Anant Agarwal is CEO of edX, an online learning destination founded by Harvard and MIT. He taught the first edX course on circuits and electronics from MIT, which drew 155,000 students from 162 he has won MIT’s Smullin and Jamieson prizes for teaching. His work on Organic Computing was selected by Scientific American as one of 10 World-Changing Ideas in 2011, and he was named in Forbes’ list of top 15 education innovators in 2012.
Anant holds a PhD from Stanford and a bachelor’s from IIT Madras. He also holds a Guinness World Record for the largest microphone array.
Sameer Bhargava AB ’95, MBA ’00 is a Managing Director and Director of Corporate Development at The Carlyle Group in Washington DC, focusing on firm strategy and planning, firm acquisitions, fundraising initiatives, and strategic relationships. He recently helped the firm with acquisitions of Natural Gas Partners, a leading natural resources energy platform, and Cogentrix, a leading power focused operating and investing platform. He also has helped launch several strategic initiatives including the CPG Carlyle Private Equity Fund, which opens Carlyle private equity funds to high net worth investors, and the Carlyle Matching System, which offers liquidity to Carlyle fund investors. Sameer is also Chairman of the Board for Higher Achievement, an award winning program providing rigorous after school and summer academic enrichment to underserved middle school youth in at-risk communities. Prior to joining Carlyle, Sameer was part of the leverage buyout teams at Bain Capital, LLC and Advent International Corporation investing in consumer, healthcare, and industrial companies, and at McKinsey & Company in Chicago, where he consulted on various strategic and operational issues for several Fortune 500 companies.
David S. Chang, MBA ’01 is the Chief Operating Officer of the PayPal Media Network, where he leads strategy and operations. As PayPal Boston’s site lead, he also runs the Start Tank innovation space. David is an entrepreneur with product, marketing and software development experience at mobile and online startups, five of which were acquired. He was Director of New Products at TripAdvisor, VP of Marketing/Co-founder of SnapMyLife, Director of Product Marketing at m-Qube, Senior Product Manager at edocs, and VP of Technology at Goldman Sachs. David also holds a BS with Distinction in Computer Science from Cornell University.
Joanne Chang AB ’91 is an honors graduate of Harvard College with a degree in Applied Mathematics and Economics. Joanne left a career as a management consultant to enter the world of professional cooking. She is the chef and owner of Flour Bakery + Café and Myers + Chang as well as the author of Flour, Spectacular Recipes from Boston’s Flour Bakery+Cafe, Flour, too: Indispensable Recipes for the Café’s Most Loved Sweets & Savories, and an upcoming low sugar baking cookbook coming out in Spring 2015.
William H.C. Chang AB ’78 is the Chairman of Westlake International Group and co-creator of “The Million Dollar Arm.” Westlake is a privately held, diversified investment company with operations in the United States, China, Japan, and India. Its investments span private and public equities, including venture capital, professional sports, media and entertainment, emerging technologies, life sciences, and real estate. He is also the Co-Owner and on the Executive Committee of the San Francisco Giants Baseball Club, Co-Owner and General Partner of Major League Soccer team D.C. United, and the Chairman of the Executive Committee of U.S.A. Rugby Football Union. Chang’s associations and affiliations include: the Asian Business League (Founding Chairman), California International Relations Foundation (Director), Chinese American Association of Commerce (Founder), City Club of San Francisco (Founding Governor), Harvard University (Asia Center and Committee on University Resources), and World President’s Organization.
Ann Chao AB ’08, MBA ’13 is the CEO and cofounder of Sonation, a music technology company that makes singing and playing instruments more interactive and fun. Sonation’s apps simulate playing with a full band or orchestra that listens and responds to the user’s style. In between, she worked as a strategy consultant at Roland Berger China, serving multinational companies and Chinese state-owned enterprises in a variety of industries from nuclear energy to car manufacturing. During her time at HBS, she worked on the executive strategy team at Lincoln Center and at Guillermo del Toro’s studio Mirada. She is passionate about storytelling and music, and plays the piano and flute.
Warren Chao AB ’89 is Co-Founder/President of Omnivision Entertainment, a multi-platform, 360° entertainment company. This includes My Damn Channel, which has worked with established and emerging talent from film, TV, and the I and major advertisers to co-create popular, award-winning original series since 2007. Warren manages the company’s business operations and key strategic partnerships with online and traditional media companies. He also oversees all production and development for the company’s Los Angeles office. Prior to My Damn Channel, Warren served as Vice President of Business Development and Strategic Planning for Gemstar-TV Guide, where he launched and managed new initiatives across the company’s various business units as part of a cross-platform strategy that combined the audience reach of TV Guide Magazine, the TV Guide Channel, . Warren was also part of Gemstar-TV Guide’s corporate mergers and acquisitions team responsible for acquiring new companies and technologies. Warren previously worked in venture capital and law at companies including Intel, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, and DynaFund Ventures. He also holds a JD/MBA from New York University.
Michelle Chen AB ’99 has worked for more than ten years in the children’s and educational media unit at THIRTEEN/WNET, New York’s flagship PBS station, creating content for public television and the web. Projects on which she has served as a producer include the groundbreaking American history videogame, Mission US, and the PBS Kids math adventure series, Cyberchase. Her work has garnered multiple Emmy awards, the Games for Change Most Significant Impact Award, and the Japan Prize for Educational Media.
Hye-Won Choi AB ’85 is an attorney specializing in corporate law. She worked as an in-house attorney at TIAA-CREF, rising through the ranks to her most recent position of Senior Vice President of Corporate Governance. In that role, she was a well known figure in international and US markets as an advocate for shareholder rights and an expert on increasing corporate value through good governance practices. She was named to Directorship 100 by Directorship Magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the boardroom in 2009 and 2010. She was also appointed to Co-Chair the SEC’s first ever Investor Advisory Committee and was a member of the New York Stock Exchange Corporate Governance Committee in 2010. She is a sought after adviser by Fortune 500 companies and executive management on corporate governance best practices and shareholder relations and dialogue. Prior to TIAA-CREF, she worked as an associate at Reid and Priest and Rubin Baum Levin Constant and Friedman in New York City.
