Four New Mentors

06/16/2009: by Adeo Ressi for Summer 2009 Bay Area

The Institute would like to welcome our four newest Mentors in the Summer 2009 Semester. They bring a range of skills to the table, and they add to a strong list of entrepreneurs and visionaries.

• Michael Diamant is CEO of Skip Hop, founded in 2003 by him and his wife, Ellen. As new parents living in New York City, they were surprised by how few products resonated with the urban lifestyle they were used to. Michael, a veteran Internet entrepreneur, saw an opportunity to move into a new type of business, creating products and a brand that spoke to parents just like themselves.
• David S. Kidder is the co-Founder and CEO of Clickable, an online advertising web service based in New York City. Prior to Clickable, Kidder co-founded SmartRay Network, a mobile advertising delivery pioneer acquired by LifeMinders. Kidder is a graduate of the Rochester Institute of Technology, received the ID Magazine's International Design Award and the Ernst and Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year Award in 2008 (Metropolitan, and National Selection). He is the creator and co-author of the two-time NYT’s bestselling book series, The Intellectual Devotional. He lives in Westchester County, New York, with his wife and two sons.
• Aaron Patzer is both the visionary and technical mind behind Mint, the first free, automatic and secure way for online money management. He designed Mint to meet his own needs and those of people like him who value the immediacy of the Web, simplicity and their free time. With 10 patents filed or pending, Aaron brings strong innovation skills to Mint. Prior to founding Mint, Aaron was an architect and technical lead for the San Jose division of Nascentric. Before Nascentric, Aaron worked for IBM and founded two web development and online marketing companies: PWeb and International. Aaron holds an MSEE from Princeton University and a BS in computer science, computer engineering, and electrical engineering from Duke University.
• J. Barry Thompson is the CEO of Tervela. He has spliced bleeding-edge technology for the past ten years with turnaround/change management and investment strategies to make some of the largest firms in the financial services industry run faster. In July 2002, Mr. Thompson left the banking world to incubate startup projects, two of which came to market in 2003. Prior to his current projects, he was head of North American Architecture for UBS Warburg, a post he took over in 2000 when UBS acquired PaineWebber. Mr. Thompson determined technology directions for business units, sought out new partners with expertise in emergent technologies, and, through UBS Capital, sourced deals and served as a board advisor for portfolio companies.