Monadnock’s Mission
We help teams find joy and clarity in the process of making decisions that achieve extraordinary business outcomes and fulfill a greater purpose for society.
The values you will see and feel when you work with us.
Collaborate
Partner with genuine respect, honoring what makes each person, team, and company unique and exceptional.
Challenge
Bring bold, evidence-based ideas that open new pathways to emerging or intractable challenges.
Trust
Use each interaction as a moment to make progress towards shared outcomes, even if the approach and speed creates discomfort.
Learn
Pursue business and cultural context with deep curiosity. Uncover and stretch the learning edge for individuals, teams, and organizations.
Working at Scale
We work with peer organizations, advisors, academics, contractors and several small and large business partners that allow us to tailor a team to individual contract needs.
MEET THE TEAM
Gad Nestel, MBA
President and Founder
Gad focuses on advisory and coaching services that help leaders and teams collaborate, innovate, and evolve using practical NeuroLeadership and business acumen principles. He draws on his experience as the first Dean of the Bechtel Leadership Academy, created to support CEO succession planning, culture change, and leader development. He also launched and led the expansion of BTS’ global coaching practice.
Today, Gad leads flagship executive development programs, C-suite and team coaching engagements, and culture change initiatives. Most of his work has been in the Construction, Software, and Semiconductor sectors, partnering with organizations ranging from Fortune 500 companies to founder-led VC/PE-backed firms. He’s also had the privilege of working with mission-driven organizations such as Lawrence University and the Wildlife Conservation Society.
Outside of work, Gad spends as much time as he can outdoors and with his family. He lives in California but still gravitates to the Bay Area, where he lived and worked for nearly 20 years.
Major influences in Gad’s life include his father—a WWII bomber pilot and aerospace innovator—and his mother, a devoted peace activist. His path has also included attending the U.S. Naval Academy, playing on one of Bates College’s winningest squash teams, teaching physics at Andover and in Kenya, climbing Denali, kayaking the Grand Canyon, and completing long-distance mountain bike races.
Kate Shepard, MBA/LMSW
Director of Psychology and Applied Research
“If we work with people’s existing beliefs and motivations we have a much higher chance at creating lasting change. Most people want to do great work on great teams - my job is to figure out why that isn’t happening and how to solve for it.”
Kate has spent her career bridging clinical and corporate spaces from Deloitte to clinical therapy. Regardless of the sector, her passion has been focused on helping individuals, leaders, and teams operate better when it matters most - moments of uncertainty, tension, and crisis.
Her unique approach has led her to work shaping the crisis communications strategy for a government executive that reached over 300,000 essential workers, congressional leaders, and the public during the COVID-19 pandemic, developing trainings on the cognition behind unusual beliefs for teams tracking mis- and dis- information narratives, and leading the team translating academic research on trust into practical business frameworks for a large consulting firm.
Today, she uses tools from across individual, interpersonal, organizational, and even social psychology to understand the “why” behind some of the most entrenched and destructive patterns that erode connection, threaten progress, and ultimately lead to high turnover, low engagement, and stagnant outcomes. Then, she works with teams to develop resilience to these patterns.
Jessica Speciale, MS/MSL
Head of Sales and Future Forward Strategies
“The future belongs to organizations that treat learning as a daily practice, not an annual event.”
Jessica leads business development, builds high-impact partnerships, and drives strategic initiatives at Monadnock Consulting, specializing in scalable, high-impact learning and leadership solutions. With over 15 years in enterprise sales and program design, she has partnered with industry leaders across technology, energy, manufacturing, and professional services to deliver measurable results at scale. Her work has contributed to award-winning leadership and learning programs recognized by the Stevie Awards and Brandon Hall Group.
Outside of the corporate arena, Jessica applies her strategic mindset to Pretty Whimsical Homeschool, where she champions playful, curiosity-centered learning designed for home environments. Grounded in research and crafted for modern families, her approach nurtures curiosity, empathy, and real-life readiness, especially tailored to support busy, growth-focused parents navigating modern childhood.