Our Management Team

Glenn Turtel - Chairman of the Board, Chief Executive Officer
Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA: BS in Economics with Concentrations in Finance and Accounting.

Glenn currently works as a Manager in the Finance Planning & Analysis Group of Edison Schools, the country’s leading private manager of public schools. As part of his responsibilities, Glenn helps principals and business managers at schools in the Edison system manage their budgets while providing a world-class education to students.

Glenn was an active member of Junior Achievement for over three years, including teaching in a high school classroom, participating in the Groundhog Shadow Day Program, and advising in the JA Company Program, a program in which students organize and operate an actual business enterprise. Students in Glenn’s group earned the title of Company of the Year and many officers received individual recognition. In addition to his work with Junior Achievement, Glenn tutored in a father and son program for at-risk families and participated in the West Philadelphia Tutoring Project in which he helped inner city students acquire basic computer skills.

Glenn has a strong record of achievement in mathematics including participation in the Suffolk County Mathematics All-Star Team for two years in high school and perfect scores in the math portion of the SATs and more recently, the GREs.

Evan Turtel - Vice-Chairman of the Board, President
Cornell University, Ithaca, NY: BS in Computer Science

Evan has over ten years of work experience as a technologist. Currently, he is consulting at Scholastic Inc. for their Educational Technology Group. Previously, Evan worked at TheStreet.com from 1998-2004. As Vice President of Systems Architecture, he managed a custom web publishing software development team. Before joining TheStreet.com, Evan spent two years as a software developer at Merrill Lynch and then two years as an internet software developer at Time Warner.

Evan has been an active volunteer with New York Cares and HELP LINE crisis hotline since 1995. A master chess player and winner of many prestigious chess awards, Evan tutored chess to children in middle school while attending Cornell.

Sam Liu - Board Treasurer, Vice President of Marketing
University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA: BA in Economics and Communications

New York University Leonard N. Stern School of Business, New York, NY: MBA in Finance and Marketing (Candidate 2009)

Mr. Liu has a strong background in finance and marketing working as Sales Effectiveness Manager within the American Express Foreign Currency International Payments Division. He was responsible for supporting the sales force and their goal of growing the company's corporate client base. Prior, he was Senior Financial Analyst managing the budget and profitability of fragrance product launches at Coty, with brands such as Sarah Jessica Parker, Calvin Klein, and Vera Wang. While attending the University of Pennsylvania, Sam developed program activities as Team Leader in the West Philadelphia Tutoring Program and worked as a marketing coordinator for health services. After college, Sam worked for Merrill Lynch within their Global Securities Research and Economics Compliance Group.

Lisa Friscia - Director of Education
Amherst College, Amherst, MA: BA in American Studies and Economics

Ms. Friscia was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. After graduating Stuyvesant High School , she decided to attend Amherst College , in Amherst , Massachusetts . While majoring in American Studies and Economics, she also became a counselorand campus organizer. Upon her graduation, she returned to New York City to become a New York City Teaching Fellow. She completed her master's in Social Studies Education while teaching in Ozone Park , New York . She taught in Ozone Park for the past five years, serving as a lead teacher, Senior Activities coordinator and chair for the School Leadership Team. In 2006, she learned about Top Honors, and became excietd about its mission of providing free math tutoring centered on real world application. She joined the Top Honors Board, and has enjoyed working withh the students, tutors and families.

In the summer of 2007, she completed her Master's in Educational Leadership at Teacher's College. She is currently a 7th grade teacher and grade leader at Democrcacy Prep Charter School.

Justin C. Cohen - Director of Fundraising
Yale University, New Haven, CT: BA in Cognitive Neuroscience

Justin C. Cohen is the Director of Industry Support and Development for the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools. The Alliance is a national nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing the public charter schools movement. In fifteen years since the passage of the nation’s first charter school law, the charter school movement has grown to include over 4,000 schools and 1.1 million students. The Alliance’s ultimate goal is to improve the achievement of all children, with special emphasis on low-income and minority students.

Prior to joining the Alliance Justin served as director of business development for Edison Schools; in that capacity he was responsible for cultivating the development of new charter schools across the eastern United States and in California. While at Edison he also acted as director of operations for the Friendship-Edison Public Charter Schools in Washington DC and as a professional charter school application writer. Justin is active with the Black Alliance for Educational Options, the High School for Recording Arts, and Democrats for Education Reform.