President & Chairwoman of SAF
Sharon is the current chair of SAF and served as a Johnson School Graduate Fellow for Student Agencies, Inc. in 1992. Her consulting projects included construction of the new (now current) 409 College building.
Today, Ms. Dauk is a Principal in Dauk/Wagner Investments, a private investment company based in Ridgefield, CT which focuses on early stage investments and real estate development. Ms. Dauk is also an Executive Coach, Mentor and Strategic Advisor to successful leaders and entrepreneurs and their teams in a wide variety of industries whose companies range from early stage to Fortune 100. She formerly worked for Smith Barney and Morgan Stanley in their Corporate Finance Departments specializing in both mergers and acquisitions and real estate finance.
Ms. Dauk has remained very active within Cornell University. She serves on the Entrepreneurship at Cornell Advisory Council. Beyond her work with Student Agencies Foundation, she also serves on the boards of Student Agencies Inc. and Student Agencies Properties.
Current Board of Trustees
From 2006-2007, Nathaniel served as General Manager of Big Red Shipping and Storage (SAI business), and President of Student Agencies, Inc. He majored in History in the College of Arts & Sciences at Cornell University.
Recently, Mr. Weiss worked as the Director of Strategy at True Religion Jeans. Previously, he was a Consultant with Bain & Company, a global management consulting firm, in the firm’s New York and Brussels offices.
Mr. Weiss has remained active as an alumnus of Student Agencies and Cornell University. Beyond his work with Student Agencies Foundation, he serves on the Board of Directors for Student Agencies, Inc.
Dan graduated from Cornell University with a BS from the College of Engineering in 1971 and received his Masters of Business Administration from Cornell’s Johnson Graduate School of Management in 1973.
Dan Kathan served as CEO of Student Agencies, Inc. from 1998-2012, and is currently the Managing Director of Student Agencies Foundation and a Student Agencies, Inc. Board Member. He was also greatly involved in Cornell Athletics through his involvement with mentoring the wrestling team.
Prior to joining Student Agencies in 1998, he held progressive positions for Toshiba Display Devices, a manufacturer of large and super large color picture tubes, eventually serving as Vice President of Operations and as an officer of the Company.
After graduating from the Johnson School, 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.
From 1986-1987, David served as the CFO and Property Manager for Student Agencies, Inc.
He majored in Agricultural Economics at Cornell University, College of Agriculture and Life Science and obtained his MBA from the Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management.
Today, Mr. Lesser is the President of Hudson Bay Partners ("HBP"), an investment firm focused on real estate and alternative energy. As part of his activities with HBP, he serves as Chairman and CEO of Power REIT, a company that invests in infrastructure and real estate related to transportation and energy. He also serves as Chairman and CEO of Millennium Investment and Acquisition Company, a company focused on investments in alternative energy.
Mr. Lesser has remained very active both as an alumnus of Student Agencies and Cornell University. He serves on the Entrepreneurship at Cornell Advisory Council, on the Dyson School Advisory Council and is a member of the Cornell University Council. Mr. Lesser provides summer internships to Cornell students and mentors student entrepreneurs. Beyond his work with Student Agencies Foundation, he also serves on the boards of Student Agencies Properties and eLab LLC.
After almost 60 years of service to our organization, Barry Weintrob (’60) retired from Student Agencies in June 2016. Student Agencies is 122 years old, and for almost half of our organization’s existence, Barry was there to lead, support and guide us through good times and very tough times.
Barry was President of SAI from 1959-1960. During this time, SAI was in strong financial shape. However, by the end of the 1960s, SAI came very close to shutting down. In 1968, the SAI Laundromat (SAI’s main business at the time) had closed, there were no tenants in the 409 College Ave apartments, and the SAI office was shuttered and in disarray. Ed Clements (’63), after finishing his M.B.A. studies and learning of SAI’s critical situation, came back to Ithaca to help “restart” SAI. Barry and Fred Cumming (‘55) became co-chairs of SAI and took turns visiting Ithaca once per month to help Ed rebuild SAI. Through the efforts of Ed, Barry and Fred, SAI was put back on solid footing.
Beginning in the early 1970s and going into the 1980s, Barry, as Chairman of SAI and President of SAF, set Student Agencies on a path that would completely reshape and solidify its financial future. In the early 1970s, Barry and Ed led Student Agencies to purchase 411 College Avenue. Then in 1975, Student Agencies purchased 413-415 College Avenue. In the late 1980s, Student Agencies redeveloped its building at 409 College Avenue, substantially expanding its square footage. These real estate investments represent the Foundation’s endowment and have created a stream of reliable rental income that has allowed Student Agencies to provide financial support to help thousands of Cornell students over the past decades.
Those of us who worked at SAI since the mid-1960s or were part of the eLab reaped the extraordinary benefits and experience that those organizations were able to provide on the back of Barry’s shoulders. In recognition of Barry’s service, the Foundation Trustees elected Barry as an emeritus member of the SAF Board of Trustees.
Retired as Director of Entrepreneurship at Cornell in 2013 after 15+ years. He also concomitantly served on the Board of Directors of Student Agencies, Inc.
Prior to assuming his position at Cornell in 1997, he held senior executive positions with a number of entrepreneurial health care companies specializing in addiction treatment, mental health, rehabilitation and long term care from 1984 to 1995.
From 1970 to 1984, Mr. Jaquette helped found and develop North Carolina’s largest community based, hospital centered, alcoholism treatment service system in Wake County (Raleigh). He was the CEO from 1980-84 and the Clinical Director from 1976-80.
Mr. Jaquette has a B.A. from Ohio Wesleyan University, an M. Div. and a Th.M. from Duke University Divinity School, and an MBA from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
In 1974, Lou served as Secretary/Treasurer of Student Agencies, Inc. He majored in ILR at Cornell University, School of Industrial and Labor Relations.
Today, Mr. D'Agrosa is the owner/operator of Bruno Specialty Foods, Inc. located in West Sayville, New York.
Mr. D'Agrosa has remained very active both as an alumnus of Student Agencies and Cornell University. For the past 40 years, he has championed the mission of Student Agencies. Previously, he served on the Board of Directors of Student Agencies Inc. and was the Chairman for the Board of Trustees. Beyond his current work with Student Agencies Foundation, he serves on the Board of Directors for Student Agencies Properties.
Trustee Emeritus
Michael is the Chief Executive Officer of Investindustrial Advisers Inc, the U.S. unit of a leading global investment group. Prior to this, Michael was a Managing Director of TowerBrook Capital Partners, a private equity firm. 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, 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.
As a student, Michael was President of Student Agencies, Inc., 1989–1990; Vice President, 1989; Manager of Refrigerator Agency, 1988–1989; and Assistant Manager of Refrigerator Agency, 1987–1988.
Graduated from Cornell University with a B.A. from the College of Arts & Sciences in 1990, Michael has remained very active with Cornell. Currently, he serves on the Entrepreneurship at Cornell Advisory Council and on the Cornell University Council. He has also served on the Arts & Sciences Advisory Council from 2005-2011. He was the founder of the eLab and led the creation of the eHub.
He was a member of the Board of Directors of SAI from 1988–1994 and again from 1998–present.
He was appointment as a member of the Student Agencies Foundation in 1990. He served as Secretary/Treasurer of Trustees of Student Agencies Foundation from 1999–2012 and the Chairman and President of Student Agencies Foundation from 2012-present.