GRETCHEN FLAUM

Gretchen Flaum is an experienced executive and coach to non-profits and social entrepreneurs. With her extensive strategy consulting and business background, she has spent the last twenty years developing high-impact leaders and working with non-profit organizations to become top performers. Gretchen’s passion for change and non-profits has led her to work across multiple public and private sectors. Early in her career, she served as an Education & Health Care Legislative Aide for a U.S. Senator on Capitol Hill. Later, she founded a program for International Youth Hostels in Washington D.C. focused on developing leaders from at-risk youth populations. This program received special honors and funding from the Mayor of D.C. for its impact on inner-city youth. She went on to join Deloitte Consulting Group, primarily focusing her efforts on large national non-profits and becoming one of the highest rated managers within the Western Region.

Most recently, Gretchen served as a Partner at The New Teacher Project (TNTP), a national non-profit based in NYC, which paves the way for experienced business and science professionals to give back by becoming teachers in underserved schools. Prior to TNTP, she was the Director of Business Development for Epylon.com, a VC-funded start-up serving school districts which grew from 7 to over 200 employees during her tenure.

She received both an MBA and an MHS (Masters in Health Sciences) at Northwestern’s Kellogg Graduate School of Management, where she and a leading professor developed a Board Governance course to educate MBA students on how to effectively serve on Boards as well as to increase the overall effectiveness of non-profits. This course quickly became one of the most popular courses at Kellogg and still attracts over 100 students to the course each year (15 years later). She also has a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science/ International Relations from The Colorado College.

She completed her training as an Executive Coach from the Coaches Training Institute and has served as an Executive Coach for Boards and Executive Directors and currently serves on the Board of The World Leadership Foundation. She lives in Evergreen, Colorado with her husband and two children.

Starfish’s program to educate, mentor and sponsor women in communities not only erodes the poverty cycle, but also has environmental and other far reaching implications. Her belief in this model and its ability to be replicated around the world resulting in high impact, systemic change for communities initially attracted her to Starfish. Another critical piece to any organization is the leadership. The leaders of Starfish are innovative, result-oriented, and collaborative. It is the combination of the business model with the leadership that attracted Gretchen to become part of Starfish One by One. Starfish also taps into Gretchen’s love for the cultures in Central and South America.

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