Jan 6, 2025
Letter to Community Owners: Aurora Adds New Board Members
Dear Fellow Minnesota Aurora Community Owners,
If you joined Minnesota Women’s Soccer in 2021 during the first WeFunder campaign to start the club, you joined us because you believed in something special when women’s sports was just a novelty. 2024 clearly demonstrated that women’s sports are here to stay in Minnesota and the country.
The explosion of interest is incredible, but it is not without blood, sweat and tears. Anyone who has ever had to fight for something knows that with success, there are challenges, barriers and hard lessons. The board, staff and players have endured all of that over the past three years, but it has been worth it. Minnesota Aurora’s community is strong, and it is only getting stronger with almost 2000 new community owners!
When we joined the Minnesota Aurora FC board in 2022 to represent the first wave of 3080 community owners, it was not a task we took lightly. Our job was to carry forward your voices and to ensure the club honored its commitment to our promise of For Community, By Community.
For Community: We exist within a network of diverse and unique people. We bear a social responsibility to bring those people together, amplify their voices, and build this community together.
By Community: Our club is an assembly of people, each one playing a different and essential role. The players, fans, staff, and ownership work together to form its identity and carry its vision forward.
After two years of serving as your board representatives, we are proud of a few key accomplishments:
- Building better board structures, practices, and operations.
- Codifying our club’s principles.
- Making hard decisions that ultimately helped keep the integrity of our team, with a razor sharp focus on maintaining a wonderful team that makes us all proud.
- Submitting a strong NWSL pro-bid. Even though it did not pan out this round, our bid allowed us to lay the groundwork towards a bright future.
- Growing the club’s operations and impact through youth camps and Aurora 2.
- Keeping you all at the forefront of all decisions made by the board and staff.
Alongside the team’s founders, we have all been committed to building a team and culture where we can all be champions. In the words of soccer legend Mia Hamm, “The vision of a champion is bent over, drenched in sweat, at the point of exhaustion, when no one else is looking.”
That is a nice summary of the past two years, and we have you, our owners, the players, the staff, our board, and our fans to thank for embarking on this great journey that is Minnesota Aurora FC.
As we pass the torch to our new community elected board members Lizzie Breyer and Laura Bishop, along with new non-rotating board members Ida Kane and Irene Quarshie, we want to say how grateful we are to have been part of this special community. We know the future is bright for this team and for women’s soccer, and we have you to thank for believing in an idea hatched during Covid on a park bench between a few founders who knew Minnesota would embrace THIS team.
Thank you for entrusting us with this great privilege to serve as your representatives to amplify community owner voices, and for allowing us the opportunity to pass the baton for many more great seasons to come!
In service and with gratitude,
Mai-Anh Tran-Kapanke and Jamie Becker-Finn
MEET YOUR NEW 2025 BOARD MEMBERS:
Community Owner Representatives:
Lizzie Breyer (2 year term)
Lizzie Breyer Bowman is the senior vice president of growth and marketing at Lemonada Media, where she leads the marketing function for the full slate of more than 60 podcasts. Lemonada is a fast-growing, woman-led startup with the mission to make life suck less. Before joining Lemonada in October 2021, Lizzie served as a managing director of marketing at American Public Media / Minnesota Public Radio; worked as an independent marketing consultant, with clients ranging from large CPG companies to early-stage startups; and spent almost 8 years at General Mills in brand management and marketing. Lizzie also serves on the board of Minnestar, a nonprofit focused on building community and access for the Minnesota technology community, and was previously the board chair of No Kid Hungry Minneapolis. She holds an MBA from the University of Virginia and a BA in journalism and public policy from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She lives in St. Louis Park, MN, with her husband, Josh, and their rescue pitbull Indy.
Laura Bishop (1 year term)
Laura Bishop is an executive leader who has held both private and public sector leadership roles. She currently serves on the board of directors for two private European-based companies focused on climate technology and sustainability. She is also an adjunct professor at the University of Minnesota Humphrey School of Public Affairs and leads her own consulting firm, Purpose Strategies LLC. During Governor Walz’s first term, Laura was appointed the Commissioner of the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency where she also led the Governor’s Climate Change Subcabinet and helped shape climate strategy for the State of Minnesota. Prior to that, she served as the Chief Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability Officer at Best Buy. Laura’s executive experience and insights have shaped her unique perspective in formulating strategies that drive operational success and growth while protecting the planet.
Laura and her husband, Chuck Weber, live in Eden Prairie and have two adult daughters, Lydia and Mia. A lifelong Minnesotan and sports fan, Laura was a commissioner at the Minnesota Sports Facilities Authority for U.S. Bank Stadium for 2 years and she and her husband are long-time season ticket holders for Minnesota United FC as well as regulars at Aurora games.
Non Rotating Board Members in addition to Allie Schmidt (Chair), Wes Burdine and Andrea Yoch:
Irene Quarshie (she/her)
Irene Quarshie is Senior Vice President of Global Supply Chain and Logistics for Target Corporation. She is responsible for a multi-billion-dollar P&L and leads the indirect, reverse and third-party supply chains.
Previously, Irene was vice president of Product Safety and Quality Assurance where she led a global team responsible for private label manufacturing quality management. Throughout her 16 years at Target, she held numerous leadership positions including roles in Enterprise Risk Management, Government Affairs, Corporate Responsibility and Assets Protection. Prior to Target, Irene spent five years in strategy and management consulting with Booz Allen Hamilton.
Irene serves on the board of Fastenal, a publicly traded distributor of industrial solutions and services.
She is also on the board of the Executive Leadership Council.
Irene graduated from Adelphi University with a bachelor’s degree in political science. She also earned a master’s degree in public policy from American University.
Ida Kane (she/her)
Ida Kane has served as a member of the board of directors of Vimeo and Buildertrend since 2021. Prior to 2021, Ida served as the Chief Financial Officer of AppFolio, Inc. and as Chief Financial Officer of Rightscale, Inc. In addition to her for-profit affiliations, Ida has served as Treasurer and a board member for the Howard School in Carpinteria, California. In her free time, Ida enjoys running, most recently returned from a 90 mile run in the Italian Dolomites. When she isn’t running or serving on a board, Ida enjoys watching her kids play sports including her daughter Taylor, who has been a goalkeeper since Aurora’s inaugural season. Ida and her husband Jim can be found on game days at the top of section 103.
