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George R. Gay CFP, AIF

George Gay is Chief Executive Officer of First Affirmative Financial Network and chairs the First Affirmative Investment Committee. George served on the board of directors of the Social Investment Forum for more than a dozen years, and has produced and hosted the annual SRI in the Rockies Conference since 1990. He was the recipient of the industry’s 1997 “SRI Service Award.”

George earned his Certified Financial Planner designation in June 1984 and completed a range of securities examinations covering the practice and supervision of securities business. He has held Series 24 (Registered Principal), 7 (Registered Representative), 65 (Uniform Investment Advisor), 53 (Municipal Bond Principal) and 63 (Uniform Securities Agent) licenses. He earned his AIF designation (Accredited Investment Fiduciary) in November 2003.

George joined the company that was to become First Affirmative Financial Network as a financial planner in November 1986. He assumed the position of Chief Operating Officer of First Affirmative in 1989 and managed the sale of the company to Walnut Street Securities, Inc., in 1995. George served as President of the First Affirmative division of Walnut Street Advisers and as Vice President of Walnut Street Advisers (May 1995–June 1999). He became CEO of the newly independent First Affirmative Financial Network, LLC on July 1, 1999.

Born September 13, 1952 in Monroe, Michigan, Mr. Gay is a 1974 graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point; he served on active duty for nine years in various command, staff and faculty assignments as an Armor officer. His final assignment on active duty, and then for three years as a civilian, was in the Resource Management Division, Directorate of Personnel and Community Activities at Fort Carson, Colorado. As division chief, George was responsible for the financial management of most business operations on the installation, ranging from the Golf Course and Bowling Center, to the Club Systems and Child Care operations. Upon his departure, he was awarded the Department of the Army “Commander’s Award for Civilian Service.”

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Steven J. Schueth

Steve Schueth is President and Chief Marketing Officer of First Affirmative Financial Network.  He served as a Director of the Social Investment Forum from 1992 to 2003, and served as Chair and President of the organization from 1993 to 2002. He currently serves as a director of the Denver-based nonprofit Alliance for a Sustainable Colorado. He received the social investment industry’s “SRI Service Award” in 1998, and has produced and hosted the annual SRI in the Rockies Conference since 1999.

Steve worked from 1989 to 1997 for Calvert where he specialized in promoting the concept and practice of socially responsible investing with the public and press. His efforts significantly enhanced Calvert’s reputation as a leader in the field, while the firm’s socially screened mutual fund assets more than tripled. He led a product development group that created the first global socially screened mutual fund in the U.S. and was directly involved in launching four other new Calvert funds designed for socially conscious investors. Steve managed Calvert’s national sales organization from 1994 to 1997. As President of Calvert Distributors, Inc., he oversaw the company’s relationships with over 2,000 broker-dealer firms and grew the assets of Calvert’s 35 money market, bond, and equity mutual funds.

Born August 27, 1954 and raised in New Hampton, Iowa, his father owned a hardware store where Steve worked, meeting the needs of retail customers, from the age of ten. He graduated from Marquette University in 1976 with a BA degree in Journalism/Communications. He has held NASD Series 24 (Registered Principal), 7 (Registered Representative) and 63 (Uniform Securities Agent) licenses.  Prior to his association with Calvert, he served for three years as a major gifts officer and Director of Development at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.

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Kathleen J. Sutherland

Kathy Sutherland is Vice President, Chief Compliance Officer, and Director of Operations for First Affirmative Financial Network, LLC. She has held Series 7 (Registered Representative) and 24 (Registered Principal) licenses.

Kathy joined First Affirmative Financial Network in 1990 as an administrative assistant. Combining administrative skills and knowledge of the business, she quickly assumed a much larger role and broader responsibilities, first as Operations Manager and then Assistant Branch Manager of the Walnut Street Securities, Inc. branch office. These duties included the conversion of client accounts to the First Affirmative division of Walnut Street Advisers, Inc. following the sale of First Affirmative. As Assistant Branch Manager, Kathy assumed a majority of the compliance supervision responsibilities for the First Affirmative field force while the company operated as a wholly owned subsidiary of Walnut Street (1995–1999).

Born June 24, 1963 in Grand Rapids, Michigan, her father is a retired United Methodist Minister and her mother is a psychologist. She graduated from the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs in 1986 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English, specializing in Medieval Literature. Kathy was named Chief Compliance Officer in March 2004.

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R. Kevin O'Keefe, CIMA, AIF

Kevin O'Keefe is the Company’s Chief Investment Officer, is a member of First Affirmative’s Investment Committee, and is responsible for due diligence for all mutual funds and third-party managers used by First Affirmative. He has held Series 7 (Registered Representative), 63 (Uniform Securities Agent) and 65 (Uniform Investment Advisor) licenses and is a member of the Investment Management Consultants Association.

Kevin has been an investment advisory representative with First Affirmative since 1991. From 1996 to 1999 he was with Reber/Russell Company (concurrent with his First Affirmative responsibilities), a firm affiliated with Frank Russell Investment Management Company and highly regarded for its expertise in asset allocation, rigorous manager evaluation, and providing consulting services to some of the world’s largest pools of investment capital. Kevin was responsible for serving several dozen clients whose aggregate assets exceeded $100 million.

