EXECUTIVE POSITIONS: CLO ~ CECO ~ Corporate Secretary ~ Owner

INDUSTRY EXPERIENCE: Newspapers, Media & Entertainment ~ Health Care ~ Hospitality ~ Education ~ Membership ~ Consulting

Denise founded GSG, a board advisory practice. She helps directors evaluate board performance and adapt effective governance practices to fit within their unique organizations.

Prior to GSG, Denise was a successful corporate officer at The E.W. Scripps Company-Scripps Networks. During her 30-year Scripps’ career she held numerous leadership positions and was the first woman elected an officer of the company. Exercising well-honed organizational skills, she helped Scripps forge a strategy for a rapidly changing business environment.

Denise serves as president and board chair of Kenwood Country Club, a 36-hole regional golf, racquet & social club; and is a member of the board of directors of Bethesda, Inc., a health care organization. Previously she served on the board of Best Upon Request, a privately owned employee-concierge company serving companies and employees nationwide, and on the board of Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, overseeing a management team during transformative years.

KEY COMPETENCIES

• Highly Seasoned Generalist – In her management roles at a mid-size company, Denise wore many hats which allowed her to enjoy a broad range of experiences. Today, client work offers similar opportunities. These experiences help her to better advise directors as they think through strategic choices about how to set priorities, allocate resources, and make difficult decisions.
• Leadership – With an entrepreneurial spirit, Denise founded a board advisory practice and is a former officer and member of the senior management team of a publicly traded media company (family-controlled). Her extensive successes result from developing and implementing value-driven business initiatives and effectively leading through challenges, crisis, and change.
• Succession planning, human capital management, legal, risk assessment – She was a public company’s first in-house lawyer, established a legal department; drafted and implemented compensation, management development and continuity plans; developed and executed a compliance, ethics and enterprise-wide risk management program.
• Corporate governance and boardroom experience – Her learning agility and experience as corporate secretary and chief governance officer, and client experience in the boardroom, give her a unique sense of board dynamics that enables collaboration and consensus. Additionally, Denise has written and published articles on board governance matters and is a frequent speaker on topics that help directors increase board effectiveness.

Key Professional Affiliations

• Society for Corporate Governance
• NACD Board Leadership Fellow
• Senior Fellow at the Conference Board’s Governance Center

Education, License & Certification

• The Wharton School, Boards that Lead Program (February 2018)
• NACD Board Leadership Fellow (December 2013 – current)
• DirectWomen Board Institute (September 2009 – current)
• Admitted to the Practice of Law in the State of Ohio (1995 – current)
• Juris Doctorate degree from the Salmon P. Chase College of Law at NKU (1994)
• Bachelor of Science in Management from Northern Kentucky University (1985)