of Rolfe Larson Associates, 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. Revenues for one such business exceeded $4
million per year, while another cumulated
profits of more than $1.5 million over a ten year period. A third earned
a one-time profit of $800,000. Business areas include
music marketing, product licensing, mail order catalogs,
publishing, and commercial broadcast media.
Rolfe is
currently an affiliate professor at Regis University in Denver. 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.
He currently serves on the board of the
Social
Enterprise Alliance. Previously, he chaired the board of
The
Nature Conservancy of Minnesota, and served on the boards of the Entrepreneurs Fund of
The Minneapolis
Foundation, and Mississippi Market. The former provides loans to neighborhood
small businesses and emerging entrepreneurs in seven
low-income Minneapolis communities, and the latter is a consumer-owned coop grocery
store in St. Paul.
Rolfe holds an MBA from Yale University, with an emphasis
in marketing and finance, and a bachelor's degree from
Swarthmore College.
He recently coached the Guthrie and Children's Theaters of Minneapolis to
win the $100,000 Grand Prize award at the Yale - Goldman Sachs Foundation
National Business Plan Competition. The business plan was for
CostumeRentals,
a venture that involves renting out the theatrical costumes of the two
theaters to other theaters, schools, corporations and
individuals. He provided consulting assistance to two other
$100,000 Grand Prize winners of this competition.
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. He works with not-for-profit clients in all
phases of earned-income generation: idea generation, feasibility studies,
business planning, business launch, and evaluation. Additionally he has
developed an expertise in developing effective financial management and
accounting systems for nonprofits, social enterprises, and public charter
schools. 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 also held positions as co-founder of a venture philanthropy
fund, a high school teacher, an outdoor educator, a corporate trainer, a
supervisor at a mutual fund call center, and as a professional woodworker.
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. She worked in
entertainment and media, consumer goods, and pharmaceutical industries
focusing on sales and marketing, pricing, organizational optimization and
mergers/integration. Jennifer also managed grantmaking at Fannie Mae
Foundation in housing and community development, and worked at TCC Group as
a consultant to nonprofits, foundations and corporate philanthropy. 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 an MBA from Yale University and a
BA in Political Science with concentration in Public Policy from Swarthmore
College.
Way-Ting Chen,
Senior Associate
Way-Ting Chen bridges
nonprofit, for profit and government sectors to work closely with
individuals at all levels of social-purpose organizations to identify
strategic challenges, understand their fundamental causes and devise
effective and practical solutions. She is a partner and co-founder of Blue
Garnet Associates, a business strategy consulting firm working to create
lasting social change.
Prior to this, she served as engagement manager at Booz Allen Hamilton in
New York, where she led projects involving business strategy and
organizational design and transformation for Fortune 500 clients. She did so
by working with executives and front-line staff in marketing, customer
service, human resources, collections and other functional areas of
organizations across sectors.
Currently, Way-Ting serves as Vice-Chairperson of the California Association
of Nonprofits (CAN) and advisory board member of Pacific Asian Counseling
Services. She is an active founding partner of Los Angeles Social Venture
Partners (LASVP). Way-Ting received an International MBA from the
University of Chicago Graduate School of Business, and graduated with a BA
with honors in Economics and Political Science from Swarthmore College.
Please feel free to contact us if
you would like additional information about our consulting firm,
our experience and our rates. It would be great to hear from you!
