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Ed Abel

Ed Abel

  • Founder, Abel Business Institute
  • Male
  • Caucasian
  • 1961 (63 years old)

Ed Abel is the founder of ABEL Business Institute.

Abel has invested more than three decades learning how to build a successful, thriving business. At age 24 with a $5,000 loan and the energy and passion of a young entrepreneur, Ed was ready to take on the world. And he did, only to emerge seven years later at the top of a $36 million organization with 585 employees. Inspired by the challenges that led him to success, Ed went on to build other multi-million dollar businesses, yet he missed the passion he experienced "in the trenches" of his formative years.

Determined to find a way to educate and advise others in the construction and sustainability of a vital business, he founded ABEL Business Institute. Over the course of this process, he developed The SkillPreneur Business System, a systematic approach to the construction, maintenance, and growth of a business--an approach that has become the philosophy and methodology of ABEL Business Institute.

Ed Abel is an adjunct professor of entrepreneurial studies at New York University (NYU) as well as the Director of the business division at the Institute for Professional Excellence in Coaching (iPEC). At iPEC, Ed directs the business division that is responsible for supporting the graduate coaches in their business development process.

John Abele

John Abele

  • Founder, Boston Scientific
  • Male
  • Caucasian
  • 1937 (87 years old)

John Abele is the Founder Chairman of Boston Scientific Corporation, a 19,000 employee, $8 billion world wide company that is a pioneer and leader in the field of "Less Invasive Medicine."

Abele holds numerous patents and has published and lectured extensively on the technology of various medical devices and on the technical, social, economic, and political trends and issues affecting healthcare.

His major interests are science literacy for children, education, and the process by which new technology is invented, developed, and introduced to society. Current activities include chair of the FIRST Foundation which works with high school kids to make being science-literate cool and fun and development of The Kingbridge Centre and Institute, a conferencing institution whose mission is to research, develop, and teach improved methods for interactive conferencing: problem solving, conflict resolution, strategic planning and new methods for learning.

John Abele is a graduate of Amherst College.

Karim Abouelnaga

Karim Abouelnaga

  • Founder, Practice Makes Perfect
  • Male
  • Not Available
  • 1991 (33 years old)

Karim Abouelnaga is a co-founder of the not-profit, Practice Makes Perfect. Practice Makes Perfect was conceived on the premise that all children--regardless of race or socioeconomic status--have equal potential to compete intellectually in our society. Through a unique intergenerational approach, Practice Makes Perfect pairs academically struggling middle school students with high-achieving high school students from the same inner-city neighborhoods under the supervision of college interns for an academic intensive summer program to narrow the achievement gap. Abouelnaga has held internships with BlackRock, Goldman Sachs, and has volunteered on political campaigns. Karim is a licensed NYS Realtor, Newman Civic Fellow, Pearson Prize National Fellow, and Presidential fellow through the Center for the Study of the Presidency & Congress. Karim Abouelnaga is a senior at Cornell University studying at the School of Hotel Administration. He is a Cornell Presidential Research Scholar and is publishing a paper that examines the implications of financial incentives on academic performance.

Robert Abrams

Robert Abrams

  • CEO, CV Holdings, LLC
  • Male
  • Caucasian
  • 1934 (90 years old)

Robert Abrams is the Chief Executive Officer of C.V. Holdings. He has worked in the family business, founded by his father in 1915, since 1953 and has been President/Chief Operating Officer since 1957. A substantial part of his activity was related to agri-business where the company had numerous entities predominantly in all phases of the dairy industry including all forms of processing, sales, production, etc. It has also been involved in the plastic industry since 1962.

CV Holdings operates CSP Technologies, Inc., Capital Plastic Products, Capital Cups, CMD and SiO2 Medical Products, Inc. which is a new corporation being partially funded by the Retirement System of Alabama. CSP Technologies manufactures products for the medical industry with focus in the diabetic market. Capital Plastic Products makes testing vials for the dairy industry and containers for M&M Mars and other miscellaneous laboratory and commercial products. Capital Cups makes children's sippy cups and insulated coffee cups for stores such as Dunkin Donuts, 7-11, etc.

