Ari Engelberg was born in Los Angeles and attended Harvard-Westlake High School. After a short career in the software industry, he returned to Harvard-Westlake in his late twenties to teach American History and coach basketball. In 1996, while attending graduate school at UCLA, Ari co-founded an Internet postage software company called Stamps.com (NASDAQ: STMP – www.stamps.com). At Stamps.com, Ari was responsible for venture capital relationships (the company raised almost $40M in private financings), regulatory relationships (with the United States Postal Service and others), and strategic partnerships (the company negotiated marketing relationships with AOL/TimeWarner, Yahoo!, Avery Dennison and Microsoft, among others). In June 1999, Stamps.com successfully completed an Initial Public Offering and ultimately raised over $400M in two public stock offerings. Today, Stamps.com is the Internet Postage leader, commanding over 85 percent market share and generating revenue of $100M annually. In early 2000, Ari left Stamps.com to co-found Archive, Inc., a data storage software company, which was purchased in 2002. At Archive, Ari was responsible for negotiating strategic partnerships with EDS, Verisign, and IBM.

Ari was a founding partner of the Los Angeles Social Venture Partners and has held positions on the Board of Directors or Board of Advisors of Ethos Water (acquired by Starbucks), eTeamz (acquired by Active.com), and CoreObjects Software. Ari’s non-profit experience includes service on the Boards of Directors of the Jewish Venture Philanthropy Fund of Los Angeles, The Literacy Network of Greater Los Angeles, and Jewish Big Brothers-Big Sisters. Ari currently serves on the Board of Directors of The Sherman Oaks Nursery School (TSONS). Ari holds Bachelor of Arts degrees in Political Science and Psychology from UC Berkeley and a Juris Doctor and Masters of Business Administration from UCLA. Ari’s wife is a pediatric dentist. They have two sons.

Roth Herrlinger has fifteen years' experience working and consulting for companies in a wide variety of industries throughout the United States and worldwide.  He specializes in creating sustainable improvements by leading cross-functional teams to develop effective, intuitive systems and processes. He has worked for startups and established firms as both a senior executive and an outside consultant, leading teams in strategic management, process improvement, product development, operations and new business development.

Many of Roth's clients have engaged his services in times of transition or turmoil due to rapid growth, ownership/management change, or shifts in market dynamics.  He has the ability to quickly assess internal and external challenges, unite disparate constituencies and cultivate productive connections across all levels of a company, enabling team-based solutions with unified buy-in and enthusiastic implementation.  He is a founder of Universal Transactions (the first U.S. foreign investment firm in Nizhniy Novgorod, Russia after the fall of the Soviet Union), The Handy Guy (home remodeling and repairs in Los Angeles), and Herrlinger Management & Consulting.  As an entrepreneur, a senior executive and a consultant, his passion is to create sustainable, profitable enterprises built on a foundation of integrity.  He is also an avid pianist and composer.  Roth holds an AB in Russian Language and Soviet Studies from Dartmouth College and an MBA from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business.

Jeff Hilger is the founder of Bright Star Schools and serves as its chief academic officer. Jeff graduated magna cum laude from the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University in 1992. There, he was a varsity swimmer and assistant leisure editor for the Georgetown Voice, interned at the International Organization for Migration, and spent one summer in Kenya assisting African refugees. Jeff joined Teach for America in 1993 and taught for two years at McKinley Avenue Elementary School in South Los Angeles. In 1994, Jeff enrolled in the dual degree program in law and urban planning at UCLA and, in 1998, he received a clerkship with a federal district court judge. He practiced in the litigation department of Proskauer and Rose in Century City for a year and a half before returning to teaching. In 2002, he wrote a grant to the state of California to launch a charter school to serve inner-city children and founded the Stella Middle Charter Academy in 2003. Jeff currently resides in Culver City with his wife and their four children.

China Habte joined the Bright Star team in November 2007 as their Controller. China’s strong passion for the nonprofit community is reflected in her commitment and dedication to the sector. With more than nine years experience working exclusively with nonprofits, she has gained expertise in providing solutions for the unique accounting challenges facing the sector. China began her career as a senior accountant for an international relief organization followed by a position as a controller for a local mental health agency. Making a conscious decision to find a role to serve more nonprofits, China joined a mid-size public accounting firm, where she worked for five years as a senior auditor and an audit manager. In that role, she conducted and managed audits for a variety of nonprofit organizations in the greater Los Angeles area, specializing in government contracts and compliance and evaluation of internal controls. In addition, she organized and presented several in-house trainings and seminars on how to perform audits for nonprofit organizations.

China earned her Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting from California State San Bernardino. She and her husband live with their daughter in West Los Angeles.

Natalie Adams joined the Bright Star team as the Director of Advancement in January 2007.  Natalie has spent more than sixteen years as a fundraiser and nonprofit professional focusing her work on programs for urban youth and public education reform.  Prior to joining Bright Star, Natalie worked as a nonprofit consultant in the Los Angeles area, assisting public school districts and start-up nonprofits in the areas of strategic planning, internal communications, and all aspects of fund development.  Natalie spent eight years in New York City, building her career in Advancement by serving as Director of Development at Harlem R.B.I. in East Harlem and Vice President of Resource Development at United Way of Tri-State.  Natalie also gained valuable insight into public policy reform and nonprofit management through graduate fellowships at a Lower East Side charter school and several New York City public agencies while attending NYU.

Natalie holds a Master’s Degree in Public Administration from New York University's Robert F. Wagner School of Public Service and a Bachelor’s Degree from Loyola Marymount University in Studio Arts and English. Natalie is a member of AFP – Association of Fundraising Professionals, and NAFE – National Association of Female Executives, and attended the Indiana School of Philanthropy Fundraising Certificate program.

Natalie resides in the greater Los Angeles area with her husband, two sons, and is expecting a daughter this summer.