Successful Entrepreneurs: Their Journeys and Challenges

Speakers for this session will be alumni of the following programs:

• Monroe Community College
• Nazareth College School of Management
• RIT Center for Entrepreneurship
• Roberts Wesleyan College
• St. John Fisher's Bittner School of Business
• University of Rochester Center for Entrepreneurship

Each will present his or her business story, and the role that his college or university played in helping him reach his goals.

Arlene Sutherland
Owner of the Black Pearl, High Fashion Custom Design
Student in the Organizational Management Program at Roberts Wesleyan College

Born in Kingston, Jamaica, Arlene never thought she'd attend college or one-day own a successful business. Arlene is a self-taught designer of high fashion dresses, swim wear, and wedding apparel, specializing in custom design. After sewing in her living room and selling her custom designs on eBay, she opened the Black Pearl in August of 2007. She's a survivor and a dreamer, which makes for an exciting business owner.

The mission of the Division of Business at Roberts Wesleyan College is to develop men and women who will model Christ-like character and equip them to transform society through sacrificial service and effective leadership.

Roberts Wesleyan College will be represented by Carrie Starr, who teaches Creativity and Entrepreneurship in the Undergraduate Business Program. Carrie holds the Hoselton Chair for Ethics and Entrepreneurship, serves as the faculty advisor for RWC's nationally ranked Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE) team, coordinating educational outreach projects that provide economic opportunity for others locally and internationally. She is also the owner of a local Snap Fitness franchise.

William W. Rose
Founder of DATROSE
Graduate of Monroe Community College

Bill Rose founded DATROSE in 1976, as a data entry company. Three decades later, DATROSE is a world-class provider of business process outsourcing services, specializing in finance and administrative services and talent solutions (staffing and recruiting). Bill's vision for DATROSE has been to maintain the company's reputation for quality service by empowering each employee to continually strive to exceed each customer's expectation. His passion for quality and creating customer delight has been evident from the start.

Bill served in the United States Air Force, graduated from Monroe Community College, Rochester Business Institute and also attended the Business Executive Program at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth. He was inducted into the MCC Alumni Hall of Fame in 2006. DATROSE has been named among the Top 100 Largest Black-Owned Businesses for Industrial/Service Companies in the United States (2007), among the Top 100 Global Outsourcing Companies (2008) and is regularly recognized among the Top 100 Rochester Companies.

Monroe Community College's Business Administration/Economics Department is committed to providing individuals with every opportunity to think critically, solve problems, and develop their talents to maximize their full individual potential. MCC will be represented by Mark Pastorella, Director of Development for the Monroe Community College Foundation and an MCC alumnus. Mark leads the foundation's efforts to engage alumni in the life of the college and to recognize their success.

Thomas Bonadio
Managing Partner of The Bonadio Group
Graduate of St. John Fisher College

The Bonadio Group serves as CPAs, consultants, and more to commercial companies in the Rochester area. Tom founded the company in 1978, and has grown the business from two people to over 325 people.

Tom specializes in providing business advice to closely held companies and their owners with a particular emphasis on helping privately held companies maximize their value and return to shareholders. He works with a variety of industries including construction, manufacturing, professional services and real estate. He is particularly well versed in the world of mergers and acquisitions from strategic through financial implications, and has helped dozens of companies navigate through these tricky waters.

Tom has a B.B.A Degree in Accounting from St. John Fisher College and is a past Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the college.

The Ronald L. Bittner School of Business at St. John Fisher College prepares professionally competent and ethically responsible graduates for careers as managers and professionals. The school prepares students with an understanding of current accounting, finance, and management theories, the practical applications of those theories, and the ethical problems which they might encounter in their professional lives.

St. John Fisher College will be represented by Dr. Robert Costigan, Professor and Chairman of the Department of Management/Marketing.

Harold C. Smith
Founder and Chief Scientific Officer of OyaGen, Inc.
Professor at the University of Rochester

Dr. Smith founded OyaGen, Incorporated in 2003 as a therapeutic development biotech company to capitalize on research that has been ongoing in his UR lab since 1990. OyaGen's primary focus is HIV/AIDS, but its researchers will soon turn their attention to hepatitis, cancer and heart disease. OyaGen was launched with seed money from the University Technology Seed fund and the Trillium Group venture fund, and it has gradually achieved broad recognition as a pioneer biotech company.

Born in Münich Germany into a US military family, Dr. Smith received BS and MS degrees from Purdue University and MA and PhD degrees from SUNY Buffalo, NY. After his postdoctoral training at Baylor College of Medicine, Harold joined the faculty of the University of Rochester in 1986 where he is now a full professor. In his academic role, Dr. Smith directs undergraduate and graduate students, and postdoctoral fellows in research. The risks and rewards of pursuing one's ideas along the creative path of discovery is what fuels his passion for science.

In addition to offering nationally-recognized MBA, MS, and doctoral programs in the Simon Graduate School of Business, the University of Rochester nurtures entrepreneurship broadly throughout its undergraduate programs. The Center for Entrepreneurship encourages collaboration among the schools engaged in entrepreneurship education at the University of Rochester and serves to identify and create partnerships with organizations beyond the bounds of the University.

The University of Rochester will be represented by Bob Tobin, Associate Director of the Center for Entrepreneurship and the university's Entrepreneur-in-Residence.

Ken Reed, Ph.D.
Vice-President & Chief Technology Officer
Cerion Energy

What if you could develop an additive for diesel fuel that would both improve fuel efficiency and decrease harmful emissions? Cerion Energy, Inc. was founded by a unique team of veteran entrepreneurs and experienced scientific researchers to do just that. Cerion is leveraging alliances with RIT and Kodak to commercialize the production of novel nanoparticles using low-cost, versatile, aqueous precipitation technology.

Dr. Ken Reed, Cerion's Vice-President & Chief Technology Officer is at the center of the action. Ken received a BSc degree in Chemistry (with highest honors) from RIT in 1971 and a Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry from Stanford University in 1975. After graduation, he joined the Kodak Research Laboratories and shifted his focus from computational quantum chemistry and spectroscopy to applied research and product development.

His 30 year career at Kodak produced a portfolio of over 20 patents and earned Ken Kodak's CTO Distinguished Inventors Award. His applications-focused research led to the introduction of nearly a dozen high-margin photographic imaging products for the corporation. His work on nanoparticle technology at Kodak helped to create the intellectual property base that led to Cerion's founding, and Ken has developed ten new patent disclosures/applications owned by Cerion.

Rochester Institute of Technology will be represented by Richard DeMartino, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Management in the E. Philip Saunders College of Business and the director of the Albert J. Simone Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship. The Center is a university-wide initiative designed to promote innovation and entrepreneurship education.