Meet Our Consultants

Jeff Wahlstrom

President

Jeff brings more than 30 years of hands-on non-profit leadership experience to Starboard Leadership Consulting, including 11 years as president of the United Way of Eastern Maine, and 12 years of fundraising and related work for Kimball Union Academy and Trinity College. Since joining with Rudman Winchell in 2005 to form Starboard Leadership Consulting, Jeff has consulted with dozens of organizations and their leaders on strategic, leadership, and management issues.

He has successfully facilitated nonprofit mergers, counseled organizations through executive searches and leadership transitions, led strategic planning processes, and supported the development and implementation of a wide range of efforts, from community assessments to board governance projects. He is also a certified "Everything DiSC" facilitator and trainer.

Jeff has also developed an online board self-assessment for nonprofit boards of directors that is available through the Maine Association of Nonprofits, and he is a frequent presenter and workshop leader on a lengthy list of topics.

As a volunteer, Jeff has gained substantial experience as a member of a variety of state and local boards, including the Bangor School Committee and the Unity College Board of Trustees. He has chaired the boards of the United Ways of Maine, the Maine Philanthropy Center, Bangor area's Communities for Children, and the Maine Health Access Foundation. He currently serves on the Board of the Maine Conservation Alliance. His active community service has resulted in Jeff being honored by Bangor Rotary with their Paul Harris Fellow's award and by the Bangor YMCA for his work on behalf of youth.

A 1980 graduate of Bates College, with an M.A.L.S. degree from Dartmouth College, Jeff and his wife live in Bangor, Maine, and have two grown children.

Deb Claflin

Senior Consultant

Before joining Starboard in 2015, Deb was Vice President and Deputy General Counsel at the American Hospital Association. In this role, Deb provided governance, strategic business, and employee relations advice to the executive and board leadership of the AHA family of associations and charities, with over 500 employees. Projects included organizational transitions, developing new revenue lines and expanding the federal contracts portfolio. Prior to joining AHA, Deb practiced corporate law at three nationally prominent law firms.

In addition to her work with large nonprofits, Deb has experience with small and start-up organizations. For five years, Deb volunteered as team leader at the Chicago Arts & Business Council, whose teams of business professionals assist arts nonprofits to develop strategic, business and marketing plans. Deb’s clients included emerging theater groups, an alliance to open a community arts center, a photography center and an art league. Deb was a founding board member of the Chicago city chapter of Impact 100, an all-volunteer grant-making organization whose members donated and awarded over $100,000 in its first year, growing to over $300,000 by the third. Deb is a member of the Bangor Rotary and serves on the Board of Directors of the Bangor Ballet.

She lives in Bangor with her husband and has two grown children.

Laura Mitchell

Consulting Partner

Laura brings to Starboard Leadership Consulting 14 years of experience in marketing, strategic planning, facilitation, fundraising and community building. Laura's focus at Starboard is on leadership and team development. She is a certified trainer and facilitator in both "Everything DiSC" and "The Five Behaviors of a Cohesive Team™".

Prior to joining Starboard, Laura owned an independent consultancy. In this capacity, she facilitated the launch, development of governance structure and strategic planning of Bangor’s Community Health Leadership Board, comprised of healthcare and human service leaders who have come together to address vital public health concerns. Laura continues to provide communications, operations and project management for the Board and its multiple working groups.

Previously, Laura served as program manager for the Bangor Region Chamber of Commerce providing leadership, communications and strategic planning for three programs with independent volunteer boards. Before that, at Eastern Maine Development Corporation, Laura led community groups through economic development planning processes and helped translate their goals into fundraising plans, and prior to that, Laura served as marketing director for United Way of Eastern Maine developing all communications and promotional materials and directing event planning in support of fundraising and outreach. Laura also led the United Way’s community impact work in the areas of strategic planning and outcome measurement development for investments in nonprofits serving seniors.

Before returning to Maine, Laura served as a strategic planner for Lot21, an online web development and advertising agency in San Francisco, and worked in marketing in Boston’s commercial real estate sector for The Leggat Company.

As a volunteer, Laura has gained experience on municipal and non-profit boards including serving on the City of Bangor’s Planning Board and Historic Preservation Commission and the Bangor Land Trust Board. She is an active volunteer at Bangor Montessori School and in the Hampden school district, and her volunteerism was honored by Fusion Bangor. Laura is also a 2007 graduate of the Bangor Region Leadership Institute.

A graduate of the University of Maine in Orono with a B.S. in Biology and an M.S. in Ecology and Environmental Sciences with a concentration in Resource Economics and Policy, Laura spent a year studying abroad at the University of East Anglia in Norwich, England. Laura and her family live in Hampden, Maine.

Mike Hyde

Consulting Partner

Mike Hyde offers more than 40 years’ experience in nonprofit management to clients of Starboard Leadership Consulting. Mike’s expertise includes board relations, strategic planning, fundraising, communications, and government affairs. He has assisted boards to restructure themselves and to adopt best governance practices. He has guided organizations, large and small, through the strategic planning process, and along the way he has raised more than $350 million in support of those plans for the institutions he has represented.

Mike came to Starboard from The Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor, Maine, where he served as Vice President for External Affairs and Strategic partnerships. In this role he helped to build an understanding of the Laboratory and its programs among key constituencies and represented the organization in policy discussions at various levels of government. He secured the approval of the Connecticut legislature for a $291 million expansion of the Laboratory into that state. He also managed the reorganization of the board of trustees and reshaped the Lab’s branding and communications programs.

