Spotlight On: Akira Hirai.
Hirai
is the founder, CEO, and managing director of the business consulting company
Cayenne Consulting – “business plan consultants with venture capital experience”
– where he is currently working. He has had experience in the business industry
for over 20 years now, after earning his BA in Engineering Sciences from Harvard University, and
working in such places as New York City, Phoenix, and now Orange County,
California.
Hirai started Cayenne back in
early 2001 with what he says was a very simple mission, aimed toward venture
capitalists, “Help entrepreneurs get their act together before they talk to
investors.” The world of business can be both time consuming and confusing,
therefore, Cayenne was started as an objective third party with a laundry list
of services they provide such as strategy development, market research and
analysis, competitor research and analysis, business plan preparation, and financial analysis and forecasting. This frees up the client’s time to focus on the rest of
the areas that are going to matter most to investors. Cayenne acts as a partner
taking on the tedious tasks for the client so they are left to help build a
stronger market for themselves that will help investors notice them.
Before
Cayenne, Hirai was already well versed in the world of business and had held
several prestigious jobs – and founded two more companies. In the Silicon
Valley area he kick started MyRaptor.com and ID Networks before he started
focusing on the world of venture capital. Before this he had worked his way up
through the ranks over four years to become Vice President of the prestigious
Salomon Brothers in New York. He has also held several other job titles that
include financial risk management consultant, software engineer, and
advertising sales manager. He is a man who has had his hand in the world of
business for many years now, and someone to be trusted with advice in creating
new companies.
Resources
for Akira Hirai:
Spotlight
On: Carolyn Kepcher.
Kepcher
is most highly recognized as appearing on the NBC television show The Apprentice, not as a contestant, but
as Donald Trump’s right hand woman and assistant who helped make all the final
decisions about who was to be fired. She held this position because of her almost ten years of experience acting
as the Executive Vice President, Chief Operating Officer, and
General Manager for the Trump National Golf Club.
Kepcher started out her business career
selling Avon products door-to-door and working as a restaurant manager in
Manhattan while she earned her marketing degree from Mercy College. Eventually
she found herself in the position of a sales and marketing director for a New
York City golf club, which was eventually to be auctioned off. The man who
bought the property was none other than Donald Trump. Impressed with her ideas
about how he could best use his newly acquired golf course, he hired Kepcher in
1994 as the director of his sales and marketing. After four years in this
position, when the current general manager was fired from Trump’s organization,
Kepcher landed her the job that would eventually take her to overseeing the
National Golf Club.
In
2006 her time working with Trump came to an end as she too was fired, based on
Trump’s ideas that her “newfound
celebrity status had kept her too busy with speaking engagements and
endorsements to focus on her responsibilities for the Trump organization” which
he reported to The New York Post. Not letting this stop her at all, she
thoroughly developed the idea for her company Carolyn & Co. where she
became the CEO. In 2008 she turned to MasterPlans in order to be able to help launch
the company’s first campaign with WorkHerWay, which was described as the “ultimate online resource for the
working woman” and provided a broad array of services to be able to cater to
business minded women who many not always get the best care at other companies.
However this campaign has since run its course and the website is no longer
available for information.
In addition to founding her company, Kepcher
has a wide array of skills and jobs behind her. In 2004 she wrote the business
book Carolyn 101 which made it all
the way to number two on the New York Best Seller List. She even had plans with
Microsoft where they would be able to make an Apprentice-like television show
focused on small-business ventures where she acted as one of the three judges.
However the show never proved to get off the ground.
She wrote extensive business career columns
for the New York Daily News, was a contributor for FOX Business, and has been
used as a consultant on various programs such as The Oprah Winfrey Show and The
Today Show. Currently she serves on the board of the Back Nine Network and
uses her savvy business knowledge as a consultant for the golf industry where
she is still highly regarded as an expert.
Resources on Carolyn Kepcher:
