Advisors

Lorne Adrain

Financial Representative – Northwestern Mutual

Lorne has a national life insurance practice focused on estate planning and corporate applications. He has worked with entrepreneurs and businesses across the country.  Mr. Adrain has also been an executive at AT&T and worked for ten years as an entrepreneur in the technology and environmental sectors. He was the founder of KindMark, a leader in the creation of software and technologies advancing philanthropy.

Mr. Adrain is an active philanthropic and community leader.  He was appointed by Rhode Island’s Governor Chafee as Chairman of the Rhode Island Board of Governors for Higher Education and to the Rhode Island Board of Regents for Elementary and Secondary Education.  He was a candidate for Mayor of Providence.  He served as vice president and director of the Harvard Business School Alumni Association and serves on the Boards of The Rhode Island Foundation, Big Picture Learning and The Business Innovation Factory. He is also founder of National Neighborhood Day and is co-founder of Social Venture Partners / Social Enterprise Greenhouse – Rhode Island and BetterProvidence.  Mr. Adrain has served as Chairman of the Rhode Island Special Olympics and President of the University of Rhode Island Alumni Association.   He has climbed Mounts Kilimanjaro, Elbrus, Aconcagua, Denali (McKinley) and other peaks in recent years to raise funds in support of women’s education, economic and health programs on Lake Atitlan, Guatemala and to support aspiring inner-city students from Providence.

Mr. Adrain has twice received Northwestern Mutual Life’s national Community Service Award and was recognized as their Most Exceptional Volunteer in the Nation.  He has also been honored with the Rhode Island Foundation Inspiring Partner Award, the Jefferson Award for Public Service, Leadership Rhode Island’s David E. Sweet  Leadership Award and the Providence Rotary’s 100th Anniversary Community Leadership Award.  He is also an Eagle Scout.

Mr. Adrain earned his MBA from the Harvard Business School, and a BS from the University of Rhode Island.  Mr. Adrain and his wife, novelist Ann Hood, live in Providence, RI and have four children.

Baker Coon

Counselor at Law – Partridge Snow & Hahn LLP

Baker concentrates his law practice in corporate and real estate matters, including mergers and acquisitions, debt and equity financing, commercial borrowing and lending, regulatory and compliance matters, and corporate governance and structuring. Baker also advises clients on various strategic relationships, joint ventures, leasing matters, and manufacturing, distribution and service agreements.

Azure Dee Cygler

– Coastal Resources Center & Rhode Island Sea Grant, URI

Azure Dee Cygler joined the CRC in 2012. She is a fisheries & aquaculture extension specialist for Rhode Island Sea Grant. Azure works on the CRC-Sea Grant’s statewide Shellfish Management Plan, the first of its kind in Rhode Island. Azure has master’s in marine affairs from the University of Rhode Island, where her graduate work focused on measuring the well-being of commercial fishermen in three New England ports and how management measures have impacted their decision-making and conservation ethics. Prior to her graduate work, she was with the School for Marine Science and Technology in Massachusetts, the Northeast Fisheries Science Center in Woods Hole, Mass., and has fished commercially in the U.S. and abroad. She lives in Narragansett with her husband and two children and is involved in the coastal community.

Jill Glickman

Consultant –

Jill Glickman has over 20 years of experience in community outreach, project management, program & organizational development, group/meeting facilitation, and communication. For the last 17 years, she has worked as a consultant locally, regionally and nationally for non-profit organizations, government agencies, higher education institutions, K-12 schools and cross-sector public/private collaborations. Starting in 2013, Ms. Glickman has worked on several large-scale healthcare reform efforts in Rhode Island. Jill was part of the statewide team that launched HealthSource RI (HSRI), Rhode Island’s health insurance exchange in Fall 2013. At HSRI, she was lead consultant and project manager for community-based enrollment assistance programs and related outreach efforts across the state. Currently, she is part of the consultant team working on Rhode Island’s State Innovation Model (SIM) Test grant. Jill’s work focuses on SIM’s Integrated Population Health planning process, Sustainability planning, Strategic Partnership development and other related initiatives. From 2013 -2016, Ms. Glickman was also project consultant and facilitator for The Providence Plan’s Information Group (now called DataSpark and housed within the University of Rhode Island). In this role, she worked in collaboration with data analysts and lead state partners to facilitate cross- agency dialogue and analysis of linked, aggregated statewide data in order to address some of the most pressing issues facing Rhode Island today. She is a trained, experienced group facilitator and has completed basic mediation training. Prior to her consulting career, Ms. Glickman worked as a teacher, program director, and executive director. She holds a BA in history from Brown University and a MA in Teaching from Teachers College, Columbia University.

