Wharton Club of New York Magazine - Summer 2012

NON-PROFIT FOUNDATIONS

CLUB

Letter from the President � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 2Joseph Wharton Dinner - 2012 � � � � � � � � � 3Snapshot - WCNY - 1980 � � � � � � � � � � � � � 18Alumni - In the News! � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 19Membership Benefits � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 22Take the Call! � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 23Calendar - Upcoming Events � � � � � � � � � � 24

Diana Davenport, WG’87 � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 4John Bernstein, C’82, WG’87 � � � � � � � � � � � 6Ed Feulner, WG’64 � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 10Dr� Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, WG’86 � � � � � � 14

SUMMER 2012

MAKING FOUNDATIONS STRONGER

MAKING FOUNDATIONS STRONGER

SUMMER 2012

Letter from the President

Kenneth Beck WG’87Chief Executive Officer, CEO Connection

President, Wharton Club of New YorkT 646.416.6991 | F 646.292.5129

[email protected] | www.ceoconnection.com

IMAGINE the pressure on an Olympic relay racer, to not drop the baton and to not slow down. Three of the Joseph Wharton Award recipients this October 4th, can relate to these pressures and regale listeners with their own

tales of empire passing. Leonard A. Lauder, W’54, Chairman Emeritus of the Estée Lauder Companies, who will receive the 2012 Joseph Wharton Award for Lifetime Achievement, took on the reins from his esteemed mother, Estée, and substantially expanded the business she created. Brian L. Roberts, W’81, Chair-man & CEO, Comcast Corporation, who will receive the 2012 Joseph Wharton Award for Leadership, learned from his entrepreneurial father, Ralph J. Roberts, W’41, Hon’05, the 2009 recipient of the Joseph Wharton Award for Lifetime Achievement. And Ivanka Trump, W’04, Executive Vice President Develop-ment & Acquisitions, The Trump Organization, who will receive the 2012 Joseph Wharton Award for Young Leadership, grew up learning from the one and only, Donald J Trump, W’68.

Rounding out this illustrious group is David B. Nash, WG’86, Dean, Jefferson School of Population Health, who will receive the 2012 Joseph Wharton Award for Social Impact for his systems approach to disease management.

The summer’s issue focuses on significant contributions of our alumni to non-profit foundations far beyond the New York region. Our own Diana Davenport, WG’87, WCNY VP of Volunteer Services, participates in leadership roles at the Commonwealth Fund, and other New York organizations. John Bernstein, C’82, WG’87, President of the Leon Levy Foundation, (and coincidentally Diana’s hus-band), helps to support everything from neural research to botanical gardens. Ed Feulner, WG’64, President of the Heritage Foundation, has consistently grown this influential think tank over a career of 35 years. Dr. Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, WG’86, CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, one of Forbes magazine’s 100 most powerful women, was a pioneer health policy researcher at Wharton, and Sylvan Eisman Professor of Medicine and Health Care Systems professor at Penn.

Our series continues on the history of the Wharton Club of NY, with the recollections of Rick Carmichael, WG’69, club president in 1980. Each of the past WCNY presidents laid the foundation for our success today. However, the success of the WCNY is only a small reflection of the much greater successes of our members.

In a new section, Alumni Notes, we share the recent accomplishments of several alumni from the accounting, consumer goods, fashtech, and pedestrian navigation industries. Let us know about what is happening in your career and we will try to include it in future Notes. Finally please read the TAKE THE CALL postings on the inside back cover and visit (www.whartonny.com/forum.html) for the latest postings, and to post your own! Remember Wharton Alumni help, hire, invest in, and buy from Wharton Alumni; if a fellow alumnus calls …

you know what to do! It is this enlightened self-interest that is the ultimate power of the Wharton community.

The Wharton Alumni Network continues to be your most powerful tool for business, social, career and intellectual growth. Use it! Take the Call!

President Kenneth Beck WG’87

CEO Connection [email protected]

Executive Vice President George Bradt WG’85

PrimeGenesis Executive Onboarding [email protected]

Vice President, Finance

Rosemarie Bonelli WG’99 Chartis Global Surety and EcoPracticeChartis Inc., a subsidiary of American

International Group, Inc. [email protected]

Vice President,

Marketing & Communications Peter Hildick-Smith C’76, WG’81

Codex-Group LLC [email protected]

Vice President, Career Development

Charles S. Forgang, Esq. W’78 Law Offices of Charles S. Forgang

[email protected]

Vice President, Business Development Regina Jaslow W’97

Penn Club of New York [email protected]

Vice President, Volunteer Services

Diana Davenport WG’87 The Commonwealth Fund

[email protected]

Vice President, Programming Jennifer Gregoriou W’78

Jennifer Gregoriou, Management Consulting

[email protected]

Magazine Editor Kent Trabing WG’01

USP Development LLC [email protected]

•Wharton Club of New York 1560 Broadway, Suite #1013

New York, NY 10036 Phone: (212) 463-5559

Fax: (917) 464-5977 Web: www.WhartonNY.com

•

Cover Photo: The Leon Levy Expedition in Askelon, Israel

Executive Committee

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The 2012 Joseph Wharton Dinner

OCTOBER 4, 2012NEW YORK

The 2012 Joseph Wharton Dinner

OCTOBER 4, 2012NEW YORK

Come join James David Power III, WG’59, Jay Fishman, Wharton’74, WG’74, Dr Mehmet Oz, WG’86, M’86, and many other illustrious Wharton alumni to celebrate and honor the 2012 Joseph Wharton Dinner Award winners. Catch up with old Wharton friends

and meet new ones this October 4th at the classic Jumeirah Essex House located at 160 Central Park South, New York City,

Cocktails served at 6PM, Dinner served at 7PM. Evening attire. The Joseph Wharton Awards recognize exceptional leaders within the alumni community in

four distinct categories: Young Leadership, Social Impact, Leadership and Lifetime Achievement. The event began in 1972 and ran through 1990, honoring such individuals as Walter B Wriston, William S Paley, and John C Whitehead. In 2006 the Wharton Club of New York revived the tradition of hosting the premiere business school alumni event in New York, recently honoring James S. Tisch, WG ‘76, Robert S. Kapito, W’79, and Jon M. Huntsman, W’59, H’96

This year it only gets better. The Honorary Chair will be James David Power III, WG’59, Founder, J.D. Power and Associates, succeeding last year’s Chair, William P. Carey, W’53. Mr. Power is a renowned entrepreneur, who with a disruptive idea (see 2011 interview), and a lot of shoe leather, created a legend.

This year’s four honorees:• LEONARD A. LAUDER, W’54, Chairman Emeritus, The Estée Lauder Companies will

receive the 2012 Joseph Wharton Award for Lifetime Achievement.• BRIAN L. ROBERTS, W’81, Chairman & CEO, Comcast Corporation, will receive the

2012 Joseph Wharton Award for Leadership.• DAVID B. NASH, WG’86, Dean, Jefferson School of Population Health will receive the

2012 Joseph Wharton Award for Social Impact.• IVANKA TRUMP, W’04, Executive Vice President Development & Acquisitions, The

Trump Organization will receive the 2012 Joseph Wharton Award for Young Leadership.

The Dinner’s success is due to 60 alumni serving on various JWD Committees. The Steering Committee is led by some of the principal members of the Wharton Club of New York: Kenneth Beck, WG’87, President; Regina Jaslow, W’97, Vice President, Business Development; Arthur Bass, W’73, Awards Chair; and Udayan Chattopadhyay, WG’01, Sponsorship Chair.























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THE Wharton School Alumni directory shows, worldwide, about 270 involved in philanthropic, social, cultural, pastoral, human services, and

foundation work. Roughly 20% of those graduated in the last 10 years. Small though this representation may be, alumni often play key roles in their organizations and communities.

In the following interviews, four influential figures in the world of foundations, share their insights.

Within moments of meeting Diana Davenport, you concede the inevitable. Her reticence draws you in, her sincerity opens you up, her astute but friendly observa-tions have you nodding your head, and suddenly, you’re a volunteer at the Wharton Club of New York! But it’s OK, because she’ll keep looking after you, long after you’ve signed up. Her title at the WCNY, Vice President of Volunteer Services, as is often true of titles, understates her great contributions to WCNY.

