Gerard J. Donnellan, PhD  is a business and consulting psychologist with deep experience working with individuals and organizations.  He holds a Certificate in Family Business Advising from the Family Firm Institute,  the leading international organization of family business consultants. He is on the faculty of the FFI certificate prgram.

Dr. Donnellan is co-founder of  BIG LEAP. Since receiving his PhD in Clinical Psychology in 1977, he has consulted with a variety of organizations, from global corporations to family-owned firms and non-profits. As a family business advisor, for example, he works with the senior leadership, family members and the Board on succession planning, leadership development and issues at the intersection of the family and the business.  Clients include State Street Corp, Advent International, Cisco Systems/Webline, SpaceWorks, Genesis Consolidated Services and Boston College, where he provided executive coaching, assessment and team development for senior leaders and teams. Prior to   BIG LEAP he was principal with Applied Behavioral Science, providing assessment and HR consulting to business units within Fidelity Investments (FIIS) and John Hancock Financial Services.

He was the Founding Director of the Institute for Organizational Consulting Psychology at the Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology, Boston. He is senior advisor and master coach supervisor in the Executive Coaching Certificate Program at MSPP. 

His publications include book chapters and articles in scholarly professional journals; he has held teaching faculty appointments at HarvardMedicalSchool and the City University of New York. He is a member of the American Psychological Association, and local business, HR and psychology organizations. A licensed psychologist in Massachusetts, he is past-president, New England Society for Applied Psychology (NESAP), the largest organization of business and organizational psychologists in New England and is past-president, the Massachusetts Association for Psychoanalytic Psychology (MAPP), an APA regional affiliate.

In discussing his organizational work, Cohen and Prusak observed, “BIG LEAP aims for long-term results using dramatic interventions that energize action in service of a clearly defined organizational goal." (In Good Company: How Social Capital Makes Organizations Work. Don Cohen & Larry Prusak. HarvardBusinessSchool Press. 2001).

His other interests include acting in community theater productions and his book, “Get Noticed, Get In”, a parent’s guide to college athletic scholarships.  He received his BA in Spanish, and has attended an intensive language institute in Mexico with his family. He lives in Lexington, Massachusetts.

Nancy Carlson Berners Lee  is co-founder of BIG LEAP. She has extensive experience conducting training in many different countries, cultures and environments through her work with the World Health Organization and the International Food Policy Research Institute. She directs theatrical presentations and facilitates improvisational drama with people of every age. Nancy also works with Healthy Kids, Healthy Bodies, creating, directing and performing dramatic pieces on body image and nutritional awareness.

As a child and young adult, Nancy was a nationally-ranked, high-level competitive figure skater and later a figure skating coach and choreographer.

Nancy is past president of the Lexington Players theater group  and past Chairman of the Little Theatre of Geneva, Switzerland. She is a graduate of Brown University and is pursuing graduate study in psychology.