Advisory Board

Eric Leroy Adams (born September 1, 1960) is the Borough President of Brooklyn, New York City. Previously, he was a Democratic State Senator in the New York Senate, representing the 20th Senate District, which includes the Brooklyn neighborhoods of Flatbush, Crown Heights, Park Slope, Sunset Park and Prospect Heights. On November 5, 2013, Adams was elected Brooklyn Borough President, the first African-American to hold the office.

Prior to his election to the New York State Senate, Adams served as a police officer in the New York City Police Department for 22 years. Adams graduated from the New York City Police Academy in 1984 as the highest ranked student of his class. He started in the New York City Transit Police and worked in the 6th precinct in Greenwich Village, the 94th precinct in Greenpoint and the 88th precinct covering Fort Greene and Clinton Hill. While serving, he co-founded 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement Who Care, an advocacy group for black police officers, and often spoke out against police brutality and racial profiling. During the 1990s Adams served as president of the Grand Council of Guardians. Adams rose to prominence during the 90s, after a series of “friendly fire” shootings by white police officers against black officers.

Juidth Katz is the President of On Target Strategies, which consults with corporate and nonprofit organizations in strategic planning, organizational development and operational improvement. She has a track record of leadership in strategic management, competitive positioning and organizational effectiveness.

Ms Katz has been head of planning for American Express Company as well as Senior Vice President of Finance and Planning for two divisions of the company. She was Vice President of Planning for Provident Life and Accident and Vice President of Information and Education for Barnes & Noble where she directed a nationwide community relations program in all stores. Ms. Katz has also been President of a nationally accredited, 4000 student, career oriented two-year college.

In a variety of consulting assignments, she has formulated responses to emerging business threats, designed new marketing and pricing strategies, focused businesses on their key competitive competencies and re-designed organizations to be customer responsive. Her corporate clients have included Morgan Stanley Worldwide Operations, ING North America, BMG, Kmart and, most recently, Con Edison. As an executive and consultant with non-profit organizations, she has successfully designed new marketing and pricing for a community college, trained all key personnel for a new community health center, worked with a regional economic development agency pinpointing areas of opportunity for profitable investment, led a key study in sustainable development, facilitated a design for a newly integrated city and county school system and wrote a resource handbook for small and minority business. Recently, she designed a leadership development program for regional directors of the New York Department of Education and worked with the director on a new strategic plan.

Ms Katz has taught strategic planning for the American Management Association (AMA) and Polytechnic University. She has been a featured speaker at the Conference Board, the Harvard Club, the AICPA and the Planning Executives organization.

Ms Katz graduated from the Sloan School at MIT with an S.M. in Management and from the Harvard Graduate School of Education with a Master of Arts in Teaching degree. Her undergraduate studies were at Brandeis University where she graduated cum laude with Honors in History. She has received additional training in the philosophy and practice of Appreciative Inquiry and she has completed a course as an Interim Chief Executive at the Support Center for Nonprofit Management.

Raised in Crown Heights North, Ethel Tyus is a life-long Brooklynite. A graduate of the City College of New York with a B.S. in Biology, she also holds a Masters in Human Resources Management and Development from the New School for Social Research, as well as her J.D. from Fordham University School of Law.

A long-time homeowner and resident, Ethel brings years of legal experience and community activism to the boards of several Crown Heights North organizations. As one of the Crown Heights North Association’s (CHNA) founding members, she shepherded the group’s incorporation as an accredited non-profit organization, and was on the committee that established CHNA’s by-laws and goals. The Catalyst Network Foundation and the Friends of Brooklyn Community Board 8 also gained non-profit status through her efforts.

Ethel is tireless in her efforts to better the Crown Heights community. She is Board Member, Counsel and Treasurer of CHNA, the Vice Chair of the Housing/ULURP Committee of Community Board 8, and President of the Sterling Place Civic Association.

In her professional life, Ms. Tyus has been an Arbitrator for NYSUCS, Kings County Small Claims Court, Court Representative for the NYC Comptroller’s Office and Contract Administrator for the NYC Human Resources Administration. She is a skilled litigator, having prevailed in age discrimination, housing, landlord/tenant and family dispute cases. Ethel Tyus has been a member of the NYS bar since 1999.

