This is Vulcan

Jody Allen is chair of Vulcan Inc., which she co-founded with brother Paul G. Allen in 1986. For decades, they worked side-by-side across a range of business and philanthropic initiatives. Jody is also co-founder, board chair, and president of The Paul G. Allen Family Foundation, president and founding director of MoPOP, and chair of the board of the Allen Institute. As trustee of the Paul G. Allen Trust, Jody works to ensure Paul’s vision is realized for generations to come, and she serves as chair of the Seattle Seahawks NFL and Portland Trail Blazers NBA franchises, recognizing the role of both teams as catalysts for civic pride.

Jody is a philanthropist passionate about conservation, fighting wildlife trafficking, and saving Africa’s elephants from extinction. In 2016 she founded Wild Lives Foundation, and she serves on the board of Sealife Response, Rehab and Research, an organization dedicated to improving the health and welfare of marine wildlife in the Pacific Northwest.

Deeply committed to education and the arts, Jody is a board member of the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa in Cape Town, and previously served on the boards of ArtsFund, the University of Washington Foundation, the Museum of Glass, the Los Angeles International Film Festival, and the Oregon Shakespeare Festival.

Bill Hilf is Chief Executive Officer of Vulcan Inc., where he leads the company’s efforts to make and leave the world a better place. From driving ground-breaking data and technology initiatives, to necessary policy change and sustainable development, Bill empowers smart people to tackle ambitious challenges spanning wildlife conservation, climate change, ocean health, and vibrant communities. 

Prior to Vulcan, Bill was Senior Vice President of Hewlett-Packard Enterprise’s Cloud business unit, leading the company’s cloud transformation. Before Hewlett-Packard, Bill was General Manager of Product Management for Microsoft Azure, and had previously led Microsoft’s Technical Computing Group as well as the Windows Server product line. Earlier in his career he was a software developer and engineering leader at IBM, and at a variety of software start-ups in Silicon Valley and Los Angeles.

Bill serves on the boards of directors for the Woodland Park Zoo and the Grumeti Fund and is a member of the Washington Roundtable. He also served as the Microsoft Executive Sponsor for UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, and helped develop and deploy computer-based learning centers in refugee camps worldwide.

Bill earned his undergraduate degree from California State University-Fullerton and holds an M.A. from Chapman University.
 

John W. Bernstein is Vulcan’s Chief Financial Officer leading the Finance, Operations, and IT departments. He is responsible for Vulcan’s long-term financial plans and strategies across the entire philanthropic portfolio, helping to guide the organization’s commitment to its vision to make and leave the world a better place.

Before joining Vulcan in 2019, John served as the Chief Operating Officer of the Ford Foundation, a New York based, social justice foundation working to disrupt the drivers of inequality worldwide. In his capacity at Ford he oversaw all areas of operations, technology, risk management, capital projects, and finance globally. Prior to that, John was the founding President of the Leon Levy Foundation, dedicated to the arts and humanities, human rights and civil liberties, understanding the ancient world, and neuroscience research. As the foundation’s first president, he oversaw its creation in 2004 working closely with trustees to set goals for all areas of the foundation’s philanthropy and administration, including its governance, financial management, and grant making. Earlier in his career, John served as Vice President for Finance and then as Senior Vice President for Institutional Development at the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx, and began his nonprofit career working in systems analysis and design at the New York Public Library.

John holds an MBA in Finance from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and also did his undergraduate work at the university, where he earned a combined degree in computer science, economics, and the history and sociology of science.