<p>Diane Darling is an author and Founder and CEO of Effective Networking, Inc. She founded the company on the premise that everyone can learn to network, they just need to find their own style.</p> <p>Combining interactive training, strategic planning and an exploration of the natural fears of networking, Darling demystifies the process by providing techniques that can be immediately implemented. </p> <p>She has received rave reviews for her seminars and speeches and is increasingly sought after as an expert resource on the subject of networking. </p> <p>McGraw-Hill commissioned her to write the definitive book on networking called The Networking Survival Guide which was published in April 2003 and went into a 2nd printing just 90 days after the book hit the shelves. The book has been translated into Korean and Taiwanese. In 2005, McGraw-Hill published her 2nd book, Networking for Career Success which has since been translated into Chinese, Japanese, Indonesian, and Thai. </p> <p>Darling has appeared on NBC Nightly News, in The Wall Street Journal, San Francisco Chronicle, and The Boston Globe. She is also a monthly columnist for the Boston Business Journal and teaches in the MBA program at Boston University.</p>
<p>As an Image and Body Language Specialist, Sara Canuso, President of A Suitable Solution, empowers individuals to use non-verbal communication, image, and body language as tools to communicate effectively with others and to understand not only what others say, but to discover the unspoken messages and feelings behind their words and actions. Her insightful keynote presentations, business seminars and one-on-one coaching on the Impact of Image deliver new ideas and practical tools in the areas of creating powerful first impressions, developing a positive self image, dressing for success, and inspiring confidence. </p> <p>Canuso is the creator of Campus to Corporate, a program held in area colleges to help students prepare to enter the workplace. She is a certified seminar leader and known for her informative and popular column in Philadelphia Maven and her Winning Look articles in the Legal Intelligencer and the Burlington County Straight Word. </p> <p>Sara Canuso attended Temple University.</p>
<p>Young Mi Park is COO of Thevi Cosmetics. She has built her career expanding global brands and guiding businesses and new ventures. She has held leadership roles in Marketing, Strategy and General Management at Sesame Workshop, Levi Strauss, Burger King and American Express and has also worked at ambitious "fourth sector†educational start-ups and other new ventures, including her own bootstrap initiative. She has led successful turnarounds of failing business units, received industry recognitions for best brand image and advertising and spearheaded successful new product and new market development.</p> <p>In addition to extensive experience in the U.S., she has worked in or with businesses in Korea, Taiwan, Australia, Guam Japan, France, Canada and Mexico and devised business development strategies for Europe and Latin America. </p> <p>Young Mi Park has an undergraduate degree from Cornell University and an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management.</p>
<p>Carol Rattray is Managing Director and Co- Founder of Zoomdojo.</p> <p>Since the mid 1990\'s, she has been investing, and advising primarily start-ups, in China and in the US, and was previously Vice President in the Capital Markets Group at Bankers Trust Company.</p> <p>n philanthropy, Carol is President and Co- Founder of the Rattray Kimura Foundation. She is also a member of the Board of Trustees of Bates College, The Asian Cultural Council, and the Re Foundation and a former member of the Board of The Nature Conservancy, New York State Chapter, The Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and The Friends of the Museum of the Chinese University in Hong Kong. Carol is also co-chair of The Asia Foundation\'s Women\'s Empowerment Program\'s Lotus Circle Advisors and serves as a member of the Cornell University Council and The Arts and Sciences Advisory Council.</p> <p>Carol Rattray holds an MBA and MA in International Affairs from Columbia University and earned an undergraduate degree from Cornell University.</p>
M. Christine DeVita is President of The Wallace Foundation, a private charitable foundation created by Lila and DeWitt Wallace, the founders of Reader's Digest, as a legacy of their own philanthropic lives.
DeVita joined the foundation in November 1987. Since then, she has led the foundation as it has shifted away from project-focused grantmaking and toward more integrated strategies that combine program, evaluation and communications expertise to deliver social benefits beyond the recipients of the foundation's direct grants.
DeVita earned her B.A. magna cum laude from Queens College of the City University of New York and her J.D. cum laude from Fordham University School of Law.
Janice Bourque is Senior Vice President and Group Head-Life Sciences for Comerica Bank. Formerly, Ms. Bourque was President/CEO of the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council (MBC) where she led the organization for 12 years. Under her leadership, the MBC membership grew from 80 to over 400 organizations with revenue increasing from $500,000 to over $4.1 million. Ms. Bourque created multiple services, policy initiatives and the Education Foundation (MassBioEd) that focused on science education, workforce training and public awareness. Under Ms. Bourque's tenure, the MassBiotech 2010 was released which provided a blueprint for Massachusetts to remain at the forefront of the biotechnology revolution.
Ms. Bourque has held several previous senior managerial positions, including CFO of Cambridge Medical Technology Corporation, senior public accountant for Coopers & Lybrand Emerging and Middle Market Group, and as a NASA Space Science grant project manager for the first satellite payloads to be repaired by the space shuttle missions.
Ms. Bourque was a member of Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney's Transition Team. She is currently a Board of Director of the Boston History Collaborative and Chair of the Board of the Women Entrepreneurs in Science & Technology (WEST). In 2004, she was awarded the Woman of Valor Award by the American Diabetes Association and the 2004 Distinguished Leadership Award by the Huntington Disease Society for her work in public policy and public health. In 2003, Boston Magazine named her one of Boston's 100 most influential women and the Cambridge Chamber Commerce awarded her Business Person of the Year. Ms. Bourque received her MBA degree in finance and accounting and her BS degree in veterinary science from the University of New Hampshire.
Pat Granahan joined the Fish & Neave IP Group of Ropes & Gray as a partner in 2001. Pat's practice includes patent application drafting and prosecution, technology licensing, and providing patentability, patent validity and non-infringement assessments in a wide variety of scientific disciplines, and especially biotechnology and chemistry. Pat has been in practice since 1983 and during that time, has worked with many non-profit academic and research institutes, as well as companies ranging in size from small startups to large multinational businesses, particularly in the biotech and pharmaceutical industries. Pat is Patent Counsel at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research and will continue in this role. Prior to joining the Firm, she was a partner of Hamilton, Brook, Smith, and Reynolds.
Sharee Umpierre is an Associate Professor at the University of Puerto Rico's Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology. She has served as Director of the Division of Gynecologic Oncology of the University of Puerto Rico's School of Medicine since 1993. Sharee Umpierre received her BA in Chemistry from Cornell University and her MD from Harvard.
Cheryl Francis has been the Vice Chairman of the Corporate Leadership Center since 2002 and an independent business and financial advisor since 2000.
From 1995 to 2000, Francis served as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer (CFO) for R.R. Donnelley & Sons Company, a print media company. She currently serves as a member of the Board of Directors of Morningstar, Inc., HNI Corporation and Hewitt Associates.
Francis holds a bachelor's degree from Cornell University and a Master's degree in Business Administration from the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business.