Meet our newest members

Our first new member is Ryan Rippel, classification: Foundations, sponsored by Bill Gates, Sr.  Ryan heads up a program called CEO Initiatives at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, where he engages their portfolio of philanthropic partners to enhance effectiveness. A native of Columbia, Missouri, Ryan was a Boys Stater in High School and later President of Boys Nation.  He went on to do his undergraduate work at Harvard, where he was one of four seniors who won a Harvard Cambridge Scholarship to study at Cambridge University in 2005-2006.  After completing his Masters at Cambridge, he came to Seattle to join the Gates Foundation, focusing at first on agricultural development.  Shortly thereafter, he became interim chief of staff to Bill Gates Sr., who strongly encouraged Ryan to return to law school.  Ryan returned to Harvard in 2009, and while in law school, he was named a White House Intern, working with the National Economic Council.  He also interned with the Wilmer Cutler law firm in D.C.  Ryan is currently admitted to practice law in Missouri. 

As if the important work of the Foundation wasn’t enough to keep Ryan busy, he’s also an visiting professor at Washington University Law School in St. Louis, where he teaches a course on Urban Poverty.  In all of his spare time, Ryan fishes, kayaks, and travels.  In fact, he is part of an informal group of friends all centered around one buddy who is in the State Department’s Aid for International Development program.  Each year, the group tracks the buddy down and travels for a reunion wherever he is.  Recently, that’s included trips to Ethiopia and Sri Lanka.  

Next is Rob Nielsen, a vice president at Jones Lang LaSalle.  Rob comes to us as a Young Rotary Leader, with the classification: Real Estate.  Rob is sponsored by James Keating and Kathryn Williams. Rob’s a hometown boy, graduating from Shorecrest High School and Seattle University, where he studied Business Management.  He’s been in real estate since finishing college, first with a private investment boutique here in town, and later with Grubb and Ellis and then his current gig at Jones Lang Lasalle.  In his current role, he focuses on tenant representation for large companies either headquartered in Seattle or looking to open a major presence in the city.  Rob just finished a stint on the Board of Directors of the U-District Food Bank, serving as their Finance Chair, and is currently the Board President of the Crisis Clinic. 

More interestingly, Rob just finished his first book, as lead author, along with two Seattle U professors, of the forthcoming text, Leading with Humility, to be published next month by Routledge Press, and currently available for pre-order on Amazon, I might add.  Leading with Humility will be the first academic exploration of a topic which has gained significant attention in the popular press for many years, and even though the book isn’t in print yet, it’s already generating a lot of attention in scholarly circles. Rob’s engaged, but no date’s set yet.  His fiancé, Jessica, is also in the real estate biz, over at Sotheby’s.  Rob is presently training for the Seattle-to-Vancouver bike ride, and I’m sure he’ll appreciate any tips from members who’ve done that ride before. 

Last, but certainly not least, in our trifecta of new members, we have Calvin Lyons, the newly named CEO of King County Boys and Girls Clubs, sponsored by Tom Herche and Patrick Carter.  In his professional role, Calvin heads up the 3rd largest Boys and Girls Club organization in America, with 13 club sites and 24 child care centers serving an estimated 16,000 young people. Calvin is a native of Gary, Indiana, graduating from Purdue University, receiving his MBA from Pepperdine and completing the Executive Leadership Program in Business here at Seattle University.  Calvin and his wife, Julie, have two children, and they’ve been in Seattle for about 17 years now.
Prior to joining the Boys and Girls Clubs, Calvin was Director of Partnerships at the Talaris Institute here in Seattle.  Talaris is focused on parents, and folks about to become parents, to educate them and help them understand the emotional development of children.  This may be the defining characteristic of Calvin’s philosophy – really engaging the parents and the children at an emotional level.  Indeed, when he and I talked about his life outside of work, he talked about taking care of his own “nest”, which I though was a very telling comment on his world view. 

Earlier in his career, Calvin was a banker, serving as a V.P. in the recruiting side of Washington Mutual, a small savings and loan that used to have a presence here in Seattle, and before that was with another Seattle mainstay, Boeing, albeit in their Long Beach, California, operation as a human resources manager. Calvin is a Founding Member of both the National Partnership for Educational Access as well as the Forgotten One’s Foundation.  He serves on the Board of INROADS/Pacific Northwest Region, is a member of the Dean's Advisory Board at the Albers School of Business, Seattle University, and serves on the advisory board for Imagine Housing, formerly known as the St. Andrews Housing Group.   Since 2008, Calvin Lyons has worked on the Washington State Legislative Advisory  Committee for House Bill 2722, aimed at closing the “preparation gap” for African American students.  He is a frequent speaker to gatherings of vocational rehabilitation managers on the benefits of public/private partnerships to hiring and retention.   In his spare time, Calvin enjoys reading, music, walking and, intriguingly, collecting chess sets. 

So there we have it, the world’s three newest Rotarians.  Please join President Laura and me in welcoming Ryan Rippel, Rob Nielsen, and Calvin Lyons to the Rotary Club of Seattle.