Date: Monday, September 29, 2014 Time: 9AM to 5PM
Place: CUNY Graduate Center
365 Fifth Avenue, Concourse Level, Manhattan
Katja Bartholmess is Founder and CEO Gimme Gorgeous Group. She a serial entrepreneur who has lived and worked in Berlin, London, Pretoria, and Tokyo before taking root in Brooklyn, her favorite borough of in NYC. She is a professional brand builder with over a decade of experience in consulting and advising brands and businesses under her belt. Clients from across the globe have worked with her and her teams in the areas of:
- – strategic communications with a focus on digital & social
- – branding, marketing & positioning
- – product innovation & brand development
The German native has a keen eye for what today`s global and interconnected audiences desire, a social media pioneer’s hand for content and engagement strategies that work, and an anthropologist’s understanding of what makes people tick. She utilizes her international outlook as well as her digital savvy to connect brands and audiences across the globe. Her insights on branding in a social and digital age have been featured in leading industry publications.
She is on the Board of the MIT Enterprise Forum NYC as well as the creator and co-organizer of their Future of X Think Tank event series and the co-founder of Bushwick Entrepreneurs Club. Katja holds a Master in Cultural Anthropology from Humboldt University Berlin.
Fiona Bloom hails from the UK, and is the founder and guiding force behind the boutique agency, The Bloom Effect, specializing in Entertainment Marketing/Branding.
Her expertise and insights in entertainment marketing and branding derives from her experience as a popular urban music radio host, publicist, label owner, and manager, and her debut as a Steinway Award winning classical pianist while still in her teens.
Her clients have included the NYU Tisch School of the Arts, J. Walter Thompson, The Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music, SAE Institute -NYC, SXSW- Austin, CMJ, Canadian Music Week- Toronto, Billboard Conference, Polar Music Prize-Stockholm Sweden, Dewey Beach Music Fest. Maryland, Grammy’s in the School, NARIP and others.
She was voted by Billboard Biz as the top 140 Characters to follow in the Music Industry, a winner of NARIPS’s Top Strategist in 2009, and was a Nominee in Women in Music/Billboard.
Fiona has independently produced over 1000 shows, consulted on 200+ album projects and has been a part of over 300 artists’ careers.
Jonathan Breshin is Senior Associate at New York Grant Company. He joined the New York Grant Company in 2011 and works to attract new business to the company and to develop existing business relationships and new business lines.
He is a certified building operating engineer and member of the Local 94 Operating Engineers Union, brings a strong technical background in electrical construction, solar energy, and building science, in addition to business skills. He has taught “green” electrical retrofitting for Solar One, and holds a degree in electrical construction, instrumentation, and controls from SUNY College of Technology in Delhi, New York.
He has worked with dozens of major firms, developers, and non-profit organizations, matching them to incentive programs for their respective projects resulting in substantial savings to their bottom lines.
Savio S. Chan is a pre-eminent expert on doing business in China. He serves as President and CEO of US China Partners Inc., a privately held business development firm specializing in Market Entry, Strategic Sourcing and Marketing Development in China for U.S. companies, and facilitates local and cross-border joint ventures among leading Chinese multinationals as well as Fortune 1000 companies. He recently co-authored a new book, China’s Super Consumers.
Savio is a frequent keynote speaker and panelist at business and technology events including the American Express Minority Small Business Seminars, and the e-Business Conference and Expo, co-organized by BusinessWeek and InformationWeek. Among his many awards and recognitions are :the “40 Under 40″ Business Leader Award , and Top 10 Movers and Shakers on Long Island, Top 100 Most Influential and in 2007, ExecuLeaders presented him a special award in the category of International Business Leadership.
Savio, started his career in international marketing and business with his studies at Baruch/CUNY. He has been featured in numerous industry and trade success profiles, including articles in The New York Times, Chief Executive Magazine, and InformationWeek. He serves as Vice Chairman of ITP China and is the former president of the Northeast Chapter of US Pan Asian Chamber of Commerce, senior advisor for the Outsourcing Institute, on the boards of Executive Council of New York and Association of Commerce, Industry and Technology (ACIT). Savio also hosts the PBS syndicated TV show, Asian America, sponsored by Wal-Mart.
