Entrepreneurship
At Cornell

Advisory Council Members

Our advisory council of entrepreneurs, business managers and organization leaders provides advice, support, and financial resources.

Membership on the Advisory Council requires two things: an interest in working with other alumni, faculty and staff to foster the growth of entrepreneurship resources for Cornell students, faculty, staff and alumni, and a willingness to support the program with an annual financial gift.

To learn more about becoming a member, please contact Zach Shulman at zjs2@cornell.edu or (607) 255-3012.

Advisory Council Leadership:

Chair: Benjamin, Steven (’80, MEN ’81, MBA ’82) – Saratoga, CA
Commercial real estate development

 

 

Vice Chair: Hayford, June (’78) – Alpharetta, GA
Web app operations- development, product management

 

 

Vice Chair: Young, Eric (’78) – Menlo Park, CA
Early stage VC investment & fundraising, particularly enterprise IT

 

 

Advisory Council Members:

Abrahamian, Ani (MBA ’14) – Los Angeles, CA
Software engineering leadership mid-enterprise SaaS companies, transformational leadership

 

Abrams, Robin (’86) – Larchmont, NY
General counsel at public biotech with life science legal/compliance expertise

 

Acquay, Kwesi (’14) – New York, NY
FinTech, enterprise software, investment banking, investing in diverse founders

 

Ajani, Saif (MBA ’09) – Toronto, Canada
Technology, marketing, analytics

 

 

Alexander, John (’74, MBA ’76) – Ithaca, NY
Software startups and startup/angel investing

 

 

Bachelder, Stephen (MBA ’19) – Boston, MA
Software development/technical product design and supporting IT infastructure

 

Balen, John ( ’82, MBA ’86) – Menlo Park, CA
Venture capital and technology

 

 

Beller, Michael (’84) – Woodmere, NY
Product and engineering management, particularly early stage companies

 

 

Belsky, Scott (’02) – New York, NY
Digital product experience, design and all-things consumer.  Active seed investor via CapitalB

 

 

Berger, Emily (’92) – New York, NY
Investments, risk strategy, due diligence

 

Bhardwaj, Hemant (MBA ’15) – San Francisco, CA
Venture capital

 

Bhayana, Rohit (’83) – Chevy Chase, MD
Co-founder of data and analytics/ IT services

 

 

Bi, Momo (MBA ’15) – New York, NY

 

 

Bloom, Jordan (’11) – Scarsdale, NY
Distressed special situations, CPG startup strategy, private equity

 

Brandoff, Randy (’98) – New York, NY
Consumer retail and venture capital

 

 

Breidigan, Tim (’85, MBA ’86) – San Diego, CA

 

 

 

Brunner, Jeremy (’94) – Millville, NJ
Consumer products, lawn & garden industry, packaging, sales, marketing, family business

 

Bunszel, Amy (’89) – Lafayette, CA
Enterprise software, product management and strategy, team leadership, AEC industry

 

Cane, Dan (’98) – Boynton Beach, FL
Healthcare technology

 

 

 

Carniol, Rhonda (’79) – West Orange, NJ
Startup company legal matters

 

 

 

Cartin, Stephanie (’06) – New York, NY
Social media strategy and influence marketing

 

 

Caplan, Sue (’77) – New York, NY

 

 

Clark, J. Thomas (’63, MBA ’64) – Greenwich, CT
Sheep farming, small manufacturing business expert, leverage buyout specialist

 

 

Clark, Nancy (’62, M Ed ’64) – Old Chatham, NY
Interior design, ASID member, sheep farming, cheesemaking, member DSANA, KKG

 

 

Cohen, Alan (’89) – New York, NY

 

 

Conine, Steven (’95) – Boston, MA
Direct to consumer internet

 

 

 

Cortle, Peter (’10) – Ithaca, NY
Building entrepreneurship ecosystems and (online) communities.  Ideation, software ans SaaS startups.

 

Danziger, Susan (’86) – New York, NY
Startup launch (early stage), product market fit, alternative funding, first customers

 

 

Das, Arup (MBA ’07) – Freehold, NJ
Digital platforms and scaling operations, product and engineering management

 

Day, Colin (’97) Red Bank, NJ
SaaS, HR, technology, organizational planning, G2M strategies

 

Dauk, Sharon (MBA ’89) – Ridgefield, CT
Executive and leadership coaching, culture transformation, emerging growth investing

 

 

Doucette, John (’87) – Chatham, NJ
Insurance, reinsurance, leveraging, alternative capital sources to optimize capital structures.  Funding and assisting startups, particularly in insurtech space.

