Lloyd has been an entrepreneur whose main business was a contract clinical research company for pharma companies. He subsequently sold it to a Fortune 500 company. Lloyd previously co-founded a dermatology drug development company, held consumer marketing positions at Proctor & Gamble and Johnson & Johnson, and then moved to pharmaceuticals at Schering-Plough. While at Schering, he was a main player in the development of Claritin, which he personally named.
For the past 2 years, Lloyd has been an angel investor. He earned his MBA from Harvard Business School and BA (economics) from McGill University.

Born in Ireland, David started his career as a headhunter in London in 1985 and, after joining the software company IMI Computing in 1988, transferred with them to the US in 1990. David also serves as chairman of Empire Messaging, Inc., which he founded in 1993, which provides enterprise messaging solutions. David has co-founded a number of successful companies including Healthology, Inc., a Health media company later acquired by iVillage/NBC, Acronym Media, a full-service search engine marketing firm and R2R Recycling, LLC, a company processing roofing scrap. David is single, an avid snowboarder, a tenor in the Choral Society at Grace Church, and a part owner of the historic John J. Harvey, a working, restored fireboat in New York City Harbor.

Anita Brearton is a marketing executive with more than 28 years working in high technology. Ms. Brearton served as vice president of corporate marketing at Sycamore Networks, where she took the company from its infancy through its highly successful IPO to become one of the leading companies in the Intelligent Optical Networking market. Prior to Sycamore, Ms. Brearton held senior marketing management positions with Cascade Communications, Artel Video Systems, and General DataComm. She currently works with technology startup companies as a marketing and strategy consultant. In this capacity Ms. Brearton has worked with A123 Systems, Airvana, Altruik, Azuki Systems and others. Anita serves on the advisory boards of Connect2 Communications and Altruik. In addition, Ms. Brearton works with the Simmons Graduate Entrepreneurship program as a coach and mentor to first time entrepreneurs.

Katherine Breedis has over 20 years of experience in leveraged finance and equity research with industry expertise in pharmaceuticals, medical devices, managed care and healthcare services. She was a buyside healthcare analyst at Schroders and the med tech analyst at Citigroup Asset Management. On the sellside, Katherine was the specialty pharmaceuticals analyst at Goldman Sachs where she was voted Institutional Investor’s Best Up and Coming Analyst for her sector. She also held merchant banking positions with GE Capital and Citibank. She is a graduate of Wheaton College and is a Chartered Financial Analyst and Chartered Market Technician.

Anne Busquet is a Principal with AMB Advisors where she advises executives in strategy and business development. She has 30 years of experience in General Management. She was CEO of Local and Media Services at Interactive Corp (IAC) and previously at American Express Company where she was a member of the Planning and Policy committee and the President of Interactive Services and New Businesses and previously Executive Vice President of Card marketing among many other positions. Anne served on 10 Boards both public and private including USA Networks, Tambrands, Administaff and Epsilon. She also served on 3 Non-Profit Boards including Teach for America. She received a BS from Cornell University and MBA from Columbia University. She is dual citizen of France and the U.S.

Jolyne Caruso has more than 25 years of experience in both capital markets and asset management businesses at major Wall Street firms including JP Morgan and Bear Stearns. She most recently ran Lehman Brother's global hedge fund business and prior to that was a founder and President of Andor Capital Management, a technology long/short hedge fund. Jolyne holds a BA from Barnard College and serves on Barnard's Board of Trustees. She serves on the board of Kleinfelds, a privately held company, is a Sustaining member of 100 Women in Hedge Funds and supports several women's and educational charities through a family foundation that she manages with her husband. She has become an active angel investor.

Carol is President of The Charian Group, a consulting entity working with financial intermediaries and early-stage companies with an emphasis on women-led organizations. Prior to forming Charian, Carol was EVP/COO of Westwood Management Corporation, a registered investment advisor. Prior to Westwood, Carol worked in the Investment Banking Industry. Carol has served as an Adjunct Professor of Finance at The University of Dallas in Texas and Pace University in NY. Carol holds a BA from Wellesley College, an MBA in Finance from The Wharton School and is a Chartered Financial Analyst.

