Our team

Dave Darsch - Founder, CEO

Dave Darsch, Strategic Business Advisor, has more than 30 years of experience as an entrepreneur and managing executive of technology companies. With a strong trans-Atlantic and pan-European focus, Dave has active clients in both the US and Europe. He mentors entrepreneurs and helps them develop business plans that accelerate revenue growth and/or external infusion of capital. Dave has been involved in more than 10 transactions involving the purchase, sale, merger, or infusion of capital into companies.

Dave is the founder of the pan-European CEO...
David Frodsham - Partner

David Frodsham is a serial CEO and entrepreneur having founded, run, bought and sold companies in France, Germany, US and UK. His most recent venture-backed company, Argogroup, a provider of test equipment to mobile operators, was sold to Ascom in March 2008.

He is currently pursuing a portfolio career focused on helping CEOs with advice and coaching, especially in the area of corporate development. He runs the Finance Stream at CEO-CF and serves on the board of Wadaro.

An enthusiast of entrepreneurial finance, he has completed a book with Professor Heinrich...
Austin Desautels - Managing Director

Austin Desautels is responsible for the internal operations of the forum which includes running the office, structuring and delivering the events year-round, marketing & communication and managing the membership groups and CEO coaches.

Originally from San Francisco, he studied philosophy at Trinity College in Connecticut where he wrote his thesis on education in language. Later, he returned to San Francisco to work as a paralegal at a Kirkland & Ellis representing Samsung in an IP litigation case regarding telecommunication technologies. After the close of this case...
Kelly Williams - Admissions Assistant

Welsh born Kelly was raised by the beach in Melbourne, Australia. After travelling the world on her gap year, she completed a Bachelor of Business Marketing and Management at Monash University during which she spent six months studying in México. Having a passion for business, she completed a business graduate program at the Royal Automobile Association of Victoria (RACV) before staying on as a marketing communication consultant. Her desire to master the Spanish language and her love of the Hispanic culture brought her to Barcelona where she is now part of CEO-Collaborative Forum team.
Luján Fernandez - Event Coordinator

Luján Fernández comes from León, Spain. She has a degree in Translation and Interpretation, and has also completed a Master’s Degree in Protocol and Event Organization. She has lived and worked several years in Germany, in the Project Management departament of a clinical research organization. After returning to Spain and establishing herself in Barcelona, she has worked as event organizer. Besides English and German, she has a good knowledge of Italian and Greek. She likes languages, travelling and cooking.
Rory Kavanagh - Membership

Rory is in charge of Membership at the Forum. Whether it's a brand new member, or a Master, Rory's job is to ensure that every Member of the community is prepared before they attend one of our meetings. A significant part of this role involves coordinating each Member with one of our expert coaches, to ensure they get the most value out of their Member Challenge.

Rory is also responsibile for the hiring and training Facilitator Assistants who guarantee that Member's preparation calls and presentations run smoothly, and capture all the valuable feedback...
Lisa Darsch - Board of Advisors

Lisa Darsch is co-founder of CEO-CF and helps to lead all meetings and events, including CEO-CF forums, the CEO-CF Mid-Forum Connect ™, and the CEO-CF E-Forum™. She provides leadership development and assessments to CEO-CF members and senior management teams. Her areas of specialization include biotech, healthcare finance, and information technology. With 20 years of experience in the healthcare field, including human resources, finance, and clinical care, Lisa assists organizations with change management, accelerated growth, and mergers and acquisitions from a human relations perspective...
Woody Allen - Board of Advisors

Woody Allen is a business strategist, coach and mentor to companies in the United States and Europe. He has more than 35 years experience as a C-level executive, including roles as President, Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer and Chairman of the Board for publicly traded companies. He has extensive Board room experience, having served on the Boards of Directors of numerous companies in a wide variety of businesses, ranging from radio broadcasting to semiconductor equipment manufacturing.

His current roles include Chairman of the Audit Committee for...