Our Team - Senior Staff

Abel Bascom, Private Sector Practice
Shirley Eng, New York Practice
Jennifer Nielsen, Senior Researcher
Andrew Herrmann, Research Lead
Michael Rafko, Private Sector Business Development

Abel Bascom, Private Sector Practice

Abel brings a wide range of expertise to Manhattan Strategy, with a focus on best-practices, benchmarking, qualitative and quantitative research, process improvement, and competitive analysis. Abel leverages his skills and background in Psychological and Brain Sciences, information technology, research and analysis, and development and utilization of strategic frameworks to develop unique solutions for his clients.

Abel's primary clients in the federal government include the Department of Education, the General Services Administration, and the Library of Congress. Additionally, Abel has advised Fortune 500 companies in industries including Education, Finance, Private Equity, Information Technology, and Energy. Recently, Abel led and managed a benchmarking exercise for a multi-billion dollar energy utility in order to enhance the organizational and resource alignment of its entire organization. Abel's team performed extensive internal due-diligence and provided best-in-class practices from peer utilities across North America. Additionally, he led a large scale research and analysis of long-term global trends in growth markets to inform multi-million dollar resource realignment for a leading aerospace and defense company.

Distinguished as a Senior Fellow with Honors at Dartmouth College, Abel recruited and managed professors and students to conduct in-depth interdisciplinary research after earning his B.A. in Psychological and Brain Sciences in three years. Prior to joining Manhattan Strategy, Abel earned distinction as a Top Performer during his tenure as a Senior Consultant at Kaiser Associates. Abel also provided IT solutions as an Information Services Consultant and Systems Designer at the Science of Information Institute.

Shirley Eng, MS, New York Practice

Shirley has been a Senior Manager at Manhattan Strategy for five years, managing over a dozen engagements for Fortune 1000 clients across the public and private sectors. She has led numerous market research and customer satisfaction projects and has a strong background in survey design, data capture, statistical data analysis and reporting. Additionally, Shirley has extensive experience in primary research and applying the firm's "Targeted Business Intelligence" model to best-practices analysis.

Shirley completed her MS in Strategic Communications from Columbia University. Prior to Manhattan Strategy, she managed the Competitive Intelligence team for the Customer Experience division and the internal performance measurement program and shared services operational process improvement at American Express.

Jennifer Nielsen, PhD, Senior Researcher

Jennifer Nielsen brings over ten years experience in data-driven decision-making and evaluation to the Manhattan Strategy team. She has extensive experience in conducting research, communicating findings and providing data analyses in user-friendly and policy-relevant ways that guide improvement, refinement, change, and student success.

As the managing director of GNJ Advisors' Educational Practice, Dr. Nielsen has facilitated educational accountability at all levels of the spectrum (PK-20+). She worked with large suburban school systems in Maryland to assist with the coordination of key school system reports, and developed and identified major evaluation questions to document student performance and achievement in grades PK-12. She worked with the HigherEd.org, the State Council for Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV) and the Virginia Department of Education by spearheading reporting functionality workgroups that assist Virginia teacher education programs with NCATE (National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education), TEAC (Teacher Education Accreditation Council), and Title II reporting.

In her work as Research Associate Professor/Director of the Statistics and Data Management Unit at Georgetown University's Center on Health and Education, Nielsen coordinated and analyzed data from nine competitively awarded research grants in three states that informed Early Childhood education policy. At Montgomery County Public Schools, as an evaluation specialist, Nielsen worked with various stakeholder groups to develop, administer, and analyze student data from the MCPS Assessment Program - Prekindergarten.

In order to use data to demonstrate effectiveness and steer improvement, one must design, collect, maintain, and use data systems effectively. Nielsen has expertise in developing data storage tools to house and track longitudinal student/program outcomes. She has a proven track record of working with a variety of stakeholders, and potential data-users, during the development process to ensure that data are thoughtfully collected and fully utilized in every research project to facilitate improvement and change.

Andrew Herrmann, Research Lead

Mr. Herrmann is an analyst who brings years of experience helping commercial and government clients solve challenges through qualitative and quantitative research, data analysis, and best practices identification. Mr. Herrmann has directly assisted clients in conducting primary consumer research, gathering and analyzing stakeholder and employee feedback to assess product effectiveness, and identifying opportunities for process and product improvement.

Mr. Herrmann specializes in primary research, leading a number of interview sessions with senior executives and consumers to inform consulting projects and ensure buy-in from all stakeholders. He also has experience synthesizing results and delivering final reports summarizing project recommendations. Andrew also has experience in technology research, producing a best practices report identifying new trends in news and information monitoring.

Mr. Herrmann earned his B.A. in History and graduated with honors from Colby College in Waterville, ME. Prior to joining Manhattan Strategy, Mr. Herrmann was a Research Analyst at Kleimann Communication Group, a consulting firm specializing in research and organizational development, primarily for federal government clients. He also has previous experience as a research assistant and paralegal.

Michael Rafko, Private Sector Business Development

Mr. Rafko has over a 15 years of experience in helping commercial clients to optimize performance and enhance operational efficiency and effectiveness. He has led over 150 projects for Fortune 500 firms ranging from new market entry and due diligence, to operational improvement. He has directly assisted clients in gathering and analyzing insight from customers, competitors and analog businesses to create undeniable cases for change. He is skilled at benchmarking and primary research, including using customer and competitor analysis, stakeholder surveys, and strategic frameworks to draw meaningful and actionable recommendations.

Mr. Rafko has recently: developed strategy for inventory-level versus utilization for a chemicals client leading to a 30% reduction in inventory; developed turn-around strategy that identified 15% of profits for a medical device client leading to the successful sale of division; and developed a go-to-market strategy for a telecom software firm by short listing qualified global clients, key decision makers, and a targeted sales plan to win new business.

Mr. Rafko earned his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering, from the University of Toledo where he graduated first in his class. He earned his M.B.A, from the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University where he graduated first in his class as Fuqua Scholar. Prior to joining Manhattan Strategy, Mr. Rafko was a Vice President at Kaiser Associates, a strategy consulting firm, where he advised senior executives at Fortune 500 companies on revenue growth, go-to-market strategy, cost reduction and process improvement initiatives.