Local community and business leaders work together to advance our mission to ensure public schools are places all 91 can thrive.
Shweta Bhardwaj is a partner in Bain’s Consumer Products, Retail, and Customer Strategy & Marketing practices, based in Boston, Massachusetts. She has 18 years of management consulting experience, supporting clients on topics including digital strategy and operating model design, marketing and eCommerce acceleration, NPS® implementation, innovation & design, and Agile transformation. Her client portfolio spans the consumer products and retail sectors, with particular depth in personal care and durable goods (toys, furniture, sporting equipment).
In addition to her client work, Shweta actively participates in people development at Bain — global and local training programs, mentorship activities and promotion evaluations — in addition to consultant recruiting. Further, she is the former General Manager of our Global Consumer Watch group, a team dedicated to observing and reporting how consumers are feeling, how they are spending time, and how they are spending money, on a global scale – particularly critical amidst the current pandemic. She has also led pro bono engagements on behalf of the firm, most recently partnering with former Superintendent Tom Boasberg in the assessment and acceleration of the Teacher Leadership Program across Denver Public Schools. Shweta has partnered with clients across the Americas and APAC, having formerly worked in Bain's Atlanta and New Delhi offices. At Bain, she partners closely with FRWD, Bain’s Digital Marketing and Marketing Technology expert team, and I&D, Bain’s team of product managers, researchers, designers and engineers driving innovation and design work with clients. Shweta holds a Master of Business Administration from Harvard Business School and a Bachelor of Science, with honors, from the University of Virginia. She currently resides in West Newton with her husband, Jason, and two children, Karsin (seven) and Simi (four).
Joe Nedder is an executive coach and facilitator, working with individual leaders and with intact teams at important inflection points to help them define what is possible and implement the path to realizing that potential. He was previously the Chief Human Resources Officer for Edelman Financial Engines with responsibility for the overall associate experience. Prior to Edelman, Joe spent 13 years at Fidelity Investments. Joe served as the Chief Operating Officer for the asset management division where he had responsibility for the core operational elements of the business including: investment operations, compliance, fiduciary oversight, recruiting and human resources.
Joe Nedder is an executive coach and facilitator, working with individual leaders and with intact teams at important inflection points to help them define what is possible and implement the path to realizing that potential. He was previously the Chief Human Resources Officer for Edelman Financial Engines with responsibility for the overall associate experience. Prior to Edelman, Joe spent 13 years at Fidelity Investments. Joe served as the Chief Operating Officer for the asset management division where he had responsibility for the core operational elements of the business including: investment operations, compliance, fiduciary oversight, recruiting and human resources. Before assuming that role, Joe served in a number of other operational and human resources roles including: the head of human resources for asset management; the Chief Operating Officer for Pyramis Global Advisors, a Fidelity Investments company focused on servicing the needs of the institutional marketplace; the head of talent management for asset management; and as an in-house performance consultant, supporting multiple business units within Fidelity. Before joining Fidelity, Joe was the Chief Executive Officer at SofCheck, president and Chief Operating Officer at Availant, and a director at Cambridge Technology Partners. Joe began his career as a member of the Edison Management program at General Electric, where he held a variety of positions. Joe is a graduate of Dartmouth College. He is also a lecturer for Babson College and remains active with the boards of several local charitable and educational institutions.
Chet brings over 35 years of executive leadership experience across the consumer-packaged goods, healthcare, nutrition, and automotive sectors. He began his career at Procter & Gamble, where he developed a foundation in sales and brand strategy that launched his path into senior leadership roles across a broad range of companies and businesses. He went on to lead commercial businesses at Ocean Spray Cranberries, eventually relocating his family to Toronto where he served as Managing Director, Canada.