Robert Abrams is a graduate of Cornell University.

Leslie Ackerman

Leslie Ackerman

  • Business Educator and Director, Alternatives Federal Credit Union
  • Female
  • Caucasian
  • 1969 (55 years old)

Leslie Ackerman is a Business Educator at the Alternatives Federal Credit Union based in Ithaca, New York. The is the director of "Business CENTS" which is a small business development program offering a "how to" business training course, seminars, one-on-one business counseling and marketing support for people interested in starting or expanding a business.

Matt Ackerson

Matt Ackerson

  • Founder and CEO, PetoVera
  • Male
  • Caucasian
  • 1987 (37 years old)

Matt Ackerson is a self-taught artist and computer programmer who started three businesses as an undergraduate at Cornell before graduating in Spring 2009. One of thoese businesses was Scrimple.com - a Web site featuring printable coupons for Ithaca establishments.

His latest venture, PetoVera, is best described as a web design business, and is Ackerson's fourth and final company which he plans to run and grow for the rest of his life.

Matt Ackerson is a graduate of Cornell University.

Miki Agrawal

Miki Agrawal

  • Founder, Slice
  • Female
  • Not Available
  • 1979 (45 years old)

Miki Agrawal is half Japanese, half Indian, she has an an identical twin sister named Radha and also a third sister, Yuri, who is less than one year older than them. Miki is French Canadian by birth (grew up in Montreal until she was 18 years old), she speaks 5 languages (fluent in English and French, very proficient in Japanese, and proficient in Hindi and Spanish). Miki played soccer semi-professionally for the NY Magic post college, started out as an investment banker upon graduation (Deutsche Bank), then left to work as a commercial/music video/film production coordinator/manager for three years after that. Her entrepreneurial spirit then kicked in and at 25 years old, she decided to start the process of building the Slice concept. At 26, she opened Slice. She is currently working on developing more SLICE locations in NYC and in other cities as well as building her wholesale side to Slice. She recently launched her pizza kits which will eventually be sold in supermarkets nation-wide. Most recently, Miki Agrawal is a co-founder of the company, Thinx. Miki Agrawal is a graduate of Cornell University.

Radha Agrawal

Radha Agrawal

  • Founder, Super Sprowtz
  • Female
  • Not Available
  • 1979 (45 years old)

Radha Agrawal is the Founder of Super Sprowtz, LLC, a story and concept she has been developing for more than three and a half years. The concept for Super Sprowtz grew out of a menu she designed for her restaurant, Slice, an organic pizzeria that she co-owns with her twin sister Miki in New York City, where they just opened their second location (www.sliceperfect.com). As a wellness advocate and an active athlete, she speaks to public school children across New York on the benefits of nutrition and healthy eating. Agrawal has extensive film experience spanning the commercial, music video and feature length formats and has produced for film greats such as Michel Gondry, director of "Eternal Sunshine Of the Spotless Mind." She is currently producing a feature film, "The Western Front," about American foreign policy in Iraq. The film incorporates animation, motion graphics, and live-action, and has just been accepted at the 2010 Tribeca Film Festival in New York. Agrawal has been working in the entertainment industry for more than 10 years, only taking time off to open her first restaurant with her twin sister. She worked as an agent for commercial videos, representing directors such as George Lucas and the Coen Brothers, and has a broad network in the film and television community. Radha Agrawal's comments are from the panel "New Approaches to Marketing in the Post-Web 2.0 World" that was given during Entrepreneurship at Cornell's Celebration in April 2010. Most recently, Radha Agrawal is a co-founder of the company, Thinx. Radha Agrawal earned her BS from Cornell University.

Luciana Aguiar

Luciana Aguiar

  • Partner, Data Popular
  • Female
  • Caucasian
  • 1967 (57 years old)

Luciana Aguiar is a former partner with Data Popular, a market research firm established in 2000 in Sao Paulo, Brazil with the mission to build unparalleled knowledge on low-and medium-income consumers. Currently, Aguiar is a senior partner of Plano CDE a new consulting and research company aiming at understanding business models focused on BOP markets (www.planocde.com.br) and has been in charge of introducing cutting edge ethnography methodology into market research in Brazil.

