Faculty

Ali Agha

Topic Areas: Insurance

Bio: Prior to joining New York Life, Ali worked as a Management Consultant for several years with Arthur D. Little. During his time there, he worked with world class Private Equity firms in developing strategic/financial plans, market reports and profit enhancement plans for their mid-market portfolio companies. His prior experience gives him a unique perspective on personal & business strategies.Prior to being a consultant, Ali tutored children K thru 9th grade in math, reading and spelling. As such, he knows how exciting it is when people learn new things. It is the pleasure of being a positive force in someone’s life that drives Ali to strive for excellence in everything that he does.

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Marc Becker

Topic Areas: Video Marketing

Bio: Mr. Becker has been working in the television and film industry for 20 years. He studied film and television at New York University School of The Arts and has been involved in many productions. He was the Public Relations Photographer for WNET 13. He is credited with titles and special effects for documentaries, dramas and major motion pictures. He is currently involved in creating media and marketing for social networking.

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Andrew Brunett

Topic Areas: Strategic Planning

Bio: Mr. Andrew Burnett has over sixteen years experience in strategic business management, financial advisory services and venture capital.  Andrew currently serves as Managing Partner of MFB Advisors, LLC, Chief Executive Officer of MFB Communications, Inc, and managing director of Cathedral consulting.

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Jerold S. Cohen

Topic Areas: Time Management, Closing the Sale, Customer Service

Bio: Jerold S. Cohen is a certified business performance coach with FocalPoint International in New York City. He works with business owners and ambitious professionals to improve the profitability of their organizations, utilizing principles developed and tested by Brian Tracy.

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Ethan Chazin

Topic Areas: Negotiating, Sales, Human Resources, Business Development

Bio: Mr. Chazin is the founder and President of The Chazin Group. As an executive recruiter and employment professional, he has helped over 9,000 job seekers from all walks of life and experience levels find temporary, contract, and permanent employment opportunities. He is an adjunct professor at New York University and St. John’s University.

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Jonathan Feinsilver

Topic Areas: Business & Real Esate Law

Bio: Jonathan S. Feinsilver, Esq. has been in private practice since 1997, and has been the principal of Jonathan S. Feinsilver, P.C. since 2002. His practice focuses primarily on business law and real estate transactions.  He is a graduate of Brooklyn Law School and Tufts University, and is a member of the New York State Bar Association and the Association of the Bar of the City of New York.

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Byrne Hobart

Class: Developing A Successful Social Media Marketing Strategy

Bio: As a marketing consultant at Blue Fountain Media, Byrne Hobart guides client projects from start to finish—setting goals and benchmarks, designing a content strategy to help bring the company search traffic, creating compelling calls to action and sales copy, and measuring final results.

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Lily Iatridis

Topic Areas: Public Speaking

Bio: Lily Iatridis,Speaker/Trainer/ Mentor, began her trade in the toughest of all public presentation environments by teaching and developing curriculum for early adolescents. With more than a decade of experience, she knows the key elements in effective and engaging presentation, as well as how to support professionals in expressing their message clearly by giving them the“how-to”shortcuts, personalized instruction and even packaging their presentation for them if the need arises.

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Courtney Joseph

Topic Areas: Accounting, QuickBooks

Bio: Courtney Joseph is the founder of Abacus, a Manhattan-based accounting firm.  For more than ten years, Mr. Joseph has partnered with small corporations, family businesses, individuals, not-for-profit entities, and high net worth persons, in all aspects of their financial life.  A graduate of Iona College, Courtney enjoys working closely with clients and also mentoring young persons.  Courtney regularly engages interns from New York City universities and colleges, offering insight andpractical experience toward future career thinking.

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Renita Kalhorn

Topic Areas: The Prospecting Habit: Keep Your Pipeline Full in Five Hours (Or Less)

Bio: Helen Kim is founder of YourMoneyRelationship.com, a company devoted to helping people gain clarity around their relationship to money so they can make conscious financial decisions.Renita Kalhorn helps entrepreneurs and business owners reach the top of their game at work and beyond. Using the techniques she developed as a Juilliard-trained concert pianist with a martial arts black belt and an MBA from INSEAD, clients dramatically increase their mental toughness, productivity and ability to perform under pressure.

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Helen Kim

Topic Areas: Personal and Business Finance

Bio: Helen Kim is founder of YourMoneyRelationship.com, a company devoted to helping people gain clarity around their relationship to money so they can make conscious financial decisions.

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RJ Lennon

Topic Areas: Business Development

Bio: RJ Lennon is a Business Development Coach, who helps sales professionals and business owners get better results in their chosen field.  RJ began his career in banking as a Sales Representative.  Since that time, he has successfully coached numerous individuals to improved results; Created and facilitated several MasterMind groups to  further their personal and professional growth; Founded and presided over a several networking groups; Achieved top 2% out of 11,000+ real estate sales organization.