As President of Delco International Ltd., Rob led a successful $76 million manufacturing and distribution company of tableware products for the food service and transportation industries. In 2000, Delco was sold to Oneida Ltd., the world’s largest producer of tableware products. Since then, Rob has been active as an angel investor through Bowery Partners LLC. Rob graduated with a BS, Marketing from Syracuse University and an MBA from Columbia University. He is an active member of the Young President’s Organization (LI chapter), was awarded the Human Relations Award by the American Jewish Committee, is on the Advisory Board of Island Harvest and is an Outward Bound graduate.

Pamela Donlin has a finance degree from Georgetown University and attended Oxford University’s Comparative Business Program. She worked at Bankers Trust where she completed their lending program and then started in middle market lending. She moved on to LBO’s and then co-ran the Private Placement Group. Pamela is currently a private investor in numerous companies and is involved in numerous charities. She serves on the Board of Regents and is Co-Chair of the Georgetown Scholarship Program for Georgetown University. She is married with two children.

Elizabeth has broad and senior leadership experience with insurance and financial services companies. She has led several “start-up” initiatives and has a background building business value from technology. Currently, Elizabeth is an executive with Dreambuilder Investments - a private mortgage investment company specializing in the acquisition, management and liquidation of defaulted residential mortgages nationwide. DBI achieves superior returns for investors while achieving constructive outcomes for homeowners. Elizabeth is also associated with Pro Mujer, a microfinance organization bettering the lives of women in South America.

Michael Elgarten spent more than 20 years on Wall Street growing niche businesses within large corporations. He ran program trading sales at Merrill Lynch, helped build out both UBS' equity derivative sales, and Morgan Stanley's corporate equity derivative sales efforts. As a managing director at Bank of America Securities, he spearheaded its corporate equity derivatives unit and also created and ran the firm's client solutions group which advised on all aspects of corporate capital structure. Mike has been making angel investments since 1997. A graduate of Lafayette College, Mike received his MBA from NYU's Stern School of Business.

Lily Fraga began her career at BNP Paribas in 1983. Then held leading positions at Banco Santander in Corporate Finance and Syndications. At JPMorgan Chase from 1994 to 2006, she held positions in Portfolio Management and Client Management at the Private Bank. After JPMorgan, she managed a LATAM Real Estate portfolio. She was also on the Board of various Real Estate investment firms as a Strategic Advisor on restructurings and M&A. Fluent in Spanish, Portuguese and French, she has a BA from WMU and an MBA from Pace University.


 

Linda Galante is a partner in the Business Department of the law firm of Stradley Ronon in Philadelphia. Her practice areas include corporate, banking and real estate law. In addition to her client practice, Linda has also served on the firm’s Board of Directors, Partner Compensation Committee and a number of other firm committees. She is a member of the Board of Directors of several companies including Fiber-Line, Inc. and Wissahickon Spring Water, Inc., as well as Drueding Center/Project Rainbow, St. Joseph’s Preparatory School and Preservation Alliance for Greater Philadelphia.
 

After a career in structured finance at Bank of America and Nikko Securities, Frank was a principal in a boutique merchant bank focused on distressed investments, serving as interim executive for portfolio companies, including Harvey Electronics, where as CEO he crafted its bankruptcy reorganization. He currently runs marketing and sales at Comodo and formerly was a senior executive at EasyLink, where he completed over two dozen M&A and strategic investment transactions. Frank holds an MBA from Columbia University, and is Chairman of the Private Equity Committee of the Columbia Business School Alumni Club of New York.

Phyllis Haberman is Senior Managing Director of Egret Capital Partners LLC, a private equity firm focusing on small capitalization companies. She was a Partner and member of the Investment Committee at Charterhouse Group ($1.3bn middle market private equity firm). Ms. Haberman served on the Board of Directors for numerous public and private firms, including a publicly traded provider of information and transaction processing services, a provider of outsourced business process solutions, a medical device technology company, an apparel manufacturing business and a manufacturer of engineered products. Prior to joining Charterhouse, Ms. Haberman held management positions at Celanese Corporation. Ms. Haberman earned a B.S. in Mathematics from Simmons College and an M.B.A. in Finance from Columbia University.

Angela Haines is a widely published freelance journalist and author who has written for the New York Times, Boardroom Reports, Associated Press, and Cosmopolitan. She has also served as adjunct professor of writing and business communications at NYU and at The New School where she designed the first online course in business communications. In 1995 she founded AHGlobal Communications to provide in- house writing and presentation seminars for major US corporations. Among her clients are Citigroup, Ernst and Young, and Barnes and Noble. In 2006, she became founding director of the Henry Hudson 400 New York Foundation, organized to commemorate the 400th anniversary of Hudson’s legendary voyage to New York.

