Past Events

Investigating Software Intellectual Property Theft featuring;

Bob Zeidman '81, President, Software Analysis and Forensic Engineering Corporation

Abstract: Software copyright infringement and trade secret theft are problems of growing concern in academia and in industry. These kinds of intellectual property theft may be purposeful when performed to gain an unfair advantage over a competitor, or they may be unintended as in the case of a programmer that takes code from one project and uses it in another project without first obtaining the appropriate rights. In all cases, a formal methodology is required and a standard, quantitative measure is needed to be able to effectively compare source code from different sources to determine whether trade secret theft or copyright infringement has occurred. Just as important, legal and technical definitions are needed. This event will define important terms from a technical perspective and legal perspective. Litigation involving software intellectual property doesn't have to be a battle of experts and can be a more quantitative comparison of repeatable results. This event will also examine various measures of software correlation and various tools for detecting copying.

Outline:

·   Introduction
·   What is copyright infringement?
·   What constitutes software source code copyright infringement?
·   What is a trade secret?
·   What constitutes software source code trade secret theft?
·   Measuring software source code correlation.
·   Interpreting source code correlation.
·   Some stories from the trenches.
·   Conclusion.

Who Should Attend: This event is intended for intellectual property lawyers, expert witnesses, corporate executives, project managers, and programmers who are concerned about detecting theft and plagiarism of their own code or avoiding theft and plagiarism by programmers working for them. An understanding of programming is helpful though not required. 

Result: Attendees will walk away with concepts of defining, detecting, and measuring software intellectual property theft.
 
Thursday, July 17, 2008
12:00 PM – 1:30 PM

11:45AM - 12:15PM - Early arrival networking, doors open at 11:45AM
12:15PM - 12:30PM - Introduction of attendees
12:30PM - 1:30PM - Presentation and discussion of presentation
1:30PM - Hard cut-off of presentation and discussion
Stay to network until 2:00PM if you like!

Cost: $20 per person includes boxed lunch.

Location: Registered guests will be provided the address on Sand Hill Road in Menlo Park the week before the event.

About The Instructor:Bob Zeidman is the president of Software Analysis and Forensic Engineering Corporation (www.SAFE-Corp.biz) that develops and sells CodeSuite®, the leading software tool for comparing source code and object code to find theft and plagiarism. Bob is also the president of Zeidman Consulting (www.ZeidmanConsulting.com), that provides engineering consulting for intellectual property litigation. Bob has served as an expert witness in patent, trade secret, and copyright litigation resulting in several billion dollars in total awards. Among his publications are technical papers on hardware and software design methods as well as three textbooks -- Designing with FPGAs and CPLDs, Verilog Designer's Library, and Introduction to Verilog. He has taught courses at business and engineering conferences throughout the world. Bob holds four patents and earned bachelor's degrees in physics and electrical engineering at Cornell University and a master's degree in electrical engineering at Stanford University.

Cornell Silicon Valley, The Cornell Entrepreneur Network, and Plug and Play Tech Center presents;
The Cornell/ Plug and Play Investment Forum

On July 1st, The Cornell/ Plug and Play Investment Forum Event will feature a vibrant network of connections for anyone interested in technology; from Sequoia Capital, to an entrepreneur who sold his company to Microsoft and of course has yet another start-up to which he lured the former COO of eBay as his CEO last year, updates from Entrepreneurship@Cornell, presentations by six start-ups, and twenty start-up Demos. It’s a rare collection of both talent and opportunity. Start-ups should contact olga@plugandplaytechcenter.com and cc shm4@cornell.edu All Cornell alumni, parents, and students are welcomed! Students contact shm4@cornell.edu to attend for free.

Watch a video of this event

Tuesday July 1st, 2008
6:00 PM Reception

6:30 PM Brief updates from;
Saeed Amidi, President/CEO, Plug and Play Tech Center 
Steve Benjamin '80 MEng, '81 MBA '82, Entrepreneur-in-Residence, Cornell’s Johnson School of Graduate Management
Dan Cohen, Entrepreneur-in-Residence, Student Agencies eLab
John Jaquette, Executive Director, Entrepreneurship@Cornell

6:45 PM Bill Trenchard ’97, Chairman, Liveops

7:00 PM Doug Leone '79, General Partner, Sequoia Capital

7:15 PM Six 5 minute presentations before the VC panel

8:00 PM Continued reception & Demo by 20 start-ups.

