Aida Alvarez

Alvarez is the head of the Small Business Administration. Appointed in 1997, she is the first hispanic woman and the first Puerto Rican to serve in a cabinet-level post. Before moving to SBA, Alvarez headed the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight, which was created to oversee mortgage agencies including Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Small business was an early influence on Alvarez; as a child, she helped her mother, who ran a luncheonette, and later a restaurant. A Harvard College graduate, Alvarez has worked as a newspaper and broadcast reporter and investment banker, and held several posts in New York city and state government.

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Chip Austin

Austin, with Brad Farkas and Derek Reisfeild, founded i-Hatch ventures in February 1999. i-Hatch is an "incubator" for early-stage Internet companies in the Northeastern United States. Before founding i-Hatch, Austin launched BOL.com, the on-line store for publishing giant Bertelsmann. Austin was part of the management-led buyout of Prodigy, and a co-founder of McKinsey's Interactive Practice, a consulting firm that devised media strategies for large companies.

A frequent lecturer on Angel Investment, Austin has worked for Morgan Stanley, and was in IBM's Personal Computer division in the early years of the original IBM PC. He has a degree in Computer Science and Economics from Duke and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

http://www.i-hatch.com/team_chip.html

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Darien Dash

Dash founded Digital Mafia Entertainment, LLC, in 1994. The company, whose mission is "expanding the hardware and software infrastructure within minority communities," went public in 1999. Dash also participated in the December 1999 government roundtable on "closing the digital divide." The New York Daily News named Dash one of the "50 New Yorkers to watch in 2000."

Prior to starting his own company, Dash was a regional director for Digital Music Express (DMX), the music distribution division of cable TV operator TCI. Dash received a bachelor's degree in Political Science and leadership from the University of Southern California, where he was president of the Black Student Union and an active member of the Alpha Pi Alpha fraternity.

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Hank Gilman

Gilman is the managing editor of "FSB: Fortune Small Business" and an assistant managing editor at "Fortune." FSB, formerly named "Your Company," is a joint venture of Time, Inc. and American Express Small Business Services. Before joining the Fortune group, Gilman was Newsweek's business editor. At Newsweek, he launched "Computers and The Family," a recurring special edition of the Magazine.

Gilman also worked as a reporter for the Wall Street Journal and oversaw the Sunday business section of the Boston Globe. He received a bachelor's degree from the University of South Carolina and a master's from Indiana University.

John Peterman

Peterman founded the well-known "J. Peterman" catalogue. He established the company in 1987 and ran the mail-order clothing business until March 1999, when the company filed for bankruptcy and was taken over by Paul Harris Stores Inc. Peterman is now writing a book about his company and putting together a new Web-based business.

Peterman was made into a character on the television sitcom "Seinfeld," played by actor John O'Hurley. Before entering the world of business, Peterman played professional baseball, making it as high as triple-A.