Amy Chu MBA ’99 is a writer for DC Comics and Vertigo Comics and Publisher and co-founder of Alpha Girl Comics. She is a guest and frequent speaker on the national comic convention circuit including San Diego and New York Comic Con. Prior to her comics career she was a business development consultant to the biotech and pharmaceutical industries, Executive Director of the New York based nonprofit Asian American Arts Alliance, and the co-founder and first publisher of A. Magazine, one of the first national Asian American general interest magazines. She is Co-President of the Harvard Business School Asian American Alumni Association, a board member of the Prakash Foundation, and a member of the Asian Womens Giving Circle. Amy earned her SB at MIT in Architectural Design, and a BA in East Asian Studies at Wellesley College. You can follow her on
Brian Chu AB ’91, MBA ’97 is a Co-Founder and Co-Managing Partner of HighVista Strategies. Prior to co-founding HighVista, Brian was a Managing Director at Vulcan Capital and also a member of the founding investment team at Highfields Capital. Previously, Brian worked in the Principal Investment Area at Goldman Sachs and at McKinsey & Company and Morgan Stanley. Brian serves as Board Secretary and Trustee for the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, where he is Chair of the Finance Committee and also serves on the Investment and Audit Committees. Brian is an Overseer and member of the Investment Committee of Mount Auburn Hospital as well as an Overseer and Chair of the Nominating Committee of Children’s Hospital Boston. Brian received an AB magna cum laude from Harvard College where he was a member of Phi Beta Kappa, and an MBA from Harvard Business School, where he was a Baker Scholar.
Julie Chu AB ‘07 is the first Asian American woman to play for U.S Olympic Ice Hockey team. She is a four-time Olympic medalist, winning three silver medals in 2002 (Salt Lake City), 2010 (Vancouver), and 2014 (Sochi), and one bronze 2006 in (Turin). She is tied as the second most decorated U.S. female in Olympic Winter Games history and is a five-time world champion. Julie was also elected by her USA teammates to be the US Flag Bearer during the 2014 Sochi Olympic Games Closing Ceremony. During her time at Harvard, Julie became the all-time leading scorer in NCAA history with 284 career points and was also the team captain. She led the Crimson to three-straight NCAA championship game appearances and became Harvard’s all-time assists leader. She also won the Patty Kazmaier Award in 2007 for best Division I NCAA Women’s Hockey Player of the Year. Since her graduation, she has played professionally for the Minnesota Whitecaps (2007-10) and the Montreal Stars (2010-current) of the Canadian Women’s Hockey League. She was also an assistant hockey coach for the University of Minnesota-Duluth Women’s Hockey team, which won a NCAA championship in 2008.
Zen Chu created and teaches the MIT Healthcare Ventures graduate course and serves as Healthcare Entrepreneur-In-Residence and faculty director of the HackingMedicine.MIT.edu initiative. As Managing Director of Accelerated Medical Ventures, he specializes in building early-stage medical technology and healthcare service companies, usually serving as co-founder and first investor. Alongside four world-renowned MIT biomaterials professors, Zen co-founded and served as CEO for 3D-Matrix Medical Inc., a venture-backed MIT regenerative medicine company whose products are treating patients and enabling new regenerative medicine research, with a successful IPO in 2011. He has managed and led new ventures for Harvard Medical School, Harvard’s Wyss Institute for Bioengineering, NetVentures, and Hewlett-Packard. Zen earned a Masters of Public & Private Management from Yale University and a BS in biomedical/electrical engineering from SMU.
Amy Chua AB ’84, JD ’87 is the John M. Duff Professor of Law at Yale Law School. While at HLS, Chua was the first Asian American to serve as Executive Editor of the Harvard Law Review.
Prior to entering academics in 1994, she practiced with the Wall Street firm of Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton. She joined the Yale Law School faculty in 2001. She has authored four bestselling books: World on Fire: How Exporting Free Market Democracy Breeds Ethnic Hatred and Global Instability; Day of Empire: How Hyperpowers Rise to Global Dominance–and Why They F her 2011 memoir Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, which has been translated into 30 and The Triple Package: How Three Unlikely Traits Explain the Rise and Fall of Cultural Groups, coauthored with Jed Rubenfeld. In 2011 Chua was named one of Time magazine’s 100 most influential people, one of the Atlantic Monthly’s Brave Thinkers, and one of Foreign Policy’s Global Thinkers.
She also received the Yale Law School’s “Best Teaching” award.
Connie K. Chung AB ’97 EdM ’99, ’07 EdD ‘13 is the Research Program Manager for the Global Education Innovation Initiative at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, where she manages a comparative research program, examining educational policies and programs that develop 21st century competencies in six countries: China, Chile, Mexico, India, Singapore, and the United States. A former public high school English teacher in Cupertino, CA, she worked as a consultant in the development of a K-12 global education curriculum for a school in New York City. In addition, she has worked with various non-profit organizations involved in human rights and civic education. She was a collaborator in a multi-site national study about grassroots efforts to build capacity and leadership to sustain transformational change that resulted in the book, A Match on Dry Grass: Community Organizing as a Catalyst for School Reform. She currently serves on the board of two local non-profits: one that offers after-school and summer programming to immigrant students in Boston’s Chinatown and another that offers small grants to elementary and middle school students to encourage positive development in themselves and in their community.
James Chung AB ’88, MBA ’93 is President of Reach Advisors, a strategy, research and predictive analytics firm. Prior to launching Reach Advisors, James founded a targeted media and research firm that he eventually sold to a Fortune 500 company (Quintiles/Innovex). Before that, he worked at the nation’s largest ad agency brand (Leo Burnett USA), where he focused on the deployment of advanced marketing analytics and how the next decade in media would unfold for one of the world’s largest brands (McDonald’s Corporation). James’ work is featured regularly as a keynote presenter at the conferences for the industries he serves, and he’s also a writer, analyst or recurring source for media organizations ranging from The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, TIME, NPR, among other media organizations across the world. James is also the Chairman of The Relevance Company, a Brooklyn-based cultural insights firm.
Lizabeth Cohen is dean of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study and the Howard Mumford Jones Professor of American Studies in the Department of History at Harvard University. An expert on 20th-century American social and political history, she is the author of Making a New Deal: Industrial Workers in Chicago , which won the Bancroft Prize in American History and the Philip Taft Labor History Book Award and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Her other work includes A Consumers’ Republic: The Politics of Mass Consumption in Postwar America and The American Pageant (coauthored with David Kennedy). She has also published widely in major history and urban studies journals, the American Prospect, the New York Times, and the Washington Post. Cohen has been a fellow of the American Council of Learned Societies, the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Radcliffe Institute. She was the Harmsworth Professor at Oxford in
and is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Gene Corbin MPA ’01 is Assistant Dean of Harvard College for Public Service. Prior to this position, he served as the Class of 1955 Executive Director of the Phillips Brooks House Association (PBHA). Following graduation from College, he worked on an international development project in Haiti and then taught in an urban school in Ft. Worth where he received “New Teacher of the Year” recognition by served as the Executive Director of Stewpot Community Services in Jackson, MS; engaged citizens in education reform and other public issues as the Lead Community Organizer of the Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF) in Austin, T and worked on an educational project in Viet Nam. He served on the New England Steering Committee for Obama campaign during the 2008 and 2012 primary and Presidential elections, and chaired a subcommittee of the “Long-Term Disaster Recovery Working Group” for the Federal Government on how best to engage campuses in assisting rebuilding efforts following domestic disasters. Gene holds a BS from Stephen F. Austin University and a MDiv from Southern Seminary. Gene was named a Pforzheimer Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.
