BEN Colorado Welcomes New Advisors: Summer 2026

One of the most valuable resources entrepreneurs can have as they scale is access to people who have navigated growth firsthand. At BEN, our advisors bring decades of experience building companies, leading teams, raising capital, developing products, navigating change, and making the complex decisions that come with growing a business.

We’re excited to welcome our newest group of BEN advisors, whose backgrounds span finance, operations, strategy, technology, marketing, leadership, and more. Each brings a different perspective to the table, but they share a commitment to paying it forward by helping entrepreneurs learn from experience, work through challenges, and build stronger businesses.

Meet the newest advisors joining the BEN community:

Sjeanne Cawdry

Sjeanne Cawdry has built her career at the intersection of strategy and human performance, advising CEOs and executives as they navigate growth thresholds and complex decisions. She specializes in identifying the underlying challenges that can cause results to plateau and helping leaders determine what needs to change within both the business and their leadership. Her advisory work is augmented by a proprietary AI system developed and refined over several years. Sjeanne is also a former world-ranked squash player, ultramarathoner, and co-owner of Pet Butler in Broomfield.

William A. “Liam” Chrismer

Liam Chrismer is a former investment banker and CEO who has led growth companies across finance, staffing, consumer products, and retail. Today, he advises CEOs and executive teams on mental fitness and cognitive high performance, with a focus on how leaders think, make decisions, and operate under pressure. His approach incorporates Hogan-certified assessment methodology, neuroscience-grounded frameworks, and his proprietary CEO Mental Fitness assessment. Liam also leads The CEO Matters Roundtable and the invitation-only CEO Collaborative peer group, and his book, CEO Mental Fitness, is scheduled for publication by Fast Company in 2027.

Thomas Kessler

Tom Kessler is a senior executive with more than 45 years of experience spanning retail, telecommunications, technology, B2C, and B2B organizations, from startups to Fortune 100 companies. He has held leadership positions with Insights First Strategic Marketing, Rosetta (Publicis), HomeAdvisor.com, Sprint, Kraft General Foods, and others. Throughout his career, Tom has helped companies strengthen strategic and brand positioning, better understand customers and prospects, expand marketing efforts, and accelerate growth. He holds an MBA in Marketing from the University of Wisconsin and a BS in Business Administration and German from Carroll University.

Julie Kopp

Julie Kopp brings more than 30 years of experience in strategy, product management, and product delivery across industries including fintech, space tech, biotech, cybersecurity, telecom, healthcare, and more. She serves as a strategic partner to CEOs and boards, helping leaders navigate vision, prioritization, and the interconnected decisions that shape a company’s ability to scale. As an experienced coach, advisor, mentor, and leader, Julie also specializes in building high-performing teams and fostering cultures rooted in trust, collaboration, human-centered design, and innovation.

Heather Lamm

Heather Lamm has built her career helping companies and organizations navigate periods of growth and change. As Managing Partner at Vector Growth Labs, she advises companies on go-to-market and scaling challenges, helping turn strategy into measurable results. Her experience includes leading the re-commercialization and go-to-market strategy for SaaS company Bolt On and helping expand DSST Public Schools from two schools to 16. Earlier in her career, Heather worked at MediaNews Group, helping major newspapers transition to digital. She holds a BA from Brown University and an MBA from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management.

Katherine Magner

Katherine Magner brings a unique combination of investor and operator experience to her work with business owners. She spent more than a decade as a buy-side research analyst managing institutional portfolios worth more than $1.25 billion before becoming an entrepreneur herself. As owner of Denver’s Cake Crumbs Bakery & Café, Katherine grew revenue from $750,000 to $1.6 million, led a team of 20, and ultimately sold the business at a 40% premium. Today, she helps leaders understand and strengthen the financial, operational, and people-related factors that build lasting enterprise value.

Joseph Magner

Joe Magner is a seasoned finance executive, investor, and strategic advisor with more than 20 years of experience supporting startup and growth-stage companies across a variety of sectors. As Founder of Tailwater Advisors, he provides fractional CFO services, capital formation support, financial modeling, and strategic advisory services. Throughout his career, Joe has worked with venture-backed startups, private equity investors, project developers, and executive teams to raise capital, optimize financial performance, evaluate strategic transactions, and navigate complex growth initiatives, bringing both deep financial expertise and an understanding of the operational realities of scaling a business.

