THE NETWORK
Nearly 4,000 alumni and parents call the Bay Area and Silicon Valley region their home – here’s your opportunity to connect with them. The Rensselaer Silicon Valley Network (RSVN) was created to better connect our regional alumni to their alma mater and to each other.
Engagement in the network is designed around shared career and business interests, related topics that tie alumni back to campus through conversations and forums around pressing global challenges and opportunities that align with the Institute’s expertise in groundbreaking interdisciplinary research, and innovative pedagogy. The RSVN offers opportunities for engagement around business development, career advancement, graduate recruitment, and student placement, and seeks to facilitate strategic partnerships among individuals, companies, foundations, government agencies, and the Institute.
THE NETWORK
TOP EMPLOYERS
- Apple
- Applied Materials
- Cisco
- Cypress
- Hewlett-Packard
- IBM
- Intel
- Juniper Networks
- NVIDIA
- Oracle
- Qualcomm
- Salesforce
- ViaSat
TOP JOB TITLES
- Engineer
- Manager
- Director
- President
- Vice President
- Consultant
- Physician
- Owner
- Professor
- Partner
- CEO
- Systems Engineer
- Principal
- Mechanical
- Engineer
- Project Manager
EXECUTIVE COUNCIL
To succeed, the RSVN needs an exemplary group of leaders and influencers to set the pace and light the way toward a more meaningful Rensselaer alumni experience. We are asking you to join the Executive Council to provide guidance and advisory expertise that will further harness the strength of the RSVN, and to provide leadership in support of the Rensselaer capital campaign, Transformative: Campaign for Global Change.
As a council member you will have a front row seat to research insights from renowned Rensselaer faculty, access to the highest levels of Institute leadership, and opportunities to foster fruitful connections with other notable alumni in the region. All membership dues are contributed to the Rensselaer Annual Fund to support scholarships and are fully tax deductible.
LEADERSHIP LEVEL (3-YEAR TERM)
$100,000 payable over five years
MEMBER LEVEL (3-YEAR TERM)
$50,000 payable over five years
BENEFITS
- Priority access to cutting-edge research on campus, including opportunities for partnership, investment, and recruitment
- Serve as a key advisor to the Executive Council Chair and Co-chair and as a recognized brand ambassador for Rensselaer throughout the region
- VIP Invitations to presidential, networking, and alumni events in the region, with an opportunity to engage with Institute leadership
- Invitations to serve as a thought leader and expert on panels at high-profile engagements and alumni events focused on innovation, intellectual discovery, and entrepreneurship
- Invitations to small-scale gatherings with influential leaders in academia, business, government, and philanthropy
- Opportunity to host alumni and fellow Executive Council members
- Dedicated webpage with photos and biographies of Executive Council members
GOALS AND ACTIONS
Participate in Philanthropy
- Help identify, cultivate, and recruit new Executive Council members.
- Support, and encourage support for, the pillars and priorities of Transformative: Campaign for Global Change
- Bridging the Gap
- Faculty 500
- The Third-Century Campus
Be Brand Ambassadors
- Host thought leadership and networking events to showcase alumni and Institute leadership.
- Liaise with alumni serving as regional and corporate ambassadors.
- Represent and promote the Rensselaer brand at place of business and in the community.
Support Recruitment, Placement and Partnership Opportunities
- Identify and provide Arch opportunities.
- Support recruitment and hiring of Rensselaer graduates.
- Partner with Rensselaer to build corporate partnerships.
- Promote incoming student recruitment.
EXECUTIVE COUNCIL CHAIR
JOHN CAPEK ’83, M.E. ’84, M.E. ’85, MBA ’87, PH.D. ’88
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Trustee
Executive Vice President, Ventures, Abbott
Dr. Capek was appointed to his current position in June 2015. In this role, he leads Abbott’s venture investment organization. Previously, he had served as executive vice president, Medical Devices, and senior vice president, Abbott Vascular, heading up Abbott’s global vascular business.
