Michael Ruderman

Garrett Hall

JD Schramm

JD Schramm was appointed to the faculty of the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University in 2007 where he teaches a variety of communication courses and created the Mastery in Communication Initiative, an entirely new program in communication as part of the GSB’s curriculum re-design. He’s also actively involved in coaching numerous entrepreneurs on their pitches to potential investors or partners.

Schramm earned his MBA from NYU’s Stern School of business in 2002 and was immediately appointed to the faculty. During his five years there he rose from adjunct to assistant to associate professor teaching courses in strategy, persuasion, organizational communication, and teamwork.

He’s currently pursuing his doctorate of education (Ed.D.) through the University of Pennsylvania’s graduate school of education focusing his research on innovation in MBA programs.

He has been an active player in each OUBC since 2005 often leading the networking session. He also serves as faculty advisor to Reaching Out MBA. Since its inception he has served as faculty advisor for the Case Competition at Reaching Out. In 2006 he helped expand this program to also include a case writing competition.

In 2007 he was awarded the Bob Butler Award for Queer Advocacy by NYU’s office of LGBT Student Services. He and his husband, Ken Daigle, were married in November 2007 and make their home in both San Francisco and New York.

John Newsome

John Newsome is the founder of the Public Equity Group (LLC pending). John’s clients to date include FSG Social Impact Advisors (global consulting firm); the Global Business Coalition on Health (GBCHealth); Net Impact; Peer Health Exchange; Summer Search; and others.  During the fall of 2008, John was hired as a “Guest Fellow” for a 10-week (~20+ session) Stanford Business School course for 1^st year MBA students. In the winters of 2012 and 2013, John led a social entrepreneurship seminar at Harvard Law School (HLS) and subsequently partnered with HLS students to develop public-private partnership “best practice” case studies.

From 2009-2011, John left consulting to serve as Vice President at GBCHealth (then the Global Business Coalition on HIV, TB & Malaria), designing and leading U.S. corporate social responsibility initiatives.  While at GBC, John worked closely with CEOs, VPs, and other senior executives at multi-national companies (e.g., the Brink’s Company, the Chevron Corporation, L’Oreal, Levi-Strauss & Co., Pfizer Inc., Walgreens) and with public partners (e.g., the CDC, the White House, UNESCO, local health departments), managing ~10 public-private partnerships, and representing the Coalition on Capitol Hill and elsewhere.  John’s GBC work is featured in The Economist, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Reuters, and elsewhere.

Between 1994 and 2006, John served on the executive and management teams of several organizations including the Oakland Public Schools (Executive Officer) and the Bridgespan Group (a non-profit consulting firm).  John also served as Press Secretary and legislative aide to US Congresswoman Barbara Lee (D-Oakland) during her first term in office, and in 2000 and 2004 served as a media coordinator at the Democratic National Convention.  John also has served on numerous boards of directors, and recently completed his sixth and final year on the National Advisory Board of the Haas Center for Public Service at Stanford University.

In 2004, John co-founded And Castro for All (AC4A), an organization born of documented patterns of race and gender profiling in San Francisco’s Castro neighborhood. Between 2004 and 2009, AC4A won unprecedented discrimination cases and was featured in the AP & NY Times, SF Chronicle, LA Times & elsewhere.   Subsequently, John worked with the Horizons Foundation to develop a new fellowship for emerging LGBT leaders of color; co-developed campaigns in support of federal employment protections for LGBT Americans; and co-led a prominent African-American campaign for marriage equality in CA.

John‘s opinion pieces have been published in the SF Chronicle, NY Newsday, the Baltimore Sun, and elsewhere.  John also has written case studies about African corporate and government responses to HIV/AIDS, published by Stanford Business School, and was profiled in a 2009 Stanford Business School Center for Leadership Development video case study.  John is a 1990 National Endowment for the Humanities Fellow and holds a Spanish fluency certification, a BA (Spanish Literature), an MA (Modern Thought & Literature), and an MBA from Stanford University.

Molly Epstein

At Emory University’s Goizueta Business School, Molly serves as an associate professor in the practice of Management Communication. She teaches communication and professional development to undergraduates and executives. Molly’s background in language and business enables learners to maximize their professional presentation and writing abilities. As a consultant, she coaches physicians and executives in effective presenting, writing, and communicating in meetings.

Molly joined Emory’s Management Communication department after completing her PhD and MA at Georgia State University. Before returning to academia, Molly enjoyed a brief adventure as a marketer after she earned a Masters in Integrated Marketing from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, as well as a BA in Literature from Northwestern.

After growing up in Chicago, Molly now calls Atlanta home.  She lives in City of Atlanta with her husband and their three children. Every chance they get, the Epsteins escape to the North Georgia Mountains for hiking, wake-boarding, and star-gazing.

Jonathan Buck

Jonathan Buck is an independent consultant advising executive-level clients to frame and solve critical, complex strategic problems primarily in the US healthcare, biotechnology, and pharmaceutical industries.  He has also worked with financial services, technology, and consumer products clients and abroad in Germany and South Africa.  Previously, Mr. Buck was a Case Team Leader with Monitor Group in the Cambridge and San Francisco offices and led Monitor’s US GLBT recruiting.  He served as the Executive Director of the 2007 and 2008 conferences and has served on the OUBC board since its inception in 2004.

Mr. Buck graduated magna cum laude from Cornell University with Bachelor of Science and Master of Engineering degrees in Operations Research and Industrial Engineering.  Between these two programs, he was an analyst with BlackRock in the Fund Administration group in New York.  He currently resides in San Francisco with his husband Zack.

Peter Hart

Peter Hart is an Associate at AEA Investors where he is a member of their Middle Market team which currently manages $2.5B of assets and is specifically focused on making investments in the consumer / retail  and marketing services space.