Progressive Business Leaders Network

Honorary Co-Chairs, Board of Directors

Mr. Roosevelt is a frequent lecturer and author on legal and public policy topics and he is Clinical Instructor in the Department of Public Health and Family Medicine at Tufts University School of Medicine.  He is admitted to the bars of the District of Columbia, Massachusetts and the U.S. Supreme Court.

Mr. Roosevelt received his J.D. from Harvard University Law School and his B.A. with honors in government from Harvard College. He has also completed the Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School. 

Joshua Boger, Ph.D., President & CEO, Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc.

Jeff is a General Partner at Flybridge Capital Partners whose investment interests and entrepreneurial experience are in consumer, Internet commerce, marketing services, software and wireless start-ups. Jeff currently represents the firm on the boards of BzzAgent, Click Tactics, go2 Media, i4cp, InnerWireless, Mall Networks, SimpleTuition, and Transpera and was previously a director at Brontes Technologies (acquired by 3M) and PanGo Networks (merged with InnerWireless). Jeff's popular blog on helping demystify the venture business for entrepreneurs, "Seeing Both Sides", can be found at www.bostonvcblog.com. Jeff was named to the Boston Business Journal’s “40 under 40” list in 2006.

Prior to joining the firm in January 2003, Jeff co-founded Upromise (acquired by Sallie Mae), a loyalty marketing and financial services firm that currently manages $20 billion in college savings assets, where he served as President, Chief Operating Officer and Board Director. Prior to Upromise, Jeff was an executive at Open Market, an Internet commerce software leader that went public in 1996 and grew to nearly $100 million in revenues. During his five-year tenure, he served as Vice President of Worldwide Marketing and Business Development, Vice President of Worldwide Professional Services and head of Product Management. Prior to Open Market, Jeff was with the strategy consulting firm, The Boston Consulting Group, and served on the executive team of Athena Design, an object-oriented software start-up.

Jeff holds a BA in Computer Science from Harvard University where he graduated magna cum laude and an MBA from Harvard Business School where he was a Baker Scholar and a Ford Scholar. Jeff is married with three children and is an avid baseball fan. He is co-chair of the Progressive Business Leaders Network and vice chairman of the board of educational non-profit, Facing History and Ourselves. Jeff is also the author of "Ruling The Net", a 1996 Harvard Business Review article predicting the development of Internet commerce.

Chris Gabrieli is an entrepreneur across the fields of business, nonprofits and public policy.

Following the success of GMIS, the healthcare software company he co-founded, Chris joined Bessemer Venture Partners. Throughout his 15 years as a partner with Bessemer, Chris has worked to help other entrepreneurs start and grow their companies.  Chris’s firm has invested over $1 billion in start-up high-tech and biotechnology companies, helping to create more than 100,000 new jobs.  Chris remains active as a Senior Partner at Bessemer Venture Partners, focused on biotechnology.

Chris is a committed participant in the civic life of Boston and Massachusetts. In 2000, he co-founded Massachusetts 2020, an educational nonprofit focused on expanding the economic and educational opportunities for children families across Massachusetts.  He was the Founder and Chairman of Boston's After-School for All Partnership, a $26 million collaboration of the City of Boston and twelve foundations, universities and corporations, aimed at expanding and improving after-school opportunities for children.  Due in large part to the Partnership's work, Boston has doubled the rate of participation of children in after-school programs.  Chris now serves as Chairman of Boston After School & Beyond, the permanent public-private partnership aimed at the same goals. 

He also currently serves as Chairman of Massachusetts 2020, which leads Massachusetts's first-in-the-nation initiative to redesign and expand learning time at public schools.  In September 2006, ten public schools in five districts with 4,700 students became the pioneers of this work, adding about two hours per day to school schedules for all students. The additional time allows for more academics, more individualized and small group instruction and tutoring, time for enrichment in arts, music, drama and sports, and more time for teachers for common planning time and professional development.  There are currently an additional 84 schools in 27 districts with about 45,000 more students planning to implement expanded learning time under the state-funded program in the fall of 2007 and the fall of 2008.

Founding Members, Board of Directors

David received his MBA with honors from Harvard Business School in 1988.  He graduated from Harvard University with a Bachelor of Arts, magna cum laude, in economics in 1984.