Cost: $20 per person (includes Reception). This event is expected to sell-out and requires pre-registration.

Location: Plug and Play Tech Center, 440 N Wolf Rd, Sunnyvale, CA 94085

Sorry! This event has sold out. The conference room at CSN Stores will be very tight and we have to give the security desk a list of attendees beforehand, so please - no walk ins. We'll be planning more events for the fall - hope to see you then!

“The secret to success in an online world” featuring Steve Conine ’95 and Niraj Shah ’95, co-founders of CSN Stores

You may not know the name CSN Stores, but you’ve probably shopped at least one of their 200+ websites. You also might know (or someday become?!) one of the 500+ employees that works at their rapidly expanding offices in the Prudential Center. With over a million products and $200 million in sales, CSN Stores is one of the largest and most successful online retailers in the world, and they’re poised to become one of the largest employers in Boston.

The company was founded by two Cornellians, Steve Conine and Niraj Shah, both wildly successful serial entrepreneurs, and both Engineering graduates from the class of ’95.

At this event, you’ll get to hear their stories. Specifically, they’ll talk to us about:

• How they’ve identified and developed three winning business opportunities
• How they financed the first, second, and third ventures
• What it takes to run a successful online retailer
• What their biggest challenges have been with online retailing and how they’ve solved (or not solved!) them
• What’s next on their plate

About our Speakers
Niraj S. Shah, CEO
Prior to creating CSN Stores, Mr. Shah started and grew several other companies, increasing revenue to levels as high as $480 million, while also driving profitability. He was Chief Executive of Simplify Mobile, a software company that was sold to Tangoe, an enterprise software company offering a full telecommunications management solution. Previously, he was an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Greylock Partners, a premier venture capital firm with over $2.2 billion under management. Before that, he served as COO and a member of the Board of Directors at iXL, a publicly traded global technology consulting firm. While he was COO, iXL's revenue tripled to $480M and the firm's profitability increased from a loss of $5 million to a profit of $35 million on an annualized basis.

Mr. Shah also co-founded and served as CEO of Spinners incorporated, an IT services firm with clients including AOL Time Warner, The New York Times, JP Morgan Chase, and Merrill Lynch. Spinners was sold to iXL in 1998. Mr. Shah holds a BS from Cornell University, and lives in Boston, Mass., with his wife and two young children.

Steven K. Conine, Chairman and Co-Founder
Mr. Conine has extensive executive leadership experience in private and public technology companies. Mr. Conine was a Founder, Member of the Board, and Chief Technology Officer of Simplify Mobile. Before starting Simplify Mobile, Mr. Conine served as Chief Operating Officer for the London Office of iXL. He co-founded and served as a top executive of Spinners Incorporated, where he was integral to the architecting and development of all of the technology solutions Spinners created. Mr. Conine holds a BS from Cornell University, and lives in Boston, Mass., with his wife and two young children.

Sorry, this event has been sold out and we have a waiting list of 40+ people, so we will not be allowing walk-ins at this event. Clearly this is a popular subject; we'll be planning similar events for the fall...stay tuned!

"Fooling Some of the People All of the Time" featuring David Einhorn ‘91, President of Greenlight Capital, Inc.

On June 13th, we’ll delve deep inside the dark side of Wall Street, revealing the failings of its investment banks, analysts, journalists, and especially our government regulators.

Our speaker is David Einhorn ‘91, President of Greenlight Capital, Inc. and author of a new book published by Wiley called, “Fooling Some of the People All of the Time: A Long Short Story” . David gave a speech in 2002 at a charity investment conference to benefit a children’s cancer hospital. He was asked to share his best investment idea, so he did. He described his reasons why Greenlight had sold short the shares of Allied Capital, a leader in the private finance industry. Greenlight bet that the stock would decline because the company’s business was in trouble and its accounting was corrupt.

