Meet Our Advisory board

CEO & 

MANAGING PARTNER 

Rochelle Campbell is the  CEO, and Managing Member of Leadership Elevated. She is an accomplished board advisor and recruiter, DEI thought leader, columnist, and speaker. She focuses on governance, policy, diversity, coaching, and board succession planning. 

She has had a successful career supporting boards and executives, across industries and sizes, customizing, developing, and delivering in-boardroom services including evaluations, skillset matrixes, custom education, and custom board recruitment services. She spent almost a decade with the National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD) where she led the NACD Board Advisory and Board Recruitment practice. Through her work, she has placed directors on boards ranging from the F500 to large family-owned, private, and nonprofit organizations, across industries. She led the industry with an 85% diversity placement rate on boards. 

Rochelle speaks nationwide on governance, diversity, and board recruitment-related topics and has advised thousands of directors on leading governance and composition practices. She has coached over 700 military flag and general officers (1-4 stars), helping them successfully transition their military experience into the private sector. 

She is on the board of the Private Directors Association (PDA), DC Chapter, and serves as Programming Chair, and on the PDA National Cyber Security Committee 

She has also served as chair of the nominating and governance committee on the board of Civics and Service International, for over 7 years, an international organization working to improve the lives of children, and their families, affected by war, poverty, and discrimination. 

ADVISORY BOARD MEMBER

Mary Beth Vitale is a public company director and former CEO with 25+ years of P&L experience and proven strategic, IT/cyber, marketing, and execution capabilities in building companies. 

She was CEO/Chair of Westwind Media, President/COO of Rocky Mountain Internet, and President/corporate officer for AT&T. 

Mary Beth currently serves as chair of Pareteum, Inc, a leader in providing a global cloud-based software platform. She also serves as Chair of Nom/Gov for Luna Innovations, Inc., a leader in optical technology; and Chair of the Risk and Technology committee with GEHA, Inc., an association providing insurance products. She is also on the national board of Women Corporate Directors. She has served on several other boards throughout her career.

She is an SEC qualified financial expert and is known as a board Cyber expert, receiving the NACD Cybersecurity Oversight Certificate, Leadership Fellow, and holds NACD Board Certification. She was a Commissioner for Colorado Governor Owens Commission on Science and Technology for nine years. She was recently recognized as one of NACD’s top 100 directors and Corporate Board Magazine recognized her as a “Top Director to Watch”. She chaired the successful Colorado legislative resolution to encourage women on public boards and is Co-founder and Principal of Pellera, LLC., a consulting firm that focuses on delivering education to boards. 

She is an author and frequent speaker on Cyber and general board governance topics around the world. She is a board/CEO coach and advises boards on several topics including, technology, cyber security oversight, growth, chair transitions, and board evaluations. 

ADVISORY BOARD MEMBER

Paula H. J. Cholmondeley is a member of the Board of Directors of Terex Corporation (NYSE), the Bank of the Ozarks (NASDAQ) and Lexeo Therapeutics, a private gene therapy company. In her role as an independent director, she has chaired 5 audit committees, as well as a governance committee, and a strategy and corporate social responsibility committee. She has also served on compensation and investment committees. 

Her previous experience includes serving as an independent trustee of Nationwide Mutual Funds, as well as a public company Board Member for Dentsply Sirona Corporation, Mineral Technology, Inc.; Ultralife Inc.; Armco Steel Inc.; Albany International, and Kapstone Paper and Packaging.

Paula has helpd executive roles with revenues up to $750M and served as CFO of companies with revenues up to $2B. In her last executive role she served as GM of the $450M Specialty Products division of Sappi Fine Paper. 

Previously, Paula held several leadership roles at Owens-Corning, where she was the company’s first female elected officer.  Initially recruited to Owens Corning as VP, Strategy & Global Sourcing, she led company-wide strategic planning, M&A, competitive analysis, market research and sourcing. At the Faxon Company, she served as VP & GM of the International Division. 

At Westinghouse Elevator, Paula held leadership roles, including VP of Strategic Planning and Manager of Latin American Operations & International Business Development. There, she was named a White House Fellow, serving for one year as Special Assistant to the US Trade Representative for Southeast Asia. 

Paula has extensive finance experience includes serving as CFO of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Greater Philadelphia, CFO of Zebra Associates (the country’s largest African American ad agency).

She has served on the board board of the Executive Leadership Council and  chairs the Corporate Board Initiative committee for the ELC focusing on increasing the number of AA on boards. 

She holds an MS in accounting from the Wharton School of Finance, and a BS in accounting from Howard. She is also a NACD Certified Director.  And helpd several awards including Boston Business Journal Advancing Women Award in 2012; and the NACD Directorship 100 Award in 2015.

She is skilled at board and executive coaching, board evaluations, governance education, and board candidates development,  audit , risk, governance,  and corporate leadership 

ADVISORY BOARD MEMBER

D'Anne Hurd is an SEC-qualified financial expert and ESG authority with nearly four decades of experience as a member of, and consultant to, boards of mutual funds, and public, private, ESOP, and family-owned companies in a diverse range of tech and heavy industries. 

D'Anne is a former CFO and General Counsel for multiple companies in the tech industry (holding both an MBA and JD). She has deep experience in digital transformation, disruptive technologies, complex M&A, regulatory/legal, and strategic direction challenges to realize full shareholder value. 

She currently serves on the board of Pax World Funds/Pax Ellevate Fund, as an independent trustee, on the audit, and nom/gov committees, and the boards of Peckham Industries, Inc. and Martin Engineering as audit committee chair. She formerly served on the board of Eileen Fisher, Inc. as chair of the governance committee.

In total, her board service has included two mutual funds, three public, and eight private corporate boards—including serving as board chair, lead independent director, and chair of the audit, governance, finance, and compensation committees — in cloud-based SaaS, technology, medical devices, pharma/biotech, financial services, telecommunications, retail, and manufacturing industries. 

She is a frequent corporate governance public speaker. She is known as a change catalyst and collaborative problem solver who listens and communicates well, quickly analyzes issues, and builds consensus.  

D'Anne has expertise in ESG, digital transformation, board evaluations, board governance, board strategy,  deal-making to drive growth, audit committee and financial issues, IPOs, acquisitions, M&A, strategic partnerships, alliances, capital infusions, and exit strategies for start-ups and early-stage companies. 

ADVISORY BOARD MEMBER

Erin Essenmacher has 25 years of experience in content development, education, training, and corporate governance. Her work has centered on helping boards and c-suite executives understand their evolving role in oversight of strategy and risk in a dynamic environment. 

She left NACD as President, after nearly a decade of leading programming, board engagement, education, and content strategy. There she was responsible for the design and delivery of board member training, new product development and thought leadership innovation. Erin worked with thousands of directors, supporting their professional development and boardroom effectiveness.  She was an early advocate for board education in areas like cyber security, digital transformation, corporate culture, strategy, ESG, and the converging forces shaping competitive disruption. Under her leadership, NACD saw a 400% increase in revenue and the organization more than doubled its membership.

She has served on boards across sectors including the iconic clothing retailer EILEEN FISHER where she chaired the People and Culture committee and helped designed the company’s succession plan. She currently sits on the boards of Docs in Progress and Sustainable Innovations and on the Advisory Board for the Future Directors Institute and the New Community Transformation Fund.

Erin is a frequent author, advisor, and speaker on the board’s role in strategy, risk, governance, culture and corporate leadership and her work has helped thousands of board members become better stewards for the organizations they serve.