Aguiar worked as a Program Officer for UNESCO sponsored programs for low-income population in Brazil coordinated by The Comunidade Solidaria Initiative and Sebrae (1998-2003), as a Curator for art exhibits and educational programs at museums including Museu Virtual A Casa, Museu da Casa Brasileira, and Pinacoteca do Estado de Sao Paulo (1998-2003), and as a Postdoctoral Associate at the Department of Anthropology at the University of Sao Paulo (USP) (1993-97).

Luciana Aguiar holds a BA in Social Sciences from UnB in Brazil a MA in Anthropology and a PhD in Social and Visual Anthropology , both from Cornell University. She is the author of Spinning Lives (1996, University Press of America), a book based on her doctoral research.

Luciana Aguiar holds a BA in Social Sciences from UnB in Brazil a MA in Anthropology and a PhD in Social and Visual Anthropology , both from Cornell University. She is the author of Spinning Lives (1996, University Press of America), a book based on her doctoral research.

David Ahlers

David Ahlers

  • Professor, Cornell University
  • Male
  • Caucasian
  • 1937 (87 years old)

David Ahlers is a former managing partner and founding participant of Cayuga Venture Funds. In addition, Dr. Ahlers is a former Cornell tenured professor and holder of the Berens Chair of Entrepreneurial Management at Cornell's Johnson Graduate School of Management. While at Cornell, he was a Director of the Johnson School's Executive Development Program, Director of the Cornell Research Foundation which markets all Cornell intellectual property, and Director of Student Agencies, a privately funded corporation which helps enterprising Cornell students run businesses to work their way through Cornell.

Prior to coming to Cornell in 1972, Dr. Ahlers was a Vice President of Bankers Trust Company and head of its corporate planning activities. Dr. Ahlers left Cornell in 1985 to devote full time to DMA Associates, Ltd., an executive education and consulting firm in the financial services industry with a client list including Chase Manhattan, J.P. Morgan, Bank of America and M&T Bank, where he is currently a member of the Directors' Advisory Council for the Southern Region.

David Ahlers received his Ph.D. in management and computer science from Carnegie Mellon University. He received an MA in Operations Research from the University of Washington. His undergraduate degree is in physics from Ohio State University.

Jon Aizen

Jon Aizen

  • Co-founder, Dapper
  • Male
  • Caucasian
  • 1981 (43 years old)

Jon Aizen is the co-founder and COO of Dapper, managing U.S. operations and strategy for the company in San Francisco. He has been founding and working for web companies since 1994. He has extensive experience with managing large-scale, high-profile web projects, as well as operations and business development. His previous experience includes Alexa Internet and the Internet Archive.

He holds a degree in computer science from Cornell University.

Judy Albers

Judy Albers

  • COO, Excell Partners
  • Female
  • Caucasian
  • Not Available

Judy Albers is the Chief Operating Officer at Excell. Albers has been instrumental in the establishment of many start-up companies based upon technologies spun out of Upstate NY universities and corporations, particularly in analyzing the commercial potential of the new technologies, developing commercialization strategies, positioning and planning early business operations, and providing seed stage capital. Her current focus is on co-managing the Excell Partners Fund and structuring equity-based deals.

Prior to joining Excell, Albers was a Vice President at Trillium Group, another Rochester-based Venture Capital firm, where she co-managed the University Technology Seed Fund, now fully invested. Albers also previously taught Environmental Chemistry at Bates College in Lewiston, Maine. Her classes were the largest in the department, teaching over a hundred non-majors every semester in lectures and laboratory. Prior to that, she served for several years at the Center for Naval Analyses in Washington, D.C. as a defense analyst. Her job was to develop and link analytical conclusions on Navy systems, tactics, and operations to practical recommendations for implementation by the Navy's top-level decision makers at the Pentagon.

Judy Albers holds a B.S. in Chemistry from Duke University, a Ph.D. in Inorganic Chemistry from Brandeis University, and completed her post-doc in Chemistry at Princeton University.