We have a great team at NextSpace, if we don’t say so ourselves. Our job is to manage this fantastically innovative community. Got questions, ideas, or suggestions? Need help connecting, catalyzing, and creating? Just want to chat about your latest scheme to save the universe? Interacting with our members is the best part of our job. The magic of NextSpace really does reside within the members of this rather remarkable community…we’re here for you!
Jeremy Neuner, Co-Founder & CEO
In addition to being the CEO of NextSpace, Jeremy is also the comedic relief, the tragic hero, and the getaway car driver. Jeremy began his career as an officer and carrier-based helicopter pilot in the U.S. Navy. Jeremy also worked as a management and strategy consultant in Washington, DC, helping clients create partnerships between the public and private sectors. Before starting NextSpace, Jeremy served as the economic development manager for the City of Santa Cruz. He holds a bachelor’s degree in English literature from Georgetown University and a master’s degree in business and government policy from Harvard University. But he’s learned the most from playing LEGO’s with his kids. Jeremy tries to live by this rule: take your job seriously, but not yourself. Fun Fact: Jeremy can juggle flaming torches. Cool, no?
Ryan Coonerty, Co-Founder & Chief Strategist
Ryan Coonerty is the Co-Founder, Chief Strategist, and cookie expert of NextSpace. He is the once and future Mayor of Santa Cruz, a lecturer in law at UC Santa Cruz and author of “Etched in Stone – Enduring Words from Our National Monuments,” a book that he will read aloud to NextSpace members on a daily basis, if they would only ask. He is a Santa Cruz native and alum of the University of Oregon, London School of Economics and the University of Virginia School of Law.
Iris Kavanagh, Chief Operating Officer
Iris Kavanagh came to NextSpace first as a community member in January of 2009. After accepting the offer to join the NextSpace team in February, she quickly jumped in head first to learn how to manage a community of self led individuals. She has spent most of her adult life herding cats in the theater and design/marketing world, gaining valuable cross over skills like how to stay smiling while five different people pull on your skirt at once as the phone rings and the team meeting calls. As Nextspace COO Iris’s role on the ground includes daily operations and point person for several of NextSpace’s community collaborations including the successful What’s Next Lecture series and Freelance Camp organization and brand management. Her favorite part of her job at NextSpace is learning about and connecting the diverse and talented people who make up the NextSpace community, even when they all strut off in their own directions. When not at work, Iris spends time working in her daughter’s school and herding kids instead of cats.
Caleb Baskin, Co-Founder
Caleb Baskin is our pit bull lawyer and our amateur nutritional consultant. He is the Managing Partner at Baskin & Grant, LLP, a business law and litigation firm located in Santa Cruz. A co-founder of NextSpace, Caleb is also the co-founder and immediate past chair of Santa Cruz Next. He also serves on the Steering Committee of the Locally Owned Business Alliance and the Board of Directors of the Santa Cruz Trial Lawyers Association. A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and the UCLA School of Law, Caleb is a longtime Santa Cruz resident and a kick-ass mountain biker.
Sara Vainer, EmCee
A Santa Cruz native, Sara appreciates the sustainability and entrepreneurial catalyst NextSpace provides to her hometown community. As Membership Coordinator, she assists in running the community, helping out members with questions, making connections, coordinating events, website maintenance and all the little community nuts & bolts. Sara is a graduate of SFSU and enjoys traveling but loves coming home to beautiful Santa Cruz.
Yvonne O’Brien, EmCee
Yvonne comes to NextSpace by way of England and New York. She’s our numbers person and the one to see if you have any questions about your membership. Need to update your contact information, credit card or require a Shaman to coax the printer into submission or simply borrow a stapler? Stop on by for a chat. You can find her in the Cooper Room sitting at the largest desk in NextSpace – how did that happen!?
Rebecca Brian, Co-Founder San Francisco
Rebecca Brian founded Tribecca Designs, a marketing and design agency, 3 months after graduating from the University of Pennsylvania in 2002. She has since been recognized as an industry expert in design, web development, and e-marketing. She is also a co-founder of Spark, a leading graphic design organization with over 200 members and chapters in New York and San Francisco, devoted to the business of graphic design. Rebecca also co-founded Books that Build, a 501(c)3 non-profit that is committed to have all children reading by 2020. In 2010 she joined NextSpace Coworking + Innovation, Inc., and is very excited to be working with them to expand into the San Francisco market.
Jamie Capozzi, Co-Founder San Francisco
Jamie Capozzi, Marketing and Design “guy” hailing from the land of great pizza…Connecticut. Jamie is the founder of the branding agency Theory Associates and one of the Co-Founders of NextSpace San Francisco. He comes to NextSpace with over 15 years of marketing and design experience and a healthy respect for the power of collaboration. Throw in a helping scoop of connector and a side order of mentor and there you have it. So, if you are looking for some business advice or just a book recommendation on how to solve your latest headache he’s your man.