Where There’s a Will There’s a Way

Mike Gentile, CISOSHARE

Mike Gentile has been on the forefront of security program development for more than 20 years. These experiences inspired him to create CISOSHARE where he serves as the Founder, President and CEO. Initially an experiment, now one of the fastest growing companies in the United States, CISOSHARE strives to create an environment based completely on learning and teaching in everything it does. Mike has also designed CISOSHARE's security program development application that provides a suite of program measurement and do-it-yourself tools for improving any security program. Previously, Mike built, grew and sold a leading GRC company and is a co-author of both The CISO Handbook and CISO Soft Skills.

Scott Griest, PrimaHealth

Scott Griest is a sales-focused executive who has led multiple high-growth startups in the technology and financial services sectors. In addition to being an established entrepreneur and executive, he is an investor in several LA tech startups and a current board advisor for LEND360.

 

As the Chief Operating Officer of PrimaHealth Credit Mr. Griest is responsible for leading sales, account services, and loan servicing operations. 

 

Previously, Mr. Griest was the founder and CEO of American Finance Solutions, a merchant cash advance operation that twice earned a place on the Inc. 5000 list. He successfully sold the business to Rapid Capital Funding, which was later acquired by North American Bancard and renamed Bambu Finance. While at Bambu Finance Scott managed both a sizable direct sales operation as well as affiliate sales representatives.

 

Earlier, Mr. Griest was the co-founder and COO of Consolidebt, a consumer finance company that served the underbanked, which was acquired by Resolve Processing. Prior experience also includes marketing and management posts at Salesmation (a company co-founded by PrimaHealth Credit founder Brendon Kensel), Saatchi & Saatchi, and Isuzu North America.

Don Tashman, Loaded Boards

Don Tashman founded Loaded Boards in 2002. Passionate about boards sports, functional design, and business in general, Don functions as CEO of Loaded as well as driving product development.  Don holds a BA in English Literature from Columbia University and prior to Loaded, Don worked for a couple "dotcoms" in New York in the late 90s which, through cashing out stock options at a lucky time, provided the capital to start Loaded. Don has a family history of entrepreneurialism and product manufacturing stretching back at least three generations. Under Don's (self-taught and often non-linear) stewardship, Loaded Boards has grown to become amongst the most influential longboard skateboard companies with distribution in over 40 countries. Aside from its skateboard decks and its industry leading Orangatang Wheel line, Loaded has a global distribution partnership with Barcelona based Unlimited Engineering and their electric skateboard kits.

Norel Mancuso, CEO of Social House, Inc

In 2010, Norel Mancuso, CEO of Social House, Inc. saw social media becoming a huge part of people's lives and in turn, the need for businesses to pay attention to social media in order to survive. So, she turned that idea into Social House. As a young, gay woman living in Los Angeles, Norel didn't have much more than an idea and her phone to show companies that social media would change the way brands interacted with consumers. She didn't let any of those things get in her way as she built her company from the ground up.

To this day, she not only overcomes the pitfalls of being a woman CEO but also battles the stereotypes of being a gay leader in the business community. Going into her 2nd decade in business, Norel has built an award-winning company and emerged as an industry leader. She has worked with some of the biggest companies in the world in the retail and beauty market. Brands such as Pepsi, Revlon, SONOS, Playboy, and L’Oreal (to name a few) entrust Norel to be the brainchild behind their presence online and on social media.

Scott Shadley, NGD Systems

“Scott Shadley is VP Marketing at NGD Systems where he leads marketing, product management, and product development for the company’s industry-leading computational storage. He has been a key figure in promoting computational storage, being co-chair of the SNIA Technical Working Group on the subject which he helped found, and speaking on the subject at Open Compute Summit, Flash Memory Summit, NVMe Developer Days, and many other events, press interviews, blogs, and webinars. Before joining NGD Systems, Scott managed the Product Marketing team at Micron, was the Business Line Manager for the SATA SSD portfolio, and was the Principal Technologist for the SSD and emerging memory portfolio. He launched four successful innovative SSDs for Micron and two for STEC, all of which were multimillion dollar sellers. Scott earned a BSEE in Device Physics from Boise State University and an MBA in marketing from University of Phoenix.”

Morgan Christian, Spinnaker

Morgan Christen is the Chief Executive Officer and Chief Investment Officer of Spinnaker Investment Group, LLC. In this role, he leads the investment committee in building customized portfolio solutions for high-net worth clients. Mr. Christen brings 26 years of investment management experience. Morgan founded and led Signature Resources Capital Management, LLC in Irvine as the Chief Investment Officer/Portfolio Manager in charge of research and asset allocation. Prior to joining Signature, he served as the President of Charterwest Consulting Inc., a money management firm in Newport Beach. Additionally, he acted as the Vice President of Dolphin Securities Inc., a regional broker dealer and managed the firms’ 30 representatives. He holds a Bachelors of Science in Business Finance from the University of Southern California and an MBA from Pepperdine University. In addition, he holds the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA), Certified Financial Planner (CFP®) and Certified Divorce Financial Analyst (CDFA®) designations and served as a board member of the CFA Society of Orange County.