Jean Hammond is a serial entrepreneur with over 20 years experience in the high-tech industry including JAM Technologies (acting CEO), Quarry Technologies (Founder & CEO) and AXON Networks (Co-Founder). She is an active investor in early stage high tech companies. Current Board positions include Network Subscriptions, International Strategies, JAM Technologies, Home Portfolio, Mobile Secure, iTeam, and EdTech Networks and former Board positions include Ohia Networks, Intouch Systems, ZipCar, and others. Non-profit Boards include The Technology Capital Network and Thompson Island Outward Bound. Jean earned an M.S. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Sloan School of Management, and a B.S. from Boston University.

Stephanie Hanbury-Brown spent 20 years in financial services in Sydney, London and New York. The majority of her career was with JPMorgan where she headed several global businesses. In 2004 she founded Golden Seeds. She is also a former member of New York Angels and an investor with Boldcap Ventures. Stephanie currently retains board positions with Foster Wheeler Limited, RiskMetrics Group and Artemis Woman. She obtained a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Sydney.

Cecelia Ann Hauptman is a private equity investor and marketing services consultant who has extensive experience in wholesale and retail marketing management for both the profit and nonprofit sectors. She has held corporate management positions with Frederick Atkins International, Dayton Hudson, and Bloomingdale's division of Federal Incorporated. She current serves on several boards of nonprofit organizations. Cecelia received a BA and an MBA (Marketing Management) from Fordham University.

Scottie Held has founded several companies and partnerships in the communications and entertainment arenas. In the 1970's, her area of interest was in communications consulting. In 1982, she incorporated Package, Inc to invest in and manage entertainment ventures. Under the Package, Inc. umbrella, she produced "First Night" Off-Broadway, "Start-Up", a two-part cable tv program on entrepreneurship, America's Theatre calendar, and wrote business, travel and general interest articles. In the 90's, she closed this company to concentrate on the non-profit sector supporting women in business, women in politics and philanthropic education. She is married to Rob and the mother of two and grandmother of four. She received a BA from Connecticut College.

Bonnie Henry is the President and founder of DKH Enterprises and works with early stage companies and their management teams to clarify strategy, accelerate growth, and position for exit. She has 28 years of entrepreneurial and leadership experience across multiple industries; 13 of those years with P&L responsibility. She founded Hellas International, a Greek specialty food company, in 1995 which she sold in 2004. She has worked with both large and early stage companies including: Frito-Lay, Pillsbury, Estee Lauder, Ross Stores, Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Massachusetts, and Scottish Rite Children’s Hospital. Bonnie earned an MBA at The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania and holds a BS degree in Business and Communications from SUNY, Plattsburgh.

Gail Hoffman began her career in the Corporate Finance Department of Dean Witter Reynolds. After receiving her MBA with High Distinction from The University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, Gail joined Boston Ventures Management Inc., a private equity firm focused on the communications and entertainment industries. She was involved in many portfolio companies’ successful acquisitions and divestitures, including Motown Records and The National Enquirer. After leaving the work force to focus on her family, Gail has spent many years working with a number of community-based organizations.

Pam has over 30 years of experience implementing major IT initiatives, primarily in Financial Services. She has held senior IT management positions at JPMorganChase, and JPMorgan, both in the retail and wholesale businesses. In 2000 she was the Corporate CIO for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority in New York. In addition she has worked as an IT consultant. Currently she is one of the owners of Marinus Partners, a business consulting and technology services firm. She holds an MBA from the University of Michigan, and an AB from Vassar College.

Nada Jain, PhD is an intellectual property lawyer practicing in the areas of strategic counseling and planning, patent procurement, legal opinions on patentability and infringement issues, due diligence reviews, licensing and litigation support with expertise in technical fields of pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, chemistry, engineering, agriculture and food. Admitted to New York State Bar and before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, Nada has practiced in prestigious law firms prior to founding her own firm in 2002, representing a wide spectrum of clients including universities, start-up companies and multi-national corporations.

Elizabeth ("Liddy") Karter founded Karter Capital Advisors that offers clients expertise in the financial, banking, software and manufacturing sectors. Liddy's prior experience includes President of Resource Recovery Systems where she grew revenues to more than $20 million with 13 factories in eight states and successfully sold the company in 1998. She also worked at Netkey, Inc., a leading enterprise software and at Morgan Stanley focusing on financial services for the Banking Industry. Liddy received her MBA from Yale University and a BA from Columbia University.

