Kobus De Klerk is the Global Lead of The Solae Company. De Klerk heads up a newly created business unit within The Solae Company which focuses on doing business in the Base of the Pyramid. The business unit directs its business activities two fold: 1) towards institutionalized food solutions and 2)towards co-created business models. The co-created business channel focuses on community empowerment and, through process and relationship development, communities are empowered and facilitated towards generating business which results in sustainable economic and social infrastructure growth.
DeKlerk's career spans 18 years within the food sector. Starting off with Nestle in human resource and labour relationship management, he has held positions in factory and operations management as well as general management and strategic marketing.
DeKlerk's comments are from a conference entitled "Business with Four Billion: Creating Mutual Value at the Base of the Pyramid." The William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan and the Center for Sustainable Global Enterprise at Cornell University co-hosted the conference which was held in Ann Arbor, Michigan on September 9-11, 2007.
Kobus DeKlerk holds a post graduate qualification in Industrial psychology and Labour law, a diploma in Food Science and Technology and a Masters degree in Business Administration from the University of Wales.
Justin DeKoszmovszky is the Manager of Strategic Sustainability for Africa and Near East business at SC Johnson.
Justin DeKoszmovszky received his MBA from Cornell University's Johnson School.
Jennifer Delaney works as a Senior Manager of Large Enterprise Product Solutions for Paypal. Prior to this role, she worked at a tech startup, Shopkick.
Jennifer Delaney received her undergraduate degree from Stanford University and her MBA from Cornell University.
Tony Dellamano, a former baseball player with the Texas Rangers organization, came to COrnell Universiy's Hotel School for his Master's degree to learn the corporate side of the restaurant business. He already knew some of its operations: after earning a managerial economics degree from the University of California, Davis, he had been a server, floor manager, and financial consultant for high-end restaurants in San Diego.
At Cornell, he discovered entrepreneurship. He and classmate Mark Kuperman created a fast-food snack that they called Johnny Applestix. They submitted the idea to the Big Red Venture Fund, a campus-wide competition sponsored by the Johnson Graduate School of Management, and they won the first prize of $10,000. With that seed money and valuable contacts made while attending Cornell, they raised the necessary capital to launch the business at three locations in northeast Ohio.
Now, the partners are involved in every aspect of the startup, with Dellamano concentrating on building the brand - to make Johnny Applstix the fast food of choice in malls across America.
Peter del Rio, a former head trader for Merrill Lynch, is the Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of The Interactive Custom Clothes Company (IC3D). Founded in 1996, IC3D is an Internet-based company selling customized jeans to a new Internet friendly population. The idea was to offer customized clothing online to solve fit problems that most people commonly find when shopping in stores. IC3D's goal was to create a 100% customer satisfaction rate by allowing customers to choose the styles of garments they wanted and fit them with a revolutionary computer generated sizing system.
IC3D is a technology company as much as it is a clothing company. The technological foundation of IC3D is its Artificial Intelligence (AI). Using a Genetically Engineered Neural Network (GENN) as a virtual tailor and patternmaker, IC3D creates custom patterns within minutes. This allows the company to quickly send patterns to a factory where each pair of custom jeans is created and delivered directly to the customer within seven to ten days.
Peter del Rio has a degree in business from Tufts University.
Demarest Studios was founded in 1998 by Noah Demarest. Demarest Studios primarily focused on architectural drafting, web site development and graphic design. In 2000, Noah partnered with his brother Nathan Demarest with the intention of expanding the range of design solutions offered to include web and multimedia production, digital illustration, and apparel design. In 2001, Noah and Nathan transformed Demarest Studios into Deviron LLC.
Deviron LLC now offers enhanced support and visualization services for architects, engineers and designers.
Noah and Nathan Demarest are both graduates of Cornell University.
Demarest Studios was founded in 1998 by Noah Demarest. Demarest Studios primarily focused on architectural drafting, web site development and graphic design. In 2000, Noah partnered with his brother Nathan Demarest with the intention of expanding the range of design solutions offered to include web and multimedia production, digital illustration, and apparel design. In 2001, Noah and Nathan transformed Demarest Studios into Deviron LLC.
Deviron LLC now offers enhanced support and visualization services for architects, engineers and designers.
Noah and Nathan Demarest are both graduates of Cornell University.
Dennis Derryck is a Professor of Professional Practice, Management at the New School for Public Engagement.
Dennis Derryck's primary area of interest is on innovative policies and strategies impacting on the economic sustainability of nonprofit organizations. His background includes holding leadership positions in organizations involved in community economic development; operations and fiscal management and research and policy analysis. His leadership in organizing the Community Development Practicum with the New School: Parsons School of Architecture, Design and Lighting is one model of bridging themes with other schools within the University.
He currently serves as Chair of WE ACT for Environmental Justice and is Vice Chair of SoBro.
Joseph DeSena has been an entrepreneur since the age of eight. From selling fireworks at age 8 to building a t-shirt business in high school to building a multimillion dollar pool business in college to creating a Wall Street trading firm that was sold to Tullett Prebon, DeSena is a living definition of the word 'entrepreneur'.
Joseph DeSena received his undergraduate degree from Cornell University.
Gururaj Deshpande is an Indian American businessman and social entrepreneur, who is best known for co-founding the Chelmsford, MA based internet company Sycamore Networks in 1998 and the Deshpande Center for Technological Innovation at MIT. He is also founder of the Deshpande Foundation.
He started his career working at Codex Corporation, a Motorola subsidiary in Ontario, Canada which manufacturers modems, before moving to the U.S. in 1984. Later he co-founded Coral Networks, a router developer, in 1987, he sold the company, two years later for $15 million.
In 1990, Deshpande co-founded Cascade Communications, whose products were very important in the early internet, initially serving as its president and later Executive Vice President, he hired Dan Smith as CEO. He sold Cascade to Ascend Communications for $3.7 billion in 1997. Subsequently, with help of MIT researchers, he launched Sycamore Networks in 1998. Sycamore Networks went public in October 1999, and soon raised a market cap of $18 billion, and his 21% shareholding, briefly made him, one of the richest Indians in the world, and in 2000, he featured on the Forbes 400 listing of Richest Americans.
In 2000, he founded Networking and Telecom equipment products company, Tejas Networks, along with US-based ASG-Omni in Bangalore.
In July 2010, he was appointed as the Co-Chairman of National Advisory Council on Innovation and Entrepreneurship, a group set up to support US President's innovation strategy.
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.
Remedios Diaz-Oliver is the President of All American Containers, Inc., a leading supplier in the United States of glass, plastic and metal containers and caps throughout the world. She is actively involved in business and charitable organizations. In 1988, she was appointed a member of the Advisory Board-Trade Policy, Negotiations and International Policy for the President of the United States. In addition to her many recognitions, she was the first woman to receive the 'E' award for Excellence in Export from the President of the United States Lyndon B. Johnson, in 1968. Ms. Diaz-Oliver is a graduate of the University of Habana in Habana, Cuba.