Mentors

Raymond C.H Bryan ’94
Financial Advisor with Janney Montgomery Scott LLC
Ray Bryan is a financial advisor with Janney Montgomery Scott LLC. He helps a select group of clients build, manage, preserve, and transition their wealth. Ray has advised families going through significant liquidity events by working with them, helping to set up their investment plans and processes. He also serves as vice president of the board of the Adult and Senior Center of Saratoga and The Exchange/The Orchard Project, committed to the creation of bold new work by the most innovative artists from the US and around the world.

Tal Chitayat ’03
Co-founder and CEO Full Circle Home
Tal is the co-founder and CEO of Full Circle Home. Tal comes from a professional background in product development, supply chain management, and manufacturing. In 2009 Tal, along with three partners, upset that environmental responsibility does not play a bigger role in the creative process for the housewares market, started Full Circle Home. They believed that consumers shouldn’t be forced to choose between style, function, affordability, and sustainability and that the next generation of products should be made responsibly without sacrificing form or function. Today, Full Circle’s cleaning, composting, storage, and hydration products can be found in thousands of retailers around the world.

Christine Juneau ’82, P ’18
Principal, Christine Juneau LLC
An independent business advisor since 2010, Christine Juneau helps business owners and management teams identify and implement relevant performance measurements that tie strategic vision, goals, and objectives to execution and achievement of results. Beginning her career in marketing and promotion, she went on to serve for 20 years in leadership positions with John S. Herold Inc., an independent research firm focused on companies, transactions, and trends in the global energy industry, and IHS Inc., a major provider of global market, industry, and technical expertise.

Kathryn Peper ’78
Physician
A Fellow of the American College of Physicians, Katie Peper had a long and distinguished career in academic medicine with the Yale School of Medicine, Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City, and Morristown (N.J.) Medical Center before opening a private practice to follow a philosophy of healing centered on the patient. Board-certified in internal medicine in 1987, she attended New York Medical College. Both her daughters have entered the startup world. Lauren Platt is CEO and founder of Vensette, an on-demand beauty service that brings luxury hair and makeup artists to clients’ doors. Ashley Platt founded Luxholdups, a custom Lucite and brass home furnishings company with workshops in Brooklyn and showroom in Manhattan.

Gregg Smith ’92
Serial Entrepreneur
Gregg Smith is an active independent venture investor and, since 2011, has been the chief innovation officer of Edison Nation, an online “innovation marketplace” of independent inventors focused on consumer and medical products, and has produced four seasons of the Emmy-award winning PBS television show on innovation, Everyday Edisons. Prior to Edison, Smith was an investment banker and head of the Private Equity Group at Cowen and Co., and previously worked at Banc of America Securities and Bear Stearns.

Linda Toohey
Skidmore Board of Trustees Chair Emeritus
Linda Toohey served for more than 30 years as an executive with the Saratoga County (N.Y.) Chamber of Commerce, retiring in 2012. Prior to joining the Saratoga Chamber, Linda was president and publisher of the Saratogian, a Gannett-owned newspaper. Linda is the immediate past chair of the Skidmore College Board of Trustees, a position she held for four years. She served as a member of the board for fifteen years. She currently serves on the board of the Saratoga Performing Arts Center, as well as the boards of the Charles R. Wood Foundation and the Saratoga Foundation.

Nancy Wekselbaum ’73
Owner, The Gracious Gourmet
Balsamic four-onion spread. Mango/pineapple chutney. Fennel blood-orange tapenade. These are just a few of the remarkable award winning flavors that Nancy Wekselbaum produces and sells through The Gracious Gourmet, the small-batch condiment maker she established in 2006 after a friend tasted her dried fruit chutney and told her she should build a business around it. Now selling more than 23 products globally, Wekselbaum’s mission is to market all natural sophisticated products that elevate everyone’s favorite dishes and make every meal a special occasion.

Brendan Wootten P ’20
Managing Director, Goldman Sachs & Co.
Brendan Wootten is managing director, Goldman Sachs & Co. He began his career at Salomon Brothers and has over 25 years of experience in the financial services industry. He has a history of business building, having established portfolio trading desks at two different firms, one as a co-founder at the former Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette and secondly at the former Thomas Weisel Partners LLC. He joined Goldman Sachs in 2003 in the Securities Division and has held various roles at the firm during his tenure, including head of Portfolio Sales, Electronic Trading Coverage, and International Portfolio Trading. He currently is a manager on the Macro Sales Trading Desk, which serves institutional clients for global portfolio trading, synthetics, exchange traded funds.