The Support Center is pleased to announce the addition of three new board members -- Matt O'Dell, Dr. Jeffrey Robinson and Zeeshan Razzaqui. Their addition to the board coincides with the departures of Kevin Foley and Casey Castaneda from the board. Welcome Matt, Jeff and Zeeshan and thank you so much, Kevin and Casey, for your service!

Matt O'Dell is a Partner with Condon O’Meara McGinty & Donnelly LLP. He is a member of the New York State Society of Certified Public Accountants (NYSSCPA) and is also certified in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. He is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA). Matt has over 18 years experience with not-for-profit organizations, including public charities, schools, private foundations, associations and social clubs. He presently serves on the board of a not-for-profit organization and has spoken, and assisted with speeches, on both the national and local levels of the Hospitality Financial and Technology Professionals Association. Matt earned a Bachelor of Business Administration from Pace University. 

Zeeshan Razzaqui leads the institutional client service effort within Strategic Client Services in Goldman Sachs Asset Management.   In this role, he works with Institutional Sales, Portfolio Management and key leaders in the Federation to enhance client experience and optimize the execution of client service activities. Zeeshan is co-chair of the Separate Account and Advisory Subcommittee. Previously, he was the chief operating officer of the US Institutional and Global Insurance businesses. Zeeshan first joined Goldman Sachs in 2001 as an analyst. He rejoined the firm in 2006 after spending three years at Bank of America in a business development and strategy role. Zeeshan was named managing director in 2015.  Zeeshan earned a BS in Industrial and Labor Relations from Cornell University in 2001. 

Dr. Jeffrey A. Robinson, Ph.D. is an award winning business school professor, international speaker and entrepreneur.  Since 2008, he has been a leading faculty member at Rutgers Business School where he is an associate professor of management and entrepreneurship and the Academic Director of The Center for Urban Entrepreneurship & Economic Development.   He is the coauthor along with Dr. Randal Pinkett of Black Faces in White Places: 10 Game-Changing Strategies to Achieve Success and Find Greatness. Through his research, business ownership and community activities he directly impacts entrepreneurship and economic development policy and practice in the state of New Jersey and beyond. In 2007, he was selected as the recipient of the Aspen Institute’s Social Impact Faculty Pioneer Award for his research, service and teaching activities at the intersection of entrepreneurship and society.  At Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, Jeff completed a Bachelor of Arts in Urban Studies at Rutgers College and a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering at Rutgers College of Engineering. He has a Master of Science in Civil Engineering Management from Georgia Institute of Technology and an M. Phil. and a Ph.D. in Management and Organizations at Columbia University's Graduate School of Business.

The Support Center recently held its first of two Interim Executive Director Trainings for 2017 at the LGBT Community Center in the West Village neighborhood of Manhattan.  Twenty-one participants gathered on the last Thursday and Friday of February for two long and intense – but rewarding – days of learning with a cohort of like-minded leaders looking to pursue interim executive opportunities.  They hailed from the NY/NJ/CT metropolitan area, the Hudson Valley, greater Philadelphia, and even Detroit, MI.  The training was led by Keith Timko, Executive Director, and Lynne Molnar, an Affiliate Consultant.  The purpose of the training is to help nonprofit leaders transform their wisdom and knowledge into a highly adaptive, interim-oriented mind- and skillset. Those who complete the training and are actively pursuing interim opportunities join the Support Center pool of Trained Interim EDs, which now totals more than 300 program alumni.

During the training, participants learned a great deal from several featured presenters who are all experienced interim leaders themselves.  Helene Blieberg spoke about the essential aspects of leading and managing an organization and its people during times of transition.  Regina Podhorin’s presentation focused on the importance of a conducting a rigorous financial assessment during an interim placement.  As one participant remarked later, “The wealth of information and experience of the participants and the presenters provided a rich environment.”  The participants also heard from Xander Subashi, Associate Director of Programs, and Keith Timko about Support Center’s process of landing interim opportunities and working with the pool of candidates. They learned about the stages of the process with current examples of placed interims, searches in-contract, and opportunities nearing contract execution that will soon be available to them.

