About The Speakers
Howard Brod Brownstein
President of Brownstein Corporation
Howard Brod Brownstein, CTP, is a nationally-known turnaround and restructuring professional, and regularly provides programs for Women in the Boardroom. He is President of Brownstein Corporation, which provides turnaround management and advisory services, as well as investment banking, fiduciary services, litigation consulting, investigations and valuation services. He regularly serves on the boards of directors of public and private companies, and currently serves on the boards of: P&F Industries (Nasdaq: PFIN) where he chairs the Nominating/Governance and Strategic Planning & Risk Assessment Committees, Renew Financial, where he serves as chair of the Risk Committee, and Merakey, a nonprofit with over 10,000 employees. He is a Certified Turnaround Professional, and also an NACD Board Leadership Fellow and Immediate Past President and Board Chair of the NACD Philadelphia Chapter. He has authored ninety articles and textbook chapters, is a Contributing Editor at two publications, and is a regular guest-lecturer at Harvard Business School, Wharton, NYU and elsewhere. He received JD and MBA degrees at Harvard, and B.S. (Wharton) and B.A. degrees from the University of Pennsylvania.
Rhonda L. Brauer
President and Founder of RLB Governance LLC
Rhonda Brauer is an experienced S&P 500 executive, with an entrepreneurial mindset and risk management experience. She has leveraged her senior executive background and governance expertise to spearhead successful company-investor initiatives, focusing on ESG and risk management issues at public companies, across a wide range of industries. Rhonda continues to serve her communities as the founder and president of RLB Governance. She is a uniquely qualified advisor to public companies and institutional investors, helping her clients to strategically evaluate and respond to enterprise risks and opportunities associated with rapidly evolving ESG and company-shareholder engagement issues.
Rhonda’s corporate experience is firmly grounded in having served on the senior management teams at The New York Times Company (NYT Co.) and Georgeson (a leading proxy solicitation firm), where she grew the ESG consulting business, advising more than 70 boards and C-Suites on effective shareholder and proxy advisory firm engagement and communication; and doubled the number of new clients and grew revenues by over 400%. At NYT Co. she leveraged her significant corporate, M&A, investor relations and securities law experience to provide strategic business and risk management support at a family-controlled public company, amid generational and technological changes. On the investor side, Rhonda spearheaded the Boardroom Accountability Project 2.0 for the New York City Pension Funds, emphasizing board quality, diversity and refreshment and significantly changing how board experience and expertise are presented to company stakeholders. She also strategically collaborated with different investor coalitions to lead or co-lead campaigns, including successfully launching and managing the Climate Lobbying Initiative for the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR).
Lucie Newcomb
CEO The NewComm Global Group, Inc.
Lucie Newcomb is a values-driven Global Business leader based in Silicon Valley. As the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of The NewComm Global Group, Inc. since 1994, she has a track record of setting highly effective strategic direction and building customer-centric Business-to-Business teams for public and private/startup companies with a return on investment and profitability focus.
With more than 30 years of nonprofit and advisory boards experience, Lucie is also a member of the esteemed U.S. Department of State’s Speakers Bureau through which she has trained and mentored hundreds of women entrepreneurs around the world, including Japan, Korea, Tunisia, Malaysia and Brunei. An Executive Educator, Lucie has served as a guest lecturer and advisor for startup accelerators in Kyrgyzstan, Zimbabwe, Pakistan & Malaysia.
Lucie holds a Bachelor’s degree from the University of California at Berkeley and a Master’s degree in (Global) Leadership Studies from St. Mary’s College of California. She is also an accredited facilitator in the Leadership Practices Inventory (LPI) and the Hall-Tonna (Values) Inventory and considers herself a lifelong learner. She thrives by connecting people and organizations for optimal outcomes.
Cathy L. Reece
Director, Fennemore Craig, P.C.
Cathy L. Reece is a Director at the Fennemore Craig, P.C. law firm in Phoenix, AZ. She practices in the financial restructuring, bankruptcy and creditors’ rights practice group, and has held a variety of leadership positions at state and national associations related to bankruptcy, commercial finance and corporate renewal.
