About Us » Mentors
Mentors
Patrick Ambron
Patrick, a 2009 Syracuse University graduate, is a partner at Brand-yourself.com, the easiest way to improve your online reputation. Brand-yourself has been recognized by Entrepreneur magazine as one of the top 5 innovative young companies in the nation and honored as one the top 50 most innovative young start-ups by the Kairos Society. Brand-yourself is also recognized as the leading web-based online reputation management platform for individuals--the one place you go to manage and grow your entire online reputation. Patrick has helped Brand-yourself secure over 1 million dollars in venture capital and his innovative branding strategies have earned him and his company coverage in the Huffington Post, Mashable, US News & World, MSNB, ABC, NPR and more. He is recognized as a thought leader in the new media landscape and co-developed the new media curriculum at the #1 school of information studies in the U.S. at Syracuse University.
Email: pambron@brandyourself.com
Twitter: twitter.com/pcambron
Linkedin: http://www.linkedin.com/in/patrickambron
Website: http://pcambron.brand-yourself.com/
Mark Arbon
Sarofeen & Arbon, PLLC is a law firm located in Syracuse, New York representing small and medium sized businesses in general business, tax and real estate matters, individuals in tax and estate planning matters, commercial lenders in asset based and real estate loans and quasi-governmental entities in industrial development agency matters.
Site: www.sapllclaw.com
Kyle Blumin
Kyle is the founder and President of Wellness by Choice (WBC), a company acquired by Nurtur in January 2010. His personal journey to health inspired him to establish WBC with the vision to help organizations reduce healthcare costs by improving the lives and health of individuals. Prior to founding WBC, Kyle was President of Clifton Property Services, a facility maintanance organization for national and regional accounts. He led a turn-around effort that tripled revenues and quadrupled profit. His prior experience includes Vice President of Corporate Development at Capital Environmental Resources where he was responsible for mergers and acquisitions with oversight of an $85 million credit facility. Kyle is a graduate of Syracuse University, Martin J. Whitman School of Management. An avid skier, he is a member of the Professional Ski Instructors of America. He lives in Fayetteville, N.Y.
Email: kyleblumin@yahoo.com
Sean Brannigan
Sean Branagan is a serial entrepreneur, technology marketer, consultant, educator and speaker on marketing, online and digital media and technology startups. He is Director of Newhouse’s Center for Digital Media Entrepreneurship; CEO of Digital Vertical Marketing, a search and social media marketing firm; founder and president of Communigration, Inc, a technology marketing firm; and partner with C3 Strategic, LLC, a management consulting and venture firm for early-stage tech companies. Sean is a recognized expert in interactive marketing and has worked with organizations such as Bulova Watches, Cutco Cutlery, The DuPont Registry, Global Marine Systems, Ltd., Lighthouse International, NaviSite, New Era Cap Company, Rack Room Shoes, Time-Warner/Road Runner, and many others. He is also an advisor to early-stage tech companies, investors and an investment banking firm.
Email: sbranagan@C3Strategic.com
Twitter: twitter.com/sean_branagan
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/seanbranagan1
Blog: SeanBranagan.com
Kate Brodock
Kate Brodock is the Founder and CEO of the Other Side Group (http://www.othersidegroup.com), a digital marketing strategy and brand management firm that works with organizations and high-profile individuals to increase and improve their presence online. Additionally, she is the CMO of Girls in Tech (http://girlsintech.net), a non-profit for the empowerment of women in technology and entrepreneurship, on the Strategy Board of the Meta-Activism Project (http://www.meta-activism.org), a non-traditional think tank devoted to making the field of digital activism smarter, and on the Board of the Redhouse Arts Center, a non-profit cultural center. She holds an MBA in marketing and entrepreneurship from Emory University, an MA in International Relations from the Fletcher School at Tufts University, and BAs in Political Science and History from the University of Rochester. Outsider of all that, she's a decidedly non-professional musician, even more non-professional athlete, and enjoys hiking, biking, skiing, sailing, eating great food, craft beer, the Red Sox, great music and life.
