Reframing and Innovating Through the Pandemic

Bill McAleer is Managing Director at Voyager Capital, an early-stage venture firm with over $525 million under management that is focused on investing in tech opportunities in the Pacific Northwest. He has over 30 years of combined investing and senior executive experience in the information technology industry. At Voyager, Bill has participated on the boards of 27 companies, including 21 portfolio companies, focusing on cloud, software, digital media, and mobile opportunities. Fourteen of his portfolio companies were sold for exits, including Amplitude, Attenex, Blue Box Group, Melodeo, NetPodium, Placecast, Tegic Communications, and Yapta. Additionally, Bill was a Director for Avocent (NASDAQ: AVCT), a public technology company acquired in late 2009 by Emerson for $1.2 billion. He has been involved in over $3.5 billion in exit transactions, including several IPOs. Bill currently serves on the boards of Rowan TELS, Thoughtexchange, and Zipwhip.

Prior to co-founding Voyager in 1997, Bill was President of e.liance Partners, a consulting firm that advised information technology companies on strategy, venture financing, and corporate partnering. He served as Vice President of Finance, Chief Financial Officer, and Secretary of Aldus from 1988 to 1994, when the company’s revenues grew from $30 to $240 million. Bill was responsible for global finance, legal, operations, and acquisition activities, including completing the merger with Adobe in 1994. He also served as a senior executive with Westin Hotels from 1979 to 1987.

Bill has been active in several university organizations, including serving as the past chair and a current member of the Advisory Board for the University of Washington Buerk Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship. A former Cornell University Trustee, he serves on the Advisory Boards for Cornell’s Johnson Graduate School of Business, The Hotel School, eCornell, and the Center for Entrepreneurship. He has also been active on a number of tech industry boards, including the Washington Technology Industry Association, Washington Technology Association, DEMO, the Canadian Financing Forum, and Thayer Ventures. Bill earned a B.S. and an MBA from Cornell University.

After growing up in the restaurant business, Brian Canlis spent eight years studying and working abroad in England, Austria, and Spain before finishing a hotel sciences degree at Cornell University. Commissioned as an Air Force officer in 2001, he led his Services team in winning the coveted Hennessy Award for the Air Force’s best food and dining experience. Just prior to his promotion to Captain, Brian was transferred to Washington, D.C., to help lead a protocol team that played host to world leaders and international heads of state.

In 2005, Brian returned to Seattle to join his brother Mark in leading their family’s restaurant, Canlis, into the 21st century. He has been featured on “Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations” and as a guest judge on “Top Chef,” and he has spoken extensively on strategic leadership and customer service. Brian has hosted the country’s preeminent event on hospitality, The Welcome Conference, in New York City since 2015. He currently lives in Seattle’s Magnolia neighborhood with his wife Mackenzie and their two children.

Kate Walsh is Dean of the Cornell Nolan School of Hotel Administration and E. M. Statler Professor. A professor of management, Dean Walsh has been a member of the Hotel School’s faculty since 2000. She received her Ph.D. from the Carroll School of Management at Boston College and her MPS degree from Cornell’s School of Hotel Administration. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting from Fairfield University.

Dean Walsh’s primary research is in identity, leadership, and career development. She also conducts research examining the impact of strategic human capital investments. In addition to contributing to numerous books, Dean Walsh’s articles have appeared in such outlets as Journal of Management, Journal of Service Research, Journal of Organizational Behavior, Journal of Vocational Behavior, Human Resource Management Review, Organization Science, Career Development International, The Service Industries Journal, Trends in Organizational Behavior, Research in Management Consulting, Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, The Learning Organization, International Journal of Hospitality Management, and The Cornell Hospitality Quarterly.

Dean Walsh has extensive industry experience. She is the former director of training and development for Nikko Hotels International, corporate training manager for the former Bristol Hotels, and senior auditor for Loews Corporation. Dean Walsh is also a former New York State Certified Public Accountant.

Dean Walsh began her second term as dean on July 2, 2021. Since the beginning of her administration, she has focused on positioning Nolan for the future of hospitality business education as well as contributing to the Cornell SC Johnson College of Business. This includes undertaking a comprehensive renewal of the graduate and undergraduate curricula, developing Nolan’s online global presence, launching two new graduate degree programs, and providing thought leadership for the hospitality industry, most notably through the creation of industry-based webinars to guide the industry during the pandemic as well as supporting extensive outreach and engagement through Nolan’s six centers and institutes.

Dean Walsh serves on the boards of the American Hotel and Lodging Association, including serving on its Educational Foundation’s DE&I committee, and Yonsei University’s School of Business.

The second of three sons, Mark Canlis grew up in a restaurant family. He joined Canlis in 2003 after graduating from Cornell University and serving as a Captain in Air Force Special Operations. Mark met his wife, Anne Marie, while opening famed restaurateur Danny Meyer’s fifth restaurant, Blue Smoke, in Manhattan. Returning to Seattle, Mark spearheaded the generational transfer and brand modernization that has garnered the family business national acclaim as one of the finest restaurants in America. He now owns and operates Canlis with his brother, Brian. Mark and Anne Marie reside in Seattle’s Queen Anne neighborhood with their three children.