John Duong

John launched Kind Capital to drive scalable sustainable impact profitably. He was formerly the Managing Director and Founder of Lumina Impact Ventures, the $50M impact investing arm of Lumina Foundation focused on education technology investments. Previously he was Program & Portfolio Officer at the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, managing a $110M+ MRI and PRI investments portfolio across funds and direct investments, and making grants to further the field of impact investing.

John started his career as an investment banker at J.P. Morgan, Citigroup and Merrill Lynch in various roles including M&A advisory, credit risk analysis, equity research, capital structure optimization and corporate finance in both debt and equity products. He has extensive for-profit and nonprofit board experience including Cell-Ed, Upswing, BrightHive, EduNav, Credly, Global Communities, Vitas Group and AAPIP.

John earned his BA degree in economics and East Asian studies from Yale University and holds an Executive MBA, with a concentration in management and entrepreneurship, from the Kellogg School of Management. He is a Kauffman Fellow. Born in Cambodia, John immigrated to the U.S. at a young age. He and his parents are survivors of the Khmer Rouge concentration camp and were sponsored to the United States by the Catholic Sisters of St. Francis in La Crosse, WI where he grew up.

Thomas is a seasoned entrepreneur and technology leader with a passion for impact investing. At Kind Capital, he leverages his extensive experience to support and invest in innovative companies that drive positive social and environmental change.

Thomas is the Co-Founder of Homeroom Inc., a YC-backed, AI-powered property management platform for affordable housing (Y Combinator W'22). He was formerly the Co-Founder of GotIt!, a leading VC-backed Silicon Valley AI education company, and has authored numerous US technology patents. His career began as a software engineer in 2004 at PhoneFactor, a pioneer in multi-factor authentication, which was later acquired by Microsoft. Between 2007 and 2012, he pursued a PhD in Computer Science while being one of the first engineers at VIDA Lung, a global leader in pulmonary diagnostics used in over 40 countries.

In 2011, Thomas co-founded GotIt!, one of the first on-demand tutoring platforms, which achieved the #2 ranking in the App Store's Education category and served millions of students worldwide. He has successfully grown and managed large technology teams of over 100 engineers and was also the former Co-Founder of Elliott Bay Technologies, a software engineering firm focused on building early-stage technology companies.

With over 20 years in the tech industry, Thomas excels in software engineering, product development, and AI. He has consistently attracted significant backing from top-tier investors like Y Combinator, 500 Startups, YouWeb, and TechStars. Beyond entrepreneurship, Thomas has made substantial contributions to academia as an adjunct professor at the University of Iowa’s Department of Computer Science. His CDC-funded doctoral research in computational epidemiology using big data, sensor networks, and large-scale distributed simulation was published in Oxford Journals in 2012.

At Kind Capital, Thomas is dedicated to fostering companies that align with his vision of impactful innovation. He also co-founded Distynct, serves as an angel investor and board member at Jobhop Inc., and continuously seeks opportunities to drive positive change through strategic investments and mentorship.

Sarah Baynes Shinn believes in empowering, supporting, and mobilizing people to create sustainable and equitable impact in our communities. Purpose-driven and data-informed, she works to align mission, governance, policy, procedures, and processes to consistently drive intended outcomes and support organizational culture. She brings a wealth of leadership experience from diverse sectors, including corporate philanthropy, non-profit, and higher education.

As a current senior strategic advisor for corporate and community-based foundations, Sarah provides leadership on all aspects of the organization—from philosophical frameworks to implementation strategy for the philanthropic mission. Sarah has also served as the President and CEO of the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Idaho, where she honed her skills in executive leadership, board governance, major gift fundraising, and mission delivery. Before her work in philanthropy, she dedicated more than 15 years to higher education administration in roles related to institutional strategy, program development, and stakeholder stewardship.

Sarah earned an M.S. degree in counseling from Eastern Michigan University and draws from counseling frameworks to align organizations more intentionally to value and support the human experience.

