Fellows – NY

Sanjay Amin, Linkedin

Columbia MBA 2014

Sanjay is an MBA student at Columbia Business School with an interest in media, entertainment, technology, and entrepreneurship. Prior to school, he spent three years working as the CEO’s right-hand at SONGS Music Publishing, a NYC-based independent publisher that represents songwriters like Diplo, Q-Tip, Morgan Kibby of M83, Conor Oberst, Ted Leo, and Dev. Before that, he spent two years at McKinsey & Company primarily serving hospitality and regional banking clients. Sanjay received a BA/MA in Economics and a BA in Mathematics from Northwestern University.

Sikandr Atiq

NYU MBA 2014, Linkedin

Sikandar is currently a graduate student at NYU Stern School of business.  Prior to joining Stern he held the position of Vice President of Portfolio Development for the $50M independently funded growth capital and buyout firm – Next Equities.  Here he focused on sourcing opportunities and carrying out an initial assessment of these opportunities.  Sikandar has also started two successful national companies and has been recognized as one of Alberta’s “Ten Rising Stars” as chosen by Alberta Venture Magazine.

Julia Avrutin

NYU MBA 2014, Linkedin

Julia is a first year at NYU Stern School of business and is looking to make a career switch into consulting.  She spent the past 5 years at Seamless.com (formerly SeamlessWeb) where she gained experience in sales, management, strategy and operations.  After spending a few years in consulting, Julia plans to combine her experience at Seamless and in consulting to grow, lead, and/or build a start-up or VC firm.

David Benhamou, Linkedin

NYU JD 2014

David is a second year student at New York University School of Law interested in mergers & acquisitions, venture capital, and other corporate transactions in the technology industry. Prior to enrolling at NYU, David worked as a legal assistant at Brune & Richard LLP and was involved in several high profile trials. Since coming to NYU, David has been a staff editor of the Journal of Law & Business and worked this past summer in the legal department at Warner Bros. David is a graduate of Tufts University where he earned a B.A. in Quantitative Economics.

Emily Casey

Phd, Sloan Kettering  2016

Emily is a student at the Gerstner Sloan-Kettering Graduate School working to obtain her PhD in cancer biology. She is currently working on a cancer immunotherapy project that will potentially translate into the clinic within the next 5 years, and has been awarded one of the Geoffrey Beene Graduate Student Fellowships for 2012-2013. Before graduate school, Emily worked for a GMP facility funded by the Ludwig Institute of Cancer Research at Cornell University allowing her to learn about the strict FDA regulations and requirements for biopharmaceutical production. Emily is very excited and passionate about working to obtain venture funding for burgeoning biotech and pharma companies. Emily graduated from Cornell University in 2011, where she studied biological sciences and biomedical engineering.

Jack Chao, Linkedin

Columbia MBA 2014

Prior to attending Columbia Business School, Jack was a Member of the Technical Staff at D. E. Shaw Research, where he developed specialized supercomputers for high-speed molecular dynamics simulations, with the ultimate goal of significantly advancing the process of drug development.  During that time, Jack worked in a variety of engineering roles including chip design, design verification, circuit board design, and lab bring-up.  Jack holds a BSE in Electrical Engineering from the University of Michigan – Ann Arbor and an MS in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University, and has completed work toward a PhD in Electrical Engineering at Stanford as a National Science Foundation (NSF) and National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate (NDSEG) fellow.

Lee Cooper, Linkedin

JD/MBA Columbia 2015

Lee is a J.D./M.B.A. candidate at Columbia University, where he is focusing on the intersection of Law, Technology, and Business.  Prior to graduate school, Lee was a healthcare consultant, focusing on commercial strategy and launch planning in biopharmaceuticals.  Before consulting, he held a management role at a Chilean not-for-profit organization dedicated to training microentrepreneurs. Lee graduated from Dartmouth College and enjoys outdoor activities and food.

