Board of Directors

Michael Karangelen

 

Michael is currently Senior Principal of TowerBrook Capital Partners (www.towerbrook.com), a private equity firm with over $5 billion of assets under management. He was formally with Brera Capital Partners and Stolberg Partners, both private equity firms. He also served as head of business development for Advanced Telecommunications, Inc (ATI), an integrated communications company, and Chief Financial Officer for GAB Robins, a global insurance services firm. Michael began his career with Goldman, Sachs & Co., where he worked in the Financial Institutions Group of the Mergers & Acquisitions Department, and he also worked for a U.K.-based investment bank, S.G. Warburg (now part of UBS Securities), in both their London and New York offices.

Michael has been involved in numerous private equity investments in the media/entertainment/communications, financial services and manufacturing sectors, including Rave Motion Pictures (www.ravemotionpictures.com), Ladder Capital (www.laddercapital.com), ATI, GAB Robins (www.gabrobins.com), 2-10 HBW (www.2-10.com), Ironshore (www.ironshore.com), Western Industries (www.westernind.com), Anaheim Manufacturing (www.anaheimmfg.com), and Freedom Plastics. Graduated from Cornell University with a B.A. from the College of Arts & Sciences in 1990, Michael has remained very active with Cornell. He serves on the Entrepreneurship@Cornell Advisory Council (eship.cornell.edu), the Advisory Council for the Cornell College of Arts & Sciences and on the Cornell University Council.

President of Student Agencies, Inc., 1989-1990; Vice President, 1989; Manager of Refrigerator Agency, 1988-1989; Assistant Manager of Refrigerator Agency, 1987-1988. Board member, 1988-1994, 1998-present. Student Agencies Foundation Member, 1990-present. Secretary/Treasurer of Trustees of Student Agencies Foundation, 1999-present. 
 

Dan Kathan

Currently CEO of Student Agencies, Inc., Dan formerly worked for Toshiba Display Devices as Vice President of Operations in their U.S. Tube Making Division. Dan joined Toshiba as Production and Inventory Control Manager, was promoted to Senior Manager of Manufacturing and ultimately to Vice President of Operations and made an Officer of the Company. After graduating from the Johnson School, at Cornell, Dan began his career with E. I. DuPont at their Engineering Headquarters in Wilmington, Delaware on their corporate procurement team. He later worked for Rockwell International as a financial analyst at the largest truck axle plant in the world, and subsequently served as Materials Manager and then Director of Manufacturing for Precision Filters, Inc., a manufacturer of leading edge signal conditioning equipment. He served for five years on the Board of Directors of Evaporated Metal Films, a thin film coating company, and currently is on the Advisory Board of the Pillsbury Institute for Hospitality Entrepreneurship affiliated with the Hotel School at Cornell University.

Dan Graduated from Cornell University with a BS from the Engineering School in 1971 and received his Masters of Business Administration from Cornell’s Johnson Graduate School of Management in 1973.

Board member since 1998.

Louis D'Agrosa

Currently President of Bruno Specialty Foods, a privately held producer of kosher pasta located in Long Island, NY. Formerly worked for Price Waterhouse & Co. as a staff and senior accountant from 1975 through 1980.

Graduated from Cornell University with a BS from the Industrial & Labor Relations School in 1974 and received a Masters of Business Administration from Cornell’s Johnson Graduate School of Management in 1975.

Chief Financial Officer of Student Agencies, 1973 – 1974; Board member since 1975.

Sharon Dauk

Currently a Principal in Dauk/Wagner Investments, a private investment company based in Ridgefield, CT which focuses on early stage investments and real estate development. Formerly worked for Smith Barney and Morgan Stanley in their Corporate Finance Departments specializing in both mergers and acquisitions and real estate finance.

Graduated from the University of Southern California with a BS in Business Administration in 1982 and received a Masters of Business Administration from Cornell’s Johnson Graduate School of Management in 1989.

Consultant/General Manager of Student Agencies, 1986 – 1989; Board member since 1986.

Nancy Humphries

Currently Principal of Entrepreneurial Support Services (ESS) based in Austin, TX that provides various services to primarily start-up businesses in diverse industries. Formerly worked for Cornell University as the Executive Director of the Entrepreneurship and Personal Enterprise Program (EPE) from 1995 through 1997. In 1985, founded E-TECH to provide high volume and executive recruitment for an extensive collection of entrepreneurial firms.

Graduated from the University of Florida in 1970.

