Leigh Abramson is a Managing Director of Metalmark Capital, a private equity investment business created by the principals of Morgan Stanley Capital Partners in 2004. He was formerly with Morgan Stanley from 1990 to 2004. Mr. Abramson serves or has served as a director of numerous companies in which Metalmark or MSCP has invested. Mr. Abramson is a trustee of Temple Israel of the City of New York. Mr. Abramson received a B.A. in History, cum laude, from Amherst College.
Dean Vanech is Chairman and CEO of Olympus Holdings, LLC based in Morristown, NJ. Olympus Holdings is a private firm engaged in the electric energy industry, financial investments, and entertainment. In 1997, Mr. Vanech founded Delta Power Company, a leading independent power company that was purchased by Bear Stearns in January 2007. Mr. Vanech also co-founded Rolls-Royce Power Ventures, Inc. in 1994. Prior to forming these companies, he was Vice President of Marketing for Enserch Development Corporation, Vice President of Chrysler Capital Corporation, and Principal of Catalyst Energy Corporation. Mr. Vanech holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration (Marketing and Finance) from Western New England College in Springfield, MA. Other non-profit boards on which Mr. Vanech serves include The Chatham Day School in New Jersey, The New York Stage and Film Company in New York City, and The Archaeological Institute of America’s Site Preservation Task Force.
Michael Baker specialized in counterterrorism, counternarcotics and counterinsurgency operations during a career spanning over fifteen years as a covert field operations officer for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). He engaged in, organized and supervised operations around the globe, working in Asia, the Middle East, Africa, Europe, the former Soviet Union and elsewhere. He was recognized professionally for outstanding performance and for operational achievements in hostile environments. In December 2000, after leaving government service, Mike co-founded Diligence with the goal of building the premier intelligence and risk management firm. As a principal partner over the years he has worked to grow the company as it expanded around the globe, opening offices in London, New York, Washington, Moscow, Brussels and Geneva. He also worked to establish the company’s security operations in Iraq in 2003, as Diligence built a team of over 300 expat and local personnel involved in security and information collection. Based in New York City, Mike now oversees the company’s operations and growth throughout the Americas. Diligence is a leading provider of due diligence, litigation support, investigative services and competitive/strategic intelligence to multinationals, financial institutions, law firms, governments and high net wealth individuals around the globe. Mike is a regular contributor in the national and international media on intelligence, security and counterterrorism issues. He appears regularly on Fox News, as well as other major media outlets.
Sanda Balaban consults for cutting-edge organizations pursuing new educational frontiers through future of learning models. Most recently, she has been consulting for 2Revolutions, an education design lab creating FLIP (Future of Learning Innovation Program) through which participating school- and district-based teams engage in “unthinking schooling in order to rethink learning” and prepare to develop and launch promising new ventures; for Facing History and Ourselves, designing an innovative Urban Civic Learning Lab bringing together community stakeholders to create a unified agenda to impact long-term student and community outcomes beyond the level of the classroom; and for Kunskapsskolan Education USA, the new wing of a Swedish-based school design organization with a radically different approach to education predicated upon students pursuing self-paced, personalized learning pathways supported by goal-setting and coaching.
Previously, Sanda served as the founding Network Leader for the Bridges for Learning Network in the New York City Department of Education (NYCDOE) from 2007-10. As Network Leader, she and her network team supported 23 secondary schools in all instructional and operational capacities, enabling them to reach higher levels of achievement. Prior to this, Sanda served as Chief of Staff for the Empowerment Schools initiative, supporting development from its inception as a pilot program providing more flexibility and decision-making authority in exchange for meeting high levels of academic achievement, financial integrity, and educational equity to its scale-up to over 330 public and charter schools.
Other roles and responsibilities with the NYCDOE include work with the Office of New Schools developing and supporting new, small secondary schools and their leaders and serving as the Special Assistant to the East Bronx Regional Superintendent developing instructional priorities and supporting strategies for improving teaching and learning in the 116 schools in the region.
