Management Team | Management Team

Tides Foundation Management Team

Drummond Pike Founder and CEO, Tides Drummond Pike is Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Tides. Awarded as an Outstanding Foundation Professional, Drummond helped pioneer the advent of donor advised funds in philanthropy. Through his leadership, Tides has helped increase the capacity and effectiveness of thousands of social change organizations. Drummond was a founder and Associate Director of the Youth Project in Washington, DC, and served as Executive Director of the Shalan Foundation from 1976 to 1981. He was among the original founders of Working Assets, a telecommunications company dedicated to progressive philanthropy and political activism.
Brian Byrnes Senior Vice President, Tides and Managing Director, Tides Foundation As a Senior Vice President at Tides, Brian Byrnes is responsible for the integrated management of the Tides organizations along with the executive team. He is also Managing Director of Tides Foundation and responsible for shaping strategy and directing its operations. Previously, Brian was the President / Chief Executive Officer of the Vermont Community Foundation (VCF). During Brian’s leadership, between 2003 and early 2008 assets at the VCF grew from roughly $70 million to nearly $170 million and annual grants tripled. He also led the VCF through a major campaign to reassess their business model and to connect more closely to the long-term social change needs of the community. Prior to the VCF, Brian served as Deputy Executive Director of Programs for the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, as well as Education Director for AIDS Action Committee of Massachusetts and Education Director of the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. Brian previously held an appointment to the Vermont Human Rights Commission and was a member of the Community Foundation Leadership Team at the Council of Foundations. He is currently a member of National Task Force on Community Leadership. Brian received a B.A. in Philosophy from St. Meinrad College, and Masters degrees in Musicology from New England Conservatory and New York University.
Ellen Friedman Executive Vice President, Tides Ellen Friedman has been with Tides since 1987. As Executive Vice President, she is responsible for organizational operations and integrated management of the Tides organizations. Ellen also manages the Community Clinics Initiative, a partnership with The California Endowment working to strengthen community health centers throughout California. She brings a long history of advising individual donors on issues of philanthropic planning, violence against women, the Jewish community, and environmental issues. Before coming to Tides, Ellen served as a Program Officer at the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation in Los Angeles. She is a board member of the 3 Guineas Fund, New Field Foundation, Institute for Jewish Spirituality and the Family Violence Prevention Fund.
Christopher J. Herrera Director of Communications Christopher J. Herrera joined Tides Foundation in 2000 as the Director of Communications. As a senior manager, Christopher directs all external communication programs, including donor educational materials, media relations, annual reports and websites as well as helping define the strategic direction of the foundation. Before joining Tides, Christopher was part of a communications firm directing campaigns exclusively for nonprofit organizations. Prior to that, he was on staff at the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California for seven years, ultimately serving as Director of Public Education. Christopher received his B.A. in English from the University of California, Los Angeles.
Tod Hill Director of Philanthropic Services and Strategies Tod Hill is Director of Philanthropic Services, managing the delivery of grantmaking, programmatic, and management services to our more than 300 individual and institutional donors. From 1987 to 1995, Tod helped lead the marketing team at Working Assets where, as Director of Marketing, he managed direct mail, advertising, telemarketing, public relations and customer communications efforts and lead the successful start-up of Working Assets Business Services. A long-time consultant with Tides, his other clients have included the Family Violence Prevention Fund, Greenpeace USA, the Human Rights Campaign, the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, and the Alameda County Children and Families Commission. Tod received a B.A. in history from Yale University.
Gary D. Schwartz Senior Vice President, Tides and Managing Director, Tides New York Gary D. Schwartz is part of the executive team at Tides which is responsible for the integrated management of the Tides organizations. Gary is also Managing Director of Tides New York where he is responsible for directing operations of the New York office and overseeing Tides services to clients in the New York region. Gary joined Tides in 1999 after he served for nearly ten years as a consultant and the Executive Director of the Fund of the Four Directions in New York. The Fund was a leading grant making institution in the areas of indigenous peoples’ organizing, women’s empowerment and environmental sustainability. Gary has spent his entire career working in the nonprofit arena including tenure at the Houston Area Women’s Center Rape Crisis Center and Gay Men’s Health Crisis in New York City. He currently serves on the National Advisory Board of the National Domestic Violence Hotline and is a trustee with two private family foundations, as well as a trustee for Artists For A New South Africa. A former Peace Corps Volunteer (stationed in the Fiji Islands), Gary studied creative writing at Southern Illinois University and nonprofit management at the New School in New York City.
Lauren Webster Chief Financial Officer Lauren Webster has been a part of the Finance component at Tides since 1990, and currently manages the Foundation's accounting and finance functions. This also includes providing services to Highwater, Inc. and to a number of family foundations that contract with Tides for management services. Lauren has worked in the nonprofit sector since 1979 for a variety of organizations focusing on social service, social justice, and environmental issues. She currently serves on the board of the Occidental Arts & Ecology Center and works with the Sowing Circle of Northern California.