Board member since 1995.

John Jaquette

Currently Executive Director of Entrepreneurship@Cornell since 1997. Formerly worked in the private sector (1984-1995) and public sector (1970-1984) health care with a focus on addiction treatment.

Graduated from Ohio Wesleyan (BA) 1965, Duke University (M.Div. & Th.M.) 1968 and 1970, and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (MBA) 1997.

Board member since 1997.

Daniel Sommer

Dan is CEO and Founder of Caridan Marketing Labs, a marketing services firm focused on developing accountable marketing programs for growth oriented entrepreneurs.

Prior to founding Caridan Marketing Labs, Dan served as SVP at HNW (www.hnw.com), A strategic marketing agency focused on the Affluent Segment. He was responsible for leading marketing engagements, and managing some of the firm’s largest relationships with financial services and luxury brands. While at HNW, Dan was instrumental in developing the firm’s direct and interactive marketing practice area.

Prior to HNW, Dan worked in the marketing group of Digitas Inc. (www.digitas.com) where he led interactive marketing and web development efforts for American Express. Prior to Digitas, he served as Vice President at Zustek (www.Zustek.com), an interactive marketing agency, where he developed and implemented marketing strategies for Fortune 500 companies including Time Inc, Caesars Entertainment, Alliance Capital Management, and a host of entrepreneurial firms.

Dan was Co-Founder and COO of SimplyDone Business Solutions, an enterprise software and consulting firm that sold a unique CRM application to large service-based franchise businesses. He began his career at Sapient Corporation (www.sapient.com), a systems integrator and ecommerce consultancy.

Dan has an MS from NYU in Direct and Interactive Marketing and a BS in Applied Economics and Business Management from Cornell University.

Dan served as President of Student Agencies, Inc., 1997-1998; Manager of Campus Promotions from 1996-1997; Board Member 1997-1998 and 2001-present.

Nathaniel Weiss

Nathaniel is currently an Associate Consultant with Bain & Co., a global management consulting firm. He graduated from Cornell in 2009 with a BA in History from the College of Arts & Sciences.

While a student at Cornell, he was the General Manager of BRSS (2006) and the President of Student Agencies, Inc. (2007).

Board Member 2007 and December 2008-present; Foundation Member 2008-present

Adrian Madland

Currently, Adrian is Senior Manager, SMB Reseller Partnerships at Google. Adrian leads one of Google's reseller channel partner management teams and is responsible for partnership strategy in the Yellow Pages, Newspaper, and Automotive industries. He also created and now manages the AdWords Authorized Reseller Technology Platform (AARTP) certification program.

Prior to his role with the SMB Reseller Partnership team, Adrian was Google's Automotive Specialist. Working closely with dealers, dealer groups, and third parties, he built and executed Google's first outreach strategy into the local automotive industry. Adrian joined Google from Ford Direct, where he was Director of Strategy, responsible for the company's new product direction and partnership management.

Adrian graduated from Cornell University with a BS from the School of Hotel Administration in 1999 and served as the Chief Financial Officer of Student Agencies, Inc. from April 1998 - June 1999.

Daniel Cohen

Dan earned his doctorate in management from Case Western Reserve University where his research focused on trust in long-term sales relationships. Dan also earned an MBA from Johns Hopkins University and a Master of Accountancy from George Washington University.

Prior to coming to Cornell University, Dan was an entrepreneur, starting a successful specialized construction firm in 1990 and serving as president of the firm until its sale to a private equity firm in May of 2005. Dan then taught at the University of Iowa's Tippie College of Business where he was also involved with their Bedell Entrepreneurial Student Incubator.

 

Kevin McManus

Kevin McManus is a successful global Human Resources executive with over 20 years of experience in leading, defining and creating organizations. He continued his career moving to Bristol-Myers Squibb Co (BMS) where he supported all parts of the pharmaceutical business. Most recently Kevin served as the Senior Vice President of Human Resources for ConvaTec Inc. a leading global medical device company. ConvaTec has annual revenues $1.7 billion and 8,500 employees in over 35 countries around the world.

Kevin holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the School of Industrial and Labor Relations at Cornell University. He is a highly involved alumnus of Cornell University including serving as the President for the Cornell Association of Class Officers, a past Class of 1990 President, a Member of the Trustee Council, a member of the Cornell Alumni Trustee Nomination Committee, he remains active with the Psi Upsilon alumni council and in past years has welcomed the opportunity to participate as a CAAN volunteer.