About C•Suite Advisors
C-Suite Advisors is a collective of highly successful c-suite professionals, who quickly grasp your needs because we’ve been in your shoes. All C-Suite Advisors have lengthy CEO and Board experience or have served in the c-suite as best-in-class specialists, guiding their companies through the kinds of issues you may be facing. We serve as a sounding board, an empathetic, candid advisor and guide. We help you find the right answers and solutions to your toughest challenges by calling on our reserves of experience, insight, and resources.
“I most admire C-Suite Advisors for its collective business knowledge, operating expertise, and integrity. All of my experiences with Jim as a trusted advisor have been engaging and successful.”
RH, CEO, MEDICAL TECHNOLOGY DISTRIBUTOR
How We Work
We listen. We ask penetrating questions to get to root issues. We draw out your views, solutions, and ideas. We ask more questions and only then offer our perspectives, alternatives, and guidance. The final step is up to you. You choose the action items you’ll pursue along with milestones and deadlines. We support you along the way with resources and guidance to assure success.
It may sound easy but it’s actually hard, enormously consequential work. Our unique process ensures our shared efforts are on the right issues, produce actionable solutions, and optimal results.
“Every hour spent with C-Suite Advisors, inspired hours of deeper, directed thought. YOU are my role model. You’ve shown the way. Now it’s up to me to follow the path.”
BV, CEO, TECHNOLOGY DISRUPTER
Who We Serve
We have worked for, and with, companies of all shapes and sizes: start-ups, huge public companies, early-stage, and mid-to-large private firms. Our sweet spot is working with CEOs, and their direct reports, in start-up, early-stage, and growth-oriented middle-market companies with revenues up to $200M. That’s where our work drives the fastest, often transformative, results.
“Thank you for having so much faith in us and our business. Your guidance and leadership have been and are inspirational, and I appreciate all you are doing for us.”
LK, CHRO, NATIONAL HR CONSULTANCY
WHY HIRE US
Our clients appreciate our personal touch, our empathy, candor, and our commitment to an understanding before suggesting.
All C-Suite Advisors have lived, worked, and succeeded in the c-suite. They have decades of cross-industry experience, are best-in-class experts in their noted specialties, and are committed to helping CEOs and their direct reports focus on, resolve and cure the thorny issues they face.
Clients have also told us they appreciate that our Advisors don’t disappear during an engagement or delegate work to others. At “C-SA” clients work exclusively with a Senior Advisor or an approved service provider recommended at your request, to do specialized work on your company’s behalf.
Engaging C-Suite Advisors
We select our clients with the same intensity they select us. It’s important we understand your needs and self-assess our capabilities in light of those needs. We only accept clients with whom we’re convinced we will deliver a superior outcome. To assist our mutual exploration of working together, we provide a free, 30-minute consultation to explore client goals, business situation, relationship potential, and deliverable expectations.
Regarding pricing, a number of options allow tailoring to your specific needs. Most clients retain our services in six to twelve months terms, with pricing guaranteed a year following the first term. Others prefer a set project fee structure, while a third group seeks an hourly fee approach. We may also consider an equity alternative to lower cash obligations if cash flow is an important consideration.
Meet the Team
C-Suite Advisors is a collective of senior executives with decades of experience across all critical disciplines. Our breadth and depth of knowledge can effectively guide start-up, early stage and growth-driven CEOs through the most challenging issues and biggest opportunities. Throughout our long, successful careers we have served a broad assortment of industries and an equally wide variety of boards.
C-Suite Advisors is where CEOs may tap into unbiased, deeply experienced counsel to accelerate their company’s performance and results.
Jim Cascino,
Founder & CEO
Simply stated, Jim founded C-Suite Advisors because he’s passionate about business, and finds great joy helping CEOs, senior executives and their companies achieve full potential. He helps leaders focus on what’s most important, make better, faster decisions, and accelerate their growth. He has decades of personal experience in the c-suite to draw upon, which allows him to deliver superior advisory and guidance to driven, high-powered CEOs.