Lisa Chau is an international marketing and Ivy League business school public relations professional published in Forbes, Huffington Post and US News & World Report on the topics of social media, entrepreneurship, leadership and technology. She is a Ted-Ed lesson creator with teaching experience. Lisa spearheaded strategic partnerships to curate a high level panel at Columbia University on “How Technology and Social Media Are Changing the Business Landscape”, and hold a PR NewsWire #ConnectChat on “How to Build a Strong Network” with Emphasis on Leveraging Social Media. She currently serves on the Technology Committee of the Dartmouth Club of New York, and the New York State Office for New Americans as a Social Media Consultant.
Ann Chung is the CEO and co-founder of We Rub You. She and her sister Janet make delicious, authentic and all-natural Korean BBQ sauces & condiments which are now sold at Whole Foods, Fairway, Marks & Spencer and Woolworths. Ann is a first-time entrepreneur. Prior to making a living out of cooking and eating Korean food, Ann worked in finance. Ann lives in Queens, NY in a multi-generational household, including her parents who were the inspiration behind the name We Rub You.
Alejandro Juarez Crawford is a consultant and lecturer with Acceleration Group and an architect of its methodology. He is also a leading provider of strategic insight to innovators, entrepreneurs and growth-oriented managers. A frequent speaker on topics of entrepreneurship, enterprise growth, and digital age branding and marketing, he co-founded integrated marketing boutique Nolej Base and teaches at NYU Poly, the New School and the Zicklin School of Business at Baruch. Mr. Crawford earned his MBA from Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business and his Bachelor’s degree from Cornell University.
Ramon Gil is marketing business coach and the managing and creative director of Fresh Concentrate, a multicultural graphic design company in Manhattan’s Turtle Bay. Prior to launching Fresh Concentrate, Ramon was creative director at the Earth Pledge Foundation, a non-profit organization on the cutting edge of environmental technology. He is an active community organizer and has been featured in the Artists’ and Graphic Designer’s Market, the Society of Illustrators West Annual, Stephen Romaniello’s The Perfect Digital Portfolio, Crain’s New York Business, PBS’ Asian America, Créme Magazine and Altra Magazine and most recently in Liz Lynch’s Smart Networking. He has written articles for Business Matters, Entrepreneur Magazine and Dayon. He has taught Graphic Design at the Parsons School of Design and FIT and Multicultural Marketing at Columbia and New York University. Ramon is a membership ambassador for the Manhattan Chamber of Commerce, serves on the board of directors for National Minority Business Council.
Rio Guerrero is an attorney and founding partner of the immigration law firm Guerrero Yee LLP based NYC. His law firm successfully represents corporations, organizations, entrepreneurs, families and individuals across the full panoply of U.S. immigration law services. In particular, his practice focuses upon securing work visas and “green cards” for investors, entrepreneurs and foreign professional workers. Since 2007, he has taught as an Adjunct Professor of immigration law within the CUNY Graduate system. He provides pro bono legal service to the Asian American community as the founding and current chair of the Asian American Bar Association of New York’s Immigration and Nationality Law Committee.
Brian Gurski is a consultant and lecturer for Acceleration Group and an architect of its methodology. Most recently, Brian was Regional Director of a New York State Small Business Development Center in New York City and was instrumental in the design and launch of the national pilot of the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses Initiative, created to provide education, technical assistance and capital to high-growth businesses. He has completed graduate work at the Zicklin School of Business at Baruch College, an advanced certification in emerging markets analysis from Fordham University, studies on value innovation at the Wharton School of Business and a Bachelor’s degree from Lewis & Clark College.
