1933 in Cleveland, Ohio, is
the Chairman of Progressive Corporation, of which he acquired
control in 1965 in an early leveraged buyout. At that time,
the small insurance company with $6 million in revenues
specialized in insuring those drivers who had difficulty
finding auto insurance. For 42 years since, 35 of them as
CEO, Lewis has overseen the transformation of the 100 employee
company into a full-line auto insurer with 27,000 employees
and annual sales of $14 billion. Today Progressive is the
nation’s third largest auto insurer.
Much
of Progressive’s success derives from Lewis’
unique vision that the Mission of an auto insurer is to
reduce the human trauma and economic costs of auto accidents
in cost effective and profitable ways, and his clarity about
the Core Values governing his and Progressive’s behavior.
Lewis demands and pays for excellent performance, and separates
the people who don’t perform. Progressive revolutionized
the staid auto insurance industry with 24-hour immediate
response on claims and all service, mobile claim adjusters
dispatched directly to accident scenes, and free comparative
rate quotes for consumers from other auto insurers via its
highly acclaimed website www.progressive.com
and its 800 telephone number. Progressive is the only public
company releasing complete monthly financial results.
Lewis,
retired since 2000, invests through his philanthropy in
people with purposes he shares and the management ability
to achieve those purposes. He supports risk takers who break
new ground and show results. Lewis has challenged many of
the nonprofit organizations he supports to improve their
management and finances. In 2001, Lewis, who had contributed
$36 million to construct a Frank Gehry designed building
for Case Western Reserve University’s School of Management,
began a boycott of all Cleveland charities, demanding replacement
of the Trustees who he felt were mismanaging the University.
As Chairman of the Board of the Guggenheim Museum, Lewis
demanded in 2002 that the institution cut its spending and
operate on a sound financial basis. After ten years on the
Guggenheim’s Board and contributing more than $77
million to the institution, he resigned from the Board because
of differences over management quality and strategic direction.
Lewis serves on the Board of Princeton University, his alma
mater (Class of 1955), where he is its largest-ever contributor
(over $220 million), including the largest gift in Princeton’s
history ($101 million) to expand its programs in the creative
and performing arts. Lewis’ other gifts to Princeton
include $60 million for a Gehry-designed science library
and an endowment for the Lewis/Sigler Genomics Institute.
His main challenge to Princeton is to improve on its already
top-ranked excellence.
Lewis
believes deeply in the value of individual freedom and tries
to foster necessary governmental and social change. He supports
the American Civil Liberties Union and helped finance the
beginnings of America Coming Together, MoveOn.org, Media
Matters, the Center for American Progress and the Marijuana
Policy Project, as well as other progressive efforts.
Lewis
is an avid lover of sports, as both participant and fan.
With homes in Miami, Cleveland, New York, and Aspen, he
now travels the world on his Motor/Yacht, “Lone Ranger.”
He is amicably divorced from Toby Devan Lewis and is the
father of three and grandfather of three.
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