FEI NYC & PDA NY Metro Joint Event | Inside the Boardroom of a Private Equity Portfolio Company

David is a highly experienced and versatile CFO with over 30 years of progressive financial and operational leadership across diverse industries, including manufacturing, B2B services, distribution, international logistics, and SaaS/software services. Over the past 13 years, he has served as CFO for four private equity-backed portfolio companies across three different investment groups. In these roles, David has led initiatives that significantly improved financial performance, modernized reporting infrastructure, and drove strategic growth through both organic expansion and targeted acquisitions.

Jennifer Knight is a seasoned operating executive and board member with 20+ years of leadership across textile and materials manufacturing, global supply chains, and complex industrial operations. She has served as CEO, President, and COO of multiple U.S.-based textile businesses spanning performance fabrics, narrow fabrics, and vertically integrated manufacturing platforms—leading growth initiatives, operational turnarounds, and post-acquisition integrations in both family-owned and private equity-backed environments. Her experience includes restarting manufacturing operations, expanding value-added product lines, rationalizing capacity, and improving margins through lean initiatives, with global sourcing across the U.S., China, and Central America.

As President and COO of American Woolen Company, she led the restart and modernization of a highly technical U.S. textile mill, developed engineered fabric programs, secured multi-year U.S. military contracts, and partnered with OEM customers on performance-driven product development.

Jennifer also advises private equity firms on diligence, management assessment, and value creation, and has served on multiple boards in the textile and industrial manufacturing sectors. She previously served as Deputy Assistant Secretary at the U.S. Department of Commerce, overseeing competitiveness initiatives across textiles, materials, and critical minerals, with expertise in trade policy, tariffs, reshoring, and supply chain resilience.

She holds an MBA from Columbia Business School and a BA from Brown University, and splits her time between Manhattan and Orient, NY.

Richard Baum is the Managing Partner of Consumer Growth Partners (CGP), a private equity firm with an exclusive focus on investing in and advising specialty retail and non-perishable branded consumer products companies. Prior to co-founding CGP in 2005, Richard spent 16 years as a top ranked sell-side equity research analyst at Sanford Bernstein, Goldman Sachs and Credit Suisse.  Previously, he spent 6 years in the merchandising organization at Bloomingdale’s and began his career as a strategy consultant with The Boston Consulting Group.

Richard currently serves as Chairman of the Retail Marketing Society, a not-for-profit organization that focuses on bringing leading edge topics of interest to the broad retail community via monthly webinars and in-person events. He also serves as a Board Director for Chair King/Fortunoff Backyard Stores, Factory Connection, Inc., and Rolla Coster Inc.  He served as a board director at Vera Bradley, Inc. (NASDAQ: VRA) from 2011-2020.

Richard earned a BA degree in Economics from the University of Michigan where he graduated magna cum laude with Phi Beta Kappa honors and a JD degree from Harvard Law School.  He lives in Westchester County with his wife Robin.  He is the proud father of two young men, Zachary an attorney in Washington, DC and Ross a musical theatre composer and songwriter in New York City.

Alyssa Gelbard is the Founder and CEO of Point Road Group, where she leads a senior-level team helping companies drive revenue and enterprise value by strengthening the personal brands of their leaders and teams. Through training and coaching, Point Road Group develops brand ambassadors, stronger communicators, and effective leaders.

For more than 15 years, Alyssa has advised CEOs, executives, and board directors on personal branding, brand strategy, and human capital—aligning these with business strategy to build credibility, trust, and revenue growth. Her background in marketing, branding, and communications includes leadership roles across biomedical research, technology, and sports & entertainment, with experience at Rockefeller University, Quidnunc, and the National Hockey League.

A frequent speaker on how reputation drives revenue and on communications and personal branding for board searches, Alyssa is an advocate for advancing more women into the C-suite and boardroom and is proud to lead a women-led company.

Alyssa serves on the Board of Directors of Financial Executives International and Endicott College’s Graduate Sports Management Advisory Board, and is Immediate Past President of the Private Directors Association NY Metro Chapter. She is a member of the Tufts University Alumni Council and Co-Chair of the Tufts Women’s Network in New York.

A certified Vistage speaker and member, Alyssa holds an MBA in Marketing from NYU Stern School of Business, a BA in Sociology from Tufts University and a Certificate in Private Company Governance from the Private Directors Association.