Raghav Chopra

Chairman

Raghav Chopra is Chairman of the Ivy Council Board of Governors. He is an Associate in private equity at The Carlyle Group, where he focuses on investments in the media and telecommunications sectors. Previously, he was an Analyst in the investment banking division at Goldman, Sachs & Co. in the technology, media and telecommunications group.

As an undergraduate, Raghav served as VP Finance of Ivy Council and as ILS Finance Chair. He has been a member of the Board of Governors since 2006 and was elected Chairman in 2008.

Raghav graduated from Yale University with a B.S. in Electrical Engineering and a B.A. in Economics. He lives in New York City.

Derek Berlin

Vice Chairman

Derek currently works for JPMorgan Chase & Co. in International Government Relations. Previously, he worked for two years at the Council on Foreign Relations in the office of the president. Derek also worked for the US Department of State at the US Mission to the United Nations, as well as being a member of the Coalition Provisional Authority's Governance Team in Iraq while working for the Department of Defense.

In addition to serving on the Board of Governors of the Ivy Council, Derek is a member of the "Global Kids" Young Leaders Advisory Board and a member of the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs' New Leaders Program.

Derek twice served as Columbia's Head Delegate to the Ivy Council.

Soren Bech

Chief Financial Officer

Soren Bech graduated from Yale University in 1999 with a BA in Economics and Political Science, and from Columbia Business School in 2005 with a MBA in Finance. Soren is currently a Vice President at Morgan Stanley, where he analyses technology, media and telecom stocks as part of the Small-Mid Cap Value Mutual Fund Team. Previously, Soren worked in investment research at Neuberger Berman, the asset management business of Lehman Brothers. Post graduation from Yale, he worked at Lazard Frères in Asset Management where he was a corporate bond portfolio manager and analyst.

At Yale, Soren was the Chair of the Communications Committee of the Yale College Council, Treasurer of the Freshman Class and a Representative of Silliman College. He interned in the US House of Representatives and at the White House under President Clinton.

Soren was Vice President-Internal of the Ivy Council during the 1997-98 school year and oversaw the re-write that gave the Ivy Council its current Constitution. He has been a member of the Board of Governors since 1999, serving as CFO from 2000-2002 and Chairman from 2002-2006. Soren is currently serving as the CFO. Soren is involved in various political and civil rights organizations, and enjoys travel, swimming and jet-skiing. He lives in New York City.

Bing Chen

Chief Communications Officer

Bing Chen is an Associate Manager at Google Inc., where he works in product management and marketing in the Google.org division.

Bing graduated from the University of Pennsylvania, where he studied English and Social Psychology. He has served as the President of the Ivy Council, Vice President for Internal Affairs, and Penn Head Delegate. As Vice President for Internal Affairs, Bing revitalized the Penn delegation, was instrumental in re-energizing the Ivy Leadership Summit, and founded the first Ivy-China Summit. Under Bing’s Presidency, the Council realized the creation and development of numerous programs including: the Ivy Council’s International Engagement Department, including the Ivy-China and Ivy-Europe-Middle East Summits; the Ivy Policy Database; the reconception of the Ivy Policy Colloquia; a renewed IvyCORPS branch with international internships and partnerships; IvyLIFE; the CIVIC Conference; a 400% average increase in core Ivy Council membership; and the official reinstatement of Harvard as an Ivy Council member. He is also the first recipient of the Spirit of the Ivy League Award.



Aside from his Ivy Council involvement, Bing has also served as Chairman and Board Member of the Californian, Pennsylvania and National Youth Boards of the American Cancer Society, Student Life Chairman on Penn’s Undergraduate Assembly, a member of Alpha Kappa Psi, various mentoring roles, and membership in the Sphinx Honor Society and Oracle Honor Society. He lives in San Francisco.

David Ali

David B. Ali graduated from Columbia University in 2007 with a B.A. in Political Science and a Premedical Concentration. David is a member of the Columbia Alumni Association Board of Directors and is currently applying to law school.

At Columbia, David served as University Senator, Academic Affairs Representative of the Columbia College Student Council, Vice-Chair of the Columbia College Class of 2007 Fund Committee, and was a member of Sigma Phi Epsilon Fraternity. He also served as Vice-President for Policy of the Ivy Council and Correspondence Chair for the 2005 Ivy Leadership Summit (ILS) Conference. David enjoys surfing.

