Advisory Board Members

Please note that this is a partial listing. Additional listings will be posted prior to the event.

Mike Cassidy

mcassidy@mba1991.hbs.edu

Mike Cassidy is a Vice President at Google. He is currently the Project Leader on GoogleX Project Loon (balloon-powered Internet for everyone). Prior to joining Google, Mike was the Co-Founder and CEO of four start-ups: Ruba, Xfire, Direct Hit, and Stylus Innovation. Ruba helped travelers share their favorite places and was acquired by Google.

Eric Grosse

egrosse@mba1995.hbs.edu

Eric Grosse is an experienced entrepreneur and executive who has spent over 15 years founding and growing online consumer marketplaces. Eric is currently Co-Founder and CEO of Chairish, the leading online consignment marketplace for quality pre-owned furniture and home décor.

Mike Maples

mmaples@mba1994.hbs.edu

Mike Maples, Jr. is the managing partner of FLOODGATE, and was recently named as one of "8 Rising VC Stars" by Fortune Magazine for his investments in business and consumer technology companies. Before becoming a full-time investor, Mike was an entrepreneur and operating executive who worked in a variety of senior management roles in high-growth companies.

Anne Dwane

adwane@mba1998.hbs.edu

Anne is Chief Business Officer at Chegg. Chegg, the student hub, helps 75% of college-bound high school students and nearly 50% of college student save time, save money, get smarter from the time they're in high school considering higher education right up to landing their first job.

Aileen Lee

alee@mba1997.hbs.edu

Aileen Lee is founder of Cowboy Ventures, a fund that backs seed-stage software entrepreneurs. She is also a strategic advisor to Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, which she joined in 1999; she was also founding CEO of RMG Networks, the leading digital out-of-home media network. Prior to KPCB, Lee worked at Gap Inc. in various operating roles. She has degrees from MIT and Harvard Business School, and is the proud mom of 3 and wife to a series A-stage entrepreneur/CTO.

Phil Terry

pterry@mba1998.hbs.edu

Phil Terry, CEO of Collaborative Gain, Inc., runs The Councils, a collaborative network of senior leaders, and until early 2014, Phil was also the CEO of Creative Good, a pioneering consulting firm focused on customer experience and strategy. Phil also co-authored "Customers Included", the book widely praised by CEOs, venture capitalists and entrepreneurs for its practical and passionate focus on building better businesses.

Victoria Ransom

vransom@mba2008.hbs.edu

Victoria has been an entrepreneur since her early twenties and has developed three companies, the most recent of which, Wildfire, was acquired by Google in 2012 in one of their largest acquisitions to date. As founder & CEO of Wildfire (www.wildfireapp.com), Victoria led the company to profitability in just one year and built the company to tens of thousands of customers, over 400 employees, and eight offices worldwide.

Participant Directory

Please note that this is a partial listing. Additional listings will be posted prior to the event.

Ruzwana Bashir

Peek

rbashir@mba2011.hbs.edu

Ruzwana Bashir is Founder and CEO of Peek.com, the one-stop shop to discover and book amazing activities. Ruzwana Bashir previously worked at Gilt Groupe, Art.sy, Blackstone and Goldman Sachs. She has an MBA from Harvard where she was a Fulbright Scholar, and a BA from Oxford where she was President of the Oxford Union.

Priv Bradoo

BlueOak

pbradoo@mba2008.hbs.edu

Priv is the CEO and co-founder of BlueOak, a KPCB-funded green mining startup aimed at recovering high value metals from electronic wastes sustainably and economically. BlueOak has successfully raised over $40M towards building their first e-scrap-based precious metal refinery in Arkansas. Priv won the Harvard Alumni New Venture of 2011 Award with BlueOak. Prior to BlueOak, Priv led the commercialization of Lanzatech, a pioneer in field of renewable fuels.

More

Gregg Brockway

Maker Media

gbrockway@mba1995.hbs.edu

Gregg Brockway is currently CEO of Maker Media. Previously, Gregg was co-founder of TripIt, Hotwire and most recently Chairish. Gregg's passion is building teams that create products people love to use. Gregg and his Chairish co-founder wife Anna are raising three little makers in San Francisco, CA.

