CISDD Advisory Board

CUNY Members

Ted Brown
CUNY Institute for Software Design and Development
Ted Brown is the Executive Officer for the CUNY computer science Ph.D. program at the Graduate Center and serves as the Executive Director of the CUNY Institute for Software Design and Development (CISDD). Before taking these positions, Dr. Brown is a Professor of Computer Science at Queens College and was its chair for almost twelve years. Dr. Brown is the chair of the Computer and Information Sciences section at the New York Academy of Sciences, and a member of the executive committee of the New York Software Industry Association (NYSIA).

Donald Menzi
New York City Regional Educational Center and CUNY Workforce Development Center

John Mogulescu
CUNY Office of Academic Affairs and School of Professional Studies
Mr. Mogulescu serves as senior university dean for academic affairs and dean of the School of Professional Studies; his current responsibilities involve him in almost all aspects of the university.s academic life. For many years, he has focused on ensuring that all newly-enrolled college students are adequately prepared for college-level work. To this end, Dean Mogulescu has overseen collaborative programs between CUNY and the NYC public schools, the CUNY Language Immersion and Bridge to College Programs, and the Adult Literacy and GED Preparation Programs. Dean Mogulescu also oversees the university.s Workforce Development Initiative. He is responsible for adult and continuing education at CUNY and its non-credit programs, which serve over 200,000 students per year. One of Dean Mogulescu.s priorities is building an infrastructure and creating new programs for the School of Professional Studies.

Dean Mogulescu serves as a member of the New York City Workforce Investment Board and New York City Youth Council. He is past president of the Continuing Education Association of New York, a former member of the New York State Adult Learning Services Council and past chair of the board of visitors of the New York City Police Department. Dean Mogulescu received a B.A. from Brown University and an MSW from New York University. He also attended the Institute for the Management of Lifelong Education at Harvard University.s Graduate School of Education.

Brian Schwartz
CUNY Graduate Center
Brian Schwartz is vice president for Research and Sponsored Programs and co-director of the New Media Lab at the CUNY Graduate Center. For the past twelve years he has been associated with the American Physical Society and was director of the Society's Centennial program in 1999, for which he was the producer of an artistic wall chart and website for a timeline entitled A Century of Physics. In the fall of 2003, Dr. Schwartz developed and co-taught a new course on science and theatre entitled Staging Science. Dr. Schwartz obtained a bachelors degree from City College in 1959 and a doctorate degree from Brown University in 1963, where he completed a Ph.D. thesis on superconductivity while studying under Prof. Leon Cooper (who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1972).

Roumen Vragov
Baruch College
Dr. Vragov is an assistant professor of computer information systems at Baruch College and teaches undergraduate, MBA and PhD courses in information systems and business. His major research interest is the design of decentralized digital exchange systems. As such he has contributed to various research areas including digital government, peer-to-peer networks, online auctions and software agents and online evaluation systems. Dr. Vragov received his Ph.D. in economic systems design from the University of Arizona.

Industry Advisors

Bruce Bernstein
New York Software Industry Association
Mr. Bernstein has been president of the New York Software Industry Association (NYSIA) since 1997. During his tenure, NYSIA has grown to be Silicon Alley.s largest trade association and one of the region.s leading forces for economic growth and progressive thinking. Bruce serves as the conference chair for the New York Software Summit, the largest yearly gathering of New York City.s software/IT industry. Mr. Bernstein is an expert on issues of technology and economic development, having written extensively on issues related to the development of high-tech industries, and has sat on advisory committees for Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, Senator Chuck Schumer, former NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani and former NYC Comptroller Alan Hevesi. A computer science graduate (B.A.) of Queens College, Mr.Bernstein has been in the software industry since 1984. From 1987-1997 he operated Main Street Partners, a database application development consulting firm. Prior to this, he held technical positions at Dun and Bradstreet and the Computer Sciences Corporation. He has served as an adjunct professor of computer science at Queens College, where he designed and taught a course on database systems, and was a finalist for the 2002 Harvard Business School New York Alumni Council .Non-Profit Entrepreneur of the Year. award.

