Mentors

Raiza Nazareth '12
Investor Relations Manager, Conti Organization
Raiza Nazareth is responsible for supporting and developing long-term investor relationships at Conti, a multifamily real estate investment company focused on acquisition and operation of value-added multifamily properties in Texas. Prior to Conti, Nazareth was based in New York City as a member of the client services team at Pantheon Ventures, a global private equity firm with more than $35 billion in assets under management. She graduated summa cum laude from Skidmore with a B.S. in management and business. Nazareth was the recipient of the Seymour and Sylvia Goldman Memorial Prize and the Katherine Scranton Rozendaal Citizenship Award, as well as the Allabough Scholarship and the Roberts Sister Scholarship for Academic Excellence. Having recently moved to Dallas from New York City, she enjoys exploring Dallas and Abilene (where her fiancé is stationed) as well as singing in her free time.

Gregory Alan Rutchik '87
Attorney
For 25 years, Gregory Alan Rutchik has focused his law practice on startup and private emerging technology-based companies and their founders’ IP licensing, taxation, partnership and shareholder governance and control, fundraising, and business development as the outside general counsel to businessesin multi-family in real estate, private equity, data entry and cloud computing, blockchain applications, AI, health care informatics, Japanese sake, golf apparel, and diverse consultancy clients. He got his training at Cooley LLP in Silicon Valley. In addition to his law practice, Rutchik manages a diverse portfolio of family investments and real estate and is an author. His second young-adult illustrated book, Stella Do It, is now available on Amazon. Rutchik received his J.D. from Temple University School of Law in 1992 and was a Fulbright Fellow at the University of Tokyo, Graduate School of Law from 1992 to 1993. He earned his B.A. in American studies with a minor in business from Skidmore in 1987.

Gregg Smith ’92
Serial Entrepreneur
Gregg Smith is a venture investor, serial entrepreneur, and founder of Evolution Corporate Advisors, which manages a portfolio of 25 private companies focused on digital disruption, including JUUL Labs, Honcker, Coupang, PetCareRx.com, Pax Labs, and more. Since 2011 he has served as 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. Previously Smith was an investment banker and head of the Private Equity Group at Cowen and Company, and before that 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 Chamber of Commerce, retiring in 2012. Prior to joining the chamber, she was president and publisher of the Saratogian, a Gannett-owned newspaper. She is the immediate past chair of the Skidmore College Board of Trustees, a position she held for four years. Toohey served as a member of the board for 15 years. She currently serves on the boards of the Saratoga Performing Arts Center, the Charles R. Wood Foundation, and the Saratoga Foundation and Wellspring (Domestic Violence Rape Crisis Services).

Raymond C.H Bryan ’94
Financial Advisor with Janney Montgomery Scott LLC
Ray Bryan works with a select group of clients to build, manage, preserve, and transition their wealth. He has advised families going through significant liquidity events by working with them, helping to set up their investment plans and processes. He also serves on the board of the Senior Center of Saratoga and the Orchard Project, committed to the creation of bold new work by the most innovative artists from the U.S. and around the world. Bryan is an investor in the Tony Award-winning musical Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder and in Keen Ice, the horse who defeated American Pharaoh in the 2015 Travers Stakes at the Saratoga Race Course.

Tal Chitayat ’03
Co-founder and CEO Full Circle Home
Tal Chitayat is co-founder and CEO of Full Circle Home (www.fullcirclehome.com). He comes from a professional background in product development, supply chain management, and manufacturing. In 2009 Chitayat and 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.

Laurie J. Giddins '82
Child Mind Institute
Laurie Giddins leads the development of partnership programs and public education campaigns for the Child Mind Institute, a leading national nonprofit dedicated to transforming the lives of children struggling with mental health and learning disorders. Prior to joining the Child Mind Institute, Giddins was responsible for managing investments in social enterprises and nonprofits for the Partnership Fund for New York City, a $150 million fund aimed at creating jobs, spurring new business creation, and extending opportunity to the city’s overlooked neighborhoods. Giddins ran an independent consulting firm, providing advisory and interim executive management services to startup and early-stage enterprises and nonprofits. She also held senior-level business development and marketing positions in media with Cablevision, AMC Networks, and Bravo. She is on the Board of Directors of the East Harlem Tutorial Program, where she served two terms as board chair.

Matt Kavet '94
Founder and President, Boston America Corp.
Matt Kavet leads Boston America Corp., a 20-year-old company that designs and distributes an innovative line of licensed novelty candies, lip balms, and energy drinks. The company’s products can be found throughout the United States and Canada in more than 10,000 retail locations, spanning a variety of channels. Currently, some of Boston America’s strongest items are branded with the likes of Nintendo, Despicable Me, Shopkins, and Rick and Morty. Creative design, sales, logistics, and distribution are all administered out of the company headquarters just north of Boston. Kavet graduated from Skidmore in 1994 with a degree in business. He currently lives with his wife and two young boys in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Elizabeth Kigin '10
Vice President, Pershing Advisor Solutions
Elizabeth Kigin is director of partner management for NextCapital, a digital advice platform offering investment planning and portfolio management to individuals and institutions worldwide. Previously she was a business development officer for Pershing Advisor Solutions (a BNY Mellon company). In 2014, Kigin received BNY Mellon’s prestigious STAR award for her outstanding client focus and enterprise leadership. She was the Chicago co-chair of BNY Mellon’s Women’s Initiatives Network and a co-founder and board member of Chicago Financial Women’s Alliance (CFWA). Kigin also co-founded BNY Mellon’s Adopt a School initiative to promote the implementation of financial literacy curricula in high schools. She earned a bachelor of arts, magna cum laude, from Skidmore with a double major in economics and management and business, spending two years as the student director of the Skidmore Saratoga Entrepreneurial Partnership and captain of the college’s equestrian team.