About Us - Yesler Partners

Our Founder

David Hobbet – A Trusted Partner to Mission-Driven Leaders

David supports mission-driven organizations and leaders to reach their full potential.

As an Associate Partner in McKinsey and Company’s social sector practice, David led growth strategy, new program design, and organizational change efforts that transformed clients for greater impact across higher education, philanthropy, and the public sector.

As Executive Director for The Veritas Forum, a global social venture serving university students and faculty across ten countries, David led a mature non-profit into a new era of innovation, growth, and impact grounded in a long-term systems change strategy.

David earned an MBA with honors from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and a bachelor's degree in Political Science from Duke University.

David lives in Seattle, Washington with his wife, Kimberly Shin, and their two daughters. Kimberly is also a proven social sector executive who most recently served as a Managing Director for FSG, leading their workforce development efforts, and was a 2022-23 Aspen Institute Job Quality Fellow.

A Trusted Partner to Mission-Driven Leaders

The Principles Behind Our Work

Doing good in the world is hard. Delivering on your mission is hard. Doing it sustainably and at your organization’s full potential is even harder. These principles can help. They are eight core beliefs that ground and inform our client work.

Safeguard the mission, continually improve the method.

One endures, the other adapts.

It’s about improving real life for real people.

Change happens at the level of real people, making real decisions, and taking real action. Design for them, by name.

We not me.

Shared vision and ownership breeds movements. Invite others in from the start.

Ambition matters.

People rally for something significantly greater than themselves. Help them find that.

An evidence-based theory of change.

It’s not just jargon. The clearer you are on why your strategy for change is likely to work, ideally grounded in peer-reviewed evidence, the greater your likelihood of actually making real life better for real people.

Execution over ideas.

Rigorous execution trumps novel ideas every time.

Measure what matters.

We measure what we care about so that we can make it better.

Without love, it’s only noise.

Genuine love for real people is what allows the work to endure.

Testimonials

From Our Partners

Working with David Hobbet gave our team the clarity, alignment, and momentum that we needed—when we most needed it. He brought decades of leadership and organizational experience to the table—but more importantly, he applied that experience with humility and precision to our unique problems and potential. We’ve been so impressed with David’s results that we continue to work with him to tackle our high-priority challenges and opportunities.

Kara Powell, PhD

Chief of Leadership Formation at Fuller Seminary

I worked extensively with David to refresh the strategy for the Gates Foundation’s Inclusive Financial Systems team. David helped our team identify clear, measurable goals, design a series of mutually-reinforcing interventions to advance those goals, and establish a team org structure to design and implement those interventions. Throughout the process, David displayed tremendous creativity, strategic acumen, and diplomatic finesse. The strategy was enthusiastically approved by foundation leadership and was widely recognized across the organization as an exemplar of a clear, well-designed strategy. I would recommend David and his team without hesitation.

Daniel Radcliffe

Deputy Director, Program Advocacy and Communications – The Gates Foundation

David is an invaluable consulting partner for our work at Pinetops Foundation. We work with David to help address the biggest opportunities and questions facing our foundation. His proven social sector leadership and strategic, data-driven support has helped shape Pinetop’s investment approach and impact across multiple program areas.

Joshua Crossman

CEO & board member – the Pinetops Foundation

David is an insightful and thoughtful leader who is equally adept at analyzing enrollment analytics and honoring the distinctive mission of a faith-based institution. He understands the trends facing higher education, cares deeply about actual impact, and brings integrity and purpose to all of his client work.

Erin Hoffmann Harding

Vice President for Strategy and Legal Affairs and Chief of Staff, Saint Mary's College
Former Expert Associate Partner, McKinsey & Company
Former Vice President for Student Affairs, University of Notre Dame

We worked with David on a key strategic pillar of our work, and he was a fantastic partner—clear in his thinking, deeply professional, and highly attuned to our goals. His ability to bring structure and insight to complex questions made a real difference. I’d work with him again without hesitation.

John Cunningham

Director, Public Engagement – The John Templeton Foundation

Working with David Hobbet fundamentally reshaped how I think about strategy and impact. He brings the rare ability to listen deeply, ask the right question at the right time, and gently steer conversations toward clarity and alignment. What began as an exploratory conversation quickly became the foundation for an entirely new framework, one that now shapes how we define success, allocate resources, and measure outcomes across our initiatives. David is not just smart (he is); he’s also wise, collaborative, and deeply invested in helping leaders do work that matters.

Kimberly Thornbury

VP of Programs and Partnerships – M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust

Our needs required a unicorn with experience in higher education, non-profit leadership, product management, and strategic planning--all bundled together with the highest levels of personal integrity and professional drive. David has fit the bill, and then some! We hoped he would help us take two or three significant steps forward in our most complex and highest-potential initiatives, and he quickly helped us take four or five sustainable steps. I highly recommend David for any organization or leader seeking to take the next step toward full potential.

Jake Mulder

Executive Director, FULLER Equip
Senior Advisor, TENx10 Collaboration and Fuller Youth Institute

Working with David is a gift. He’s a creative problem solver who challenges assumptions with clarity and care. He listens deeply, and brings both imagination and trustworthiness to every conversation.

Bethany Jenkins

Vice President of Media – The Veritas Forum

David is a deeply-trusted partner for the Pinetops Foundation. He understands the real-world realities of investing for positive social change and his humble, listening-first approach brings clarity to our work.

Anne Crossman

board member – the Pinetops Foundation

Two Decades of Social Sector Leadership

A Trusted Partner to Mission-Driven Leaders

The Principles Behind Our Work

From Our Partners

Reach out to get increased clarity and conviction for your mission, team, and work