Steven Wells is Chief Operating Officer of American Food & Vending Corporation. Founded in 1990 in Syracuse, N.Y., American Food & Vending has expanded beyond its original charter as a dining account to become one of the largest independent corporate dining and vending firms in the U.S. The company has consistently achieved annual growth rates exceeding 20 percent by carving out a niche as a viable alternative to the three large international foodservice companies. Clients include Anheuser-Busch, General Motors, Lockheed Martin Corporation, and Nestle-Purina Petcare.
This lecture is part of the "Conversations with Entrepreneurs" series presented by the Leland C. and Mary M. Pillsbury Institute for Hospitality Entrepreneurship at the Cornell School of Hotel Administration.
Steven Wells is a graduate of the Cornell School of Hotel Administration.
James Mwangi is an accountant, banker, businessman and entrepreneur in Kenya. He is the current Group Managing Director and Group Chief Executive Officer of the Equity Group Holdings Limited, the banking conglomerate with the largest customer base on the African continent, in excess of 8 million as of 2014.
Sharon Dauk is a Managing Director of Dauk/Wagner Investments, LLC a private investment company she founded with her husband and partner in 1994. Dauk/Wagner Investments invests in and provides financial and strategic advice to early stage companies in a variety of industries. Of their portfolio companies, Sharon is on the Board of Dotmenu, Inc., holding company of Campusfood.com and Allmenus.com. Additionally, she works as an Executive Coach. Prior to forming Dauk/Wagner Investments, Sharon spent six years on Wall Street first at Smith Barney in their Mergers and Acquisition department and then at Morgan Stanley in their Corporate Finance Group with specific focus on large real estate transactions. Prior to that and after graduating from USC\'s Undergraduate Entrepreneurship program, Sharon started and managed a seminar workshop business in partnership with USC\'s business school. In 1987, Sharon became the first recipient of the Student Agencies Fellowship, which was jointly sponsored by the Johnson School and Student Agencies, a student-run organization whose mission is to provide real-world experience to Cornell students through starting and managing small businesses. During her Fellowship and while earning her MBA, Sharon founded and managed a small Venture Fund directed at student-run businesses; acted as \"Mentor in Chief\" to the student managers; and managed the re-development of 409 College Avenue, a mixed-use property owned by the organization. Sharon remains on the Board of Student Agencies and was Chair from 1995 through 2006. Sharon Dauk earned her undergraduate degree at University of Southern California and her MBA at Cornell University.
Caroline Starner is Senior Vice President of Human Resources for Oakley, Inc., a $1.2 billion company with more than 5,000 employees worldwide. As a valued member of Oakley’s executive team, Caroline provides strategic HR leadership to attract, retain, and develop the best team of people on the planet for a company that has earned global renown. Oakley creates innovations that serve sport performance, active and lifestyle customers in more than 100 countries. Caroline joined the Oakley management team in 2009 to strengthen partnerships between the company’s global HR team and its business units, and maximize operational and organizational effectiveness. Her previous experience includes serving as Vice President of Human Resources for Pacific Sunwear of Ca. Inc., where she provided HR solutions for close to 19,000 employees. Her experience and expertise in process reengineering, strategic staffing and management transition goes back decades, including service as Vice President of Human Resources for a $4.5 billion division of Gap, Inc., an organization with more than 45,000 employees. Caroline has held senior human resources positions with global accountability within leading companies that include DuPont, Pepsi Co. and Johnson & Johnson, utilizing skills that range from team leadership to executive coaching and beyond. A native of New Jersey, Caroline has a Bachelor of Science in Industrial and Labor Relations from Cornell University.
Ms. Matrice Ellis-Kirk has been Managing Director of RSR Partners since January 2014 and serves as its Head of Dallas Office. Matrice Ellis-Kirk earned her BA from University of Pennsylvania.
Michael Polk joined Newell Rubbermaid as President and Chief Executive Officer in July 2011. Previously, Mike was President of Global Foods, Home and Personal Care at Unilever, where he was responsible for the development, innovation and marketing of Unilever\'s entire 64 billion dollar portfolio of categories and brands. During eight years at Unilever, he is credited with transforming the company’s business in the Americas, sharpening Unilever’s global portfolio strategy, and creating a more competitive, faster-growing, innovation-driven organization. He was a member of the Unilever Executive Board from 2007-2011. Earlier, Mike spent 16 years at Kraft Foods serving as President, Asia Pacific Region, Kraft Foods International and President, Nabisco Biscuit & Snacks, Kraft Foods North America. In both positions, he served on Kraft’s Management Committee. Prior to Kraft, Mike spent three years at Procter & Gamble working in manufacturing and research & development in the Paper Products Division. He has a B.S. in operations research and industrial engineering from Cornell University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Bryan Pearce is a partner in the technology and life sciences practice of the firm, based in Boston MA, where he leads the firm's New England Venture Capital Advisory Group ("VCAG"). VCAG focuses on development and delivery of value added services to the venture capital industry, including core audit and tax services as well as deal flow, knowledge and thought leadership, and access to our alumni and extended enterprise networks and perspective on current venture capital fundraising trends. In addition, Bryan spends a substantial portion of his time with Emerging Growth companies providing counsel in the areas of fundraising, business models, preparing for a liquidity event, etc. He also is a member of the Global Steering Committee for this important component of the Global E&Y strategy.
Bryan began his career with the firm in 1981 after graduating from the Ivey School of Business at the University of Western Ontario (Canada) and obtained his Canadian Chartered Accountant designation in 1983. Between 1995 and 2000 Bryan was seconded to the Caribbean practice, based in Barbados, where he was responsible for developing and running the Caribbean firm's Corporate Finance and Entrepreneurial Services' practice.
Joy Higa is Vice President, Health Care Reform at United Healthcare where she manages federal health reform policy and implementation.
She previously served as deputy chief of staff to the California State Controller from 2004 to 2006 and chief deputy cabinet secretary in the Office of the Governor during 2003.
Joy Higa received her bachelor of arts degree from Cornell University.
Vivian Schiller is the former president and CEO of National Public Radio, and former head of news and journalism partnerships at Twitter. She is also the former senior vice president and chief digital officer for NBC News, including oversight of NBCNews.com. Vivian Schiller graduated from Cornell University with a Bachelor's degree in Russian studies and Soviet studies, and a has Master's degree in Russian from Middlebury College.