HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL CLUB OF NEW YORK PAYS TRIBUTE TO EXEMPLARY BUSINESS AND PHILANTHROPIC LEADERS; LEADERSHIP DINNER FUNDRAISING SUPPORTS ACTIVITIES IN SOCIAL ENTERPRISE, ENTREPRENEURSHIP, SCHOLARSHIPS AND CONTINUING EDUCATION
James Dinan Recognized for Outstanding Business Leadership
Daniel A. Biederman Recognized for Excellence in Social Enterprise
Jennifer Carter Fleiss and Jennifer Hyman Recognized for Excellence in Entrepreneurship
Michael Fascitelli Serves as Dinner Chair
New York, New York, May 18, 2017 – The Harvard Business School Club of New York (HBSCNY), the world’s largest alumni chapter of Harvard Business School (HBS), honored four leaders in business, social enterprise, and entrepreneurship at its 50th Annual Leadership Dinner on May 17, 2017. The dinner also featured a panel of HBS luminaries, including Michael Bloomberg, Tony James, and Ann Moore, and was moderated by Dean Nitin Nohria.
The annual event supports the operations and mission of the Club, providing infrastructure and support to unlock and leverage the talent that volunteer HBS alumni bring to activities for the school, alumni and the greater NYC community. These activities include Continuous Education, Career Assistance and Forums, Community Partners, Skills Gap, Senior programs, and Entrepreneurship, as well as grants for interns to early stage companies and scholarships for Social Enterprise Executives and HBS MBA students.
Through the Community Partners Program, HBS alumni volunteers provide $5 million of pro-bono consulting services annually to developing non-profit organizations in greater New York City. The Entrepreneurship Board and our Startup Partners mentor program bring high quality, pro bono advice to developing companies. HBSNCY’s Skills Gap program is bridging the gap between education and business, and helping to develop job-oriented curriculum at community college for careers in health care and start up business; they give need-based grants to interns at city community colleges working in NYC early-stage companies. HBS scholarships provided by the Club include the HBSCNY Fellowship Fund and multiple full scholarships for local non-profit leaders to attend the Strategic Perspectives in Nonprofit Management Course at HBS.
“We are proud to bring together such distinguished leaders within the New York City business community to raise funds for scholarship, entrepreneurship and social enterprise,” said Katherine Bahamonde Monasebian, president of HBSCNY. “This fundraising event is designed to inspire other business leaders to contribute to philanthropic and community endeavors by learning from exceptional examples.”
Award Recipients
James Dinan, Founder and CEO, York Capital Management, received HBSCNY’s Business Statesman Award. Dinan founded York Capital Management in September 1991 and is the Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and a Managing Partner of the Firm. Dinan is a Co-Portfolio Manager of the York Multi-Strategy, York Credit Opportunities, York Event-Driven UCITS funds, York Sub-Advised ’40 Act Strategy, and Portfolio Manager of the York Total Return funds and is the Chair of the Firm’s Executive Committee. Dinan is currently the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Museum of the City of New York, and a member of the Board of Directors of the Hospital for Special Surgery, the Board of Directors of the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Harvard Business School’s Board of Dean’s Advisors, the Board of Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania and The Wharton Board of Overseers at the University of Pennsylvania. Dinan received a B.S. in Economics from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.
Daniel A. Biederman, Co-Founder and President, Bryant Park Corporation and 34th Street Partnership and President, Biederman Redevelopment Ventures Corporation, received HBSCNY’s Social Enterprise Award. Biederman is the founder and President of Bryant Park Corporation, 34th Street Partnership, and Biederman Redevelopment Ventures Corporation. He also founded and managed Grand Central Partnership for 15 years, and Chelsea Improvement Company for 7 years. During his career, through these entities, he has turned around or created 12 privately-funded and managed urban parks and seven troubled neighborhoods, cutting thousands of annual crimes, creating 2,500 direct jobs and over $15 billion in real estate value. He won the William E. Simon Lifetime Achievement Award in Social Entrepreneurship from the Manhattan institute in 2007, and has served on the advisory board of Singapore’s Urban Redevelopment Authority. He graduated from Princeton’s Woodrow Wilson school of Public Affairs, magna cum laude, in 1975, and from HBS with distinction in 1977.
Jennifer Carter Fleiss and Jennifer Hyman, Co-Founders, Rent the Runway, received HBSCNY’s Entrepreneurship Award. Jennifer Fleiss is the Co-Founder and Head of Logistics at Rent the Runway, a fashion company with a technology soul that is disrupting the way women get dressed. Fleiss co-founded Rent the Runway in 2009, and has since raised over $186 million in venture capital, growing the business to over 6 million members, 1,100 employees and 450 designer brands. She has been honored with numerous recognitions including: Inc. Magazine’s “30 Under 30”; Fortune Magazine’s “40 Under 40” and “Most Powerful Women Entrepreneurs”; and Fast Company’s “Most Influential Women in Technology.” In 2015, Jennifer launched the Rent the Runway Foundation with Jennifer Hyman to inspire and ignite the next generation of female entrepreneurs. The foundation’s first initiative, in partnership with UBS, is Project Entrepreneur, a venture competition and educational program designed to provide women entrepreneurs nationwide with the tools to build high-growth, high-impact businesses. She received her BA from Yale University, Cum Laude, and her MBA from Harvard Business School. Fleiss is a guest lecturer at Yale, Princeton, Columbia and Harvard Business School, an advisor to several female founded startups, and a member of the Young Entrepreneurs Council.
Jennifer Hyman is the Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Rent the Runway. She co-founded Rent the Runway in 2009 with Jennifer Fleiss. Hyman has been honored with numerous recognitions including: TriBeCa Film Festival’s “Disruptive Innovation Awards”, Fortune Magazine’s “Trailblazers, 11 People Changing Business in 2013,” “Most Powerful Women Entrepreneurs,” and “40 Under 40”; Inc. Magazine’s “30 Under 30”; and Fast Company’s “Most Influential Women in Technology.” She has been a featured speaker at Fortune Brainstorm Tech, the Forbes Women’s Summit, Tech Crunch Disrupt, and Marie Claire’s Power Trip, and has appeared as a guest on NBC’s Today Show, ABC’s Good Morning America, CBS This Morning, and CNN Money, among many others. In 2015, Hyman launched the Rent the Runway Foundation with Jennifer Fleiss to inspire and ignite the next generation of female entrepreneurs. She received her BA from Harvard University and MBA from Harvard Business School. Hyman is a Bloomberg Fellow, a TechStars mentor, and a member of both the Entrepreneurship Board at the Fashion Institute of Technology and the Women in Business Board at Harvard University.
About the Harvard Business School Club of New York (HBSCNY)
HBSCNY’s mission is to be HBS in New York: Engaging Alumni, Impacting Community, Fostering Leadership and Lifelong Learning. Founded in 1920, HBSCNY is a unique powerful platform connecting the leadership and management expertise of Harvard Business School (HBS) and its alumni with the vital, creative and dynamic community of Greater New York City. In doing so, HBSCNY creates continuous learning, networking and mentoring opportunities for its alumni, supports HBS thought leadership in business and social enterprise and rallies HBSCNY membership to contribute to a broad range of community needs and challenges.
www.hbscny.org