Moderator

Ana Kertesz (MBA 2002)

Northeast U.S./New York Region Lead & Semi-Final Judge - Northeast U.S./N.Y Region Alumni New Venture Competition

Ana Kertesz has 25 years of combined experience as an investor, executive, entrepreneur and board member with a successful track record in business launch & growth, funding, mergers & acquisitions, private equity & venture capital, partnerships, cross border transactions, content & community and building high performance teams, in her tenure at Goldman Sachs, biotechnology company Amyris, family office Peninsula, and her startup HOWto.LIVEit. A strong diversity and ESG advocate, Ana has close experience in a multitude of industries, including beauty, wellness, food, biotechnology, education, ed tech, media, retail and clean energy. Ana is fluent in English, Spanish, Portuguese and French and holds an MBA from Harvard Business School. Ana lives in the greater NY area with her family.

Moderator

Sabeen Mian (MBA 2008)

Northeast U.S./New York Region Semi-Final Judge

Sabeen is the President of Beauty Pie, the world’s first-ever luxury beauty buyers’ club. Beauty Pie is
transforming the way people shop by enabling its members to purchase exceptional quality beauty
products, made by the world’s best laboratories, without the typical industry markups. Beauty Pie’s
mission? To spread love and happiness (starting with fairer prices on the world’s best beauty products).
Prior to joining Beauty Pie in 2022, Sabeen spent 8 years at Ipsy, the largest beauty subscription in the
world, as a GM of the company’s beauty incubator and previously, as Ipsy’s SVP of Merchandising.
Sabeen has over 15 years of business leadership experience. She has built a reputation for being a
visionary, driving innovation and strategic thinking, delivering operational excellence and for obsessing
over the customer experience. Sabeen’s interest and expertise lies in high-growth direct to consumer
businesses, and she is incredibly passionate about beauty.

She began her career at Morgan Stanley as an Investment Banking Analyst focusing on the Global
Emerging Markets. She later joined Barclays Capital as a Senior Associate in the Latin American Debt
Capital Markets group. In 2006, she left Barclays to pursue her MBA at Harvard Business School. After
graduating, she embarked on a career in merchandising, first in buying and planning roles at
Bloomingdale’s and later as Director of Buying for Women’s Apparel at Amazon.com.

Sabeen holds a dual Bachelor of Arts in Economics and Public Policy from Duke University and a Master
of Business Administration from Harvard Business School. She resides in Scarsdale, New York with her
husband Hashim and is the proud mom to 11-year-old twins Raiya and Camilla.

Moderator

Olga Bartnicki (MBA 1999)

Northeast U.S./New York Region Semi-Final Judge

Turning ideas into businesses is a drive I formed in early childhood. My father was an inventor in the field of electrical engines with 12 patents neatly stored in the folders he deeply cherished – yet nothing was actually built. It made me realize the value of building, launching, making ideas real.

My career has been about building new ventures both inside large corporations and as startups. I have launched new ventures at a large media conglomerate (MTG), ideated and launched new products as a strategy consultant (for Merck, Thompson, Reuters) and worked with Fortune 500 as an investment banker (Allen&Co) providing thought leadership in the face of disruptive innovation (Napster).

As a tech entrepreneur, I have built four startups – two failed and two with successful exits.

I have been a mentor to founders at several startup accelerators – ERA, MIT Media Lab, Harvard iLab, CornellTech Startup Studio, and Yale Tsai Innovation Center, Drexel Accelerator, and Starta Accelerator.

There is nothing more life-affirming to me than making an idea a reality and helping other founders along the way.