Debbie contributes her expertise, experience and learnings from decades in nonprofit and philanthropy leadership and small business and nonprofit development to Kind Capital’s mission achievement. Debbie’s deep commitment to equity, cross-sector partnerships and activating catalytic capital has resulted in a track record of successful equity-centered initiatives, innovative philanthropic strategies, impact investing field-building, and systems-level change. Debbie nurtures Kind Capital’s strategic partnerships and the conditions to co-develop scalable, sustainable impact with equity-centered, systematic, integrated solutions across multiple stakeholders: community, public, private and philanthropy that leverage the full spectrum of impact investing tools.

Debbie was CEO of San Diego Grantmakers, of Philanthropy California; COO of the Council of Michigan Foundations; founding Executive Director of NorthSky Nonprofit Network; founding board member and Managing Director of the Youth Orchestra of the Americas (20 countries of the Americas); and founder and small business owner of McKeon & Associates, Inc. (M&A) that provided executive management and consulting services on six continents, and building international public-private partnerships.

Debbie received a Bachelor of Music from Central Michigan University; League of American Orchestras Management Fellowship; Small Business Counselor Certification from Grand Valley State University; and certifications in governance, strategic restructuring, community philanthropy, fundraising, and healing circle facilitation.

A believer in leaders, Lori is an upbeat strategic thinker, speaker, and Founder of The COO Team, an operations agency that specializes in helping companies and nonprofits get the strategy and systems they need to scale. Drawing from her experience at a Fortune 500 company and serving national and international nonprofits, she equips entrepreneurs who lead small to mid-sized businesses and nonprofit ventures to expand their capacity. She has worked with organizations such as Kumveka, Women Doing Well, Generous Giving, Urban Hope, the New Hill Development Foundation, and the V3 Movement. She serves as Vice President of Entrepreneur Support Services with Kind Capital and lives in Richmond, VA with her husband and two daughters.

Lori earned her undergraduate degree in Business from The University of Richmond and her MBA from Regent University’s School of Global Leadership and Entrepreneurship. She currently serves on the boards of Jobs RVA, a job skills program for the unemployed and underemployed, and Virginia Community Voice, a community development nonprofit that invests in community leaders and prepares institutions to equitably engage and make decisions regarding historically marginalized communities.

Jill Miller is a strategic advisor with more than two decades of experience helping social-impact organizations and startups grow, align, and mobilize resources for greater impact. Known for her inclusive and insightful approach, she facilitates complex conversations, aligns teams and communities around shared purpose and goals, and supports leaders in moving from vision to action. 

Jill began her career in management consulting and has since held senior leadership roles at Jeremiah Program, LEAP | Pecaut Centre for Social Impact, Peekapak, Breakthrough Schools, the Partnership for Clean Competition, and the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee, leading strategic planning, accelerators, collective investment decisions and large-scale organizational initiatives. She also serves as Board Chair of Mind Share Partners, advancing workplace mental health nationally, co-leads the Minnesota Women’s Investment Collective with Groove Capital and is active in community leadership.

Jill holds an MBA with distinction from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, a Master of Education in Educational Leadership from The Broad Center, and dual bachelor’s degrees in Engineering and Economics from the University of Pennsylvania. She also completed the Executive Coaching Certificate at Northwestern University and the Venture Capital University Certificate through NVCA & UC Berkeley Law.

Zyrine Dave Geraldez is a dedicated executive assistant, bringing a wealth of experience in administrative support and project coordination. Her passion for making a positive impact in the lives of others is evident in her work with Kind Capital.

Originally from Iloilo, Philippines, Zyrine graduated Magna Cum Laude from Iloilo Doctors’ College with a Bachelor of Science in Commerce, majoring in Management. She honed her skills at Queen City Development Bank, where she played a crucial role in the Accounting Department for nearly 8 years.

Zyrine has deep experience in management, administration, and project coordination and excels in improving management systems, overseeing calendar coordination, scheduling events and meetings, and fostering open communication within our team. We are fortunate to have Zyrine on board, and her contributions continue to drive our success at Kind Capital.