Twitter: twitter.com/just_Kate
Site: http://www.katebrodock.com/
Paul C. Brooks
With over 35 years of management experience in industry sectors as diverse as emerging business development, computer equipment leasing, enterprise software, marketing communications and non-profit organizations. Paul is an expert in team building, program management and strategy development. A native of Syracuse and graduate of Syracuse University’s Whitman School of Management he earned a BS Degree in Accounting and a Master’s Degree in Marketing Management. Paul’s has had wide-ranging responsibilities in his career including sales and marketing management, sales training and recruiting, administrative management, marketing communications and PR, business development, organizational effectiveness and new-venture business creation and incubation. In a recent position he was responsible for a technology business incubator focused on creating technology businesses and fostering entrepreneurship in Central New York.
Email: pbrooks@twcny.rr.com
Tel: 315-882-4709
Michael Cardamone
Michael Cardamone has 5+ years of experience in business development and partner marketing across multiple industries including associations, B2B software as a service and performance marketing. He currently holds the position of Sr. Manager of Partnerships and Business Development at AcademixDirect, managing channel partners accounting for over 60% of company revenue. He is also the co-founder of Grickets. Prior to AcademixDirect, Michael worked as the Business Development Manager at Box.net where he was involved in the integration and marketing of Box.net's product with partners such as Dell, Linkedin and Salesforce. He holds an MBA, with a focus in Finance and Marketing, from Columbia Business School; and a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Syracuse University.
Email: mgcardamone@gmail.com
Twitter: twitter.com/mgcardamone
Linkedin: http://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelcardamone
Lori Ciarla
Lori A. Ciarla, is an audit partner at Dermody, Burke & Brown, CPAs, LLC. Lori has been with the firm since 1992 and brings a wealth of expertise and experience to a variety of companies and organizations. She concentrates her practice in the areas of accounting, auditing and business consulting. She specializes in several industries including Healthcare, Professional Services, Governmental and Service Organizations. Lori is a graduate of Le Moyne College. She is Past Treasurer of the Carol M. Baldwin Breast Cancer Research Fund of CNY, Inc. and Girls Incorporated.
Email: lac@dbbllc.com
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/lori-ciarla/13/a25/97b
Site: http://www.dbbllc.com/index.cfm
Shay Colson
Shay Colson is a 2010 graduate of the M.S. in information management program at the Syracuse iSchool. He is currently working in San Francisco, California as the iSchool's director of west coast relationships. He is the former co-founder and managing partner of sandbox startup capesquared, and spends considerable time working with consumer internet startups and innovators in Silicon Valley. Shay is currently seeking his next entrepreneurial opportunity, and is always happy to chat about ideas, startups, food, beer, and Seattle sports.
Email: shaycolson@gmail.com
Twitter: twitter.com/shaycolson
Linkedin: http://www.linkedin.com/in/shaycolson
Website: http://www.shaycolson.com
David C. DiMaggio
David DiMaggio is Program Manager of the Syracuse University CASE Center Industry Co-Op program. His extensive background includes experience with employers and college career centers to develop recruiting strategies to facilitate the connection between college students and local employers. He is active with professional trade organizations and various economic development agencies in the promotion of college internship programs. Upon his retirement from GE in October 2004 after 25 years of service, David has served in various roles to assist college students in their career preparation. He served as Interim Director of the Clarkson University Career Center during the 2005 Fall Semester and is a frequent panelist on college and high school career forums. David, a native of Rome NY, attended Clarkson University and Utica College where he majored in Mathematics.
Email: ddimaggi@syr.edu
Linkedin: http://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=12256778&trk=tab_pro
Site: http://case.syr.edu/coops/index.php
Gino Duca
Gino Duca is a native of Syracuse and holds BS and MS degrees in Chemical Engineering from Syracuse University. With over 14 years of manufacturing and design experience, Gino is part of the leadership team that brings technical resources to Central New York as the president of Salt City Technical. Gino has worked in manufacturing, quality and design engineering in CNY at Felix Scholler Technical Papers, Albany International, PPC and KBE+, Inc. Gino is also an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Biomedical and Chemical Engineering at Syracuse University where he teaches a senior level Capstone design course for chemical engineers. Gino is committed to the Central New York and fostering entrepreneurship and innovation in our community.
