Team

---

Paul has had a diverse career spanning four decades. In addition to being the founding board vice-chair for two startup schools in South Carolina, he co-founded, developed, and managed Phoenix Academy - one of the oldest, largest, most successful charter schools in North Carolina for a quarter century. He was a founding Chair of the NC Alliance (now merged Association), founding member of the Charter School Advisory Council, crafted and assisted in the passage of the legislation creating the Charter School Advisory Board where he served, as well as several other milestone laws and rules. The foundation he co-founded over a decade ago assisted with the opening and operation of over a thousand libraries in the Philippines, where he grew up and started his twenty five year career in the supply management business. 

Where they handled domestic and international freight, warehousing, installation and project management for hotels and resorts across the United States, Mexico, the Caribbean, Puerto Rico, the Philippines, Hong Kong and Macau. He developed and implemented revolutionary school safety systems and accompanying curriculum. Paul is a graduate of the University of San Francisco, where he served on student government giving him the background to serve and chair numerous charitable, civic and education related boards and councils since. Married to Kim since 1988 and proud father of two adult children.

Kim has four decades of experience in education, business and psychology. Starting her career as a classroom teacher and social services counselor, transitioning into becoming a highly successful sales executive of large scale tele-communications equipment, then as the co-founder of a successful, global supply management company. Where she oversaw staffing, finance, benefits and compliance. This diverse background gave her a deep bench of knowledge to finance and co-found a private school in 1997, converting it to a Charter in 2000.

Before passing the torch in 2022, she grew the academically excellent, financially sound school with a closely knit, family culture to nearly 1,300 students, housed in over one hundred thousand square feet on three sites. As praised by former NC Superintendent of Public Education, Dr. June Atkinson, she developed the Positive Behavior System, which DPI adopted as PBIS, then eventually MTSS. She is known a true champion for children, particularly those facing extra challenges.

A graduate of Coastal Carolina University with a Bachelors in Communication, he is a native of High Point, North Carolina where he is employed as the director of New Media at Phoenix Academy, a public school of choice founded by his family in 1997, currently operated by National Heritage Academies, which operates over 100 schools across the United States serving over 100,000 students. He is one of 7 Degrees' co-founders and Board Members.

Mr. Norcross’ columns on character and culture have been published by several national news organizations. He is the author of “The Phoenix”© Character Book Series directed towards pre-K through sixth grade, which is the foundation for the “7 Degrees of Change Character Education Curriculum©” in-school, after-school and in-home character-based education activities and training.

Matthew was born in the San Francisco Bay Area, worked in Washington, DC at a communications consulting company, and lived in Orlando, FL while participating in the Disney College Program©. He has traveled extensively across the United States and internationally, starting at a very early age on mission trips, leisure and business. From Tokyo, to Paris, Havana and dozens of other global centers, he has seen how different cultures live, are educated, work and interact with one another and those that are different from them.

Mari Murphy had 8 years of experience managing competing projects and priorities ensuring all deliverables, timelines, and budget requirements are met.  Having worked at Success Academies during that timespan, her current post there is Program Manager of Assessment Services. 

She established and executed a training and change management program to deploy and support 100% adoption of 3 new software applications to over 3,000 school staff and over 20,000 students, improving user experience. She also spearheaded the creation, execution, and deployment of over 10 technical enhancements in a newly adopted digital assessment administration platform, optimizing UI and UX and extending the platform’s life cycle., and partnered with Supply Chain and senior leaders, to hire and utilize a scoring vendor, reducing time spent grading assessments by over 1,000 hours.

John Stefani is currently the digital marketing director at Elixirr. His expertise lies in C-Level Technology and Operations within the financial services industry. He has lead organizations during transformation, expansion, mergers/acquisitions, and liquidation. John’s most recent role at Credit Suisse as Managing Director, COO/CFO within Global Markets had accountability for Financial Management, Program Management, Resource Management, Vendor Management, Operational Risk Management, Compliance and Communications.

Prior to Credit Suisse John was Managing Director and COO at CLS Bank International and also previously employed at UBS within the Office of the COO – Americas, managing several mission critical strategic and regulatory initiatives. John worked at Lehman Brothers as their Chief Information Officer of four companies including Lehman Brothers Bank FSB, Lehman Brothers Small Business Finance, Campus Door and Capital Crossing - as well as a combined 13 years with JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup.

When John is not working he enjoys family world travel, golf, coaching youth athletics and participating in multiple sports and charitable activities involving education and social outreach.

Scott Kockos is a Wealth Advisor and Executive Director with J.P. Morgan Wealth Management. 

As a Portfolio Manager in the firm’s exclusive Portfolio Manager Program, Scott is part of a select group of advisors who undergo a screening process to manage discretionary client portfolios, and are subject to ongoing quantitative and qualitative reviews to assess each advisor’s investment strategy.

Scott understands that each client has a unique range of goals, and he will work to understand, define, quantify and prioritize their needs. Through this approach, he is able to provide comprehensive wealth management services to high-net-worth individuals, corporate executives, institutions and foundations.

Scott has more than 36 years of experience in the financial services industry, the last 30 of which have been with J.P. Morgan. Previously, he held senior roles at well-known securities and investment management firms.

Active in the community, Scott is a member and past President of the historic San Francisco Bond Club (est. 1929). Under his leadership, the Bond Club worked to enhance the investment business, promote compliance with the highest ethical standards and provide a forum for leaders of the securities industry to meet and form long-lasting friendships. 

Scott and his wife reside on the San Francisco Peninsula with their two daughters and son. In his spare time, he enjoys biking, golfing and fishing.