Director & Co-Founder, Groupon.com
Founder, MediaBank LLC

Brad Keywell, 39, is the co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of MediaBank LLC, a technology firm providing integrated procurement systems, advanced analytics platforms, and innovative trading functionality to the advertising and media buying industry. MediaBank solutions allow for unprecedented cross-media analytics and intelligence through superior planning, buying, workflow and data warehousing tools.He is the co-founder of Echo Global Logistics LLC, an enterprise transportation management firm headquartered in Chicago, which provides transportation procurement, management, and optimization services across all modes. He is a founder and Principal of Groupon, Inc., a group purchasing platform on the web that offers unique deals on a daily basis utilizing a ‘tipping point’ methodology to harness the power of collective buying.

Brad is also the Managing Partner of Meadow Lake Management LLC, an investment and advisory firm. Among Meadow Lake’s holdings are IRIS WorldGroup, a Chicago-based information services and analytics firm with delivery centers in India, and Archer Corporate Services LLC, a marketing fulfillment services firm.

Keywell was previously with Equity Group Investments, LLC, Sam Zell’s investment vehicle, identifying investment opportunities across a diverse spectrum of industries, and serving as Board liason to several portfolio companies. He is the former President of HA-LO Industries (NYSE:HMK), a $700 million brand marketing organization and the world’s leading provider of promotional products. In January, 2000, HA-LO acquired Starbelly, an online promotional product supply chain management technology firm which Keywell founded in May, 1999.

Keywell received his J.D. cum laude from the University of Michigan School of Law (1993) and his Bachelor of Business Administration with honors from the University of Michigan (1991). He is a member of the State Bar of Illinois and the Michigan Bar Association.

Co-Founder, Hipmunk
Co-Founder, Reddit

Steve Huffman graduated from the University of Virginia with a degree in Computer Science in 2005. Immediately after leaving Virginia, he founded reddit.com with his college roommate, Alexis Ohanian. Reddit.com was initially funded by Y Combinator and grew to become one of the largest social news sites online. In October of 2006, reddit.com was acquired by Conde Nast Publications. In October 2009, Steve left reddit. Steve is now a co-founder of the travel search site hipmunk.com.

Founder & CEO, ChaCha

Scott is a serial entrepreneur and pioneering high tech inventor. At 26 years of age, he started Boston Technology where he developed the voicemail system now used by nearly all telephone companies around the globe. He also created Gracenote, one of the first companies to develop music recognition software now at the heart of several Internet music products, such as Apple’s iPod and iTunes. An active leader in the Indianapolis community, Scott helps organizations throughout the city with his Scott A. Jones Foundation.

As Principal of Machrie Enterprises LLC, Ellen Carnahan provides sound judgment, expertise and extensive connections to growth businesses, venture capital, and growth equity funds. With over twenty years of venture capital and growth equity investment experience, she is an experienced advisor, board member, and angel investor. She joined William Blair Capital Partners (WBCP) in 1988 after ten years of management experience in the software and financial services industries. During her tenure at four of seven WBCP prior funds, she led the technology investment team and is recognized as “one of the 100 most influential women in Chicago” by Crain’s Chicago Business.

Ms. Carnahan has served on the boards of directors of over 25 growth companies, and currently serves as a director of Vericept Corporation, Integrys Energy (NYSE: TEG), BPX Inc., and Talent Drive LLC. She is also a Senior Advisor to three venture capital and private equity funds: WMG Capital, which makes later stage investments in and acquisitions of technology-based service companies; Ceres Venture Fund, a venture capital fund dedicated to funding high growth companies located in the Midwest; and, the I2A Fund, a seed/early stage venture capital fund focused on catalyzing and partnering with the next wave of successful entrepreneurial companies in the Illinois region.

Prior to her venture capital career, she was Vice President of Marketing & Planning at SPSS, a then-$30 million applications software company (now public), and Manager of Financial Planning & Analysis at Trailer Train Company, the largest operator of railroad flatcars. Ms. Carnahan is a CPA and holds a BBA from the University of Notre Dame and an MBA from the University of Chicago. She is active in many non-profit organizations including The Chicago Network (FY ’06 Chair), Communities in Schools Chicago (Nominating Co-Chair), TiE Midwest (Nominating Co-Chair), and the Illinois Venture Capital Association (’09 Chair).

CEO, Co-Founder, Managing Partner, OCA Ventures

Jim Dugan is the Chief Executive Officer, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of OCA Ventures. Prior to co-founding OCA Ventures in 2001, Jim oversaw the OCA Ventures Pledge Fund which made direct venture capital investments for the O’Connor Partners Investment Office. Jim has board responsibilities for Techskills, EdMap, Home Preview Channel, Midi, TJDM, Base 2 Capital, and Cleversafe.

Jim has over 17 years of corporate finance, capital markets, and venture capital investment experience. Prior to forming OCA Ventures, Jim traded derivatives at the Chicago Board of Trade and worked in corporate finance with Continental Bank. While at Continental Bank, Jim participated in the structured financing of companies ranging in capital size from $10 million to several billion dollars and in the formation of a $150 million subsidiary to fund mezzanine debt and equity financings.

Jim received a BA in Economics from the University of Rochester and earned his MBA (MM) from the JL Kellogg Graduate School of Management. In addition to his responsibilities at OCA Ventures, Jim is a founding member of the Illinois Venture Capital Association (IVCA), where he formerly served five years as Treasurer, Director and member of the Executive Committee. Prior to serving as Treasurer, Jim was the Chairman of the Legislative Committee for the IVCA, in which capacity he helped establish HB 3212 as Illinois law.

Jim is a frequent guest lecturer and panelist on venture capital at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management and Chicago Booth. Jim is also a board member of the Chicagoland Entrepreneurial Center (CEC) and Brickfish. Jim is Co-Founder and Treasurer of SmartBet.org. Jim is also affiliated with the following organizations: illinoisvc.org, and chicagolandec.org.

Editor-in-Chief, The Next Web

Zee Kane is the Editor-in-Chief of TheNextWeb, an international blog on internet news, business and culture. The Next Web launched in January 2008 as a spin off to The Next Web Conference. Soon after, the site found a life of its own and the potential for a technology site from an international perspective became a reality. The site has grown rapidly since then, with 1,250,000 unique visitors a month.

Zee blogs about web 2.0 and social media on multiple blogs including Read Write Web. He is a highly active member on Twitter and FriendFeed, and loves anything social media and technology related. He also creates and oversees some of the more popular tech communities on the internet.

Partner, New World Ventures

Prior to joining New World Ventures in 2004, Adam held various senior operating and business development roles Sportvision, Inc. (the world’s leader in technology-based enhancements for live sports programming, and a New World Ventures portfolio company) helping the company grow from the “business plan” stage to eight figures in annual revenue. Prior to Sportvision, Adam worked at Berkshire Partners, a leading private equity investment firm with $6.0 billion of capital under management. His experience at Berkshire included investment evaluations and closed transactions in several industries, including business services, retail and manufacturing, in addition to significant work helping portfolio companies achieve their strategic objectives. Before joining Berkshire, Adam worked as an investment banker for Alex Brown (now Deutsche Bank) and participated in a broad range of merger and acquisition and public equity transactions for mid-sized companies.

Adam currently serves on the boards of Advantage Optics, Inc., Firm58, Inc., and HyperQuest, Inc. and works closely with TopSchool, Inc., Univa Corporation, and Zinch, Inc. Adam also serves on the Investment Committee for the Illinois Innovation Accelerator Fund (i2A) – a public-private seed-stage investment fund. Adam received his B.S. in economics with concentrations in finance and international management from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and his M.B.A. from the Kellogg School of Management with concentrations in organizational behavior and decision sciences.

Former CTO, Feedburner
CTO, BrightTag

Eric is CTO at BrightTag, a Chicago-based start-up that aims to give website owners control over how data is collected and shared from their sites. Prior to joining BrightTag, Eric was co-founder and CTO of FeedBurner, which Google acquired in 2007. After the acquisition, Eric remained at Google in a senior technology role. Prior to FeedBurner, Eric co-founded and served as CTO at Spyonit.com (acquired by 724 Solutions), served as lead technical architect at Digital Knowledge Assets (creators of the collaborative personal publishing software “sceneServer”), and helped to lead the application architecture team in Accenture’s next generation technology group known as “Project Eagle.” Eric graduated from Princeton University with a B.S.E. in Mechanical Engineering and a Certificate in Applied Computational Mathematics.

VP Engineering, Mint

David has over 10 years experience in building secure, distributed, fault-tolerant systems. David was most recently leading the development of server products for PGP, where he helped design, build and ship three major versions of the company’s flagship product: PGP Universal.

Prior to PGP, he built a high-volume financial information product targeting online retail equity traders. David was on the server team for at NetDynamics (acquired by Sun Microsystems), implementing core features for security, scalability, fault-tolerance, distributed load balancing, and performance. He has also worked at GeoCities, where he developed the company’s first capability to insert advertising banners on its pages. He has held several positions with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory working on distributed systems and the WWW. David holds a M.S. in Computer Science with honors from Stanford University and a B.S. in Computer and Information Science from the New Jersey Institute of Technology.

CFO, Vibes Media

As CFO of Vibes Media, Charley’s responsibilities include strategic planning, budgeting, financial operations and capital activities. Charley came to Vibes in June, 2008 with more than 15 years of experience managing strategic planning, revenue, budget management, direct sales, and financial analysis. Prior to Vibes, Charley held several senior positions at leading internet companies including Yahoo!, eGroups and Learning Insights. Most recently, Charley worked as Director of Operations at Google – a position he arrived at through the acquisition of Feedburner, a Chicago-based internet company, where he was CFO.

Charley holds an MBA from the University of Michigan School of Business Administration and a BA in Economics from the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill.

Managing Director, Illinois Ventures

Rob Schultz is a Managing Director of IllinoisVENTURES and a Partner of the Illinois Emerging Technologies Fund. He oversees the information technologies practice area and currently sits on several Boards including ShareThis, Fluensee, RiverGlass, Caterva and One Llama. Rob is the Founder and former CEO of DigitalWork, Inc, a Chicago based internet Company which provided online marketing services to the small and medium sized business market.

As CEO, Rob led the company in building an award-winning service, raising substantial funding from top-tier venture firms, leading the Company through an IPO process, hiring over 140 talented employees, acquiring over 10,000 customers and developing partnerships with such leading companies as AOL, Dell, Office Depot, and Wells Fargo.

Prior to DigitalWork, Rob was the President of Nequity, a subsidiary of Signet Bank that was acquired in 1997. Prior to Nequity, Rob was a consultant with McKinsey and Company and Deloitte and Touche. In 2000, Rob was a Year 2000 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year finalist and was as one of the “100 most important executives, decision-makers, financiers and idea people in the Chicago Internet community” by Crain’s Chicago Business. Rob received an MBA in finance from the University of Chicago and a bachelor’s degree in economics from Northwestern University.

Founder, OpenTable.com

Chuck Templeton is the founder of online reservation service OpenTable (NASDAQ: OPEN), one of the most successful venture-backed IPOs of 2009. Chuck launched OpenTable in 1998 and was able to raise $36 million in multiple rounds of funding from venture capitalists. Since OpenTable’s success, Templeton has stepped away from the company and focused on environmental causes. His goal is to make Chicago a sustainable city with a high quality of life by 2025. Chuck is also the Chairman of Chicago-based GrubHub.com, and in 2006, he received his MBA from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management.

