Board of Directors

Founding Chair
The Commonwealth Institute

Mrs. Silverman’s professional career has spanned over 30 years in business where she is most well recognized as one of the first women in Massachusetts to take a company public. In 1988, she founded CRA Managed Care (now Concentra Managed Care), a provider of services to reduce the costs of workers’ compensation, automobile, disability and health insurance claims.

Chair
The Commonwealth Institute

Pamela Reeve is Chair of The Commonwealth Institute, working with women CEOs, entrepreneurs and business leaders to help them grow their businesses and their careers.  She is the former CEO of Lightbridge, Inc. a company she ran from start up in 1989, took public in 1996, and ran for 15 years.

Vice Chair and Chair Elect
The Commonwealth Institute

Jennifer Potter-Brotman leads the Human Resources Practice in the United States. She is also a member of the firm’s Corporate Officers Practice and Business and Professional Services Practice and has client relationships across a broad spectrum of industries, including professional services, not-for-profits and both service and manufacturing related entities. Based in Boston, she focuses primarily on recruiting corporate officers and key executives for industries in her area of interest.

Deborah Besemer was most recently the CEO of Gemvara, an e-commerce designer jewelry company. Previously she was the President and CEO of BrassRing, a leading provider of talent management solutions. Under her leadership, revenues grew consistently, from $1 million in revenue to $40 million until she oversaw the sale of the company to Kenexa Corp. for $115 million.

Vistaprint

Wendy Cebula joined Vistaprint in October, 2000 and currently is in the role of management coach. Prior to assuming her current role, Wendy held the position of chief operating officer where she was responsible for overseeing Vistaprint’s North American, European and JANZ business units as well as global capabilities, manufacturing strategy and marketing planning and integration.

HouseWorks

For the past 20 years, Andrea Cohen has been a leader in eldercare business development, transforming the way private-pay services are delivered through a series of successful, widely replicated ventures. Throughout her career, her driving vision has been to create a society where seniors can age in place by developing innovative home care options and supporting family caregivers.

Nobles Crawford & Partners

Barbara has extensive global corporate, entrepreneurial, and not-for-profit leadership experience in P&L management, strategic business consulting, organizational transformation, leadership/management development, executive coaching, and integrated talent management, as consultant and business executive in domestic and multinational companies. She is currently Assistant Secretary of Human Resources in the Massachusetts Executive Office of Energy & Environmental Affairs.

Merrill Lynch Wealth Management

Diane Davis is a Vice President with Merrill Lynch and one of an elite group of financial advisors with a Certified Financial Planner (CFP) designation, a Certified Investment Manager Analyst (CIMA) designation, and the additional Merrill Lynch certification of Wealth Management Advisor.

Children’s Hospital Boston

As president and Chief Operating Officer of Children’s Hospital Boston, Sandra L. Fenwick leads the nation’s foremost independent pediatric hospital and the world’s leading center of pediatric medical and health research. Ms. Fenwick has been a driving force to improve the effectiveness and efficacy of the care provided at Children’s while at the same time reducing the costs of care.

The AVCAR Group. Ltd.

Carol R. Goldberg is President of The AVCAR Group, Ltd., a private investment and consulting firm, which she founded in 1990 with her husband, Avram, after a thirty year career with The Stop & Shop Companies. Prior to founding AVCAR, she was the President and COO of Stop & Shop.

Posternak Blankstein & Lund, LLP

Lauren is the firm’s Immediate-Past Managing Partner and a member of the Corporate Practice Group. She is engaged in a general business practice, with particular focus on structuring of strategic relationships, mergers and acquisitions, entity formation and planning, and contracts, including both transactional and ongoing company representation.

Linda Kanner is a serial entrepreneur and advisor to CEOs of early-stage, high-growth companies. She is a founding partner of The Orchard Group, which operates as a turnkey advisory board to early-stage technology companies. Most recently she was CEO of HBN Shoe, a venture-funded footwear technology company. Prior to that, she was involved in two venture-funded Internet companies, first as CEO of First Business Financial (now OneCore.com) and then as COO of edu.com, which she co-founded in 1998 with her son, raising $40 million and growing the company to 125 people before it was sold.

Millwood Management Solutions, Inc.

Karen Kupferberg joined Axeda in December 2004 and was responsible for all of the company’s financial, accounting, and legal functions in addition to managing investor relations, information systems and procurement activities. Prior to joining Axeda, Ms. Kupferberg served as President of Millwood Management Solutions, an independent professional services practice consulting to top management of small/mid-size companies, with a focus on the assessment and improvement of business operations.

Irma, Inc.

Irma Fisher Mann, recognized as a leading marketing expert in the travel and hospitality industry, is the founder of IRMA, Inc., a marketing communication and consulting firm specializing on both hospitality and education. She previously formed ISM Strategic Marketing, which she developed into the largest woman-owned marketing agency in New England, before selling the firm in 1999.

Marx+

Barbara Marx is Principal in Marx+, a marketing consultancy that specializes in positioning, branding and messaging. Over the course of her career she has been engaged by emerging growth companies as well as industry leaders such as AT&T, Digital Equipment and Lotus Development/IBM.

The WAGE Project, Inc.

Evelyn Murphy is President of The WAGE Project, Inc., a national organization to end wage discrimination against working women, and author of Getting Even: Why Women Don’t Get Paid Like Men and What To Do About It, published by Simon & Schuster in October 2005. She is Chair of the Board of Directors of SBLI USA Mutual Life Insurance Company and a Director of Citizens Energy Corporation.

Founding TCI Board Member

Linda Paresky is an entrepreneur, educator and leader of women’s initiatives. A pioneer in the travel industry, Linda Paresky has profoundly impacted the business of travel. In 1965 she co-founded Crimson Travel in Cambridge, MA and, through internal growth and mergers, became co-chairman and owner of Thomas Cook Travel, USA, the third largest travel agency in the country.

June Rokoff is a Founding Member and Vice Chair of the Board of Directors of The Commonwealth Institute, an organization dedicated to helping women CEO’s, entrepreneurs and senior corporate executives build successful companies. Rokoff has recently been a consultant specializing in coaching high technology management.

Sapers & Wallack

Aviva E. Sapers is the CEO of Sapers & Wallack, a third-generation insurance, benefits and investment management firm. Integrity is at the root of the family business, which was founded by Aviva’s grandfather, Abraham Sapers, in 1932.

Edgewater

Shirley Singleton is the Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Edgewater. She co-founded the company in 1992 with her partner, David Clancey.

Solomon McCown & Company

Helene is the founder & CEO of Solomon McCown and is widely recognized for bringing an entrepreneurial spirit and keen sense of strategic thinking to the definition, recognition and protection of mission-focused organizations and businesses.

Susan Lewis Solomont lives in Madrid, Spain with her husband Alan D. Solomont, United States Ambassador to Spain and Andorra. Prior to moving to Madrid in January 2010, Ms. Solomont was a Senior Philanthropic Advisor at The Philanthropic Initiative (TPI) in Boston, Massachusetts, a not-for-profit consulting firm that advises individuals, family foundations and corporations on how to design philanthropy programs that create meaning and impact.  Ms. Solomont’s work focused on creating entrepreneurial and strategic approaches to private philanthropy working with numerous corporate and private family foundations.

Phyllis Swersky is President of The MelTech Group, which provides a broad range of business advisory services to the CEOs and executive management teams of growing companies. Phyllis draws on two decades of hands-on executive management and financial experience in computer software and service companies, including a pioneering role in the meteoric growth of Cullinet software.