Mary has been a crucial volunteer with Alumni Startups for ten years serving in various roles. Currently, she leads the service of matching HBS founders with HBS alumni advisors.This is quite a mammoth task because she is the key person who evaluates the Club’s 50+ advisors, determines their strengths, speaks with founders to understand their specific needs, and then facilitates the matching process. This advisory services program peaks when the Club hosts our annual Demo Day and Pitch Summit. Mary also has been tremendously helpful in evaluating with our developer how to introduce AI technology to enable faster and more accurate matching. She truly “owns” the advisor service for founders and for that, we are tremendously grateful! Congratulations, Mary!

Tom serves as Co-Chair of the Screening Committee and as a Board Member of the Harvard Business School Alumni Angels of Greater New York (HBSAANY). He is also an advisor to several HBSAANY portfolio companies, with a particular focus on healthcare and climate technology startups. Tom is being recognized for his exceptional contributions and lasting impact across every stage of the HBSAANY investment process.

As Co-Chair of the Screening Committee, Tom is a trusted leader known for bringing rigor, sound judgment, and thoughtful perspective to the evaluation process. He is also an engaging and polished emcee for Pitch Nights, elevating the experience for both presenters and members. In addition, Tom has distinguished himself as an outstanding due diligence lead, combining analytical depth with practical insight, and as a highly effective board member whose guidance creates meaningful value for portfolio companies.

Tom is a quintessential New York–based financial services executive, with senior leadership experience spanning major banks, hedge funds, and venture capital firms. In addition to his accomplished career in finance, Tom is a New York Times bestselling author whose nonfiction books have sold more than 1.5 million copies.

Thank you, Tom, for your leadership, versatility, and unwavering commitment to HBSAANY and the broader Harvard Business School alumni community.

Grace has been a Community Partners volunteer for 9 years and Managing Director of the Arts & Culture Committee for 3 years. She also serves in several additional roles, including participation on a task force that redesigned the Community Partners volunteer post-project survey to capture more usable information about the volunteer experience. She led an initiative with Create-in-Place, a NYC agency that helps creative organizations find performance and administrative space. Grace has turned the relationship into a steady stream of project inquiries and assignments, expanding the list of Arts & Culture organizations for HBS alums to serve. She has also championed a task force on artificial intelligence, addressing both how Community Partners can more effectively use AI in its own work, and help our clients realize the benefits of AI.

Grace is always cheerful, engaging and productive–an inspiring and dedicated member of the Community Partners team! Thank you, Grace, for your many contributions and for making such a significant impact on the broader New York nonprofit community.

Bill joined the Club’s “Seniors Group” in 2012 when it was founded by Len Polaner (MBA ’54). They established monthly Brown Bag Lunch discussions and a bi-monthly Book Club. Bill and Herb Kaplan (MBA ’65) took the shared position of co-chairing the Seniors Group. Together they planned an exciting array of activities, such as exclusive curated museum exhibitions, guided park tours, first-look visits to new buildings before they opened to the public, and other behind-the-scenes experiences.

In early 2020, the “Seniors Group” was renamed the “Daytime Programming Committee” attracting a larger alumni base. After Bill became the sole Committee chair in 2023, he planned and coordinated more than a dozen events–from the New York Stock Exchange to the Whitney Museum and The Public Theater. Bill also volunteered in several Community Partners projects and helped establish the Reform Elections Now organization that engages many other HBS alumni.

Bill’s 14 years of dedication to the Club and his creativity in organizing engaging and exclusive events for alumni are much appreciated. Thank you, Bill!

Over a number of years, serving as a Community Partners volunteer, committee lead and Board Co-chair, Charles dedicated himself to improving the performance and effectiveness of a wide range of nonprofit organizations. He Co-Founded Community Partners in 1998 and was recognized as Volunteer of the Year in 2010. His work was characterized by thorough and methodical approaches to developing solutions to challenges. He brought precision and perseverance to the projects he was engaged in. His clients uniformly praised him for his leadership and the usefulness of his recommendations. Charles mentored many of Community Partners’ leaders and served as a role model for many others. His commitment and loyalty to the Club and Community Partners was at the highest level. Charles had a passion for the work that he delivered with respect and kindness. He will be fondly remembered by many clients, colleagues and friends.

Herb was an extraordinary volunteer for the HBS Club of New York for almost a decade. He stepped into the role of co-chair of the Daytime Programming Committee, along with Bill Rosser, and due to the broad appeal of the daytime events, the sector title was changed from the “Seniors Division” to “Daytime Programming”. Over the years, Herb researched topics and provided content for 20 events annually, spearheaded the monthly Brown Bag Lunch events and Book Clubs, and led the committee with grace and humor. He tirelessly sought new connections and created special events that engaged alumni, impacted the community and fostered lifelong learning. Herb is sorely missed by the Club. May his memory be a blessing.

Over a number of years, serving as a Community Partners volunteer, committee lead and Board Co-chair, Cathy Stephenson dedicated herself to the mission of helping clients. She believed in the work. Even more notable was the care that Cathy evidenced for the well-being of the volunteers and her colleagues in management. She appreciated and loved us, and we loved her back. Her greatest impact of all came in the last years. While battling a terminal illness, Cathy always did her work, and did it with a smile. She often remarked, “Work is my medicine.” Not unusual was a day that started with a hospital visit, involved in some client matters in the afternoon, and moved on to a board meeting at night. Cathy’s grace under pressure and cheerful, relentless dedication served, and serves, as a shining light in the lives of all who knew her. Her memory is a blessing.