This video is a recording of the Wellesley College Business Leadership Council Sponsored Webinar "Preparing for Corporate Board Service." 

Margo Loebl ’82, Moderator & Board Member

Panelists:

• Martha Goldberg Aronson ’89, Board Director
• Paula Asinof, President & Founder Yellow Brick Path
• Beth Stewart ’78, Founder & CEO of Trewstar Corporate Board Services

Panelist Bios:

Martha Goldberg Aronson is a Corporate Board Director currently serving on the boards of Cardiovascular Systems (NASDAQ: CSII), Conmed Corporation (NYSE: CNMD), and Beta Bionics. She serves as the Lead Independent Director for Conmed Corporation and as Chair of the Board of Beta Bionics. Previously, Goldberg Aronson served on the board of directors of Methode Electronics (NYSE: MEI), Clinical Innovations, LLC, and Hutchinson Technology (NASDAQ: HTCH). She is currently serving as the President of the Wellesley College Alumnae Association and as a member of the Board of Trustees. 

Previously, Goldberg Aronson was executive vice president and president of Global Healthcare at Ecolab, a $500 million business.  Prior to joining Ecolab in 2012, Goldberg Aronson was senior vice president and president, North America, a $1 billion business, at Hill-Rom Holdings, Inc., a leading manufacturer and provider of medical technologies and related services for the healthcare industry. Earlier, Goldberg Aronson served as senior vice president at Medtronic, a $30 billion global healthcare solutions company. Throughout her 18 years with Medtronic, she held numerous positions in general management and led several functions both in the U.S. and Europe. Goldberg Aronson began her career as an associate consultant at Bain & Company, a global management consulting firm based in Boston. 

Previously she served on the Board of the Minnesota Opera, the Minneapolis Club, and the Board of the Guthrie Theater, where she served as Chair. She is also a member of the Minnesota Women’s Economic Roundtable and the Wellesley College Business Leadership Council. 

Martha holds degrees from Wellesley College and Harvard Business School.  She lives in Minneapolis with her husband, Dan, and three sons.

Paula Asinof is an authority on bios & resumes for executives and board director candidates and has led a nationally recognized career management, coaching and consulting firm for 15 years. She is known for her practical perspective and “straight talk” based on extensive real-world experience as a Corporate Executive in IT and Finance, as an Executive Search Recruiter, and as board member. For nearly a decade, she has not only worked with board director candidates as individual clients but also delivered workshops, authored materials, and published books and articles on related topics. She is sought out for guidance by people across the country who are embarking on a board director journey.

Paula is a member of the Institute for Excellence in Corporate Governance of the Naveen Jindal School of Management at the University of Texas at Dallas and has worked closely with The Center for Corporate Governance at Drexel  University’s LeBow College of Business. Paula has served on the Boards of Big Brothers Big Sisters of North Texas/Dallas County and the Friends of the Katy Trail, an urban thoroughfare in Dallas. In 2018, Yellow Brick Path received the “North American Excellence Award for Lifetime Career Management” from US Business News. 

Paula is an NLP Practitioner, a Certified NLP Coach (NLPC), a member of the International Coach Federation (ICF), and an Associate of Career Thought Leaders (CTL). In addition, she is an author of BE SHARP: “Tell Me About Yourself” in Great Introductions and Professional Bios – now in its 2nd edition, BE SMART: Sail Through the Hazards of Conventional Career Advice, and MAKING PRACTICAL SENSE OF CAREER MANAGEMENT: A Comprehensive Guide for Modern Career Coaching.

Paula holds degrees from Washington University, Columbia University and the Wharton School.  She is based in Dallas.

Beth Stewart is the founder and CEO of Trewstar Corporate Board Services, a search firm that works exclusively at the board level and specializes in female candidates. Each of Trewstar’s nearly 150 placements has involved a review of the board’s composition, a specification crafted to best suit the company’s governance needs and an efficient process that helps guide the board to a successful placement, usually within four months.  From Trewstar’s offices in New York City, the firm has completed assignments for companies of all sizes spanning diverse industries across the United States.

Beth is a former senior investment banker at Goldman Sachs and former director of Carmax, General Growth Properties, and AV Homes. Her nearly-two decades of public company board experience, coupled with Trewstar's unique position in the search world, have given Beth a well-honed perspective making her a sought-after expert on board governance matters and a regular speaker at industry events. She has been quoted in numerous publications, including the NYT, WSJ, Bloomberg, Forbes, and HBS Alumni magazine.

Beth holds degrees from Wellesley College and Harvard Business School. She lives in the greater NYC area and has five grown children and one husband.