Mr. Edmundson is a Director of the Council of Insurance Agents and Brokers in Washington, D.C. (www.ciab.org).  He is a Director and a past President of the Insurance Library Association of Boston (www.insurancelibrary.org)  He is a former member of the Hingham Board of Selectmen (www.hingham-ma.gov).  He is a Trustee of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation (www.masstaxpayers.org).  He is a Trustee of the Trustees of Reservations (www.thetrustees.org).  He is Chairman of Affordable Care Today, a coalition of business, consumer, provider and labor organizations working to increase health care access in Massachusetts (www.hcfa.org).

Mr. Gorin, who is Chief Financial Officer and Managing Principal of Analysis Group, has held several senior executive-level financial, strategic, and marketing positions in both industry and banking. Prior to joining the firm, he was Vice President of Finance and Chief Financial Officer of Avant Immunotherapeutics, Inc., a publicly-traded biotechnology company. Mr. Gorin also held a series of senior positions with UST Corp., a multi-billion dollar commercial bank holding company. Previously, he was Senior Vice President of Finance for Sotheby's Inc., and Vice President with the Financial and Information Services and Merchant Banking Groups of Citicorp.  

Mr. Gorin received his M.B.A. fom the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and his B.A. from Harvard.

Prior to co-founding The Castle Group, Sandy was public relations VP at a leading Boston advertising agency. No stranger to the specialized needs dictated by the client-side experience, Sandy also created and implemented PR programs as in-house PR counsel for organizations including KPMG, Lesley College and the Massachusetts Bar Association.

Sandy earned a bachelor of arts degree in journalism from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. She lives in Walpole, Mass. with her husband, two children and Wheaten Terrier.

Ralph Martin is a partner at Bingham McCutchen LLP and managing principal of Bingham Consulting Group. He is the former Suffolk County district attorney, having served as the elected prosecutor for Boston, Chelsea, Revere and Winthrop from 1992-2002. During his nearly 10 years in office, he oversaw a $15 million budget and an office of 300 people, including 135 prosecutors.

Ralph has more than 20 years of experience as a trial lawyer and state and federal prosecutor. He practices in the areas of corporate investigations, white collar defense and general civil litigation. At Bingham Consulting, he assists clients when their business plans intersect with governmental and regulatory agencies. Bingham Consulting helps clients design and execute multi-state political strategies to complement their business mission.

Before joining Bingham McCutchen, Ralph was appointed district attorney of Suffolk County in 1992. He won election to the office in 1994 by a margin of almost 20 percent, and ran unopposed in 1998. He is the first African-American and Republican district attorney in Suffolk County’s history. He was recognized for his leadership by former President Bill Clinton and former Attorney General Janet Reno and has traveled across the country to both lecture and consult on the business and strategy of managing and reducing crime.

At Bingham McCutchen, Ralph is the chair of the firm's Diversity Task Force, an ongoing effort to build on Bingham's recognized strengths in the areas of recruitment, retention and advancement of lawyers from diverse backgrounds. In 2005 and 2006, Fortune magazine rated Bingham McCutchen as one of the 100 best companies to work for; in 2006 and 2003, The American Lawyer selected Bingham McCutchen as one of the top 20 firms on their "A-List of True First-Tier" law firms, based on diversity, pro bono work, associate satisfaction and revenue. From 2003 through 2006, the Boston office has been recognized as one of Boston's "50 Best Places to Work in Boston."

Paul Sagan, president and CEO of Akamai, joined the company in October 1998. Mr. Sagan was elected to the Akamai Board of Directors in January 2005, and he became CEO in April 2005. He brings to Akamai the experience of leading visionary technology companies and media businesses and a wealth of management experience.

Previously, Mr. Sagan served as senior advisor to the World Economic Forum from 1997 to 1998, consulting to the Geneva-based organization on information technology for the world's 1,000 foremost multinational corporations.

In 1995, Mr. Sagan was named president and editor of new media at Time Inc., a division of Time Warner, and worked in that role until 1997. Previously, he served as managing editor of Time Warner's News on Demand project and was a senior member of the team responsible for the development of the company's online, cable online, electronic publishing, and Internet publishing activities. He was a founder of Road Runner, the world's first broadband cable modem service, and Pathfinder, one of the Web properties that pioneered Internet advertising.

Mr. Sagan joined Time Warner in 1991 to design and launch NY 1 News, the cable news network based in New York City. NY 1 became known for its groundbreaking use of digital video technology and video journalists carrying their own small-format cameras. As a senior vice president of Time Warner Cable, Mr. Sagan participated in the creation of a corporate group that developed and launched similar owned-and-operated cable news channels in other metropolitan areas.