Brandine Strand, Cali Raw Nutrition

Brandine Strand is an avid life-long dog mom & entrepreneur, passionate about holistic health & natural medicine. In 2018, she founded Cali Raw Nutrition, a premium raw dog food company that ships human-grade, complete & balanced, life-stage specific meals straight to your door. Brandine is dedicated to making it easy for dog lovers to provide optimal nutrition for the enhanced health & longevity of their dogs.

Paul Trapp, EventPrep

LTC (Ret) Paul Trapp is a seasoned military leader and event planning professional. He serves as the Chair of the Executive Oversight Committee and brings 31 years of combined active duty, reserve component, and Army National Guard experience, closing his military career out as the Chief of Recruiting for the Army National Guard. Paul currently leads a team of more than 40 Operational Managers and Certified Meeting Professionals (CMP) who plan and execute over 3,000 events annually for the federal government and commercial clients. He also has more than 20 years of successful contract management expertise, as well as event planning, organization and evaluation of conferences, seminars, and meetings in both the private and federal sectors. Paul is also a founding owner of EventPrep (a life-style franchise opportunity for entrepreneurs who are trapped in an employee’s body). Paul lives in Central Florida with his wife Kimberly and is the co-author of Prep for Success: The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Achieving Dreams. 

Bill Carpou, OCTANe

Bill has held many key positions at technology companies such as Xerox and IKON, and created distribution channels and customer solutions for products manufactured by Canon, Ricoh, and H-P. Both companies also provided an opportunity for Bill to lead distressed operations back to profitability and interact with investors, including several Wall Street investment banks. Additionally, he led several acquisitions and the creation of strategic partnerships. Bill was with Merrill Lynch earlier in his career, and more recently, held an executive position within The Blackstone Group, one of the leading global private equity firms. In that role Bill led the successful growth and transformation of a key portfolio company. He has broad sales and marketing experience and during 2014, worked with several startups to provide advisory services focused to revenue growth, and increasing both profitability and overall enterprise value.

J.D. Sitton, CTC Global

J.D. Sitton joined CTC Global (CTC) as its chief executive officer in August 2014. He is focused on building the strategic and customer relationships necessary to drive large-scale adoption of CTC’s innovative ACCC© products by electric transmission and distribution utility companies world-wide. Since 2014, CTC has entered many new geographic markets, expanded its production footprint, launched new products, developed new innovations and realized significant growth.
Prior to joining CTC, Mr. Sitton founded Profera International, a business development firm serving growth-stage companies in the U.S., Europe and the Middle East
Mr. Sitton began his career as a design engineer in the natural gas pipeline industry and has since worked closely with leading strategic, venture and private equity investors to launch and grow innovative services and technology companies in the solar, oil and gas, electric utility, energy storage, healthcare and industrial controls industries.
Mr. Sitton holds a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Rice University and a Master of Business Administration from the Executive Program at the University of Houston, both located in Houston, Texas, USA.

LJ Suzuki, CFOshare

LJ Suzuki is a fractional CFO with CFOshare, an outsourced finance and accounting department for small businesses. https://cfoshare.org/

Mareya Ibrahim, Food Safety and Clean Eating Expert

Mareya Ibrahim is also known as “The Fit Foodie,” a nationally recognized food safety and clean eating expert, an award-winning entrepreneur, television chef, author and inventor. She is the CEO and founder of Grow Green Industries, INC. and the patented co-creator of the eatCleaner®, eatSafe™ and eatFresh™ line of all natural and organic products that help offer cleaner, safer, longer lasting produce.

Her book “The Clean Eating Handbook” was released in May 2013 and is being touted as the ‘go-to’ guide for anyone looking to eat cleaner and get leaner. She is a contributor to “The Daniel Plan: 40 Days to a Healthier Life” by Rick Warren, Dr. Daniel Amen and Dr. Mark Hyman.

She is a featured chef on the Emmy-nominated cooking show Recipe Rehab, eHow.com, Livestrong.com and is a frequent guest on San Diego 6 and Fox 5 San Diego News. Her back-page column, “The Fit Foodie”, appears in Edible Orange County Magazine.

 

 

Nancy Duarte, Author

NANCY DUARTE is a communication expert who has been featured in Fortune, Forbes, Fast Company, Wired, The Wall Street Journal, New York Times, TIME and on CNN and is also a Harvard Business Review contributor. As a persuasion expert, she cracked the code for effectively incorporating story patterns into business communications. She’s written five bestselling books and four have won awards with her newest releasing September 17, 2019, DataStory: Explain Data and Inspire Action Through Story. On the list of top 250 Women in Leadership, Duarte ranks #67 and on World's Top 30 Communication Professionals for 2017, she ranks #1. Nancy has spoken at numerous conferences and her TEDx talk has over two million views. She speaks at business schools and lectures at Stanford University a few times per year. Please connect with her on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.

Mark Michael, DevHub Technology

DevHub white label technology platform is used by brands, agencies and technology companies to build sites and landing pages as part of a larger marketing strategy.

