Melissa Bernstein ’87, P’15, P’16, P’26
Melissa Bernstein is an entrepreneur, creative, and working mother of six. In 1988, Melissa and her husband co-founded Melissa & Doug out of their parents’ garage. In the years that followed, they built Melissa & Doug into a wildly successful company. Melissa has spent the last 30 years helping children discover themselves, their passions, and their purpose through open-ended play. She estimates that she has built more than 6,000 toys in the last three decades!
Despite the early and sustained success Melissa experienced, she spent her life struggling with existential depression. In 2020, after her own personal journey of self-discovery and acceptance, Melissa co-founded Lifelines. Through Lifelines, she is using her unparalleled creativity and imagination to reinvent well-being products and experiences and help adults strengthen their resilience, stay grounded, and unlock their full potential.
Lisa Blau ’97
Lisa Blau is a Founding Partner of __able Partners, a venture capital firm focused on early-stage companies in the health and wellness space. With over 70 companies in the portfolio, and more than 60% with female founders, __able’s investments include Bumble (NASDAQ: BMBL), Daily Harvest, Spring Health, Oura, Maven, Alma and Compass Pathways (NASDAQ: CMPS). Lisa chairs the Investor Group of the Leadership Now Project, a membership organization of business professionals committed to renewing democracy. She is a Board Member of The New York Public Library, KIPP New York, and The Mount Sinai Parenting Center. Lisa has a BA from Duke and an MBA from Harvard Business School and lives in New York City with her husband and three children.
Kirsten Castillo M.B.A.’16, P’23
Kirsten has over 22+ years of supply chain and logistics experience, having held multiple supply chain leadership roles at a spin-off company of 3M. During her tenure at Logistics Planning Services, a privately held transportation and logistics services company, where she served as CEO, the company achieved aggressive growth plans which ultimately resulted in the sale of the business to GlobalTranz, a strategic buyer in the 3PL sector. Kirsten stayed on through the transition as Chief Operating Officer and was responsible for all company operations including regional branches in North America and Mexico, delivering $1.6B in revenue before stepping down to pursue new opportunities. She has served on the Board of The Marvin Companies since 2019, a large 4th generation family business that manufacturers windows and doors. She has served on the board of OCUGEN, a public biopharmaceutical company focused on gene therapies to treat blindness diseases and a vaccine to save lives from Covid19 since 2019. Kirsten is also on the board of ACV Auctions, a technology company focused on the wholesale automotive marketplace. She has spent several years on nonprofit boards including the United Way Board, the Hall Family Foundation and the advisory board for the Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at The Fuqua School of Business at Duke University. Ms. Castillo received her BS from the University of Minnesota and her Global Executive MBA from The Fuqua School of Business at Duke University.
Jeff Eaton ’98, M.B.A. ’04
Jeff Eaton is the Global Co-Head of Eaton Partners, with a primary focus on private markets and private funds. In addition to overseeing the firm, he sits on the Investment Committees for the North America, EMEA, and APAC private funds groups as well as for the General Partner Advisory and Directs (GPAD) group. Based out of their Houston office, Jeff also manages Eaton Partners’ energy and real asset businesses. Jeff has more than 20 years of experience in the investment and financial services industry. Prior to joining Eaton Partners, he was a Director at Constellation Energy Commodities Group leading principal transactions for their natural gas structuring and trading division.
Jeff graduated with honors from Duke University with undergraduate degrees in Economics and History, and received his MBA from Duke’s Fuqua School of Business. He is a member of YPO. He and his wife, Theresa, also a double-Duke grad, live in Houston with their eight-year-old daughter, Grayson.
Marita Bell Fairbanks ’88
Marita Bell Fairbanks founded Fresh Arts Coalition in 2002 in order to strengthen the sustainability and vibrancy of Houston’s arts by bolstering the capacity and professional practice of artists and arts organizations and enhancing the public’s engagement with the arts. In 2012, Fresh Arts Coalition merged with Spacetaker and became Fresh Arts, and the organization continues to serve the arts community in Houston and manages and promotes the newly created Arts District Houston. Previous to founding Fresh Arts, Ms. Fairbanks gained an extensive knowledge of marketing and business development through 12 years in the for-profit sector of the communications, internet and banking industries. As head of marketing for several small and mid-size companies, Ms. Fairbanks developed a number of large-scale marketing and awareness campaigns as well as international development strategies. She has served on the boards of Fresh Arts, University of Texas College of Fine Arts, Glasstire.com, the Alumni Association Board of Governors of the Hotchkiss School, the Audit Committee of St. John’s School and has been actively involved with Texas Children’s Hospital, the Contemporary Art Museum Houston, the Menil Collection, the Blaffer Gallery at the University of Houston, the MFAH Film Committee, and YES Prep. Ms. Fairbanks holds an MBA in Finance and Entrepreneurial Studies from the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin and a BA in History from Duke University. She and her husband, JB, have four children.
