Board of Directors
Jim Gentry
Jim Gentry is the Maurice J. and Alice Hollman Professor of International Business and Marketing at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
Gentry has taught on the business faculties at Kansas State University, Oklahoma State University, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and the University of Nebraska. He is the editor of the AMS Review, the North American editor of the Journal of Consumer Behaviour and serves on the review boards of the Journal of Business Research, Journal of Macromarketing, Journal of Marketing Education, Journal of Behavioral Decision Making, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, and Journal of Current Issues and Research in Advertising, and formerly served on the review board of the Journal of Marketing Research. He is a Past President and Fellow of the Association for Business Simulation and Experiential Learning. In 1987, he was selected the outstanding Instructor of Graduate courses on the Oklahoma State campus. He has coordinated the Mittelstaedt Doctoral Symposium held at the University of Nebraska since its inception in 1992. He has authored (or more frequently, co-authored) over 50 articles, ten chapters in edited books, and over 150 conference papers. His current research interests are changes in consumption due to life-event transitions, family decision making, differences in decision processes across cultures, and the evolution of marketing processes in transition economies.
Gentry earned his Bachelors in Civil Engineering from Kansas State University, and his Masters and Doctorate in Business Administration from Indiana University.
Dan Pittard
Dan Pittard has more than 30 years of business experience, as a senior executive, entrepreneur and venture angel. In addition to being a Chairman and Managing Partner of IdeaEDGE Ventures, Pittard currently serves on the Board of Directors of several start-ups. He also serves as Chairman of the Board of Directors for M7 Networks, a company founded by ideaEDGE Ventures.
Prior to joining ideaEDGE Ventures, Pittard was Senior Vice President, Strategy and New Ventures for Gateway, where he was the Chief Strategy Officer charged with business development, acquisitions and new ventures. His earlier experiences include serving as a Partner at McKinsey & Company, where he served industrial, consumer and technology clients in North America, Europe and the Far East. Pittard also served as Group Vice President at Amoco with full P&L responsibilities for consumer and commercial businesses with over $8 billion in sales, where his functional reports included Brand Marketing, Research and Development, Information Technology and Manufacturing. As Senior Vice President for Frito-Lay, Pittard was in charge of new businesses reaching over $75 million in sales and achieving double-digit share and break-even the first year.
Pittard received his Bachelor of Science degree from Georgia Institute of Technology with honors. He is a former member of the Georgia Tech Advisory Board to the College of Computing and is past Chairman of the Advisory Board to the President. He earned his Masters in Business Administration from Harvard University.
Michael J. Ritter
Michael Ritter has been a General Manager for BestBuy.com, the online store division of Best Buy, Inc. since September of 2004. In addition to serving on the Power of Love board, he is also a member of a variety of technology infrastructure steering committees.
Prior to joining Best Buy, Ritter served as Vice President of Marketing and Product Development of Vizio, Inc., an innovative HDTV consumer electronics manufacturer. Before joining Vizio in May of 2003, Ritter spent ten years at Gateway, Inc. where he held a number of management positions. At the time of his departure, he was Vice President of Product Marketing, leading the development and implementation of product, promotional, and pricing strategies for Gateway's Consumer and Small Business divisions.
Ritter earned his Bachelor's degree in Business Economics from South Dakota State University and remains an active supporter of the school.
Peter Shier
Peter has been with Foote Cone & Belding for over five years and has helped to grow the agency into one of the top agencies in Canada. Under Peter's leadership, the creative reputation of Foote, Cone and Belding in Canada has grown, evidenced by the firm's first Gold from the prestigious Communications Arts Magazine as well as a Gold at Canada's own ad showcase, the Marketing Awards. Peter was elected by his peers to become Chairman of the Institute of Communications and Advertising (ICA) in 2004.
Prior to Foote Cone & Belding, Peter has been a senior partner in Russell Inc., one of Canada’s most respected Branding and Design consultancies. He was responsible for creating and building Russell’s Internet business which, in just two years, accounted for almost half of the company’s revenue. Clients included RSA Security, Mercator, Mediaconsult.com, and a host of other high tech companies.
Peter has also worked for over sixteen years in the advertising industry as VP, Client Services Director at J. Walter Thompson, and in senior management at Cossette, Saatchi and Saatchi and Vickers & Benson. He has experience providing strategic guidance and managing brands like Gateway, Kellogg's, Kodiak, Pepsi, British Airways, Bell Mobility and other blue chip companies.
Peter also spent time on the client side as VP Marketing Director for Timothy’s World Coffee, as well as for the Toronto Argonauts football team in the CFL.
Prior to his life in the communications industry, Peter spent six years playing professional hockey in North America and Europe. Peter is a Bachelor of Science from Cornell University in New York.
Alka Subramanian
Alka Subramanian has been working as a Director at Power of Love since founding it in 2002. She is a strong force at the Foundation toward empowering women and caregivers, and using love in fighting the epidemic. Alka evaluates and manages the partnerships with the grassroots organizations we support, as well as coordinating all financial, legal, and reporting work.
- Alka has 15 years of experience in the field of international economics and development. She has published extensively and presented her research in multiple international conferences and proceedings. Her specialization is in building business channels and small businesses. Prior to founding Power of Love, Alka was a tenured Professor of Marketing at the University of South Dakota where she taught for seven years.
- She is married and has 3 wonderful children who are all very supportive of her work. She has a Ph.D in Marketing from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.