2023-2024

Ragazzi’s Board of Directors is an all-volunteer organization that meets monthly. We thank our board members for their dedicated service to Ragazzi’s choristers.

Linda Enger, President

Linda Enger is retired after a long career in Operations Management, 30 years with Bank of America and 16 years with the David and Lucile Packard Foundation.  She has served on various community boards, including boards of the Bay Area Girl Scouts, the First Unitarian Universalist Society of San Francisco, and Ragazzi Boys Chorus.  She is currently the President of the William and Alice Hinckley Fund, a small charitable trust that is the first one authorized by the state of California. After her son graduated from Ragazzi, she has enjoyed assisting as chaperone or tour manager on many Ragazzi tours.

Catalina Verdu-Cano, ViCE President

Catalina Verdu-Cano joined the Ragazzi Board in 2019, and has been a Ragazzi parent and volunteer since 2014. Catalina has a passion for the performing arts. As a child, she attended the Royal Conservatory of Dance and Music in Murcia, Spain. Currently, she enjoys singing with the Stanford Community Chorus. She has provided leadership and expertise to non-profit and philanthropic organizations, and held positions at the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, and the California Endowment, and has been a private consultant. She currently works at Stanford University. Catalina pursued a master’s degree in International Studies, a graduate certificate in Not-for-Profit Organization Management at the University of Oregon, and a European BA from the University of Alicante (Spain). She received an Ambassador of Goodwill Scholarship from the Rotary Foundation and a European Union Erasmus Scholarship. She lives with her husband and two Ragazzi boys in Palo Alto.

COLLIN LEE, Treasurer

Collin joined the board in 2019, and is an alumnus of the Ragazzi Boys Chorus. He credits Ragazzi for his love of singing and choral music, and sang in Ragazzi from the age eight through the end of high school. Collin went on to study engineering at Santa Clara University but continued to sing, joining the Santa Clara Chamber Singers and Concert Choir. After college, Collin reconnected with Ragazzi, and now sings in Ragazzi’s alumni group, Ragazzi Continuo, where he served as the group’s president for three terms.  Collin currently works at an early stage Silicon Valley startup. He received a PhD in Computer Science from Stanford University and a BS in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science & Engineering from Santa Clara University.

Travis Culwell, Secretary

Travis is a 4-year Ragazzi parent, with son Chris now a member of the Young Men’s Ensemble. As a Ragazzi volunteer Travis has most enjoyed stage crew assignments, supporting our staff and choristers in backstage roles. As a lifelong amateur pianist and choral singer, he finds deep inspiration in the musicianship and commitment shown in the whole organization.

Travis leads the design and marketing groups at A3Ventures, which is the innovation lab of AAA NCNU. Originally trained as an architect, he has held strategy and design roles in various creative agencies, with clients including several mission-driven organizations. He earned bachelors and masters degrees in architecture from UC Berkeley, and an MBA from Stanford University.

Nagesh Hatti, Development Chair

Nagesh’s son Talinn (Choral Scholars, Young Men’s Ensemble) has been singing with Ragazzi since 2014. Nagesh has volunteered as a Cubmaster and Range master for Pack-78 and soccer coach for AYSO. He works for Amazon Web Services and has spent most of his career in enterprise sales focused on healthcare, manufacturing, and software.

MIKE DICKEY

Mike has a son in Young Men’s Ensemble, who has now has spent most of his life with Ragazzi. Mike started his first software company in high school, and has since built and sold multiple startups. Mike has served on the board of various non-profit organizations, including The Clarence Foundation, Foundation for Sustainable Development, and Circles.org. He co-founded JackTrip Foundation to help musicians perform together over the Internet, and currently works as the CEO of JackTrip Labs.

Kent Jue, Artistic and Executive Director

Kent Jue is thrilled and honored to lead Ragazzi’s artistic and administrative arms. During his tenure as Artistic and Executive Director, Kent guided Ragazzi’s growth plan as it became the largest boy’s chorus program in the Bay Area. He created two satellite programs for entry-level families, increased grant and foundation support, established Ragazzi’s first endowment, and achieved consecutive board surpluses. Showcasing innovation and adaptability during the spring of 2020, Kent reimagined a program that kept Ragazzi boys safely singing. He pioneered new technology, maintained enrollment, and established Ragazzi’s health and safety plan. Under Kent’s leadership, overnight activities, including local, domestic and international touring, and camps resumed in 2022 after a three-year hiatus.

Kathy peden-statton

Vikram Saxena

Vikram has been a Ragazzi parent since 2015 and both his boys sing in the chorus; he joined the Ragazzi Board in 2021. He has volunteered with Ragazzi as the Stage Crew for live performances for many years; something he is looking forward to returning to, once the pandemic subsides. He also sang in a boys’ choir as a child, and Ragazzi enabled him to pass on his love of music to his children.

Vikram has degrees in engineering (BTech, IIT Delhi, MS, Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) and a graduate certificate in Management Sciences (Stanford). During his professional career, he has worked in a variety of industries: internet (Yahoo), transportation (Uber), semiconductors (Synopsys) and finance (Morgan Stanley) and has led the engineering teams at two early stage start-ups (Relcy & Accelchip). He currently helps address Integrity issues at Facebook, with a focus on the Well-Being of Creators.

Vikram also serves in the Planning Commission for the City of Cupertino, where his term started in 2019.

Gaurav Gupta

Gaurav Gupta joined the Ragazzi Board in 2024, and has been a Ragazzi parent since 2018. He currently has boys in both Concert Group and Primary and has seen first-hand how Ragazzi instills confidence and a love of music in children. Gaurav is currently a Partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners, where he invests in early-stage enterprise software companies and serves on more than a half-dozen company boards. Gaurav also enjoys volunteering at his children’s school and with various youth organizations, and holds a BSE in Electrical Engineering from Princeton and an MBA from Harvard Business School.