Tamara Free ’93, M.B.A. ’99, J.D. ’99
Tamara is a 25-year veteran of the entertainment industry, specializing in deals for the visual effects for motion pictures, television series, video games, and commercials. Prior to starting her own firm, Tamara served as Corporate Counsel in the Business Affairs Group at Industrial Light & Magic and Skywalker Sound (divisions of Lucasfilm Entertainment Company Ltd.). Before joining Lucasfilm, Tamara was an associate in the Technology Transactions Group of the leading law firm Wilson Sonsini in Palo Alto, California. Tamara earned her BA from Duke and her JD/MBA from Duke’s Fuqua School of Business and Duke’s School of Law. She currently serves as Co-Head of Duke Alumni Admissions for the Peninsula/Silicon Valley region of California, has been a formal mentor to Duke undergraduates enrolled in the Duke I&E Certificate since the program’s inception, and works with Duke entrepreneurs in the D-Fan pipeline (Pratt School of Engineering). She resides in Los Altos & Santa Barbara, CA and is married to Eric Free (B.S.E. ’91, M.B.A. ’98).
April Gargiulo ’96
April Gargiulo is the Founder and CEO of Vintner’s Daughter, a luxury skincare company committed to performance-driven quality-focused, non-toxic skincare. She launched her first product, Active Botanical Serum in 2012 bucking industry standards by using whole organic plants and methodical formulation methods versus low quality fillers and formulation short cuts. Vintner’s Daughter quickly became a benchmark for quality and performance in the beauty world and is coveted by top beauty connoisseurs and industry professionals around the world. Before starting Vintner’s Daughter, April spent 8 years at the helm of her family’s Napa Valley winery, Gargiulo Vineyards. There, she helped build the winery’s reputation for terroir-driven, “first growth” Cabernet Sauvignon. Before Napa, April spent 6 years in Manhattan where she worked for design leader Vitra. Through Vintner’s Daughter April commits 2% of every bottle sold to charities benefitting women and children worldwide. She is married to fellow entrepreneur, Mitch Lowe (also her co-CEO) and has two young daughters. April has an undergraduate degree from Duke University.
Nancy Go ’00
Nancy Go is the Chief Marketing Officer for Devoted Health, a healthcare company delivering improved care to older Americans through tech-enabled Medicare health plans, clinical services, social services, and care coordination. First serving customers in 2019 and now available to 1 in 4 seniors in America.
Nancy is an organizational leader who launches new mass household brands. Prior to Devoted, Nancy led brand marketing for Wayfair (NYSE: W) from inception of the Wayfair brand in 2011 thru establishment and $5B+ revenue in 2017. Nancy held previous roles at Procter & Gamble and the Parthenon Group/E&Y. She serves or has served on governance or advisory boards for several organizations, including: Chewy (NYSE: CHWY), Droplette (skincare), Dia (fashion), Tally (fintech), Arteza (art supplies), BibleProject (content), Duke University (Innovation & Entrepreneurship advisory board), and Big Sisters Association of Boston (non-profit).
Currently, Nancy lives outside of Boston, MA with her husband (also a Duke grad), two daughters, two cats, and seven chickens. She holds a BS in Economics from Duke University and an MBA from Stanford University.
Winston Henderson B.S.E. ’90, J.D. ’96
Winston Henderson is currently Vice President, General Counsel at Clear Scientific, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company based in Cambridge, MA.
For the past 20+ years, Winston has been instrumental in starting and running life-science and high-tech start-up companies in the Boston area. Prior to Nano Terra, Winston was General Counsel at Nano Terra, Inc. and Surface Logix, Inc. Surface Logix invented a platform technology for developing improved drug therapies, and grew into a biopharmaceutical company with a substantial pipeline of drug candidates addressing Type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular health and oncology.
