Annual Colloquium on International Engineering Education
Kirsten Brecht has over fifteen years experience in developing companies and business models, accumulating a diverse background in strategy, operations, fundraising, deal creation, marketing and business development. Ms. Brecht has built companies and has served as both an industry executive and a consultant with ventures from start-up to Fortune 50 status, including international NGOs.
Ms. Brecht is co-founder and managing partner of Constellar Group, Inc., a business consulting firm focused on accelerating the growth of emerging and established companies and organizations that are focused on internationalizing their business. More recently, Ms. Brecht has worked extensively in the area of international education, assisting in the expansion of education business models overseas, as well as facilitating the partnering of US and overseas institutions to innovate new products and services. In this role, she brings years of experience delivering business and marketing strategy solutions to clients in a wide range of industries including:
- Serving as an interim senior management for growing companies and non-profit organizations to guide them through business planning, marketing, business development, fundraising, research and development, and product launch phases
- Improving client revenue and profit with fact-based marketing, business development and sales strategies and deployment tactics
- Providing practical, data-driven solutions to help clients grow their revenue, improve their business models and build long-term value
- Formulating, evaluating and articulating company growth strategies.
As part of her background, Ms. Brecht served as CEO, co-founder and owner of New City Companies. As CEO, Ms. Brecht’s primary responsibilities included general management of day-to-day operations, as well as overseeing company finances, marketing, sales, production and field strategy and implementation. She was responsible for defining the company’s vision, as well as its growth, investment and development strategies. Ms. Brecht has also founded and headed Sales and Marketing for two early-stage companies. In each case, she created corporate identity, developed marketing and business development strategy, orchestrated a company launch, and ran marketing communications, advertising and public relations campaigns. She holds an MBA in entrepreneurial management and marketing from the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School, and a BA (magna cum laude with distinction) in political science and Russian from the University of Pennsylvania.
