News and Events
Finger Lakes Entrepreneurs' Forum Honors Professor Zach Shulman
Annual Cutting Award Recognizes Leadership in Developing Local Entrepreneurism
July 7, 2009 | Ithaca, NY | The Finger Lakes Entrepreneurs' Forum recently honored Zach Shulman with the 2009 Cutting Award in recognition of his commitment to building entrepreneurism in Tompkins County. Shulman is the Johnson School's J. Thomas Clark Senior Lecturer of Entrepreneurship and Personal Enterprise and a managing partner at Cayuga Venture Fund. The Finger Lakes Entrepreneurs' Forum has over 100 members and offers networking opportunities for entrepreneurs and others concerned with growing enterprises to meet regularly to exchange information.
The Cutting Award is named after Dave Cutting, a local businessman who has been instrumental in the economic development of Tompkins County. The award was first given to Andy Sciarabba in 2005 and has continued to honor a local recipient who contributed to developing entrepreneurship in the area. Other past recipients include Dave Ahlers, Roger Williams, and Tony Eisenhut.
"Zach is a leader in developing the entrepreneurial resources that serve our community. He has built many bridges between our local high-tech entrepreneurs and the Cornell community," commented Roger Williams, chair of the Finger Lakes Entrepreneurs' Forum steering committee. "He's being recognized for his efforts to coach, mentor, and advise local entrepreneurs and for his work with the Cornell community, both at the Johnson School and with Entrepreneurship @ Cornell, and at Cayuga Venture Fund."
At the Johnson School, Shulman teaches courses on venture capital and law for high-growth businesses. He also serves as an advisor to BR Incubator, a student run organization that provides project advisory services to start ups, and runs BR Legal, through which Cornell Law students provide legal services to start ups. Shulman has also served as general counsel and chief investor relations officer of Spike Broadband Systems, as an associate at the law firm of Harris Beach in Ithaca, New York, and an associate at Ropes & Gray in Boston, Massachusetts. He has been a managing partner at Cayuga Venture Fund since 2004 and is currently a director of Primet Precision Materials, Advion BioSciences, Instinctiv, e2e Materials and CherryPharm. He earned a bachelor of science ('87) from the Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations and graduated from Cornell University Law School ('90), magna cum laude.