As a result of this speech, when the New York Stock Exchange opened for trading the next day, Allied’s shares remained closed: so many investors wanted to sell or short the stock that the NYSE could not balance all the sell orders to open Allied’s trading in an orderly fashion.

Allied attacked Einhorn, and the SEC — at the behest of the politically connected Allied — investigated him for stock manipulation. Over the ensuing six years, the SEC allowed Allied to make the problem bigger by approving more than a dozen additional stock offerings that raised over $1 billion from new investors. Undeterred by the spin-job, lies, and investigations, Greenlight continued its research after the speech and discovered Allied’s behavior was far worse than Einhorn ever suspected — and, shockingly, it continues to this day.

About our Speaker
David Einhorn is the President and founder of Greenlight Capital, a long-short value-oriented hedge fund, which started with $1 million under management in 1996. Over the ensuing years, Greenlight has generated greater than a 25% annualized net return for its partners. Einhorn is the Chairman of Greenlight Capital Re, Ltd. (Nasdaq: GLRE) and serves on the boards of the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research and Hillel: The Foundation for Jewish Campus Life. Einhorn graduated summa cum laude from Cornell University in 1991, earning a B.A. in Government from the College of Arts and Sciences.

Friday, June 13th 2008 ~ 7:30 – 9:00 AM

7:30 – 8:00 - Early arrival networking; doors open at 7:15
8:00 – 8:10 - Introduction of attendees
8:10 – 8:55 – Presentation and discussion
9:00 – Hard Stop, stay to network as your schedule allows

Cost: $25 Includes Breakfast, Networking, and Speaker Presentation

Location: The Cornell Club of New York ~ 6 East 44th Street ~ Ivy Room, 4th Floor

Parking Information: Central Parking located at 100 W 44th Street, 6th and Broadway for a charge of $22.00 with Cornell Club Validation or Valet Parking for a fee of $40 for 24hrs.

 “The Future of Newspapers and Quality Journalism in the Internet Age,” featuring Richard Levine ’62, former Wall Street Journal correspondent and Dow Jones & Company electronic publishing executive, and current president of the Dow Jones Newspaper Fund, Inc.

 With the Web taking readers, circulation and advertising from the nation’s newspapers, the future of print publishing is one of the biggest business stories today. In 2007 we saw the buyout of Tribune Company by real-estate magnate Sam Zell, the sale of Dow Jones to News Corp., and the repositioning of The Washington Post as an education company. The questions raised by the assent of online publications, the financial problems facing the newspaper industry and the reshaping of the news business are critical in a democratic society dependent on the flow of reliable news and information. They include:

• What is the future of newspaper publishing?
• Who will foot the bill for professional journalists and quality journalism in the future?
• What is the new business model that will support journalism tomorrow?
• How do blogging and citizen journalism relate to professional reporting and editing? 
• Where are the career opportunities in the new media landscape?

About Our Speaker
Dick Levine's five decades in journalism and publishing started at The Cornell Daily Sun, where he was sports editor and managing editor. He then went to the New York Times and then to Dow Jones, where he has been for more than 40 years. He has served as a correspondent and columnist for The Wall Street Journal; a pioneering electronic publishing executive who developed The Wall Street Journal Online and the predecessor to Factiva; executive editor of Dow Jones Newswires; vice president of Dow Jones for news; and a member of the company’s management committee. Today, he is president of the Dow Jones Newspaper Fund, a foundation that promotes careers in print and online journalism. 

June 11, 2008
6:30 PM – 9:30 PM

6:30 PM Hors d'oeuvre Reception/Cash Bar/Networking
7:30 PM Speaker/Q&A/Open Mike
8:30 PM Dessert/Coffee/Networking

Cost: $35 per person includes Hors d'oeuvres, Dessert, Coffee/Tea

Location:
The Cornell Club - New York
6 East 44th Street ~ 212.986.0300

Directions: Click Here

Parking: Central Parking located at 100 W 44th Street, 6th and Broadway for a charge of $22.00 with Cornell Club Validation or Valet Parking for a fee of $40 for 24hrs.

