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Massachusetts First Ones 2021

Thursday, June 10, 2021

Virtual
Massachusetts First Ones 2021

The Massachusetts First Ones celebrate leaders who are first in their family to graduate college. 

Their stories demonstrate the transformative power of higher education and underscore the need for college to be affordable for all.

If you were unable to join us but wish to make a gift, you may do so here. We’re grateful for your support!

You can watch the celebration below.

 

Honorees

Emanuel Cabrera

Senior Manager, EY

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Read Emanuel's bio

Emanuel ‘Manny’ Cabrera is a Boston-based senior manager in the Financial Services Assurance Practice of Ernst & Young. He has nine years of experience in providing assurance services to a variety of public integrated financial services clients focusing mainly on retirement and life insurance. 

Manny is the co-leader of the Boston Latino Professional Network at EY. Apart from his client responsibilities, Manny focuses on the diversity and inclusiveness efforts by working with HR professionals to recruit and interview diverse professionals. Manny also focuses on retaining employees by providing resources to younger professionals and bringing awareness to all employees through inclusive events. For the past six years, Manny has also been a mentor for the EY CollegeMap program which encourages and prepares junior and senior high school students for college. 

Manny received his bachelor’s degree in accounting from Boston College and is a Certified Public Accountant. In 2017, Manny was the recipient of El Mundo’s Latino 30 under 30 award recognizing his achievements as a young leader in Boston.

​

Betty Francisco 

CEO, Boston Impact Initiative

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Read Betty's bio

Betty Francisco is a seasoned business executive, investor, and community leader. She has over 20 years of experience advising high-growth start-ups, non-profits, life sciences, technology, and health and wellness companies in the areas of legal, compliance, risk management, operations, and human resources. Betty is the incoming CEO of Boston Impact Initiative, a social impact investment fund that invests to narrow the racial wealth divide in Eastern Massachusetts. She was the general counsel at Compass Working Capital where she oversaw the organization’s legal affairs, compliance, and risk management. Before that, she served as EVP, general counsel for Sports Club/LA, and Reebok Sports Club/NY, a fitness brand acquired by Equinox Fitness. Betty began her legal career as a senior business law associate at Edwards Wildman, one of Boston’s largest law firms representing start-ups, corporations, and investors. 

 

Betty is the co-founder of Amplify Latinx, a social venture that is building Latinx economic and political power by significantly increasing Latinx civic engagement and leadership representation in Massachusetts. Betty is also co-founder of the Investors of Color Network, a grassroots initiative building a thriving ecosystem of Black and Latinx accredited investors to close the racial funding gap in startup capital. She serves on the boards of directors of The Boston Foundation, Nellie Mae Education Foundation, Beth Israel Lahey Health, and Roxbury Community College. Betty obtained her J.D. and M.B.A. from Northeastern University and her B.A. in History from Bard College. You can learn more about Betty at http://bettyfrancisco.com.

Bob Giannino

President & CEO, United Way of Massachusetts Bay & Merrimack Valley

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Read Bob' bio

Bob Giannino is the president and CEO of the United Way of Massachusetts Bay and Merrimack Valley, New England’s largest local United Way, covering more than 150 communities across Eastern Massachusetts and Southern New Hampshire. Prior to joining United Way, Bob served as the CEO of uAspire, the nation’s leading nonprofit focused on helping young people and families navigate an affordable path to a postsecondary degree. Before uAspire, Bob served as vice president of business development and government relations at Jumpstart for Young Children. Prior to that, Bob worked for Procter & Gamble in their customer business development division. And, as a college student, Bob played a pivotal role in the founding of AmeriCorps, the national service program founded by President Clinton.   

From 2015-2020, Bob served on the faculty of the Institute for Nonprofit Practice. Bob serves on the governing boards of Idealist.org, the Boston Opportunity Agenda, Root Cause, the National Gay Flag Football League, and is Chair of the Board of Y2Y Network. Bob also sits on the advisory boards for Thrive Scholars and Excel Academy Charter Schools. As the first in his family to attend college, a product of the Somerville (MA) Public Schools, and a graduate of Harvard College, Bob knows first-hand the vital role that community-based programs and nonprofit organizations play in paving a path to opportunity for all young people.

Greg Shell

Managing Director, Bain Capital

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Read Greg's bio

Greg Shell joined Bain Capital as a managing director in 2016. Prior to joining Bain Capital, he served as a lead portfolio manager of a concentrated global equity product at GMO. Previously, he was a senior equity analyst at Columbia Management Group and a consultant at Bain & Company in its Strategy and Private Equity practice areas. He has owned and done deep diligence on many businesses throughout his career and demonstrated a commitment to discovering and creating value. Greg has also distinguished himself through visionary leadership in civic service. He currently sits on the Board of The Boston Foundation, where he has led the Program Committee’s grant-making process. He has chaired the board of a high-performing charter school as it planned to triple its student population and was a founding board member of Compass Working Capital, a growth non-profit focused on family self-sufficiency. 

Greg received a Bachelor of Science from MIT and an MBA from the Harvard Business School. A native of New Bedford, MA, Greg believes deeply in the transformative power of education and the innovative capacity of the private sector to help provide solutions to society’s most pressing problems.

 

​In case you missed it! New York First Ones 2021

 

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Our Sponsors

 

Presenting Sponsors

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Platinum Sponsor 

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Gold Sponsor

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Silver Sponsors

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Biogen
Boston Partners
The Brooks & Joan Fortune Family Foundation
Cognizant
Nam-Macgill Family Fund

 

Bronze Sponsors

Liberty Mutual Insurance
PwC
Laurie and Peter Thomsen
United Way of Massachusetts Bay and Merrimack Valley
Jen and Rob Waldron

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