Before joining Abbott, Dr. Capek served in various management roles at Guidant Corporation, including president, Guidant Vascular Intervention and vice president and general manager of Bioabsorbable Vascular Solutions.
He also served as vice president and general manager of Guidant Germany and vice president, marketing, Guidant Cardiac Rhythm Management Group. Before joining Guidant, Dr. Capek was manager of New Product Technology at Eli Lilly and Company.
Dr. Capek has a bachelor’s degree in biomedical engineering, a master’s degree in biomedical engineering, a master’s degree in electrical engineering, a Ph.D. in biomedical engineering, and a master’s degree in business administration, all from Rensselaer.
Council Members
Sujit Banerjee ’94
Managing Director, K1 Operations
Sujit Banerjee is a Managing Director at K1 Operations. He is responsible for leading K1 Operations and its proprietary IOps initiative throughout the portfolio.
Previously Mr. Banerjee formed the sourcing team alongside Neil at Element Partners. Mr. Banerjee also worked in the venture capital group at Bluerun Ventures and was a management consultant at PriceWaterhouse Coopers. Mr. Banerjee began his career at Synoptics Communications where he designed networking equipment. Mr. Banerjee is a graduate of the Wharton School of Business, where he received an MBA, and of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, where he received a BS in Electrical Engineering with Eta Kappa Nu academic honors.
Mr. Banerjee has served as a director and founder of numerous technology companies.
Peter Fitzgerald, Ph.D.
Director of the Center for Cardiovascular Technology at Stanford University Medical School
Professor (Research) of Medicine (Cardiovascular) Emeritus
Managing Partner & Co-Founder Triventures
Dr. Peter Fitzgerald is the Director of the Center for Cardiovascular Technology and Director of the Cardiovascular Core Analysis Laboratory (CCAL) at Stanford University Medical School. He is an Interventional Cardiologist and has a Ph.D. in Engineering. He is Professor in both the Departments of Medicine and Engineering (by courtesy) at Stanford. Presently, Dr. Fitzgerald’s laboratory includes 17 postdoctoral fellows and graduate engineering students focusing on state-of-the-art technologies in Cardiovascular Medicine. He has led or participated in over 175 clinical trials, published over 550 manuscripts/chapters, and lectures worldwide. He has trained over 150 post-docs in Engineering and Medicine in the past decade. In addition, he heads the Stanford/Asia MedTech innovation program.
Dr. Fitzgerald has been principle/founder of twenty-one medical device companies in the San Francisco Bay Area. He has transitioned fourteen of these start-ups to large medical device companies. He serves on several boards of directors and advises dozens of medical device startups as well as multinational healthcare companies in the design and development of new diagnostic and therapeutic devices in the cardiovascular arena. In 2001, Dr. Fitzgerald was on the founding team of LVP Capital, a venture firm, focused on medical device and biotechnology start-ups in San Francisco. In 2009, he co-founded Triventures in Israel, which is a venture fund focused on early-mid stage medical technology and digital healthcare.
Jayant Kadambi ’85, ’86G
Jayant Kadambi is a serial entrepreneur, technologist, business leader, board member, and avid tennis player. Mr. Kadambi currently advises and invests in private technology and consumer companies as well as serves on several boards. Most recently, he co-founded and was the CEO of YuMe (NYSE:YUME) for 12 years. YuMe is a digital video advertising media and software technology company, and Mr. Kadambi helped lead it from inception to its current position as a leading global, publicly held company. Mr. Kadambi has more than 20 years of experience in digital media technology, networking, hardware, architecture, and semiconductors. He has a proven record of successes that have influenced businesses, driven profitability, inspired talent, and steered client relations.
Mr. Kadambi is the co-author of a book on Gigabit Ethernet and holds several domestic and international patents in the fields of video, semiconductors, and advertising technology.
