January is a time of transition for our entities in Ithaca. We are very proud of the new students of both Student Agencies Inc. (SAI) and eLab and would like you to meet them.

In our January edition:

• Read the outgoing message from SAI President Rob Ainslie ('14).  Rob is an engineering major who has been with SAI for the past two years.  He served as general manager for the Hired Hands Moving Company in 2012. During his term, HHMC successfully expanded into a new territory: NYC, Northern NJ and PA. As President of SAI, Rob developed into an effective leader of 15 general managers and 250+ employees.  
• Read the incoming message from SAI President Laura Furman ('15).  In 2013, Laura served as general manager of Campus Promotions.  She, with HR Director Yuki Iwase ('16), have already run a very successful fall recruitment campaign and have assembled an outstanding management team for the 2014 term.
• Meet the incoming SAI Management Team: learn more about the students who now manage the 6 primary agencies or businesses that are part of SAI: Big Red Shipping and Storage, Campus Promotions, the Cornellian Yearbook, Hired Hands Moving Company, Real Estate Management and TakeNote. 

In our February eNewsletter, we will introduce the new student teams of eLab.

Before I close, I'd like to say congratulations to two members of the Ithaca Student Agencies Family.  Bonnie Enzian, a dedicated member of the SAI staff for the last 13 years, has recently been named Director of Operations, SAI. Tom Schryver ('93, MBA '02), who served as our interim CEO/mentor at Student Agencies, has recently accepted a position at Cornell University as Executive Director, New Venture Advancement. While this is a great opportunity for Tom, we are not letting him get too far away. He will still be teaching courses for eLab. Both of these individuals are valued members of our community, incredible mentors to the students and have my appreciation for all of their contributions.  Please take a moment, read more about their new positions and feel free to send your own "Congratulations" messages. 

Sincerely,

Michael Karangelen '90

President

Student Agencies Foundation, Inc

"On behalf of the Board of Directors, I would like to make a very special announcement.  The SAI Board has decided to recognize one of our student managers this year with a "2013 Board of Directors Award" (also called the "Matthew Todd Wolff Memorial Award" after a student manager we lost too soon) and related cash bonus.  This highly selective honor is only occasionally awarded and only given for 'extraordinary achievement of long-term strategic goals'.  In other words, to earn it, a student manager must make an extraordinary contribution that results in a high-impact and lasting improvement to the business operations or assets of the organization.  The award is not given out every year; in fact, the last time that it was awarded was three years ago.  So, I am very excited to be able to announce that we have a recipient this year.

The recipient receiving the award tonight had made a huge impact on Student Agencies during her time with us.  Not only has she increased revenues, lowered costs and provided excellent customer service in her area of responsibility; but, she has also left a legacy at Agencies.  Specifically, by conceptualizing, planning and executing the first ever apartment renovation project last summer, we now have a number of residential apartments that are nicer, more marketable and can command higher rents.  And, very importantly, we now have a template by which future managers can continue the process of modernizing and increasing the value of our residential assets."