Ishaan Desai COL ’15 is a rising senior in Kirkland House. He studies Molecular and Cellular Biology, with a focus on infectious diseases, and plans to pursue a secondary field in Global Health and Health Policy. At Harvard, he has conducted research on vaccine development for cholera and drug r served on the boards of Harvard Students for Global Health, the Harvard International Relations Council, and the Harvard South Asian A volunteered with the Family Van
and participated in HIV/AIDS advocacy efforts with local and university partners. Ishaan is particularly interested in medicine and public health in South Asia. With the support of organizations like the Harvard Global Health Institute, the Harvard International Relations Council, and the Harvard College in Asia Program, he has traveled to India four times during his undergraduate career to conduct research on child nutrition, direct simulations of the World Health Organization for South Asian youth, document differences in rural and urban healthcare delivery, and attend a conference on technology and social impact in developing world settings.
Mitchell Dong AB ‘75 is a serial entrepreneur who has started a dozen businesses over the last 40 years. He started selling toads at age five and performed magic tricks for children’s birthdays as a preteen. In college he started an energy and environmental consulting business. For most of his career he was a developer of independent power plants, including solar, hydro, and cogeneration facilities in the USA, China, and Africa. He also developed ammonia fertilizer plants. As hedge fund manager, he developed quant models for trading mutual funds, electric power, and uranium. Today he is developing algorithmic models for trading bitcoin. Having sold several of his companies, he invests the sales proceeds through his family’s investment office and is an active private investor. He advises many students on their start up ventures.
Katherine Ebright COL ’15 is a rising senior in Cabot House. She studies Social Studies with a focus on Southeast Asian political and economic development, and she plans to pursue a secondary field in Economics and a language citation in Vietnamese. At Harvard, Katherine has been involved with the Mission Hill After-School Program of the Phillips Brooks House Association, the Cabot House Committee, and the International Relations Council. This year, she serves as the President of the International Relations Council, helping the organization, a UN-recognized NGO and 501(c)3 non-profit, fulfill its mission of promoting international education and social impact. With the support of the International Relations Council, the Office of Career Services, and the Asia Center, Katherine has had multiple opportunities to travel to countries across Southeast Asia and China. In these countries, Katherine has facilitated youth debate and discussion on the challenges of regional democratization and international accountability, has interned with the U.S. State Department in the Public Affairs Section, and has conducted thesis research on civic identity and engagement.
Rushika Fernandopulle AB ’89, MD ‘ 93, MPP ’94 is a practicing physician and co-founder and CEO of Iora Health, a healthcare services firm based in Cambridge MA whose mission is to build a radically new model of primary care to improve quality and service and reduce overall expenditures. In 2012 he was named an Ashoka Global Fellow, and is also a member of the Albert Schweitzer and Salzburg Global Fellowships. He was the first Executive Director of the Harvard Interfaculty Program for Health Systems Improvement, and Managing Director of the Clinical Initiatives Center at the Advisory Board Company. He is co-author or editor of several publications including Health Care Policy, a textbook for physicians and medical students, and Uninsured in America: Life and Death in the Land of Opportunity. He serves on the staff at the Massachusetts General Hospital and faculty of Harvard Medical School.
William R. Fitzsimmons
AB ’67, M.Ed ’69, PhD ’71 has been Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid at Harvard College since 1986. Previously, he served as Executive Director of the Harvard College Fund (1984-86), Director of Admissions at Harvard and Radcliffe Colleges (), and Assistant and Associate Director of Admissions (1972-75). He is a former Trustee of the College Board, Member of the National Association for College Admission Counseling, and former Chair of the Commission on the Use of Standardized Tests in Undergraduate Admissions. He has led research projects and authored publications on issues related to admissions and financial aid and is a much-quoted expert on these topics.
Christina Gao COL ’17 is originally from Cincinnati, OH and is a rising sophomore at the College living in Leverett House. While she has not declared a concentration yet, she is interested in Human Developmental and Regenerative Biology. Christina has been figure skating for 13 years and is a 5-time Senior National competitor, 2012 Skate America silver medalist, and a 2014 Olympic hopeful. She has been competing on the international Grand Prix circuit for 5 years. On campus, she balances a full course load and a full training schedule but is also passionate about her roles with the Leadership Institute at Harvard College (LIHC), An Evening with Champions, an annual figure skating show benefiting the Jimmy Fund, and The Crimson on the design board. She also enjoys dancing with the Asian American Dance Troupe. Christina serves as a family group leader in the Asian American Christian Fellowship on campus, and worked for SPARKS company in Shanghai this summer.
Ken Hakuta HBS ’77 is perhaps best known for making millions off of the Wacky Wallwalkers back in the ’80s, selling over 240 million of the toys. He became “Dr. Fad” and hosted the popular kids invention TV show, The Dr. Fad Show, from 1988 to 1994. In 1998, Hakuta built on his long-standing interest in herbal medicine to , the subject of two HBS case studies. Hakuta is a nephew of the famed Korean American artist Nam Jun Paik and managed his New York studio for a time. A recipient of the Inventor of the Year Award from the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia, Hakuta has been featured in numerous media such as: The Washington Post, The New York Times, USA Today, TIME, Newsweek, Forbes, Oprah, Today Show, The Tonight Show, Late Night with Conan O’Brien, and Larry King. He is a member of the HBS East Asia Advisory Board and the Dean’s Global Advisory Board, and involved in the Harvard Art museums. An avid fan of American folk art, he has assembled one of the world’s most impressive collections of Shaker furniture.
Wendy Hanamura AB ’83 joined the Internet Archive in 2014 as the Director of Partnerships. Her first goal is to help build a new institute where brilliant developers can come work with the Archive’s big data sets. Previously, as Chief Digital Officer of KCETLink and Link TV, the national non-profit media network, Wendy led diverse teams producing television series, apps, a semantic platform for global videos, international film contests and documentaries—all in the service of social change. Wendy began her career in journalism as a photo editor for Time magazine. She’s reported and produced television content around the world for CBS, World MonitorTelevision, NHK (Japanese Broadcasting Corporation), and PBS. Her favorite project remains Honor Bound: A Personal Journey, the documentary she produced about her father and his storied unit, the Japanese American 442nd Regimental Combat Team. After graduating summa cum laude from Harvard University with degrees in East Asian Studies and Visual and Environmental Studies, Wendy studied architecture with Fumihiko Maki at the University of Tokyo. Wendy loves to hike, organize parties and teach art in the San Francisco public schools.
