Meet the Team

Cathy Copeland

Co-Founder & CEO
Cathy's thirty years of business experience in the creative arena include brand launch and development, strategic initiatives, art direction, photography, and graphic design. Fueled by effective visual communication and creative solutions, she steers FriendlyU toward a bright future by facilitating the discovery of human connection in young people as they explore their academic possibilities. Working with the next generation to realize a kinder, more productive world is key to her mission and helping students find the best college continues with her work at Connectinglearners.org.

Henry Saniuk, Jr.

Co-Founder & CTO
Self-taught through middle and high school, Henry now studies at Rochester Institute of Technology where he continues to add to his considerable skill set while improving FriendlyU. Although his passion is in software development, his business acumen has grown alongside his coding skills. Entrepreneurial even as a middle schooler, he has started and run several enterprises, and was voted most likely to be CEO by his high school class. Genuine and generous of spirit, it is his sincere desire to make the world a friendlier place.

Darrin Loeliger

User Experience Designer
Darrin bridges the gap between our technology and brand aesthetics to create a total user experience. His innate understanding of user workflow and ability to speak developer's languages makes his contribution unique and valuable.

Lynda Russo

Controller
Lynda is a seasoned financial executive with vast experience in a variety of industries including, banking, management, consulting services, and insurance. She has worked for BayBanks, Mellon Bank, and Denneen & Co.

Regina Locicero

Android Developer
Regina's ability to zip line to the heart of the matter lets her immerse herself in anything she sets her mind to. Her determination to expand the FriendlyU audience makes her a huge asset to the mobile team.

Stuart Olivera

Software Engineer
Stuart gets excited about technology and using innovation as a means of making things simple and understandable. His micro-bursts of enthusiasm are a catalyst for inspiration in not only FriendlyU, but for those around him.

Our Advisors

Tad Hunt

Advisor
Tad is an expert in the entire technology conception-to-market lifecycle. He designs, builds, staffs, and manages large scale distributed systems containing millions of lines of code across a myriad of cloud stacks and hardware platforms. His contribution to the team brings 20+ years of successful delivery of product as a founder, CTO, CEO, and Board Member. He currently is a Technical Lead for the Google App Engine team at Google.

Gary Carlson

Advisor
Gary R. Carlson, President for gCarlson Inc., successfully practiced in many colleges across the United States sharing his experience with schools and colleges. His expertise encompasses the full scope of school leadership, faculty and teacher improvement, student success, student retention, marketing and compliance. The schools and colleges he has worked in are believers in the methods used to improve their schools' success.

Colleen Peterson

Advisor
Colleen Peterson is a seasoned enrollment management professional who has a keen interest in admissions systems, technology and data. She currently leads RIT’s Admissions Systems and Operations department and is responsible for the development, implementation, and maintenance of admissions information systems along with data management in support of institutional and divisional enrollment goals and priorities. Colleen brings over 25+ years of extensive experience in all aspects of college search, admissions and enrollment processes.