MEET THE TEAM
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Kevin Borough
FOUNDER & CEO
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Anna Borough
FOUNDER, Chief Marketing & Operating Officer
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Keaton Lockhart
FOUNDER, Chief Financial & Development Officer
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Cynthia Hiponia
Board Member
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Mary Dowling, Esq.
General Counsel
Kevin Borough
Kevin Borough serves as Chief Executive Officer of The Starting Grid Foundation. He brings with him 12 years of military leadership experience to the organization. In this position, Kevin oversees day-to-day operations and works with the executive team to set and implement the organization’s vision.
“Through my love and enthusiasm for motorsports, I have met talented, young athletes from various backgrounds who share the same passion for the sport as I do. These young athletes deserve the chance to compete on the world stage regardless of their family’s financial resources. We want our athletes to pursue their dreams of a career in motorsports and our organization’s dedicated team are committed to making those dreams a reality,” says Kevin. “I am honored to be a part of an organization with such an ambitious and unique mission, and my goal is to bring this mission to fruition with the help of our wonderful benefactors.”
Prior to joining The Starting Grid, Kevin was and remains an Active Duty service member, serving as a Navy helicopter pilot and Air Operations Officer. He has extensive experience in large scale operations management, team formation, and organizational leadership.
Kevin is a graduate of the United States Naval Academy and received his executive MBA from the Anderson School of Business at the University of California Los Angeles.
Anna Borough
Anna Borough serves as the Chief Marketing & Operating Officer at The Starting Grid Foundation. In her role, Anna oversees planning and coordination of events and fundraisers, manages brand innovation, digital content, social media, and the riders’ professional development curriculum.
Anna’s passion for motorsports racing began when she was a little girl with the AMA Superbike series. Her interests later expanded into WSBK, MotoGP, F1, NHRA, Indy car, and endurance racing. Though she never pursued any further involvement in motorsports outside of spectating, Anna’s desire to see American riders and women like her pursue a career in motorsports is the reason she co-founded The Starting Grid Foundation.
Anna’s vision for The Starting Grid Foundation is to expand into all motorsports and support individuals who want careers in any part of racing whether in the pits, behind the scenes, or in the driver’s seat.
Prior to launching The Starting Grid Foundation, Anna managed the operations of clinical trials with Duke University and FHI360. There she gained experience in managing regulated, large-scale projects across institutions. Anna also served as a research mentor for the North Carolina International Research Institute where she took part in teaching, mentoring, curriculum writing and academic program development.
In her personal life, Anna is a proud member of a 3 generation Navy family and served 2.5 years as a Peace Corps volunteer in Madagascar. The values of volunteer service, military service and community involvement are all endearments that contributed to Anna’s desire to start a non-profit.
Anna graduated from Duke University with a Master of Science in global health and San Diego State University with a Bachelor of Science in biology and international relations.
Keaton Lockhart
As Chief Development Officer of The Starting Grid Foundation, Keaton Lockhart is responsible for overseeing the financial stability, fundraising, and growth of the organization. This includes the development and execution of strategic and diversified plans to grow and manage significant fundraising efforts. He also assists in the promotion and protection of the organization’s mission, vision, and purpose.
Keaton currently works as a Territory Account Manager for Camfil. He prides himself in his ability to build relationships with clients and develop solutions that best fit their needs.
Keaton brings to the team his experience gained as a commissioned U.S. Navy Submarine Officer where he served in the engineering department on-board an Ohio Class Submarine. Keaton lead divisions of nuclear and auxiliary mechanics, and served as the Quality Assurance Officer. His final tour in the Navy was spent in Busan, South Korea serving on the staff of Commander, Naval Forces Korea, managing day-to-day operations and policy implementation.
Keaton is a graduate of the the United States Naval Academy and received his MBA from the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University.
Cynthia Hiponia
Cynthia is a board member of The Starting Grid Foundation and brings to the team her extensive knowledge and experience as an award-winning IPO and investor relations professional with over 20 years of Wall Street and capital markets experience. She has successfully created and managed dozens of public IR programs and led companies through various stages of growth, executive changes and transformational events. Her strong background in crisis communications, shareholder activism, and mergers and acquisition has enabled deep engagement with Board of Directors, C-suite, and key external constituents (shareholders, partners, customers). A former research analyst, her sell-side perspective provides invaluable insight to public companies in positioning their strategies to maximize investor outreach and expand shareholder value.
Cynthia has introduced the next generation of disruptive technology companies to Wall Street by guiding senior management teams through all aspects of the IPO process from banker selection, S-1 crafting and share allocation, to the development of public investor relations programs.
As a sell-side analyst on a top-ranked Institutional Investor team at Citigroup, Cynthia's sector coverage included Enterprise Systems, Software and Storage. Prior to that, she was part of the Biotechnology equity research team at Robertson Stephens. Cynthia began her career at Recombinant Capital, where she provided consulting services on strategic alliances to universities, biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies.
In 2014 Cynthia was chosen as the winner in the category "Best IR for an IPO in 2013 - IR Magazine" for her work on the Gigamon IPO.
Mary Dowling, Esq.
Ms. Dowling is the founder and Managing Attorney of Tovella Dowling, PC. Her practice focuses on providing counsel and guidance to tax exempt organization, donors, and entrepreneurs in the capacity of outside general counsel as they navigate the myriad legal issues facing modern tax-exempt entities and socially conscious businesses.
Her current nonprofit and tax-exempt clients include a wide variety of public charities, private foundations, and other nonprofit organizations—from scientific and research-based organization, journalism and local newsrooms, museums, religious and faith-based organizations, and social welfare organizations to sports-based organizations, business leagues, educational institutions, and social clubs. As a passionate advocate for her clients at all stages of the nonprofit life cycle, she places a particular emphasis on corporate compliance, governance and tax matters, under federal, state, and local tax laws, beginning with entity formation and applications for federal and state exemption, and including such issues as unrelated business income planning, compliance with public support tests, property tax exemption, nonprofit corporate governance, contract drafting and negotiation, fundraising compliance, corporate compliance, and joint ventures.
In addition to her representation of exempt organizations, Ms. Dowling represents social enterprises and other corporate clients in a wide variety of business pursuits and transactions, including business formation, contracts, mergers and acquisitions, dissolution, joint ventures, corporate compliance, and intellectual property.
Ms. Dowling also serves as a trusted advisor to professional and commercial fundraisers advising on the ever-changing regulatory compliance inherent in the fundraising sector, as well as, providing strategic and creative counsel with regard to business, tax and regulatory compliance structuring. Ms. Dowling instills creativity, passion and collaboration in her everyday practice and thrives on being an integral part of a her client’s growth.
From a litigation standpoint, Ms. Dowling has represented organizations, as well as donors, in various actions including labor and employment actions, governance and board disputes, enforcement of membership rights, wrongful removal and termination actions, breach of contract and misappropriation of charitable assets.
When not practicing law, Ms. Dowling enjoys mentoring local law students that are interested in pursuing careers in public interest, and transactional law and spending time with her husband and their two daughters.