Aspire Academy

Dr. Sam Potolicchio was named one of “America’s Best Professors” by the Princeton Review, the Future Leader of American Higher Education by the Association of Colleges and Universities, and winner of the OZY Educator Award as one of the six outstanding American educators. He was also profiled in a cover story on his leadership curriculum by Newsweek Japan as the “Best Professor in America”. Potolicchio is President of the Preparing Global Leaders Forum and Distinguished University Professor, Department Chairman and Vice-Dean of the Faculty of Political Science at the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration.

Sam Potolicchio teaches in the EMBA programs at the McDonough School of Business at Georgetown and at the Mannheim Business School (Germany). He is a visiting lecturer at University of Bologna (Italy). He is a columnist for Newsweek Japan, a Distinguished Global Scholar at the Canterbury School of Fort Myers, and the lecturer on Leadership at the Library of Congress for OWLC, an international leadership program of the United States Congress. Potolicchio is an adviser to prominent business, non-profit and government leaders. He created and designed the first undergraduate degree in Global Governance and Leadership in English in the Russian Federation where he serves as Academic Director.

From 2015-2019 Sam Potolicchio served as the Director of Global and Custom Education at the McCourt School of Public Policy at Georgetown University, has been a visiting professor at New York University, and joined Senator Richard Lugar as tag team senior lecturers at UIndy’s Semester in Washington. Potolicchio has delivered lectures in over 85 countries, from Oxford, LSE, Cambridge and Yale to Iraq’s Komar University and Donetsk State University. As a middle-school basketball coach he led his Little Hoyas to 6 league titles and previously served as a 5th grade Latin teacher, public high school teacher of Law and History and secondary school admissions officer.

Luciana Herman is a Lecturer in Public Policy at Stanford University. Previously, she has taught writing and political rhetoric courses at Harvard University and the University of California, Berkeley. In addition to policy writing and public speaking, her academic interests include American political rhetoric, racial formation and immigration policy. Following work on Capitol Hill in the area of water policy, Dr. Herman earned her PhD in English at the University of California, Berkeley.

Phil Malone teaches at Stanford Law School. His work is focused on understanding and promoting sound innovation and exploring how intellectual property and competition policy in high-tech industries affect it. Phil came to Stanford from Harvard Law School. He was one of the faculty directors of the Berkman Center and was the initial HLS liaison to the Harvard Innovation Lab, a new, university wide center aimed at facilitating innovation and entrepreneurship among Harvard students and faculty.

Janet Martinez is Director of the Martin Daniel Gould Center for Conflict Resolution and Senior Lecturer in Law at Stanford Law School, where she teaches advanced negotiation, dispute system design and alternative dispute resolution law, practice & policy. Martinez practiced corporate law for ten years before moving to Cambridge, Massachusetts where she did research, writing, and teaching in various aspects of negotiation at Harvard University’s graduate schools of business, law, and government.

While in Cambridge, professor Martinez was Senior Associate for the Consensus Building Institute, a nonprofit provider of dispute resolution services in the public and private sectors, both domestic and international. There, she facilitated policy dialogues for the United Nations, World Trade Organization, and Framework Convention on Climate Change.

Janet Martinez’ current research and consulting focus on dispute system design (with Lisa Amsler and Stephanie Smith: Dispute System Design, Stanford University Press forthcoming 2020), sustainable groundwater management in California, online dispute resolution, and international comparative dispute resolution. Martinez holds a B.S. in Bacteriology & Public Health from Washington State University, J.D. from Golden Gate University, Masters in Public Administration from Harvard University, and Ph.D. from MIT.

Professor Martinez joined Aspire 2020 and will be teaching the Aspire programs for the very first time in 2021.

Alain Heureux, serial entrepreneur starting his first company in 1984 and still creating companies at the current age of 52. Most companies were and are active in media, marketing, digital and technologies. Parallel to his ventures, Alain has taken an active part in many professional marketing, creative, and digital associations across Europe. He is part of the Strategy Policy Forum from the European Commission on Digital Transformation and Entrepreneurship.

In 2010, he opened one of the first Incubators in Brussels hosting more than 60 starters from the creative industries as well as hosting events from corporates and institutions (The Egg Brussels&Pepibru). Today, Alain Heureux is the co-founder of Brussels Creative and Creative Ring as well as trainer of starters and corporates throughout the Virtuology Academy. Cross-over innovation and creative ecosystems are the two main focus points.

Matthew Lee is an Assistant Professor at NYU. Previously, he has taught at INSEAD, a leading global business school, the core MBA course on Strategy. He received his doctorate at Harvard Business School. The sphere of his research is social enterprise and public-private cooperation. Previously, Matt worked in non-profit strategy consulting at the Bridgespan Group, an affiliate of Bain and Company.

Andreea Gorbatai is Assistant Professor in the Management of Organizations at the Haas School of Business, University of California at Berkeley. Beforehand, Andreea received her PhD in Organizational Behaviour from Harvard Business School. She holds an MA in Sociology from Harvard University and a BA in Economics and Sociology from Dartmouth College. Andreea has experience teaching Harvard College’s undergraduate course in Social Entrepreneurship and in Harvard University’s Summer School Programs.

Nadia Roumani has a huge passion for discovering new talent and hidden resources in people and organisations. Through this and also with the help of Nobel Laureate for Economy, Joseph Stiglitz, she learnt to adopt a people centred approach. Nadia founded various organisations, such as Women Leaders Intercultural Forum or Global Policy Innovations Program, which focus on a wide range of worldwide social and economic problems.

Ismail Radwan finished his bachelor’s degree in Economics and Politics at Oxford University and did his Master’s at University of Pennsylvania. He lived and worked in more than 30 countries, including the UK, where he was a consultant for PWC London in their economics and strategy department. Ismail also coordinated the country program for Central Europe and the Baltics in the World Bank’s department for Europe and Central Asia.

Dan Pascariu is the President of the Board of UniCredit Tiriac Bank. He has previously been the President of the Board of Bank Austria Creditanstalt Romania for 9 years. He is also cofounder and Associate Professor in the Romanian Banking Institute. He held lectures as an invited Professor at Bucharest University of Economic Studies, University of Chicago,Stanford University in California and Georgetown University in Washington. Dan is a friend and supporter of Aspire, having attended every edition since 2011.

Fady Chreih is the CEO of Regina Maria, the largest private healthcare network in Romania. The network owns 22 locations in key cities around the country but also partners with over 180 multi-specialty clinics. Before growing Regina Maria from a small hospital to a successful healthcare network, Fady was the Head of Healthcare Divison at Banca Transilvania. Fady has an MBA from the University of Sheffield, and also studied at Harvard and London Bussiness School.