Chet brings over 35 years of executive leadership experience across the consumer-packaged goods, healthcare, nutrition, and automotive sectors. He began his career at Procter & Gamble, where he developed a foundation in sales and brand strategy that launched his path into senior leadership roles across a broad range of companies and businesses. He went on to lead commercial businesses at Ocean Spray Cranberries, eventually relocating his family to Toronto where he served as Managing Director, Canada. At Abbott Laboratories, while serving as Head of Global Innovation and Commercial Operations, he built businesses and managed teams across five continents. His work included launching new platforms, leading change initiatives, and aligning cross-functional teams to deliver against ambitious revenue and margin enhancing goals. Following his time at Abbott, Chet rejoined Ocean Spray to lead a new healthcare business and drive a pipeline of disruptive innovation. He then held executive roles at three early-stage, pre-revenue startups in the nutrition, food tech, and health sectors—where he applied his experience to help define market strategy, build commercial infrastructure, and position the companies for long-term growth. Today, Chet consults with small and family-run businesses, advising on growth strategy, generational transitions, and operational scale-up. He is also a licensed Realtor with Sotheby’s International Realty, focused on serving clients across Cape Cod and the Islands. In both roles, he’s motivated by a commitment to clarity, empathy, and building long-term relationships. Chet earned a B.A. in English from Kenyon College and now resides full time on Cape Cod with his wife, Lisa. They proudly share two adult children and are excited for what the next chapter brings.
Isabel is an educator who works to fight systems of oppression in public schools. Isabel served as a City Year Greater Boston AmeriCorps member at the Jeremiah E. Burke High School for two years. During her time as an AmeriCorps member, she discovered her passion for working with young people and serving her community.
Following City Year Isabel taught at a nonprofit and explored the various roles of an educator. Her reality in education took shape and she completed her Masters in Education at Harvard Graduate School of Education and became a licensed school social worker. She has taken her life experience and formal education into her role at PreK-8 where she is learning and unlearning alongside 91, staff and the community.
In addition to her role as an educator, Isabel is a licensed real estate agent in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts with Vicente Realty, LLC and a proud aunt to her nieces.
Ambar is a principal in Deloitte Consulting LLP and serves as its Chief Strategy and Transformation Officer. In this role, Ambar is responsible for designing and articulating Deloitte’s strategy, defining and overseeing key transformation initiatives, and managing the overall investment portfolio including
both organic investments and M&A.
Previously, Ambar has served in several leadership roles including Deloitte India’s Strategy & Operations practice lead and the US Strategy service line lead. Ambar has more than 20 years of consulting experience with both Monitor Group and Deloitte. He has served some of the organization’s largest clients on corporate and business unit strategy, particularly in the Consumer and Industrials industries. In his client work, Ambar has focused on defining breakthrough growth strategies and then translating those into organization-wide transformation programs that deliver sustained impact. Ambar holds a Bachelor of Arts from Oxford University and a PhD in Mathematics from the University of Notre Dame.
Chris Comenos is a Director at Advent International, a global private equity firm headquartered in Boston. Chris advises on investments in the healthcare sector with a focus on opportunities to accelerate growth and drive business transformation. He also serves on the Philanthropy Committee at Advent. Prior to joining Advent, Chris worked at Berkshire Partners and Blackstone, where he spent time in the healthcare, industrial, and consumer sectors.
Chris Comenos is a Director at Advent International, a global private equity firm headquartered in Boston. Chris advises on investments in the healthcare sector with a focus on opportunities to accelerate growth and drive business transformation. He also serves on the Philanthropy Committee at Advent. Prior to joining Advent, Chris worked at Berkshire Partners and Blackstone, where he spent time in the healthcare, industrial, and consumer sectors.
Latoyia Edwards is one of the most recognizable faces of the Boston Television News Market today. Latoyia is an Emmy award-winning morning news anchor. She works for NBC Universal's brand new triopoly of NBC 10 Boston, NECN and Telemundo Boston serving millions of viewers each week. Every weekday from 4 a.m.-7 a.m., Latoyia brings her energy and credibility guiding viewers in coverage of local, national, and global stories and breaking news on Nbc10Boston Today which leads into the Today Show. You can also watch Latoyia every Sunday morning on NBC Boston at 11:30 a.m. hosting her new show, THIS IS NEW ENGLAND, which focuses on celebrating the best in our community.
