Management

Founders
Carol Fishman Cohen and Vivian Steir Rabin are the co-authors of the acclaimed career reentry book Back on the Career Track: A Guide for Stay-at-Home Moms Who Want to Return to Work, and the co-founders of iRelaunch.com, a company producing career reentry programs, events and content for employers, universities, organizations and individuals.

Carol and Vivian have presented their career reentry strategies to more than 4,700 people at nearly 85 events since 2006. iRelaunch's signature products include the Career Relaunch Forum, a one day, multi-employer sponsored, return to work conference held at educational institutions around the country, Relaunch Circles, a four session, small group coach led program with a curriculum based on Back on the Career Track, and the Back on the Career Track Webinar series. iRelaunch also designs customized career reentry programs, events, and content for employers and universities.  Both Harvard Business School graduates, Carol, a mother of four, and Vivian, a mother of five, resumed careers in very different ways after taking multi-year career breaks.

Carol Fishman Cohen

• Co-author, Back on the Career Track

• Frequent speaker and consultant to corporations, universities, non-profits and mothers groups on the topic of career reentry

• Over 20 years of diverse business experience, primarily in finance

• Mother of four children ages 14 to 20

• Relaunched at Bain Capital in high yield debt management after 11 years out of full time workforce

• Subject of Harvard Business School case on Professional Career Reentry

• BA from Pomona College, MBA from Harvard Business School

Vivian Steir Rabin

• Co-author, Back on the Career Track

• Frequent speaker and consultant to corporations, universities, non-profits and mothers groups on the topic of career reentry

• Over 21 years of diverse business experience, including leadership roles in finance and human resources, in the media, financial services, consulting and executive search industries

• Mother of five children ages 12 to 20

• Relaunched by joining a small executive search firm after seven years out of the workforce

• BA from Harvard College, MBA from Harvard Business School

Team 

Elisa Joseph Anders
Director, Special Projects

Elisa is responsible for iRelaunch special projects ranging from developing products to exploring new market opportunities. She brings to this role her strong background in product/program development and client management.

Elisa has been an independent marketing and management consultant since 1993. During the first part of her career, Elisa worked as a consultant for two consulting firms and as a marketing manager for several consumer information and interactive services companies. When her three children were young, she stepped off the traditional track and cut back on her consulting business. She took on occasional consulting projects, worked part time as a musician, and did community service work during this time.

She relaunched her career in 2006. Recently Elisa produced a documentary for the Arlington Academy of Hope, a non-profit that brings quality education and basic health care to children in rural Uganda. Her documentary, From One Village: A Story of Hope in Uganda, can be seen on arlingtonacademyofhope.org. Elisa received her Bachelor's degree from Wellesley College and her MBA from The Wharton School.

Betsy directs "all things technical" at iRelaunch, ranging from website development and design to advice on webinar creation and on line purchasing. 

Betsy spent 11 years in software engineering and management at electronic imaging and educational software companies before taking time off to be with her two children. She relaunched her career as a website designer nine years ago. Through her website design company, http://www.glissadedesign.com/, Betsy has helped many small businesses and non-profit organizations, primarily in the Boston area, develop and/or expand their web presence.

Betsy has a Bachelor's degree in Mathematics from MIT.

Elizabeth Hansen, Forum Outreach Director

Elizabeth is responsible for developing relationships with universities and organizations interested in helping their constituents on career break reenter the workforce. Elizabeth has successfully relaunched twice, so she remains keenly aware of both the valuable benefits of and urgent need for career services for professionals returning to work after some time away.

Elizabeth most recently built a service business from a concept to a thriving company serving thousands of customers, by establishing strong relationships and fostering a culture of exceptional customer service. Prior to that, she took a 10 year career break from her work as an attorney.

 Elizabeth has a BA from The College of William and Mary, and a JD from Suffolk Law School. She lives in Virginia with her husband and children.

Director, Business Development

Julie brings to iRelaunch a strong background in relationship building between corporations and universities. At iRelaunch she is responsible for developing relationships with employers interested in educating, recruiting, and reintegrating those on career break back into the workforce.

Prior to joining iRelaunch, Julie served as the project manager for Alumni Career Services at Harvard Business School focusing on the careers of female alumnae. She advised alumnae who were in transition and built relationships with corporations leading the efforts to advance women into positions of leadership. Julie also spent four years with the Center for Corporate Citizenship at Boston College where she was responsible for developing and managing relationships with the Center's 320+ Fortune 1000 members.

Julie received her Bachelor's degree in French Literature and Economics at Union College, and her MBA from Boston College. She spent seven years living and attending school in France, India and Hong Kong. Julie is a relauncher, having recently taken a career break to move and settle her family in Calgary, Canada, where she now resides.

Advisory Board

Nina Eigerman

Vice President, New Growth Platforms, Avery Dennison

Nina Eigerman is an innovator in flexible work. A frequent contributor to work/life balance conversations, she has spoken on the topic at Harvard Business School, the MIT Sloan School of Management, the Conference Board, and other industry forums.  Nina's role at Avery Dennison focuses on strategic growth opportunies for the company.

Prior to joining Avery Dennison, Nina was Partner at a-connect, a staffing firm bringing together independent professionals with project work at major corporations, where she focused on the retail and consumer sectors and other marketing intensive industries.  Previous experience includes her role as President of Aquent Consulting, the process consulting arm of marketing and creative services staffing firm Aquent, and as a consultant with McKinsey and Company in Boston. Over the course of seven years at McKinsey, she became a leader of the North American Sales Force and Channel Management Practice, bringing customer-centric strategies to both retailers and manufacturers.

Nina graduated from the MIT Sloan School of Management and has a BA from Harvard College.

Jules Pieri

Founder, Daily Grommet

Jules is founder of Daily Grommet, an upcoming product discovery channel for social media. She was previously President and C.O.O. of Ziggs.com, a social networking site for professionals.

Jules has been building consumer brands and developing innovative products for over twenty years. She held positions as Vice President of Strategic Planning at Stride Rite Corporation and Director of Strategic Marketing and Licensing at Keds Corporation. She also worked with Playskool as a long term product strategy consultant, and was a Vice President at Design Continuum, a leading international product design and engineering consultancy. She lived in Ireland from 2001-2005, where she consulted to consumer facing enterprises. Jules' expertise and enthusiasms span retail, brand, and product strategy

Early in her career she worked as an industrial designer at Sagem S.A. (Paris), and Burroughs (Detroit). She was also a graphic designer at Data General (Boston). Jules studied Industrial Design, Graphic Design, and French at the University of Michigan. She was conferred an MBA degree by Harvard University, where she was selected by faculty to receive the Ellis-LeBaron Fellowship. She lives in suburban Boston with her husband and three sons. Jules continues to enthusiastically study the French language and never turns down an invitation to hike or go see a play.

Hilary Stark

Former Vice President, Encore Program Manager, Lehman Brothers

Hilary Stark was, most recently, a vice president at Lehman Brothers and manager of the Firm's global reentry program, Encore®. While there, she collaborated with the firm's management to create and implement a comprehensive on-ramping program that included on-boarding and professional development. She also served as the program's ongoing career advisor and assisted with performance management.

Prior to Lehman Brothers, Hilary had off-ramped for 12-years after a decade-long career as an investment banker with UBS Securities, Barclays Bank, Bankers Trust and Lehman Brothers.

Hilary received a BA from Wellesley College and an MBA from the Harvard Business School. She lives in Connecticut with her husband and two sons.