Prior to joining the Department of Education, Sanda spent four years working in educational philanthropy, serving as an Associate at The Goldman Sachs Foundation, and as a Program Associate in the Education, Knowledge, and Religion division of the Ford Foundation. Earlier in her career, she worked for The Teachers Network, a nonprofit professional development and policy organization, and for the Boston Private Industry Council, coordinating school-to-career programs and work-based internships for alternative high school students. Sanda taught secondary school level humanities and electives in New York City and Boston. Sanda graduated from Swarthmore College with High Honors and received her Masters of Education from Harvard Graduate School of Education.
Karen Gordon is a Partner and Managing Director in The Boston Consulting Group’s New York office, where she leads the Consumer Goods & Retail Practice. Over the past 15 years with BCG, Ms. Gordon’s work has spanned a wide range of consumer issues, including helping clients to target new consumer needs, reinvent go-to-market approaches and drive the organizational change and capabilities buildouts required to deliver profitable growth. She is an expert in developing deep consumer and customer insights that drive brand and product innovation and has led a broad range of work in this area for leading packaged goods and consumer services companies. Ms. Gordon received a Bachelor of Arts degree in History, cum laude, from Yale University and a Master of Business Administration degree, with high distinction, from Harvard, where she was a Baker Scholar. Prior to joining BCG, Ms. Gordon worked in brand management for Procter & Gamble. Ms. Gordon lives in New York with her husband, Michael and their three boys, Jacob (10), Matthew (9) and Sam (9). The Gordons have a long time interest and involvement in community issues, particularly in the areas of hunger and education.
Allan Levine is currently a partner and managing director at Goldman Sachs and head of its Reinsurance Group. The Reinsurance business is a global multi-line business focused on investing, managing and operating business throughout the insurance space. Allan joined Goldman Sachs in 1997 and has held numerous positions throughout the Firm including co-head of the Firmwide Strategy Group. Prior to joining the firm, Allan worked for Ernst & Young. Allan currently is chairman of the board of Commonwealth Annuity and Life Insurance Company and on the board of various of the Firm’s other insurance companies. He is also currently on the board of Essent Guaranty, Inc. Allan received a BS from Miami University and an MBA from Columbia Business School.
Eliot Merrill is a Managing Director based in New York at the Carlyle Group, a global private equity firm. He is primarily focused on U.S. buyout opportunities in the media and telecommunications sectors. Prior to joining Carlyle, he was a Principal at Freeman Spogli & Co., a private equity fund with offices in New York and Los Angeles, and an analyst at Dillon Read & Co. Before that, he was a Sail Consultant and Special Project Coordinator for Doyle Sailmakers, Inc., based in Marblehead, Ma. Mr. Merrill graduated magna cum laude from Harvard College in 1993. Mr. Merrill is currently a member of the Board of Directors of AMC Entertainment, Inc. and The Nielsen Company B.V.
Amy Perrette is an Emmy award-winning news producer with over a decade of experience in both breaking news and long-format reporting. Perrette has been a freelance producer since 2002, working with clients such as NBC News, Food Network, Court TV, Animal Planet, Al Roker Productions, and the United Nations. Her work runs the gamut from hour-long specials on topics such as gangs in small-town America to day-of-air coverage of breaking news stories. Prior to 2002, Perrette was a producer for the News with Brian Williams on MSNBC where she won an Emmy Award for coverage of the Singapore Air crash and an Emmy nomination for a special on Sept. 11th. She began her career at CNN in Los Angeles and then moved to Washington DC as an associate producer with CNN's news magazine show. While at CNN, Perrette produced stories on a wide variety of topics, both investigative and cultural, garnering several awards. Perrette received her BA in English and Political Science from UCLA.