Event Contact: Steve Meza ~ sgm56@cornell.edu ~ 607.254.8713

This event produced in partnership with the Cornell Metro Regional Office

A Really Inconvenient Truth:
Why Climate Change is Much Worse Than You’ve Been Told and What We Must Do Now
 
Dan Miller, BSEE ’78,  is Managing Director of The Roda Group, a seed stage venture capital group now focusing on Clean Tech.  Dan co-founded The Roda Group with Roger Strauch, his friend and business partner he met at Cornell.  Dan is also Chairman of the Foundation Board of Chabot Space & Science Center based in Oakland.  At Chabot, Dan is working with Cornellian Bill Nye the Science Guy to develop a climate change exhibit geared towards kids and their parents.  Dan is also a member of Al Gore’s Climate Project and was trained by Mr. Gore to give the An Inconvenient Truth slide show.

Dan’s presentation will focus on why the UN IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) reports are actually best case scenarios.  Dan will present a more realistic (and scary) outlook on what will happen if we don’t start to reduce greenhouse gas emissions soon.  Dan will then lay out what steps we need to take to address this critical situation and he will also lay out a plan for what Cornell should be doing.

Thursday May 29th, 2008

6:00 PM Reception
7:00 PM Presentation

Cost: $20 per person (includes Hors d'oeuvre Reception). This event is expected to sell-out and requires pre-registration.

Location: This event is sold out. Please email shm4@cornell.edu to join the wait list. Please do not contact the location.
Hosted by Pamela S. Kaufmann '80 Partner, Hanson Bridgett LLP
425 Market Street, Suite 2600, Conference Rooms Golden Gate I and II
San Francisco, CA 94105
Tel: 415-777-3200

CEN Northern California in partnership with  Cornell Silicon Valley  (CSV), Cornell Alumni Association of Northern California (CAANC), the Cornell Hotel Society (CHS), The Leland C. and Mary M. Pillsbury Institute for Hospitality Entrepreneurship, and Cornell's Undergraduate program in Enology & Viticulture presents;

Winepreneurs: Cornellians in Wine
Thursday May 15th, 2008 at the California Culinary Academy in San Francisco
4:00 PM to 6:00 PM Pre-Event Educational Seminar (optional for 75 alumni, additional registration needed*)
6:00 PM to 9:00 PM Main Event

Save-the-Date for a once in an era premier Cornell food and wine event as we feature Cornell Wine Entrepreneurs or Winepreneurs. In July the California Culinary Academy is relinquishing its historic space on Polk Street and moving to Potrero Hill. This event will be held in the famous Carême Dining room prior to its closure. And we're rolling out the red carpet! Winepreneurs is an opportunity to enjoy and connect with Cornell affiliated wineries, as well as learn about wine-related companies our fellow alumni have launched in the industry. The event will feature a "pre-event" educational component from 4PM to 6PM for up to 75 alumni followed by a grand tasting and keynote. Additional details will be posted here as they become available.

EVENT PHOTOS ARE POSTED HERE

Pre-Event Educational Seminar (additional registration needed*)
4:00 pm Presentations from;
Derek B. Bromley '96, Vice President of Marketing, Vintrust 
Melialani James, '00, Partner, Nirvino
Eric Sussman ‘90, Wine Grower Radio-Coteau  
John Wilkinson ‘79, Partner, Bin to Bottle  

"Developing and marketing a niche product” featuring Gwen Whiting ’98 & Lindsey Wieber ‘98, co-founders of The Laundress

Oprah Magazine, Redbook, The New York Times, InStyle, Domino, Real Simple, People, Vogue, Shape, and dozens of others have featured The Laundress - and now CEN is going to join the list!

Gwen Whiting & Lindsey Wieber, two alumnae Apparel and Textile Management majors, founded The Laundress in 2004, hit sales of over a million in less than three years, and now sell their luxury fabric care and specialty detergent products in upscale retail stores and spas all over the globe.

At this event you’ll hear an inspiring entrepreneurial story with several twists and turns. Like how the two were turned down for financing because they were overqualified and underqualified. How they threw a for-profit party to raise the $5,000 that got them going. How they drove back and forth from NYC to Ithaca on weekends to visit with Professor Kay Obendorf and research the chemistry of cleaning.

