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Our Approach
Sutro Li’s US-based team members have years of experience as finance directors of nonprofits. We understand accounting and bookkeeping, and we understand the day in, day out of how nonprofits function. Our US team works remotely from home offices from New York to San Francisco.
Each of our clients has a dedicated account manager who is the primary point of contact. Each client is also supported by at least three accountants from our India team.
Our India-based team members are based primarily on the western side of India in the state of Maharashtra. The India team has primarily worked from home offices for the duration of the COVID-19 Pandemic. Our India office will re-open for in person work in 2022.
We hope to make accounting a welcome and inclusive environment for our clients. We enjoy teaching accounting and nonprofit financial principles, and we prioritize space in our client engagements for learning and growth.
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Meet Our TEam
Burton Li, CEO + FOUNDER
Burton founded Sutro Li in 2009 to live out his values as both an activist and entrepreneur.
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Burton likes making accounting elegant, clear, and easy to use. He studied at UC Santa Cruz in the Community Studies department, graduating in 2003. He founded Sutro Li in 2009 in San Francisco and Sutro Li Private Limited in 2016 in Pune, India. Burton lives between San Francisco and Truckee with his wife Trupti, two children Vera and Cassian, and two dogs, Chooch and Rey. He is an avid fly fisherman and musician, and likes to go on 3 mile runs with the dogs. @btronlazer and @sutro.li on Instagram
Capt. Ajay Badamikar, India Managing Director
The captain of the metaphorical ship that is our office in Pune, India, is quite literally a captain. Capt. Ajay Badamikar spent 25 Years of his career running a successful marine services company, after competing at the national level in sailing regattas during his college years.
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After Burton and he met through personal connections, it was Ajay who laid the foundation for our Pune office, and he continues to play a key role in supporting the infrastructure and growth of our team. A passionate lover of Indian Classical Music, Ajay has been studying tabla for the last few years, continuing a lifetime of learning even as he has become a proud grandfather.
Chris Dunn, Chief Operating Officer
Chris brings over 20 years of experience serving the nonprofit sector to Sutro Li. He began his career as a grassroots organizer, knocking on doors and making phone calls, passionately building the movement for a more sane and just foreign policy.
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Since then, he has channeled his talent for leadership and financial administration into roles as a fundraising program director, a founder/director/ringmaster of an international social circus and arts education organization, a volunteer board treasurer, a nonprofit tax preparer, and foremost as a finance director of mid-sized nonprofits.
Settling down with his wife, two children, and two cats, Chris brings his wealth of experience and meticulous care to dozens of nonprofits from his home office in Eugene, Oregon.
As Sutro Li’s Chief Operations Officer, he is responsible for updating and maintaining the standards of Sutro Li’s accounting services, a task for which his ringmaster skills are very much put to use.
Yash Gupta, Head of India Business Operations
With over 22 years of diverse work experience across various industries and functions, Yashpal has spent nearly 19 years working with international BPOs on multiple domains, such as F&A and Insurance, serving various clients globally. As a management expert, he gained valuable insights and expertise in functional areas such as Operations, Transition, Project Management, Transformation, RPA, Quality, Audits, Learning & Development, Workforce Management, and Client Management. His strong reporting and data analytics background further complements his skills, which he leverages using Six Sigma methodologies.
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Throughout his career, he established a proven track record in delighting even the most demanding clients in the world and their customers. He also excelled in building and developing passionate, best-in-class teams at multiple levels for effective client management. Moreover, his ability to build domain-specific training modules and facilitate training at multiple levels has helped him in creating best-in-class training programs for employees as well as for clients. Looking at his 2 decades of contribution, 'Indian Achievers Forum' ( IAF India ) awarded Yashpal as "Man of Excellence" for the year 2021 to recognize his outstanding Professional contribution and efforts towards nation building. Overall, his extensive experience, expertise, and a strong record of successful results make him a valuable asset to any organization seeking a professional with exceptional management skills and client-focused mindset.
Yash describes himself as a family man, husband of a beautiful wife and father to a lovely daughter. His hobbies include raising his daughter, traveling, long drives and being a foodie.
Krissa Nichols, Director of Accounts
Krissa Nichols joined the Sutro Li team after 7 years as the Finance and Operations Director at the Edible Schoolyard Project. She brings extensive experience in donor and development database management, human resources, and cloud SAAS applications. As Director of Accounts, Krissa manages not only her own clients, but also a team of Account Managers.
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A natural teacher and innate problem solver, Krissa is a master at creating simple, elegant and trustworthy systems to streamline routine tasks with input from multiple stakeholders. Pictured here with her son, Krissa balances her work with motherhood, as well as her passions for reading sci-fi and fantasy and cooking delicious India-inspired meals for large groups.
