Saint Paul & Minnesota Foundation competitors

Following her magna cum laude graduation from Southern Utah University, Julie Castle and some friends made a brief stop at Best Friends Animal Sanctuary while on vacation in the mid-90’s. Forever transformed, Julie decided to forgo a career in law for a low-paying, high-demand job working in a remote Utah canyon helping animals in need. As employee number 17 at Best Friends Animal Society, Julie worked her way up the ranks to become the organization’s first female CEO in March 2018. In between she helped build the organization into a $130M, 800-employee strong national leader in animal welfare. Julie started her tenure as CEO with the bold commitment to end the killing of dogs and cats in America’s shelters by the year 2025. Prior to her CEO role, Julie served as Best Friends’ Chief Development & Marketing Officer, doubling the organization’s revenue and support within a four-year span. Under her leadership, Best Friends earned the Harris Poll EquiTrend “Non-Profit Brand of the Year” four times, including most recently in 2018. Julie has championed the concept of multiple non-profit organizations, private and public municipalities and the corporate foundation sector putting aside competitive interests and joining forces to publicly tackle a shared social problem. Named by InStyle magazine as one of the “Badass 50 Women Changing the World” in August, 2018, Julie has spoken at TedX in Salt Lake City, Columbia Business School, the BUILD Series in NYC, and headlines the closing session at the Best Friends National Conference every year. Julie lives with her husband Gregory Castle, a Best Friends’ founder and CEO-emeritus, and their two dogs in Kanab, Utah.

𝗔𝗹𝗶𝘀𝗼𝗻 𝗥𝗲𝗺𝗽𝗲𝗹 𝗕𝗿𝗼𝘄𝗻 𝗶𝘀 𝗮𝗻 𝗮𝗰𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗶𝘀𝗵𝗲𝗱 𝗖𝗘𝗢 𝘄𝗵𝗼 𝗲𝗻𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲𝘀 𝗣&𝗟𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗯𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱𝘀 𝗵𝗶𝗴𝗵 𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝗻𝘀𝘁𝗶𝘁𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗰𝘂𝗹𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲. Throughout her career, she has leveraged expertise in human capital management, business transformation, and crisis management to grow revenue and increase profitability. Her strengths in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) workforce development, as well as diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) leadership, make her a sought-after leader. Ms. Brown is a frequent speaker on equity and inclusion topics and developing the nation's next generation of STEM talent. As current President and CEO of the Science Museum of Minnesota, Ms. Brown dramatically changed the institution's trajectory of stagnant revenues to three years of growth. Ms. Brown led the Science Museum's Board of Trustees to adopt a statement of equity and inclusion in 2018. She increased the Science Museum's Net Promoter Score from 46 to 80+ within her first two years through effective human capital management and investment in visitor evaluation systems. Previously, Ms. Brown helped transform the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco from an old-style museum to a modern institution through organization-wide metrics and standards with an integrated collaborative planning process. Ms. Brown was also the CFO at a highly successful patient information publishing company. Reporting to boards of directors for over 34 years, Ms. Brown has a keen understanding of the board's role and governance. She has held board leadership roles at higher education institutions and national nonprofits for the past 18 years, including Board Chair, Chair of DE&I, and Chair of Finance. CORE COMPETENCIES ⬩ CEO leadership ⬩ Turnaround-to-growth strategies/transformation ⬩ Human capital management ⬩ Diversity, Equity & Inclusion leadership ⬩ Financial and crisis management ⬩ STEM: science, technology, engineering & math workforce development