“Be coachable.” MENTOR’s newest Board Member, Dan Gaynor, shares more about his thoughts on mentoring
In December, MENTOR welcomed its newest member to the Board of Directors, Dan Gaynor, founder of Kelp Data. Dan is joining a dynamic group of leaders focused on guiding and supporting our mission, vision, and values.
MENTOR Board Chair Ernesto Anguilla said of Dan’s addition, “We are thrilled to welcome Dan to MENTOR’s board. He brings extensive experience in business, AI and technology, communications, and government. He’s enormously committed to public service and has a passion and dedication to our work. He is already having an impact on MENTOR’s work and will continue to do so for years to come.”
MENTOR asked Dan to share some of his thoughts on mentoring and his vision for his role on the board.
How did you first learn about/become involved with MENTOR?
I’ve long admired MENTOR’s mission, staff, and above all, impact. I first learned about MENTOR while serving as a presidential appointee in the Obama Administration. Impressed with MENTOR’s partnership with the U.S. government on My Brother’s Keeper Alliance, my admiration for MENTOR only grew when I moved to Nike — which teamed up with MENTOR to fuel the mentoring movement and ensure all American youth receive the support they need to succeed in all areas of life. When the opportunity to join the board arose, I leaped at the opportunity to team up with MENTOR’s talented team.
Have you had mentors of your own? If so, how do you feel mentorship has played a role in your own personal or professional journey?
Despite my limitations as an athlete, one of the most important aphorisms I’ve lived by is, “Be coachable.” Seeking out mentors has strengthened my skills, advanced my career, and challenged my assumptions — improving the quality of my life immeasurably. My mentors include leaders like Dr. Peter Folan, the president of Catholic Memorial; Gov. Martin O’Malley, the former Mayor of Baltimore and Governor of Maryland; and Dr. Rajiv Shah, the president of the Rockefeller Foundation.
What role do you feel MENTOR as an organization plays in advancing opportunity for young people?
Having just attended the 2024 National Mentoring Summit, I know this organization’s impact is profound and clear. Over 1,300 people from 48 states (and 10 countries) gathered to share expertise and inspire youth on a global scale. MENTOR is the critical capacity-builder at the center of it all — equipping local leaders on the frontlines to foster more meaningful mentoring relationships. As a start-up founder, I see a lot of parallels in MENTOR acting as an engine of innovation: it seeds a dynamic national mentoring ecosystem; it offers frameworks that accelerate impact across a variety of regions and contexts; and it advocates to federal and state governments to secure critical funds for local mentoring Affiliates.
What are you most looking forward to as a member of MENTOR’s board?
First of all, I look forward to being mentored on effective board participation from CEO Jermaine Myrie, Chair Ernesto Anguilla, Vice-Chair Tomi Hiers, and the entirety of the stalwart board. Second, I hope to use my day-to-day job — leading an AI organization — to elevate our work in new ways, spanning from deeper corporate partnerships to deepening Affiliates’ impact. Third, with my background in government and recent experience lobbying for MENTOR on Capitol Hill, I hope to bring more awareness of this organization’s promise to lawmakers at all levels.
Is there anything else you’d like to share?
To me, being “entrepreneurial” has a broad definition: it means creativity takes many forms. Whether it’s in the form of new research or starting a school club or reaching out to an individual student — and whether you work in an affiliate, at a non-profit, or a company — I believe anyone can innovate. I’m excited to help MENTOR’s family do just that in a multitude of ways. I’ll try to network across our network, assisting our broad family of mentors in ideating new ways to meet youth where they are in this difficult and dynamic time, and more than anything, take them to new arenas of success.
Learn more about Dan’s work experience by reading below:
Gaynor brings to the board a breadth of experience leading global strategy, communications, marketing, and purpose initiatives across an array of sectors.
Dan Gaynor is founder of Kelp Data, the first AI-powered platform for corporate reputation. The company’s data analytics platform delivers industry reputation insights and benchmarks hundreds of companies—enabling communications & marketing executives to embrace ESG, capitalize on emerging opportunities, or mitigate new risks.
As a presidential appointee during the Obama Administration, Dan worked for the State Department and USAID on foreign policy communications, including on the Ebola epidemic response. After serving on a presidential campaign, Gaynor moved to Nike’s worldwide headquarters in Portland, Oregon, where he was a founding member of the Nike Narrative Center of Excellence. Charged with envisioning the future of the world’s biggest brand, he worked with Nike’s CEO and executive team on innovation launches, global communications strategy, brand storytelling and messaging, and investor relations.
After Nike, Gaynor started the Narrative Strategy & Analytics practice at Weber Shandwick, the world’s largest publicly traded marketing services agency. Gaynor’s practice partnered exclusively with C-suites at Fortune 500 companies, crafting their North Star for all communications — and inventing a first-of-its-kind analytics approach that measured a corporate strategy’s aggregate impact on company reputation.
Currently living in Boston, Gaynor earned a Master’s degree with top honors from the London School of Economics and Political Science and a Bachelor’s degree from Washington University in St. Louis. Outside of work, he serves on the Community Advisory Board of WBUR, Boston’s NPR News Station, and on the New Frontier Steering Committee of the John F. Kennedy Library & Foundation.