Jean-Briac Perrette is Chief Digital Officer at Discovery Communications. Overseeing a combined team of more than 300 employees, Perrette leads the company’s digital strategy, including Discovery’s U.S. websites (including Discovery.com, TLC.com, and HowStuffWorks.com), Interactive Technology, Digital Operations and Programming group, as well as the digital distribution efforts with non-traditional affiliates (ex: Apple, Netflix, Amazon, etc). He is also responsible for Discovery Commerce, including Licensing and Home Entertainment as well as Footage and Music Services.Prior to this, Perrette was President of NBC Universal Digital Distribution since December 2006. Perrette oversaw the North American distribution of content across the Internet, wireless, set-top devices and other emerging digital platforms. He was the primary lead for NBC Universal’s television content discussions with Internet portals, wireless carriers, emerging digital companies, and nontraditional customers for offerings that include video on demand (VOD), electronic-sell-through (EST), interactive television (ITV), and wireless products and services. He was responsible for advancing the company's digital media strategy, Perrette most recently led the formation of Hulu, NBC Universal's critically acclaimed online video joint venture with News Corp and Providence Equity Partners. In addition, he supervised a number of industry leading distribution deals on emerging platforms, including Amazon.com and Xbox, and leading wireless deals with wireless distributors including AT&T, Verizon, Nokia and RIM. As part of NBC’s acquisition of Vivendi Universal Entertainment, Perrette led the integration of NBC and Universal’s cable divisions, creating one of the broadest, most profitable, and fastest growing television groups. He also served as Chief Financial Officer of Bravo since January 2003, following his lead role in NBC’s acquisition of the network from Cablevision. In his prior roles at NBC, Perrette was Chief Financial Officer of Bravo and before that Vice President of Business Development. He was instrumental in completing over $1.5 billion in acquisitions, most importantly of Bravo and San Francisco station KNTV. He also negotiated and executed partnerships for CNBC International as part of its global strategy, and was responsible for NBC's strategic investment portfolio, which included holdings in A&E Networks, Paxson, and ValueVision International. Before joining NBC, Perrette worked for GE Capital, and was an analyst with CS First Boston in London and Tokyo. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree in public policy from Hamilton College. Perrette lives in New York City with his wife, Amy.
Lexi Reese is the Google Content Network Business Leader and is responsible for Fortune 1K advertising on the Google Content Network, which comprises hundreds of thousands of websites, news pages, and blogs that partner with Google to display targeted AdWords ads. As part of her role, Lexi leads sales strategy and development for social networks including Google's partnership with MySpace, OpenSocial, Orkut and In-Game advertising. Lexi joined Google in 2007 and launched the Online Sales and Operations team in Boston. Prior to joining Google, Lexi was a Director of Marketing at American Express where she supported the firm's highest value small business clients and developed the Women's Business Initiative to support female entrepreneurs. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in History from the University of Virginia and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Ted Seides CFA, is the Co-Chief Investment Officer and President at Protégé Partners, LLC, a leading multi-billion dollar alternative investment firm launched in 2002 that invests in small hedge funds. Ted began his career under the tutelage of David Swensen at the Yale University Investments Office in 1992. During his five years at Yale, Ted focused on external public equity managers and internal fixed income portfolio management. Following business school, he spent two years investing directly in public and private markets before co-founding Protégé in 2001.
Ted serves on the Board of Trustees and as Chairman of the Programming Committee of the Greenwich Roundtable, and is a Trustee and member of the Investment Committee of the Wenner-Gren Foundation. He also serves on the Advisory Board for Citizen Schools New York and is a member of the Founder’s Circle of Cycle for Survival. Ted holds a B.A. from Yale University, Cum Laude, with Distinction in the Economics & Political Science major, and an M.B.A. with honors from the Harvard University Graduate School of Business.
Maggie Serravalli is executive vice president, Client Experience for Fidelity Institutional, a suite of Fidelity Investments businesses that offers financial professionals and institutions access to the products, services and investments they need to service their clients and grow their businesses. Fidelity Institutional is a division of Fidelity Investments, the largest mutual fund company in the United States, the No. 1 provider of workplace retirement savings plans, a leading online brokerage firm and one of the largest providers of custody and clearing services to financial professionals.
Ms. Serravalli assumed her current position in February 2010 and oversees the strategy and implementation of the end-to-end service experience for clients of National Financial (NF), Institutional Wealth Services (IWS), Fidelity Capital Markets (FCM), Fidelity Family Office Services and Personal and Workplace Investing (PWI). She reports directly to Fidelity Institutional (FI) president, Gerry McGraw.
