Third Thursday: Social Entrepreneurship
Hosted by Columbia Engineering, in partnership with the Tamer Center for Social Enterprise
Thursday, March 28, 2019
at Columbia Journalism School, World Room
from 6:00-8:00 p.m.
Refreshments and hors d'oeuvres with RSVP
Third Thursday is a recurring open forum that brings together the Columbia University entrepreneurship community for an evening of networking, info session, and pitch presentations. It provides students, faculty, staff, and alumni the opportunity to hear ideas from across campus, form teams, and explore career options. You'll hear from Columbia alumni and other experts on their experiences working in the field, how they’ve applied their Columbia experience in their careers, and more.
Thursday, March 28 will feature entrepreneurs who are using their engineering skills to solve some of today's most pressing social and environmental issues. Please save the date to hear from alumni who currently run social ventures in this space, pitch an idea during the open mic section of the event, and meet and network with fellow social entrepreneurs. This event is open to all Columbia University alumni, faculty, and students, as well as professionals in the social impact sector.
About the Speakers:
Linh Le ’09SEAS, Founder and CEO of Bonbouton
Linh Le is a chemical engineer by training, he has published multiple papers, international conference proceedings and currently holds seven US patents. He later found Bonbouton, a technology platform for preventative diabetic healthcare. Prior to that, he received his MS in Chemical Engineering from Columbia University and BS in Chemistry from Vietnam National University. As a vivid distance runner, he recently acquired ultra-marathoner title, and plans to run all the World Marathon Majors.
Liz Luckett ’90CC, Managing Partner of TSEF
Elizabeth (Liz) Luckett has an extensive background in philanthropy, technology, analysis and market research. Before joining TSEF, Liz was Director of Impact Investing at the Pershing Square Foundation. Prior she served as Senior Vice President at Citigroup and co-founded and was Executive Vice President of Fulcrum Analytics (formerly, Cyber Dialogue). Liz began her career with the Gartner Group as director of business planning, where she worked with the CEO and executive team analyzing and implementing acquisitions, joint ventures and strategic partnerships for the company.
Liz is a board member at Aunt Bertha and First Access and a board observer at CloudFactory, ConnXus and Frogtek. She is also a founding board member of The Bail Project and a member of the Advisory Committee on Socially Responsible Investing at Columbia University.
Liz has a B.A. from Columbia University and a Master of Philosophy from Cambridge University in England.
Matthew Robins ’13BUS, CEO of DeansList
Matt Robins is the CEO of DeansList, a software platform that helps schools manage all their non-academic data and parent communication/engagement tools in a single place. Matt started DeansList with BUS’13 classmate Akshai Patel with a mission to specifically address the needs of schools in low-income communities that are actively tackling the achievement gap. Together with their school partners, they develop unique solutions to engage every stakeholder in a child’s education: students, teachers, administrators and parents.
Prior to DeansList, Matt spent six years as a consultant with PwC’s Forensic Technology Advisory groups. There a large portion of his client work included helping banks and lenders assess their data in the wake of the sub-prime mortgage crisis.
Matt has a degree in Information Systems from Carnegie Mellon University and an MBA from Columbia Business School.
MODERATED BY:
Samuel Sia, Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Faculty Co-Director, SEAS Entrepreneurship at Columbia Engineering
Samuel Sia develops technologies for point-of-care blood tests, wearable sensors, implantable devices, and cell-based therapy, both in an academic and industry setting. He is co-founder of Claros Diagnostics, which garnered European regulatory approval for a prostate-cancer blood test for doctor’s offices and was acquired by OPKO Health (NYSE: OPK), Junco Labs, and Rover Diagnostics.
Sia’s research has garnered coverage from Nature, Science, JAMA, Washington Post, Science News, Popular Science, Chemical and Engineering News and has been featured on the BBC, NPR, and Voice of America. MIT Technology Review named him as one of the top’s world young innovators, and he is an inducted fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering.
Sia is the founder of Harlem Biospace, a biotech incubator facility in New York City (developed with the NYC mayor’s office) that has hosted over 50 biotech companies. He also currently co-directs the entrepreneurship initiative for Columbia University’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.
Sia has a B.Sc. in Biochemistry from the University of Alberta and a Ph.D. in Biophysics (with a HHMI predoctoral fellowship) from Harvard University. He completed a postdoctoral fellowship in chemistry and chemical biology at Harvard University.