Bridge Advisory Board
Bettina M. Whyte, Chairman of Advisory Board
Bettina M. Whyte is a nationally recognized leader in the financial and operational restructuring industry. Until recently, Ms. Whyte was a Managing Director and the Head of the Special Situations Group at MBIA Insurance Corporation. MBIA, a NYSE company, is the leader in credit enhancement services and a global provider of fixed-income asset management services. The Special Situations Group was formed in 2005 to serve as MBIA’s in-house specialists working with security issuers experiencing some degree of operational or financial stress. Prior to joining MBIA, Ms. Whyte was a Managing Director of AlixPartners, a worldwide crisis management and performance improvement firm.
Ms. Whyte has served as an interim CEO, COO and Chief Restructuring Officer of numerous large and mid-sized public and private companies. She has been active in a broad range of industries, including airlines, aircraft manufacturing, oil and gas, commodity trading, retail, food services, transportation, distribution, manufacturing, high technology, telecommunications, healthcare, professional services, entertainment and financial services. In addition to her position as Chairman of the Bridge Advisory Board, Ms. Whyte serves as a member of the Amerisure, Inc., AGL Resources and the Rock-Tenn corporate boards. Ms. Whyte is a regular speaker on corporate governance matters and has been featured in Business Week, CEO Magazine, The Daily Deal and appeared on NBC Nightly News, CNN and National Public Radio.
Ms. Whyte holds an M.B.A. from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.
Barbara A. Flanagan
Barbara Flanagan, President of Kestrel Enterprises, Inc. (“KEI”), has led this Company since its establishment in 2005. Under her leadership, the Company has grown from a small professional services firm to a dynamic, growth oriented full service provider of analytic products and services, decision making expertise and knowledge management solutions to the U.S. government. Prior to founding KEI, Ms. Flanagan established multiple independent business ventures, as well as provided consulting services in the defense, energy and technology sectors. From 1980 – 1997, Ms. Flanagan held positions with major corporations and trade associations in the defense, energy and manufacturing sectors providing government relations expertise and working with the US Congress and Executive branch agencies of government.
Barbara received her Business Administration degree from Mount Vernon College.
Admiral William J. “Bud” Flanagan, U.S. Navy (Ret.)
Selected for flag rank in his 20th year of service, Admiral William J. “Bud” Flanagan rose quickly to four star rank and was among the youngest officers to achieve this rank in the U.S. Armed Forces. As a flag officer, his significant Washington assignments included responsibility for U.S. Navy shipbuilding budgets and duties as the Navy’s Legislative Chief, where he was responsible for all Department of the Navy legislative interests on Capitol Hill. His final assignment was as Commander In Chief, U.S. Atlantic Fleet and NATO’s Commander-In-Chief, Western Atlantic, with geographic responsibilities for the Western Hemisphere. In these roles, he was responsible for an $11 billion operating budget, 200,000 people, 200 ships, 1350 aircraft and all attendant infrastructures.
From February 1997 through January 2002, Admiral Flanagan served as a Senior Managing Director at Cantor Fitzgerald. There, the Admiral was involved directly in the development and design of emerging markets, particularly those brought about by government deregulation and privatization.
After his direct involvement in reconstituting Cantors’ only two surviving companies, Admiral Flanagan formed Skarven Enterprises, Inc., an independent financial services company that provides clients the most sophisticated analytic methodology for informed risk assessment and decision making. The Company provides improved actionable decision options through the employment of advanced technologies and analytics. In 2005, he established Kestrel Enterprises, Inc. to provide risk assessment capabilities to the government marketplace.
Admiral Flanagan is a graduate of the Massachusetts Maritime Academy, American University, and the Harvard Business School.
Clare Nordquist
Clare Nordquist is a director of Cascadia Capital LLC, a Seattle based middle market investment bank focusing on sustainable industry opportunities. He is also a Senior Advisor to Meridian Capital, a Seattle investment bank serving a broad base of more traditional brick and mortar companies.
Mr. Nordquist has extensive experience in both operational and transaction related roles. After serving in the United States Air Force doing materials research on nose cones, he joined Coors Ceramics where he served in a variety of operating management and board positions, including executive chairman of an electronic packaging manufacturing operation in Singapore.
Following his tenure at Coors, he co-founded and was the Managing Partner of Material Ventures, a fund investing in early stage companies developing commercial products in advanced materials technologies. During his tenure with Material Ventures, he served on numerous boards of portfolio companies.
He recently served as chair of the University of Washington Technology Center, and as a Commissioner of the Port of Seattle, the organization responsible for operating and overseeing SEA-TAC airport and the Seattle seaport.
Clare holds a B.S. in Ceramic Engineering from the University of Washington and an M.B.A. from the University of Denver.
Debra Perry
Debra Perry is a corporate director who serves on the boards of Korn/Ferry International, a premier global provider of talent management solutions, and Conseco Inc., a life and health insurance company focused on the senior and middle markets. Until recently, Ms. Perry served on the board of MBIA Inc., the largest financial guaranty insurance company. At the request of the board, she became a consultant to its Credit Risk Committee to refine and implement the company’s risk strategy as part of its five-year transformation plan.
From 1992 to 2004, Ms. Perry was a senior executive at Moody’s Investors Service and Moody’s Corporation. During her career there, she served as Chief Administrative Officer and Chief Credit Officer, and had responsibility for several rating groups, including Americas Corporate Finance, Leverage Finance, Public Finance and Finance, Securities and Insurance. Prior to joining Moody's, Ms. Perry was a Director in Fixed Income Research at the First Boston Corporation. Earlier in her career, she worked in a variety of banking and capital market functions at Chemical Bank in New York, Paris and London.
Since becoming a corporate director, Ms. Perry has been a frequent speaker on Audit Committee oversight in the new governance environment and on crisis management on boards at meetings sponsored by corporate board and business organizations.
Ms. Perry holds a BA (Phi Beta Kappa) from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a graduate degree from Yale University where she completed all course work for a PhD in European history.
To contact the Advisory Board, please email info@bridgellc.com