Aaron (Ronnie) Chatterji is an Associate Professor at Duke University's Fuqua School of Business. From 2010-2011, he served as a Senior Economist at the White House Council of Economic Advisors (CEA) where he worked on a wide range of policies relating to entrepreneurship, innovation, infrastructure and economic growth. Chatterji's research and teaching investigate some of the most important forces shaping our global economy and society: entrepreneurship, innovation, and the expanding social mission of business. He is especially interested in the fluid boundaries between government and business, and how public policies interact with the activities of responsible companies, social entrepreneurs, and creative customers. He is a faculty affiliate of the Health Sector Management program, the Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, and the Center for Energy, Development and Global Environment at Duke University. Chatterji has testified as an expert witness at the House Committee on Small Business and the U.S. Department of State. His work has been cited by The New York Times, CNN, The Wall Street Journal, and The Economist, and he was recently profiled in Fortune. He has authored opinion pieces in The Washington Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer and the Raleigh News & Observer and has appeared on television and radio. He is a board member for Durham Communities in Schools and has been an entrepreneurship teacher at a Durham public high school, an advisor for Duke's Program for Entrepreneurs, and a Fellow at the Center for American Progress. Chatterji was awarded an inaugural Junior Faculty Fellowship from the Kauffman Foundation to recognize his work as a leading scholar in entrepreneurship. He also received the Rising Star award from the Aspen Institute for his work on business and public policy. He previously worked as a financial analyst at Goldman Sachs & Company. He received his Ph.D. from the Haas School of Business at the University of California at Berkeley and his B.A. in Economics from Cornell University.
Ipshita Pall is the owner and co-founder of The Indian Milk & Honey Co.
The Indian Milk & Honey Co. delivers consumers chef-crafted yogurt products that apply the art of Indian spice cookery to available in nature ingredients. The company has built a sustainable business that supports small entrepreneurs in the local and global food system.
Previously, Pall was a software engineer who changed careers after attending the Cooking & Hospitality Institute of Chicago. She spent a year honing her skills at Vermilion in Chicago before being brought to New York to join the helm of Vermilion's kitchen in New York as the Chef de Cuisine
Archana Shah is a senior executive director in the emerging markets derivative sales group at Morgan Stanley. She currently acts as co-chair of the New York chapter of Woman Advancing Microfinance (WAM), which is an international organization with 13 chapters worldwide, which supports gender issues and women's empowerment. Shah also supports Equity for Africa (EFA), a UK-based charity that provides capital to small business owners through lease financing in northern Tanzania, and is active within the microfinance community at Morgan Stanley.
Her interest is rooted in her diverse upbringing. She was born in Kenya to Indian parents and raised in Hong Kong and Tanzania. She moved to the United States to attend the University of Pennsylvania, where she received a BS in finance and a B.A in French. She continued on to New York University to receive her master's in economics.
Linda Choong is Senior VP, Global Retail Development for the National Basketball Association.
As senior vice president of the NBA's global retail development group, Linda Choong manages the global multi-channel retail businesses for the NBA, WNBA, and NBA Development League. Choong oversees the strategy and execution for league-branded retail, e-commerce, and direct-to-consumer channels. Her areas of responsibility include merchandising, traditional and digital marketing, operations and international expansion. Choong joined the NBA in 1998 to help establish and open the flagship NBA Store on Fifth Avenue, the first retail store to be owned and operated by a North American professional sports league. Choong has also been responsible for the completion of the league's e-commerce partnerships and has overseen several site launches and redesigns.
In July 2008, Choong oversaw the opening of the NBA Store's first retail locations outside the U.S., with two stores in Beijing, China. She also introduced a new global retail design with a new store in Shanghai, China during the 2010 Shanghai Expo. Choong has held several positions at the NBA, including vice president of retail, senior director of retail, and director of e-commerce business operations.
Prior to joining the NBA, Choong was the director of planning at A|X Armani Exchange, where she was responsible for merchandise planning for the U.S. business and served as the primary lead for four Asian buying offices. Before that, she held various planning positions at Ann Taylor.