Brian Galgay, Linkedin

NYU MBA 2014

Brian is a problem solver. Prior to NYU Stern, Brian was a career consultant solving the problems of clients across industries. Over time, Brian began to specialize in the enterprise software and solutions space, with an eye on cloud-based technologies. In this function he helped develop joint-ventures around the world for some of the largest players in tech.  Outside of his work-life, Brian also addresses social health problems, most notably cancer of the esophagus, the US’s fastest growing cancer.

Thilmin Gee, Linkedin

NYU MBA 2014

Thilmin is an MBA student at NYU Stern studying entrepreneurship and strategy with a keen interest in leveraging her business development and digital strategy expertise to start an online company during her two years.  Prior to joining Stern, she was the Director of Search at Profero, a global, digital agency, where she built, grew, and led the Search department.  Thilmin won several new client accounts such as Western Union and Mohegan Sun Casino that enabled her to grow her team during her tenure.  She began her Search career at Reprise, a company started by serial entrepreneurs and angel investors Peter Hershberg and Joshua Stylman.  Before Reprise, Thilmin

worked at MRM Worldwide establishing the company’s Business Development department and working on the MasterCard team. Thilmin received a BA in Communication Studies and Sociology from UCLA.

Grant Gillespie

Columbia MBA 2014

Prior to enrolling at Columbia Business School, Grant managed Kristian Regále, Inc. (www.kristianregale.com), a manufacturer and distributor of a line of Swedish-recipe sparkling juices. At Kristian Regále, he led a two-year turnaround that included the addition of several new major customers as well as significant cost reductions.  Before that, he spent three years at Merrill Lynch advising top institutional and hedge fund clients on strategic transactions and risk exposure. Grant is also advisor to several food and beverage start-ups in the NYC area. Grant received his B.A. in History from Duke University.

Pranav Goel, Linkedin

Columbia MBA 2014

Prior to joining Columbia, Pranav worked as a Software Development Engineer at Microsoft in Redmond, WA. During his time at Microsoft, he worked on Silverlight and Windows8 products. Pranav is also the Co-Founder of 21habit.com, a website that encourages users to make or break a habit in 21 days by committing $21, with all proceeds donated to charity. Pranav received his undergraduate computer engineering degree from Thapar University in India and MS Information Networking from Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh.

Tom Hsu, Linkedin

Columbia MBA 2014

Tom is a passionate technologist from San Francisco who focuses on strategic solutions and innovative products. Before attending Columbia Business School, Tom was a Principal Engineer at Oracle, where he leveraged multiple customer relationships to deliver innovative solutions to help business units to operate information system with five-nine availability and high performance. He also had some startup experience, having worked in one and co-founded one in location-based mobile games. As a CBS MBA of 2014, Tom continues his passion in strategy and entrepreneurship. He is actively participating in startup communities at Columbia and New York City at large and concentrating on strategy, product positioning, and financial model.

Shinichiro Kaneda, Linkedin

NYU MBA 2014

Prior to Stern, Shinichiro Kaneda founded and managed an editing company focusing on puzzle magazines. Additionally, he worked as a consultant for ABeam Consulting, one of the three biggest consulting firms in Japan. At ABeam, he led teams in projects, such as marketing, operation and change management projects. Shinichiro holds a B.A. in Russian Studies from Tokyo University of Foreign Studies.

Shehzad Khan, Linkedin

Columbia MBA 2014

Shehzad is a second year MBA student at Columbia Business School with an interest in e-commerce, digital media, and the general technology sector. Prior to school, Shehzad worked in investment banking, management consulting, ad-tech, and as an entrepreneur. As a banker, he conducted due diligence and analyzed financial statements, prepared presentations outlining M&A and corporate finance opportunities, and built financial models to evaluate the pro forma effects of potential transactions. Working in consulting and advertising technology, he used SQL and econometric modeling to extract valuable information out of large data sets, using that data to optimize traditional and digital marketing initiatives. In addition to this experience, Shehzad has prior experience in launching his own entrepreneurial software ventures, VBLOGS and Stunable.Shehzad graduated from Colgate University with BA in Mathematical Economics

Julie Klein

Columbia MBA 2014

Julie is currently a graduate student at Columbia. Prior to school, she helped Visa launch its first real-time advertising product. During this time, Julie also moonlighted as a reporter for VentureBeat, covering top venture deals and technology product launches. Before that, Julie was Editor-in-Chief of the daily newspaper at Stanford University, from which she graduated with a B.A. in history.

