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At Board First Consulting, LLC, we advise boards on how to navigate an array of choices with integrity, intentionality, and decisiveness. We provide the tools and strategies needed to maximize the board’s effectiveness and ability to make a positive impact on the organizations they serve.
We build intentional, value-enhancing boards through meaningful data collection, generating insights, and inspiring action.
Creating a high-performing board takes effort and consistency. Boards that invest in strengthening their governance experience a renewed sense of purpose, higher engagement from board members, more time spent on value-add topics, improved decision-making, and increased mutual trust and respect with executive management. We work with each board to design practical strategies to maximize the board’s time and contributions.
“Meaningful data drives better decisions.”
We collect data across a broad range of topics to present a comprehensive picture of the board’s overall effectiveness, including areas of strength, and opportunities for growth. Our data-based approach grounds the board with a common understanding of its performance.
“No two boards are alike.”
As organizational psychologists, we are trained to mine complex data sets and look for patterns or trends that promote or constrain the board’s effectiveness. Our insights provide the means to test and reframe long-standing assumptions and, where needed, create new practices to optimize board dynamics and decisions.
“Well-informed boards make better decisions.”
We develop actionable short and long-term strategies to help boards stay focused on fulfillment of the vision (North Star), and ensure they provide appropriate stewardship of the organizations and stakeholders they serve.
Boards of today are expected to govern an expanding number of complex issues. We have years of experience designing and implementing a broad range of services to help non-profit and for-profit boards evolve their governance oversight to address these issues and ensure the long-term viability of their organizations.
Too often boards function the same way they always have, despite ongoing changes of the organization, the broader socio-economic and competitive environments. Best practice governance requires boards to evolve alongside the organization as these changes occur.
We help clients course correct so they can elevate their board’s performance. We begin with a comprehensive diagnosis of current governance practices, and then create a specific and achievable board development plan to bring the board into alignment with the needs of the organization and its stakeholders.
Many CEOs have reported having an ineffective working relationship with their board at one time or another. We frequently hear concerns about board members inserting themselves in the operations of the organization. This often leads to unnecessary work for management and takes their focus away from strategy and execution.
We help clients clarify the role of the board versus management and coach CEOs and executive teams on how to engage their boards at the appropriate level.
Recent research shows organizations that adapted quickly, promoted effective management and communication practices, and had healthy cultures fared better during the pandemic.
We help leaders understand how to align their cultures to their strategy and build organizational resilience to continuously meet any challenge.
Sara Finesilver, MS
Organizational Psychologist
Board Effectiveness Consultant
Board First Consulting, LLC
Denver, Colorado
Mobile: 415.314.8089
sara@boardfirstconsulting.com
www.boardfirstconsulting.com
MS, Industrial/Organizational Psychology
San Francisco State University San Francisco, CA
BA, Psychology
Lake Forest College
Chicago, IL
Certificate, Leadership
Development
Insight Leadership Seminars
Boulder County AIDS
Project Board (2019 – Present)
Lake Forest College
Alumni Board (2010 – 2018)
I am passionate about designing behavior-based competency models for boards that are committed to representing the faces, voices, and diverse experiences of the stakeholders they serve. I believe intentional governance and leadership are vital to the collective good.
I have worked with a wide range of corporate and non-profit clients across many different industries, and have gained considerable depth and breadth of experience in corporate and healthcare governance. My experience also spans advising boards of controlled companies and performing arts.
My specialties include designing and implementing board and organizational development programs, performance assessments at the board and senior executive level, and long-range strategic planning processes.
I have 15 years of experience consulting to boards, CEOs, and senior leadership teams on strategies to elevate performance, communication, accountability, and goal achievement.
Additionally, I have seven years of experience as a corporate litigation consultant where I conducted site visits, interviews, and focus groups with subject matter-experts, completed time-in-motion observations, and reviewed legal documentation and depositions for wage and hour corporate litigation cases.
Early in my career, to grow my leadership and facilitation skills, I provided one-on-one coaching to Hass Business School students through the Berkeley Innovative Leadership Development program; was an adjunct faculty member of the Psychology Department at San Francisco State University; and became certified as a Social Fitness Facilitator by the Heroic Imagination Project, founded by Dr. Phil Zimbardo of the Stanford Prison Study.