Lesley King retired from JP Morgan as a Managing Director in Fixed Income Sales management in order to focus on non-profit work. She recently served as Interim Executive Director of Trinity Church in Greenwich, CT. Lesley is on the Board of Directors for Partners In Health where for the past few years she has led a "community of concern" to open and support a health center in southwest Rwanda. She and her husband, Bill, live in Old Greenwich with their four children where she is active in the local community.

Pam Lenehan is a senior executive with broad strategic and financial experience in corporate, investment banking, and public board environments. In her 30 year business career she was a managing director in Investment Banking at Credit Suisse First Boston, officer of a public company, CFO of a high-tech start-up, and her own strategy consulting firm. She is on the board of directors of Spartech Corporation and Monotype Imaging, both publicly-traded, and The Center for Women & Enterprise, a non-profit. She has a BA and MA from Brown University.

Julie Lerner is the Managing Director for the European-American Business Organization. She has 20 years experience in international commodity trading and strategic development, having held senior trading and/or marketing positions with Cargill International, S.A., Cargill Inc, Phibro (Citigroup), Sempra Energy Trading and XL Capital’s Weather and Energy division. She has lived and worked in the US, Europe and across Latin America. Julie is also the President of BDT Ventures, LLC, an entrepreneurial venture based on her intellectual property regarding a system design and methodology for electronic trading of physical agricultural commodities. She holds a BSBA in Finance from Boston University.

Mela Lew has over twenty years of experience as a business lawyer. She recently completed her MPA at the Kennedy School, Harvard University. Immediately prior, Mela was a Partner and General Counsel of Atlas Venture, an international venture capital firm with over $2 billion under management. Before Atlas Venture, Mela served as Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary of Oak Industries, a NYSE company acquired by Corning in 2000. She is a graduate of Smith College and Cornell Law School, and serves on a number of non-profit Boards.

Bridget is Managing Principal of NY company, Fahrenheit Ventures, which commercializes new growth businesses. Bridget is Director of the Sovereign Fund of New Zealand, and is Chair of Beachhead Program (a program which mentors New Zealand businesses entering the US market). Bridget has been a Director of public companies, Sky City Ltd. and Fisher & Paykel Appliances Holdings Ltd. She founded the ICEHOUSE incubator, then served as Chairperson. Other governance roles include serving on University of Auckland Council, directorships of Industry New Zealand, Competitive Auckland and technology transfer company, Auckland Uniservices. She serves on the Investment Committee of Grameen USA.

Mary Mattson Kenworthy has spent 25 years in the financial industry, and is a Managing Director in the Private Wealth Management Division of UBS. Mary and her team have the responsibility of coordinating the investment management, fiduciary, banking, brokerage and wealth advisory services for wealthy individuals and families. Before being recruited to UBS, Mary was a Managing Director at Lehman Brothers, and the New England Region Head for the JP Morgan Private Bank. Mary serves on the Dean's Advisory Council for the Simmons School of Management, and on the Board of Trustees for the International Women's Health Coalition as well as for Marlboro College in Vermont.

Loretta McCarthy is principal of McCarthy Group which advises executives in the areas of business strategy, marketing and distribution. Prior experience: Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer at OppenheimerFunds and Vice President of Establishment Marketing at American Express, both of New York City. She is President of Sanctuary for Families, a domestic violence organization. Other board experience: Kessler Rehabilitation Corp., Prolitec, Inc., Carnegie Speech Company, the Women's Tennis Association, New Yorkers for Children and Abingdon Theatre Company. Loretta is a graduate of the University of Colorado (MBA) and the University of Arizona (BA).

Debby spent over 20 years as an investment banker, primarily for Morgan Stanley. Her experience includes Corporate Finance, Capital Markets, Mortgage-Backed Securities and Commercial Real Estate. Debby lived in London from 1988-1992 and 1998-2007. From 2000-2001 she was CFO of a satellite based broadband start-up. She has taught finance at both the graduate and undergraduate levels since 1999 and is currently an Adjunct Professor at Columbia (SIPA). Debby was educated at Harvard College (1976) and has a MBA from Harvard Business School (1979).

