For more than 30 years, Howard Glickberg has led Fairway Market in achieving the high standard of excellence established when his grandfather founded the market before World War II. Howard came back to the family business in 1974 when it was clear that Fairway was suffering under absentee management.
Howard and his dedicated team spent the next 20 years adding specialty food items, expanding the space, and building Fairway Market into a New York City icon.
He has been named Entrepreneur of the Year from Deloitte & Touche and Business of the Year by the Westside Chamber of Commerce. With his partners, he was named to the Top 50 Influential Businessmen in NYC by Crain's in 1997.
William Weldon is Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Johnson & Johnson and is the sixth Chairman in Johnson & Johnson's over one-hundred year history.
Weldon joined J&J as a sales representative for the McNeil Pharameutical division in 1971 and eventually became the head of J&J's Ethicon Endo-Surgery business in 1992. He became the head of J&J's pharmaceutical operations in 1998 and then became J&J's CEO in 2002. As CEO, Weldon engineered some of the largest acquisitions in J&J's history including the purchase of ALZA and Pfizer's consumer-health product line.
William Weldon received a BA in Biology from Quinnipiac University.
Wayne Meichner is President of Polo Ralph Lauren Retail Corporation. He oversees all aspects of the Ralph Lauren stores in the U.S. and Europe. Previously, he spent 23 years at Saks Fifth Avenue in numerous capacities, including the Executive Vice President of merchandising.
Wayne Meichner received his undergraduate degree from Cornell University.
Mike Leven is Vice Chairman of the Atlanta-based Marcus Foundation, where he has been a trustee and a member of the board of The Marcus Institute and Georgia Aquarium since 2003. The Marcus Foundation was founded by Bernie Marcus, co-founder of Home Depot.
Leven was formerly President and CEO of US Franchise Systems, Inc. (USFS), the company he founded in 1995 which franchises the Microtel Inns & Suites and Hawthorn Suites hotel brands. Under Leven's tenure, USFS gained national recognition as a fair franchisor, both customer and franchisee-oriented. Prior to that, he was president and COO of Holiday Inn Worldwide. From 1985 to 1990, he was president of Days Inn of America, where he led initiatives to hire older workers, people with disabilities and the homeless, and was recognized by AARP as Outstanding Employer. He also served as president of Americana Hotels.
Mike Leven holds a Bachelor of Arts from Tufts University and Master of Science from Boston University.
Robert Frank is a Professor of Economics at Cornell University's Johnson School. In addition, Frank is a monthly contributor to the "Economic Scene" column in The New York Times.
Until 2001, he was the Goldwin Smith Professor of Economics, Ethics, and Public Policy in Cornell's College of Arts and Sciences. He has also served as a Peace Corps volunteer in rural Nepal, chief economist for the Civil Aeronautics Board, fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, and was Professor of American Civilization at l'Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales in Paris.
Frank's books include Choosing the Right Pond, Passions within Reason, Microeconomics and Behavior, Luxury Fever, and What Price the Moral High Ground? The Winner-Take-All Society, co-authored with Philip Cook, was named a Notable Book of the Year by The New York Times, and was included in Business Week's list of the ten best books for 1995.
Frank holds a BS in mathematics from the Georgia Institute of Technology, an MA in statistics from UC Berkeley and a PhD in economics, also from UC Berkeley.
Jeff Parker has an extensive history of success in both entrepreneurship and financial services that he brings to the table as founder and CEO of CCBN. He is also the founder and managing director of Private Equity Investments, a venture capital firm focusing on start-up and early stage companies. As the creator and CEO of several successful financial service companies over the past fifteen years, Jeff brings an operating perspective to the companies in which he invests, as well as a wealth of financial expertise and an extended network of domestic and international business contacts. In 1980, Jeff founded Technical Data Corporation which he subsequently sold in 1986 to Canadian publishing giant Thomson Corporation. In 1982, he became Chairman and CEO of Business Research Corporation, and in 1983 founded First Call Corporation. Under his leadership, Thomson Financial Services (TFS), as the group is now known, became a major provider of proprietary financial information to the investment and corporate communities. TFS currently serves over 75,000 institutional clients worldwide, and has annual revenues in excess of $750 million. Prior to his association with TFS, Jeff served as Vice President and Senior Fixed Income Portfolio Manager at Fidelity Investments in Boston. He has also held management positions at Smith, Barney, Loeb Rhoads, and A.G. Becker. Jeff is a graduate of Cornell University from which he received a Bachelor of Engineering degree in 1965, a Master of Engineering in 1966 and a Master of Business degree in 1970.
Robert Felton co-founded the San Francisco-based Indus in 1988 as a provider of application software packages for customers in the electric utilities, petrochemical, heavy manufacturing, transportation and packaged goods industries. The company grew rapidly and, in 1993, was ranked third in Inc. magazine's list of the 500 fastest-growing privately held companies. As CEO, Felton played a key role in preparing the company's initial public offering, which occurred in February 1996. During this critical period, Felton kept all 450 employees updated on the IPO, sharing with them confidential information. Felton is a firm believer in open lines of communication in all levels of the corporation. To that end, Indus employees regularly post work summaries on an electronic bulletin board where colleagues may read and offer comments on various projects. Felton's belief that open employee communication offers a vital competitive advantage to Indus was the subject of a column in the Jan. 10 issue of The Wall Street Journal. Felton earned a Bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from Cornell University in 1961 and a Master's degree in nuclear engineering from the University of Washington in 1971.
Alan Pike teaches management writing and oral communication at the Johnson School. He has taught writing and other communications courses at various schools throughout Cornell, at Syracuse University, and has consulted with corporations on management communications. Professor Pike also directs the outdoor leadership/team development program and has presented papers on communications and leadership issues. Note: Alan Pike, 65, a senior lecturer in communication who taught generations of business leaders at Cornell University's Johnson Graduate School of Management, died of heart failure Jan. 7, 2006 in his Ithaca home.
Since graduating from college, Steve Banjamin has had three careers and is now inventing his fourth. From 1982 to 1988 he worked in the Air Freight industry, as Vice President Strategic Planning for Burlington Air Express. The best part of that job was designing a hub and spoke system, and buying the cargo airplanes needed to support that system. Much of that original design is still in place including several of the airplanes Steve purchased more than 15 years ago. In 1988 Steve and his wife, Sheri, started The Benjamin Group Inc., a public relations agency working with high technology companies. Initially the company started in Silicon Valley, but eventually spread to Orange County, San Francisco and Portland, Oregon as well. By the time the firm was sold in July 1999 it employed 115 people. Steve moved out of the company in July 2002 after the purchase agreement was complete. Steve's wife still remains with purchasing company (Weber Shandwick) as the head of their technology practice. In 1992, concurrent with being CFO of Benjamin Group, Steve got into the Customer Loyalty consulting business in partnership with Burke Inc., a Cincinnati-based market research firm. Steve was able to develop and manage significant relationships with key high tech companies like Sun Microsystems and Applied Materials. Starting in July 2002 Steve decided he wanted to work less and spend more time with his children (Megan 14.5 and Cody 12.5). He's been busy doing the things most dads wish they could do but often don't have time for. In addition to spending time with his kids, Steve is a trustee for Hillbrook School (a k through 8 school), and is helping the school raise $6.0 million to rebuild the campus. Steve Benjamin holds a Bachelors and Masters of Engineering as well as an MBA from Cornell University.