The Team

Robert Sher is founding principal of CEO to CEO, a consulting firm of former chief executives that improves the leadership infrastructure of midsized companies seeking to accelerate their performance. He was chief executive of Bentley Publishing Group from 1984 to 2006 and steered the firm to become a leading player in its industry (decorative art publishing).

Robert speaks frequently, and has published extensively on the successful leadership traits and skills of CEOs of midsized companies. He is a regular columnist on Forbes.com, has numerous posts on Harvard Business Review online, Entrepreneur.com and CFO.com.  He authored two books, the first book, The Feel of the Deal; How I Built a Company through Acquisitions (1toPonder, 2007) and his newest book, Mighty Midsized Companies; How Leaders Overcome 7 Silent Growth Killers, (Boston: Bibliomotion, Sep. 2014). He also publishes his own newsletter, The CEO Insomnia Factor. 

From 1984 to 2006, Robert was CEO and co-founder of Bentley Publishing Group, a privately held firm based in Walnut Creek, Calif. Early in the business, he and his partners identified a gap in the fast-growing market for framed artwork: high-quality yet affordable prints perfect for the decorative market. Sher and his partners bootstrapped the business, but key successes breathed new life and cash flow into the business. He led the acquisitions of four competitors between 1999 and 2004 and left Bentley two years later. The firm merged with Global Arts in 2011 to form Bentley Global Art Group.

Robert received a B.S. degree in business administration from Hayward State University in 1986 (during which he ran a small business), and an MBA degree from St. Mary’s College in 1988, where he was the recipient of the Jack Saloma Award for student citizenship. From 1995 to 2000, he taught MBA and executive MBA courses at St. Mary’s on growing entrepreneurial businesses.

Robert and his wife Renee have two children, Ben and Jessie, and live in Northern California. They love sailing and travel.

Megan Patton is a business strategist who has been a management consultant, trainer and executive coach for most of her career. She leads our People Practice and spends her time working with individuals, companies and non-profits to help define and implement strategies that enable peak performance and growth. She looks at the way something is done (process); who is doing the work (people); and whether something should be done at all (strategy). Megan approaches client situations from a perspective of what is working well, measured against company goals, and works hand in hand with her clients to develop workable and positive solutions to improving performance.

Megan worked in a “Big Four” consulting firm for many years and focused on business process reengineering, change management and learning system development. Her clients ranged from large multinational companies to internal constituents.

Prior to her career in management consulting, Megan was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Nepal. Megan received a Bachelor of Arts from Kenyon College, and an MBA in Strategy from the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve University. She is a strong believer in lifelong learning, and continues to take classes on a variety of subjects.

Gary Wohl, MBA, CPC, is an experienced executive with significant financial, strategic, operational, motivational and effective administrative knowledge. In his more than 25 years of leadership, he has assisted companies in becoming more efficient and productive in addressing client needs, and increasing team effectiveness through streamlined processes, timely interactions and enhanced communication experiences. He brings a strategic perspective to many of the operational issues organizations face. Gary earned his Certified Professional Coach (CPC) credential from the World Coach Institute (WCI), and he follows all the guidelines and ethics of International Coach Federation (ICF).

Gary served as President, Chief Financial Officer, and Chief Operating Officer of a variety of businesses. He has worked for a national construction company, DPR Construction Inc., the international law firms of Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pitman and Morrison Foerster.  He was the Executive Director at the founding of the Silicon Valley law firm Gunderson Dettmer and most recently the CFO of the west coast construction management/engineering consulting firm Harris & Associates. Gary’s time on the C Suite provides him with a unique and valuable view of individuals, teams and organizations.

Gary has been on the boards and executive committees for many of the firms he has worked for, as well as leading the Finance and Accounting, Information Technology, Risk Management, Facilities, and Human Resource departments. He has personally experienced the challenges of working in complex organizations and has achieved high levels of performance through leadership and team building with the stakeholders he has interacted with over the years.

Gary’s strength as a coach is working with people to facilitate growth for that individual by uncovering blind spots and developing new patterns of behavior. He helps them explore, grow, expand and develop themselves professionally and personally. He partners with individuals to understand their view of their business and their environment.  He does not take things at face value.

Gary holds an MBA from Binghamton University and a BA in Psychology from the University of Buffalo.  Gary is involved with several nonprofit organizations. He is a disciplined triathlete and jazz piano player.

For the last 27 years, Jeanne Coughlin has been a trusted advisor, consultant, and coach to the owners of mid-sized companies and their teams, helping those organizations to grow and prosper.