Xiaoyuan (Wennie) Hanson is a business advisor at the Small Business Development Center (SBDC) at LaGuardia Community College. Her experience in the financial services sector, combined with her technical training and education, enables her to deliver a high level of business advisory service to her clients. Prior to the SBDC, Mrs. Hanson worked in Commercial Lending at Citibank and East West Bank and was a licensed financial advisor at Morgan Stanley. She also gained knowledge in micro financing at Tunis, a nonprofit organization. Mrs. Hanson has a keen interest in life sciences and entrepreneurship and participated in many projects sponsored by the New York Academy of Science at the Severino Center for Technological Entrepreneurship in Rensselear, NY. She holds a Master’s in Business Administration from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and a Bachelor degree in Biological Science from SUNY at Binghamton.
Derrick Huang is a technologist, entrepreneur, and innovation consultant. He specializes in helping companies develop new business models and implement effective innovation practices. He began his career as a technologist at various Internet startups where he was a software developer, architect, and project leader. He was also a consultant at McKinsey and Company where he focused on the mobile/telecom, high tech/consumer electronics, and healthcare/pharmaceutical industries. Derrick has an MBA from Columbia Business School and a BA in Chemistry from the University of Pennsylvania.
Toan (Twan) Huynh is a serial entrepreneur and angel investor focusing on food, technology, and start-ups. As a successful three-time entrepreneur, Toan has started and successfully exited several start-ups, including her most recent venture, a cloud computing firm and where she currently runs the Global Insurance Practice and writes a popular blog.
While Toan enjoys technology, her true passion lies in the creation of a business and food- she has had that opportunity to combine both with her third start-up. The Saucey Sauce Co. is an producer of artisanal, ready-to-serve Vietnamese savory sauces and ketchups based locally in Brooklyn, NY. Started on a shoe string and while traveling all over for her other businesses, Toan and her co-founder/sibling Ken has grown the business and the sauces can be found in over 100+ specialty stores and on-line e-commerce sites, and ships internationally to Canada and overseas.
Toan also invested in food and technology start-ups, including the New York Distilling Company, founded by the famed Tom Potter, founder of the Brooklyn Brewery. She is also a member of the 37Angels women-only Angel investor network, where she invest and advises in early-stage, seed-round startups.
Ed Jen is currently co-founder and CEO of a digital startup that is just getting going, and advises two early stage angel-backed startups on the side. He has more than 15 years experience building and leading successful digital businesses at Bloomberg LP, Wolters Kluwer, Dealertrack Technologies, CarsDirect.com (now part of Internet Brands), and Bank One (now a part of JPMorgan Chase). He has played a wide range of executive roles in product, marketing, business development, and operations, as well as #2 employee at a now-public startup. His work has contributed to two IPOs, two market-moving acquisitions, and one successful sale. And most of the products and services that he and his teams have driven are still loved by customers and running in the hands of market leaders.
Mohamed Khalil has 15+ years of experience in financial services strategy, innovation and entrepreneurship. In his current role as Head of Product, Data & Partnerships at Moven he is responsible for developing an industry leading mobile payments and money management solution that fundamentally disrupts traditional banking paradigms. Moven won a 2013 Finovate London Best in Show upon its debut and in September 2014 announced a distribution partnership with Westpac New Zealand.
Prior to Moven, Mohamed was at Bundle, a startup funded by Citigroup, Microsoft and Morningstar that won a 2010 Finovate Best in Show for its intuitive user experience, cutting edge consumer peer comparisons, and sophisticated merchant recommendations engine. Bundle was acquired in 2012 and is now part of Capital One’s Digital Innovations Lab.
His experiences also include working at CitiSmith Barney’s myFi, where he focused on building a low cost, programmatic investment advisory solution for the mass market, and Merrill Lynch Wealth Management, where he defined and implemented a mass market brokerage service and retail deposit strategy.
Mohamed is both a co-founder of Novantas, a leading financial services management consultancy, and an alumni of First Manhattan Consulting Group. In both roles he provided strategic and tactical guidance to financial service executives in the US, Mexico, Canada, Singapore and Australia.
Mohamed has an undergraduate degree from Princeton University and an MBA from Wharton, University of Pennsylvania.
