Our Board

Harriet Joynes combines over 20 years of experience in small business management with a sustained interest in the areas of nonprofit housing and micro-enterprise.  She is currently Chief Operating Officer at the Support Center for Nonprofit Management, where she is responsible for all internal operations including finances, administration, human resources, program operations, communications and technology.

Before moving to New York in 1980, she worked as a city social worker in West London, then as Housing Development Manager for the Notting Hill Housing Trust, buying and converting private housing to the public housing sector.

From 1983 to 2001, she successfully launched, ran, and sold The Ultimate Basket, a gift basket business in New York City.

Ms. Joynes is a graduate of  Fordham University  with a BA in Political Science and serves on the advisory board of the GEEL clubhouse in the Bronx.

Stan Kosyakovskiy, CPA, serves as the Chief Financial Officer at Art Partner, the leading artist management and creative content agency with offices in New York, London, and Paris.

Combining 10 years of experience in a variety of industries such as Banking, Advertising, Servicing and Manufacturing, Kosyakovskiy has outstanding and in-depth knowledge in Accounting, SOX, Shared Services, Strategy Development, Financial Analysis, Managing and Operations, including, Finance, IT,Tax, Legal and Human Resources.

Kosyakovskiy, a refugee from the former USSR, immigrated to the United States in 1997.  He attended Pace University where he received a Bachelor's Degree in Accounting. Kosyakovskiy is proud to be a member of the Board of Directors for BCNA.  As an immigrant and former small business owner, he understands the challenges the BCNA's customers encounter while running their own small business.

Bryan Pu-Folkes is an attorney specializing in immigration law.  He serves as a member of the Immigration Committee of the New York City Bar Association and serves on the board of the Queens Legal Services Corporation. 

In 1999 he founded New Immigrant Community Empowerment, Inc. (NICE), a New York City based cross-cultural, non-profit immigrant service and advocacy organization that works to ensure that new immigrants are informed, active and influential in civic, governmental and public affairs.  

He also founded the Community Journal Legal and Education Fund, a nonprofit economic and community economic development initiative in Queens that publishes a fully bilingual Spanish-English newspaper and sponsors  community workshops and programs, including the annual Jackson Heights Film and Food Festival, a customer loyalty program to support local neighborhood merchants,  and the Jackson Heights Clean Streets initiative.

In 2005 he ran for City Council for the 25^th Council district in Queens, challenging an incumbent Council Member, and received endorsements from the New York Times, Citizens Union, the New York League of Conservation Voters.

Mr. Pu-Folkes is the recipient of many awards including the Best Lawyer Under 40 Award by the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association.  

Peter Brest has worked for over 25 years in the fields of housing and human services.

He joined the Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty in 1996, serving first as Director of Housing and currently as Chief Operating Officer, where he oversees and manages the agency's service programs as well as developing new and innovative programs to serve low-income families and individuals.

He previously served as Associate Commissioner for Housing and Adult Services in the New York State Department of Social Services, where he was responsible for the development of housing for the homeless and oversight of the state's homeless shelters and adult residential care facilities.

Mr. Brest has Master's Degrees in Social Work from Columbia University and Public Administration from NYU.

Jill Kelly is the Deputy Regional Director, New York & Connecticut, for Citi  Community Development,  overseeing strategic projects, partner relationships, budgets, staffing and organizational effectiveness.  Her responsibilities have included CRA, Fair Lending and local government relations as well as executing Citi's community commitment for financial capability & asset building, neighborhood revitalization, enterprise development, microfinance, and college success through nonprofit community alliances and beyond philanthropy efforts.

She works closely with Citi Foundation to provide oversight and quality assurance for the grant making activities in the region.

Prior to joining Citi in 1997, her career encompassed roles in education, government affairs, and small business development. 

Ms. Kelly has a Bachelor's of Science degree from Barry University in Miami  and a Master's Degree from Florida State University.

Deepti Sharma Kapur is the creator and owner of FoodToEat.com, a food ordering, pick up, and delivery website based in Midtown Manhattan with a socially responsible business model for restaurants and street vendors.

The idea for the site came to her several years ago, while she was studying for the LSAT. While she knew she needed every available minute to study, her mind wandered towards a food truck parked on the corner outside the library. She realized that the thing needed was a way to order in advance to avoid wasting valuable studying time by waiting in line. The insight sidetracked her law school plans and put her on a completely different path.

Ms. Kapur understood that restaurants are one of the largest groups of small business owners in New York City and need a tool that can perform some of the same functions as other food ordering sites without the high cost. Going patiently from door to door, and from food cart to food truck, she created FoodToEat.com, which launched in June 2011. The site uses innovative technology, such as GPRS printers, to automatically route orders directly to vendors, which lets them service and keep track of online customers easily and efficiently. 

Ms. Kapur has a B.A. in Political Science and B.S. in Business Management from Stony Brook University.

Foulis Peacock worked on Fleet Street in London before immigrating to the United States, over 20 years ago. Upon arriving in New York City, he used his "foreign advantage" to become a contractor with Fortune magazine.

In 1994, he and a partner started a media representative company. Their clients included Fortune, Money, and Forbes magazines. In 1998, they launched DiversityInc Media LLC. 

In 2009, he sold his interest in DiversityInc to create and produce Immpreneur.com, a resource for immigrant entrepreneurs.

Melissa serves as Principle of Lloyd Advisors, LLC providing management and strategy advisory services to mission driven organizations. Her career has focused on building and implementing strategies for fundraising, program delivery and change management in government and non-profit entities.

Previously, Melissa served as the Director of Special Institutional Projects for NYU-Poly and led a systems and operations integration to merge the institution with NYU and initiatives focused on building a culture of innovation at the Institution.  Her career has spanned across the US, Europe and Africa with key clients including: African Agriculture Technology Foundation, Oxfam Great Britain and Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa. Melissa received degrees from Texas A&M University and Leicester University of England.