Choong received a bachelor's degree in design and environmental analysis from Cornell University.
Sheryl WuDunn is a Chinese American author, lecturer and businesswoman who was the first Asian-American to win a Pulitzer Prize. A specialist in energy and alternative energy issues, she has also been a private wealth advisor with Goldman Sachs and was previously a journalist and editor for The New York Times. At the Times, she ran the Times' coverage of global energy, alternative energy, foreign technology and foreign industry; previously, she was anchor of The New York Times Page One, a nightly program of the next day's stories in the Times. She also has worked in The New York Times Beijing and Tokyo bureaus, and speaks Chinese and Japanese. She won the Pulitzer Prize with her husband Nicholas D. Kristof for her reporting from Beijing about the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989. WuDunn and Kristof were the first married couple ever to receive a Pulitzer for journalism. WuDunn has co-authored two best-sellers with her husband, China Wakes: The Struggle for the Soul of a Rising Power and Thunder from the East: Portrait of a Rising Asia. These are non-fiction Asian studies books which examine the cultural, social, and political situation of East Asia largely through interviews and personal experiences. Her next book, also co-written with Kristof, will be published by Knopf in September 2009. It is titled: Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide.Sheryl WuDunn attended Cornell University, graduating with a B.A. in European History in 1981. She earned her M.B.A. from Harvard Business School and M.P.A. from Princeton's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. WuDunn currently serves as a trustee for Cornell University.
Canice Chan is an attorney with close to 20 years experience in transactional matters, representing North American, European, Chinese, and other Asian companies in areas such as mergers and acquisitions, cross-border investments, joint ventures, private placements, technology transfer, environmental compliance, and financing. He started his legal career in California and has since practiced in Paris, Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Beijing.
Chan has particular experience with the energy sector in China, which he gained during his tenure as legal counsel of the Shell Companies in Greater China where he was involved in oil and gas projects. This included establishing a number of Shell China's oil product ventures such as lubricant blending plants, bitumen processing plants, retail service stations, fuel throughputting, and LPG terminals as well as several petrochemical plants.
While practicing in Paris with a French law firm, he advised French clients involved in China's first nuclear power plant project in Daya Bay, Guangdong Province. He later advised Hydro Quebec in the divestment of their equity interests in coal-fired and hydroelectric power plants in China.
Canice Chan is a member of the State Bar of California and the Paris Bar. He has worked in mainland China for more than 10 years and is fluent in Chinese (Mandarin and Cantonese), French and English.
Canice Chan received his law degree from University of the Pacific and his LL.M. from Columbia University.
Wen-fei Uva is a Senior Extension Associate at Cornell University. Her research interest is in market development for horticultural products and sustainability of horticultural businesses. She is currently developing an extension and applied research program on marketing of horticultural products including fruit, vegetable and ornamental horticulture crops. This program is designed to enhance the competitive position of the New York fruit, vegetable, and ornamental horticultural industry through targeted, curriculum-driven educational programs. Wen-fei Uva received her B.S. from National Taiwan University and her M.P.S. and Ph.D. from Cornell University.
Steve is the President and CEO of Epic Trip. Previously, he had worked for THR Consulting Barcelona, hotel brands St. Regis and Wyndham International. Steve has served honorably in the United States Marine Corps where he was deployed throughout the Middle East and Asia .
Steve earned an AA in Humanities from Barstow College and a BS in Hotel Administration from Cornell University 's School of Hotel Administration.
Dr. Sundaresan Jayaraman is a Professor of Textile Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, Georgia. Most recently, his group's research has resulted in the realization of the world's first "Wearable Motherboard" or Smart Shirt. This invention led to the startup of the company, SensaTex, in which he serves as Chairman.
Dr. Sundaresan Jayaraman received his Ph.D. degree from North Carolina State University, in 1984, and the M.Tech and B.Tech degrees from the University of Madras, India, in 1978 and 1976, respectively.