Prior to moving to Boston to join the start-up economy, Winston was an attorney with an intellectual property law firm, Kenyon & Kenyon, and a consultant with Andersen Consulting (now Accenture) in its Advanced Systems and Technology Integration Services groups. During that time, Mr. Henderson consulted with and advised numerous international high technology, medical device and pharmaceutical companies, as well as various government entities, both domestic and international.
Mr. Henderson received his B.S.E. in Biomedical & Electrical Engineering from Duke University (where he was a Reginaldo Howard Scholar), and his J.D. from Duke University School of Law.
Andy Horwitz M.B.A. ’99
Andy most recently served as Co-CEO of Black Mountain Systems for over 10 years, leading its growth over that period to its recent acquisition by Vista Equity Partners, the largest private equity group in the world focused on software and technology-enabled services. Vista and Black Mountain subsequently acquired Alta Return and combined the two firms to create Allvue. Allvue is now the industry leader in cloud-based software solutions targeted to private capital and credit market investment managers, serving over 400 clients including 150 private equity and venture capital firms, 20 of the 25 largest managers in the world (as ranked by AUM), and 10 large global commercial/investment banks.
Under Andy’s leadership Black Mountain grew from a single client with less than $100,000 in revenues to 400 clients employing over 750 people and generating $100,000,000 in annual revenues. The company was named a “Hot Banking Technology Company to Watch” by Forrester Research and was on the Inc. 500 list of the fastest growing private companies in the United States 11 straight years reaching as high as #63 on that list.
Prior to joining Black Mountain and embracing his entrepreneurial spirit, Andy worked as a banker for Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs and Bank of America. Andy is currently an active personal investor and advisor to tech-enabled companies in the U.S. and Europe.
Sanjay Kamlani ’91, P’26
Sanjay is the founder and CEO of Maker5 Inc., a legal innovation advisory, software development services, and venture studio for law firms and corporate counsel. After building a U.S.-India business practice as a lawyer at PricewaterhouseCoopers in the ‘90s, Sanjay became the GC & CFO on the founding management team of OfficeTiger, the pioneer of professional support services offshore outsourcing. In 2004, Sanjay co-founded Pangea3, a Sequoia Capital portfolio company that became the pioneer and leader in legal outsourcing, before being acquired by Thomson Reuters in 2010 and more recently by EY. Sanjay has been recognized by The American Lawyer as a Top 50 Innovator in Big Law in the Last 50 Years and featured in the ABA Law Journal’s 100 Years of Law. Sanjay earned his BA (Economics & Public Policy) from Duke University and his JD from the University of Pennsylvania where he served as an associate editor of the Univ. of Pennsylvania Law Review. Sanjay is admitted to the New York Bar.
David Kelleher ’94, P’22
David Kelleher is CEO and co-founder of 4G Clinical, a venture-backed Randomization and Trial Supply Management (RTSM) company serving the global pharmaceutical market. Kelleher co-founded 4G to accelerate the commercialization of vital medications. Previously, David was principal and co-founder of ACME Business Consulting, a management, operations, project and strategy consulting firm headquartered in Portland, Oregon with offices in Seattle and San Diego. Kelleher formed ACME with his partners in 2002 to help organizations complete critical projects that advance, improve and streamline their ability to do business. Prior to ACME being acquired by North Highland in 2015, the firm was named to the Portland Business Journal’s list of “Fastest-Growing Private 100 Companies” for 8 of the previous 9 years.
Kelleher earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Biology from Duke University and is also a graduate of the United States Army Infantry Officer Basic School, Airborne School and Ranger School. Diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1996 while serving in the 82nd Airborne Division in Vicenza, Italy, Kelleher is active in finding a cure for the disease. He served on the board of the Oregon Chapter of the National MS Society from 2005–2013 including a two-year stint as the board chair as well as multiple national roles. Kelleher has also served on the board of directors for Janus Youth Programs, Greater Portland, Inc., Junior Achievement and Home Forward (formerly Housing Authority of Portland). He resides in Northeast Portland with his wife, Kysa, and their six children.