Previously with Fidelity, Ms. Serravalli served as executive vice president, Client Experience for the firm’s Operations and Services Group (OSG) beginning in June 2007. In her role, she was responsible for the client management and client service teams of Fidelity’s brokerage business—two divisions she still maintains responsibility for in her current position.
Prior to joining Fidelity Investments in 2007, Ms. Serravalli held numerous senior management positions in the Investment Bank division of JPMorgan and its predecessor firms. She began her career within Chemical Bank's internal audit department in 1983, a firm that merged with Chase Manhattan in 1996 and subsequently acquired JPMorgan in 2000 to become JPMorganChase. During her tenure with the company, Ms. Serravalli served as managing director and head of Operations for various global product areas, including Derivatives, Foreign Exchange, Fixed Income Securities, Commodities, Futures and Prime Brokerage.
Ms. Serravalli earned her bachelor of science degree in accounting from St. John's University in 1983. She holds her CPA certification and her Series 7 and 24 licenses.
William Spiegel is a Founding Partner and head of the financial services investing activities of Pine Brook Road Partners, a private equity investment firm. He has over twenty years of private equity experience, including more than ten years of financial services investment experience. Mr. Spiegel was with The Cypress Group from its inception in 1994 until 2006. Prior to joining Cypress, Mr. Spiegel worked in the Merchant Banking Group at Lehman Brothers. He has served on the board of directors of fourteen companies, four of which have been publicly traded. Mr. Spiegel currently serves on the board of directors of five Pine Brook portfolio companies, Aurigen Capital Limited, Essent Group Ltd., Green Bancorp, Inc., Syndicate Holding Corp., and Unitas Holdings Corp., as well as Lancashire Holdings Limited, a global provider of specialty insurance products. Mr. Spiegel holds a B.Sc. in Economics from The London School of Economics, an M.A. in Economics from The University of Western Ontario and an M.B.A. from The University of Chicago.
Cynthia Rivera Weissblum is President and CEO of the Edwin Gould Foundation leading the Foundation’s philanthropic efforts, investing and supporting strategies that address the achievement gap, which prevents large numbers of young people from graduating high school, succeeding in college and achieving long-term economic self-sufficiency. Prior to joining the Foundation in 2005 she served as CEO of Results Collaborative Group, Ltd. a consulting firm dedicated to the enhancement of strategic alliances within the for profit and not for profit sectors. Ms. Rivera Weissblum’s lifetime commitment promoting the advancement and empowerment of youth, included serving as President and CEO of Sponsors for Educational Opportunity (SEO). In addition, Ms. Rivera Weissblum also served as a Director and consultant to Governor Cuomo’s Decade of the Child Initiative and the New York State Mentoring Program developing business alliances and launching mentoring programs throughout New York State. She serves on the board of several organizations including the Fund for Modern Courts, Edwin Gould Foundation for Children, Hispanics in Philanthropy’s Apoyo Fund at the Westchester Community Foundation and is member of the Briarcliff Manor School District’s Long Range Strategic Planning Committee. Ms. Rivera Weissblum’s holds two advanced degrees from the State University of New York at Albany, Educational Specialist in Counseling Psychology and Master of Science in Counseling Psychology and Student Development. She provides pro bono consulting to organizations and leaders advancing the power and potential of youth.
Chris Wofford is currently a Managing Director and Head of the Transportation & Logistics practice at Macquarie Capital Advisors (USA). Prior to joining Macquarie in April of 2009, Chris was the Global Head of the Transportation & Logistics Group at Bank of America starting in 2006. Previously, he had been a Senior Managing Director at Bear Stearns and was one of the three partners who created Bear’s leading T&L practice. Chris’ background at Bear Stearns was heavily oriented towards strategic mergers and acquisitions advice across the T&L sector. He was also very active in equity and debt capital raising activities. Prior to Bear Stearns, Chris worked at Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette for seven years, both in New York and Los Angeles, where he was one of the founding officers of its leading Media and Telecommunications M&A practice. Chris also worked at a private equity group prior to DLJ, which focused on commercial/retail estate redevelopment and turnarounds for a Saudi Arabian billionaire family. Chris’ investment banking experience spans both mid-cap and large-cap companies, and includes a track record of industry transforming strategic-to-strategic transactions. His career has also heavily emphasized working with financial sponsors and their portfolio companies. He has also worked on the full spectrum of advisory assignments, including buy-side and sell-side transactions, leveraged buyouts, restructuring, hostile takeovers and raid defense. Chris has worked on a broad variety of capital raising assignments, including initial public offerings, follow-on equity offerings, minority equity investments, leveraged loans, high yield offerings, private placements and recapitalizations. Chris received an MBA degree, cum laude, from the University of Chicago and a BA degree from Oberlin College.