Over the course of his successful career, Jim has been the CEO of 10 private and public companies, and three non-profits. Additionally, he has been President of a management consultancy specializing in turnarounds and crisis management. He has served as Chairman or Director on 12 boards and had committee leadership in Executive, Governance, Finance, Long Range Planning, Compensation, and Merger and Acquisition committees. He has also driven and participated in 15 M&A transactions (6 Buy/9 Sell).
Jim’s leadership style is positive, strategic, Socratic, and results-oriented. He takes pride in helping leaders find success, regardless of the challenges they face. He’s most enthused by client growth ambitions but has deep experience in turnarounds having saved companies on the brink of bankruptcy, and in one case, turned a negative valuation into a company sale at $200 million.
When it comes to give-back and other interests, Jim is an active mentor to high tech and life science start-ups through the Arizona Commerce Authority, has worked with orphans in Africa helping create sustainable support systems, led a global medical non-profit, fundraised professionally for a White House peace initiative, and continues to work in animal rescue. He is additionally a winning competitive sailor and served as Commodore of St. Francis Yacht Club.
CHAD BELLIN,
SENIOR ADVISOR, TECHNOLOGY STRATEGY & DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION
Chad Bellin is an experienced, technology-focused executive specializing in innovation and product evolution for businesses. Chad has executive-level management and leadership experience across many industries including blockchain, cybersecurity, online video, data management, e-commerce, training, and telecom. Chad is a Co-Founder and Principal at Disca, which specializes in guiding growth-stage and mature companies through their technology, product and software challenges.
With over 20 years of technical management experience, Chad has led teams for startups and global corporations. He has a passion for building diverse teams and growing future leaders. Chad also embraces change and has executed reorganization and transformation initiatives in many roles. He has been a part of multiple successful exits.
Product Management and Product Design are passions. He embraces the phrase “as a customer” and is well known for leading exciting whiteboard design sessions. “Systems” and “solutions” are needed to execute complex functionality in simple ways. Chad loves working directly with tech teams to ensure that features are working… “as designed.”
A native of Wisconsin, Chad graduated with a Computer Engineering degree from Marquette University in Milwaukee. He is based in Phoenix, Arizona.
Nicole Bojic,
Senior Advisor, Strategy, Employee Engagement & Communications
As a strategy consultant and change catalyst, Nicole has a history of success building top-flight teams and supporting companies in their ambitions to grow their people, their business, ignite profitability and create a positive impact on the planet. With over 15 years of experience in business strategy, communications and marketing, Nicole excels in devising strategies to bridge the employee and customer experience to successfully accelerate business transformation.
Nicole’s consulting has included global strategy and communications projects in a broad swath of industries and sized companies, including: Siemens, American Express, American Family Insurance, Amway, Gartner, Genentech, PURE Storage, Roche, Vertical Harvest, among others. She is the Founder and CEO of EXP Consulting Group and UmiMiu.
Jim Burke,
Senior Advisor, Capital Structuring, Governance, Crisis Management & Turnarounds
As founder of Burke Capital, Jim is a proven executive leader, having served as CEO and board member for numerous public and private companies. His innovative “Out-of-Court” turnaround practice has now become an industry standard. As a strategic problem-solver, Jim brings clarity and wisdom to many difficult situations.
Notable successes include CEO and board member for LTD Ceramics and Strasbaugh, in the semiconductor equipment industry; board member for ComAv Aviation, Burke and Herbert Bank and NetsWork; CRO of both SBMC, a precision metal fabricator; and Faraday Bicycles an electronic bicycle manufacturer. Burke has advised and restructured dozens more distressed companies over his distinguished career.
Additionally, with a background as a senior credit officer for Wells Fargo and Union Banks, he has raised hundreds of millions of dollars for startups, growth companies, restructures, and acquisitions. He holds a BA in Economics from the University of Virginia. He is a frequent speaker for the Turnaround Management Association, Bay Area Bankruptcy Forum, and he serves on the managing board of the San Jose Attorney, Bankers & CPA Association.