Lisa Hsia AB ’80 is Executive Vice President of Bravo and Oxygen Digital Media, overseeing Bravo and Oxygen’s digital businesses
as well as their initiatives on emerging platforms – mobile, apps, gaming, social TV and multiplatform programming. In 2014, Hsia was honored in Variety’s New York Women’s Impact Report, and she was recently included in the 2013 Broadcasting & Cable Digital All-Stars List, 2013 CableFax Digital Hot List and named one of Cynopsis Media’s Most Intriguing People of 2013. Additionally, Hsia was named as one of the “Top Women in Cable” by CableFAX in 2013.Bravo and Oxygen Digital has been recognized with numerous awards including a 2013 Prime Time Emmy for achievement in Multiplatform Storytelling, a Webby Award, Media Vanguard Award, Mobile Excellence Award, Mobile Marketing Association Award, ITVT Award and nine Prime Time Emmy nominations for Interactive and Non-Fiction Content. Previously, Hsia served as Vice President of NBC News, where she had executive oversight for the “Today” show, “Dateline” and the long-form programming unit Peacock Productions. She also has a MBA from Columbia University.
Michael Hsieh AB ’80, MBA ’84 is the President of Fung Capital USA Investments, Inc. He has served on a number of corporate boards such as Li & Fung (BVI) Ltd., StudioDirect, Kosiuko, Danskin, Cyrk, Albert Kessler, Millwork Trading, BodyFX, Winco, Wilke Rodriguez, Minami International, Wood Associates, Santana, The Lodge at Harvard Square, Prism, ecVision, and 500 Friends. Prior to joining Fung Capital USA Investments in 1986, Michael was a principal at R.H. Chappell Co. He also worked for Sun Hung Kai Securities and the Merrill Lynch Investment Banking Group. Michael is a founding partner of Karma Pictures, LLC, a media organization developing and producing feature films and documentaries showcasing Asians as leaders and heroes to the American public audience. He also served on the boards of several non-profit organizations, including the Chairman for Center for Asian American Media, Head Royce School, University of San Francisco Center for the Pacific Rim, Wokai, and Harvard Club of San Francisco. Michael is in the process of starting a charter school for urban youths in East Oakland, California.
Sachin H. Jain AB ’02, MD ’06, MBA ’07 is Chief Medical Information and Innovation Officer (CMIO) at Merck and Lecturer in Health Care Policy at Harvard Medical School. He also serves as an attending hospitalist physician at the Boston VA-Boston Medical Center. Previously, he was Senior Advisor to the Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). At CMS, he helped lead the launch of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation, briefly serving as its Acting Deputy Director for Policy and Programs. Jain has worked previously at WellPoint, McKinsey & Co, and the Institute for Healthcare Improvement. He is a founder of several non-profit health care ventures including the Homeless Health Clinic at the Harvard Square Homeless S the Harvard Bone Marrow I and ImproveHealthCare.org. He worked with DaVita-Bridge of Life to bring charity dialysis care to rural Rajasthan, India and Medical Missions for Children to bring cleft lip and palate surgery to that region. Jain has authored over 50 publications on health care delivery innovation and health care reform in journals such as the New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA, and HealthAffairs.
Zameer Kassam MBA ’07 honed his business skills at McKinsey & Company and MTV Networks Asia. He then began an MBA program at Harvard Business School, where he completed several research studies on the diamond industry, which took him to Botswana, South Africa, Israel, Saudi Arabia and other cities involved in the global diamond trade. Upon graduation, Zameer reentered the world of fine jewelry by joining De Beers Louis Vuitton as the Head of the Bridal and Classics business. From there, he created his own brand, Zameer Kassam Fine Jewelry. In just three years, Zameer Kassam Fine Jewelry has created over 400 pieces of fine jewelry for private clients around the world and has been featured in VOGUE magazine, Huffington Post Live, The Knot and the Harvard Business School Alumni Magazine, among other publications. Zameer Kassam Fine Jewelry was recently invited to join the Rock 100, a group of Harvard Business School’s highest potential entrepreneurial ventures as chosen by faculty. In 2014, De Beers Group has chosen Zameer Kassam Fine Jewelry as the first non-store partner in the world to offer their Forevermark diamond brand. Zameer Kassam also has a BA (honors) from The University Of Western Ontario.
Rakesh Khurana MA ’97, PhD ’98 will become Dean of Harvard College on July 1. He is the Marvin Bower Professor of Leadership Development at the Harvard Business School and the Master of Cabot House at Harvard College. Khurana’s research uses a sociological perspective to focus on the processes by which elites and leaders are selected and developed. His book Searching for a Corporate Savior: The Irrational Quest for Charismatic CEOs (Princeton University Press) is an analysis of the labor market for CEOs. Khurana and HBS Dean Nitin Nohria have co-edited The Handbook of Leadership Theory and Practice, a volume aimed at advancing leadership studies as an academic field of study and scholarship. Khurana, who received his B.S. from Cornell, has consulted to corporations and executive search firms to help improve their CEO succession, governance and executive development practices. He has been recognized by the London Times as one of ‘The Thinkers 50′, a list of the 50 most influential management thinkers in the world.
Jim Yong Kim MD ’86, PhD ’93 is the President of the World Bank Group. Soon after he became president in July 2012, the organization established two goals: ending extreme poverty by 2030 and boosting shared prosperity for the bottom 40 percent of the population in developing countries. Kim’s career has been focused on health, education, and delivering services to the poor. Before joining the World Bank, he served as President of Dartmouth College and held professorships at Harvard Medical School and the Harvard School of Public Health. From , as Director of the World Health Organization’s HIV/AIDS Department, he led the “3 by 5” initiative, the first-ever global goal for AIDS treatment, which helped to expand AIDS treatment in developing countries. In 1987, Kim, who received his BA from Brown, co-founded Partners In Health, a non-profit medical organization now working in poor communities on four continents. Trained as a physician and an anthropologist, he has received several awards, including a MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship, and recognitions such as one of America’s “25 Best Leaders” by U.S. News & World Report, and in 2006 TIME magazine named him as one of its “100 Most Influential People in the World.”
Jinhee Ahn Kim AB ’85
is co-founder and President of Snapette, a leading eCommerce startup for fashion shopping. She began her career as a management consultant at Bain & Co, then worked as a senior merchandiser at Liz Claiborne. After receiving a degree in fashion design from Parsons School of Design, she designed menswear for Ralph Lauren. Jinhee spent 10 years living on islands and raising her three children in Singapore, Tokyo and Honolulu. During this time, she received her JD from the University of Hawaii, practiced real estate law and then founded True-Learning, an online early learning curriculum. Prior to co-founding Snapette, Jinhee was the Director of Product Development at Mindshapes where she oversaw the development of award winning children’s educational apps. Continuing her love affair with islands, she is currently based in London.
