Andrea Nierenberg is a "networking success story."  A respected author and quoted expert, she is a master at helping companies build their businesses by improving employee and client relationships.  Her training methods focus on one principle: take care of your business relationships, and your company will prosper.  Her company, The Nierenberg Group, advises some of the world’s leading businesses.  Her books, Nonstop Networking: How to Improve Your Life, Luck, and Career and Million Dollar Networking: The Sure Way To Find, Keep And Grow Your Business are bestsellers. 

Ramona K.Z. Heck, Ph.D. Ramona K. Z. Heck is a Field Mentor and the Jonas Chair of Entrepreneurship in the Department of Management of the Zicklin School of Business at Baruch College. Before joining Baruch College, Dr. Heck was Professor and the J. Thomas Clark Fellow of Entrepreneurship and Personal Enterprise at Cornell University, Ithaca, New York. Dr. Heck teaches and conducts research related to family businesses. She has published numerous articles on family management and decision making theory and public and private policies related to working families.

Robert Foskey is a Field Mentor and a Lecturer at the Zicklin School of Business. He had extensive corporate and consulting experience before joining Baruch College as a faculty member. As Executive Vice President of Boone, Young and Associates, Mr. Foskey was responsible for the firm's Small Business Practice. He has organized and managed Small Business Development Centers for the US Department of Commerce and was appointed by Mayor Ed Koch to the Board of Directors and Loan Review Committee of the New York City Financial Services Corporation.

David Oldfield is Director of The Midway Center for Creative Imagination in Washington , DC .  He works extensively as a consultant to corporations who are undergoing dramatic and wish to engage these challenges in a creative manner. In addition Mr. Oldfield has designed a variety of tools for corporations to engage their workforce in the ways and means of personal, professional, and organizational transformation. Current clients include Disney, Toyota , Mattel, Nike, and American Express. Mr. Oldfield is the author of several books that guide people through the natural crises that occur at the thresholds of the human life cycle. The Journey: A Creative Approach to the Necessary Crises of Adolescence,Private Paths, Common Ground: An Adult Rite of Passage, Winnowing and The Second Journey: A Modern Call for the Ancient Role of the Elder. He speaks extensively on such diverse topics as the ancient origins of leadership, how to lead (and follow) creative people, recovering the soul of a brand, and the alignment of personal, professional and organizational growth. He holds a Masters Degree in Religion from Yale Divinity School, and a Masters Degree in Special Education from Southern Connecticut State University.

Carole Hyatt is a best-selling author, international motivational speaker, and social behavior researcher. She has focused on the anatomy of work transitions for second and third career development for over thirty-five years. Her books When Smart People Fail, Lifetime Employability, Shifting gears, and The Woman's New Selling Game have helped millions of people throughout the world effectively identify and accomplish their career goals. Her works have been reviewed as seminal and she is frequently quoted and appears in the media. Her “Getting to Next” workshop is attended worldwide by executives from diverse fields. She has been the career reporter for AARP and on Prime Time on public television and now is an executive coach for leaders in succession programs poised to reach the top of their organization. Carole has served as a founding board member of Harvard University ’s John F. Kennedy School Women’s Initiative Board, and a founding member of Avon Inc.’s Women of Enterprise. Currently, she sits on numerous boards including Shakespeare & Co. and scores of start-up companies. She has served on the faculties of The New School for Social Research, NYU, Marymount Manhattan College, and Hunter Graduate School.

Amy Hebard has spent 25 years as a marketing and market research professional. For 17 years she honed her skills in the corporate world, at one point heading up the Consumer Market Research Division at AT&T.  Since leaving AT&T, she has created three new companies: Hebard Research Services, LLC (a one-woman market research consulting firm for advising clients on effective research strategies); Rockhopper Research(a full-service firm that provides leading edge online research for domestic and international clients); and, her newest, Earthsense LLC (an applied target marketing firm specializing in research and marketing tools for promoting eco-friendly products and services).  Dr. Hebard has a home office in Maplewood, NJ where she lives with her husband Jim McRobert.  She is PRC certified at the Expert Level by the Market Research Association, and has a BA from Ithaca College (philosophy) and a PhD from Columbia University (psychology).