Keith Lewis,
Senior Advisor, Strategic Marketing & Branding
Keith has spent the last several decades in senior marketing positions for some of the world’s most respected companies and brands such as The Walt Disney Company, Scholastic, Inc, The Discovery Channel, and Gymboree. His breadth and depth of experience in both B2C and B2B companies span large publicly-traded firms, large privately-held firms, small to medium-sized companies, and start-ups. He is the consummate marketer, passionate about devising and implementing effective marketing plans, strategies, and tactics to grow businesses; top-line revenue, and net income. Keith’s sweet spot is in the differentiation and positioning (or repositioning) of a company leading to a sustained competitive advantage in the marketplace.
His ability to execute powerful initiatives against stated objectives, with a team-oriented, can-do approach allows all who interact with him to have a positive experience. In addition to the for-profit sector, he has a genuine affinity for helping nonprofits benefit from his knowledge. He is particularly interested in child hunger and literacy issues.
Jackie Lord,
Senior Advisor, Human Capital Optimization & Leadership Effectiveness
Jackie Lord is the Founding Principal & CEO of Elevate Consulting Group, a firm dedicated to infusing the human element back into business. Leveraging laser-accurate data, she uses a process she calls “Aligning People with Profit” to get the right people in the right seats for radical scalability and growth. She specializes in bolstering employee engagement, reducing turnover, uncovering hidden talent, and increasing bottom-line revenue. But most importantly, she makes business more productive and profitable at scale.
Jackie is a well-respected and sought-after trusted advisor to CEOs and leadership teams of high-growth organizations around the globe. She has over 20 years of experience working with Fortune 100 companies including Amazon, Boeing, and JP Morgan Chase to over 60 mid-size companies and start-ups.
Jackie has held board positions and has been a business mentor to over a dozen non-profit organizations including Make-A-Wish America, The Baller Dream Foundation, and Arizona State University Graduate Programs. She attended UC Berkeley, UC Irvine, and USC Marshall School of Business. She holds multiple degrees in Statistics, Business, and Entrepreneurship
Tim Manning,
Senior Advisor, Growth Positioning & Branding
Tim is a marketing strategist with more than 30 years leading marketing for numerous B2B technology companies – Fortune 100 through startup – and has a particular passion and skillset for helping companies differentiate and grow. Tim specializes in positioning strategy and messaging – essential to translating solutions in a way that resonates with customers, investors, and markets.
Having competed with juggernauts such as IBM, Oracle, and SAP, Tim understands the challenge and necessity of breaking through the noise, differentiating, and defining a unique value proposition. His skillset had one of his high-growth companies be acquired by SAP AG for 10X revenue in 2006.
A “results-based marketing practitioner,” Tim is committed to connecting strategy and execution, and then building and leading high-performing teams focused on delivering uncommon results. His skills span the entire marketing portfolio including marketing & positioning strategy, branding, customer persona & competitive analysis, public relations, demand generation, channel marketing, and marketing communications.
He is committed to supporting and partnering with purposeful collectives such as C-Suite Advisors in reaching and helping more companies. Tim is part of Chief Outsiders, the nation’s largest fractional CMO firm, providing fractional or part-time chief marketing officers for growth and mid-sized companies.
LYNN RANDALL,
SENIOR STRATEGY, COMMUNICATIONS, INCENTIVES & RECOGNITION ADVISOR
Lynn focuses her energy on improving the outcomes of communications, incentive and recognition, and event marketing experiences. Her work produces experience and communication-related brilliance, with emphasis on:
- Collaborating with clients to develop year-long plans that meet the messaging and communications needs of both organizations and target constituents.
- Moderating and facilitating groups with contrasting views to create collective vision and unified solutions.
- Providing strategy for change management including program design, communications plans and measurement.
- Creating strong employee engagement programs with impactful design, identifying learning and development opportunities, creating communications plans and appropriate success measurement.
- Cooking up the right recipe of digital solutions to replace, enhance or extend a physical event or experience.
- Applying the lessons of neuroscience to supercharge engagement.
- Extracting the story from data to provide a blueprint for action.
Lynn is currently a member of the Board of Trustees for the Incentive Research Foundation, runs her own consulting practice called Randall Insights TX LLC, and before that worked as a Senior Strategy Director for InVision Communications, as well as founding and leading consulting for the now former Business Solutions Group consulting practice at Maritz Travel.
