After 5 years in corporate law in L.A. and then as an executive at 20th Century Fox, John Piano, JD '92, made many personal sacrifices to facilitate a major career move and seek a different kind of fulfillment. In 2003, he created Transplant Connect (www.transplantconnect.com ) - a socially-conscious medical software firm dedicated to increasing the number of lives touched through organ, tissue and eye transplantation: quite a far cry from negotiating M&A deals.

Today, Transplant Connect provides the electronic medical record software that supports almost 50% of all U.S. organ transplants (about 13,000 - 15,000 each year). The company interfaces directly into the government organ allocation system (UNOS) and works with many organ, tissue and eye agencies around the country, including the Finger Lakes Donor Recovery Network (which is responsible for the Ithaca area), as well as the New York Organ Donor Network (covering all of New York City). According to Mr. Piano, "With 100,000+ people waiting for an organ in the U.S., and 18-20 dying every day, this is truly an important cause, and it often does not get the kind of attention of other cause."

For his work, Mr. Piano was recently recognized by GQ Magazine as one of 5 finalists in their "Better Man, Better World" search.  Votes were collected online at http://thegentlemensfund.com/final_vote.asp through October 7th, 2009 - and it looks like John is the winner with 42% of the votes!  The Cornell Club of Los Angeles would like to extend a heartfelt congratulations to John Piano for this well deserved honor and recognition!