Frederico Lourenco, Linkedin

Phd, Weill Cornell 2015

Frederico is a PhD candidate in Neuroscience. His current research focus on understanding how experiential (trial and error) learning and instructed knowledge are combined to optimize human decisions.  Prior to moving to the U.S. and joining Weill Cornell, Frederico received his B.Sc. and M.Sc. in Biomedical Engineering at University of Coimbra, Portugal.

Frederico is VP of Operations and co-founder of Repairogen,  a biotech start-up that is developing natural DNA repair enhancers that will revolutionize anti-aging skincare.

In addition, he is currently part of a team of consultants performing a landscape analysis designed to support strategic planning efforts within Pfizer’s Peptide Research Unit. Beyond entrepreneurship and venture capital, Frederico is passionate about aviation and Krav Maga (yellow belt).

Manav Malhotra, Linkedin

Dontae Rayford, Linkedin

NYU MBA 2014

First year MBA student at NYU Stern, specializing in Entrepreneurship and Entertainment, Media and Technology. Before Stern, Dontae earned in BA and MA in Sociology from Stanford University. After graduation, he worked briefly at a startup in Palo Alto, before moving to Sacramento to complete a fellowship with the California State Assembly. For the past 4 years, Dontae was at Google’s headquarters working on initiatives related to advertising, digital payments and the Android operating system.

Yusuf Roso

Columbia MBA 2014

A native of Turkey, Yusuf worked at JPMorgan’s Emerging Markets group as a derivative structurer for six years (four in New York and two in London) before his MBA at Columbia Business School (Class of 2014). His job entailed providing solutions to investors with specific investment guidelines and creating hedging strategies for companies that had to manage complex risks across financial markets globally. Throughout his experience, he worked with various participants in financial markets – from sophisticated and aggressive hedge fund managers to conservative portfolio managers at pension funds and insurance companies to C-level executives at the largest and most bureaucratic state-owned companies in countries such as Russia and South Africa. Yusuf holds a B.A. with a joint major in Economics and Operations Research from Columbia University. After his MBA, Yusuf plans to launch his own business in the food industry.

Robert Sanchez, Linkedin

JD Fordham University 2014

Robert Sanchez is 2014 J.D. candidate at Fordham University School of Law and a parallel entrepreneur.  He co-founded Fashioning Our Industry [www.fashioningourindustry.com], an organization that brings together professionals and entrepreneurs in fashion, business, law, manufacturing, design, and technology and Crosby Street Gallery [www.crosbystreetgallery.com], an online gallery specializing in popup physical locations.  While at Fordham University School of Law, he was a Pollack Fellow for Chief Judge Preska in the Southern District of New York and researched and wrote an initial draft of the section on Patents and Trade Secrets for West’s Navigating Fashion Law for Charles Colman Law, PLLC.  Prior to law school, he produced websites, programs, and animated videos for Scholastic, Inc., developed marketing and production programs for MBI, Inc., and developed the sales and marketing strategy for MediaLiquid, LLC.  Rob graduated from Yale University in 2005 with a double major in English and Psychology.

Nir Sandbank, Linkedin

NYU MBA 2014

Nir is a first year MBA at NYU Stern School of Business where he focuses on Entertainment, Media, and Technology and Entrepreneurship. Prior to Stern, Nir worked as a legal and investment advisor for a family office where he managed, analyzed and executed various investments of the family, and severed as a director in the family’s real-estate fund. Prior to his last position, Nir worked as a lawyer in one of the leading law firms in Israel, provided ongoing and transaction-related consultation to C-class management of VC funds and start-ups. Nir gained wide leadership experience as an officer in the Israeli Navy where he was awarded “Outstanding Officer” distinction twice. Nir graduated from the University of Haifa with LL.B in Law and B.A in Economics.