Mr. Sagan is a three-time Emmy Award winner and was named a Global Leader for Tomorrow in 1996 by the World Economic Forum. He is a director of Dow Jones & Company (NYSE: DJ); Maven Networks, which provides an Internet television software platform; and Experience, Inc., which provides online career services to the placement offices of hundreds of American colleges and universities.

Mr. Sagan is a Trustee of Northwestern University and a graduate of Northwestern's Medill School of Journalism. He is co-chairman of the Medill Board of Advisors; a member of the Dean's Council at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University; an advisor to the MATCH charter public high school in Boston; and a member of the Presidential Advisory Council at the Berklee College of Music.

Mitchell G. Tyson, CEO & Director, Advanced Electron Beams

Mitch Tyson joined Advanced Electron Beams as CEO and Director in October 2005, upon the completion of the company’s Series A round of venture funding. Prior to joining Advanced Electron Beams, Mitch was a corporate consultant and lecturer, serving on multiple industry, government, and corporate boards of directors, and advising start-up organizations and venture capital firms. 

Before working as a consultant Mitch was the CEO of PRI Automation, a publicly traded corporation, that supplied automation systems including hardware, software and services for the semiconductor industry. From 1987 to 2002, he held positions of increasing management responsibility, and helped transform PRI Automation from a small robotics manufacturer to the world's leading supplier of semiconductor fab automation systems. Mitch managed the growth of the company from $4 million to over $300 million in revenue, and guided the company through its successful IPO. 

Previously, Mitch worked at GCA Corporation and served as science advisor and legislative assistant to U.S. Senator Paul Tsongas. 

Mitch currently serves as Chairman of AmberWave Systems, a supplier of strained silicon technology to the semiconductor industry, and as a Board Member of both Photronics, Inc., a manufacturer of photomasks for the flat panel and semiconductor industries, and Rubicon Technology, supplier of sapphire substrates used in LED manufacturing. 

Mitch also serves on the executive and governing boards of John Adams Innovation Institute, a quasi-public state agency focused on promoting high tech economic development in Massachusetts, the Mass High Technology Council Board, UMASS High Tech Executive Council, Massport Security Advisory Council, North American Advisory Board of SEMI, and the New England Regional Board of the Anti-Defamation League. 

He has a Bachelors of Science in Physics, a Masters of Science in Nuclear Engineering, and a second Masters of Science in Political Science, all from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Gerardo is presently the Managing Partner of the Massachusetts based international company Ultra-Linx Marketing Group LLC. Additionally, he is the Director and Editor of the largest New England circulation Spanish weekly newspaper “El Planeta”.

He has well rounded management experience in for profit and non-profit enterprises.  He was the Executive Director of the Hispanic-American Chamber of Commerce where he created a range of community related programs including conferences, seminars, advocacy, networking and cultural events. In addition to his work with the Chamber, he hosted and produced the weekly TV program “Vision” that had a potential reach of 400,000 viewers. On that program he interviewed business people, politicians, community leaders, scholars and interesting personalities.

Gerardo moved to New England in 1998 to launch two Spanish radio stations in Boston. Before coming to the Boston area, he worked at CBS in New York for close to 20 years and was the General Manager of CBS Hispanic Radio Network, prior to that he worked in Business Affairs Department at CBS Records (Sony/BMG now) administrating music video production.

Villacres has been recognized by the Greater Boston Hispanic Lyons Club with the Humanitarian Award. He has received many other national and international awards and recognitions including Premios Ondas in Spain and the Billboard Award for the program “Buenas Noches America.”  He was featured in Boston Magazine as one of the emerging leaders of the “minority community,” in the Boston Area and in 2002 and that year he won “The Minority Advocate of the Year” award by the SBA in Massachusetts furthermore he was the Commencement Speaker for Bunker Hill Community College. Gerardo has also traveled with Boston Leaders on several of the City to City Leadership Exchange Programs.

Gerardo is involved in the community in various boards, including the Board of Trustees of Bunker Hill Community College, the boards of the Harvard Based Organization Cultural Agents, The Latin-American Health Institute, Latino Roots, Cambridge Center for Adult Education and Hispanic Newspress, additionally, he is the board president of AENI (Asociacion de Ecuatorianos en Nueva Inglaterra) and will be an Overseer at the Museum of Fine Arts. He has two children and lives with his soul mate of 36 years in Cambridge.