Torrence Boone is the Managing Director of Agency Development at Google Inc. Torrence is responsible for driving
Google’s relationships with marketing and advertising agencies across the Americas. In this capacity he leads a team that partners with diverse agency constituents to craft innovative ideas and campaigns leveraging the Google product portfolio to deliver business‐building results for agencies and their clients. Prior to Google, Torrence was global CEO of Enfatico, a full‐service, integrated agency start‐up built by WPP to serve the global marketing needs of Dell, its founding client. Prior to Enfatico, Torrence was president of Digitas Boston, where he led the agency’s flagship region and was a leader in the retail, healthcare and CPG practice areas. Previously, he was VP/GM of Avenue A (now Razorfish), where he was in charge of strategy, account management, media, and creative services for the New York operation. Before his tenure in advertising, Torrence was a senior manager at Bain & Company, where he advised a broad range of clients on corporate and business unit strategy, mergers and acquisitions, new product development, and interactive strategy. Torrence holds a B.A. in Economics, with honors, from Stanford University, and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School. He serves on the board of the Joyce Theater in New York.
Eli Aheto works as an analyst at Anchorage Advisors, where he focuses on public and private debt and equity investments in the Alternative Energy, Power and Oil & Gas sectors. Previously, Eli worked at General Atlantic Partners and Goldman Sachs. Eli is involved with other NY based and global non-profit groups including Advocates for Children and Echoing Green. Eli received an MBA from Harvard Business School and an AB degree in economics from Harvard College.
Christopher W. Bodell brings more than a decade of experience in public and private equity, management and economic consulting. He founded Trier Capital LLC, a consulting firm specializing in business development, M&A and other financial advisory services, and is currently a Director at Olympus Capital Investments, LLC, a boutique private equity firm investing in middle market renewable companies. Chris holds a Masters in International Accounting & Finance from the London School of Economics (LSE), undergraduate degrees in Economics and International Relations from the University of Southern California and has studied French at Middlebury College’s l’École Française. He currently serves as Social Chairman for the LSE Alumni’s New York City chapter.
Jerry Canning currently serves as Industry Director, Financial Services for Google. In this capacity, he works with marketers across banking, lending, insurance, investment/brokerage, credit card and credit report categories. In addition to his experience in financial services, Jerry has also managed Travel, Elections and Local teams while at Google.
He joined the company in late 2004 from The Excite Network; prior media experience included three years at Turner Broadcasting, where he developed integrated solutions for key partners for the CNN, TBS and TNT cable networks. Jerry got his start at Foot Locker, where he had a ten-year run managing its sports marketing sponsorships, including partnerships with the NBA, NFL and MLB.
Jerry is currently a board member of the New York Advertising Club, where he was recently awarded the 2011 President’s Award. He is also on the board of the NY’s Business Marketing Association. He earned his degree in Communications/Business from Muhlenberg College in Allentown, PA.
Blair Cobb As Director of Cause Marketing, Blair oversees the company’s marketing relationships on behalf of AOL’s non-profit partners and the advertisers that support them.
Blair started this department in June 2010, and since then has developed a permanent placement on the AOL homepage dedicated to promoting a new cause every day—a media industry first, that has driven several billion pro-bono impressions to date for various causes.
Blair started her career at AOL in August 2007 as a Sales Executive in the Atlanta office. She moved with the company to New York as an Account Director in the Consumer Packaged Goods vertical, where she was responsible for growing her book of business as much as 500 percent in one year.
Blair holds a B.S. in Telecommunications from the University of Georgia.