Sam Slover, Linkedin

NYU ITP 2014

Sam Slover is a graduate student at NYU’s Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP). He is the co-founder of Learn It Live, an online learning website that connects people to experts. He’s most passionate about creating new technologies and media that allow people to better learn about themselves and the world they live in, and hopefully make better decisions because of it. Previously, he worked with social entrepreneur projects in Honduras and India, and launched a seed capital program at a micro-finance firm in Bolivia. In a prior life, he was a financial journalist in Vancouver, Canada.

Selim Sulos, Linkedin

Columbia MBA 2014

Prior to attending Columbia Business School, Selim worked as a manager at Deloitte’s Discovery and Analytics Consulting practice in NY.  In this role, he not only advised Fortune 500s on cost efficient discovery techniques, but also assisted Deloitte leadership during the establishment of a $60M cutting edge data discovery facility.  In addition, Selim collaborated with discovery startups to use social networking for uncovering corporate corruption.  Selim currently advises a NY startup with $1M in seed funding for building an artificially intelligent system that provides legal guidance.  Selim received his BA in Computer Science and Economics from Brandeis University, where he graduated with distinction.

Leanne Ta, Linkedin

JD Columbia 2015

Leanne is a first year JD candidate at Columbia Law School. She has professional experience in public health, policy, nonprofit development and journalism. Prior to law school, Leanne worked at the National Center for Medical-Legal Partnership, an organization seeking to integrate legal and healthcare services for vulnerable populations. She also served as a reviewer and blogger for the MIT IDEAS Global Challenge, a seed funding competition focused on addressing community challenges through innovation. Leanne has written for NBC Local Integrated Media, The Honolulu Advertiser and other publications. She has a bachelor’s degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from the University of Pennsylvania.

Nicholas Veomett, Linkedin

Phd Weill Cornell 2014

Nick Veomett graduated from the University of Arizona with a B.S. in Biochemistry, and is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Pharmacology at Weill Cornell Medical College. In his second year of graduate school, Nick founded the Weill Cornell Entrepreneurship and Venture Capital Club, which unites scientists in the tri-institutional area interested in entrepreneurship in the life sciences industry. He is also a Technical Adviser to the Big Red Venture Fund, a venture capital fund affiliated with the Cornell Business School, and the Financial Partner in Club Biomed, a student and faculty investment club with equities in the biopharma sector. Currently, Nick works in the laboratory of David Scheinberg, M.D. Ph.D., at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. Nick’s research is focused on translating a novel antibody therapy for leukemia into a clinical candidate.

Craig Wilson, Linkedin

NYU MBA 2014

Craig grew up in Sparta, NJ and attended Middlebury College in Middlebury, VT where he graduated with an economics degree. In between Middlebury and Stern, Craig has had a variety of careers with one central theme: helping people grow their start-ups. Over the course of that time, he has worked on a cattle farm, as a ski patroller, and helped start a data analytics company.

Christina Yugai, Linkedin

NYU MBA 2014

Prior to attending NYU Stern School of Business, Christina was the digital marketing director at sweetgreen, a Washington, DC based food startup. She helped the company grow and achieve its scale to expand its locations both within the Washington, DC region, Pennsylvania and New York. Simultaneously, she assisted various startups in achieving their scale through rapid market penetration and through innovative digital platforms. Prior to sweetgreen, she worked at Deloitte Consulting and graduated George Washington University with a B.A. in Finance and Economics.

Spring 2013 Fellows

Michael Boice

Weill Cornell Medical College 

Michael is a PhD candidate at Weill Cornell Medical College pursuing a degree in Pharmacology. His current research focuses on modeling genetic defects in Follicular Lymphoma using a mouse model and trying to develop new therapeutics for the disease. Prior to graduate school Michael worked at two biotechnology companies in Arizona and Texas dedicated to the development of new cancer therapeutics and diagnostic tests. While in Graduate School Michael co founded and is the current CSO of Repairogen, a company that is dedicated to the development of anti-aging and skin care products.