Ethel has been one of CHNA’s most fervent supporters of the landmarking process, and worked tirelessly for years to get the neighborhood landmarked. She also almost singlehandedly championed the efforts to place the District on the State and National Registers of Historic Places.

She has spoken at numerous community meetings touting the benefits of landmark status, especially in terms of the tax advantages inherent in State and National Register designations. Along with several other board members of CHNA and the leadership of CB 8, Ethel has lent her expertise to landmarking sessions for other neighborhoods seeking designation.

While landmarking itself is certainly important, it is also equally important make sure landmarking standards and guidelines are adhered to, as well as oversee plans for changes in landmarked buildings. Both CHNA and CB 8 are tasked with reviewing plans from homeowners, builders and their architects before they are sent on to the LPC. Ethel is well versed in reading blueprints and plans, and offering an educated opinion used in the final recommendations of both groups.

As a member of CB 8’s Housing and ULURP Committee, she is fluent in zoning terms and regulations, and along with CHNA and CB colleagues, is at the forefront of the community’s fight for contextual zoning and the demand for sensible and sustainable real estate growth and development.

Somewhere in there, Ethel finds time for enjoying her home, and is in the process of renovating her 1894 landmarked row house on one of Crown Heights North’s beautiful blocks.

Lawrence Liston Baylor began his matriculation at Norfolk State University beginning in 1984. Mr Baylor launched Concord Courier Services, Inc in 1987, and within a year he was the largest courier service in the entire Tidewater, Virginia area. In 1989 he relocated back to his hometown of Washington DC and founded Concord Movers. He operated Concord Movers for 15 years before selling the business. He later founded and is currently the Managing Director of the Washington, DC based real estate investment firm the Baylor Real Estate Companies. Mr. Baylor is an investor who allocates capital to create, acquire and develop real estate for the purpose of converting into lucrative investment opportunities. His holdings are vast and span most of the Mid-Atlantic seaboard, with the exception of Maine, Massachusetts, Delaware and Pennsylvania.

Mr. Baylor is a positive role model and readily shares his leadership skills with the community. He is also the Head of Business Development at New Hope Church in Washington, DC.

Richard E. Fearon, Jr. founded Accretive Capital Partners in 2000, a 16-year-old private investment fund targeting undervalued small and micro-cap stocks of fundamentally strong public companies which represent attractive take-private candidates. The fund is long-only and employs the tools of private equity investing to its public market portfolio. Accretive Capital Partners has been nationally ranked by Morningstar, Barron’s, Bloomberg, and Lipper and received BarclayHedge’s 2016 award for #1 Performance Ranking Among All Equity Long-Only Hedge Funds, Acquisition International‘s 2015 award for Best for Long-Term Performance as an Active Value Fund, and HFM Week Magazine’s 2011 award for Best Single Manager Long-Term Performance.

Prior to founding Accretive Capital Partners, Mr. Fearon was a Principal of Allied Capital Corporation, a $3 billion private equity investment fund and the largest and oldest publicly-traded small business investment company in the United States, where he served from 1993-2000. He founded and managed the Chicago office of Allied Capital from 1997-2000. Prior to Allied Capital, Mr. Fearon was an investment banker at Morgan Stanley & Co. and PaineWebber Incorporated. He earned an MBA in Finance from the Wharton School of Business, where he also attended the Stockholm School of Economics, and graduated with a BA in Chemistry and Anthropology from Williams College. He was a graduate of the Hopkins School, where he was a 1984 Connecticut State and New England Wrestling Champion and a National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame Scholar-Athlete. He currently serves on the Hopkins School Alumni/ae Association Board of Directors and, since 2011. He lives in Madison, CT with his wife, Aisling, and three children, Maggie, Rich, and Caitlin.

Renaye Cuyler has practiced as an attorney in New York State for over thirty years concentrating in personal injury, medical malpractice, and Trusts and Estates. She is also a licensed funeral director and an owner of Sealy Cuyler Funeral Home, LLC, a state of the art facility in Prospect Heights Brooklyn which she and her partner built from the ground up and opened in 2006, the first women of color in the state of New York to do so. She is one of the founders and former Member of the Law firm of Gorayeb and Cuyler, P.C a firm which grew under her leadership from three attorneys to twenty attorneys.

