Rudman Center Advisory Board
Robert L. Bixby is executive director of The Concord Coalition, a nonpartisan organization that encourages fiscal responsibility in Washington and helps educate the public about the federal budget and the need to protect our children and future generations from excessive government debt.
Bixby joined Concord in 1992 and served in several positions, including policy director and national field director, before being named executive director in 1999. He has served as a member of the Bipartisan Policy Center’s Debt Reduction Task Force (the Domenici-Rivlin commission), which produced a model plan for comprehensive fiscal reform.
He frequently speaks around the country on the nation’s fiscal challenges and possible bipartisan solutions, including greater government efficiency, tax reform and improvements in the entitlement program. He has testified at congressional hearings and been interviewed by news organizations around the country. Bixby has appeared on ABC, NBC, CBS, PBS, CNN and Fox News.
He and The Concord Coalition’s “Fiscal Wake-Up Tour” were also featured prominently in the critically-acclaimed documentary film “I.O.U.S.A.”
Bixby has a bachelor's degree in political science from American University, a juris doctorate from George Mason University School of Law, and a master's degree in public administration from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. Before joining Concord, he practiced law and served as the chief staff attorney of the Court of Appeals of Virginia.
Mary Clare Bonaccorsi serves as the Polsinelli LLP's Cross Department Litigation Chair and Chicago Managing Partner.
Drawing on over 30 years of experience, Mary Clare is a trusted counsel and business adviser to C-suites, boards, and management teams. She has focused her practice in the health care and life sciences industries, representing pharmacies, medical equipment suppliers, home care and other post-acute providers, academic medical centers, hospitals and health systems, laboratories, ambulatory surgery centers, and dialysis providers.
Mary Clare works closely with legal, compliance, and operational teams to implement litigation avoidance strategies and takes a practical and business-minded approach to litigation. She previously served as Deputy General Counsel to a publicly-traded home infusion provider and specialty pharmacy and understands the importance of having a deep and practical understanding of clients' business operations and goals.
Mary Clare has tried cases before judges and juries in state and federal courts throughout the country, and has successfully led cases involving shareholder disputes, breach of contract claims, unfair competition and Lanham Act claims, business torts and False Claims Act/qui tam claims. She regularly defends clients in government and commercial payor disputes, audits and investigations.
Paul W. Chant is a shareholder with Cooper Cargill Chant in North Conway. He is a litigator, with an emphasis on personal injury, medical malpractice and workers’ compensation matters. He has practiced in Nashua and North Conway during his career. Paul attended the University of Vermont for undergrad and Boston University for law school.
Paul is Immediate Past President of the NH Bar Association. He previously served on the NHBA Board of Governors as both a Hillsborough Country representative, Carroll County representative, and as a Governor-at-Large. He chaired the New Hampshire Bar Foundation (NHBF) Board during years when it generated the highest IOLTA revenues. He also served on and Chaired the NH Association for Justice (NHAJ) Board. Chant is currently a member of the Access to Justice Commission as a NHBA appointee.
Over the years, Chant has sat on and/or served as Chair or President of a wide variety of Boards, including the Mount Washington Valley Economic Council, The Barnstormers Theatre, The Ham Arena, the N.H. Charitable Foundation North Country Advisory Board, the Book Love Foundation, The Tamworth Foundation, the Nashua Youth Council, the Nashua Chamber of Commerce and the CASA NH Board; he also serves as the Tamworth School Moderator.
As a young lawyer, Chant received the NHBA President’s Award for Service to the Public when he chaired the NHBA New Lawyers Committee. He has also twice received the NHAJ’s President’s Award for Service.
Paul is an avid skier and kayaker. He lives in beautiful Chocorua, NH with his wife Anne.
Brad is head of Sheehan Phinney’s Estate Planning and Probate, Government Relations and Not-for-Profit, Charitable and Religious Institutions Practice Groups. He is a past President of the firm and has practiced with Sheehan Phinney since 1973.
Brad represents many colleges and schools, religious organizations throughout New England, and hospital, nursing home and other charitable and other not-for-profit clients, and practices general corporate law. He writes a regular column, “Cook on Concord,” which appears in the New Hampshire Business Review.
As head of Sheehan Phinney’s Estate Planning and Probate Department, Brad counsels clients on drafting estate plans, planning for management of their affairs during retirement, senior living arrangements, and avoiding or minimizing the need for probate. He supervises the other attorneys and paralegals who handle Estate Planning and trust administration and probate of decedents’ estates from all of the firm’s offices. He is a member of the New Hampshire Estate Planning Council.
Senator Lou D'Allesandro is currently serving his 12th term in the New Hampshire State Senate representing District 20, which includes Manchester Wards 3, 4, 10, and 11 and the Town of Goffstown. His priorities for the upcoming legislative session include combatting the opioid crisis and improving access to mental health care.
In 2019, Senator D'Allesandro served as national chair of the Council of State Governments. He has been actively involved with the Council of State Governments throughout his time in the NH Senate and was honored to be chosen for this role by his colleagues from around the country, Canada, and Puerto Rico.
A 1961 graduate of the University of New Hampshire where he received his bachelor's degree in history, he went on to earn a master's degree from Rivier University in 1971. Lou was the recipient of the Caroline Gross Fellowship to attend the JFK School of Government at Harvard University.
