Jon Thomas is Chief Financial Officer at Photonics Foundries, an optical electronics company. He is also a founder at Quicksilver Capital, where he advises and invests in private equity acquisition strategies. Jon has held senior investment banking roles at Stout Capital and Woodside Capital, where he focused on M&A and capital raise for technology companies. Jon was previously a hedge fund portfolio manager at Ziegler Lotsoff Capital, a boutique asset management firm in Chicago. He began his career in finance at JP Morgan Chase, where he held positions in New York, Hong Kong, and Thailand. Jon has served over a decade on the ICA San José board.

Liz Waldo has been involved with the ICA for thirty years in multiple capacities – as a volunteer, a former Board member, and as Assistant director for nine years. She watched the ICA grow from an under $400K budget, operating in a storefront with no heat or A/C, to owning their own building and a budget of nearly a million dollars.  After the ICA she served as Development Director at Montalvo Arts Center for 2 ½ years.  Post-retirement she was an independent development consultant working with MACLA, Arts Council San Jose, Museums of Los Gatos (now NUMU) and the ICA. She feels that her recent appointment to the Board completes a full circle of engagement with an organization that she has valued for most of her adult life.

Though without an artistic bone in her body, Liz is nonetheless an avid enthusiast of contemporary art and the artists who create it. The art historian and curator Peter Selz once talked about “the river of art” with its many modernist movements being tributaries that will sometimes become rivers of their own, sometimes rejoin the mainstream or sometimes shrink into a trickle that goes nowhere. The fun is in following along.

Jackie is one of twelve in her family to have graduated from Cal.  A Cornell business school grad, she worked as a marketing communications manager for many years and supports this function on the board.  She also holds a college counseling credential and teaches a summer workshop on careers in STEM to underserved high school women.  An ardent supporter of the California Community Colleges system, she’s studied theatre, writing and art history (Humanities AA) with excellent local instructors.  Free time finds her pondering art that pulls at our seams and opens our minds.

Cathy Grape recently retired after 38 years with IBM where she held a variety of leadership and technical positions in software, hardware, and services.  She led large global system integration projects with worldwide teams, developed relationships with IBM customers representing all industries, developed commercial software applications, and negotiated contracts with critical business partners.  Career highlights include being part of the team that led IBM’s systems integration of the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games, building a call center in the Philippines, and developing and delivering software products used by 95% of the Fortune 500 companies.

Growing up, her parents took Cathy to museums and theatre which led to an abiding interest in the arts.  She received her undergraduate degree in Mathematics from Vassar College and a MS in Computer Science from Syracuse University.  While at Vassar she took advantage of their renowned Art History department and studied art from ancient to contemporary.

Cathy has been a supporter of the arts for many years here in the Bay Area and in New York City which she visits often. Cathy is honored to be on the board of the ICA to help promote the mission to bring greater awareness, understanding, and appreciation of contemporary art to the community.

Nicki Moffat graduated from Stanford University in 1971, with a degree in Psychology, and a nearly equal amount of coursework in English, Studio Art, and Art History, all of which have played important parts in her life. She was accepted into MFA programs in northern and southern California but opted for a PhD program in Clinical Psychology instead. Disillusioned with the state of clinical psychology at the time, she dropped out of the program and then worked as one of the initial teachers at the first Stanford Day Care Center. She also did free lance drawing for children’s textbooks, and worked as a teacher and counselor at Planned Parenthood. In her twenties, she became a teacher at Menlo School in Atherton, eventually becoming the first female administrator at the school when it went co-ed. As Dean of Students, she did counseling for students with emotional and academic problems, founded and ran its first Community Service Program, began and led the Big Sisters Program, the Peer Tutoring Program, and a class advisors Activity Program, among other projects. She taught American Literature to sophomores for a time, as well as Art and U.S. History in the Middle School. Eventually, she taught a senior elective, Modern World Literature, up until her retirement from the school. In recent years she started a landscape design business, Nicki Moffat Garden Design, but is now retired.

Art in all of its forms has been important to Nicki and a passion of hers since childhood. Whatever form it takes, whether it be painting, drawing, collage, the poetry she writes, landscape design, the design of her own home and garden, or her art collection with her husband, Pete, art is central to her life and gives her great joy. She feels that art represents the best part of humanity and that some relationship with it is part of being a complete person. She and Pete have been enthusiastic members of the ICA for many years, and Nicki is now very happy to be serving on the Board Of Directors. The ICA is, to her, a kind of second home, and its members, a family.

Aldo Billingslea is the Father William J. Rewak S. J., Professor of Theatre Arts at Santa Clara University. A member of Actor’s Equity Association and the Screen Actor’s Guild, Billingslea has appeared in numerous theatrical productions in the Bay Area and across the country. Aldo has served on the Board of The Lorraine Hansberry Theatre, Marin Theatre Company, and PlayGround. He resides in Santa Clara with Renee Billingslea, his visual-artist wife who also teaches at Santa Clara University.

Chris is a Sr. Director of Engineering at Lam Research Corporation, a leading manufacturer of silicon wafer processing equipment for the semiconductor industry. His work-related passion is lean product design through innovation and collaboration, and he derives great joy from recruiting and mentoring engineering interns and new college graduates.

Exposure to art began in Chris’ childhood, when his mother took him to art galleries and museums. When she became a full-time art writer at the San Jose Mercury News, she brought Chris to numerous press openings. Most relevant, thirty years ago she sent Chris and his wife Karla to the ICA for their very first art auction.

Chris is most passionate about contemporary art that either triggers human empathy, engages intellectual curiosity, or demonstrates creative and clearly refined techniques. He and Karla have recently been drawn to works that highlight social, political, and climate issues. They enjoy collecting, for which ICA auctions and art trips over the years have been a primary source.

Nick Mailey is Vice President Integrated Talent Solutions from Equinix, one of the Best Places to Work and the world’s leading digital infrastructure companies, Equinix, a Fortune’s 500 company. He is an industry thought leader in Talent Acquisition and has been recognized as a Talent Acquisition Leader of the year by HRO Today. He’s had numerous speaking engagements, podcasts & interviews: ERE, HCI, Recruiting Nation, The Family, CareerXRoads and has been interviewed by Fast Company and the Wall Street Journal. He is a passionate Human resource executive with over 20 years leading recruiting teams in Silicon Valley at companies such as Equinix, Intuit, Motorola & Applied Materials. He is considered an innovative and strategic leader with a diverse background in various industries. Nick received his undergraduate from Temple University and his Masters in Organizational Development from The University of San Francisco.

Jonathan Axelrad is a consultant and expert witness who specializes in matters relating to venture capital and other types of private investment funds.  He retired from the practice of law in 2018, having been a partner with the law firms Goodwin Procter and Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati.  Earlier, he was an associate with Sullivan & Cromwell in New York and received his law degree from the Yale Law School.  He has been involved with the venture capital community since 1990 and has had the privilege to work with some of the most exciting and interesting venture capital firms in Silicon Valley and around the world.