Darren Manelski leads New Social Ventures, which provides capital, management support and strategic planning to socially and environmentally conscious companies. Mr. Manelski graduated SEAS (Columbia University) in 1990 with a B.S. in Computer Science. He has done extensive consulting work for American Express and MasterCard International software development.
He has worked with many Fortune 500 companies in the development of database management programs and the automation of internal processes. Mr. Manelski has founded several companies: Lawnet, Inc., a provider of bankruptcy management software; Legaltech, Inc., a nationwide legal document retrieval company; and Speedpay, Inc., an electronic payment solutions company. Collectively, these became known as the E Commerce Group. The payment solutions division, Speedpay, has been considered the largest provider of phone and internet payment solutions to utilities, credit card issuers and mortgage lenders.
After selling E Commerce Group to First Data Corporation in 2002, Mr. Manelski became President of the Electronic Payments Group of Western Union (then a First Data subsidiary) and a Senior Vice President of First Data Corporation. While working with First Data Corporation, Mr. Manelski continued to manage the business he founded along with other First Data/Western Union business interests. Currently, Mr. Manelski is a partner in several businesses in the New York area and is involved in a variety of personal and philanthropic interests in developing countries. He is also on the Board of Directors of Village Care of New York.