A new professional business firm, Worth Mountain Consulting, was formally launched today with a special emphasis on providing businesses and non-profit organizations fresh perspectives, and access to capital at a time when all organizations are striving to recover from difficult economic times.
“Our timing for creating Worth Mountain Consulting couldn’t be better as the new economic landscape demands new strategies and new thinking,” said P. Gregory O’Brien a co-founder with Steve Terry of the new enterprise to be based here in the heart of Vermont.
Worth Mountain Consulting provides clients an integrated team of professionals, each with more than 20 years of successful experience in the fields of corporate finance, management consulting, energy, communications and non-profit governance and management.
The new Vermont firm will provide consultants on an individual or on a team basis to help business owners and senior managers, as well as the boards and staff of non-profits lift their organizations to the next level of financial success and performance.
The new consulting firm, with offices at 68 Court St., Middlebury, is composed of five experienced professionals with deep experience in their respective fields.
They are:
P. Gregory O’Brien of Middlebury has more than 25 years of experience, having occupied every seat at a table: business owner, investor, investment banker and financial advisor. Mr. O’Brien is singularly qualified to assist entrepreneurs and established companies in raising capital, acquiring and divesting assets and in structuring their balance sheets. He also an owner of two Vermont businesses – NSA Industries, a metal fabrication firm in St. Johnsbury that employs 275 Vermonters, and the former Shoreham Apple Co-operative, a controlled atmosphere storage facility holding over 200,000 bushels of apples each year. Mr. O’Brien was also the founder of The Food Partners of Washington, DC, which became the pre-eminent advisory bank servicing the national grocery industry. This followed work in Zurich, London and New York for the Swiss Bank Corporation. He is a co-founder of Worth Mountain Consulting.
Steve Terry of Middlebury brings more than 45 years of experience in communication, energy, and public policy. In his career, he has served as a political reporter, legislative assistant to U. S. Sen. George D. Aiken, managing editor of the Rutland Herald, and Senior Vice President for Corporate and Legal Affairs at Green Mountain Power. Mr. Terry brings a wealth of experience in the areas of energy regulatory policy, public relations, litigation support and public policy advocacy. He is a co-founder of Worth Mountain Consulting.
Katharine Kenyon Kelley of Manchester has been an independent business consultant since 1998 when she founded Kenyon Business Consulting to provide business-decision support, financial planning, and analysis for business owners and senior management. Prior to forming her own business in Manchester, Ms. Kelley was director of financial analysis for 12 years at International Creative Management, a major talent agency and entertainment firm in New York and Los Angeles. Her earlier work included positions with CBS Television, The New York Times, Grey Advertising and the Smithsonian. She is a principal at Worth Mountain Consulting.
Janet Morrison of Middlebury, a Ph.D. in Speech Communication, has worked in academia for the past 19 years as an instructor and as the Basic Course Director in the Department of Speech Communication at the University of Maine. She was a mentor for new faculty at Ivy Tech State College in Richmond, Indiana. She currently teaches interpersonal communication in addition to small group communication in the Division of Continuing Professional Studies at Champlain College. Prior to graduate school, Ms. Morrison worked a number of years in the hospitality industry and in retail. She is a principal at Worth Mountain Consulting and also provides the firm’s administrative support.
Bill Schubart of Hinesburg has straddled the worlds of the entrepreneur and non-profits for over 40 years. He co-founded Philo Records, an independent record label that produces international artist in the folk and classical field, which is now part of the Rounder Group. He founded the Pleiades Music Group, a music publishing company, and Resolution, Inc., a fully integrated E-Commerce services partner. During Mr. Schubart’s long business career, he has actively worked for non-profits at the board level, beginning at age 26 when he became the youngest trustee to serve as chairman of the board of the Vermont Arts Council, a post he repeated at age 41. He has also served as chair of the Fletcher Allen Health Care Trustees during a time of re-structuring and leadership renewal for Vermont’s largest medical center. Mr. Schubart has also been chair of Public Radio, the Vermont Business Roundtable, the Vermont Statehood Bicentennial Commission, The Vermont Folklife Center in 1984, a post he resumed in 2009.