David Brunner

ModuleQ

dbrunner@phditm2009.hbs.edu

David Brunner is an entrepreneur interested using computers to make organizations smarter. He is the founder and CEO of ModuleQ. Brunner holds a PhD in Information, Technology & Management from Harvard University and a BS in Computer Science from Stanford University. Before entering Harvard, Brunner was an associate in the Tokyo and San Francisco offices of The Boston Consulting Group.

She-Rae Chen

FanTalk

schen@mba2008.hbs.edu

She-Rae Chen is founder and CEO of Afolio, the creator of FanTalk, the leading sports fan forum on mobile. Prior to Afolio, Chen held key product management and marketing roles in mobile and digital media at Apple, Palm, and Ericsson. Chen received her undergraduate EE degree from Stanford and her MBA from Harvard. She is a Bay Area native and currently lives in Hillsborough, CA with her husband and adorable two year old son. She was an NCAA Division I gymnast at Stanford and loves running, swimming, and playing tennis.

Patrick Chiang

Empath

pchiang@mba2006.hbs.edu

Patrick Chiang is CEO and founder of Empath, an early stage consumer hardware business focused on enabling & strengthening engagement between children and their families. Prior to this, he was part of the original team at Jawbone serving as CFO and vice president of business operations. In this role, Chiang helped start Jawbone's award winning consumer products business. Chiang also serves as an advisor to and investor in several startups.

Kerry Cooper

Choose Energy

kwhorton@mba1997.hbs.edu

Kerry joined Choose Energy as CEO in the fall of 2013 from her previous role as CMO and COO of ModCloth, an innovative online retailer of womenís apparel. Before joining ModCloth, Kerry held multiple executive roles at Walmart, including overseeing Walmart.comís strategy and business development, marketing and working to help build Walmartís global e-commerce and multi-channel development. Kerry holds an undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Texas at Austin and an MBA from Harvard. She lives in San Francisco with her husband and two children and a menagerie of animals.

Jon Elvekrog

140 Proof

jelvekrog@mba1996.hbs.edu

Jon is the CEO and co-founder of 140 Proof, the leading social data insights company. 140 Proof harnesses the patented Blended Interest Graph content matching engine to more accurately deliver relevant content to customers. Before founding 140 Proof, Jon held senior executive engineering, marketing and sales positions at some of the world's leading technology companies such as Microsoft, TIBCO and Hewlett-Packard, as well as internet success stories like LinkExchange.

Sharam Fouladger-Mercer

AirPR

sfouladgarmercer@mba2008.hbs.edu

Sharam Fouladgar-Mercer is the Co-founder and CEO of AirPR, a technology platform to increase PR performance. He was an Entrepreneur in Residence at Shasta Ventures focused on consumer internet and the social graph. Prior to joining Shasta, Sharam was a Senior Associate at Sierra Ventures focused on consumer internet, enterprise software (cloud computing / virtualization), and mobile. He served as a Board Observer at Makara (sold to RedHat) and TouchCommerce.

More

Dominique Gagnon

Isbel

dgagnon@mba2008.hbs.edu

Dominique C. Gagnon is the Founder & CEO of Isbel, a new company offering women immediate expert online relationship advice, in lieu of expensive couples therapy. She also is a Partner at Act of Creation, LLC, a strategic advisory firm for pre-launch consumer companies, and the Founder of Wellesley College Entrepreneurs, a global alumnae association dedicated to promoting entrepreneurship. She is currently addicted to adventure travel, street car and formula one racing, and whiskey bars.

Anthemos Georgiades

Zumper

ageorgiades@mba2012.hbs.edu

Anthemos is the Co-Founder & CEO of Zumper. Zumper is the first search through close apartment rental platform, taking both landlords and renters from the beginning to end of a rental transaction. We have raised $8.2m to date, most recently a $6.5m Series A led by Kleiner Perkins. Before Zumper, Anthemos worked at BCG in London and NYC, and also as a political speechwriter on the 2010 British election. He studied at Oxford (2005), Cambridge (2007), before graduating from HBS with Distinction (Section E) in 2012 to found Zumper in Soma, San Francisco.

Paul Gibbs

Folsom Labs

pgibbs@mba2011.hbs.edu

Paul Gibbs is Founder and CEO of Folsom Labs, a startup building PV design and engineering tools for the solar industry. Previously, he was founder and head of product at Nodal Exchange, where he launched a platform for hedging energy risk. He has an MBA from Harvard Business School and degrees in Physics and Economics from the University of Chicago.

