Former President and CEO, Arizona Community Foundation
Scottsdale, AZ and Menlo Park, CA
Steve Seleznow, former President and CEO of the Arizona Community Foundation (ACF) built a career of service to the philanthropic, public education, and higher education sectors.
In Arizona, he transformed the community foundation into one of the largest and most innovative social finance and philanthropic organizations in the country.
Prior to ACF, Steve was at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation where he led the implementation of a $2.5 billion strategy focused on education reform. He was a pioneer in venture philanthropy as partner and Chief Investment Officer at Venture Philanthropy Partners in Washington, DC, one of the nation’s first charitable funds to apply venture capital practices to non-profit investments.
Steve held executive leadership posts at two of the nation’s largest school systems, Montgomery County, Maryland and Washington, DC, where he earned a reputation as a courageous innovator, a leader of unshakeable integrity, and a fierce advocate for children and public education. He sat on the Visiting Committee of the Harvard Graduate School of Education and held appointments as associate research professor and special assistant to the dean at George Washington University.
Steve earned a doctorate and a master’s from Harvard, a master’s from the University of Maryland, and a bachelor’s from Boston University. He has served on numerous boards and commissions focused on building equitable communities. He divides his time between Scottsdale and Silicon Valley, where his wife Nicole Taylor leads the Silicon Valley Community Foundation. Their son, a graduate of Arizona State University, lives in Phoenix.