Patrick Chang, LinkedIn

Columbia Business School MBA 2014

Currently, Patrick explores investment opportunities in the IT security, internet, healthcare IT and enterprise software space and various seed stage angel investing in technology based start ups for New York Angels. Prior to Columbia Business School, Patrick helped technology companies raise capital and advised in M&A transactions at JP Morgan, Updata, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, and Lehman Brothers. In his seven years of experience Patrick specialized in IT Security, internet, payment processing, communications equipment and IT services. He has had the opportunity to work with all levels of technology companies from large public companies to small growth companies which were bootstrapped or venture funded. Patrick is an aspiring entrepreneur and innovator and has also been involved in co-founding a handful of online food related start ups, most recently Appetite for Good andLes Envies

Jason Ross

Cornell MD-PhD 2015, 

Jason is an MD/PhD candidate of Weill Cornell/Rockefeller/Sloan-Kettering. He holds a B.S. in Biological Sciences from Stanford and has extensive research experience in stem cell biology, regenerative medicine and cancer biology. His clinical interest is oncology with a focus on metastasis.

Barrett Sheridan

Columbia  MBA 2014

Barrett Sheridan is a Knight-Bagehot Fellow studying at Columbia Business School. Previously, he was a senior editor at Bloomberg Businessweek, where he oversaw technology coverage for the magazine and website and contributed to Bloomberg’s television, radio, and live event programming. He co-founded the non-profit Team Darfur and really likes to nerd out about machine learning, Python, robotics, and more. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Stanford University in 2006 with a degree in economics.

Seth Silverman

NYU Law 2015

Seth aspires to a career tackling international environment and development challenges.  Prior to enrolling in NYU Law, Seth worked in Kenya as Operations Manager at the One Acre Fund, a social enterprise and agricultural microfinance that provides farmers with the tools that they need to grow their own way out of poverty.  Before that, Seth worked as a climate adaptation analyst at the White House Council on Environmental Quality.  He has worked in seven countries and on four continents in policy and as a practitioner.  Seth received a B.A. and M.S. from Stanford University.

Fall 2014 Fellows

Michelle Fung, LinkedIn

Columbia Business School MBA 2015

Prior to attending Columbia Business School, Michelle worked as an Investment Analyst at International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member organization of the World Bank Group focused on reducing global poverty via direct investments in private sector companies in the emerging markets. At IFC, Michelle worked on investment proposals and execution in the Manufacturing, Agribusiness, and Services industries within the Latin America and Caribbean region and served as the primary analyst on IFC’s largest-ever investment in the education sector. Prior to IFC, Michelle spent three years at Goldman Sachs, where she managed the firm’s credit risk to its hedge fund and natural resources counterparties and provided credit ratings advisory to investment banking clients. At Goldman, Michelle also served as the coordinator for the committees chaired by the CFO that provide approval for all commitments of the firm’s capital. Michelle holds a B.S. with dual majors in Commerce (with concentrations in Finance and Information Technology) and Economics from the University of Virginia.

Ambrose Carr, LinkedIn

Columbia PhD

Ambrose is a PhD student at Columbia University specializing in improving the treatment and diagnosis of cancer by combining machine learning techniques with massively-parallel biological sequencing and cloud computing platforms. Previously, he worked at the Laboratory of Behavioral Neurobiology at Rockefeller University to determine the neurological effects of alcohol and nicotine consumption during pregnancy. Ambrose received his AB in Cellular and Molecular Biology from Princeton University with a certificate in Neuroscience.

Matthew Holbreich, LinkedIn

NYU Law School 2016

Matthew is a student at NYU School of Law interested in emerging companies and venture capital. He runs an education company, and is the midst of a second start up. Prior to NYU, Matthew studied philosphy in Paris and Germany, received a PhD in political philosophy from the Univesrity of Notre Dame, and taught at American University in DC.