Email: gduca@saltcitytechnical.com
Site: www.saltcitytechnical.com
David Eilers
Vice President, Business Development Blue Highway LLC. Mr. Eilers has experience with Consumer Goods such as leading the introduction and roll-out of Personal Pan Pizza for Pepsi Food Service. His experience in Durable Goods includes commercial chinaware for Syracuse China/ Libbey Foodservice. For the last twelve years, Dave has been employed in the Healthcare Industry working in management for two private-equity investment groups before the ten-company group was acquired in 2006. Mr. Eilers was a Co-Founder of Blue Highway LLC in 2008, applying his interest in Open Innovation business model to Diagnostic Healthcare. With over 40 master research agreements worldwide, Blue Highway is dedicated to creating innovative, intellectual capital through.
Email: deilers@blue-highway.com
Andrew Farah
Andrew is a technical officer at AppFury LLC and a Co-Founder of a design firm called Rounded. In his spare time he feeds an addiction to Ping-Pong. Andrew holds a master's degree in information management from Syracuse University's iSchool and separate degrees in writing and speech.
Email: andrewmfarah@gmail.com
Twitter: twitter.com/andrewfarah
Site: http://rounded.co
Eric Hinman
Eric is a 2002 graduate of SUNY Geneseo, and holds a bachelor's degree in business administration. He is the co-founder of Appfury and We are Mobile. An entrepreneur at heart, Eric enjoys seeing ideas turned into reality. Appfury's debut app, sohoinmypocket was featured by apple as "new and noteworthy" and gained traction in the national press. Eric has appeared in The Wall Street Journal and the CNY Business Journal and has spoken at Syracuse University about mobile marketing and application development. In his spare time, Eric enjoys running and competing in triathlons. Eric resides in Syracuse, NY.
Twitter: @erichinman
Site: appfury.com
Email: eric@appfury.com
Victor Ianno
Active business investor, currently developing and managing real estate projects. Owner and President of Lakeside Printing Inc. in Skaneateles N.Y. Lakeside published 12 Pennysaver publications throughout the Finger Lakes, and was a regional printer of tabloids, college publications and high quality 4-color printing. Lakeside employed 100+ people. The company was sold in January of 2000.
Email: vianno@twcny.rr.com
Phone: 315-673-0878
Pete Kistler
Pete Kistler is the CEO and founder of Brand-yourself.com, a social media toolset to manage your online reputation. He is also a writer, speaker, musician and entrepreneur. Pete is driven by tools that are useful, simple, and have a meaningful impact on the way we work and play. Pete is passionate about connecting motivated people to meaningful opportunities. He is cited as a leading online reputation management and personal branding expert, one of the top 30 definitive personal branding experts on twitter, and a judge for the 2009 personal brand awards. He was also named one of the top 5 college entrepreneurs of 2009 by entrepreneur magazine by helping people advance their careers using social media.
Email: pkistler@brandyourself.com
Twitter: twitter.com/pete_kistler
Linkedin: http://www.linkedin.com/in/petekistler
Website: http://petekistler.brand-yourself.com/
Patrick Kraft
Patrick Kraft is the owner-operator of Kraftees College Town a college retailing company. With roots in apparel printing and graphics services since1989, his company has continued to evolve into a regional college bookstore business. With stores in Oswego since 1990 and Ithaca since 2001, he has immortalized the Kraftees customer base. Embracing the changing marketplace, Patrick continues to re-brand his business to accommodate the needs of his customers, including emphasis on Kraftees.com, a regional textbook source for students attending upstate NY colleges. Patrick is a member of The College Stores Association of New York, CSANYS, in addition to The Add Specialty Institute, ASI, and The Alpha Five Users Group.
