John Casella has served as Chief Executive Officer of Casella Waste Systems since 1993. He also served as president of the company from 1993 to 2001. In addition, casella has been Chairman of the Board of Directors of Casella Waste Management since 1977.
Casella is also an executive officer and director of Casella Construction, Inc., a company owned by Mr. Casella and Douglas R. Casella, which specializes in general contracting, soil excavation and related heavy equipment work.
John Casella holds an Associate of Science in Business Management from Bryant & Stratton University and a Bachelor of Science in Business Education from Castleton State College.
Niel Golightly is the Director or Sustainable Business Strategies for Ford Motor Company. He was appointed to the position in September, 2004. In this role, he is responsible for promoting and coordinating environmental and social product, marketing, policy and communication strategies for the company.
Prior to this appointment, Golightly was Vice President of Communications and Public Affairs for Ford of Europe and oversaw communications and Public Affairs matters in more than 40 European countries. He was appointed to the position in December 2001.
Golightly joined Ford Motor Company in 1994 and has held a number of Ford public affairs positions in Export Operations, with International Public Affairs and Visteon, and with the Chairman's Office.
Niel Golightly received a BA in liberal arts from Cornell University and also studied briefly at the University of Konstanz in Germany. He also served 13 years on active duty with the U.S. Navy.
James Dicke II is Chairman and CEO of Crown Equipment Corporation which, under his leadership, has become the largest manufacturer of forklift trucks in the United States and the fifth-largest in the world.
Dicke also has served on the Board of Directors of the Smithsonian American Art Museum Commissioners, the Anderson-Cooke Air Force Museum Foundation, the Dayton Power and Light Company, the National Museum of American Art, the Advisory Committee for the Arts at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Arts, and the Bicycle Museum of America. Appointed by President George W. Bush, he also serves on the President's Export Council.
Jim Dicke is a graduate Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas.
Jim Seay is the President of Premier Rides, the preeminent roller coaster designer and manufacturer in the world. Seay was named President of Premier Rides in 1996 after joining the company in 1995 as Executive Vice President of Engineering.
Prior to joining the company, Seay was a project engineer for Hughes Aircraft. He shifted to the amusement ride arena in 1988 and spent the next seven years as an engineering and maintenance executive at Six Flags Theme Parks.
Jim Seay earned a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Cornell University and received his MS in Engineering at California State University, Long Beach.
John Crump is the Managing Director of the International Food Network.
Prior to his involvement with the International Food Network, Crump worked for General Foods and Lipton (part of the Unilever Organization)
John Crump received his Bachelor's degree in Food Science from Cornell University and his MBA from Pace University.
Nancy Robbins is the founder and co-owner of Old McDonald's Farm. Located in the 1000 Islands region of New York, Old McDonald's Farm focuses on education and agri-entertainment. The operation has been hosting school children and families at the 1200 acre working dairy and crop farm since 1986.
Liz Walker co-founded and has directed EcoVillage at Ithaca since its inception in 1991, and has lived there with her family since the first buildings were completed. She has worked on all aspects of the community's development, and has written and lectured widely on the topic.
Mark Kuperman is co-founder of Johnny Applestix.
Kuperman graduated from Northwestern University in three years with a degree in economics and statistics before going to the California Culinary Academy in San Francisco and apprenticing in restaurants in France and Italy.
Kuperman also holds a Master's degree from Cornell University's School of Hotel Administration.
Tony Dellamano, a former baseball player with the Texas Rangers organization, came to COrnell Universiy's Hotel School for his Master's degree to learn the corporate side of the restaurant business. He already knew some of its operations: after earning a managerial economics degree from the University of California, Davis, he had been a server, floor manager, and financial consultant for high-end restaurants in San Diego.
At Cornell, he discovered entrepreneurship. He and classmate Mark Kuperman created a fast-food snack that they called Johnny Applestix. They submitted the idea to the Big Red Venture Fund, a campus-wide competition sponsored by the Johnson Graduate School of Management, and they won the first prize of $10,000. With that seed money and valuable contacts made while attending Cornell, they raised the necessary capital to launch the business at three locations in northeast Ohio.
Now, the partners are involved in every aspect of the startup, with Dellamano concentrating on building the brand - to make Johnny Applstix the fast food of choice in malls across America.