Meet the Executives

Al Drewes '82 brings over 35 years of executive experience with both global public and private equity portfolio companies in the consumer products space. Most recently he was the Chief Operating Officer of the Sun Products Corporation. Sun was a portfolio company owned by the private equity sponsor, Vestar Capital Partners.

Juan Ramón Alaix is the former Chief Executive Officer of Zoetis. During his seven-year tenure as CEO, Zoetis became the global leader in animal health, with $5.8 billion in revenue in 2018, a market capitalization of nearly $60 billion, and several groundbreaking new medicines ranked among the top products in the animal health industry. Mr. Alaix remains a member of the Zoetis Board of Directors and serves as an advisor to the company. 

Gary B. Appel ’77 has spent over 40 years in the financial services industry. Currently, he serves on the Advisory Board of the Private Equity Program at Columbia Business School. He serves as a Senior Advisor to Investcorp International Inc., a global alternative asset manager, which he joined in 2013 as Vice Chairman of their North American Private Equity business. He also currently serves as a Senior Advisor to Wendel Luxembourg S.A., a publicly listed investment company.

Barbara Byrne is former Vice Chairman of Investment Banking at Barclays PLC and at Lehman Brothers, the first woman to be named Vice Chairman at either firm. Barbara started her investment banking career in Lehman Brothers’ Energy Group, following four years at Mobil Corporation and expanded her client base to advising companies from diverse industries in rapidly changing market and technology environments.

Alessandro Carlucci has spent 25 years in the cosmetics industry. He currently serves on the Advisory Board of CBS’ Deming Center/ECLA Advisory Board. He worked for Natura Cosmetics for 25 years, the last 10 as its CEO. In the early 90s Alessandro assumed executive positions in Relationship Marketing shortly before assuming the role of Product Marketing Manager, becoming the leader for Hair and Perfume categories. In 1996, he became the Commercial Director for Brazil, leading the sales area with 500 employees and 350.000 independent resellers.

Niren Chaudhary is the Chairman of the Board of Panera Brands, one of the world’s largest fast casual restaurant companies with nearly 4,000 locations in 10 countries. Panera Brands is comprised of Panera Bread, Caribou Coffee and Einstein Bros Bagels.

Sharda is a board member and senior C-suite executive with over 35 years of governance and professional services experience. Known as one of the hardest working collaborators and connectors, Sharda has a compelling executive track record of achieving significant market growth by pioneering and building billion-dollar businesses, leading go-to-market strategy and executing successful business transformations.

Toos N. Daruvala is co-CEO of MIO Partners, the in house asset management arm of McKinsey & Company. He joined McKinsey in 1983; he was elected a Director (Senior Partner) in 1995; and he retired from the Firm in 2015. Toos has counseled CEOs and senior executives at a range of financial institutions and information/transaction services players on strategy and operational matters.

Robert Essner is the retired chairman and CEO of Wyeth, which was one of the world's leading research-based pharmaceutical companies. He led the transformation of Wyeth into a science-based industry leader with strong positions in drugs, biotechnology, vaccines, nonprescription products and animal health. During his more than 30 years in the industry, Mr. Essner served as chairman of both U.S. and global pharmaceutical organizations.

Neale S. Godfrey is is an acknowledged expert on family and children’s finances who has been in the financial field for more than 30 years. Neale became one of the first female executives at The Chase Manhattan Bank. Later, she became the President of The First Women’s Bank and founder of The First Children’s Bank. In 1989, Neale formed her own company, Children’s Financial Network, Inc., whose mission is to educate children and their parents about money.

Jesse J. Greene, Jr. retired from IBM as VP Financial Management and Chief Financial Risk Officer in 2010. There he was responsible for the identification, assessment and monitoring of financial risks of the corporation, and the company's Enterprise Risk Management program. Mr. Greene began his career at IBM in 1971, and has held a broad range of positions in IBM as an engineer, tax attorney, and financial executive. In 1994, Mr. Greene left IBM to join Eastman Kodak as Treasurer, VP Finance, acting CFO and Senior VP, Strategy and Information Technology.

