02:00 PM - 03:15 PM (Pacific)
03:00 PM - 04:15 PM (Mountain)
04:00 PM - 05:15 PM (Central)
05:00 PM - 06:15 PM (Eastern)

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Overview

Are you thinking about serving on a corporate board, but aren’t sure how to begin the process? Have you already started your board journey, but would like to be more effective in your efforts? Or is becoming a director something you’d like to pursue in the future, but want to know what you can start doing now that will be helpful?

Join FEI NYC and the Private Directors Association NY Metro Chapter on March 24th for a panel discussion that will bring varying perspectives on the board search process.

Learn about key skills/expertise public and private companies seek from finance professionals when filling board positions. Hear from those who’ve successfully landed a board seat, as well as those involved in board search, about how to best market yourself and initiate a board search.

Thank you to our National and Gold Chapter Sponsors!

Speakers

Herb Chain, MBA CPA Independent Director and  Audit Committee Member The RENN Fund, Infusive US Trust, FRMO Corp., Qiarant

Mary Francia Partner H.I. Executive Consulting

Mary Francia is a Strategy & Talent expert. She brings  25 years as an industry leader in Telecom, Consumer Electronics, Media, and Healthcare sectors to Executive and Board Recruitment. She is a partner at H.I. Executive Consulting (HIEC), a leading global executive search firm focused on hiring Board, CEO, and Senior-level executives globally. Mary enjoys disrupting the traditional approach to executive search by leveraging her technology industry knowledge, market hindsight, and foresight skills to identify talent and help clients hire transformational leaders. Her recruitment focus is Professional Services, Digital and Technology, and Board Practice.

Mary was a Management Consultant in digital transformation and innovation. In her corporate roles, she was Vice President, Strategic Partner at NOKIA,  tackling strategic issues identified by the Board in the product portfolio, talent, and supply chain. At Royal Philips, she was globally responsible for business innovation, creating new revenues and market channels for connected entertainment and healthcare devices.   
 
Mary is an Italian American born in Peru and fluent in English, Spanish, French, and Portuguese. She has an MBA in International Business and Certifications in International Corporate Governance, ESG, and DEI.

Alyssa Gelbard Founder & CEO Point Road Group

Alyssa Gelbard is the Founder and CEO of Point Road Group, a unique branding firm that helps companies make powerful brand impressions through their people.
 
Leading a talented team that advises diverse companies, executives, and board directors, Alyssa is passionate about strategically helping companies and people make better brand impressions to drive business and career success. She is an expert and speaker on personal branding, LinkedIn, communications, executive presence, and marketing yourself for a board seat.
 
Alyssa’s unique perspective on branding stems from a background in strategic marketing and communications, where she held leadership roles in the biomedical research, technology and sports & entertainment industries.
 
An experienced Board Director, Alyssa serves on the Advisory Boards of Peterra Kitchen and the Graduate Sports Management Program at Endicott College. She sits on the Board of Directors of the Financial Executives International (NY Chapter) and is Career Management Chair, and serves on the Executive Committee of the NY Chapter of the Private Directors Association and is Membership Chair.
 
Alyssa is an elected member of the Tufts University Alumni Council where she serves on the Strategic Planning Committee and is past Chair of the Career Services Committee. She also co-chairs the Tufts Women's Network in New York.
 
Alyssa has an MBA in Marketing from NYU Stern School of Business, a BA in Sociology from Tufts University, and holds a Certificate in Private Company Governance from the Private Directors Association.

Nicole Sandford Board Services Leader Ellig Group

Nicole Sandford spent nearly three decades at Deloitte in a variety of technical and leadership roles. She was the audit partner for numerous public companies before founding Deloitte’s Center for Board Effectiveness and its board diversity initiatives. Nicole has advised the boards and executive teams of dozens of companies – including many of the largest global banks – on governance, crisis response, and regulatory risk management and remediation. In her last role, she was the managing partner of Deloitte’s regulatory and operational risk practice during a period of strategic transformation. 

In 2020, Nicole joined the Ellig Group as its Global Board Services Leader.  In this role, she leads board placements and advises boards and senior executives on matters related to governance, particularly those related to board composition, competency, and diversity.  

Nicole is a frequent speaker on governance, risk management, culture, and leading practices for boards and board committees. She has received numerous awards including the Millstein Center’s “Rising Stars of Corporate Governance” and The International Alliance for Women’s “World of Vision” Award. 

Nicole serves on the board of Aspira Women’s Health (Nasdaq: AWH) where she is a member of the audit and nominating and corporate governance committees. She is the Chair of Girl Scouts of Connecticut, board member of the Stamford Public Education Foundation (SPEF), and Emeritus Member of the Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance at the University of Delaware Advisory Board.  She has a NACD/CERT certificate in cybersecurity risk oversight from Carnegie Mellon University. 

Nicole is passionate about helping people with cancer as a volunteer driver for the American Cancer Society’s “Road to Recovery” program and as the patient advocate/representative on the Greenwich Hospital Breast Center Accreditation Leadership Committee. She lives in Connecticut and Western New York with her husband and three children.

Christine Zhao Strategic CFO/COO Global Executive in Financial Services & Corporate VCPE Investor Board Director

Christine Y. Zhao, Chief Financial Officer of Tiedemann Advisors, an independent investment and wealth management platform for high-net-worth families and institutions. She is Director & CFO of Edoc Acquisition Corp (Nasdaq: ADOC), a healthcare-focused Special Purpose Acquisition Company (“SPAC”), Director & Audit Committee Chair of D&Z Media Acquisition Corp.(NYSE: DNZ), a media and ed tech-focused SPAC, and Board member of Jaguar Global Growth Corp I (Nasdaq: JGGC), a prop tech-focused SPAC. She is also Chair of Governance and Nomination Committee of publicly listed biopharma company BeyondSpring Inc.(Nasdaq: BYSI) and a Board member of fintech SaaS company Urban FT. Previously she served as Chief Financial Officer for two large PE-backed growth-stage companies, including Best Inc., a pre-IPO logistics technology company with major investors including Alibaba, Softbank, among other large PE funds, which later priced its initial public offering at over $3 billion valuation (NYSE: BEST). Prior to this, she was a Managing Director in Bank of America Merrill Lynch and an Executive Director in JPMorgan, where she held senior positions in HQ and global corporate and investment banking units, across a broad spectrum of functional areas including Treasury, liquidity products, capital management, risk management and regional CFO/COO in transaction banking and corporate banking units. She also worked at American Express in various capacities including corporate strategic planning and venture investing in payment solution space. Early in her career, she worked in investment banking at Goldman Sachs and in corporate finance/corporate development at FedEx. She has worked in New York, London, Singapore, Hong Kong, and China, and has managed teams across four continents.

A Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA), Christine holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a B.S. in Economics with distinction from Fudan University in Shanghai, China. She is a Board member of several non-profit organizations, including Volunteers of America - Greater New York, founded in 1896 and one of America's largest faith-based social service organizations with over $100mm budget, the Chinese Finance Association (TCFA) with over 7,000 members worldwide, and Asian Pacific American Advocates (OCA) Westchester & Hudson Valley Chapter. She’s also a founding Board member of the American Chinese Unite Care (ACUC), a charity coalition of 159 community organizations which raised $5.8mm funds and PPEs for the tri-state area medical workers and first-responders in Covid-19 relief between March-May 2020.

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