Board of Directors

Previously, Francisco played a key leadership role at Lever for Change, a MacArthur Foundation nonprofit affiliate advising a $2.5 billion philanthropic initiative. While serving as Communications Manager, he worked closely with executive leadership and donors to advise on philanthropic capital deployment, impact measurement, and financial strategy for major gifts ranging from $10M to $650M. His insights have helped ultra-high-net-worth donors and institutional investors maximize the financial and social returns on their investments.

As a first-generation Salvadoran American, Francisco is committed to increasing economic mobility and financial inclusion. His work has supported over 550 organizations in strengthening financial resilience and accessing capital for transformative change. He holds an MBA from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and is currently expanding his expertise in impact investing and financial strategy. Francisco serves on the Board of Directors for the University of Illinois Latina/Latino Alumni Association (LLAA), Nuestro Futuro Fund, and Chicago Latines in Philanthropy (CLIP), furthering his commitment to financial empowerment and equity.

Beyond his professional work, Francisco is an avid traveler and multidisciplinary artist in painting, mosaics, and charcoal.

Altay Guvench, Board Vice Chair

Altay Guvench attended Harvard University from 1999 to 2003, where they obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree in Biology (Neuroscience). Since then, their professional career has spanned a diverse range of impressive projects in the music and technology spaces. As a bass player for The Great Unknowns, Altay recorded and co-produced their debut record. Altay then founded MightyQuiz.com in 2007, a user-generated trivia site. In the same year, they worked as a Web Developer for LibraryThing.com, building new features for their main site and data-syndication product.

In 2005, they became Co-Founder of AudioBeta Corp., a web application to allow musicians to keep in touch with their fans. Altay also worked as a Consultant for MediaUnbound, Inc. and as Manager, Business Development for Global Technology Conferences, Inc. in the same year. In 2012, they became a Partner/Founder of 10x Management, a talent agency for the tech industry. Finally, in 2018, they started working as a Software Engineer for Weights & Biases, building the best-in-class suite of developer tools for AI and machine learning researchers. Altay is currently supporting Remix ⟷ Culture with innovation and technology solutions to streamline internal process and workflows and strengthen artist programming and revenue sharing in accordance with our fair trade model.

Hatim Belyamani, Board Member

Hatim is currently the Founder and Artistic Director of Remix ↔ Culture (RC).

In addition to a Bachelor of Arts degree in Social Studies from Harvard University, a 10-year career at Apple where he last served as iCloud Customer Experience Senior Manager, he brings over 40+ years of experience as a musician and performer, 30+ years of electronic music production, and 20+ years of photography and video production. This extensive experience led to the founding of RC in 2016, where he served as Executive & Artistic Director for 9 years, and now continues to serve as the Artistic Director.  

Dominique Lee, Board Treasurer

Dominique has 10+ years of nonprofit experience as a trusted financial advisor with proven expertise in accounting & finance. She is currently the Director of Finance at the Isabella Santos Foundation. 

Advisory Board

Justin Adams

Justin Adams is a UK based Guitarist, Composer and Record Producer.

After a childhood spent partly in the Middle East he developed his sound in the Post-Punk London scene, his solo album Desert Road (2000) referencing North and West African Trance music, blues, dub and psychedelia. He has toured the world and co-written 4 albums with Led Zeppelin’s Robert Plant, produced iconic albums for Tuareg guitar rebels Tinariwen and Algerian maverick Rachid Taha, and collaborated with West African Master Musician Juldeh Camara on a series of albums for Peter Gabriel’s Real World records. In 2023 he has played in the U.S. and Australia with roots Italian virtuoso Mauro Durante, in Paris with Algerian songstress Souad Massi ,recorded an album with New Wave Fado artist Lina in Lisbon, and played with Pandit V.M. Bhatt in Jodhpur, Rajasthan.

Kurt Korthals

Kurt Korthals was born and raised in the region of southeast Alaska, where he grew up with Alaskan natives and their indigenous art and culture, which shaped him immensely.  Gravitating towards a love of music, he formally learned to play the clarinet, jazz guitar, formed the town’s only punk band, and eventually discovered electronic music, with which he became completely enthralled.

