Meet The Founders
Co-founders Philippa Portnoy and Teresa Saputo-Crerend made it their mission to support women in sports by creating LaunchBreak, a world wide online professional networking community to connect athletes.
Get to know each founder below.
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Co-Founder
Philippa has a BA from Barnard College and an MBA from Columbia Business School. She competed and served as co-captain of Columbia University’s women’s tennis team. She was the first female president of Columbia’s alumni athletics club. She also co-founded the Columbia Athletics Women’s Leadership Council to support and mentor young women athletes. She was named one of the 50 most influential female athletes in Columbia’s 50th Anniversary of Title IX.
She also previously worked for ten years at Citibank in the Aviation Finance Group.
She has been a Barnard trustee and helped to found the Barnard Athena Center which is dedicated to building female leaders.
She has triplet sons who competed in college athletics, so she has a deep understanding of the current demands of college athletes.
Philippa enjoys running, tennis, and fitness. She is an animal lover and adores her dog, Kipper.
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Co-Founder
Teresa has a BA from Columbia College where she also played on and captained the women’s tennis team. She earned an MBA from Columbia Business School and has a strong marketing background, having worked at Tennis Magazine and at Groupe Danone/Evian Natural Spring Water (handling North American sports sponsorships). Teresa has significant hands-on not-for-profit experience and served on the Advisory Board for the Jesse Kolber Foundation, which is committed to providing access to college to low-income students.
Additionally, she has held leadership volunteer positions at Columbia University and helped to develop, market and run the first University-wide conference for women at Columbia. She serves on the Columbia University Alumni Association’s Mentoring & Networking Committee. Teresa is a 2025 Recipient of Columbia Athletics Varsity “C” Alumni Award.
Teresa is a huge fan of professional tennis and follows all the players on Instagram :)
Meet The Advisors
The LaunchBreak Advisory Board consists of professionals in a wide range of industries who provide LaunchBreak access to up-to-date information on strategic business management to support and connect athletes. We welcome their talents, wisdom, and time to provide access to mentors, networking, athlete-focused business support, job board for athletes, and a women’s sports discussion forum.
Get to know each advisor below.