Tyson Belanger

Tyson Belanger now studies international relations as a PhD candidate in political science at Harvard University. Previously, Tyson served for six years as a Marine infantry officer and deployed overseas five times, three times to Iraq. In 1998, Tyson graduated from Yale University where he also served as Yale College Council President. Within the Ivy Council, Tyson attended more than 10 Ivy Council conferences and served as the first Chairperson for the Board of Governors. Tyson enjoys travel and has visited all 50 U.S. states, 2 U.S. territories, and 42 countries.

Alex Cosmas

Alex Cosmas graduated from Columbia in 2004 with a B.S. in Applied Physics and a minor in Political Science. He is currently a graduate student and Department of Defense Fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, earning an S.M. in Aerospace Engineering and an S.M. in Technology & Policy Studies. His research examines the impacts of regulatory liberalization in Air Transportation on aviation stakeholders and U.S. national security.

While at Columbia, Alex was the President of the Ivy Council, a Peace by P.E.A.C.E. mentor in Harlem, a member of the Engineering Student Council and the Senior Advisory Board to the deans of Columbia. As IVC President, Alex and his Executive Board doubled IVC membership and formalized the new structure of the Ivy Council, and its ILS, IvyCORPS, and ICC Committees, through a newly ratified Constitution and By-Laws. After graduation, he completed the two-year rotational Engineering Leadership Development Program at Lockheed Martin.

Michelle Fernandes

Michelle Fernandes is currently an analyst with BlackRock Financial Management. She is a member of BlackRock's Account Management Group, responsible for developing and maintaining relationships with institutional investment consultants. Ms. Fernandes also participates in the firm's philanthropy and recruitment committees. Outside of BlackRock, she is a member of Cornell University's Alumni Admission Ambassadors and New York CARES, a New York-based community philanthropy organization.

Ms. Fernandes began her career with BlackRock in 2006. Previously, she was a student at Cornell University. At Cornell, she most recently served as the student body's Vice President of Finance, responsible for allocating the student activity fee. Prior to that, she served as the student body's Vice President of Public Relations. In addition to her responsibilities with the Student Assembly, which she joined in her freshman year, she was a member of the 2006 Class Council, a sister in Alpha Chi Omega Sorority, a Research Associate with the NIH and a Cornell National Scholar. Outside of Cornell, she served as the Ivy Council President from 2005 - 2006. During her time with the Ivy Council, she also served as the Head Delegate to Cornell, and chaired the 2004 Fall Conference. Ms. Fernandes' previous work experience includes a summer internship in the Private Wealth Management division at Goldman Sachs and an internship with Congressman Gary Ackerman.

Mr. Fernandes earned a BS degree, with honors, in Public Policy Analysis and Management from Cornell University in 2006.

Yelena Gershman

Yelena Gershman graduated in 2005 from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania with concentrations in finance, accounting and real estate and a minor in Russian. Yelena currently works at Financo, Inc., a New York based investment banking firm focused exclusively on the consumer sector.

At Penn Yelena was a member of the Undergraduate Assembly and served in positions including Executive Secretary, Campus Life Committee Chair, Facilities Committee Chair and Ivy Council Head Delegate. Yelena was also the Chair of Ivy Leaders Summit (ILS) in 2003 and Public Relations Chairs of later Ivy Leaders Summits.

Michael Hanson

Michael J. Hanson is a 2001 graduate of the Cornell University College of Engineering and a 2002 graduate of the Cornell Institute for Public Affairs Masters degree program.

Michael has been a member of the Ivy Council since 1997, serving as a delegate, acting head delegate, and Finance Committee Chairman. He was selected to the Board of Governors in 2001. Michael served as Vice Chairman of the Board from 2002-2006 and the Board’s Chairman from 2006-2008.

Michael is a security officer with the federal government, specializing in communications systems, and has worked with the USDA Graduate School, the Federal Aviation Administration and US Nuclear Regulatory Commission on a number of leadership, human resources, and security issues concerning the civil service. Michael is originally from the Chicago area and lives in Northern Virginia with his wife Susan (Cornell ‘01, grad ‘02). He enjoys training for and running marathons in his spare time.

Eli Hoffman

Eli Hoffman graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 2006 with a B.S. in Economics from the Wharton School. Eli currently works as a consultant with the Monitor Group in Cambridge, Massachusetts and lives in Brookline, MA. While at Penn, Eli was involved in a number of organizations including the Nominations and Elections Committee, the Pennacle Leadership Pre-orientation Program, and the Delta Upsilon Fraternity. As an IVC undergrad, Eli served as Penn Head Delegate and as Vice-President for Internal Affairs. In his spare time, Eli cheers for the Red Sox and Patriots and wanders the city of Boston.

