THE 2022 CSVP MENTOR NETWORK
Ashley Olafsen
Ashley Olafsen is a TEDx speaker and Forbes-featured 4x founder who is passionate about uplifting others and building impactful businesses.
She became an entrepreneur at the age of 16, when she gave an empowerment workshop to a group of eighth grade girls. After realizing her passion for helping others, Ashley co-founded MOVE, where she directed over 100 workshops and 6 summer programs for teenage girls, focusing on self-esteem, body image, leadership, and more. Ashley ran MOVE for 8 years and is unbelievably proud of the impact her and her team made in the lives of young women.
Most recently, Ashley co-founded The Wildflower Company: a company that helps you cultivate a thoughtful and purposeful life via a planner, monthly workshops, and even 1:1 coaching. She has big dreams for The Wildflower Company!
In her day to day, Ashley is a StartUp Coach at IFundWomen, where she coaches entrepreneurs on pitch honing, goal setting, social media strategy, and other important business topics.
She is a loyal friend, an experienced leader, and a girl's girl through and through!
Larry Yusuf
Larry is a professional accounting fellow at the SEC’s Office of Chief Accountant. He primarily works on accounting, auditing, and reporting matters for public companies and rule proposals under federal securities law. Prior to joining the SEC’s Office of Chief Accountant, he spent 11 years with EY.
Larry received a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and a Master of Science in Accounting from the University of Virginia, Charlottesville. He is a CPA.
Shira Epstein
Shira Epstein is the Director of Campus Makerspaces at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She is also a lecturer in the Electrical & Computer Engineering Department. She works to build the maker culture and resources across the University while also providing mentorship for students projects across disciplines. In addition, she runs the day-to-day operations of the UMass Amherst Makerspace with her staff. Her personal projects include mobile robots, magnetic parametric tiles that assemble polyhedra, and non-photorealistic 3d rendering.
Chris Bent
Entrepreneur, Speaker and Artist, Chris is the founder of Piccles - a collaborative drawing experience to amplify creative expression. Winner of the MIT Creative Arts and the Hacking Health competitions, he can be found running workshops, running companies, or running through the woods in his free time.
Eric Crawley
Eric Crawley is an entrepreneur-in-residence and lecturer at UMass’ College of Engineering. There he helps students, faculty and staff turn ideas into companies, and teaches a course he developed titled “engineering leadership and entrepreneurship” for the engineering management master’s program. He is also a venture advisor for Launch413 and a consultant for startups. He is an experienced executive, manager, and mentor capable of delivering results in people, strategy, architecture, and execution at many levels with experience ranging from startups to multi-national organizations. His specialties include computer networking, content distribution, software, security, managing, coaching, and delivering. He earned a bachelor’s in systems science from Michigan State University, and a master’s in engineering management from UMass.
April DeLuca
April DeLuca is the Founder of DeLuca Consulting where she develops HR strategy roadmaps that provide niche industry leaders, startups, and established businesses with Performance/Leadership Coaching, Trainings, Fractional CHRO Services, HR Assistance or complete Outsourcing of Human Resources services. Including but not limited to: Employee Relations, Recruiting/Interviewing/On-boarding, Performance Review, Compensation, Benefits (creation and admin), Policy Creation, and more. April is also a Venture Advisor for Launch413 and the Founder of an HR meetup group helping Human Resources professionals’ study and prepare for various HR and Benefit certifications around the world. April's specialties include Change Management, Strategy, Organizational Development, and Business Consulting. She earned a bachelor’s in Business Management from Albertus Magnus College, a Masters in Human Resources Development from Villanova University, and an Executive Masters in Business from Quantic School of Business and Technology.
Abigail Risse
Abigail is an early-stage tech investor at Hyperplane Venture Capital where she focuses on frontier tech, artificial intelligence and machine learning investments at the pre-seed and seed stages. Her background is primarily in robotics and biomedical mechatronics, having worked as an engineer at iRobot after graduating from UMass Amherst with a degree in Mechanical Engineering.
Bill Cole
I have played many roles in the start-up space from founder to investor and have learned a great deal about how things tend to work. But I don't know everything and I enjoy working with young entrepreneurs because I learn too!