Before joining the Laboratory in 2006, Mike served in senior management positions at Oberlin College, Allegheny College, and Alfred University. He holds undergraduate and graduate degrees from the University of Missouri, Columbia.

Mike has served as a member of the Board of the Maine Biomedical Research Coalition and as a member of the Maine State Chamber of Commerce. He is currently a member of the Board of Visitors of the University of Southern Maine. He and his wife Vivian live in Trenton, Maine. They have three grown children.

Mary Budd

Managing Director

Mary Aselton Budd joined Starboard Leadership Consulting after seven years at the helm of Penobscot Theatre Company in Bangor. As board president and then executive director of the nonprofit regional theatre company, she developed and implemented an ambitious strategic plan that resulted in financial stabilization, programmatic expansion, audience development, and many capital improvements. Mary first forayed behind the scenes in the performing arts as co-producer of Black Rock, a feature film shot in Downeast Maine and sold at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival.

At Starboard, Mary has led or supported several successful searches in recent months for clients including the Island Nursing Home, the Maine Center for Coastal Fisheries, Waldo Community Action Program, Eastern Maine Development Corporation and MOFGA.

Earlier Mary consulted with nonprofit and for-profit organizations nationwide working primarily to close the achievement gap in American education. Formerly, she was a staff writer and editor for New York-based Edison Schools, Inc. (now EdisonLearning), and earlier was publications director of a Boston-based education management company. She began her career as a political appointee in the U.S. Department of Education in Washington and later worked for Massachusetts Governor William Weld.

Mary’s volunteer service includes a term on the Bangor School Committee and five years on the City of Bangor Commission on Cultural Development (two as chair). She grew up in Milbridge, graduated from Dartmouth College and returned to Maine in 2003.

Melissa Donnelly

Consulting Partner

Melissa brings to Starboard Leadership Consulting more than 20 years of business management consultation and marketing experience, working with clients from a variety of industries. Her work has focused predominantly on marketing research and planning, including the implementation and analysis of in-depth market studies for organizations across the region.

Her experience includes evaluating and advising organizations on management and financing procedures, developing and implementing business and marketing plans, budgeting and planning, fundraising planning and donor cultivation and solicitation for non-profit organizations, and developing support material of promotional plans including brochures, commercials, client proposals, and various publications. Melissa specializes in organizational brand management and in-depth market research, including survey instruments and focus groups.

Melissa has served as a Research Analyst at The Council on Financial Competition in Washington, DC, Business Counselor at Northern Maine Development Commission, Account Executive with Marketing Advertising Planning, Inc., and as an Adjunct Professor of Marketing, Research, and Economics at Husson University.

Her volunteer work has focused on the health and education of children and teens, especially in the areas art and music education. She currently serves as Treasurer of the Brewer Music Association, and has done a variety of volunteer work for the Orono Bog Boardwalk, Literacy Coalition, Children’s Miracle Network, and Project Graduation.

Melissa holds a Masters degree in Business from Husson University and a Bachelor’s degree in Business with a concentration in Atlantic Community Studies from the University of Maine at Presque Isle. She and her family live in Brewer, Maine.

Scott Schnapp

Consulting Partner

Scott brings to Starboard Leadership Consulting more than 30 years of nonprofit management experience. Having served in staff and board leadership positions for much of his career, Scott particularly enjoys working closely with leaders driving transformational change through their organizations.

Most recently he served as Executive Director of the Maine Association of Nonprofits (MANP) for 14 years. In that position, Scott led the development of a major expansion of professional and organizational development resources for Maine’s nonprofit leaders, including a comprehensive management training program, leadership development programs, capacity building services, assessment tools, management resources, and a technical assistance program. Prior to his work at MANP, Scott served successively as Executive Director of Maine Businesses for Social Responsibility (MEBSR), Camp Sunshine, and Big Brother-Big Sister of Greater Lowell (MA), and before that as Director of Development at the Portland Museum of Art and North Yarmouth Academy.

As a volunteer, Scott has served on the boards of the Maine Development Foundation, Maine Initiatives, and the Children’s Theatre of Maine, and served as Board President of the Falmouth Memorial Library. He has also coached several Odyssey of the Mind teams and local youth sports teams.

A 1978 graduate of Colgate University, Scott lives in Falmouth with his wife Heidi and a menagerie of pets, and has two grown children.

Kathy Hunt

Kathy Hunt joined Starboard in 2008 as a senior consultant and quickly made her mark as an extraordinary facilitator, planner, and consultant for our Maine clients. In short order, Kathy built upon her impressive strengths in supporting strategic planning and board governance projects to expand the firm's work in the leadership and team development arena. Her expert consultancy contributed to several clients' recognition as "Best Places to Work in Maine," and her reputation, relationships, and friendships grew with each client engagement.

Sadly, on Christmas Eve of 2016, Kathy suffered a severe and still unexplained stroke that left her with dramatic physical limitations. Her intellect is as keen, her compassion and curiosity as deep, and her warmth as contagious as ever, a testament to her formidable spirit. Kathy is no longer working with us on a day-to-day basis as she focuses on recovery and rehabilitation, but she will forever be part of the firm's family. Our Starboard consulting team, all her colleagues at Rudman Winchell, and countless clients and friends look forward to the day when Kathy can return to an active role in our community.