Dane Barata: Team Rubicon's Marine-Veteran CFO

From Jakarta to the Marine Corps

Born in Jakarta, Barata immigrated to the United States with his family at age 10 and became a naturalized citizen by 17. Soon after, he enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps, serving as a sergeant during the Desert Storm era. He has said he entered the Marines both to serve and to find direction, drawn to service-oriented work from a young age.

A Business Career

After the Marine Corps, Barata built a roughly 25-year career in the private sector that ranged from startups to multinational corporations. He spent significant time at Warner Bros. Entertainment, rising to finance director for Canada and Mexico, and later held senior finance roles elsewhere before moving into the nonprofit world. He holds an MBA from UCLA, and his international corporate experience proved relevant to Team Rubicon’s own expansion beyond U.S. borders.

CFO of Team Rubicon

Barata became Team Rubicon’s chief financial officer in November 2018. In that role he oversees the organization’s fiscal planning, reporting, analysis, and strategy, advising the CEO and board of directors on financial matters. Colleagues credit his disciplined approach with helping the finance function keep pace with, rather than slow, Team Rubicon’s operational growth, and with positioning the organization to navigate the financial turbulence of the COVID-19 pandemic. In simple terms, his job is to make sure every donated dollar is tracked and stretched as far as the mission requires.

Barata has described himself as a servant leader who empowers his team, a posture that earned him recognition as a finalist for nonprofit chief financial officer of the year. Under his stewardship, Team Rubicon’s finance operation has supported expansion into new domestic regions and international deployments while maintaining the internal controls that large institutional donors increasingly expect.

The Organization He Helps Run

Founded in 2010 by U.S. Marines Jake Wood and William McNulty, Team Rubicon mobilizes military veterans to respond to disasters and humanitarian crises. The Los Angeles-based organization fields more than 180,000 volunteers, known as Greyshirts, and has grown into one of the country’s most visible veteran-led humanitarian groups, with an annual budget in the tens of millions of dollars.

Analysis

Barata’s role illustrates a reality of the modern nonprofit sector: mission-driven organizations live or die on financial discipline as much as on volunteer enthusiasm. A rapidly scaling charity that mishandles its books risks the donor trust on which it depends. Barata’s combination of corporate finance experience and military service places him squarely within Team Rubicon’s identity as a veteran-led enterprise.

Conclusion

From a Marine sergeant to a corporate finance executive to the steward of a fast-growing humanitarian organization’s finances, Barata’s career tracks the unlikely paths that veterans bring into the nonprofit world — and the back-office discipline that keeps frontline missions running.

Key Takeaways

Dane Barata has been chief financial officer of Team Rubicon since November 2018.
Born in Jakarta, he immigrated to the U.S. at 10, was naturalized at 17, and served as a U.S. Marine Corps sergeant in the Desert Storm era.
He spent about 25 years in business, including senior finance roles at Warner Bros., and holds an MBA from UCLA.
Barata oversees Team Rubicon’s financial planning and helped the organization navigate the COVID-19 pandemic.
Team Rubicon, founded in 2010, fields more than 180,000 volunteers for disaster response worldwide.

Sources

Team Rubicon — Leadership and Board: https://teamrubiconusa.org/about-us/leadership-and-board/
Team Rubicon — Marine Corps Sergeant turned Team Rubicon CFO: https://teamrubiconusa.org/news-and-stories/aapi-leader-dana-barata-cfo/
Los Angeles Business Journal — 2023 CFO Finalists: https://labusinessjournal.com/business-journal-events/2023-cfo-finalists/