Stephen B. Kaplitt is the first Director of the Economic Empowerment in Strategic Regions (EESR) initiative at the U.S. Department of State. EESR promotes private-sector job-creation in regions where lack of economic opportunity helps fuel conflict and extremism.
Previously he was Special Assistant to the General Counsel at the U.S. Agency for International Development. He advised Agency leaders on a variety of subjects, including the First Amendment/ Establishment Clause, terrorist financing, USAID's relationship with the intelligence community and implementation of the Millennium Challenge Corporation's Threshold program. In December 2004 he was a member of USAID's delegation to the OSCE short-term observer mission for the presidential election in Ukraine.
Before entering government, Kaplitt was Executive Vice President and General Counsel of Lumenis Ltd., a Nasdaq-listed manufacturer of medical laser and light technology devices. At Lumenis he managed an annual budget of $10 million; supervised in-house and external counsel; and oversaw all of the Company's legal affairs, which included an SEC investigation, multiple shareholder class action lawsuits, complex intellectual property disputes, global product litigation and a broad range of transactional matters.
Prior to Lumenis, Kaplitt was a senior associate at Becker, Glynn, Melamed & Muffly LLP, a boutique international law firm in New York. While there he was seconded for two years to the International Finance Corporation, where he worked on numerous finance and equity transactions in Asia, Central Europe and the Baltics. He began practicing law at Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP, and was also an associate in mergers and acquisitions at Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP, both in New York. During his legal career, Kaplitt acted as associate or lead counsel on corporate transactions totaling $3 billion in aggregate value, in over twenty countries.
Stephen Kaplitt received his JD cum laude from the Georgetown University Law Center, and his AB in Government with high honors from Dartmouth College.
Kevin Jarrell is a co-founder of Modular Genetics and is a recognized expert in RNA splicing and gene assembly. In his academic career at Harvard University, Boston University, and Ohio State University, his research resulted in numerous publications and contributed significantly to the current understanding of how living organisms manipulate their genetic information. In addition, Dr. Jarrell's work resulted in five US issued patents and five pending applications.
Tracy Higginbotham is the founder of Women TIES, a company dedicated to creating a regional marketplace for women entrepreneurs. Higginbotham has been an entrepreneur for twelve years as President of Five Star Events, a special event management company specializing in the execution, planning and coordination of events for corporations, organizations, and individuals. For nine years, Higginbotham was President of the Women's Business Owners Connections, a networking and support organization for women business owners in Syracuse. She helped grow it from 8 members to 130 members when she stepped down in 2005. Tracy Higginbotham is a graduate of the State University of New York at Oswego where she earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration.
Brent Bell is an assistant professor in the Outdoor Education Program at the University of New Hampshire. His research involves social support and community development, specifically focusing on how students transition from high school to college.
Prior to his position at UNH, Bell had worked with therapeutic adventure programs, been an assistant camp director, been a program director for an adventure travel company, and developed an outdoor leadership program at New England College in Henniker, NH. Bell also spent six years as the Director of the First-Year Outdoor Program (FOP) at Harvard University in Cambridge, MA.
Brent Bell received his PhD in Education from the University of New Hampshire.
John Reinker is General Electric Global Research's hydrogen energy advanced technology leader. He leads GE's hydrogen production, storage/delivery, end-use, and other advanced energy technologies including CO2 technologies and Gen IV nuclear programs. In addition, he is the GE sponsor for the Global Climate and Energy Project at Stanford University.
Prior to his current assignment, John spent 20 years in GE Energy including general management positions in Gas Turbine, Energy Services, and Steam Turbine-Generator Technologies. He held many power generation design-engineering positions and was the steam turbine product line leader within the Power Plants business.
John Reinker received his B.S. in mechanical engineering from Michigan State University and received an M.S. degree in mechanical engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
Wen-fei Uva is a Senior Extension Associate at Cornell University. Her research interest is in market development for horticultural products and sustainability of horticultural businesses. She is currently developing an extension and applied research program on marketing of horticultural products including fruit, vegetable and ornamental horticulture crops. This program is designed to enhance the competitive position of the New York fruit, vegetable, and ornamental horticultural industry through targeted, curriculum-driven educational programs. Wen-fei Uva received her B.S. from National Taiwan University and her M.P.S. and Ph.D. from Cornell University.
Jim Seay is the President of Premier Rides, the preeminent roller coaster designer and manufacturer in the world. Seay was named President of Premier Rides in 1996 after joining the company in 1995 as Executive Vice President of Engineering.
Prior to joining the company, Seay was a project engineer for Hughes Aircraft. He shifted to the amusement ride arena in 1988 and spent the next seven years as an engineering and maintenance executive at Six Flags Theme Parks.
Jim Seay earned a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Cornell University and received his MS in Engineering at California State University, Long Beach.
Sallie L. Krawcheck is the CEO and Co-Founder of Ellevest, a digital advisor for women to be launched in 2016. She is owner and Chair of Ellevate Network. Prior to this she was the president of the Global Wealth & Investment Management division of Bank of America. She has been known as one of the most senior women on Wall Street. Most recently she has been widely published in both social and more traditional media, focusing on Wall Street regulatory reform; she is also advising a number of start-ups. Sallie L. Krawcheck received her undergraduate degree from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and her MBA from Columbia University.
Howard Lindzon is a Canadian author, financial analyst, technical analyst and super angel investor. Lindzon manages a hedge fund, serves as managing partner of the holding company Social Leverage, limited partner at Knight\'s Bridge Capital Partners, and is the co-founder of StockTwits. Howard Lindzon received a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Western Ontario before moving to the United States to attend Arizona State University for a Master of Business Administration.