Sheara Fredman graduated magna cum laude from Yeshiva University with a BS in Accounting. She began working at PricewaterhouseCoopers within the capital markets and banking sector focusing on several of the Firm's most high profile clients. In 2002, Sheara began working at Goldman Sachs where she is currently a Vice President in Finance managing the mortgage product control team.
Andee Gerhardt combines seven years experience working as a social worker in family and children focused nonprofit organizations in New York City with eight years of experience at Ernst & Young. As the Community Engagement Leader for Ernst & Young in the Americas, a subdivision of the Corporate Social Responsibility group that she co-created, Andee created the strategic direction and skill based volunteer experiences that maximize the firm’s contributions to the community across the Americas including disaster response. Andee holds an MSW from New York University.
Ambia Harper serves as counsel for Common Good, a nonprofit legal reform organization. Prior to working at Common Good, Ambia was an associate at Hogan & Hartson LLP, in Washington, DC, where she was a member of the Education Practice Group. Ambia grew up in Washington, DC. She earned her BA from Columbia University, and her JD from Yale Law School.
Courtney Jones is currently a Director of Public Affairs for Nielsen. In this role, Courtney provides management support of Nielsen’s corporate social impact projects, education advocacy and diversity initiatives - overseeing implementation of programs and policies in these areas. Her key responsibilities also include developing and maintaining key relationships with outside partners working with the company on philanthropic initiatives. Prior to her current role, Courtney worked in Client Service for Nielsen assisting clients with maximizing their media ratings software solutions.
In addition to a rewarding professional career, Courtney has also enjoyed volunteering with numerous community-based organizations including New York Cares, Big Brothers Big Sisters, Ronald McDonald House Charities, and the American Red Cross. Passionate about helping children to maximize their full potential, Courtney also spends time speaking to children at schools about career options and planning for the future.
Courtney spent much of her childhood in various cities, but considers herself a true southern woman from Atlanta, Georgia. She is a magna cum laude graduate of Florida A&M University where she obtained and undergraduate degree in Business Management and MBA in Marketing.
Kevin Kells is head of the consumer packaged goods industry team at Google, Kevin is responsible for helping brand marketers drive more effective and efficient digital advertising solutions to grow their brands. His mission is to connect more brand assets to more of the right consumers every day, wherever those consumers may be, by utilizing Google's search, display and online video platforms. Prior to joining Google, Kevin worked for 15 years in the brand marketing space, managing and growing brands at Unilever (Pond's), Diageo (Guinness) and most recently Revlon, where he was vice president of marketing for Almay Cosmetics. He also previously was a vice president of business development at Priceline WebHouse Club, the online grocery pricing system, where he worked with all the major packaged goods companies. Kevin holds degrees from Georgetown University and the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern.
Johnathan Lewinsohn grew up in Livingston, NJ. He has a BA from Cornell University and a JD from Yale Law School. He is currently an analyst at Anchorage Capital Group, a multi-billion dollar private investment fund in New York. He has previously served as a law clerk to Judge Richard A. Posner of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit and worked in the Mergers & Acquisitions Group at Morgan Stanley.
Sarah E. Light Serves as the Assistant United States Attorney in the Civil Division, Southern District of New York, where she has been employed since 2001, and where she currently serves as Chief of the Environmental Protection Unit. Before joining the U.S. Attorney's Office, Light served as a law clerk to the Honorable John M. Walker, Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. In 2000 she received her J.D. from Yale Law School. Prior to her legal career, Light received a Rhodes Scholarship to study at Oxford University, where she earned an M. Phil in Politics in 1997. She graduated magna cum laude from Harvard College in 1995 with a degree in Social Studies. Light has a background in teaching, having served as one of Citizen Schools' first Teacher/Team Leaders during the program's inaugural summer of 1995.
Darren Littlejohn has been a member of our Board of Advocates since January 2010. Darren first became involved with Citizen Schools in September 2009 when he taught a debating apprenticeship at the Urban Assembly Academy of Arts and Letters in Brooklyn. Originally from Canada, he has resided in Manhattan since 2002. Darren attended undergraduate school at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario and received his legal education at the University of Oxford in England. He is a capital markets and derivatives attorney at Goldman, Sachs & Co in New York where he is a Vice President & Associate General Counsel.
