Our Leadership
Gad Nestel, MBA
President and Founder
“In work, as in nature, seasons shift quickly—summer to fall, winter to spring. I help teams and leaders pause, make sense of change, and move forward with clarity and confidence.”
Gad draws on his experience Dean of the Bechtel Leadership Academy, consultant and seasoned learning and development professional. For over 20 years, he has designed and facilitated executive development experiences to create higher levels of strategy alignment, develop relevant business acumen and leadership presence.
Today, Gad coaches CEOs, executives, managers, and their teams to help them navigate their toughest challenges during critical inflection points. His current and recent clients include Technip Energies, US Steel, Elastic, Workday, Onsemi, and the Wildlife Conservation Society.
Gad scores high on Hogan’s Bold and Mischievous scales, which may help explain why he’s summited Denali and kayaked the Grand Canyon. Still, his heart belongs to his family: two very fast runners, Melissa and Xela, and Max, a bona fide theater kid.
Gad has degrees in Physics (Bates College) and Strategy and Finance (Yale School of Management). Learn more about his professional experience and recent posts by going to his page on LinkedIn.
Kate Shepard, MBA/LMSW
Director of Psychology and Applied Research
“If we work with people’s existing beliefs and motivations we have a much higher chance at creating lasting change. Most people want to do great work on great teams - my job is to figure out why that isn’t happening and how to solve for it.”
Kate has spent her career bridging clinical and corporate spaces from Deloitte to clinical therapy. Regardless of the sector, her passion has been focused on helping individuals, leaders, and teams operate better when it matters most - moments of uncertainty, tension, and crisis.
Her unique approach has led her to work shaping the crisis communications strategy for a government executive that reached over 300,000 essential workers, congressional leaders, and the public during the COVID-19 pandemic, developing trainings on the cognition behind unusual beliefs for teams tracking mis- and dis- information narratives, and leading the team translating academic research on trust into practical business frameworks for a large consulting firm.
Today, she uses tools from across individual, interpersonal, organizational, and even social psychology to understand the “why” behind some of the most entrenched and destructive patterns that erode connection, threaten progress, and ultimately lead to high turnover, low engagement, and stagnant outcomes. Then, she works with teams to develop resilience to these patterns.
Learn more about Kate’s experience and point of view on LinkedIn.
Jessica Speciale, MS/MSL
Head of Sales and Future Forward Strategies
“The future belongs to organizations that treat learning as a daily practice, not an annual event.”
Jessica leads business development, builds high-impact partnerships, and drives strategic initiatives at Monadnock Consulting, specializing in scalable, high-impact learning and leadership solutions. With over 15 years in enterprise sales and program design, she has partnered with industry leaders across technology, energy, manufacturing, and professional services to deliver measurable results at scale. Her work has contributed to award-winning leadership and learning programs recognized by the Stevie Awards and Brandon Hall Group.
Outside of the corporate arena, Jessica applies her strategic mindset to Pretty Whimsical Homeschool, where she champions playful, curiosity-centered learning designed for home environments. Grounded in research and crafted for modern families, her approach nurtures curiosity, empathy, and real-life readiness, especially tailored to support busy, growth-focused parents navigating modern childhood.
Working at Scale
We work with peer organizations, advisors, academics, contractors and several small and large business partners that allow us to tailor a team to individual contract needs.