Edify's Executive Team

Chris Crane is President & CEO of Edify, a humanitarian organization he founded in September 2009 to make loans to Christian schools educating impoverished children in Africa and Latin America.

Crane served from 2002-2009 as President & CEO of Opportunity International Inc., the world’s largest faith-based microfinance organization with 10,600 staff operating in 32 countries serving 1.5 million active clients. During Chris’ tenure, Opportunity’s revenues grew at a compounded annual rate of 30%.

Crane acquired COMPS InfoSystems, Inc. in San Diego in 1992 and served as its President & CEO until he sold the company in February 2000. Under Crane’s leadership, COMPS grew from a small, print-based publishing firm with coverage of commercial real estate sale information in four Western states into an electronic database publisher with 420 employees and coverage of the 50 top real estate markets nationwide. During his eight-year tenure, Crane oversaw the acquisition of 13 companies. He raised four rounds of venture capital and listed the company in an initial public offering (IPO).

He earned an MBA from Harvard Business School, a Bachelor of Science summa cum laude in Finance from Boston College and studied economics, art and music for two years at the University of Vienna, Austria.

In 1999 Crane was awarded the Ernst & Young/USA Today Entrepreneur of the Year Award in San Diego and in 2009 the Bob Buford Half/Time Achievement Award.

Crane was a member of the Young Presidents’ Organization (YPO) from 1990 to 2002. He has been married to Jane for 27 years, and they have one son, Andrew.

Tiger Dawson is Executive Vice President and Co-founder of Edify. He is also Managing Director of the Edify’s Clapham Circle, which empowers current and former CEOs to pursue their passion in educating God’s beloved poor children in the developing world. Tiger served from 2005-2009 as the Managing Director of the Halftime Organization, which helps high capacity, market place leaders move from success to significance. Prior to his role at Halftime, Tiger served for 22 years with Young Life, a non-denominational Christian ministry targeting disinterested youth around the globe. During his time at Young Life, Tiger served in various roles from Area Director to Divisional Director of Strategic Growth where he coordinated the growth in 22 states and Latin America.

Since 1997, Tiger has been very involved with Young Presidents’ Organization. He has designed and run the youth, teen and young adult education tracts at 10 International Family Universities. He has also been a facilitator at numerous YPO events including 3 YPO Family Board meetings. In addition, he is frequently a resource at local events as well as at international universities. Tiger Dawson has spoken on various faith and family topics and is currently listed in the YPO/WPO Premier Speakers Database.

Tiger attended Baylor University and graduated with a BA in Sociology. He attended both Fuller and Dallas Theological Seminaries pursuing a MA in biblical studies. Tiger is married to Leslie and they have two wonderful daughters Anna (16) and Kimberly (12). He enjoys spending time with his family horseback riding, snow skiing and playing sand volleyball.

Steve Davis brings to Edify vast experience in Christian leadership and development. He holds a
masters degree from Fuller and doctorate from San Francisco Theological Seminary. He’s studied
Executive and Organizational Coaching at NYU and non-profit management and fundraising at
Columbia University in New York City. He has served churches in Menlo Park and Thousand Oaks,
California; Seattle and Centralia, Washington; and was Senior Pastor of First Presbyterian Church,
Manasquan New Jersey from 2003-2011.

Steve has served on numerous private and public boards and committees, including the founding
president of the Oaks School Board in Thousand Oaks, California, co-founder of the Samaritan
Center of the Jersey Shore, commissioner to the Pensions Board of the General Assembly of the
Presbyterian Church, member of the Mental Health Board of Monmouth County, NJ, member of the
Committee on Ministry in Monmouth Presbytery and chairman of the Committee on Preparation for
Ministry in the Santa Barbara Presbytery. He also offered organizational leadership of major facility
expansions in several of his churches. Steve has a passion to help support people as they seek to
make a difference in the world for good and for God.

Steve Davis married Cindy Moltzau Griebenow of Honolulu Hawaii over 30 years ago. They met
at Hawaii Baptist Academy and both attended Seattle Pacific University for undergraduate work.
They have four grown boys and one daughter-in-law. Scott, Blake, Grant and Julia live in Southern
California. Lane goes to school in Philadelphia. Steve and Cindy live at the beach in San Diego.
You can read more from and about Steve on his blog at www.squanlife.com or visit him on facebook
at facebook.com/squanlife.

Chris Fenton joined Edify in September of 2011 as Sr. VP of Operations and CFO.  Prior to joining Edify, Chris served for 6 years as COO of Compendia, Inc., an information company providing homeowner maintenance and manufactured product warranty documentation to buyers of new homes on behalf of production home builders.

From 2000 to 2005 Chris worked with AdDynamix Pennyweb Network as COO/CFO.  AdDynamix was an early innovator in developing an online advertising reach network by aggregating small to medium size websites and sharing revenue on a CPC basis (cost per click).

Chris served with COMPS Infosystems, Inc. from 1984-2000 as VP of Operations, VP of Corporate Development and finished up as Sr. VP & COO. During his time with COMPS it grew from a provider of commercial real estate sales comparable information in Southern California to the leading nationwide provider in more than 50 markets.

Graduated Magma Cum Laude from San Diego State with Bachelor’s in Finance, he also served 6 years in the Navy as a gunfire control technician.

Gates Bryant, Director of Education Partnerships, works at Edify to develop new partnerships and programs to improve educational quality and to encourage Christ-centered teaching and discipleship. In addition to his responsibilities at Edify, Gates continues to advise high-growth companies in the education industry.

Prior to joining Edify, he worked in strategy, product management and finance at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt during a period of dramatic change in the educational publishing and technology industry. Prior to joining HMH, Gates spent seven years as a strategy consultant with the Parthenon Group. He advised clients on issues of revenue growth, profit improvement and opportunities for mergers and acquisitions in the information, education, publishing and technology industries. He also advised the largest US foundation in K-12 education on investment and funding initiatives to improve the alignment of instructional systems and public/private cooperation.

Gates earned a BA from Dartmouth College and his MBA from the Tuck School at Dartmouth. He lives in Hingham, MA with his wife, Sarah and four children.

Vanessa Folsom joined Edify in May of 2011 as Director of Operations. Prior to joining Edify, Vanessa served at Md7, as Lease Processing Manager and Senior Operations Analyst. Prior to her work at Md7, Vanessa served at Horizon Christian Fellowship in the accounting department and then transitioned to help launch its subsidiary Horizon College of San Diego. In coordination with Horizon International Ministries, she lived in Central Mexico and assisted in several outreach and relief projects.

Vanessa holds a B.A. in Political Science from the University of California, San Diego and a J.D. from University of San Diego. Vanessa has been a member of the California State Bar since 1999 and has assisted several organizations in nonprofit corporate formation and federal and state tax exemption application process. In the past, she has conducted a private law practice as well as worked in private industry and as an executive for a Christian college.

Reuben Thiessen joined Edify in September 2010 as the Chief Information Officer. Prior to joining Edify, Reuben was the Product Manager and Chief Architect for OptINnow.org, developing the peer-to-peer giving website run by Opportunity International.

Before spearheading OptINnow, during his 6 years at Opportunity, Reuben lead teams involved in revamping their opportunity.org website through two CMS platform changes. Previously, Reuben worked internationally in Mexico, Australia and India with Youth with A Mission. Reuben holds a diploma in Computer Programming, a degree in Aviation Operations, and is a commercially certificated multi-engine pilot.

Reuben is married to Christyl and they have two sons, Jonathan and Micah. He enjoys traveling, flying small airplanes, white-water rafting and playing guitar.