Our Board

CHAIR

Alison Schwartz is the Chief Operating Officer for Gotham Ghostwriters, where she manages finance, legal, and operations as well as partnerships and other strategic initiatives.

Previously, Alison worked as COO of LUMBERYARD Center for Film & Performing Arts and Co-Founder & Editorial Director of Lulu, and at ICM, where she worked for the legendary literary agent Amanda Urban and represented her own clients, largely focusing on nonfiction. Born in Toronto, Alison has a BA from McGill University and MA from Oxford University.

She lives in NYC with her husband, daughter, and geriatric schnauzer-mix, Daffodil.

TREASURER

Carl Lennertz has held executive marketing positions at Random House and Knopf for 16 years and HarperCollins for 8 years, and taught marketing at the University of Denver for 11 summers.

His non-profit work includes the ABA (working on a national campaign for independent bookstores), World Book Night US (where a half million free books were handed out to people in need each year on April 23), and now as the CBC and Every Child a Reader Executive Director for seven years. He has lived in NY’s Adirondacks since 2019. Favorite non-work things: Liverpool, chocolate, and vinyl LPs.

SECRETARY

Ellen is an energetic entrepreneur with 30+ years’ experience starting and building businesses, leading with clarity and strength, and marketing with focus and insight. She brings the unique perspectives of a metric driven business owner and an intuitive marketing professional together to help businesses grow as a marketing consultant and mentor.

Prior to co-founding the Melmon Group, Ellen co-founded Digiscribe and Digiscribe New England. As Chief Marketing Officer, her digital marketing skills were instrumental in growing the company from a single-location document scanning company to a national business process outsourcing provider, with over 75 employees in facilities outside of both New York City and Boston. Her two companies were sold to a leading, multi-national, digital transformation company.

She has served on non-profit and for-profit Boards including Start Lighthouse, Feeding Westchester, the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF), The Metropolitan Business Alliance, Alexander Wolf & Son , and the Connection Committee of the Westchester County Association.

DIRECTOR

Jonathan Chou is a partner in Goodwin’s Technology and Life Sciences groups. He works with (i) emerging growth companies throughout all stages of their lifecycle, from pre-incorporation through angel, seed, and growth financings to exit and (ii) angel, venture, and strategic investors, in the technology and life sciences sectors.

Even after representing hundreds of startups and investors for over a decade, Jonathan hasn’t forgotten his days as a research scientist at a venture-backed biotech, which helps him relate to and connect with founders on a personal level. Because of these shared experiences, Jonathan sees himself not only as an outside general counsel to founders and companies from ideation through exit, but also as a trusted advisor and confidant who is fully committed to solving their problems while occasionally adding a healthy dose of business practicality.