John J-H Kim AB ’87, MBA ’93 is a Senior Lecturer and William Henry Bloomberg Fellow in the Social Enterprise Initiative of the General Management Group of the Harvard Business School. Mr. Kim teaches the second year elective course Entrepreneurship in Education Reform. Mr. Kim also serves as the Co-Chair and a core faculty member of the Public Education Leadership Project (PELP). Mr. Kim continues to serve as the founder and CEO of The District Management Council (DMC). He is also the founding editor of The District Management Journal. Previously, Mr. Kim founded and led several firms in the education sector including a school management company that served more than 20,000 students in ten states. Additionally, he was a management consultant with McKinsey & Company and also served as an Executive Vice President of Rakuten, Inc (JASDAQ: 4755). Mr. Kim currently serves on several non-profit and corporate boards including the National Governing Board of BELL, the Board of Advisors of the Institute for Recruitment of Teachers (IRT) at Phillips Academy, Andover, and was also on the founding board of the Boston Collegiate Charter School.
Josephine Kim is Lecturer on Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She is an internationally renowned speaker, counselor, educator, consultant, and author whose expertise spans multiple contexts in education, mental health and illness, multicultural diversity, immigrant and third culture identity, school and community engagement, and child/adolescent development. She has been deployed by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration to work with Hurricane Katrina victims in 2006 and Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in 2007, directly following the campus massacre. She is USA Today‘s collegiate case study expert on school violence and the keynote speaker at 80-100 conferences yearly in Asia and in the US. She is the founding executive director of a non-profit organization aimed to bridge the cultural gap between immigrant parents and their 1.5 and 2.0 American children. She is the author of two best sellers in Korea entitled Self-esteem in the classroom: A handbook for teachers and The secret of children’s self-esteem. She received her PhD at the University of Virginia and completed a Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
Ju Yon Kim, Assistant Professor of English, Harvard University, is also a member of the Standing Committee on Ethnicity, Migration, Rights. Her research and teaching interests include Asian American literature, theater, modern an and comparative studies of race and ethnicity. Her first book, The Racial Mundane: Asian American Performance and the Embodied Everyday, will be published by NYU Press in April 2015. She received her PhD from Stanford and her BA from Yale.
Kenneth Kim AB ’81, MD ’86 is a serial entrepreneur with one of his first ventures founding two workers compensation companies that specialized in medical legal evaluations. He later started an allergy practice in the Long Beach area. Over the last 15 years, as founder and CEO, he has been growing a 300+ employee, private equity backed clinical research organization (CRO) called WCCT Global LLC, which specializes in early phase global drug development headquartered in Costa Mesa, CA.
Susan Kim AB ’96, MBA ’03 is the CEO of Plum District, a Kleiner Perkins and General Catalyst-backed e-commerce startup. Under Susan’s leadership, Plum District has grown to over 2 million members and is one of the largest e-commerce platforms and media properties dedicated to delivering high-quality, vetted products and services to Moms. Prior to joining Plum District, Susan was the VP of Operations and Finance , a social commerce start- Chief of Staff, North America Marketplaces at eBay where she was responsible for setting product strategy and allocating engineering resource and Head of Commerce Operations at Google where she scaled the operations team from 15 to over 200 people across 3 continents to support the launch of Google Offers, Google Wallet and Google Shopping Express. Susan began her career as a management consultant in the Media and Entertainment practice of Booz Allen Hamilton. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband and two young daughters.
Brad Kwong AB ’85, MBA ’93 is currently Managing Director at Harbinger Capital Partners where he focuses on sports related investments. He is also Managing Partner of the Dubuque Fighting Saints who compete in the United States Hockey League and currently serves as the USHL’s Chairman of the Board. Prior to Harbinger, he has worked internationally holding senior positions in finance, media and professional sports at Tremblant Capital, Kirch Media, the National Hockey League (NHL Europe) and Kidder Peabody. Arriving to Harvard from Calgary, Alberta, Canada, Brad was a 4-year letter winner in Ice Hockey. During this time, the team won 4 Ivy League titles, were NCAA quarter finalists twice and National finalists in 1983. He captained the team his senior year and was awarded the Cooney Weiland trophy for “selfless contribution to the total team effort.” Post graduation, Brad was a professional hockey player and coach in Como, Italy.
The Kwong family’s deep ties to the professional sports arena includes Brad’s father, CFL star Norman Kwong, a part-owner of the Calgary Flames who helped bring the NHL’s Atlanta Flames hockey team to Calgary in 1980.
Deanna Lee AB ’84 is the Chief Communications and Digital Strategies Officer at Carnegie Corporation of New York, charged with bringing together and disseminating the work of grantees in international peace, urban and higher education, and civic integration, with a focus on utilizing opportunities in the evolving new media and philanthropy landscape for public engagement. Previously, she served as Vice President for Communications and Marketing at the Asia Society, then at The New York Public Library. She oversaw NYPL’s expansion into a leading social media presence, and launched the award-winning reading and education app Biblion: The Boundless Library. Lee spent 20 years in broadcast journalism, during which she was overseas producer for ABC News Nightline and senior producer for World News Tonight with Peter Jennings, winning eight Emmy Awards and a DuPont-Columbia Award. A graduate of Harvard in Music and English and American Literature, she serves on the university’s Board of Overseers. She is also on the boards of Asian Americans Advancing Justice | AAJC and the New York Piano Society.
Ellie Lee AB ’92 is an award-winning director, writer, and producer of animated, fiction and documentary films, which have screened at the Berlin Film Festival and over a hundred festivals worldwide. She was one of Filmmaker Magazine‘s 25 New Faces of Independent Film. She is a five-time National Emmy Award nominee and won the 2009 Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award for excellence in broadcast journalism. As a storyteller, her performances for The Moth have been featured on NPR’s “The Moth Radio Hour,” the “Best of the Moth” box set, and at venues such as the MoMA in NY. She is a 2013 Sundance Institute Screenwriters Intensive Fellow. She also proudly serves on the Board of the non-profit Karen Schmeer Film Editing Fellowship. Her current project, the animated web comedy “,” is supported in part by the Center for Asian-American Media and the Tribeca Film Institute.
Georgia Lee AB ’98, MBA ‘09 is a writer and filmmaker. Georgia recently wrapped post on Capture, a feature she directed in Hong Kong. She is currently on the writing staff of SyFy’s upcoming space opera series The Expanse based on The New York Times best-selling novels. Georgia has written television pilots for CBS, NBC, FOX, and ABC Family, ranging from medical procedurals to action-thrillers. Previously, Georgia worked at McKinsey & Company, where she spent nights and weekends on her real passion, making movies. Martin Scorsese saw her first short film and invited her to apprentice with him on the set of Gangs of New York. Afterwards, her parents insisted she have a “real career” and attend business school. Georgia then dropped out of HBS to write and direct her first feature Red Doors, which won the Best Narrative Award at the Tribeca Film Festival, the Special Jury Award at CineVegas, as well as the Audience Award and the Grand Jury Award for Screenwriting at Outfest. Georgia pens sci-fi comic book series Meridien City and believes we are all androids who dream of electric sheep. She finally returned to HBS and discovered a framed MBA is a good paperweight for scripts.