Naomi Arnold
Naomi is a current MBA Fellow at the Isenberg School of Management. There she works as a mentor for the Berthiaume Center for Entrepreneurship. Her background is in hospitality and retail management, event logistics, marketing, and operations. After obtaining her MBA, Naomi is looking to begin a career in consulting. Naomi enjoys spending free time with her Rottweiler, painting, working out, and listening to vinyl records.
Steve Walsh
Steve Walsh is the founder of Hands On Angel LLC. He is an entrepreneur and angel investor with a 20+-year executive portfolio across the sales, marketing and operations divisions of some of the largest technology and media companies including Comcast & Cox Communications. Steve has invested in over 60 early-stage companies, helping them raise millions of dollars in capital and countless connections via Hands On Angel’s key strategic relationships and partnerships. Steve believes his unique, “hands on” approach to being not only financially but personally invested in a company’s growth and success sets him apart in the ever-competitive startup ecosystem.
Jason Mark
Speaker. Writer. Creator. Entrepreneur. Expert in design, usability and system thinking. Co-founder of Gravity Switch. Experience teaching in high school as well as various graduate level college classes. Ran a marketing and technology company for 21 years where he was a thought leader for clients at companies ranging from small mom-and-pop manufacturers, and non-profits to large organizations such as: Sega, Disney, The Guggenheim, Dartmouth College, and Yale University.
Got something you’re stuck on? Ask Jason. He’ll change your perspective.
Mark Hutchins
Mark Hutchins is the founder of Curious & Wise, where he acts as an entrepreneur coach, helping founders think better and innovate faster to build successful startups. For more than 15 years, Mark has lived the startup life in Boston, starting as a technologist and later a co-founder in several area startups. Today Mark coaches entrepreneurs on closing the gap between where they are and where they want by leveraging his depth of knowledge in technologies and startups and helping founders hone their entrepreneurial mindset to create consistent results necessary to build a scalable business. He holds a Bachelor's Degree in Electrical Engineering from UMass Amherst and is a Certified Professional Coach through iPEC Coaching.
Dayo Idowu
Dayo Idowu is a product manager and a social entrepreneur who enjoys identifying user problems and curating impactful solution. She recently earned her MBA from Isenberg School of Management.
Gregory Flynn
Greg Flynn is Program Director at Upward Labs, a CT based Venture Fund that fast tracks startups in the real estate and healthcare sectors. Career highlights include launching a startup from scratch and executing over $20B in M&A transactions. Greg lives in Suffield, CT with his three children and is an avid reader and golfer.
Nicholas (Nik) Moutafis
An Economics grad, class of 2011, Nik has spent the last 11 years in a mix of different Finance and Business Intelligence roles across a wide range of industries. Most recently, Nik has been at Financial Technology Partners, a FinTech Investment Bank, and Venture Fellow at Formation Venture Engineering, a Biotech venture fund. Nik has direct expertise with business strategy and analytics.
Bogdan Prokopovych
Bogdan Prokopovych is a lecturer at UMass’ Isenberg School of Management. He teaches social entrepreneurship and sustainable enterprise, the courses that combine entrepreneurship with pro-social behavior and sustainability. Bogdan's research focuses on the role of entrepreneurs and organizations in fostering market-based responses to environmental and societal challenges in both emerging and developed economies. His professional experience includes managing a nonprofit media advocacy organization and working at the International Finance Corporation of the World Bank Group in Ukraine. He holds a PhD in management from University of Rhode Island’s College of Business and a master’s in public policy and management from the University of Pittsburgh.
Kevin Frechette
Kevin Frechette is the CEO and co-founder of Fairmarkit, a company on a mission to transform procurement for the Fortune 500 and beyond. Kevin is a member of Fairmarkit’s board of directors and an ambassador for The Sustainable Procurement Pledge, demonstrating a commitment to make sustainability a core component of Fairmarkit’s product. Prior to founding Fairmarkit, Kevin held sales management positions at Dell EMC Corporation and Turbonomic. He holds a finance degree from the Isenberg School of Management at The University of Massachusetts at Amherst. #GOUMASS
Andrew Gibson
Andrew Gibson of Lyme, CT, advises Tier 1 aerospace suppliers and their financial institutions on Strategic Vision, Operations, Growth, Due Diligence, Financing, Exit and Turnaround matters. Andrew’s deep experience, as an Owner and Financier, affords quick project due diligence and successful results.