Gerald Cohen
Information Builders, Inc.
Mr. Cohen is president and CEO of Information Builders, Inc., the largest software manufacturer in New York City, with 2,000 employees and thirty-eight offices located around the world. Information Builders is a leader in providing business intelligence software solutions, which help organizations monitor and analyze their activities. It also is a major supplier of application integration software, used to tie e-commerce to existing systems. Mr. Cohen co-founded Information Builders in 1975 to develop a software product that would allow non-programmers to create their own information systems. The resulting product, known as FOCUS, was the first fourth-generation language, a way for people without formal computer programming skills to work with information systems. Building on this foundation, Information Builders has constructed information systems for thousands of companies, universities and government agencies around the world. Today, Information Builders. business intelligence software, called WebFOCUS, is the leader in web-based reporting.

Mr. Cohen is a native of Manhattan and a lifelong booster of New York City. He serves on the advisory board for the New York City Emerging Industry Fund of the Economic Development Council. He went to Stuyvesant High School and graduated with degrees in mechanical engineering from City College of New York and operations research from Columbia University. He also has a degree in liberal studies from St. John.s College of Santa Fe, New Mexico, where he served on the board of directors for four years.

Alan Kaufman
Alan Kaufman Associates
Mr. Kaufman is a forty-year veteran of the computer/software/IT industry. He was a founding member of the management team of Cheyenne Software, Inc. There, as executive vice president of sales, he grew the business from $1 million in 1990 to over $200 million in 1997, propelling Cheyenne to become the 13th largest software company in the industry.

Mr. Kaufman has held various sales, marketing, sales management and marketing management positions at IBM and the Digital Equipment Corporation. He was CEO of Query Object Systems Corp., and today is president of Alan Kaufman Associates. Mr. Kaufman currently serves on the board of directors of NetIQ, a leader in server and security management. He is also a trustee of Outward Bound USA and serves on the board of directors of NYSIA, where he was the founding president. In addition, Mr. Kaufman served as an officer in the U.S. Navy. He holds a BS in Electrical Engineering from Tufts University

Parviz Kermani
IBM Watson Research Center
Since joining IBM in 1978, Dr. Kermani has been involved in a number of diverse research projects in computer communications, ranging from theoretical research to product development. Over the years he has made many contributions to a number of communications products for which IBM holds patents. Presently Dr. Kermani leads the Automated Media Systems department at the IBM Research Division. Hi is also a senior member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc., (IEEE) and has many publications in diverse fields of computers and communications. He has chaired conferences, workshops and technical sessions at a number of international conferences, and was the General Chair of Infocom 2002, the major conference on computer communications. Dr. Kermani received a B.S. degree from the University of Tehran, Iran, in 1969; an M. math degree from University of Waterloo, Canada, in 1973; and a Ph.D. degree in computer science from UCLA in 1977.

Bret Schlussman
NetLogic, Inc.
An accomplished technological innovator, Mr. Schlussman has been developing advanced software for over twenty years. He is a pioneer in Windows communication and component design for industrial automation, having spearheaded Rockwell International.s lead in this market. In positions at Pepsi Co., American Express and First Boston, Mr. Schlussman worked on various micro-to-mainframe communication systems, including the first 3270 emulator for Windows. As a consultant he developed GUI-based financial workstation software for Goldman Sachs, Bankers Trust and other clients in the financial services industry.

In 1996, Mr. Schlussman founded qbt after recognizing the need for an open solution that would support the e-commerce needs of the financial services industry. Over 750 financial institutions used qbt.s flagship product, Multipoint Integrator, which enabled plug and play connectivity to EFT networks. For this work he was awarded patent #6,928,640, a .system and method for building source code for connecting to systems.. In 2005 qbt was sold to Corillian Corp., the market-leading provider of highly scalable and secure internet banking solutions.

Today Mr. Schlussman is president of Netlogic Inc, a software company that develops industrial automation products, and serves as a board member of NYSIA. He is also a certified .Solutions Developer,. Microsoft.s most prestigious certification, and holds four patents.