The people behind the program.

We're operators, investors, and strategists who've built things, funded things, and helped businesses get to places they could not reach alone.

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Team members

We built The Capital Collective because we've seen what's possible when the right people are in your corner, and we wanted to be those people for businesses that haven't had access to them yet.

President & Founder

Emily Halpern

emily@thecapitalcollective.org

Emily has spent over 25 years in investment and transaction sectors, but what really shapes how she works is where she's been in that world. She's raised capital, deployed it, built businesses, and exited them.

She co-founded The Capital Collective because she kept seeing the same gap: businesses with real potential, real revenue, and real ambition that couldn't get in front of the right capital or the right people. Her career spans Brightwood Capital Advisors, JPMorgan Asset Management, RSM Private Equity Services, and VUE Partners, with more than $200 million in capital deployed across CDFIs and SBICs.

When she's not working, you'll find her on the water, on the golf course, or keeping up as a foodie.

Interim COO

Jennifer Gennaro Oxley

jennifer@thecapitalcollective.org

Jennifer is the kind of person who makes organizations work better. She's spent 25+ years figuring out what's holding teams back and building the structures, partnerships, and strategies to move them forward.

Most recently she served as Executive Director of The Motley Fool Foundation, where she built a $15M national charity focused on financial freedom through community programming. She has revitalized organizations, grown revenue and membership, and strengthened institutions ranging from the Fulbright Association to Leadership Greater Washington.

At The Capital Collective, Jennifer co-leads operations and strategy, making sure the program delivers on what it promises to every business that walks through the door.

National Director of Programming

Jill Donaldson

jill@thecapitalcollective.org

Jill knows what it's like to build something from scratch. As the founder and CEO of PastryBase, LLC, she took a farmers' market stall to national and international distribution, navigating every stage of product ideation, development, launch, and scale along the way.

With 15+ years across entrepreneurship, leadership, and consulting, Jill has supported over 90 Virginia-based businesses through accelerator programs, mentorship, and strategic networking.

In her role leading our Richmond operations, she brings something rare: she understands what business owners are actually going through, because she's been there.

AI Aficionado

Doug Ebanks

doug@thecapitalcollective.org

Doug works at the intersection of capital, technology, and operations, with a decade in investment and alternative asset management behind him. He's underwritten roughly $1B in proprietary transactions and helped found an impact-lending platform — sourcing, raising, and closing.

He brought that same operator's instinct to The Capital Collective, where he leads finance and technology. Doug oversees financial reporting, audit, and budgeting, builds the bespoke software that makes the program run, and gives cohort companies the financial modeling support they need to make their case to capital. His approach leans heavily on data and automation — replacing manual back-office work with systems that scale without headcount.

A first-class Economics graduate of the University of Exeter, Doug also serves as Treasurer of the University of Exeter US Foundation. Outside of work, he's a lifelong rugby player who's turned out for clubs from Blackheath to the New York Athletic Club.

National Director of Fundraising

Abby Guerin Russell

abby@thecapitalcollective.org

Abby has spent her career building the infrastructure that funds entrepreneurial ecosystems, and most of it in Birmingham. As Chief Development Officer at Innovation Depot, she built the organization's first development program from scratch, blending philanthropic and tax-credit giving to expand resources for startups and open new ways for alumni, partners, and the community to invest in the city's innovation economy.

Before that, she spent nearly five years with Venture For America, where as Senior Director she recruited more than 100 young professionals to Birmingham and, as VP of Development, designed the organization's first national fundraising model serving 13 regional hubs. Earlier she led Innovate Birmingham, a city-wide workforce initiative backed by a $6M US Department of Labor grant that trained hundreds of young people for tech careers, and held senior development roles at UC Berkeley.

A Vanderbilt graduate and alumna of Harvard Business School's Young American Leaders Program, Abby stays close to the community she's helped build — serving on the board of TechBirmingham and the investment committee of Auburn University's New Venture Accelerator Kickstart Fund.

And a wider network behind them.

Our core team is backed by a bench of industry experts, business strategists, and scaling partners who support our programs, portfolio companies, and mission.

When you work with The Capital Collective, you're getting access to a network built over decades at the highest levels of business and capital.

Backed by belief

Our programs are funded by leading financial institutions, Fortune 500 companies, and philanthropic partners.

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