The story of the Siesta Valley Foundation begins with the Berkeley Shakespeare Festival, founded in 1974 as an offshoot of the Emeryville Shakespeare Company. In its early years, the Festival performed in Berkeley parks and community spaces, driven by a commitment to make Shakespeare accessible to Bay Area audiences.
Those roots in Berkeley gave Cal Shakes a strong cultural identity, but they also meant the company sometimes felt a step removed from the neighboring communities of Lafayette, Moraga, and Orinda, where its amphitheater would eventually take root. Indeed, today few local residents outside the theater world are familiar with Cal Shakes, and even fewer can find Siesta Valley on a map. The Siesta Valley Foundation aims to change that by returning to Cal Shakes’ original mission of making the performing arts more accessible to more audiences.
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In 1991, the Berkeley Shakespeare Festival built the Bruns Memorial Amphitheater in the oak-studded hills of Siesta Valley. This gave the company a permanent home in one of the East Bay’s most beautiful natural settings. For three decades, audiences experienced Shakespeare and other classics under the stars, a tradition that became central to a certain section of the Bay Area’s cultural life.
The Siesta Valley Foundation now honors that history while expanding its mission. By preserving the watershed, modernizing the amphitheater, and broadening programming to include music, film, dance, and education, we are writing the next chapter in the valley’s story.
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Campbell is the founder and chairman of the Siesta Valley Foundation. A Cornell University graduate with an MBA from NYU Stern School of Business, Campbell also co-founded Central Control, a data analytics company, and spent his career building and leading teams at some of technology's most innovative companies (Google, Adobe, and Autodesk) before channeling that entrepreneurial drive into work that integrates his personal investments and values in community, conservation, and the performing arts. His board service with the Look to the Water Foundation and the Billy Cunningham Memorial Foundation, which works to protect New Hampshire's Lake Sunapee, reflects a commitment to environmental stewardship. Campbell's love of live music also runs deep. His first concert was U2's Joshua Tree tour at Boston Garden.
Dr. Michael Marchetti is the Fletcher Jones Endowed Chair of Ecology at St. Mary's College of California, where he has spent more than 35 years studying aquatic ecosystems, conservation, invasion biology, and food web ecology. He holds a BSc in Biology and Chemistry from Bucknell University and an MSc and PhD in Ecology from UC Davis, and his research has taken him from California and Hawai'i to Mexico and New Zealand. Michael has authored numerous peer-reviewed publications and co-authored three textbooks. He has volunteered with Lafayette's City Council Creeks Committee and the Town Hall Theatre, bringing that same dedication to the local watersheds and performing arts communities that the Siesta Valley Foundation exists to serve. An avid music fan and aspiring guitarist, Michael traces his lifelong love of live performance to seeing Aerosmith, Joe Walsh, and the Hooters in Rochester in 1985.
Marguerite brings to Siesta Valley Foundation a rare combination of public governance experience, strategic vision, and lifelong commitments to environmental stewardship, climate resilience, democracy, and community impact. Marguerite earned a BS from UC Berkeley in Natural Resource Economics and studied landscape horticulture and design at Merritt College. She currently serves on the East Bay Municipal Utility District Board, where she has helped lead policy on water resilience, sustainability, and equity-centered infrastructure investment, including twice serving as Board President. Across a career spanning local, state, and national leadership, she has designed and led major issue, electoral, and accountability campaigns. For Marguerite, the blend of music, nature, courage, and human connection is part of what makes supporting Siesta Valley's re-emergence as a new outdoor performance venue for the Bay Area especially rewarding.
Lisa Mueller is an executive creative director in advertising with more than 20 years of experience helping organizations tell meaningful stories and connect with their audiences. A graduate of Syracuse University (BFA), she has worked across both the private sector and mission-driven organizations, including supporting the Charles Schwab Foundation's Moneywise America program focused on financial literacy. She also served on the board of the Orinda Park Pool Association, where she led community programming and produced events that brought neighbors together around a shared outdoor space. An Orinda resident, Lisa knows how special a place Siesta Valley is: her daughter once performed on that stage, and her family has spent many evenings there together watching performances when it was Cal Shakes. Her first concert was The Police, A Flock of Seagulls, and The Fixx.
Phil holds a B.A. from Indiana University and a J.D. from California Western School of Law and is admitted to practice in California. Phil is a senior executive in insurance and risk advisory, leading enterprise operations and growth strategies and advising companies across industries. He has built teams, launched new offices, and scaled client platforms, experience he brings to mission-driven work. He also serves on the board of Junior Achievement of Northern California. SVF's mission to restore a cultural venue while preserving open space for the diverse East Bay community deeply resonates with him. A lifelong live music fan, his first concert was The Lemonheads in Chicagoland, where he grew up.
100 California Shakespeare Theater Way Orinda, CA 94563
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