Chair: Business Incubator Association of New York State, Long Island Innovation Hot Spot Steering Committee, Stony Brook Incubator Selection and Review Committee. Moving spirit behind creation of the Long Island Angel Network. Founder of Stony Brook Entrepreneurs Challenge, which has awarded more than $450,000 to 29 student start-up businesses  half still in existence — as of 2017. Brookhaven Industrial Development Agency trustee, serving New York’s third largest town. Manager and Instructor, Stony Brook’s NSF I-Corps Site, since 2015.

Board of Directors: Long Island Angel Network, region’s only public organization of early-stage investors; Hauppauge Industrial Association (HIA-LI), representing the largest industrial park in the Northeast; Long Island Forum for Technology, trade association for high technology manufacturers and businesses; Long Island High Technology Incubator Inc., the region’s first new business incubator facility; and Community Development Corporation of Long Island (Vice Chair), the region’s largest affordable housing and community development not-for-profit. Past president of Women Economic Developers of Long Island.

Author/co-author of proposals that have brought more than $25M in federal and state economic development funding to Long Island. Invited speaker on technology-based economic development, International Association of Science Parks, International Economic Development Council, state and regional economic development and business organizations.

Education

AB magna cum laude, English and American literature, Brown University.
Elected to Phi Beta Kappa
MAT in the Teaching of English, Yale University
Ph.D., History of American Foreign Relations, Stony Brook University
Certified Lean LaunchPad Educator, National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance-Venturewell/Haas School of Business, UC Berkeley

He serves as a board member for DG Tech Investors, Inc. , the Business Incubator Association of New York State and the Industrial Advisory Board of the Cornell Center for Materials Research.

Prior to joining HTR, Riedlinger was a co-founder of Diffinity Genomics, Inc. which commercialized technology from the U of R Department of Chemistry for applications in the life science industry.   Diffinity Genomics was sold to a multi-national organization and now functions as part of Chiral Technologies.   Mr. Riedlinger also co-founded and served as president of NaturalNano, which went from start-up concept to a publicly-traded firm under his management.  The company developed technologies based on naturally occurring materials with nanoscale attributes that were adapted for specialty cosmetics, polymers, and nanocomposite applications. 

His consulting firm, Technology Sales and Licensing Services, has provided support to entrepreneurs and organizations throughout the Finger Lakes Region since 2002.  Projects included market assessments for new technologies in sustainable energy and manufacturing practices, applications for new materials in medical devices and new market opportunity development for mid-sized businesses that faced declining revenues in existing markets.

Additional experience includes roles as managing director of VitalWork, an organizational development firm, and sales and marketing roles for computer software development services and consumer products at Metamor Software Solutions, Selectronics, and Microlytics.

Mr. Riedlinger holds a BFA from the Rochester Institute of Technology and MBA, Finance and Accounting, from the University of Rochester.

Esther’s diverse background includes 12 years in the pharmaceutical and hospitality industries,
and 12 years in the entrepreneurial domain as a founder and/or co-founder of four startup
ventures, among them Ideal Language LLC, an executive language instruction and cultural
training enterprise. Prior to joining RPI, she was Assistant Director of Research and
Commercialization at the University of Central Florida, where she managed an award-winning
business incubator for eight years. She previously worked at Indiana University’s School of
Education as Program Director of Aprenda Más (LearnMore), a statewide translation service for
schools, aimed at increasing parental involvement and college participation for Hispanic
families.

In her role as Director of Resource Development for the HOPE (Harnessing Optimism
and Potential through Education) Foundation in Bloomington, Indiana, Esther led the sales team
and co-led a national professional learning community of school leaders in organizational and
leadership development. Esther’s areas of expertise include strategy, commercialization,
business and resource development, systems and processes, and project management.

Ms. Vargas serves as Secretary of the Board for the International Business Innovation
Association (InBIA), and is also a board member of the Business Incubator Association of New
York State (BIANYS). She is certified as a Business Incubation Professional and as a Business
Accelerator Manager, and holds an MBA with a dual major in New Venture Development and
Marketing from the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University-Bloomington, and a BBA in
Managerial Economics from the Interamerican University of Puerto Rico. Esther is passionate
about helping entrepreneurs realize their dreams, and facilitating emerging high-impact
technology and service businesses to become profitable and scalable enterprises.