Richard Keith Sauls

Mr. Sauls has served as director of RiseIT™, Inc. since January 2018. Keith is the founder and CEO of ThirdShift, an Artificial Intelligence and Data Analytics platform that empowers Endowments, Foundations, and Family Offices to make superior evidence-based investment and governance decisions. He has also been the Managing General Partner of Exeter Venture Group, a privately-owned venture capital and private equity firm, since January 2000.

Mr. Sauls holds a BA from the College of Charleston and an MBA from Emory University’s Goizueta Business School. He is also a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA). Keith has served as Investment Chair/Vice-Chair of the College of Charleston Foundation Board since 2004 and was instrumental in the College’s early adoption of AI software to enhance fundraising and philanthropy for the Foundation. In addition, he was a founding member of the Porter-Gaud School Foundation Board and served as the Chair of their Foundation’s Investment Committee from 2012 – 2016. He remains a member of their Investment Committee.

Mr. Sauls spent the majority of his 30yr career advising Endowments, Foundations and Family Offices, with tenures at Bessemer Trust, NA, GenSpring Family Offices and J.P. Morgan. He is a frequent speaker on the use of technology in the non-profit sector to improve investment, fundraising, and engagement results; and is regarded as a subject matter expert on ESG and Impact Investing.

Keith is an avid adventurer. He has traveled to Antarctica on three separate expeditions with “Sir” Robert Swan, culminating in January 2018 as a member of the South Pole Energy Challenge team; which was the first to go “green” to the South Pole physically pulling sleds to the Pole using only biofuel, solar, and wind-power as energy sources. He has summited Kilimanjaro twice in 2006 and 2014 and is an active member of the GoRuck endurance challenge community.