Micki Eisenman is a Field Mentor and a faculty member in the Management Department at the Zicklin School of Business at Baruch College. She teaches Entrepreneurial Management at the college. Her academic research focuses on understanding the pursuit of fashion in industries that are not typically considered fashion-based, such as personal computers or cellular phones. As such, she is particularly interested in businesses that benefit from generating fashion dynamics, such as fostering novelty, generating and imitating fashion trends, and extending status and identity through product use.

Pavan Mirpuri is a Business Advisor with the Midtown Manhattan Small Business Development Center at Baruch College. Pavan provides one-on-one counseling to clients who seek to start a business or clients who are already in business. He provides assistance to clients in developing business plans and obtaining small business financing from various sources. Pavan received his Bachelor’s degree in Accounting from the University of Mumbai and an MBA degree in Entrepreneurship and Finance from The Zicklin School of Business, Baruch College. He has also successfully completed all the educational requirements for the CPA Certification. Prior to his MBA, Pavan spent four years working for his family-owned business, wholesalers in textiles, located in Mumbai, India.

Wendy Dubit is a social entrepreneur and business development executive whose numerous initiatives -- built under the Vergant brand (www.vergant.com) and for such companies as Bertelsmann Music Group, America Online, New Line Cinema, Pantone, Primedia and Unilever – all carry common threads: The creation and promotion of publications, programs, processes and products designed to enhance life, work and learning.  
For BMG Kidz, Wendy helped launch Jim Henson Records, the “Where In the World Is Carmen Sandiego?” audio line and the music and video careers of Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen. For America Online, she served as a consultant to the AOL Greenhouse, produced some of the service’s most popular programs, and consulted to corporate communications on cause-related content and commerce.  
Entities she has started include FarmHands-CityHands, which links farm and city for the cultural and economic benefits of both; The Producers’ Project, which enables students and teachers to make and share media; The Senses Bureau, which celebrates and cross-pollinates our senses while educating about their importance and underpinnings; and The Renewables: Thinkable is Doable!, an emerging resource for renewable energy, agriculture and lifestyle communities.
She has not always had the experience of "Do What You Love and the Money Will Follow."  She therefore coaches herself and others in the practice of Blisscipline -- of doing what you love with joy, determination, organization and, when possible, with other people's money.

Allyn Freeman is an accomplished author of business books, including The Leadership Genius of Alfred P. Sloan(McGraw Hill), Reworking Retirement(December 2007, Adams Media), and Why Didn't I Think of That, a study of innovation and idea generation of new products (John Wiley and Sons). Currently, he is a consultant for American International Media LLC, the operator of the USA Sevens rugby tournament in San Diego. He holds a MBA in Marketing from Columbia Business School.

Alfred Milanese, Owner, Martin’s Pretzels and TransitionWorks
Owner of a successful small business for more than 25 years, Alfred Milanese considers himself an entrepreneur as well as a writer, leader, mediator, teacher, and father, all highly developed occupations which his enterprise has happily facilitated. Since 2003, he has partnered with John Harvey in the very successful development of TransitionWorks. In 1982 he first established Martin’s (Handmade Pennsylvania Dutch) Pretzels in the New York City Greenmarkets and eventually on line (MartinsPretzels.com). His Zagat rated business has had a river of editorials in major newspapers, national magazines (The New Yorker, Saveur...), Food TV, and has appeared in movies (You’ve Got Mail among them) and on TV (Sex in the City). Before his involvement with Martin’s he worked as an editor, advertising copywriter, information director, and…poet. His leadership roles included Chairmanship of the Greenmarket’s Farmer Community Advisory Committee, and presidency of two NYC coop boards. Mr. Milanese believes that aligning our values and personal language as they relate to every aspect of our lives is the key to success in all of our occupations and businesses.

