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.
Ilene H. Lang is the President of Catalyst, the leading research and advisory organization working with businesses and the professions to build inclusive environments and expand opportunities for women at work. Lang was appointed President in August 2003 after a long and illustrious career in the technology industry.
Lang is broadly recognized as a pioneering female high-tech/Internet executive. She has advised CEOs and entrepreneurs as a board member, coach, and investor in women-led technology companies. As a successful businesswoman, Ms. Lang has brought high energy and corporate savvy to the advancement of women in every sector of the global marketplace.
Among Lang's many accomplishments, she was the founding CEO of AltaVista Internet Software Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Digital Equipment Corporation. AltaVista commercialized the highly popular AltaVista Internet search service and marketed a line of award-winning Internet-based software products for business people. Prior to AltaVista, Lang was Senior Vice President of the Desktop Business Group at Lotus Development Corporation, responsible for the worldwide development and marketing of Lotus's SmartSuite product line, a $500+ million business.
Irene Lang earned an A.B. degree in history and literature from Radcliffe College and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.
Barbara Lang, founder of RTR Ideas, offers a wide range of experiences, including 10 years as a culinary director at a Napa Valley winery; a former co-owner of a successful restaurant in Ithaca, NY; 17 years as a lecturer at Cornell's Hotel School and is author of "From Restaurant to Retail, a Handbook for Food Professionals".
Lang developed and launched The Ithaca Wegman's Culinary School, produced and hosted a series of food programs and culinary videos for Cornell's Cooperative Extension, created the Popcork Experience, a fun, interactive wine and food pairing experience, developed the Rolling Stove, a series of culinary adventures for children, and was past president of the American Cheese Society. A popular public speaker, Lang has spoken at over 50 conferences and symposia, including at the National Restaurant Show, The Professional Association of Innkeepers International and the California Wine Experience.
Barbara Lang holds an undergraduate degree in Hotel Administration from Cornell University's Hotel School and a masters degree in professional studies in Food Marketing from Cornell University's Department of Applied Economics and Management.
Robert S. Langer is the David H. Koch Institute Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (there are 14 Institute Professors at MIT; being an Institute Professor is the highest honor that can be awarded to a faculty member). Dr. Langer has written over 1,100 articles. He also has approximately 760 issued and pending patents worldwide. Dr. Langer\'s patents have been licensed or sublicensed to over 220 pharmaceutical, chemical, biotechnology and medical device companies. He is the most cited engineer in history. He served as a member of the United States Food and Drug Administration\'s SCIENCE Board, the FDA\'s highest advisory board, from 1995 -- 2002 and as its Chairman from 1999-2002. Dr. Langer has received over 180 major awards including the 2006 United States National Medal of Science; the Charles Stark Draper Prize, considered the equivalent of the Nobel Prize for engineers and the 2008 Millennium Prize, the world\'s largest technology prize. He is the also the only engineer to receive the Gairdner Foundation International Award; 72 recipients of this award have subsequently received a Nobel Prize. Among numerous other awards Langer has received are the Dickson Prize for Science (2002), Heinz Award for Technology, Economy and Employment (2003), the Harvey Prize (2003), the John Fritz Award (2003) (given previously to inventors such as Thomas Edison and Orville Wright), the General Motors Kettering Prize for Cancer Research (2004), the Dan David Prize in Materials Science (2005), the Albany Medical Center Prize in Medicine and Biomedical Research (2005), the largest prize in the U.S. for medical research, induction into the National Inventors Hall of Fame (2006), the Max Planck Research Award (2008) and the Prince of Asturias Award for Technical and Scientific Research (2008). In 1998, he received the Lemelson-MIT prize, the world\'s largest prize for invention for being "one of history\'s most prolific inventors in medicine." In 1989 Dr. Langer was elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, and in 1992 he was elected to both the National Academy of Engineering and to the National Academy of Sciences. He is one of very few people ever elected to all three United States National Academies and the youngest in history (at age 43) to ever receive this distinction. Dr. Langer received his Bachelor\'s Degree from Cornell University in 1970 and his Sc.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1974, both in Chemical Engineering.
Renaud Laplanche is the Founder and CEO of LendingClub, a social lender which currently works exclusively within the Facebook platform.
Laplanche grew up in France, was trained as a lawyer, completed his MBA before working for New York law firm Cleary Gottlieb in Paris and in New York. He worked for the firm for five years in mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures and investment transactions involving technology companies before founding TripleHop Technologies. TripleHop Technologies, the software company that designed MatchPoint, was founded in 1999 and sold to Oracle in 2005.
