Anne Loehr is a partner in Riverstone Endeavors. Loehr has owned and managed eco-friendly hotels and safari companies in Kenya for over 15 years. While managing 500 employees there, Loehr could not find seasoned trainers to teach leadership, coaching, and teambuilding skills. She began to study these skills herself, and after selling her properties she returned to the United States to specialize in executive coaching and leadership development.
Loehr has also co-founded Safaris for the Soul, leadership retreats that help senior managers find their organizational values and purpose. These trips take place around the world and have been featured in The Washingtonian, Business Traveler and Body+Soul. Loehr's award-winning book "A Manager's Guide to Coaching: Simple and Effective Ways to Get the Best Out of Your Employees," was published by the American Management Association in 2008. Her work has been covered in Newsweek International, National Geographic Traveler, CNN Money, Sunday Times (UK), Guardian (UK) and other international media.
Anne Loehr is a graduate of Cornell Universityâ€[TM]s School of Hotel Administration.
Zach Shulman is a Senior Lecturer at Cornell University. He teaches courses on venture capital and law for high-growth businesses. He also serves as general counsel and faculty advisor to BR Ventures and BR Incubator, both Johnson School student-run organizations that provide business consulting services and investment funds. Shulman is also currently a partner at Cayuga Venture Fund, a venture capital firm located in Ithaca, NY.
Before coming to the Johnson School in 2002, Shulman served as general counsel and chief investor relations officer of Spike Broadband Systems, where he was responsible for general oversight of Spike's legal function, including: negotiating and closing strategic and business relationships; strategizing, negotiating and closing fund-raising efforts; investor relations; and various human resource matters. While at Spike, Shulman negotiated and closed over $80 million in venture capital financing.
Prior to joining Spike, Shulman was an associate at the law firm of Harris Beach in Ithaca, New York. At Harris Beach, Shulman focused his practice on representing private and public corporations in a wide range of capacities, including equity financing via private placements and venture capital, bank financing, mergers and acquisitions, and the establishment of corporate governance policies, including advising boards of directors and executive management.
Before Harris Beach, Shulman was an associate at Ropes & Gray in Boston, Massachusetts, where he represented predominantly public companies in equity and debt offerings, commercial lending, Securities and Exchange Commission compliance, mergers and acquisitions, and executive compensation matters.
Zach Shulman earned a bachelor of science from the Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations and graduated from Cornell University Law School.
Fábio Pagani is director of ActMinds, a global Information Technology (IT) services provider led by a Brazilian team of highly qualified and certified professionals (CMMI-5 and PMI). He has 20 years of work experience in the IT sector.
As an entrepreneur, Pagani founded three companies devoted to software development for the private and public sector. Since 1995, he has held several senior positions (i.e. Director and Head of Division) at federal and independent organizations such as SOFTEX Society with the mandate of developing, building excellence, and promoting the Brazilian software sector within the country and abroad.
Fábio Pagani holds a BS in Computer Sciences from UNICAMP in Brazil and has participated in international training at the International Institute for Management Development (Switzerland) and Nova Southeastern University in Florida.
Antonio Francisco Ferreira Neto is partner and director of Unigen Tecnologia do DNA Ltda., a firm devoted to providing services such as DNA human parenthood diagnosis and DNA sexing and molecular-based pathogen identification for fowls and birds, and producing kits for biological sample collection for veterinary exams. Engene, a spin-off of Unigen is devoted to developing vaccines based on recombinant DNA.
In 1991 while in college, Ferreira Neto founded with his colleagues the first undergraduate student-directed biology firm in Brazil. Nowadays these firms are fairly common in most large universities around the country. Before starting Unigen, Ferreira Neto worked for 3 years as a commercial representative for large multinational pharmaceutical companies. Unigen materializes the dreams of its owners of providing innovative market-oriented services and professional expertise in biology outside the traditional field of academic research and teaching Unigen's mission statement is anchored in providing high standards in regards to quality of services and products, sharing a corporate culture that values human character and professional ethics. Unigen is part of the Economy of Communion (EdC) movement (http://www.edc-online.org/)
Antonio Francisco Ferreira Neto holds a BS in Biology and Medical Biology from Unicamp and a specialization in Molecular Biology and Genetic Engineering from CBMEC-Unicamp, both in Brazil.
Marcus Buckingham is a British motivational speaker, trainer, public leader, researcher and author. He has trained over 2 million people through his books, seminars and lectures.
