Colleen Gibney

As Technology Consultant and SBIR Program Director at ITAC, Colleen provides consulting services for small technology firms and advanced manufacturers in NYC seeking R&D funding, new product development processes, and university assistance to develop and commercialize innovative intellectual property. She provided commercialization consulting services for all the cleantech startup companies in NYC EnergyTech over the past three years.

Colleen is a certified facilitator of The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation's FastTrac® TechVenture, GrowthVenture, NewVenture, and Listening To Your Business entrepreneurship training programs. Colleen also delivers business growth consulting projects, including Lean Product Development, Technology-Driven Market Intelligence, Lean and Sustainable Design, Tech Scouting and ExporTech. She is a frequent panelist and speaker at regional SBIR and product development events, and is available to deliver short presentations to partner organizations, including SBIR 101, SBIR for University Faculty, SBIR Funding for Energy/Lighting Technologies, and Lean Product Development Express.

Prior to joining ITAC, Colleen served as Project Manager for the CUNY Institute for Software Design and Development (CISDD) where she managed faculty-industry projects under CISDD's two-year NSF Partnerships for Innovation grant as well as a NYSTAR TTIP-funded battery technology project. She previously served as a project manager in the technology industry, including at Bigfoot Interactive and C3i. Colleen holds an Master of Science in Information Systems degree in Information Management from Stevens Institute of Technology, a Master of Arts degree in International Affairs from The George Washington University, and an Bachelor of Arts degree in Asian Studies from Mount Holyoke College.

Franklin Madison

As Technology Program Director at ITAC, Franklin is responsible for the strategic development and implementation of new initiatives to grow high-technology firms in New York City. As an advisor to CEOs of high-tech companies in areas as diverse as cleantech, virtualization, and defense technologies, Franklin provides strategic guidance for business plan development, capital formation, technology transfer commercialization opportunities, and critical partnerships. Franklin led a team of experts who delivered two definitive reports on the New York City technology sector:

    1. Tech New York: A Framework for Public/Private Action - February 2000
    2. Buried Treasure: New York City's Hidden Technology Sector - 2007

Franklin has venture capital experience on the advisory boards of Greenhills Ventures LLC, SJF Advisory Services (the consulting arm of SJF Ventures), SpringLab, and NYCSeed, an early stage fund targeting software developers. He currently sits on the Boards of EcoLogic Solutions and Sollega, both cleantech startups in New York City, and is an advisor to EnergyHub, whom he partnered with Con Edison and whose product was named a Best Invention of 2009 by Time Magazine.

Ib Olsen, Ph.D.

Dr. Olsen, Co-Founder and Principal Consultant, IBD Associates, Inc., is a serial entrepreneur and an authority in the field of advanced battery and fuel cell development. He has authored numerous papers on the subjects and speaks at industry conferences, and has implemented various scale-up and commercialization concepts for battery-related products within a Fortune 500 company and other successful start-ups. Dr. Olsen's groundbreaking work in the battery, fuel cell, and energy storage technology field has awarded him more than 30 patents.

Dr. Olsen co-founded IBD Associates, Inc., a successful consulting company to the financial and cleantech industry, where he is still active. He is also the founder and CTO of Bright Kids NYC, an educational company that leverages technology to create individualized curricula, and he is co-founder of Gaia VC, a venture capital company focused on sustainable and energy savings businesses. He was the founder and CTO at Gaia Power Technologies, the first company in the U.S. to sell distributed energy storage on a commercial basis. The company was sold to the lead investor. Dr. Olsen now serves as a consultant and advisor to major battery companies, electrical grid component manufactures, consulting companies, financial institutions, and start-ups. He also serves as the Entrepreneur in Residence for ITAC and for NYSERDA. Dr. Olsen's previous employment includes eVionyx, Saft America, and Valence Technology.

Dr. Olsen holds a Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Odense in Denmark and a Master of Science degree in Chemical Engineering from Denmark's Technical University.

Ed Rosenfeld

Ed, Growth Services Practice Leader, ITAC, helps implement ITAC's business growth services, including Innovation Engineering Management, the Family Business Advisor program, Professional Business Advisor, Organizational Development, Green and other Marketing, Sales Team and Plan Development, Financial Controls and Reporting, and Strategic Planning. Ed is on track to become a certified Black Belt in Innovation Engineering from Eureka! Ranch, having completed Black Belt 100 and 200 training.

Prior to joining ITAC, Ed worked as a family business consultant, assisting family businesses with strategic and succession planning, turn-around strategies, and conflict intervention, among other services. Additionally, Ed worked as a financial consultant in the areas of financial planning and wealth management. Prior to being a management and financial consultant Ed was an entrepreneur. He was CEO of his family's furniture rental and retail business, ultimately selling it to Berkshire Hathaway. The rental business was run as a socially responsible sustainable enterprise stressing sound environmental practices, product reuse and rehabilitation, good employee relations, and community-level philanthropy. He has also started and operated businesses in the financial services, real estate, and energy conservation sectors.

Ed is a member of the Family Firm Institute and is on the advisory board of Cleantech Corridor, a New York based advocacy group that promotes the expansion of renewable energy technologies.

Tara Stand

Tara has been with ITAC as an Operations Consultant for five years, focusing on growth systems for manufacturers and lean thinking. She has worked with companies of all sizes in a variety of industries, including construction materials, building materials job shops, and food. Her work with small companies using growth management systems, value stream mapping, Kanban/pull systems, visual workstations, plant layout, and other lean principles has contributed to the success of these organizations through increased capacity, increased front-line employee involvement, decreased time needed to create organizational change, and improved quality.

Tara has a Bachelor of Science degree in Industrial Engineering from the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology and is a certified Black Belt in Innovation Engineering from Eureka! Ranch. She has received Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) training in Value Stream Mapping, Lean Performance Measures, and Lean Product Development, as well as outside training in Kepner/Trego Decision Making, Front Line Supervisor training, SPC Quality training, and OSHA 30-Hour.