February, 5, 2008, Oakland, CA -- Asian Health Services Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Sherry M. Hirota and entrepreneur Robert R. Davenport III have been appointed to the Board of Directors of the East Bay Community Foundation, adding two important new individuals to the 15-member group.
“We are extremely pleased to add to our Board two new members with impressive credentials in two very different fields of endeavor,” said Michael Dalby, Chair of the Foundation’s Board. “Sherry and Rob provide perspectives that will be invaluable in the short term as we evaluate our strategy going forward and for the long term as the Foundation continues its important role broadening philanthropy in the East Bay."
The Foundation manages about $280 million in charitable funds for more than 400 clients. Those clients and the Foundation’s own endowment provided about $36 million in grants during its 2006-07 fiscal year.
“I’m honored to serve the Foundation’s cause of making the East Bay a better place to live,” said Davenport, an Oakland resident who’s been engaged in general management, corporate development and private-equity investment for the past 25 years. He currently serves as Chairman of Up Communications Services ("UCS"), an IT services provider and fulfillment partner of DirecTV and Cox Communications.
Prior to acquiring UCS, he founded RD Partners LLC, which invested in and advised technology-related businesses. He also served as President and CEO of Covad International, a broadband services provider with operations in Japan, India, Spain and France.
Before his association with Covad, Davenport held senior positions with Tele-Communications, Inc. (now Comcast), Intellicall, Inc., a telecom services firm, and TLC Beatrice Foods International, a large food processing and distribution company. He started his career in private equity investing at First Boston Corporation and Lehman Brothers.
Davenport has A.B. and MBA degrees from Harvard University.
Hirota, also a resident of Oakland and a veteran of the Bay Area non-profit sector, said she looked forward to serving “on a governing board composed of diverse people with a common dedication to building the Foundation’s good works.”
As chief executive at Asian Health Services for the past 31 years, Hirota has grown the organization to a model multicultural and multilingual primary-care clinic with a staff of 165 and a budget of $18 million. She successfully opened three new medical and dental facilities, including a medical center through acquisition, financing, and reconstruction of prime property in Oakland’s Chinatown.
As a founding officer of the Asian Pacific Islander (API) American Health Forum, she established a national voice for API health-care needs. She was also a founding board member of the Alameda Alliance for Health, one of the first local initiatives of MediCal managed-care plans run by a public-private partnership. As an emeritus trustee of the California Endowment, the health-care foundation established by the conversion of Blue Cross of California into a for-profit company, she was responsible for oversight of $3 billion in assets and an annual grant program of about $200 million.
Hirota has won numerous awards for her work.