Jennifer 8. Lee AB ’98-’99 is co-founder and CEO Plympton, whose mobile reading app, Rooster, launched in March 2014. One of the youngest full reporters ever hired by The New York Times, Jenny is also the author of “The Fortune Cookie Chronicles.” She serves on the boards and advisory committees of the Center for Public Integrity, Hacks/Hackers, the Asian American Writers Workshop, the Nieman Foundation, Harvard Magazine, and the New York Public Library Young Lions. She produced “The Search for General Tso,” a documentary which premiered at the 2014 TriBeCa Film Festival and is a cofounder of Newsdiffs and Spark Camp. She majored in applied math and economics at Harvard.
Melissa Lee AB ’95 is the host of CNBC’s “Fast Money” and “Options Action”, and contributes to NBC’s “Today” show. Previously, Lee was co-anchor of CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street” and host of “Money in Motion Currency Trading.” Lee has reported several one-hour documentaries for CNBC, including “Made in China: People’s Republic of Profit,” from Beijing and Shanghai. Lee has been nominated for two Emmy awards in Business News: In 2007, she was recognized for her report “The $50M Con,” about a college student-turned scammer who ran a fake hedge fund, and in 2003 for her reporting on the proxy voting of mutual funds. Prior to joining CNBC in 2004, Lee worked for Bloomberg Television and CNN Financial News and was a consultant at Mercer Management Consulting. Lee graduated from Harvard with a degree in government and was Assistant Managing Editor of the Harvard Crimson.
William F. Lee AB ’72 William F. Lee is a partner at WilmerHale and is one of the country’s foremost intellectual property and commercial trial and appellate lawyers. He has tried more than 100 patent cases, both jury and jury waived, to judgment and argued more than 75 appeals before the Court of Appeals. He has been selected as one of The National Law Journal‘s 100 Most Influential Lawyers in A one of The American Lawyer’s Litigators of the Y the outstanding U.S. IP Practitioner by Managing IP; and one of the 50 most powerful people in Boston by Boston Business Journal. He has served on the Advisory Committee of the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit and on the Advisory Committee of the United States District Court of the District of Massachusetts. He is a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers and has served as the John A. Reilly Visiting Professor and the Eli Goldston Lecturer at Harvard Law School. He is Senior Fellow of the Harvard Corporation and has served on the Harvard Board of Overseers.
Charlene Li AB ’88, MBA ’93 is the Founder of Altimeter Group and the author of The New York Times bestseller, Open Leadership. She is also the coauthor of the critically acclaimed, bestselling book Groundswell, which was named one of the best business books in 2008. She is one of the foremost experts on social media and technologies and a consultant and independent thought leader on leadership, strategy, social technologies, interactive media and marketing. Formerly Li was vice president and principal analyst at Forrester Research, worked in online newspaper publishing, and was a consultant with Monitor Group. She was named one of the 100 most creative people in business by Fast Company in 2010 and one of the most influential women in technology 2009. Charlene is frequently quoted by leading media channels such as The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, USA Today, Reuters, and The Associated Press. She has appeared on 60 Minutes, The McNeil NewsHour, ABC News, CNN, and CNBC. She is a much-sought after public speaker and has keynoted top conferences such as the World Business Forum, World Economic Forum, American Society of Association Executives, SXSW, and Web 2.0.
Judith J. Li AB ’06, MBA ’13 is a Principal at Lilly Asia Ventures, a healthcare venture capital fund headquartered in Shanghai focused on early and growth stage investments across biopharma, medtech, and HIT. Judith’s prior experience also includes McKinsey’s healthcare practice, serving as strategy director for Teach for America, hospital administration at the Partners Healthcare network office, and co-founding a medical device startup in interventional nephrology. Judith has also served on the founding board of directors of New Bedford-based charter school Alma del Mar and is actively involved in Ellevate (formerly 85 Broads). Judith currently resides in Hong Kong with her husband Ben and splits her time between Hong Kong, Shanghai, and the Bay Area.
Angela Lin AB ’02, MBA ’10 oversees YouTube Edu, working on content strategy, partnerships, and original programming with creators who use YouTube as an educational platform. Prior to joining Google, Angela was a strategy consultant specializing in digital media and entertainment and served as a film programmer at the Los Angeles Film Festival. Angela began her career as a Page at NBC where she worked on SNL, the Today Show, and the Olympics. She has also worked on productions for the Travel Channel in Peru, TVB in Hong Kong, and the Shanghai Grand Theatre in China.
Vanessa Liu AB ’96, JD ’03 is COO at Trigger Media. Prior to joining Trigger Media, Vanessa was an Associate Principal in McKinsey & Company’s Global Media, Entertainment and Information Services Practice and was based in Amsterdam, London and New York. She was a Fulbright Scholar at Universiteit Utrecht in the Netherlands where she conducted independent research on the International War Crimes Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia and the International Court of Justice. She has also been a negotiations and conflict resolution instructor for the Harvard Program on Negotiation, and is admitted to the New York State bar.
Mynette Louie AB ’97 is the president of Gamechanger Films, which finances narrative features directed by women. She is the winner of the 2013 Independent Spirit Piaget Producers Award. Her producing credits include LAND HO! (Sundance 2014, Sony Pictures Classics), COLD COMES THE NIGHT (Sony/Goldwyn 2014), CALIFORNIA SOLO (Sundance 2012), STONES IN THE SUN (Tribeca 2012), ARCADIA (Berlin 2012), CHILDREN OF INVENTION (Sundance 2009), and MUTUAL APPRECIATION (SXSW 2005). Louie serves as an advisor to the Sundance Institute, SXSW, IFP and A3 Foundation. She was named one of Ted Hope’s “21 Brave Thinkers of Truly Free Film,” profiled in Indiewire’s “Futures” column and in Crain’s New York Business, and named one of Indiewire’s “100 Filmmakers to Follow on Twitter.” She previously worked at the Hawaii Film Office, where she authored the state’s production tax credit, and , Jupiter Research, and Time magazine.
Vivian Louie AB ’88 is a visiting professor at Hunter College. Her two books, Compelled to Excel: Immigration, Education, and Opportunity Among Chinese Americans and Keeping the Immigrant Bargain: The Costs and Rewards of Success in America, reveal how academic success is achieved in similar ways among working class Chinese, Dominicans and Colombians, even though they belong to groups typically framed at opposite ends of academic success (the Asian American high achiever and the Latino American low achiever). Dr. Louie received her PhD and MA from the Yale University Department of Sociology, MA from the Stanford University Department of Communication, and AB from Harvard University. Louie has previously worked as a newspaper journalist, journalism teacher and youth magazine editor, and an associate professor in education and lecturer in sociology at Harvard.
