Our Purpose

Who We Help & Scope

P2B pursues opportunities broadly across the needs spectrum. Except for religious or political causes, there is no limitation on what disciplines, subject areas, geographical regions, or needs can be considered. We define vulnerable populations to include children; the elderly and the infirm; people facing physical or mental challenges; and those facing hardship due to poverty, abuse, violence, or lack of access to education. We support vulnerable environments — waters, atmosphere, and lands under threat, and the species that depend on them.

Not every good idea needs P2B’s help, and not every need has a ready innovation. We focus where the two truly connect: high-impact initiatives capable of growing to serve more people, in more places, over time.

Our Story

For over sixty years, life has been generous to me, and it’s provided the pathways to reach where I am today. Founding Pathways to Betterment is a way of giving back — not just by writing checks, but by putting decades of business-development experience to work connecting innovation to the people and places that need it most.

The idea itself isn’t new. What I believe is different is the planning and execution behind it: applying the same discipline used to identify, evaluate, and stand up new ventures in the for-profit world to the work of finding and supporting initiatives that help vulnerable populations and vulnerable environments.

Give back greater to create possibilities and pathways for social and environmental impact at scale. — Dave Saginaw, Founder

Leadership

P2B is led by a founding Board of three directors. As P2B grows, additional Board seats and advisory positions are offered to early supporters who contribute funding and help connect P2B to new initiatives and donors.

David Saginaw

Director, President, Treasurer

David Saginaw brings more than 40 years of international business development experience to Pathways to Betterment. With advanced degrees in engineering and business administration from the University of Michigan he also taught applied shipping economics, shipping and ship production. He built a career spanning shipbuilding, ship repair and commercial and operational vessel management before founding and leading a business advisory, consulting, and project management firm for over 25 years. His work centered on strategic planning, early-stage opportunity analysis, and project execution for clients across the maritime industry. During this time he was responsible for implementing numerous business initiatives and projects and stood up several profit and non-profit entities. He founded Pathways to Betterment in 2026 to apply that same discipline and experience to projects with social and environmental impact at scale.

Ioannis Ekatos

Director

Yanni Ekatos is a maritime analyst, who approaches every assignment like a story, with the view that it needs to be understood, simplified and then shared for it to hold full value. This core belief stems from his education earning a bachelor’s degree from the School of Journalism at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. Always curious, he worked in a number of media before moving to Houston, Texas to pursue an MBA at the University of Houston. Texas remained his home for a decade, where he held various positions, from marketing at a local software startup, to market analysis for a multinational corporation. Yanni landed in the maritime sector almost by accident, but this revealed an entirely new world of fascinating people, parts and connections, ready to be explored. He worked for five years as a fuels trader and later a credit analyst. Moving back to his homeland, Greece, Yanni launched his own analysis and consulting group, establishing himself in a role as market analyst and data wrangler for McQuilling Services, an international business advisory and logistics firm which has been his playground for the last 7 years. From the press to the ports, the common denominator remains the almost compulsive search for knowledge, understanding and the joyful pain of working meticulously to put everything together into one, compelling story.

Michael McGinniss

Director, Secretary

Mike McGinniss brings more than 35 years of enterprise application solution development and executive management experience to Pathways to Betterment. His career spans multiple industries including music, publishing, and broadcasting, as well as higher education, where he supported Southern New Hampshire University, the largest online university in the United States. His work centered on large-scale technology initiatives across front- and back-office applications, with a focus on seamless integration, process optimization, digital transformation, and scalable solutions that support organizational growth. Throughout this time, he bridged the gap between technology and business needs, helping organizations get the most from their IT investments while maintaining operational excellence. He holds bachelor’s degrees in physics from the State University of New York and electrical engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology, a master’s degree in systems engineering from the NYU Tandon School of Engineering, and an MBA from Hofstra University. He serves as a Director and Secretary of Pathways to Betterment, leveraging a systems-oriented approach to the development of scalable solutions establishing connections between innovation and need.