Rich Tafel

Bio for Rich Tafel Rich Tafel is the President of Public Squared a social change strategy company offering coaching and strategic planning. Recently, Tafel was chosen to become the Managing Director of Raffa Social Capital Advisors where he matches up social enterprise businesses to investors. He believes that social entrepreneurs represent a new way to combine the best of capitalism and the social sector towards sustainable systems change worldwide. Tafel is a political strategist and is a leader in the effort to end hyper-partisanship in American politics and is a frequent commentator on politics on TV. He began his career as Assistant Minister at Harvard’s chapel a position he left when appointed to lead Adolescent Health at the MA Dept. of Public Health. In 1993, he left Massachusetts to launch the Log Cabin Republicans in an effort to bridge the gap between the conservative and gay community in America. He was one of America’s earliest political activists campaigning for gay marriage. In 1999, he wrote "Party Crasher" (published by Simon Schuster) offering a new inclusive vision for American politics. With his knowledge of politics and vision for social change, he launched his first company that helped nonprofits engage in public policy. He worked domestically with College Summit on access for low-income students to college. In addition, he created the global strategy for AIDS Responsibility Project that helped facilitate the delivery of AIDS drugs to Africa. In addition, they worked with Brazil, Mexico and Jamaica on ending HIV/AIDS discrimination. Following his work in Mexico, he was invited to serve as a founder and Chief Strategic Officer of the Workplace Wellness Council of Mexico, which today has over 140 paid company members. As the strategist and trainer for Michigan Corps where he helped launch the nation’s first statewide social entrepreneur contest that lead to over $1M in new investment in winning ideas. He is also a founder of the company ConsejoSano, which delivers health care advice to America’s Spanish-speaking population. Reverend Richard L. Tafel serves as the minister at Church of the Holy City in Washington DC. For the past ten years, he served as Chairman of the Board of Wayfarers Chapel in Los Angeles voted in 2013 as one of America’s top ten beautiful churches. Tafel is trained as a coach through the International Coaching Federation. He writes for the Huffington Post and Stanford Social Innovation Review. His proudest achievements are taking a lead in the 1980’s as a leader in the battle against AIDS, LGBT rights and the effort to support African countries suffering through the AIDS epidemic. He holds an undergraduate degree in Philosophy and a graduate degree in Theology from Harvard University, Tafel is ordained and his first job was as Assistant Minister of Harvard University’s Memorial Church.