Taking the Leadat Foundations:

Diana Davenport, WG’87

Photo (background): Commonwealth Fund’s boardroom — formerly the dining room of the Harkness family.

Taking the Leadat Foundations:

Diana Davenport, WG’87The Commonwealth Fund

4

Diana Davenport, WG’87, is Vice President, Admin-istration, at the Commonwealth Fund, with responsibility for building manage-ment (the operation of the Fund’s landmark headquarters, at One East 75th Street, Harkness House), office management, and HR and benefits administration. Before joining the Fund in July 1998, Ms. Dav-enport was Director of Administration for the New York City Bar Association, and Secretary of the Board and Chair of the Audit Committee for Phi-lanthropy New York, the regional grant makers association. Ms. Davenport is a member of the Awards Selection Committee for the 2012 New York Community Trust-New York Magazine Nonprofit Excellence Awards. She is a Se-nior Human Resourc-es Professional with the Society for Human Resource Manage-ment and holds a B.A. from Mount Holyoke College and an M.B.A. from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.

Diana and her hus-band John Bernstein (also WG’87) live on the Upper West Side and enjoy their time off with daughter Samantha, currently studying at Duke Uni-versity’s engineering program.

Diana D

avenport, WG

’87

What is a foundation?Foundations are not-for-profit entities that can be set up as independent pri-

vate foundations, community foundations or family foundations. They are charged with spending between 5% and 6% of their assets every year to maintain their non-profit status. Foundations operate on a spectrum from purely grant-making organizations to operating foundations (think tanks) and anything in between. Mid-size to larger foundations tend to be professionally staffed with experts in the particular field of philanthropy. I think that foundations bring a long-term per-spective to issues in a world where most interests are very short-term. Foundations provide a very important service to society.

Which foundations do you work with?I work for the Commonwealth Fund. We were created in 1918 by the Hark-

ness family. The Commonwealth Fund has always been involved in improving health. We were involved with school inoculation programs, rural hospitals and training programs for nurses. More recently, we have been very active in research related to improving health systems and access to care in the U.S. and, particu-larly, for society’s most vulnerable, including low-income people, the uninsured, minority Americans, young children and elderly adults. I also serve on the board of

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JOHN Bernstein is a happy man. And why shouldn't he be? He's doing what he loves, and

by all accounts, he does it well. He laughs at my questions and laughs at his answers. He's figured out the funny side of New York, the funny side of the nonprofit world and the funny side of himself. Too few are leavened by their daily work; even fewer are able to leaven others. Perhaps it comes down to making good decisions.

What was it like entering the non-profit sector as a Wharton alum in 1987?

The truth was that it was a little … hard to sell myself for that position. The person who hired me was a little skeptical, because there were not a lot of MBAs entering the not-for-profit sector then. Like, why does he want this? How long does he want to stay? Is he just parking himself here until he finds something better?

My first experience with the non-profit world — was getting a Wharton Washington summer fellowship. They gave me a list of federal agencies to consider. They were all the ones that you would think — Treasury, OMB, Fannie Mae — and then, in the smallest possible print, at the end, was the Smithsonian Museum. I thought, "Hmmm, that seems more interesting than working at Fannie Mae." Serendipity, not prescience. It was a technology/finance internship in the Smithsonian treasurer's office. I got my museum ID and was able to wander around those great halls when the doors were closed. So, after graduating Wharton, I

thought, "Maybe that's something I can do with this fancy degree."

You were very successful in institutional development at the New York Botanical Garden. Now, you give out money?

It is not a typical transition. The logical next step for me would have been to run a major cultural institution, as a managing director, because I'd been a CFO, COO and chief fundraiser. The artistic director — say, of a symphony — works with the conductor, works with the musicians, works with the program, decides where they're going to perform and what they're going to perform ... the managing director does everything else. That's where I thought I was headed.

Coming over to the foundation side has been a wonderful experience. I'm very happy with it. Having a fundraising background makes it easy for me to talk to my counterparts across the table. What surprised me at first was how good a fundraising program we had at the Garden. I'm not taking credit for it. I didn't create it; it's still going on without me. I just knew how to do it right — I was trained well. So, that allows me to help applicants. I can say, "I know that this area of your work is what you thought you wanted to ask us to support, but listening to you, I've learned that you are also trying to raise money for this other area. So, let's talk about this one — that's going to resonate better with our board. And don't send me a 20-page report — I'm a slow reader — send

An Interview with John Bernstein, C’82, WG’87, Presi-dent of the Leon Levy Foundation

Expanding Knowledge through Philanthropy:

John Bernstein, C’82, WG’87

Leon Levy Foundation

Photo (top):“Rendering of the restored Lakefront Esplanade in Prospect Park as originally designed by Frederick Law Olmsted. It will open to the public in Fall 2012, thanks to a grant from the Leon Levy Foundation.” (r.) John Bernstein with Shelby White,Trustee, Gregory Long, President of the NYBG),and Tupper Thomas, President of the Prospect Park Alliance

6 WHARTON CLUB OF NEW YORK | SUMMER 2012 | WWW.WHARTONNY.COM


me a paragraph by email, and I'll help you to develop your proposal." So that comes from my fundraising background, and my empathy for the fundraisers. For others, it allows me to get to the point. "There's just no way we're going to be interested. You've done a good job explaining your organization. None of your components fit our interests." So, I don't waste a lot of their time, either.

Can you talk about trust as it relates to fundraising?

What I learned from my boss Gregory Long, President of the Garden, who is renowned as one of the great fundraisers in the not-for-

profit sector, is it's about relationships, not "the ask." By the time you get to the ask, it has to be a nonissue. As with any relationship, you find points of common ground. In fundraising, those points can be pretty varied. So at the New York Botanical Garden, you've got multiple different things going on: There are people in New York who care deeply about children's education, and here is the New York Botanical Garden providing great services to school kids in the Bronx. Others care only about botanical research on the international level, and of course, the Garden is a major research facility. Then, there are those

John Bernstein, C’82, WG’87, is President and Chief Financial Officer of the Leon Levy Founda-tion.The Leon Levy Founda-tion is a private, not-for-profit foundation created from the Levy estate in 2004. The foundation endeavors to continue the philanthropic legacy of Leon Levy and to build on his vision, encour-aging and supporting excellence in six broad areas: Understanding the Ancient World; Arts and Humanities; Preservation of Nature and Gardens; Brain Research and Sci-ence; Human Rights; and Jewish Culture.Before being appointed the first President of the Leon Levy Foundation in 2004, Mr. Bernstein was Senior Vice President for Institutional Develop-ment at the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx, where he was responsible for a success-ful $300 million capital campaign. Mr. Bernstein previously served as Vice President for Finance at the Garden, overseeing all financial matters, includ-ing earned revenue and the endowment. Mr. Bernstein, who holds a B.A. from the Uni-versity of Pennsylvania and an M.B.A. from its Wharton School, worked for the New York Public Library until 1991. Mr. Bernstein is active in the cultural world of New York City and has served as President of the theater group Ping Chong & Company for many years. He is a Board Member of the Foundation Financial Officers Group (FFOG) and Chair of the research committee. He is also Acting Chairman of the Foundation Finan-cial Managers Group (FFMG).

John Bernstein, C’82, W

G’87


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who just want to go to swell parties. And major givers are looking for competence. They want to be part of a well-run organization. They don't want to be embarrassed.

They don't want to give money and find out that …Someone took a jet somewhere…. It goes without

saying, that excellence of management, efficiency of operation, focus of program — those are the things that have to be there as a base before you can even talk to people about coming on board, being part of the family, developing relationships. The truth is that most of the major cultural and educational institutions in the city are well-run. The errant case of an institution misusing funds is really in the minority. Of course, there's always something, and the press loves it, fine. And those people should be called out, but that's not the way the sector operates. The sector operates with very dedicated individuals; people are not in it for the money. They want to get paid for a good day's work, but they also want to do good. That's why I remained in the nonprofit sector — I really liked the people I was working with. As we all know, you can put up with a lot in your career if you are working with smart and interesting people. I've found most of my colleagues and all of my bosses to be really sharp.