Mobile: 315-343-9376
Email: pat@kraftees.com
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/patrick-kraft/33/946/504
Thomas Kruczek
Thomas is currently the executive director of the Falcone Center for Entrepreneurship at the Whitman School of Management. The Falcone Center leads the entrepreneurship outreach effort for SU and runs over 20 different programs such as the WISE Women’s Business Center and Symposium for women entrepreneurs, the South Side Innovation Center (an incubator for local entrepreneurs), the Couri Hatchery (assists student entrepreneurs), and the Entrepreneurship Bootcamp for Veterans with Disabilities and Families that assists disabled military veterans an family members, among many others. He has a broad range of business skills developed over a 25-year career in consulting and entrepreneurial ventures.
Email: eeeinfo@syr.edu
Site: http://www.whitman.syr.edu/eee
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/EEEatSU
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/tom-kruczek/3/232/1b6
Liz Liddy
Liz Liddy is Dean of the iSchool at SU. She was founder & CEO of university-based TextWise LLC which she led from 1994 to 1999 in the development of an NLP-based search engine deployed at the U.S. & European Patent Offices. Liddy with her son John as CFO /COO grew TextWise to 50 employees, & the company fares well today. She is inventor on 7 patents related to Natural Language Processing. In 1999, she founded the Center for Natural Language Processing, which conducts R & D on human-like, language-understanding software capabilities. Liddy is the recipient of the Tibbett’s Award from the Small Business Administration (1998), the Enterprise Award for Technology from the Upstate New York Technology Business Forum (1998), the Post-Standard Achievement Award (2005), and the Search Engine Conference Best Paper Award (2007). Liddy served as Chair of the Association for Computing Machinery Special Interest Group of Information Retrieval, the leading professional organization in the search field, for 2007-10 and is Chair-Elect of the iSchool Caucus, an international organization of 31 iSchools. Liddy has taught courses in search engines, natural language processing, and data mining. She is also the founder of Women in Information Technology, a student organization that supports and mentors female IT students.
Email: liddy@syr.edu
Twitter: twitter.com/lizliddy
Dan Magnuszewski
Dan is an entrepreneur from Buffalo, NY and holds a bachelors in Computer Science from SUNY Buffalo. He has worked as an engineer on Synacor's TV Everywhere platform and is launching a new startup, MyFavorites. His current focus is on consolidating and growing the tech startup community in WNY, and serves as a technical adviser for UNYstartups. He is a co-founder of the WNY OpenData Working Group, an organization that is building an infrastructure to expose city, traffic, and government data through open APIs. In his spare time he enjoys speedskating, running, and home brewing.
Email: magnachef@gmail.com
Twitter: @magnachef
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/magnachef
Website: http://about.me/magnachef
Evan McGowan-Watson
Evan McGowan-Watson is the head of business development at Brand-yourself. Evan's job ranges from the creation of partnerships to the implementation and ongoing support. Evan works closely with universities to develop unique programs for campus wide initiatives that seamlessly integrate the Brand-yourself toolset into existing services and curriculum. Other partnerships include the creation of joint and co-branded products with large consumer internet companies in the people search, online dating, online universities, career services and social networking verticals. Evan also regularly speaks about leveraging software as a service platforms and social media for personal and business brand building. Beyond work, Evan is also somewhat of an adrenaline junky and enjoys kite-boarding, snowboarding and wakeboarding.
Email: ewatson@brandyourself.com
Twitter: twitter.com/evanmwatson
Linkedin: http://www.linkedin.com/in/evanmcgowanwatson
Website: http://evan.brand-yourself.com/
Seth Mulligan
Seth Mulligan is the Director of Venture Development for CenterState CEO, where he assists early stage entrepreneurs, emerging businesses, and innovation industry leaders. He is the President and Founder of GoVo Biofuels, LLC, a start-up biofuels company that has been part of the Clean Tech Corporation, working on agribusiness development projects in conjunction with ag and food industry partners across New York State. Seth holds an MPA degree from the Maxwell School at Syracuse University, as well as MPS and undergraduate degrees from Alfred University. He is a member of the steering committee of the "We Live NY Summit" and is actively involved in community engagement projects. He is a dynamic addition to CenterState CEO's Innovation and Entrepreneurship team.