One Platform, Many Different Experiences

This is achieved cost effectively- through robust APIs and cloud hosted infrastructure.

DevHub offers an arsenal of unique tools to enterprises that are managing a high volume of sites and landing pages for co-op marketing, channel marketing, location based marketing, proxy solutions and Small Businesses. Companies go to market faster while ensuring conversions, security, brand compliance and web standards are consistent across the web experience - using DevHub.

Nick Jordan, Wells of Life

 

Nick Jordan was born, raised and educated in Ireland and holds a bachelor’s degree from University College, Dublin in both English and Education. He was a school teacher in Ireland, then emigrated to the U.S. in 1986 to pursue new opportunities. Nick is currently a successful real estate broker in Orange County and a shareholder with Regency Real Estate Brokers based in Mission Viejo. He has 17 years of experience in residential, commercial and land development.

 

After fundraising for schools in Uganda in 2008 and witnessing overwhelming poverty and lack of clean water, Jordan founded Wells of Life in 2009. He is committed to bringing clean water to 1,000 communities in Uganda and beyond. He believes in combing business and philanthropy which allows him to inspire others while making a lasting difference in the world. This passion is shared with his family, friends and business associates.

 

One of his favorite quotes is Winston Churchill’s, “We make a living by what we get, and a life by what we give.”

 

 

Karen Williams, 211 Orange County

Summary

 

• Senior executive with 35 years of experience in general management, business development, marketing, sales and finance.
• Multi-faceted background in both non-profit and for-profit sectors; direct and database marketing; social media marketing; outsourcing and the analysis of alternative cost effective measures.
• Strategic, results-driven leader with proven ability to create new organizations, spearhead change, foster groups to think outside the box.

 

Work Experience

2-1-1 Orange County (211OC): President and Chief Executive Officer (Sept. 2013 – current)

• Oversaw merger of two non-profit organizations, 211OC and OC Partnership, culminating in one 501 (c) (3) organization (211OC) in April 2014.
• Increased public and private funding of combined organization from $2 Million to $3+ Million income; multi-lingual staff of 40+ serving the Orange County community in prevention and diversion space.
• As the California PUC designated 2-1-1 organization for the County of Orange, we connect our diverse community to the 3000+ health and human resources they need via our Information & Referral Specialists (phone, text, email and interactive website). 211OC manages and curates this resource database, operating 24/7/365 in four (4) languages in-house (with access to 300+ languages and dialects via a language line).
• As the US Dept. of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) designated Homeless Management Information System (HMIS) lead, oversee a multi-lingual team to manage the HMIS database and processes for the OC Continuum of Care. Includes reporting and analytics for 34 cities, County of Orange and HUD, as well as 40+ agencies that participate in HMIS.
• Oversight of multiple community collaborative programs, including Domestic Violence, Veterans, 211RIDE, CalFresh, and Coordinated Entry System’s Virtual Front Door.
• Direct reports: Chief Financial Officer/ Chief Operations Officer, Chief Development Officer, Chief Strategy Officer, Director of Community Program, and Director of CoC Data and Operations.
• Recruit, develop and manage a diverse Board of Directors, with backgrounds in public and private organizations.

OC Partnership: Chief Operating Officer (July 2011 – Aug.2013) / Chief Executive Officer (Sept.2013 – April 2014)

• Responsible for providing vision and leadership in key service areas, including the OC Continuum of Care, HMIS data collection and analysis, and technical assistance for agencies providing services to the homeless or those at risk of being homele
• Oversight of day-to-day operations, funding/resource development, budget development and management, project management, marketing and PR, contract administration and negotiations; manage relationships with the County of Orange, HUD, and service agencies and the Point in Time project within the CoC; public speaker on behalf of the CoC.

Mortgage Lending (2001 – 2011) Mortgage broker for companies offering financing to consumers and investors

Salesmation.com, Newport Beach, CA (2000 – 2001) VP Strategic Business Development

MatchLogic (a wholly owned subsidiary of Excite@Home), Westminster, CO   (1998 – 1999) VP of Sales

Customer Development Corporation, Peoria, IL /Huntington Beach, CA (1997 – 1998) VP of Business Development

The Polk Company, Denver, CO   (1995 – 1997)  VP, Strategic Business Development

TeleTech Telecommunications, Inc., Denver, CO   (1991 – 1995) VP, Sales & Marketing

Infobase Services, Conway, AR (1988-1991) Director and then President of joint venture

 

Nonprofit Volunteer Experience

St. Clement’s by the Sea Episcopal Church (1999 – 2018) Senior Warden of Vestry (2011 – 2012) President of bi-lingual congregation and church council with oversight of finance, outreach, fundraising, administration, volunteers, communications, and Christian education committees. Junior Warden of Vestry (2017-2018) / Stewardship (2016-2017) / Outreach Chair (2009-2011) / Finance Chair (2000 – 2002) / Hospitality Chair (1999 - 2000) / Episcopal Church Women / VP and Program Chair (2007 – 2009) / Natural Church Development Facilitator (2004 -2005)

Business Networking International (2008-2011) / Rotary International (2005 – 2009)  / National Alliance for Mental Illness (2008) / B/PAA International (now Business Marketing Association) (1981 – 1993) Int’l. Board of Directors (1989 – 1992)

Education

University of Denver, Daniels College of Business, Emerging Leaders Program

Malcolm Baldrige Award Process 

Columbia University Sales Management (Post Grad Course)

Certified Business Communicator (B/PAA, now BMA)

Valparaiso University, Bachelor of Science of Fine Arts

Dr. Cindy McGovern, Author

Known far and wide as “Dr. Cindy,” the First Lady of Sales, Dr. Cindy McGovern holds a Doctorate Degree in Organizational Communication and a Master’s Degree in Marketing. She earned her reputation by building (and rebuilding) entire sales programs from the bottom up. Dr. Cindy, who is CEO of Orange Leaf Consulting, has helped hundreds of companies and individuals around the world from small to huge create dramatic and sustainable revenue growth. She has also authored, Every Job is a Sales Job: How to Use the Art of Selling to Win at Work, scheduled for release in September 2019 by McGraw Hill Professional. 

Alan Brown, Dexterous Media Group

Not only is Alan a household leader in husband, father of four, and cunning conversationalist, but he is the chief strategist and CEO behind Dexterous Media Group an online marketing agency. Dexterous combines Website, Video, Google Search, and Social Media at low cost to bring small businesses a high return on investment.

Kim Marie, LeTip

Kim Marie was born in California, graduated from Reedley College and attended Fresno State University.

She spent 30 years in the banking industry.  The first 18 years with Bank of America and then held positions in many different banks as she culminated her career in mergers and acquisitions where she drove the acquisition/merger of over 30 banks.

Kim Maire became a LeTip member during the last two years of her banking career.  She loved LeTip so much that she decided to join the company and became the Regional Director of Arizona in 2001.  She was promoted to the LeTip National Training Director in 2003.  In 2004, she was promoted to Executive Vice President and became the President of LeTip in 2005.

In February 2008, Kim Marie purchased LeTip and became the CEO/Owner. 

As owner of LeTip, she drove the creation of the first national members only leads portal in 2012, LeTipWired.com.  In 2018, LeTip launched a mobile app and in 2019, LeTipWired has received a complete overhaul to make it the platform of the future for networking.

Kim Marie spends hundreds of hours each year personally training members and leaders within LeTip to help each and every member and chapter become the best networkers they can be.  Kim Marie is known for her commitment to building relationships and her inspiring, collaborative style. "Bringing people together just makes me happy," she said. "LeTip is really a way of life for me."

Outside of LeTip, Kim Marie has been involved in many organizations, including… Former President for Boys & Girls Club of Mesa, AZ. Many children's organizations have benefited from Kim Marie's volunteer efforts. Among them are 4H, Girl Scouts of America, Boy's & Girls Clubs and the PTA. For 18 years she held board positions on The Sequoia Guild, the fund raising arm of Valley Children's Hospital, in Fresno, CA. As a member of the Board of Trustees and an Executive Committee Member, she helped raise 240 million dollars for the hospital's building committee.

She currently holds the VP of Membership position in Arizona Business Leaders.  Is an active members in Vistage, Women President’s Organization, and Dominoes Logo Vendors.  Kim Marie is a Certified B.A.N.K Trainer.

Kim Marie and her husband, Ken Pettid (LeTip Vice President of Human Resources) are blessed with five adult children and six grandchildren 

Don Williams, Author

3-Time #1 Best Selling Author, Don Williams is the founder and CEO of Don Williams Global – Don is dedicated to changing businesses across the globe one WOW experience at a time.  Don has worked with over ½ of the Fortune 500 and International clients on marketing/sales, customer experience (CX), culture and leadership strategies.

 

Don speaks and consults internationally on:

Romancing Your Customer– Deliver Passion to Your Sales, CX and Culture.

The WOW Blueprint – On a Scale of 1 to WOW, Demand WOW.

Get Your Heart In The Game – The Magic of Heart Centered Leadership.

Cav. Sinan Kanatsiz, CIM

 

• Chief Executive Officer, KCOMM – www.kcomm.com
• Chairman and Founder, the Internet Marketing Association (IMA) – www.imanetwork.org
• Founder, International Executive Council (IEC) – www.iecnetwork.org
• Founder, Chapman50 – www.chapman50.org
• Founding Board Member, Pretend City Children’s Museum – www.pretendcity.org
• Member of the Board of Governors, Chapman University – www.chapman.edu
• YMCA National Outreach Chairman, Youth, and Government – www.calymca.org
• Member of the Board of Directors, Seneca Youth Foster Care – www.senecafoa.org
• Member of the Board of Directors, Literacy Project – www.literacyprojectfoundation.org
• Cavaliere “Cav” Member of the Royal House of Savoy – www.regalis.com/savoy.htm
• Ellis Island Medal of Honor Recipient – www.eihonors.org

