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Cynthia oversees the development, execution, and growth of all Berkley Center initiatives. She also teaches Getting to Launch: The Startup Lab (MULT-UB 0301), a popular undergraduate course, and is capstone director for the Executive MBA DC program. In addition, Cynthia is the instructor for the nationally acclaimed Strategic Steps for Growth, a capacity-building program targeting growth-focused women and minority business owners. She has 16 years of experience starting, growing, and advising new ventures. Cynthia holds an MBA from Stern and BBA in quantitative management, magna cum laude, from Baruch College. She chairs the NYU Federal Credit Union’s board of directors and serves on the board of Interise, a social impact organization that revitalizes economies in underserved communities by providing small business owners with entrepreneurial education and access to new networks and markets.
ONE THING YOU CAN’T LIVE WITHOUT
Audible audiobooks, I have 240 titles in my library
GUILTY PLEASURE
Watching the TV show Dallas for the first time, all 14 seasons are on Amazon Prime
SECRET SKILL
I’m a much better cook than I let on.
Professor Hardart oversees the Berkley Center for Entrepreneurship’s strategic direction. He is also the director of the entertainment, media & technology program at NYU’s Stern School of Business and was the founding director of the Graduate Program in Media Management at The New School. He was previously an executive at Universal and Warner Brothers.
Shay develops and manages the marketing and communications efforts for the Berkley Center’s initiatives. She also assists with operational support for various programming and events. Shay is an alumna of Ithaca College where she earned a BS in sports media, and NYU where she earned an MS in public relations and corporate communications from the School of Professional Studies.
ONE THING YOU CAN’T LIVE WITHOUT
Hot sauce (I even keep some at my desk just in case!)
GUILTY PLEASURE
Any kind of dessert or sweet treat, but especially Sour Patch Watermelons
SECRET SKILL
I’m an incredibly fast reader, I can usually finish a 500 page book in about a day or so if I’m really into it
Steph Shyu is the Associate Director of programming at NYU Stern’s Berkley Center for Entrepreneurship. Steph focuses on delivering 1:1 startup advising and designing best-in-class programming for early stage founders and teams at NYU. She also oversees the Stern Venture Fellowships, the Center’s summer startup accelerator.
Prior to joining NYU, Steph founded a YCombinator and venture-backed education tech company. She currently evaluates startup companies as a Venture Partner with Pioneer Fund and leads founder leadership workshops.
Steph holds a B.A. from Duke University, a J.D. and Wharton certificate in Business Economics from the University of Pennsylvania, and an LL.M. in Financial Law from the University of Hong Kong.
Paul Foster is the Assistant Director of Marketing and Communications at the Berkley Center. Paul manages all outreach and media channels for the Center and also serves as a startup advisor on the Social Media Marketing Helpdesk. He works to tell the story of the Berkley Center.
Prior to joining NYU, Paul worked in marketing and communications at Habitat for Humanity NYC and Westchester County, as well as the University of New England.
Paul holds a B.S. in Business Administration from Northeastern University where he also minored in Cinema Studies.
Patricia provides the team with administrative, program coordination, and event logistics support. She is a graduate of LaGuardia Community College of the City University of New York.
ONE THING YOU CAN’T LIVE WITHOUT
Sweets!
GUILTY PLEASURE
Watching Hallmark movies
SECRET SKILL
I’m a certified nurse technician
Gino Cattani
Gino Cattani joined New York University’s Stern School of Business as an Assistant Professor of Management and Organization in September 2004. Professor Cattani’s research is primarily focused on technological innovation and competition, interfirm mobility, creativity, and social networks.
Professor Cattani completed his undergraduate studies at the Faculty of Economics in Pisa where he received a BA in Accountancy & Business in 1991. After qualifying as an accountant in 1992, and spending the 1995-1996 academic year as a Visiting Fellow Student at the MIT-Sloan School of Management in Boston, he received a Dottorato di Ricerca in Business Administration from the Faculty of Economics in Pisa in 1997.
Professor Cattani received an M.A. in Management Science and Applied Economics from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania in 2001 and a Ph.D. in Management from Wharton in August 2004.
Research areas:
Technological Innovation and Competition, Creativity, Inter-firm Mobility, Social Networks
Courses taught:
Strategy, Strategy II
Sabrina Howell
Sabrina Howell is an Assistant Professor of Finance at the New York University Stern School of Business. She is also a Faculty Research Fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research.
Professor Howell’s research focuses on entrepreneurial finance, innovation, fintech, energy, and China. She is the recipient of the 2015 AQR Top Finance Graduate Award at Copenhagen Business School and the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship.
Professor Howell received her B.A. in Economics and East Asian Studies from Yale University and her Ph.D. in Political Economy and Government, Economics track from Harvard University. She previously worked as an energy consultant for Charles River Associates in Houston, and on energy security policy for Securing America’s Future Energy (SAFE) in Washington D.C.
Research areas:
Accelerators, Fintech, Entrepreneurship, Innovation
Courses taught:
Applications in Entrepreneurial Finance: Fintech, Topics in Entrepreneurial Finance
Ilan Lobel
Ilan Lobel is an Associate Professor of Technology, Operations and Statistics and the Robert L. & Dale Atkins Rosen Faculty Fellow at New York University’s Stern School of Business.
His research focuses on issues related to operations and new technologies, including issues such as pricing, learning and contract design in dynamic and networked markets. His work has been recognized by the 2018MSOM Young Scholar Prize and the 2014 INFORMS Revenue Management and Pricing Section Prize. He currently serves as an associate editor for Management Science and Operations Research and as a senior editor for Production and Operations Management.
Professor Lobel has taught classes on decision modeling and analytics in a variety of different programs at Stern, including the undergraduate, full-time and part-time MBA, MSBA and EMBA programs. His teaching has been recognized by the 2018 Stern Distinguished Teaching Award, and by the 2017 Poets & Quants Top 40 MBA Professors Under 40 list.
He received his Ph.D. in Operations Research from MIT in 2009. Before joining NYU Stern, he was a post-doctoral researcher at the Microsoft Research New England Lab.
Research areas:
Pricing and Revenue Management, Entrepreneurship, Online Markets, Social Networks
Courses taught:
Decision Models & Analytics
