Tom Angell
Principal
Rothstein Kass

Tom Angell is the principal-in-charge of Rothstein Kass’ national Commercial Services Group and its Private Equity practice, and he is a member of the Firm’s Executive Committee.

Tom has extensive experience with both public and private companies, including advising private equity funds and investment advisors on all aspects of private equity transactions, such as raising financing, deal origination and structuring. He has over 25 years of experience providing audit, tax and consulting services to middle market businesses in the manufacturing, distribution, and service industries. Additionally, Tom specializes in organizational structure, operational issues and mergers and acquisitions for middle market businesses.

Tom is a certified public accountant and he is a member of the New Jersey, New York, and Virginia Societies of Certified Public Accountants as well as the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA). He received a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from Rutgers College and a Master of Business Administration degree in Information Systems from the Rutgers Graduate School of Management.

His activities outside the Firm include membership in and serving as a former chair of the AICPA Large Firm networking group. Tom also serves as a treasurer to the Drumthwacket Foundation in New Jersey.

 

Stephen M. Besen
Partner
Shearman & Sterling LLP
Practice

Mr. Besen is a partner in the firm’s Mergers & Acquisitions Group, with extensive experience in public and private mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures and strategic alliances, proxy fights, capital markets and securities, private equity and merchant banking, and general corporate legal matters. Mr. Besen has also been actively involved in complex cross-border M&A transactions, representing a variety of clients in Europe, India, the Middle East and Japan. He joined the firm as a partner in 2001.

 

Recent Experience Includes Representation of:

• Essar Steel Holdings in connection with its attempted acquisition of Esmark, Inc.
• Tata Group in its investment in, and subsequent sale of, Energy Brands
• Essar Group in its acquisition of PeopleSupport Inc.
• Abu Dhabi Investment Authority in its $7.5 billion minority equity investment in Citigroup
• Saudi Basic Industries Corp. in its acquisition of GE Plastics
• Mizuho Corporate Bank Ltd. in its minority equity investment in Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc.
• Indian Hotels in its investment in Orient Express Hotels and Resorts
• Transaction Committee of Huntsman Corporation in its sale to Hexion, a portfolio company of Apollo Investment
• Wockhardt Limited in its acquisition of Morton Grove Pharmaceuticals
• Special Committee of Aramark in its acquisition by a private equity consortium
• UBS Financial Services in its acquisition of McDonald Investmen
• Siemens AG in its acquisitions of CTI Molecular Imaging, U.S. Filter and Robicon Corporation and in its sale of Unisphere Networks to Juniper Network
• Permal Group in its sale to Legg Maso
• Independent directors of Molson in its merger with Coor
• Deutsche Bank in the sale of its worldwide custody business to State Street

 

Education

Columbia University School of Law, J.D., Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar, 1983
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, S.B. in Management and Economics, 1980

 

Professional Affiliations and Business Activities

Mr. Besen has lectured and written on various topics, including: private equity, mergers and acquisitions, and structuring and negotiating joint ventures and strategic alliances.

Mr. Besen was named a 2007 “Dealmaker of the Year” by The American Lawyer for his role in SABIC’s acquisition of GE Plastics.

Mr. Besen has been recognized as one of the leading individuals in corporate M&A, particularly noted for his work with private equity sponsors and hedge funds. – Chambers USA, 2008, Chambers USA, 2009

 

George Biltz
Corporate Vice President, Strategic Development & Planning
The Dow Chemical Company

George Biltz is corporate vice president, Strategic Development & Planning, for The Dow Chemical Company. On an enterprise-wide basis, he is accountable for the development and implementation of the corporate strategy and long-range planning.

He is responsible for the evaluation of all businesses with the goal of defining how best to maximize their long-term value to the corporate portfolio while prioritizing corporate resources. Biltz is also accountable for implementing the outcome of these strategic evaluations including driving new business models, acquisitions, joint-ventures or divestitures. He serves on various Dow committees and management teams that address company-wide issues and define corporate policy.

Biltz joined Dow in 1978 as part of the Manufacturing function. After a variety of product engineering and production supervisory positions, he moved into field sales in 1984. He later held several marketing roles, becoming global business director for Superabsorbent Products in 1994. In 1995, Biltz was named global business director for the Polyglycols Business in Specialty Chemicals. In August 1999, Dow announced its intent to acquire ANGUS Chemical and Biltz was appointed to lead the integration team. The transaction was completed on October 1, 1999 and Biltz was appointed president and CEO of ANGUS Chemical in Buffalo Grove, IL.

Biltz was named vice president of Custom & Fine Chemicals in March of 2001 and relocated to Horgen, Switzerland. In this role, he oversaw the creation of Dowpharma. In June of 2001, Biltz was also appointed president & CEO of Ascot and led the integration efforts of the Ascot acquisition. He returned to headquarters in January 2004, when he was named business vice president of Ventures and New Business Growth. In March of 2005, he was named vice president of Global Purchasing in March 2005. In March 2007, Biltz was appointed business group president for the Specialty Plastics and Elastomers portfolio. In February 2008, he assumed additional responsibilities for the Dow Portfolio Optimization group which focuses on accelerating Dow divestment and JV plans. He assumed his current role in December 2008.

A strong supporter of the arts, Biltz currently serves as Treasurer on the Board of Directors for the Midland Center for the Arts. He is also chairman of the Midland/Bay City/Saginaw (MBS) International Airport Commission.

Biltz holds a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering from the University of Detroit and a master's degree in business administration from Central Michigan University.

 

David Blumberg
Head of Strategic Development 
Iconix

David Blumberg is Head of Strategic Development for Iconix Brand Group. He joined the Company in November 2006 as a consultant overseeing the Company’s mergers and acquisitions activities and started his present position in January 2009. Prior to joining the Iconix Brand Group, Mr. Blumberg was a full time consultant during 2005 through November 2006 to LF(1937) Management Ltd., providing advice regarding its related companies’ North American mergers and acquisitions, including those by Li & Fung Limited/ LF USA- the world’s largest trading company focused on global supply chain management. Prior to joining Li & Fung, among other positions Mr. Blumberg from 1996-1999 was President of the Broker – Dealer, Managing Director in its investment banking group and the first employee of Wit Capital, Inc. the world’s first online investment bank, and from 1981-1993 a Managing Director and Senior Vice President of Merrill Lynch Interfunding Inc. and Merrill Lynch Capital Markets- Investment Bank, respectively. Mr Blumberg received a Bachelor of Science, cum laude Economics from Colgate University in 1981 and a MBA Corporate Finance from New York University in 1987. Mr Blumberg is the father of three sons, married and living in Greenwich CT.

 

Jim Cohen
Executive Vice President- Mergers & Acquisitions
Consolidated Graphics, Inc.

Mr. Cohen is an honors graduate of Princeton University. Upon graduating in 1986, he joined Morgan Stanley & Co. in New York as a financial analyst. After Morgan Stanley, Mr. Cohen received his JD from NYU School of Law and then practiced law with Simpson Thacher & Bartlett in New York and London specializing in M&A and private equity, representing such clients as Blackstone, KKR, RJR Nabisco, Long Term Capital Management, Lehman Brothers and The New York Times. In 1996 Mr. Cohen moved back to the business side and left London for Houston to join Main Street Capital Partners, a Houston based private equity fund, where Mr. Cohen was a principal and Managing Director. During Mr. Cohen’s tenure at Main Street, he co-sponsored a number of industry consolidation transactions (“rollups”), and Main Street generated an IRR to its investors in excess of 40%.

Following Main Street, Mr. Cohen returned briefly to the practice of law at Baker Botts in Houston until he was recruited into his current position as head of mergers and acquisitions for Consolidated Graphics, an NYSE listed company which is one of the world’s leading commercial and digital printing companies. At Consolidated Graphics, Mr. Cohen has led the company’s acquisition program which during his tenure has increased the size of Consolidated Graphics by over 30% to approximately $1.2 billion in revenue. This past summer, Mr. Cohen’s achievements were recognized by the printing industry’s leading trade association, and he was inducted along with 12 others into the National Association of Printing Leadership’s Soderstrom Society, the honorary society that recognizes outstanding contributions of service and leadership in the printing industry.