Jodi Krakower, LinkedIn

Columbia Business School MBA 2015

Jodi is a first year MBA student at Columbia Business School and is interested in e-commerce and digital media. Prior to enrolling at Columbia, she worked at Apax Partners – a global Private Equity firm – as an operating specialist. There, Jodi helped various portfolio companies across multiple sectors tackle issues such as conversion optimization, traffic acquisition and monetization. In addition to her online expertise, Jodi has experience building operating models and has also worked alongside deal teams to diligence and identify growth areas in potential investments. Jodi received her B.A. in economics from Harvard University in 2009. Upon completing her MBA, she hopes to pursue a career in Venture Capital in the technology/Internet space.

Alex Lipton, LinkedIn

NYU Law School 2016

Alex is a student at New York University School of Law interested in corporate transactions, venture capital, and educational technology. Prior to attending NYU, Alex worked with Teach For America in San Jose, California. While teaching, he developed a successful pilot program aimed at integrating Google Drive and Codecademy into his school’s curriculum. Alex earned his A.B. in Psychology and Government from Harvard University in 2011.

Allen Miller, LinkedIn

Columbia Business School MBA 2015

Prior to enrolling at Columbia Business School, Allen was a Summer Associate at Metamorphic Ventures—an early stage venture firm based in NYC. Allen spent most of pre-MBA experience working in education, first as a third grade teacher at Teach For America and later in portfolio planning with the NYC Department of Education. As an undergraduate at Cornell University, he studied Economics, Government and Information Science graduating magna cum laude. Allen has also interned with several startups and actively advises a handful of others. He hopes to join a VC firm or venture backed startup upon graduation.

Justin Nowell, LinkedIn

NYU Stern MBA 2015

Justin is currently a graduate student at NYU Stern School of Business. Justin previously did product management and web development for BiddingForGood, a startup in Boston that runs online auctions for non-profits. Prior to that, Justin worked as a software developer for TripAdvisor. Justin is a graduate of Boston College, where he studied math and computer science.

Ari Perl, LinkedIn

Columbia Business School MBA 2015

Ari is an MBA student at Columbia Business School with an interest in the life sciences and broader healthcare industry. He recently graduated from the NYU School of Medicine and spent two years as a part-time associate at a biotechnology start-up that operated in the stem cell banking space. Prior to that, he was employed as an analyst in the Strategy Group at Credit Suisse Alternative Investments, where he worked with senior management on new business opportunities and strategic initiatives. He graduated Summa Cum Laude from Yeshiva University with a BA in economics and a concentration in pre-health sciences.

Jonathan Ragins, LinkedIn

Columbia Business School MBA 2015

Prior to Columbia Business School, Jon was a Summer Associate at Technology Crossover Ventures — a Palo Alto-based venture capital and growth equity firm. He also worked on product management and product marketing for Simplee, a series A, health IT startup. Jon spent most of his pre-MBA career at Cambridge Associates, where he advised institutional investors ($50 million to over $200 billion) on investment strategy, risk management, and private equity and venture capital investments. Jon earned an A.B. in history from Bowdoin College.

Sagar Shah, LinkedIn

Columbia Business School MBA 2015

Prior to Columbia Business School, Sagar worked in Economic & Financial Consulting at Cornerstone Research in New York. He has previously started his own company in the facilities maintenance space and is passionate about technology innovation that meaningfully improves people’s lives. Sagar graduated from the Jerome Fisher Program in Management & Technology at the University of Pennsylvania with bachelors degrees in Electrical Engineering and Business (Finance, Management).

Kersi Shroff, LinkedIn

Columbia Business School MBA 2015

Kersi is a first year MBA student at Columbia Business School interested in venture capital and consumer technology. Prior to Columbia, he was at Cornerstone Research, an economic and financial consulting firm, where he worked on several data-intensive projects connected to the technology, consumer finance, and chemical industries, and also helped develop internal firm software. Kersi graduated with a double major in Economics and Computer Science from Yale in 2009.

Clayton Bryan, LinkedIn

NYU Stern MBA 2015

Clayton is an entrepreneur, product guy, and dealmaker with over 7 years experience working in Silicon Valley.  Currently a first year MBA student at the Stern school of business, Clayton plans on building a career in the venture capital space. Prior to Stern, Clayton ran the NewME accelerator in San Francisco.  There he was responsible for evaluating and executing partnerships, refining and maintaining the recruitment process, identifying business growth opportunities, and supporting strategic and tactical initiatives nationally.  He helped NewME portfolio companies raise in excess of $3 million in seed funds. A former Yahoo, Clayton has also spent time working with several startups in capacities including marketing, product, and operations. Clayton graduated from the University of California with a degree in Political Economies of Industrial Societies.

