Session 3 Panelist Bios
The Vital and Sometimes Confounding Role of the Techie
Michael Seiler '07, MEng '08, Moat
Email: mike.seiler@moat.com
Mario Spanicciati '02, EVP of Operations, BlackLine Systems
Email: mario.spanicciati@blackline.com
Twitter: @BlackLineSys
Website: www.blackline.com
As EVP of Operations, Mario Spanicciati oversees BlackLine’s day-to-day operations, providing insight/input into all aspects of the business including development, finance, IT, implementations, training, sales and marketing. He was one of the initial employees of the company, working side by side with CEO and Founder Therese Tucker to build the growing financial software company since the early days.
Spanicciati joined BlackLine from the Merrill Lynch Private Banking and Investment Group in 2004. At Merrill Lynch, he worked as an analyst on a team of private banking advisors with over $3 billion under management. He was responsible for re-engineering workflow and processes associated with client reporting, compliance, presentation management and systems implementation. He was also responsible for performing research and due diligence related to investments through third-party money managers including hedge funds. Spanicciati has led the implementation of BlackLine’s software at companies like Chrysler, HealthSouth, BellSouth and eBay. Spanicciati previously worked at J.P. Morgan Partners where he performed analysis and valuation of a private equity fund of funds portfolio valued at over $12 billion.
Spanicciati received his Bachelor of Science degree from Cornell University. Most recently, he has been the chief liaison for BlackLine to the Los Angeles Mayor’s Office, working closely with the Office of Business and Economic Policy.
Larry Thomas, President, Primet Precision Materials
Email: lthomas@primetprecision.com
Website: www.primetprecision.com
Thomas has served as Primet's president & CEO since 2008. He has a distinguished 20-year career in the specialty chemical industry, most recently as the director of advanced materials at Air Products & Chemicals, Inc. Thomas has extensive experience combining internally developed technologies with external collaborations, licenses and investments to maximize the growth of high technology businesses. His earlier experience included successful strategic assessment, business repositioning and new venture startup and integration in a variety of general management and leadership positions for Air Products & Chemicals, Inc. Earlier in his career, he worked for Dow Chemical.
Thomas has served on the Boards of Directors of Solicore, Inc. in Lakeland, FL; NovaCentrix, Inc. in Austin, TX; and philanthropic organizations the Hispanic American Organization and the Child Advocacy Center in Allentown, Pennsylvania. Thomas is also an Adjunct Professor in Entrepreneurship at Lehigh University. He holds a BS in Chemical Engineering from the University of Virginia and an MBA in Finance and Marketing from the University of Chicago.
Eric Young '78, Partner, Canaan Partners
Email: eyoung@canaan.com
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/eric-young/0/618/9ba
Twitter: @cornellvc
Website(s): www.canaan.com
Since co-founding Canaan in 1987, Eric Young has helped launch a multitude of market-leading technology and efficient energy companies from inception to IPO or acquisition. Passionate about changing the balance in the power industry, Young was backing early disruptors such as Transphase Systems and Capstone Turbine going back to the early 1990s. Most recently, he helped engineer the successful acquisition of SandForce, a leader in Solid State Drive processors, to LSI. Additionally, he was also an early investor in Copper Mountain Networks (CMTN); ONI Systems (acquired by Ciena); and Kalpana (acquired by Cisco Systems). Young has generated numerous positive outcomes from his investments in high-performance companies, including Argon Networks, Capstone Turbine, Diffusion Software, Frame Technology, International Network Services, International Packaging Assembly, Spectrian and Visigenic Software. Prior to Canaan, Young was a Senior VP of GE Venture Capital, where he led successful investments in companies such as Nellcor and Octel Communications. He also held a variety of sales, marketing and operations management positions at GE in two power-related industrial product businesses. Young currently sits on the boards of Performance Marketing Brands, the leader in e-commerce loyalty partnerships; Enpirion, maker of the industry’s smallest power management system-on-a-chip; EnStorage, developer of a grid scale regenerative fuel cell energy-storage-system; Cortina Systems, a leading supplier of intelligent communication solutions; Lancope, the global leader in network behavior analysis and response technology; and Xirrus, an innovator in high performance Wi-Fi. Young earned a BS in mechanical engineering from Cornell University and a BA from Northwestern University.