Annie Lu COL ’16 is a junior in Winthrop House, originally from Frisco, TX. She’s studying Psychology with a secondary in Economics. At Harvard, she currently serves as the Under-Secretary-General for Delegate Relations for Harvard National Model United Nations 2015. She is also an active member of the Harvard Undergraduate Women in Business and is on the Executive Board that founded Harvard College Dance Marathon, which is organized every year to raise funds and support for patients at Boston Children’s Hospital. Annie has a particular interest in international business and with the help of the Reischauer Institute for Japanese Studies and Office of Career Services, she was able to intern at a business education consulting company in Tokyo this past summer. Her experience has further sparked her interest in the value of cross-cultural business exchanges and inspired her to pursue activities that involve working in a global context.
Xiao-Li Meng AM ’87, PhD ’90 is Dean of the Harvard University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GSAS), Whipple V. N. Jones Professor, and former chair of Statistics at Harvard. He is well known for his depth and breadth in research, his innovation and passion in pedagogy, and his vision and effectiveness in administration, as well as for his engaging and entertaining style as a speaker and writer. Meng has received numerous awards and honors for the more than 120 publications he has authored in at least a dozen theoretical and methodological areas, as well as in areas of pedagogy and professional development. His interests range from the theoretical foundations of statistical inferences to statistical methods and computation to applications in natural, social, and medical sciences and engineering. Meng received his BS in mathematics from Fudan University in 1982. He returned to Harvard as Professor of Statistics in 2001, where he was appointed department chair in 2004 and the Whipple V. N. Jones Professor in 2007. He was appointed GSAS Dean on August 15, 2012.
Rob Ohno AB ’86 is Senior Vice President, Corporate Marketing at the PGA TOUR, where his group oversees 50+ year-long corporate partnerships, such as FedEx, Charles Schwab, MasterCard, Rolex, Anheuser-Busch, and many others.
He has been at the TOUR since 1999, and yes, he has event worked out with Tiger Woods.
Prior to the TOUR, Rob worked at American Golf Corporation, General Mills on products such as Wheaties (when Michael Jordan was a spokesperson), and Cambridge Associates.
He graduated with his MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University in ’91.
While at Harvard, Rob played hockey and his team played in the NCAA Championship game during his freshman and senior years.
Rob was recipient of the Ralph Cooney Weiland award and elected a Harvard Class Marshal in ’86; he was inducted into his high school’s Athletic Hall of Fame in ’12.
Rob played hockey in Germany for one year after college before starting his work career.
He currently lives in Ponte Vedra Beach, FL with his wife (Pam) and two children (Ben, COL’14, and Sam, an avid golfer and high school sophomore).
Tracy Palandjian AB ’93, MBA ’97 is the Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of Social Finance, Inc., a nonprofit organization focused on developing and managing innovative financial instruments that connect the social sector to the capital markets and generate both social benefit and financial return. Prior to Social Finance, Tracy was a Managing Director for 11 years at The Parthenon Group where she established and led the Nonprofit Practice and worked with foundations and NGOs to accomplish their missions in the US and globally. She is co-author of Investing for Impact: Case Studies Across Asset Classes. Prior to Parthenon, Tracy worked at Wellington Management Co. and McKinsey & Co. Tracy is the Co-Chair of the U.S. National Advisory Board to the G8 Social Impact Investment Task Force. She is a member of the Board of Overseers at Harvard University and a Director of Affiliated Managers Group. She also serves on the board of the Surdna Foundation and co-chairs the Board of Directors of Facing History and Ourselves. Tracy is a frequent speaker and writer on impact investing and social innovation, having been covered in The Atlantic, The Economist, Forbes, and The New York Times.
Reena Pande AB ’96, MD ’01, MSc ’12 is Chief Medical Officer at AbilTo, where she serves as a passionate voice for the critical need for innovative ways to truly help individuals achieve meaningful behavior change in order to improve medical outcomes. She also spearheads AbilTo’s data analytics and outcomes research endeavors. In addition to her work at AbilTo, Dr. Pande continues to practice as a cardiologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, MA and is an Instructor at Harvard Medical School. She is the author of several peer-reviewed publications and other contributions to the medical literature. She completed her internship, residency training, and fellowship in Cardiovascular Disease and Vascular Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, MA.
Andrew Park AB ’01 is Head of Sustainable Finance Programs in Bloomberg’s Global Sustainability group. Reporting to the Chairman’s Office, the team aggressively integrates sustainability considerations into all operations and co-develops products and services for the Bloomberg Professional Service, enabling our clients to evaluate sustainability market risks and opportunities. Prior to coming to Bloomberg LP, he served as Special Assistant to the COO of Bloomberg Philanthropies, Michael R. Bloomberg’s private foundation. He also served as a law clerk to the Honorable Judge Robert A. Katzmann of the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, and law clerk to the Honorable Judge Jed S. Rakoff of the Southern District of New York. Andrew also holds a D.Phil. from Oxford University in Comparative Social Policy where he was a Rhodes Scholar, and a law degree from the Yale Law School where he was a Soros Fellow.
Ed Park AB ’97 has served as the Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of athenahealth since July 2010. He served as the Chief Technology Officer from March 2007 to July 2010 and served as Chief Software Architect from 1998 to March 2007. Mr. Park has served on numerous industry groups (National Alliance for Health Information Technology, Certification Commission for Health Information Technology) and corporate boards (Healthpoint Services Pvt Ltd, Kyruus) and currently serves on the board of Castlight Health. Prior to joining the Company, Mr. Park was a consultant for Viant, Inc.
Kyung-Ah Park MBA ’98 is a managing director and the head of Environmental Markets at Goldman Sachs. In that capacity, she oversees and supports the global environmental initiatives of Goldman Sachs including environmental risk management and works closely with the businesses on environmental market opportunities. She also heads the Center for Environmental Markets, which partners with corporates, nongovernmental organizations, and academic institutions to further market-based solutions to environmental issues. Kyung-Ah serves on the Firmwide Physical Commodity Review Committee. Previously, she was a vice president in the Industrials Group in the Investment Banking Division and an executive director of Goldman Sachs (Asia) LLC. Kyung-Ah joined Goldman Sachs in the Mergers & Acquisitions Department in New York. Prior to joining the firm, Kyung-Ah worked as a management consultant at McKinsey & Company in Seoul, Korea, and Johannesburg, South Africa. Kyung-Ah also earned a BA from Yonsei University in Seoul, Korea.
Perry Pong AB ’83 was born and raised in San Francisco, CA. His experiences led him to a career in medicine in New York City. He worked for Jacobi Medical Center as the Associate Medical Director for Ambulatory Care before becoming the Chief Medical Officer at the Charles B. Wang Community Health Center. He is a believer in quality primary care for community. He is married to Margaret M. Chin AB ’84 and they are the proud parents of Alexander COL ’16 and Meredith.
