Cornell University The Johnson School at Cornell University

Leadership & Recognition

Johnson School Alumni Board

The Johnson School Alumni Board was established in spring 2008 to provide the leadership for fostering a close connection between the Johnson School and its alumni. Their primary focus is to strengthen the class officer and regional clubs programs and to serve as a collective voice for our alumni. They are responsible for evaluating the current regional club program activities and class officer structure, as well as partnering with the Alumni Affairs office in developing the strategic annual plan. In order to help strengthen all constituencies, the Johnson School Alumni Board focuses on "practice sharing" among alumni groups by convening annual meetings of constituencies to share success stories and challenges. The board serves in an advisory capacity to the Johnson School's dean, staff, and Advisory Council.

Johnson School Alumni Board Members

Erin McMahon, MBA '03

Erin McMahon, MBA '03, is an assistant principal at Middle School 118 in the East Bronx. Now serving her third year as part of New Leaders for New Schools, an organization that develops leaders to drive educational excellence on a national scale, McMahon was previously a Fireman Fellow and director of school partnerships at City Year in Boston.

Prior to the Johnson School, McMahon was a management consultant with Cap Gemini Ernst & Young, specializing in organizational change management, and an ESL teacher with Teach For America in Washington, D.C. She graduated from Yale with a BA in history, was a Park Fellow at the Johnson School, and earned her MS in education leadership at Pace University.

McMahon serves on the boards of the Good Shepherd Volunteers, the Three Points Foundation, and the Manice Outdoor Education Center. She lives in New York City.

Brett Blumenthal Wax '95, MBA '04

Brett Blumenthal Wax '95, MBA '04, is an associate with Gensler, a global design firm, and is responsible for leading strategic design for wellness, spa and lifestyle clients. Prior to Gensler, she spent seven years in management consulting with PricewaterhouseCoopers and Deloitte Consulting, and three years in hospitality design with Brennan Beer Gorman. Blumenthal develops strategies for clients that ensure that the business is appropriately met with efficient and effective design, and is sustainable in nature. Her most recent clients include Exhale Spa, Wyndham Hotels and Resorts, MGM-MIRAGE and Life Fitness.

In July 2007, Blumenthal launched Sheer Balance, a company driven to promote health, wellness and balanced living, or personal sustainability, among the general population. She partners with the spa, nutrition, fitness, beauty, mental health and green industries to provide clear, concise information to the consumer. An active speaker on spa and wellness, she has presented at several conferences, including the Hotel Developers Conference, the Hospitality Design Expo, and Spa Exec Seminars. Blumenthal earned her bachelor of architecture as well as her MBA from Cornell University; at the Johnson School, she focused on brand strategy and spa development.

Sam Flowers '90, MBA '93

Sam Flowers '90, MBA '93, has worked for over fifteen years in corporate strategy, business development, and marketing for the hospitality and entertainment industries at NBC Universal, Walt Disney, and Taco Bell. As vice president of corporate development and strategic planning at Universal, he was charged with several complex merger integrations following deals with Vivendi, USA Television Networks, and General Electric. Flowers led deal negotiations for sales of non-strategic assets and developed strategic plans to accommodate the new, on-demand distribution technologies in entertainment. Most recently, he worked as an independent management consultant, helping clients such as WellPoint and First Marblehead address strategic and marketing challenges.

Having cut his teeth working in-house and as a consultant, Flowers is now entering an entrepreneurial phase in his career. After spending 18 months in Brazil studying Portuguese and the Brazilian market, he is set to launch a new restaurant concept in Rio de Janeiro, with an opening targeted for the end of 2008. This project will allow him to combine his business acumen with his lifelong passion for baking and working in the service industry. Flowers is a graduate of both Cornell University's School of Hotel Administration and the Johnson School.

Christine Marchell '75, MBA '81, is an assistant vice president and senior financial advisor at Merrill Lynch's Pinnacle Peak Office in Scottsdale, Ariz. Her approach to working with clients emphasizes client-centered risk management in conjunction with customized investment analyses and recommendations. She has over 25 years of experience in business, including 17 years in the securities and banking industries. Marchell moved to Arizona in 1995 after eight years with Goldman Sachs in New York City.

A past president of the Cornell Club of Arizona, Marchell is also a director of the Fountain Hills Community Foundation, and a member of Los Artistas Vaqueros, Women of Scottsdale, and Central Phoenix Women. She is a past member of the board of directors of the Fountain Hills Community Theater. She earned her BS in human ecology as well as her MBA from Cornell University.