Ronald Ludwig ’65
Ron Ludwig practiced law in San Francisco for 26 years in a boutique law firm that specialized in employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs), corporate finance and corporate governance. He was instrumental in the development of the federal laws and regulations governing ESOPs, and he was the first professional to receive a Life Service Award from The ESOP Association. Following his retirement in 1999, Ron served on the Boards of Directors of five employee-ownership companies and invested in private equity through Ludwig Investment Partners. He has also served on the Board of Trustees of The Employee Ownership Foundation and the Board of Counselors of the Center for Economic and Social Justice.
Ron and his wife Carrie established the first endowment of an undergraduate study-away program in Duke’s history, the Ronald & Carrie Ludwig Duke in Silicon Valley Program. Situating students in the nation’s hub for innovative enterprise, the program is designed to give them an intensive four-week course experience in the creation of new ventures, both commercial and social.
Ron is a graduate of Duke University and the University of Michigan Law School. For the past eight years, he has been a student at the University of San Francisco’s Fromm Institute for Lifelong Learning, where Carrie and he endowed the Ludwig Chair in 20th Century Rock & Soul Music. They have recently established the Carrie & Ronald Ludwig Endowment for Innovation in Aging at the University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine.
Shankar Musunuri M.B.A. ’06
Dr. Musunuri is Chairman, Chief Executive Officer, and Co-Founder of Ocugen—a fully integrated, patient-centric biotech company focused on vaccines in support of public health and gene and cell therapies targeting unmet medical needs through Courageous Innovation. Dr. Musunuri has 30+ years’ biotech experience, advancing and commercializing a diverse portfolio of products. Prior to co-founding Ocugen in 2013, Dr. Musunuri held leadership roles at numerous companies ranging from “Big Pharma” to novel start-up biotech. After a long tenure at Pfizer, he founded Nuron Biotech, Inc., which he grew to a commercial company in less than three years, serving as President and CEO. Dr. Musunuri spent nearly 15 years at Pfizer, where he gained extensive product launch and lifecycle management experience, playing a key role as Global Operations Team Leader for one of the most successful launches in vaccine history, Prevnar 13®.
Dr. Musunuri obtained his PhD in Pharmaceutical Sciences from the University of Connecticut and an MBA from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business. He is a recipient of the Distinguished Alumnus Award from the University of Connecticut’s School of Pharmacy and served on the advisory Board of Fuqua’s Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at Duke University.
Marnie Oursler M.B.A. ’13
Marnie Oursler is the Founder and President of Marnie Custom Homes based in Bethany Beach, Delaware, which specializes in building sustainable beach homes using locally sourced materials. Marnie hosted Big Beach Builds, which aired for two seasons in 2017 and 2018 on DIY Network. She was also the host of HGTV Dream Home 2018.
Marnie’s story is unconventional and inspirational as she’s built a growing custom home company in a very male-dominated industry. Not only does she build custom beach homes, she also designs them, adding one-of-a- kind touches along the way. She built the first LEED-certified home in Delaware, implementing energy-efficient practices before it was cutting edge. She then began using reclaimed and recycled material to make her clients’ homes unique, later building one of the first American-made homes in the country, using 95% of the products Made in the USA. Marnie’s innovative use of materials, impeccable craftsmanship, creative design sense, and unparalleled work ethic have earned her a thriving business, and she continues to revolutionize the industry with a fresh approach to established building practices and processes.
A graduate of the prestigious Global MBA program at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business, she is a frequent speaker on such issues as building a business, cultivating a mentor and creating working relationships that truly benefit all involved. Marnie was a member of the Board of Advisors for The Center of Entrepreneurship and Innovation at The Fuqua School of Business at Duke University. She played Division I soccer at the US Naval Academy before transferring to East Carolina University where she played Division I softball and earned her undergraduate degree.
Hetal Pandya M.B.A. ’04
For the last 25 years, Hetal Pandya has loved working on startup teams and projects. She is a second-generation female tech entrepreneur in her family. From a young age, Hetal was exposed to business and technology as she followed her mother, another engineer, into entrepreneurship when she co-founded Edison Software in 2011 with Mikael Berner. She is a trusted resource for the nation’s leading press outlets including Bloomberg, Forbes, Barron’s, NBC News, and others for her thought leadership in the email and research industry. Hetal spends her free time coaching entrepreneurial leaders and advising startups. Hetal earned her Master’s in Engineering from the University of Texas, and an M.B.A. from Fuqua Business School at Duke University.