How do you match or, complement people?When your job is to advance relationships, it is

partially about you, but mostly, about the institution. It's not just in your department, but organizationally, you try to make a marriage. The president holds many key relationships. If I'm talking to Ed Bass, or Lewis Cullman, both of whom care passionately about scientific research, they know who I am, but it's not about me. You could ask Lewis Cullman today, "Who is your key relationship at the New York Botanical Garden?" He'd say it was the head of the laboratories.

In some other relationships, you're it. Fine! That's one of the ways I got to know my current boss, Shelby White, who is the Founding Trustee with this foundation. As part of my first role as CFO, I was head of the investment committee managing the Garden's endowment. Shelby was Chair of that investment committee, and a Board Member of the Garden. She and I forged our relationship over picking investment managers and creating triple-tax-exempt bond offerings. That certainly helped me when I moved to institutional development at the Garden and worked with her to raise money for the Garden. Then when I resigned — at the cocktail party, that the board was throwing me for all my years of service — Shelby asked me, "What are you going to do next?" I said, "I don't' know. Talk to people like you, I guess! What's out there for someone with my background?" Shelby mentioned that her late husband, Mr. Levy, had died a year earlier, and she was setting up this foundation. She asked me if I'd like to talk to her about it. So speaking of serendipity! That was my job search for this position!

You simply resigned without knowing your future?I did. I had been at the Garden for 12 years. Most of

my important connections were with the board. The New York philanthropic world is a tight-knit community. Like

any tight-knit community, there was probably no way that I would interview for a director or assistant director position at another major institution, where one of these people wouldn't also be on the board there

What can you say about Leon Levy? I can say quite a bit about him. I've grown to know

him through his legacy. Of course, I work very closely with Shelby and Nina Berg, my executive assistant, who was his executive assistant for 25 years. I lean on her a lot. When you're part of a foundation, everyone is your best friend; everyone laughs at your jokes; everyone was best friends with Leon, and did favors for Leon. So she has been a terrific filter. Someone is on the phone saying he was Leon's best friend, and I'm like, "OK, Nina, what's the story? She'll say, "Wellllllll…."

The foundation has a number of important programs, reflecting those passions that he and Shelby shared together. The study of the ancient world is foremost, then neuroscience, art and culture in New York City, gardens and nature, human rights, and Jewish culture. The purpose of the foundation is to continue Leon and Shelby’s philanthropic legacy. They were very generous during his lifetime, so there was a lot of legacy to follow. Areas like neuroscience were a particular passion of Leon's. So I take a lead role in that. Last summer, we developed a formal program for our neuroscience giving. Then, I interviewed people — some who knew Leon, and some who didn't — to create a program that would be useful for a private foundation to support. Along the way, I asked Nina what she thought and what Leon would think. She's been great, because she was really close to Leon, and cares so much that this part of his interest be carried through the foundation.

You're so meticulous about ensuring that Leon Levy's intent is carried through. Isn't it more the rule that donor intent is not followed?

I understand where that perspective comes from, but again, it's more of a public perception problem than actuality. And it's changing, too. The typical model was to establish these in-perpetuity monoliths where the founders, although occasionally quoted, have long been forgotten and are probably rolling over in their graves. That was sort of an early 20th-century model. What's happening now — the Gates foundation is an example, the Leon Levy Foundation is an example; — is that living donors, or family relatives of living donors, are creating what we call "spend-down" foundations. All assets of the Leon Levy Foundation will be spent by the two living trustees, his widow Shelby and Liz Moynihan, who knew Leon very well, or be spent immediately thereafter. I heard a statistic that no substantial foundation has been created in the past 10 years that is not a spend-down. That is the trend.

What if alumni are interested in working for a not-for-profit or a foundation?

There is a huge not-for-profit sector — cultural, educational, medical, which includes all kinds of positions. There are classic finance jobs, classic marketing jobs, in organizations of all kinds of scale. The foundation world is



smaller. Even in New York, you can list them on one piece of paper. There's a saying, "If you've met one foundation, you've met one foundation." They are all structured differently. It's fairly rare for a half-billion dollar foundation to have five employees. Some have no employees, while the Ford Foundation has hundreds. However, I can say that there are classic C-suite roles, and it is important to have a passion in the area served.

What are you reading now?I just finished a history of Rome, because I'm woefully

ignorant of the ancient world. Even though I'll always depend on Shelby, I am trying not to be completely ignorant. I'm studying Italian, because I love cooking, and I'm reading Dante's "Inferno" in both English and Italian. On the philanthropy side, I'm reading "Give Smart: Philanthropy that Gets Results"

Do philanthropists demand accountability and results from their giving?

That's a hot topic for philanthropy these days. There's a movement called "venture philanthropy," based on a model of well-defined metrics of accomplishment. If the test scores don't change, you failed, so move on to the next one. That's true across the board in philanthropy. Then there are philanthropists who know you can't just focus on the end product, that you need to start upstream a bit. It's

philanthropist-dependent. So Leon Levy's interest in neuroscience was very conceptual. How does what's happening in the brain affect human behavior? What "good" will come of this next year? Hmmm, I don't know — that's not the way the program should be judged, because that's not what it's trying to achieve.

So how do you judge a program at the Leon Levy Foundation?

Valuation is a complicated topic, for philanthropists in general. You may think that, if you give to a good organization, then you have done good. Is that good enough, or can you do better — can you hold yourself and the institution accountable to perform even better? The answer is "Yes." We all know that quantifiable good has come out of basic research. Scientists at Bell Labs didn't know what they were discovering, but radio astronomy and the transistor came out of it. The funding of fundamental research has value — how do you judge that value? So, for our program in neuroscience, we're funding young scholars. They can be far away from doing something magnificent, but we can look at what positions they get after they've done their fellowships, and we can see what articles they publish. There are ways

to determine if we've backed the right horse or if this one was a dud, and look at the process that went into selecting the dud, versus the one who's becoming a star, and shift your process accordingly.

This sounds like venture capitalists focusing on the team as much or more as the idea.

Very much so, and this comes from Leon Levy and Shelby. They definitely believed in finding the best people and backing them. We're never going to really know better whether this scientific pathway is more interesting than another pathway, but if you have the smartest person in that area, and that's whom you're supporting, let him or her make those decisions. Tangible, measureable outcomes are very important in other programs. We're helping to restore a big chunk of Prospect Park to the original Olmsted plan. When they put one of those Wollman rinks there in the 1960s, a large part of the lakefront was destroyed. So the Prospect Park Alliance put together a plan and fundraising strategy to replace the dilapidated ice skating rink, and put back an island, quite beautiful, that was in the lake, and so restore a historical landmark for the people of New York and Brooklyn. It has an opening date. It will be done, and it will look beautiful. We've seen the progress. Bricks and mortar are the easiest things to judge. zxx – Kent Trabing

Mahler score, Courtesy of the New York Philharmonic, now accessible through the New York Philharmonic Digital Archives (http://archives.nyphil.org/) thanks to the Leon Levy Foundation’s archive program.

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http://www.prospectpark.org/about/lakeside?lpid=9892


E D Feulner conserves his strength. You wouldn’t know it, as he embarks on his 36th year leading an influential organization and traveling 150,000 miles a year, to teach and serve his constituencies. His art is not to hold

back energy; just not to squander it. He’s Strunk and White applied to action.Since earning his MBA at Wharton in 1964 and, incidentally, founding the

Wharton Club of Washington, D.C., in 1966, Ed quietly sought to impact the world around him. The late 1960s and early 1970s were not kind to conservative ideals; nevertheless, he held them. Through various political and cultural climates, Ed Feulner has developed his organization, and today, according to a 2012 Uni-versity of Pennsylvania study, it is among the foremost think tanks in the world.