Healthcare and Hospitality
Moderator: Brooke Hollis MBA/Sloan '78, Executive Director, Sloan Program in Health Administration, College of Human Ecology, Cornell University
Email: rbh25@cornell.edu
Website(s): www.sloan.cornell.edu, www.hollisassoc.com
Brooke Hollis serves on the leadership team of the Sloan Program in Health Administration and works on program alumni/industry external relations. In addition to his work with alumni and industry, he mentors students, and serves as a faculty member. Beyond his appointment at Sloan, his ongoing professional consulting activities straddle the area of mergers & acquisitions and management consulting primarily for health and professional services firms. In addition to leadership roles in a number of regional, national and international professional organizations, Brooke is a past-president of the Sloan Alumni
Association, and has been on the advisory boards of the College of Human Ecology and the Cornell Club of Greater Hartford.
Hollis' background includes over three decades working in both the public and private sector, serving in senior management positions in a number of organizations in the health and financial services fields. While serving as president of a national professional association, he was involved in advocacy work with the federal government on policy and financial issues. For almost a decade he was a partner and president of a private firm that developed and managed specialty outpatient clinics, ran a Durable Medical Equipment (DME) company and provided contract staffing programs for hospitals in three states. His work as a partner in mergers & acquisitions advisory firms has involved consulting and transaction advisory work in 20 states and Canada with private equity funds, and both public or privately held domestic and international companies. He completed his MBA/Sloan Certificate at Cornell.
Moderator: Neil Tarallo, Senior Lecturer and Academic Director, Pillsbury Institute for Hospitality Entrepreneurship
Email: nt266@cornell.edu
Website: www.hotelschool.cornell.edu/research/facultybios/faculty.html?id=331
Neil Tarallo is the director of the Pillsbury Institute for Hospitality Entrepreneurship and a senior lecturer at the Cornell University School of Hotel Administration. In addition he is the executive director of the Empowerment through Entrepreneurship program (E2), which provides students with an opportunity to experience entrepreneurship around the world.
Before coming to Cornell, Tarallo was a clinical assistant professor of entrepreneurship in the Martin J. Whitman School of Management at Syracuse University, where he taught at both the graduate and undergraduate levels. He also served as the director of the 14th-ranked (Bloomberg Business Week national ranking) Master of Science in Entrepreneurship program since the program’s inception in 2008. Recognized for outstanding teaching, he was named Whitman's Professor of the Year in 2008, Outstanding Entrepreneurship Faculty Member in 2009, and was twice nominated for the Meredith Teaching Award for Syracuse University (2009 and 2010). His business plan teams are consistently top finishers in competitions, and his team won first place at the 2008 international business plan competition held at the University of Nebraska.
Tarallo’s fields of expertise are new venture creation, the transfer of technology from academic to competitive business environments, real estate as an entrepreneurial venture, business plans, and business school competitions. Recent research interests include entrepreneurship in Africa as well as examining public policy as a catalyst for entrepreneurial activity in developing countries. He is currently working with the U.S. Military, developing and delivering entrepreneurship content as part of the Military’s Civil Affairs effort to help entrepreneurs start and grow businesses in Djibouti Africa, Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere around the world. Tarallo played a key role in the academic development of the Entrepreneurship & Emerging Enterprises program at Syracuse University, serving as the primary researcher and developer of the new program. As an entrepreneur, he owned and operated three companies in the fields of photographic retail and quick printing. In addition he also purchased, rehabilitated, and sold numerous businesses. He currently owns two companies that focus on commercial real estate development and management. In addition, he is a partner in the Cayuga Venture Fund II LLP, and has held offices as treasurer and managing partner of Cayuga Venture Fund I LLP.
Dave Devereaux '84, Partner, Express Transportation Holdings, LLC
Email: dave_devereaux@sbcglobal.net
After a career spanning over 25 years in the skilled nursing industry, including five years as the COO of the largest publicly-held company in the US, Devereaux has spent the last six years working with health care start-ups, ranging from software as a service to direct client services. Current efforts include Telemedicine Solutions, Inc., a Chicago-area company noted for the creation of WoundRounds, a software application designed to help nurses provide excellence in the assessment, treatment and prevention of pressure sores; and Express Transportation Holdings, LLC, a St. Louis company providing specialized
transportation services to medical and school clients in Kansas City, and Albuquerque and Las Cruces, NM. Devereaux is a 1984 graduate of Cornell's School of Hotel Administration, and received his Masters of Business Administration with concentration in Health Care Administraton from Temple University in 1986. In 2006, Devereaux endowed the Department Chair in Nursing at Temple University's College of Health Professions, where he continues to chair its Board of Visitors.
Amy Horrocks '92, Vice President for Medical Services, NYU Langone Medical Center
Email: Amy.Horrocks@nyumc.org
As vice president for medical services at NYU Langone Medical Center in New York City, Amy Horrocks has administrative oversight for a number of medical and specialty services at the institution’s Tisch Hospital,
a 705-bed acute care tertiary facility. She joined the medical center in 1992, first as an administrative fellow, and has held a number of increasingly responsible positions. Her current areas of responsibility include medicine and the medical subspecialties, critical care services, emergency services, obstetrics and gynecology, neurology and epilepsy, psychiatry, and palliative care. Working collaboratively with the department chairs, service chiefs, and nursing leadership, Horrocks provides administrative oversight to these clinical services.
In addition, her portfolio includes building services, food and nutrition services, and bed management. She has also collaborated with the departments of nursing, infection prevention and control, care management, and clinical quality and effectiveness to reduce hospital-acquired infections and readmissions and to improve patient safety and quality. She created and led the hospital’s Patient Centered Care department. In this role, she helped implement numerous initiatives and programs to improve the patient experience, including an innovative “ready resolve” rounding program, a patient advocacy and hospitality services program, discharge phone calls, a variety of healthy enhancements to meals for patients and visitors, and a comprehensive set of improvements for new parents and babies. Through her efforts in these areas, Horrocks has played an integral role in improving the hospital’s patient satisfaction survey scores over the last three years. Horrocks holds a BS and MHA from Cornell University.
John Holiver '81, President, Norwood Hospital: a Seward Hospital
Email: jjholiver@aol.com
John Holiver has worked in executive leadership positions for Steward Health Care (formerly Caritas Christi Health Care) for more than 10 years. He served as president of both St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center and Good Samaritan Medical Center prior to becoming president of Norwood Hospital in May 2011. He also held the position of senior vice president/chief operating officer at St. Elizabeth’s. Holiver also brings a wealth of other executive management experience in senior positions with South Shore Hospital and Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts. He is a graduate of the College of the Holy Cross, the Cornell University Graduate School of Hotel and Business Administration and Xaverian Brothers High School. Holiver is a Mansfield resident.
Anthony Stanowski, Vice President Healthcare Industry Relations, ARAMARK
Email: stanowski-anthony@aramark.com
Twitter: @astanowski
Website(s): www.observationsonoperations.com
Other: www.aramarkhealthcare.com
Anthony Stanowski, FACHE, leads ARAMARK’s partnerships to align support service functions, such as environmental services, food and nutrition, clinical equipment, and facilities management, with clinical,
financial, and satisfaction outcomes. Stanowski held management positions with Thomson Reuters, and Philadelphia area providers Jefferson Health System, Main Line Health, and Graduate Health. He serves on the Board at Bon Secours Baltimore Health System and on the Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Management Education. He is a past President of the Healthcare Planning and Marketing Society of New Jersey. Stanowski is a senior fellow at Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia. He has held adjunct teaching positions in the graduate programs of St. Joseph’s University (PA) and Widener University
(PA). Stanowski serves on the advisory council in the health care graduate program at Widener University. In 2008 Widener University awarded Stanowski the Health Care Management Outstanding Alumnus Award. He has published articles on topics including: patient throughput, geographic information systems; community needs assessments, employee incentive programs, and cost/quality value analysis. He has been a speaker at conferences on topics ranging from service recovery, healthcare reform, performance improvement, transparency, combining operational data and planning data to expanding clinical service lines; maximizing return on investment for call centers; creating a results sharing employee incentive program; patient satisfaction; community needs assessments, and projecting trends in cardiovascular services.
Stanowski holds graduate degrees from Drexel (Marketing) and Widener (Health Care Administration) Universities, and a bachelor’s from the University of Pennsylvania (Communications and Psychology). He is pursuing a doctorate from the Medical University of South Carolina.
Eat Me, I'm Local! - Entrepreneurial Opportunities within the Local Food Movement
Moderator: Beth McKellips, Agricultural Economic Development Specialist, Cornell Cooperative Extension: Madison County
Email: bam233@cornell.edu
Website: www.madisoncountyagriculture.com
Beth McKellips, MCP, has been Cornell Cooperative Extension/Madison County’s Agricultural Economic Development Specialist since the fall of 2011. While earning a Master’s degree in City and Regional Planning at the University of Pennsylvania, McKellips completed several projects on supply and demand in regional agricultural systems, creating market opportunities for farmers, and ran a CSA and farmers’ market. She manages a variety of programs that promote a viable agricultural economy in Madison County, including business and technical support for farmers, facilitating market connections, energy programs and Buy Local events.
Edward Harwood, CTO and Founder, AeroFarms
Email: ed@aerofarms.com
LinkedIn: Edward Harwood
Twitter: @aerofarms
Ed Harwood is the Founder and CTO of Aero Farm Systems, LLC (AFS) based in Ithaca, NY. AeroFarms develops and manages advanced aeroponic systems using cutting edge cloth medium and LED lighting in the new urban agriculture movement. AeroFarms has systems installed in the U.S. and Saudi Arabia. Harwood has been designing and improving a patent pending aeroponic system for growing leafy greens since 2003. With assistance from 21Ventures and the Quercus Trust, AFS entered the urban farming movement in 2009. Harwood is a serial entrepreneur with over 30 years experience in agriculture and food systems. He has twenty years experience in the dairy equipment industry including member of a team that produced the first on-farm computer, solid state detacher, estrus detection, and automatic cow ID. He was CEO of a North American milking equipment distributor; general manager of a company that shifted television weather graphics from minicomputer to microcomputer platform; and was associate director of agriculture for Cornell Cooperative Extension. He has a B.S. in microbiology and a B.S. and M.S. in animal science from Colorado State University, a Ph.D. in dairy science from UW-Madison, and course work in Science Education, 7-12.
Paul Lightfoot, CEO, BrightFarms
LinkedIn: Paul Lightfoot
Twitter: @plightfoot
Website: www.brightfarms.com
Paul Lightfoot is the CEO of BrightFarms, which finances, builds and operates greenhouse farms at supermarkets, cutting time, distance and cost from the produce supply chain. Improving supply chains comes naturally to Lightfoot, who spent nearly 10 years as the CEO of an enterprise software company that improved the supply chains of major retailer and their suppliers. He is passionate about local food and reducing the environmental impact of the produce supply chain.
Lightfoot has a B.A. from Lehigh and a J.D. from Fordham Law. He is a board member of the Brennan Center for Justice. He has been recognized by Chain Store Age magazine as a "Rising Star in Retail" in their annual 40 Under 40 awards, and is the 2011 winner of the Young President’s Organization CSR Award for Environmental Sustainable Business Practices. He was a speaker at the TEDx conference “Changing the Way We Eat.”
Kristen Rainey MBA '09, Director, Sustainability, Corporate Services, Sodexo
Email: rainey@alumni.princeton.edu
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/kristenrainey
Based in Portland, Oregon, Kristen Rainey is a Director of Sustainability at Sodexo, a global 50-million-meals-a-day food services provider. She oversees sustainability within Sodexo’s corporate division and recently launched a new cafe brand for the company's corporate clients, focused on local, seasonal sourcing. She has advised food, beverage, hotel, and spa companies on sustainability strategies, strategic planning, marketing, and business development. Within food and beverage, her client list includes Casella Wines, Lemelson Vineyards, Organic Valley, and Ithaca Fine Chocolates. Within hospitality, she has worked with Banyan Tree Spa, Starwood, and HEI Hotels. She also served as Executive VP to the CEO at Los Senderos, a green resort in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico.
Rainey earned an MBA at Cornell University, a Masters in International Affairs from The Fletcher School at Tufts University, and a Bachelor of Arts from Princeton University. Her graduate thesis at Fletcher addressed the Triple Bottom Line in the food industry.
Failure: Necessary for Success?
Bill McAleer '73, MBA '75, Co-founder and Managing Director, Voyager Capital
Email: mcaleer@voyagercapital.com
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/bill-mcaleer/1/144/8a4
Website: http://www.voyagercapital.com/team/index.php?category=Investment+Team&team-member=Bill+McAleer
Bill McAleer brings to Voyager over 30 years of business experience and 23 years of senior executive and investing experience in the information technology industry. He has participated on the boards of 19 companies, including 14 portfolio companies, focusing on software and services, digital media, and wireless. Nine portfolio companies were sold for exits including Amplitude, Attenex, Melodeo, NetPodium and Tegic Communications. He currently serves on the boards of Medify and Yapta and recently was a Director for Avocent (NASDAQ: AVCT), a public technology company acquired in late 2009 by Emerson for $1.2 billion.
Prior to co-founding Voyager in 1997, McAleer was President of e.liance Partners, a consulting firm that advised information technology companies on strategy, venture financing and corporate partnering. He served as Vice President of Finance, Chief Financial Officer and Secretary of Aldus from 1988 to 1994, when the company's revenues grew from $30 to $240 million. He was responsible for global finance, legal, operations, and acquisition activities, including completing the merger with Adobe in 1994. He also served as a senior executive with Westin Hotels from 1979 to 1987.
McAleer is active in several industry organizations, including serving as a director for the Washington Technology Industry Association and the Washington Technology Alliance. Additionally, he is a member of the Advisory Boards for DEMO, one of the industry's premier events, and the Canadian Financing Forum. He is also the chair of the Advisory Board for the University of Washington Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, serves on the Advisory Boards for Cornell University's Johnson Graduate School of Business and the Cornell Center for Entrepreneurship, and was a member of the Cornell council. McAleer has been a featured speaker at a variety of industry conferences and panels and earned a B.S. and an M.B.A. from Cornell University.
Vijay Nathan '11, Co-founder and CEO, MyReci
Email: vijay@myreci.com
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/vijayrnathan
Twitter: @vijayrnathan
Website(s): http://www.myreci.com
Vijay Nathan is Co-founder and CEO of MyReci.com, a social web startup that aims to re-invent the recipe box by allowing cooks to collect their favorite recipes in one place, share them with family and friends, and discover new content by connecting with others who have similar tastes. He is a 2011 alum of the Johnson School and founded MyReci out of business school after developing the concept in the classroom. Before receiving his MBA, Nathan spent five years in the food & beverage business as a chef, restaurant expert, and event producer. He is a self-proclaimed “foodie” and is passionate about helping others realize that anyone can create great meals in their own kitchen. He lives and works in Boston, MA.
Meredith Rosenberg '92, Senior Vice President, Fullbridge, Inc.
Email: meredith.rosenberg@globalslc.com
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/meredithrosenberg
Website: www.//fullbridge.com/
Meredith A. Rosenberg is a senior executive at Fullbridge, Inc., a new venture that delivers via an interactive and online format accelerated business training to corporate and consumer clients. Rosenberg is also a co-founder of Global Student Loan Corporation (GSLC), a venture-backed student loan concern that funds higher education needs of non-U.S. citizens. Rosenberg has worked with companies in a variety of
industries including education, technology, media, entertainment, finance and communications. Prior to Fullbridge and GSLC, Rosenberg was a vice Ppesident at the Yankee Group, a global consulting and market analysis firm were she ran the firm's inernet, media and consumer communications practices. Previously, she has worked at Braxton Associates / Deloitte Consulting, CDV Apple Computer, Grey Advertising, Research International and Coopers & Lybrand Consulting.
Rosenberg has lived and worked in Ukraine and Czech Republic. She is an active member of the SheEOs, a group of women entrepreneurs creating and running high impact, high growth companies in the Boston area. Rosenberg is passionate about community service. She served for four years as chair of the Board of Rebuilding Together Boston (RTB), a non-profit that rebuilds homes of Boston’s low income, elderly and disabled homeowners, and facilities of other non-profits - free of charge to the recipients. Rosenberg continues her role on RTB’s Board of Directors as Head of the Development Committee. Rosenberg is part of the “Friends of Women’s Health” initiative at Boston Medical Center, and serves on the President’s Council of Cornell Women and the Cornell University Trustee Council. She is also on the Advisory Council for Cornell's Center for Transformative Action where she mentors students launching new ventures in social enterprise. Rosenberg received her AB from Cornell University, MBA from The Wharton School and MALD from The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. She is married to Matt Rubins (Cornell Eng 1990) and lives in Boston.
Rhett Weiss, Executive Director, Entrepreneurship and Innovation Institute, Johnson, Cornell University
Email: rweiss@cornell.edu
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/pub/rhett-weiss/2/964/10a
Twitter: @rhettweiss
Website: www.johnson.cornell.edu/EII.aspx
Rhett Weiss is the executive director of the Entrepreneurship and Innovation Institute at Cornell’s Johnson Graduate School of Management. In addition, he serves on its faculty, teaching or advising graduate students in the entrepreneurship and venture capital areas. Before joining Cornell, Weiss had over 25 years of successful leadership and management roles. He has served as a bank COO, directed a consulting practice at a Big 4 firm, practiced law at a major international law firm, and holds a software and business method patent. Throughout his career, he has been involved in over $30 Billion of transactions and in dozens of entrepreneurial ventures and innovation initiatives. Among them, he is chairman and CEO of DEALTEK, Ltd., which he founded in 1999.
Weiss is a frequent presenter or writer on negotiations, entrepreneurship, and economic development. The transactions which he has led often have received industry recognition, awards, and coverage in business and technology news articles.
Josh Wolfe '99, Co-founder and Managing Partner, Lux Capital
Email: jwolfe@luxcapital.com
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?authToken=hAl_&authType=name&goback=%2Enpp_%2Fjosh*5wolfe%2F0%2F3%2F788&locale=en_US&id=6296
Website: http://www.luxcapital.com/team/profile/josh-wolfe
Josh Wolfe is Co-Founder of Lux Capital and focuses on investments in the physical and life sciences. Wolfe manages Lux's investments in Nanosys, Cambrios, Siluria and serves on the Board of Directors of Kurion, Silicon Clocks, Crystal IS and Lux Research. Before forming Lux Capital, he worked in Salomon Smith Barney's Investment Banking group, in capital markets at Merrill Lynch on its Financial Futures &
Options/Government Strategy desk and at Prudential Securities in Municipal Finance. Prior to venturing into the financial world, Wolfe published cutting-edge AIDS-immunopathology research in Cell Vision and The Journal of Leukocyte Biology, leading medical-immunology journals.
He serves as Co-Founder and Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Coney Island Prep, the first charter school in his native Coney Island, Brooklyn, and has been actively involved with the East Harlem School at Exodus House for over a decade. The son of a public school teacher, Wolfe is passionate about science, inner-city education and kids having a deep desire to learn and find the right heroes. He is a columnist with Forbes, Editor for the Forbes/Wolfe Emerging Tech Report and host of a show on the Forbes Video Network. He has been an invited guest to the White House and Capitol Hill to advise on nanotechnology and emerging technologies, a lecturer at MIT, Harvard, Yale, Cornell, Columbia and NYU, and a frequent guest on CNBC and CNN. Wolfe graduated from Cornell University with a B.S. in Economics and
Finance. Wolfe's weekly essays & insights: www.forbeswolfe.com.
