Stephano Kim is a New York-based entrepreneur and angel investor. Stephano currently serves as president of AHAlife, a curated marketplace of unique products and content from all over the world. Prior to AHAlife, Stephano served as president of GraphEffect, a social media marketing platform, and prior that as president and COO of [x+1], an integrated digital marketing and data analytics platform. Stephano has also led investments in consumer technology and digital media for Advanced Technology Ventures, directed business development and strategy for AOL, and co-founded several start-ups along the way including Blackboard, the leading provider of e-learning enterprise software and services. Stephano also manages Springhouse Capital, an angel fund that has made investments in The Echo System, LifeCrowd, Tangoe, WeddingWire, DramaFever, ZocDoc, and Shareaholic, Retention Science and Chromatik. When not obsessing about startups and entrepreneurs, Stephano can be found in the playgrounds of the upper west side of Manhattan hanging from the monkey bars with his 2 daughters.
Charles Hamilton has led the commercial development of Novomer's technology since 2006. He has been involved in the creation of several companies based on Cornell technologies and worked previously for Microsoft, POP, and other high tech firms.
Charles Hamilton graduated with honors from Cornell in 1995 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Natural Resources. In 2004 he received an MBA from the Johnson Graduate School of Management where he was a Park Leadership Fellow and winner of the Global Social Venture Competition in London.
Skip Besthoff is a General Partner at Castile Ventures.
Besthoff has an investment focus in software-as-a-service, Internet commerce, and digital media. He led Castile's investment in Enquisite and serves on its board of directors. Castile Ventures is an early-stage venture capital firm that provides backing and strategic guidance to help exceptional entrepreneurs build successful technology businesses.
Prior to Castile, Besthoff was a principal at Rho Ventures. Prior to Rho, he spent seven years in a variety of strategic and technology consulting roles service emerging technology companies and Fortune 500 clients. Besthoff had a five-year tenure with Andersen Consulting (now Accenture) where as a manager he led large-scale systems development and integration projects.
Skip Besthoff received his undergraduate degree from Hamilton College and his MBA from Cornell University.
In 2004, Mark Broadhurst joined Eat'n Park Hospitality Group as director of concept development to design, develop, and open an exciting new restaurant concept for the company. Today, he oversees all new concept development and is involved in new initiatives and concept evolution across all Eat'n Park Hospitality Group brands.
Prior to that role, Mark served as director of operations for Kahunaville, an award-winning casual-themed restaurant, nightclub, and bar concept with nine locations throughout North America and two in Southeast Asia. There he was responsible for developing the chain's bar and beverage menu and program, which Cheers magazine recognized as being the Best Beverage Program in the chain restaurant industry in 2001.
Mark Broadhurst graduated from the Cornell University School of Hotel Administration. After Cornell, Mark attended Le Cordon Bleu in Paris, France.
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.
Thatcher Bell is a Principal at DFJ Gotham.
Prior to joining DFJ Gotham, Bell was a Senior Analyst at North Hill Ventures, the venture capital affiliate of Capital One Financial. While at North Hill, he evaluated investments in financial technology, enterprise software and technology-enabled services companies, and was a deal team member for DealerTrack, Compete (acquired by comScore), Higher One, and Exchange Solutions.
Before joining North Hill, Bell was Manager of Business Development at OpenPages, an enterprise software vendor, where he oversaw an acquisition and developed channel partnerships in the U.S. and Europe. Previously, he was the third employee at SharkTank, an online marketplace connecting lawyers and potential clients. Thatcher began his career as a consultant at Ernst & Young (now Cap Gemini Ernst & Young), working on competitive strategy and process improvement projects in the financial services, telecommunications, and health care industries.
Thatcher Bell has a B.S. cum laude in Engineering from Cornell University and an M.B.A. with honors from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
Noah Goodhart is a New York-based entrepreneur who has spent the last 10 years starting, running and investing in internet companies. Along with his brother and partner Jonah, Goodhart started his first internet company at Cornell, an early online advertising company called Colonize.com. He went on to become co-CEO of Smarter Ad Group, a leading online customer acquisition firm. Goodhart was also a founding investor and Board member of Right Media, the leading online advertising exchange which was acquired by Yahoo! in 2007.
Goodhart is a partner in WGI Group, a seed stage fund which has invested in over 20 early stage technology companies, and serves on the Board of several portfolio companies. Goodhart recently founded Moat, which is a new type of advertising company. His first internet job was in 1996 as an intern at the White House, where he helped build whitehouse.gov.
Noah Goodhart holds a BA, summa cum laude, from Cornell University, an MA, from Yale University, and is on leave from the PhD program in political science at Yale, which he paused to pursue his entrepreneurial activities.
Matt Zelesko is currently SVP, Technology at Time Warner Cable. At the time of this panel, he was the CTO at Inform Technologies. Inform is the leading developer of automated content solutions used by some of the web's most authoritative publishers including CNN, NBC Universal, and The Economist. Inform's applications use artificial intelligence to discern meaning and context. With this enhanced understanding, Inform drives new opportunities in content creation, curation and distribution. As CTO of Inform, Zelesko oversees the company's technology and operations.
Prior to Inform, Zelesko was CEO of Joost, the online aggregator of premium video entertainment. As CEO, he led the company through a successful acquisition by Adconion Media Group. Matt previously served as senior vice president of engineering responsible for Joost's global technology organization.
Matt Zelesko is a graduate of Cornell University.
Greg Woodworth is founder and Vice President of Stony Brook Whole Hearted Foods, a company that produces and distributes culinary oil based on squash seed varietals. The squash oils are produced by cold-expeller pressing resulting in a unique, regional oil sold to the retail gourmet and natural food shop market. Founded in 2008, the company is located in Geneva, New York at the Cornell Agriculture and Food Technology Park.
Prior to starting Stony Brook, Woodworth has been involved in all aspects of food service management for more than 20 years. He obtained his Bachelor of Science in Food and Beverage Management from Cornell University at the Hotel School and an MBA from Bentley College.