Meet the Team
Mary Ellen Clark
Mary Ellen Clark is currently coordinating the New Jersey Bio1Stop Talent Network to build on the Bio-1 foundation. Previously she was the Executive Director of the Central New Jersey Bio-1 initiative a federally funded $5.1 million grant from the US Department of Labor’s WIRED (Workforce Innovations for Regional Economic Development) program to focus on retaining and expanding high quality jobs in the biosciences sector in Central New Jersey. Strategies range from exciting young people about the biosciences, focusing on underrepresented groups and laying smooth education and career pathways to increasing bioscience workforce development through targeted training and transformational graduate programs.
With more than 26 years experience in the information technology industry, Clark most recently served as a director in the global program management group of Johnson and Johnson’s Information Technology Services division where she was responsible for customer project delivery. Prior to this position, she was the process excellence leader for the information management and finance functions, responsible for the deployment of J&J’s Six Sigma program. Prior to joining Johnson & Johnson in 2001, Clark spent a number years working in the pharmaceutical, forest products and agrichemicals industries, as well as consulting and teaching.
She holds an M.S. in Management Systems Analysis, a certificate in Non-Profit Executive Leadership, a technical certificate in computer programming as well as a B.A. with general honors in music education from Douglass College. She is a certified Six Sigma Black Belt. She also co-founded the WINGS college-to-career mentoring program at J&J. She was a recipient of the YWCA TWIN (Tribute to Women In Industry) award and the Corporate Connecting Communities Award from the Rutgers Center for Women and Work.
Mary Ellen and her husband, Michael Castoro, a special education teacher, reside in Oceanport, NJ.
David Finegold
Professor David Finegold is the Dean of the School of Management and Labor Relations at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey. He is also the chairperson of the Bio-1 initiative Governance Committee. Prior to joining Rutgers, Dr. Finegold was a professor at the Keck Graduate Institute in Claremont, CA and USC’s Marshall School of Business. He is the author of more than 90 articles, book chapters and policy reports, and has written or edited six books, including Corporate Boards: Adding Value at the Top (with Jay Conger and Ed Lawler) and BioIndustry Ethics (Elsevier Academic Press, 2005). He consults and provides executive education and coaching to public and private sector organizations on issues about talent management and employee development, corporate governance, integrating ethics into strategic decision-making, and designing effective organizations.
His recent research projects include:
- The impact of the Internet on organizational design and human resources.
- Managing Technical Excellence – leading practices in the management of knowledge
- Workers and the leveraging of the knowledge that they create.
- The psychological contracts and career paths of temporary workers.
- Design of effective corporate boards.
He graduated summa cum laude from Harvard University and was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University, where he received his DPhil in Politics. He has been a Forum Fellow of the World Economic Forum and AusDavos. He is a member of the Academy of Management and a reviewer for Sloan Management Review, Industrial Relations, The California Management Review, Industrial and Labour Review, British Journal of Industrial Relations.