<p>Daniel Pink is the author, most recently, of THE ADVENTURES OF JOHNNY BUNKO: The Last Career Guide You'll Ever Need, the first American business book in the Japanese comic format known as manga. His previous book was A WHOLE NEW MIND: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future, a long-running New York Times and BusinessWeek bestseller that has been translated into 18 languages. </p> <p>A free agent himself, Dan held his last real job in the White House, where he served from 1995 to 1997 as chief speechwriter to Vice President Al Gore. He also worked as an aide to U.S. Labor Secretary Robert Reich and in other positions in politics and government.</p> <p>He received a BA, with honors, from Northwestern University, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, and a JD from Yale Law School.</p>
Lisa Ann Pinkerton is Founder and President of Technica Communications, co-founder of the Global Cleantech Cluster Association, founder and Chairwoman of Women In Cleantech & Sustainability, a Board Advisor for International Sustainable Fashion Week, an international speaker, trainer and moderator, as well as a documentary filmmaker. Lisa Ann started her career as an award-winning environmental science broadcast journalist who reported for National Public Radio, PBS Television, NBC, American Public Media and other outlets. Lisa Ann Pinkerton is a graduate of Carnegie Mellon University
Matthew Pittinsky co-founded Blackboard, Inc in 1997 with a mission to transform the Internet into a powerful environment for teaching and learning. Today, Backboard is considered by most industry analysts to be the leading provider of e-Education systems around the world.
Matthew Pittinsky received his undergraduate degree from American University and a Masters in Education from Harvard University. He is currently a Ph.D. candidate at Columbia University Teacher's College studying the sociology of online learning.
Nora Poggi is the Director and Producer of \"She Started It\". She is a French journalist with a background in film production who has been interviewing key players in Silicon Valley for the past four years. After graduating from French top schools Sciences Po Paris and La Sorbonne, she moved to San Francisco to work for French social network Viadeo.com. She then went back to her first love, films, with the production company Lucky Dragon Productions, where she trained in all areas of film production and promotion. At the same time, she started freelance reporting for Examiner.com on major Silicon Valley events, producing video interviews with tech industry players. She now also writes about entrepreneurship & tech for French newspaper Usine Nouvelle.
Paul Polak is president of International Development Enterprises (IDE), a nonprofit, poverty alleviation organization he founded in 1981. IDE pioneered the development and marketing of affordable technologies within developing countries. The Technology Museum of Innovation named IDE-International a Laureate for its development of "Easy Drip" a truly affordable micro-irrigation system for the rural farmers in developing countries. In 2004, Paul was awarded Ernst & Young's "2004 Entrepreneur of the Year" award in the category of social responsibility. As a result of technologies like "Easy Drip" and facilitated market entrance, IDE families have increased their net annual income by more than $200 million annually. Recently Polak was honored by Scientific American as one of the Top 50 innovators in 2003 for his work pioneering poverty alleviation worldwide. In 2007, Polak founded D-Rev, an organization created to design affordable technology for dollar-a day customers and developing markets where they can be sold profitably and sustainable at a fair market price. Paul Polak received his MD from the University of Western Ontario and practiced psychiatry for 23 years.
Lance Polivy is a Cornell University student and co-founder of Wiggio.com. Wiggio.com is a free, online toolkit that makes it easy for students to work in groups. It offers simple functionalities, such as a shared calendar to coordinate meetings, the ability to send mass text messages, a shared document folder, instant polling capabilities, and free conference calls.
Lance Polivy expects to receive his undergraduate degree from Cornell Univesity in 2008.
<p>Rasheedah Polk is a Planner for Missy Sportswear at Lord & Taylor.</p> <p>Rasheedah Polk is a graduate of Cornell University.</p>
Michael Polk joined Newell Rubbermaid as President and Chief Executive Officer in July 2011. Previously, Mike was President of Global Foods, Home and Personal Care at Unilever, where he was responsible for the development, innovation and marketing of Unilever\'s entire 64 billion dollar portfolio of categories and brands. During eight years at Unilever, he is credited with transforming the company’s business in the Americas, sharpening Unilever’s global portfolio strategy, and creating a more competitive, faster-growing, innovation-driven organization. He was a member of the Unilever Executive Board from 2007-2011. Earlier, Mike spent 16 years at Kraft Foods serving as President, Asia Pacific Region, Kraft Foods International and President, Nabisco Biscuit & Snacks, Kraft Foods North America. In both positions, he served on Kraft’s Management Committee. Prior to Kraft, Mike spent three years at Procter & Gamble working in manufacturing and research & development in the Paper Products Division. He has a B.S. in operations research and industrial engineering from Cornell University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Paul Polman was appointed an Executive Director of Unilever in October 2008. He assumed the role of Chief Executive Officer on 1st January 2009.
Paul began his career at Procter & Gamble in 1979 and was group president Europe and officer of the Procter & Gamble Company until 2001.
Prior to joining Unilever, Paul was chief financial officer of Nestlé S.A. from January 2006 as well as executive vice president for the Americas from February 2008.
Paul serves as President of the Kilimanjaro Blind Trust and Chairman of Perkins International Advisory Board. He is a member of the Executive Committee of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, the European Round Table, the International Business Council of the World Economic Forum and the Swiss American Chamber of Commerce. He is on the Board of the Consumer Goods Forum where he co-chairs the Board Strategy and the Sustainability Committees. He is a Trustee of both the Leverhulme Trust and Asia House, a former board member of Alcon and, since February 2010, a non-executive director of the Dow Chemical Company.
Married with three children, Paul enjoys reading, marathon running, and mountaineering, but his main passion is for his role in running the Kilimanjaro Blind Trust.
Paul earned a BBA/BA from the University of Groningen, Netherlands, in 1977 and an MA in economics and MBA in finance/international marketing from the University of Cincinnati in 1979. He has honorary degrees from the Universities of Northumbria, Newcastle, UK (2000) and the University of Cincinnati, US (2009).
Fernando Poma has been the Managing Director of Real Hotels & Resorts since 2000. During that time, Poma has grown Real Hotels and Resorts from four to 22 premier hotel brands including InterContinental, Marriott, Quality and Comfort Inn. His growth plans are focused on Costa Rica, Honduras, Panama and Colombia and include a JW Marriott hotel, a JW Marriott Resort and five Courtyard by Marriott hotels. The company is also expanding its InterContinental hotel base.
Prior to joining Real Hotels and Resorts, Poma was assistant to the managing director of Choice Hotels Europe and worked in asset management and hotel acquisitions for the Westmont Hospitality Group.
Poma spoke at Cornell University on Wednesday, April 2nd, 2008 as part of the "Conversations with Entrepreneurs" series presented by the Leland C. and Mary M. Pillsbury Institute for Hospitality Entrepreneurship at the Cornell School of Hotel Administration.
Fernando Poma graduated from the School of Hotel Administration at Cornell University and received his MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.
Shelly Porges is the National Finance Co-Chair for the Ready for Hillary Super PAC. Prior to this role, Porges was a Franklin Fellow and Senior Advisor leading the Global Women's Business Initiative at the U.S. State Department. She is a recognized marketing and strategy expert having launched products, brands and companies, as well as raised funds for a range of non-profit and political organizations. Before joining the State Department, Ms. Porges had a distinguished private sector career as both a corporate executive (American Express and Bank of America) and entrepreneur. Most recently, she served as chair of the board for Count Me In for Women's Economic Independence, the leading non-profit online accelerator for women-owned businesses. Shelly Porges holds both a BS and MPS degree from Cornell University. She was a founding member of the President's Council of Cornell Women.
Julia Posacki is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of CW Enterprises. Through her brand, InvestingIsSimple, she delivers financial savvy to professionals and up-and-comers. IIS aims to unravel the mystique of the markets and give you the tools and confidence to know that you, too, can play with the "big boys" of Wall Street. In addition to the InvestingIsSimple web site, Julia speaks to various audiences nationwide.
Prior to launching IIS, Julia spent seven years working in the Fixed Income and Derivatives areas of Goldman Sachs and Merrill Lynch.
Julia Posacki earned a Bachelor of Science in Operations Research & Industrial Engineering and a Master of Engineering in Financial Engineering from Cornell University.