Sinan Kanatsiz has effectively made his mark as an entrepreneur in the United States. His parents who migrated from Turkey established residency and citizenship in America in the 1960’s where they had and raised Sinan and his Sister Sebnem. In 1998, while studying for a master’s degree at Chapman University, Kanatsiz followed his entrepreneurial spirit and formalized his first company, KCOMM, a Public Relations and Internet marketing agency. The company quickly evolved into a full-service marketing, government affairs and event marketing firm known for its Internet expertise and results-oriented approach. In less than ten years, Kanatsiz grew the firm to several million dollars in revenue, opening business operations and clients in Dallas, New York, Dubai, Istanbul, Montreal, London, Argentina, and Delhi. Currently, KCOMM works with over 100 specialized employees and independent contractors in several countries and has developed campaigns for over 1,000 companies and organizations around the world. These include organizations ranging from innovative start-ups to New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq listed companies such as Oracle, Sony, eBay, T-Mobile, HP, Adobe and the University of Phoenix.

KCOMM’s dedication to strategic programs and results-oriented campaigns has earned the firm several PROTOS awards, the highest honor bestowed by the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA). The effectiveness of KCOMM’s strategies has become so widely recognized that the firm’s clients have now extended beyond the realm of technology to include elected officials, municipalities and multi-national organizations.

As a consummate entrepreneur and philanthropist, Kanatsiz takes his community responsibilities seriously. In addition to mentoring high school and college students, he is often asked to speak about entrepreneurship and the Internet. He has held engagements at several universities, including USC, Chapman University, UCLA, Cal State Fullerton, Pepperdine, UC Irvine, and Cal Tech. Additionally, he has been a keynote speaker at the Future Business Leaders of American (FBLA) National Conference and is often called to speak on a variety of topics including Social Media, Search Engine Optimization, Email Marketing, Modernizing Government and the future of the Internet.

Kanatsiz’s belief in the power of entrepreneurism and politics led him to be the original founder of a group called Generation NeXt in 2004, a network of young business and community leaders committed to making a difference by empowering others for the betterment of the next generation. Additionally, he founded the Internet Marketing Association (www.imanetwork.org) in 2000, which has a large number of professional members worldwide and its own conference series called “IMPACT”. Past events have included the executives and founders of Google, SalesForce, Tesla Motor, SpaceX, Yahoo, Facebook, Microsoft, St. Regis Hotel, Wahoos, Quest Software, Amazon and YouTube to name a few.  Kanatsiz is currently expanding the group globally and involving leaders from Europe, the Middle East, China, and India, working to create the largest association dedicated to Internet Marketing in the world.

While the IMA is a large, global organization, Kanatsiz recently created a spinoff in (2017), called the International Executive Council (IEC), which he founded to focus on the top 100 leaders in Southern California (www.iecnetwork.org). The organization has been hosting monthly events around topics including Social Emotional Learning, Cryptocurrency, Leadership and The Creative Process to name a few.

Kanatsiz holds a B.A. in Communications, with an emphasis in Public Relations, and a Master’s degree in Organizational Leadership with a certificate in Human Resources, all from Chapman University. Kanatsiz was designated Alumnus of the Year by Chapman University in the year 2000. He was also the recipient of the Community College of California Alumnus of the Year Award in 2005. Sinan was named in the Hall of Fame for Santa Ana College in the year 2006. He has also been named as 40 under 40 and a featured Entrepreneur of the Year by OC Metro Magazine. Recognized for his philanthropic involvement, Kanatsiz was appointed a Knighthood and invited to become a member of the Royal House of Savoy by Prince Emanuele Filiberto of Savoy in September 2018. Sinan received the 2019 Ellis Island Medal of Honor for his work in non-profit organizations, public relations, and internet marketing.

To this day, he credits his accomplishments to his Four Pillars of Success: personal integrity; coaches and mentors; family; and education.

Kanatsiz, his wife, Kai, son Archer, and daughter Arden, reside in San Clemente, California.

Joshua Kreitzer, Channel Baker

Data-Minded Marketing, Merchandising, and Advertising professional with more than 20 years experience in the Retail, Distribution, and eCommerce industries. Strengths and skill set lies in developing the Internet Retail Channel for manufacturers and driving merchandising programs for retailers. Proven strategic thinker with an outstanding record of initiating and managing multiple accounts with exceptional results.

Have also had success in creating live events with regard to planning, selling, and creating opportunities for exposure at each event from concept to final production. 

Adam Fields, ARTA

Adam Fields, Founder & CEO of ARTA, a contemporary logistics platform for shipping specialized items. He is a former vice president of Artspace.com, a fine art marketplace. Follow him on Twitter @afields and on LinkedIn.

 

Hernani Alves, Author

Hernani Alves is an Amazon best selling author, international speaker, and consultant with over twenty years of business experience as a Sales Executive for a $3 Billion Company.  In his book, Balanced Accountability: Three Leadership Secrets to Win Hearts and Maximize Performance, Hernani delivers a newfound clarity on the case for accountability and the steps organizations, and individuals need to transform into a modern leader that others will love to follow.