Twitter: twitter.com/syracuseseth
Site: www.govobiofuels.com
Email: smulligan@centerstateceo.com
Tel: (315) 579-0024
Michael R. Murphy
An experienced web developer with over a decade of experience working with businesses small to multinational. Specializing in E-Commerce and web applications using ASP, PHP, Javascript and AJAX, XHTML, CSS, MySQL, SQL Server.
Email: michael.r.murphy@gmail.com
Twitter: twitter.com/michaelmurphy
Site: michaelrichardmurphy.com
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelrichardmurphy
Tel: 585.210.8676
Ulf Oesterle
Ulf is an assistant professor in the bandier program for music and the entertainment industries. Before arriving at VPA, Oesterle was a visiting professor in the advertising department at SU and adjunct professor in communications at Lemoyne College. Ulf earned his Ph.D. From the S.I. Newhouse School of public communications at SU in 2007 with a dissertation that focused on creative control in the independent sector of the music industry. His continuing research interests focus on independent record labels and the use of social media and emerging technology within the music business. Outside of the classroom, Oesterle owns an independent record label and artist management company, has spent time on the air as a radio programmer and host at KRock and has experience managing live music events in central New York.
Twitter: twitter.com/ulfoesterle
Site: www.ulfoesterle.com
Email: uoesterl@syr.edu
Mitchell Patterson
As the director of business retention & expansion, Mitchell provides services focused on business expansion and retention; advancing emerging industry sectors; and maximizing the region’s innovation and technology assets. Mitchell provides support for a multi-county regional growth strategy with a network of business leaders, public officials, economic development organizations, and high education administration. Mitchell is aggressively seeking to bridge the gap between the downstate capital groups and the upstate business community. He is also a member of the Onondaga County business retention team. As the managing director for the emerging business portfolio, Mitchell coordinates planning, outreach, and fundraising for New York’s creative core $250,000 emerging business competition. He manages a $3.6 million dollar IP commercialization grant program aimed at fostering industry – academic partnerships. Mitchell is developing a network of early state and series funders in the north east.
Email: mpatterson@centerstateceo.com
Twitter: twitter.com/mpattersoncuse
Emad Rahim
Dr. Emad Rahim is currently an Assistant Professor at Morrisville State College and Director of Venture Connect, an entrepreneurship degree program sponsored by the Kauffman Foundation. He is the Principal Consultant and co-founder of Global i365 LLC, a management consultancy firm that provides e-Learning solutions and facilitates diversity development and change management training programs for corporate clients. He has also founded the Human Service Association of CNY and co-founded Innovative Development Incorporated and MusLamb Paper Press. Dr. Rahim completed his Post-Doctoral studies at A.B. Freeman School of Business at Tulane University and earned a Doctorate of Management from the Institute for Advance Studies at Colorado Technical University. He was the recipient of the 2010 Entrepreneurship Teaching Excellence Award from Oklahoma State University, 2010 CEC Educator of the Year Award finalist from Career Education Corporation and named the 2011 Beyster Scholar Fellow from the Beyster Institute of UC San Diego.
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/erahim
Site: Venture Connect
Email: Rahime@morrisville.edu
Tel: 315.579.2864
Tom Schryver
Tom Schryver is co-founder and president of Pi Experiential Learning (PIXL). PIXL provides cutting-edge experiential training for businesspeople on issues of leadership and teamwork using business simulation and exercises. The company is a national science foundation grantee. Previously, he was director of finance for the Triad foundation, where he was responsible for overseeing all financial operations of the foundation, including accounting, audit, and investing the foundation's $250mm portfolio. Tom has an A.B. from Cornell University and an MBA from Cornell's Johnson graduate school of management, where he was a recipient of the Albert J. Fried fellowship for leadership and academic excellence. He is a chartered financial analyst (CFA).
