Steven Schwartz '11

Managing Director at CEO Quest and Co-Founder/Vice-Chairman of The International Data Trade Association—largest international data trade association with 30K+ members

Hometown: New York, NY

Major: Accounting

Current Involvement: Advisory Board at Rutgers University and Mentor to several start-up Accelerators

Involvement while at Siena: President of Enactus (which was formerly the largest business club on campus), Member of SIRA, Elected to Student Leadership Council and played on the hockey team freshman and junior years.

How do you involve yourself in your community?

I try to spend time mentoring technology start-up CEOs and driving a more effective distribution of value & wealth rapidly changing economy through the International Data Trade Association which is involved in policy/regulation across industry and the economic implications of same.

Describe a typical day in your life.

I wish I could! With clients in NY, CA, Europe and India, my day tends to start early and end late! The majority of my time is working with my clients on their business strategy while allocating roughly 30% to spend time in speaking enterprise industry leaders and venture capital funds in helping to source new opportunities and work with their portfolio member CEOs.

How did your Siena education prepare you for the work you’re doing today?

Although I was an accounting major, I had the opportunity to take classes from computer science through to finance and liberal arts, giving me a very well rounded foundation for problem solving and communication. I was also able to waive 7 classes from Union Graduate College due to the classes I took at Siena. In addition, the time spent on applying our learning to real world scenarios and case studies prepared me on understanding how to implement what we’ve learned in class, which could not be more important.

Describe your professional progression since leaving Siena. 

1. Started at a Healthcare Analytics startup in Troy (TreoSolutions) my junior year as an intern and employee #20 in year 1 through a 9 figure exit 5 years later and 180 employees.
2. Then, I joined the world's largest independent insurance consulting firm, UIC, Inc., and grew my role into SVP of Business Development and Senior Consultant.
3. Founded my own consulting firm, GCC (Global Cyber Consultants), as I endeavored to bridge the gap between traditional risk management and cybersecurity, which led me down a variety of interesting rabbit holes in working with emerging technologies and technology companies.
4. I co-founded and became Vice-Chairman of the International Data Trade Association in January, 2016.
5. I joined Silicon-Valley’s elite CEO Forum and Business Advisory firm, CEO Quest, in March, 2018 as the second Managing Director in New York alongside the former Chief Systems Architect at UnitedHealth, Aetna and more…