Selwyn Rayzor ’93
Selwyn Rayzor is President of the Rayzor Company, a real estate and investment company, and is on the Board of Directors of Suderman & Young Towing as well as G&H Towing, harbor towing companies in the Gulf of Mexico. She is also a board member of WNDYR , a future of work technology company, as well as the Westpark TIRZ (Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone) Board with the city of Denton, Texas. Before returning home to Texas, Rayzor was a Managing Director within the investment banking division of the ABN Amro Bank in London. Prior to her time in London, she was a mortgage derivative trader in New York.
Rayzor’s passion for helping underprivileged women and children was deepened after traveling with UNICEF USA to Uganda and Nepal. She is the founding Board Chair of the North Texas Board of UNICEF USA and serves on the National
Development Board of UNICEF USA. She also serves on the Board of Directors of Planned Parenthood of Greater Texas, chairing the current $65 million Together No Matter What Campaign, as well as board chair for talkSTEM. She is on the Advisory Council for the Children’s Advocacy Center of North Texas and chairs the campaign for a new domestic violence center with Denton County Friends of the Family. Rayzor is a proud graduate of Duke University, and now serves on the Duke Alumni Association Advisory Committee as an alumni interviewer and on the Duke University Innovation and Entrepreneurship Initiative Advisory Board. She is a founding member of the Duke UNICEF Innovation Accelerator. She has chaired fundraising events for UNICEF, Family Gateway, Texas Women’s Foundation, Annie’s List, Planned Parenthood of Greater Texas, the Lamplighter School and the Greenhill School.
Rayzor lives in Dallas with her husband Rich and children, Jack and Adair.
Matt Rhodes-Kropf ’93, Ph.D. ’98
Matthew Rhodes-Kropf is a Visiting Associate Professor in the Finance department at MIT Sloan where he teaches entrepreneurship. Rhodes-Kropf is also a managing partner at Tectonic Ventures.
Rhodes-Kropf’s research on venture capital and exits has been published in many leading finance and economic journals. His work seeks to understand how capital markets interact with the creation of new firms, their financing, growth, governance, and their ultimate exit through a successful IPO or sale or through failure. He has published in leading finance and economic journals, including The Journal of Finance, Journal of Financial Economics, Review of Financial Studies, The RAND Journal of Economics, and The Journal of Business. His 2004 paper “Market Valuation and Merger Waves,” published in The Journal of Finance, was nominated for the Brattle Prize for Best Paper in Corporate Finance in 2005.
Previously a faculty member in the Entrepreneurial Management department at Harvard Business School, Rhodes-Kropf has also published many HBS cases. His work has been profiled in the Financial Times, The Economist, Harvard Business Review, the MIT Sloan Management Review, Kauffman publications, Institutional Investor’s Alpha Magazine, PeHub, and many popular blogs. He is regularly quoted in major print media such as the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, and the Financial Times, and has discussed his work on television, with appearances on CNBC, BBC, and CNN. Matt gives talks throughout the world on the financing of innovation. At Harvard Matt taught the VCPE (venture capital and private equity) course in the MBA elective curriculum and in executive education programs. He also oversees myriad student ventures and has advised literally hundreds of founders. He was also formerly the Daniel W. Stanton Associate Professor of Business at the Columbia University Graduate School of Business, where he taught entrepreneurial finance and received the Dean’s Award for Teaching Excellence. Formerly, Rhodes-Kropf was a faculty research fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research.
Rhodes-Kropf is also a managing partner at Tectonic Ventures. Previously he founded RK Ventures, the predecessor to Tectonic, where he managed two successful funds. Matt invested in companies such as Rackspace, Avid Radiopharmaceuticals, Xenex, Kymeta, Humatics, and Axioma among others. Matt was formerly the CFO of Avid Radiopharmaceuticals, where he worked with the founder to launch the firm and the world’s first Alzheimer’s imaging agent. Matt also helped launch a hedge fund as the COO, and has advised many financial firms including Correlation Ventures. Matt is presently a director at Xenex, Avant-garde Health, 55-ip, Wyebot, Wayscript, and Neighborhood Trust and an advisor to Kymeta and Humatics.
A graduate of Duke University, Rhodes-Kropf holds a BA in computer science and economics and a PhD in economics. Matt was formerly the chairman of the advisory board for Duke University’s Graduate School.