D'Allesandro serves on the Board of Directors of Southern New Hampshire Services, a local community action program. He just completed nearly two decades of service as an appointee to the New England Board of Higher Education, a regional congressionally authorized compact founded in 1955 by six New England governors to promote greater opportunities in higher education for New England students. He has served as Chair and Vice Chair of this organization. As a lifelong educator, improving access to higher education has always been a passion of Senator D'Allesandro's. He has always been a vocal advocate for NEBHE's Regional Student Program (RSP), which enables students across New England to attend a college or university from another state at an in-state tuition rates if they are pursuing a program not offered at their own state's educational institutions. He has also been a longtime advocate for improved civics education and was finally able to pass legislation in New Hampshire requiring a course in civics for high school graduation. The Senator also visits each school in his district every fall to engage with students of all ages as well as teachers and administrators.
Senator D'Allesandro and his wife, Pat, reside in Manchester, New Hampshire. They have three children, nine grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren. Senator D'Allesandro recently published a book about his life and experiences in politics authored by Mark Bodanza and titled, 'Lou D'Allsandro: Lion of the New Hampshire Senate Thoughts for Presidential Hopefuls.'
Patrick E. Donovan is the 109th Associate Justice of the New Hampshire Supreme Court. Following his unanimous confirmation by the Executive Council, he was sworn in by Governor Christopher T. Sununu on May 8, 2018. He serves as the Chairman of the Court’s Advisory Rules Committee.
Justice Donovan has the unique distinction of starting his legal career at the Supreme Court as a law clerk in 1990. He joins the court from his private practice in Salem, New Hampshire where, for 18 years, he focused on civil, commercial and criminal matters. Prior to opening his own firm, Donovan worked as an associate at Goodwin Proctor in Boston then became an Assistant Attorney General with the New Hampshire Department of Justice in the Criminal Bureau. After three years, he was promoted to Senior Assistant Attorney General as a member of the Homicide Unit. He also served as Counsel to the New Hampshire House of Representatives for two years.
Donovan is a 1990 graduate of Boston College Law School where he served as an editor of the Boston College Environmental Affairs Law Review. He earned his undergraduate degree in Government and English from Dartmouth College in 1986. During college, Justice Donovan interned at the White House, played varsity football, and was selected to serve on several honor societies and leadership organizations, such as Green Key and Palaeopitus.
Patrick was born in Baltimore, Maryland then moved to Salem, New Hampshire at age 12. Donovan was known as a leader and an outstanding student-athlete at Salem High School, he captained the 1982 New Hampshire Maple Sugar Shrine Bowl Team in its victory over Vermont. He is committed to public service and has proudly served on several charitable boards, including the Boys & Girls Club of Greater Salem where he is currently on the Board of Governors and previously served as Vice President and President of the Board.
Justice Donovan and his wife Monique, who is also an attorney, have four children.
Jonathan M. Eck
Jonathan M. Eck is a shareholder and member of the litigation department at Orr & Reno, Professional Association in Concord, where his practice frequently involves handling business litigation, probate litigation disputes over inheritance and concerning fiduciary duties, and high-exposure tort claims. He handles a wide range of general commercial litigation matters for both businesses and individuals.
Jonathan is the New Hampshire Bar Association President and for more than a decade now he has been a member of the New Hampshire Bar Association’s Board of Governors. Additionally, he previously chaired the Bar Association’s Committee on Cooperation with the Courts for several years. He is also a past president of the Manchester Bar Association.
Jonathan is a trustee with the New Hampshire Supreme Court Society (and formerly served as its vice president) and is a past member of the United States District Court for the District of New Hampshire’s Federal Court Advisory Committee. Jonathan was a member of the 2018 Class of the Leadership New Hampshire program. He received the New Hampshire Bar Foundation’s Robert E. Kirby Award in 2015.
Jonathan, who was admitted to the New Hampshire Bar in 2006, received his law degree from Vermont Law School and is a graduate of Colby College in Waterville, Maine.
Jay Gale is president and founder of Inkubate, located in Portsmouth, NH. Inkubate is a powerful data analytics platform that “fingerprints,” compares, and ranks the writing styles of authors. Its groundbreaking technology offers writers and readers exciting new ways of discovering one another, and helps drive marketing and promotional strategies. Literary agents and publishers also use Inkubate to more efficiently vet books, and review content, within the plagiarism and fake-news fields.
Mr. Gale is also president of Cygnus Corporation in Portsmouth, a holding company for several companies. He is a graduate of the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and lives in South Berwick, ME.
Deb Gilmore has devoted most of the last 20 years to raising three terrific kids and volunteering in various capacities at each of their schools, including annual fundraising, co-chairing the largest on-campus event at her son’s school, heading up the volunteers for the school library, running the book fair, as well as attending countless cross-country, soccer, lacrosse, hockey, and field-hockey games.
Prior to that, she worked as a database modeling and marketing consultant for Epsilon, working with various non-profit and financial institutions. She also spent time as a strategy consultant with Bain & Company. Ms. Gilmore graduated from Bowdoin College, earning summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa honors, and earned her MBA, with honors, from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth. In addition to spending time with her family, she enjoys running, hiking, and spotting assorted birds and other wildlife on her daily walks in the nearby conservation woods with her husband and two Labrador Retrievers.
Mike was head of school at San Francisco Friends School (SFFS) from 2016 until 2022. Previously he was principal of Carolina Friends School (CFS), a pre-K¬–12 Quaker school in Durham, North Carolina.