Chuck Holland

Business Director – HILL for Literacy

Chuck Holland is the business director at HILL for Literacy. With 12 years of school literacy reform experience, they have demonstrated sustainable reform, dramatic MCAS improvements complete school turn around and scale. We are scaling to a national organization, with state wide projects and research partnerships with leading universities.
Previously, Chuck was a co-founder of Epoch Systems, Network Integrity, and LiveVault high tech storage management companies. He combines 25 years of high tech business experience with 10 years of Social Enterprise experience to deliver imaginative strategic thinking for the emerging field of social enterprise.

Peter Lehmuller

Adventurer –

With more than 20 years in higher education administration, I have a broad range of transferrable skills (team building, hiring, budget oversight) that I can share with entrepreneurs. Prior to higher ed., I worked in the restaurant industry, so I have a deep appreciation for the hard work that goes into developing and refining a food product. I will ask a lot of questions. You can get a lot of bang for your buck talking to me.

Walter Reed

Partner – Edwards Wildman Palmer, LLP

Walter has been a corporate lawyer for over 35 years and has managed virtually every legal problem that may be faced by a business entity. He has been recognized by Best Lawyers in America and other publications as an outstanding business advisor.

Jim Seymour

Managing Partner – Pontefract Global Strategies

Mr. Seymour has over 40 years of investment experience in international and emerging markets through 18 years at Bankers Trust living and working in Africa, Asia, Middle East, Europe, and Latin America; 13 years at Commonfund Capital managing private equity funds of funds; 4 years at EMP Global, a Washington based emerging markets private equity firm; and since 2010 with Pontefract Global Strategies, LLC (PGS). PGS advises private equity firms in frontier emerging markets on global best practices. Examples of current and past relationships are Non-Executive Chairman of a corporate finance boutique firm in Vietnam; Senior Advisor to a private equity firms in Cambodia; Chairman of the Investment Committee of a private equity fund in Haiti; Senior Advisor to private equity funds in Nigeria and Kenya; Advisor to a mezzanine fund in South Africa; Board Director of a venture capital firm in India; Senior Advisor to an investment company that investments in mixed-use property developments for educational institutions in Africa; and Board Director of a public securities fund in Africa. He has served on 18 international, emerging market, and U.S. private equity fund advisory boards. Mr. Seymour also is active in pro-bono work as board member of Social Enterprise Greenhouse, the Advisory Council of the International Business Program and Bryant University and mentor/coach to many social enterprises as well as young adults. Mr. Seymour is a graduate of Yale University in International Relations and Harvard Business School in International Finance and served four years in the U.S. Navy submarine force.

Kuni Yasutake

Co-Founder/Principal – Paptake Consulting

Kuni is an intercultural communication specialist, and in 2015 celebrated the 10th year anniversary of her consulting practice: facilitation of professional development training custom-designed to enhance intercultural competency (www.paptake.com.) Her clients include various corporations and non-profit organizations in New England, which seek skill-building opportunities for their diverse employees for customer-centered service, staff-centered management, and/or student-centered learning across cultures. In addition, Kuni offers individual and group Executive Coaching sessions, and regularly writes articles about the latest food trend in the U.S. for a popular Japanese culinary magazine. Prior to her consulting career, Kuni gained professional experiences in Japan and the U.S. in industries such as education, educational administration, and international food trade (sales, marketing, logistics, and customer services.) Kuni is a Tokyo native, has lived in CA, MN, and MA in the past, and currently resides in Bristol, RI with her husband.