JMCDF Board of Directors

John Paul Bruno - Vice President

JOHN PAUL BRUNO is a Senior Vice President for DMB Associates responsible for leading the development efforts of the DMB Redwood City Saltworks project. The Saltworks is a joint venture formed between Cargill Inc. and DMB Associates Inc. to determine the future use of the 1,436-acre Saltworks property in Redwood City. DMB Associates is one of the largest private development companies in California.

Prior to joining DMB, John spent 10 years as the Vice President of Worldwide Real Estate and Workplace Resources at Cadence Design Systems in San Jose. Cadence is the world’s largest supplier of software tools for the semiconductor industry.
While at Cadence, John led the company’s global expansion by building research and development campuses on every continent (except Antarctica). He was responsible for the management of the firm’s global real estate portfolio, facilities, procurement government relations, community involvement, and corporate security.

John also was responsible for overseeing Cadence’s annual charity event, Stars and Strikes, a bowling tournament that now has become the single largest fund raiser in Silicon Valley. He has been recognized throughout the Valley for his leadership in corporate philanthropy.

John has an extensive background in corporate finance. He was CFO  of boats.com, where he was part of the management team that launched the most successful internet company for the recreational marine industry.

Prior to Cadence, John was a Senior Director of Worldwide Real Estate and Facilities for Sybase Corporation in Emeryville and was a managing partner in the Redwood City-based real estate company of McKay & Associates.

John holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Economics and a Master of Business Administration Degree from Santa Clara University. He is on the board of directors of the Redwood City San Mateo County Chamber of Commerce, Technology Credit Union, Housing Trust of Santa Clara County, St. Ignatius College Preparatory Resource Area for Teachers and the Jack McGovern Coats Disease Foundation..

John resides in his hometown of San Francisco. He and his wife have two children.

Tyson Harper

With more than 13 years of telecommunications experience, TYSON HARPER currently serves as the Director of Customer Lifecycle Marketing for AT&T’s Northern California and Greater Los Angeles markets. In this role, Tyson has responsibility for customer retention and base marketing programs for over 10M consumer wireless customers. He was named to this position in November of 2006.

As a member of the AT&T family of companies since 1996, Tyson originally joined Pacific Bell in San Francisco as a part of their Leadership Development Program and has held various positions within business sales, finance, customer care and product marketing. Tyson’s professional development in the technology and communications sector also includes marketing experience at both Intel and Equinix. Tyson also sits on the Board of Advisors to the Go Green Foundation.

Tyson holds a BA in economics from the University of California, Los Angeles. He currently resides in Lafayette, California, with his wife and 3 children. His youngest son, Ashley, was diagnosed with Coats disease prior to his second birthday and is currently being treated for the disease.

Ed McGovern-President

ED MCGOVERN is the President of McGovern & Associates Consulting, Inc. a political consulting, lobbying and public affairs company based in San Mateo County. Ed McGovern has over 25 years of experience on government relations, issue development and campaign management in the San Francisco Bay Area. He also worked in the State Capitol for Assembly Speaker Leo McCarthy and then for Assemblyman/Mayor of San Francisco Art Agnos before starting his own firm. One of his more prominent recent campaigns was the election in the City of Santa Clara to approve a new football stadium for the San Francisco 49ers. Mr. McGovern is a graduate of St. Ignatius High School and Santa Clara University.

Tina McGovern - Board President

TINA MCGOVERN is a dedicated, experienced non-profit leader with a history of building organizational capacity through fund development, strategy, training, and management. She is currently Director of Development and Outreach for Gateway High School in San Francisco, which was recently named in Newsweek’s list of Top US High Schools.

Before joining Gateway, Tina founded and ran a successful non-profit consulting and event planning business. She is the former Development Director for Florence Crittenton Services and Mercy High School in San Francisco.

Tina graduated from the University of Santa Clara with a BA in English. A native San Franciscan, she currently serves on the Ignatian Guild Board (St. Ignatius College Prep) and is a member of the Association of Fundraising Professionals, the National Association of Professional Women, and Association of Bay Area Development Officers. She and her husband Ed McGovern live in San Francisco with their four children.

Russell H. Miller

RUSSELL H. MILLER, a California attorney, specializes in political, campaign, and election law.  He provides legal advice to corporations and trade associations and serves as general counsel and treasurer to a large number of campaign committees for local, state, and federal candidates, ballot measures, and corporate and trade association Political Action Committees (PACs).  Many of these committees and PACs were initially created by him and his firm.  He also handles matters relating to compliance with campaign, lobby, and election laws, and represents clients on matters before the Fair Political Practices Commission and the Federal Election Commission. Additionally, he specializes in the formation and operation of nonprofit organizations, including compliance with Internal Revenue Code requirements.

Russ also has an extensive background in legal research, writing, and publishing. Prior to establishing his own law firm in 1995, he was a Managing Editor at legal publisher Matthew Bender & Company, where he was in charge of California Legal Forms and other major business publications.  Overseeing the production of more than 10,000 pages of text annually, he handled matters of editorial policy, legal analysis, fiscal planning for the publications, and contract negotiations with contributing authors.

Russ is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of California at Berkeley.  He simultaneously participated in a doctoral program at Stanford University (in the area of Sociology of Law) and a law degree program at the University of California, Hastings College of the Law, earning a J.D. from Hastings in 1983, and a Ph.D. from Stanford in 1984. At Stanford, he also assisted with teaching numerous classes on theoretical and applied research, and worked on many major research projects; at Hastings, he was a writer on the Hastings Constitutional Law Quarterly.

Alexandra Morgan

ALEXANDRA MORGAN is a San Francisco native and holds a Master’s Degree in Nonprofit Management from University of San Francisco’s School of Professional Studies. For the past nine years she has served as CEO of Family House, a nonprofit organization that supports low-income pediatric oncology families at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital.

She has held leadership positions at Summerbridge National, The Foundation for Religious Understanding and Golden Gate University. In addition, Morgan has served on the boards of Grace Cathedral, Leadership High School, the Institute for Nonprofit Management and is currently a director at North Beach Citizens, a nonprofit that benefits the homeless.

Kirk Alan Pessner

KIRK ALAN PESSNER, Chief Operating Officer and Senior Paralegal, is an expert in compliance with the California Political Reform Act, various California local campaign and lobby laws, the California Elections Code, the Federal Election Campaign Act, the Federal Lobby Disclosure Act of 1995, and the United States Senate and House of Representatives rules relating to gifts, travel, and income.  He has specialized expertise in campaign committee compliance, lobbyist registration and disclosure provisions, and conflict of interest disclosure for California and federal public officials.  He also is an expert in nonprofit organizations, with extensive knowledge and experience in the formation and operation of those organizations. Prior to joining the firm, he was Senior Paralegal and the Administrator of the Political Reports Unit at the nationally recognized law firm of Nielsen, Merksamer, Parrinello, Mueller & Naylor.

Kirk attended Georgetown University, School of Foreign Service, and received his B.A. in Political Science at the University of California at Berkeley.  He has served on the Marin County California Civil and Criminal Grand Jury.  He is active in his church and has also served on numerous nonprofit boards.