The two-day training wrapped up with a panel discussion on interim work overall: the challenges, the rewards, and all the experiences in between.  Our panelists were Ngozi Okaro, Gilles Mesrobian, and Richard Burns, and in total they have served in more than 10 interim engagements.  The panelists shared candidly and expansively as participants asked about their best and worst experiences, how they have handled challenging legal situations, their methods of adapting quickly to new, unique office cultures.  One participant said as feedback on this section: “The panel was outstanding!”  Another participant later wrote about the overall training, “I found the Interim ED training to be very meaningful…all the components in the Interim ED training left me with solid insights and lessons learned.”  

We at the Support Center are delighted to have welcomed such a great and talented cohort to our pool of Trained Interim EDs, and we are excited to involve them in our interim placement service and support them as interim leaders and contributors to the nonprofit sector.  For more information about our interim executive director program and future trainings, click here.

The Steve Fund was established in 2014 to honor the memory of Stephen (Steve) C. Rose. Steve lost his life to mental illness after graduating from Harvard College and completing a Masters degree at City University.  The devastating loss of their son and brother inspired the Rose family to create the nation’s only organization focused on supporting the mental health and emotional well-being of college students of color.  The Steve Fund works in partnership with colleges and universities, the clinical and research community, and the public health and nonprofit communities to stimulate dialogue; design high impact technology-based services; build knowledge and thought leadership; and promote awareness as students of color enter, matriculate in, and transition from higher education.

Since its inception, The Steve Fund has built a strong reputation in the mental health and academic community.  They captured the attention of key funders including the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Ford Foundation, The Knight Foundation and several others in that league. Their website is a rich compilation of research, resources and roadmaps for understanding the troubling state of mental health and emotional well-being for students of color in higher education settings.  Some of the factors that pose a high risk for mental health issues include cultural under-representation on college campuses; perceived and experienced racial discrimination; microaggressions; and stressful transitions from home to campus.  The consequences of these current trends are emotional, physical and academic, and they are creating demand and raising expectations for the higher education community to get engaged and strengthen their counseling service models.

In late 2016 the board decided it was time to appoint a full-time leader to take the organization to the next level.  The Support Center was selected to lead a national search for the first Executive Director, and we were poised to leverage our expertise in Executive Search and Transition Management in support of The Steve Fund’s work.

This assignment, although standard for our practice in many ways, was also a bit nuanced.  Throughout the process we balanced several factors: The Steve Fund is a startup organization and the first of its kind; the board was seeking an experienced leader who also had specialized mental health expertise; the appointed Executive Director would be the board’s first full-time hire and and an immediate partner to a range of researchers, consultants and funders; and, finally, the board considered the ideal candidate to be someone who possessed both the stature and social capital to engage high profile national leaders and the humility and empathy to connect with students whose lives and well-being are at the heart of The Steve Fund’s mission.

To find the person best suited for and most passionate about the position, we cast a wide net across traditional recruiting sources, online platforms, and in numerous search outlets specific to the mental and public health communities. The response was immediate and substantial both in volume and quality, yielding over 100 applicants.  The field of candidates gradually narrowed as we juggled the dynamics of a national, virtual search with candidates and a search committee scattered across the country.  Once a final slate of candidates emerged, we assisted in crafting and negotiating the terms and conditions of the job offer.  From that final slate, the board then made an outstanding selection of a candidate whose background, professional experience, skills and personal passions are tailored exactly to this position. 

Dr. Terri Wright, of the American Public Health Association, will become the first Executive Director of The Steve Fund.  She brings extensive leadership skills and expertise in advancing the public’s health through policy, practice and management in government, philanthropic and nonprofit organizations. Her vast experience includes maternal, child and adolescent health, environmental public health and population health. Dr. Wright is driven by a vision for health and social equity for all members of society, and she will boldly lead The Steve Fund to a greater level of excellence.  

As we begin to plan the onboarding process, we are now reflecting on and capturing the many key lessons we gained in order to strengthen our ESTM practice and fulfill our own mission to accelerate positive social change.

To learn more about our executive search and transition management services, please click here.