The Team

CEO - Benjamin S. Appen
Prior to founding Alkindi and from 1992-2000, Mr. Appen worked at D. E. Shaw & Co., L.P., a New York-based investment firm focusing on quantitative trading and technology venture capital activities. A Senior Vice President, Mr. Appen most recently co-managed a team of seven building the firm's Internet incubator. In addition, he was responsible for allocating roughly $23 million in venture capital investments, personally raised funds in excess of $100 million and directed an asset management division investing in excess of $500 million. Mr. Appen currently serves on the board of directors of Schrödinger, Inc., a computational chemistry software pioneer, and has spoken at multiple international conferences. In 1992, Mr. Appen graduated magna cum laude with a B.A. in Political Science from Columbia University.

Director of Research - Eugene Stern
Prior to joining Alkindi and from 1996-1999, Dr. Stern was a Rademacher Instructor in the Department of Mathematics at the University of Pennsylvania, where he studied how abstract symmetries can be represented concretely. He also initiated, developed, and taught an applications-based abstract algebra course. Prior to Penn, Dr. Stern was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute (MSRI), Berkeley, California. He has also held visiting positions at the Erwin Schrödinger Institute, Vienna, Austria and the Research Institute for Mathematical Sciences (RIMS), Kyoto, Japan. Dr. Stern earned a Ph.D. in Mathematics from the University of California at Berkeley in 1996 and graduated magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Harvard University in 1992 with a B.A. in Mathematics.

Director of Software Development - Joseph A. Schwartz
Prior to joining Alkindi and from 1996-2000, Mr. Schwartz was a software development consultant at Daedalus Technology Group, Inc. At Daedalus, he designed and built systems-level software for Internet-based applications, including data compression and encryption technologies, networked video and audio applications, and database infrastructure. Previously, Mr. Schwartz designed, implemented, and trained local technicians to maintain Zimbabwe Online, a comprehensive online service offering chat, email, Internet access, and other applications. He graduated from Columbia University in 1992 with a B.A. in Physics, specializing in Astrophysics.

Director of Operations - Edward A. Cubbin
Prior to joining Alkindi and from 1998-2000, Mr. Cubbin worked at Bear Stearns in the equity research department, focusing on the multi-channel video industry, commercial broadband services and enhanced television applications. Mr. Cubbin drew on his unusually strong background in technology and quantitative modeling to improve the firm's financial models and valuation analysis. Before that, he worked at Space Systems/Loral where he developed financial and engineering optimization methods for the design of Loral's next generation satellites. Mr. Cubbin also worked at NASA where he designed and built the world's first sub-500 micro-Newton thrust measurement facility. Prior to working at NASA, Mr. Cubbin was a Princeton University Fellow in the Plasma Science Program. Mr. Cubbin earned an M.S. in Engineering from the Princeton University Aerospace Engineering Department in 1997 and a B.S. in Engineering from the University of Wisconsin, Madison in 1994.

Director of Content - Leslie Chang
Prior to joining Alkindi and from 1995-2000, Ms. Chang was an author and freelance journalist. Her first book, Beyond the Narrow Gate, published in May 1999, was one of three finalists for the 2000 PEN / Martha Albrand Award for First Nonfiction. The award is presented by the PEN American Center to a first work of general nonfiction, which exemplifies literary and stylistic excellence. Before becoming a journalist, Ms. Chang worked in the editorial department of Villard Books, a division of Random House, where she served on the editorial board of At Random, a nationally distributed magazine; edited a variety of fiction and non-fiction works; and worked closely with a number of authors. She has received grants from the Scripps Howard Foundation, the New York Financial Writers' Association, and New York Women in Communications. Ms. Chang earned an M.S. in Journalism from Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism in 1995 and a B.A. in English from Columbia University in 1992.