Chris E. Staffel

About Chris E. Staffel

Executive entrepreneur and investor with experience in both startups and publicly traded companies. Over her career, Chris has been a founding member of 3 start up energy companies with an aggregate exit valuation of 1.38 Billion. Leveraging her entrepreneurial credentials, Chris brings a wealth of in-house experience in executing strategic decisions from start to finish in the lifecycle of a company, building high-performance teams, acquisition and divestitures of assets, and exit strategy execution. As a former executive of a public company, Chris provides perspective on the process of grooming companies for the IPO route, assembling boards, strategies for running a publicly held company as well as managing shareholder and board member expectations. As an investor, Chris has a deep passion for helping other entrepreneurs fund early stage ventures while working to dispel wealth inequality among underrepresented founders. In addition to investing her capital, she also invests her time volunteering in prisons, schools and start up incubators to mentor founders building and raising funding for their companies.

Experience

1. Member Board of Directors

   The Aruna Project

   Jul 2024 — Present · US

   Aruna Project is an impact driven athleisure brand creating lifelong freedom for survivors of human trafficking. By combining the best of nonprofit and business, survivors experience dignity, heal from trauma, and regain individual agency through employment marked by holistic care in a community and sisterhood of others who are flourishing.Our products are functional luxury bags and accessories utilizing eco-friendly fabric and trims. All Aruna products are created in freedom and marked with Artisan story-telling name print so that each customer helps create direct human impact and experiences freedom in their own adventure.

Education

• Rice Business

  Master of Business Administration (M.B.A.), Executive MBA Program

  2015 — 2017

• University of Central Florida

  Master of Fine Arts (MFA), Musical Theatre

  2004 — 2006

• Wheaton College

  Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA), Classical Voice & Theatre

  2000 — 2004

Skills

• Public Relations
• Internal Communications
• Media Relations
• Natural Gas
• Leadership
• Entrepreneurship
• Event Management
• Crisis Communications
• Corporate Communications
• Public Speaking
• Governmental Affairs
• Pipelines
• Public Affairs
• Energy
• Management
• Community Outreach
• Human Resources
• Event Planning
• Strategic Planning
• Cross-Functional Team Leadership
• Project Management
• Vocalist
• Strategy
• Social Networking
• Strategic Communications