John Okamoto — Chairman

John Okamoto is the new Executive Director of the Washington Education Association (WEA). The 81,000-member WEA represents K-12 teachers, education-support professionals and higher-education faculty members. Prior to joining the WEA John served as Chief Administrative Officer for the Port of Seattle (January 2003 – May 2008), where he oversaw key administrative departments, including Public Affairs, Government Relations, Economic and Trade Development, Regional Transportation, Human Resources, Labor Relations and Facilities. He has also served as Assistant Secretary of Washington State Department of Transportation, leading 2,500 employees and administering a $2.2 billion biennial budget. From 1996 to 2001 he served as a Department of Transportation regional administrator over the most populated and congested six-county region of Washington State. He is active in community and public service organizations including the Seattle Aquarium Society, Japan America Society, Trade Development Alliance, Enterprise Seattle, Seattle’s Convention and Visitors Bureau, Nikkei Concerns, American Public Works Association, the Intelligent Transportation Society of Washington, and Mountains to Sound Greenway. John has a bachelor’s degree in psychology and a master’s degree in public administration from the University of Washington. He has attended Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government in the Senior Executives program for state and local government officials.

Janet Morrow — Secretary/Treasurer

Janet Morrow has spent her entire adult life in the non-profit world in all capacities: volunteer, professional administrator, fund raiser and philanthropist. In 1971 after returning to her native Chicago, she founded TRUST, Inc. (To Reshape Urban Systems Together). Dubbed an urban policy think tank, it provided the forum for cross interest group communication and cooperative problem solving, which resulted in new state legislation, a constitutional amendment passed by Illinois voters and major policy changes in city and state departments and public and private foundation funding priorities. As a city-wide effort that linked Chicago government, business, church, community and education leaders, it has served as a model for city-transformation efforts in other large cities for three decades since. Janet is also involved with the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at North Park University in Chicago and the Alliance for Transforming the Lives of Children. Janet rich history of friendship is chronicled on her wall of pictures with various Chicago mayors, Nelson Mandela and other world humanitarian, political and business leaders.

Dr. Brad Smith — BGU President

Brad has served as an assistant to two US Senators, and was an urban church planter and teacher of spiritual formation at a US seminary. Former President of Leadership Network (LN), Brad learned how to build peer-learning networks among advanced leaders in large churches, non-profits and businesses in the US. After leaving LN in 2002, Brad sought to find a similar international network of advanced leaders where he could apply what he learned at LN on a larger scale. Brad served briefly as Executive Director of International Urban Associates prior to becoming the President of Northwest Graduate School which was renamed Bakke Graduate University after its merger with International Urban Associates.

Dennis W. Bakke

Dennis was cofounder of AES – a multinational company that at one time was the third largest owner of electrical power in the world behind the governments of Russia and France. AES and Dennis gained international attention through his unusual business practices of decentralizing decision-making among his 36,000 employees, his low overhead corporate office of less than 100 employees, and his purchase of millions of acres of rainforest to offset power-plant carbon-dioxide emissions. Prior to 1981, Dennis was Deputy Director of the Energy Productivity Center, Carnegie-Mellon University. In addition, he served for 18 months as Chairman of the International Energy Agency Conservation Group in Paris, France. He left FEA to attend the National War College, graduating with Distinction in 1977. Graduating with Honors from the University of Puget Sound, Dennis went on to receive an MBA from Harvard University. In 2005 he published the NY Times best-selling book, Joy at Work in addition to the award-winning documentary The Power Trip that chronicled AES’ work in Tbilisi, Georgia. Dennis is currently the President and CEO of Imagine Schools, a company that operates elementary and secondary (K-12) charter schools in 10 states. http://www.dennisbakke.com. Dennis currently serves as a Director of Young Life of Washington, DC, Founder and Co-Chairman of the Mustard Seed Foundation, and Board member of Council for Excellence in Government.

Russ Johnson

Russ is a real-estate developer with a 23-year background in commercial real estate sales, leasing, finance, strategic planning, team building and service network systems. In the late 1990’s, he pioneered an innovative commercial development south of downtown Seattle. Russ also founded the Footstool foundation which has become a national model of how philanthropy can be used to facilitate city-wide partnerships for urban transformation. Russ is active in national philanthropy and local Seattle partnership efforts between suburban and urban church leaders.

Jack McMillan

Jack McMillan has been an integral part of Nordstrom for more than 47 years. He began his career in the stockroom and on the sales floor of the downtown Seattle store, serving customers in various positions. Along with his cousins-in-law Bruce, John and James Nordstrom, he assumed leadership of the company from the second generation in 1968. The four took the company public in 1971 and continued to share leadership responsibilities for Nordstrom as co-chairmen until 1995. Jack and his fellow co-chairmen led the company’s national expansion drive into California, the Midwest and East Coast and increased sales from $100 million in 1973 to $3.9 billion in 1995. He served as a member of the Board of Directors from 1966 to 2004.

Jack is the former president of the Downtown Seattle Association and served on the board of the 1990 Seattle Goodwill Games, Fleming Companies, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, the Board of Trustees for Seattle University, Seattle/King County Sports and Events Council, and the Seattle YMCA. Presently, he serves on the Board of Directors for Lion.com, Bob Walsh Associates, Coalition for Community Development and Renewal, Friends of Zion Academy, Seattle/King County Sports and Events Council, and the Seattle YMCA. He joined the BGU Board in November, 2006.

David Syre

As Chairman and C.E.O. David Syre has guided Trillium Corporation from a regional real estate development company in 1974 to an international global investment company with a strategically diverse portfolio and an asset value approaching $500 million. Prior to founding Trillium Corporation, David was in a private law practice and commercial banking. He obtained a Bachelor of Science degree in Agriculture from Washington State University and a law degree from Gonzaga University. Throughout his career, David has been active in a diverse range of professional and community projects, including the Board of Directors of Western Foundation at Western Washington University and the Foundation’s Executive Committee, the Board of Trustees for the Washington State University Foundation, and Board Member of Seattle Pacific University Fellows.

Jack vanHartesvelt

Jack vanHartesvelt has had a distinguished career in hotel development and currently oversees Kennedy Associates Real Estate Counsel’s hotel investment, development and asset management portfolio.
A speaker at numerous hotel industry forums and a frequent college lecturer, Jack was voted Outstanding Alumnus in 1982 from Michigan State University's School of Hotel, Restaurant and Institutional Management from which he graduated in 1975.
He has spearheaded a number of mission renovation projects, and the hallmark of all of them has been organization that utilizes volunteer workers in a way that enables skilled laborers to come in and complete their work in record time at a considerably reduced cost.

Dr. Ray Bakke — (Ex-Officio)

Ray Bakke founded International Urban Associates (IUA) in 1989. IUA animated a network of more than 100 urban-based church and mission leaders in many of the largest cities of the world. Currently Dr. Bakke is Chancellor, distinguished professor of global urban ministry and Chairman of the Board of Regents at BGU. From 1959 through 1979 Ray pastored inner-city churches in Seattle and Chicago. During that time he also co-founded the Seminary Consortium for Urban Pastoral Education (SCUPE) and taught Bible at Trinity College and Church History at McCormick Theological Seminary. He was a professor at Northern Baptist Theological Seminary and Professor of Global Urban Ministry at Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary. He served as Senior Associate for Large Cities with the Lausanne Committee for World Evangelism from 1979 to 1995. Since 1979 Dr. Bakke has personally led or served as a major resource leader for urban ministry consultations in more than 200 large cities on six continents. He is author of several books, including The Urban Christian and A Theology as Big as the City.