Andrew Fish serves as SVP of Member and Business Experience at CenterState CEO, a role that oversees ensures all engaged businesses are getting exceptional service and are maximizing the value of their relationships with CenterState CEO’s programs and network.  In 2016 Andrew joined CenterState CEO as the SVP of Business Development, a role that oversaw several lines of business for the organization, including economic development, member services, programs and events, business attraction and retention, and global competitiveness.

Andrew has over 15 years of chamber and economic development experience as, prior to joining CenterState CEO, he served as executive director of Cayuga Strategic Solutions, providing executive services to the chamber and four economic development entities in Auburn and Cayuga County.

Andrew is an entrepreneur and educator.  He is a part owner in JiKi JeAn Properties, LLC, focused on commercial redevelopment of properties in rural Upstate communities. From 2010 – 2020 Andrew co-owned and operated a NYS Agriculture and Markets certified farmstead goat cheese operation, 4 Tin Fish Farm.  Andrew taught social entrepreneurship courses as an adjunct instructor at Cayuga Community College, and he began his career as the business manager and then vice principal for a private boarding school in Union Springs, NY.

Andrew was born in New Hampshire and raised in the northwest suburbs of Chicago, IL.  After receiving his BBA in Management from Andrews University in Southwest Michigan he moved to Central New York.

Cliff Sweatte is well-known throughout the global aviation and UAS industry as the FAA Program Manager who guided the first approvals for Uncrewed Aircraft Systems (UAS) Beyond Visual Line-of-Sight operations (BVLOS) authorizations and the first two civil UAS type certifications. He has taken those early projects to new heights and is the premier advisor for cutting edge advanced aviation operations in the National Airspace System (NAS) and around the world.

Cliff currently supports top tier industry and government clients on UAS and Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) regulatory and operational issues. In previous roles, he served as the global lead for the World Food Program’s (WFP) Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS) initiative based in Rome, where he managed the drone efforts for WFP and interfaced with governments worldwide to obtain approvals needed for humanitarian missions that utilize drones. He was appointed a Technical Officer, RPAS Section at the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and served as a co-chair of the ICAO Task Force for UAS Humanitarian Aid and Development. At ICAO his responsibilities included serving as Secretary for the UAS Advisory Group (UAS-AG), a matrixed team of geographically diverse experts formed to assist Member states with developing guidance and best practices for their UAS and drone programs. Accomplishments include guiding the development of the ICAO UAS Toolkit—a virtual, multilingual, global UAS guidance tool—as well as protocols and strategic goals and leading the UAS traffic management (UTM) initiative, known as the “Drone Enable” symposium, and co-developer of ICAO’s RPAS workshops. Cliff has delivered UAS and UTM courses in multiple countries around the globe. Cliff was the lead developer of the ICAO RPAS Concept of Operations (CONOPS), now available in six languages.

Prior to his work in UAS and AAM, Cliff was an FAA Airline Transport Pilot serving as an Airbus A320 Captain and a union leader for two airlines. This work led to him joining the FAA as an aviation safety inspector for air carrier operations.

Cliff received numerous awards for his groundbreaking work as an FAA Aviation Safety Inspector and Program Manager for FAA’s UAS Pathfinder BVLOS operations in the Arctic for marine mammal and Arctic ice surveys with NASA, pipeline surveys for oil companies and linear infrastructure surveys with BNSF Railway, enabling the United States’ first civil, commercial BVLOS UAS operations.

Colleen M. Flood is the Dean of the Faculty of Law at Queen’s University. She served as a professor and the Canada Research Chair for the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Law from 2000-2014 and as the inaugural director of the Centre for Health Law, Policy and Ethics and University of Ottawa Research Chair in Health Law & Policy from 2014-2023. Dr. Flood holds a Doctor of Juridical Science (SJD) and Master of Laws (LLM) from the University of Toronto and a Bachelor of Laws (LLB) Honours from the University of Auckland, New Zealand. Her research informed national and global debates over privatization, health system design, accountability, governance, and the role of courts in defending rights in health care. Her latest research focuses on the governance of health-related artificial intelligence. She holds many honours and accomplishments, including being named a Justice Emmet Hall Laureate in 2022, and member of the Canadian Council of Academies Scientific Advisory Committee in 2021, and a member of the Royal Society Taskforce on COVID-19 in 2021. She has over 100 publications and over 1200 citations, including publications on implementing digital passports for COVID-19 immunizations, vaccine ins and outs, the legal issues that have been raised in the presence of COVID-19, and accounts of what our country could look like post-pandemic.

