Rolfe Larson, President
Rolfe Larson has more than twenty years of experience managing and advising organizations in both the for-profit and nonprofit sectors. Prior to starting RLA in 1995, Rolfe Larson was an executive for almost ten years at Minnesota Public Radio, where his responsibilities included identifying, researching, and launching new business ventures. Several of the ventures he helped launch generated significant value to MPR. Business areas include music marketing, product licensing, mail order catalogs, publishing, and commercial broadcast media.
For more than a dozen years, Rolfe was a Professor of Marketing at the University of St. Thomas in Minneapolis, at the College of Business, where he taught courses in marketing, business planning and social entrepreneurship. Rolfe served on the boards of the Social Enterprise Alliance, The Nature Conservancy in Minnesota, and Mississippi Market. Rolfe holds a bachelor's degree from Swarthmore College and an MBA from Yale University, with an emphasis in marketing and finance
Michael Whitehead-Bust, Senior Associate
Michael has extensive experience in both the not-for-profit and for-profit sectors. Michael utilizes his expertise in financial analysis, business planning, strategic planning, and fundraising in his consulting work with social entrepreneurs. His clients range from small start-up not-for-profits to large corporate entities such as Fidelity Capital. Michael!s nationally recognized work focuses on blurring the lines between sectors and transmitting the “best practices” of each to the other.
Michael has his MBA in entrepreneurship and finance, and has passed the Level II Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) exam.
Jennifer Li Shen, Senior Associate
Jennifer Li Shen brings a unique combination of expertise in business strategy and organizational change with experience in nonprofit, private foundation and for profit arenas to realize her passion for social entrepreneurship and innovation. She is a partner and co-founder of Blue Garnet Associates, a business strategy consulting firm working to create lasting social change.
Previously, Jennifer served Fortune 500 clients as a management consultant at Boston Consulting Group, where she developed and implemented business and market strategies, as well as organizational change. Her clients included Pfizer, Coca-Cola Foundation, Ford Foundation, Annie E. Casey Foundation, Jewish Museum and Children!s Defense Fund. Jennifer is a Founding Partner and Board Director of Los Angeles Social Venture Partners (LASVP.
Jennifer holds a BA in Political Science with concentration in Public Policy from Swarthmore College and an MBA from Yale University.