40 Under 40: The Judges

Terence Shepherd

Melanie Bonsu

Naureen Meraj

Paul Joseph

Write a Comment

Terry Shepherd, CM&AA, CPA, MST, is the managing partner of Worcester accounting and consulting firm Shepherd & Goldstein.

Shepherd has advised small/medium-sized, family-owned/closely-held businesses for more than 35 years.

His particular business areas of expertise are in business exit and transition, value growth and strategic planning and execution.

In his business transition consultation work, he is a catalyst in guiding owners to discover their personal values, goals and objectives, to ensure their end-in-mind objectives are met upon exit.

He also is a principal and founding member of ROCG, a boutique consulting firm specializing in exit and transition planning for privately owned enterprises.

Shepherd helped found Why Me, Inc., a Worcester nonprofit providing emotional and financial support to children with cancer and their families.

Melanie Bonsu is the fund development manager for the Girl Scouts of Central and Western Massachusetts. Bonsu joined the Girl Scouts in 2012 and oversees all aspects of fund development including annual giving, corporate and foundation relations, events and the alumnae association.

Bonu has increased corporate, foundation and individual support of mission since joining Girl Scouts in 2012; increased attendance and money raised for two fundraising events, and was chosen to help plan the donor experience for the Girl Scouts’ 53rd national convention.

She was a member of Worcester Business Journal’s 40 Under Forty Class of 2015.

Naureen Meraj is a gamification expert, most recently working as senior global director in the Shrewsbury office for Japanese information-technology firm NTT Data, starting her career just four years ago after a decade as a homemaker and quickly launching one of the first gamification practices in the IT industry.

Meraj joined NTT – a $16-billion, 75,000-employee global firm – in 2011 and instituted its gamification practices to become one of the most recognized in the industry.

Gamification is the practice of applying typical elements of game-playing – such as point scoring and competition – to activities such as marketing to encourage greater participation.

Leveraging her thought leadership and expertise in learning and gamification, Meraj founded the nonprofit iGAME (Institute for Game Accelerated Multidisciplinary Education).

This is the first organization to focus on increasing innovation and adoption of educational games in the public school system.

Meraj lives in Shrewsbury with her three children. She is a 2015 Worcester Business Journal Outstanding Woman in Business.

Paul Joseph joined the MetroWest Chamber of Commerce as its president and CEO in September 2015. He has more than 25 years of professional and entrepreneurial experience, including product and services marketing, sales, management consulting and executive education.

Joseph also has more than eight years of municipal leadership and volunteerism experience in his home town of Natick, where he was elected to the board of selectmen, served as chair of its economic development committee, and currently serves on the board and advisory committee of two local nonprofits – one offering emergency support for individuals and families facing hardship, the other focused on substance abuse prevention.

Prior to his role at the MetroWest Chamber, Joseph was CEO at Contexed, LLC, a management consulting and executive education firm he founded to help businesses navigate change and grow revenue through better decision making, knowledge acquisition and talent development.