Amy Smith is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In addition, she is the founder of the International Development Initiative at MIT and has taught courses related to the subject for 10 years.
She served in the US Peace Corps in Botswana for four years before working in Senegal, South Africa, Nepal, Haiti, Ghana and Hondouras.
In 2004, she was selected as a MacArthur Fellow, recognizing her efforts in creating technologies to improve lives in the developing world and for her finding opportunities for students to do the same.
Amy Smith received her B.S. and M.S. in mechanical engineering from MIT and is currently working toward an M.S. in technology and policy.
Aija Leiponen is an Assistant Professor in Applied Economics and Management at Cornell University. She joined the department in 2001.
Prior to joining Cornell University, she carried out research at the International Institute of Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) in Austria, Institute for Industrial Relations in UC Berkeley, and the Research Institute of the Finnish Economy (ETLA) in Finland.
Leiponen's teaching and research focus on the sources and effects of technological change in the economy. The overarching goal of her research program is to understand the interactions between organizational arrangements and innovation.
Aija Leiponen received her Ph.D. in Economics from the Helsinki School of Economics and Business Administration. During her doctoral studies, she spent two years as a Fulbright scholar in the Haas School of Business, University of California at Berkeley.
Daniel Goldman is currently the CFO of GreatPoint Energy. In addition, Goldman was the founder, Chief Financial Officer and a member of the Board of Directors of New Energy Capital Corp., a venture-backed company focused on investments in renewable energy, fuels and distributed generation assets.
Goldman's previous work experience was as an executive at InterGen, the power generation company co-owned by the Bechtel Group and Royal/Dutch Shell, from 1996-2001, and at consulting firm Arthur D. Little in Cambridge and Singapore from 1989-1996.
Daniel Goldman received a B.S. from Cornell University and an M.Sc. from the London School of Economics.
Felix Laboy is co-founder, President and CEO of E-site Marketing which is an Internet marketing company that specializes in the hospitality industry.
Laboy has held executive positions at several leading hotel companies including The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, L.L.C., Westin Hotels and Resorts, and The Four Seasons Hotels & Resorts as well as The Puerto Rico Convention Bureau.
Felix Laboy is a graduate of the School of Hotel Administration at Cornell University.
The Currie Farm is a partnership among 3 brothers; John Currie Jr., Nathan Currie and H. Thomas Currie. John Currie, the eldest brother, has been managing the farm since 1982 after graduating from high school.
As of 1982, the farm's milking herd numbered 120. Today the farm milks 700 cows, raises 800 youngstock and crops 1500 acres to support them.
The farm's mission is to produce high quality forages for their animals since the Curries strongly believe everything else will fall into place behind that. On this family farm the partners' children are also an integral part of the farm through their involvement in chores and showing their cattle.
Richard Ramko is a partner in Ernst & Young's South Florida practice, primarily serving publicly-held and emerging growth companies in the Health Sciences, Biotech and Technology industries.
Ramko has extensive experience serving large, publicly-held companies as well as newly formed start-ups and venture-backed enterprises. Richard has 15 years of experience, including 13 years in public accounting and 2 years in executive level financial positions in private industry and is a certified public accountant in Florida and Tennessee. Some of his current clients include Andrx Corporation, Nabi Biopharmaceuticals, Stiefel Laboratories and SFBC International.
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.
Kenneth Shields is a Director at Procter & Gamble.
Eric Ottaway started off his working career in management consulting and then left to join a client in the healthcare industry. He joined the Brooklyn Brewery in 1996 as manager of their Boston distributor, The Craft Brewers Guild. He now works out of the company headquarters in Brooklyn, and is the Brewery`s General Manager.
Ottaway's comments are from a panel discussion on "The Business of Wine, Beer and Spirits" organized by the Cornell Entrepreneur Network of the Metro New York region. The panel featured Roy Danis (Executive Vice President, Sales and Marketing, W.J. Deutsch & Sons, Ltd.), Eric Ottaway (General Manager of the Brooklyn Brewery) and Byron F. Hoover (Marketing Director, Jose Cuervo).
Eric Ottaway received his undergraduate degree from Yale and his MBA from Harvard.