 

Farrell, James (’77, MEN ’80) – Orinda, CA
Clean energy (nuclear), sustainable agriculture (coffee), boot-strapped company startups

 

 

Felton, Robert (’61) – Berkeley, CA
Needs analysis for software, development of products, marketing strategy, sales and management.

 

 

Fine, Jeffrey (’85) – Washington DC
Private equity

 

Flickinger III, Burt (’80) – New York, NY
Consumer packaged good

 

 

Forsythe, Carl (MBA ’82) – Rockland, MA
Domain knowledge in manufacturing, engineering, banking fintech, CRM and data analytics

 

 

Gal, Steven (’88) – La Jolla, CA
Entrepreneurship and innovation- teaching, doing, coaching, investing and cheering

 

Galvin, Greg ( ’82, Ph.D ’84, MBA ’93) – Ithaca, NY
Semiconductor manufacturing, molecular diagnostics, additive manufacturing, startup companies

 

 

Gilman, Forrest (’89) – Closter, NJ
Banking, capital markets, corporate finance, insurance

 

 

Gulbrandsen, Allison K. (’84) – Clinton, NJ

 

 

 

Gulbrandsen, Don (’83) – Clinton, NJ

 

 

 

Hamed, Ali (’14) – New York, NY
Raising venture capital, hiring, financial services technology, lending, raising debt capital, financials/reporting, new media (YouTube, Instagram, etc.)

 

Hayford, Tom (’11, MEN ’12) – Santa Monica, CA

 

 

Hellinger, Gary (’62) – Bronx, NY
Promotional good manufacturing

 

 

Hochandel, TJ (’10) – New York, NY
Corporate real estate advisor/broker, help entrepreneurs and C-suite executives lease, sublease, expand, extend, and re-negotiate their office and industrial leases in NYC and in any major city around the world

Holtz, Jonathan (P ’12) – Syosset, NY
People development, organizational strength, product development, key customer relations, market positioning including channels of distribution, global development of sources

 

Holtz, Will (’12) – Glen Head, NY
GPG (beverage) startup operations and strategy; private equity and angel investing

 

 

Huestis, Erik (’03) – Poughkeepsie, NY
Patent and other IP matters, particularly in software and medical device fields

 

 

Hui, John (MBA ’15) – New York, NY
Healthcare IT startup, particularly early stage

 

 

Isko, Steven (’86) – New York, NY
CPG, private equity, corporate attorney

 

 

Jacobs, Stephen (’17) – New York, NY
Private equity

 

Karangelen, Michael (’90) – New York, NY
Private equity

 

 

Kemper, Deb (’88) – Newton, MA
Funding for early stage technology startups, e.g. pre-seed, series A; focus on gender diverse founding teams; building effective boards

 

Kinzelberg, Harvey (’67) – Chicago, IL
Financial engineering, financial structuring, and corporate finance

 

 

Ko, Stephanie (’14) – Brooklyn, NY
Retail, eCommerce, consumer goods, last-mile logistics and fulfillment marketing

 

 

Lancioni, Kathryn (’92) – Ridgewood, NJ
Public relations, public speaking, interpersonal communication, communication research and personal branding

 

Lesser, David (’87, MBA ’88) – New York, NY
Real estate, real estate securities, alternative energy, distributed generation/cogeneration/combined heat and power, investment banking/public company, activated carbon, controlled environment agriculture

 

Levine, Jordan (’12) – New York, NY
Corporate attorney representing emerging and established, domestic and international companies

 

Mann, Roger (’81) – Washington, DC
CEO founding, launching, growing SaaS companies with patented IP; seed, A round capital raises; market pull driven MVP development; marketing sales to-to-market strategies and building sales team

Mburu, Rosemary (MBA ’19) – Atlanta, GA
Advise early stage startups, product/market fit, go-to market strategies and product development

 

McAleer, William (’73, MBA ’75) – Seattle, WA
Early stage investments, strategy, board experience, venture funding and M+A

 

 

McGovern, Kevin (’70) – New York, NY
Venture capital and law

 

 

 

McGraw, Matthew (’95) – San Francisco, CA
Scaling early stage startups, product/market fit, customer experience and company culture and governance, investments, strategy, board experience, venture funding, M+A

 

 

McKinney, Joanne (’87) – Old Greenwich, CT
Brand foundations- strategy, naming, identity, creativity expression

 

 

 

McNair, Jim (MBA ’83) – Chicago, IL
Private equity

 

 

Memarzadeh, Arsham (’14) – Boston, MA
VC- Series B/C/D globally

 

Miller, Doug (’76) New York, NY
Sales, marketing, eCommerce, financial analysis, investment management, business management

 

Miller, Mark (’85) – Arlington, MA
Investment banking

 

Mora, Franco (MBA ’12) – Mexico
Strategy operations experience in several industries, specific know-how on cost structure design and operational set-up for both, services and manufacturing