In the late nineties, Kurt moved to Austin, Texas to further his music and education. There he became a regular disc jockey at 91.7FM KVRX Austin and Free Radio Austin, was technical supervisor for Cinematexas Short Film Festival, released music on small labels around the globe, co-founded a small record label (Notenuf), organized and facilitated a myriad of music and art events, and eventually received a BS degree in computer sciences.

Today Kurt is based in Berlin and works as a music software engineer while maintaining an obscure output of electronic music mingling between avant-garde and left-field dance music.  He has been invited to give presentations and perform at Mooste Külalis Stuudio (MoKS) in Estonia, Carnival of e-Creativity (CeC) in India, and continuous to perform and DJ at numerous locations throughout Europe and America.

Amita Vempati

Amita Vempati is a musician, writer, curator, and arts professional. A lifelong performer with training in South Asian, Persianate/Central Asian, and East European traditions, she uses her passions for social justice and art to connect with communities all over the world.

Amita completed her B.A. in Government, History, and Russian Studies at the University of Texas and her M.A. in Central Eurasian Studies (focusing on post-Soviet Central Asia) at Indiana University.

Prior to her professional pivot to the arts, Amita was a Senior Program Officer for the Western Balkans and Moldova at the American Bar Association Rule of Law Initiative. She also worked with the Inner Asian and Uralic National Resource Center and American Councils for International Education directing outreach programming based in the United States and Central Asia.

Amita currently serves as the Development Manager at the Brooklyn-based Artistic Freedom Initiative, an organization directly assisting artists who have experienced persecution, censorship, or other restrictions on their freedom of expression. In addition to her role at AFI, she works with the East European Folklife Center to uplift Balkan arts in the United States and leads the Uncovered/Recovered series at Brooklyn Raga Massive to platform underrepresented voices in South Asian music.

Contributors

We are also immeasurably grateful to the many friends (old and new) who have lent a hand or an ear along the years, including:

Field Production

Khalid Agli     Yasser Belaiachi     Aziz Bouyabrine     Sully Chamand     Mhammed Elyadini     Bajram (Kafu) Kinolli     Eno Zangoun     Fatima El Azadi     Soraya Joundy

Video Editing

Abla Benyahia     Michelle Chen     Nina Jordan     Souki Mehdaoui     Will Truesdell     Sya Warfield    

Translation

Khalid Agli     Khalid Belyamani   Kenza Bensaid Meryem Bensouda     Fatima El Azadi     Fatima Matousse     Yang Shuo         Esraa Warda  

Manufacturing

Youssef Aziz El-Idrissi Daniel Giffin

Graphic Design

Arian Behzadi Shawn Feeney Danielle Regan

Lighting Design

Antonin Bouvier     Andres Karu

Cameras

Khalid Agli      Hamza Atifi      Youness Aziz El Idrissi     Yahya Badaoui      Yassine Bellamine     Mourad Belouadi     Abla Benyahia     Antonin Bouvier     Sephira Fierce     Jordan Fletcher     Mohamed Gara     Hassan Houari     Aicha Jabour     Nina Jordan     Andres Karu     Barjam (Kafu) Kinolli     Souki Mehdaoui     Sophia Menni      Richard Milligan     Yasmine Yata     Sya Warfield

Communication

Kenza Bensaid Amina Bensouda Casey Karr Layal Rhanem Amita Vempati  

Sample Production

Amino Belyamani         Hatim Belyamani         Michelle Chen         Souki Mehdaoui Michael Silverstein         Will Truesdell     Tyler Wood

Recording

  Ed Bentley     Bajram (Kafu) Kinolli       Aziz Nashat     Derek Nievergelt     Tyler Wood    

Mixing

Tyler Wood

Mastering

Josh Bonati     Joe Lambert     Tyler Wood

Fundraising

Jordan Fletcher     Mounir Kabbaj     Barbara Toy   

Events

Darby Beck     Natalie Cohen     Shawn Feeney     Daniel Giffin     Altay Guvench     Scott Hawley     Maryann Hulsman     Michelle Lobo     Mark and Alexis Mian     Maria Ruhe     Maha Elmadi         Esraa Warda