Hugh Malone, LinkedIn

Columbia Law School 2016

Hugh is a student at Columbia Law School interested in commercial innovation, entrepreneurship, and the communications revolution. Previously, he spent two years as the Associate Publisher and business leader of Lapham’s Quarterly, a not-for-profit magazine of history, literature, and art founded in 2007. Hugh has held positions in sales and business development at Google, holds a masters degree in literature from Oxford University, and received his A.B. in English from Harvard in 2008.

Joe Saia, LinkedIn

Columbia Business School MBA 2015

Joe is a first year MBA student at Columbia Business School with a strong interest in technology, marketing, and venture capital. Prior to enrolling at CBS, Joe worked for one year as an Associate Consultant at Rosetta Marketing Group and for two years at RoboteX, a Palo Alto-based robotics startup launched by the founders of PayPal & YouTube. At RoboteX, Joe joined as an early business development employee to oversee the company’s marketing initiatives. He directed the company’s first concerted marketing strategy, developing and launching the company’s first advertising campaign and leading a complete revamp of RoboteX’s sales collateral, product messaging, and online marketing programs. Joe graduated from Columbia University in 2010 with a BA in English Literature, and he is a die-hard videogame and consumer electronics fan and a lover of all things food. After his MBA, Joe hopes to work in the venture capital or technology marketing.

Rob Li, LinkedIn

Columbia Business School MBA 2015

Rob is a currently a graduate student at Columbia Business School with a keen interest in tech investing and entrepreneurship. Prior to graduate school, Rob worked as an investment professional at Morgan Stanley Private Equity, and completed investments in technology and consumer & retail sectors. Prior to that, Rob worked as an investment banker in the Energy Group at Credit Suisse, and advised clients in the clean tech and power & utilities space on a range of transactions, including M&A deals and debt & equity financings. Additional professional experience includes work at an e-commerce start-up and an early stage VC firm. Rob graduated from Yale College, and double majored in History and International Studies.

Sawyer Williams

NYU Law School 2016

Sawyer is a first year JD candidate at NYU School of Law. Despite his full intention of becoming a lawyer, Sawyer has an enduring interest in entrepreneurship and consumer internet startups in particular. Prior to arriving at NYU, Sawyer handled business development and marketing for an R&D-based defense company called SA Photonics and co-founded several companies, including Teespring.com. Sawyer graduated from Boston University in 2008 with a BA in International Relations. And he can speak Mandarin (kind of).

Chaitanya Rastogi, LinkedIn 

Columbia PhD

Chaitanya is a PhD student at Columbia University, specializing in creating biophysical models of protien-DNA interaction through statistical inference on massive biological sequence data. Passionate about innovative technology, he has broad tech experience ranging from quantum computation to solar cells and advises startups on their technology needs. Chaitanya holds a MS in Electrical Engineering from Caltech and graduated from there in 2009 with a double major in Applied Physics and Business Economics and Management.

Lisa Raylesberg, LinkedIn

Columbia Business School MBA 2015

Lisa Raylesberg is a first year MBA student at Columbia Business School. Prior to enrolling at Columbia, Lisa was a strategy consultant at Interbrand where she helped strengthen the brand valuation practice area and advised global companies on brand management, development, and creation decisions. Before joining Interbrand, Lisa was a valuation consultant at Grant Thornton where she performed economic advisory services for M&A and financial reporting purposes. Lisa holds a B.A. in Economics from Cornell University.