He earned a Bachelor of Science and a Master of Science degree in electrical engineering from the department of electrical, computer, and systems engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
Chris Lundquist ’91, ’92 MBA
Executive Chairman, Chargeback Gurus
Mr. Lundquist ’91, ’92 MBA is an accomplished business leader and data and technology strategist who sets the vision to meet business objectives.
Mr. Lundquist aligns business strategies with an inclusive and diverse culture to foster creativity, collaboration, and accountability and solve customers’ most challenging problems.
Mr. Lundquist’s 30-year career in building data- and analytics-driven technology businesses began in 1989, when he founded LCI. He built the company into a leading innovator of credit risk analysis and business management solutions, enabling customers to recover more than $1 trillion from bankrupt consumers and businesses.
Mr. Lundquist is a widely recognized expert on credit and merchant risk, speaking regularly at industry conferences and media events. He has published extensive research, analytics, and best practices on at-risk consumer behavior and worked to develop legislative policies for credit risk management, bankruptcy process improvement, and financial counseling. He launched the first national bankruptcy database and has secured three patents for his process and methodology inventions.
Mr. Lundquist holds an MBA, with a focus in finance, management information systems, and AI/machine learning, and a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering, both from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He also completed Verisk’s Harvard Leadership Excellence Program and the University of Virginia’s Data Science Program.
Mr. Lundquist is the vice-chair of the board of The Marine Mammal Center. He’s also an enthusiastic aviator of twin, turbine, historic military, and high-performance aerobatic airplanes.
Sandeep Mirchandani ’88
CEO, Beetl Robotics
Mr. Mirchandani is chief executive officer of Beetl Robotics, a company dedicated to providing best-in-class solutions with expertise in cloud networking, computer vision, and mechanical design. Having seen dramatic cost reductions during his 20+ years in the semiconductor industry, he sees robotics entering a similar golden era of mass adoption and wants to be at the forefront of bringing useful robots to businesses across the globe.
Prior to joining Beetl Robotics, Mr. Mirchandani served as chief technology officer at Alchemy Designs, which was acquired by Broadcom, where he previously was technical director for over 15years. Mr. Mirchandani earned a master’s degree from Stanford University in electrical engineering in 1996 and a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Rensselaer in 1988.
Adrienne Roberts, P’21
Chair, Parents Subcommittee
Ms. Roberts is a full-time parent transitioning into an “empty-nester”. She has two children, three dogs, a cat, and a very active husband. As a mother, she has considerable experience with managing her kids’ extracurricular teams and clubs—including soccer, lacrosse, Girl Scouts, and FIRST Robotics.
As a wife, her signature achievement is cooking a lovely meal for 15 people with two hours’ notice. She is an avid quilter and gardener, and loves spin class and hiking with her dogs. She is the parent of one child born extremely premature and another child with Type 1 Diabetes. Her experiences parenting kids with “hiccups” in their development has enriched her life in ways that she would have happily avoided, but have given her an appreciation for finding value in life’s little surprises. Her son is the first in the family to attend Rensselaer. She and her husband, Bryan live in Portola Valley, CA. Ms. Roberts earned a bachelor’s degree from UC Santa Barbara, and a master’s degree in social work from Smith College.
Siva Sivaram ’85G, ’86 Ph.D.
Trustee, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
President, QuantumScape
A tech executive with exceptional experience across the semiconductor, data storage and solar industries, Dr. Sivaram has held key leadership positions at Western Digital, SanDisk, Intel and Matrix Semiconductors over the last four decades. He also founded and led Twin Creek Technologies, a company specialized in novel solar cells and equipment.
Dr. Sivaram has authored numerous technical papers and a textbook on chemical vapor deposition and holds several patents in semiconductor and solar technologies.
Dr. Sivaram currently sits on the board of directors for the US-India Business Council, and Akshaya Patra, the world’s largest NGO dedicated to feeding school children.
