Bridgestar - An Initiative of the Bridgespan Group

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• Jeff Bradach

  Managing Partner and Co-Founder, The Bridgespan Group

  Over the past five years, Bridgespan Group co-founder and managing partner Jeff Bradach has guided the development of the organization, its knowledge strategy, and the Bridgestar initiative, which seeks to increase the flow of talented leaders into and within the nonprofit sector.
  
  In this role, Jeff works personally on a variety of nonprofit client and foundation engagements, focusing on issues of strategy and scale. He also writes, teaches and speaks extensively on topics relating to nonprofit strategy, business planning, and philanthropy. He is the author of “Going to Scale: The Challenge of Replicating Social Programs,” (Stanford Social Innovation Review premiere issue, Spring 2003); most recently, he and Bridgespan partner William Foster co-authored “Should Nonprofits Seek Profits?”, which appeared in the Harvard Business Review (February 2005).
  
  Before joining Tom Tierney and Paul Carttar to establish the Bridgespan Group, Jeff served for seven years on the faculty of the Harvard Business School, where he was a member of the Organizational Behavior area and the Social Enterprise Initiative. His research focused on the strategy and organization of multi-site enterprises, human resource practices in the new economy, and nonprofit strategy.
  
  While at Harvard he assisted in the design and delivery of two executive education courses: “Strategic Giving,” designed to help philanthropists develop high-impact strategies for giving; and “Strategic Perspectives on Nonprofit Management,” which emphasizes issues of strategy and organization for nonprofits.
  
  Jeff’s earlier publications include the book Franchise Organizations (Harvard Business School Publishing, 1997) and numerous articles and cases on new economy human resources policies, strategic alignment, and going to scale in the nonprofit sector.
  
  He began his career at Bain & Company, working as a consultant until he left to pursue advanced degrees. He received his BA from Stanford University, where he was elected Phi Beta Kappa, and his MA in sociology and PhD in organizational behavior from Harvard University.

• Lindsay Coleman

  Associate Director of Marketing and Communications

  Lindsay Coleman joined the Bridgespan Group, and the Bridgestar team, in 2002. She began her career in Human Resources in the recruitment division of a financial services company in Boston. Prior to joining Bridgestar she worked as the project coordinator for the Boston office of an international change management consultancy.
  
  Lindsay served on the board of directors and executive committee of the Friday Night Supper Program, a soup kitchen in Boston, for five years.
  
  Lindsay holds a BA in Communications from Wake Forest University where she was awarded the Presidential Scholarship for Fine Art.

• Shannon Dunn

  Principal Software Engineer

  Shannon joined the Bridgespan Group, and the Bridgestar team, in 2003. Prior to Bridgespan, Shannon worked as a software engineer and project leader at Microsoft in their .NET Framework development platform. Shannon created projects that tested and demonstrated the abilities of this emerging development platform. Shannon also aided in the development of user documentation and the creation of programs and processes that helped aid the development team's efficiency. While at Microsoft, Shannon was the author of "Microsoft Visual J++ Developer's Workshop" for Microsoft Press and was a frequent speaker at software development conferences around the world.
  
  Prior to working at Microsoft, Shannon worked as a project manager and software developer at Lockheed Martin creating prototype and functional applications for NASA, the U.S. Air Force and Army. There, he developed three dimensional navigation displays and navigation tracking programs for planes and the next generation of space shuttles. Shannon has worked in a variety of companies as a project leader and software engineer for small and medium sized businesses. Outside of working for some of the world's leading software institutions, Shannon has been a teacher of school aged children and continuing education students in the world of software engineering.

• Charles Lee

  Technology Systems Manager

  Charles Lee joined the Bridgespan Group, and the Bridgestar team, in 2004. Prior to Bridgespan, Charles worked as the network operations support specialist for the Boston office of Bain & Company. He received his MDiv from Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary and his BS from Duke University where he majored in Biology and English and was an Angier B. Duke Scholar.
  
  Charles has been involved in a range of Korean-American ministries for which he has served as English Ministry leader and Youth Pastor. His responsibilities have included leading worship, preaching, teaching Sunday School classes for children and youth, overseeing Sunday School teacher and curriculum development, and developing the vision and strategy for the ministries.

• Dennis Moran

  IT Training and Application Specialist

  Dennis Moran joined the Bridgespan Group, and the Bridgestar team, in 2008 from Medical Information Technology, Inc. At Meditech, he worked as an applications specialist in the Implementation group. He was responsible for implementing financial and human resource software to hospitals around the United States.
  
  Dennis holds a BA in Business Management from Assumption College.

• Cris Peterson

  Chief Technology Officer

  Cris Peterson joined the Bridgespan Group, and the Bridgestar team, in 2003. Prior to Bridgespan, Cris was founder and CEO of Cardinal Group, a software development and technology strategy consulting firm. Cardinal Group's project highlights included Internet banking applications for Baybank, web administration systems for the Harvard Business School, online content development and publication system for the Social Science Research Network and systems providing customized investment scenarios for brokers at Putnam Investments.
  