Jeanne has been a small business owner for 27 years and served as Chairman of the Board for the Council of Smaller Enterprises (COSE), one of the largest small business support organizations in the country.  She has advocated for entrepreneurs her entire career having served on numerous boards including the National Small Business Association in Washington DC, and is currently Vice Chairman of the board for the venture development organization Jumpstart Inc.

Jeanne focuses her work in three key areas: people, process, and performance.

• People:  She uses personal assessments to help the business owner and direct reports understand each other and improve their communication, problem solving and teamwork.
• Process: Then she helps the team implement a sustainable planning framework that helps them find and keep their focus.
• Performance: And finally, she helps them create systems for measurement and accountability that ensure the plan gets implemented.

Some of Jeanne’s professional credentials include being a certified Professional Business Coach, Certified Professional Behavior Analyst, certified Stages of Growth Strategist, certified facilitator of Peter Drucker’s The Five Most Important Questions and a One-Page Business Plan® implementer.

Jeanne authored the book, the Rise of Women Entrepreneurs, People, Process and Global Trends, which received the Featured Book Recommendation from the Harvard Working Knowledge Group.

Jeanne is the Chapter Chair of the Women Presidents Organization a peer advisory group serving second-stage, women-led, multimillion-dollar companies, and she was selected as a “Women of Note” and a “Notable Women in Entrepreneurship” by Crain’s Cleveland Business.

Jeanne earned her Bachelor of Science Degree in Business from Bowling Green State University.  She lives in the Cleveland area with her husband Kevin and has two grown daughters.

John Senaldi is a former Founder, President and CEO with over 30 years of leadership experience in small through large companies spanning multiple industries.  He’s a seasoned executive with a strong track record of achieving profitability and growth by aligning and engaging organizations to the next level of performance, developing and coaching leaders, and optimizing strategies for existing and new products and services.  Instead of running businesses, he now focuses as a strategic advisor and business coach, leveraging his substantial “lived it” expertise to help CEOs of small to midsize companies accelerate business success.

His areas of expertise include: Business, New Product Development & Technology Strategies for successful growth and profitability, Leadership & Organizational Execution, Strategic Planning and Coaching.

Most recently, John was Founder and CEO of Freeslate, Inc., a $25M instrumentation business that he formed by taking a division of Symyx Technologies, Inc. private by leading a management buyout (MBO).  At Freeslate, John restructured, pivoted and repositioned the business for growth, culminating in sale to a venture-backed company with >25x return to shareholders.

Before Freeslate, John ran a $150M instrument and consumable business for Bio-Rad Labs, growing the business >10% annually while turning it around to profitability.  Earlier, as VP/General Manager, John led a startup business within Molecular Devices Corp (MDC) by acquiring and developing several technologies into products, ramping up the organization and bringing the products to market.  John’s prior role at MDC was VP of Worldwide Marketing, where he was responsible for Strategic Planning and Marketing/Product Management.  Through each of these experiences, John was either facilitating, heavily engaged with or driving the strategic planning process to make effective decisions.  Typically, his strategic planning expertise was applied to helping growing organizations make effective portfolio investment/initiative decisions that fit for strategy, financial expectations, as well as risk and timing optimization.

John’s early career roles provide him with a unique perspective, having successfully delivered business results while holding leadership positions in diverse functions (engineering, marketing, business development, R&D, manufacturing) at Becton Dickinson and General Electric.  Such experiences provide him with a rare combination of both the strategic skills to develop comprehensive growth strategies and the tactical knowledge how to drive operational results.

John holds an MBA from the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration (HBS), an MS in Electronics Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) and a BS in Engineering from Trinity College in Hartford, CT.

In his spare time, John volunteers for several non-profit organizations focused on social causes, providing strategy consulting through the HBS Community Partners program in San Francisco.  He also loves to ski and sail.  John, his wife Julie, and their two daughters live in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Megan Ciaccia has been an owner of her accounting firm Montecino & Ciaccia, P.A. since 2014 and is passionate about helping her clients not only as a CPA, but as a business coach and advisor. She is a licensed One Page Business Plan consultant and is the current President of the South Jersey NAWBO chapter. Meggan sits on the Board of Directors as Treasurer for Women of the Dream, a nonprofit providing program services to girls and young women ages 12-18 in underserved communities.

Meggan is a Certified Tax Resolution Specialist, which allows her to help clients who have received a letter from the IRS, who owe back taxes, or who need to file delinquent taxes. She is a licensed CPA in New Jersey and is a CGMA, Chartered Global Management Accountant.

When Meggan is not working, she enjoys stand up paddle boarding, reading and exercising in her garage gym. She loves cheering for her older son, Joe, while he plays soccer and cooking with her younger son, Logan. She resides in National Park, NJ with her husband John and sons.

