Arezu Ingle

Founder and CEO

AREZU INGLE founded New Lantern as a business innovation and management consulting firm in 2008. In the spring of 2020, the firm became New Lantern Partners, expanding into a public affairs, corporate social responsibility, and philanthropy consultancy.

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Arezu has over 25 years of experience in people management, change management, compensation program design, diversity, and innovation programs at some of the top global corporations and management consulting firms, including Thomson Reuters, Marriott Corporation, and Towers Perrin.

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At Thomson Reuters, she served as Senior Vice President for Change Management and Innovation, responsible for the design and implementation of the company’s innovation and executive compensation programs. In this role, she designed the company’s first-ever innovation social networking website, and introduced and managed off-site “Innovation Summits” to spur product/service/process creativity and increased cross-group collaboration.

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Arezu’s professional work has spanned numerous businesses involved in finance, information technology, commercial real estate, hospitality, health care, publishing, media and information services. She has worked extensively with corporate executive committee members and Boards of Directors.

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The daughter of an accomplished artist, Arezu is a long-time supporter and enthusiast of the arts, including the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York; the National Gallery of Art and The Phillips Collection in Washington, DC; and the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) in Georgia. Arezu also loves gardening and is a certified Master Gardener through Virginia Tech.

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Arezu is a University of Pennsylvania Wharton School executive program fellow and served on its advisory board. She has her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Indiana University.

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Ed Ingle

President

ED INGLE has 30 years of public affairs and public policy experience in high-stakes environments--including senior positions for Microsoft, WPP, and the White House.

Ed left Microsoft in September 2019 after spending 16 years managing the company’s government affairs engagement with the Executive Branch, Congress, Governors, State Attorneys General, and local leaders. His success at Microsoft drew from all aspects of corporate affairs: public policy, communication, corporate social responsibility, and philanthropy – all in close partnership with the company’s senior management team and business group leaders. As General Manager, Ed also served as the company's senior political affairs advisor, PAC Treasurer, and its corporate compliance and governance lead. In these roles, he helped Microsoft achieve the highest ratings among Fortune 500 companies for transparency and accountability related to government advocacy and political spending.

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Ed is regarded as a leading public affairs expert, authoring the “Government Relations” chapter for a best-selling corporate communication textbook, Reputation Management (Routledge). As an adjunct professor at New York University, he taught a government affairs course for NYU’s graduate corporate communication program from 2007 to 2013, named as the top such program in the country. And, for the last 12 years, he has served as a guest lecturer on corporate government affairs for American University’s Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies, which has been covered by C-SPAN.

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During President George W. Bush’s first term in office, Ed served as Deputy Assistant to the President and Deputy Cabinet Secretary at the White House, coordinating policy and communications between the White House and senior Cabinet officials. Ed was serving in this capacity on 9/11/01, when he helped coordinate the 50-agency response in the days and weeks that followed. Prior to the White House, Ed served as a Senior Vice President and Principal for Washington, DC’s longest-running bipartisan government relations firm of Wexler and Walker, owned by the top international public affairs and communications firm, WPP plc.

Throughout his career, Ed has been recognized as a leader with high integrity, evidenced by his membership and Chairmanship of the Board of Governors for the Bryce Harlow Foundation, comprised of some of the top government affairs professionals in Washington, DC. Ed was selected by his peers to serve and lead BHF, whose mission is to promote the highest ethical standards for the profession.

Ed currently serves as a Senior Advisor for Poligage, a global online marketplace that launched in May 2020, which provides a gateway to top public policy and government engagement experts from Washington DC, state capitals, and around the world. Ed is also a Member of K Street Capital, a DC-area angel investor network comprised of individuals who have worked in the highest levels of government, media, technology, and finance. He has a Master of Public Affairs from Indiana University, and a B.S. in Communication from the University of Tennessee. He lives in McLean, VA, and is a passionate advocate for STEM education, rural prosperity, and ending Alzheimer's.