A born teacher and a lifelong learner, Mike grew up on Chicago’s Southside, where he was the first in his family to graduate from high school. He earned his Bachelor’s degree in Classics from the College of the Holy Cross, where he was elected Phi Beta Kappa, and his Master’s degree in Education Administration, Planning, and Social Policy from Harvard University. Mike has taught Latin, Greek, and humanities, served as a college counselor and assistant director of admissions, and coached basketball, football, and lacrosse teams at Tabor Academy, St. Paul's School in Concord, NH, and Durham Academy in addition to CFS and SFFS. He also serves currently on the Board of Trustees for the Friends Council on Education.
Mike and his wife, Sue Gouchoe, met when they were coaching competing girls’ varsity basketball teams (Sue’s team won). They have two children, Kyle and Matt. Mike’s interests include reading, art, travel, outdoor adventure, the music of Bruce Springsteen, the Chicago Cubs, and long conversations with good friends.
Ned Helms was the founding director of the Institute for Health Policy and Practice at UNH for 14 years, overseeing its growth, direction, and national recognition in health policy, analytics, and applied research. His experience, which spans the health policy field, included serving as a legislative and administrative assistant for health policy within the U.S. Senate, commissioner of the N.H. Department of Health and Human Services, founder and president of a health policy consulting firm, and chief administrative officer of Blue Cross/Blue Shield of New Hampshire.
Mr. Helms has more than 30 years of experience in New Hampshire health policy and politics. A former chairman of the New Hampshire Democratic Party, he served on a healthcare study committee for the Obama Administration in 2011.
He also serves on the Board of the Endowment for Health, Goodwill of Northern New England, and on the national board of Goodwill International where he is vice chair and chair elect.
Lucy Hodder is a Professor of Law at UNH Franklin Pierce School of Law and the Director of Health Law and Policy programs for the law school, College of Health and Human Services, Institute for Health Policy and Practice. At the Law School, Lucy teaches health law, health policy and bioInnovation courses and supervises the Health Law and Policy Certificate program. Lucy focuses her research and technical assistance work with IHPP on health care systems reform, coverage and payment strategies, Medicaid policy and medical records privacy.
Lucy most recently served as Legal Counsel and Senior Health Policy Adviser to New Hampshire Governor Maggie Hassan. Lucy is an experienced New Hampshire health care and regulatory attorney. Previously a shareholder in the firm of Rath, Young and Pignatelli, PC, and Chair of the firm’s Healthcare Practice Group, Lucy was awarded the Oustanding Service in Public Sector Law by the NH Bar Association in January 2021 and named Lawyer of the Year in 2012 for Health Care Law by her peers.
A graduate of Princeton University and Georgetown University Law Center, Lucy clerked for Judge Martin L.C. Feldman, United States District Court, Louisiana, and then began her career as an attorney in the San Francisco firm of Brobeck, Phleger and Harrison, LLP.
She moved to New Hampshire with her husband in 1993 and entered into public service as an Assistant Attorney General in the New Hampshire Department of Justice. In 1998, Lucy joined Rath, Young and Pignatelli, PC, serving clients in health care, regulatory and business matters for over 15 years, before agreeing to serve as Legal Counsel for New Hampshire Governor Maggie Hassan beginning in January 2013.
Tony Kingsley is chief executive officer of Stablix, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company. He is an experienced biotech CEO with a track record leading and building organizations across multiple scientific disciplines, therapeutic areas, and stages of drug development. He most recently was president and CEO of Scholar Rock. Prior to that, he was president and CEO of TarisBio, president and COO of The Medicines Company, and the head of global commercial at Biogen.
Mr. Kingsley was a partner at McKinsey & Company based in New York and Boston. He received a BA in government from Dartmouth College and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Ovide Lamontagne is senior of counsel to Bernstein Shur. His expertise encompasses substantial legal territory. He has experience in complex business and litigation transactions, and has also served as an advisor to various non-profit and charitable institutions. From representing 350 manufactured housing owners both in litigation and in a complex real estate transaction in order to enable them to purchase their community to dissolving and reorganizing a major healthcare merger, Ovide brings strategic, creative and practical solutions to complex matters.
Ovide served as outside general to Catholic Medical Center, a 350 bed community hospital, in Manchester, NH from 1998 through 2013. His work for the hospital and the CMC Healthcare System began when he represented CMC in disaffiliating it from a merger with Elliot Hospital and reestablishing CMC as an independent community-based Catholic hospital system. Ovide also represented Franklin Regional Hospital in a merger with Lakes Region General Hospital to form LRGH in 2001 and co-authored a law review article regarding the merger. In addition to representing hospitals, Ovide has served as counsel to a number of healthcare facilities and providers.
Ovide is also passionate about his home state of New Hampshire, winning the Republican nomination for governor in 1996, and again in 2012. Coupling this unique insight in politics as well as business, Ovide is a powerhouse in the legal community. His practice primarily focuses on complex business transactions including commercial litigation as well as providing corporate counsel to a diverse array of commercial, charitable non-profit and institutional clients.
Sylvia Larsen, New Hampshire politician, and former Concord eight-year city councilor at large, represented New Hampshire’s 15th State Senate District from 1994 through 2014. She was Senate president from 2006 through 2010, and is still recognized as the longest serving Democratic female leader in the State Senate. Ms. Larsen made history from 2008 through 2010 when she led the nation’s first female majority legislative body with 13 women and 11 men. She counts, among her many legislative accomplishments, sponsoring the nation’s first tax-free college savings 529 plan, the Unique Plan, the LCHIP land protection plan, the Affordable Care Act state participation, and New Hampshire’s first paycheck-fairness plan safeguarding equal pay for equal work.
Her past professional experience includes positions with the Wisconsin State Senate, NH Gov. Hugh Gallen, the New Hampshire Historical Society, the New Hampshire Council on Developmental Disabilities, and the World Affairs Council of New Hampshire.
