Kathleen O'Connor is an Associate Professor of Management and Organizations at Cornell University's Johnson School. She is an organizational psychologist who studies negotiation, teamwork, and decision making. Much of her recent research focuses on how negotiations link together over time. One stream of work shows that past negotiation experiences direct negotiators' choice of tactics and their performance in successive negotiations. A second stream investigates how negotiators' reputations affect them and their potential for success at the bargaining table. As part of this research, she has explored how negotiators' confidence in their skills changes as a function of their negotiation successes or failures, and how it affects their tactical decision making and the quality of their deals.
O'Connor's recent projects investigate the development of individual social capital. She applies theories of individual cognition and interpersonal behavior to study the conditions under which people recognize and exploit opportunities for building social capital. She is a member of a team of networks experts from Cornell University whose work is sponsored by the Institute for the Social Sciences.
Her research has been published in such journals as the Journal of Applied Psychology, Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Making, and Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin.
O'Connor joined the faculty at Cornell University in 1997. She has been a member of the faculty at Rice University, and has been a visiting faculty member at Northwestern University, and at the London Business School.
Kathleen O'Connor earned a BS from Cornell University and an AM and PhD in social and organizational psychology from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.
Greg Woodworth and Kelly Coughlin moved their gourmet mail-order bakery, Stony Brook Cookie Company, from Boston to the Finger Lakes region in Geneva, New York. Soon after relocation, the couple was approached by a local farmer about using his butternut squash seeds, which remained from the processing of squash for the farm's ready-to-cook preparation for regional grocery stores.
Working with food scientists from Cornell University at the Food Venture Center, the team worked together to produce an all-natural, 100% expeller pressed butternut squash seed oil. The product debuted in September 2008. It is available in 187 ml and 375 ml bottles, individual or by the case. The non-GMO seeds are roasted in 10-pound batches and pressed with a yield of 20%. The resulting oil is allowed to stand to separate naturally and is then filtered and decanted into retail bottles.
Kelsey Kohler is the CEO of Digital Certainty, LLC. Digital Certainty is a cyber security and forensics company.
Prior to forming Digital Certainty, Kohler served as the Executive Director of the Watervliet Innovation Center, a business accelerator focused on growing a select group of New York's technology ventures.
Kohler also served in business developmnet at GE's Global Research Center and spent eight years with Accenture.
Kelsey Kohler received her undergraduate degree from St. Lawrence University and her MBA from Cornell University.
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.
Colleen Wainwright is a writer-speaker-illuminator who started calling herself "the communicatrix" when she hit three hyphens. She consults one-on-one with solopreneurs about their online marketing presence and creates content for an alarmingly large number of online outlets.
Wainwright spent 10 years as an award-winning TV copywriter at Young & Rubicam crafting ads for brands like Wheaties, Gatorade and Jell-O, and another 10 acting in them as a performer. Wainwright now spends her time teaching other creative souls how to talk about what they do in a way that wins them attention, work and satisfaction.
Colleen Wainwright is a graduate of Cornell University.
Elizabeth Johansen is a Product Designer at IDEO. Her client base includes the consumer and health markets including names like BriteSmile, Reynolds, Becton Dickinson, Alcon, 3Com and several startup companies.
Johansen is also active in the design for social impact domain, nurturing relationships with academia and NGOs while participating in sustainability roundtables in Boston.
Prior to IDEO, Johansen worked with Beckman Laser Institute and then Oregon Medical Laser Center to design and build two patented laboratory tools used in testing lasers for groundbreaking biomedical applications.
Ilene H. Lang is the President of Catalyst, the leading research and advisory organization working with businesses and the professions to build inclusive environments and expand opportunities for women at work. Lang was appointed President in August 2003 after a long and illustrious career in the technology industry.
Lang is broadly recognized as a pioneering female high-tech/Internet executive. She has advised CEOs and entrepreneurs as a board member, coach, and investor in women-led technology companies. As a successful businesswoman, Ms. Lang has brought high energy and corporate savvy to the advancement of women in every sector of the global marketplace.
Among Lang's many accomplishments, she was the founding CEO of AltaVista Internet Software Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Digital Equipment Corporation. AltaVista commercialized the highly popular AltaVista Internet search service and marketed a line of award-winning Internet-based software products for business people. Prior to AltaVista, Lang was Senior Vice President of the Desktop Business Group at Lotus Development Corporation, responsible for the worldwide development and marketing of Lotus's SmartSuite product line, a $500+ million business.
Irene Lang earned an A.B. degree in history and literature from Radcliffe College and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.
Miki Agrawal is half Japanese, half Indian, she has an an identical twin sister named Radha and also a third sister, Yuri, who is less than one year older than them. Miki is French Canadian by birth (grew up in Montreal until she was 18 years old), she speaks 5 languages (fluent in English and French, very proficient in Japanese, and proficient in Hindi and Spanish). Miki played soccer semi-professionally for the NY Magic post college, started out as an investment banker upon graduation (Deutsche Bank), then left to work as a commercial/music video/film production coordinator/manager for three years after that. Her entrepreneurial spirit then kicked in and at 25 years old, she decided to start the process of building the Slice concept. At 26, she opened Slice. She is currently working on developing more SLICE locations in NYC and in other cities as well as building her wholesale side to Slice. She recently launched her pizza kits which will eventually be sold in supermarkets nation-wide. Most recently, Miki Agrawal is a co-founder of the company, Thinx. Miki Agrawal is a graduate of Cornell University.
Sharon L. Allen is Chairman of the Board of Deloitte LLP. As chairman of an organization with nearly $11 billion in annual revenues, Sharon's governance responsibilities include leading the efforts of the board to provide oversight and guidance to the management of Deloitte LLP and its subsidiaries. Sharon's influence and governance responsibilities extend beyond her U.S. leadership roles. She is a member of the global board of directors of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, where she serves as the U.S. representative on the global governance committee and chairs the global risk committee. With 36 years of audit and consulting experience, Sharon works to ensure that Deloitte achieves its vision to be 'the Standard of Excellence,' and oversees the organization's relationships with a number of major multinational clients. Sharon is a member of the Women's Leadership Board at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, and serves on the board of directors of Catalyst Inc., the national board of the YMCA, and the Autry National Center. She also served on the President's Export Council in Washington, D.C. Frequently honored for her contributions to business and community leadership, Sharon has been named to Forbes list of 'the 100 most powerful women in the world' for the past four years. Crain's NY Business cited her as one of the most powerful business women in New York and in 2008, she was once again named by Directorship as 'one of the 100 most influential people in corporate governance.' She received the 'Making A Difference for Women' award from the National Council for Research on Women, has been named the Financial Women's Association's Woman of the Year, received the Work Life Legacy Award from the Families and Work Institute, and earned the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce Distinguished Business Leader Award. Sharon Allen holds a bachelor's degree in accounting from the University of Idaho.