Outside of work, Mr. Cohen is involved in various civic activities, including serving as a board member of the Dads Club of Episcopal High School. Mr. Cohen is also the Chairman of the Alumni Schools Committee for Princeton University (Houston Region), and in that role is responsible for overseeing the interviewing/recruiting of 400 Houston area applicants to the University each year.

Mr. Cohen resides in Houston, Texas with his wife and three children.

 

Mark Copman
Vice President, Corporate Development
3M

Mark Copman is the Vice President, Corporate Development and Mergers and Acquisitions at 3M Company. Prior to 3M, Mr. Copman was a Managing Director at Piper Jaffray. He also served as an officer in the US Navy. Mr. Copman received B.S degrees in Mechanical Engineering and in Political Science from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an M.B.A. from Harvard University.

 

Nilüfer Durak
Managing Director 
Aon Mergers & Acquisitions Group

With over 15 years in the industry and working at Aon since 2004, Nilüfer Durak (Nil) is a Managing Director in Aon's Mergers & Acquisitions Group
(AMAG) in North America and runs the AMAG team in Boston. Her primary responsibilities are managing risk and insurance due diligence for client acquisitions; overseeing post-acquisition (100-day) plans on risk management program enhancements and operating cost improvements identified during due diligence; designing and implementing portfolio programs that centralize/leverage the insurance spend across the portfolio of Private Equity owned companies; and helping clients gain further control over their Total Cost of Risk (TCOR) and improve both liquidity and balance sheet staying power through the Aon Value Audit process.

Prior to joining Aon, Nil worked in General Electric’s Corporate Treasury department and Sedgwich/Marsh New York’s Global Accounts department.

Nil is a member of the AMAG US Steering Committee in charge of operational improvements, innovation and talent management; a member of Aon Risk Services Greater New York Talent Management Council; and the leader of Aon’s Women’s International Network in the US. She is Six Sigma Green Belt certified.
Nil completed the Master of Science in risk management and insurance program at the University of Wisconsin, Madison as an International Visiting Scholar ; a Master of Arts in banking and insurance from the Marmara University in Istanbul, Turkey; and a Bachelor of Arts degree in business administration from Bosphorus University in Istanbul, Turkey.

 

Dr. Andreas Guldin
Vice Chairman and Chief Strategy Officer
The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co., Inc.

Andreas Guldin is the Vice Chairman and Chief Strategy Officer of The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company, Inc. (A&P), a Montvale, New Jersey-based operator of more than 435 supermarkets in 8 states and the District of Columbia.

Andreas Guldin originally joined A&P in May 2007 as Executive Managing Director, Strategy & Corporate Development and at the same time joined the Board of Directors of A&P. Prior to becoming a member of the A&P organization, Andreas Guldin was a Senior Executive Vice President (Corporate Finance) and Co-Chief Financial Officer of Tengelmann Warenhandelsgesellschaft KG ("Tengelmann"), a role which he held from July 2005 until April 2007. He has also served as an advisor to the Executive Chairman and Board of Directors of the Company since late 2005.

Before joining the Tengelmann Group, Andreas Guldin had held for several years the position of Chief Financial Officer at a major German department store chain and he also has several years of professional experience as a strategy consultant in the area of business reengineering and corporate development. For several years, Andreas Guldin has been a visiting faculty member at University Stuttgart, University Düsseldorf and the European Business School in the areas of Corporate Finance (MBA and Executive courses).

 

Mark L. Keim
Head of Corporate Development 
Aetna

Mark Keim is Head of Corporate Development for Aetna responsible for identifying growth strategies and executing transactions for Aetna’s core health care businesses as well as its HCIT initiative activities within the US and international markets. Mark’s responsibilities also include management of Aetna Ventures, Aetna’s venture capital and partnership investing function.

These positions cap a series of leadership roles in Business Development and Mergers and Acquisitions for Keim. He joined Aetna from General Electric where he led Strategy and business Development as Senior Vice President for its Europe Middle East and Africa operations based in London. While at GE, he also led business development in varied roles at GE Healthcare and was Staff Executive for M&A at GE’s Corporate Headquarters in Fairfield, CT.
In these positions, Keim worked extensively on numerous acquisitions, divestitures and partnership with deals executed exceeding $100 billion in value.

