2018 Next Milestone Ventures

Lori Dernavich is a Leadership Development Advisor/Coach, partnering with CEOs and startups to develop the leadership skills they need to scale successfully. Her focus is on life sciences where you have:

• Brilliant academicians, scientists, and physicians who haven’t led people or built organizations.
• Individuals who’ve worked solo in a lab and must transition to a collaborative team environment.
• A strong learning mentality that makes them terrific candidates for coaching.
• And having been both a food chemist and a therapist, she relates to this demographic.

Lori’s services are customized, because each client is unique:

• Meetings are confidential – they provide a safe place to vent, explore issues, and test solutions.
• Frequency of meetings are most often weekly or 2x/month, in-person and/or by phone.
• Individual sessions: to develop skills, discuss/resolve people issues, and create a path forward.
• Organizational coaching: The whole can be greater than the sum of its parts when the whole company or whole teams are coached. With this holistic approach, communication improves faster and skills develop deeper. While individual sessions are confidential, overarching themes/issues will emerge and be presented to the founder(s) to process and resolve.
• Other services: 360 assessments, conflict mediation, workshops (i.e. How to conduct interviews, Motivating your workforce, and Characteristics of a successful startup CEO), and DISC assessments.

Prior to founding her business in 2002, Lori spent several years serving as a senior recruiter for Winter Wyman in Boston’s thriving high tech industry, traveled extensively as a corporate leadership coach for the UNICCO Services Company, and was a psychotherapist. She has a degree in Food Chemistry and a Masters in Counseling Psychology. Lori’s background gives her an in-depth understanding of a wide variety of personalities, functions, and industries. She has been featured in Crain’s NY, CFO Magazine, ForbesWoman, SmartMoney, and has appeared as a leadership expert on FOX News.

Partial list of clients: Kallyope, Ovid Therapeutics, EpiBone, TARA Biosystems, Envisagenics, ConCarlo, Repairogen, SUNY Downstate Incubator, ELabNYC, Flipboard, FieldLens, Borro, Edrington Spirits, Absolut Spirits Co., Canaan Partners, Legal Sea Foods, WisdomTree Investments Inc., Coty International.