Maureen Graney, Onboarding Strategist
Joining Sutro Li in April 2019, Maureen Graney brings more than twenty years of nonprofit financial management to the team. Her early career experience includes accounts payable and expense tracking in the dynamic world of nonviolent direct action environmental organizations. Effective resource use and audit accountability allow Maureen to keep in action while accounting for the great causes that Sutro Li serves.
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Her dual role as a mom has enhanced her patience and drive to stay ahead of the curve. Fascinated by glow worms and night rainbows she is in nonprofit mission-driven work for both joy and purpose.
Seema Gupta, Associate Director
Seema has 20 years of experience in accounting and auditing. She is also a certified accounting technician and commerce graduate. Seema was our first team member in India and has been instrumental in growing our Pune-based team.
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After leading the accounting team in India for years and taking on the hardest accounting issues our clients could throw at us, she now focuses her talents on directly managing the accounting services of select US-based nonprofits. You would be hard pressed to find a nonprofit accounting problem that Seema hasn’t had to solve.
In her free time, Seema enjoys watching movies, listening to songs, and solving number puzzles like Sudoku.
Randi Hopkins, Operations Specialist
Seen here with Krissa, sporting saris gifted by our India office, Randi handles several roles at Sutro Li. The back office guru to our team, she maintains and reports on many of Sutro Li’s own admin needs, including our contracts and services agreements, in addition to managing clients as an Account Manager.
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Perhaps our most experienced team member, she’s been in the field since 1969, combining skills in scientific research, computer programming, and accounting. Her Excel skills are epic. She lives in Santa Monica with her husband, and has two grown sons, who, from time to time, share the stage with Burton, as they all play music together.
Emma Gelino, Operations Manager
Emma has volunteered at many non profits and is happy to be part of such an amazing community of organizations. She is passionate about Sutro Li clients' causes and wants to help promote them as much as possible. Emma provides support to the team by accounting for a wide array of tasks, assisting with everything operations related. She is also a student at Fairhaven, an interdiciplanary program at Western Washington Univeristy.
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Emma spends every free moment hiking in the Mt. Baker wilderness, swimming in the Salish Sea, and foraging for various plants and mushrooms. During the dark days in winter she spends time cooking, baking, or out and about in the rain anyways. She is often spotted with her border/heeler pup, Beso.
Graham Grilli, Creative Director
After an undergraduate degree in Sustainable Development, Graham went on to achieve a Master of Architecture degree focused on systems technology. He worked for 10 years as an architect between San Francisco and Chicago, during which he lead the design of a collaborative + technology-focused student hub floor of the University of Chicago library. Additionally, he also won several large-scale municipal installation art competitions. He left architecture to become an independent designer + web developer, and worked as creative director of a music label in Chicago for several years.
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Always adventuring, Graham took advantage of the pandemic to buy, learn, and ride a motorcycle from Chicago to Los Angeles, camping the entire way. Matching his design philosophy, his architectural training is from the school that coined the phrase ‘God is in the Details.’
Shweta Zade, HR Specialist
Shweta brings more than five years of valuable human resources experience to her role at Sutro Li. She is an alumna of the University of Pune. Her career prior to joining our team included working in HR across diverse sectors, including education and software. Shweta possesses extensive hands-on expertise in various HR functions, including learning and development, people management, and HR operations. Her exceptional work ethic is highlighted by her remarkable multitasking skills and decision-making capabilities. Furthermore, Shweta believes in continuous learning, which aligns perfectly with Sutro Li's commitment to fostering ongoing personal and professional growth.
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In leisure time, Shweta indulges in a diverse range of hobbies that brings her joy, including traveling, music, movies, hula hooping and reading.
Ranna Majithiya, Account Manager
Ranna joined Sutro Li after three and a half years working for Australian clients where her accounting skills thrived. She is a Chartered Accountant (equivalent to a CPA) and has completed her Bachelor’s degree in Commerce. She has always felt drawn to numbers and arithmetic, and her passion has made accounting an easy choice. She is skillful in a variety of industries and capable of leading a team to success with care and precision.
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She describes herself as a rational, independent and caring person. She is extraverted, and finds it impossible to imagine her life without family and friends. She works for her satisfaction and dances for her creativity. In her leisure time, she enjoys spending time in nature, traveling and watching movies.
Jenny Rathmell, Account Manager
Jenny joined Sutro Li in March 2020 with an immense passion for clean, useful, and efficient data that empowers nonprofit organizations. She brings with her almost twenty years of for profit and nonprofit accounting and finance experience. Her career includes a few side quests in information systems, knowledge management, and eLearning. She looks for opportunities to leverage these skills every chance she gets.
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In her free time, you can find Jenny dancing, bookbinding, or picking blueberries in her yard with some old jug band music playing in the background.