Rachel Braun Scherl ’87
Rachel Braun Scherl is a champion for women’s sexual and reproductive health and a pioneer in building businesses in the space. As Managing Partner and Co-Founder of SPARK Solutions for Growth, a strategic and marketing consultancy, Rachel has built an international client list that includes Johnson & Johnson, Allergan, Pfizer, Merck, Bayer and Church & Dwight, as well as venture-backed start-ups. While President and co-founder of Semprae Laboratories, Rachel and her team built a company that developed and marketed sexual health and wellness products for women – creating a new category and transforming women’s health. Semprae attracted significant media attention and industry interest and was sold to Innovus Pharmaceuticals in 2013.
Today, Rachel works with companies large and small, from menstruation through menopause to drive growth – through partnerships, repositioning, innovation, new distribution and global expansion to name a few. In addition, Rachel serves as Chief Development Officer for Pulse, a company with a device and consumable model that is elevating personal care across categories. Rachel’s career-long findings, learnings and recommendations are at the heart of her best-selling book: Orgasmic Leadership: Profiting from the Coming Surge in Women’s Health and Wellness.
In May 2021, Rachel launched a podcast, Business of the V, with a leading OB/GYN focused on the intersection of women’s health, unmet needs and the businesses being created to respond to those concerns. Rachel is a frequent public speaker at universities, colleges and industry conferences, including Duke University, Stanford GSB, CES, SXSW, Johnson & Johnson, Abbvie, and The Minnesota Vikings, and has been a resource for CBS, ABC, New York Times, among others. In addition to serving as a Board member and Advisory Board member for female health companies, Rachel provides ongoing mentorship to many entrepreneurs in the women’s health space.
After graduating Magna Cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Duke, Rachel earned an MBA from Stanford University Graduate School of Business.
Sonya Schroeder ’88, P’24
Sonya recently joined Main Data Group, a corporate benchmarking and analytics company, as SVP of Marketing and Product Design. Previously, she cofounded iiWisdom, the leading provider of interactive governance solutions for companies and investors, which she and her team built in partnership with BlackRock.
Sonya has two decades of experience developing strategic, marketing, and research plans for leading corporate brands. She was a consultant at Bain & Company and held senior operating roles at American Express, Time, Inc and The Geppetto Group. She has been actively involved with Challenge Success, an organization devoted to redefining success for today’s teens, and volunteers with several arts organizations.
Sonya graduated with a BA in Economics from Duke and an MBA from Harvard. She lives in the Bay Area with her husband and three children.
Ramy Sharp P’21, P’26
Ramy is the founder, CEO, and Creative Director of Ramy Brook, one of the fastest growing woman’s contemporary fashion brands. Ramy Brook is also a woman-owned business. Ramy Brook is available at over 400 locations of high-end retailers worldwide, including Neiman Marcus, Saks Fifth Avenue, Bloomingdale’s, ShopBop, and Nordstrom, top specialty stores, leading retailers, the flagship Ramy Brook store on Madison Avenue in New York City and ramybrook.com. Ramy has been honored for her philanthropic efforts with organizations such as the ALSAssociation, City of Hope, UJA, and RENS and is a mentor for emerging designers at First Workings. Before becoming an entrepreneur, Ramy built her career in advertising, and graduated with a BA in Political Science and Communications from Muhlenberg College. Ramy has three children and resides in New York City with her husband.
Richard Star M.B.A. ’08
Richard Star is currently a principal and co-founder of NEXgistics, LLC, a seven year-old third party logistics provider located in Buffalo, NY and North Las Vegas, NV. Richard was involved in numerous businesses prior to NEXgistics. Richard worked for 14 years at Cliffstar Corporation/Cliffstar LLC, a vertically integrated private label beverage company sold to a publicly traded company in 2010. Richard is also involved with commercial real estate development projects in South Carolina, is a licensed real estate agent and is a founding member of Dunes Commercial Properties, LLC. He has made numerous strategic investments in private companies over the past six years and serves on the board of several closely held firms including: Vitamins Direct, LLC (Chairman), Star Snax, LLC and Portland Bottling Company.
Richard earned a bachelor’s degree from Northwestern University majoring in history and political science and holds a master’s degree from New York University (MA) and an MBA from Duke University (Fuqua School of Business).