Susan Kim is a Vice President of Retail Banking at Astoria Bank developing business and personal relationships in the New York area in Retail and Commercial Areas. Ms. Kim joined Astoria Bank in 2013. Prior to that Ms. Kim worked at North Fork Bank, which is now Capital One Bank N.A. Prior to that, worked several years for another major bank in Manhattan ,Fleet Bank N.A. In addition to a career in the financial sector, Ms. Kim has worked for famous Pop artist Peter Max and as as a freelance reporter covering people like the Mayor of New York City to events such as the World Series & Super Bowl.
Ms. Kim is also a member of The Korea Society and a member of (KACF) Korean Community Foundation a not-for-profit which provides support for underserved Korean American social service agencies often serving as the first source of outside funding. Ms. Kim is a graduate of Baruch College with a Bachelor of Arts in Corporate Communications.
Steven Kuyan serves as the Assistant Director to the Incubator Initiatives at NYU-Poly. In this role he is responsible for strategic initiatives to accelerate innovation at the University through student involvement as well as sustaining and supporting the entrepreneurial ecosystem in New York City. The Incubator Initiatives consists of 3 incubators (Varick Street, NYC ACRE and DUMBO) out of locations in downtown Manhattan and DUMBO in Brooklyn. Steven is also the founder and advisor to the NYU-Poly Entrepreneurship and Innovation Association, a student organization that is bridging the gap between academia and entrepreneurship to streamline student ventures.
Sang Lee is the founder and CEO of Return on Change (www.returnonchange.com), the next generation’s investment crowdfunding platform aiming to connect investors with innovative and socially conscious startups. As a board member of CFIRA (Crowdfund Intermediary Regulatory Advocates) and CfPA (Crowdfunding Professionals Association), Sang strives to educate innovative entrepreneurs about investment crowdfunding’s immense potential to provide high-impact startups with critical early stage capital as well as everyday investors with the opportunity to become involved in the most disruptive companies. Under his leadership, Return on Change has established itself as a thought leader within crowdfunding discourse, having been featured in numerous financial publications such as BetaBeat, Reuters, Ecopreneurist, Crains, among many others. Sang is also a contributor to Forbes, New York Enterprise Report, and Under30CEO.
Sang is a recipient of the Under30CEO Award in New York, a nationwide campaign to search for the most promising young entrepreneurs, big innovators, leaders, and world changers.
Lisa Chin Mollica is the founder and creator of a brand new parenting tool called KidCash. She hopes to use this product to bring positive changes to parenting, families and our future by making it easy for parents to avoid power struggles and to communicate with their children effectively on a regular basis.
Lisa spent the last fifteen years immersed in the world of of digital interactive design at an online social media marketing company. Alongside a primary focus on visual hierarchy and balance, she continuously hones her skills as a front-end developer/coder and strategist. She makes it her job to become familiar with user behavior, conversion/marketing tactics and data analysis so that her designs will instinctually perform better. She favors lean and agile business principles, thinks that everything should be tested, and that stepping up and taking ownership are keys to success. She is constantly enamored of big data, the latest technologies and the ever-changing landscape of social trends and media.
You can learn more about her latest adventure at www.kidcash.com.
Joyce Moy is the Executive Director of the Asian American / Asian Research Institute. She was the first Asian American director of a NYS Small Business Development Center where she helped to secure $25 million in funding for small business. Her area of expertise is entrepreneurship and economic development. She has taught business law and taxation at Queens College, the CUNY School of Law, and at Cornell University School of Law. She is a former practicing attorney. Recently she developed a 45 hour curriculum to train financial counselors embedded in CBO’s which has been adopted as a national model for replication nationwide by Cities for Financial Empowerment.
Murat Ozsu Murat Ozsu is a successful internet executive, entrepreneur and SaaS visionary who has a passion for building world-class software products and empowering small businesses through the Internet. As Founder and CEO of innRoad, Murat was responsible for the vision, strategy and development of the innovative SaaS product and took the company from concept through the start > fund > build > run > grow process, raising nearly $10m in venture capital along the way.