Mukesh Prasad AB ’93
graduated with an AB in Government and continues to serve as First Class Marshal for the Class of 1993. While at the College, he was able to travel abroad through a variety of fellowships, with a culmination of his experience spending his Junior-Senior Summer teaching at an orphanage in North India, and conducting research, which ultimately formed the basis of his thesis on the Indian Non-Formal Education Scheme. Since that time, Mukesh received his Doctorate in Medicine at Johns Hopkins and went on to train in Otolaryngology and Head and Neck Surgery at Columbia University. He currently is on faculty at the Weill Cornell College of Medicine, where he serves as the Chair of the Clinical Affairs Committee for the General Faculty Council. Along with their two children, Dr. Prasad and his wife, Chandni, currently reside in New York City and dedicate their philanthropic efforts to supporting education initiatives both in the United States and abroad. Dr. and Mrs. Prasad also sponsor the Prasad Fellows Program at Harvard, an ongoing annual program administered through the Harvard South Asia Institute, where Dr. Prasad recently joined the Advisory Council.
Darshak Sanghavi AB ’92
is the Director, Population and Preventive Health Models Group at the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation. He was the Richard Merkin fellow and a managing director of the Engelberg Center for Health Care Reform at the Brookings Institution. Sanghavi is also associate professor of pediatrics and the former chief of pediatric cardiology and at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. A frequent guest on NBC’s Today and past commentator for NPR’s All Things Considered, Darshak is a contributing editor to Parents magazine and Slate‘s health care columnist, and often writes about health care for the New York Times, Boston Globe, and Washington Post. His best-seller, A Map of the Child: A Pediatrician’s Tour of the Body, was named a best health book of the year by the Wall Street Journal. He is a former visiting media fellow of the Kaiser Family Foundation and a winner of the Wharton Business Plan Competition. He previously worked as a US Indian Health Service pediatrician on a Navajo reservation. Educated at Harvard College and Johns Hopkins Medical School, Darshak completed his pediatrics residency and cardiology fellowship at Harvard Medical School and Children’s Hospital Boston.
Samuel Sia PhD ’02
is an Associate Professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Columbia University. His lab focuses on using microfluidics for global health diagnostics and for 3D tissue biology. His lab’s work has been supported by the NIH (NHLBI and NINR), NSF, USAID/Grand Challenges Canada/Gates Foundation, Wallace H. Coulter Foundation, American Heart Association, and World Health Organization. He has been named one of the world’s top young innovators by MIT Technology Review. His research has been covered by NPR, Washington Post, CBS, NBC, BBC, CBC, Voice of America, and Agence France Presse. He is a founder of Claros Diagnostics, a venture capital-backed company developing diagnostics products which was acquired by Opko Health, and Harlem Biospace, New York City’s first life-science incubator. He was a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Predoctoral Fellow, National Science and Engineering Council of Canada Predoctoral Fellow, and Canadian Institute of Health Postdoctoral Fellow. He obtained his B.S. in Biochemistry at the University of Alberta and held a postdoctoral fellowship in Chemistry at Harvard University.
Pablo S. Torre AB ’07 is a senior writer at ESPN The Magazine ; a regular panelist on “Around the Horn,” “The Sports Reporters” and “O” a back-up host of “Around the Horn” and “Olbermann”; an occasional correspondent for “Outside the L” and an on-air contributor to National Public Radio’s “Tell Me More.” His writing has been honored by organizations ranging from the Society of American Business Editors and Writers (for an investigation into how and why athletes go broke, which led to the federal prosecution of a multimillion-dollar Ponzi scheme in Texas) to the Boxing Writers Association of America and the Association of Health Care Journalists (for a story on mental illness in Major League Baseball . His story on the afterlife of NBA seven-footers was listed as a notable selection in the 2012 edition of The Best American Sports Writing. Torre joined ESPN after five years as a staff writer at Sports Illustrated. At Harvard, he was a writer and executive editor of the Crimson. His Crimson piece on racial diversity in Ivy League athletics was named the 2007 Sports Story of the Year by the Associated Collegiate Press.
Jeffrey Wang COL ’16 is a rising junior living in Quincy House, studying Applied Mathematics in Economics with a secondary in Statistics. Originally from East Hanover, NJ, Jeff is an average college student who enjoys a variety of interests, including music, sports, and videogames. On campus, Jeff is Co-President of the Taiwanese Cultural Society, but he is also involved with the Harvard College Consulting Group, the Harvard Financial Analyst Club, and the Applied Math Society. Jeff has spent the last two summers in China. During the first summer, he worked for Renren, Inc. in Beijing for several months, before taking part in the Harvard China Fund Student Service Learning Program. In this program, he went on a cultural tour that included visiting cities such as Xi’an and Zhengzhou. Later on the program, he travelled to a rural community in Yunnan Province, in which he taught English to underprivileged high school students for several weeks. However, during the second summer, Jeff remained in Shanghai, working for Hay Group, a management consulting firm.
Amy Wu AB ’09 is the Director of Operations and Corporate Development for NewsCred, the leading end-to-end content marketing software for brands and publishers, based in NYC. Previously, Amy was an investor at IA Ventures, an early stage VC fund in NYC investing in data-centric startups, and at Insight Venture Partners, a late-stage technology fund with over $8B in management. At Insight, Amy was a core member of the operations team, working with growth-stage SaaS, ecommerce, and marketplace companies in the U.S. and China. At Harvard, she lived in Winthrop House. When not working, she climbs mountains and skis.
Julie Wu AB ’88 is a writer whose debut novel, The Third Son, was listed as one of 10 riveting reads of May 2013 by O, The Oprah Magazine. The Taipei Times calls it “the best novel featuring Taiwan I’ve ever read. . . a fantastically good read.” Julie, who is also a physician, was the recipient of a 2012 Massachusetts Cultural Council Fellowship. Her short fiction has won honorable mention in the 2010 Lorian Hemingway Short Story Contest and has been published in Columbia Magazine. She spent a year studying opera performance at Indiana University in Bloomington, many lifetimes ago.
Sheryl WuDunn MBA ’86 the first Asian-American to win a Pulitzer Prize in reporting, is a best selling author, business executive and lecturer, and has strong ties to the philanthropic community. She is the co-author with her husband Nicholas D. Kristof of
, just published by Random House. She and Kristof have co-authored three best-selling books: ,
and , which was featured on The Oprah Winfrey Show, The Colbert Report, amd Dateline NBC. WuDunn won a Pulitzer with Kristof for covering China for The New York Times, along with the Dayton Literary Peace Prize for Lifetime Achievement. She held several roles as both an executive and journalist at the Times. She currently is Senior Managing Director at Mid-Market Securities. Previously, she worked at Goldman, Sachs & Co., where she was a vice president, and as a commercial loan officer at Bankers Trust. She graduated from Cornell University, where she is a memb