Behind the Team
Divya Gugnani
CEO and Founder
I acquired a taste for my future in culinary arts as a child. I grew up in a household where food was the center of existence--our kitchen was the heart and soul of our home. At breakfast we planned lunch, at lunch we discussed dinner and overnight we marinated our minds for the next debate regarding all things culinary.
At Cornell University I completed my degree in Policy Analysis, but I couldn't leave without taking a cooking course at the School of Hotel Administration. After a few lessons on Chinese noodle salad and duck l'orange, I was hooked. A year as an investment banking analyst at Goldman Sachs and many kitchen concoctions in my NYC apartment later, I attended the French Culinary Institute and discovered my inner chef. It was there I learned French techniques from classically trained chefs, heightened my appreciation for fine dining, and refined my palate. For the years that followed, I kept my day job in finance; even got my MBA at Harvard Business School, but my passion for food coexisted with my demanding career as I continued to cater events and worked short stints in restaurant kitchens.
As a technology venture capitalist, I have spent the better part of six years as an investor providing entrepreneurs with strategic and operational guidance to achieve their visions. Every company has its twists and the turns, ups and downs, and as an investor I have felt like a passenger along for some pretty exhilarating and bumpy rides.
In creating Behind the Burner, I have become the captain of my own ship and am finally blending my long-time passion for culinary arts with my expertise in business.
Caroline Alexa McBride
Chief Operating Officer
Fine dining and nutritious living has always been an important part of my life. During my childhood, my family gathered every evening to savor meals joyfully prepared by my mother. With her professional culinary training, she bestowed her diverse kitchen skills on my sister and me. In addition to our healthy native Californian plates, we enjoyed international cuisine from countries I would eventually travel to and fall in love with; Italian panna cotta, Lebanese tabbouleh and Spanish paella are especially memorable dishes.
As a teenager, my mother's expanding library of cook books subconsciously shaped my personality. Although I was busy with athletics, leading extra-curricular activities and advocating for political causes, I always found time to consume freshly cooked meals as mandated by my parents. Eating properly was more than a preference, it was an absolute necessity.
Fond memories of tagging along during my father's business trips lured me to New York City after completing graduate school in Europe and inspired me to start my own non-profit fundraising and event planning company. Armed with a B.A. in Political Science from Loyola Marymount University and an M.A. in International Relations from the Universiteit van Amsterdam, I enthusiastically mixed my gourmet spirit with my desire to help local charities raise funds by organizing clever and delicious events. I became entrenched in the New York restaurant scene and gained insider knowledge from the personalities who make it such a raving success.
Behind the Burner enables me to meld years of operations experience acquired from planning political and non-profit fundraising events with my devotion to all things culinary.
