OUR BOARD
We are currently seeking new board members! If you are interested in applying, you can click HERE or reach out to info@slowmoneynyc.org with any questions.
Claude Arpels
After spending 20 years in fashion and luxury businesses, Claude chose to dedicate himself to his interests in food, the environment, social enterprise, and the arts. He has become an avid impact angel investor, particularly in businesses with a sustainable food and agriculture mission. Claude is the Co-Chair of Slow Money NYC and a founding member of Foodshed Investors New York, which recently merged with Investors Circle. He also serves as Board President of International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), the nation’s pre-eminent contemporary music ensemble.
Christine Rico
Christine Rico, co-chair, is a social entrepreneur, growth strategist and financial consultant to growth phase businesses with a social impact mission. Her company, CFO on Speed Dial, helps food companies improve profits while they innovate with flavor, sourcing and creating a more sustainable food system. Christine is also mentor in New York City’s WENYC program (women’s entrepreneurship NYC) and was a 2015 Agent of Change at the Centre for Social Innovation. Christine is a bike-commuting, fruit and vegetable grower who lives in Brooklyn.
Emily stone
Since creating the blog Chocolate in Context in 2005, Emily Stone has had an interest in the intersection of a sustainable food system and a sustainable financial system. She has been a resident of half a dozen countries and a visitor to many more, as an independent bookstore owner, a social science research assistant, occasionally an actor, a writer across genres, a teacher of writing, and an individual investor. She holds graduate degrees in creative writing and food studies, and she is currently a senior lecturer in the expository writing program at NYU.
arion thiboumery
Arion Thiboumery is an entrepreneur and investor working in food, agriculture, and renewable energy. His past businesses have been mostly focused on meat processing and production. He holds a doctorate from Iowa State University.
OUR TEAM
Derek Denckla
Derek Denckla is the principal and founder of Denckla Projects, launchpad for several social impact enterprises, a multi-media arts and curatorial practice and sustainable business advisory services. Derek was co-founder of Slow Money NYC, serving as its Director from 2011-2016, spearheading many of our unique educational and investing platforms, including Good Food Spotlight, Food + Enterprise Summit (2012-16) and Foodshed Investors of NY (now operating as the Food Committee of Investors Circle NY). Currently, Derek is enrolled in an Masters of Fine Art in Creative Writing at the New School for Social Research, where he hopes to develop his inter-disciplinary practice of poetics embracing visual art, movement and music.
Doron Goldstein
Doron provides pro-bono legal advice to the SMNYC team.
David Robinov
Since 1981, David Robinov has been a serial entrepreneur. He owned six successful retail natural markets in the New York area and also developed a Chinese herbal-based cola, China Cola, that became one of the top selling soft drinks in the Natural Products Marketplace. David has served as a Director at both Reeds, Inc. and Mary's Gone Crackers. He also co-founded Organic Brands, LLC and developed the product line Mediterranean Organic. With Farm To People, David wants to give back and support this new generation of small-batch producers.
Logan Yonavjak
Logan has worked with a variety of investment firms on a suite of projects ranging from ESG product development, the development of social and environmental impact metrics methodologies, and a variety of renewable energy and conservation finance deals. In January 2020, she Co-Founded and serves as a Managing Director at Provenance Capital Group, a financial services firm that focuses on allocating capital into regenerative natural resource enterprises. Logan is a Startingbloc Fellow, a Property and Environment Research (PERC) Fellow, and a Kinship Fellow and has also been a freelance writer for Ashoka Changemakers, Forbes, ImpactAlpha, Nextbillion, and TriplePundit. She received her Masters in Forestry and MBA (with a concentration in Asset Management) from Yale in 2016.