Community and nonprofit board service include past co-chair of the Capitol Center for the Arts capital campaign drive and the Concord Boys and Girls Club Teen Center drive. She served on the Concord Regional Development Corporation, and is an incorporator of the Merrimack County Savings Bank. She is past-chair of Families in Transition-Concord Advisory Board. Past participation on boards also includes service as a trustee of Concord Hospital and a member of the Circle Program for at-risk girls. Current Board service includes the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation Regional board, the New Hampshire Historical Society Board, and as an incorporator at Canterbury Shaker Village.
Derek D. Lick
Derek is a seasoned litigator, with nearly 25 years of experience representing clients in a variety of complex legal matters, including business, real estate, construction, and property tax disputes, and suits involving personal injury and product liability claims. Derek has represented clients in federal court, in all eleven of the state’s superior courts, as well as multiple times before the New Hampshire Supreme Court. He also represents clients throughout the State of New Hampshire in land use matters before local Planning Boards and Zoning Boards of Adjustment. He is a director and shareholder of Orr & Reno, P.A. in Concord.
He is the current President-Elect of the New Hampshire Bar Association. For more than a decade he served on the Bar Association’s Committee on Cooperation with the Courts, which is charged with fostering communication and cooperation between the bench and the bar. Additionally, he serves on the New Hampshire Supreme Court’s Advisory Committee on the Rules, having first been appointed by the Bar and then by the New Hampshire Supreme Court.
Outside of work, Derek serves as the Moderator for the Town of Sutton and for the Kearsarge Regional School District in the Lake Sunapee/Kearsarge area of the State. He also serves as Chair of the Sutton Zoning Board, as a member of the Board of Trustees of Sugar River Bank, and as a founding board member of the Concord-Lake Sunapee Rail Trail. Previously, he served on the Board of the League of New Hampshire Craftsmen and on the Kearsarge Area Council on Aging, the non-profit organization that operates a senior center serving nine towns in the Mt. Kearsarge area. When his children were younger, he also served as the leader of the local Cub Scout Pack and as a Little League Baseball coach.
Jerry Lundquist is executive chairman of the Board of Directors for Master Fluid Solutions, a leading metalworking fluids manufacturer. A member of its Board of Directors since 2016, he was elected vice chairman in 2017, and appointed operating CEO in 2020.
Over his 30-plus-year-consulting career, as one of the most tenured senior partners at McKinsey & Company, Mr. Lundquist has provided strategic advice and counsel to CEOs, their Boards of Directors, and senior management, on topics ranging from organization and governance to business strategy, mergers and acquisitions, and operational improvement. He has also worked with a wide variety of private sponsors and strategic acquirors in evaluating and executing acquisitions and divestitures in the aerospace and defense arena, and improving performance of portfolio companies. Additional areas of expertise include international cross-border acquisitions and mergers, creating and operating under proxy boards and other mechanisms to comply with ITAR and foreign ownership regulations.
His extensive experience across all segments of the aerospace and defense industry includes weapons platforms, military and space systems, defense and technical services, rotorcraft, commercial transport, and business and general aviation. He has also served clients throughout the supply chain to include avionics, propulsion systems, components, aerostructures and other system providers. Functionally, he has worked across large high tech and defense companies to improve design, optimize engineering forces, reduce the cost base of direct and indirect operations, innovate in technical and maintenance services, and enhance sales and marketing. Given the growing emphasis on environmental and energy technologies, he has worked extensively on enterprise diversification into alternative energy and green business opportunities.
Mr. Lundquist has served on the immediate staffs of the Secretary of the Air Force and the Chief of Staff of the Air Force. He earned an M.A. in International Affairs (National Securities Studies concentration) from The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy and a Master’s Degree in Public Policy from the School of Government of Harvard University. A graduate, with distinction, from the U.S. Air Force Academy, he served more than eight years as an Air Force officer and flight examiner navigator on the C-5A transport with service during the Vietnam Conflict and 1973 Mideast War. In 1985 he was selected as one of 13 White House Fellows serving the Secretary of Transportation and the White House.
Gordon J. MacDonald is the 37th Chief Justice of the New Hampshire Supreme Court. Following his confirmation by the Executive Council, he was sworn in by Governor Christopher Sununu on March 4, 2021.
MacDonald served as New Hampshire’s attorney general from April 13, 2017 until March 4, 2021. Prior to becoming attorney general, MacDonald was in private practice, most recently as a litigation partner in the Manchester office of Nixon Peabody LLP.
MacDonald has an extensive record of service to the legal profession and community. As attorney general, MacDonald served on the Supreme Court’s Committee on Character and Fitness and he co-chaired the National Association of Attorneys General Committees on Charities and Training.
While in private practice, MacDonald chaired the New Hampshire Board of Bar Examiners and, from 2014 to 2017, served as a trustee of the National Conference of Bar Examiners. He chaired the Supreme Court’s Commission on the New Hampshire Bar in the 21st Century. MacDonald served on the Supreme Court’s Access to Justice Commission and chaired the Leadership Council of the Campaign for Legal Services, which raises funds for civil legal services. He was a volunteer attorney for the New Hampshire Bar Association’s Domestic Violence Emergency Project and devoted hundreds of hours as a pro bono attorney.
In recognition of his service, MacDonald was awarded the Distinguished Service to the Public Award in 2014 from the New Hampshire Bar Association and the John E. Tobin, Jr., Justice Award from the New Hampshire Campaign Legal Services in 2017.