A Deliberate Life: Ed Feulner, WG’64 John

Heritage FoundationAn Interview with Ed Feulner, WG’64,President of the Heritage Foundation

(Photo top) Ed Feulner giving a tour to Lady Thatcher at the Heritage Foundation headquarters


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What is the Heritage Foundation?The Heritage Foundation is a public policy research

organization, or think tank. We’re dedicated to a certain set of principles: individual liberty, free enterprise, a strong na-tional defense and traditional American values. We espouse those in a nonpartisan way, but in a way that’s committed to conservative principles.

When you became the President of Heritage 35 years ago, you had a nine-member staff working out of rented offices. Today, it has 250 employees occupying three

Dr. Edwin J. Feulner, WG’64, has served as the President of the Heri-tage Foundation since 1977. He was a Founding Trustee of Heritage in 1973.

As a result of Dr. Feulner’s vision and leadership, the Heritage Foundation has grown from a nine-person policy shop in rented office space to what the New York Times has called “the beast of [all think tanks], the almost mythical Heritage Foundation … the Parthenon of the conservative me-tropolis.” Dr. Feulner is widely cred-ited with establishing the Heritage Foundation as the most dynamic and far-reaching public policy research organization in the world.

In 1989, President Reagan honored Dr. Feulner by awarding him the Presidential Citizen’s Medal for his work as “a leader of the conservative movement.” He is also the recipient of a 2012 Bradley Prize.

More recently, Dr. Feulner was named one of the “Seven Most Powerful Conservatives in Washington” by Forbes magazine. He has also been featured on Fox News Sunday as a “Power Player of the Week.” The Daily

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in J� Feulner, WG

’64

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buildings close to the Capitol. A lot of foundations have come and gone. How did Heritage grow?

From the beginning, Heritage strove not to be an ivory tower institute, but an action-oriented think tank. We wrote policy papers that, first, were credible, which allowed everyone to agree on the facts and numbers upfront, so that if you tore out the last page that comes to a conclusion, at least everyone was arguing from the same set of facts. That, in itself, would be accomplishing something significant. Second, we produced short studies so that a busy policy-maker would actually read them. Third, they were timely. If the paper comes out too early, nobody pays attention. If it comes out a day late, you’ve missed your target. Back then, that was a new concept. The usual method was to get scholars together to write a 200-page tome, and if a vote came along while you were halfway through the project, no matter — just keep plugging away. Maybe five years from now someone will read it, but chances are that they won’t.

Can you share the structure of the foundation?Sure. One thing that makes us unique is that we work

from a shared agenda. We don’t have people doing their own thing or raising their own project funds. When you sign up for Heritage, you sign up for a shared vision.

We have an independent, self-perpetuating board of trustees. They elect the officers of the corporation. We’re a non-stock D.C. corporation. Besides me, we have a COO, a senior vice president for marketing, and line vice presidents on the research and support sides. We’re not-for-profit, but we’re not for loss either. We try to run as efficiently as a business, which goes back to my Wharton training. To accomplish that, the board has a serious budget committee, a separate audit committee, a development committee to keep the doors open, and recently, an executive organization and structure committee to plan succession issues. So, the board stays active and involved. Internally, we have a weekly management meeting with 35 managers.

What are the opportunities for Wharton alumni at think tanks like Heritage or the Brookings Institution?

Areas of public policy, which are of concern to ev-eryone at Wharton, all intersect with what we do here at Heritage. My major in 1964 was in transportation econom-ics, and within three years of my coming to Washington, the issue of airline deregulation was front and center at Congress. That’s what I wrote my MBA thesis on (back then, theses were required for an MBA). So the overlap is always there. If your major is marketing, our two main divisions are research and production, and the other side is marketing, which includes communications, government relations and outreach to the academic community.

One of the key interests in Wharton is finance. We have a $100 million asset base — primarily, equities that need management. Both our board of trustees and donors care deeply that we maximize the return in a prudent man-ner. We have a $90 million annual budget, 250 employees and 700,000 donors/members around the country, so our needs are multiple.

We partner with knowledgeable people who are

concerned with what exactly the government is doing with 30% to 40% of their income. Say your area of expertise is aviation security — chances are that Heritage or Brookings Institution will be doing a program on that subject, and someone with hands-on experience can contribute more than a government expert. Heritage has programs that enlist key academics and supporters around the country to help us think outside the box on major policy challenges, such as education reform.

Who are the target audiences for the research and writing done by Heritage?

We can look out our window and see the dome of the U.S. Capitol one block away. Our target audience includes senators, congressmen and congresswomen, and key staff aides. Most people don’t know this, but there are 35,000 congressional staffers on Capitol Hill. They pull together data for their bosses on how he or she should vote on a forthcoming bill.

In the longer term, regional policy leaders are a target audience. To reach these influencers beyond our 700,000 members, we have regular columns in 400 newspapers nationwide, and I write a column in the Washington Times, which has a fair distribution inside the Beltway. I wrote an op-ed last week, with my colleague from the American Enterprise Institute, in the Wall Street Journal. Yesterday, we were on the CBS Evening News. So we are trying very hard to get our message out.

Has the Heritage Foundation embraced social media?

Who would have thought that, every Tuesday, Heri-tage would host a blogger’s lunch here, with 30 bloggers? So it’s worthwhile for an Eric Cantor or John Boehner to come over, sit down and talk to them. Five years ago, this wasn’t even on the horizon.

Then, last month, we co-sponsored here, with Google, a half-day seminar on how to open up Cuba to the Inter-net. This is a technological challenge that Google is on the cutting edge of. So, new ideas are something that we look for here, and when someone comes up with one, I like to think that we are open to hearing them.

Where do you get your energy?This is such a neat job — it energizes me! I’m able to

interact with major, even historic, figures. Ten days ago, I sat with Lady Thatcher for 45 minutes — to hear her concerns. She’s a longtime patron, and as sharp as ever. Occasionally, I have breakfast with Eric Cantor or Ben Bernanke to discuss policy. Yesterday, I had lunch with the Swiss ambassador to talk trade policy. And then, people around the country write to me and say, “I don’t like my senator, so I regard you as my representative.” That trust is intimidating, yet invigorating.

President Reagan awarded you the Presidential Citizen’s Medal. What do you remember about him?

I was deeply moved by the award because it honored the two most important things in my professional life — the Heritage Foundation, and the conservative movement. It acknowledged the power of ideas to shape policy in the



cause of freedom everywhere. When President Reagan spoke at a Heritage event, which was often, he was always gracious, humorous and relaxed because he knew he was among friends. He knew that he could rely on Heritage for the right analysis on a tax bill or a defense bill, or how to keep Americans proud while not undercutting or pulling apart the social safety net-work. We were privileged to work closely with a great Ameri-can president who — to name one accomplishment — ended the Cold War without firing a shot.

Does Heritage reach out to constituencies who aren’t considered conservative?

Yes! In every demographic, there are more conservatives than you might think. In all major polls, Americans self-iden-tify as being 40% conservative, 40% indeterminate and 20% liberal. Jack Kemp, for whom I was Chief of Staff in 1996, in his run for the vice presidency, talked about economic oppor-tunity, to make sure that everyone can get to the first step up the ladder. Heritage fights for that through multiple programs. For example, we assert that the intact family not only is better for your own economic condition, but also, as Charles Murray of the American Enterprise Institute and Jennifer Marshall of Heritage write, is the glue that binds those intermediate institutions between government and the individual. We work to conserve and reinforce those first principles that bring us all together, and improve us all.

Ronald Reagan used to say “Trust the people.” In New York City, where some of my children live, up to 48% of your gross income is going to local, state and federal government. Are they incentivizing the midsize businesses to not only em-ploy people, but also let them move up the economic ladder? We publish the annual Index of Economic Freedom with the Wall Street Journal. Countries are scored by hard numbers on 10 indices, such as cronyism, tax levels and increased regula-tion (Hong Kong was No. 1 again, while the U.S. fell to No. 10). These issues affect every American citizen, and they are what we analyze every day.