John Harvey, Co-Founder TransitionWorks, For twenty-four years John worked in the corporate world with several companies - Dun & Bradstreet, Thomas Cook Travel, and American Express in positions focusing on leadership development, strategic planning, general HR management, and most recently as Senior Vice President of Global Talent at American Express, where he was responsible for the personal and professional success of the 70,000+ employees in the Company. In 2002, he decided to leave American Express and the corporate world as a full-time participant.
Since then he has focused on consulting, writing, coaching, becoming a successful entrepreneur, being a more engaged dad and spouse, and continuous learning. John consults and coaches at organizations such as Accenture, Best Buy, the Shanghai Media Group, Merrill Lynch, and Columbia University, which enables him to help individuals and teams of people achieve higher levels of performance. He co-founded TransitionWorks (transitionworks.org) in 2002; a ministry aimed to help people navigate voluntary or involuntary career/life changes to arrive at a more meaningful outcome.  He was also the owner of Freeman's Fish Market – a wholesale/retail seafood business which he ran with his family and sold just a few months ago.

Jon Teall is a seasoned communications professional with more than 25 years experience. He is currently president of Teall & Associates, a firm he founded earlier this year. Clients include the Loan Syndication & Trading Association, the Securities Industry & Financial Markets Association, PriceMetrix, ACBS ClearPar and Bookbinder Capital.
Before launching Teall & Associates, Jon was head of communications at the Bond Market Association where he helped raise the Association’s global visibility, as well as further its advocacy efforts. Jon has held senior executive positions at Standard & Poor’s, Duff & Phelps and Lipper Analytical Securities. He also ran the Financial Services Group at Morgen-Walke Associates, a New York based investor relations agency. His clients included New York Life Investment Management, LaBranche & Co., Sandler O’Neill and Gruntal. Jon has extensive experience in all aspects of communications, including crisis communications and the development and implementation of strategic plans designed to leverage communications in support of key business goals.
Jon began his career as a television anchor and reporter, working in several Midwestern markets before becoming a Wall Street correspondent for CNBC. Jon has covered both the stock and bond markets, major bankruptcies and business personalities, including Warren Buffet, Bill Gates and Donald Trump.
Jon earned his bachelors degree at Vassar College, a masters degree in television at Syracuse University and his MBA at Baruch College.

Leonard Parness, CLU has been a Life and Health Insurance Professional for over 30 years assisting business owners, professionals, executives and individuals with their insurance needs. He joined Executive Planning Group in 1981 and has served as a director and corporate officer ever since.
His core market is small to medium sized closely held businesses working with clients to serve both their business and personal needs.
Leonard is a life member of the Million Dollar Round Table, a member of the Estate Planning Council of Nassau County for 25 years, a member of the Society of Financial Service Professionals, and a Charter Member of the National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors.
You can find further information on his company website, executiveplanninggroup.com

Thomas S. Lyons is the Lawrence N. Field Family Chair in Entrepreneurship in the Zicklin School of Business. His research focus is on entrepreneurship and its role in regional economic development.  Dr. Lyons has written seven books and numerous articles, book chapters and technical reports on entrepreneurship, enterprise development, business incubation, and state and local economic development.  Previously, he was a recipient of a Coleman Foundation Entrepreneurship Education and Awareness Grant for his work with minority entrepreneurs in inner-city Louisville, Kentucky. He served as an advisor to the Business Plus microenterprise program of the Louisville Central Development Corporation and as an officer of the Board of Directors of the Louisville Enterprise Group (LEG), an empowerment business incubation program affiliated with the Louisville Community Development Bank. Lyons holds a Ph.D. in Urban and Regional Planning from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor and has worked as a practicing municipal planner and as a private planning consultant.

Ulas Neftci is a business advisor at the Midtown Manhattan Small Business Development Center. He specializes in technology and business planning and has consulted hundreds of businesses in many different industries. He has an undergraduate degree in Engineering and graduate degrees in both Business and Computer Systems. He has worked in various industries ranging from technology to wholesale trade and also has some entrepreneurial endeavors. Ulas teaches entrepreneurship in the Department of Management of the Zicklin School of Business at Baruch College.