HONOREE
Lucia Kung
Chief Financial Officer
Mental Health America of Los Angeles
Lucia Kung immigrated from Taiwan, first living in Toronto before moving to Los Angeles in 2002. Prior to her move to Canada, Kung spoke no English but went to ESL class every day. Ultimately, she got her first job at a coffee shop as a cashier and was excited to be making money, and with that she could learn English. She later found a job working as a receptionist at a hand tool distribution company. There, she also served as a translator between her Mandarin speaking boss and their largest customer in Quebec, negotiating business deals for more than six years.
After her move to Los Angeles, she found the nonprofit world and determined it was the direction she wanted to go. The people who are positively impacted by the nonprofits she's worked for are what keeps her motivated, inspired, and working hard.
As Chief Financial Officer for Mental Health America of Los Angeles (MHALA), Kung has revitalized the agency’s financial growth. With many companies having to lay off staff during the pandemic, she secured a Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan for $4.6 million for the agency. She has fully restructured the agency’s budget and financial strategies. In addition, Kung has been able to reorganize and speed up accounts receivable to ensure the adequate cash flow for employee payroll and on-time payments for vendors. Since she arrived at MHALA in 2016, her sound advice on endowment investments, financial planning and projections, and robust relationships with key financial partners have elevated MHALA’s ability to better serve people in the community with mental health needs. A true financial thought leader, not only does Kung excel in her position as CFO but also is a cherished, respected, and well-loved member of the MHALA organization. There is not a colleague or staff member at MHALA who does not appreciate Lucia’s impeccable work ethic and strong financial leadership.
Education / Nonprofit - Finalists
Gaspare Benso
Chief Financial Officer & EVP
Autry Museum of the American West
Gaspare Benso serves as the EVP business operations and CFO of the Autry Museum of the American West. He joined the Autry Museum just before the COVID-19 pandemic, which he then partnered with the president & CEO to implement cost-saving initiatives across all departments, resulting in a reduction in operating expenses by over 12%. The Autry Museum came out of the pandemic even stronger.
Gaspare is a strategy-minded and results-driven business operations and finance partner with more than 25 years of experience working with nonprofit and for-profit organizations. He is a well-rounded leader with a diverse scope of expertise, combining a strong analytical and detail-oriented mindset with the ability to also focus on the big picture and quickly summarize results for any audience.
Randolph P. Siwabessy
Chief Financial Officer
University of California, Irvine; UCI Health
Having joined a year ago as UCI Health’s chief financial officer in the middle of a global pandemic, Randolph P. Siwabessy has weathered the COVID-19 storm and has helped the enterprise come out even more vital. By stabilizing UCI Health’s finances during this challenging time he implemented new long-range planning strategies, adjusting for the pandemic, and capturing costs for CARE Act dollars – all of which have helped UCI Health come out financially stronger than before.
Siwabessy has taken innovative measures to invest in UCI Health’s growth by aligning the financial objectives between UCI Health and UCI’s School of Medicine (SOM). By creating a collaborative culture among other UCI school-specific CFOs, colleagues at both enterprises seek his counsel which paves the path for collective success for the health system.
Piero Stillitano
Chief Financial Officer
CALSTART, Inc.
Piero Stillitano is CFO of CALSTART Inc., which works with its member companies and agencies to build a high-tech clean transportation industry that creates jobs, cuts air pollution and oil imports, and curbs climate change. When he joined CALSTART five years ago, the organization had 24 people on payroll and revenue of $31 million. He quickly went to work on creating a plan, processes, systems, and an organizational structure to manage growth and allow the organization to negotiate, accept larger contracts, and bring projects to their successful completion.
Stillitano led the strategic modeling of the financial and operational aspects of the organization. In his five years, his analysis, execution, and leadership have helped grow the workforce in 2022 by 110 employees (up 358%) and revenue to $130 million (up 76%).
Emilee Tello
Chief Financial Officer
Orange County United Way
Emilee Tello is the current chief financial officer of Orange County United Way and is responsible for the financial administration and actions of the organization. She has served in this capacity since 2018. Under her tenure, Orange County United Way grew from an $18 million annual budget to a $70 million annual budget in fiscal year 2021 to 2022 due to the organization’s important work with the pandemic-related Emergency Rental Assistance Program (ERAP).
In her role as CFO at Orange County United Way as well as a key member of the executive team, Tello led the team in the administration of approximately $81 million for the ERAP, an income-based program aimed at helping Orange County's most vulnerable residents and tenants by providing financial assistance.
