1stACT Silicon Valley: Arts - Creativity


Richard Braugh	Bruce W. Davis	Roy Hirabayashi	Raul Lozano	Connie Martinez	Ann Skeet

About Us: 1st ACT Network: Founders

Richard Braugh

Richard Braugh, Senior Vice President, UBS

See Board of Directors biography.

Bruce W. Davis, Executive Director, Arts Council Silicon Valley
Bruce W. Davis has served as the executive director of Arts Council Silicon Valley, the largest nonprofit arts council in the State of California, since September 1993. Under Davis’ leadership, the Arts Council has more than quadrupled its budget and established numerous successful partnerships and initiatives to support the local Silicon Valley arts community. This includes distributing over $15 million in grants and services to local arts and cultural organizations, individual artists, schools and community groups. Davis was also instrumental in the creation of the Artsopolis Marketing Partnership and Artsopolis.com, the nation’s leading arts and culture calendaring software program. To date, the Artsopolis Network has 20 licensees nationwide with almost 25 million visitors combined each year.

Before coming to the Arts Council, Davis served as the Northern California coordinator of People for the American Way and was the executive director of City Celebration in San Francisco, producers of the San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival. He was the co-executive producer of the documentary film, And Still We Dance--a Portrait of the Ethnic Dance Festival, which was broadcast nationally. Davis is an active member of Americans for the Arts, a Senior Fellow of the American Leadership Forum Silicon Valley, and was a founding Board member of the Silicon Valley Council of Nonprofits. He is also a co-founder of 1stACT Silicon Valley, a cross-sector collaborative focused on art and technology. Davis was included in San Jose Magazine’s prestigious “Power 100” for five consecutive years.

In addition, Davis has been a professional lyricist, songwriter and performer for over 20 years. His songs have been published by 20th Century Fox/Fanfare Music, included in film and television soundtracks, as well as in commercials and public service announcements. In 1992, he was selected as a writer/performer finalist at the prestigious Kerrville Music Festival in Kerrville, Texas and received an Honorable Mention in the 2003 John Lennon International Songwriting Contest.

Roy Hirabayashi, Managing Director, San Jose Taiko

Roy Hirabayashi is one of the founding members of San Jose Taiko and is currently the Managing Director. Since the inception of San Jose Taiko in 1973, Roy has been one of the composers, performing member and creative force behind San Jose Taiko. He has directed many of the collaboration projects between San Jose Taiko and other artists/groups, and has initiated and teaches in the training program (audition process) and the Junior Taiko Program at San Jose Taiko. His primary instrument is the shinobue, the Japanese bamboo flute.

Roy has toured with Kodo and Ondekoza, two of Japan's renowned professional taiko companies. He was instrumental in the development of the first national taiko conference in the United States in 1997 and continues to participate as a workshop/ panel discussion leader and advisory board member to the taiko conference committee. He was also involved in the creation of KASA (Kodo Arts Sphere of America). He is a past board member to the Western Arts Alliance (WAA) and is currently a member of First Voice, Japantown Community Congress of San Jose, the Board of Governors for Artsopolis, and helped co-conceive 1stACT's MALI program.

Roy has also served on grant review panels for the National Endowment for the Arts, California Arts Council, San Francisco Arts Program, Alameda County Arts Council, Silicon Valley Arts Council and Meet the Composers.

Raul Lozano, Former Executive Director, Teatro Vision
Raul Lozano just stepped down as the Executive Director of Teatro Vision with the support of a staff of six. His involvement with Teatro Vision began as a board member in 1992, and he served as board president from 1995 to 1997 before becoming the first Executive Director. An experienced non-profit manager, he is currently participating as a board member with Artsopolis, Team San Jose and a member of First Voice, and 1st ACT Silicon Valley, and helped co-conceive 1stACT's MALI program. Raul's continued involvement with Teatro Vision is based on his belief of how Chicano Teatro can play a major role in community healing, civic action, cultural pride and the telling of our stories.

Connie Martinez, Managing Director and CEO, 1stACT Silicon Valley

See 1st ACT Staff biography.

Ann Skeet, President, Notre Dame High School
As the former Chief Executive Officer of American Leadership Forum-Silicon Valley (ALF-SV), Ann was recently named the president of Notre Dame High School in San Jose. Prior to that, she was Vice President of Marketing for the San Jose Mercury News and Contra Costa Newspapers. While working for the Mercury News, she held a variety of positions in the newsroom, circulation, production, strategic planning and online product development.

Ann was board member of United Way Silicon Valley from 1999-2002 and served as the co-chair of its board of directors from 2001-2002. Ann also served as the chair of United Way's Success by Six early childhood initiative from 2002 - 2004, and co-chaired the Santa Clara County Partnership for School Readiness, a collaborative of funders and agencies working to prepare children for school, from 2004 - 2006. She also chaired the capital campaign cabinet for Estrella Family Services, a nonprofit organization known nationally for outstanding, family-focused child care.

Ann served as a board member for the Harvard Business School Association of Northern California for three years and is a former board chair of the American Musical Theatre of San Jose. She also served on the boards of the Stanford Daily and the Nonprofit Development Center, which is now CompassPoint Nonprofit Services.

In 2004, Ann was selected for inclusion in the Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal's annual "40 Under 40 People to Watch". She received the Women in Leadership Award in 1997 for her business and community leadership from the San Francisco Business Times and the Tribute to Women and Industry (TWIN) Award from the YWCA in 1996.

Ann is a magna cum laude graduate of Bucknell University and holds a master of business administration degree from Harvard Business School. She is also a member of Phi Beta Kappa. Ann lives in San Jose, CA with her husband and children.