Meet The Team
Tom's impressive academic credentials include the US Military Academy at West Point BS in Engineering, Boston University Masters in Education and Harvard Business School Masters in Business Administration.
He served in the US Army Corps of Engineers, retiring as a Lieutenant Colonel. His career spanned a variety of roles in training, sales and marketing. He currently works with Lausanne Business Solutions on a variety of consulting and educational projects for various Government agencies and Commercial firms.
"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."
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Maureen Marken
Maureen holds a BS in Chemistry from Rochester Institute of Technology. In addition, she has extensive training and certifications in database design, administration, data warehouse design, transact SQL, and Project Management Professional (PmP). She is a professional trainer in database technologies.
In her career she focused on leapfrog programs that would positively impact the bottom line and help energize corporations towards a culture of rapid adaptive change.
She loves helping others succeed, and the goal with 7SKO is to provide young people in underserved areas a unique mechanism for self-motivated success. “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.”
Raj Marken
Raj holds an MBA in Finance from University of Rochester and Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering from University of Lowell.
His career spans engineering, finance, training and information technology. He has deep consulting knowledge in Networks, Security and Communications technologies.
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."
Thomas Fitzsimmons
Robert Clark
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 and Senior Vice President for Research at the University of Rochester in July 2016 after serving 8 years as dean of the Hajim School of Engineering & Applied Science.
Rob is an expert in acoustics and bionanomanufacturing. He has over 130 journal publications and has received multiple awards.
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.
Alexandra Marken
Alex holds a B.A. in Psychology from Framingham State University where she graduated summa cum laude and an Education Masters in Language and Literacy from Harvard Graduate School of Education.
She provides training and professional development to educators; intensive, on-going coaching to educators to improve their instructional practices, and is a Project Task Lead.
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."