Nick Grouf

Firefly Holdings

ngrouf@mba1995.hbs.edu

Entrepreneur and investor, Nick Grouf, has successfully built and sold several seminal technology, media and entertainment related businesses over the past 20 years. With a stellar track record for catalyzing innovative ideas and turning them into new businesses, Grouf has focused many of his ventures on harnessing the democratizing power of the Internet. Grouf is the founder and Managing Director of Firefly Holdings, a Los Angeles based investment firm focused on incubating, capitalizing and launching high-tech businesses in both the consumer and business-to-business sectors.

Tina Hay

CardBlanc

thay@mba2002.hbs.edu

Tina Hay, Founder and CEO of CardBlanc, comes from a diverse background encompassing film, technology and finance. She started her career at Miramax Films and then Paramount Pictures. She was Co-Founder and President of CityTripping.com, Editor of CityTripping Los Angeles: Your Guide to Restaurants, Nightlife, Shopping, Culture, Fitness and Hotels, and Founder of Platinum Test Group. She has successfully built businesses by identifying opportunities and building teams to manage their growth.

Russ Heddleston

DocSend

rheddleston@mba2011.hbs.edu

Russ Heddleston is the CEO at DocSend. Prior to DocSend, Russ was a Product Manager at Facebook, where he arrived via the acquisition of his startup Pursuit.com. Russ has also held roles at Dropbox, Greystripe, and Trulia. He received a BS in Computer Engineering and an MS in Computer Science from Stanford University, and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Roger Dean Huffstetler

Zillabyte

rhuffstetler@mba2009.hbs.edu

Roger Dean Huffstetler is from Newnan, Georgia, and graduated from the University of West Georgia with a B.S. in chemistry. He joined the Marine Corps in 2003, deploying to Afghanistan and Iraq in the operations department of his aviation unit. After leaving active duty, he studied general management at the Harvard Business School and was a Zuckerman Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School. Today, he is the cofounder of Zillabyte, a startup in the Bay Area focused on Big Data.

Michael Keating

Scoot Networks

mkeating@mba2007.hbs.edu

Michael is a strategist, designer, and environmentalist who founded Scoot to bring taxi-fast, bus-affordable, electric transportation to cities everywhere. Prior to founding Scoot, Michael built a successful open source transportation software business at OpenPlans, and was a management consultant with GreenOrder and The Boston Consulting Group. Michael is a graduate of Wesleyan University, the Harvard Graduate School of Design, and Harvard Business School.

Susan Kim

Plum District

suskim@mba2003.hbs.edu

Susan is the CEO of Plum District, a Kleiner Perkins backed e-commerce start-up. Under Susan's leadership, Plum District has grown to over 2 million members. Prior to Plum District, Susan was the VP of Operations at Minted.com; Chief of Staff at eBay; and Head of Commerce Operations at Google. Susan began her career at Booz Allen Hamilton. She currently serves on the board of KACF-SF and the Silicon Valley Advisory Board for Common Sense Media. She mentors entrepreneurs at start-up incubators MuckerLab and Spark Labs. Susan received her MBA from HBS and her BA from Harvard College.

Christina LaMontagne

NerdWallet

clamontagne@mba2009.hbs.edu

Christina is Founder of the Health division at high-growth personal finance company NerdWallet. Starting as an EIR at NerdWallet, Christina has pioneered the intersection of health finance, an emerging personal finance category that addresses the needs of the one in three American adults with medical debt. Previously she was a Principal investing in health technology at Physic Ventures and remains an active advisor to and investor in health tech startups. She worked in China for many years and speaks Mandarin.

Doris Lin

LookMazing

dlin@mba2012.hbs.edu

Doris Lin is CEO and cofounder of LookMazing, a fashion and beauty focused social shopping platform that transforms user-generated photos and videos into shoppable content. Prior to business school, Liin worked in private equity as an Associate at Accel-KKR and as an Investment Banking Analyst in the Technology Group at Banc of America Securities. She received a BS in business administration and a BA in computer science from the University of California, Berkeley and an MBA from HBS.

Rick Marini

BranchOut

rmarini@mba1999.hbs.edu

Rick Marini (HBS '99) is a 3-time serial entrepreneur and angel investor. He co-founded Tickle (acquired by Monster), BranchOut (acquired by 1-Page 1PG.AX) and Talk.co (acquired by Hearst). He is currently GM of Digital Products at Hearst Corporation. Rick is an active angel investor and advisor to 45 start-ups in Silicon Valley.

