Board of Directors

Dr. Ralph D. Christy

Founder, CEO, & Chairman of the Board

Professor Ralph D. Christy is Director of the Cornell International Institute for Food, Agriculture and Development and Professor of Emerging Markets at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, where he teaches and conducts food marketing research and educational programs on the economic performance of markets and distribution systems. He has advised industry leaders and public policy makers on food marketing strategies, economic development, and the organization of the global food economy.

A Ph.D. graduate of Michigan State University’s Department of Agricultural Economics, Christy is past President of the American Agricultural Economics Association, and is currently a Board Member of the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation, WinRock International, and the Agribusiness Capital Fund.

He is the author of three books, A Century of Service: Land Grant Colleges and Universities, 1890-1990 (1992); Achieving Sustainable Communities in a Global Economy (2004); and Emerging Markets (forthcoming). His most recent research calls attention to the role of creating an enabling environment for accelerating agro-industries’ contributions to sustain economic growth and development.

Ernest Davis

Chair, Audit Committee

Ernest Davis is President of 3One Management, LLC, a consulting firm focusing on early stage technology development and commercialization. He also holds the position of Manager, Business Development and Licensing in the Office of Technology Transfer at Rice University. Ernest has several years of new product introduction, manufacturing operations and intellectual asset management experience. He has held a variety of management positions in the technology sector, and most recently he served as COO of Widetronix, Inc., a semiconductor device company that spun out of Cornell University in 2004. Prior to joining Widetronix, Ernest worked in Cornell University’s Center for Technology, Enterprise and Commercialization (CCTEC) where he managed a portfolio of technology-based intellectual property covering the physical sciences, and prior to his time at CCTEC he worked as an engineer, business operations manager, and new products manager at IBM. Ernest holds B.S. in Mechanical Engineering and M.S. in Management degrees from North Carolina State University.

Robert Herdt

Robert W. Herdt has recently retired as International Professor of Applied Economics and Management, Adjunct, at Cornell University, Ithaca, New York. For 17 years he was on the staff of the Rockefeller Foundation in New York as Director of Agriculture and later as Vice President. He joined Cornell as advisor to the Director of Cornell's International Program in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and Adjunct Professor in the Department of Applied Economics and Management. Herdt received his undergraduate and Master's degrees at Cornell and his Ph.D. degree from the University of Minnesota, St. Paul. His career has been focused on improving the well-being of poor, agriculturally-dependent people in developing countries through increasing the productivity of their farming systems. Before joining Rockefeller he worked in agricultural research institutions in India and the Philippines and at the University of Illinois and the CGIAR Secretariat at the World Bank. His current work on research management, intellectual property rights and the economics of technological change and the management of agricultural research is designed to foster understanding of the role of new technology as an important force generating agricultural productivity and income gains over the past century.

Dr. Leon Kraft

Dr. Leon Kraft joined Cardiovascular Institute of the South (CIS) as a cardiologist in 2013. He earned his Bachelor of Science in Biology from Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut and received his doctorate from Yale University School of Medicine in New Haven, Connecticut. Dr. Kraft completed his cardiology fellowship at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and his internal medicine residency and internship at Washington Hospital Center in Washington, D.C. He previously served as Chief of Staff at Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center, the largest hospital in the state of Louisiana. For eight years, he also served on the Board of Directors for the Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady Health Systems. Dr. Kraft is a member of the National Medical Association, Louisiana State Medical Society, East Baton Rouge Parish Medical Association, and East Baton Rouge Parish Medical Society.

Patricia A. Johnson

Chair, Finance Committee

Patricia A. Johnson is Associate Vice President for Finance and Treasurer at Cornell University. She began her employment at Cornell in January 1995 as the assistant treasurer, and has served as treasurer since 1999. In addition, Pat served as interim chief investment officer in 2006. In 2007 she was designated Associate Vice President for Finance and Treasurer, her current title. She is responsible for the university’s debt, the University Policy Office, bank relations, Cash Management, Bursar, Plant Accounting, and Investment Accounting. She is also the treasurer for the Cornell Research Foundation and the Cornell Club of New York, and she serves on several boards of corporate and nonprofit organizations in the Ithaca area. Previously, Pat was the investment officer for the University of Dayton in Dayton, Ohio, and in internal audit, and the manager of cash administration for the Mead Corporation. She also has banking experience with Wachovia Bank and Bank of America. Pat graduated with a B.A. in psychology and an M.B.A. with a concentration in finance, both from the University of Virginia.

