Eclectic Convergence 2024

Liza Landsman ’90, CEO, Stash

Liza Landsman is CEO of Stash, the pioneering fintech company with1.5M subscribers and over $100M in revenue that empowers everyday Americans to invest and build better lives. Landsman has spent her career scaling products and services that help people save and spend wisely and is deeply committed to companies that address income inequality. Prior to Stash, Landsman was a general partner at NEA and served in key operations and leadership roles at Jet.com, Citigroup, BlackRock, E*TRADE, and IBM. Landsman is an independent Board Director for Choice Hotels (CHH), Squarespace, and Applause App Quality and accolades include Fortune’s Most Powerful Women and the NOW Women of Power and Influence networks. She lives in New York City

Ponsi Trivisvavet MBA ’99, CEO, Inari

Ponsi Trivisvavet is CEO & Director of Inari, the SEEDesign™ company using predictive design and advanced multiplex gene editing to unlock the full potential of seed. Her broad management expertise in global agriculture helps Ponsi to lead Inari closer to achieving its mission of helping to build a more
sustainable global food system in the face of climate change.

Prior to joining Inari, she held several leadership roles including president of North America Seeds with Syngenta after earning her MBA from Cornell University and working with McKinsey & Company.

Tim Barry ’93, CEO, Co-Founder and Chair, VillageMD

2024 Cornell Entrepreneur of the Year 

Tim Barry is CEO, Co-Founder, Chair of VillageMD. In this role, Tim evangelizes the vision o fVillageMD, which provides high-quality, accessible health care services for patients and communities across the United States. This includes primary care, multispecialty care, urgent care and serves patients in traditional clinic settings, in patients’ homes and online appointments. Through Village Medical, Village Medical at Home, Summit Health, City MD and other practices, VillageMD serves millions of patients throughout their lives, wherever and whenever they need care. Under Tim’s leadership, VillageMD has a dedicated workforce of more than 20,000 people with hundreds of practice locations in markets across the United States including New York, New Jersey, Houston, Phoenix, Atlanta, Michigan and more.

Prior to VillageMD, Tim has spent his career creating and providing solutions to help providers bring a different level of care and support to their patients in a variety of experiences, including running an IPA, a $3B Medicare Advantage plan, and a Population Health business. His favorite part about coming to work is spending time with the physicians hearing about their patient stories as a testament to seeing real healthcare change happen.

Both Tim and VillageMD have won numerous awards, including most recently Modern Healthcare’sTop100 Most Influential Healthcare Leaders and Cornell University’s Entrepreneur of the Year. Village Medical’s “New Way to Well” campaign has won a Healthcare Marketing Impact award from Ad Age in 2023 and the TITAN Health award.

Tim earned degrees from both Cornell University and Michigan State University, and now resides in the Chicagoland area with his wife and family

Aaron Holiday MBA ’12, Co-Founder and Managing Partner, 645 Ventures

Aaron Holiday is the co-founder and Managing Partner at 645 Ventures, a $550million+ early-stage venture capital firm that is considered a pioneer in data-driven deal sourcing powered by proprietary software. Aaron oversees the firm’s investing approach and decisions, proprietary software development strategy, investor relations, and firm governance. Aaron has 20 years of deep finance and technology expertise, having developed advanced equities Program Trading and foreign exchange derivatives software at Goldman Sachs and GFI Group, combined with operational experience working with CEOs to build growth-stage companies. Aaron is now on the governing board of Cornell Tech alongside of a small group of tech, political, and business leaders. Aaron is also on the board of The Apollo Theater.

Aaron earned his MBA from Cornell University and B.S in Computer Science from Morehouse College

Chris Kanik ’05, CEO and Founder, Smart Cups

Chris Kanik is the CEO and Founder of Smart Cups, a cutting-edge, sustainability-driven technology company renowned for its printed energy drink. Under his visionary leadership, Smart Cups has become a trailblazer in innovation, operating a 23,000 sqft manufacturing and R&D facility in Southern California.

Smart Cups Technology was recognized on Time Magazine’s 100 Best Inventions of the Year list for 2021. Additionally, Chris gained global exposure by winning Season 1 of Gordon Ramsay’s Food Stars, securing a $250,000 investment from Gordon Ramsay himself.

