Meet Pat Reinhardt

Pat is an independent member on Elm’s Board of Directors. For over two decades, she has focused on advising companies/boards with a goal of growing and keeping jobs in New England.

“That’s mostly on the manufacturing and consumer and some business services front,” Pat said. “The way I do that is I sit on Boards, invest in and advise executive teams. I’ve advised them when they hit a point where they’re in super growth mode and want to make sure the infrastructure is there and or they want to acquire other companies, because they can’t organically grow any further. I work with companies when they’re ready to sell – getting them ready to transact and maximize shareholder return. I also have worked with companies when they hit a wall of working capital and need to restructure. Not the case at ELM! The majority of my clients are privately held and some generationally by families. Some are portfolio companies of Private equity.”

Pat joined Elm’s Board of Directors roughly 7 years ago. A few years prior to that is when she impressed Bob Bacon at a couple of meetings for another board.

BOARD OF DIRECTORS: Bob Bacon | Dan Bacon | Keith Saltmarsh | Mike Holmberg | Pat Reinhardt

“Out of the blue, Bob called me and said, ‘Pat, I’d like to bring an independent director in. I thought a lot about who that person would be. When I sat in on those two board meetings, you stood out because everyone was ‘yes-ing’ the CEO to death and you were the only one saying, ‘Uh, no, I don’t think that’s such a good idea.’ I want that opposition on my board. I want someone who’s going to tell me the truth and not hold back,’” Pat recalled. “I’m known for being pretty frank. Bob said, ‘I trust you. And we are going to be going through significant growth and I want to do everything as well as possible.’”

Pat says she is blown away by Elm’s culture.

“I think Elm has a problem-solving culture and an entrepreneurial one,” she said. “I’m not saying everyone is an entrepreneur, but – overall – I think everyone at Elm is a problem solver and works with group collaboration in mind. What I see there is: we’ve got a problem? Let’s fix it. How are we going to do it? Who’s going to help? People raise their hand at Elm. You could go into a culture where people look sideways and say, ‘I’m not getting involved here.’ But I feel like at Elm, people raise their hand. And that’s huge. I see it in the shop, I see it out in the field. I just get a sense of deep, smart and thoughtful collaboration. And I think, partly, that has to be coming from the knowledge that there’s space for you to move within Elm. If you come in at whatever level, you do well, you move up. You’re rewarded. I think that growth model doesn’t exist in a lot of companies, so employees become disenfranchised because there’s no future, so they do the minimum to get by. Whereas here, you do well, you move forward and there’s a lot of room. Also, what is most impressive is the smart growth and consistent year over year steady financials in terms of bottom line. Truly impressive.”

When Pat is not working with clients or board work, she said her favorite things in the world are spending time at the beach or skiing with her children Sarah and Adam (age 19 and 23), going on long walks with her golden, Boone, and playing in her garden.