Founders Sheryl O’Loughlin, Melissa Facchina and Kara
Cissell-Roell started Women on Boards Project with a simple problem to solve.
Our Story
They knew dozens of talented women and CEOs who needed their expertise. The problem was that neither group seemed to be able to find one another.
Women on Boards Project launched as a non-profit in February 2020 in partnership with powerhouse partners such as VMG Partners, L Catterton, Siddhi Capital, Swander Pace Capital, Alliance Consumer Growth, TSG Consumer Partners, Encore Consumer Capital and CircleUp. This circle of industry thought leaders in the financial and private equity space worked together to diversify the boards of 20 of their portfolio brands.
All partners recognize that today, companies need directors with specific skillsets that will help them grow key functions and build stakeholder value, thus proving that diversity works for everyone.
What started as a 20 company initiative has grown to more to 30+ companies, a 1,000+ network of women and 10 investor organizations. And we are just getting started.
How We Work
We work with companies on a candidate scorecard, compensation parameters, interview, and research strategy.
From there, the Women on Boards Project will provide five to ten candidates that fit the criteria and will continue to support each company as they work to enhance gender diversity on their respective boards.
Because our passion is helping women, we ensure that each company is ready for a talented woman and that each woman feels ready for the director search process and board service.
Meet the Board
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Board Chair and CFO
As Board Chair, Melissa leads the Women on Boards Project’s Board of Directors and guides the organization’s decisions on governance, strategy development and financial diligence inclusive of fundraising. Melissa has over 25 years of experience in manufacturing and food services roles across the food and beverage industry. Since March 2020, she has served as Managing Partner at Siddhi Capital, a company which she co-founded with Steven Finn. The company manages an early-stage venture capital fund focused on the food and beverage industry which has supported some of the most important innovative new products of our time. While at Siddhi, Melissa has worked alongside more than 300 food and beverage clients to help them build sustainable businesses. In 2020, Siddhi Ops Inc received an Inc 500 placement as the 197th fastest growing private company in the country, and the 5th fastest growing organization in the food and beverage industry.
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Executive Director and Board Director
Cassie leads all the day-to-day operations of the Women on Boards Project. This includes leading teams, sourcing companies, working with investors and supporting our network of more than 1,000 phenomenal women. Cassie joined VMG in 2015 and serves as its Talent Partner. In this role, she focuses on all aspects of external team development including people strategy, recruiting and retention for all of VMG’s portfolio companies. Prior to joining VMG, Cassie was an Associate at an executive search firm where she worked on placements of senior executives to venture-backed start-ups across the sustainability and consumer sectors. Prior to working in executive search, Cassie was an Associate at Goldman Sachs where she worked on various initiatives across recruiting, training, retention and diversity in addition to her day-to-day responsibilities in Operations.
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Board Director
With more than a decade of executive search experience recruiting VP- and C-level executives at PE/VC backed and Public companies, Brianna brings her deep experience in sourcing exceptional talent to the WOB Project’s director placement process. She works alongside our Partners and Companies to scope board roles and fuels our pipelines with talented women ready to make an impact. She is a Talent Partner at VMG Partners, investors behind iconic consumer brands and commerce enablement technology companies. She is also a board member at VC Global Platform Community, a peer-learning community for post-investment professionals in venture capital and an advisor to Bodily, a resource for women's bodies and maternal health.