November 17, 2022
GARY COMMUNITY VENTURES SHARES LEADERSHIP TRANSITION
Chris Watney: Gary Community Ventures Board Chair
Dear Friends and Partners,
It’s with a bittersweet heart today that I share the resignation of Gary Community Ventures’ President and CEO Mike Johnston. We are grateful for the ways he has boldly advanced Gary’s mission and excited to build upon that with a leader who has greatly contributed to our impact. With Mike’s departure, I’m pleased to announce the appointment of Chief Investment Officer Santhosh Ramdoss as interim president and CEO of Gary Community Ventures.
In this time of transition, I want to thank Mike for his leadership, wish him well and welcome Santhosh as our next leader. Mike joined Gary in January of 2020 and has transformed the way we increase opportunity for Colorado kids and families. Born and raised in Colorado, Mike’s love for people across the state has made him relentless in the pursuit of delivering equitable opportunities with and for the communities we serve. During his tenure, he built a talented team of individuals who have partnered with our community to deliver some of the most innovative solutions to the challenges that have faced Coloradans in recent years.
Under Mike’s leadership, Gary created COVIDCheck Colorado, an emergency response to the pandemic that delivered 1.9 million free COVID-19 tests and 300,000 vaccines to folks across Colorado. Through our Certified B Corp, known as Gary Ventures, Mike helped lead the Proposition EE policy effort to provide funding for universal preschool. And, most recently, he brought together a diverse coalition of more than 260 organizations and leaders to pass Proposition 123 and increase affordable housing in Colorado.
What you may not know is that none of these investments in our community would have been possible without the ingenuity and expertise of Santhosh Ramdoss. Santhosh joined Gary in July of 2020 as vice president of impact investing. Since then, he has seamlessly executed Sam and Nancy’s desire to ensure that all our assets, whether philanthropic, below-market, or market-rate, are managed in pursuit of our mission and values.
Having built a robust mission investment portfolio, Santhosh became our chief investment officer this past summer. With oversight of Gary’s endowment, Santhosh has helped the team deploy its assets into breakthrough solutions designed for scalable impact. He has bolstered Gary’s legacy as a pioneer in place-based mission and impact investing, while also building strategic partnerships with leading fund managers and companies. Alongside Mike, Santhosh also helped expand home ownership for Black Coloradans through the creation of the Dearfield Fund for Black Wealth.
We could not be more excited to appoint Santhosh as interim president and CEO. His unique ability to leverage the broad range of tools that exist in the business, policy and philanthropy sectors is sure to result in the creation of even more ventures designed to deliver the results that kids and families deserve. As we move forward, we’re excited to work with all of our partners to turn bold ideas into the solutions that will impact Coloradans now and in the future.