Press Release  CommCorp Announces New Additions to Board of Directors

Boston — Learn About our Newest Board Members and their Stories

Commonwealth Corporation is excited to finally announce the newest members of our Board of Directors, Jean-Phillip Brignol, Charles A. Ocitti and Sherman Carter, all valuable additions who will bring more wisdom and heart to the work we do.

Jean-Phillip Brignol comes to us as Assistant Counsel at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, where he assists the legal team and advises the business teams on a variety of legal, contractual, and operations matters. His experience and unique set of skills couldn’t come at a better time as we dive into our scheduled bylaws review.

The son of Haitian immigrants, Brignol is originally from the south suburbs of Chicago. He earned his B.A. in Political Science at Yale University, his Ed.M. at Boston University School of Education, and his J.D. from Boston University School of Law. Before law school, he worked under the Teach for America, AmeriCorp umbrella. This is where he discovered his passion for law and set off to create meaningful change.

“I felt that in a certain way, I couldn’t help my students just by being a teacher,” Brignol says. “I had special education students who had attorneys, and who had people who were supposed to be providing services for them, but they weren’t necessarily getting those services. That motivated me to go to law school.”

After law school, he clerked for the Honorable Chief Justice Chase T. Rogers (Ret.) at the Connecticut Supreme Court. Brignol was selected to be in the Top 40 Under 40 Massachusetts list of the National Black Lawyers in 2019, and a Holland & Knight Pro Bono All-Star from 2017-2019. He is also on the Board of Directors of the impact litigation non-profit GLBTQ Advocates and Defenders (GLAD) as well as school improvement non-profit EdVestors. We are honored to have him join our team and hope to benefit from his practice on general business litigation but also his learnings from his active pro bono practice.

Charles A. Ocitti is a consultant specializing in providing advisory services for small businesses and non-profit organizations. With 20 years of experience, he brings a wealth of experience in finding solutions to a variety of challenges facing small businesses and non-profit organizations.

In his consulting work, Ocitti provided strategic, finance, and accounting services for various organizations, such as the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, Tibet Poverty Alleviation Fund, and Political Research Associates. Charles’ previous experience includes financial and consulting roles with Boston Medical Center and Accounting Management Systems.

He is also a Council Member at Gerson Lehrman Group, the world's largest membership network for one-on-one professional learning comprising more than 425,000 thought leaders and practitioners. Clients include more than 1400 companies in 40 countries, Fortune 500 companies in nearly every sector and the leading professional services firms and financial institutions

Originally from Uganda, Charles and his family moved to the USA in 1998. Charles holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in International Relations from the University of Sussex and a Masters of Business Administration from the University of Surrey.

Sherman Carter creates a vision for finance and makes it a reality by using it as a lever to create a business advantage. He is a strategic and entrepreneurial leader committed to building and sustaining value at high-impact mission-focused organizations.

Currently, as CFO of EL Education, a national education non-profit, Carter is responsible for leading the financial strategy for the entire organization which entails the implementation of the long-term strategic vision, process innovation, as well as guiding and elevating financial operations.

Previously, as CFO of Springboard Education, a leading national extended-day learning services company, he was responsible for all finance functions, IT, Human Resources as well as the Customer Success team. His areas of emphasis at Springboard were a business partnership, analytics, KPI development and revenue optimization. Earlier, he worked at Pearson Education where he was Director of Finance for their Global Schools and Higher Education divisions. He was responsible for all finance functions as well as advanced analytics and modeling to improve organizational effectiveness and grow the business through organic and acquisitive means.

Throughout Carter’s career, he’s been recognized as a strong business partner with a track record of driving growth and profit improvement as well as translating strategic initiatives into P&L results. He's a cooperative leader who brings a clear vision for planning, metric-driven performance, and process excellence.

He holds a bachelor’s degree in Economics and a graduate certificate in accounting from the University of Massachusetts. He also holds an MBA from Babson College.

All three of these new board members have expressed a pointed interest in CommCorp’s mission and supporting the cause. CommCorp is proud to bring in new experts to their strategic planning process.

About Commonwealth Corporation: CommCorp invests in innovative partnerships to prepare youth and unemployed workers for jobs in demand, upskill underemployed workers leading to job retention, upgrades and wage gains, and create pathways for underserved youth. Learn More: http://commcorp.org/.

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