<p>Alison Gerlach is a successful entrepreneur and business executive with expertise in and passion for building businesses. After doing extensive research in optimizing the business start-up process, Gerlach went on to build businesses in industries including technology, entertainment services, consumer packaged goods, and professional services. Prior to her entrepreneurial endeavors, she was a strategic management consultant and an overseas investment banker. </p> <p>In addition to building and growing her current venture, "Allie's Edibles", Gerlach spends a great deal of her time teaching, consulting to both start-up and large corporations, and giving lectures to both business and academic audiences on optimizing the business start-up process. </p> <p>Alison Gerlach earned a BA in economics from Cornell University and an MBA from MIT's Sloan School of Management.</p>
Sara Jobin made history in 2004 as the first woman to conduct on the mainstage subscription series at San Francisco Opera. She conducted performances of Puccini's Tosca with Carol Vaness in the title role and Wagner's Flying Dutchman with Juha Uusitalo and Nina Stemme; the following season she conducted multiple performances of Bellini's Norma. Jobin has also led performances for the San Francisco Opera Center. Prior to her six years as an assistant with the San Francisco Opera, she conducted for Opera San Jose for four years. Her recording with Frederica von Stade of the music of Chris Brubeck has recently come out on the Koch International Classics label; it features the Tassajara Symphony, an organization she led for four years after its founding in 1998. She has also conducted the Orchestra of St. Luke's, Edmonton Symphony, Calgary Philharmonic, The Women's Philharmonic, Oakland East Bay Symphony, San Jose Chamber Orchestra, Dayton Philharmonic, and Toledo Symphony. At age 16 she attended Harvard and Radcliffe Colleges, where she was named a Leonard Bernstein Music Scholar. After graduation, as a John Knowles Paine Travelling Fellow, she studied conducting with Charles Bruck at the Pierre Monteux School. In 1999 she was the first recipient of the JoAnn Falletta Award, given by The Women's Philharmonic in recognition of a young female conductor of outstanding promise.
Jessica Crolick Rolph is founding partner and COO of HappyFamily, a start-up company that produces and markets fresh-frozen, all organic baby and toddler meals. Previously she worked at Whole Foods in national purchasing for SPINS, the leading provider of information to the natural products industry. She also has worked with Lance Armstrong's business agent to develop the concept for the Lance Armstrong branded food line. Based on Newman's Own business model, all proceeds were to benefit Lance Armstrong Foundation.
Jessica Crolick Rolph received an MBA from the Johnson School at Cornell University in 2004, and was awarded a full MBA scholarship, the Park Leadership Fellowship, for leadership in socially responsible business.
As part of that fellowship, she helped launch Ithaca Fine Chocolates, a socially responsible, fair-trade-certified organic chocolate company based in Ithaca that makes and markets "Art Bars". Each chocolate bar features a card with a reproduction of work by local artists or international children's art. The students developed a business plan, including a financial accounting system and pricing model for the chocolate bars; helped source their manufacture; created a distribution plan using multiple channel; and developed a relationship with Whole Foods as a key sales partner.
In addition to holding an MBA from Cornell University, Jessica Crolick Rolph also received her BA from Cornell.
Amanda Eilian is the Co-founder and President of Videolicious. Amanda Eilian received her undergraduate degree from Georgetown and her MBA from Harvard.
Nadja Schnetzler is the CEO and Co-Founder of BrainStore and the author of "The Idea Machine". In the Swiss company BrainStore, ideas are produced in the same way as products - made-to-order and on a conveyor belt. The BrainStore ideas machine is an innovation model which functions on engineering principles and makes this idea generation possible. Nadja Schnetzler studied at the Ringier School of Journalism in Zurich, Switzerland.
Tricia M. Barry is the Director of Communications at Cornell University College of Arts and Sciences. Tricia M. Barry received her undergraduate degree from Webster University.
Ulla Kjarval is a New York City-based photographer and food blogger who advocates for family farms and grass-fed beef. With B.A.'s in History and Political Science from SUNY Albany, Ulla has worked in politics at both the state and federal levels. Along with her sister, she founded Sheepdog Print & Design, LLC, a company specializing in web design and social media strategy that caters specifically to rural interests. As the respected blogger behind 'Goldilocks finds Manhattan', Ulla has also contributed to blogs such as 'Goodlifer' and 'Civil Eats'. Ulla was the official policy and recipe advisor for the Grass-fed party. Her childhood on a farm in upstate New York sparked her life-long interest in family farms and the sustainability of a rural lifestyle. Ulla believes that social media holds many opportunities for farmers to promote their product and engage with the current food movement.
Kirsten Johnston Barker is President and Co-Founder of digital media company, Prendismo. In addition, she is an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at KensaGroup,a conception-stage development group.
Barker has aggressively lead the operational and tactical efforts of Prendismo as it has transitioned from a ten-year academic research initiative within Cornell University called eClips to a high growth commercial enterprise.
Previously, Barker served as Chief Information Officer at NSF International, Senior Director at Solucient (a healthcare software company) and as a consultant at Andersen Consulting (now Accenture).
Kirsten Barker received a Bachelor of Science degree from Cornell University and a M.S. in Business and Information Technology from Johns Hopkins University.
Lindsey Wieber and Gwen Whiting are co-founders of The Laundress. The Laundress provides a luxury fabric care and specialty detergent line to take the chore out of laundry.
Prior to co-founding The Laundress, Wieber was the Manager of U.S. Sales for CHANEL Ready-to-Wear. She managed the CHANEL boutique accounts and other large accounts such as Bergdorf Goodman and Neiman Marcus. Wieber also worked at Brooks Brothers in men's and women's buying departments before her tenure at CHANEL.
Lindsey Wieber received an undergraduate degree in Textile and Apparel Design and Management from Cornell University.