Every member of the Nexus Partners team has over twenty-five years of operating and executive experience. They have worked in companies of all sizes from start-ups to Fortune 500 companies. The Nexus Partners’ team’s experience is focused in the technology, telecommunications & broadcast networks and financial services sectors.
Core Team
Steve Adelman, Managing Director
Steve is passionate about identifying critical inflection points, crafting customer-centric strategies and applying them to our clients' growth and innovation objectives. Unlike many consultants, Steve works with clients with an attitude of inquisitive collaboration. He is an expert in marketing strategy, innovation, strategic planning, and partnerships & alliances. Steve has worked with a range of clients including Hitachi, Palm, the Omidyar Network, American Express, Merrill-Lynch, the US Secret Service and numerous early stage companies across Asia, Europe and the Middle East. Steve was a Senior Managing Partner at Gartner Consulting and was also at Booz & Co. and the MAC Group/Gemini Consulting. Prior to founding Nexus Partners, Steve was VP of Corporate Development at Novell, responsible for investments, acquisitions and strategic partnerships. Steve holds a BS in computer science from Columbia University (with honors), and an MBA from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania (with honors). He is currently an Adjunct Professor at Hult International Business School and The Wharton School, and was an Adjunct Professor at USF’s Graduate School of Business. Steve served as a paratrooper in the Israel Defense Forces.
Don Sanders, Senior Partner and Director of Lean Innovation™ Practice
Don enjoys increasing the impact and effectiveness of innovation within a firm and for its customers, markets and margins. He approaches problem solving through the lens of Lean Innovation, creating the most customer value in the least time and with minimal risk. Don has been an executive in Fortune 500 companies and a founder of venture-backed startups, and he moves comfortably between the two. He has worked with a wide range of technology and financial services clients including Stanford Office of Technology Licensing, Lawrence Livermore Labs, AT&T, Bell Canada, Silicon Valley Bank, The Development Bank of Mexico, venture capital firms and portfolio companies, and many mid-market companies in the Bay Area. Don has a BS in mechanical engineering from the University of Oklahoma, taught capital planning and engineering economics at the Bell System Center for Technical Education, and was a Member of Adjunct Staff at RAND Corp in Santa Monica, CA.
Stephen Goodman, Senior Partner and Director of Cambridge MA office
Stephen likes to help firms build and implement innovative and revenue-centric ways to grow their customers, markets and influence. Don't be surprised to see him applying smart metrics and global perspective to his work. With long experience in marketing, new business development and strategy includes work for Cisco, Nokia, Orange, Hitachi, ETS, 10Blade, Wireless Grid and a UAE investment authority. Stephen led an enterprise strategy group at Sun Microsystems, where he pioneered innovative methods to successfully increase brand and demand generation through market research and analytics, global partnerships, and thought-leadership marketing for the Chairman, CEO, CTO, EVP of Global Sales, and SVP of Cloud Computing. Prior to Sun, he built a market growth and innovation firm that originated from M.I.T.-based research, held positions with the Center for Applied Research (affiliated with Wharton) and Mainspring/IBM Global Services, and served for three years as U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein's economic and technology policy aide. With a strong commitment to social enterprise, Stephen has been a speaker on innovation, strategy, and global issues at the Aspen Institute, Monterey International Investment Conference, Harvard Executive Program, Utrecht University, Boston University, and the University of California. He has lived and worked extensively overseas, and his graduate work is in international business and economics from the Fletcher School, Tufts University.
Emily Garbe, a Senior Partner at Nexus Partners, is an expert in business strategy, venture development, mergers and acquisition, and engineering. Over the past decades Emily has worked with companies in fund raising, business plan development, product marketing and business process optimization. She has also been an interim CEO or CFO for several early stage companies. Previously, as a partner at McKenna Consulting she led the teams that launched DirecTV Japan and developed the business plan for IBM’s Global Network business unit. As Director of Corporate Development at MCI, she led the deal team for several alliance deals including the $4 billion acquisition of a minority stake of MCI by British Telecom and the $1 billion joint venture between MCI and British Telecom. She was a consultant at Booz, Allen & Hamilton and was involved in creating several new financial services products for companies including American Express and Travelers Insurance. Emily was a Member of the Technical Staff at AT&T Bell Labs where she was a network architect for a global data network. She holds a BS in computer science and applied math from the University of Rhode Island, an MEng in computer science from Cornell University and an MBA from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. She is a member of Phi Beta Kappa and has served as a finance commissioner for her local municipality.
Associate Team Members
Pamela Chuey specializes in strategic planning, business plan development, partnerships and revenue generation/expansion strategies. Her expertise includes competitive analysis, benchmarking and voice of the customer studies. She has extensive global experience in an array of industries. Most recently, Pam was engaged at Cisco on Innovation and Transformation projects, developing and driving revenue generation strategies and profitability improvement initiatives. Her background includes management consulting, working capital management and founding a variety of start-ups. Some of her clients have included Autodesk, Charles Schwab, Chevron, Hewlett Packard, Nike, Daily Mirror (UK), CBS Marketwatch, and Le Figaro (France). Pam holds a BS in business administration, marketing and advertising from San Francisco State University, and an MBA in finance from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.
Diane Meier-Phelps is a development and marketing strategist who is dedicated to using the power of business to promote environmentally, economically and socially resilient communities. Her focus is helping organizations make the business case for sustainability by aligning their CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) initiatives with their core values and business objectives, resulting in stronger, sustainable brands. During the last seven years Diane has held senior development management positions and secured millions of dollars for Bay Area not-for-profits with regional and national reach. She has provided strategic planning, partnership and fundraising consulting services to social sector and sustainability organizations. Previously, Diane spent twenty years in business development, marketing, finance and production with leading electronic media companies in the Silicon Valley, Hollywood and New York City, including Excite@Home, Organic, Infoseek, Tele-TV, Paramount and ABC-TV. In these roles she structured, negotiated and managed dozens of successful partnerships, and oversaw the design, production and distribution of early-stage, interactive consumer content products and services. Diane holds a BS in Television-Radio from Ithaca College, an MBA in marketing from the UCLA Anderson School of Management and an Executive Certificate in Sustainable Management from the Presidio Graduate School.
Barbara Rice is a marketing executive and strategist who leads cross-functional, integrated teams for high tech companies. She works with companies who need to cost effectively introduce or expand breakout products and programs. Barbara manages marketing organizations at both large companies and start-ups, with extensive launch experience and a passion for bringing new products to market. Barbara has worked with several innovative companies in the computer software, hardware and telecommunications industries. At Adobe Systems, she led the Digital Imaging marketing team that launched five versions of Photoshop and introduced Photoshop Elements and Photoshop Album to the hobbyist and consumer markets. During her tenure as Marketing Director of the Digital Content Business Unit at SanDisk, Barbara worked with music, movie and television studios to deliver digital content and services across SanDisk products. She led marketing strategy and programs at GridIron Software, a start-up that developed revolutionary workflow mapping software for creative professionals. Since 2010 she has been the interim VP, Marketing for multiple companies in Silicon Valley. Barbara holds a BS in psychology from San Francisco State University. She was a contributing author to the “42 Rules of Product Management,” a book that reached #1 on Amazon’s “movers and shakers” list in 2010.