Partner Highlight: Rob Aslett
In this continuing series, we are highlighting how Partners are using their skills to make a great impact through SVP Portland.
This month you’ll meet Rob Aslett, who joined as a Partner in January of this year. Rob quickly engaged and is currently working with our Community Partner the Center for African Immigrants & Refugees Organization (CAIRO) to help increase their organizational capacity. Rob is working closely with CAIRO’s Executive Director and staff to refine the mission, values, strategy, and measurable goals of the organization and put in place the key capabilities, processes, practices, policies, and systems needed to succeed.
Rob Aslett was born and raised in Canada before immigrating to the US where he worked at Intel for 30 years. When he left Intel, he was the VP and GM of Product Development Solutions. At retirement, Rob worked as an Encore Fellow for Friends of the Children from 2018 to 2019. He currently provides consulting to companies and is co-writing a book on engineering management that will be published in early 2021. He is married to Anita and has two sons, Kevin and Colin.
Q: What motivated you to get involved in the nonprofit sector?
A: After more than 30 years working in the high technology industry, I left Intel with the intention to do something different. One of my goals was to use my knowledge to help others via the nonprofit sector. However, I felt that I did not know enough about how nonprofits operated to understand how I could be most useful. Since the best way to learn is to dive in and get your hands dirty, I became an Encore Fellow and joined Friends of the Children in Portland. While there, I worked with the local chapter and the national office to upgrade and move their IT infrastructure, data, and collaboration tools to the cloud. Friends of the Children is a well-established nonprofit with a great track record and working there gave me a lot of practical experience on how a mature nonprofit operates. It also made me realize that the biggest impact I could have going forward would be to apply my previous experience and what I learned as an Encore Fellow to help new or very small nonprofits take a big step.
Q: Why did you join SVP as a Partner?
A: I already knew something about SVP through my fellowship, and the concept of venture philanthropy appealed to me from the start. In my mind it is not unlike the venture capital firms that operate in the technology industry. These firms not only provide a timely investment, they also understand that they need to provide expert advice and support to help the entrepreneurs succeed. It has been a very successful model in enabling innovation in the for-profit world and seemed to me to be well suited for helping young and innovative nonprofits as well. Another aspect of the SVP model that appealed to me was the freedom and flexibility associated with being a Partner. Unlike working for one specific nonprofit as an employee, working as a Partner provides an opportunity to engage and learn at different levels with more than one organization. So, when Matt approached me about becoming involved in SVP after my fellowship ended, it did not take much convincing.
Q: What inspires you to stay engaged at SVP?
A: I am working with CAIRO and have enjoyed learning everything about their vision, values, and how they operate. Not to mention, working with fellow Partners Erin Stevanus and Nicole Thibodeau who were already helping them before I joined. I feel like we are partnering with CAIRO at just the right time, and SVP will be able to help them realize their vision of "a more just and equitable society in which children, youth, and families live in sustained, supportive communities, which reinforce the cultural wealth and lived experience of the family."