Quinetta M. Roberson

Quinetta M. Roberson is a Professor of Management in the Villanova School of Business at Villanova University. Prior to her current position, she was an Associate Professor of Human Resource Studies at Cornell University. She has also been visiting faculty at the University of Maryland at College Park and Bocconi University in Milan, Italy. Professor Roberson earned her Ph.D. in Organizational Behavior from the University of Maryland. In addition, she holds a B.S. from the University of Delaware in Finance and Accounting and an M.B.A. from the University of Pittsburgh in Finance and Strategic Planning. Prior to getting her doctorate, Dr. Roberson worked as a financial analyst at CoreStates Bank in Philadelphia, PA serving in both the large corporate and small business commercial lending areas. In addition, she served as a consultant in the Small Business Administration’s Small Business Development Center in Pittsburgh, PA. Dr. Roberson has also served as a consultant for several private and public organizations as well as an expert witness in class-action discrimination lawsuits. Recently, she designed SHRM’s Strategic Leadership in Diversity and Inclusion Program and currently serves as the Lead Facilitator.

Founding Board Members

MM Inc. recognizes its Founding Board Members for their expert counsel and wise guidance during the early years of the organization. The individuals recognized on this page will continue to hold a special place in the organization’s history. We thank them for their valuable service.

Natasha Blackshear

Board Member (2003-2011)

Natasha L. Blackshear is a partner at the law firm of Gonzalez Saggio & Harlan where she practices in the public finance and transactional groups. Prior to joining Gonzalez Saggio & Harlan in 2009, she had her own law firm for four years, worked as a venture capitalist at Council Ventures for five years and worked as a corporate valuation consultant with PricewaterhouseCoopers for over two years. Natasha is a licensed attorney in good standing in the states of Tennessee, New York and Massachusetts. She earned her JD from Harvard Law School and her MBA and BS in Applied Economics and Management from Cornell University.

Natasha also studied at the University of Seville Business School in Seville, Spain and is proficient in Spanish. Natasha currently serves on the Tennessee Commission on Children and Youth and the Advisory Board of Cornell University’s Emerging Markets Program. She is also a past president of the Harvard Club of Middle Tennessee and past Chair of the Minority Opportunities Committee of the Nashville Bar Association. Natasha is a member of the National Association of Bond Lawyers, and the American and Tennessee Bar Associations.

Frank Pedraza

Board Member (2005-2013)

Frank Pedraza is an International Management Consultant, focusing in the solution of strategic planning, general management, and marketing issues affecting consumer-oriented business enterprises in emerging countries. Frank has extensive experience resolving marketing and management challenges in many developing markets around the world, from his early responsibilities as Brand Manager to Vice-President, or Divisional CEO, for leading marketing companies: Procter & Gamble, PepsiCo, Kraft Foods and Chiquita Brands in Asia, Latin America and the U.S.A.

Born and raised in Colombia, his education includes a B.S. in Agricultural Economics from Cornell University, an MBA from Cornell's Johnson School of Management and an AMP from the Harvard Business School. Frank is a member of the Cornell University Council, a former member of the CALS Dean's Advisory Council, and member of the International Friends of Zamorano University, Honduras.

Frank presently devotes much of his effort to assisting a number of global NGO's in providing technical assistance in business management subjects to SME's in emerging markets in Africa, Latin America and Eastern Europe.

Kenneth Robinson

Board Member (2003-2011)

Dr. Kenneth Robinson is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Applied Economics and Statistics at Clemson University. His research interests include community sociology, economic development, entrepreneurship, and public policy. Prior to Clemson, Robinson was a Research Associate in the Department of Applied Economics and Management at Cornell University.

As a Fulbright Fellow, Robinson conducted research on the social and economic impacts of small-scale, commercial agriculture on disadvantaged communities in KwaZulu-Natal Province, South Africa. Robinson has worked as Assistant to the Director for Policy at the USDA Economic Research Service, providing management and research assistance on rural development and environmental policies. Robinson received his Ph.D. in Development Sociology at Cornell.

Mark D. Wenner

Board Member (2003-2011)

Dr. Mark Wenner has over fifteen years of international development experience in rural finance and enterprise competitiveness. As Senior Financial Officer at the Inter-American Development Bank, Wenner is responsible for conducting and supervising research and providing technical support in the preparation of lending operations involving rural finance and community development. Wenner has also worked as an agricultural economist for Abt Associates and for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service. Wenner earned his Ph.D. in Agricultural Economics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.