Bios
Barbara B. Schoenfeld - Managing Director
Barbara has over 25 years of senior-level financial experience in traditional and alternative investments. She’s well versed in nearly every functional area having held positions in legal, product development, operations, and marketing.
Barbara spent seven years at Brown Brothers Harriman in alternative investment product development and distribution for hedge funds of funds, private equity funds of funds and institutional and high net worth investment services. From 1993 to 1999, Barbara was Deputy Treasurer/General Counsel for the State of Rhode Island Treasury, in which capacity she staffed the oversight of the $6 billion public employees’ retirement fund, involving supervision of search and selection of asset managers for domestic and international equity, fixed income, and alternative investments. Barbara also directed legal matters for the State Treasury and the State Investment Commission.
Barbara practiced law for 11 years with the firms of Edwards & Angell and Ropes & Gray. She has handled mergers and acquisitions, syndications, financings and other corporate matters. She earned a BA with honors and masters degrees from the University of Pennsylvania, and a law degree from Boston University. Her leadership positions include: the Steering Committee of the Cherrystone Angel Group, the New York Steering Committee of the Women’s Association of Venture and Equity (WAVE), the Innovation Providence Implementation Council and Trinity Repertory Company. Former Board Memberships include: The Wheeler School, Bradford Dunn Institute and Times2 Academy.
Affiliates
Thomas W. Nugent - Capital Raising, Private Equity and Hedge Funds
Mr. Nugent is President of Nugent & Company in New York, a specialized placement agency to raise capital for private equity funds and hedge funds. He has worked with U.S., European, and Asian investors, corporate clients and hedge funds with regard to acquisitions, financial strategy, marketing, organization, and related issues. He was Senior Advisor to Mitsubishi Bank’s Mergers & Acquisitions Division, and worked in M&A and corporate finance at Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. and Wood Gundy, Inc.
Mr. Nugent leads the Harvard Business Roundtable in New York and is also President of the Russia Society. He serves on boards of several not-for-profit and international organizations. Mr. Nugent holds the Series 7 and Series 63 securities licenses, and speaks French, German, and Russian. Harvard College (A.B., Chemistry), Wharton School (M.B.A., Finance).
Elaine Berke – Executive Coaching, Senior Management Teams, Change Management, Onboarding
Ms. Berke, President of EBI Consulting, Inc. (www.ebiconsult.com) and JobSmartz (www.jobsmartz.net), works with executives and newly hired, promoted or fast track individuals to assist them in making successful transitions. Executive coaching projects include assisting in remedial situations to address and improve performance, replacement situations to transition an underperforming founder or owner out of an operational capacity and into a more suitable role, and executive coaching to bring added focus and expertise to enterprise growth.
EBI has worked with over 300 clients from major service industries. Clients have included Harvard Business School, Dunkin' Donuts/Baskin Robbins, Meridien and Langham Hotels, Amica Insurance, and companies in the health care, technology, financial services and consumer products industries.
Ms. Berke has contributed to, or has been interviewed or quoted in USA Today, Inc., Executive Matters, Sales and Marketing Management, Mastercard Podcast, Fortune, Society for Human Resources Management, and Boston Business Journal. She has an MBA from University of Massachusetts and an undergraduate degree from Boston University. She is on the Board of the RI Philharmonic, the Board of Governors of the Miriam Hospital, and has been a Visiting Scholar at Brown University.
Jill Padwa – Business Development Strategy, Organizational Network Collaboration
Jill is co-founder and President of Traverse Corporation, the creator of the Relationship Value Index (RVI). The RVI solution includes a ground-breaking approach to knowledge collaboration that helps employees get to the right person faster by using their informal networks. The technology enables companies to build and effectively use organizational networks. Since 2001, Jill has worked with an extensive network of executives, helping them derive value from their business relationships. As a subject matter expert, she brings new and innovative ways to improving the performance of organization networks.
Prior to founding Traverse Corporation, Jill led the launch of a start-up technology firm and positioned the company for a successful merger. From 1997-1999, Jill was VP of sales operations for Gartner and served as the Director of the healthcare industry. She successfully led the company into new markets and achieved significant market penetration. From 1979-1997 while at Hewlett Packard, Jill held a number of senior leadership roles in the computer and medical device businesses. She began her career as a computer scientist developing HP display technology products.
