Class of 2008

Eric Calder, Columbia MBA, 2008
Eric is a 2008 MBA candidate at Columbia Business School. Prior to business school, Eric co-founded and operated three small businesses, including a multi-unit franchise of Quiznos Subs in the greater-Philadelphia area, and was a master franchise and area developer for a national coffee concept, and worked for a residential development company in Boston. After receiving his bachelor's degree from Cornell University, Eric worked at Deloitte Consulting in its Strategy and Operations Group, where he helped telecommunications and media companies refine their sales force systems and processes.

Mark Davis, Columbia MBA, 2008
Mark is a venture capitalist focused on the information technology sector.  He currently works at DFJ Gotham Ventures, a leading early-stage IT venture capital fund based in NYC.  In addition, Mark is the author of Get Venture (markpeterdavis.com) a syndicated column designed to help entrepreneurs raise venture capital.  Earlier in his career Mark was an active entrepreneur. He founded Zotspot, an Internet search destination, and advised numerous startups. Before entering the venture space he advised Fortune 1000 and private equity clients on the strategic and financial attractiveness of acquisition targets at both Bain & Company and KPMG. Mark earned his B.A. in Economics with a minor in History at Duke University and his MBA at Columbia Business School, where he was the Co-President of the Private Equity and Venture Capital Club and the Founder of the Columbia Venture Community.
 
Jack Hasler, Stern MBA, 2008
Jack currently works in investment banking at Credit Suisse in the Consumer Products and Retail Group.  Prior to Credit Suisse he was the Manager of Corporate Development at Refac Optical Group, the sixth largest optical retailer in the United States. For the majority of Jack’s time at Refac Optical Group, the company was a public shell controlled by a private equity fund of Palisade Capital Management, L.L.C. During this period, Jack worked on a disposition of assets and operating subsidiaries during a liquidation and several acquisition searches, which cumulated with the mergers that created Refac Optical Group. Jack also performed consulting work for some Palisade’s other portfolio companies. This consulting work included the evaluation of potential investments and the management of public company regulatory compliance for a development stage biotechnology company focusing on gene therapy as a treatment for Parkinson’s disease. Jack graduated from Tufts University with a B.A. in Economics and received his MBA from NYU’s Leonard N. Stern School of Business.

Todd Heglund, Stern MBA 2008
Prior to Stern, Todd spent five years working for General Atlantic, a global private equity firm focused exclusively on information technology, in both the Greenwich, CT and Palo Alto, CA offices. During his time with GA, he focused on a broad range on industries within technology and services, including; healthcare, business process outsourcing, human resources, logistics, enterprise security and consumer media. In addition to identifying and evaluating investment opportunities, Todd worked with both public and private portfolio companies worldwide to support them in their business development, strategic planning and M&A initiatives. Before joining GA, Todd worked for Greenwich Associates, a strategic consulting firm within financial services, in the middle market banking group where he advised large commercial banks on market strategy and competitive positioning. Todd holds an AB from Brown University in both Business Economics and Organizational Behavior & Management.

Andrew Henderson, Columbia MBA, 2008
Prior to attending Columbia, Andrew spent seven years working as an investment analyst in the hedge fund and mutual fund industries. Most recently, Andrew worked as an equity analyst for RS Investments. He served as generalist for the fund's Value group. Prior to RS, Andrew was the head credit analyst at Marin Capital Partners, a multi-strategy hedge fund. Andrew graduated with a degree in Economics from the University of California, Berkeley.

Chris Gimbert, Stern MBA, 2008
Christopher Gimbert has been actively involved in the venture community from several perspectives. From the financing side, he currently works at Contour Venture Partners, an early-stage venture capital fund focused on information technology and new media. As an entrepreneur, he has also operated an internet search company and acted as an advisor to several early-stage ventures. Earlier in his career, Christopher worked in the M&A Advisory Group at KPMG where he advised private equity and Fortune 1000 clients on mergers, acquisitions and new business ventures. Prior to consulting, he was an analyst with Merrill Lynch in their Alternative Investments Group. Christopher holds a BSBA from Washington University in St. Louis.


Paresh Lala, Stern MBA 2008
Paresh received his MBA from NYU’s Stern School of Business, specializing in Finance.  Prior to Stern, Paresh spent three years at CIBC World Markets, Inc. in Toronto. For the first two and a half years he was in Credit Capital Markets, managing a large credit portfolio and working on leveraged transactions in the Diversified Industries Group. For the final half year at CIBC World Markets, Paresh was working in Investment Banking, primarily advising Diversified Industry clients on M&A and equity issuances. Currently, he works in the Investment Banking Division of Goldman, Sachs & Co., focusing on companies in the Healthcare industry. Paresh holds a BBA with a specialization in Finance from York University.