Laplanche was honored with the HEC "Entrepreneur of the Year" award in 2002 and won the French sailing championship twice, in 1988 and 1990.
Renaud Laplanche earned an MBA from HEC Business School.
Modern-day explorer and expedition guide Eric Larsen's life epitomizes adventure. A polar adventurer, dog musher and educator, he has spent the past 15 years of his life traveling in some of the most remote and wild places left on earth.
In 2006, Eric and Lonnie Dupre completed the first ever summer expedition to the North Pole. During this journey, the duo pulled and paddled specially modified canoes across 550 miles of shifting sea ice and open ocean. Eric successfully led his first expedition to the South Pole in 2008, covering nearly 600 miles in 41 days. Eric is now one of only a few Americans in to have skied to both the North and South Poles.
In November 2009, Eric returned to Antarctica for the first leg of his world record Save the Poles expedition. This time he completed a 750-mile ski traverse to the geographic South arriving on January 2, 2010. Two short months later he was dropped off at northern Ellesmere Island for a winter-style North Pole Journey. The international team reached the North Pole 51 days later on Earth Day April 22, 2010.
Eric's other expeditions include dog sledding in the Canadian Arctic, training trips to Hudson Bay and countless dog sled races (including the John Beargrease Sled Dog Marathon). He has summited Mt. McKinley, ridden his bike across the United States, been a backcountry ranger in Alaska and a white water canoe guide in Colorado. Eric has dedicated his adult life to sharing his love for the outdoor world with others. As an educator, Eric strives to connect people to places and issues. In recognition of those efforts, Eric was elected as one of Outside Magazine's Eco All Stars in 2008. He was also inducted as a member of the Explorer's Club based in New York City.
Eric travels extensively giving motivational and educational lectures to schools, universities, non profit organizations and corporate groups. He is currently planning a book and documentary about the Save the Poles expedition.
Eric splits his time between Boulder, Colorado and Grand Marais, Minnesota.
Douglas Lasdon founded the Urban Justice Center as a one-person operation in a burned-out building in East Harlem, to provide badly needed legal services to one of New York City's most underserved populations - single, homeless adults. To make his services accessible to his clients, he conducted outreach legal clinics directly in soup kitchens, making us the first organization in the country to use this approach.
Since then, Lasdon has greatly expanded the agency's size, scope, and influence, while still holding fast to its core mission - helping those at the farthest margins of society, both one at a time and collectively. In addition to leading the agency, he continues to represent individual clients and to engage in impact litigation.
Prior to founding the Urban Justice Center, Lasdon was a Fellow and Staff Attorney at Covenant House in New York City. He has been an adjunct faculty member at New York University since 1985, and has also served as a consultant to the World Bank, and as a Wasserstein Fellow at Harvard Law School.
Douglas Lasdon graduated from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and received his law degree from Cornell University Law School.
Chris Laszlo is a partner and co-founder of Sustainable Value Partners, Inc., a firm helping companies create value for shareholders and stakeholders. For nearly ten years prior, he was an executive at Lafarge S.A., a world leader in materials, holding positions as head of strategy, general manager of a manufacturing subsidiary, and vice president of business development. Prior to that he was with Deloitte & Touche, where he consulted to global industry leaders such as Dupont, Toshiba, Avon Products and Renault on strategy.
Chris Laszlo received his undergraduate degree from Swarthmore College. He has a Masters in Economics from Columbia University and he received his Ph.D. with distinction in Economics and Management Science from the University of Paris.
Marilyn Laverty is the founder and president of PR firm, Shore Fire Media.
Shore Fire Media was named one of the Top 10 PR firms in NY by the New York Observer. Named as one of Billboard Magazine's 'Top 40 Women in Music', Laverty and her company have become known both for a blue chip roster of acts as well as leadership in bringing new media strategies to campaigns. Shore Fire's roster includes musicians such as Lana Del Rey, Bruce Springsteen, St. Vincent, Martina McBride, Carole King, and Zac Brown Band, and also represents venues, businesses, trade organizations, chefs, authors, and events.
Marilyn Laverty is a graduate of Cornell University.
Marc Leathers is President of Leathers & Associates. The 30-year old company is a family-owned business and the leader in the field of community-built playgrounds. Leathers & Associates is based in Ithaca, N.Y.
John Lee joined Merrill Lynch in 1996 and is currently a Managing Director in the Asia Origination Group, primarily responsible for origination for companies based in Hong Kong and southern China.
John Lee holds a BBA degree from Southern Methodist University, with concentration in Finance and Real Estate.
David Lee is the Chief Executive Officer of Lee Kum Kee (Europe & USA).