Peter Mellen (C’89, MBA’98), President
Peter Mellen is an entrepreneur with 20+ years experience working in online business & commercial real estate. His is the Founder of Netcito, a network of peer advisory groups for entrepreneurs, & Owner of Mellen Investment Properties, a real estate investing firm that manages & develops residential & commercial properties. In his career, Peter has served as the Co-Founder & CEO of Edison|Wright, where he launched one of the first PACE (Property Assessed Clean Energy) programs in the world; Director, Premium Education Services at AOL, where he managed a portfolio of online education services provided to K-12 students; VP of Business Development for Safari Books Online, where he helped to generate a 5-fold increase in revenue over 3 years; and co-founder of Headlight, an online learning company that raised more than $15 million of venture capital from investors that included Draper Fisher Jurvetson. Peter currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Tides Network & as a member of the Washington DC Local Advisory Board for BUILD, a program that provides entrepreneurship education for high school students in under-resourced communities. Peter was born in Toronto, grew up on a yoga ashram, and earned a BA and MBA from Georgetown. He lives in Bethesda, Maryland with his wife and two children
John Hannula (MBA'92), Treasurer, GEA and Chair, Membership
John Hannula is a marketing and sales executive with over 23 years of experience in telecommunications, home security and home automation. Currently, John is the executive in charge of business development at Frontpoint, one of the fastest growing companies in the U.S. for next-generation home security and home automation. John also worked at Simplexity managing a 500+ person overseas inside sales program. And while at Nextel he held a variety of strategic marketing roles. John obtained his Bachelors of Arts in International Studies – China from the University of Washington. He holds an MBA from The McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University.
Julie Diaz-Asper (I'89), Chair, Mentoring
Julie Diaz-Asper has over two decades of experience helping organizations to understand consumer needs, innovate and pursue new market opportunities. She has worked with a wide range of organizations including American Express, AARP, Google, Univision, Consumer Reports, Cabot Cheese, Mobile Future, Immersive Youth, CX Act and Responsibility.org.
Julie is a recognized expert on social media, mobile trends, and multicultural marketing. She has guest blogged and published research in eMarketer, Mobile Commerce Daily, Greenbook blog, Portada, Direct Marketing News, Quirk’s Market Research News, Hispanic Trending and other media outlets. She has spoken at major conferences including LATISM, SXSW, NCLR, Hispanicize, Digital Hollywood and the Insights Innovation Exchange. She heads-up the Latino Advisory Committee for Milagros para Niños at Children's National Health System and serves as Chief Researcher for Latinos in Technology Innovation and Social Media #LATISM.