Dan Leberman, NYU JD/MBA, 2008
Dan served as InSITE President in 2006-2007. Dan works at McKinsey & Company in San Francisco.  While in school, he spent summer internships at McKinsey, Skadden Arps and Greenhills Ventures. Before entering the JD-MBA program, Dan worked in strategy consulting at Cambridge Pharma Consultancy and enjoyed a brief stint as a musician/bartender. Dan holds a BA from the University of Pennsylvania.

Andres Moran, Columbia MBA, 2008
While at Columbia, Andres interned at Milestone Venture Partners, an early-stage technology venture fund. Prior to business school, Andres spent three and a half years launching and operating his own business. He opened a medical spa in Miami named Sutera (after the Indonesian word for silk), specializing in non-surgical cosmetic treatments such as laser hair removal, photorejuvenation and microdermabrasion. Before opening his business, Andres worked as a management consultant with A.T. Kearney in New York, where he helped a client save $3 million annually by restructuring its bill collections process. Andres is also actively involved in the community, sitting on the Board of a group he helped found: Young Professionals of the Red Cross. Andres graduated magna cum laude with a degree in Civil Engineering from Vanderbilt University. He also spent a year traveling through Southeast Asia.

Nora Murphy, Columbia MBA, 2008
Prior to business school, Nora spent nearly five years in the Investment Bank at JPMorgan. As an Analyst, Nora worked on various corporate transactions for large-cap Telecom, Media and Technology clients including M&A, debt financing and equity issuance. Later as an Associate, Nora worked in the Investment Bank's Strategy and Business Development Group where she was responsible for executing upon strategic initiatives as identified by the Management Committee and for oversight and management of the bank's Strategic Investments Portfolio. In this capacity, Nora gained experience working with early stage companies, deploying the bank's capital in new ventures to drive strategic returns. Nora spent her summer working for Viacom’s Mergers, Acquisitions, and Strategy Group.  Nora holds a BS in Languages and Linguistics from Georgetown University.

Nana Murugesan, Columbia MBA, 2008
Prior to business school, Nana spent nearly six years at Cisco Systems in the San Francisco Bay Area. At Cisco, he worked on the development of the Carrier Routing System (CRS-1, Cisco's latest flagship product), and was awarded the Pioneer Technology Award for innovation and risk-taking. Also, he played a key role in establishing a large Cisco seed-funded project at the University of Wisconsin - Madison, where he earned a MS degree in Electrical Engineering in 2001. Nana is active with the community and is a board member at Pacific Environment.

Richard P. Nespola Jr., Columbia MBA, 2008
While in business school,  Richard spent time as a summer associate for Stonehenge Capital Partners, a nationwide venture capital firm specializing in both equity and mezzanine financing for growth oriented companies. Richard was responsible for writing key segments of the firm's private placement memorandum, reviewing business plans, conducting due diligence on target investments, conducting portfolio review/valuation, and prospecting investment opportunities at trade shows. Prior to his enrollment at NYU, Richard worked as a Manager of Structured Transactions and Mortgage Insurer Relations for Freddie Mac. During his tenure, Richard designed and managed strategic credit enhancement programs, and led seven successful mortgage product development initiatives, two of which have been filed for US Patent. Prior to Freddie Mac, Richard was a Lead Consultant for Groundswell, an eCommerce management consulting firm, where he specialized in enterprise portal strategy and business transformation process redesign. Prior to Groundswell, Richard was an analyst for The Management Network Group, a global telecommunications, media, and entertainment consulting firm. Richard graduated from Washington University in St. Louis in 1999 with a B.A. in Psychology.

Andre Ribeiro, Columbia MBA, 2008
Prior to CBS, Andre was an associate director of the Corporate Advisory Division of Banco Finantia, a leading Portuguese investment bank. While he was at Finantia, Andre provided strategic corporate advisory in privatization and M&A deals and worked in project finance advisory in a wide array of industries including: Infrastructures, Banking, Tourism, Pulp & Paper, Oil & Gas, Media, and Retail Food. Along the past year, Andre founded with 3 partners, Oneway Group, an alternative advertisement firm. Andre earned an M.A. in Management from Universidade Catolica Portuguesa.