MacDonald attended public schools in Hanover. He graduated cum laude with high honors in his major (Government) from Dartmouth College in 1983. He earned his juris doctor from Cornell Law School, graduating magna cum laude, in 1994. At Cornell Law, he was a member of the Order of the Coif and an article editor for Cornell Law Review. Following graduation,MacDonald served as a judicial law clerk to the Hon. Norman H. Stahl of the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit in Concord.
Kate Mahan
Kathleen Mahan
Vikram Mansharamani is a global trend-watcher who shows people how to anticipate the future, manage risk, and spot opportunities. He is an academic, advisor, and author as well as a frequently sought-after speaker. Vikram adopts a uniquely global approach to his work, having worked on every continent other than Antarctica (it’s on his to-do list).
He has been a regular commentator on issues driving disruption in the global business environment. His ideas and writings have also appeared in a long list of publications, and he’s been honored by LinkedIn as their Top Voice in Money & Economics and Worth Magazine as one of the 100 Most Powerful People in Global Finance. Millions of readers have enjoyed his unique multi-lens approach to connecting seemingly irrelevant dots.
As an advisor, Vikram assists numerous boards and c-suites navigate today’s overwhelming uncertainty. He helps his clients analyze the business impact of global trends, with an emphasis on economic, political, and social risks that might generate instability. His thematic analysis and risk management is always focused on identifying opportunities within the risks. In 2022, Vikram ran for office as a candidate for the United States Senate.
Vikram is the author of Think For Yourself: Restoring Common Sense in an Age of Experts and Artificial Intelligence (HBR Press, 2020) and Boombustology: Spotting Financial Bubbles Before They Burst (Wiley, 2011, 2019). Until 2022, he was a lecturer at Harvard University, where he taught students how to make tough decisions by using multiple perspectives and systems thinking to guide their processes. He previously taught at Yale. Vikram has a PhD and two Master’s degrees from MIT and a Bachelor’s degree from Yale University, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa.
Dave serves as President and Managing Director of Sheehan Phinney. He also maintains an active practice. Dave represents firm clients in state and federal courts, arbitration and administrative proceedings. He routinely handles trade secret, non-competition, predatory hiring, discrimination, retaliation and whistleblower, wrongful termination, and healthcare related matters. He also frequently helps businesses and executives navigate employment separations.
Dave served as President of the New Hampshire Bar Association and is a recent member of the Professional Conduct Committee.
Dave is a certified mediator who serves in that role often for the state and federal courts, the New Hampshire Commission for Human Rights, and for private parties.
Jim Merrill is one of the Granite State’s most respected public affairs professionals. He serves as Managing Shareholder of the Bernstein Shur law firm in New Hampshire while also serving as New Hampshire State Director of The Bernstein Shur Group. In that role, he uses his extensive public affairs and communications experience as part of a bi-partisan public affairs firm to provide legislative, strategic, grassroots and media solutions for political, non-profit, real estate, energy, telecom, healthcare, and education clients engaged in complex matters.
Jim Merrill
Over the past 20 years, Jim has served as a senior advisor to the presidential campaigns of George W. Bush, Mitt Romney, and Marco Rubio, helping each of them navigate New Hampshire’s historic and demanding First in the Nation presidential primary. Jim has significant State House experience as well, having served for over two years on the staff of former New Hampshire Governor Stephen E. Merrill.
Working with a wide array of local, regional, and national clients, Jim develops a plan unique to the circumstances, creates a persuasive message and identifies targeted audiences. By leveraging his networks and years of campaign experience, Jim helps his clients reach and influence those targeted audiences through innovative legislative, communications and grassroots strategies, while managing each element of the campaign to allow his clients to focus on their daily business. He works with members of the media frequently and is regularly sought out for comment and context on emerging political issues.
In 2021, Jim was recognized by New Hampshire Business Review as one of New Hampshire’s 200 Most Influential Business Leaders. He was recognized in 2009 by Business NH Magazine as one of New Hampshire’s ’25 Leaders for the Future’; in 2008 by New Hampshire Magazine as a “Rising Star” and in 2004 by the New Hampshire Union Leader as one of the state’s emerging ‘Forty Under 40’ business and community leaders.
A 1994 graduate of Gettysburg College, Jim served on the staff of New Hampshire Governor Stephen E. Merrill from 1994-1997 as a legislative aide and Liaison to the Executive Council. From 1997-1998 Jim worked at the NH Department of Health and Human Services, handling legislative and policy matters before beginning law school at UNH Law (formerly Franklin Pierce Law Center) in the fall of 1998. Jim graduated from law school with his J.D. in 2001 and began his legal and consulting career at Devine Millimet where he worked for 11 years before joining Bernstein Shur in 2013.
Jim presently serves on the Advisory Board of the NH Institute of Politics at St. Anselm College and is a Trustee of the Nackey S. Loeb School of Communications, serving on the fundraising committee for the school’s annual ‘First Amendment Award’ event for the past ten years. He previously served as a director of Easter Seals NH, where he chaired the annual fundraising campaign three times, the Daniel Webster Council-Boy Scouts of America, whose annual ‘Distinguished Citizen Award’ fundraising event he has chaired three times, and the McAuliffeShepard Discovery Center.
Jim has lived in Manchester for over 20 years and resides in the North End with his wife Kristy, their two children and two dogs
Tom is the founder of Rath, Young and Pignatelli, P.C., and former Attorney General of New Hampshire. He has been actively involved in government relations since entering private practice in 1980. Tom has represented insurance and banking clients before the respective New Hampshire regulatory commissions. Among others, Tom has represented such clients as Fidelity Investments, Dartmouth College, Anthem and Gilbane on legislative, administrative and government relations issues in New Hampshire, New England and nationally. Tom also directed the public and government relations efforts for the firm's client, Northeast Utilities, in its successful acquisition of Public Service Company of New Hampshire.
