Empowering Communities & Driving Impact

A position your board can defend.

Patrick Gaston advises boards and executive teams on governance, social impact, and sustainability — as a former public-company chairman who has sat on your side of the table.

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The expectations arrived before the playbook did. Investors want a position they can measure. Regulators want disclosure they can verify. Employees want to know where you stand.

Most leaders we meet are not short on conviction. They are short on a strategy that holds up in the room where it gets questioned.

I

What we do

Empty boardroom table beside tall windows
No. 1

Board & governance advisory

How the board oversees social impact and sustainability: committee structure, director education, and governance built to withstand scrutiny — from someone who has chaired one.

No. 2

Social impact & sustainability strategy

A strategy tied to the business, not bolted on: what is material, where you will act, and how you will answer for it to investors and stakeholders.

Annotated documents and charts on a desk
Sunlit atrium of a civic building
No. 3

Partnerships & philanthropy

Private-public partnerships, foundation strategy, and community investment designed to produce results you can report, not press releases.

II

Who you'll work with

Patrick Gaston, portrait
President & CEO

Patrick Gaston

Patrick has spent more than twenty-five years leading community investment and social impact work at scale. Until 2020 he chaired the board of Bed Bath & Beyond, a $12 billion public company, where he led a transformation of board governance and the appointment of ten new independent directors. Before that he was President of the Verizon Foundation, President of the Western Union Foundation, and Senior Advisor to the Clinton-Bush Haiti Fund.

25+
years leading community investment at scale
$12B
public company chaired
10
independent directors appointed
Chairman of the BoardBed Bath & Beyond
PresidentVerizon Foundation
PresidentWestern Union Foundation
Senior AdvisorClinton-Bush Haiti Fund
Director, Compensation ChairLaird Superfood

Cristin Tarr

A social entrepreneur in mission-driven brand management, Cristin has led social impact training, multi-stakeholder programs, and community projects across the globe — from indigenous integration projects to youth programs in Brazil and livelihood work in Mozambique.

She teaches at the University of Denver, speaks on corporate social impact, and has founded multiple organizations built to produce durable social change, including CISV Denver and BSC Group.

Cristin Tarr, portrait
Strategic Advisor
Boards & affiliations, current and past

U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation · NAACP Foundation · The Conference Board · National Governors Association · Clinton Bush Haiti Fund · Western Union Foundation · Verizon Foundation · National PTA · Executive Leadership Council · World Institute on Disability · KidSpirit · Eden Reforestation Projects · America's Charities · National Latino Children's Institute · Posner Center for International Development

III

Tell us where you are.

A few lines is enough. We read every inquiry and reply personally, usually within two business days.