Management Team

William Schawbel
William Schawbel is the founder and CEO of The Schawbel Corporation, a business he formed in 1981 through the acquisition of two divisions from The Gillette Company.

Prior to founding The Schawbel Corporation, Bill Schawbel held senior management positions with The Gillette Company including President of Gillette-Japan and President of Braun North America. His marketing and management experience includes significant contributions to many of Gillette’s divisions within the U.S. and internationally with particular success in the areas of acquisitions and new business development.

Bill is a 1961 graduate of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and has served his alma mater as a Trustee, Chair of the Board of Overseers, School of Veterinary Medicine, and Co-Chair of the James Brister Society.

Bill is also an alumnus of the Boston Latin School where he has served as President of the School’s Foundation and he has chaired its Capital Campaign Committee. He is past chair of Junior Achievement of Northern New England, past vice chair of the Boston Museum of Science and past chair of the Blue Hills Trailside Museum of the Massachusetts Audubon Society and a Board member of the Center for Women and Enterprise and several other organizations. Schawbel proudly served his country as a captain in the U.S. Army.
 

Thomas Paganetti
Thomas Paganetti is Vice President, Chief Financial Officer and a Director of The Schawbel Corporation. Prior to joining Schawbel Tom was a CPA in a public accounting firm where he counseled closely-held entrepreneurial companies ranging in size from $2 million to $200 million in annual revenues.

Tom has a wide range of industry experience including manufacturing, consumer product companies and service businesses. He is intimately familiarwith all operational and financial aspects of The Schawbel Corporation.

Tom earned a Bachelor of Science degree with a major in accounting from Bentley College and an MBA from Babson College. He is active in his local community as a member of his Town's Planning Board and serves as a coach in local recreational programs for his children, including coaching local grade school basketball teams.

Stephen Shapiro
Stephen Shapiro is Vice President-Engineering for Schawbel, a position he has held since he joined the company during 1986. His primary responsibilities have included the development of a line of consumer products utilizing the company’s patented ThermaCELL® technology.

Prior to joining Schawbel, Stephen was employed by The Gillette Company for seventeen years, most recently as Assistant Director of the Advanced Technology Lab. In this capacity Steve managed a group of engineers, scientists, technicians and machinists that developed consumer products for a variety of Gillette’s divisions. Steve was also responsible for program management and budgeting for the Laboratory. Before joining Gillette, Steve was a Senior Engineer with Becton-Dickinson & Co. for six years.

Steve earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Baldwin Wallace College in Berea, Ohio. He is an avid bicyclist and hiker who also enjoys baking bread in which he utilizes his own wild yeast cultures.
 

Veronica Zsolcsak
Veronica Zsolcsak is Vice President-Business Development for The Schawbel Corporation. Prior to this, Veronica was CFO/Treasurer for HealthGate Data Corp. She has over thirty years of financial and business operations experience with the last fifteen years at C-level positions for publicly held corporations. Her previous industry experiences included manufacturing, services, and software companies.

Prior to joining HealthGate, Veronica was CFO and Treasurer at Infinium, Inc., a provider of e-business solutions and an application service provider. Prior to Infinium, she was Vice President of Operations at Renaissance Worldwide, Inc., a global leader in business and technology consulting services. Veronica also served as CFO and Treasurer of Town & Country Corporation, as well as CFO and Vice President of Finance at DRI/McGraw-Hill. Earlier Veronica held senior finance positions at Wang and Digital Equipment Corporation.

Veronica earned a BS in accounting and economics from Waynesburg College in Waynesburg, PA, and an MBA from Western New England College in Springfield, MA. She is a Board member of Junior Achievement of Northern New England and a visiting instructor for Fitchburg State College.
 

Allegra Wechsler Lowitt
Allegra Wechsler Lowitt is the Vice President of Marketing for The Schawbel Corporation. In this role Allegra brings more than ten years of consumer retail experience to Schawbel where she is responsible for marketing, product development and business alliances.

Prior to joining The Schawbel Corporation, Allegra worked as a Manager of Retail consulting at Accenture (formerly Anderson Consulting) and previously at Diamond Technology Partners, where she was an Associate Consultant. As a consultant, Allegra’s scope of engagements included large consumer retailers such as Sears and Rite Aid where she consulted on a variety of challenges ranging from eCommerce to supply chain management.

Prior to consulting, she worked on Wall Street as a Financial Analyst in Smith Barney’s Equity Research Department specializing in the Food Retailing group where she followed supermarkets and drugstores.

Allegra earned a Bachelor of Arts degree, magna cum laude, in International Political Science from Columbia University in New York. She also earned an MBA in Marketing from the Universtiy of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business.