New consulting firm to advise nonprofits

BANGOR – Recognizing a growing need in the area, a local law firm has enlisted the help of a departing United Way executive to establish a new consulting business.

Starboard Leadership Consulting LLC will specialize in advising nonprofit agencies and family-owned and operated businesses, according to George Eaton of Rudman & Winchell and Jeff Wahlstrom of United Way of Eastern Maine. Eaton is a partner at Rudman & Winchell who focuses on business law. Wahlstrom has been president of United Way of Eastern Maine since 1994 but will leave that post by the end of the month.

Eaton said during a recent interview that the new venture, which will be a subsidiary of Rudman & Winchell, is a “natural extension” of doing legal work for nonprofit organizations, which is a growing part of the law firm’s business.

“Everything finds its way into the nonprofit world,” Eaton said. “The nonprofit sector is probably the strongest part of our economy, when you include the University of Maine and Eastern Maine Medical Center.”

Wahlstrom said he was thinking about starting a nonprofit-consulting business on his own when he was approached by Eaton earlier this year.

“It wasn’t all that exciting to think about working out of the kitchen of my home or out of a spare bedroom,” he said.

Wahlstrom will serve as president of the new agency and will work out of Rudman & Winchell’s offices in downtown Bangor, where the consulting firm will be located. Eaton and Wahlstrom both will serve as managing directors of Starboard, but Eaton will continue to devote most of his professional time to his regular law practice.

Both men indicated that, with the growing importance of nonprofit organizations to eastern Maine’s economy, the timing is right for the new business. Nonprofit executives and family business owners often lack the broad depth of business expertise that could help their organizations become more effective and efficient, they said.

“They may not have the kind of training to be an executive director,” Wahlstrom said. “They learn on the job.”

There is a need locally for the services such a consulting firm can provide, but nonprofit agencies often look outside the region to find help, the two men said. By giving nonprofits and family-owned businesses a local option other than seeking advice in Portland or Boston, the consulting firm can help address the needs of the community.

“We’ve seen there is a gap,” Eaton said.

“It’s a huge potential market,” Wahlstrom said.

Heightened regulatory concerns spurred by passage of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, a law passed by Congress in 2002 in the wake of several high-profile corporate accounting scandals, also adds to the realm in which outside expert advice can prove helpful, they said.

“They’re feeling pressure to have strong governance practices in place,” Wahlstrom said. “Like any business, there are things they can do to be much stronger.”

Strategic planning, succession plans and expanding capacity will be among the services offered by the consulting firm, the partners said.

The name “Starboard” refers both to nautical protocols and to the notion of having quality guidance, according to Eaton. Having a name different from Rudman & Winchell also will help delineate the role of the consulting business, especially when a client already has legal representation from another law firm, he said.

“It’s an area where we think we can do a lot of good,” Eaton said.