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.
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.
Jordan Celkupa is a Financial Planner with Robert J. Oberst, Sr. & Associates. Mr. Celkupa joined the firm in 2004 as a Financial Planner. He is a Registered Representative with SagePoint Financial, Inc., and earned his Certified Financial Planner designation in 2007.
In addition to developing financial plans and managing investments, Mr. Celkupa specializes in optimizing the financial situations of those who are contemplating retirement. He helps individuals affected by a mid-career job separation to assess their options and manage their risks.
Mr. Celkupa has worked for AT&T in the Corporate Treasury department where he managed the company's debt and fixed income derivatives portfolio. Prior to obtaining his M.B.A., he worked for Kwasha Lipton, an Employee Benefit consulting firm, whose successor entity became part of PriceWaterhouseCoopers.
Jordan Celkupa received an M.B.A., from the Chicago Booth School of Business in 1997, and a B.S., in Applied Economics from Cornell University in 1990.
Brian Brault is the Founder and CEO of Pure Solutions.
Prior to founding Pure Solutions, Brault led another company, Advanced Facilities Services International for 22 years.
Brian Brault is a graduate of University of Buffalo's School of Business.
David Bornstein is the author of "How to Change the World: Social Entrepreneurs and the Power of New Ideas". In this book, Bornstein tells the stories of people around the globe who are solving many of the world's most intractable problems. Full of hope and energy, exciting solutions and compelling characters, he shows how a growing wave of "social entrepreneurs" - individuals with initiative, creativity, savvy and determination - are reshaping the world for the better. These individuals - from doctors to lawyers, from engineers to journalists - are successfully demonstrating that one person with a powerful idea and a passionate drive to succeed can bring positive changes to the lives of thousands or even millions.
Bornstein is also the author of "The Price of a Dream: The Story of the Grameen Bank", which chronicles the worldwide growth of the anti-poverty strategy "micro-credit." The Price of a Dream, which drew on ten months of research in villages in Bangladesh, won second prize in the Harry Chapin Media Awards, was a finalist for the Helen Bernstein New York Public Library Book Award for Excellence in Journalism, and was selected by the San Francisco Chronicle as one of the best business books of 1996.
Bornstein's articles have appeared in The Atlantic Monthly, The New York Times, New York Newsday, Il Mundo (Italy), Defis Sud (Belgium) and other publications. He co-wrote the two-hour PBS documentary series "To Our Credit," which focuses on "micro-credit" programs in five countries.
David Bornstein received a Bachelor of Commerce degree from McGill University in Montreal and a Masters of Arts from New York University.
Mark Wilson has over 15 years of experience solving the complex design and process issues involved in launching new products that have generated over $600 million in annual sales. Prior to launching Initiatives Consulting, LLC in 1997, Wilson served in management roles at Bausch & Lomb, Inc, Baxter Healthcare, Inc., and Opkor, Inc, an optics company. His experience includes design, production, quality control, and marketing for a wide range of new health care and optical products for consumers and businesses.
As Principal of Initiatives Consulting, Wilson leads a team of experts that advise clients on the 'fuzzy front end of innovation' - determining whether ideas should move forward and how to move them towards commercialization. Clients include Baxter Healthcare, Xerox, numerous smaller companies, and universities such as Cornell, University of Michigan, and Rochester Institute of Technology.
Mark Wilson received an M.S. and B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnical Institute.
Lance Stewart is the Vice President of the BioStructures Group at deCODE genetics, Inc. (formerly Emerald BioStructures, Inc.), where he manages deCODE's protein crystallography services and products businesses. Prior to co-founding Emerald BioStructures, Inc. , he was a Postoctoral Fellow and Research Assistant Professor in the Departments of Microbiology and Biological Structure at the University of Washington. Lance Stewart has received five Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) program grants. Lance Stewart received his Ph.D. in Biochemistry from Cornell University, his B.S.in Biology from McMaster University, and an MBA from the University of Washington.