Panel

2009 Pace Business Plan Competition
Panel

Panelists:

Mumtaz Alvi, Founder, Alvi & Alliance Counselors-at-Law
Somak Chattopadhyay, Vice President, Greenhill SAVP
Michael Gochman, Founder, Gochman Group
Sabrina Horn, Founder, President, and CEO, Horn Group

Moderator:

Bruce Bachenheimer, Clinical Professor of Management, Pace University and Chapter Chair, The MIT Enterprise Forum of New York City


Mumtaz Alvi, Founder, Alvi & Alliance Counselors-at-Law

Mumtaz is a senior partner at the law firm of Alvi & Alliance. He started his firm in 1990. Alvi and Alliance, located in New York City, provides legal services to corporations, associations, governments and individuals from the United States and numerous other countries. Mumtaz represents and counsel clients in national and international transactions, regulatory proceedings, and federal and state litigation. He also serves as outside General Counsel to numerous entities.

Mr. Alvi holds a Master of Laws (LL.M.) from University of Miami School of Law, Miami, Florida. He has authored several research papers including "Piercing the veil of contracts of adhesion in the conflict of laws." He is admitted to practice law before the New York State Courts, the United States District Court for the Eastern and Southern Districts of New York, and the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.

Somak Chattopadhyay, Vice President, Greenhill SAVP

Somak joined Greenhill SAVP's venture capital fund, GSAVP in 2007. Previously, Somak was at Edison Venture Fund, where he sourced and evaluated investments in the tech-enabled services sector and launched the firm's New York office. Prior thereto, he held senior marketing/business development roles at Medtower, a pharmaceutical IT software company and Dealtime, a comparison shopping company that was later acquired by eBay. Somak started his career in investment banking at Broadview International and was previously director of the Software & Information Industry Association. He holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering from MIT and an MBA from Columbia.

Michael Gochman, Founder, Gochman Group

Michael Gochman began his career in commercial real estate in 1984, working 6 1/2 years with the Rockefeller Group as an executive on the leasing team at Rockefeller Center. After working the next 6 years at commercial real estate brokerage firms CB Commercial (now CB Richard Ellis) and The Friedman Group, Mr. Gochman was recommended to Donald J. Trump to oversee the redevelopment of 40 Wall Street (which Mr. Trump had just bought). The 1.2 million square foot, 72-story office tower was 90% vacant at the time. As Vice President for the Trump Organization his responsibilities included oversight of the development team (designers, engineers, contractors, vendors), in addition to the marketing and leasing of the office and retail space. In less than three years, 40 Wall Street was 95% occupied, as major leases were signed with American Express and CNA Insurance, among others. Mr. Trump's vision for the property, together with solid execution by the Project Team turned his initial $1 million (not a typo) into a $300,000,000 asset within three years. Today the property is worth over half a billion dollars.

Mr. Gochman's entrepreneurship began when he was invited to join TechSpace in 1999 as a Managing Principal, now a Gochman Group affiliated company. TechSpace provides turn-key office environments for small technology/creative companies. Upon its opening in 1998 only a handful of class A New York office buildings were able to offer broadband internet access. The company's business model was able to capitalize on the dotcom boom. TechSpace principals raised over $25 million of investment capital to open two facilities in New York City and one each in Boston, Toronto and San Francisco. TechSpace Ventures, a venture capital fund was also established. The Company was sold to a competitor in 2002. After the sale of TechSpace, Mr. Gochman founded Gochman Group Inc.

Gochman Group focuses on value-added investing in a broad range of real estate opportunities. The firm invests equity capital on behalf of high net worth individuals and institutional investors, and will at times align itself as Operating Partner in the acquisition. Some of the companies working with Gochman Group include, but are not limited to, The Carlyle Group, Starwood Capital Group, Hudson Realty Capital, The Blackstone Group, Tri-Artisan Partners, The D.E. Shaw Group, Icahn Enterprises among others. In addition, Gochman Group keeps its brokerage business active through office, retail and investment sales brokerage. The company acts as advisor to parties involved in the structuring of real property joint ventures, asset re-capitalizations and third party development.

Mr. Gochman Holds a BS in Marketing from the University of Vermont and an MBA in International Business from Pace University.

Sabrina Horn, Founder, President, and CEO, Horn Group

Sabrina started Horn Group in 1991 with the vision to build a communications agency that would break new ground in technology markets, employment practices and client service. Today she continues to guide the firm's evergreen mission and values, overseeing operations, business strategy and development, and providing counsel to clients.

Sabrina has served as a Board Member on the Council of PR Firms (www.prfirms.org), Software Industry Information Association (www.SIIA.org), and is frequent speaker at technology and marketing industry conferences around the country. Sabrina has authored several research papers including "Public Relations for Emerging Growth Technology Companies," and "Advertising in the People's Republic of China." Sabrina has received accolades for Best U.S. Employer, www.workingwoman.com, and has been consistently recognized by PR Week, Holmes Report and Inside PR as one of the PR industry's most successful entrepreneurs and innovators. Previously, Sabrina worked at Blanc & Otus and Edelman Public Relations, both in San Francisco. She has a MS in Public Relations from Boston University and a BA in American Studies from Hobart and William Smith Colleges.

Sabrina enjoys cooking, running, and playing with her two daughters.

Bruce Bachenheimer, Clinical Professor of Management, Pace University; and Chapter Chair, The MIT Enterprise Forum of New York City

Bruce is a Clinical Professor of Management, the Director of Entrepreneurship@Lubin, and a Faculty Fellow of the Wilson Center for Social Entrepreneurship at Pace University. He teaches undergraduate and graduate courses, primarily in the areas of entrepreneurship, strategy and business management. He also serves as the Chair of the New York City Chapter of the MIT Enterprise Forum.

Mr. Bachenheimer has spoken on entrepreneurship at numerous conferences, including the Congressional Student Leadership Conference on Global Business and Entrepreneurship, the annual Youth Assembly at the United Nations, and the Make Mine a Million $ Business program, where he also served as a judge. He is a member of LeadAmerica's board of Directors and Advisors and a Students In Free Enterprise Sam Walton Fellow. His earlier career includes having served as an officer in foreign and domestic corporations, as well as the founder of entrepreneurial ventures in the US and overseas. In those positions, he conducted business in over twenty countries.

Mr. Bachenheimer holds a BBA, summa cum laude, from Pace University. He spent a semester at Tsukuba National University in Japan as an undergraduate and received the McKinsey & Company Leadership Scholarship to pursue an MBA degree, which he earned from the Australian Graduate School of Management.