 

Cory Treffiletti, Voicea

Voicea, the leading voice collaboration platform, unveils an extensive list of voice-based commands and new productivity platform integrations to help meeting goers become more productive.  The new voice commands help meeting goers craft follow-ups, create action items, schedule reminders, and drive outputs directly into integrations for more than 20 of the top collaborative productivity systems used by today’s businesses.

 

The new voice commands allow a range of interactions, from telling EVA, Voicea's AI meeting assistant, to change the transcription language, to driving task and follow-up integrations. There is live closed-captioning to 40 languages and integrations into 20 plus productivity tools such as Trello, Asana, and Zapier.  EVA's understanding of voice commands delivers unprecedented productivity gains, driving real-time workflow by simply speaking to your AI assistant. Additional functions include creating tickets within integrated project management apps, scheduling calendar reminders, emailing meeting highlights, reminding meeting attendees to join the meeting, and driving other work outputs.

 

Eric Spitz, C4 Distro

Eric Spitz launched C4 Distro with Bill Lockyer in 2016. A former chairman and president of the Orange County Register, Spitz leverages twenty years of executive leadership and deal-making experience to launch and manage businesses in complex and new industries. 

Melinda Dewey, HeartMath

Melinda draws on her previous successful business career in finance and upper management and then over 25 years as a full time wellness professional to bring an integrated business and wellness perspective to her clients at Resilience Insights. 

In addition to other services, she became licensed as a HeartMath Coach and Trainer to offer evidence based resilience training, coaching and mentoring to organizations and individual clients, starting in 2008.

Her many health and wellness certifications, experience and services include as an Employee Wellness Coach to Fortune 100 corporation employees across the nation, and previous owner/manager of an integrative health wellness center.  She is also the C.O.O. and course call leader for Heart Ambassadors and HeartMath’s HeartMastery online learning programs since 2009.  

She finds great joy in facilitating people and organizations in optimizing their performance, wellbeing, relationships and success by showing them how to transform  tension, stress and reactivity and build resilience.

Heather DeSantis, Publicity for Good

Heather DeSantis is a Top Millennial publicist, Forbes 30 Under 30 nominee and CEO of Publicity for Good, a purpose driven public relations firm. Heather combines market foresight, strategic timing, and organic interviews to generate millions of earned media impressions from outlets like ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, CNN, BBC, iHeartMedia, Business Insider, Inc, and more. She is also the founder of Press Demand, a PR SaaS company that makes PR accessible for all.

Website: https://publicityforgood.com/ and http://pressdemand.com/  

Jeff Irvin, Spinitar

Jeff is the Principal and Founder of Spinitar. As the “Chief Evangelist,” Jeff helps to build the Spinitar brand and identify opportunities to help customers in need of audiovisual technology and services. Jeff encourages a culture where outstanding people can accomplish extraordinary things.

Stacey Gordon, Rework Work

Stacey A. Gordon is CEO at Rework Work , a Los Angeles, CA-based human capital
services and training consultancy focused on helping organizations address Diversity
& Inclusion needs through a proven, data driven methodology. Rework Work’s
nine-point system breaks D&I down into manageable target areas which include:
reputation management, interviewing processes, compensation, onboarding
methods, and skills building. Starting with awareness, Rework Work helps
organizations create commitment to a process, embedding the behavior elements of
diversity & inclusion into the framework of the organizational culture. Solutions are
brought to clients via surveying for unbiased data, interactive presentations,
facilitated dialogue, weighing the business case against the moral reasoning and
strategies for implementation.
With more than two decades of experience as an innovative human capital strategist,
Stacey’s mission is to work to reduce bias in global talent acquisition and
organizational culture. Stacey is a subject matter expert as a LinkedIn Learning
Diversity, Inclusion & Career Strategy course author. Her diversity, inclusion and
career related online courses have been viewed more than 1 million times. Stacey
and her team are also known for their recruiting expertise and coaching for
professionals. Stacey was recognized by Pepperdine University as a Top 40 Over 40
Leader, was a finalist for Los Angeles Business Journal’s Women Helping Women
Award and was recognized by Forbes as a Top 3 Business Leader Who Spoke Out
About Diversity & Inclusion. In her capacity as a highly-rated coach, she is a member
of Forbes Coaching Council and has coached D&I practitioners at The Forum on
Workplace Inclusion. She is also LinkedIn Diversity, Inclusion & Career Strategy
Course Author.
Together with her role at Rework Work, Stacey is also responsible for managing the
development, execution and strategic direction of the largest SHRM-affiliate in the
U.S.
Prior to these roles, Stacey founded and led a third-party search firm focusing on
diversity. At MUFG Americas, as Diversity & Inclusion Project Manager, she
developed an internal marketing plan for the Employee Resource Groups (ERGs)
encompassing more than 3,000 employees, and she also served as Interim
Executive Director at the National Association of Women MBAs (NAWMBA) after
starting the first professional chapter for the organization several years prior.
Stacey holds an MBA from Pepperdine University’s School of Business and a B.S.
from St. John’s University. She is an Advisory Board Member and Mentor at The
Coding Boot Camp at UCLA Extension and teaches Diversity in Organizations and
Cultural Intelligence as an Adjunct Faculty member at Phillips Graduate University in
Chatsworth, CA. She is a frequent speaker and lecturer at industry-related
conferences.