He was appointed by President George H. W. Bush to be a director of the Legal Services Corporation. Tom served as the Chairman of the election campaigns of New Hampshire’s former U.S. Senators, Warren Rudman and Judd Gregg and he actively assisted in the U.S. Senate process that confirmed David Souter as Supreme Court Justice. Tom has served as a senior national advisor to the presidential campaigns of Howard Baker, Robert Dole, Lamar Alexander, Mitt Romney and George W. Bush. He has been a delegate to the 1984, 1988, 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2008, 2012 and 2016 Republican National Conventions and he was the Republican Party National Committeeman for New Hampshire from 1996-2000 and 2002-2007. Tom is widely respected as a political analyst at both the state and national level and he appears regularly on national, regional and state television newsmaker programs.
Tom has served as chairman and a member of the Board of Trustees of Daniel Webster College, he was a member of the Board of Visitors of the Rockefeller Center for the Social Sciences at Dartmouth College, a member of the Dartmouth Medical School Board of Overseers and a member of the Dartmouth College Committee on Trustees. He has been a director of the Concord Chamber of Commerce and the N.H. Business and Industry Association. Tom is currently a member of the Advisory Board of the New Hampshire Institute of Politics at St. Anselm College and he served on the Board of Directors for Associated Grocers of New England and serves on the Board of Lincoln Financial Variable Investment Products Trust. He also serves on the New England Council Board of Directors.
In 2004, Tom along with Judi Rhines founded The Rath Group, which provides specialized strategic consulting services to New England and national business and not-for-profit entities.
Margaret S. Rudman grew up in North Hollywood, CA, and in Bermuda. She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in business from Huron College, Huron, SD, and taught high school there, and in Arkansas, for several years. In Arkansas, she left teaching to join the staff of Jim Guy Tucker when he was a prosecuting attorney for the 6th Judicial District of Arkansas. She continued to work for Mr. Tucker when he was elected attorney general of Arkansas, and then elected as representative for Arkansas’s 2nd Congressional District. She moved to Washington when he was elected to Congress.
In Washington, she also worked for Congressman Cecil Heftel, 1st Congressional District, Hawaii, and as a research assistant for The Duberstein Group, a bipartisan corporate advisory and advocacy firm. She is retired and lives in Washington, D.C.
Robert Span specializes in business and employment litigation, with emphasis on aviation-related matters. He is a graduate of the Yale Law School, and received his AB Degree, Phi Beta Kappa, from Dartmouth College. For almost 30 years, Attorney Span was a partner in the Los Angeles office of the international law firm Paul Hastings LLP. In 2009, he and one of his former colleagues opened a boutique law firm, Steinbrecher & Span LLP. That firm now has 10 attorneys and represents clients in transactional and litigation matters.
He began his legal career in New Hampshire in 1971 with a firm in Laconia. In 1973, he moved to Washington, DC to be Legislative Director for US Senator Tom McIntyre (D-NH). In 1976, he moved to Los Angeles, where he remained until his move back to New Hampshire in 2017.
Attorney Span has had substantial experience in many areas of litigation, including antitrust, contracts, employment, regulated industries, and unfair competition. He represents major US airlines and their trade association in a variety of litigation, contract, and regulatory matters. He is particularly experienced in issues concerning the economics of the aviation industry, the airline/airport relationship, federal and local regulation of airlines and airports, and airline labor and employment.
He has served as President of the Association of Business Trial Lawyers, President of the Santa Monica Bar Association, a Trustee of the Los Angeles County Bar Association, a member of the County Bar’s Blue Ribbon Commission on the Superior Court, President of the County Bar’s Dispute Resolution Services, Inc., and a member of the Executive Committee of the California State Bar Association’s Antitrust and Unfair Competition Section. He is a past Chair of the American Bar Association's Forum on Air and Space Law.
He is currently a member of the Board of Directors of the New Hampshire Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
Retired federal judge and Rudman Center Advisory Board member Judge Norman H. Stahl died on April 8, 2023, leaving a legacy of committed service to both the nation and the state of New Hampshire. Judge Stahl was a mentor to many, including Rudman Center Director John Greabe, who clerked for him at the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit and the United States District Court for the District of New Hampshire.
"I am deeply saddened by the death of Judge Stahl, who was a lifelong mentor to me and to many others--including advisory board members Chief Judge Landya McCafferty and Chief Justice Gordon MacDonald--who had the privilege of clerking for him," said John Greabe, Rudman Center Director. "Judge Stahl worked as a judge until he was 90 and remained deeply interested in public affairs and the health of our nation until the end of his life. He was a great lawyer and a wonderful, caring man whose positive civic impact on the state of New Hampshire was profound and lasting."
In addition to serving as a judge, Stahl worked for many years as a partner with the firm Devine, Millimet, Stahl, and Branch. During that time, he was lead counsel for the state during the pendency of the bankruptcy of the Public Service Company of New Hampshire.
Stahl was a good friend of U.S. Sen. Warren B. Rudman. On Rudman’s recommendation, in 1990, President George H. W. Bush nominated Judge Stahl to the U.S. District Court for the District of New Hampshire, where he served until he was nominated for the First Circuit Court of Appeals, succeeding David H. Souter after Souter was appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Stahl, who joined the Rudman Center Advisory Board in 2018, was particularly proud of his work in obtaining funding for and choosing the architect for the Rudman Courthouse in Concord. He will be greatly missed by all who had the privilege and pleasure of knowing him and working with him.
