Winter Forum
2021
Vijay Vaitheeswaran
Vijay is the US Business Editor of The Economist. He is also an award-winning book author and an accomplished public speaker. The Financial Times has declared him to be “a writer to whom it is worth paying attention.”
He opened his magazine’s first Shanghai bureau in 2012, and served as its China Business Editor until mid-2017. His editorial responsibilities ranged from business and finance to technology and innovation. He led the editorial team that launched Economist Global Business Review, a successful app that is the first bilingual product offered by The Economist in its 175-year history.
Vijay joined the editorial staff of The Economist in 1992 as its London-based Latin America correspondent, and opened its first regional bureau in Mexico City in 1994. From 1998 to 2006, he covered the politics, economics, business and technology of energy and the environment. From 2007 to 2011 his portfolio encompassed innovation, global health, pharmaceuticals and biotechnology. He has produced numerous cover stories and won awards for his reporting.
Alden Richards
Mr. Richards has served as a visiting lecturer and instructor in entrepreneurship for Brown University’s Business, Entrepreneurship and Organization(BEO) concentration as well as the university’s graduate Program in Innovation Management and Entrepreneurship (PRIME). Additionally, he teaches an intensive course in entrepreneurship within the Brown Summer Program and, in this role, has instructed hundreds of high school students from more than 30 countries. Mr. Richards is also a lecturer in the history of the Space-Age at Yale University and a special advisor to the Entrepreneurship Institute at Yale, where he has also been a fellow of Ezra Stiles College. Throughout his career, Mr. Richards has lectured and mentored students at many universities and high schools, including Yale, Brown, the Institute of Air and Space Law at McGill University, the University of Chicago, Princeton, Harvard and the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University.
A graduate of both Yale University and the Program on Negotiation at Harvard business school, Mr. Richards has worked within Fortune 100 companies and has been both a founder and advisor to more than 50 startups in the United States and abroad—particularly in the satellite and launch vehicle industries. Startups Mr. Richards has been involved in including Pan-American satellite Corporation (sold to Hughes/General Motors for more than $3 billion), Space Machine Advisors, Inc. (which averaged $135 million in annual revenues with only five full-time employees) and Siren Marine, Inc., which provided the first multifunction, real-time remote monitoring for private boats and commercial vessels in the United States. He has worked in and advised startups in many business areas, including the aerospace, transportation, marine technology and fashion industries. Mr. Richards has also mentored over 100 student-led startups including HMSolution, ParkLoco, Finnest, BreadBox, T@GG and DoorBell.
College Panel
Catherine Ye
Catherine Ye is a sophomore at Harvard studying applied math and economics. She is involved in various finance clubs on campus, including the Harvard Financial Analysts Club, Harvard Undergraduate Capital Partners, Smart Woman Securities, and Women in Business. Catherine has interned in capital markets and private equity. She is also a coxswain on the Men’s Heavyweight Crew Team and enjoys art and art history.
Nina Boord
Nina Boord is an engineering student at Stanford University and the former President of the Junior Economic Club of Chicago. Passionate about uplifting women in STEM and entrepreneurship, she spent much of her time in high school working for MakerGirl, a nonprofit that holds 3D printing sessions with girls ages 7-10. She is currently taking a gap year where she is living in San Francisco, interning full-time at an AI startup, and learning how to surf.
Shawn Amirthan
Shawn Amirthan is currently majoring in Operations Research with a focus on Engineering Management Systems at Columbia University. He has worked at Torreya Partners as an Investment Banking Summer Analyst and has held other intern positions at Pura Vida Investments, a healthcare-focused, long-only hedge fund, and at early-stage venture firms. Shawn is interested in healthcare - specifically, digital health and genetic medicine. In his free time, he enjoys watching documentaries, playing tennis, and watching Formula 1 races.
Lucas Chu
Lucas Chu is Chief of Staff of Harvard Economics Review and founder of Erevna, an intercollegiate nonprofit of over 5k students. He's assisted research at the Census Bureau, Opportunity Insights, and HKS. Reach out if you'd like paid tutoring or college apps consulting.
Karen He
Karen He is a director at Generation She and a business and computer science student at the University of Southern California. @gen.she is a 501c3 aimed to close the gender gap in entrepreneurship by hosting makeathon events where teenagers can start their own businesses. Karen has been working at Generation She for around a year and has strategized behind the marketing of Gen She events and developed Generation She's social media presence online which helped the organization in numerous ways. She is a big advocate of networking and has many tips to share!
Catch her at the panel to answer any of your questions about Generation She or networking in general!