Donna Papparella

In the midst of working on a Ph. D in English literature, Donna Papparella decided to make a decision somewhat atypical of aspirant academics: she launched a retail fashion boutique, AliKat nyc, in Downtown Brooklyn’s booming Smith Street commercial corridor. Following countless shopping expeditions with her teenage step-daughters throughout New York, Ms. Papparella realized that there was really no store that offered the brands, looks, and sizes she and other fashion-savvy consumers wanted staffed by inveterate shoppers like herself. So she decided to create just such a store. Open a little more than a year, AliKat nyc has generated enough buzz and grown so rapidly that an imminent expansion of its retail space to a second floor, with a restaurant on the third, is in the works.

Yael Smadja

A principal of Smadja & Associates SA, runs her Geneva-and-New York-based company on the assumption that more and more non-business factors and trends are affecting business decision making, and that companies are not necessarily equipped to identify these factors. She provides firms with alternatives to the traditional styles of management consulting. Brainstorming, seminars, newsletters, and the creation of international gatherings are her forte. Her firm established the Mexico Business Summit which will take place for the third time this October in Vera Cruz, Mexico. Smadja & Associates was also instrumental in planning the Future Summit in Sydney, Australia in May 2004, the Dubai Strategy Forum in December 2002, and various top-level private discussion groups on issues directly impacting businesses.

Lyndsay Howard

Founder and president of the communications boutique Howard Communications LLC, Lyndsay Howard is a strategic marketing advisor to corporate executives, government leaders and private equity investors. For 10 years, she was a senior intelligence analyst at the State Department, where she distinguished herself as one of Washington’s foremost experts on cross-border developments in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran, and was closely involved in a federal interagency Islamic Working Group. Lately, Ms. Howard has been involved in the major reinvention of Randall’s Island bringing together City officials from across the political spectrum and private donors. She is active in organizing an Information and Communications Technologies conference in Southeast Asia which will attract leaders from the 10 member countries of the Association of South East Asian Nations, the US government and the private sector, and aim to expand the emergency warning systems of countries such as Thailand, Indonesia, India and Sri Lanka, and to assist New York-based vendors and investors eager to tap into opportunities in the region.