Yvonne Thomas

Strategic Partner, Philanthropy

YVONNE THOMAS is the Founder and Principal of Proximity. Proximity  helps companies and individuals give with confidence by finding the intersection between their interests, values and philanthropic goals, and the needs and interests of the issues, causes and communities they care about.

Having spent more than two decades working in and across philanthropy, communities, nonprofit organizations, and the private and public sector, Proximity is centered in the most important learnings Yvonne has gained in working with people and communities throughout the U.S. and around the world. That is, you can only truly be a good partner when you get close and develop an understanding of the issues, causes and communities you care about and then determine how you can uniquely make an impact.

Well-traveled and well-versed in a range of issues and causes, Yvonne has worked with people and organizations across every corner of the globe. She has deep expertise in corporate philanthropy, strategy, program design, relationship and partnership management and capacity building. She has a unique ability to bring together diverse stakeholders, solicit input, and design strategies, partnerships and programs that are authentic, clear, responsive to the needs of the community and deliver results that create meaningful impact with measurable outcomes. 

Respected as a leader in philanthropy, Yvonne was recently named Executive Director of the Generosity Commission, created jointly by the Giving Institute and the Giving USA, which aims to “ignite America’s spirit of generosity” through increase giving, volunteering, and civic engagement. Yvonne has served on the boards of The World Bank Solutions for Youth Employment Initiative, the Computer Science Teachers Association (CSTA) and the Central Area Community Festival. She currently serves as an advisory member of the King County Play Equity Coalition.

Prior to launching Proximity, Yvonne spent nineteen years in a variety of roles within Microsoft Philanthropies. Most recently, she was the director of global programs, leading Microsoft’s Digital Skills and Computer Science Education efforts. She was responsible for global strategy, programs and partnerships in more than 40 countries. Throughout her work at Microsoft, she developed and led high-impact, global and national initiatives and teams spanning a range of issues areas.

Before joining Microsoft, she worked in the nonprofit sector with a focus on youth development.

Yvonne lives in the Seattle area with her family.

Ruth Ravitz Smith

Strategic Partner, Public Affairs

RUTH SMITH, Founder and President of RR Smith Strategic Solutions (R2S3), has three decades of experience in helping leading companies and organizations position for success across a range of industries. 

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An accomplished government relations professional, Ruth expanded her experience into marketing and communications in recent years, rounding out her experience in public affairs. Ruth also has extensive experience developing leaders, serving as a mentor and coach. 

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​Known for her business and political acumen and her extensive network, Ruth established R2S3 in early 2019 and is assisting organizations with "strategic positioning," getting in front of the right audiences and telling the right stories to ensure business success. In her first year in business, she was a finalist in the WILMA Magazine "Women to Watch" Awards in the business category. 

Ruth served as the interim director of the Wilmington Chamber of Commerce Leadership Wilmington program, sharing her experience in leadership development with the next generation of community leaders. She is a business mentor at the University of North Carolina Wilmington (UNCW) Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE), a founding member of the Creative Economy group meeting at the CIE, and a mentor and guest lecturer in the UNCW Cameron School of Business. Ruth is also the Founder and President of the Honor Flight of the Cape Fear Area (NC).

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Prior to relocating to North Carolina, Ruth served in senior global and federal government relations roles for companies including GE Oil & Gas, GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy, Alstom, The Travelers, Northeast Utilities (now Eversource Energy), and the Aerospace Industries Association. She also represented organizations such as Toyota North America, Harley-Davidson Financial Services, the International Drilling Contractors Association, the American Society for Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE), Destination Imagination, and the National Association of Ordinance Contractors. 

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Ruth's government service includes serving as the Chief Communications Officer for New Hanover County, N.C., running the State of Connecticut's Washington, DC office, and serving as a Congressional staffer in the U.S. House of Representatives and a paid intern in the Office of the U.S. Senate Majority Leader.  

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Ruth earned a B.A. from Hood College, a M.B.A. from Marymount University and holds a certification to Teach English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL).

Scott Sechser

Director of Innovation Programs