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Jennifer C. Loftus, SPHR-CA, GPHR, CCP, CBP, GRP

Topic Areas: Human Resources

Bio: Jennifer Loftus is a National Director for Astron Solutions. Her primary areas of expertise are the design, administration, and analysis of customized market surveys, employee opinion surveys, and exit interview systems.  Jennifer also focuses on the development, design, and implementation of base pay compensation systems, primarily as they impact healthcare, non-profit, and small to moderate sized organizations.  Jennifer also has extensive experience in the creation of technology-based solutions to human resource issues.

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Michael Makarius

Class: Creating A Business Plan That Gets Results

Bio: Michael Makarius is an experienced business advisor who specializes in working with small to mid-sized companies and entrepreneurs. Since the early 2000’s, Michael has helped companies develop corporate growth/turnaround strategies, raise capital, and negotiate strategic alliances. Today, Michael runs his own consulting practice, Makarius Consulting, in addition to working with boutique advisory firm Schlossberg:Flynn on several projects. Michael holds a Bachelors Degree in Linguistics from New York University, a Masters Degree in Finance from Zicklin School of Business, and a Juris Doctorate from Brooklyn Law School.

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Anna Pasztor-Becker

Topic Areas: Video Marketing

Bio: Anna holds an MA from the University of Budapest. She has extensive experience in art production and has taught in a variety of settings and several disciplines related with performance. Anna’s students consisted of people from the ages of 3-70 years old over her 20 year pedagogical career. Her interest in non-verbal communication led her to study at the Laban/Bartieneff Institute of Movement Studies of New York, where she earned her Certification of Laban Movement Analysis in 2004, and she completed a post-graduation course of LMA in 2005.

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Ingrid Saxon

Topic Areas: Vocal Training/Public Speaking

Bio: In over 15 years of teaching in NYC Ingrid has helped hundreds of people using the same proprietary method Controlled Relaxation developed by her father, David Sorin-Collyer, which has been used by literally thousands of speakers, singers, actors, dancers, including many celebrities including Michael Bolton, Paul Simon, Liza Minelli, Bette Midler, just to name a few.

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Raphi Salem

Topic Areas: Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Internet Marketing

Bio: Mr. Salem is founder and CEO of Salem Global. Since 1997, Raphi has marketed, consulted on and produced over 300 websites and blogs for companies, corporations and non-profits of all sizes.

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Dr. Udi Schlessinger, Ph.D.

Topic Areas: Affiliate Marketing, Mobile Advertising, Social Media

Bio: Dr. Udi Schlessinger is the founder and managing partner of U Labs, a consulting company based in New Jersey specializing in all aspects of affiliate marketing. As principal of his company, Udi aims to be at the cutting edge of all aspects of internet marketing, which includes but is not limited to Search engine optimization (SEO), Mobile advertising, Social Media/branding, Pay per click (PPC) and Pay per view (PPV).  Click here for more information

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Gabriel Shaoolian

Topic Areas: Online Presence

Bio: Gabriel Shaoolian is the founder and CEO of Blue Fountain Media, a results-driven website design and online marketing company based in Union Square, Manhattan. Shaoolian has grown Blue Fountain Media from a one-man operation to a full-service agency with over 70 employees. Clients range from start-ups to Fortune 500 companies. Shaoolian is an entrepreneur who loves working with hungry, entrepreneurial clients.

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Julian Sturton

Topic Areas: Business Leadership

Bio: Julian coaches executives and entrepreneurs who strive to lead beyond their already successful accomplishments.

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Natalie Sulimani

Topic Areas: Protecting your Online Presence

Bio: Natalie Sulimani is a Partner of Sulimani Law Firm, PC, based in New York City.  She is engaged in a wide variety of intellectual property, technology and general corporate matters with a strong focus on small businesses and entrepreneurs.  She has represented both domestic and international clients in an array of industries, including internet and new media, entertainment, jewelry, consulting and the arts.

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Andrew Wong

Topic Areas: Social Media

Bio: Andrew Ran Wong is the CEO at WebStudio13 (http://webstudio13.com/), a social media web blog where he shares his thoughts and ideas with other social media fans and entrepreneurs. Andrew is also founder of NY Entrepreneurs Business Network (NYEBN http://nyebn.com/). NYEBN is holds quality networking and seminar events consistently. Currently, Andrew is working with a variety of high end NYC venues and experienced social media/tech experts to construct even meaningful and valuable events for NYEBN members to learn and connect.

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Warren Woodberry

Topic Areas: Public Relations

Bio: Warren Woodberry Jr. is President/CEO of Woodberry & Associates, Public Relations. Warren is a former journalist turned publicist with over 15 years of experience in media. As an award winning journalist, Warren from 2000 to 2007 was a New York Daily News Staff Writer where he covered some of the city’s most historic news events.

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