They’ll also talk about how they researched the market, made the decision to jump in, developed their unique product lines, negotiated distribution deals, and snagged key press coverage from the hottest consumer publications.

About Our Speakers
Post-graduation, Gwen was a Senior Designer of the Ralph Lauren Home Collection for five years. Prior to her work in Home Collection, her experience at Ralph Lauren included women's design and Polo Store development. Lindsey was the Manager of U.S. Sales for CHANEL Ready-to-Wear. She managed the CHANEL boutique accounts and other large accounts such as Bergdorf Goodman and Neiman Marcus. Lindsey also worked at Brooks Brothers in men's and women's buying departments.

About The Laundress
The Laundress launched in March 2004, after three years of research and development. The ladies' forays across the globe for work and pleasure greatly influenced the inception of The Laundress, inspiring fragrances and products, and identifying the need for the accessory collection. A huge component of product development is continually finding ways to be more environmentally friendly, using organic materials, renewable resources, no bleach or chlorine, essential oils vs. artificial fragrances, etc.

Wednesday, May 14, 2008 ~ 6:30 PM – 9:30 PM

6:30 PM Hors d'oeuvre Reception/Cash Bar/Networking
7:30 PM Speaker/Q&A/Open Mike
8:30 PM Dessert/Coffee/Networking

Cost: $35 Includes Food, Networking, and Speaker Presentation
Location: The Cornell Club of New York ~ 6 East 44th Street ~ 212.986.0300
Parking Information: Central Parking located at 100 W 44th Street, 6th and Broadway for a charge of $22.00 with Cornell Club Validation or Valet Parking for a fee of $40 for 24hrs.

Event Contact: Steve Meza~ 607.254.8713~ SGM56@cornell.edu

This event produced in partnership with the Cornell Metro New York Regional Office and the College of Human Ecology

CEN Northern California in partnership Cornell Silicon Valley and The Cornell Law School presents: "Climate Change and Global Warming: The Evolving Legal Framework" featuring Kevin Haroff ‘77, MBA ‘81, JD ‘81, Partner, Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal LLP.

CEN Seattle in partnership with the Cornell Western Regional Office, the Cornell Club of Western Washington  and  the College of Human Ecology present:
Doing Well By Doing Good Part II "Green Begets Green"

On Wednesday April 23rd we’ll continue our Doing well by Doing Good series with three alumni who offer perspectives on sustainability and welcome special guest, interim Dean of the College of Human Ecology, Alan Mathios.

Dean Koyanagi  '90, Sustainability Coordinator, Cornell University. If you’re wondering what’s going on @Cornell, we’ll have answers. Dean will present a growing list of strategies and tactics that will preserve the Ithaca campus for generations to come as part of Sustainability at Cornell 

Rob Erlichman ’87, President & Founder, Sunlight Electric will offer examples of how sustainably minded businesses are making rational business decisions to switch to solar energy. What’s new in 2008? As green becomes part of a company’s brand, decisions normally centered in accounting are now including marketing, find out how “discontinuity opportunities” change things.

Brad Marten  ’75, Managing Partner, Marten Law Group will provide a brief overview of federal and state climate change laws, and discuss how they will impact business in Washington state over the next few years. Seattle, King County and Washington are in the forefront of the evolving regulatory system to track and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. His firm advises corporate and governmental clients on regulatory and liability issues, including the clean tech and green building sectors.

Wednesday April 23rd, 2008
6:00 PM – 9:00 PM

6:00 PM Reception/Cash Bar/Networking
7:00 PM Opening Remarks by interim Dean of the College of Human Ecology, Alan Mathios
7:10 PM Presentation/Q&A/OpenMike

Cost: $30 includes reception & presentation

Location: Hotel Monaco Seattle 1101 4th Avenue, Seattle, Washington 98101, Phone 206-621-1770. Parking is available on site for $16.