Latoyia is celebrating 14 years with the company. She has covered a variety of impactful stories including Superbowl Victory Celebrations, World series titles to presidential campaigns, celebrity interviews, to high profile trials. Latoyia has worn many hats, including Health Reporter covering the latest medical breakthroughs, highlighting research at hospitals across New England and producing in-depth stories about health disparities. Latoyia’s medical reporting earned her the coveted Blue Cross Blue Shield Health Coverage Fellowship in Boston, which focuses on public and mental health. Over her 20-year career in broadcasting, she has flown beyond the clouds covering the Navy's Blue Angel and he even traveled as far away as Paraguay profiling a partnership between that country and the United States Military. She joined the NECN family as a morning live reporter in 2005 arriving from WWLP-22 NBC in Springfield, Massachusetts, where she had been a weekday anchor. Latoyia's connection with the community was immediate and she soon worked her way up to the top positions at her station. She began her career as a news writer for WBZ-1030AM radio, and later reported for the Fox affiliate WICZ-TV 40 in Binghamton, New York.
Kristie is the President & CEO of Manulife John Hancock Investments, where she is responsible for setting strategic priorities and leading all aspects of the U.S. and Europe business, including investments, sales, marketing, finance, product development, operations, and technology.
Kristie joined Manulife in 2021 as Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and Global Head of Strategy for Manulife Investment Management. In that role, she was responsible for financial planning and analysis, forecasting, management reporting, and overseeing internal risk controls. As Head of Global Strategy for the firm’s wealth and asset management business, she also managed financial due diligence and the structuring of transactions on a global scale. Before joining Manulife, Kristie served as CFO for the Americas and Global Head of Treasury at Invesco. Prior to that, she held progressively senior finance roles at OppenheimerFunds, including Business Controller and Corporate Treasurer. Kristie earned her MBA in Finance from Columbia University, where she was inducted into the Beta Gamma Sigma Honor Society. She graduated summa cum laude from St. Cloud State University with a BA in Economics. She holds the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA®) designation and is a member of the CFA Institute. Additionally, Kristie is a Certified Treasury Professional (CTP) and a Financial Risk Manager (FRM) and holds multiple industry licenses.
Rocky is a Managing Director at State Street Global Advisors (SSGA). She was hired five years ago as Head of Institutional Relationship Management for North America. She was recently named the Divisional Sales Leader for the Institutional Northeast Region. The Team’s mission is to improve and enable economic prosperity and social progress for their clients who invest with SSGA. Her team works across Corporate, Endowment, Foundation, Public and Taft-Hartley Clients to solve their investment needs.
Prior to SSGA, Rocky was at OppenheimerFunds for over 20 years. She held various product, sales and client facing roles both in their institutional and intermediary business units. She was a team leader for their Institutional Clients in North America, Europe and the Middle East. She led her firm’s business strategy for product development and distribution of their 529 college savings business and donor-advised funds. She was a former Advisory Board member of the National Association of State Treasurers from 2014 - 2017. She is a FINRA licensed registered representative. She graduated college from Iona University with a BBA in Marketing and obtained her MBA from Columbia Business School. During her free time, Rocky serves as a Board Member for City Year Greater Boston. She stays active with her husband and two sons. Together they enjoy golfing, hiking, pickleball and great food.
Stephen Hoffmeister is a managing director at Advent International. Previously, he worked at Bain Capital LLC and Bain & Company. Stephen co-chaired the City Year Greater Boston Investment Community Breakfast for a number of years and now serves as a vice-chair on the event committee for the breakfast. He was a member of City Year Greater Boston's Seven Generations Board before joining the City Year Greater Boston Board. Stephen earned a Bachelor of Commerce, First Class Honors, from Queen’s University in Canada and a Master of Business Administration from Harvard Business School.
Matt has been involved in the real estate industry for over a decade, having worked for Citizens Bank and First Republic Bank as a commercial real estate underwriter before launching Axilon Capital Partners. Axilon is a multifamily real estate investment firm active in metro Boston. Matt previously served on the young professionals’ boards of the educational non-profit Jumpstart and The MFA Boston. He is an active member of the Massachusetts start-up community mentoring young entrepreneurs.
