Alexandre Kuperman – Co-organizer
Alexandre is an MBA candidate at the MIT Sloan, Class of 2011. Originally from São Paulo, he was granted a MIT Legatum Fellowship for Development and Entrepreneurship 2010-2011, is Co-President of the Brazilian Club, Co-President of the Latin Club. This past summer Alexandre worked for Positivo Educacional. Prior to MIT Sloan, Alexandre was a director at GTP Services and, before, he worked at Accenture in the Consumer Goods Division. Alexandre holds a B.A. in Business Administration from EAESP/FGV – Fundacao Getúlio Vargas in São Paulo, and a post-graduation certificate in Business from the same school.

Alex Fallon - Co-organizer
Alex is a first-year MBA student at MIT Sloan and a co-organizer of the Business of Education in Brazil study tour. Prior to Sloan, Alex spent three years at the Academy for Educational Development in Washington, D.C. where she managed international education projects funded by USAID and the Nike Foundation. She also served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Mozambique teaching at a public secondary school. Alex holds a BA in Development Studies from Brown University and speaks Portuguese.

Eduardo Bontempo - Co-organizer
Eduardo is a first year MBA student at MIT Sloan School of Management. Prior to joining MIT, Eduardo Bontempo wored for 5 years in the Investment Banking at Credit Suisse, based in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Throughout the period at the firm, Eduardo worked in over 10 successful M&A transactions and 15 equity offerings. In the education sector Eduardo advised companies such as: Anhanguera Educacional, SEB, Anglo, among others. Eduardo holds a B.A. in Business Administration from Fundacao Getulio Vargas (FGV), the major business school in Brazil.

Marisa Gerla - Co-organizer
Marisa is a first-year student in the MBA program at MIT Sloan. She is also concurrently pursuing a Masters in International Economics and International Development at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). Prior to entering graduate school, Marisa worked for three years in investment banking and also has experience in social venture capital, microfinance and non-profit event coordination. Marisa holds a B.A. in International Relations from Wellesley College with a concentration in Latin American Political Economy.

Ikenna Eric Achi
Ikenna previously was at Lincoln financial group where he co-created a reinsurance risk program for the organization. He the joined Laurus Capital where he co-developed the infrastructure process and oversaw sophisticated valuation & tax processes for a family of funds with approximately $1.4 billion dollars deployed. Ikenna has his B.S. from Cornell University and is currently attending MIT Sloan MBA program.

Dante Cassanego
Dante is an MBA student at MIT focusing on social entrepreneurship. He is interested in the application of technology to alleviate fundamental societal problems such as education and poverty. Dante holds a B.S. in Computer Science from Stanford University. Prior to attending MIT, he worked in Intuit’s Innovation Lab developing new web products.

Saeed Coates
Saeed is an MBA student at MIT and rising real estate entrepreneur. In addition to his studies at MIT, Saeed manages his own real estate investment firm, The Genesis Property Group, which he founded in 2004. Prior to business school, Saeed also worked in the technology industry for 9 years as a computer chip designer and, later, as a business development manager. He holds a Bachelor and Masters of Science in electrical engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

Moira Finicane
Prior to MIT Sloan, Moira spent two years as the Marketing and Events Manager for the Legatum Center at MIT, a start-up center dedicated to the promotion of for-profit entrepreneurship in emerging markets. A former afterschool mentor for Strong Women, Strong Girls, Moira has always been passionate about expanding educational opportunities both within and outside of the classroom. At Sloan she is pursuing the Entrepreneurship and Innovation track and serves as co-president of the Marketing Club. Moira holds a B.A. in Economics from Harvard University.

Kaitlyn Caughlin
Kaitlyn is a first-year MBA student at MIT Sloan School of Management. She is focusing her education around executive leadership and the study of organizations. Prior to Sloan, Kaitlyn worked in the finance sector as a Business Development Manager at Vanguard. She holds her Certified Financial Planning designation and Series 6 and 63 financial licenses. Her undergraduate degree is in Mathematics and Mathematical Economics from Pomona College.

John Gallelli
Prior to coming to MIT Sloan, John was a Senior Development Lead at Microsoft Corporation, where he worked on products such as Bing and Xbox Live.  John is particularly interested in  how technology and innovative teaching methods can improve the quality of education.   He is also interested in exploring how private entrepreneurs in education can have an impact on a broad scale.   AT MIT Sloan, John is focusing on entrepreneurship and strategy.  He holds a B.A. in Computer Science from Harvard University.

Dennis Jiang
Dennis is a first-year MBA student at MIT Sloan focused on technology entrepreneurship and education policy. He is interested in developing technologies that expand access to quality education. Before coming to MIT, he was an Associate Consultant at Bain & Company, where he focused on solving strategic issues for high-technology and telecommunications clients. Dennis holds a B.A. in Economics and an M.S. in Management Science and Engineering from Stanford University.

