The Johnson Women in Technology Committee is a student-led organization. At Johnson, students are encouraged and supported to take action in leadership.
Elizabeth M Kraushar
Co-Chair – MBA ’16
Elizabeth is a second year MBA student and Greg Dollarhyde Fellow at Johnson. She holds a BA in Political Science from Barnard College of Columbia University. Most recently, Elizabeth was a product management intern at Hewlett-Packard in Palo Alto. Prior to Johnson, she was an account supervisor at Weber Shandwick in Washington D.C., where she managed strategic communications and marketing initiatives for foundations, startups and multinational companies. She is pursuing an MBA focused on marketing and tech.
Janaki Palaniappan
Co-Chair – MBA ’16
Janaki is a second year MBA student at Johnson. She is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of California, Los Angeles with a major in Political Science and a minor in South Asian Studies. Prior to attending Johnson, she worked for benefitsconnect, a software technology firm specializing in benefits enrollment headquartered in Northern California, where she started out in the Professional Development Rotational Program and was then promoted to Software Analyst. This past summer, Janaki interned as a strategy consultant with Accenture Development Partnerships in Bogota, Colombia working to create employment solutions for marginalized and vulnerable youth. Janaki is also on the board of Johnson Consulting Club.
Tejaswini Marathe
Sponsorship Co-Chair – MBA ’17
Tejaswini is a first year MBA student. She holds a BE in Industrial Engineering from Visveshvaraya Technological University. Most recently, Tejaswini was a management consultant at KPMG working in the Bangalore, London and Singapore offices. She is pursuing an MBA focused on Product management in Technology and explores her passion for working with startups as an associate of the student-run venture capital fund, BR Venture Fund and BR Tech strategy. She is also a fellow of the Emerging Markets Institute at Johnson.
Will Rodger
Sponsorship Co-Chair – MBA ’17
Will Rodger is a first year MBA student at Johnson. He is a graduate of Harvard University, with a BA in Economics. Prior to Johnson, Will co-founded 2 startups, leading the product teams at both. Before that, he was a Director at Mindshare, a global media agency, where he designed and executed a variety of digital innovations for Fortune 500 clients. Will is passionate about creating new tech initiatives at Cornell and making technology an integral part of the Johnson MBA experience.
Sukriti Jain
Speakers & Panelists – MBA ’16
Sukriti is an MBA student, class of 2016 at Johnson. She holds a Master’s degree in International Business from Indian Institute of Foreign Trade and a Bachelor’s degree in Business Studies from University of Delhi, India. Sukriti has over 6 years of experience in commercial banking, hedge funds and economic research. As a banker with Yes Bank, which is India’s 4th largest private sector bank, she worked on credit due diligence, risk management, banking products and business development. She also has experience in economic research and investment analysis for hedge funds, fund of funds and agri-commodities. In one of her previous roles, she served as Assistant Director at India’s apex industry chamber ASSOCHAM, where she managed relationships with government departments and industry and developed advisory reports. She is also a co-author of a chapter in the book ‘Innovation in Emerging Markets’, expected to be published by first half of 2016. Her MBA is focused on finance, strategy and hi-tech.
Sowmya G Ballakur
Company Recruitment – MBA ’16
Sowmya is in the Accelerated MBA program at Johnson at Cornell. She holds a Bachelors in the Electronic and Instrumentation Engineering from India and a Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from Pennsylvania State University. Prior to Johnson, Sowmya has a mix of start-up and Fortune 500 company experience in the diagnostic and therapeutic medical device space creating innovative products and solutions across a variety of technology platforms and physiological conditions. She’s pursuing an MBA with a focus on Strategy and General Management in the Technology sector (high tech, healthcare and biotech). At Johnson she continues to explore her passion for all things start-up as an associate for the Johnson student run BR Venture Fund.
Olga Abrosimova
Publishing – MBA ’17
Olga is an MBA/MA in International Affairs candidate at S.C. Johnson Graduate School of Management at Cornell/Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. She received her Bachelor of Science in International Business from Maastricht University and has worked in Europe, Africa, the Caribbean and the United States. A native of Russia, who was educated in Germany, the Netherlands and the United States, Olga revels in being an analytical thinker with passion for cyber security, international financial markets, emerging economies and the study of the institution of citizenship.
Becca Blanco
Social Media – MBA ’17
Becca is a first year MBA student and Consortium Fellow at Johnson. She holds a BA in Communication with an emphasis in design, clothing and textiles from the University of California, Davis. Prior to Johnson, Becca spent 7 years working in public relations and events in the San Francisco Bay Area. She is passionate about people and business and will be focusing on marketing and technology while at Johnson.
Brendan Freeman
Operations & Logistics – MBA ’17
Brendan is a first year MBA student at Johnson. He holds a Bachelor’s of Science in Physics from Stony Brook University on Long Island, New York. Prior to Johnson, Brendan worked for the New York City Department of Consumer Affairs, the first municipal consumer protection agency in the country, and most recently supervised a quality management team focused on process efficiency, improving customer service, and data governance. In addition, he served as the training lead on an internal database implementation used by more than 200 staff in multiple business units and was a key player in finalizing the data conversion strategy. Brendan’s MBA is focused on Consulting and the High Tech sector.
Kathryn Bartlett
Webmaster – MBA ’17
Kathryn is a first-year MBA student and Forté Fellow at Johnson. She holds a M.Eng. in Operations Research and Information Engineering, with a concentration in IT, from Cornell University. Prior to Johnson, Kathryn was a software developer, first as a SharePoint consultant focusing on business process automation and most recently as a senior developer providing hedge funds with treasury management software. Kathryn’s MBA is focused on data analytics, finance, and technology.
Gim-i Pai
Finance – MBA ’17
Jim is a first year MBA student at Johnson. He holds a Bachelor degree of Business Administration from National ChengChi University at Taipei Taiwan. Prior to Johnson, he spent 5 years at Deloitte international tax group providing global employer services and tax agent services. Jim is a Certified Public Accountant in the States and a Chartered Global Management Accountant. His MBA is focused on Corporate Finance in the Technology/Computer Games industry.
Julia Chan
JWiT Ambassador – MBA ’16
Julia Chan is a second-year MBA student and Roy H. Park Leadership Fellow at Johnson. She holds a B.S. in Aerospace Engineering from UCLA. Prior to Cornell, Julia was a mechanical engineer designing turbomachinery at Northrop Grumman and Caterpillar. This past summer, she worked at Alcoa in the Management Consulting & Strategy group. As an active member of the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) for the past 12 years, she is passionate about empowering women and girls in STEM. Julia’s MBA focused on strategy consulting and technology.
