<h1>The UniThrive Team</h1> <p>For more Info, see:  <a href="../../../about">About UniThrive</a> | <a href="../../../history">UniThrive History</a> | <a href="../../../blog">UniThrive Blog</a></p> <p>Collectively, the UniThrive team understands the true inefficiency in the student lending market. We see too many of our peers burdened by rigid loans that detract from their undergraduate experience, both in and out of the classroom. Moreover, we, as current and recently graduated undergrads, do not feel connected to Harvard’s alumni community. There is a huge disconnect between us and those who came before. By forging a relationship through a small loan, we can begin to eliminate this disconnect while helping students take full advantage of their educational experience.</p> <h2>Joshua Kushner</h2> <p>Josh, who had an elder brother at Harvard, understands the importance of having a mentor or advisor available to help one navigate through college. He has extensive operating experience over several startups.</p> <p>Josh graduated from Harvard College in 2008 with a BA in government. While at Harvard, Josh was actively involved in a myriad of entrepreneurial startups and ventures. He co-founded Vostu.com, a venture backed online social networking venture targeting South and Central Americans. Additionally, Josh founded the Friendship Circle of Boston, a non-profit organization dedicated to creating friendships between students and children with mental disabilities. After graduating, Josh worked for Goldman Sachs’ real estate private investment area. He is now pursuing a Masters of Business Administration degree at Harvard Business School.</p> <h2>Nimay Mehta</h2> <p>Nimay’s fascination with the recent explosion of venture capital investment into peer-to-peer lending sparked his interested in becoming deeply involved in the UniThrive project.</p> <p><br />Nimay graduated from Harvard College in 2009 with a BA in economics. He was actively involved in several entrepreneurial endeavors during his career at Harvard that have ranged from developing consumer products for Kraft Foods Inc. to cardiovascular disease prevention programs. His entrepreneurial spirit led him to start the Harvard College Entrepreneurship Forum, which is dedicated to fostering entrepreneurship on Harvard’s undergraduate campus. HCEF holds numerous networking and educational events year-round and recently launched a campus-wide $80,000 business plan competition. Nimay also worked as a term-time and summer intern for General Catalyst Partners, a venture capital firm based in Cambridge, MA. He was involved in their sourcing program, which operates to ensure high-quality deal flow and investment prospects to the firm. Nimay recently joined Insight Venture Partners, a growth-stage venture capital/private equity firm focused on software and internet enterprises.</p> <h2>Tanuj Parikh</h2> <p>Tanuj was drawn to this project because it married his passion for education equality and his faith in the power and potential of person-to-person lending to create meaningful change.</p> <p>Tanuj graduated from Harvard College in 2009 with a BA in government. He was very active on campus during his undergraduate career. As Chair of the South Asian Men's Collective, he oversaw several charity events that fundraised over $50,000 for a variety of social justice issues in the Asian subcontinent and developed expertise in marketing to students. Tanuj also has extensive experience in the nonprofit sector.  He served as a term-time intern for New Sector Alliance, a social enterprise consulting firm, and in 2007 was a Fellow for Kiva Microfunds, a peer-to-peer lending website that is revolutionizing microfinance. His work on the ground in Kenya gave him an extensive familiarity with Kiva’s peer-to-peer lending model and microfinance best practices. In 2008 he was a summer intern in the Strategic Planning department of the New York City Economic Development Corporation. He is now working full-time for the NYCEDC as a Business Development Project Manager.</p> <h2>Robert Cecot</h2> <p>Robert’s extensive work in the education market has exposed him to the issues surrounding college financing first?hand. With a shift from the for?profit to the non?profit sector, he hopes to leverage his entrepreneurial background to improve the world.</p> <p>Robert’s first entrepreneurial venture was a domain name management company, SonicDomains.com, which Robert sold in 2005. He became a founding executive of DormAid, a personal service company for college students, that same year. When he discontinued his managerial role at DormAid in March 2008, the company had expanded from Harvard College to 35 college campuses across 14 states with over 45 employees under his direction while a full-time student. Robert graduated Harvard College with a cum laude degree in Economics and Psychology. He received the Morris Kronfeld prize for excellence in Economics and completed a Hoopes Prize-winning senior thesis analyzing lending practices on the peer?to?peer loan site Prosper.com. Robert most recently worked at the D. E. Shaw group, one of the world’s largest hedge funds, and is currently attending Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business pursuing a Masters of Business Administration degree.</p> <h2>Evan Dorn</h2> <p>Evan Dorn, Ph. D. is the lead software developer for Unithrive.   He graduated from Swarthmore College in 1997 with degrees in Engineering and Biology, and completed a Ph. D. in Computationa and Neural System at the California Institute of Technology in 2005.  During graduate school and since then, Evan has run the software and web development venture <a href="http://lrdesign.com">Logical Reality Design</a> in Altadena, CA.  He is also co-founder of startup ventules Provectis Music, Inc. and Provectis Enterprises, and is working through them to help bring a revolution in teaching and education.  Evan is dedicated to the promotion of social justice and welfare around the world and is thrilled to be part of the UniThrive team.</p>

2008-11-04T13:18:51+00:00

10 Team

team

2009-08-25T12:15:35+00:00