Virtual Fireside Chat w/ Vet-led Businesses

Zahn Innovation Center at CCNY

Hear from a prominent founder in a live virtual session!

Hi CCNY! Have you ever wanted to hear from a prominent founder about their experiences? Now&#x27;s your chance!Join us on Thursday, November 12th from 6:00pm-7:00pm via Zoom for a Founders Fireside Chat with veterans who have started businesses. We&#x27;ll be hearing from Elana Duffy, James Hendon, and Mark Gatanas in a discussion moderated by Zahn alum Danny Tsoi. A 30 minute virtual networking session will follow the discussion.Sign up here, and we&#x27;ll send the Zoom link the morning of to the email you sign up with.For more virtual events from the Zahn Innovation Center at The City College of New York, visit: http://www.zahncenternyc.com/virtual-welcome-center/

About Elana Duffy:After graduation from Cornell University with a BS and MEng in Operations Research Engineering including data science and data structures, Elana Duffy (Lana) worked for a year in civil engineering before enlisting in the Army as an Intelligence Collector, Interrogator, and Counterintelligence investigator. During her 10 years of active service, she was assigned around the world including deployments to both Operations Enduring and Iraqi Freedom. After a roadside bomb and several surgeries, she was ultimately awarded a Purple Heart and medically retired in 2012. She then returned to NYC to build www.pathfinder.vet, a platform using artificial intelligence to assist fellow Veterans and Families reintegrating after service through giving them the ability to share their experiences with local support resources - and providing resources with the analysis they need to continue improving their programs and communities. She subsequently achieved a Masters of Business Administration with a focus in Information Systems and Business Analytics from the Zicklin School at Baruch College (City University of New York), and is conducting research with partner organizations to better understand personality and motivation impacts on behavior through custom integrations of artificial intelligence, deep learning neural networks, and natural language processing algorithms. Her programming and engineering skills are sought after with optimization and efficiency projects throughout New York City, State, and Federal agencies.

About James Hendon:James Hendon is Commissioner of the NYC Department of Veterans’ Services, an agency charged with fostering purpose driven lives for US Military Service Members, past and present, in addition to their caregivers, survivors, and families. Previously, James served as Director of NYU’s Veterans Future Lab, a small business incubator for practicing and aspiring entrepreneurs who hail from the Veteran community. James served in the US Army as an Active Duty Infantry Officer, deploying to Iraq in 2005 and Afghanistan from 2007-2009. Currently a Lieutenant Colonel in the US Army Reserve, James serves in the 75th Innovation Command.

About Colonel Mark GatanasColonel Gatanas was a U.S. Army Infantry officer and Foreign Area specialist in the Middle East. He served from 1960-1986 and retired with the rank of Colonel. Colonel Gatanas held the full range of command, staff, and diplomatic assignments, leading and managing various military organizations of up to 2500 personnel. His 26 years’ service included three combat tours in Vietnam and the Middle East, positions at the Pentagon, Department of State, Assistant and Military Advisor to President Reagan’s Representative for the Middle East (in turn, Ambassadors Phil Habib, “Bud” McFarlane, and Don Rumsfeld) and President Reagan’s Special Negotiator for Middle East Peace. Initially, he was Assistant and Military Advisor to Ambassador Phil Habib and in their 1982/83 missions were instrumental in arranging for the departure of over 23,000 PLO fighters from Lebanon. Colonel Gatanas stayed in the same role with “Bud” McFarlane (then Deputy National Security Advisor) when McFarlane replaced Ambassador Habib. In this role, he assisted in achieving a truce in Lebanon in 1983, after a period of extreme turmoil and civil war, involving many Lebanese factions, the Syrians, Israelis, Hezbollah, PLO, and Druze. Prior to the truce, the situation had become so dire, that for a time, Colonel Gatanas was asked to forgo his negotiating duties and became the advisor to the only viable Lebanese Brigade then fighting in intense combat to keep the Government of Lebanon alive. In the written words of Bud McFarlane, “Colonel Gatanas saved Lebanon from collapse.” When McFarlane was promoted to National Security Advisor, he was replaced by Don Rumsfeld but Colonel Gatanas’s injury in the fighting in Lebanon allowed him to serve only briefly in the same position under Rumsfeld. Colonel Gatanas’s extensive combat experience and decorations include the Silver Star for gallantry in action in Vietnam during which his rifle company in the First Cavalry Division (AM) was surrounded for twenty-four hours by a combined Viet Cong and North Vietnamese Army force of over twelve times its size; the Bronze Star for heroism in combat with 4 Oak Leaf Clusters, the Purple Heart, the Defense Superior Service Medal, and other U.S. and foreign awards. After retiring from the U.S. Army, Colonel Gatanas has been working in Information Technology and Information Systems Management, as senior officer in large corporations (EDS and CACI) with billions of dollars of revenue; and as President and CEO of VizorNet, Inc., Impact Management Armor Systems (IMAS), and Impowerment, LLC. He has also served as director on the boards of several information technology companies.He is a graduate of the City College of NY with a Bachelor of Science and is a graduate of NC State University with a Masters of Public Affairs. His professional education also includes a variety of U.S. Government formal education and training, including: diplomatic; language (Hebrew); Foreign Area Specialist training and Middle East studies and travel. He is a graduate of the U.S. National War College and the Army’s Command and Staff College; and other formal courses and military training. He has published in professional journals and is mentioned in several books.

About Danny Tsoi:Danny Tsoi is a US Marine veteran, social entrepreneur, and to steal a phrase from Bill and Melinda Gates, “an impatient optimist”. He co-founded two startups that received seed funding from winning the Zahn Innovation Center’s Social Impact Prize during the startup competition for 2017 and 2018. With the initial funding, he has been instrumental leading impact initiatives such as dawaCare, a nonprofit providing a mobile health service in Cameroon that served thousands of patients, and FloraMind developing new mental health programs to educate youth in NYC. Previous to startups, he had eight years of experience leading large-scale telecommunication and IT infrastructure projects. Danny Tsoi is a recent alumni of The City College of New York, with a BA majoring in Economics.

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Virtual Fireside Chat w/ Vet-led Businesses

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