Previously, he was with Credit Suisse from 2001 to 2006, serving as Vice President of Application Development, heading multiple development teams distributed across four continents for Alternative Investments, Private Funds and Asset Management.
From 1998 to 2000, Mr. Ozsu served as an Internet Specialist, responsible for new business development at eB2B.com (formerly Netlan Interactive), a Silicon Alley professional services firm that provided strategy, branding, creative and technology development services for Internet startups. Prior to that, he held various senior positions with Lexis-Nexis, the leading online information company, where he managed $10 Million in accounts with the company’s premier law firm and Fortune 500 clients, over a five-year term.
Mr. Ozsu holds a Bachelor’s Degree in International Marketing from Baruch College of the City University of New York.
Vikram Rajan is the founder of Practice Marketing, Inc. and its Internet word-of-mouth referral marketing service, phoneBlogger.net. Vik serves as a Practice Marketing Advisor™ for CPAs, attorneys, and related professionals. He helps to develop and implement Marketing Action Plans (MAPs) within his clients’ codes of ethics and compliance obligations.
His book, “365 Marketing Thumb-rules: Daily Reminders for Rainmakers,” has received praise from over 15 organization leaders within the legal, accounting, financial services, and real estate professions.
Vikram’s marketing column premiered in the largest publication for accountants in Fall 2009 (the AICPA’s CPA Insider), was the most popular column in July 2011, and has been republished by the Journal of Accountancy (AICPA). His columns have also appeared in the New York Real Estate Journal, Financial Advisor magazine, Long Island Business News, among others. He has taught at the Fashion Institute of Technology.
Calvin Smith graduated from the University of Washington in 2008. After graduation he founded the company, MyWebume. He had initial funding of $100,000 to build the platform and getting it into schools. Since the dissolution of the company in 2010, Calvin became involved with BiteHunter as its operations manager. BiteHunter had over 100,000 downloads and was a widely used daily deal aggregator. Calvin managed the creation of both the website and app.
After leaving BiteHunter, Calvin once again had the entrepreneurial bug and created No Boring Shooping. The concept of this new venture is to deliver daily essentials to a user through a subscription-based model. While in the process of building out the company, he worked with Eastern America Trio Products and is currently Head of Business Development. As the department head, he is taking his knowledge and experience as an entrepreneur and implementing that towards increasing performance from the employees and sales through an online marketplace.
Jo-Anne Suriel is Manager of Fund Operations at Corinthian Capital Group, LLC, focused on supporting all aspects of Corinthian Capital’s operations and administration including, financial reporting, marketing, compliance and infrastructure. Before joining Corinthian Capital in 2007, Ms. Suriel was an Associate at the Lincoln Center Institute where she managed professional development programs for educators. Prior to that, Ms. Suriel was a Client Manager at VeriSign, Inc.’s Digital Brand Management Services where she managed virtual intellectual property portfolios or Fortune 500 clients.
Ms. Suriel is a graduate of Swarthmore College (B.A), New York University (M.A.), and Columbia University (M.B.A.).
Lily Tang, PhD, MBA is co-founder of The Everest Project, a non-profit research initiative providing research driven intelligence and tools for women in organizations leading change and innovation. She is a certified executive leadership and systems coach. Lily has led organizational development engagements for Fortune 500 companies across six continents. She was most recently a partner of a leading innovation firm where she created a signature framework for coaching teams to execute on change and innovation.
Lily retired as CEO of an international food manufacturing and distribution company with holdings in China, Canada and USA. She has been an associate professor and business journalist. She holds a doctorate in developmental psychology and a master degree in organizational development. She was an advisor to the National Academies’ Government-University-Industry Research Roundtable as a China expert. She is a member of the NAAMBA’s Executive Committee and serves on the Board of Directors for Ascend.
Shelli Trung is the founder of FForward.in – the definitive guide to all business events in NYC. She has spent well over 10 years in marketing and business development ranging from large corporate banking institutions to tech startups. She is a real estate investor, a mentor for National Association of Realtors Reach® accelerator program and has been listed one of Australia’s top 10 female start-up entrepreneurs.