"The fastest growing market opportunity in America: Hispanics” featuring Tom Kadala ’80, president of ResearchPAYS, Inc. and Roberto Ramos '94, president of The Vox Collective

You’ve all heard the staggering statistic that by 2050, 25% of the US population will be of Hispanic descent, for a total of 100 million people. Newsflash: those stats are probably wrong. The Pew Hispanic Center in Washington, DC recently unveiled updated predictions and found that closer to 30% of the population is of Hispanic descent, for a total of 128 million. The implications around purchasing power (aka opportunity for businesses) are significant.

The tricky part is how to effectively market to this group. English or español? Same product offerings or tailored? Same media? What are the cultural hot buttons and sensitivities? How are first-, second- and third generation-Americans different? What messages resonate? Do larger companies have it figured out?

At our breakfast on April 23rd, we’ll hear from two alumni who answer these questions every day for clients including American Express, Macy’s, Verizon Wireless, and others.

About Our Speakers
 
Tom Kadala ’80 is the President of ResearchPAYS, Inc., a strategic business consulting firm dedicated to the development and expansion of Hispanic consumer markets. Tom has over 20 years marketing and consulting experience and is nationally recognized innovator and leader in the design and implementation of interactive marketing programs that are currently used by Fortune 500 companies, including American Express.

A frequent speaker and writer on Hispanic market research issues, Mr. Kadala’s authored two Harvard Business School case studies, which required extensive field research in Latin America.  Recently he has been commissioned to write two articles for the Harvard Business Review on the 'Hispanic Consumer'. His current marketing efforts also include a nationally syndicated bi-monthly opinion-editorial column addressing the many nuances of the Hispanic consumer/employee. Fluent in Spanish and Italian, Tom has a B.S. (CEE) from Cornell University and an MBA from the Harvard Business School. 

Doing Business with China in the Chinese Century, featuring Gordon G. Chang, ’73
China, according to Alan Greenspan, is the only nation that can challenge the US for world economic leadership 25 years from now. Yet almost everyone thinks this is already China’s Century. But is it also the century for business in China? 

In his March article in Commentary, our April 22 CEN speaker writes that “by each of the criteria that Greenspan himself considers crucial to economic success—property rights, representative governance, and the rule of law, to name the most important—China scores poorly or worse. Thus, the question raised inadvertently by Greenspan’s book (The Age of Turbulence) is whether China’s effort to overtake the dominant position of the United States in the world economy can continue to coexist with the country’s overall political framework. So far, China’s performance alone would seem to vindicate Greenspan’s prediction.”

So the country with the most opportunities in history is, at the same time, the one with the biggest risks. At our event on April 22nd, one of the most respected authorities on the Asian business climate will talk to us about what’s happening in China today and how it will likely affect us – and the rest of the world – tomorrow.

About Our Speaker

Gordon G. Chang ’73,  lived and worked in China and Hong Kong for almost two decades as an attorney.  His writings on China and North Korea have appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, the Far Eastern Economic Review, the International Herald Tribune, Commentary, The Weekly Standard, and the South China Morning Post.

He has spoken at Columbia, Cornell, Princeton, Yale, The Brookings Institution, The Heritage Foundation, the Cato Institute, RAND, the American Enterprise Institute, and the Council on Foreign Relations.  He has given briefings at the National Intelligence Council, the Central Intelligence Agency, the State Department, and the Pentagon.  He has also spoken before industry and investor groups including Bloomberg, Sanford Bernstein, and Credit Lyonnais Securities Asia.  Chang has appeared before the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission and has delivered to the Commission a report on the future of China’s economy.  

TV appearances include CNN, Fox News Channel, CNBC, MSNBC, the BBC, Bloomberg Television and The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.  He’s also the author of Nuclear Showdown: North Korea Takes On the World and The Coming Collapse of China.  He now blogs at Commentary magazine's site, www.contentions.org .
 
Chang earned his undergraduate degree from the College of Arts & Sciences in 1973 and his JD from Cornell Law in 1976. He wrote for the Cornell Daily Sun as a student and served two terms as a Cornell Trustee.