Kathleen O'Day, Account Manager
Kathleen brings over 25 years of US and international accounting experience to our team. A native of Belgium, she began her accounting career in Big Four firms in Canada and the US and then moved on to Controller/CFO roles in a variety of entrepreneurial private sector ventures. Holding her CPA in both the US and Canada and a Diploma in International Reporting from the UK, she made a conscious pivot several years ago to the Not-For-Profit sector to utilize her finance skills to have a positive impact in the areas of social and environmental change. She joins Sutro Li after 5 years as Finance Director for the Global Ecovillage Network, an international NGO based in Scotland.
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Pictured here with the canine crew Potato and Sebastian during Kathleen's recent Atlantic crossing somewhere off the African coast. Kathleen is passionate about the outdoors and is an experienced bluewater sailor. She recently completed a 5 year voyage – living and working WAY off the grid aboard her sailboat.
Robin Smith, Account Manager
Robin has found that nonprofit accounting is the most effective way for her to contribute to the activist community, and we are grateful to have her on the Sutro Li team. She brings a passion for social, economic, and environmental justice as well as over two decades of accounting experience. She enjoys the goal of financial transparency and sees the true benefit that it can provide to organizations, no matter their size.
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Robin also has a number of certifications as a librarian, and enjoys living in the cultural gem that is New Orleans. She's an avid meditator, a bike enthusiast, and a vegan foodie. She and her husband are often seen walking their two dogs and three cats.
Jess Wright, Account Manager
Jess joined Sutro Li as an Account Manager in the summer of 2022. With a background in finance, volunteer management, fulfillment, and operations, Jess is deeply connected to finding meaningful ways to engage team members while maintaining efficiency and productivity. They came to accounting by way of volunteering at a nonprofit in Queens, NY and quickly learned how critical operational and financial support systems are to developing organizations. Over the past 10 plus years, they have worked in nonprofits focused on early education, environmental justice, open science hardware, data democratization, and human rights.
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In their freetime, Jess is often getting creative in the kitchen, inhaling a book, knitting for a loved one, or hiking and exploring forests, deserts, mountains, and coasts. Their love to travel and spend time outdoors is so strong that in 2019 they hit the road full-time in a DIY custom-built van with their partner, cat, and dog.
Kass Rohrbach, Account Manager
Kass Rohrbach joined Sutro Li as an Account Manager in June 2022. She brings over twenty years of climate advocacy and nonprofit management experience. In addition to her work at Sutro Li, she also serves on the Board of Directors of Re-Volv, an organization that helps community-serving nonprofits go solar. Her previous work includes campaign management and organizational leadership roles at Sierra Club, GreenpeaceUS, National Wildlife Foundation, Walk Oakland Bike Oakland, and Energy Action Coalition (now PowerShift Network). She got her start organizing in 2001 while she was an undergrad at Connecticut College, where she led one of the first campaigns in the U.S. to power the campus with renewable energy.
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Kass lives in Oakland, CA with her wife, daughter, two awesome dogs, and an 18 year old cat who rules the house. In her free time, you’ll find her on the trail (dirt and snow), in her garden, or stargazing from anywhere with little light pollution.
Amy Ali, Account Manager
Amy joined SutroLi as an Account Manager in August of 2022 with a strong background in tech and accounting. She began her career in non-profit accounting about three years ago and enjoys the detailed and meaningful work it requires. Amy has the precision to keep finances in order as well as creativity when introducing new and more efficient systems.
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In her spare time, Amy enjoys spending time on her hobby, photography. When she’s not taking pictures, she finds ways to stay healthy or spends time with her lovable pup, Bailey.
Tarun Kalra, Account Manager
Tarun joins Sutro Li with over 15 years of enriching experience in the field of finance and accounting. Before joining Sutro Li, he refined his skills under various profiles in the accounting field. His diversified experience in transition support, management information systems, financial planning and analysis, project management, cost accounting, general accounting, etc. brings strength to the organization. Additionally, he has completed his masters in finance along with achieving his CA intermediate certification. Tarun prides himself in staying calm in high pressure situations.
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In his spare time, he spends time absorbing various national and international news updates. He also loves to travel and enjoys spending his free time with his family.
Amit Mahyavanshi, Account Manager
Amit Mahyavanshi joined Sutro Li as an Account Manager in October 2023. He has over 22 years of experience in the field of finance and accounting. Before joining Sutro Li, he refined his skills under various profiles in the accounting field. His expertise includes Transitioning, Transformation, people management and managing end to end Financials & Accounting with a solutions-oriented approach towards problem solving to achieve maximum results & Client satisfactions.
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In his spare time, Amit enjoys playing cricket, football, badminton, driving, and listening to music. He also enjoys spending his free time with his family and the local street dogs.
“Sutro Li is the perfect antidote to nonprofit directors that have been thrown into the role of CFO with little or no training. Both knowledgeable and low-key, the Sutro Li team helps to build the financial acumen and confidence of their clients in a no-stress kind of way. ”
