Behind the Team
Divya Gugnani
CEO and Founder, Culinary Expert
Divya started her business career in Investment Banking at Goldman Sachs and then moved on to private equity and venture capital at Investcorp International and FirstMark Capital. Currently she serves as the CEO of Behind the Burner, a culinary media brand focused on tips, tricks and techniques for food, wine, mixology and nutrition. She also serves as CEO of Send the Trend which offers curated fashion accessories for women online. She acquired a taste for her future in culinary arts while building a career in finance. In addition to a B.S. from Cornell University and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School, Divya holds a degree from the French Culinary Institute, where she discovered her inner chef. Divya has catered numerous events and worked in several restaurant kitchens while managing her corporate boardroom responsibilities. With the creation of Behind the Burner, Divya blends her long-time passion for culinary arts with her expertise in business ventures. Divya currently advises several start ups and established brands with board level roles, serves on the President's Council of Cornell Women, and is a professor at Founder Institute. She appears regularly on MSNBC: Your Business, NBC Weekend Today and NBC Nonstop. She has also been a guest on FOX & FRIENDS and has been featured in The New York Times, BusinessWeek, TIME Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, The Deal, Crains, among several other publications. Divya contributes to The Huffington Post, TODAYshow.com, Daily Beast, MSN's Glo, The Nest Magazine and Woman's World. She is the author of the book Sexy Women Eat: Secrets to Eating What You Want and Still Looking Fabulous, published by HarperCollins. Divya was honored as a 2010 Game Changer by The New York Enterprise Report and will be receiving an award as one of the Top 50 Outstanding Asian Americans in business. Additionally, Divya is on the Board of Directors for New York Entrepreneur Week, a non-profit movement formed around a single belief: entrepreneurs change the world.
Alix Weiner
Marketing Coordinator, Health Advocate
Alix studied at the University of Maryland, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts in Communications. She is currently a candidate for a Masters degree in Food Studies at New York University.
A dedicated Pesco-Vegetarian (mostly vegetarian diet, with some seafood), her interest in food and healthy living developed in her early teens. Her love for animals and strong sense of responsibility for our planet inspired the lifestyle shift and she makes conscious food choices daily and regularly seeks wholesome cuisine, sustainable food and vegetarian-friendly dining experiences.
At Behind the Burner, she works on promoting and expanding our reach. She cannot imagine a more perfect environment in which to grow. She feels fortunate to work in such an exciting atmosphere where she is contributing and actively involved in what goes on behind the scenes in the food world. When Alix isn't keeping the trains running at the office, she enjoys her daily runs, pilates/yoga classes at the gym, spending countless hours watching Food Network and reading the latest health and food publications.
Aditi Malhotra
Creative & Branding Consultant, Foodie/Fashionista Mom
For those who know, Indian homes, especially their kitchens, are generally quite traditional, leaving the elder daughters to hone their skills from their formative years. Between long summers and action-packed winter breaks in India, Aditi not only gained insight, but also embraced the flavors, aromas and textures of the East. This was a huge contrast to those pasta meals made babysitting for neighbors back in New York.
It was a fusion of cultural influences and exposure that inspired Aditi to dabble in the kitchen throughout her years at business school -- continuing to impress guests with multi-course plated meals set on a table, with flowers to accent the curry. In later years, it was a dash of practicality with aesthetic to please her own senses. The kitchen continues to be the source of experimentation -- raising two kids in New York City, Aditi yo-yo's between serving up Eastern and Western cuisine.
Aditi's presentation and style skills were honed via years of merchandising, production and accounting at Mary McFadden, Dennis Basso, Ann Taylor and Ralph Lauren. Prior, she received a Bachelors degree from Wharton and an Associates degree from FIT.
Kaitlin Lipe
Community Manager, Baking Queen
Kaitlin currently resides in Kew Gardens, Queens, or as far away from Jersey as she can get. Born in California and raised on the stereotypical hopes of New Jersey, Kaitlin has been in love with food ever since she could feed herself. An obsessive baker, her cookies have been requested in four different states and devoured single handedly by her boyfriend. Her desire to cook stemmed from a close relationship with her mother; times spent in the kitchen were moments for gossip and rehashing of the days events.
Kaitlin studied at University of Illinois Urbana Champaign where she earned a Bachelor in Arts in English. At Behind the Burner, she promotes the site, builds buzz, blogs and talks about her favorite topic--food--within the entire realm of the Internet. She likes to think of herself as a bit of a social media freak, with some cooking on the side. Her favorite holiday is Restaurant Week...doesn't matter what city.
Kaitlin has contributed to College News Magazine and Miomarmo. If you type her into Google, you may find even more. She'd also like you to follow her at http://www.twitter.com/kikidell. It's just a suggestion.
Jennifer Ambrose
Public Relations Coordinator, Informative Cook
Jennifer Ambrose was born and raised in Connecticut and currently lives there with her husband and daughter. Her love of food stems from her Italian roots and watching her father and grandmother in the kitchen, sneaking samples of the Sunday sauce. In her world, family is synonymous with food and drink. Even her first job was around food, assisting customers in a pizza shop in her small hometown. More recently, her interests have guided her toward healthy eating and a passion for wine tasting.
Her interest of human behavior began as a teenager and she went on to study Psychology at Central Connecticut State University. She also holds a Master's degree in Psychology from John Jay College. She has held several positions as a social worker, crisis counselor and marketing assistant as well as a contributing writer to several online publications, including examiner.com and hollypinafore.com.
She combines her love of psychology, culinary arts and writing in order to understand and relay to others, the relationship between food, the industry and people. At Behind the Burner, she uses these skills to bring information about the company and up to date foodie news to our fans, readers and members.
Off the job, Jennifer takes an interest in reading, writing, traveling with her family and friends and lifelong learning on a variety of topics and, of course, cooking, experimenting in the kitchen and frequenting theaters and movie cinemas to quench her thirst for the arts.