Jo Anne Miller is a Partner at Milk Street Ventures, a secondary-direct venture capital firm and angel investor with Sand Hill Angels. She has over 29 years of telecommunications and computer industry experience including 10 years as an entrepreneur - CEO of Gluon Networks, founding VP Engineering of JetCell ( Acquired by Cisco), VP Engineering at AirNet Communications as well as development and management positions at Bell Labs and Tellabs. Jo Anne has an MBA from the University of Chicago, MSCS from the University of Colorado and BS Mathematics from the University of Michigan.

Patricia Harrigan Nadosy was a foreign exchange options trader, banker, and money management consultant at JP Morgan for fifteen years before starting her own consulting firm, Optfor Inc., in 1985. After leaving Wall Street Pat obtained a PhD in Botany which she leverages through community service projects in NYC. As a member of the Board of Trustees of Barnard College she spearheaded the creation of its financial fluency program for alumnae. Pat has a BA from Barnard College, an MBA from Columbia Business School and a PhD from CUNY.

Carol Nichols

Carol Nichols is an early stage investor, focused on strategies to make companies and people successful. As a former executive with Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase, Carol has over 26 years of experience connecting companies to capital. She a Co-Founder of the Texas Women Ventures Fund and serves on Advisory Boards for Springboard Enterprises and the Center for Women's Business Research. Carol graduated Cum Laude from the University of Georgia, with degrees in Economics and Political Science, and received her MBA from Tulane University. She lives in Dallas, Texas.

Judith H. Obermayer, Ph.D.

Judith Obermayer has been a private investor for over 25 years, and a consultant to small high technology companies in business planning, financial management, and technology commercialization. She has extensive experience with government research and development contracts, and a long association with Moleculon Research Corp. as an officer and director. Judith was a director of Moleculon, Inc., a public spinoff, that later sold to an Australian company. Other prior directorships: former Chair, MIT Enterprise Forum; Massachusetts Technology Development Corporation. She holds a B.S. degree from Carnegie-Mellon and a Ph.D. in mathematics from Harvard University.

Margaret Pederson

Margaret Pederson is President Amirexx, providing expertise on business strategy, developing new businesses, repositioning troubled properties and maximizing profits to media companies, exhibition organizers, governments and industrial ventures. Pederson was Penton’s President of Exhibitions, President of Primedia Exhibitions and Prism Exhibitions. She was 2009 Person of the Year in Exhibitions and recognized as "The 100 Most Influential People in Tradeshows” and "25 Women to Know". Pederson was Chair of SISO and IAEE, is on Board of Xamax Industries, writes for industry publications, blogs for international groups and speaks frequently.

Mary Lake Polan

Mary Lake Polan, M.D., Ph.D., M.P.H., chaired the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Stanford Medical School until 2006 and is currently a Visiting Professor at Columbia Medical School. Dr. Polan is a reproductive endocrinologist, with more than 130 articles and books, and served on committees at the Institute of Medicine, the National Institutes of Health and the American Society for Reproductive Medicine. She currently serves on a Health Advisory Board at DuPont and chairs the Procter & Gamble Feminine Protection Advisory Board. Dr. Polan is a Director of Wyeth, Madison, NJ and Quidel Corporation, San Diego, CA.

Jill C. Preotle

Jill Preotle, co-leader of the Boston Golden Seeds forum, is a private equity investor who works with entrepreneurs seeking access to capital and growth markets. She serves on the boards of Zipcar, Red Tail Solutions, iTeam, Investment Instruments (rentomatic.com), and Dancing Deer Baking Company. She is a member of the Venture Advisory Board and Emeritus Board at the Center for Women & Enterprise, a non-profit organization that focuses on training programs and financing opportunities for women-led businesses. Ms. Preotle, a graduate of NYU Law School, was formerly an attorney in private practice in New York.

Gloria Rabinowitz, Co-leader of Philadelphia Forum

Gloria V. Rabinowitz is President & CEO, GCM Group LLC., a technology development, strategy, and marketing company which develops and commercializes new technologies principally for healthcare applications. She has held executive level positions across DuPont Strategic Business units in the life science arena, in Fluoropolymers--TEFLON ®, and in healthcare start ups. She has had assignments in Corporate Finance Mergers & Acquisitions. Ms. Rabinowitz has her MBA in Finance from The Wharton School, The University of Pennsylvania and her Masters in Information Technology, The University of Michigan.