Lynn is a graduate of the University of Missouri’s School of Journalism.
Kristy Siefkin,
Senior Advisor, Executive Persuasion & Presence
Kristy Siefkin believes that stellar communication is the key to success in life and business. When someone speaks with clarity, confidence, and charisma, we consider them an expert. And who doesn’t want to work with an expert?
Integrating nearly 20 years of experience as a local and national TV broadcaster, national spokesperson, and professional speaker, Kristy uses her Go To Speaker Method™ to teach high-performing professionals how to speak like a pro, whether on stage, in a boardroom, or in front of a microphone and camera.
Kristy has coached over 700 professionals across multiple industries, including medical, legal, tech, real estate, and finance. Organizations like HP, CBRE, Phoenix Children’s Hospital, HomeSmart and Charles Schwab have entrusted Kristy with training their best talent.
Kristy has broadcasted on Fox, CBS, NBC, Animal Planet, Discovery and Extra! She is a sought-after keynote speaker and Master of Ceremonies, taking the stage for organizations like The Business Journals, Society for Human Resource Management, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, and Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Kristy is also the go-to panel moderator and emcee for large, interactive, national events, including the San Francisco International Auto Show, The AKC National Championship Dog Show, and Fashion Week events in both New York City and Scottsdale.
Kristy is a proud Duke Blue Devil and holds a Master’s Degree in Multimedia Communications.
Andrew Steele,
Sr. Advisor CEO Advisory & Mentoring, Strategy, Sales & Business Development
Andrew Steele is an entrepreneurial leader skilled at aligning strategy, culture, and innovation to build scalable businesses around disruptive technologies. As both an operating executive and 3-time co-founder & CEO, he has led start-ups from concept through scale-up, contributed to exits that generated over $1B in shareholder returns, and created category leadership in the B2B SaaS, mobile technology, medical device, and healthcare IT sectors. He founded Growthplane as a practice to help other founders and leaders define and accelerate their path to sustainable growth.
Steele is the co-founder of BeckonCall, a healthcare on-call communication platform that automates physician on-call scheduling and message routing workflows for medical groups across the US. More recently, he led the growth and market expansion for LighthousePE, a location-aware mobile engagement platform, and Breezing, a breakthrough wearable 510(K) registered medical device that provides clinical-grade metabolic assessments for the treatment of obesity-linked chronic disease. Previously, Steele held sales, marketing, business development, and strategy leadership roles with Terayon Communication Systems (acquired by Motorola), MetaTV (acquired by Comcast), Microsoft, and MCI Communications (acquired by WorldCom).
Steele has consistently contributed his time and expertise to help support multiple Arizona industry and non-profit organizations, including the HEALab Healthcare Entrepreneurship Accelerator Lab at Arizona State University, the Arizona Commerce Authority through its Arizona Innovation Challenge and Venture Ready Programs, SEED SPOT, The Foundation for Blind Children, Read Better Be Better, and the Board of Stewards for the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation at Taliesin West.
Brigitta Wiegand,
Senior Advisor Operational
Performance Optimization
With over two decades of senior leadership positions focused on business transformation and optimizing operating ROI, Brigitta has consistently reversed squandered profit and growth opportunities stemming from a lack of emphasis on operational performance. Her portfolio experience ranges from start-up pro-bono advisory to early stage and multi-billion-dollar enterprise consulting.
Her company, Smarter Ops, LLC delivers exceptional advisory, project management, and fractional support to middle market companies in need of operations vision, efficiency and maximized productivity. Brigitta’s unique talents are industry agnostic, and her client work includes enterprise level B2B software support services, SaaS, payment technologies, ERP advisory and implementation, to creating a scalable inventory management solution for a B2C golf start-up business. She has a track record of elevating client profitability through thoughtful and intentional business transformation, with an orientation that proclaims, execution is everything!
As a pragmatic change catalyst, Brigitta has a knack for seeing what isn’t always clear or obvious. She drives fundamental change at all organizational levels, optimizing business practices in her wake. She’s often sought for her high-powered problem-solving abilities and success boosting progress in the face of adversity.
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