What are three books that you give to others?Three classics: Russell Kirk’s The Conservative Mind,

written in 1953, introduces key thinkers, such as Edmund Burke and John Adams; key principles, such as that right and wrong exist; and historical examples of the hubris of reformers. Friedrich Hayek’s The Road to Serfdom, written in 1944 (we produced 400,000 copies of this classic), describes the rise of totalitarianism, and is still relevant in describing the problem that any government has in having up-to-date knowledge compared with how a market works, because millions of people are inputting their own perspectives and information into the market. Milton Friedman’s Capitalism and Freedom, published in 1962, is an eloquent, clearly laid out case for free markets and decentralization.

What are your thoughts on the Wharton School?I regularly devour Wharton publications that stretch my

own thinking, and help me look beyond my own conventional wisdom. I’m proud just to have gotten into the institution, and it’s neat to get to go back to listen and learn. zxx

– Kent Trabing

Telegraph in London named Dr. Feul-ner as one of the “100 Most Influential American Conservatives” in 2010, and GQ magazine included him in its list of the “50 Most Powerful People in D.C.” He was included in a 2010 Washingtonian list of the “45 Who Shaped Washington.”

Dr. Feulner has served as the Chair-man of the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, and President of the Mont Pelerin Society and the Philadelphia Society, of which he is a Distinguished Member.

Dr. Feulner has received honorary degrees from 15 colleges and universi-ties. He earned his Ph.D. at the Uni-versity of Edinburgh in Scotland and his MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, pursued further graduate studies at the London School of Economics and Georgetown University, and received his B.S. from Regis University.

He has been married for more than 40 years to Linda Leventhal Feulner. They have two children and three grandchildren.

Dr� Edw

in J� Feulner, WG

’64continued from page 11

Thomas A. Saunders III (right), chairman of The Heritage Foundation, and Heritage President Edwin J. Feulner (left) present the 2012 Index of Economic Freedom to the Hon. Donald Tsang, chief executive, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Jan. 12 in Hong Kong.


http://www.amazon.com/The-Road-Serfdom-Documents-The-Definitive/dp/0226320553

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http://www.phillysoc.org/

http://www.phillysoc.org/


YOU would like Dr. Risa Lavizzo-Mourey to be your doctor. Her voice is

calm. She listens to your words and looks you in the eye. You can see her think before she speaks. She exudes a confidence and kindness that come from the experience of caring for people. For the time being though, the good doctor and her team at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) are engaged in working to cure one very ill, overweight and expensive patient: health care in America.

Some can't see the forest for the trees. Others can. From her parents, she learned that behind one patient were many others. "I grew up in Seattle, in a family that was medically oriented," she explained. "My parents, both physicians, were focused on delivering high-quality health care to an underserved population. I always knew that I wanted to be a doctor, and more." Coming out of Harvard Medical School, after residency, she wanted to address the needs of the many, as well as the individual. Thus,

Dr. Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, WG’86, President and CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

Working to Cure Health Care in America: Dr� Risa Lavizzo-Mourey WG’86 Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

Dr. Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, WG’86. Copyright 2010 Stephen Hudgins. Used with permission from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.



after completing her residency, rather than stay in Boston with her classmates and pursue biomedical research, she moved to Philadelphia with her husband to pursue her medical career and consequently attended the Wharton School. It is not well-known that most of the world's first doctors to receive MBAs in the 1970s and 1980s did so at the University of Pennsylvania under the tutelage of a legendary professor, Dr. Samuel Martin. A champion of innovative careers for students in the health sciences, Dr. Martin established the MBA Program in Health Care Management at Wharton. Dr. Lavizzo-Mourey recalled, "Sam wanted to populate the health care system with clinician-scholars capable of managing the complexities of policy, politics and economics that determine how America finances and delivers health care. Sam trained them to do it with all the diagnostic precision and evidence-based thinking that make economics and medicine such compatible partners. They are called Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholars — and I am forever grateful to have been one of them.

"At Wharton, I combined public policy, clinical geriatrics, my specialty, and business, which has served me well, as the country focuses increasingly on economics and quality in the practice of medicine. Since graduating, I’ve had a lot of wonderful opportunities, such as going to Washington, D.C. and working in the Bush administration and then the Clinton administration. And then here to RWJF, to apply what I learned about the role that philanthropy can play in policy."

As an example of philanthropy supporting policy, Dr. Lavizzo-Mourey points to an innovative RWJF grant that sowed the seeds for the 911 system:

In the early 1970s, cities were still using hearses as ambulances, and the communication between hospitals and emergency workers was sparse. RWJF identified a pioneer, Acadian Ambulance of Lafayette, Louisiana, founded by Richard Zuschlag, for a demonstration grant to improve the communications infrastructure. With a total investment of $65 million, RWJF invested in Acadian and 44 communities in 32 states. "Half the grant funded radios at the local hospital," Zuschlag recalled. "With the rest of the money, we put radios in the ambulances and developed a dispatch center." Over the years, Acadian's investment would include a network of 18 500-foot communications towers across 24,000 square miles of Louisiana bayous, swamps and remote parishes. Zuschlag cites the RWJF grant as the seed that created "the most sophisticated emergency communications system in the world." It was also RWJF's first coalition, including regional and local governments, fire and police departments, hospitals, physicians, and ambulance services.

"Today, we are using that same approach, bringing leaders across sectors to work on one of the most important challenges for health care today — the high and rising costs of health care. Business leaders are enormously influential but often don't have the evidence at their fingertips to know how they can influence policy within their communities to improve the quality of care, and to help people lead healthier lives — and thus reduce the cost of care.

"Everyone agrees that we are paying more than we should for what we get, when we measure it (health care) in terms of infant mortality, life expectancy, medical errors and number

Dr. Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, WG’86, is the President and CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF).

RWJF is the third largest foundation in America and the largest in the field of health care, having granted $9 billion to date.

Under Dr. Lavizzo-Mourey’s leader-ship, the foundation has restructured its strategic investments, focusing on the following areas: • A more effective health care system• The quality and safety of patient care• State and local public health systems• The rise in childhood obesity• Nursing as central to improving

quality• Covering the uninsured• The next generation of health care

leaders• The social determinants of health• Value over volume in health care

Dr. Lavizzo-Mourey was a leader in academic medicine, government service and her medical specialty of geriatrics before joining RWJF in 2001 as Senior Vice President and Director of the Health Care Group. At the University of Pennsylvania, she was the Sylvan Eisman Professor of Medicine and Health Care Systems, and Director of Penn’s Institute on Aging. In Wash-ington, D.C., she was Deputy Admin-istrator of the Agency for Health care Research and Quality in the Depart-ment of Health and Human Services. The author of several books and dozens of articles, she has received numer-ous honors and honorary degrees. Dr. Lavizzo-Mourey is a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences and the Presi-dent’s Council on Fitness, Sports and Nutrition, and serves on several Boards of Directors.

Dr. Lavizzo-Mourey earned a medical degree from Harvard Medical School, and an MBA from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School. She completed her residency in internal medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, and was a Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar at the University of Pennsylvania. She and her husband of more than 30 years have two adult children.

Dr� R

isa Lavizzo-Mourey, W

G’86


http://www.rwjf.org/

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of days in the hospital. We aren't getting the value that we should. When we put that against the background of the deficit, business leaders who need resources to invest in their firms, and mayors who require resources to invest in their schools, then we need to change the value we get for the cost we are paying. The only way that's going to happen is if everyone who has an interest in it works together to deliver better value. At RWJF, we established teams of these sector leaders in 16 geographical regions under our Aligning Forces for Quality program. We are demonstrating that when you bring stakeholders together and agree on the definition of high-quality care, then they can work with individual hospitals to improve the quality and lower costs.

"Two examples of successful cross sector collaboration and business engagement are in Nashville and Seattle. Nashville is a health care business center. The business leaders' round table worked with the public health department to influence the city council to support a simple intervention — increase the number of sidewalks in Nashville. They recognized that, if they made it easier for people to walk, it would accrue benefits to people, the city and businesses. People who walk more have a more normal body weight and less cardiovascular disease, and are more productive. The evidence that people walk more when they have sidewalks has been established in multiple studies. How the built environment looks — whether there are bike lanes, and the degree to which businesses are located along that route, which makes it interesting for people to walk — all that influences how much people walk. You can actually measure the walkability of your city.