Boris Piskun, GreenPACE Capital

Established the company for the sole purpose of providing tax benefits to high income-earning individuals with tax liability by generating investment tax credits within the solar business. For over a decade the solar industry has largely benefited institutional investors with tax benefits but has not provided similar benefits to individual investors. Our business has changed that landscape, whereby high net worth individuals can receive those same tax benefits as the larger institutional investors. Our proprietary business process creates opportunities for individuals to offset tax liability on all types of income. We are able to generate tax assets by developing solar systems for customers who can lower their electricity cost immediately compared to their current electric utility provider. The company’s business model is to offer residential and commercial customers a long-term electricity contract in the form of a prepaid power purchase agreement, whereby customers can lower their electricity costs immediately.

 

Nicole Suydam, Goodwill

Nicole Suydam, who served nearly
a decade as Goodwill of OC’s
vice president of development,
returned to Goodwill of Orange County
as president and CEO in 2018. She has
more than 20 years of management and
leadership experience working with
local and national nonprofits dedicated
to meeting human service needs. Prior
to returning to Goodwill, Suydam served
as CEO of Second Harvest Food Bank
of Orange County where she oversaw
the distribution of more than 25 million
meals to Orange County families and
guided a vast network of more than 200
community partners. Suydam graduated
from Vanguard University in Costa Mesa,
Calif., and today serves as president of
its Alumni Association Board and is a
proud member of its Board of Trustees.

Kevin Brown – CEO/Co-Founder LeadSmart Technologies

Kevin Brown is the CEO and Co-Founder of LeadSmart Technologies an Irvine based technology and SaaS software company.  LeadSmart is a unique suite of products that combine world class CRM with Marketing Automation tools and a Channel Management component. 

LeadSmart helps companies turn leads into revenue and paying customers and manages the ongoing customer relationship with unique processes, workflows and automations. LeadSmart was launched in early 2019 after over a year of real world testing with multiple clients with teams around the globe.   

Kevin has a background of over 25 years in sales, marketing and business development with both hardgoods and technology products.  Kevin has been a distributor and a manufacturer’s rep, and having invested in and run a manufacturing company he has unique insights into the challenges facing businesses.  For the last 10 years Kevin has also been advising manufacturing and technology companies on sales and marketing strategies, product development, M&A and go to market strategies.  Kevin has an intimate knowledge of the challenges that companies face managing sales leads and customers plus external channel partners like reps, brokers, re-sellers, distributors and dealers- hence the genesis of LeadSmart.

Along with Kevin the LeadSmart founding team consists of Tom Burton COO and Steve Snapp CTO. 

LeadSmart is located in the University Research Park at UCI and also has offices in Santa Barbara.

www.leadsmarttech.com

info@leadsmarttech.com

833-532-3832

Gregg L. Witt | Chief Strategy Officer

Gregg L. Witt is a partner and Chief Strategy Officer at Engage Youth Co., where he leads the strategy and consumer engagement programs for brands targeting youth audiences. Gregg has been immersed in the business of youth culture since the age of 16 when he started his first company, Goodtimes Skateboards. Despite adult naysayers, Witt took the company to global distribution in its first year; this early success ignited a passion and respect for the power of subcultures. Never content to just ‘know it when he sees it’, Witt has dedicated his career to a focused examination of the wisdom and authenticity inherent in today’s youth, while guiding others on how they might, respectfully, do the same. With over 16 years of experience in youth insights, brand strategy, and marketing activation, he is a renowned cultural marketing strategist and international public speaker. In 2016, he was named a Top Youth Marketer To Follow by Inc. Magazine, and in 2017 made the Forbes list of leading Generation Z experts. In 2018 he co-authored the Gen Z Frequency for Kogan Page, a comprehensive guide to engaging youth culture. He frequently appears in national media as a youth trends expert. A shortlist of past clients include Autodesk, AwesomenessTV, College Board, Cooper Tires, FunnyOrDie, Glaceau Vitamin Water, HBO, Hollister, Partnership for Drug-Free Kids, Procter & Gamble, Qualcomm, and The Walt Disney Company.

Tom Atema, Heart for Lebanon

Tom Atema

After working with his Father at Johanna Farms, milk wholesale processing business, for 14 years after school, Tom and his wife, Chris and their two sons, felt it was time to use his gifts and talents in the faith-based non-profit world.

 

Word of Life Fellowship:  In 1985, Tom became a volunteer missionary representative for Word of Life Fellowship. Tom’s volunteer service with Word of Life led to his becoming Director of Gift Planning Ministry and Development. That made him responsible for major donor giving for the entire ministry. And in 1990, Tom became director of Word of Life Fellowship Florida, where he directed the Fellowship’s conference center and youth camp.