Dr. Katrina Lantos Swett serves as President of the Lantos Foundation for Human Rights and Justice, established in 2008 to continue the legacy of her father, the late Congressman Tom Lantos. Under her leadership, The Lantos Foundation has rapidly become a distinguished and respected voice on key human rights concerns.
Dr. Lantos Swett is the former Chair and Vice-Chair of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) and teaches Human Rights and American Foreign Policy at Tufts University. She currently serves as Co-Chair of the Board of the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea (HRNK) and the Budapest based Tom Lantos Institute. Dr. Lantos Swett also serves on the Advisory Board of UN Watch, and the annual Anne Frank Award and Lecture.
Lantos Swett earned a Political Science degree from Yale University at the age of 18, a Juris Doctor degree from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law, and a PhD in History from The University of Southern Denmark.
Adapted from the Lantos Foundation for Human Rights and Justice
Richard Swett was nominated by President Clinton to be U.S. Ambassador to Denmark on April 2, 1998 and was confirmed by the Senate on July 31, 1998.
In 1990, Richard N. Swett was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives 2nd Congressional District of New Hampshire. In Congress, he served as a member of the Committee on Public Works and Transportation; a member of the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology; and a member of the Congressional Delegation for Relations with the European Parliament and the Congressional Human Rights Caucus. Congressman Swett co-authored the landmark Congressional Accountability Act. He also authored the Transportation for Livable Communities Act and introduced bills to encourage energy conservation and use of renewable energy. In 1996, after winning a primary contest, Congressman Swett was the Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate. He was narrowly defeated in the general election.
In the private sector, Congressman Swett's range of business experience encompasses architectural design, project management, corporate management, project development, and finance. He has been active in real estate design and development, alternate energy development, energy conservation, industrial development, and export promotion. For several years he has operated a consulting firm doing business in the United States and eastern and central Europe. He is a licensed architect in California and New Hampshire.
Congressman Swett is a member of the American Institute of Architects, is the state Chair of the U.S. Olympic Committee, and is involved in various other civic organizations. He is also a contributing author to the book, A Nation Reconstructed: A Quest for the Cities That Can Be, and had numerous articles published as a Member of Congress.
Congressman Swett was born on May 1, 1957, in Lower Merion, Pennsylvania. He received a Bachelor's Degree in Architecture in 1979 from Yale University. The U. S. Junior Chamber of Commerce named Congressman Swett one of the Ten Outstanding Young Americans in 1993. He was also named one of the Ten Most Influential People in New Hampshire by New Hampshire Business Magazine that same year. He has been awarded the Presidential Citation by the American Institute of Architects, as well as numerous honorary degrees including an Honorary Doctor of Laws Degree from Franklin Pierce College in Ringe, New Hampshire. He received the National Award from the Residential Caregivers Association for work on behalf of residential care facilities throughout the United States. The American Legion awarded him the National Economic Commission Citation of Appreciation.
Adapted from the U.S. Department of State Archive Information
Mary Elizabeth Tenn joined Tenn And Tenn, P.A. in 2001. Mary’s practice areas include personal injury, domestic relations and complex commercial litigation matters in New Hampshire. As part of Mary’s diverse practice, she regularly represents both corporations and individual clients.
Mary has achieved multi-million dollar verdicts and settlements for her personal injury clients.
Mary is admitted to practice in all state and federal courts in New Hampshire and Massachusetts. She also is admitted to practice in the United States Supreme Court.
Prior to joining Tenn And Tenn, P.A., Mary worked as a litigation attorney at Hale and Dorr LLP in Boston, now WilmerHale. During that time, Mary also served as Special Assistant District Attorney for Middlesex County and prosecuted cases on behalf of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
Mary is a frequent trial advisor for the Trial Advocacy Workshop at Harvard Law School and a judge for the Harvard Law School First-year Moot Court Program.
Mary received her J.D. degree, cum laude, from Harvard Law School, where she served as Co-Chairperson of the Tenant Advocacy Project and as an editor of Harvard Civil Rights Civil Liberties Law Review. She received a B.A., summa cum laude, from Boston College, where she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and awarded membership in the National Jesuit Honor Society --The Order of the Cross and Crown.
Born and raised in Manchester, Mary is active in local legal, community and charitable organizations.
Mary serves on the board of the New Hampshire Bar Foundation. She also is the State Chair for New Hampshire for the Fellows of the American Bar Foundation. Mary is a past president of the New Hampshire Bar Association. She also is a past president of the Manchester Bar Association and currently serves on the Manchester Bar executive committee.
Mary previously served on the Board of Directors for the Girl Scouts of Swift Water Council and the Board of Trustees for Leadership New Hampshire.
In 2005, Mary was recognized by the New Hampshire Bar Foundation and presented the prestigious Robert E. Kirby award for demonstrating the traits of civility, courtesy, perspective and excellence in the practice of law.
Mary repeatedly has been selected for inclusion in Super Lawyers, an annual rating service of outstanding lawyers who have attained a high degree of peer recognition and professional achievement in the areas of personal injury and family law. She also has been recognized for her work in family law in Best Lawyers in America, one of the oldest and most respected peer-review publications.
In 2016, New Hampshire Magazine recognized Mary as the Best Lawyer in Family Law. Mary, along with her brother and law partner James J. Tenn, Jr., also was selected by Business NH Magazine as New Hampshire’s top attorney in Family Law in 2015. She previously received the recognition in February, 2012 when she was voted New Hampshire’s Top Attorney in Family Law.
