User:SarahPolonsky/Divya Gugnani

Divya Gugnani 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 started her business career at Goldman Sachs and then moved on to Investcorp International and Millennium Technology Ventures. Most recently, as a venture capitalist and Principal at FirstMark Capital, Divya provided companies with strategic and operational guidance to achieve their visions. Additionally, 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 startups and established brands with board level roles. She appears on MSNBC: Your Business, NBC Weekend Today and NBC New York Nonstop. She has also been a guest on FOX & FRIENDS and has been featured in BusinessWeek, TIME Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, The Deal, Crains, Hi!Blitz, Khabar, Eat.Drink.Better, The Nest Magazine and Woman's World, among several other publications. Divya contributes to The Huffington Post, TODAYshow.com, Daily Beast, MSN's Glo, PageDaily and is the author of the upcoming book Sexy Women Eat: Secrets to Eating What You Want and Still Looking Fabulous, a no-nonsense guide to staying slim for women who live to eat. She is the Founder and CEO of the newly launched e-commerce fashion site, Send the Trend as well as online lifestyle media property What Not To Do 101.

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.