Core Group

Roger Collis serves as a Trustee of the Findhorn Foundation, Scotland and is resident Board Member for Meditation Mount, Ojai. He provides consulting services to non-profit organizations and businesses. He chaired the Governor’s Task Force on Sustainable Economic Development in Washington State, founded Pacific Rim Enterprise Center to facilitate innovative technologies to cleanup radioactive waste, started two technology companies, organized international conferences on environmental sustainability, and has led delegations promoting citizen diplomacy and cross-cultural exchange. He was born and educated in the UK.

Darakshan Farber serves as a connector immersed in community organization, emerging spirituality, arts and technology. He is a director of Zhena’s Gypsy Tea, Body Hoops, Glen Muse, Living Peace in Ojai, and Seven Pillars House of Wisdom (www.sevenpillarshouse.org). As a software architect, he has developed unique technologies for computers and the Internet.

Ellen Hallʼs experience is in nonprofit management; she has been the Director of the Ojai Valley Museum and the Ojai Valley Land Conservancy, as well as the head of Oak Grove School. In 1997 Ellen was elected to the Ojai City Council, and she served as the cityʼs mayor in 1999. Ellen has been successful at initiating and sustaining environmental and educational organizations, having been a founding member of the successful Ojai Valley Land Conservancy, the Besant Meadow Preservation Group, and several schools. She served the City of Ojai again as the coordinator of the cityʼs Youth Commission, and has also served on many boards, including that of the Ojai Valley Youth Foundation. Ellenʼs passion and expertise is environmental education. She lives with her husband, Richard Handley, and has two grown children. Ellen says that she and Rich regularly get the travel bug and run off to Australia, but that they always come back home to Ojai.

Howard Smith is a Wealth Advisor and Certified Estate Planning Consultant who focuses on asset management for individuals, foundations and non-profit organizations. A past Chairman of the Ventura County Economic Development, he has been honored multiple times as one of the region’s top Business Leaders by the Pacific Coast Business Times, the Ventura County Leadership Academy, the Small Business Administration and Congresswoman Lois Capps. Smith’s involvement with community activism and alternative economies dates back thirty years to his on the ground thesis research on communes in Europe and America in the 1960’s and 1970’s. Smith taught for five years at UCLA Extension, has lectured nationally, and has been published widely, including two books. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa, Magna Cum Laude from the University of Buffalo and Nanyang University of Singapore with an Ed.M. and a B.A. in Asian Studies.

Tyler Suchman – Named one of the 2007 Top 40 Under 40 by the Pacific Coast Business Times, Tyler Suchman is the founder of Tribal Core, an internet strategy consulting firm, partner/Chief Strategy Officer of Dennison+Wolfe Internet Group and operator of numerous Ojai websites, including The Ojai Post, a community blog with 4,000 daily visitors. He is a Director of the Ojai Valley Green Coalition, and founder of Towngiving, Inc., a 501(c)(3) dedicated to creating sustainability for non-profit organizations at the local level.

Thayne Whipple has developed and managed payment systems in Europe, Asia and the Americas. With over 20 years in the financial services industry, and more than a decade creating and marketing new ways for people to transfer funds and make payments; his ReadyCash products have delivered new financial tools to individuals in over 120 countries and territories. Thayne’s commitment to benefiting his community has led to leadership roles with non-profit organizations in Bangladesh, Spain, Hawaii and various cities in California, including local involvement with the Boy Scouts of America, the Ojai Shakespeare Festival and for a number of years as the president of the Ojai Education Foundation.