Theodore Howell (Partner, Partridge, Snow & Hahn) is a member of the Firm’s Corporate Practice Group. His practice includes contract negotiation, business formation, equity financing, mergers and acquisitions, employment and consulting arrangements, buy/sell arrangements and business succession, technology transfer and licensing, and commercial borrowing and lending. Ted was named a "Rising Star" in the Business/Corporate practice area by Rhode Island Super Lawyers.  He has organized an internal group designed to provide effective legal advice to entrepreneurs, and participates in the Firm’s GreenMatters™ Program, a firm initiative designed to advise the firm as well as clients on legal matters relating to sustainable practices.  Prior to attending law school, Ted received his Bachelors of Science and Engineering in the field of Mechanical Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania. Subsequently, he was a technical consultant at the Gillette Company in its South Boston, Massachusetts, manufacturing facility. www.psh.com

Carolyn Lavin (President, Lavin Marketing) has more than twenty-five years of experience in marketing communications with a focus on technology companies.  Carolyn provides strategic advice and action to established and emerging companies to building a marketing-centric culture, to communicate with target audiences, and to generate awareness in the community via public relations. She has helped technology companies hone presentations for investors, fine-tune their messaging for print and web, and build reputation via editorial coverage. www.lavinmarketing.com

Tobias Lederberg (Partner at Lederberg & Blackman LLP) focuses on providing legal and business advice to start-up and emerging companies.  He counsels businesses from the pre-formation stage to incorporation, to friends and family funding, angel financing, several rounds of institutional equity financing and ultimately to merger, acquisition or IPO.  Prior to forming Lederberg & Blackman LLP, Tobias was a long-standing partner at one of Rhode Island’s largest law firms and prior to that worked at two Boston-based law firms. Tobias’ practice includes representing businesses in connection with their general corporate needs, including acquisitions, sales and mergers, shareholder and partnership agreements, joint ventures, employment law, licensing, capital fundraising through both equity and debt financing, and a variety of other general business issues. Tobias also has extensive experience in intellectual property law, internet law and social media issues.   Tobias graduated from Harvard College with an AB in American Studies and earned his law degree from Boston University School of Law.  He frequently lectures at colleges and universities on issues involving start-up companies and previously served as the Chairman of the Slater Fund for Manufacturing and Design and on the Board of Directors for the Slater Technology Fund. tlederberg@LB-legal.com

Joe Loberti (Principal, Navia Business Development)  has over 17 years of experience working in the High Tech and Consumer Environment. His most previous position was Senior Vice President for American Power Converision (APC).  Joe oversaw a $1.5 Billion Product Group spanning products that touched consumers, small business and enterprise. Among the recent initiatives was a launch of environmentally focused products for the consumer and small business — a first in the power protection industry. Other projects include: developing roadmaps and product portfolios for UPS’s in the 0-10kVA line; creating new mobile products line, technology cables and peripherals; developing new audio video surge protectors, line conditioners and UPS’s; and starting up R&D facili-ties in Taiwan, China, India, Brazil. www.navia-bd.com

Stephen Noyes  (Audit Principal Batchelor, Frechette, McCrory, Michael & Co.) Steve brings twenty years of experience working with private companies primarily in the technology, manufacturing, construction and services industries. In addition to his extensive audit and financial reporting experience, Steve has worked with clients providing assistance regarding mergers and acquisitions, budgeting and projections, bank financing, and development of management reporting packages. Throughout his career he has worked with privately held-family owned and private equity backed companies providing their management team and owners assistance in accounting and financial reporting matters, along with various strategic financial consulting. Steve began his career in public accounting by joining a local mid-sized accounting firm which was later acquired by a national accounting firm where Steve continued working with privately held and private equity backed companies.  Steve is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, the Massachusetts Society of Certified Public Accountants, former member of the Finance Committee of the Cape Cod YMCA and a volunteer for the Massachusetts Society of Certified Public Accountants mentoring program. www.bfmmcpa.com

Chris Graham is a Partner with Edwards, Angell, Palmer & Dodge, Co-Partner-in-Charge of their Providence, Rhode Island office and serves as co-chair to the firm's Business Law Department.  Chris advises business clients of all types, although he invests much of his time on matters involving private equity. He counsels start-up enterprises and assists in their capital formation, represents emerging companies and private equity investors in different rounds of equity financing, and negotiates acquisitions, dispositions and management buyouts for corporate buyers and sellers, private equity funds and management teams. His clients include four private equity funds, a Fortune 500 company, an international conglomerate with US operations, several manufacturing companies and numerous university-based start-ups.  Chris's work in private equity provides him with a unique understanding of the concerns of each party involved in a typical transaction and a considerable network of personal contacts so that he is well-suited to assist clients in planning and implementing strategies, as well as anticipating issues and crafting creative and cost-effective solutions.  He also serves as counsel to several non-profits. Chris has been listed in the Corporate, Financial Institutions Law and Banking Law sections of The Best Lawyers in America for more than 10 years and in the Rhode Island Corporate/M&A Section of Chambers USA: America's Leading Lawyers for Business.  Chris has also been named a Rhode Island Super Lawyer since 2007 by Law & Politics published by Rhode Island Monthly magazine.  cgraham@eapdlaw.com