Smart Cups revolutionized the consumer market in 2018 by introducing the World’s First Printed Beverage, using a patented delivery system that prints ingredients directly on substrate surfaces. This groundbreaking technology has applications beyond beverages, including pharmaceuticals, food, veterinary, and cosmetics, significantly reducing storage and transportation needs for a more sustainable world. It also has crucial applications in humanitarian aid, disaster relief, and military settings, efficiently distributing micronutrients and medications globally.

Born to Cuban and Turkish immigrant parents in Union City, New Jersey, Chris’s entrepreneurial spirit is deeply rooted in his upbringing. Witnessing socio-economic disparities firsthand, he has always been driven to disrupt norms and create innovative solutions. Chris’s true passion lies in helping people and making sustainability about improving the quality of life for people around the world.

Chris’s journey into innovation began early. At 12, he investigated the chemical degradation of aspartame in diet sodas. By 14, he contributed to research on adipocyte metabolism in mice and later explored biologically based nano-robots in a NASA-funded project at Rutgers University. Despite earning a BA in Economics from Cornell University, Chris pursued his passion for stand-up comedy, becoming a fixture on the New York circuit and touring nationally and internationally.

Chris Kanik’s unique blend of scientific expertise and creative flair has positioned Smart Cups at the forefront of technological advancements, making sustainability not just a goal, but a reality that improves lives worldwide.

Mark Tatum ’91, Deputy Commissioner and Chief Operating Officer, National Basketball Association

Mark Tatum was appointed NBA Deputy Commissioner and Chief Operating Officer on Feb. 1, 2014, following unanimous approval by the NBA Board of Governors.

Tatum, who joined the NBA in 1999, is responsible for the NBA’s business operations, including leading the league’s international efforts. He oversees the Global Partnerships, Marketing, Communications, Events, Global Strategy & Innovation, Team Marketing & Business Operations, Data
Strategy & Analytics, New Business Ventures departments and the league’s regional offices.

Prior to joining the NBA, Tatum worked for Major League Baseball in Corporate Sponsorship and Marketing, the Clorox Company as a Regional Sales Manager, Pepsi- Cola Company in their Sports Marketing department, and Procter & Gamble in sales management.

Tatum sits on numerous boards including USA Basketball, the International Basketball Federation (FIBA), the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, General Motors, LA 2028 Summer Olympics, and Harvard Business School Board of Dean’s Advisors. He is a board member of the Harvard Business School Club of New York, and a member of the Executive Leadership Council, a national organization
that empowers African- American corporate leaders to make impactful contributions.

Tatum received a B.S. in Business Management from Cornell University and an MBA from Harvard University.

Greg Morrisett, Jack and Rilla Neafsey Dean and Vice Provost, Cornell Tech

Greg Morrisett is the Jack and Rilla Neafsey Dean and Vice Provost of Cornell Tech and a faculty member in the Computer Science Department at Cornell University. As Dean, he has overall responsibility for the campus, including the academic quality and direction of the Cornell Tech degree programs and research. Working with both internal and external stakeholders, he is developing approaches for working with companies, nonprofits, government agencies and early stage investors, as well as overseeing the faculty recruitment and entrepreneurial initiatives of the campus.

Prior to joining Cornell Tech, Morrisett was Dean of Computing and Information Science (CIS) at Cornell University from 2015-2019. Previously, he held the Allen B. Cutting chair in Computer Science at Harvard University from 2004-2015 where he also served as Associate Dean for Computer Science and Electrical Engineering. Before Harvard, Morrisett spent eight years on the faculty of Cornell’s Computer Science Department. Morrisett’s research focuses on the application of programming language technology for building secure, reliable, and high-performance software systems.  He received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Richmond and both his Master’s and Doctorate degrees from Carnegie Mellon University.

Scott Belsky ’02, Chief Strategy Officer and EVP, Design and Emerging Products, Adobe

Scott Belsky, Adobe’s Chief Strategy Officer and EVP, Design & Emerging Products, leads corporate strategy and development, is responsible for design across the Digital Media and Digital Experience businesses, and is driving incubation of some of Adobe’s fastest growing emerging products. Prior to this role, Scott was Adobe’s Chief Product Officer for five years.

Scott is a co-founder of Behance, an investor in numerous startups, and has been an advisor on design and product management for leading companies and organizations, including Adidas, Pinterest, and Facebook. He is the author of two bestselling books, Making Ideas Happen and The Messy Middle.