09 May May 12, 2016 – Exit Expert Barbara Roberts & Golf Genius Mike Zisman
“The audio file was removed when we switched hosts. Sorry. The cost was prohibitive. If you need the file, contact us and we will send it.”
Barbara Roberts – Entrepreneur in Residence at Columbia Business School, NYC Chair TIGER 21 and Exit & Transition Planning Expert
Barbara Roberts is passionate about helping other entrepreneurs and family business owners start, grow, create wealth and transition to their next purpose after an exit. As Entrepreneur in Residence at Colombia Business School, she started their first incubator and the Harlem business program. Her Columbia Business School Whitepapers, “The Owner’s Journey” and “Life after an Exit”, help entrepreneurs navigate the challenges they face before, during, and after an exit or family ownership transfer. Her background in navigating entrepreneurship, personal transitions, and wealth management led her to TIGER 21, the premiere peer-learning network for ultra-high net worth individuals. As a TIGER 21 Chair, Barbara helps entrepreneurs and other highly successful individuals transition to their next passion and be more impactful stewards of their wealth. She started on Wall Street and was the first women to hold numerous senior positions in IPO marketing and securities research and concluded this chapter as the first woman to serve on Dean Witter’s Board of Directors. After Wall Street, she transitioned to entrepreneur. As President of the stock photography agency, FPG International (now Getty Images), she championed the use of non-white models in commercial photography and received the Business Enterprise Award from President Clinton. Following the sale of FPG, Barbara lead and built the museum audio tour company, Acoustiguide. She currently serves on the NY Suffolk County Planning Commission and previously was Chair of the Advisory Board of the Federal Reserve Bank of NY.
Mike Zisman – Founder and CEO of Golf Genius Software
Mike Zisman is Founder and CEO of Golf Genius Software. Golf Genius offers affordable, fully-featured cloud-based software for organizing and managing golf events, leagues and golf trips at private clubs, public facilities and resorts. Whether it’s scoring a PGA of Canada championship, allowing a golf group captain to actually enjoy his or her trip, managing a member/guest tournament, or managing a league where the youngest golfer is 80+ years old, Golf Genius Software is about less work for those managing, more fun for those playing and more revenue for operators. In 1979 Mike left his position on the MIT faculty and founded Soft-Switch, the leading supplier of software and systems products to interconnect electronic mail systems. Soft-Switch was sold to Lotus Development Corp. in the early 1990’s, where Mike eventually became CEO. IBM acquired Lotus in 1995, and Mike went on to become a Vice President in the IBM Corporate Strategy Group, and served on the IBM Worldwide Management Council and the IBM Corporate Technology Council. After his career in enterprise software, Mike spent time as a venture capitalist at Internet Capital Group (now Actua) but then returned to being an operator, founding Golf Genius Software in 2009. Mike is also a director of the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts and a number of venture backed boards, and a former trustee of the University of Pennsylvania, Lehigh University, The Philadelphia Orchestra and Main Line Health.