Peter Michailidis

Ebates

pmichailidis@mba2011.hbs.edu

Peter Michailidis is a VP at Ebates.com. Previously, CoFounder of Pushpins Inc a mobile shopping application which sold to Ebates in 2012. In 2006, he founded Substruct Systems LLC, a point of sale software and systems company specializing in advanced retail inventory management software.

Aaron Michel

PathSource

amichel@mba2007.hbs.edu

Aaron Michel is the CEO of PathSource. In the past three years, Aaron and his companies have been featured in USA Today, ABC, TechCrunch, The Wall Street Journal and other outlets. Most recently, Aaron received the Boston Business Journal and Mass High Techís Innovation All-Star award. Aaron graduated from Harvard Business School and the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. He lives with his wife Susan, with whom he is contemplating one day buying a dog, or if she gets her way, a cat.

Brandon Molina

Swing by Swing

bmolina@mba2010.hbs.edu

Founded Swing by Swing, the most widely used on-course golf mobile app (Acquired in May 2014). Previously worked at LegalZoom.com and Polaris Ventures. HBS 2010, Harvard College 2004.

Sascha Mornell

Phacil

smornell@mba1997.hbs.edu

Sascha Mornell is the co-founder and Chairman of Phacil, an award winning $130 million technology services federal government contractor. He is also the co-founder at SaraGEO, a geo-location start-up, as well as GetMyBoat, the world's largest boat rental marketplace with over 25,000+ boats in 2,300 locations in 110 countries. He is a Director and co-founder of the SaraVenture Foundation, a non-profit DAF focused on military veterans, education and various youth/leadership causes.

Tom Patterson

Wize

tpatterson@mba1996.hbs.edu

Tom Patterson is an experienced CEO, investor and advisor. He is the founder of Wize.com that was acquired by Nextag and is currently founder Heighten, an exciting startup in the enterprise mobile space. Tom has also held a number of executive leadership positions in both startups and established companies and is on the Board of Dale Carnegie.

Joris Poort

Rescale

gpoort@mba2011.hbs.edu

Joris is the Founder and CEO of Rescale, an enterprise software company which develops the industry leading cloud simulation platform and is backed by numerous top tier investors including Sam Altman, Jeff Bezos, Richard Branson, Paul Graham, and Peter Thiel. Prior to founding Rescale, Joris was a consultant for McKinsey & Company focussed on product development engagements in the high-tech sector.

More

Matthew Prince

CloudFlare

mprince@mba2009.hbs.edu

Matthew Prince is co-founder and CEO of CloudFlare. CloudFlareís mission is to build a better Internet. A serial entrepreneur, he co-founded Unspam Technologies, an anti-spam startup where he continues to serve as Chairman, and Project Honey Pot, the largest open source community tracking online fraud and abuse. He has been an adjunct professor of law at the John Marshall Law School and serves on the Board of Advisors for the Center for Information Technology and Privacy Law.

James Reinhart

thredUP

jreinhart@mba2009.hbs.edu

James Reinhart has been thredUP CEO and Co-Founder since 2009, after earning degrees from Harvard Business School and Harvard Kennedy School, where he was a Bill George Fellow at the Center for Public Leadership and a HBS Goldsmith Fellow. James has grown the company to over 300 employees and secured over $50M in venture funding for the business. Prior to thredUP, he helped build Pacific Collegiate School, recently named the #3 school in America by US News & World Report. James lives in the Bay Area with his wife and their two (soon-to-be-three) young children.

Duke Rohlen

Spirox, Inc.

drohlen@mba2001.hbs.edu

Duke has over two decades of experience in cardiovascular medical devices. He currently serves as co-founder and CEO of Spirox, Inc., a medial device company that treats nasal obstruction. Concurrent to founding Spirox, Duke led a recapitalization of Advanced Cardiac Therapeutics and, as CEO, entered into a structured sale with Abbott Laboratories valued at approximately $200 million. Prior to Advanced Cardiac Therapeutics, Duke served as founder and CEO of CV Ingenuity, which he sold to Covidien (now Medtronic) in 2013 for approximately $300 million.