In 2016, Mary was inducted as a fellow of the Litigation Counsel of America, a peer-selected honorary society of lawyers vetted for their skill, expertise and service.
Appointed by the New Hampshire Supreme Court, Mary currently serves as Chair of the New Hampshire Board of Bar Examiners. She was previously appointed by the New Hampshire Supreme Court to serve on the Professional Conduct Committee and the Hearings Panel.
Sindiso Mnisi Weeks is assistant professor, Public Policy of Excluded Populations, in the School for Global Inclusion and Social Development at the University of Massachusetts Boston, and adjunct associate professor in the Department of Public Law at the University of Cape Town (UCT). At UCT she was previously a senior researcher in the Rural Women’s Action Research Programme, combining research, advocacy, and policy work on women, property, governance, and participation under African customary law and the South African Constitution.
Dr. Mnisi Weeks received her DPhil in Law from the University of Oxford’s Centre for Socio-Legal Studies as a Rhodes Scholar, and previously clerked for then Deputy Chief Justice of the Constitutional Court of South Africa, Dikgang Moseneke. She has since taught African Customary Law in the Department of Private Law at UCT, Law and Society in the Department of Political Science at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and for the Consortium for Graduate Studies in Gender, Culture, Women, and Sexuality (GCWS) in the School of Humanities, Arts and Social Studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
In 2013-2014, Dr. Mnisi Weeks was a resident scholar at UNH Franklin Pierce School of Law, where she held a fellowship for the completion of a book manuscript that has since been published under the title, Access to Justice and Human Security: Cultural Contradictions in Rural South Africa (Routledge, 2018). She is the co-author of African Customary Law in South Africa: Post-Apartheid and Living Law Perspectives (OUPSA, 2015) and, being a social justice thinker and scholar-activist, she often writes for the popular press.
Dr. Mnisi Weeks serves on the Board of New Hampshire Legal Assistance, among others, and lives in Nashua with her husband, Daniel Weeks, and their three children.
Rob Werner is the New Hampshire state director for the League of Conservation Voters, a national advocacy organization that works to turn environmental values into national, state, and local priorities. He formerly served as the national field director of Americans for Campaign Reform.
A public policy analyst and advocate, Mr. Werner has organized successful advocacy and legislative campaigns for the American Heart Association, Smoke-Free NH Alliance, and the American Cancer Society. He has extensive experience in the healthcare sector, working in the private, government, and non-profit areas.
He is a graduate of Northfield Mount Hermon School and the University of Vermont. He earned a Master of Business Administration from Suffolk University as well as two certificates from the Harvard Kennedy School, Senior Managers in State and Local Government and Climate Change and Energy Policy. He is serving his sixth term on the Concord City Council, chairing the Energy and Environment Advisory Committee
Active in the Greater Concord, NH Chamber of Commerce, Mr. Werner serves on the State Government Affairs Committee. He serves on the board of the Harvard Club of New Hampshire and chairs the Harvard Kennedy School New Hampshire Network. He is a graduate of Leadership New Hampshire and a member of the Bow, NH Rotary Club.
Senator Becky Whitley represents District 15 in New Hampshire, which includes Concord, Penacook, Hopkinton, Henniker, and Warner. She’s a lawyer, mom, and native Granite Stater, committed to re-imagining how we can make a healthy New Hampshire for everyone — regardless of race, gender identity, zip code, or economic status.
Senator Whitley received her Bachelor of Business Administration (B.B.A.) from George Washington University and her J.D. from Vermont Law School. After graduating from law school, she worked at the Disability Rights Center – NH (DRC) as a staff attorney, representing individuals navigating New Hampshire’s complicated service delivery system.
From 2015-2017, she transitioned from practicing law to working with the Environmental Defense Fund as a consultant and climate organizer for Moms Clean Air Force. She has also worked as the Policy Director for the Children’s Behavioral Health Collaborative, a system transformation project housed at New Futures.
In 2020, she was elected to the New Hampshire State Senate representing District 15. In her first term in the Senate, Senator Whitley sponsored bills related to COVID economic relief, improving access to mental health treatment, supporting children & working families, addressing food insecurity, supporting local farms, criminal justice reform, and racial justice. She currently sits on the Senate Judiciary and Health and Human Services Committees and the Joint Legislative Committee on Administrative Rules (JLCAR).
Senator Whitley was recognized by the Parent Information Center and New Hampshire Family Voices for her family engagement work. She was named the 2019 Citizen of the Year by the New Hampshire chapter of the National Association of Social Workers and was named the 2021 Legislator of the Year Award by the New Hampshire Council on Developmental Disabilities.
She also serves on the Fellows Advisory Board for the Progressive Turnout Project, and is a member of the Christian Education Board at the First Congregational Church of Hopkinton, NH. After many wonderful years of living in Concord, Senator Whitley now lives in Hopkinton with her husband, Steven, and their elementary-aged son.
Danette Wineberg has worked as an in-house lawyer for more than 25 years, serving three companies as chief legal officer.
She was vice president, general counsel and secretary of The Timberland Company from 1997 until its acquisition by VF Corporation.
Ms. Wineberg serves on the National Board of the Association of Corporation Counsel, and on the board of ACC’s Northeast Chapter. She is a member of the Michigan Bar and the American Bar Association, as well other professional organizations.
She is a graduate, cum laude, of The University of Michigan Law School and received her B.A. in English from Oberlin College.
