Meet Doug, one of our Senior Managers.

Doug (he/him) is a skilled strategy consultant, writer, financial analyst, and researcher who works with nonprofit leaders to help them do their good work more effectively. He is an expert in large group facilitation and dialog, with a keen sense of how to move participants toward common understanding, and is certified in the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator for leadership development and team building.

Doug’s consulting is informed by diverse experiences with organizations in times of great change. In the 1980s S&L crisis, he supported the first modern interstate banking mergers with financial analysis. He also led an AIDS services organization during the height of the HIV/AIDS epidemic and has been a consultant to nonprofits during the Great Recession and its uneven recovery. His past clients at La Piana include the Alliance of Hispanic Serving Institution Educators, Coaching Corps, Energy Foundation, Goodwill Industries International, the San Diego Natural History Museum, and Surfrider Foundation.

Doug has helped prepare the next generation of leaders as a professor of nonprofit studies at Pepperdine University, where he co-founded and hosted the Nonprofit Leadership Institute, and at California Lutheran University, where he is a featured faculty member for the Center for Nonprofit Leadership.

Prior to joining La Piana in 2016, Doug consulted independently to numerous nonprofits on California’s Central Coast and served as director of the Resource Center for Nonprofit Management at the Ventura County Community Foundation. He also has executive-level experience in public affairs, in both the nonprofit and public sectors. Doug is a gifted storyteller who performs live and also shares stories online through a podcast hosted by arts nonprofit The Townies, for which he served as Board Secretary.

Impact Approach

Doug loves the combination of analysis and sense-making connected with complex strategy projects, board development, and merger exploration. He thrives on challenges and enjoys partnering with clients on multifaceted projects that draw on his range of skills in communication, analysis, and group facilitation.

Education

• Southern Methodist University
• Cox School of Business ‒ M.B.A, Finance