<p>Kevin Knight graduated from the Johnson School with an MBA in 2010. Before coming to the Johnson School, Kevin worked for two years as a Mechanical Engineer with Westinghouse Electric in their Nuclear Service Division, and then spent four years as a Consultant with Duff & Phelps, LLC in their Valuations Advisory Services practice. After graduating, Kevin joined the GE Energy Renewable Energy Leadership Program and is currently working on the wind services business.</p>
<p>Ryan Legg came to the Johnson School with an interest in entrepreneurship and the clean technology industry. Prior to joining the MBA program, he worked as a program manager at the Center for Sustainable Global Enterprise to build programs to help companies assess and capitalize on new market opportunities in renewable energy. His experience includes providing recommendations for investment in biomass energy, and a competitive analysis of the carbon markets for emissions certification and trading. After graduating in May 2010, Ryan joined the GE energy team as part of the Renewable Energy Leadership Program and is currently working on their wind energy business.</p>
Michael Belkin is the CEO and Co-founder of Distinc.tt. Distinc.tt is a LGBT social app. Michael Belkin received his undergraduate degree from Cornell University and his MBA from Harvard University.
David Weinstein is a Co-Founder at HomeKeepr, a home maintenance reminder/vendor directory app. In addition to HomeKeepr, Mr. Weinstein is an investor and/or consultant in several industries including commercial real estate, web start-ups, and alternative energy. His CRE experience is concentrated in multi-family and hotels on the east coast. Alternative energy project including LNG for transportation and distributed GTL. David Weinstein received his undergraduate degree and MBA from Cornell University.
Adam Hanina is CEO and co-founder of AiCure. He has been a strategist in healthcare software delivery for over fifteen years and holds over a dozen patents in his name. Prior to AiCure, he helped further develop Cerner Corporation\'s European strategy and was a Visiting Fellow of eHealth at Imperial College in London, UK. Mr. Hanina has spoken extensively on the topic of healthcare innovation and has acted as a subject-matter expert on medication adherence technologies for the National Institutes of Health (NIH). He is currently a principal investigator for multiple NIH innovation grants. He holds an MBA from the Wharton School of Business and an undergraduate degree from Brown University.
Michael Polk joined Newell Rubbermaid as President and Chief Executive Officer in July 2011. Previously, Mike was President of Global Foods, Home and Personal Care at Unilever, where he was responsible for the development, innovation and marketing of Unilever\'s entire 64 billion dollar portfolio of categories and brands. During eight years at Unilever, he is credited with transforming the company’s business in the Americas, sharpening Unilever’s global portfolio strategy, and creating a more competitive, faster-growing, innovation-driven organization. He was a member of the Unilever Executive Board from 2007-2011. Earlier, Mike spent 16 years at Kraft Foods serving as President, Asia Pacific Region, Kraft Foods International and President, Nabisco Biscuit & Snacks, Kraft Foods North America. In both positions, he served on Kraft’s Management Committee. Prior to Kraft, Mike spent three years at Procter & Gamble working in manufacturing and research & development in the Paper Products Division. He has a B.S. in operations research and industrial engineering from Cornell University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Jay Walker is one of America's best-known inventors and entrepreneurs and is one of a dozen or so living inventors worldwide to hold 200 patents in multiple fields.
Walker, and a team at Walker Digital, LLC, his invention laboratory, created the central ideas behind priceline.com, the groundbreaking "name-your-own-price" company for airline tickets and hotel rooms.
Walker has also created a number of other successful businesses, including New Sub Services (now named Synapse) a company he co-founded and that revolutionized the magazine subscription industry and was recently sold to AOL Time Warner for $600 million. Walker also co-founded Target Communications, a conference and publishing company which was sold to Primedia in 2000.
Mr. Walker is currently chairman of Walker Digital, LLC, a Stamford, Conn.-based laboratory that invents entirely new ways for businesses to operate and serve consumers. Walker Digital is not a consultancy, but a privately funded active research laboratory that use long-term interdisciplinary invention teams to create solutions in the same manner and style as the original Edison laboratory. Successful inventions are licensed to industry or used as the core intellectual property of innovative startups for which the laboratory provides both personnel and funding. To date, Walker Digital has invented over 600 proprietary business methods addressing dozens of significant business problems in a wide range of industries such as travel, data security, retail, automotive, restaurants, groceries, financial services, gaming and entertainment.
Walker's inventions and innovations have been widely recognized. He has twice been recognized by the editors of TIME magazine as one of the 50 most influential business leaders in the digital age. Business Week selected Jay as one of its 25 Internet pioneers most responsible for "changing the competitive landscape of almost every industry in the world." Newsweek named him as one of three executives at the forefront of the Internet commerce revolution.
Walker and his wife have two children and live in Connecticut. He holds a B.S. degree in Industrial Relations from Cornell University.
Robert Waldman is Managing Director & Head of Corporate Bond Research at Citigroup. He has worked at Citigroup for the past 20 years. Prior to that role, he worked at Standard & Poor's. He also worked in criminal law while serving in the Marine Corps.
Robert Waldman is a graduate of CUNY City College of New York. He also holds a law degree.
Steve Buckley is a senior audit partner with almost 30 years of experience working with fast-growing, high technology clients, including many publicly traded companies. As Director of the New England Life Sciences Industry Practice, he is one of dozen partners in the U.S. who are responsible for coordinating Ernst & Young's services to companies in the biopharmaceutical and medical device industries. He is also the former East Region Director of the High Technology Practice for Ernst & Young. Steve has worked with a variety of U.S. life sciences companies that have expanded internationally and with foreign companies that have opened operations in the U.S. As an advisor, he has helped clients anticipate the financial, legal, and cultural problems of doing business overseas and has direct working relationships with some 20 Ernst & Young offices internationally.
Steve is very knowledgeable in SEC accounting and reporting issues, having been responsible for more than 20 IPOs and numerous tender offerings, in addition to first-hand experience with presentations to the Office of the Chief Accountant of the SEC. He has an in-depth knowledge of the issues surrounding deal structuring, financial reporting, and monitoring of strategic investments. Steve has extensive experience in financing alternatives, as well as strategic transactions and alliances that are so prevalent in the life sciences industry. Steve is an active member of the Massachusetts community, both locally and statewide, and has led a number of governmental and charitable initiatives in the markets that we serve. He is a member of the American Institute of CPAs and the Massachusetts Society of CPAs. Additionally, Steve was a member of Governor Weld's Governors' Council on Economic Growth & Technology.