Careers, Life, and Yale Thursday Show: Yale School of Management - Then & Now

Jill Bauman is a seasoned entrepreneur and business executive that has led or aided in the formation, launch and growth of mission driven, value-based organizations, new products and business systems. Ms. Bauman’s nearly 40 years of experience includes computer system design, real estate investment banking, nonprofit and political fundraising, business consulting and launching five companies – three for profit and 2 not-for-profit. Jill is currently Co-Founder of Social Benefit and the CEO Emeritus of Imagine LA, a nonprofit organization dedicated to mobilizing the community to end the generational cycle of homelessness and poverty.  

In her 15 years leading Imagine LA, Ms. Bauman has become an expert in family homelessness and poverty and a leader in the field. She oversaw the development and scaling of Imagine LA’s Family Partnership Model, which leverages a powerful combination of intensive case management, mentorship for every member of the family and economic mobility – living wage pathways, childcare and financial fitness – which is now endorsed by the Aspen Institute’s Ascend Initiative to end 2-gen poverty. Jill & her Social Benefit partner, Brit Moore Gilmore, now have turned their attention to the complexity and barrier riddled public benefit and tax-credit “system”. They have created the Social Benefit Navigator an easy-to-use online tool “App” that helps case managers, individuals, and families find and access public benefits and tax credits available to them, and also helps calculate how any income changes will affect those benefits. You can learn more about it in the most recent issue of the Yale SOM Insight publication.

Jill resides with her husband John Bauman in the Hancock Park area of Los Angeles. Together they seek the company of her two adult children, James and Isabelle, as well as family and friends along with great food, cultural experiences of every type, hiking and competitive tennis.   Jill earned a Master’s in Public and Private Management MPPM / MBA from the Yale School of Management in 1987 and BA in Economics from Smith College in 1982. She currently serves as an officer on the Yale SOM Alumni Advisory Board. 

Fay Chen is an Executive Director of Morgan Stanley, in the Investment Management Division’s Private Credit & Private Equity (PC&E) group, where she focuses on direct investments in private companies in the form of private debt and related private equity across multiple investment funds. She also leads ESG strategy across the Private Credit funds.  She was a founding member of Morgan Stanley’s debut Private Credit fund.  Before joining the Investment Management Division, she was an investment banker in Morgan Stanley’s Investment Banking division. She began her career at J.P. Morgan Investment Banking. She has 19 years of industry experience across investment banking and investments. 

She has a BA from Johns Hopkins University in International Studies and Economics and an MBA from Yale University. Fay is a member of the Yale SOM’s Alumni Advisory Board, where she serves as Chair of the Nominations Committee. She also serves as a member of the the Yale SOM Campaign Committee. 

Claudia Stone Gourdon is a 45-year veteran of the finance industry.  After graduating in the Charter Class, she started her career in investment banking at Smith Barney and PaineWebber, moved to private lending at GE Capital, then to a smaller private firm, where she was head of Sales & Marketing, and finally to commercial banking. For the last 20+ years, she has focused on the healthcare industry, lending to hospitals, assisted living and skilled nursing facilities. Among her various roles, she was Managing Director responsible for the largest hospitals in the northeast, Global Managing Director covering major multinationals, and head of the healthcare lending group. She lives in Greenwich, CT with her husband, Pierre, and son, Eric, and holds several Board positions in local volunteer organizations.

Wei-Ru Li is in the full-time MBA program and about to graduate this May. In her time at SOM, she serves as the Alumni Affairs Chair on the Student Government, fostering opportunities for current SOM students and the alumni community to connect. She was also the president of Internship Fund - Class of 2023, a 42-year old tradition at SOM that fundraises for MBAs who dedicate their summer internships to non-profits and public organizations. Before SOM, Wei-Ru worked in various roles in the Finance industry, most recently at Point72 Asset Management. 

Tony Lynn is a San Francisco based tech executive with over 15 years experience spanning the private and public sectors. He has spent the past 5 years building multibillion-dollar businesses for Meta, where he led a global unit responsible for supporting small businesses using Instagram to advertise and engage their audiences.

Tony was formerly a Business Strategy Manager at Accenture, where he led management consulting teams and advised corporate, government, and NGO clients on complex strategic problems related to growth. He also previously held management and advisory roles at the Obama White House, the US Senate, as well as for leading Fortune 500 companies, and start-ups.

Tony earned his MBA from the Yale School of Management and a BA from Dillard University. Passionate about improving the human condition, Tony's professional focus is developing innovative strategies to solve the world's most pressing economic problems. He currently serves as the Vice Chair of SOM’s Global Alumni Advisory Board and was the 2022 recipient of the YAA Leadership Award for Volunteer Service and Innovative Leadership to the Yale community.