Genevieve Mallgrave attended public high school on Long Island before attending Harvard College. Genevieve started her career in private equity before spending several years at the Nasdaq Stock Market. She then focused on start-ups and technology companies, including Flashbase and DoubleClick. She recently returned to New York after spending 3 years living in Hong Kong where she was actively involved with Room To Read, another educational non-profit organization. Genevieve lives in Tribeca with her husband and their three children.
Caroline Richenberg is editorial director for Bloomberg Global Conferences, which are c-suite level events targeting business leaders, government officials and innovators in a diverse range of fields. These events bring the power of Bloomberg to the executive conference business, leveraging the resources of a global organization with more than 2,000 journalists in 140 bureaus around the world. Prior to this Caroline worked for Al Jazeera English as a producer for a daily live show based between London, Washington DC and Qatar. Caroline holds a Masters in International Relations and History from St Andrews University.
Lindsay Tomenson Born New York City 1974. Harvard University A.B. 1996, Government. Georgetown University Law Center J.D. 2002. Law Clerk to Hon. Peter K. Leisure, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York (2002-03). Litigation Associate focusing on securities litigation and white collar criminal defense at Davis Polk & Wardwell since 2003.
Nadia Johnson Rawlinson Believing that Business has invested extensively to maximize processes to drive results, but has not yet done the same to maximize human capital within organizations, Nadia saw an opportunity to leverage her business experience and education to make an impact over the course of her career both within the strategic Human Resources arena and business strategy space. Currently holding the position as Director of Online & Mobile Strategy within the digital start up unit Enterprise Growth at American Express, she is tasked with helping shift the business model of a traditional credit card company to one that will derive its revenue primarily from mass consumer segments in emerging markets via digital payments and commerce.
Most recently, Nadia was head of Human Capital at Rent The Runway (RTR), an early stage VC-backed ecommerce startup touted as the “Netflix for High Fashion.” While there, Nadia was engaged in tackling the challenges of scaling a fast growing company and impacting the development of a nascent business and culture. Before RTR, Nadia began her time at American Express working both in New York and London as part of the HR MBA Global Leadership Program. In that capacity, she stepped up to lead strategic projects within various HR functions and operational lines of business. In June 2008, Nadia received her MBA from Harvard Business School where she spent her summer interning at Google headquarters developing pipelining strategies for MBA candidates. Prior to HBS, Nadia spent five years working in operations management at a privately-held industrial distribution company holding various supervisory and management roles in recruiting, internal sales and warehouse distribution. Although conducting weekly inventory counts at 4am and managing teams that surpassed her in tenure would be daunting for most, she gained invaluable experience that shaped her management style and framed her business approach to always understand the transaction that underpins business strategy.
Helping lead a young startup does not leave as much free time as she would like, but when available Nadia dedicates herself as a board member of the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra of Carnegie Hall and as a New York-based volunteer for her alma mater, Stanford University. Nadia received her BA in 2001.
Katherine Shoja joined Fidelity in 2007 and is currently a senior analyst within the Controller Team for Fidelity Institutional, a division of Fidelity Investments. Prior to Fidelity she was an analyst at JP Morgan. She has a BS in Accounting from Fordham University and is a licensed CPA. In the fall of 2011, Katie taught an eager bunch of students “How to Invest Like a Millionaire” at the Urban Assembly Academy of Arts and Letters in Brooklyn. She believes deeply in Citizens Schools mission and has been working towards growing the number of volunteers at Fidelity in the tri state region.
Shien-Ru Tsao is an Entrepreneur/Designer with companies Visual Circles Press and From Scratch to her credits. Her experience includes seven years in the Design Industry covering all aspects of retail and wholesale. Her last position held in the industry was Founder and Creative Director for Visual Circles Press, a line of stationery/paper products geared toward the discriminating pet lover. VC Press was acquired by US PET LLC in 2006. She then went on to start a new venture, From Scratch, the new breed of products. A stylish yet practical line of Eco friendly apparel and accessories meant to complement pets and their owners. Her line is sold throughout the US and International markets. She continues to be an avid learner and enjoys an active role in developing and launching new products.