Scott Jacobs

Scott Jacobs currently manages the cleantech practice at McKinsey & Company, where he has helped start the practice and advise top management across a number of industries including high-technology, consumer, media, public sector/non-profit, private equity and energy clients.

Prior to McKinsey, Mr. Jacobs helped launch and grow PolyServe, a virtualization software company, where he started and ran the international operations as the General Manager. Mr. Jacobs initiated and led the strategic alliance with Hewlett Packard, ultimately leading to HP's acquisition of PolyServe in March 2007 for more than $200M.

As a consultant, advisor and entrepreneur, Mr. Jacobs has helped raise over $150M of top-tier venture capital for various high-technology companies. Mr. Jacobs has worked as an investment professional at Battery Ventures, where he led early-stage software investing activities, and as a consultant to Sequoia Capital, advising on clean-technology investment opportunities.

Mr. Jacobs serves as a Board member for two non-profit organizations in the area of youth leadership, Young Leaders In Action and the Ivy Council, is a co-founder and advisory council member for the Energy Free Home Foundation, and serves as a strategic advisor to New Leaders for New Schools.

Scott received his MBA from the Harvard Business School, where he was named a George F. Baker scholar, and his BA cum laude from Dartmouth College.

Nick Jennings

Nick Jennings graduated from Columbia University in 2006 with a BS in Chemical Engineering. He is now an analyst in the Equity Capital Markets group at Bank of America.

As an undergraduate, Nick served as Correspondence Chair for Ivy Leadership Summit 2004 and Chairman of Ivy Leadership Summit 2005. He was Vice President for Intergroup Affairs from Spring 2005 - Spring 2006.

Nick is currently a Board member of the Columbia Engineering Young Alumni. Additionally, he is a volunteer coach and Junior Board member for City Lax and a volunteer teacher for Operation Hope's Banking on our Future program.

Erica Kagan

Erica Kagan is a public interest attorney working with non-profit organizations to provide free legal services and legislative advocacy.

As a member of the Ivy Council, she served as the Vice President of Internal Operations from 2003-2004 after serving as Cornell University’s Head Delegate and organizing the 2002 Fall Conference.

Erica graduated from Cornell in 2005 with a B.S. in Policy Analysis and Management. At Cornell, she served as the President of the Cornell University Student Assembly, a member of the Cornell Women’s Resource Center Advisory Board, and President of Haven, the LGBTQ umbrella organization. Erica then received a J.D. from Brooklyn Law School in 2008. She is originally from Dix Hills, New York and now lives in New York City.

Jennifer Mickel

Jennifer Mickel is currently a project assistant at the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs. Before graduating from Princeton University in 2007, she served as President, Head Delegate, and Princeton Delegation Secretary for Ivy Council.

Eric Poirier

Eric Poirier graduated from Columbia University in 2004 and is currently a director of business development at Palantir Technologies.

John "Jay" Saxon Jr.

John Saxon graduated in 2005 from Princeton University with an A.B. in the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. Following Princeton, he attended Central European University in Budapest, Hungary, on a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholarship, where he received an M.A. in International Relations and European Studies. Jay is currently a legal assistant in the Budapest office of White & Case LLP, and plans to attend law school in the fall of 2008 after a six-month trip around the world.

At Princeton, Jay was President of the College Democrats, co-chaired, with the Chairman of the Princeton College Republicans, a campus-wide voter registration drive called P-Votes, sang with the Princeton Nassoons, and was a member of the Princeton Tower Club. Jay served as Head Delegate for the Princeton delegation from 2003-2005, where he engineered a turnaround that made Princeton's chapter into one of IVC's strongest. Jay is a news junkie, and also enjoys travel, movies and speaking broken Norwegian. He has been to 34 countries.

Dan Tavana

Daniel L. Tavana is a graduating senior from the University of Pennsylvania, where he has studied International Relations and Political Science. He has served on the Executive Board of the Ivy Council for the past two years, first as VP Finance and most recently as VP Policy.

Aside from his involvement with Ivy Council, Dan has also served as the Secretary-General of the University of Pennsylvania Model United Nations Conference and has been an athlete on Penn's ice hockey team for four years. Dan has had a number of unique summer internships in both local and federal government. This past summer, Dan interned with the Office of Naval Intelligence, and spent his winter break working for the Navy in Bahrain. He has traveled extensively throughout Europe, and will be pursuing an MPhil in International Relations at Cambridge under the auspices of a Thouron Scholarship next year.

Rachel Thomas