Gather Board

When We Gather,
We build the Future

Gather Ventures is a subsidiary of the Clara Lionel Foundation and is based in Nairobi, Kenya. Founded in 2021, Gather was born when Robyn Rihanna Fenty and Jack Dorsey committed to addressing gender and climate across Africa. Over the years we have built a fund that embodies their entrepreneurial background and embraces long term committed partnerships.

The Clara Lionel Foundation (CLF) was founded in 2012 by Robyn Rihanna Fenty in honor of her grandparents, Clara and Lionel Braithwaite. CLF invests in climate justice initiatives in the Caribbean & United States and helps communities prepare for and withstand natural disasters.

Mai Lassiter

Mai Lassiter’s career has always been focused on amplifying and uplifting arts, music, and education programs. She began her career working in media as a Production Assistant at ABC News, though she quickly pivoted and set her sights on the music industry. After working for more than a decade at Sony Music and Columbia Records, Mai was promoted to VP of marketing, overseeing the label’s Black music portfolio.

Mai actively supports a variety of charitable organizations as a board member, volunteer and fundraiser. As President of the Board for the Clara Lionel Foundation, Mai helped establish the organization as a 501c3 and was instrumental in building the team for the Foundation, working to find its executive director and senior director, respectively.

More broadly, Mai also focuses her efforts on organizations benefiting children and political causes. She is a Trustee at The Center for Early Education, where she oversees the annual college scholarship awards selection. She has been a committed fundraiser for the Democratic National Committee since 2003 and was a California Delegate to the 2012 Democratic National Convention; Mai also served as a member of the National Finance Committee for Obama 2012. Additionally, she is the co-founder of DreamMKRs, an all-female investment group offering networking and other opportunities for women interested in breaking into the investment industry. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Wesleyan University. Mai lives with her husband and two children in Los Angeles, California.

Jessie Schutt-Aine

Jessie Schutt-Aine is a global health professional with over 25 years of experience in non-profit organizations and the UN system. Currently, she is Chief, Equity, Gender, and Cultural Diversity at the World Health Organization’s Regional Office for the Americas, responsible for delivering strategic advice and programmatic direction to reduce inequities in health. Prior to this position, she headed the World Health Organization’s Caribbean program and served as the liaison with CARICOM and Caribbean regional institutions. She held different roles at UNAIDS, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria and the International Planned Parenthood Federation.

As a board member at the Clara Lionel Foundation, she chairs the Programs and Impact Committee, and sits on the Executive and Grant Giving Committee, responsible for approving investments aligned with the Foundation’s strategic plan and policies.

A senior advisor to Girls With Impact, an online entrepreneurship program for girls, she started the 100K Black girls initiative to train and mentor underserved black girls.

Jessie holds a Master of Public Health degree from Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health focused on population and family health, in addition to a Master of International Affairs from Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs. She obtained her Bachelor’s degree in Economics and French from the University of Virginia and studied abroad at the University of Valencia and the University of Paris, Sorbonne.

Jessie is married, has twins, and two older stepsons. She most recently lived in Barbados for seven years, and has also lived in Switzerland, Martinique, Haiti, Senegal, France and Spain.