He was CEO and co-Owner of Chester, CT and Bangalore, India-based AeroCision, a Tier 1 maker of complex turbine engine parts. AeroCision’s deep turnaround began in 2008 and exited to a PE firm in 2018. Andrew fixed and grew the firm profitably focusing on a Employee & Supplier-first culture and a robust ERP backbone for all data, including forecasting, SPC and Robotic Machinery. AeroCision was awarded Rolls-Royce’s #1 Supplier in the world of the Year in 2017 and Runner Up in 2018.
Previously, Andrew started a consultancy in 1996 turning around troubled private and publicly held businesses serving as interim President or COO in many industries. Prior to starting his own Advisory, he was the top financial exec at one of the largest privately held apartment developers in the USA.
He started his career as a Loan Officer with Chase Morgan (formerly Manufacturers Hanover) in NYC.
Andrew is a graduate of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and Manufacturers
Howard Jean-Denis
Dr. Howard Jean-Denis is a tenure track professor of strategy and entrepreneurship at Pepperdine University in Malibu, CA. Dr. Jean-Denis’s primary research interests include corruption, social entrepreneurship and the Humanistic philosophy of management. A native of Haiti, Howard speaks multiple languages and plays the Djembe drums in his spare time. Video content he has been featured in have been viewed almost 100,000 times including through ABC News “Good Morning America” for his mentoring work with youth on entrepreneurship.
Dr. Jean-Denis has published in the areas of social entrepreneurship, Ubuntu management, and entrepreneurial cognition. He has a PhD in Strategy and an MBA in International business. His academic research has won multiple awards including best paper Award(s) at the Academy of International Business, Southern management association, as well as an International business research grant from General Electric. His past work experiences spans serving as a U.S. Army supply Sergeant, social entrepreneur and commodities trader. He is married with 3 amazing kids.
Leonard W. Underwood
Leonard W. Underwood (better known as “Lenny”) is the owner & founder of Underwood Photography (founded in 2004) that provides an array of photo related services ranging from headshots, parties & weddings to photo shoots, slideshows & photo booth rental. He is also a certified personal fitness trainer since 2009.
Upscale Socks was founded in 2016 after the founder, Lenny, had a dream one night (Summer 2014) that he owned a sock line business. It was very vivid and specific as he rarely remembers his dreams. Lenny toiled with the idea of launching a new business for about a year until he finally took the leap of faith and began to do some research. After several attempts to learn from local small businesses, pursuing a seven week startup business program (Spark Holyoke, now Efor All) was key in the development of Upscale Socks.
The collection of styles has grown to be colorful, vibrant, fun and meaningful socks for the entire family. Since our inception, we have participated in several popup shops, speaking engagements, judged competitions; mentored startup businesses as well received numerous awards. Upscale Socks been honored to partner with local non-profit organizations and schools with the "Suit Your Soles" campaign, where sock donations are matched for every purchase. A college scholarship has also been given away to a deserving college bound scholar.
Lenny holds a Bachelors & Master’s degree in Public Administration with a minor in business administration. The self-proclaimed serial-entrepreneur is a member of St. John’s Congregational Church, The Brianna Fund for Children with Physical Disabilities gospel concert planning committee and a board member for Way Finders and Square One. He has received numerous awards including, MLK Family Service’s Social Justice Award, 100 Men of Color, Business West’s 40 Under Forty, The Thunderbird’s Community Spotlight Award, The Champion of Character Award and the Black Excellence on the Hill award as well as a winner on the hit TV show, Wheel of Fortune.
Family, faith, fashion, fitness and friends (and food and photography!) are some of the things that mean the most.
