Eric Gershman

Vice President, Strategy & Business Development

Eric is an experienced arts, culture, and media strategist and teacher with extensive field work in fast-paced, demanding environments working closely with senior executives, boards of trustees, and multi-disciplinary teams.

His consulting work has been seen throughout the cultural sector including interim executive positions at Newport Classical, Long Wharf Theatre, and the Williamstown Theatre Festival, consulting engagements at McCarter Theatre Center, Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts, the Brown Arts Institute, Netflix, and Paramount, and internal strategy positions at Disney Theatrical Group and Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. As a team member of AEA Consulting he helped to lead feasibility studies and operating plans for The National Black Theatre, The Rhode Island School of Design, the Museum of Modern Art, the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library, the University of Arizona Museum of Art, ProPublica and the Brooklyn Academy of Music.

Prior to his consulting work, Eric was Manager of Strategy & Business Development for Disney Theatrical Group, advising the organization on its commercial live entertainment businesses worldwide. Eric also served as Senior Advisor at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, where he provided internal consulting and facilitated special projects for the President and executive team of the world’s largest performing arts center. Earlier in his career, Eric held a number of technical production and operations positions with Blue Man Group, the Broadway tour of Annie, and Cirque du Soleil, the latter of which included three new shows in Asia, Europe, and North America.

Eric holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in theater technical production from Emerson College, an MBA from the Yale School of Management, and an MFA in theater management from the Yale School of Drama, the latter of which awarded him the George C. White Prize in Theater Management.

He is an Adjunct Lecturer at Brown University and was previously on faculty at the University of Rhode Island, Winthrop University, and Columbia University, the latter of which named its annual teaching adjunct award in his honor. He is a Corporator for Bank Newport the author of multiple business case studies in arts management, and is a member of the ROI Community of Global Innovators.

Eric was born and raised in New York and now lives in Providence, RI where his wife, Kate Liberman, is Executive Director of Trinity Repertory Company.