Ms. Cuyler was appointed to and served on several judicial screening committees having been appointed by both former Governors Pataki and Cuomo. She has served as a member and chair of numerous bar association committees. She is a former President of the Metropolitan Black Association. She is a Fellow of the American Bar Association and the New York State Bar Foundation.

Ms. Cuyler was appointed to and served on several judicial screening committees having been appointed by both former Governors Pataki and Cuomo. She has served as a member and chair of numerous bar association committees. She is a former President of the Metropolitan Black Association. She is a Fellow of the American Bar Association and the New York State Bar Foundation.

Ms. Cuyler has been a featured lecturer on legal topics for local state and national bar associations. She has also lectured to community groups about estate planning and end of life decisions. She has served as a member of the Board of Directors for several community based organizations.

Ms. Cuyler has been a featured lecturer on legal topics for local state and national bar associations. She has also lectured to community groups about estate planning and end of life decisions. She has served as a member of the Board of Directors for several community based organizations.

She has received numerous awards for her distinguished legal career and contributions to the community.

The Catalyst Network Foundation Inc. (CNF) is a non-profit education initiative 501(c)(3) organization based in New York City and Washington, D.C. The social enterprise is fundamentally grassroots, steered by a volunteer leadership team in New York City and Washington, D.C. In July of 2012, Ranking Congressman Ed Towns awarded a proclamation to the Foundation, in recognition of the organization’s achievements.

CNF was conceived after its two founding members had a conversation about the future of youth and veterans in their community. After reviewing the lack of communal resources, skill development programs, and career-field opportunities for adults – the founders developed a vision. Through their combined efforts and strategic planning, the two founders recruited additional professionals to support the formation of Catalyst Network Foundation.

Founded in 2011, the nonprofit focuses on life enrichment and professional development, with a mission to engage high-potential youth (ages 14-25) by providing the essential tools, networks, skill-building projects, and development opportunities to maximize talent.

CNF holds a Summer Intensive Program for rising high school juniors and seniors in New York City and Washington, D.C. Successful applicants are enrolled at a CNF partnership high school. Each student receives individualized attention and internships in preparation for higher education and community service. The fellowship scholars are trained from day one: they tour corporate offices, pitch business ideas, and develop professional skills. More than 200 students have been admitted to the Fellowship Program and are CNF Fellows, 99 percent have graduated high school, and 98 percent enrolled in higher education institutions (including prestigious colleges and universities).

Through CNF’s Mentorship Program, Fellowship scholars are paired with a mentor that is a trailblazer in the profession or career field the fellows aspire to pursue. The CNF Internship Program secures CNF Fellows with internships at startups, corporations, and medical institutions.

Since 2011, the Fellows have experienced corporate tours and/or pitched capstone presentations and interventions for inner-city school challenges to several companies, including: Google, Goldman Sachs, NIKE, LinkedIn, Morgan Stanley, Microsoft, HBO, Covington & Burling LLP, GAP, Bloomberg, BET, NPR, The Carlyle Group, Kaye Scholer LLP, Hughes Hubbard Reed LLP, Deutsche Bank, Infor, The Peebles Corporation, Deloitte, FOX News, and NBC Studios.

The youth initiative annually holds tech symposiums at Google, career, and college preparatory workshops throughout the school year, instructing more than 2,000 high school students in the aforementioned metropolitan areas.

CNF performs screening and facilitates seamless partnership arrangements with high schools, nonprofits, and corporations. I.e., City Poly Tech High School < > Infor

The organization works with American veterans (ages 21-30), connecting them with resources and information to assist them with their career and academic ambitions.

CNF has curated 25+ professional networking events and diversity career recruiting sessions. The organization host a professional mixer and panel discussion called The Meeting of the Minds (MOTM) a gathering that is held quarterly it uniquely combines networking and thoughtful policy discussion on topics affecting minority communities. The goal is to provide a forum for critical conversation on issues often ignored by mainstream media outlets.