Larry is a serial entrepreneur with a career spanning over 40 years. His journey began in Leeds, England, where he started in retail, working his way up from sales associate to management. From there, he ventured into the recruitment industry, co-founding LinkUp Recruitment Services in 1980. Over the years, Larry expanded the business to 25 offices before selling the recruitment division for $10 million, while retaining the language translation side, which ultimately became thebigword Group—now one of the world's largest language service providers.

 

In 2021, he sold the majority of my shares in thebigword, valued at $100 million, and now focuses on advising entrepreneurs and mentoring at startups at Cornell Tech in New York City.

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His collaboration with Cornell Tech has led to the creation of the Gold with Gould podcast. A show dedicated to providing startup founders and entrepreneurs with sound business advice.

Dr. Fernando Gómez-Baquero is a nanotechnology expert and entrepreneur. He holds a Ph.D. in Nanoscale Science and Engineering, M.S. in Nanoscale Engineering and Economics, and a B.S. in Operations Research Industrial Engineering. As Director of the Runway Startup Postdoc, he manages a portfolio of startup companies with investments from Cornell Tech and the Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute.

 

Dr. Gómez-Baquero has also founded, co-founded, and served as an early technology lead for a variety of hardware and software companies. He currently serves as a lead national instructor for NSF's i-Corps program, where he mentors hyper-technical entrepreneurs building companies in diverse fields.

Bernard Michael is a Co-founder and Partner of AWH Partners, a privately held real estate investment firm that has invested $2.0 billion in hotel real estate since its formation in 2010. He has over 25 years of experience working on sophisticated real estate transactions across all asset classes, having advised some of the world's largest property owners, developers, and lenders.

 

Before joining AWH Partners, Bernard founded and owned his own law firm, Michael, Levitt & Rubenstein, LLC, where he structured and implemented complex financings, partnerships, sales, and acquisitions. Prior to this, he was a partner in the Real Estate Group at Proskauer Rose, LLP, one of the largest law firms in the United States.

Stephanie is an accomplished entrepreneur and executive coach with over 20 years of experience. Specializing in decision-making processes and learning agility, she helps individuals, teams, and organizations unlock their full potential and achieve outstanding results.

 

Before transitioning to coaching, Stephanie led executive search teams for Fortune 500 companies in Paris,her clients include major global firms like Deloitte, Société Générale, and Chanel.