Passing the Torch: Leadership Changes at CPA
Members of CPA’s Board and Staff celebrate Founding Executive Director Felipe Witchger in DC
A Note from CPA Co-op Board President Troyann Watson:
After a decade of service and impact at The Community Purchasing Alliance, our much-valued colleague, collaborator, and founding Executive Director Felipe Witchger is moving on to exciting new endeavors in impact-first investing with his new project, the Francesco Collaborative.
Those familiar with Felipe know that CPA would not be here today if it were not for the energy and talent he poured into launching our cooperative over a decade ago. What started as a group of community leaders working together to address exorbitant energy bills has turned into what CPA is today: a thriving, self-sustaining cooperative with $20 million in annual purchasing with a national peer network of 400+ community institutions and 80+ member-owners in the DC area.
As one of CPA’s founding board members, I can clearly recall what it felt like to be in those initial meetings... the sense of possibility we all felt, the excitement. Over a decade later we are still uncovering the possibilities of group purchasing, still realizing a vision we imagined from early on: we can strengthen our local communities by strengthening our community institutions.
Announcements of this kind often use terms like “bittersweet” to describe such departures, and that is certainly the case here. We will miss Felipe’s indefatigable spirit in our organization, even as we recognize that our cooperative work and efforts will no doubt overlap in the years and decades to come. And as we reflect on the mark Felipe has made in our lives and on this organization, we wish to extend our deepest gratitude for him and this remarkable partnership.
We are fortunate that one of Felipe’s great strengths is leadership development. Felipe leaves behind a strong team that has already proven more than capable of advancing CPA’s vision and mission. CPA is supporting community organizations with $20 million in purchasing each year, shifting millions of dollars to local and minority owned businesses, and has proven to be a sustainable model with four years of profits returned to our members.
Finally, we wish to express our abiding appreciation for our members, preferred vendors, and funders. We are a co-op because of you.
With gratitude,
Troyann Watson on behalf of the Community Purchasing Alliance’s Board of Directors
A Note from CPA Co-op Founding Executive Director Felipe Witchger
I will be leaving CPA Co-op this month after 8 years as founding Executive Director, with excitement for the future of CPA and for me.
As a collective, we have built a truly pioneering business model. We’ve learned to synthesize practical insights for improved operations. We’ve built market access for businesses that are usually excluded: $13 million in contracts won by Black, Latino, and refugee entrepreneurs. We’ve continued the transition to clean energy with 40 CPA organizations installing 5 MW of on-site solar. 150 more switching to wind power. And then there’s our democratic governance and ownership structure where we’ve allocated hundreds of thousands in surplus and our long-term community power building strategy. I will be forever grateful for what I’ve learned working alongside you in building this incredible vehicle for social change.
With my full support and confidence, I’m so excited the CPA Board has chosen Amy Abbott and Boris Sigal to become Co-Executive Directors.
Amy Abbott has presided over an incredible season of growth in our DC Region since she joined the team in 2018. She’s grown our work with charter schools, added more than a dozen member-owners, led our security, janitorial, waste hauling, and supported development of our PPE purchasing, insurance, and food service programs. She’s been integral to hiring, onboarding and coaching new staff, while developing CPA’s internal culture to ensure democracy in the workplace.
Boris Sigal has been serving as our CFO since early 2018 and over the past 18 months has systematized and transformed our regional expansion efforts. Boris led our local partners in Connecticut, Massachusetts, Illinois, and Ohio in signing 199 energy contracts showing each region the promise of the CPA group experience.
Amy and Boris, along with CPA’s incredibly talented staff members, bring an unparalleled understanding of the CPA business model combined with a track record of results and a drive to take this work to the next level. I couldn’t be more excited about the ambition and tenacity for impact that they both bring to this work.
I’m so grateful to our CPA Board Members Troy, Ellen, Paul, Enje, Faida, Martin, Nate, Lorraine, and Kristin. You’ve guided, supported, and encouraged me and poured so much of yourselves into CPA this past year -- and over the past 10 years -- truly co-creating this beautiful collective. None of this would have been possible without your belief and trust in the CPA vision and promise.
What does this mean for me? With recent support from the Fund for New Leadership, I’ll begin co-directing the Francesco Collaborative which builds the capacity of investors, philanthropists, and change-makers for more transformative impact. My hope is to continue the work of building cooperatives that make real the promise of solidarity, by organizing the capital that co-op entrepreneurs need to actualize their aspirations. You can follow along with our newsletter -- Ownership Matters -- which aims to help you track the funds, organizations, and people shaping the movement for shared ownership and a solidarity economy.
I’d love to stay in touch and hope our paths cross again soon.
Sincerely,
Felipe
P.S. You can find me at Felipe@FrancescoCollaborative.org or felipewitchger@gmail.com going forward. Please don’t hesitate to reach out!