Dianne Ledingham is a Director in Bain & Company’s Boston office. She is one of Bain’s senior leaders in the North America Technology, Media and Telecom practice area. She is also the co-founder and global leader emeritus of Bain’s Sales and Channel Effectiveness practice area. Dianne advises leadership teams of public and privately held companies on how to drive more value for their stakeholders through growth and transformation strategies.
In addition to her consulting responsibilities, Dianne is currently the Chair of Bain’s Global Nominating Committee. She has previously served on Bain’s Global Board of Directors, and has served and chaired Bain’s Global Promotion and Compensation Committee. She is actively involved in consulting recruiting and has led talent initiatives locally and globally. Dianne joined the Board of Directors of Pegasystems (NASDAQ:PEGA) in 2016. Dianne has also performed pro-bono consulting over the years, including work with America’s Promise and Boston Public Schools, as well as strategies for some Boston-based private schools. Prior to Bain, Dianne was a chip design engineer for IBM and held positions in marketing and sales. Dianne earned her MBA from the Harvard Business School with distinction. She is a graduate of Brown University where she received a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering with honors. Dianne is married with three children and resides in Wellesley, Massachusetts
Eran Lobel founded ELEMENT productions in 1998 and grew it into one of Boston’s premiere full-service production and post-production companies. He leads a talented team of directors, producers and editors and has produced award winning commercials, web video, television programs and documentaries. ELEMENT works with top brands such as Nike, GMC, Subway, Dunkin Donuts, Buick, Fidelity, Verizon, Hasbro and ESPN. Their agency clients include Hill Holliday, BBDO, MMB, Digitas, Saatchi and Saatchi and Arnold. The company’s objective is to manage a creative and efficient production and post-production workflow and to provide fully integrated services to maximize its clients’ needs. ELEMENT is a member of AICP, and Eran is a founding board member of both FILMA and the Massachusetts Production Coalition (MPC) and is an active board member of the Boston Ad Club.
Eran is a graduate of the University of Massachusetts Amherst and received a Master of Business Administration from Boston University. Eran has served on City Year Greater Boston’s Seven Generations Board since 2015 and joined the City Year Greater Boston Board's Media and Government Relations Committee in 2016, where he has been an active and valuable member. Eran’s wife, Lisa Lobel, is the co-founder/casting director for Boston Casting. She currently focuses her efforts on growing and managing Boston Casting’s 60,000-person online database and is a leader in innovative technologies for the casting industry. She’s also a former early childhood educator in Boston and former elementary school teacher in New York City. Eran and Lisa have three children.
Todd Markson is a Partner at Bain Capital in their Tech Opportunities fund. Prior to Bain Capital, Todd was CSO & COO at Cengage, a multi-billion dollar, Private Equity backed, global education and technology company, where he led strategy, corporate development, channel, pricing, procurement and supply chain. Before Cengage, Todd was a management strategy consultant in London, Dubai and Boston, most recently as a Senior Principal in the Technology and Private Equity practices of BCG. Earlier in his career, Todd was a technology entrepreneur in Silicon Valley, co-founding and successfully exiting education technology and information services companies. Right after college, Todd spent 2 years in Mali, West Africa with the Peace Corps leading numerous micro-finance initiatives in communities in the Sahara desert.
Todd received an MBA with Honors from the University of Michigan and a BA in Political Science from Brown University. Todd currently resides in Milton, MA with his wife Alice and two kids, Harper and Oliver.
Dr. Kenann McKenzie-DeFranza serves as the Director of Academic Innovation and Strategic Partnerships, and Associate Professor of Practice. Her background and expertise include civic engagement research & practice, organizational consulting, PreK-12 schools and higher education professional development on subjects such as educational practices, policy, administration, and leadership. She has authored numerous papers and peer reviewed publications. She served as the inaugural Director of the Generous Listening and Dialogue Center, Tufts University from 2021-2023.
Prior to that she was director of the Aspire Institute housed at BU Wheelock School of Education, 2017 until 2021. At the Federal education level from 2015-2017, she served as Executive Director for the National Board of Education Sciences at the US Department of Education for several years, which oversees all funding for education research via the Institute for Education Sciences. Prior experiences add to over 20 years in education policy, advocacy research and teaching. In 2022, she was recognized with the Heroine Award by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts’ Commission on the Status of Women.