Mark Walsh has distinguished himself by being “ahead of the curve” on a number of social and business evolutions throughout his career. Mark continues that trend as CEO and chairman of GeniusRocket, a leading provider of user generated advertising media. At GeniusRocket Mark has built the leading “crowdsourcing” advertising solution, creating marketing content for businesses ranging from Fortune 500 corporations to local retailers. Through Mark’s leadership, GeniusRocket has grown a community of over almost 14,000 creative artists across 110 countries generating video, animation, graphic design, copy, and more.

Prior to GeniusRocket, Mark served as Chairman and CEO of VerticalNet from August 1997 to July 2000. Before joining VerticalNet, he was a Senior Vice President and corporate officer at America Online, Inc. He founded and managed AOL Enterprise, the business-to-business division of AOL. Mr. Walsh also served as the President of GEnie, General Electric’s online service, and as the director of New Business Development at Home Box Office in New York.. He first got into the “online services” business in 1986, serving as General Manager or CEO of several internet and technology start ups. Since 2001 Mark has been active in politics, serving as the first Chief Technology Advisor to the Democratic National Committee during 2001 and 2002, and as the Head of Internet Strategy for John Kerry for President. He was the founding CEO of Air America Radio in 2003-4 where remained an investor and director until 2009. In 2006, Walsh began serving as co-host of XM Satellite Radio’s “Left Jab”, a weekly political radio show.

Since 2000, Mr. Walsh has managed a small angel-investment fund, Ruxton Ventures. At this venture capital company, he has invested in a number of small to medium technology/startup companies and serves on a number of their boards. Investment and/or board highlights include Day Software, NutriSystems, Blackboard, Half.com, Transactis, MobilePosse, SpectrumK12 Solutions and ARPU. He is also active in a number of non-profits, serving or having served on the boards of the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Baltimore Symphony and In2Books, and is a senior fellow at The Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship at the University of Maryland Business School.

Mark graduated from Union College (where he serves as a trustee) and received his MBA from the Harvard Business School.

Head of Industry, Telecom at Google

Kevin co-founded the Google Chicago office in 2000. In his nine plus years with Google, Kevin has helped grow this office to more than 400-professionals. In his initial senior sales role, he developed Google partnerships with advertisers and agencies, including Dell, United Airlines, FTD, State Farm, Omnicom, and Publicis.

Over the last five years, as part of the Central Region management team, Kevin has led the Technology Industry where his team manages all aspects of the Google advertising experience for several of the largest technology marketers including AT&T, Sprint, Dell and Motorola. From 2007 to 2008, Kevin also headed up Google’s stakeholder development efforts in the Central Region. Regional stakeholders that Kevin formed partnerships with included city and state governments, universities, non-profits, and industry associations.

Prior to joining Google, Kevin was a Regional Sales Manager in the Mid-Atlantic for Engage Media, a CMGI company. He started his career at 3Com/US Robotics managing key client relationships. He is a member of the Economic Club of Chicago and on the Board of Directors of US Empowered, the Illinois Technology Association, and the Chicago Architecture Foundation.

Kevin recently completed his MBA degree at the University Of Chicago Booth School Of Business. He has an undergraduate marketing degree from Boston College and studied abroad at the London School of Economics. Kevin, his wife, Victoria, and children, Jacqueline and Max, reside in Chicago.

Founder, OKCupid.com

Sam Yagan is the Co-Founder and CEO of OKCupid.com He has spent six years as an entrepreneur, first as Co-founder and CEO of TheSpark.com, Inc., maker of SparkNotes, the world’s leading brand of educational study aids. More recently, he has served as President of MetaMachine, Inc., developer and distributor of the world’s leading P2P file-sharing application, eDonkey. Sam has also served as Vice-President and General Manager at Delias, Corp., and Vice-President and Publisher at Barnes & Noble, Inc.

Sam has a BA in Applied Mathematics & Economics from Harvard College and an MBA from Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business.

