From 2005 through 2014, Barbara Berke served as an advisor to Mayor Menino and his cabinet on the Mayor’s cross-organizational agenda and initiatives.   She has worked on a broad spectrum of issues ranging from eliminating achievement gaps and health disparities to creating jobs, workforce housing and new sources of revenue for the City.   She has assisted the Mayor with goal setting, performance management and cabinet development and has worked closely with cabinet members and department heads to support them in leading transformative change.

Previously Ms. Berke served Governor Romney as a member of his cabinet.  Appointed in 2003 as the Secretary of Economic Development, Barbara oversaw the Mass. Office of International Trade and Investment, the Mass. Office of Business Development, the Mass, Office of Travel and Tourism, the State Office of Minority and Women Business Assistance, the Office of Small Business and Entrepreneurship and the Office of Industry and Technology Competitiveness. Prior to joining Governor Romney’s administration, Ms. Berke was a partner and Vice President of The Boston Consulting Group (BCG), a global strategy consulting firm. Since leaving state government, Barbara has continued her work on economic development with the Initiative for a Competitive Inner City.  She was an active participant with the Health Care for All, the ACT!! Coalition, and the Greater Boston Interfaith Organization in making the case for healthcare reform in Massachusetts.  She also serves on the Advisory Board of Northeastern University’s School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs.

Barbara lives in Brookline, MA with her husband, two children of her own and a “Lost Boy” from South Sudan.

Chris Casgar is a Partner in the consumer practice at Webster.  Mr. Casgar joined Webster in 2017 and brings extensive investing and operating experience in early-stage and middle-market companies in the consumer products and technology sectors.

Prior to Webster, Mr. Casgar spent seven years at LCatterton where he was a managing director and member of the North American growth fund. During his tenure at LCatterton, Mr. Casgar served on the boards of of Zarbee’s, Plum Organics, Advanced Bio Development, Naya Waters, Beanitos, Antenna 79, 360fly and Getaway. Prior to LCatterton, Mr. Casgar was vice president at Ahold, a leading global retailer, where he had roles spanning global technology strategy and business transformation. Prior to Ahold, Mr. Casgar worked at a number of Boston-based consulting firms focusing on global assignments in supply chain, retail, finance, manufacturing and business process optimization.

Mr. Casgar was educated at Cornell University and the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, where he was a Palmer Scholar.

John Chory is a corporate partner in the Boston and Waltham offices of Latham & Watkins and a global Co-chair of the Emerging Companies Practice. His practice focuses on the representation of technology and life sciences companies from startup through IPO. Mr. Chory advises both private and public companies in areas which include early-stage company formation and strategy, public offerings of securities, and mergers and acquisitions . Mr. Chory has been recognized as a Massachusetts leader in the Private Equity: Venture Capital Investment field in the 2005 through 2015 editions of Chambers USA, where clients describe him as a “superb all-around counselor who acts as a strategic advisor” and “exceedingly well-regarded.” A Massachusetts leader in the Capital Markets field in the 2015 edition of Chambers USA. He is praised for his ability to “understand complexities and help simplify them and be creative in the process beyond legal matters.”

John received his undergraduate degree from the US Military Academy, and hold an MBA from Golden Gate University and a JD from Harvard University. He resides in Weston.

Christopher Farrington is a Managing Director in the Boston office of Pavilion Alternatives Group and a member of the firm’s North America Investment Committee. Mr. Farrington is responsible for providing a broad range of alternative investment advisory services to institutional clients globally and serves as the lead consultant on several U.S. client accounts. In addition to his client service responsibilities, Mr. Farrington leads Pavilion’s emerging manager advisory activities and assists with European manager research.

Prior to joining Pavilion, Mr. Farrington worked as a Partner at Centinela Capital Partners, an emerging manager-focused firm, where he was responsible for sourcing and evaluating private equity fund and co-investment opportunities. Prior thereto, Mr. Farrington managed the domestic Private Equity investment program at Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. and also worked in Leveraged Finance at CIBC World Markets and Fleet Bank after beginning his career as an Analyst at Merrill Lynch & Co.