Kate Mead is an Institutional Equity Portfolio Manager (IPM) at MFS and is a member of the Global IPM Leadership team, leading the North American IPM Team. Kate joined MFS as an equity research analyst in 1997, has been a member of the value portfolio management team since 2002 and the Global IPM Leadership team since 2014. As an Institutional Portfolio Manager, Kate acts as the “CEO” of her strategies, taking the lead role in thinking strategically about the business, clients, operations and risk management. She has been involved in MFS’ diversity initiatives and is keenly interested in helping to bring more young women into the finance industry and identifying opportunities to develop and progress women already there.
Kate is actively involved in her community. She is a firm believer that educational experiences can meaningfully change people’s lives. She has been a member of Villanova’s School of Business (VSB) Finance Department Advisory Council for the last eight years working closely with the chairman of the Finance Department and the dean of the business school advising on curriculum, engaging with their women’s network to help attract more female 91 into finance, providing strategic input to help shape the long-term vision for VSB and the University, focusing on student preparedness for jobs and working to provide career opportunities for Villanova graduates in the Boston area. Kate has also been actively involved with City Year Greater Boston working as a vice chair and most recently co-chair for the Women’s Leadership Breakfast. As a member of City Year’s Women’s Leadership Network and the Red Jacket Society, Kate and her husband Warren have enjoyed sponsoring regular lunches for the unsponsored schools and Civic Engagement teams. Kate believes that City Year, its passion for service and all of its inspiring corps members are making a real difference for thousands of Boston Public School 91 every year. She has also been engaged with Horizon’s for Homeless Children, sponsoring a number of play spaces throughout Massachusetts. Kate received a Master of Business Administration from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania (1997) and a Bachelor of Science in finance from Villanova University (1993), graduating magna cum laude. She is a CFA charter holder and a member of the Boston Society of Security Analysts. She lives with her husband, two teenaged children and golden retriever in Medfield, Massachusetts. She grew up in Colorado and is an avid skier and hiker.
Merrill joined CBIZ & MHM in 1992 and was a member of the Accounting and Auditing* Group. She was also a member of the company’s Not-For-Profit, Architecture, Engineering & Consulting and Real Estate Practices. Merrill primarily worked with closely held businesses and nonprofit organizations. She provided a wide range of services, including audits of financial statements, tax planning and consulting, internal control and system reviews, due diligence services and financial statement analysis.
Merrill holds a Bachelor of Science from University of Maryland. She served as a council member for the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (2012-2016). Merrill also served as chairman of the board of directors of the Massachusetts Society of Certified Public Accountants (2013-2014), where she was also founder and former co-chair of the Women in Accounting Committee, and past vice chair of finance. Merrill holds a license as a Chartered Global Management Accountant. Merrill's civic engagement includes serving as a board member and executive committee member, Wellesley Community Children’s Center, and past vice president of finance at the National Tay-Sachs and Allied Diseases Association. Merrill has been recognized in Boston Business Journal's Who’s Who in Accounting.
Tarun is a fractional executive and advisor to venture backed & PE owned companies, focusing on product-market fit, go-to-market strategy, and innovation programs. He spent 13 years at Google leading enterprise advertising sales and customer success teams, as well as new products/business efforts. Prior to this, Tarun held business development and product management roles at Apple, and technical sales roles at Texas Instruments.
Tarun is actively engaged in the Boston startup community, as an angel & advisor to several early stage startups. He serves on the advisory board of AdClub.org, the trade association for the New England marketing & communications industry. Tarun lives in Boston's South End; he grew up in India and is an avid tennis player.
Rob Ruffin is an operations partner at Bain & Co and focuses on large scale supply chain transformations. In addition to client work, he also focuses on Bain Boston’s community DEI efforts. Before consulting, Rob was a process engineer at DuPont Chemicals. He joined the Board in 2022 and is a member of the Recruitment Committee. Rob has a Bachelor of Science in mechanical engineering from Swarthmore College and a Master of Business Administration from Harvard Business School.
