Barbara Lindheim is co-founder and partner of GendeLLindheim BioCom Partners, LLC. Prior to founding that group, she was VIce President of Strategic Communications at Orchid BioSciences. She has also had management positions at Edelman Public Relations and Noonan/Russo Communications.
Barbara Lindheim received her undergraduate degree from Cornell University. She earned an M.B.A. with distinction from the Harvard Business School and an M.P.A. from the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University.
Rachel Lampert has been the Artistic Producing Director for Kitchen Theatre since 1997. In addition, she is a playwright, director and choreographer. For the Kitchen Theatre Main Stage she has written Precious Nonsense (2005), The Book Club (2004), Waltz (2001), Lampert Variations (2000); adaptations of Frankenstein (2002) and The Trial (2004). For family audiences her plays include Emmett & Hambone, A December Suite, The Sisters Fitzenstarts, A Christmas Carol and with collaborator Lesley Greene - Science Fair, Fools! Schmools!; this season they will be adding The Odyssey, Winter Tales and I Have A Song To Sing O! Her play, Bet You Can't Catch It? was commissioned by AIDSWORK of Tompkins County as part of an educational program for teens. The piece toured Central NY for three years. Her trip to China in 1997 to stage West Side Story resulted in her writing The Soup Comes Last, which was produced at the Kitchen and off-Broadway at 59E59 Theaters in Fall 2004. In addition to directing many plays at the Kitchen, she has directed and/or choreographed plays and musicals at Cal Rep, Arkansas Rep, Portland Stage Company, Public Theatre and Hawaii Opera Theatre. Lampert spent her early career in concert dance and founded a dance company in 1975 (Rachel Lampert & Dancers) that toured extensively throughout the US and in Europe for fifteen years. She is a 4-time recipient of NEA Choreography Fellowships, a CAP Individual Artist Grant and a SALT Award for Best Actress 2004. Her dance works have been in the repertories of numerous dance companies across the country and around the world. Raised in Brooklyn, she moved to Ithaca with her husband David in 1995. Rachel Lampert holds a BFA and MFA from New York University Tisch School For the Arts.
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.
Lynn Ambrosia is currently the Vice President of Retail Fresh at Campbell's Soup Company. Previously, she was Vice President/General Manager for Sauce and Meal Preparation for Campbell USA, and Vice President, Global Soup Strategy and New Business, North American Soup.
Prior to coming to Campbell's in 2002, Ambrosia spent 17 years at Nabisco and most recently Kraft where she was Vice President, New Business Development with responsibility for acquisition synergies. Other assignments at Nabisco included Vice President, Strategy / Business Development; Vice President of Marketing at Nabisco Biscuit Company and General Manager of Specialty Biscuits.
Lynn Ambrosia earned both her Bachelor of Science degree and MBA at Cornell University.
Robert Kern is the Founder and Chairman of Generac Power Systems, a company that he and his wife Patricia founded in 1959 in a rented garage. From those humble beginnings, Generac is now a world leader in standby electrical power systems with over 1500 employees occupying four plants throughout South Central Wisconsin and Iowa. He is the inspiration behind many industry breakthroughs such as Modular Power Systems and Bi-fuel products.
Robert and Patricia Kern also formed the Kern Family Foundation in 1998 with the purpose of enriching the lives of Americans through strong pastoral leadership, educational excellence and high quality innovative engineering talent.
Robert Kern received an undergraduate degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Illinois.
Helen Johnson-Leipold joined SC Johnson in September 1985 in the product management area and served in a variety of sales and marketing positions of increasing responsibility before being named Vice President - Consumer Marketing Services, Worldwide in 1992. She moved to Johnson Outdoors, a leading global outdoor recreation products company, as Executive Vice President of North American businesses in 1995. She returned briefly to SC Johnson in 1997 as Vice President, Personal & Home Care Products.
In March 1999, Johnson-Leipold was elected Chairman and CEO of Johnson Outdoors Inc., and in July 2004, was also elected Chairman, Johnson Financial Group, the $3.2 billion dollar global financial services company founded by her father, Sam Johnson. She leads both of these family companies from their worldwide headquarters in The Johnson Building, designed by "green architecture" pioneer William McDonough.
Prior to coming to SC Johnson, she began her career at Foote, Cone & Belding in Chicago in 1979, directing the advertising for some of America's leading consumer packaged goods companies, including Kraft and Beatrice Foods.
Helen Johnson-Leipold is a graduate of Cornell University.
John Bello is the co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of South Beach Beverage Company. He brings more than 25 years of brand building and marketing experience to the Company, which was established in January 1995.
Prior to founding SoBe, Bello, 55, spent 14 years with National Football League Properties Inc., the marketing arm of the National Football League. As President, Bello has been credited for building NFL Properties into a sports marketing leader.
Prior to the NFL, Bello worked in the Pepsi Cola Division of Pepsico Inc., serving in marketing and strategic planning capacities, as well as in the Maxwell House Division of General Foods Corp., where he held product management roles with the Sanka and Maxwell House brands.
During four years of service with the United States Navy, Mr. Bello achieved the rank of Lieutenant (Senior Grade) and received the Navy Commendation with Combat V for meritorious service on riverboats in South Vietnam.
John Bello graduated Cum Laude from Tufts University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in History and holds an MBA from the Amos Tuck School at Dartmouth College.
Peter Staudhammer is the Director of the Alfred Mann Institute for Biomedical Engineering at the University of Southern California
Staudhammer has been a practicing engineer for over 40 years, primarily in industry and more recently in academia. He began his professional career at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in 1957 at the beginning of the space era. In 1959 he joined the technical staff of TRW where he remained for the next 42 years in a wide range of technical and management positions: Chief Engineer for Apollo Lunar Descent Engine and the Viking Mars Biology Instruments; headed TRW's Central Research Labs; general manager of Defense Projects Division; Chief Technical Officer with leadership of 15,000 engineers and scientists in the space, defense, electronics and automotive fields.
Peter Staudhammer is a graduate of UCLA with BS, MS and PhD degrees in Engineering.
Nancy Clark is the owner and designer of Clark Design Group and the owner along with her husband, J. Thomas Clark, of the Old Chatham Sheepherding Company, which is the largest sheep dairy and creamery in North America. Nancy's two businesses are on the farm in Old Chatham, New York. The farm has 850 milking ewe along with replacement animals rounding out to approximately 1200 sheep. The animals are raised on 600 organically maintained pastures in Columbia County, New York. Nancy Clark received her undergraduate degree and Master's degree in Education from Cornell University.