Brooklyn Community Foundation is pleased to announce the election of two new members to our Board of Directors, Shaheen Rushd and Vishal Sheth:

• Shaheen Rushd was born in Chittagong, Pakistan (now Bangladesh), and came to the United States in 1970 when her father was stationed in Washington, D.C. as a diplomat. When her parents returned to the newly independent Bangladesh, Shaheen remained in the United States to complete high school and went on to attend Kalamazoo College in Michigan and New York Law School. For almost thirty years—twenty years as a partner—Shaheen practiced at Pomerantz Haudek Block Grossman and Gross (now Pomerantz LLP), a Manhattan law firm that specializes in securities litigation. Upon retirement, she became involved in local social justice organizations and in the Democratic Party, serving as an elected member of the Kings County Democratic County Committee.

She is on the board of directors of Sakhi for South Asian Women, and previously served on the board of trustees of Kalamazoo College; the board of directors of New York Appleseed; the Advisory Committee of Muslims in Brooklyn Project for the Brooklyn Historical Society (now Center for Brooklyn History); and the New York Advisory Committee for Human Rights Watch. She was a member of the inaugural Spark Prize Committee. Shaheen has lived in Brooklyn since 1981.

• Vishal Sheth is Partner and Co-Head of Global FIG at Apollo, with focus on financial services and insurance-related opportunities. Vishal is also a member of the Firm’s Leadership Team. He currently serves on the board of directors of Venerable Holdings and ACRA. Prior to joining Apollo in 2018, Vishal was Managing Director in the Financial Institutions Group at Barclays, and a corporate lawyer in the Financial Institutions Group at Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom before that.

Vishal is a graduate of the Stern School of Business at New York University and New York University School of Law, where he served as a Staff Editor on the Review of Law and Social Change. Vishal resides in Cobble Hill with his wife and two sons.