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About our Founder

Lois Silverman has combined an entrepreneurial spirit with a nurturing nature as her life's work led her from hospital nursing to a successful startup business. Now, as founder and chair of The Commonwealth Institute, she is focused on helping other successful businesswomen grow their companies.

The birth of The Commonwealth Institute can be traced to the day when Silverman brought together 10 women of achievement in her living room. Each was already engaged in helping other women, and they decided to go forward in this work as a group.

Helping others is the common thread in the tapestry of Silverman's life. She was in nursing when she married, then stayed home for awhile after her two children were born. Eventually, she told her husband it was time to return to the work world, explaining, "If I can't create something good, I'll create havoc."

Silverman began teaching in a medical assistant program, then went to work for an insurance company managing the medical care of injured workers.

"I began to feel that there was something here I could do better," she recalls, so in 1978, she tapped into her savings to found CRA Managed Care, Inc. The firm's prime focus was coordinating managed care for injured workers as well as to assist with return to work. If they were no longer able to return to their previous jobs, CRA Managed Care would help them find alternate employment. Silverman's customers benefited through reduction of the costs of workers' compensation, automobile, disability and health insurance claims. Yet the injured parties also benefited as CRA Managed Care helped them find prompt and appropriate care. "We were able to make life incrementally better for them," she said.

The company grew rapidly. In 1990, when it opened 13 offices in California, Silverman's daughter asked her what she was going to do for the next 15 years. Her daughter's query prompted some soul searching, and Silverman, who had been CEO since 1988, began to develop an exit strategy. She sold part of the firm and went public in 1995 before stepping down as CEO. She continued to serve as chairman of the board from 1994 to 1997. The company is now known as Concentra Managed Care.

Because she is focused on health care and education, Silverman has concentrated her civic service in those areas. Among her many public and private memberships, she is a board member and former chair of Community Servings, a Boston-based program providing meals to people with AIDS. She also is a trustee of Beth Israel-Deaconess Medical Center.

Silverman's success in building an enterprise came at a time when women were still struggling for acceptance in the workplace. She believes that she and her Commonwealth Institute cohorts became early business leaders by tapping into their innate strengths. "Women generically are very intuitive and nurturing and used to juggling multitasks," said Silverman.

Through The Commonwealth Institute these women are offering the mentoring and networking that was absent in their early days in business. "Now we have the opportunity to share the knowledge we have gained over the course of our lives and to see others get the help that we didn't have," said Silverman.

Like any new enterprise, The Commonwealth Institute has made the transition from a startup to an organization with a broad base.

"We have a vision and a strategy for achieving that vision, in keeping with our own advice to others who are building a business," said Silverman. She sees The Commonwealth Institute expanding geographically and expanding its program offerings so that more businesswomen will have the opportunity to network, learn from one another and grow together.