Development Committee

Michael Balaban

Michael (Mike) Balaban is Managing Director at Xinhua Finance and is responsible for the company's global integration of operations in the US and Europe. With more than 20 years of experience as a senior investment banker at Lehman Brothers and Salomon Smith Barney/Citigroup, Mr. Balaban has specialized in Asia-related business, primarily focusing on China, Korea, and Japan. Prior to that, Mr. Balaban ran Citigroup's Equity Capital Markets Group in Japan in 1998-1999. Mike holds a B.A. from Brown University and a Master of Arts in International Finance from Tufts.

Vanessa Burgess

Vanessa Burgess manages a fund focused on public equity investments in the health care sector and previously advised private companies on capital raising. For sixteen years, she was a Managing Director of Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette's Health Care Group and served as Chief Operating Officer of the Technology Investment Banking Group. Prior to her time at DLJ, Vanessa was an Investment Officer at Overseas Private Investment Corp. She holds an M.B.A. with distinction from George Washington University, a Master's in International Administration from the School for International Training, and a B.A. with Honors from Wesleyan University. She is a Trustee Emerita of Wesleyan University and a member of her coop board.

Guy de Chazal

Until recently, Guy was a Managing Director at Morgan Stanley and President of Morgan Stanley Venture Partners (MSVP). He remains on the board of one of MSVP’s portfolio companies, Thrupoint Technologies and a previous portfolio company, Lionbridge Technologies (LIOX). He also serves on the board of Uhlig. He served on the board of the National Venture Capital Association, co-chairing the Education Committee and chairing the Annual Convention in 2005. In 2004 and 2005, he was an adjunct professor at Columbia Business School, teaching Venture Capital to second year MBA students. Prior to his twenty-two years at Morgan Stanley, he worked at Citicorp Venture Capital and, before that, McKinsey and Co. In the nonprofit sector, Guy serves on four boards; he is chairman of Fountain House, a residential, service and advocacy program for people living with mental illness. He also serves on the boards of two Connecticut schools, Eagle Hill in Greenwich and Suffield Academy, and the Meadowbrook Hunt Club on Long Island. Guy has a BS Engineering from Manchester University in the UK and an MBA from Harvard University. He is married to Kitty Choate and has two teenage children, Justine and David.

Rick Juneja

Rick Juneja is a Director with Alvarez & Marsal in the company’s performance improvement practice where he is focused on working with private equity-sponsored portfolio companies.  Prior to joining A&M, Rick served as a senior consultant with the communications and high-technology practice of Accenture and prior to that, a senior product manager with Amazon.com.   He received a bachelor’s and master’s degree from Miami University (Ohio) and an MBA from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth.  

Barbara Kelly

Barbara Kelly is a tax attorney in private practice and of counsel to the New York law firm of Dreier LLP.  She has more than twenty-five years experience in advising investors, entrepreneurs, domestic and international businesses, and nonprofit organizations on the tax aspects of their organizations, transactions and investments.  She previously practiced with the law firms of Olwine, Connelly, Chase, O’Donnell and Weyher and Dechert LLP, and was earlier employed as a certified public accountant for Arthur Andersen & Co. in New York City.  Barbara currently sits on the Board of Directors of the Guide Dog Foundation for the Blind, Inc., and was previously president of the Manhasset Women’s Coalition against Breast Cancer.  She is the founder of the Manhasset Junior Coalition against Breast Cancer, a membership organization for high school girls, which raises funds for breast cancer research and patient support programs.  Barbara holds a B.A. in Accounting from Queens College, a J.D. from the Georgetown University Law Center, and an LL.M in Taxation from the New York University School of Law.

Marie Kelly

Marie Kelly is the mother of William (graduate of the United States Naval Academy and Oxford University), James (Duke University graduate), and Carolyn Kelly (Princeton University Junior). Marie is on the board of Prep for Prep and serves on two advisory boards, the Dean’s Council of Weill Cornell Medical College and the Trinity School at Duke University. She is a former Board member of the Collegiate School and the Spence School. Prior to raising her three children, Marie was Managing Director of Institutional Marketing for Fixed Income Products at Merrill Lynch & Company. She is also former Senior Engagement Manager at McKinsey & Company. She has a PhD and MS in International Business from Penn State University and attended University of Kansas for her BA.

Maria Kourepenos

Maria Kourepenos is the mother of Alexa, Ariana, and Ellery.  In addition to raising her three young daughters, Maria is a consultant for the on-line editing application, GorillaSpot, and is an active member of The Brearley School Parents Association.  Maria has over twenty years of experience in marketing and advertising. She is a former Director of Marketing/Advertising at HBO, where she headed up the marketing campaigns for award-winning programs such as: Sex And The City, The Sopranos and Angels in America.  Prior to joining HBO, Maria was a Vice President at Ogilvy & Mather working on both the American Express and AT&T accounts. Maria is a graduate of Princeton University.