Letitia "Tish" Richardson

Tish Richardson is a private investor and President of Trinity Capital Management, LLC. Prior to founding TCM, Tish was a practicing attorney in the areas of corporate and property law. She is currently a member of the Guild Board of the Concord Museum in Concord, Massachusetts and is active with Discovering Justice, a Boston-based educational organization, and the League of Women Voters. Tish earned a B.A. from the University of California at Santa Barbara, an M.S. from the University of Vermont, and a J.D. from Vermont Law School.

Tracey Riese

Tracey Riese is an expert in institutional brand strategy and corporate communications, focusing on leadership, alignment, and action. She founded T.G. Riese and Associates in 1994 and has since worked with Fortune 500 Boards and management teams of various corporations, including American Express, AT&T, Charles Schwab, Bristol Myers Squibb, and Citicorp. Previously Tracey held senior communications and marketing positions at Revlon, RJR Nabisco and Chemical Bank. Current boards: A Better Chance, el Museo del Barrio, Hunter College Foundation. She holds a B.A. from Sarah Lawrence College.

Kathy Rocha

Kathy F. Rocha has extensive experience in the computer networking industry as a leader of marketing, operations, and general management for hardware and software products, applications, and services. Most recently, Kathy was vice president of business strategy and operations for network management at Cisco Systems. Previously she was vice president and general manager of several product divisions at 3Com Corp. She has also held positions in project management, marketing, and manufacturing planning at Bytex Corp, Raytheon, Analog Devices, and Digital Equipment. Kathy earned her bachelor of arts in political science and MBA degrees from Providence College in Providence, RI.

Sheryl R. Schultz, Co-Leader of Boston Forum

As the president of SRS Associates, Sheryl Schultz has participated in the launch of some of the most successful start-up companies in the networking industry including Acme Packet, ArrowPoint Communications, Sonus Networks and Wellfleet Communications. During her career, Sheryl has helped create companies and markets, providing sound and innovative communication frameworks that have shaped how networking companies develop and deliver product and services messaging. Working with senior level entrepreneurs, Sheryl helps articulate company, product and technology value at each stage of a company's lifecycle. She holds a degree in English and Communications from the University at Albany.

Max Shapiro

Max Shapiro is the founder and CEO of PeopleConnect. A well respected member of several Angel organizations including the Keiretsu Forum, North Bay Angels, Golden Gate Angels and the Angel Breakfast Club, Shapiro has served on many Angel panels including the Golden Venture Capital Conference. He is active in the community and was named YMCA Volunteer of the Year in Marin County. He lives in San Rafael, CA with his wife and daughter. He is a graduate of Washington University (St. Louis, MO).

Hope Smith

Hope Geier Smith is President of the Geier Foundation and assists in the management of investments for the Geier investment family office. Prior experience includes marketing with Hill and Knowlton, and finance with John Hassall, a privately held manufacturing company. Hope sits on the board of the Sass Foundation, is an active fundraiser for Autism Speaks, and a founding investor of the Dignity Fund (a microfinance institution). She obtained a BA in communication from Mount Vernon Collage.

Merle Sprinzen

Merle Sprinzen is an expert in business-to-business marketing/sales strategies, with more than 25 years helping premier corporations grow. Merle brings special expertise in the business services sector working with companies such as Accenture, KPMG and Sapient, and has also worked with media, publishing and telecommunications companies, such as Time Warner, Cap Cities/ABC, and AT&T. Merle also launched her own successful marketing strategy firm. Merle earned her PhD from Harvard University in sociology/social psychology while a National Science Foundation Fellow and holds a Bachelor’s degree in Sociology/Anthropology, summa cum laude, from Oberlin College.

Heidi Steinberg

Heidi Steinberg is a private investor with significant experience as a retail and consumer sell-side analyst on Wall Street. Ms Steinberg was a Senior Analyst at Salomon Brothers and Lehman Brothers, and was recognized as a Wall Street Journal All-Star Analyst in the specialty retail apparel category. She is a graduate of Barnard College, obtaining a B.A. in European Studies with a minor in Economics. Ms. Steinberg has been a fundraiser both for her college and for the Annual Fund at The Buckley School in NYC as well as an advocate for the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network.

Grazyna Szymanska

Grazyna Szymanska, Ph.D., is a biopharmaceutical consultant and early-stage life-science entrepreneur. Grazyna’s 20 years of experience in academia and biotech include R&D, product development and strategic consulting. Her industry experience includes therapeutics (small molecules and biologics), diagnostics, instrumentations, and medical devices. She is a champion of the newest investment paradigm, moving technology in a cost-effective way from virtual space to proof of principle to final product stage. Grazyna is an author of over 25 scientific papers and holds a number of patents which successfully integrate diverse scientific, technical and functional domains.