He earned his Doctorate and Master’s degrees in Materials Science from the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and is a Distinguished Alumnus of the National Institute of Technology, Trichy, where he received a Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering.
RENSSELAER SILICON VALLEY EXECUTIVE COUNCIL SUBCOMMITTEES
Each RSVN Executive Council member is asked to join one of five subcommittees. Each subcommittee meets twice per year and reports on its progress at the Council’s semi-annual meeting. The five subcommittees are:
The Arch is a unique program that provides flexibility in the junior-year semester. It enables students to pursue professional and personal development opportunities that prepare them to meet the multi-faceted challenges of the 21stcentury, and still graduate on time.
Rising juniors remain on campus after their sophomore year to attend a full academic summer semester taking junior-level classes while receiving focused attention from faculty, staff, and administrators.
After completing junior year courses during the summer semester, students starting internships or co-ops are more fully prepared to tackle the discipline-specific assignments that await them. The subcommittee will team with the Center for Career and Professional Development at Rensselaer to help expand placement of students at companies and organizations throughout Silicon Valley and the Bay Area.
Rensselaer parents are critical to sharing information and providing forums to encourage the engagement and participation of the community in Silicon Valley and the Bay Area. This includes parents of current and prospective students, student applicants, incoming freshman, graduating seniors, and alumni/ae.
Members of the Parents subcommittee serve as ambassadors for Rensselaer, reaching out in fellowship to these constituencies throughout the region. The subcommittee’s goal is to expand awareness of the unique and exceptional benefits of a Rensselaer education and collaborate with Student Life, Admissions, and Institute Advancement to support enrollment and retention efforts.
Students are more than our first priority—they are the reason Rensselaer exists. To attract and retain the brightest and most promising candidates, we must have the financial resources to compete with other top-tier universities, including those able to meet the full financial needs of students.
Increasing access and enhancing the student experience requires us to “bridge the gap” in available financial aid. To be a magnet for the best and brightest students and faculty, our living and recreation spaces, academic facilities, and research centers must be state-of-the-art and contribute to a vibrant and engaged campus community.
We are engaged in major infrastructure projects that will dramatically enhance our capabilities and the student experience. The subcommittee will team with Graig Eastin, Vice President for Institute Advancement, and the Advancement team to connect alumni, corporations, foundations, friends, and parents to Rensselaer senior leadership and trustees committed to the pillars of Transformative: Campaign for Global Change for philanthropic opportunities.
Rensselaer has a broad, collaborative, and vibrant research community, focused on the growing interface of the basic sciences, social sciences, and engineering. This provides the basis for innovative solutions to today’s global challenges, including preventing and mitigating disease; providing clean food and water; developing new sources of clean and renewable energy; and establishing a sustainable and resilient national and international infrastructure.
The Research subcommittee will facilitate connections between Institute leadership and executives and leaders at prominent companies and foundations in the region in order to explore research partnerships, collaborations, and other potential opportunities. Members also will connect entrepreneurs seeking collaborations on startups and research projects with Rensselaer faculty, staff, and alumni/ae.
Rensselaer exemplifies the critical importance and unquestionable value of women serving at the highest levels of leadership. No one better personifies this truth than President Shirley Ann Jackson, Ph.D. whose long list of personal and professional accomplishments are extraordinary.
The Women’s Leadership subcommittee, in collaboration with Rensselaer leadership, will coordinate outreach to raise awareness about our commitment to recruiting more young women to attend Rensselaer, and encourage them to consider pursuing a STEM education. Committee members will also conduct outreach to companies and foundations in Silicon Valley and the Bay Area to make them aware of the caliber of young Rensselaer alumnae and to advocate for their recruitment.
FOR MORE INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT:
Regional Director of Development, Northern and Southern California
Office of Institute Advancement
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
(518) 276-3944 (p) | (518) 704-7076 (c) | whiter10@rpi.edu