Mr. Farrington received a B.A. in Economics from Duke University and a MIA with a concentration in International Finance from Columbia University. He resides in Wayland with his wife Lyudmila and son Aaron.

Judge Garinger has spent her career advocating for children and young people, particularly those involved with the Commonwealth’s child-serving agencies.  From September 2015 – September 2017, she led the Child & Youth Protection Unit in the Office of the Attorney General.  From 2008-2015, she served as the Commonwealth’s first Child Advocate. For thirteen years prior to that she served as a juvenile court judge, the last eight as first justice of the Middlesex county division.  Judge Garinger previously was in private practice, specializing in child welfare and health law, after acting as general counsel at Children’s Hospital Boston and directing an NIMH-funded child abuse and neglect research project at the Judge Baker Guidance Center. She has served on several supreme judicial court committees, including the Commission on Juvenile Justice and the Court Management Advisory Board.  She is a graduate of Harvard Law School and Indiana University and received an honorary doctor of humane letters degree from Western New England College.  She resides in Newton with her husband and has three adult children.

Rita Germán is Director, Community Investments at John Hancock. In this role, Rita oversees John Hancock’s Community Investment and Grants program, where she manages the company’s national grants portfolio and external engagement work. She has been with John Hancock for 6 years and began her tenure leading their national employee engagement program.

Prior to joining John Hancock, Rita spent 5 years as Development Director with United Way Massachusetts Bay, managing the Private Equity, Venture Capital & Hedge Fund donor group. In her role Rita managed a portfolio of donors within the PE/VC segment, raising $5.3 million annually, and was responsible for all solicitation, stewardship, programming, marketing and events, budgets, business planning implementation and analysis. Prior to United Way, Rita worked in Public Relations at several organizations and firms including Bloomingdales, Cone Communications, Solomon McCown & Co. and Porter Novelli.

Rita is a graduate of Boston University’s College of Communication. She also serves on the Boards for Mind Matter Boston, The Community Builders, United Way’s Community Investment Council and the Mayor of Boston’s Women’s Workforce Council. She is the immediate past Co-Chair of WGBH’s Community Advisory Board – Boston’s PBS affiliate station. Rita previously served 10 years on the YWCA Boston Board of Director’s Executive committee.

Eric Groves is the co-founder and CEO of Alignable. Prior to Alignable, Eric worked with Constant Contact serving as the SVP of Corporate Strategy, Development & Innovation.  Eric has more than 16 years of senior level experience in sales, business development, marketing, and Internet strategy. Prior to Constant Contact, he held senior positions with AltaVista, iAtlas, InfoUSA, MFS Communications, SBC Communications, and Citigroup.

Eric has been a featured speaker on a variety of topics including The Power of Relationships (educating small businesses on building relationships, customer loyalty, and boosting sales with email marketing).  He sits on the Boards of LogoWorks (acquired by Hewlett Packard) uTest (www.utest.com) and Hubcast (www.hubcast.com).  Eric holds a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from Grinnell College and a Master’s degree in Business Administration from the University of Iowa. He resides in Acton.

Overseeing all of Bar Mezzana’s Business Operations, including finance, accounting, legal, marketing, public relations, and human resources, Partner Jefferson Macklin was previously the President and Chief Operating Officer of Barbara Lynch Gruppo for eight years. He graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point with a BS in Engineering and soon after graduation served as an Airborne and Ranger-qualified Combat Engineer Platoon Leader in the 101st Airborne Division in Desert Storm, receiving the Bronze Star for his actions.

In 1995, Jefferson received his MBA from the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business. While earning his MBA, Jefferson was also able to pursue his love for music with a job as an Atlantic Records college representative. Upon graduation, Jefferson moved to Boston and began working as a management consultant at Gemini Consulting. Subsequently, he served as Chief Operations Officer at two venture-backed start-ups: first at Rock.com and then later at DMOD (Digital Media On Demand). Jefferson then made the decision to dedicate himself full-time to music, where for three years he was a band manager of various indie rock bands signed to both indie and major labels.