M. Leanne Lachman is president of Lachman Associates, an independent real estate consulting company. Previously, Ms. Lachman spent 13 years as a partner at Schroder Real Estate Associates, a boutique real estate manager that was acquired by Lend Lease, a global institutional investment manager, where she spent four years. Her early career was with Real Estate Research Corporation, where she served as chief executive officer. A highly sought after speaker and widely published author of books and articles on the real estate industry, Ms.

Terry J. Lundgren served for 14 years as CEO of Macy’s, Inc., operator of Macy’s, Bloomingdale’s, Bluemercury and one of the largest retail ecommerce businesses in America.  He retired from Macy’s, Inc. in January 2018 after serving for 10 months as the company’s Executive Chairman. Prior to becoming CEO of the company in February 2003 and Chairman and CEO in January 2004, Lundgren had been President and Chief Merchandising Officer since May 1997. (The company’s name changed to Macy’s, Inc. from Federated Department Stores, Inc.

Douglas L. Maine is a Senior Advisor to Brown Brothers Harriman & Co, a 200-year-old, privately held, Wall Street financial services firm. Maine is the Lead Director for public company Acreage Holdings (Cannabis). Maine is also a Director of five private companies: Olympusat (Cable Content and Distribution), Veea (Edge Computing), UPL (Natural Gas Distributor), Chime Solutions (BPO)  and GlobeIn (On-line marketplace). He has previously served on the Board of four public and seven private companies which were all acquired by strategic or financial investors.

Surya N. Mohapatra, Ph.D. is former Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Quest Diagnostics Incorporated, the world's leading provider of diagnostic testing, information and services. Dr. Mohapatra is among a select group of India-born Fortune 500 Chief Executives and has held senior leadership positions in the health care industry for more than 30 years. He has been a strong advocate of patient empowerment and accountability to improve healthcare and reduce costs. Dr. Mohapatra joined Quest Diagnostics in February, 1999 as SVP and COO.

Joyce Roché is the author of The Empress Has No Clothes…Conquering Self-Doubt to Embrace Success and was President and CEO of Girls Inc., a national nonprofit research, education and advocacy organization, until her retirement in 2010.

Scott E. Shapiro '99 is the Managing Director of Eagle Rock Ventures LLC and President of ERV Realty Inc. Before returning to his home state of Washington from New York, Scott was with Related Urban Development (formerly The Palladium Company) and Related Lodging Group, real estate development affiliates of The Related Companies, L.P. Prior to that, Scott co-founded Cityfeet, a leading online commercial real estate network that was sold to LoopNet.

Len Sherman brings over thirty years of business experience and academic research on growth strategy, innovation and entrepreneurship to Columbia Business School. At CBS, Professor Sherman teaches “Strategy for Long-Term Growth” and "Entrepreneurship in Large Enterprises to MBA and EMBA students, earning the Dean’s Award for Teaching Excellence in 2013.

Peter Tollman is Senior Partner Emeritus at Boston Consulting Group. He's also Senior Advisor to the firm and, previously, was Managing Director and Senior Partner in the firm's Boston office. He led BCG's CEO Advisory Practice globally, served as global leader of BCG’s Biopharmaceutical Practice, and led its People and Organization Practice in the Americas.  He was also a BCG Fellow, a prestigious thought-leadership post.

Mark A. Zurack teaches Capital Markets and Investments, Equity Derivatives and Equity Markets and Products at Columbia Business School. Mark is currently on the Board of Directors of the Binghamton University Foundation and also serves on the Boards of the Alzheimer's Association, Teach For America, Upper West Success Academy, ETC, Southampton Bath and Tennis and the Columbia Business School Social Enterprise Program. Prior to coming to Columbia, Professor Zurack worked at Goldman Sachs for 18 years. He joined GS in 1983 and started the equity derivatives research group.