Billy Graham Evangelistic Association:  In 1993, Tom was asked to help The Billy Graham Training Center at The Cove, near Asheville, North Carolina, to get costs under control without sacrificing the guest experience.  In 1999, Tom was asked to become executive director of Blue Ridge Broadcasting, BEGA’s radio ministry. The challenge was to jumpstart a long-stagnant part of the ministry. He did it by recasting the vision, refocusing programming, expanding the audience, and creating a healthier and more effective team. In six years, both audience size and budget more than tripled.

Vertical Horizons Group: Started in 2003, as Toms bucket to help ministries go further faster. Some ministries Tom helped were Global Leadership Summit, Bruce Wilkinson, and multiple churches’ mission programs. Tom and his wife still use this bucket to help ministries today.

EQUIP Leadership Inc.:  Starting in 2006, Tom served John Maxwell’s EQUIP ministry as vice president of International Ministries and Strategic Partnerships. EQUIP is a non-profit organization devoted to training international Christian leaders to fulfill the Great Commission.  Under Tom’s leadership, EQUIP grew from working in 42 countries in 2006 to having influence in 210 countries by 2012, turned a financial deficit into an operational surplus, built an international team of volunteer coordinators around the globe and built a roster of 150 incredible ministry partners. 

Heart for Lebanon:  Founded following the July 2006 war in Lebanon, H4L was born out of a desperate need to see lives changed and communities transformed by the power and grace of God. Tom in his role as co-founder helped an idea take wing and develop into a healthy, strategic and focused ministry, by building the systems, relationships and structures. He continues to serve US legal Representative, COO and the USA Board link to the General Assembly in Lebanon as well as coach to the team in Lebanon.

Tom and Chris live in Asheville, NC.  Both of their sons are married and own their own businesses.  They are the grandparents of 3 boys and 1 girl.

Tom has authored a book in 2009 entitled “Leadership in Blue Jeans.”

Anthony Constantino, Sticker Mule

Anthony Constantino is co-founder & CEO of Sticker Mule, the Internet’s favorite printing company. With a factory in Amsterdam, NY and a globally-distributed team, Sticker Mule is one of the Capital Region's hidden gems. Anthony is a factory guy at heart, & oversees an operation that spans 16 countries on 4 continents with customers including Google, Facebook, Twitter & many of the world’s best brands. He’s determined to make Sticker Mule, already the Internet’s favorite printing company, the absolute best place to work and shop.

Brenda Williams

Brenda Williams is a well-respected, Board Certified Coach who has 
provided consulting, coaching and training to individuals and business’s 
for over 25 years. 
She is the founder of The Academy which was established to share 
methods of empowered communication to help people achieve superior 
performance in their professional and personal lives.
Brenda provides a Self-Mastery System that focuses on building:
A Mindset for Success
Developing Business Emotional Intelligence
And Exceptional Communication

Bridget Grimes, WealthChoice

BRIDGET VENUS GRIMES is the founder and president of WealthChoice, a firm focused on helping women turn their professional success into financial success. She is also a cofounder of Equita Financial Network, Inc., a network of independent, women-led financial planning firms that share best practices and common goals. As an advisor to top-earning female executives, business owners, and attorneys, Grimes draws on more than a decade of experience to create customized financial solutions that help her clients achieve the life they long for. Based in San Diego, California, she enjoys cooking, entertaining, and spending time on the water in the company of her husband and children.

 

Greg Eisenman, Hotel General Management

Greg is the General Manager of two hotels located in the city of Anaheim.   ·         Tropicana Inn & Suites, 197 rooms ·         Camelot Inn & Suites, 121 rooms   Born and raised in Southern California, Greg attended Estancia High School in Costa Mesa. He graduated from Orange Coast College with an Associate’s Degree in Hotel Management and earned hotel certifications.   He then moved on to the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, for his Bachelor’s Degree in Hotel Management. While attending UNLV he worked various positions with Harrah’s, Bally’s, and Luxor Hotels.   After a 10-year stint in Las Vegas, Greg returned to Orange County to be close to family and friends. He also wanted to further pursue his dream of becoming a hotel general manager. Within a year, he achieved his goal and was awarded the position of General Manger with La Quinta Inns. After a long relationship with La Quinta, he accepted the position of General Manager at Ayres Hotels. In 2013, he took on his current role as dual General Manager of the Tropicana Inn & Suites and Camelot Inn & Suites.   Greg has a passion for helping others and serving his community. While working full time in the hotel business, he served as a Reserve Deputy for the Orange County Sheriff’s Department. In addition, he has mentored children through programs such as Run with A Cop. Greg also enjoys mentoring persons with disabilities and employs them at the hotels through a partnership with Goodwill.

Colton Bollinger, Jumper Media

Jumper Media was born as a brainchild of Colton Bollinger in 2016 - to help small businesses tell amazing brand stories on social media – all day, every day. He brought on two other business-savvy leaders (also long-time friends) after seeing how most small businesses struggle by-the-second to attract, engage and convert their audiences effectively on social. Colton is not ‘all-business’ as he also loves to spend time on the golf course, which is where he first got the chance to unleash his gift professionally, helping golf pros establish a strong presence on social media. Today, using cutting-edge social tools and resources, Jumper Media helps over 3000 businesses (of all shapes and sizes) connect with their target customers predictably and consistently.