Jill Montera

Jill Montera is an experienced leader with a background spanning strategy, operations, consulting, customer success, and human resources. She held multiple leadership roles at Class VI Partners, including VP of Strategy and COO of Class VI Pathfinder, helping translate organizational priorities into action and shape strategy and operations. Earlier, Jill was an early employee at Altvia, where she supported the software company through two growth equity rounds, and worked at the University of Denver and Accenture. Known for turning big ideas into practical results, she also serves on the board of the Ludeman Center for Women’s Health Research.

Sarah Moses

Sarah Moses is an experienced operator and founder of LFG, where she works with Seed to Series B companies navigating critical stages of growth. Previously, she helped scale Prefect (FastMCP) from $0 to more than $15 million in ARR and from 10 to 90 employees, and earlier worked at ICONIQ. Today, Sarah advises companies ranging from five to 150 employees, helping founders strengthen execution by putting the right people in the right roles, establishing clear priorities, and building operating rhythms that can scale alongside the business.

Stephen Pockross

Steve Pockross is a Denver-based operator with more than two decades of experience building and scaling B2B SaaS and services companies. As CEO of Verblio, he grew the bootstrapped content platform from $2 million to $12 million in ARR, repositioned the business around AI, and led its sale to private equity in 2024. Earlier, he built a partnership division at LiveOps from the ground up to $35 million annually. Today, Steve advises growth-stage founders on go-to-market strategy, commercial teams, scalable operating systems, AI disruption, and preparing for a successful exit.

Karen Posey

Karen Posey is a board director, CEO, and enterprise value strategist who helps organizations turn strategy, innovation, and technology into measurable business value. As CEO of KP Strategies, she advises CEOs and leadership teams on commercialization, growth, digital transformation, organizational alignment, and execution. Karen has extensive experience supporting entrepreneurs and emerging companies, including through The Entrepreneur Network and Rev1 Ventures, where she has helped leaders sharpen strategy, accelerate commercialization, secure investment, and build for scale. Her career spans healthcare, life sciences, technology, and professional services, complemented by extensive board service and a long history of mentoring entrepreneurs and executives.

Jeff Schell

Jeff Schell is an attorney, founder, CEO, investor, and dealmaker with firsthand experience building, buying, scaling, and selling companies. He built Rocky Mountain Patent and exited through a merger with a national firm, then served as CEO of medical device company TranS1, raising millions for its acquisition and leading the company through its eventual exit in 2018. Jeff also backed and helped scale women’s health company Proov and today leads the Mountain West practice of a national law firm while advising founders through Nova Launch Partners and Erez Capital. He was named one of Colorado’s 25 Most Influential Young Professionals.

Dafne Tsakiris

Dafne Tsakiris is the Founder and CEO of Launch Point, an operational consulting firm that helps growth-stage and mid-market companies build the infrastructure needed to scale. Drawing on her own experience as a founder, Dafne works with leaders navigating the stage when informal processes and systems begin to limit growth. She specializes in diagnosing the true bottlenecks within a business and strengthening operating models, systems, and accountability. Dafne works across industries, with particular expertise in manufacturing, construction, distribution, and professional services.

Nicole Vogrin

Nicole Vogrin is an international C-level executive, board director, and advisor with more than 20 years of experience transforming and scaling financial services and consumer businesses. As a Partner at Bridgepoint Management Partners, she advises European business owners and leadership teams on North American growth, transformation, organizational development, and cross-border transactions. Nicole previously held senior leadership roles at waterdrop and Western Union and brings deep expertise in strategy, governance, stakeholder engagement, communications, and sustainability. She is a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader, PRWeek “40 Under 40” honoree, and member of Extraordinary Women on Boards.

Kara Zucker

Kara Zucker is a product, operations, and technology professional with experience across tech startups, nonprofits, and government. She brings extensive expertise in launching new products, building onboarding workflows, improving business processes, and using data to drive meaningful impact. Kara currently serves as Senior Director of Product at Sign In Solutions, where she manages a team of seven product and design leaders across three countries. She holds an MBA and brings a user-centered perspective to helping organizations and teams solve problems, improve operations, and build products that better serve their audiences.

The breadth of experience represented by this group is one of the strengths of the BEN advisor community. From finance and operations to strategy, product development, leadership, and growth, these advisors bring knowledge shaped by decades of building, leading, investing in, and advising businesses at different stages.

We’re grateful to have them sharing that experience with BEN entrepreneurs and look forward to the perspectives and support they will bring to our community. Welcome to the ecosystem!