2015-16
REPORT ON PHILANTHROPY
TO OUR NEW TRUSTEES MARIA MANCUSO GERSH Maria Mancuso Gersh is the designer/ owner of 5683, a boutique jewelry brand that subtly promotes spiritual awareness through the conceptual design of precious metals and gems. As mother first and artist second, Maria has crafted 2½ decades of artistic expression in multiple modalities, including: costume design, interior design, jewelry design, event planning, writing, teaching, and dance, shifting focus in response to life’s opportunity and demand, while raising her son and three daughters. Maria shared her extensive expertise while teaching graduate-level students at the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising in Los Angeles. Her course, “The Evolution of Style,” traced the evolution of 100+ years of fashion in accordance with the social, political, and economic climates of the times. She also taught in a design lab, where she helped students design and produce collections for their thesisequivalent fashion show. Previously in her career, Maria worked as a costume designer on feature films, including: “Back to the Beach,” “April Fool’s Day,” “Two Moon Junction,” and “Friday the 13th, Part 3.” Maria is a graduate of Cornell University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Apparel Design. She and her husband, Gary Gersh, have enjoyed a 28-year partnership.
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JORDAN L. KAPLAN Jordan Kaplan is the President and Chief Executive Officer of Douglas Emmett Inc., an office and residential REIT listed on the New York Stock Exchange (DEI: NYSE). He is also a member of the Board of Directors of DEI. In 1991, he co-founded Douglas Emmett Realty Advisors, which grew during the 1990s into a large manager of institutional real estate funds and is the predecessor to DEI. Douglas Emmett went public in 2006 in what was then the largest REIT IPO in history. Currently, the company has approximately 600 employees and is one of the largest owners and operators of high-quality office buildings and multifamily properties in Los Angeles County and Hawaii. Jordan serves philanthropically on various boards at UCLA, St. John’s Hospital, Los Angeles Waterkeeper, the Geisinger Health Initiative Council, Teen Cancer America, and Sound Body Sound Mind. A native of Los Angeles, Jordan received his bachelor’s degree from the University of California-Santa Barbara and his MBA from the Anderson School at UCLA. He lives in Pacific Palisades with his wife and their three children.