Bob Alig

Bob is a Strategic Enrollment Consultant at Liaison International, supporting their launch of BusinessCAS. Formerly, he was the executive vice president, School Products Group, of the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC) and vice president of the College Board’s middle states regional office, where he and his team promoted college and career readiness for all K-12 and higher education students. He also held numerous positions at his alma mater University of Pennsylvania, including Director of MBA Admissions and Financial Aid at the Wharton School and Assistant Vice President of Alumni Relations.

Brent Ashton

Brent joined EY as a staff member in 1994 upon graduation from Washington University in St. Louis. He has been a Partner in the Assurance Services practice since 2006. In this role, Brent has served both publicly-owned and privately-held companies with regional, national and global presence. His client base is comprised of companies from a variety of industries including but not limited to technology, diversified industrial products, manufacturing and distribution. He has also been involved in numerous acquisitions and divestitures, public and private debt and equity financing transactions.  He also ran the EY Entrepreneur of the Year program in New Jersey from 2011 to 2016.

In addition to his professional role as a CPA and partner at Ernst & Young, Brent is an active participant in a variety of non-profit organizations. Brent is a current member of Strategic Planning Committee for the New Jersey Society of CPAs (NJSCPA). He also currently serves as a Board Member for Junior Achievement of Central New Jersey.

Jon Bernstein - Vice Chair

Jon Bernstein is the Managing Member of BlackBern Partners and a board member of investments Corfin Industries, Westfall Technik, and EOL Electronics. Prior to founding BlackBern, Mr. Bernstein worked for First Manhattan Consulting Group, Pershing Square Capital Management, and Founders Equity. He holds a BS in Electrical Engineering from Cornell University and an MBA with Honors from Columbia Business School.

Melanie Girton

Melanie Girton is a Partner at Odell Girton Siegel, LLC. As a founding partner, Ms. Girton advises growth and later stage companies on transactional matters relating to various aspects of commercial operations, including the review and negotiation of contracts, business structuring and privacy matters. She has advised clients ranging from individuals to the Fortune 100.

Ms. Girton began her career at Kramer Levin Naftalis and Frankel LLP as a corporate associate in 1997. Ms. Girton continued her career as in-house counsel for Warner Music, Inc., where she assisted with employment matters, privacy issues, digital music licensing and joint ventures. Ms. Girton is a graduate of the University of Southern California and a magna cum laude graduate of the New York Law School, where she was an officer of the Media Law Project and an articles editor of the Law Review. Ms. Girton is a member of the ABA and its sections on Sports and Entertainment and Intellectual Property Law. She is admitted to practice in New York.

Ms. Girton is a former dedicated Minds Matter NYC volunteer who was involved for 7 years, first as a mentor and then building the program for seniors from its original informal arrangement to a more developed effort.

Deborah McGinn - Secretary/Treasurer

Deborah McGinn recently retired from the William T. Grant Foundation where she held the position of vice president for finance and administration and assistant treasurer. She was formerly the vice president of finance and administration for The After-School Corporation (TASC), now ExpandED Schools. Ms. McGinn has a strong track record in nonprofit finance and administration. Prior to her tenure at TASC, she held senior-level positions at the Fund for Public Schools, EDF, and E+Co. The first 25 years of her career were spent at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, where she started her career as an accountant and rose through the organization to hold the position of deputy treasurer at the time of her departure.  Deborah was a first generation college student who earned her BA in Economics from Douglass College of Rutgers University.

Michael Recht

Mr. Recht has been actively involved with Minds Matter since 2005, when he began the process of co-founding the Chicago Chapter. Over the last 12 years, he co-founded the Chicago Chapter, served as its Director of Mentees and sat on both the Chicago and National Governance Boards.

Professionally, Mr. Recht is a Managing Director at TowerBrook Capital Partners. Previously, Mr. Recht was a Senior Associate with the Retail & Consumer team at Apax Partners. Before joining Apax he worked for Thoma Cressey Bravo, focusing on investments in the consumer products and services sector. Prior to Thoma Cressey, Mr. Recht was a member of the Technology & Defense teams at CIBC World Markets. Mr. Recht earned his MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and his B.A. from Williams College.

Elvis Rodriguez

Elvis Rodriguez, Research Associate, is a member of Adelante’s research team. Mr. Rodriguez joined the firm in December 2015. He began his career at Morgan Stanley, where he interned while completing his undergraduate studies. Mr. Rodriguez has worked in market data sales roles at Bloomberg, Interactive Data, and Tradeweb, as well as trading roles at Goldman Sachs Asset Management as a High Yield Trader and Barclays Capital in Electronic Trading.

Mr. Rodriguez attended Columbia University and received his B.S. in Engineering. He earned his M.B.A. in Finance from the Darden Graduate School of Business, University of Virginia. Mr. Rodriguez has been an active Minds Matter alumnus and Advisory Board member, having served as a mentor and active donor. Mr. Rodriguez has also been an active Darden alumnus and Alumni Board member. He is an alumnus of the Minds Matter NYC program.