Board of directors
With deep industry expertise and decades of experience in the sectors we serve, our team works directly with clients to deliver unparalleled business results. We’ve built our organization around highly experienced professionals with proven track records of success.
The Northridge Group is deeply saddened by the sudden loss of a good friend and board member Kenneth Fishman on December 23, 2024. Ken brought tremendous experience and insightful conversations to our board meetings over the last 5 years.
We will miss his presence. Our condolences to his family during this difficult time.
Therese Fauerbach, Co-Founder & Board Chair
Therese K. Fauerbach is a highly regarded business leader and entrepreneur with an extensive track record in international management and consulting. As Co-Founder, Board Chair and former Chief Executive Officer of The Northridge Group, Ms. Fauerbach is committed to providing real-world, cost-effective and executable solutions that drive profitability. Through a deep understanding of analytics and honest discussion, Ms. Fauerbach creates simplified and attainable business solutions for organizations with complex operational problems.
Ms. Fauerbach advises C-level executives across the Fortune 100 and has, on occasion, acted as an interim executive. Under her leadership, Northridge has operated profitably each year since its inception. Ms. Fauerbach earned a bachelor’s degree in accounting from St. Norbert College and an MBA from the Lake Forest Graduate School of Management. She serves on several boards including DePaul University and The Cradle Foundation, one of the foremost adoption agencies in the country. She is a former chair on the board for The Chicago Network.
Daniel Fete
Daniel Fete, most recently chief financial officer at AT&T Communications, brings more than 30 years of experience in leadership, corporate development, corporate strategy, financial services, controller responsibilities, real estate, and shared services. During his career at AT&T, Mr. Fete held several financial leadership positions for the company’s largest divisions with responsibility for acquisitions and management of a multi-billion dollar capital investment program associated with the company’s infrastructure and technology.
Mr. Fete has held various board positions in the Telecommunications, Media & Technology space. Additionally, he currently serves on the Executive Advisory Committee of Ignite MindShift Impact, a non-profit organization focused on providing underserved young people key mindset and personal leadership skills and has served on the board of the United Way of Northern New Jersey and the Finance Committee of the United Way of Metropolitan Dallas. Mr. Fete earned a bachelor’s degree in accountancy from the University of Missouri – Columbia.
Ken Fishman
Ken Fishman, most recently a managing director in the health and public service practice at Accenture, brings experience in strategy, cost reduction, operations improvement, technology, and large-scale change initiatives for large health insurance companies, provider organizations, and banks. He served in a number of leadership roles during his 33-year career with Accenture including managing the health management consulting practice in North America and serving as the account lead for one of Accenture’s largest health clients.
Mr. Fishman serves on the board for the Josselyn Center, where he chairs the Strategic Planning Committee and is a member of the Nominating Committee and the Executive Committee. He is a member of the Northern Michigan Angels (NMA), an organization that focuses on growing the economic base of the region, and is a mentor at MATTER, a Chicago-based healthcare startup incubator. Mr. Fishman earned a bachelor’s degree in mathematical science from Johns Hopkins University and a master’s in business administration from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management.
Joni Arison
As President and CEO for The Northridge Group, Joni leads the charge in operations, strategic assessment and evolution of the firm’s contact center and customer experience solutions. Leveraging more than 30 years of sales, marketing, operations, and finance expertise—as well as an extensive breadth of knowledge in the areas of risk management, technology modernization, compliance, cybersecurity, and fraud—Joni leads NRG’s expert team and our Fortune 500 clients on contact center management and operational strategy, including workforce modernization, digital transformation, and business process optimization.
Joni has a long, proven track record of bringing together data and analytics, process automation, and emerging technologies, to drive best-in-class services while maintaining a balanced operational cost structure. At AT&T, Joni was responsible for the company’s global finance shared services organization, which was responsible for end-to-end cash management for the company. She led a team of more than 5,000 professionals and processed $150 billion in customer payments and more than 50 million credit applications.
She served as the executive sponsor of AT&T’s Human Capital Management initiative to implement a new payroll, time reporting, and HR system. In her role, she had the responsibility for billing operations, the global fraud organization, and compliance officer for AT&T Finance. Under her leadership the company had the lowest fraud rates of the past decade as a result of her implementation of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning technologies.
Ann E. Ziegler
Ann E. Ziegler, most recently senior vice president, chief financial officer and executive committee member at CDW, is a qualified financial expert with significant public company and audit and compensation committee experience. Prior to joining CDW, Ms. Ziegler held a number of executive positions with Sara Lee including finance, strategy and general management roles in both U.S. and international businesses. Ms. Ziegler serves on the boards of Hanesbrands, Inc., Groupon, Inc., Wolters Kluwer, Revolution Foods, The Chicago Network, and the Smart Museum of Art. She earned a bachelor’s degree in economics from the College of William and Mary and a law degree from the University of Chicago Law School.