I live in Denver, Colorado, and love to hike, explore the outdoors, travel, and spend time with family including my Australian Cattle Dog. I am a Big Sister for Big Brothers and Big Sisters of America, and a devoted aunt of two wonderful nephews. I played Division III varsity ice hockey in undergrad and remain an avid fan of the Colorado Avalanche.
Christine Bassarab, PhD
Organizational Psychologist
Board Effectiveness Consultant
Board First Consulting, LLC San Francisco Bay Area, CA
christine@boardfirstconsulting.com www.boardfirstconsulting.com
PhD, Organizational Psychology
California School of Professional Psychology San Francisco, CA
BA, Biology Emory University
I believe boards play a critical role in providing CEOs and their executive teams with robust, independent perspectives that enable the organization to thrive. I am passionate about discovering the unique capabilities of each CEO and board and partnering with them to enhance their governance practices and effectively steward the organizations they serve.
I have decades of designing and implementing assessments at the individual, team, and organizational level to gain deep insights into how to build and/or accelerate high performance. As part of this, I have mentored and coached senior executives to maximize their contributions as a leader. My expertise includes corporate governance, strategy planning, organization design, mergers & acquisitions, and building resilient teams that drive innovation in highly competitive environments.
I have had an eclectic career working in a variety of leadership roles in financial services, technology, consulting, commercial real estate development, and retail. My exposure to a broad cross-section of industries and organizations has honed my problem-solving and listening skills to promote a deep understanding of my clients’ needs and concerns. This approach remains at the forefront of all my client engagements.
I have thirty years of experience designing strategies that enable boards and executive teams to successfully navigate complex change, optimize their decision-making, and build enduring value for their organizations, stakeholders, and communities.
Women in Identity (Director & Secretary) – A global non-profit promoting diversity and inclusion in the development of digital identity products and services.
I live in the San Francisco Bay area and enjoy open-water rowing, road cycling, painting, and travel. I am an avid reader and am intensely curious about new academic research that can be applied to building high performing boards.
Organizational Psychologist
Board Effectiveness Consultant
Board First Consulting, LLC
San Francisco Bay Area, CA
Mobile: 925.586.0880
joann@boardfirstconsulting.com
www.boardfirstconsulting.com
PhD, Organizational Psychology
California School of Professional Psychology, San Francisco, CA
MA, Change Leadership
California School of Professional Psychology, San Francisco, CA
BS, Psychology
Santa Clara University, CA
Certificate, Director’s College
Stanford Law School, Directors’ Executive Education Program
U.S. Army 91D Surgical Tech
U.S. Army ROTC at SCU Battalion
U.S. Army Reserve Medical
Service Corps; 352nd Combat
Support Hospital, Company
Commander
I am passionate about helping boards govern with intentionality. As an organizational psychologist, I assess issues and challenges facing boards through a lens of understanding how leaders interact in the boardroom and what drives them to make decisions. Helping boards experience their breakthrough moment, where they become empowered to change and elevate how they contribute to the organization, inspires me to do this work. With every board engagement, I aim to bring out the best in each director and create a culture of high performance at the top. Healthy boards create thriving organizations and cause a positive ripple effect on our communities, economy, and society. I believe boards and their directors/trustees are the keys to a better world.
I work with boards and CEOs to advise and partner with them in the following areas:
For over 20 years, I have served boards and senior executives of public and non-profit organizations across multiple sectors, including healthcare, performing arts, energy, retail, charitable giving, professional associations, education, and social services.
I have served over 12 years in the U.S. Army Reserve Medical Service Corps, where I held various leadership roles. I was the Company Commander of the 352nd Combat Support Hospital based in Oakland, CA, and was a cadre member of the 63rd Regional Readiness Command’s Company Team Leadership Development Program, where I taught change management. Prior to receiving my commission through ROTC, I was an enlisted soldier in the Army Reserve where I was trained as a surgical technician.
I live in Danville, CA, with my husband, two teenage daughters, and our Mini Australian Shepherd.