Mark began his career in Mergers & Acquisitions at Salomon Brothers in New York City and has
played leadership roles in a series of international M&A assignments.

Keim holds a B.S. degree in Finance and Accounting from Lehigh University and an M.B.A. from the Tuck School at Dartmouth College.

 

Karl Kleiderer
Vice President, Acquisitions & Divestitures
Goodrich Corporation

Karl Kleiderer is the Vice President of Acquisitions & Divestitures at Goodrich Corporation, a Charlotte, North Carolina-based Fortune 400 company. Goodrich is one of the largest suppliers in the world to the commercial and defense aerospace markets.

Karl has extensive knowledge in the aerospace sector and manages all aspects of M&A activity at Goodrich including sourcing, analysis, diligence, structuring and contract negotiations. He has particular expertise in the military market and Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) field. Karl has also led the divestiture of several businesses as part of Goodrich’s portfolio rebalancing activities.

Karl came to Goodrich over 5 years ago from William Blair & Company in Chicago, Illinois. He previously worked as an institutional trader at Morgan Stanley in New York, New York and spent over 6 years in the United States Navy as an A-6 Intruder Bombardier.

Karl was awarded a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Notre Dame and a Masters of Business Administration degree in Finance and Organizational Behavior from Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University.

 

Mark Mlotek
EVP Corporate Business Development
Henry Schein, Inc.

Mr. Mlotek is Executive Vice President of Corporate Business Development of Henry Schein, Inc. As part of his current responsibilities, Mark has four main priorities: a) Worldwide Merger and Acquisition Activity of the company; b) Business Development, including important vendor partnership arrangements; c) Strategic Planning; and d) P&L responsibility for certain non-core businesses that represent approximately $600 million of revenue. Prior to holding his current position, upon joining the Company in 1995, he was Vice President, General Counsel, Secretary, and a member of the Board of Directors which he currently still serves on. Prior to joining Henry Schein, Inc., Mark was a partner in the law firm of Proskauer Rose LLP and counsel to the Company, specializing in mergers and acquisitions, corporate reorganizations and tax law.

 

Michael Oster
Senior Vice President Mergers & Acquisitions
Alon USA

Mr. Michael Oster is Senior Vice President of Mergers and Acquisitions for ALON USA and is responsible for all growth opportunities of the Company and its subsidiaries.

Prio to joining ALON USA in January 2003, Mr. Oster was a partner in Yehuda Raveh and Co., a leading law firm in Israel and specialized in commercial transactions and project finance.

Mr. Oster graduated in 1997with a Bachelorof Laws (LLB) and undergraduate in Economics, both from Bar Ilan University in Israel.

Mr. Oster is involved with several charify associations and serves on the Board of Directors of the Vogel Alcove.

 

Kristin Peck
Senior Vice President, Worldwide Strategy and Innovation
Pfizer Inc

Kristin Peck is Senior Vice President, Worldwide Strategy and Innovation for Pfizer Inc. In this role, Ms. Peck is responsible for leading the team that develops, enables and monitors the long-term strategic plan for Pfizer in order to drive profitable growth and deliver superior total shareholder return as well as leading the company-wide efforts to accelerate innovation and business model change.

Ms. Peck’s team led the development of Pfizer’s strategic path forward launched in 2007 and a global operating model review in 2008. In the rapidly changing global healthcare environment, Worldwide Strategy and Innovation is continuously focused on identifying transformational business opportunities that extend and enhance Pfizer’s existing capabilities and achieve substantial revenue impact.

In 2009, with Pfizer’s announced acquisition of Wyeth, Ms. Peck led the Global Integration Management Office focused on ensuring the acquisition successfully delivered the promised value for patients, customers, shareholders and other stakeholders.

Ms. Peck joined Pfizer in 2004 as Senior Director, Strategic Planning and was appointed to the role of Chief of Staff to the Vice Chairman in 2006 with responsibility for aligning and coordinating strategies, priorities and transformation activities across all groups in the Office of the Vice Chairman. Ms. Peck was promoted to Vice President, Strategic Planning in 2007 before moving into her current role in 2008.