"In Seattle, civic and business groups supported Virginia Mason Hospital in working with an insurer of care, Aetna, to redesign the outpatient setting. They were able to remove unnecessary steps so that patients were treated more efficiently, while maintaining quality. Everybody wins. Patients are happy, because it takes less of their time. Employers are happy, because instead of waiting three weeks for the results of a diagnostic test to come back and then wait another two weeks for the results of the next test, employees are back at work sooner and less distracted. The fact that the care took much less time and involved fewer tests means that it costs less as well. But it never would have happened if the business leaders, providers and patients hadn't come together to redesign how these things can get done. Successes like this are promoted through RWJF's website and the County Health Rankings and Roadmaps website, among other places.

Dr. Lavizzo-Mourey isn’t one to become cynical or overwhelmed. She portrays a pragmatic optimism by focusing locally. "The kinds of changes that this country must make to obtain better-quality care — healthier people for less money — are so seemingly complex that most people want to give up. We have to be invested as business leaders, providers and consumers, to work through interventions at a regional level. A quiet revolution is taking place in health care in the only places where it really counts — back home, where all health care is local. You won't see or hear much about it in the news — but, bit by bit, inspired, insightful and brave men and women are fixing what's broken and getting the right care to patients in need. Fortunately, the civic sector is proving that America

doesn't have to wait for all the answers to come down from on high. It's already in the works, just down the street.

"One way we try to make it easier for people to do this is to measure the health of every county and release it once a year. So you can compare in New Jersey how Morris County compares with Somerset County. The reason the county is important is that it's a unit of analysis that is relevant to leaders. If you look at your county's rankings, that ranking is dependent on health factors, environmental factors (such as quality of air, and whether there are sidewalks), health care factors (how many hospitals), and social factors (what percentage of people smoke, and what percentage graduate from high school). When you bring leaders together who have looked at this data, and they see that they can do better, they now have some concrete areas to focus on. Without that clear baseline, then it is daunting. Philanthropy's role is often providing the evidence to people who have the ability to catalyze change.

"RWJF funds and collaborates with the private sector in other ways. One is the Healthy Weight Commitment Foundation, composed of more than 200 food and beverage manufacturers, retailers, restaurants and other organizations that have committed to remove 1.5 trillion calories from the American food supply by 2015 and, in so doing, to make it easier for consumers to maintain a healthy life. RWJF's role, as an independent foundation, is to evaluate the progress toward those 1.5 trillion calories, so that publicly, the companies can validate that they did accomplish these health goals. RWJF also works with various health care organizations, like Ascension Health and Dignity Health, both in quality improvement and coverage expansion."

If enough sanity can be brought to the American health care system, then maybe Dr. Lavizzo-Mourey will have time to see you. If you doubt that will be anytime soon, not to worry — her specialty is geriatrics. zxx

– Kent Trabing

Dr. Risa Lavizzo-Mourey with Warren Buffet


http://www.countyhealthrankings.org/your-stories/browse

http://www.countyhealthrankings.org/your-stories/browse

http://www.ascensionhealth.org/


In recent years, my love of hiking has led me up the Green Mountains, Machu Picchu and Mount Rainier of my Seattle childhood. Now, 30 years out of medical school and 10 years at the RWJF, where I have the best job in the world, and being blessed with a terrific family, I wanted to cel-ebrate, to honor life itself.

Last August, my daughter and I set out for the snows of Kilimanjaro. From the western approach, it was a trek of 42 miles, spread over eight days that dished out the tough-est challenges I’ve ever faced. With the looming mountain breaking the horizon’s edge, we set off across a low, flat plain, rising gradually through sopping rain forests and grassy savannahs to an other-worldly alpine desert leading up to a four-mile-high arctic habitat.

Each day, the air was thinner, the grade sharper, and the fatigue more severe. Finally, in parkas and high-tech hand gear, outclimbing clouds and glaciers and even some of our fellow trekkers, we crested the rocky summit. It was lonely, beautiful, terrifying and spectacular. Exhausted, gasping for breath, we were allotted only 15 minutes to glory in the summit before survival demanded we begin the descent. Several days and 8,000 miles later, back home, I thought of Samia, our amazing guide, and that the checklist he hounded us to follow, applies to RWJF as we celebrate and move beyond our 40th anniversary• Measure each pace — Step. Pause. • Keep progress slow, but steady.• Always onward. Always upward. • Maximize progress. Minimize risk. • Stop/rest, so you don’t have to stop/halt

“People perform better when they feel that their employer cares about them. One way that you can demonstrate that you care about the people you work with, and foster greater trust and loyalty, is to take simple actions that help them promote their health:• Encourage them that it really is OK to take a 15-minute walk in the afternoon.• Lead by example. Hold a walking meeting.• Bring in strawberries instead of donuts.• When you travel with people, build an exercise into the

day. Park in the last parking spot and walk.• Promote transparency in pricing! Encourage people, and

yourself, to ask what health care costs — for example, if they are going to get a diagnostic test. Most people are reluctant and maybe even embarrassed to ask about the costs; therefore, they are not helping to care about their care. Instead, they should think, ‘Geez, I’ve got three places I can go to for an X-ray. One of them costs 15% less than the others. Is there a reason I need to go to a more expensive one?’ Especially on the more discretion-ary procedures, people should use price as a differentia-tor.”

Lessons Learned From Mount Kilimanjaro

What Wharton’s alumni can do on a day-to-day basis to improve America’s health:

Dr. Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, at the top of Kilimanjaro with her daughter.



1980 was a very good year for the Wharton Club of New York. Speaker program breakfasts were popular, often attracting 50 or more participants, and the Club held lobster bakes for families

at Sherwood Island State Park. Rick Carmichael, WG'69, and Club President that year, recalls sourcing the lobsters as one of the Club's more interesting challenges.

"My job was relatively easy! I graduated a year after Bob Bedell, WG'68, who founded the Club in 1972, and benefited from all of his efforts. Bob did a first-class job in setting the direction of the Club. He

aimed high and developed a powerful board. The board members (all 25 of them) were well-connected, and took their roles seriously. For example, the Joseph Wharton Award Dinner in 1980 had 84 sponsors! Board members could and did pick up the phone and call their friends to take a table or two, so there was very little cold calling for us to do. Bob himself was a terrific fundraiser — as I recall, he even worked part-time at the University's development office. I remember Pat Waide, WG'61, of Deloitte, Haskins & Sells, and other board members meeting frequently to plan the dinner, and decide how to approach the award recipient.

"Don Regan, as our honoree in 1980, was a big draw. He had built Merrill Lynch. And our keynote speaker was also a huge draw, the renowned columnist William Safire. I believe that it was the first time we paid an honorarium for a speaker, but we decided it was worth it. There were maybe 800 people attending that year, almost all corporate tables, filling the Waldorf-Astoria's grand ballroom."

Today, Rick runs R.S. Carmichael & Co., a marketing research firm that serves the commercial finance and equipment leasing industries. zxx

WCNY Snapshot— Lobster Bakes and a Big Board

Rick Carmichael, WG’69, as the Club President for 1980

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AICPA Sidney Kess Award

Westchester Wunderkind

THE American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) honored Martin Shenkman, W’77, principal at Martin

Shenkman, P.C., in Paramus, New Jersey, with the 2012 Sidney Kess Award for Excellence in Continuing Education at its Conference on Tax Strategies for the High-Income Individual in Las Vegas, Nevada, on May 1, 2012. The award recognizes individual CPAs who have made outstanding contributions in tax and financial planning, and whose public service exemplifies the CPA profession's values and ethics.

"Through his work with RV 4 The Cause, Marty is a pioneer who has volunteered countless hours traveling the country with his wife to educate CPAs about the importance of estate planning for people with chronic illness," said Kess. "A practitioner's practitioner, he has shown the uncanny ability to help others in the profession understand and apply complex topics. He exemplifies everything that I have strived for in my career."

