Michael Barth
Founder and Chief Executive Officer

Michael has been at the fore of innovative school design and education reform for over 12 years. Prior to founding upublic in 2005, Michael consulted on a number of public and private sector education development initiatives, and worked at the U.S. Department of Education where he advanced the conceptual framework for a new national adult education portal and an alternative online gaming option to the GED. Early in his career Michael worked with the entrepreneurial charter school venture, the Edison Project, and collaborated on the design and implementation of the company's national high school model.

Michael is currently Special Advisor to the Royal Education Council of Bhutan and Chairman of the board of directors for the upublic Education Fund. He also serves on the advisory boards of the Volunteers of America of Greater New York and the New York City Parks Foundation. Michael holds an Ed.M. from Columbia University where he is currently finishing a Ph.D. in philosophy and education, an M.A. from St. John’s College in Annapolis and a B.A. from Clark University.

James Potter
Director of Business Development

Before joining the upublic team, James was an associate at LarraineVial in structured products and helped create the first bond index for the Chilean fixed income market. James also directed new business initiatives for two successful interactive media start-ups in Manhattan, and most recently worked with the newly formed Leadership Academy of the New York City Department of Education to design a best practices sharing system for public school principals.

James holds an M.B.A. from Columbia Business School, with a focus on education and finance, and a B.A. in Economics from the University of Vermont.

Scott Tinkham
General Counsel

Scott is upublic's general counsel, and also undertakes senior consultant duties for project finance. He has wide ranging legal and business experience, and has consulted on a variety of educational and financial projects. Prior to joining upublic, Scott worked as in-house counsel to Affinion Group. His early career was spent at Shearman & Sterling LLP and Thelen Reid Brown Raysman & Steiner LLP, where he managed corporate and private equity transactions. He graduated from Duke University, and the University of Texas at Austin Law School.

Prior to assuming his current position at upublic, Cary’s principal work was in international law and human rights. He was Program Director for the International Bill of Rights Project (IBOR) at the University of California and served as a delegate to the United Nations Human Rights Commission at the 2003 Geneva Convention in Geneva, Switzerland. The culmination of his work with IBOR included the drafting of the Youth Involvement Educational Leadership Directive (YIELD Program), a civic education program for high school seniors in California public schools.

Cary was a 2004-2005 Educational Policy Fellow at Columbia University, Teachers College, where he also earned an M.A. in Leadership, Policy and Politics. He holds a B.A. in Law and Society from the University of California at Santa Barbara.

Dakai Li
Director of U.S.-China Initiatives

From his position as manager of Columbia University’s Center on Chinese Education (CCE), Dakai brings to upublic a wealth of experience and relationships in China. At the Center, Dakai was responsible for building relations with international organizations, government agencies and educational institutions, as well as organizing numerous training programs for Chinese officials and educators, and contributing to the body of research on China’s education development.

Prior to his position at CCE, Dakai was a manager at New Oriental Education and Technology, the largest provider of private education services in China. He holds a B.S. in computer science from Jiangxi University of Science and Technology, and is currently a doctoral candidate in organization and leadership at Columbia University where he also serves as vice-president of the Asia-Pacific Development Society.

Stephen Lynch
Director of School Architecture

Stephen is a registered architect and graduated with a Masters in Architecture from the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation at Columbia University. After a year of coordinating efforts to convert New York City armories into community recreational and learning centers, he worked for Richard Dattner and Partners Architects on large scale public projects in New York City including the Hudson River Park in Manhattan.

Stephen is currently a partner at Caliper Studio, a multidisciplinary architecture and fabrication firm in Brooklyn. His projects blend innovative design with social responsibility for improving communities.

Scott's role in upublic is as a Senior Consultant and Project Manager; he is also executive director of upublic's non-profit educational development affiliate, the upublic Education Fund. Scott has 10 years of project management experience, in educational, legal, technology and non-profit roles. Prior to joining the upublic team, Scott was a senior associate with Shearman & Sterling, specializing in managing cross-border transactions and acquisitions of startups and entrepreneurial businesses. He has held project management and business development roles with several startup ventures and non-profit organizations.

Scott is a member of the New York Bar, and holds a Master of Laws from Harvard Law School, and a Bachelors of Commerce and Bachelors of Laws from the University of Queensland.