Our Team

Illustration of a man sitting at a desk with a smile, surrounded by books, a pen, a magnifying glass, a mug, and a laptop. Behind him, a whiteboard with tips for problem-solving and a bulletin board with motivational notes.

Brian McCollough‍ ‍

Chief Strategy Officer

Brian McCollough is the founder of NextStage LLC and the author of The Work Before The Work.

With 30 years of experience from shop floor to C-suite across precision machining, aerospace, oil and gas, and industrial equipment, Brian has spent his career doing the work that most organizations skip -- building the organizational and financial foundation that makes everything else possible.

His first instinct when he walks into a business is not to fix anything. It is to listen. Before recommending a single change, he sits with the owner and asks two questions: what went right last year, and what did not. That conversation -- direct, unfiltered, and without an agenda -- tells him more about a business than any spreadsheet.

He holds a BSME from Cal State Long Beach, an MBA from Colorado State University, and certifications as a Certified Exit Planning Advisor (CEPA) and Certified Mergers and Acquisitions Advisor (CMAA).

Based in Houston, Texas.

  1. Working Genius - Invention & Wonder

  2. Cultural Index - Rainmaker, Predictive Index: Maverick

  3. CliftonStrengths - Ideation, Futuristic, Relator, Learner, Strategic

Local to the Houston Texas Metropolitan Region and Remotely throughout the US

A smiling woman sitting at a cluttered desk with a whiteboard behind her that lists tasks like clarifying priorities and building the process, a mug that says 'Execution Ideas', a stack of books labeled Clarity, Structure, Process, and Execution, a laptop labeled 'Integrator Mode' with 'From Vision to Results', a notepad with 'Plans Become Results Here!', and a bulletin board with to-do notes and sticky notes.

Jenny Kemper

Chief Operating Officer

Jenny believes the fastest path to execution runs through people — not processes.

She brings more than 20 years of experience helping founder-led organizations turn vision into momentum. Her entry point is always the team: how they're aligned, where the friction lives, and what's getting in the way of the people who already want to do great work. From there, she builds the structure and accountability that lets them move faster — together.

Where others see organizational chaos, Jenny sees a pattern. Her natural ability to read people, build trust quickly, and identify what actually matters in a room has made her the kind of operator that leadership teams open up to — and follow. She doesn't impose a system on a culture. She meets it where it is and builds from there.

Jenny works with founders who are tired of being the ceiling of their own organization — leaders who have the right people but need someone to help them stop reacting and start executing. Her engagements leave behind stronger teams, cleaner accountability, and leaders who've rediscovered the freedom that made them start the business in the first place.

  1. Working Genius: Tenacity & Discernment

  2. Culture Index: Architect

Local to the Cleveland Ohio Region, Remotely throughout the US

Illustration of a smiling businessman sitting at a desk with a laptop, coffee mug, and notepad. Behind him are charts and notes emphasizing core values, leadership, teamwork, and culture. The whiteboard displays mission statements, and other signs promote employee recognition and teamwork.

Erick Garcia

Chief People Officer

Erick knows that most operational problems are people problems in disguise.

In 15+ years working with founders, CEOs, and executive teams across the U.S. and Latin America, he's found that the gap between a company's strategy and its results almost always traces back to organizational structure, leadership capability, or accountability systems that weren't built to scale. His job is to close that gap — by getting the right people in the right structure, with the right systems underneath them.

Erick's background is in building organizations from the inside out. He's scaled a startup from two employees to a fully structured company with 15–17x revenue growth, grown a service business into a five-division market leader with a successful buyout, and executed a full operational turnaround of an oil & gas fabricator — redesigning staffing models, overhauling financial systems, and embedding EOS-driven accountability from the ground up. He has also served as a board advisor for a $265M tier-1 auto parts manufacturer and a 20-subsidiary family office in Mexico.

What makes Erick distinctive is his ability to operate at both altitude and ground level — designing organizational architecture one day and sitting with a leadership team to untangle a people dynamic the next. He brings fluency in EOS implementation, cross-functional alignment, and the kind of financial discipline that makes growth sustainable rather than chaotic.

At NextStage, Erick leads the people and organizational strategy dimension of our engagements — ensuring that when we build a business that runs without the owner, it runs because the team is genuinely capable, not just temporarily managed.

Working Genius: Discernment and Galvanizing

Local to the Houston Texas Metropolitan Region and Remotely throughout the US , Mexico and South America