Thomas Sweeney, LinkedIn

NYU Stern MBA 2015

Thomas is a first year MBA student at NYU Stern. Prior to attending  Stern, Thomas worked as a producer in New York at several media companies including CBS Interactive and Simon & Schuster. Since then, he has produced digital content for large organizations including Nike Sportswear, the Hearst Corporation, and the French government, as well as tech startups such as Mirror Media through his company, Hideout Hill Entertainment. Additionally, Thomas is the Creator and Executive Producer of Pickup, a sports-related documentary television series represented by William Morris Endeavor agency. With the aim of pivoting to the strategy side of the media-tech industry, this summer Thomas completed a Pre-MBA role in Strategy & Business Development at CBS Local. Thomas holds a B.A. in Philosophy (Pre-Law) from Boston College.

Nolan Walsh, LinkedIn

Columbia Business School MBA 2015

Nolan is first year MBA student at Columbia Business School with interests in technology and entrepreneurship. Prior to graduate school, Nolan spent three years producing indices/investment vehicles and consulting asset managers as an Analyst and Assistant Vice President on the Index, Portfolio and Risk Solutions desk at Barclays. Before that, Nolan spent time as the owner of 314 Events, an events management company, and as a Financial Analyst at Data Explorers Consulting. Nolan received a BSBA from Washington University in St. Louis in International Business, Finance, and Management (Honors).

Connor Wilson, LinkedIn

Columbia MBA 2015

Connor Wilson is a first year MBA student at Columbia Business School. Previously, he worked as an analyst and portfolio manager at Thornburg Investment Management, where he conducted fundamental research and due diligence on hundreds of public companies around the world. After some entrepreneurial adventures in the past, he is now looking to build the next great idea into tomorrow’s great business. Connor received his A.B. in Government from Harvard College. He is also a Chartered Financial Analyst.

Abhay Mavalankar, LinkedIn

NYU Stern MBA 2015

Abhay is a first year MBA student at NYU Stern school of business with interest in enterpirse software, consumer web and semiconductors. Prior to enrolling at NYU Stern School of Business, Abhay spent 5 years at Intel Corporation in multiple roles from engineering, strategy and new product development. Abhay has several patent filings in hardware and software domains and has an IEEE publication on image recognition algorithms. He holds a Masters in Electrical and Computer engineering from Carnegie Mellon University.

John Alvino

NYU Stern MBA 2015

John is expecting his MBA from NYU Stern in 2015 with concentrations in entrepreneurship and strategy. Prior to school John founded and managed Actinic Ventures, a seed-stage VC fund based out of New York City with focus in emerging technology, mobile applications, and e-commerce. Before starting Actinic John’s professional experience ranged from financial reporting & analysis to business consulting and program management. John received his undergraduate education from Columbia University where he studied Mathematics.

Kirstina Budelis, LinkedIn

NYU ITP 2015

Kristina is an award-winning visual storyteller and multimedia producer. For the past few years, she worked at The New Yorker, where she helped build the department from the ground up, and created hundreds of videos and multimedia projects. There, she shot, edited, and produced projects featuring luminaries such as Woody Allen, Joyce Carol Oates, and Ai Wei Wei, and on projects spanning in topic matter from human rights in Burma to KPOP. She’s currently a masters candidate at NYU Tisch’s ITP, an interdisciplinary arts and technology program where she’s learning how to code and thinking about innovative ways to present digital storytelling. She also does a variety of freelance work; recent clients include Change for Kids, JP Morgan, BAM, and Random House. Projects she’s worked on have been nominated for Webbys, and honored with awards from POYi, FotoWeek DC, PIEA, and more.

Carolyna De Laurentiis, LinkedIn

NYU Stern MBA 2015 

Carolyna is an MBA candidate at NYU Stern. Prior to Stern, Carolyna spent several years conceiving of and executing strategic marketing campaigns, managing brands and creating messaging for BR Guest Hospitality, a national restaurant group. Most recently, Carolyna joined the team of FarmersWeb, an e-commerce B2B startup in NYC, in order to streamline communications and re-develop the startups website through new traffic acquisitions and conversion optimization. Carolyna received her BA from the University of Pennsylvania. Her favorite food is spaghetti.

Harry Moore, LinkedIn

Columbia Business School MBA 2015 

Haven Thompson, LinkedIn

Columbia Business School MBA 2015