Ashleigh Smith is the founder of Make It Happen. The mission of Make It Happen (MIH) is to provide educational and therapeutic mateirals for children with autism and special needs.
Ashleigh Smith is expected to graduate Cornell University in 2007.
Graham Hill is a social entrepreneur and founder of TreeHugger. TreeHugger is the leading media outlet dedicated to driving sustainability mainstream.
Hill's past businesses include forays into fashion, web-development, viral email and plant-based air filters. In 1995, with his cousin, he started and grew the web-developer, SiteWerks, to 60 people doing work for large companies such as Microsoft and sold it to a New York company in 1998. Additionally, he owns a product business that sells a New York souvenir he designed a few years ago into 150 stores including MOMA.
Graham Hill has a Bachelor of Architecture with distinction from Carleton University in Ottawa and did advanced studies in Industrial Design at E.C.I.A.D, Vancouver.
Wendy Brawer is Green Map System's Founder and Director. She has been an eco-designer, public educator and consultant since 1990. Brawer created the first Green Apple Map of New York City in 1992 and published the 5th citywide edition in 2006. Wendy initiated the global Green Map System in 1995 and leads its development. She is founder of a small eco-design firm, Modern World Design, focused on energy generation and waste reduction. She has taught at NYU, Cooper Union and presented at more than 25 universities and conferences. Recognition includes Woman of Earth/Terre de Femmes (Yves Rocher Foundation 2005), Designer in Residence, (Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum 1997) and a Sea Change Award (Gaea Foundation 2003). To learn more about Wendy Brawer, please visit her website.
The Currie Farm is a partnership among 3 brothers; John Currie Jr., Nathan Currie and H. Thomas Currie. John Currie, the eldest brother, has been managing the farm since 1982 after graduating from high school.
As of 1982, the farm's milking herd numbered 120. Today the farm milks 700 cows, raises 800 youngstock and crops 1500 acres to support them.
The farm's mission is to produce high quality forages for their animals since the Curries strongly believe everything else will fall into place behind that. On this family farm the partners' children are also an integral part of the farm through their involvement in chores and showing their cattle.
Laurie Halloran is the President and Founder of Halloran Consulting Group.
During her 18 years in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry, Halloran has achieved increasing levels of responsibility in biopharmaceutical management and education--including administration, product development and international operations. She established and developed Worldwide Training capabilities within Clinical Operations at PAREXEL International Corporation during the 10 years of the company's rapid growth into a leading international Contract Research Organization. In addition, she also established clinical operations at OXiGENE, a virtual pharmaceutical company. and led the clinical management the company, ultimately successfully partnering with an international pharmaceutical company to continue the program. She established US clinical operations and data management at Antigenics and expanded the clinical operations to manage numerous development programs in all phases of research, including large global phase III programs in oncology. Under her leadership, the team fully integrated the clinical research components of two corporate acquisitions. She now works with emerging companies ensuring their clinical research programs start and run effectively and efficiently. She is also sought for her expertise and guidance in creating and improving organizational effectiveness by larger biopharmaceutical clients.
John Santini is an entrepreneur and scientist with over a decade of industrial and academic experience in drug delivery. He has given numerous invited lectures on the use of microtechnology in healthcare and has authored over 60 issued/pending patents and several technical papers. In 2002, Dr. Santini was honored by Technology Review Magazine as one of the Top 100 Young Innovators in the world. He is also a member of the Governing Council of the MEMS Industry Group, a national trade organization dedicated to the advancement and commercialization of MEMS technology in the United States.
Prior to founding MicroCHIPS, he obtained his PhD in chemical engineering from MIT as a National Science Foundation Fellow. Dr. Santini also graduated with a BSE in chemical engineering from the University of Michigan.
Richard Ramko is a partner in Ernst & Young's South Florida practice, primarily serving publicly-held and emerging growth companies in the Health Sciences, Biotech and Technology industries.
Ramko has extensive experience serving large, publicly-held companies as well as newly formed start-ups and venture-backed enterprises. Richard has 15 years of experience, including 13 years in public accounting and 2 years in executive level financial positions in private industry and is a certified public accountant in Florida and Tennessee. Some of his current clients include Andrx Corporation, Nabi Biopharmaceuticals, Stiefel Laboratories and SFBC International.
Paul E. McManus is the Director of Portfolio Company Executive Resources at Millennia Partners. Paul works closely with portfolio companies on team development issues, including executive recruiting, compensation planning, and organizational design and development. He has significant experience in executive search for emerging, high-growth technology companies and has close working relationships with the leading executive search firms.
Prior to joining Millennia, Paul spent six years conducting executive level search assignments for high-tech companies as President of his own firm and as Vice President with Aubin International. Previously, Paul spent four years as founder and Managing Director of the Bell-Mason Group, a management consulting firm, serving venture capital firms and their portfolio companies. Prior to Bell-Mason, Paul spent fifteen years at Digital Equipment Corporation in various engineering, product management, and new venture development roles.
Paul McManus holds a B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering Technology from Wentworth Institute of Technology and an MBA from Boston University.
Susan Ward is the founder and CSO of ThoughtLynx, a start-up software company providing dynamic knowledge content applications to the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries. Previously, Ward was EVP at Infinity Pharmaceuticals and Senior Vice President of Strategy and Productivity at Millenium Pharmaceutical, Inc. She started her professional career at Sterling Drug where she held a number of positions of increasing responsibility before joining Wyeth Research as head of their UK facility, and subsequently became VP Project and Portfolio Management, responsible for Wyeth's drug development portfolio. Susan Ward earned her Bachelors, Masters and PhD degrees in Pharmacology from the University of Manchester, UK. and was a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Minnesota.