Prior to joining Pfizer, Ms. Peck was a Principal with the Boston Consulting Group (BCG), focusing on strategy and merger related issues in the pharmaceutical and financial services industries. Before BCG, Ms. Peck worked in private equity and real estate finance at The Prudential, the O’Connor Group and J.P. Morgan. Ms. Peck holds a Bachelor’s degree from Georgetown University and an MBA from Columbia Business School. Ms. Peck and her husband Bob live in Connecticut with their two children and dog.

 

Matthew Philips
Senior Reporter
Newsweek Magazine

Philips is a senior reporter covering business and finance for Newsweek magazine. He edits the weekly Business Matters page for the domestic magazine, and writes regular features for Newsweek and Newsweek.com. His September 2008 story, The Monster That Ate Wall Street, http://www.newsweek.com/id/161199 is seen as one of the definitive stories to emerge last fall explaining the role that credit default swaps played in the financial crisis. His May 2009 story Revenge of the Nerd http://www.newsweek.com/id/200015 looks at how faulty mathematical models were also to blame. Philips holds a Masters degree from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism. He earned a BA in History from Hampden-Sydney College in 2001.

 

Matt Porzio
Vice President, Product Marketing, Mergers & Acquisitions 
Intralinks

Matthew Porzio, Vice President of Product Marketing, joined IntraLinks in August of 2003. He is responsible for driving the development and marketing of IntraLinks' Exchanges including virtual dealroom/dataroom solutions for the M&A and restructuring communities.

Before joining IntraLinks, he was a senior associate at Metzler, a German advisory firm, where he focused on cross-border M&A transactions. Prior to Metzler, Mr. Porzio served as an analyst and associate in Equity Capital Markets and Business Services Investment Banking groups at First Union Securities (later Wachovia). Mr. Porzio holds a Bachelor's degree from Colgate University.

Mr. Porzio is widely recognized as a leading authority on virtual datarooms and M&A technology. He has been quoted in several national and international publications related to the investment banking, legal and corporate M&A markets including the Boston Globe's Business Section, Investment Dealers Digest, The Deal and American Lawyer. Mr. Porzio has spoken on numerous industry panels and is a member of the selection committee for the M&A International Media Awards.

 

Miguel Romero
Corporate Development Manager, Mergers & Acquisitions
Sempra Energy

Speaker bio to come.

 

Mark D. Ross
Partner
PricewaterhouseCoopers

Mark has been a partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers since 1999 and has been a part of the PricewaterhouseCoopers Transaction Services Group since 1994, originally in Cleveland and now as the Transaction Services site leader in Miami. He has served numerous corporate and private equity clients and has extensive buy-side and sell-side due diligence experience. Mark has worked on transactions ranging in value from $20 million to $10 billion and specializes in transactions in the manufacturing sector, including the automotive, consumer products and chemical industries. He has also worked on transactions in the retail, technology and government contracting sectors.

Mark’s experience includes acquisitions, joint ventures, carve-outs, cross-border transactions, adjustment mechanism disputes and arbitration submissions. He has led numerous divestiture efforts for underperforming and/or non-core divisions of large public companies and leads the firm’s Divestiture Services practice.

In addition to his domestic deal experience, Mark has worked on numerous international transactions throughout the world, including deals in the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Spain, Japan, South Korea, Mexico and Brazil.

Prior to joining the Transaction Services group, Mark was an audit senior manager, responsible for clients principally in the manufacturing industry. In this role, he guided two of his clients through initial public offerings. Mark joined PricewaterhouseCoopers in 1987.

 

Anton Sahazizian 
Managing Director 
UBS Investment Bank- Mergers & Acquisitions

Anton is a Managing Director in the Mergers & Acquisitions Group of UBS Investment Bank in New York.
Since joining UBS in 2000, Anton has worked on various transactions in multiple sectors including chemicals, paper and forest products, energy, capital goods, consumer products, technology, media and telecom and health care.

Prior to joining UBS, Anton worked as an Associate in the Los Angeles Exclusive Sales Group of Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette. Previously, Anton spent four years practicing corporate and securities law with an emphasis on mergers and acquisitions in Toronto, Canada with McMillan Binch and Goodman and Carr.
Anton graduated from the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University with an MBA and obtained his law degree from Queen's University after graduating with a BA from the University of Western Ontario.