Upon leaving Reber/Russell Company in early 1999, he expanded his role at First Affirmative.  In collaboration with George Gay, he developed an approach to managing strategically allocated broadly diversified portfolios of mutual funds for socially conscious investors based on the investment management principles used by Russell.

Kevin was born May 7, 1952 in Chicago Illinois. He graduated from Chicago’s Loyola University in 1974 with a degree in psychology and went on to complete his master’s degree in counseling psychology at Loyola in 1976. He worked for EF Hutton, specializing in retirement planning, throughout the 1980s.  He earned his AIF (Accredited Investment Fiduciary) designation in November 2003.

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Danielle Burns, MBA, AIF

Danielle Burns is a Business Development Consultant serving as the primary point of contact for existing and prospective network advisers. Danielle assists affiliated advisers in understanding and maximizing the value of membership services offered by First Affirmative, and provides training and support for all FAFN managed account programs.

In her previous life, Danielle worked as a key member of a premier community bank, Old Harbor Bank, in Clearwater, Florida where she provided marketing, sales and service support. Danielle gained the majority of her investment industry experience with Wachovia Corporation from 1994-2003. She worked for both Wachovia Bank and Wachovia Securities performing a variety of management duties. Her background emphasizes technology training and development for financial advisers and administrative associates, as well as licensing and compensation.

In addition to her professional duties, Danielle worked with her mother to develop a non-profit youth services organization called Think Big Productions, Inc., located in Clearwater, Florida. The primary mission of Think Big is to develop and channel young artistic talent in the community. Danielle provided motivational support and ongoing training to help young adults hone their craft.

Born October 15, 1975 in Brooklyn New York, Danielle has a passion for the culinary arts. She has an undergraduate degree in Business and a MBA with an emphasis in Marketing. She and her husband, and their son live in Aurora, Colorado.

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Johann A. Klaassen PhD, AIF

Johann Klaassen is Vice President of Managed Account Programs and a member of the First Affirmative Investment Committee. Having joined First Affirmative in 2001, he is responsible for developing asset allocation strategies and Investment Policy Statements, and serves as the primary administrator for the First Affirmative's managed accounts. He has held Series 6 (Investment Company Products/Variable Contracts Representative), 63 (Uniform Securities Agent) and 65 (Uniform Investment Advisor) licenses.

Before joining First Affirmative, Johann worked as an Investor Services Representative with T. Rowe Price. Previously, he served on the faculties of the University of Central Arkansas, Webster University, Millikin University, University of Idaho, and Washington University in St. Louis, including teaching courses in environmental ethics and bio-medical ethics.Johann’s scholarly articles have appeared in such journals as Philosophy and Literature, Journal of Social Philosophy, and Journal of Value Inquiry; he has presented papers to international conferences in Helsinki, Las Vegas and Tampa, among others.

Born January 24, 1970, Johann spent most of his youth in the forests of western Washington State and now volunteers his time to local environmental causes, educational institutions, and social justice organizations. He earned a BA in liberal arts (the Great Books Program) from St. John’s College in Santa Fe, New Mexico and a PhD in ethics and social philosophy from Washington University in St. Louis. He earned his AIF (Accredited Investment Fiduciary) designation in October 2003.

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Julie McNamara

Julie McNamara is Vice President of Client Services at First Affirmative Financial Network, LLC. Julie joined First Affirmative Financial Network in March of 1993 as an Administrative Assistant. Before working at FAFN, Julie worked for 12 years in Milwaukee, WI at area Brokerage firms, Kemper Clearing Corp, Brokerage Clearance Services, and Blunt Ellis & Loewi. Her positions there included Supervisor of the IRA Department and Manager of the Mutual Fund/UIT Department. Here at First Affirmative, Julie supervises Caryn Walker and Heather Tafoya and is in charge of performance reporting and reconciliation of accounts, billing preparation and is the main liaison with Advent Software.

Julie was born July 13, 1961 in Milwaukee Wisconsin. Julie spends her free time walking her dogs and hiking in the mountains with her husband Christopher.

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Ritu Henningsen

Ritu Henningsen is the Manager of First Affirmative Financial Network Advisor Services Department. Ritu supervises and monitors all of the operational transactions for all of our network advisors and their clients. This includes a broad list of duties including setting up new accounts, processing all incoming and outgoing transfers for Schwab and Foliofn accounts from various third party custodians, and daily account service requests. Additionally, Ritu works closely with Danielle Burns in Business Development to train new network advisors as they begin working with First Affirmative. Prior to working for First Affirmative, Ritu was an Associate Advisor at Colorado Capital Management, Inc. and prior to that did financial planning and portfolio management with the Agile Group, formerly known as Greenberg & Associates. She holds the Series 65 License (Uniform Investment Advisor).

Ritu was born on March 24, 1976 in Bronx, New York but has been a resident of Boulder, Colorado for almost thirteen years. She enjoys working on animal advocacy issues and recently started a non-profit organization called the Chica Animal Fund. Ritu graduated from Rider University with a B.S. in Business Administration with an emphasis in Finance.

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CFP® is a certification mark owned by the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards, Inc. This mark is awarded to individuals who successfully complete the CFP Board's initial and ongoing certification requirements. AIF® Designation marks owned by the Center for Fiduciary Studies (Center). These marks are awarded to individuals who successfully complete the Center’s initial and ongoing accreditation requirements.