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Judith C. Giordan has held executive and leadership positions in R&D and operations spanning a 30 year career. Currently, Judy is Director of VentureWell (http://www.venturewell.org/) a venture development and funder; Managing Director of Steel City Re, LLC, an intangible asset services firm; Senior Advisor to the National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance; a member of the Board of Directors of start-up companies, and Professor of Practice in the College of Science and Technology of the University of Southern Mississippi – from which she has completed a detail to the National Science Foundation as Program Director for the IGERT Program.

Previous executive positions include Vice President and Global Corporate Director of Research and Development at International Flavors and Fragrances, Inc.; Vice-President Worldwide Research and Development for the Pepsi-Cola Company, the global beverage arm of PepsiCo, Inc.; Vice President Research and Development, Henkel Corporation, the North American operating unit of the Henkel Group, and co-founder and managing partner of 1EXECStreet a successful San Francisco based boutique executive search firm. She has also held management and technical contributor positions at Polaroid and ALCOA.

Judy received her Bachelor’s degree from Rutgers University, her Ph.D. from the University of Maryland (Chemistry), and was an Alexander von Humboldt Post Doctoral Research Fellow at the University of Frankfurt in Germany.

In addition to her business and university responsibilities, Judy is active in academic, professional and industrial organizations. Current and previous positions include: Member of the Board of Directors of the American Chemical Society, the Industrial Research Institute, and the Educational Foundation of the Commercial Development and Marketing Association; Member of the Conference Board Advisory Board for Technology Conferences; Member of the Board on Chemical Sciences and Technology of the National Research Council; Member of the Math and Physical Sciences Advisory Board and Member and Chair of the Waterman Award Committee of the National Science Foundation; Chair of the Education and Outreach Committee of the Intangible Asset Finance Society.

Judy has held Visiting and Adjunct professorships at North Carolina State University, Rutgers University and Dartmouth College and has served as a Member of the Board of Advisors of the University of Maryland College Of Life Sciences and the Institute for Strategic Business Markets at Penn State’s Smeal Business School. Her research interests and grants focus on two main areas: mechanisms to support and foster women and diversity in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) and in facilitating STEM intensive entrepreneurship, business and economic development. She is and has been a lead investigator on several National Science Foundation grants in these areas.

Judy is the author of over 200 articles, presentations, and seminars in the areas of entrepreneurship, career development and leadership, intellectual property monetization, market and operational strategy development and implementation, diversity, polymer chemistry, flavor and fragrance technology, and electron spectroscopy. She contributes articles and editorials to magazines and journals including Research and Technology Management, Intangible Asset Magazine, Chemical Specialties and numerous international technical journals and web sites. In addition, aspects of Judy’s work and activities have been featured in publications including Working Woman, Chemical Week, Chemical Specialties, and Chemical and Engineering News. She has also been included in numerous internationally and nationally based Who’s Who Publications, as well as books, studies and articles on topics including women and diversity, technology and career development and has been named the 2010 Francis Garvin- John Olin medalist of the American Chemical Society.

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Joseph Steig is a financial and strategy advisor to business and non-profit entrepreneurs.

Joseph directs VentureWell, a new initiative that helps seed stage ventures emerge from the university environment and secure equity investment. VentureWell focuses on ventures that address issues of human health and the environment. He also serves as Venture Development Manager at the National Collegiate Inventors & Innovators Alliance, the parent organization of VentureWell. NCIIA is a non-profit that provides grant funding and support to collegiate entrepreneurship at colleges and universities across the United States.

Joseph is also CFO of Long River Ventures, a seed and early stage New England-based venture fund.

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