Kenyattah A. Robinson, MBA '06

Kenyattah A. Robinson, MBA '06, is an associate in Jones Lang LaSalle's Public Institutions team in Washington, D.C., where he provides real estate strategy, transaction, and portfolio and asset oversight services to the Department of the Army, Department of Veterans Affairs, the District of Columbia, and the General Services Administration (GSA). His primary responsibilities include developing feasibility studies and asset repositioning strategies on behalf of federal and local governments. Additional responsibilities include support of a loan guarantee program designed to provide 5,000 units of supportive multifamily housing to homeless veterans. Robinson is currently advising GSA's Office of Real Property Management on the repositioning and monetization of a federal asset located in a rapidly transitioning Washington, D.C., neighborhood.

Prior to Jones Lang LaSalle, Robinson underwrote commercial real estate acquisitions at AEW Capital Management in Boston, managed "mission and business" communications in the Law & Policy group at Fannie Mae, served as an aide for retired U.S. Senator John Breaux (LA), and worked at the Louisiana Housing Finance Agency. Robinson graduated from Louisiana State University with a BA in political science and business administration, and earned his MBA from the Johnson School, where he was a Roy H. Park Leadership Fellow.

Meredith Ryan-Reid, MBA '07 (E)

Meredith Ryan-Reid, MBA '07 (E) is a Vice President at Marsh Inc. and a Producer within the National Brokerage segment. Prior to her current role at Marsh, Ryan-Reid was the Vice President of Business Development for AIG American General, responsible for identifying, managing and implementing key growth strategies for AIG's Domestic Life Companies, with a focus on optimizing relationships across all of AIG. Ryan-Reid previously held several roles within AIG, including running a business unit within the property and casualty division. She joined AIG in 2004, as a sales executive in the life division. From 1998-2004 she worked at CIGNA Corp., where she held positions in underwriting and sales and marketing. Ryan-Reid serves as her Alumni Class President and Vice President of the Johnson School Alumni Board. She received her BA from the University of Richmond in 1998.

Ryan-Reid serves as her Alumni Class President. She received her BA from the University of Richmond in 1998.

Stanley Sun '00, MBA'05

Stanley Sun '00, MBA'05, is an executive director of China-Hong Kong Photo Products Holdings Ltd. He joined the company in 2005, and manages overall marketing and sales as well as strategic business development for the group. Prior to the Johnson School, Sun worked at Fuji Photo Film Co. Ltd., both in Japan and in the United States, where he specialized in marketing work for their imaging business.

Sun serves as the president of the Hong Kong Cornell Club, and lives in Hong Kong with his wife, Jacqueline. At the Johnson School, Sun was co-president of the Asian Students group and very active in student affairs. He served as a teaching assistant while an undergraduate at the School of Hotel Administration, and has been active with the Hotel Ezra Cornell Board.

Timothy Takacs, MBA '99

Timothy Takacs, MBA '99, works in London for a private equity and advisory firm focused on emerging and high-growth markets; current activities involve deals in the Gulf, Ukraine and South Africa. He was previously with Accenture's Strategy Practice in London, where he helped establish the Accenture startup incubation centre during the dot-com boom. He also developed the financial structure and strategy for several "transformational outsourcing" deals. Before that, Takacs worked for Accenture's Strategy Practice in Boston and New York for four years. Accenture encouraged him to apply to the Johnson School and he was accepted into the first class of Park Leadership Fellows. For his summer internship he worked for Hewlett Packard's New Business Ventures group. Takacs has been active in the Johnson School's alumni club in the U.K. and is now working to re-energize the club as its president.

Michael Walsh, MBA '75, JD

Michael Walsh, MBA '75, JD, is a partner in Walsh Peterson LLP, a new partnership formed in February 2008. His experience includes seventeen years as a partner for at Jenner & Block LLP in Chicago, and about 10 years as a partner and associate at Kirkland & Ellis in Chicago. He focuses his practice on transactional and counseling matters primarily involving intellectual property and technology including information technology, telecommunications, and electronics. Walsh has successfully negotiated patent, trademark, copyright and software licenses, Internet and e-commerce, outsourcing, strategic alliance, technology procurement, telecommunications, and professional and consulting services agreements, as well as other corporate and commercial transactions involving intellectual property or technology. Representative larger clients include and have included Pactiv, Takeda, Brunswick, Hitachi, Pregis, Gateway, Motorola and General Dynamics. At the other end of the spectrum, he has represented small software consultants and individual entrepreneurs. In addition to the practice of law, Walsh reviews private equity opportunities in the manufacturing, food processing, and healthcare fields.

Walsh holds an AB in physics from Colgate University, an MBA in finance from Cornell's Johnson School, and a JD from Southern Methodist University. In addition, he has taught intellectual property courses as an adjunct professor at Loyola University in Chicago and lectured at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management, and Chicago-Kent Law School as well as at the Johnson School.