More

Oliver Roup

VigLink

oroup@mba2009.hbs.edu

Oliver Roup is founder and CEO of VigLink, the premier marketplace for publishers to connect their audiences to high-quality merchants without needing to display ads. Oliver brings over 15 years of software experience to VigLink. Previously, he was a Director at Microsoft in charge of product for various media properties including XBOX Live Video Marketplace, Zune Marketplace and MSN Entertainment. Heís a board member of the Performance Marketing Association and chair of the PMAís Content Monetization Council. Oliver received his bachelorís and masterís degrees in computer science from MIT and his MBA from the Harvard Business School.

Pouyan Salehi

PersistIQ

psalehimoshaee@mba2007.hbs.edu

Pouyan Salehi is the CEO and Co-founder of PersistIQ, modern software for sales teams to turn convert cold prospects into sales opportunities. The company is backed by Y Combinator and top SaaS investors. Previously, he was a Co-founder at StackMob (acquired by PayPal), and an EIR at Redpoint Ventures. He also spent several years at Apple managing iPhone business operations.

Sonya Schroeder

iiWisdom

sstellwagon@mba1993.hbs.edu

Sonya Schroeder spent 15 years in the corporate world, as a consultant at Bain, an advertising executive, and in operating roles at American Express and Time, Inc. She is co-founder and Head of Corporate Services for iiWisdom, an information services company that provides directors of public companies with comprehensive, peer-benchmarked feedback from their institutional investors. She lives in Orinda, CA with her husband and three children.

Anthony Soohoo

Dot & Bo

asoohoo@mba1999.hbs.edu

Anthony Soohoo is Co-Founder and CEO of Dot & Bo. He founded the company in 2013 with a vision to create a new kind of furniture shopping experience that combines the personalized advice of an interior decorator with the entertainment experience of watching a television show. Under Soohoo’s direction, Dot & Bo has grown from an idea into one of the top places for discovering and buying things you love for your home.

Jonathan Spier

PLAE

jspier@mba2004.hbs.edu

Jonathan is a 15 year startup veteran. He is currently CEO of PLAE, an e-commerce company and lifestyle brand started by the former Chief Designer of Puma and Ugg. Prior to PLAE, he was Co-founder and CEO of NetBase, a leading provider of social media marketing solutions to blue-chip customers like Coca-Cola, JD Power and SAP. Jonathan was also an early employee of Ariba prior to its IPO and subsequent acquisition by SAP for $4+ billion in 2013. He has served as an Entrepreneur in Residence at Altos Ventures and has mentored and advised numerous CEOs.

David Vivero

Amino

dvivero@mba2008.hbs.edu

Based in San Francisco, David Vivero is founder and CEO of Amino, a consumer healthcare marketplace, and General Partner at Red Swan Ventures, a seed investment fund. Previously, Vivero founded RentJuice and served as its CEO. In 2012, RentJuice was acquired by Zillow, where David managed Zillow's rental marketplace, the largest web- and mobile-based rental marketplace. Vivero holds a BA from Harvard and an MBA from HBS.

David Weil

iiWisdom

dweil@mba1993.hbs.edu

David Weil became an entrepreneur after 20 years as an investment banker. He is the founder of iiWisdom, an information services company that provides directors of public companies with comprehensive, peer-benchmarked, unfiltered feedback of their institutional investors. He lives with his wife and two kids in San Francisco, and drives Lyft for inspiration and entertainment.

Christopher Wu

Paper Culture

cwu@mba2000.hbs.edu

Christopher Wu is the CEO and Co-Founder of Paper Culture. Paper Culture is an e-commerce site that creates personalized, eco-friendly products with modern design. Products include invitations, announcements, stationery, wall art, gifts and labels. Every product utilizes sustainable materials such as 100% post consumer recycled paper and bamboo for wall art and Paper Culture offsets its carbon footprint through carbon credits. Paper Culture plants a tree with every order and has planted over 300,000 trees to date.

More

Michelle Zatlyn

CloudFlare

mzatlyn@mba2009.hbs.edu

Michelle Zatlyn is the co-founder & head of user experience of CloudFlare, the web performance and security company that accelerates and protects more than 2 million web properties. Prior to CloudFlare, she worked at Google and Toshiba and launched two successful startups. She was named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum, one of the Top Women to Watch in Technology by the Huffington Post and one of the Top 15 Women to Watch in Tech by Inc. Magazine.