Shenkman has authored books and articles on personal financial planning, tax law and charitable giving, including Estate Planning After the Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2010: Tools, Tips, and Tactics.zxx

JESSICA Ansehl, WG'10, was named one of 2012 Westchester's Wunderkinds, the "most successful

twenty-something business minds and entrepreneurs in Westchester," by 914INC, a business publication of Westchester magazine.

Currently, Jessica is part of PepsiCo's Global Strategy & Finance Group where she partners with teams worldwide to drive strategic and financial investments across domestic and international markets. Her work focuses on strengthening PepsiCo's beverage portfolio, as well as on investing in innovation platforms and global opportunities for the future.

Jessica says about her work: "Food and beverage products are fundamental to people's health and wellness around the world. I love the fact that I work for an industry leader that can impact this globally, and that I am in a role that targets this from both a financial and strategic perspective.

Passion for what you do is key — coupled with preparation, persistence, hard work, and a strong team of family, friends and colleagues." zxx


http://www.aicpa.org/press/pressreleases/2012/pages/martin-shenkman-wins-sid-kess-award.aspx



http://www.cpa2biz.com/AST/Main/CPA2BIZ_Primary/Tax/Compliance/PRDOVR~PC-091056HS/PC-091056HS.jsp

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http://www.westchestermagazine.com/914-INC/Q2-2012/Westchesters-Wunderkinds-Jessica-Ansehl-Manager-Global-Beverages-Group-at-PepsiCo/

http://www.westchestermagazine.com/914-INC/Q2-2012/Westchesters-Wunderkinds-Jessica-Ansehl-Manager-Global-Beverages-Group-at-PepsiCo/


Stylyt Starts-up!

Crain’s NY Top Entrepreneur 2012

NINA Cherny, WG'11, and Jenny Wu, WG'11, will launch Stylyt this fall, a collaborative commerce platform that enables consumers to play fashion

designer for real brands. Stylyt users can take the fabrics, colors and shapes of a brand's collection, and mix and match them to create their own branded products. The Stylyt community then votes, and the actual brands manufacture the winning designs to be sold exclusively on Stylyt. Sign up on http://stylyt.com and get ahead of the crowd!

Why Stylyt?We noticed that numerous brands were increasing their

social media spend, but struggling to connect these efforts to actual product sales. Being nerds, we did a ton of research and found evidence that involving consumers in the creative process gives consumers a feeling of ownership and makes them more loyal and likely to shop that brand.

Is New York City the nexus of fashion and technology?

Absolutely! NYC is the hub of fashion and technology. Fashion brands and retailers are always looking for new ways to capture loyal consumers and drive sales, and NYC-based entrepreneurs have stepped up to the challenge. Wharton's entrepreneurial ecosystem alone has incubated numerous NYC-based startups in the fashtech space, including our friends Warby Parker, Stylitics and SizeSeeker. zxx

JOE Meyer, WG'97, had already provided clear direction as an executive at eBay and Quigo/AOL

before he was invited to become president and CEO of HopStop, http://hopstop.com in 2009. Hopstop is a pedestrian navigation tool that allows urbanites to get from point A to point B by subway, bus, train, ferry, trolley, and soon by biking! Since then, Joe has navigated the popular New York City-based web service and mobile app to grow 250%, while maintaining profitability. Joe focused on organic growth by entering new cities (currently, over 200 cities) within major metropolitan areas (now, 85), both domestically and abroad (now in five countries). HopStop's focus now is on bringing a transactional element into its multimodal transit-routing experience, which should help the company to attract more users and grow revenue even faster. This kind of focus and success had caught the attention of Crain's New York Business, which recently recognized Joe as one of its Top Entrepreneurs of 2012.

What were the key traits you brought to this startup from your corporate experience?

Being intensely revenue-focused and data-driven, prioritizing profitability, controlling your own enterprise's destiny (i.e., not having to rely on any third party for our growth), and knowing what big projects to focus on that will move the needle (while still managing to get the smaller stuff done that keeps the wheels moving forward). zxx


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Philanthropy New York which is designed to enhance and increase the ability of organizational and individual phi-lanthropists located in the New York region, whose mis-sions focus on New York, the U.S. and around the globe, to serve the public good. It promotes effective, strategic philanthropy through programs, services and resources, as well as informs and advances public policies that support effective philanthropy and a productive nonprofit sector. It also fosters effective communications about the value of philanthropy and the philanthropic sector to the larger community, and develops a diverse and capable group of future philanthropic leaders.

How did you come to work in the foundation world?I have always been the engineer on the Swiss train.

I like to manage people and make things work efficiently and within budget. I worked in retail when I first gradu-ated, then moved into the nonprofit world. But I’ve always done the same kind of work, and I love it. Foundations happen to be wonderful places to work. The people are well-educated and interesting, and the work is very re-warding.

Are foundations hiring?Foundations are hiring. Salaries are not high, and

there are normally no bonuses, but the benefits are excel-lent, and as I said before, the work environment could not be better. How does a Wharton graduate get a job in a founda-tion? Become an expert in a particular field that philanthro-py addresses, join the invest-ment department, or best of all, get rich and start your own!

What has been the role of women in creating, inspiring and managing foundations?

The Commonwealth Fund was started by a woman, Anna Harkness. There are many suc-cessful women active in creating and running foundations. Foundations and nonprofits, in general, have a much higher percentage of women at the top than in the for-profit world.

It seems that all large foundations were created by industrialists or their financiers, such as Wharton, Huntsman, Carnegie, Gates, Rockefeller, Johnson, Pew and Getty. As heavy industry moves to other countries, such as China, has the creation of foundations followed?

Don’t forget the Ford, Hewlett, Packard, Kellogg, Mellon, Kresge, Duke, MacArthur, Moore and Casey Foundations! Foundations in the U.S. are tied to tax law, so I’m not sure whether other countries will create a phil-anthropic world.

The Harkness House is said to be the most intact of the old mansions on Fifth Avenue. What is it like working in, and managing, this landmark building?

The Harkness House was designed by James Gamble

Rogers, and completed in 1908 for Edward and Mary Harkness. This beautiful building reminds us every day of the roots and mission of our foundation. From a very practical perspective, we also have the luxury of avoiding the issues around rental space and the upheaval it causes whenever you are forced to move.

Can you share a recent project that exemplifies the Commonwealth Fund?

A good example of our work is the November 2011 Commonwealth Fund Health Insurance Tracking Survey of Young Adults, an online survey of 1,863 Americans, ages 19 to 29, and their healthcare and health insurance coverage.

The findings of this report supports the Affordable Care Act provision that lets parents keep their children, up to the age of 26, on their family insurance plans. This will add an estimated 6.6 million Americans to the insured ranks in the country.

What is the effect of newer foundations created by high-tech entrepreneurs?

In the past 10 years, a lot of teams from the entre-preneurial or business world have entered the foundation framework. These foundations make small grants with the goal of being incubators of new ideas. They designate their

program officers to be port-folio managers. They analyze the risks, failure and success of grants from the initial consideration to long-term look-backs. There has been a big emphasis on accountability and transparency in the past 10 years.

Is social media having an effect in your domain?

Half our effort goes to generating research, and half goes to communicating the in-formation as widely as possible so that it can have a major and

lasting impact. We have a large communications depart-ment, and we are deeply into social media.

What habits have helped you be successful in your work?

I work exactly the same way as I always have. I do everything that can be done well in advance so that I have time to fit in surprises. And, more importantly, I love working with people and helping them be the best they can be. I find that immensely rewarding.

What should readers know about Volunteer Services or the WCNY?

I would encourage anyone who has an interest to get involved as a volunteer with the Wharton Club of New York. It’s a great group of people. There are many ways to be involved, and there are many areas that we cover. There’s something for everyone, and if it’s not there yet, you can create it. zxx – Kent Trabing

Diana Davenport – continued from page 5

How does a Wharton graduate get a job in a foundation?