 

 

Morse, Rick (’88) – Florence, AL
B2C eCommerce, marketing, operations

 

 

Mouret, Fabrice (MBA ’07) – New York, NY
Building, leading and managing mid/large IT consulting company

 

Nastos, Matt (’10) – New York, NY
Performance marketing & digital customer acquisition

 

Pacchiana, Glenn (’89) – Briarcliff Manor, NY
Innovation solutions, startups, planning, international, agricultural chemicals, construction, mining, real estate development

 

 

Parker, Jeffrey P. (’65, MEN ’66, MBA ’70) – Gulf Stream, FL
Early stage investing, fintech, bigdata, SaaS

 

 

Phillips, Everette (’82) – Newport Beach, CA
Exponential technologies: robotics, AI, spatial computing, AR/AR, internet of things and convergence of those fields, manufacturing, supply chain and outsourcing, LinkedIn/Digital Marketing, networking strategies

 

Pilc, Roger (’89) – Stamford, CT

 

 

Pochareddy, Surya (’17) – New York, NY
Financial services, private equity (insurance, fin-tech, business services)

 

 

Qadir, Salmaan (’16) – Denver, CO
Cryptocurrency/blockchain, startup financial planning & analysis, data science & analytics, fintech regulation & policy

 

Reisch, Jake (’15) – Geneva, NY
Customer development, product management, fundraising, growth marketing, team leadership

 

Rosenberg, Meredith (’92) – Boston, MA
Digital education and education technology

 

 

Ross, Sacha (’94, JD ’99) – New York, NY
Startup legal matters

 

 

Rozental, Anatoliy (’09) – New York, NY
Private equity, growth equity, mergers and acquisitions

 

Rubins, Matthew (’90) – Boston, MA
Education technology, enterprise software, angel investing, finance and corporate development

Russo, Matt (’90) – New York, NY
Insurance

 

Ryan, Rob (’69) – Hamilton, MT
Business model analysis, business strategy and building companies

 

Ryan, Terry (’69) – Hamilton, MT

 

 

 

Santomauro, Jonathan (’10, MBA ’11) – Gwynedd, PA
Healthcare supplies

 

 

 

Saporta, Marissa (’99) – Westport CT
Sales, eCommerce, consumer goods, operations, business, entrepreneurship

 

Schoen, Andrew (’14) – Washington DC
VC, preferably Series A-C, interested in deep tech, prop tech, health tech, fin tech

 

Shah, Niraj (’95) – Boston, MA
Direct to consumer internet

 

 

 

Shapiro, Steve (’84, MBA ’91) – Milton, MA
Early stage go-to market strategy, product innovation process, any tech venture around education or workforce training/talent

 

Shimazu, Mike – Albany, NY
Energy policy

 

 

Shore, Doug (’67) – Atlanta,
GAB2B media (magazine, tradeshow, conference, emedia, data) startups and acquisitions, intrapreneurship, M+A, private equity

 

Sklar, Scott (’80) – Mill Valley, CA
Startups

 

Sotoodeh, Sam (MBA ’87) – Santa Ana, CA
Mergers and acquisitions

 

 

Soucie, Aimee (JD ’02) – Washington DC
Intellectual property litigation (especially in the internationally trade commission) and intellectual property marketing/BD

 

Stein, Jeff – New York, NY
Startup legal matters

 

Surrey, Samantha (’02) – New York, NY
Commercializing technologies in the life sciences, venture capital, private equity, corporate partners, innovation, robotic surgery, immunotherapy and cancer, pharmaceutical, medical devices, and AI for healthcare

 

Tassone, John (’91 ) – Jupiter, FL

 

 

Trenchard, Bill (’97) – Palo Alto, CA
Raising money, idea generation, managing high growth

Trivedi, Sid (’13) – New York, NY
Enterprise software startups across categories like cybersecurity, IT, DevOps, SaaS applications, data analytics and networking

Tso, Lilian (’13) – New York, NY
Private equity

 

Vashee, Vijay (MEng ’75 )- Mercer Island, WA
Tech and philanthropy

 

 

Werner, Sara (’02) – New York, NY
Starter legal matters

 

 

Whiting Gwen (’98) – New York, NY
Fashion, design, and consumer internet

 

Wilkerson, Chris (’95) – New York, NY
Leading early stage businesses with a focus on team and culture

 

 

Wingo, Brooke (’17) – San Francisco, CA
Startups and teamwork

 

 

Yang, Jaida (’13) – New York, NY
Early stage funding in digital commerce and digital health; cross-border strategy

 

 

Zalaznick, David (’76) – New York, NY

 

 

 

Zhu, Catherine (’18) – New York, NY
Investment banking