Paul Bardack and Pat Nicholas
Pat Nichols
William Patrick “Pat” Nichols is Co-Founder and President of StatesRise. He is also the CEO at Transition Leadership International, where he led turnarounds and strategic transitions. For 30 years, he served as an interim CEO of nonprofits facing similar changes.
Pat led a behavioral health group, C4Chicago.org, through a major corporate turnaround during COVID. He devised a financial rescue plan for a camp for sick children. Previously, he led the financial rescue of Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, now Global Refuge. In his tenure, the organization addressed the refugee crisis that separated children from their parents at the US/Mexico border.
He led the launch of PCORI.org, a $500 million funder of health research. Pat led the turnaround of its subsidiary, SafeKids.org, a billion-dollar hospital system. Pat has led organizations in the environment, poverty, human rights, energy, and other nonprofit sectors.
Pat is the father of three and grandfather of four. He is an avid bicyclist, traveler, and reader. Though by birth a proud Missourian, Pat is a perversely enthusiastic fan of the New York Yankees.
Paul Bardack
Paul Bardack, Co-Founder and Chair, brings a lifetime of experience to StatesRise. He served as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Economic Development at HUD. As a Capitol Hill staffer, he was key in crafting the widely used federal enterprise zone program. In state government, he was the executive director of Maryland’s Small Business Development Center.
In business, Paul developed several online education companies. He chaired the US Distance Learning Association and represented the online education industry before UNESCO.
Paul earned a BA from Yale in 1975 and his JD from American University’s Washington College of Law in 1978. In law school, he was the Law Review Notes and Comments Editor. Notably, he authored a note on state constitutional law. He is a member of the District of Columbia Bar.
Paul and his wife, Esther Roitman Bardack, live in Silver Spring, MD. They have three children, children-in-law, and four grandchildren.