Email: tps1@cornell.edu
Twitter: twitter.com/tomschryver
Linkedin: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/tom-schryver/2/95a/479
RJ Sherman
RJ Sherman is a recent graduate of Syracuse University and has been an entrepreneur since he was 16 when he started his first venture, Charles River Web Connections, LLC, database management, graphic design company. Currently he is the founder and COO of Brand-yourself.com. Beyond work RJ is a professional scuba diver, avid photographer, and is currently training for a triathlon.
Email: rsherman@crwebconnections.com
Twitter: twitter.com/r_j_sherman
Linkedin: http://www.linkedin.com/in/rjsherman
Website: http://rjsherman.brand-yourself.com/
Zachary Shulman
Zach joined CVF in 2004 and also teaches at the Johnson School at Cornell University. He currently serves as a director of Primet Precision Materials, Advion Biosciences, e2e materials, Instinctiv and Cherrypharm. Prior to joining CVF, Zach was general counsel at a technology startup that raised considerable venture capital, but ultimately suffered when the tech bubble burst. Prior to that he practiced corporate law at Ropes & Gray in Boston, and Harris beach in Ithaca. Zach serves on a number of advisory boards affiliated with Cornell programs. He earned both his B.S. in industrial and labor relations and his J.D. degrees at Cornell University.
Email: zjs2@cornell.edu
Twitter: @zachshulman
Site: www.ithacaVC.com
Lynn Smith
Lynn H. Smith attended Cornell and Syracuse University and earned his LLB from Syracuse University college of Law in 1960. He is admitted to practice law in the State of New York. Mr. Smith has acted as counsel to the Public Authorities Committee in the New York State Senate from 1967 to 1974 and has served on the Board of Directors, Executive Committee and as Chairman of the Greater Syracuse Chamber of Commerce, which is now called Centerstate Corporation for Economic Opportunity. His expertise includes mergers and acquisitions, leveraged leasing, development and operations of commercial real estate with a view to using tax and economic development zone benefits, entity selection, development and operations, internet business and alternative energy enterprises. He is one of the founders and is counsel to the Seed Capital Fund of Central New York, an organization dedicated to funding and mentoring of start up companies.
John Szczech
John is a Healthcare dreamer who thinks emerging technologies can have a huge impact on the Healthcare industry and most importantly on patient care. John’s background consists of a BS in Marketing at Le Moyne College and working as a Research and Development Associate in the St. Joseph’s Hospital Network.
Email: szczecjr@gmail.com
Twitter: twitter.com/john_szczech
Brad Treat
Brad is the co-founder and CEO of Mezmeriz, an innovative MEMS company making projectors to embed into mobile phones. Previously, he was the Entrepreneur-In-Residence at Cornell University. Brad was also the co-founder and CEO of SightSpeed, an innovative video and voice communications company. Together with co-founders Aron Rosenberg and Cornell University Professor Toby Berger, Treat grew SightSpeed from a university research project at Cornell into the world's premier video calling software. SightSpeed was acquired by Logitech for $30MM. He holds a degree in Mechanical Engineering from North Carolina State University and an MBA from the Johnson School at Cornell.
Twittter: twitter.com/bradtreat
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/bradtreat
Site: www.bradtreat.blogspot.com
Email: btreat@gmail.com
Tom Uva
Mr. Uva is the Chief Information Officer (CIO) for WYNIT Distribution, LLC. Mr. Uva is also currently an adjunct professor at Syracuse University in the Center for Science and Technology in the School of Information Studies. Mr. Uva holds a MBA and a BS in Information Systems from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
Steve VonDeak
Steve VonDeak is a lawyer by education and an entrepreneur at heart. He is co-founder of AppFury, a mobile application development shop based in the Tech Garden. Born, raised and educated in Syracuse, Steve has Central NY in his blood and will never live anywhere else (at least that's what his wife says!).
Email: steve@appfury.com
Twitter: twitter.com/stevenvondeak