Jeff Jefferson:  is a partner with Edwards, Angell, Palmer & Dodge and a member of the Firm's Private Equity, Venture Capital and Mergers & Acquisitions Groups.  He has significant experience representing private equity funds and both public and private companies. Jeff is familiar with the wide variety of private equity transaction structures, including common and preferred stock purchases, asset purchases, leveraged buyouts and recapitalizations. Jeff's practice also includes all types of merger and acquisition transactions for public and private companies. Prior to joining the firm, Jeff clerked for a year for Judge Richard L. Nygaard of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.  tjefferson@eapdlaw.com.  

Peter Dorsey:  Peter is the president of the Business Development Company of Rhode Island. The Business Development Company of Rhode Island,  a non-bank lender established in 1953 and based in Providence, provides direct and gap financing to companies in Rhode Island and nearby Massachusetts and Connecticut that need funding for working capital, product development, fixed asset purchases, and business acquisition.   Dorsey, who joined the BDCRI in 1995, has three decades of financing and investing experience. Prior to being named president, he served as senior vice president, managing the company’s loan and investment portfolio and directing the company’s new business underwriting activities. Dorsey has structured more than 100 mezzanine debt packages, asset-based lines of credit, and SBA 7a term loans.  Peter is also a managing director of the Cherrystone Angel Group and supports the organization’s steering and due diligence committees. pdorsey@bdcri.com

Chris Catanzaro (Principal, Navia Business Development)  has over 20 years of senior level sales and marketing experience working in a wide variety of industries ranging from High Tech to Heavy Equipment. Chris was responsible for growing American Power Conversion’s consumer unit from $20 million to $110 million in a four year period. Recently Chris has created Navia, a business development firm, to share his expertise with a wider audience allowing them to achieve an unprecedented level of success. www.navia-bd.com

Jeffrey M. Allain (Audit Manager, Batchelor, Frechette, McCrory, Michael & Co.) joined BFMM in 2007 as an audit manager. Formerly, he was in the audit group at McGladrey & Pullen in Boston. He graduated from Assumption College in 1998 with a major in accounting. Jeff has spent his career in public accounting working with mid-size companies. He is experienced in audits of high-tech, manufacturing, wholesale, distribution and construction companies as well as pension plan audits.  He is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the Massachusetts and Rhode Island Societies of Certified Public Accountants. Jeff is licensed as a CPA in Rhode Island and Massachusetts. He is an active member of the Providence Chamber of Commerce and the East Greenwich Chamber of Commerce.  Jeff is also a member of the non-profit organization Surfride.  www.bfmmcpa.com

Hamzah Ansari (Founder, Accelereach) is a graduate of Brown’s Master’s Program in Innovation Management and Entrepreneurship (PRIME) and a founder of a recent start-up, Accelereach, which facilitates communication between patients and their wellness programs or healthcare providers through an automated web-based service.  Accelereach was part of the first Betaspring cohort and is off to a great start.  Prior to coming to Providence Hamzah held a number of managerial and finance positions in an international holding company which operates in commodities, telecommunications, construction, advertising and insurance industries with cumulative revenue in excess of $100 million.  He has a master’s in digital culture and technology from King’s College, University of London and a undergraduate electronics and communications engineering degree from the University of Nottingham.  Hamzah is a RI-CIE Entrepreneur in Residence, available to assist members and incubator start-ups with advice and coaching.
hansari@accelereach.com

Sharon Ruggieri (COO, Sexy Period) is an MBA graduate from the MIT Sloan School of Management. She was an Endeavor eMBA during the summer of her MBA program. The Endeavor eMBA program places MBA students with high-impact entrepreneurs in emerging markets in need of strategy consulting services in order to stimulate the growth of entrepreneurship as a tool for economic development. Sharon was also Co-President of the 2011 MIT Latin American Conference and recipient of the MIT Sloan Social Impact Fellowship and the MIT Sloan Henry Ford Leadership Award for her leadership while at MIT.

Prior to MIT, Sharon worked as an strategy consultant for entrepreneurs in Mexico and was a Fulbright-Garcia Robles Binational Business grantee working to improve US-Mexico business relations while working as a Structured Finance Manager at Banorte  (one of Mexico’s largest financial institutions) and studying in a graduate program at EGADE (the business school of the Tecnologico de Monterrey). Sharon has also worked as a Process Engineer at Texas Instrument and as an engineering research grantee at the University of Puerto Rico.

Sharon holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering and a BA in Spanish from the International Engineering Program at the University of Rhode Island. Contact her at