Meet The Speakers
These are the great speakers who will be gracing the stage at TEDxNJIT on November 8, 2018
Marjorie Perry
President & CEO, MZM Construction Co
As president of MZM Construction Co, Inc., Marjorie Perry is an innovator and role model for women in non-traditional fields. Her Newark based firm, founded in 1992, her company’s General Contracting work for such client includes the New Jersey Performing Arts Center, Delta Airlines, Port Authority of NY/NJ, and Verizon, Continental Airlines, Marriott and proudly participated in the construction for the New Meadowlands Stadium for the Giant and Jets (now called MetLife).
Perry has a B.A. degree from Kean University also completed Leadership for the 21st century at the Tuck School of Business, Dartmouth College, and has a MBA from New Jersey Institute of Technology. Named to NJBIZ Hall of Fame 2011 top 50 women in business 2007 New Jersey and top 25 Entrepreneur’s in New Jersey 2008 and Selected Business of the Year for the SBA 2012.She served four years a director appointed By Governor Chris Christie. to New Jersey Economic Development Board, Currently Board member for Kean University Foundation, Board of Overseers NJIT and advisory board to Feliciano Business School Montclair University. Perry prides herself in sponsoring college scholarships for deserving inner city youth.
Gernot Riether Director of the School of Architecture and Associate Professor at the College of Architecture and Design, NJIT Gernot Riether is the Director of the School of Architecture and Associate Professor at the College of Architecture and Design at the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT). He previously taught at Kennesaw State University, Ball State University, ENSA Paris La Villette, Georgia Tech, the New York Institute of Technology and Barnard College at Columbia University and is lecturing internationally. Riether’s research explores the relationship between public urban spaces and information technology. Projects that he and his students designed and built in his Digital Design Build Studio won competitions and are featured in many books on digital fabrication. Riether is the author of over 40 refereed papers, articles and book chapters. His forthcoming book, Urban Machines, co-authored with architect Marcella Del Signore, explores the relationship between public urban spaces and information technology.He serves on the Board of Directors of CSU (Consortium for Sustainable Urbanization), a non-profit organization that is affiliated with UN Habitat and U.N. ECOSOC and on the Board of Directors of ACADIA (Association for Computer Aided Design in Architecture). He is the editor of the Journal of the Design Communication Association (DCA).
Dr. Donald H. Sebastian
President of New Jersey Innovation Institute
Dr. Donald H. Sebastian is the President & CEO of the New Jersey Innovation Institute, an NJIT Corporation. Dr. Sebastian assumed this role after fifteen years leading research at NJIT during which time the R&D enterprise grew to over a $110M, placing NJIT fifth among all polytechnic universities in the country, and fourth among all universities in patent productivity. He led the effort to form a statewide NJ Health Information Technology Extension Center that leads the nation in physicians certified as meaningful users of electronic healthcare record systems, and is a member of the Board of the Greater Newark Healthcare Coalition the R&D Council of NJ, the Polymer Processing Institute, Inc., and the NJ Manufacturing Extension Program.