Diane M. Ryan is the Associate Dean for Programs and Administration in the Jonathan M. Tisch College of Civic Life at Tufts University and holds faculty appointments in the Eliot Pearson Department of Child Studies and Human Development and the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. Prior to joining Tufts, Diane was an Academy Professor, Director of the Eisenhower Leader Development Program with Columbia University and Deputy Department Head in the Department of Behavioral Sciences and Leadership at the United States Military Academy, West Point, NY. During her 29-year career as a U.S. Army officer she served in a variety of command and staff assignments both stateside and abroad.
Alexis Smith-Attuquayefio (A-too-kwAye-fee-o), has over 19 years of experience leading and innovating in process development, manufacturing, and supply chain across several industries including MedTech and Cosmetics both high volume and emerging markets. She has worked for leading companies including Praxair (now Linde), DuPont, L’Oreal, Abiomed (now Johnson & Johnson MedTech), and Accenture. She currently works as the Director of Operations, NPI, and PMO for Satio, Inc., an innovative medical device company, making healthcare more accessible and developing lifesaving diagnostic medical devices for low-income countries.
She serves as President of the National Society of Black Engineers Boston Professionals, a leading Boston based organization dedicated to the academic & professional success of Black/African American engineering 91 and professionals. Whose aim to inspire the next generation of STEM professionals and serve as a catalyst for transforming the culture of engineering. Alexis received her Bachelors degree in chemical engineering from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where she was a Jack Welch, American Chemical Society, and NIH scholar. She completed her research thesis is polymer science engineering, working on the early development of the dissolvable stent. She went on to contribute to voltage limiting software on fuel cell vehicles, developing a process to reuse and recharge membrane systems for air separation, scale and improve resilient manufacturing and supply chain processes, and develop other novel manufacturing processes across industries served. As an engineer who loves science and innovation, Alexis aspires to be the role model girls who look like her, and love science, can look up to. Alexis is a STEM advocate and supports STEM initiatives, mentors youth and enjoys being active in her community. She is originally from Springfield, MA and has resided along the east coast from NY to Delaware and now the Greater Boston area, where she has settled with her husband and two daughters, who are avid movie enthusiasts. She enjoys the beaches of the North Shore, the Museum of Science, and a good brunch!
Sharhea is the Head of Global Inclusion & Diversity Programs and Solutions Management at State Street Corporation. Reporting directly to the Chief Diversity Officer and in partnership with Human Resources colleagues, she manages a team who drives delivery of inclusion & diversity programs and services across the enterprise, including strategic external partnerships, 10 Actions to Drive Inclusion & Diversity, and Management Leadership for Tomorrow (MLT) Racial Equity in the Workplace Certifications. She also assists State Street’s approach to inclusion & diversity consulting with internal and external clients, engaging leaders with insights from qualitative and quantitative diversity data. Sharhea has been in various roles at State Street including as a Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) for the CAO of State Street and a Global Credit Analyst, managing the fixed income investments for the bank’s portfolio.
Sharhea is the Head of Global Inclusion & Diversity Programs and Solutions Management at State Street Corporation. Reporting directly to the Chief Diversity Officer and in partnership with Human Resources colleagues, she manages a team who drives delivery of inclusion & diversity programs and services across the enterprise, including strategic external partnerships, 10 Actions to Drive Inclusion & Diversity, and Management Leadership for Tomorrow (MLT) Racial Equity in the Workplace Certifications. She also assists State Street’s approach to inclusion & diversity consulting with internal and external clients, engaging leaders with insights from qualitative and quantitative diversity data. Sharhea has been in various roles at State Street including as a Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) for the CAO of State Street and a Global Credit Analyst, managing the fixed income investments for the bank’s portfolio. She is an active community member, who sits on the board of Summer Search Boston, Immediate Past President of National Black MBA Association (NBMBAA) – Boston Chapter and engaging alumni of Boston’s pre-collegiate leadership organizations such as Summer Search, Bottom Line and The Posse Foundation. Sharhea graduated from Bryn Mawr College, majoring in Economics and Boston University with a Master of Business Administration. She is originally from the beautiful, volcanic island of Montserrat, West Indies and now resides in Randolph, MA.