Buckingham, who is a member of the Secretary of State's Advisory Committee on Leadership and Management; started as a senior researcher with The Gallup Organization, and helped to develop the Strengths-based approach to management that is now gaining wider implementation.
Strengths Management suggests that any job should be tailored to fit the person instead of the other way around. Buckingham has authored and/or co-authored several books on the subject including "First, Break All the Rules", "Now, Discover Your Strengths", and "The One Thing You Need to Know". He also helped create the "StrengthsFinder" assessment tool that assists individuals in discovering their own strengths.
In 2007, Buckingham set out on a national bus tour taking the Strengths Movement across America. Buckingham was featured in the PBS Special, "Go Put Your Strengths To Work" and on the Today Show.
Marcus Buckingham graduated from Cambridge University in 1987 with a master's degree in Social and Political Science.
Melissa C. Thomas-Hunt is an Associate Professor of Management and Organizations at the Johnson School at Cornell University. Professor Thomas-Hunt's research activities focus on conflict management, negotiation, and team management processes. Her current research examines the contribution of expertise within diverse groups and the effects of relationships on negotiation processes and outcomes. Her publications have appeared in Research on Organizational Behavior, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, Journal of Social Justice Research, and Research on Managing Groups and Teams. Professor Thomas-Hunt comes to the Johnson School from a position as assistant professor at the Olin School of Business, Washington University. Prior to attending graduate school, she worked as an account marketing representative at IBM. Melissa Thomas-Hunt received her master's and doctoral degrees from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and her undergraduate degree in chemical engineering from Princeton University.
Rosalind Resnick, a former business and computer journalist who built her Internet marketing company, NetCreations, Inc., from a two-person home-based startup to a public company that generated $58 million in sales, is the Founder and CEO of Axxess Business Centers, Inc., which provides strategic consulting and assistance in business plan development for startups and emerging businesses. Resnick co-founded NetCreations in March 1995 and served as the company's CEO and President until December 2001, pioneering the concept of 100% Opt-In email marketing in 1996 and spearheading the company's successful IPO in 1999. In 1994, Resnick co-authored The Internet Business Guide and, from 1994 to 1997, served as the editor and publisher of Interactive Publishing Alert, a semi-monthly newsletter tracking trends and developments in online publishing and advertising. Resnick began her career in the newspaper industry in 1980 at The Baltimore Sun and worked as a business writer at The Miami Herald from 1984 to 1989. Her articles about entrepreneurship and small business regularly appear in Entrepreneur.com. Rosalind Resnick received B.A. and M.A. degrees in History from The Johns Hopkins University.
Lena Kannappan is the Founder, President & CEO of FuGen Solutions, an independent provider of managed identity services.
Lena Kannappan has held both senior technical and managerial roles in various software industry segments including Digital Identity Management systems, Telecommunications Convergence services and applications, and E-Commerce applications.
Before founding FuGen Solutions, Kannappan was the Director for Identity and Messaging group at France Telecom R&D driving the efforts around Address Book, IM, Presence, SMS, Geo Location services and Social Networking looking at subscriber identity and privacy related issues. Kannappan chaired multiple industry standards committees including Liberty Alliance and Open Mobile Alliance in the areas of Federated Identity Management and Web Services Security. Prior to France Telecom, Kannappan was the Technology Strategist at Oblix (acquired by Oracle) where he worked with number of enterprise vendors to bring the architecture integration models including the first enterprise SSO integration for Siebel systems.
Lena Kannappan holds a Masters in Electrical Engineering from Anna University, Chennai, India and Bachelors in Electronics and Instrumentation from Annamalai University, Chidambaram, India.
Jay H. Shah currently serves as Hersha Hospitality Trust's Chief Executive Officer and as a member of its Board of Trustees. Shah is involved in all areas of the business with a particular emphasis on investor relations, capital transactions and acquisitions.
Previously, Shah served the Company as President and Chief Operating Officer and prior to that he served as the Managing Director of the Hersha Group, a private affiliate of Hersha Hospitality Trust that provides hotel management, development and construction management services to hotel owners.
Prior to joining the Hersha organization, Shah was principal in the law firm of Shah & Byler, LLP, a real estate and construction specialty practice, which he founded. Shah was previously a consultant with Coopers & Lybrand LLP, a legislative assistant to the late Senator John Heinz and worked with the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office.
Jay Shah received a Bachelor of Science degree for the Cornell University School of Hotel Administration, a Law degree from the Temple University School of Law and an M.B.A. from the Fox School of Business at Temple University.