 

Ahmad Shamim
Partner, Transaction Services 
PricewaterhouseCoopers

Areas of expertise:

• Private Equity and Technology sectors 
• Divestiture Advisory
• Capital Markets and IPOs 
• Technical Accounting Advisory

Ahmad leads our Capital Markets/Accounting and Financial Reporting practice serving private equity funds and their portfolio companies. He devotes the majority of his time in service to one of the world's largest and most respected private equity fund managers. Over the past four years, Ahmad has been the lead capital markets partner for 20 private equity financing and divestiture transactions with deal values totaling over $50 billion. His expertise covers the full range of unique SEC and US GAAP financial reporting requirements associated with a financing or divestiture transaction. Prior to assuming his US leadership role, Ahmad was a Global Capital Markets partner based in Vienna, Austria and was responsible for our Capital Markets practice in Central and Eastern Europe. There he provided SEC reporting and transaction services advice to such clients as Deutsche Telekom, Coca-Cola Hellenic Bottling Company and Head Sport. Ahmad began in his career nearly 25 years ago in Washington, D.C., where he was a partner leading our assurance services to numerous technology companies in connection with their initial public offerings.

In his role as lead capital markets partner for Divestiture Services, Ahmad's experience includes corporate and private equity divestitures, carve-outs and cross-border transactions. He is often involved pre-sell side diligence, providing accounting advisory and capital markets advice and continues supporting the seller through the financing and divestiture. He has led numerous divestiture efforts for underperforming and/or non-core divisions of large public companies.

Ahmad graduated magna cum laude from the University of Maryland College Park with a Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting.

 

Naren B. Srinivasan
Vice President, Corporate Development & Strategy
Mead Westvaco

As the Vice President, Corporate Development and Strategy at MeadWestvaco Corporation (MWV), Naren partners with MWV’s corporate and business unit leadership team on a wide variety of strategic and growth opportunities for MWV worldwide. MWV is a global paperboard and plastics packaging firm, with businesses office products, specialty chemicals and land management. Naren manages global corporate development and M&A efforts for MWV including corporate strategy execution, business portfolio assessment, new market studies, and evaluation and execution of all transactional work including acquisitions, divestitures, and joint ventures. Prior to MWV, Naren worked in the financial services industry in investment banking, M&A advisory and private equity investing. He holds a B.S. in Economics/Finance and a B.A. in Mathematics from the University of Pennsylvania / Wharton School of Business, and an M.B.A. from Columbia Business School.

 

Todd Tauber
Director, Corporate Development
The Economist Group

Todd is the Corporate Development Director at The Economist Group, the UK-based publisher of The Economist. Since joining The Economist in 2005, he has helped to develop corporate and business unit strategies and directed the group’s global M&A activities. Prior to joining The Economist, Todd was responsible for acquisitions, divestitures and strategic alliances at Fedders Corp., a NYSE-listed manufacturer of consumer products, for three years. And before that, he spent several years at EuroConsult Inc., a boutique investment bank founded by former Deutsche Bank M&A executives.

 

Raul A. Trillo, Jr., MD, MBA
VP Global Strategy
Baxter Healthcare Corporation

RAUL A. TRILLO, JR., MD, MBA is the Vice President Global Strategy for Baxter’s Medication Delivery division. While in this role, he has led several important strategic initiatives in business integration, business development, commercial development, and portfolio optimization. Dr. Trillo joined Baxter in 1998 through its acquisition of Ohmeda PPD. Before assuming his current position, he served as general manager of the US Anesthesia/Critical Care and Oncology business. Other responsibilities at Baxter have included roles within Product Information, Medical Affairs, Clinical Development, Drug Safety, and Marketing. Prior to joining Ohmeda, Dr. Trillo had worked as a staff anesthesiologist and as a senior health care consultant at a Big Five consultancy in New York City.

Dr. Trillo graduated summa cum laude from Columbia College, Columbia University with honors that included induction into Phi Beta Kappa. He obtained his medical degree at the University of Pennsylvania. His medical internship and anesthesia training were conducted at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. He obtained subspecialty training in pediatric anesthesia at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. He has an MBA from Columbia Business School graduating with honors that included election into Beta Gamma Sigma.