Tuesday, April 22, 2008 ~ 6:30 PM – 9:30 PM

6:30 PM Hors d'oeuvre Reception/Cash Bar/Networking
7:30 PM Speaker/Q&A/Open Mike
8:30 PM Dessert/Coffee/Networking

Cost: $35 Includes Food, Networking, and Speaker Presentation
Location: The Cornell Club of New York ~ 6 East 44th Street ~ 212.986.0300
Parking Information: Central Parking located at 100 W 44th Street, 6th and Broadway for a charge of $22.00 with Cornell Club Validation or Valet Parking for a fee of $40 for 24hrs.

Event Contact: Steve Meza~ 607.254.8713~ SGM56@cornell.edu

This event produced in partnership with the Cornell Metro Regional Office

"Doing Well and Doing Good" featuring Tiffany Norwood ’89, Co-founder and EVP of Commercial Operations of Next Generation Broadband; Tim Lim ‘06, Regional Director for Grossman Marketing Group; and Peter Gold ‘67, attorney and founder of First Book

What can you expect from this event?

• Presentations from fellow alumni who have successfully merged their business talents with their humanitarian, social, or environmental concerns.
• Connections with dozens of fellow Cornellians who are also interested in building a business or career while doing their part to improve the world.
• Ideas on how to incorporate your own altruistic interests into your business or career.

About our Panelists
Tiffany Norwood  ’89 manages all commercial activities for Next Generation Broadband, which  provides software solutions to large cable companies including Cox Communications. Prior to NGB, she was the Director of European Operations at Road Runner. Before Road Runner, she was in charge of International Business Development for WorldSpace, a satellite radio company that launched XM Radio. Tiffany was one of the original employees of WorldSpace and closed global deals with CNN International and Bloomberg. Tiffany also worked in investment banking at Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and Citicorp. She earned an MBA from Harvard University and a bachelor's in Economics with a concentration in statistics and electrical engineering from Cornell University.

Tim Lim ’06 is the Regional Director of the D.C. office of Grossman Marketing Group, a full-service provider of integrated marketing solutions that has been recognized for its innovation and forward-looking approach to environmentally-friendly marketing solutions. Previously, Lim served as Campaign Manager for a successful candidate for State Representative in Methuen, MA, and as Chris Gabrieli's aide during his gubernatorial campaign in Massachusetts. He also served as National Membership Director of the College Democrats of America and worked on Howard Dean's presidential campaign in New Hampshire in 2003-04. Lim graduated from Cornell University with a degree in Industrial and Labor Relations. At Cornell, he served as President of the Student Assembly.

Peter Gold ’67, is the President of The Gold Group, a legal services and merchant banking firm that represents U.S. and European investment banks and hedge funds. Previously he co-founded Winthrop, Stimson, Putnam & Roberts’ Washington, DC office and managed its Legislative and Regulatory Department. Prior to that, Peter was the Legislative Director to Senator Gary Hart. He is a graduate of Cornell University (A.B.), The London School of Economics (M.Sc.), and New York University School of Law (J.D.).  He was Editor-in-Chief of the New York University Review of Law and Social Change.

Mr. Gold co-founded and is Chairman of First Book, the nation’s largest privately funded literacy organization focused on providing disadvantaged children with their first new books. To date, First Book has distributed over 57 million books to children in need.  He is also a board member and Executive Committee member of Share Our Strength, an international hunger relief organization.

Thursday, April 17th, 6:30 PM – 9:30 PM

6:30 PM Hors d'oeuvre Reception/Cash Bar/Networking
7:30 PM Speaker/Q&A/Open Mike
8:30 PM Dessert/Coffee/Networking

Location: McDermott, Will & Emery LLP, 600 13th Street, N.W., Washington, DC, 20005-3096
Cost: $35 per person (includes Hors d'oeuvre Reception, networking, presentation, dessert and coffee/tea)

Special thanks to the law firm of McDermott, Will & Emery for hosting this event!

Social Networking: "Maximizing the Spread of Influence through a Social Network and how it can affect your life" - featuring Cornell Department Chair for Computing and Information Science Eva Tardos and Cornell University Professor Jon Kleinberg ‘93

About Our Speakers:

Éva Tardos  received her Dipl.Math. in 1981, and her Ph.D. 1984, from Eötvös University, Budapest, Hungary. She is a Jacob Gould Schurman Professor of Computer Science , and the Chair of the Department of Computer Science at Cornell University.