  Prior to Cardinal Group, Cris served as chief informationofficer for EF Education, the world's largest private provider of language education and cultural exchange. There, he developed the technology organization into a global network of offices and delivered a number of mission critical systems throughout the US, Europe and Asia. Previously, Cris worked as a senior systems engineer for Apple Computer where he managed strategic client projects for business and university accounts such as Liberty Mutual, LL Bean, Polaroid, Bank of Boston, Raytheon, and Harvard Business School.
  
  Cris is a graduate of the University of Colorado where he received a BS in Computer Science and Economics.

• Katie Sheehan

  Executive Assistant

  Katie Sheehan joined the Bridgespan Group, and the Bridgestar team, in 2008 from Pioneer Investments, an investment management firm in Boston, where she interned with the strategic marketing department.
  
  Katie received her BS in Marketing from Suffolk University.

• David Simms

  Bridgespan Partner and Head of Bridgestar

  David Simms joined the Bridgespan Group as a partner and head of Bridgestar in 2002. Bridgestar’s mission is to increase the flow of passionate and highly skilled senior leaders into and within nonprofit organizations focusing in particular on management-centric and bridger-friendly positions including: EDs, COOs, CFOs, and the heads of marketing, planning and HR.
  
  David joined the Bridgespan Group from MBNA America where he was a senior executive vice president responsible for growing new businesses within what at the time was the world's largest independent credit card company.
  
  In 1988, he did his first "bridge" out of the private sector when, after five years at Bain and Company, he was selected as a White House Fellow. Subsequently, he "bridged" back to the private sector and ran his own marketing-consulting firm before becoming CEO/COO of the Red Cross Blood Services Region in Washington/Baltimore.
  
  David has served on the board of directors of Opportunity International-U.S. for almost twenty years, as well as the Opportunity International Global Network board for the last five years. He chaired the U.S. board from 2000-03; formerly served as a trustee and currently is an advisory board member of the University of Pennsylvania; is an elder at Church of the Saviour in Wayne, PA, and a member of the board of directors of the Harvard Business School Club of Philadelphia.
  
  David holds a JD from Harvard Law School and an MBA from Harvard Business School where he graduated with distinction. As an undergraduate, he earned a BS in Economics from the Wharton School at the University Pennsylvania and a Bachelor of Applied Science from Penn’s School of Engineering and Applied Science. He graduated from Penn summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa.

• Thomas J. Tierney

  Chairman and Co-founder - The Bridgespan Group

  Tom Tierney is a recognized leader in serving the nonprofit sector. In 1999, he co-founded the Bridgespan Group, an independent, nonprofit organization designed to provide professional services to philanthropists, foundations and other nonprofits. During 2000, he stepped down as Bain & Company's chief executive to concentrate on Bridgespan-related activities. In 2003, he led the development of Bridgestar, an initiative of the Bridgespan Group dedicated to enhancing and increasing leadership talent for the nonprofit sector.
  
  Tom frequently speaks and writes on a variety of topics related to nonprofit leadership and philanthropy. He lectures at Harvard Business School and the Stanford University Graduate School of Business and chairs the Harvard Business School Initiative on Social Enterprise. He has contributed to numerous case studies and publications, including The Harvard Business Review and the Stanford Social Innovation Review. He also contributed chapters to the Leader to Leader Institute's Leader of the Future and Indiana University Press's Taking Philanthropy Seriously and has been featured in articles on philanthropy in the New York Times and the Financial Times. He has been profiled in various publications, including Learning from the CEO and Finishing Well. He also co-authored a popular book about organization and strategy titled, Aligning the Stars, which was published in April 2002 by Harvard Business School Press. In 2009, Tom was named as one of the Nonprofit Times Power and Influence Top 50.
  
  Tom joined Bain & Company in 1980 following graduation from Harvard Business School, where he received his MBA with distinction. He was promoted to partner after three years and from 1987 to 1992 served as the managing director of Bain's San Francisco office. In 1992, he became Bain's chief executive. During the 1990s, under his leadership, Bain & Company grew its revenues six-fold, while significantly expanding its international operations.
  
  A native of California, he received his BA in Economics with highest distinction from the University of California at Davis, where he was honored as that year's most outstanding graduate. He served as a field engineer for Bechtel International in North Africa before entering business school.
  
  Tom is a director of eBay, Incorporated and also serves on a number of nonprofit boards and advisory groups, including National Board of The Nature Conservancy, The Hoover Institution, and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. He is a past director of many other nonprofit organizations, including The National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, United Way of the Bay Area, United Way of Massachusetts Bay, the Committee for Economic Development, Catholic Charities, WGBH, and The National Academies.