About Mosaica

Executive Management Team

Mosaica was founded in January 1997. Today its executive management team brings together expertise in school design and implementation, entrepreneurship, charter schools, real estate, and multi-site management.

Michael J. Connelly, Chief Executive Officer

Mr. Connelly joined Mosaica in 1998 from Lepercq Capital Management, a private investment firm, where he had been President and Managing General Partner since 1987. He was Executive Vice President of Foster Management Company, a private equity firm, from 1982 to 1987, and a partner at Casey, Lane & Mittendorf, a New York-based law firm, before that. From 1989 to 1997, Mr. Connelly was a member of the Board of Directors and Executive Committee of Children’s Discovery Centers of America, where he worked with Dawn and Gene Eidelman, the founders of Mosaica.
Mr. Connelly received a JD degree from the Columbia University School of Law in 1975 and a BA in Mathematics from Michigan State University in 1971. He is a member of the Board of Visitors of Columbia University School of Law, President of the Board of Dance Theater Workshop, Vice Chairman of the National Council of Education Providers, President Emeritus of New York Venture Capital Forum, and a member of the Education Industry Leadership Board. For his work with Dance Theater Workshop, the Arts & Business Council awarded him the Encore Award as the Business Volunteer of the Year in 2001.

Gene Eidelman, Co-Founder and President

Mr. Eidelman co-founded Mosaica in 1997 and currently serves as President. Mr. Eidelman is responsible for strategic planning with an emphasis on facilities development and international operations. Mr. Eidelman has over 25 years of experience in finance and operations management in both public and private companies. Prior to co-founding Mosaica, he founded Prodigy Consulting in 1988, a company that developed and operated community and corporate-sponsored child development centers. Mr. Eidelman was instrumental in growing Prodigy from scratch to 69 locations throughout the country. Prodigy was acquired by Children’s Discovery Centers in 1995, and he served as the Chief Executive Officer of CDC’s Corporate Division until he left to found Mosaica in 1997. Mr. Eidelman did his undergraduate work at the University of Southern California. In 1999, the Junior Chamber International selected Mr. Eidelman as one of the Ten Outstanding Young People of the World. He is a member of the board of Georgia Charter School Association and the Coalition for Educational Choice.

Dawn Eidelman, Ph.D., Co-Founder and President of the Paragon Division

Dawn Eidelman supervises the development of curriculum, teaching methods and staff training based on her experience in teaching world literature, languages, writing, history, sociology and philosophy as a college professor. She designed the interdisciplinary concept for the Paragon‚ Curriculum. Dr. Eidelman has 20 years of experience as a teacher, college professor, curriculum designer and successful business executive. A multilingual specialist in the Humanities, she holds Master’s and Ph.D. degrees in French and Russian Comparative Literature from Emory University. Dr. Eidelman received her Bachelor’s degree in French and American Comparative Literature from Occidental College. In 2000, Dr. Eidelman was selected One of the Ten Outstanding Young Americans by the United States Jaycees.

Rita Hackel Chapin, Chief Financial Officer

Ms. Chapin has a 20-year record of accomplishment in marketing, finance, and operations. Prior to joining Mosaica, she was a U.S. Marketing Director for Citibank, where she was responsible for marketing all of Citibank’s retail banking services nationwide. Ms. Chapin also worked as a management consultant at McKinsey & Co., Inc., where she worked on multiple consumer marketing engagements with Fortune 500 clients. Ms. Chapin began her business career serving in marketing and finance positions at International Paper. She has also been a mathematics teacher at Lawrenceville High School in Lawrenceville, New Jersey. Ms. Chapin received her MBA from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania and hold a BS in Mathematics from the University of Wisconsin.

Mr Richard A. Hauge, General Counsel

Mr. Hauge serves as General Counsel and Corporate Secretary of Mosaica Education. Between 1988 and 1998, he served three terms in Delaware as a State Senator. Just prior to joining Mosaica, he directed Brandywine School District in Wilmington, Delaware in various capacities including Facilities, Business & Legal Affairs, and Management Services. Mr. Hauge received his Juris Doctor from Duke University in 1981, and a Bachelor of Science in Accounting from the University of Delaware in 1977.