Affiliates
GovernBest affiliates represent achievements in corporate, governmental and non-profit environments as well as experience on both sides of the governance equation. Our common denominator is the experience-based conviction that good governance adds value; our persistent focus on those limited arenas where that value is best expressed...strategy, performance oversight, risk mitigation and CEO development. Working independently or in various combinations, these colleagues are equipped to handle the full spectrum of challenges that might arise.
Jon Masters
Jon Masters is a corporate governance specialist and trusted advisor to CEOs, and directors on governance issues and board dynamics. He is a principal in the governance consulting firm of Masters-Rudnick & Associates, LLC, which he co-founded with Alan Rudnick.
Jon draws on broad and deep experience, having been a senior partner in a law firm, a vice chairman of a securities firm, and a director of both business and non-profit corporations. He also served as the Legal Advisor to the Blue Ribbon Commission established by the National Association of Corporate Directors on Performance Evaluation of Chief Executive Officers, Boards and Directors and is a member of International Finance Corporation's (World Bank Group) Global Corporate Governance Forum's Private Sector Advisory Group. He is a graduate of Princeton University and Harvard Law School. Further information is available at www.mastersrudnick.com; he may be reached via jon@governbest.com.
Dr. Kurt Senske
Dr. Kurt Senske is Chief Executive Officer of Lutheran Social Services (www.lsss.org) and lead director of Thrivent, a Fortune 300 financial services corporation. Dr. Senske was a member of the Executive Committee of the Board of Directors of Lutheran Brotherhood and chaired its Foundation.
Kurt also holds a law degree from the University of Illinois, a master's degree in International Relations from Schiller International University in Paris, France, and a Ph.D. in Government from the University of Texas at Austin.
He previously had served as Assistant to the President at Concordia University and had practiced law in Chicago with Hinshaw, Culbertson, Moelmann, Hoban and Fuller. He has also worked as a political consultant and senior staff member for candidates and government leaders at local, state and national levels. Dr. Senske has recently authored Personal Values: Game Plan for Life. He is also the author of Executive Values, currently in its fourth printing. A gifted public speaker, Senske has also been a guest columnist on a variety of issues for newspapers and magazines. He can be reached via senskevalues.com or kurt@governbest.com.
Steven Stone
Steven Stone joined the Washington-based firm of Rubin, Winston, Dreicks, Harris and Cooke, LLP (www.rwdhc.com) in 1986, becoming a partner in 1995. His legal practice focuses on Estate Planning and Business Law, frequently combining these specialties on behalf of the owners of closely held businesses.
Mr. Stone advises high net worth individuals and families with complex business and succession challenges in designing and implementing estate planning and wealth preservation strategies. He has more than 20 years' experience counseling clients on wealth preservation, wealth transfer, asset protection and business succession, including wills, trusts, and estate administration. Mr. Stone also has a strong interest in charitable giving and works with clients in forming and administering private foundations and charitable trusts as well as other non-profit entities.
Mr. Stone works with emerging and established businesses to choose the most suitable legal structure; to restructure partnerships, limited liability corporations, trusts, joint ventures and other business arrangements; and to protect client interests with shareholder agreements, operating agreements, partnership agreements, asset purchase agreements, employment contracts and other business contracts. He has been lead counsel or co-counsel on numerous transactions and on a variety of tax and regulatory matters attendant to deal structure. He has been a frequent speaker at conferences whose host industries were undergoing rapid consolidation. He may be reached via steven@governbest.com.
Alan Rudnick
Alan Rudnick works with boards of directors, CEOs, and corporate staff to develop the governance processes and procedures that build value for their organizations. Trained in mediation, his practice includes dispute prevention and resolution among directors and between boards and management. He is co-founder of Masters-Rudnick & Associates www.mastersrudnick.com, a governance advisory service.
Alan draws on a broad background in the governance arena in both business and non-profit organizations. After retiring from CSX Corporation as Vice President-General Counsel and Corporate Secretary, he served as Counsel to The Conference Board's blue ribbon Commission on Corporate Trust and Private Enterprise which developed the widely adopted suggestions "best practices" in governance. Alan also serves as Program Chair of The Conference Board's Directors' Institute.
A graduate of the University of Chicago and Case Western Reserve School of Law, Alan is an Adjunct Professor at the law school of the College of William and Mary, where he teaches a seminar about corporate governance. He is a member of the International Finance Corporation's (World Bank Group) Global Corporate Governance Forum's Private Sector Advisory Group. Alan may be reached via alan@governbest.com.
Robert Brandt
Robert Brandt is a turnaround consultant to small and mid-market companies and a former CEO with more than 20 years in the governance of for private and non-profit organizations facing extraordinary challenges. He served as Chairman and CEO of York Graphic Services and President and COO of The Maple Press Company. A CPA by training, Bob is currently a director of Flinchbaugh Engineering, Wagman, Inc. and KRB Machinery, as well as the Children's Home of York, the Susan P. Byrnes Health Education Center, VNA – Wellspan Health Systems, and the Country Club of York.
Mary Ann Kipp
Mary Ann Kipp, Principal of Dimensions at Work and an associate of Governbest has a gift for understanding highly complex situations and generating compelling engagements that enable both leaders and the organizations they lead gain focus and achieve sustainable results.
As a director, she served on the board of Foundations Associates and chaired L’Arche, guiding the board through its incubation period in Syracuse, New York. She also chaired the Community in the Workplace 3-year initiative for M. Scott Peck's Foundation for Community Encouragement, sharing its experience at the Center for Creative Leadership. .As a consultant, her clients include Unilever, Nortel Networks, PolyGram, British Airways, Cingular, Banana Republic and NATO, alternately working intensively with leadership and designing productive encounters for groups numbering as many as 1,800. She has managed Innovator's Dilemma projects in collaboration with Harvard's Clayton Christensen and Lead User projects with MIT’s Eric von Hipple on behalf of her clients.
Ms. Kipp developed Working Remotely: Virtual Teams and Beyond to improve the functionality of groups in virtual environments, simultaneously revamping the product development process within Ninth House Network. “Remotely” endures as a requirement for the Silicon Valley Executive Business Program and the US Navy’s leadership development initiative. She delivered Five Ways Leaders Sabotage Their Careers as featured speaker for the 1998 Peter Drucker Forum. The following year, her groundbreaking work in Mediatation™, a method for incorporating digital technology to enhance the impact of facilitated interventions, was showcased at the Organization Development Network. Ms. Kipp has also presented at various business and professional gatherings such as the Association for Quality Preservation and the Association for Manufacturing Excellence. She authored Family Business for McGraw Hill's Handbook of Management Consulting, drawing on her extensive experience in this arena. She has served on the adjunct faculty of Vanderbilt University’s Human and Organization Development Program. Mary may be reached via mary@governbest.com.
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Coming Soon
The article "Volunteer Ownership, a reexamination of the role of non-profit boards" will be published in the February 2009 issue of Directors Monthly by the National Association of Corporate Directors.
Free Webinar
Join us for a free 30 minute webinar, The Accidental Leader: Finding yourself at the Top, on November 14 at 11:00 AM EST.
"You’re more than the ’hall monitor’"
See how CEOs and governing boards partner around strategy, policy and core ideology from the Fall 2007 issue of Directors and Boards.
"Framing a Strategy for Board Development"
Review our article from the October 2005 issue of NACD’s Directors Monthly.