Lang Fund Mentor Network
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- Barbara Close
- Irene Cohen
- John Cusick
Eugene Carr ’87Eugene Carr is the founder and president of Patron Technology, an arts e-marketing software and consulting company that offers such services as PatronMail, an e-mail marketing system; development of arts Web sites and technology- and e-marketing consulting. CultureFinder.com, founded by Mr. Carr in 1995, is an award-winning arts events listing site on the Internet, with over 200,000 event listings for over 2,000 arts organizations nationwide. Mr. Carr has been involved in both arts management and the corporate world for the last two decades. From 1991 to 1996, he served as the executive director of the American Symphony Orchestra at Lincoln Center and, beginning in 1994, simultaneously served in the same position for the Concordia Orchestra. He founded High Five Tickets to the Arts, an award-winning five-dollar ticket program for New York City high school students, and served as its first chairman. Mr. Carr earned undergraduate degrees in history and cello from Oberlin College and Conservatory as well as an MBA from Columbia Business School. Barbara CloseBarbara is currently cofounder and vice president of corporate development for Swipe LLC, an early-stage, retail-payments technology company. Swipe's primary focus is software that speeds credit authorization and enables small retailers to accept PIN debit cards—a huge unmet need in the sector. The company is currently courting several strategic investors and negotiating to acquire a critical technology partner. During the past two years, Ms. Close also has been involved as a director and consultant to various start-ups in diverse industries, including a position as the director of strategy and business development at Startups.com. Before that, she was senior business strategist for Ingersoll Rand Company, where she managed business development teams and projects for mergers and acquisitions, major product line additions and operations improvement programs. Ms. Close began her career as a space systems test engineer for Lockheed Missiles and Space Company and an intelligence analyst for TRW in Silicon Valley. Ms. Close is also a champion elite equestrian who trains jumping horses and riders, and she also judges horse shows throughout the United States. Ms. Close holds a BS in mechanical engineering from the University of Washington, and an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. Irene CohenIrene Cohen, CEO of FlexCorp Systems, has founded four companies that specialize in such human resource services as staffing and outsourcing. In 1996, when the four entities were acquired by a public company, Ms. Cohen remained in place as vice chairman of the public company and CEO of the outsourcing division, which served Fortune 500 companies. Ms. Cohen has made numerous appearances on national radio and television to discuss management issues revolving around the critical shortage of knowledge workers; the steadily expanding contingency workforce; the legal and social implications of these trends; and the recent focus by government and unions. In 1997, she donated a gift to Columbia Business School to develop the Entrepreneurs’ Human Resource Toolkit. She is a member of the Committee of 200, a professional organization of preeminent entrepreneurs and corporate leaders who work to create more opportunities for women in business. She is the founder and a past president of Women Business Owners of New York. Ms. Cohen was previously honored as an Entrepreneur of the Year by President Ronald Reagan. John CusickJohn Cusick is principal of Q6 Group, where he supports the development of substantial business initiatives through investment, advisory, executive and board level services. Q6 currently holds positions in ventures in a variety of industries, including global satellite broadcasting, biotechnology, digital telephone service and computer networking. Over the past 20 years, Mr. Cusick has been a chairman, chief executive, board member, founder or investor for multiple successful companies in the telecommunications, media and computing businesses. He was founder, chairman and CEO of Primestar Partners, the pioneering satellite television company. In 1995, Primestar was awarded an Emmy for launching the world's first digital television service to the mass market. He also serves as CEO of Innova International Corp, a privately held Swedish group of six companies in the cellular telephone and computer industries. Mr. Cusick holds a BS from the United States Air Force Academy, an MA in economics from UCLA and an MBA from Harvard Business School. He served in the U.S. Air Force from 1970 to 1977. Ian Davis ’98 Ian Davis is vice president at Credit Suisse First Boston (CSFB), having joined the hospitality and leisure investment banking group in 1997. His primary responsibilities include covering hotel- and related clients by providing them with corporate investment banking products and services. Most recently, Mr. Davis was involved in the sale of Swissôtel Hotels and Resorts to Raffles Holdings, in which he acted as sell-side advisor to the SAir Group. Prior to joining CSFB, Mr. David was a senior associate at Hospitality Valuation Services International (HVS), a global consultancy and valuation firm, for which he spent time both in New York and London. During his tenure at HVS, Mr. David valued over $3 billion of domestic and international hotel assets. In addition to his MBA from Columbia Business School, Mr. Davis has a degree from the School of Hotel Business at Michigan State University. Jon DeVries ’97 Jon DeVries is the president and founder of Supertron Technologies, Inc., a medical device company that develops, manufactures and markets high-temperature superconducting (HTS) MRI coils, which are the antennas or cameras of an MRI scanner. Mr. DeVries' technical and financial backgrounds include directing a joint HTS research project supported by Southern California Edison, leading a research team at Polytechnic Institute, Brooklyn and teaching electrical engineering and physics at New York Institute of Technology in Manhattan. He has also worked at Pennwood Capital Corporation, a VC firm based in New York, analyzing new ventures, developing corporate strategies and business models and working with firms to develop emerging technologies. In addition to his MBA from Columbia Business School, Mr. DeVries holds a BS in physics from Harvey Mudd College. Download 137.36 Kb. Share with your friends:
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