Sean Marx is an accomplished CEO with over 30 years of experience in building all elements of a dynamic, results-focused sales team.

In 1991, Sean founded Give Something Back Workplace Solutions and grew the company to thirty million in sales, making it one of the largest independent office products companies in the country. Before he sold Give Something Back in 2018, the company had more than forty customer service and salespeople, five thousand active customers, five locations, five sales managers and processed 13,000 transactions a month. As CEO, Sean’s success was due to his high-performance sales and customer service teams all focused on bringing solutions to customers. He has won numerous awards, including Bay Area Most Admired CEO (2011, San Francisco Business Times), California Small Business of the Year (Small Business Association, 2005) and Top Bay Area Forty Under Forty (San Francisco Business Times, 2001).

Sean is dedicated to giving back to the community and has spent countless hours on charitable work.  Give Something Back’s success at serving allowed them to donate millions to hundreds of community-based organizations that work tirelessly to improve the quality of life in their communities.  Sean has served on numerous non-profit boards including as Board Chair and is an accomplished fundraiser. Sean was recognized as Corporate Philanthropist of the Year (Association of Fundraising Professionals, 2005) and Give Something Back was awarded Most Generous Company in America (George Magazine, 1999).

Sean began his career in sales in the copier industry in 1988 and in his first year was one of Ricoh’s top salespeople in the nation. He was promoted to lead a sales team after eighteen months and at twenty-six, had a team of over twenty copier and fax sales reps in San Francisco.

Emily Macias joined the CEO to CEO team as our Business Development Executive in August 2018 after an 18 year career with Xerox.  At Xerox, she was an accomplished Key Account Manager with demonstrated success in sales, account development and the delivery of revenue growth. She utilizes a strategic sales approach, client advocate focus and innovative strategies to achieve outstanding performance. She managed a wide spectrum of accounts from small to global companies in multiple industries including healthcare, legal, entertainment and resellers.

Emily enjoys getting to know business leaders and building a relationship so that she can help them in their quest to build mightier businesses.  She is known for her sincerity, enthusiasm and bias for action.

She holds a Bachelor of Science in Marketing from Arizona State University.  She lives with her husband and two children in Manhattan Beach, CA, where she is an active leader in local education, serving as President of the PTA, a foundation board member, and president-elect of the local chapter of the National Charity League.

Preety Adams has served as the Community Engagement Manager at CEO to CEO since June of 2015, with responsibility for marketing programs, social media engagement, thought leadership and event planning.  Prior to joining CEO to CEO, she worked as the Marketing Manager for DataSafe, Inc. for 7 years.

Preety’s greatest strengths are her creativity, drive and organization. She thrives on challenges, particularly those that expand the company’s reach and allows her to engage the community.

Preety holds an MBA from University of Phoenix and a BA in English from Mills College .  She lives in the Bay Area with her husband and two children.  When asked what she does in her free time, she responds with a laugh, “What free time?”  She happily keeps busy with family, work, and enjoying a good book whenever she can.

Jan has enjoyed a work history as an executive assistant in many diverse industries, ranging from the electrical industry, to biotech, to retail, to integrated marketing.  She’s been happily ensconced with CEO to CEO since 2012.  In her career, Jan has supported CEOs leading Nasdaq listed companies with hundreds of people, to the leader of a 20 person non-profit and nearly everything in between.

In all her positions, Jan has flourished by getting to know the people she serves, both in her own company and with their clients as well.  She is proactive and is still aspiring to read executives’ minds, providing answers even before the requests are made.  Making CEOs’ lives easier has been a focus of her career!  In her own tongue-in-cheek way, she says that it was her BA in elementary education that gave her the patience and perseverance it sometimes requires.

Years ago, the spouse of her boss at that time pleaded with her to “create order out of chaos” and she has enjoyed the challenge over the decades.  She is a thinker and sometimes gets creative in accomplishing what is set before her.

Jan is married to a Presbyterian pastor and with her sunny personality, makes the preacher’s wife position look enviable!  She loves music, her flower garden, a good novel at the beach and Valentine’s Day!

Renee Sher has supported the team at CEO to CEO since February of 2017, and serves as the Executive Assistant for all Principals at the firm.  She handles scheduling and any number of other administrative functions, and is a great place to start for anyone unsure of how to get what they need from the CEO to CEO team.  Prior to joining CEO to CEO she was the proprietor of S is for Science for ten years.

After graduating San Jose State College with a degree in Molecular Biology and Chemistry, she joined Collagen corporation as a chemist, then worked at Oral B for a number of years in quality assurance. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband of 25 years, Robert Sher and is the mother of two grown children, Ben and Jessica Sher.  She is an avid knitter and enjoys travel with her family.