San Francisco nonprofit All Raise has tapped Portland entrepreneur Paige Hendrix Buckner as its permanent CEO.
Buckner had taken over on an interim basis earlier this year. The group started in 2017 as stories of harassment and rampant bias in the tech industry made a new round of headlines. Silicon Valley investor Aileen Lee galvanized a group of like-minded women in venture capital to do something about it.
“All Raise has built one of the most powerful and impact-driven communities in the United States, and we’re uniquely positioned to create a tech culture where women and non-binary voices are leading, shaping, and funding the future,” said Buckner in a blog post announcing her new role. “Our work is more important than ever, and we have the people and power to make the change that we want to see.”
Before taking a national stage, Buckner was an active member of the Portland startup community. She founded the gift box startup ClientJoy and she was a frequent emcee for events. She helped start the Xcelerate Women program that helps women founders boost sales to grow their businesses. She also helped create the TiE Youth Entrepreneurs program which works in Portland schools to expose students to entrepreneurship as a career path.
Buckner “joins us with a lifetime of community building and being a force for good, and she is a joy to work with," said Lee in a blog post written on behalf of the All Raise board. "We’re thrilled to have her at our helm, to pave more pathways of success for entrepreneurs and investors of all backgrounds.”
All Raise now has chapters in six cities including New York, Boston and Los Angeles. Under Buckner’s leadership, the group opened its newest chapter in Miami this year. The group is working to boost the number of women and non-binary people who are founders, funders and operators in the startup ecosystem.
The group has 11 employees and more than 150 volunteers working on programs and in city chapters. The group also relaunched its VC Partner Cohorts this year for women who are partners at VC firms. It further launched a new program called Black and Latinx Media Mastery, which teaches media training and how to leverage press exposure.
“In addition to helping scale our impact, Paige has built deep trust and respect across our community. Across staff members, longstanding volunteers, new community members, sponsors, donors and sister non-profit organizations, Paige has built a reputation as a highly effective collaborator with high integrity, empathy, and positive energy,” wrote Lee. “We heard an outpouring of support for Paige from our community, which made it very obvious during our CEO search process that she should become our permanent CEO.”
