Experience
NYU Entrepreneurial Institute - 09/14 to present
Entrepreneur-in-Residence – 9/14 to present
Director Blackstone LaunchPad at NYU – 11/15 to present
Advise & mentor aspiring entrepreneurs from the NYU community (student/faculty/staff) helping them progress from idea to venture formation and strategies for achieving scale
Implemented the Blackstone LaunchPad grant initiative to scale the capacity of mentoring & developed measures for effectiveness
Conceived & Launched the Ethical Entrepreneurship & Scaling Research Commercialization initiatives
Initiated the Female Founder Forum
Bluewater Associates - 05/07 to present
Founder, President
Bluewater Associates specializes in helping innovators, investors, and operators capitalize on new innovations in software and other new technologies transforming multiple industry sectors. Develops commercialization strategies for new products and services. Emphasize Value Creation: aligning business planning & innovation with organizational structure & culture, product design, eco-system development, & understanding business risk, including government engagement & public policy.
Lean Launch Ventures - 10/12 to 12/18
Founder, Managing Director
Lean Launch Ventures was a tech accelerator, funded by Connecticut Innovations, to help entrepreneurs improve their odds of success building high-risk startups and fuel innovation within larger companies.
Education SportS Mentoring - 12/09 – 03/13
Founder, CEO
Acquired by Flat World Knowledge - September 2013
ESMZone.com was a peer-based learning community where student athletes competed for points and prizes through positive contributions to the community.
Microsoft Corporation - 1990 to 2007
Senior Director, Technical Policy – Windows Division - 09/01 to 05/07
Provided Microsoft’s executive level business presence for strategic technical public policy issues through ongoing interaction with Congress, the FCC & FTC and other government entities, partners, and key influential advocates; help educate policy makers on technology vision, industry direction, consumer impact, and IT industry economic incentives.
Responsible for developing and managing complex partner relationships in the technology, media, and telecom industries. Focused on the impact of public policy on Microsoft business and technology directions for the Windows Division. Policy topics include Intellectual Property and Content Protection, Digital Broadcasting (TV and Radio), Broadband and Telecom Reform.
Drove cross divisional alignment on policy goals and positions creating feedback loop impacting future business and product planning priorities.
Lead negotiator for inter-industry efforts to align on policy positions.
Public spokesperson for the company regarding a range of technical policy topics.
Product Unit Manager, Windows Extensions Business Unit - 09/99 to 9/01
Responsibilities included P&L, business planning, operations, distribution, pricing, staff & resource development. In less than 12 months, defined vision, developed business model & plan, built team to 35+ and shipped first product; less than 1 year later shipped second product. Selling software online and generating revenue as a percent of customer transactions was a first for Microsoft.
Managed product development organization defining, building & shipping new revenue generating Digital Media-based businesses, including Microsoft Digital Broadcast Manager (DBM) and Windows Plus product family. Each product required creating internal infrastructure and operations for online sales of software. DBM enabled ASPs to more easily use DRM technology for packaging and administering content distribution. The use of Digital Rights Management was a first for Microsoft.
Group Manager, Planning and Business Development Tools Division - 1/96 to 8/99
Drove new product design efforts leading to product line expansion and increased revenue for Microsoft’s Enterprise tools business and overall product strategy for the Visual Studio business.
Initiated and closed deals while forging strategic relationships with Rational Software, DEC, Seagate, others and advised numerous third parties on how to build their businesses and work with Microsoft.
Director, Strategic Technology Services - 7/94 to 1/96
Developed Microsoft Solutions Framework, a software development methodology, converting an internal expense into for profit training business. It was sold through 3rd party training centers utilizing MCS consultants as trainers which created new MCS service and generating revenue for partners. Responsibilities included overall P&L, product development; train the trainer programs, 3rd party channel development, and marketing. Exceeded all revenue and unit sales projections.
Built programs to maintain and enhance skill sets of MCS consultants, effectiveness and revenue growth for the rapidly expanding worldwide consulting organization.
Managed the group defining operating guidelines to start-up new consulting practices globally; fiscal planning, resource & staff development, sales proposal development and operations.
Managed the team responsible for auditing troubled projects specifically to turn them around to improve customer satisfaction.
Practice Manager, Northeast Region - 10/90 to 7/94
Responsible for P&L, business development, and resource planning including general management for the quality of the value-added services to Microsoft clients. Consistently closed deals exceeding specific revenue targets with high client satisfaction.
Launched and managed New York Metropolitan Area consulting office and grew consulting practice from zero to 60+ employees. Launched and managed Boston consulting office and grew practice to 20+ employees. Developed and implemented regional network of subcontractors.
Implemented strategic approach to organizational planning, technical training programs, applications development and network management services.
Interests
Civic Tech
Social Impact
Education
Infrastructure