David C. Amberg, a native of Washington State, received his B.A. in Biology/Chemistry from Whitman College in 1983, graduating cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa. His career in science began in 1984 at Seattle biotechnology company Immunex Corporation in their protein chemistry department where he developed the first immune-assays for newly discovered lymphokines and developed the first tag-based universal protein purification system, the Flag System.

He then pursued his Ph.D. at Dartmouth Medical School in Biochemistry, graduating in 1992. In his Ph.D. work he developed the first methods to identify, clone and sequence genes whose products are involved in RNA export from the nucleus thereby establishing a new field in biology. The title of his Ph.D. thesis was “Isolation and characterization of essential genes of Saccharomyces cerevisiae required for the efficient nucleocytoplasmic trafficking of mRNA.”

Dr. Amberg completed his post-doctoral fellowship in genetics at Stanford University School of Medicine, where he was mentored by Dr. David Botstein then Chair of the Department of Genetics. His post-doctoral work focused on structure/function studies of novel actin binding proteins. His work on the cytoskeleton continued in his own, NIH-supported lab at SUNY Upstate Medical University (SUNY-UMU) in 1996, where he has been promoted through the ranks and named Full Professor in 2008.

In addition to his lab’s structure/function studies on actin he and his group used whole genome genetic interaction analysis specifically complex haplo-insufficiency to uncover the “actinome,” a compete set of genes involved in actin cytoskeleton function. This work was featured on the cover of the journal Genes and Development in 2007. Dr. Amberg served as instructor for the prestigious Cold Spring Harbor Yeast Genetics and Genomics Course for five years from 2001-2005 and was lead author for the course text book.

Dr. Amberg was awarded the President’s Award for Excellence in Teaching in 2004, was named a SUNY UMU Jacobsen Scholar in 2009, received the President’s Award for Excellence and Leadership in Research in 2011, and was awarded the Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Scholarship and Creative Activities in 2012. His administrative service at SUNY UMU has included serving as the Associate Vice President of Research Integrity, the Research Integrity Officer, Research Conflict of interest Officer, Vice President of Research (VPR) from 2014 to 2018, and as the Interim College President at SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry form July 2018 to June of 2020 after which he returned to Upstate Medical University as the VPR. In his role as Upstate’s VPR, Dr. Amberg oversees the clinical, translational and basic research portfolios of the University with current annual expenditures of over $40M. During his tenure as VPR Upstate has seen 9 years of continuous growth amounting to over 40% increase in research expenditures.

Michael Hausladen is the General Manager for LOTTE Biologics USA, LLC, headquartered in Syracuse, NY.  LOTTE Biologics is a Contract Development and Manufacturing Organization that is serving the International Biologic Pharmaceutical market. Mike is a member of the Board of Directors for CenterState CEO and MACNY, and sits on the Advisory Board for the CNYBAC. Prior to LOTTE Biologics, Mike worked at Bristol Myers Squibb.  Roles at BMS included starting up the Devens, MA $350M Cell Therapy facility, managing clinical External Biologics Manufacturing and Various leadership roles in the Syracuse, NY facility, including Director of Manufacturing and Director of Manufacturing Technology.  Prior to working in Biologics, Michael worked at BMS scaling up and commercializing Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients.  Prior to BMS, Michael held roles in Pharmaceutical Intermediates, adhesives and electronic materials.  Michael has a PhD in Chemical Engineering from the University at Buffalo.

Winthrop “Win” Thurlow is the Executive Director of LifeSciencesNY, a non-profit trade association of companies and universities focused on New York’s bioscience and medical technology industries. He joined the organization (then called MedTech) in July 2017.

Throughout his professional career, Thurlow has been engaged as a leader and counsel in both the private and public sectors.  He is a former New York Assistant Attorney General-in-Charge and has worked as an attorney in private practice and as a prosecutor, a regulator and an administrator, including serving as Counsel and Vice President for University Compliance and Ethics at SUNY Upstate Medical University, where he oversaw institutional compliance, scientific and research misconduct investigations, commercialization and technology transfer.

Thurlow holds a bachelor’s degree from Union College and a law degree from Georgetown University Law Center.

The Pre-Landing offering provides businesses one-on-one sessions with collaborators of the Kingston-Syracuse Pathway (KSP) to determine eligibility for the Soft-Landing program. This program will review your export plans, and provide you with suggestions and referrals to experts and resources in the region’s innovation ecosystem to support your company’s entry into the U.S. or Canadian market.

Following the initial Pre-Landing session, the Soft-Landing program will provide select entrepreneurs and startups with a variety of support services, carefully curated to meet their specific business expansion needs. Kingston Economic Development will help you navigate the opportunities provided through this partnership.