In 2007, Jefferson merged his background of managing artists with developing and growing start-up organizations and signed on to become Chef Barbara Lynch’s Chief Operating Officer of her growing company. Jefferson played an integral role in expanding the Gruppo from four entities and 90 employees to a $20M company of eight unique culinary concepts and over 250 employees. In recognition of his leadership and vision, Jefferson was promoted to President & Chief Operating Officer in 2012. With Jefferson leading the Gruppo in this role, Chef Barbara Lynch was awarded “Outstanding Restaurateur” by the James Beard Foundation in 2014.

Ms. March, whose career focused on health care policy and research, has had a long-time interest in at-risk children and youth. From 2012 to 2013, she served as a Fellow at the Office of the Child Advocate examining new models for transition planning for foster youth. Prior to that, she was executive director of Children’s HealthWatch, a pediatric research and policy center at Boston Medical Center. Earlier in her career, Ms. March was deputy director of Partnerships for Quality Education, a national medical education program funded by The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and assistant to the president of Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

She currently serves on the board of the Epiphany School, is a member of Social Venture Partners, and serves as a court-appointed special advocate. Elizabeth received her undergraduate degree from the University of Virginia and a Masters in City Planning from MIT. She resides in Boston.

As Managing Director of Global Business Development, Mike McCullough helps lead GE’s portfolio strategy, capital allocation, mergers & acquisitions, dispositions, joint ventures, and equity investments across the company.  He previously led Finance and Government Relations for GE Aviation’s Lynn site, one of the largest manufacturing facilities in Massachusetts, and was the Operations Leader of GE Honda Aero Engines, a joint venture established to power air taxis and business jets.

Mike is a graduate of GE’s Corporate Audit Staff, Operations Management Leadership Program and is a certified Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt.  He has a B.S. in Engineering from Boston University, where he was a Harold C. Case Scholar, and an MBA from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He resides in Wellesley.

Jodi Rosenbaum piloted More Than Words as an online bookselling venture with several teenage boys in foster care in 2004, and then worked with the youth to grow More Than Words into a vibrant retail and online bookstore, marketplace, event space, national training ground, and a platform for youth to radically transform their lives.

Jodi has over 16 years’ experience with youth in the juvenile justice and public school systems and served as a Teach For America fellow.   She serves on the state-wide Advisory Council of the Massachusetts Department of Children and Families and the MA chapter of the Social Enterprise Alliance.  She was selected as the Advocate of the Year by the MA Providers’ Council in 2009, The Rising Star by Germaine Lawrence in 2010, and received the Next Generation Award by the Social Enterprise Alliance in 2010. She received a political science degree with a focus on juvenile justice policy from Emory University and a master’s in education in risk and prevention from Harvard.  She resides in Waltham.

Jim is a private investor, now retired from the financial industry; he most recently was a founding partner of Numeric Investors, a Boston institutional money manager. He served as the appointed member of the Belmont Retirement Board as well as advised several private companies. In addition to his experience in business, Jim has volunteered and mentored with several youth development organizations in Boston and currently is a member of the Harvard Institute for Learning in Retirement. He resides in Belmont and is a proud grandfather.

Mark Touhey serves as Senior Vice President, Corporate Secretary and Chief of Staff to the CEO. Additionally, his responsibilities include corporate strategy and research and corporate philanthropy. From 2011 through 2015 Mark was responsible for global total rewards for Liberty Mutual. Prior to that he served in a broad range of business operations roles that included General Manager of Risk Control Services, General Manager of Middle Atlantic Division, President of Helmsman Insurance Agency as well as Director of Corporate Finance. Mark joined Liberty Mutual Insurance in 1994 after spending the early part of his career in public accounting.

He currently serves on the Board of The Partnership, Inc., a Boston-based organization that offers leadership development programs for multicultural talent. He received a Bachelor’s of Business Administration degree from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.