Board of Advisors Full Bios
Thomas Fitzsimmons
Tom's academic credentials include:
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US Military Academy at West Point BS in Engineering
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Boston University Masters in Education
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Harvard Business School Masters in Business Administration
Tom served in the US Army Corps of Engineers with major assignments in Germany and at the Military Academy Prep School at Ft. Monmouth, NJ teaching mathematics. Left active duty as a Captain and then joined the Army Reserves. Completed Army Command and General Staff School. Retired as a Lieutenant Colonel after 24 years of total service.
Tom advanced through several companies primarily in the sales and marketing functions. Became President of BIW Connector Systems, an oil services company in Santa Rosa, CA and then President of SEI Metalforms, a manufacturing company in Dallas, TX, which made metal parts and components for a variety of industries including oil services, trucking, medical devices and aerospace/defense. Each position required the management and training of a diverse personnel base, planning and budgeting for operations and forward thinking to plan the future. Currently works with Lausanne Business Solutions on a variety of consulting and educational projects for various Government agencies and Commercial firms. Primary focus on Management Development, Organizational Efficiency and Effectiveness, and Strategic Planning and Budgeting.
This unique idea is a way to take small, incremental steps to alleviate the world-wide cycle of poverty through a creative educational program. People can only get ahead and break out of their current impoverished lives if they are educated, have skills that are needed and have the desire to advance. 7SKO will provide those opportunities and participating in their efforts will be a rewarding endeavor.
Raj Marken
Raj holds MBA in Finance from University of Rochester and Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering from University of Lowell. Raj has held many Senior IT Consulting and Architecting positions with 20+ years of extensive experience in managing both strategic and tactical aspects of IT.
He served as a key partner to CIOs and Business Executives in solving their infrastructure needs through a merge of traditional and adoption of new technologies. He is experienced in IT planning, resource management, project management and implementation. He launched a Microsoft Training and Education Center and spent 10 years in IT training in Networks, Security and Unified Communications.
His passion for technology training, the positive impact it has on his career and his love of adventure inspires him to create the 7SKO Project. He envisions the training and personal career support that the 7SKO project delivers will bring the same success to people in underserved areas of the global community. His mantra is 'one step at a time, but no steps backward'.
Maureen Marken
Maureen holds a BS in Chemistry from Rochester Institute of Technology. In addition, she has extensive training in database design, administration, data warehouse design and transact SQL. She holds certifications in those technologies as well as Project Management Professional (PmP).
She became an expert on Microsoft SQL Server and related technologies, taught data technologies at Boston University, New Horizons and other training companies.
Through successive leadership roles in marketing and information technology with Barry Controls, Lojack, and AMEC Foster Wheeler she established highly performing teams delivering projects to a net neutral cost impact, while gaining the trust of executive teams by delivering to commitments.
As Global Vice President of Innovation and Enterprise Programs, she focused on leapfrog programs that would positively impact the bottom line and helped to energize the company towards a culture of rapid adaptive change.
She loves helping others succeed, and the goal with 7SKO is to help provide young people in underserved areas a unique mechanism for self-motivated success opportunities. “If we can do steps to remove poverty cycles, we can improve communities as a whole.” Maureen's particular drive is to promote young women in technology. “Women often are the primary bread-winners for their family but don't get the chance to pursue professional careers. The unique structure of 7SKO allows us to 'stay' with our students to guide them through success stages for a positive Kahani.”
Rob received a BS degree in 1987 and an MS degree in 1988 both in mechanical engineering from the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University before joining Michelin Research in Greenville, South Carolina. He returned to Virginia Tech to complete his doctoral work and received his PhD in 1992.
He became provost of the University of Rochester in July 2016 after serving 8 years as dean of the Hajim School of Engineering & Applied Science. He has also carried the title of senior vice president for research since 2012. Prior to his appointments at the University of Rochester, Clark spent 16 years of his academic career at Duke University where he served as senior associate dean for 6 years and then dean of the Pratt School of Engineering.
Rob is an expert in acoustics and bionanomanufacturing. He has over 130 journal publications and has been awarded the R. Bruce Lindsey Award from the Acoustical Society of America, the National Science Foundation Career Program Award, the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, the NASA Group Achievement Award, and in 2016 was named Engineer of the Year by the Rochester Engineering Society.
He is active outside academia as well. He currently serves on the board of Minerals Technologies Incorporated, Sweetwater Energy, GW Lisk, and is a member of the Strategic Advisory Board for the Austrian Institute of Technology. Rob served as Chief Science/Technology Officer for bsg technologies from 2009-2013, was a co-founder for Spark IP, and has extensive consulting experience in the technology space.
In his free time, Rob is an avid fisherman, slalom skier, and musician. He is a member of a local Rochester band, Don’t Know Jack, where he plays guitar and banjo.
Robert Clark
'Alex' Marken
Alex holds a B.A. in Psychology from Framingham State University where she graduated summa cum laude and an Ed.M. in Language and Literacy from Harvard Graduate School of Education.
Alex has years of experience providing technical assistance to K-12 schools and conducting evaluations of education initiatives in the United States.
She provides training and professional development to educators; intensive, on-going coaching to educators to improve their instructional practices; data collection including conducting interviews, focus groups, and classroom observations; qualitative and quantitative data analysis; report writing; and curriculum development. Alex has extensive experience in project management, serving as a task lead for several projects.
Alex feels passionately that a high-quality education is the best way to improve people’s lives. "What is clear to me is that there's poverty everywhere, but in some cases like in the developing countries, poverty is extreme, extensive, and intense. Through 7SKO, we are enhancing access to trainings in skills and technology that are highly desirable in the global marketplace, thus helping to break through the cycle of poverty."