Allison Ciechanover

Allison Ciechanover oversees the team that develops teaching cases and supports faculty research on West Coast companies, and has written over two dozen cases on tech companies. She also serves as the School’s liaison with the West Coast entrepreneurial community, assisting with MBA admissions, alumni relations, and MBA job search activities. She received her B.A. (magna cum laude) from the University of Pennsylvania, her MBA from Harvard Business School, and a Masters of International Affairs from the Johns Hopkins University School for Advanced International Studies.

After graduating from Harvard Business School, Allison worked in the Goldman Sachs Investment Management Division. She later led Process Improvement efforts in the Finance Group at Invitrogen (now Life Technologies). Most recently, Allison was a VP for Investments at Pacific Corporate Group, a La Jolla-based private equity fund of funds. Prior to her years at HBS, Allison was an Analyst in Goldman Sachs’s Executive Office, and a Researcher for the U.S. Department of Treasury Office of the Assistant Secretary for International Affairs.

George Gonzalez

George has worked in Silicon Valley in roles ranging from product management to speechwriting. He worked for companies including VMware, Cisco, EMC, Hitachi, as well as startups in healthcare and education. George has an interest in machine learning and cognitive science. He enjoys playing piano and unicycling.

George received a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from San Jose State University and MBA from Harvard Business School.

Jeffrey Huizinga

Jeff worked at Facebook on the Public Content Operations team, and later as a Marketing Writer at a Mountain View-based education technology startup. He spent his early career as an associate at the conservation organization WildAid (in San Francisco and Cambodia) and at Outside PR & Sportsmarketing, a boutique outdoor-industry firm. He has also taught several writing courses at Boston University and Northern Arizona University, where he was Editor-in-Chief of Thin Air Magazine.

Jeff received his B.A. in History from Columbia University, where he started for the NCAA Division I Baseball team. He received an MA in English from the Northern Arizona University and a MFA in Creative Writing (Fiction) from Boston University. He lives in the Bay Area with his wife, Yvonne, who earned her MBA from HBS in 2014 and has since served as Marketing Director for several technology startups. In his spare time, he writes short stories and along with his dog, Dipsea, is an avid trail runner.

Nicole Keller

Nicole started her career as a management consultant at McKinsey & Co, working in San Francisco and New York with a focus in the consumer, retail, and media sectors. After McKinsey, Nicole served as a Director of Strategic Planning at PepsiCo in Purchase, NY and worked with Indra Nooyi -- who at the time was leading PepsiCo’s strategic planning group. Nicole’s specific engagement at PepsiCo centered on the company’s restaurant group, later spun out as Yum! Brands. Nicole helped launch the CRC when it first opened in 1997 and wrote many of the early cases at the CRC. In addition to her professional experiences, Nicole has served on the board of directors of CuriOdyssey, a children’s science center, and on the board of the Hillsborough Schools Foundation. Nicole received her MBA with distinction from Harvard Business School and her B.A. in Economics from Stanford University, where she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa.