Team

 

We take great pride in matching the needs of our clients with the right skill set, personality and industry expertise and we draw from a pool of highly experienced CFOs and Controllers.

CFO Team Rudi Scheiber Rudi Scheiber-Kurtz – Founder & CEO

For the last eight years Rudi has positioned companies for profitable growth by implementing efficient systems and procedures. She has helped innovative start-ups articulate and accomplish their strategic goals and objectives; she has also designed dynamic accounting infrastructures for established companies, allowing them to achieve greater scalability. Time and again, her investor relationships have advanced her clients to their next stage. Her industry focus is high tech and life sciences.

Prior to starting NSS, Rudi worked at WGBH. She was in charge of more than 30 budgets of the National Promotions department. She was also a member of a Senior Management Team advising PBS’s Executive Producers on strategic planning. Earlier, Rudi was Director of Arts/Lexington, where she turned around the failing education program by increasing enrollment by 300 percent in three years. She founded a collaborative with other local art centers to pool resources and fundraising efforts, resulting in an inaugural State Grant Award.

Rudi’s first company was an on-demand fabric silk-screens startup, featuring her own bold and colorful graphics. Prior to this venture, Rudi held financial positions with two Boston advertising agencies, Cabot Advertising and Harcomm Associates. In her first U.S. position, she was an Order Editor with the Scott Paper Company.

Rudi is a frequent speaker and panelist both in the greater Boston business community and internationally and is active in the Boston business community. Engagements include:

Rudi received her BS degree from Lesley University and an MBA from the Simmons School of Management. Rudi grew up in Switzerland and holds dual US/Swiss citizenship. She most recently enjoyed her first paragliding experience in the Swiss Alps.

NSS Team - Steve Dance Steve Dance – CFO Consultant

Steve Dance has over thirty years experience in corporate finance, primarily in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries. Most recently, he was senior vice president and chief financial officer for ViaCell, Inc., a biotechnology company, a position he held from January 2004 until August 2007. Mr. Dance led the initial public offering for ViaCell in January 2005, raising over $60 million in cash. Prior to that, he spent five years as senior vice president and chief financial officer at SangStat Medical Corporation, a biotechnology company. At SangStat, he raised over $150 million in cash via public and private equity and loan financings and was a key member of the team that sold SangStat to Genzyme in September 2003. Previously, Mr. Dance spent one year with Plantronics, Inc., a telecommunications company, where he was responsible for worldwide financial accounting, reporting and planning activities. He spent fifteen years with Syntex Corporation, a pharmaceuticals company (later part of the Roche group), in a number of finance positions of increasing responsibility, including as controller of US sales, marketing and manufacturing operations, a division with over $1 billion in revenues. Other positions include seven years with Deloitte & Touche in London and San Francisco.

Mr. Dance holds CPA and FCA (UK equivalent) qualifications in accounting. He also holds a B.A. degree in French from the University of Leeds in England, and is fluent in both French and Spanish. He is currently a director of the National Initiative for Children’s Healthcare Quality, Inc. a non-profit organization based in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

NSS Team - Lucinda Linde Lucinda Linde – CFO Consultant

Lucinda Linde invests in and consults to early stage information technology companies. While at First Light Capital, she invested in Nellymoser, Incipient, KESI, Strong Numbers (now part of Intuit’s “It’s Deductible” product) and HubX (acquired by SynXis).

She was an angel investor in Visualization Technologies Inc. (acquired by GE Medical Systems), Viveca (acquired by Open Pages) and Collego (acquired by MRO Systems) and Softrax (profitable company). Lucinda co-authored an in-depth study on angel investors, VSS Project: Report on Angel Investors, for Ken Morse of the MIT Entrepreneurship Center and Professor Howard Stevenson at HBS.

Previously, Lucinda helped build a management consulting firm focused on the telecommunications industry, COBA Boston, now Adventis. Start-up experience includes operations and marketing positions at Molten Metal Technology and Ceramics Process Systems. Both were venture-backed companies that went public. She holds an SB and an SM in Materials Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an MBA from the Harvard Business School.

Mark Ott – CFO Consultant

As a part-time or interim CFO for clients in the technology, life sciences, and non-profit sectors, Mark provides financial, systems, and operational services.  Mark has significant experience with mergers & acquisitions and international operations.  Prior to his consultancy practice, Mark had 25 years of CFO and Corporate Controller experience with two start-ups that grew to $10 and $50 million in revenue, respectively, as well as with Cabletron Systems and Bull Worldwide Information Systems.  In addition to several US based assignments, Mark has worked in England, France, and Australia.

Lauriston Taylor - Controller Consultant

Laurie Taylor has over twenty years experience in accounting operations and finance, chiefly in the software development, E-Commerce, manufacturing, and financial services.

Most recently, he was the corporate controller for NeoSaej Co., a software development firm that developed a consumer centric E-Commerce auction application.  In this early stage company, he was responsible for all accounting, finance, and HR activities.

As an interim controller for Venture Advisors, he spent the next four years supporting five start-up companies simultaneously.  In this role, he was responsible for implementation, development, and management of financial systems and administration infrastructure. These positions required simultaneous preparation for government grant audits, BOD packages, funding forecasts, and equity reporting.  During this time he supported more than 15 VC backed companies.

Next as a project based interim finance manager with Parson Consulting, Laurie served in management roles within the financial services, telecommunications, transportation, and hi-tech industries.  These management roles required preparation of monthly financial reports, due diligence analysis, vendor management, and funding support documentation for both public and private companies.

Earlier positions included nine years with Shawmut National Bank of Boston in various controller positions of increasing responsibility within the MIS Division. Previously, Laurie served with the U.S. Navy on active duty for six years and eighteen years as a Reservist, directing and commanding personnel in all phases of Antisubmarine Warfare on the Navy’s most advanced surveillance platforms.

Mr. Taylor holds a Bachelor of Science in Statistics from Tulane University and Master in Business Administration from Boston College.