Become an expert in a particular field that philanthropy

addresses, join the investment department, or best of all, get

rich and start your own!


http://newyorksocialdiary.com/node/1908190

http://www.commonwealthfund.org/Publications/Other/2004/Aug/Harkness-House.aspx

http://www.commonwealthfund.org/Publications/Other/2004/Aug/Harkness-House.aspx


WHARTON CLUB of NEW YORK

You belong.Your acceptance to the Wharton School was a milestone in your education and your career, and the benefits didn’t stop when you graduated. Because you live in the New York area, you automatically belong to the Wharton Club of New York, giving you access to a family of more than 25,000 alumni in the area.

The Wharton Club of New York organized 120 club events in the last year - business events, career events, social events. Each one is an opportunity to build relationships, and meet other successful Wharton alumni and support the largest, most vibrant Wharton alumni community in the world!

You belong to the club, and the club belongs to you!

We want you to be a bigger part of the Wharton Club of New York. You can become a contributing member for as little as $95 per year, helping yourself while you help the WCNY to better serve you and other alumni.

YES, I want to be a Contributing Member of the Wharton Club of New York, giving me benefits including:

Please go to http://www.whartonny.com/memsub.html or complete and mail to: Wharton Business School Club of New York, 1560 Broadway, Suite# 1011, New York, NY 10036

Questions? Contact Gabriela Sanchez at [email protected]

Name

Address

Town/State/Zip

Phone

Email

Credit Card Number

Expiration Date

� Sustaining Member - $95/year � Silver Supporting Member - $500/year � Gold Sponsor Level - $1,000/year � Benefactor Level - $3,500/year – includes membership in the Penn Club

y More access to your fellow alumni y Eligibility for leadership positions

y 1/2 price on most WCNY events y Special, members-only discounts on special

services, and health insurance.

Please go to http://www�whartonny�com/memsub�html or complete and mail to:Wharton Business School Club of New York, 1560 Broadway, Suite# 1011, New York, NY 10036

Questions? Contact Gabriela Sanchez at [email protected]

22

http://www.whartonny.com/memsub.html

mailto:gsanchez%40whartonny.com?subject=Contact%20Gabriela%20Sanchez

THE Wharton alumni community is one of the most exclusive and powerful networks in the world. One key element of our

success is the willingness of alumni to help other alumni. Take the Call is a simple concept: Wharton alumni should buy from, hire from and help Whar-ton alumni. And if a Wharton alum calls us for any reason, we Take the Call.

The Take the Call Forum allows you to reach the Wharton alumni community directly. Just post your message at www.whartonny.com/forum.html and it will be promoted to the 30,000 alumni in the New York metro area. Find opportunities offered by your fellow Wharton alumni. Help alumni get answers, gain ideas and useful information. Below are some excerpts from the Take the Call Forum.

• Zazma is testing a new short-term inexpensive financing tool for small companies whose customers can’t get enough credit from banks and credit card companies. Please con-tact [email protected] for more information

• Innovest Systems, headquartered in NYC, is looking for a finance executive to support the senior leaders of the busi-ness through the provision of accurate and timely financial information. Also be responsible for providing analytic and negotiating expertise. [email protected]

• Hello, I represent a hospitality group run by three Whar-ton alumni. We currently own and operate hostels in Eu-rope. We are raising capital from individuals, family offices, or funds for a new youth hostel opportunity in NYC with high projected returns. Please contact me for more infor-mation. Andrew. [email protected]

• My first short documentary, “The Lady Who Missed Her Train”, has been selected for the New Filmmakers NY Festival. Attend the screening! The video is only 7 minutes long, but your admission entitles you to stay for the entire evening’s program. The screening is at the NY Anthology Film Archives at their Deren Theater, which is at 32 Sec-ond Ave (and 2nd St.) in Manhattan. It will be the opening film for the festival’s Annual September 11th Program. It starts at 6PM on Wednesday, September 5th. www.aim-highvideos.com. Amy Stern, WG’79

• Can you recommend a person or company that can up-date/redesign an existing ecommerce retail website? SEO optimization, simple and intuitive navigation, appeal-ing graphics & design, social media integration. This is a onetime redesign project with periodic updates. Reason-able cost is important. Please inquire or reply privately to [email protected]

• Lawrence Israeloff, W’86, Esq., CPA, CFP® is pleased to announce the opening of his law and accounting practice

in Melville, Long Island and Manhattan. Lawrence is an experienced solo tax attorney and CPA with over 20 years of professional experience. He is also the Chief Financial Officer of trueEX Group LLC (which offers participants an electronic, post-regulatory, trading environment for swaps and other financial derivatives).

• Zach Younst, C0’6 W’06. Cater2.me is expanding to NYC from SF and we’re looking to bring on new clients. We bring better food into offices and make the process of getting catered meals into the office easier and better. We’d love to feed you and your office. Also, in need of someone to head up our recruiting and HR functions.

• Bridgewater Associates, LP, a global investments manager is looking for Storage and Backup Engineering Manager and a Senior Voice Engineer. [email protected].

• General and limited co-investors sought for CNG-NGV related real-estate venture led by a 20-year CNG consum-er, advocate, researcher (not LNG or LPG). IP involved: NDA and NCA required for details. Richard W. Wallace, WG’79. [email protected]

• I’m seeking to join senior management of a middle market portfolio company. Can anyone refer me to good head-hunters in the space? [email protected]

• stoneandstrand.com is a discovery driven e-commerce platform dedicated to fine jewelry. We are looking for con-nections to the fashion industry specifically with respect to PR and magazine editorials. Please email us ([email protected]) if you can help!

• The Wharton Club of New York magazine, wants to an-nounce professional accomplishments of alumni in the New York, New Jersey, Connecticut region. If you’ve started a company, received a promotion, or been recog-nized, then please send your brief announcement, with your graduation program year, to [email protected]

Take the Call!


http://www.whartonny.com/forum.html

mailto:shai%40zazma.com%20?subject=for%20more%20information

mailto:wthomas%40innovestsystems.com%20?subject=Contact%20Innovest%20Systems

mailto:Andrew%40SunliteHospitality.com?subject=Contact%20Andrew

www.aimhighvideos.com

www.aimhighvideos.com

mailto:memalin%40alumni.upenn.edu?subject=Need%20Help%20with%20website

http://cater2.me/

http://www.bwater.com/

mailto:gina.lepore%40bwater.com?subject=Contact%20Bridgewater%20Associates

mailto:rww1%40verizon.net?subject=Contact%20Richard%20W.%20Wallace

mailto:jryanross%40gmail.com%20?subject=Refer%20me%20to%20good%20headhunters%20please

www.stoneandstrand.com

mailto:nadine%40stoneandstrand.com?subject=Contact%20Nadine

mailto:nadine%40stoneandstrand.com?subject=Contact%20Nadine

http://www.whartonny.com/magazines.html

mailto:editor%40whartonny.com?subject=Contact%20the%20Editor%20of%20WCNY%20Magazine


The Wharton Business School Club of New York 1560 Broadway, Suite #1011New York, NY 10036 • USA

WCNY–CALENDARCheck website for details! Whartonny�com/events�html

WCNY LEADS GROUP Wednesday, September 5, 6:30pmResults oriented group working together to leverage each other’s networks and propel member-businesses to the next level.

SPEAKER SERIES EVENT – An Entrepreneurs Story: Gilt GroupeWednesday, September 12, 6:00pm – 8:00pmAlexandra Wilkis Wilson provides The Wharton Club of New York with her insights as to how she and her co-founders built Gilt Groupe, a billion dollar business in just 4 years.

SPECIAL & SOCIAL EVENTS COMMITTEEThursday, September 13, 8:00pm. A Decadent Evening of Artisanal Champagnes and Exotic Chocolates.

SPECIAL & SOCIAL EVENTS COMMITTEEBring Back the Good Times!Wednesday, September 19, 7:00pm – 9:00pmFor alumni from the 1970s and 1980s to reconnect.

WHARTON ASSOCIATION OF MARKETERS Monday, November 5, 6:30pmLaura Lang, WG’80, CEO of Time Inc. will speak on “Leading the Digital Transition”

http://www.whartonny.com/events.html





http://www.whartonny.com/events.html