Kristin Resnansky

Kristin Resnansky works as a managing director at Chilton Investment Company, where she focuses on public equity investing. She has worked with a variety of nonprofit organizations in the past. She holds an MBA from Stanford University's Graduate School of Business where she earned the Certificate in Public Management with an emphasis on social entrepreneurship, and a BA in economics and French from the University of Virginia. Kristin grew up in Connecticut and has traveled extensively in Africa, Europe, and South America.

Marc Saiontz

Marc Saiontz is currently a Managing Director at American Securities Capital Partners (ASCP). He joined ASCP in December 1996 from Morgan Stanley Capital Partners, where he focused on private equity investments. He has worked with a variety of nonprofits in the past. He holds an MBA from Stanford Business School and a BS magna cum laude in economics from the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business. Marc is currently a director of NEP Broadcasting, LLC, PDM Bridge, LLC, and Weasler Engineering, Inc.

David Sicher

David spent forty years on Wall Street, most recently thirty years at Salomon Brothers/Citigroup where he retired as a Managing Director in the Fixed Income Division in June 2007. He was the Founder in 1991 of Apply Software Systems, a College and Business School software application program, which was sold to The Princeton Review. He has previously served on the Boards of The Associated YM-YWHA's of Greater New York and The American Cancer Society New York Chapter and is active in various Alumni activities for Collegiate School and Deerfield Academy. David holds a BA from Dartmouth College and an MBA from Washington University in St. Louis.

Emily Susskind

Emily Susskind has more than twenty-five years of technology management experience. She recently served as Chief Information Officer of the International Division of Prudential Financial Inc, where she was responsible for the strategic direction of information technology throughout Prudential’s international insurance and investments operations. Prior to Prudential, she served as Executive Vice President of the Sony Corporation of America and President of its Broadband Services Company. She is on the Boards of Directors of Education Through Music and of City Harvest. She has an MBA from the Wharton School and a BA from Wellesley College

Nozomi Terao

Nozomi "Nozo" Terao is the Managing Director of MSTERIO, an international children's program she founded in 2001 which uniquely connects people through shared experience for mutual understanding and respect. Over her career she has held positions at the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo, Fuji TV's morning show, Itochu International and for 18 years at Morgan Stanley, ultimately as an Executive Director.  Nozo was born in Japan and graduated from St. Margaret's College.  She is a board member of Midori & Friends, providing music education to NYC public school children in need. She is also a board member of Princeton in Asia, providing transformative, service-oriented experiences for talented Princeton graduates with opportunities to live and work in Asia. In her spare time she enjoys playing piano and singing.

Robbert Vorhoff

Robbert Vorhoff is a Vice President at General Atlantic, where he focuses on investments in the Healthcare and Education sectors. He joined General Atlantic in 2003 as an Associate. Previously, Robb worked for Greenhill & Co. in New York as an Analyst in the Mergers & Acquisitions and Restructuring advisory groups, and then as an Associate in the firm’s private equity group, Greenhill Capital Partners, where he focused on investments in financial services, energy and education. Robb received a B.S. in Commerce with a concentration in Finance from the McIntire School of Commerce at the University of Virginia. While at UVA, he was awarded the William M. Shermet Scholarship by the McIntire faculty on the basis of academic performance, character, and leadership. Robb remains actively involved with UVA as the Co-Chair of the McIntire Young Alumni Council and is involved with a number of non-profit organizations in the New York community, including Student Sponsor Partners.

Daniel Weiss

Daniel (Dan) Weiss has worked for over thirty years in the fields of communications and publishing, producing books, magazines, and multi-media for children and adults, with a focus on education. A graduate of NYU’s School of the Arts in Film and Television, Dan began his career in educational television, making short animated films for Sesame Street, documentaries for the government and public service organizations, and political commercials. In the early seventies, he transitioned into book publishing, working at Golden Press, Scholastic, and Simon and Schuster, prior to forming his own company, Dan Associates, Inc. (DWAI), in 1980. DWAI was the producer of numerous bestsellers, including the SWEET VALLEY HIGH series of books, merchandise and television entertainment; adult how-to books, fiction and magazines. Dan sold DWAI in 2000 to AlloyOnline, a teen marketing company. In 2001, Dan initiated and closed the transaction wherein SparkNotes.com, a start-up online publisher, was acquired by Barnes & Noble, Inc. The company, presently known as Spark Publishing, LLC, is a wholly owned subsidiary with over 550 titles in print after 4 years, and a website that has grown to become the largest educational site on the Internet. Dan was most recently Publisher of Quamut, a unit of Barnes & Noble.