Dune Thorne

Dune Thorne is a Vice President at Hale and Dorr Wealth Advisors (HDWA) an investment management boutique based in Boston. Dune specializes in working with women to help them build strong financial foundations. Prior to joining HDWA, Dune was the Director of Investments for Circle Financial Group, an investment and wealth management think tank for ultra-high net worth women. Concurrently, Dune was a Columbia Business School Private Wealth Management teaching assistant. Dune received her BA from Dartmouth College and her MBA from Harvard Business School where she completed independent studies on women and investing, as well as angel investing.

Alice Thorpe

Alice Thorpe has twenty five years experience in the financial industry starting her career at “Institutional Investor” magazine. Initially responsible for sales in the sponsored conference division, she became Managing Director of the Corporate Division where she oversaw sales, programming and implementation of more than ten annual, world-wide events. She spent several years as MD at Furman Selz marketing mutual funds managed by SCMI, London. While living in London she worked for Businessweek Magazine” and eventually co-founded an Association Management Company which managed professional associations in the financial industry. Now retired, she is on the board of two charities. Alice has a degree in English from Wagner College and an MA in Finance from Webster University, Geneva Switzerland.

Karen van de Vrande

Karen van de Vrande is the owner and principal of van de Vrande & Associates. Karen has been an entrepreneur both within a corporate environment and on her own. She opened the first office for AT&T in Israel, and went on to start the first consumer services division for them in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Karen started van de Vrande & Associates in 2000 from which she took a hiatus to work as the Chief Marketing Officer for Prudential Douglas Elliman Real Estate.

Peggy Wallace, Co-Leader of NY Forum

Peggy Wallace, General Partner of the Golden Seeds Fund, is the Portfolio Manager for Golden Seeds. Peggy's 20 + year career prior to becoming an investor was in financial services. The majority of her career was with J.P. Morgan/Chase where she specialized in structured finance, risk management, and financial services M&A. Peggy retains a board position with private company Chromis Fiberoptics and gDiapers. She holds a B. A. from The George Washington University.

Michele Washko

Michele Washko, Vice President of Strategic Services for the Life Sciences Greenhouse of Central Pennsylvania – and a Director of ProSanos Corporation, Strategic Polymer Sciences, Inc., and Carbon NanoProbes, Inc., among others – has roughly 15 years experience in marketing and business development, with particular expertise in start-up companies and new product launches within the biotech, pharmaceutical, and healthcare arenas. She holds a B.A. in Anthropology from Emory University, an M.A. in English from Arcadia University, and an M.B.A from Pennsylvania State University.

Kate Weingarten

Kate Weingarten was Vice President, Finance, at Project for Public Spaces. In the late '90s she was Director of the Institute for School Age Child Care, where she created a start-up program to increase after school childcare throughout Westchester County. Previously, Kate worked as an investment officer at TIAA-CREF. Kate is board chair of KEEPS, an after school program in Mamaroneck NY, and is on the finance committee of the Westchester Children's Association. Kate received an MS from The Robert Wagner Graduate School of Public Service at NYU, and a BA and MBA from The University of Pennsylvania. She is a chartered financial analyst.

Vanessa Wilson

Vanessa Wilson has 19 years of public markets and M&A experience on Wall Street as a Managing Director at Deutsche Bank, DLJ, and CSFB. As an equity research analyst specializing in life insurance, Ms. Wilson was ranked on the Institutional Investor “All-American Research Team” for 10 years and lead- or co-managed 15 IPOs. She sits on the public board of Protective Life Corporation and the non-profit boards of Count Me In, Ethel Walker School and St. James. Ms. Wilson holds a B.A. from Amherst College and an MBA from NYU's Stern School of Business.

Namek Zu'bi

Namek Zu'bi is an Associate at CloveHitch Capital Partners LLC. Prior to joining CloveHitch, Namek worked at UBS and Deutsche Bank AG in the Global Market Equities Technology divisions managing trading platforms for the Equities, Derivatives, and Prime Finance businesses. Namek earned his BS (Hons) in Information Systems from Carnegie Mellon University. Born and raised in Amman, Jordan. Namek serves on the board of directors for Adritec, a global company that specializes in irrigation solutions. Namek is also the founder and executive director of nonprofit Rally For Humanity.