HINGE Welcomes Three New Team Members in 2023

HINGE Advisors is excited to expand our services and our talented team in 2023 with the addition of three new powerhouse players. Get to know each of them and their new roles below!

Tom Wood

Tom is a Certified Coach with the International Coaching Federation and a Certified Partner of the Predictive Index Assessment Tool. As the new Success Services Director for HINGE, Tom facilitates the execution and operations of all the company’s Success Services including Quickbooks cleanup and training courses, 1-on-1 Financial Coaching, Mastermind Groups, Leadership Sprints and the Framework financial app. Tom’s job is to ensure that each service is delivered effectively and efficiently to all HINGE clients.

Aleta Mechtel

Aleta is a successful early education entrepreneur who has spent 20+ years wearing a range of hats in the industry. She founded Children of Tomorrow—expanding it to four locations and eventually selling (with the help of HINGE Advisors) to a large regional provider—and launched two complementary businesses aimed at providing a solution for one of childcare’s toughest challenges, staffing. At HINGE, Aleta has taken on a Senior Client Relations position with the aim of helping other early education leaders and upper level decision makers identify, strategize and implement intentional growth plans through her Mastermind Groups.

Nan Rikard

Nan has spent her entire 40+ year career in early childhood education. In 2010, she founded Big Blue Marble Academy (BBMA)—now one of the nation's largest early education providers—and in 2018, she sold her ownership of BBMA with the help of HINGE Advisors. Now a former childcare business owner, Nan has transitioned to the other side of the table as a Transaction Advisor for HINGE and is expanding HINGE’s reach in the early education space by focusing on helping swim school business owners gain maximum value for the brands they’ve built—just as she did.