Lawrence P. Lataif Jr.
Larry Lataif is an MBA candidate at the MIT Sloan School of Management. At Sloan, he has taken on a leadership role in the Entertainment, Media, and Sports club. Prior to Sloan, he served in financial management, strategy, and project management roles at Lockheed Martin Corporation, including its Financial Leadership Development Program. Larry holds a Bachelors degree in Finance from the University of Florida.

Christy Trang Le
Christy is developing an educational services venture leveraging excess academic talent at cities with a high concentration of universities in combination with telepresence technology to create scalable and easily deployable solutions to meet the growing demand for international education throughout Asia. Prior to Sloan, she was an entrepreneur, investment banker and news anchor. Christy holds a BA in Economics and Management and an MPhil of Economics from Oxford University (UK).

Prathamesh Naik Pratham
Pratham is a first year MBA student at MIT Sloan. He started 2 education companies before Sloan. In 2008, the second company, the Indian School Finance Company was voted as “One of 10 new ideas to change the world”. Last year, Pratham was selected as 1 out of a 100 TED Fellows from across the world. This year, he has been awarded a fellowship by the Legatum Center at MIT.

Annelise Dorothea Parham
Annelise Parham is a first-year MBA student at the MIT Sloan School of Management. At MIT, Annelise is president of the Minority Business Club and a lead conference organizer for the Healthcare Club. Before Sloan, Annelise worked at Brandeis University where she created and implemented marketing strategies in the career center. Prior to Brandeis, Annelise spent two years in the marketing department at Ramp (formerly known as EveryZing), a multimedia search and video SEO start-up company. Annelise obtained a BA in Cultural Anthropology from New York University where she graduated summa cum laude and a member of Phi Beta Kappa.

Julie Lein
Julie worked in San Francisco as a political pollster prior to starting her MBA at MIT Sloan. She served on the Board of Directors for Mission Learning Center, an education non-profit that provides after-school and summer literacy programs for low-income youth. At MIT, Julie is a Vice President for Net Impact and Sloan Women in Management. Julie graduated with honors from Stanford University.

Jeffrey Phillips
Jeff Phillips worked for The Parthenon Group and ESPN before starting his MBA at MIT Sloan.  In four years as a management consultant at Parthenon in San Francisco, he planned and performed analysis to make strategic recommendations to clients in a dozen industries, including education, private equity and retail.  Prior to joining Parthenon, he worked he produced television highlights and wrote on-air content for ESPN. Jeff graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Pennsylvania.

Sean C Reusch
Sean Reusch is a first year MBA student at MIT Sloan.  Prior to Sloan, Sean served as an Investment Analyst for Saint Louis University, where he helped manage the University’s $750M endowment. Earlier in his career, Sean worked in equity research as an Associate focused on the Oil and Gas and Clean Technology sectors at Broadpoint AmTech (now Gleacher & Company) and held a similar role at AG Edwards & Sons (now Wells Fargo) prior to that.  Sean graduated from the University of Michigan Ross School of Business with a BBA and is of Brazilian decent with both US and Brazilian citizenship.

Wesley Esser – Staff Advisor
Wes Esser is the Associate Director of Technology Consulting and Support Services at the MIT Sloan School of Management.  In that role he leads a team of 12 who provide support for the faculty, students and staff of the school who need help using personal computers, software, mobile devices, web services, video and audio conferencing and classroom technology.  Most recently Wes has led MIT Sloan’s move towards ubiquitous video conferencing. Wes has been responsible for providing technology support services in higher education for 15 years.  Prior to joining MIT Sloan in 2006, he spent four years at Babson college and more than five years at Northeastern University in managing technology support and implementation. Wes holds a B.A. in Art History and Italian Literature from the University of Massachusetts.

Roberta Pittore – Faculty Advisor
Roberta Pittore is a Lecturer at MIT’s Sloan School of Management. She teaches Communication for Leaders, a core course in the first year MBA curriculum. She is also a faculty co-mentor for the Global Entrepreneurship Lab, an international internship course. Her teaching focuses on communication as it influences teamwork, leadership, and decision making in organizations. She has taught at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard and the F.W. Olin Graduate School of Business, Babson College where she was the faculty advisor to the Speech Resource Center. Prior to her academic career, she spent more than 20 years in the corporate sector where her work included communication consulting and executive training. Early in her career she was an associate vice president at Prudential Bache Securities. Ms. Pittore holds an M.B.A. from Simmons College Graduate School of Management and an M.S. in Communication from Boston University.  Her B.S. in Communication is from Emerson College.