Professor Tardos teaches courses on algorithms, algorithmic game theory, and other theoretical aspects of computer science. Algorithmic game theory is an emerging new area of designing systems and algorithms for selfish users..

She has been elected to the National Academy of Engineering and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and is the recipient of Packard, Sloan Foundation, and Guggenheim fellowship, an ACM Fellow, INFORMS fellow; and has received the Fulkerson Prize, and the Dantzig prize. 

Jon Kleinberg '93  received his AB from Cornell in 1993 and his PhD from MIT in 1996.  He spent a year as a Visiting Scientist at the IBM Almaden Research Center and has since been a Professor in the Department of Computer Science.

Professor Kleinberg teaches courses on theoretical aspects of computer science, and on the emerging inter-disciplinary role of networks at the interface of computing and information science, economics, and sociology. (Don’t let that description scare you; Jon is one of those briliiant scientists who easily brings technology down to a layman’s level. In fact, students from all colleges take his courses).

He has been elected to the National Academy of Engineering and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and is the recipient of MacArthur, Packard, and Sloan Foundation Fellowships, the Nevanlinna Prize from the International Mathematical Union, and the National Academy of Sciences Award for Initiatives in Research.

Register early! This event sold out in less than 24 hours in New York City!

Thursday, April 17, 2008
6:00 PM – 9:00 PM

6:00 PM Reception
7:30 PM Presentation

Cost: $20
Location: ADVANCE REGISTRATION IS REQUIRED Yahoo Corporation Headquarters, Building C, 701 First Ave., Sunnyvale, CA 95089

This event is being produced in partnership with the Cornell Computing and Information Science Department

  
Into the Breach; Why Corporations Fail to Protect Sensitive Information - And What Can Be Done About It; featuring Michael Santarcangelo, '96

Targeting the Baby Boomers: They Spend, They're Online and They're More Than a Demographic  featuring Robin Wolaner '75, Founder & CEO of TeeBeeDee, Inc.

They're the largest consumer audience out there - 78 million of them, 3 times the number of teens - and they've got a LOT of disposable income. At this event, you'll learn why it's important for your business to pay special attention to this brand-loyal group, why selling to boomers is fraught with peril (do NOT call them seniors!), and why everyone who thinks they know about boomers - is wrong.

We ran this event in California to rave, rave reviews. Our speaker’s company is TeeBeeDee, a social site for people “of a certain age,” as the New York Times column that featured Robin and the company, called them. The company was also recently featured in BusinessWeek.

About Our Speaker
Robin started Parenting Magazine more than 20 years ago (before she had kids). She then helped launch Vibe Magazine, ran Sunset Publishing (no one else could believe that a feisty, apartment-dwelling woman would end up running such a whitebread operation, and she got fired from that job), spent five years as an executive at CNET (we say it that way because no one really knows what her job was), and wrote a book called Naked in the Boardroom: A CEO Bares Her Secrets So You Can Transform Your Career (Simon & Schuster, 2005).

Suffice it to say that Robin had a few professional notches on her belt, and felt that she really culminated her life by having two amazing children. She was all set up to be their mother, mostly. Then she turned 50, fell in love, published her first book, had breast cancer (it turned out not to be life-threatening), and started TeeBeeDee.

Thursday, April 3, 2008
6:30 PM – 9:30 PM

6:30 PM Hors d'oeuvre Reception/Cash Bar/Networking
7:30 PM Speaker/Q&A/Open Mike
8:30 PM Dessert/Coffee/Networking

Cost: $35 Includes Food, Networking, and Speaker Presentation
Guest Policy: Alumni may bring up to two non-alumni guests to this event
Location: The Cornell Club of New York ~ 6 East 44th Street ~ 212.986.0300
Parking Information: Central Parking located at 100 W 44th Street, 6th and Broadway for a charge of $22.00 with Cornell Club Validation or Valet Parking for a fee of $40 for 24hrs.

Event Contact: Steve Meza~ 607.254.8713~ SGM56@cornell.edu

This event produced in partnership with the Cornell Metro Regional Office