Opportunities Exchange is a collaboration of the national consulting practice of BWB Solutions and the Alliance for Early Childhood Finance. Co-founders from these organizations - John Weiser of BWB Solutions, and Louise Stoney of the Alliance for Early Childhood Finance - formed Opportunities Exchange in 2009 to further the development of Shared Services Alliances, primarily in the nonprofit sector.

Our work is incubated at Third Sector New England, a Fiscal Sponsor, and thriving example of a Shared Services Alliance in the nonprofit field.

Staff

John Weiser, Co-Founder and Executive Director

John specializes in helping organizations use business strategies to achieve social goals. One of his great strengths as a consultant is his ability to place complex issues into clear conceptual frameworks. He is a skilled facilitator with experience in both traditional and participative organizational environments. His ability to move from grassroots organizations to corporate boardrooms complements his skills in shaping cross-sector partnerships to the benefit of all involved.

John has written several papers on the business case for corporate involvement. In 2000, John and Simon Zadek co-authored "Conversations with Disbelievers," which examines the quantitative evidence showing when and how Corporate Community Involvement creates bottom-line business benefits.

After two years with the Boston Consulting Group, John co-founded Brody - Weiser - Burns in 1984 to pursue his vision of business as a force for social change. Since then he has helped businesses, nonprofits, foundations and public sector agencies create, build consensus for, and implement a broad range of partnership strategies. John graduated magna cum laude in mathematics from Harvard University. He holds a Masters Degree in Public and Private Management from the Yale School of Organization and Management.

Louise Stoney, Co-Founder and Senior Consultant

Louise is an independent consultant specializing in child care and early childhood education policy, co-founder of the Alliance for Early Childhood Finance, and a principal investigator of the Linking Economic Development and Child Care project at Cornell University. She has worked in public policy for more than thirty years, including positions as a staff member in the New York State legislature, policy director for a state child care resource and referral network, and instructor for the Center for Women in Government at the State University of New York at Albany.

Louise has consulted with early care and education policy makers, administrators, advocates, academics and foundations in over 35 states, seven major cities and more than 23 national organizations. In partnership with Anne Mitchell, at the Alliance for Early Childhood Finance, she has spearheaded a national conversation on early childhood finance reform. Louise has written extensively, including books, articles and blogs on ECE finance, policy and administration. Most recently, she authored Shared Services: A New Business Model to Support Scale and Sustainability in Early Care and Education for the David and Laura Merage Foundation, an issue brief on Quality Rating and Improvement Systems for the BUILD Initiative, and the cover story (on shared services) for the September, 2009 issue of Child Care Information Exchange.

Many of Louise's publications may be found at Cornell University's Linking Economic Development and Child Care project and at Early Childhood Finance. Louise holds a Master's Degree in Social Work from the State University of New York at StonyBrook.

Libbie Naman Poppick, Consultant

Libbie brings over twenty years of business and private foundation work to Shared Services. In addition to her work with Opportunities Exchange, she is Executive Director of The Frog Rock Foundation, a private foundation supporting programs and services for economically disadvantaged children in Westchester County, New York. Through the foundation, she works closely with the early childhood industry and is committed to early childhood advocacy, including support of the BUILD Initiative in New York, and QualityStarsNY, the New York State quality rating and improvement system. Libbie graduated with honors in psychology from Northwestern University, and holds a Masters in Business Administration from the Harvard Business School.