Brittany Washum
Brittany Washum was born and raised in Boston, MA. She attended undergrad at UMass Amherst, where she studied Insects, Soil, & Plant Sciences at the Stockbridge School of Agriculture. She recently graduated with her masters of business administration from Isenberg School of Management. In December of 2020, Brittany partnered up with Cookies, a marijuana brand, and retailer based in California, and secured a marijuana establishment license with Springfield. She is set to open before the summer is opened.
Allison Werder
Allison Werder is Assistant Dean of Marketing & Communications and Chief Marketing Officer of the Isenberg School of Management at UMass. She also teaches an undergraduate course in Strategic Brand Management at Isenberg. Prior to joining Isenberg, Allison worked primarily with media companies in New York City, including People and Money Magazines at Time Inc. and Conde Nast/Advance Media. Most recently she was the President of MassLive Media which runs Western Massachusetts’ largest news and information website, and is the second largest news website in New England.
Allison is also very active with the Pioneer Valley’s entrepreneurship ecosystem, having cofounded WIT: Women Innovators and Trailblazers, a mentoring organization supporting women-led startups. She served as a founding board member for Valley Venture Mentors, the startup accelerator that partners with Isenberg’s Berthiaume Center on the Collegiate Summer Venture Program. She also has been an advisor and an investor with regional start-up angel funds.
Prior to Isenberg and her media career, Allison spent time in corporate finance, transportation planning and political consulting. She’s run for political office and has been involved in numerous regional boards and charities. She’s a Western Pennsylvania native with a bachelor’s degree from Notre Dame and an MBA from Georgetown.
Allison currently lives in Longmeadow, MA with her husband, two children, German shepherd and cat. On weekends she can usually be found trail running, skiing or golfing (badly).
Karen Utgoff
As director for I-Corps @ UMass Amherst and Venture Development at the Institute for Applied Life Sciences (IALS), Karen Utgoff helps UMass Amherst applied science and technology researchers translate their knowledge, discovery and inventions into product concepts with the potential to improve human health and well-being. In addition to her UMass Amherst roles, Karen is an adjunct instructor in the New England Regional Innovation Node Spark Program @ MIT and the NSF National I-Corps Teams Program as well as a long-time volunteer mentor for MassChallenge and the Cleantech Open Northeast. She hold an MBA from The Wharton School at The University of Pennsylvania.
Both on campus and beyond, Karen has worked with technology startups, small businesses, and non-profit research organizations on innovation challenges and research commercialization opportunities for over 20 years. In that time, she has helped startups and non-profit research organizations raise over $7 million in investment and grant funding. Her experience includes market-oriented business strategy, business planning, entrepreneurial/start-up marketing, strategic marketing, startup funding plans, new venture development, customer discovery, and business model development for concept and early prototype stage startups/companies as well as going concerns.
Cordie Lyon
Cordie Lyon attended undergrad at Harvard University Extension School, where her Liberal Arts studies created a strong foundation for her varied professional career. Experience includes serving as a non-profit Executive Director, project management at Wayfair (Fortune 500), and operations improvement in children’s publishing. Currently, she is an MBA student at the Isenberg School of Business focusing on entrepreneurship; she is particularly interested in agricultural and design businesses. After Cordie graduates, she plans to establish and operate her own business.
Christina Divigard
With more than 30 years of experience in global marketing, communications, and strategy consulting, Christina is the Managing Director of Valvespring, a consulting firm she founded in 2013 to provide small and medium businesses, non-profits, and public entities world-class marketing and management support on par with what global advertising and consulting firms provide to big brands.
Christina holds a Master of Business Administration degree with a specialization in Adult Learning from the Isenberg School of Management at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from Central Connecticut State University, where she double majored in marketing and organizational management and participated in the co-operative education program.
She is a strong advocate for building a continuum of business and entrepreneurial education that begins in middle school, and continues through high school, college, post-graduate study, and adult education.
James Chang
James Chang is a (now) second-year MBA Fellow at UMass and is spending his summer working for an AI/ML startup. He graduated from New York University with a degree in English, where he was president of the fraternity Alpha Phi Omega. James is passionate about effective communication, whether it be marketing to the consumer, pitching to an investor, or improving teamwork within an organization. Currently, James is president of the Business Operations and Business Analytics Clubs at Isenberg. Above all, James loves learning and problem-solving.