Genevieve Thiers, the oldest of seven children and two sets of twins, is the founder and CEO of Sittercity, Inc., America’s first company to take babysitting services online. A babysitter that worked her way through Boston College babysitting for over 30 families, Thiers pitched Sittercity to Boston investors in 2001 and was told “We don’t fund babysitting clubs.” Undaunted, Thiers begged her dad for $120 to buy the Sittercity.com domain and distributed 20,000 flyers through the city of Boston on foot, recruiting babysitters from more than 20 local colleges while working a full time job at IBM and singing opera at night.

Sittercity.com now has over half a million users nationally including hundreds of thousands of sitters, and serves a huge cross-section of American parents with its online database and popular SpeedSitting events. Genevieve was recently recognized by President Bush at the White House as the Small Business Administration Young Entrepreneur Champion of the Year for 2006, and Genevieve has done hundreds of appearances as a childcare expert on TV, radio, and in print outlets including multiple appearances on the Today Show, Martha Stewart Living Radio, the CBS Early Show, CNN, Live & Style, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Redbook, Parents, Parenting, Better Homes and Gardens, and Working Mother. Other awards that Genevieve and Sittercity.com have received include the Women’s Business Development Center Rising Star Award for 2005, a 2005 Stevie Award, and recognition as one of TIME’s “Top 50 Coolest Websites” in 2004. Noted for her babysitting expertise and business acumen, Genevieve has spoken at hundreds of mothers’ forums, colleges, and conventions across America, and she currently serves as the iVillage babysitting expert.

Principal, Lightbank

Shawn Bercuson is currently a Principal at Lightbank, a Chicago based early stage technology fund. Prior to joining Lightbank, Shawn was VP of Business Development at the online collective buying platform Groupon.com. In September 2008, Bercuson joined the ThePoint.com as VP of Business Development where he was instrumental in helping transform the collective action platform, ThePoint.com, into Groupon as we know it today.

In 2007, Shawn founded CapAlly – an online P2P student loan marketplace and social network. Before getting involved in the startup world, Shawn was an asset manager for Black Diamond Capital Management, an alternative asset management firm with approximately $10 billion under management in a combination of private equity, hedge funds, and structured vehicles. Shawn started his career as a trader for TransMarket Group where he traded a diverse portfolio of financial products on multiple global exchanges including the Chicago Board of Trade, Chicago Mercantile Exchange, EUREX, and LIFFE. Shawn holds a bachelor’s degree in Economics from Vanderbilt University.

President, Infegy

As President of Infegy, Adam helped develop and create the social analytics system known as Social Radar. Social Radar is a social analytics application that collects billions of articles and messages from millions of sources such as blogs, social networks, news sources, microblogs, forums, and more to provide instantaneous insights and measurement into online chatter.

Founder, HaveMyShift
Managing Trustee, Scalewell

Sean Corbett is a entrepreneur and long time resident of Chicago’s Old Town neighborhood. He is the founder of HaveMyShift.com. HaveMyShift is a marketplace for hourly workers to swap shifts with each other which has facilitated over 49,000 hours of shift exchanges. Sean is a frequent presence at the Chicago area Lean Startups meet up, Hacker News meet up, Jelly Chicago co-working, Tech Cocktail, and the Chicago Ruby Users meet up. He has counseled numerous Chicago startups on business models, technical infrastructure and fundraising.

Venture Partner, OCA Ventures

Joseph Dwyer is a Venture Partner with OCA Ventures and has been working at OCA since 2008. For the 15 years prior to joining OCA, Joseph Dwyer was an Internet entrepreneur creating high-growth technology companies.

Joseph’s past ventures include: CEO and founder of The Virtual Market, one of the first dynamically generated e-commerce sites; CEO and founder of Blir, a technology consulting and custom software development company serving clients such as Bain & Company, Albertsons, and Exodus Computing; CTO and board member of LoanSurfer.com, a venture-backed online mortgage bank; and President and Founder of TouchPoint Solutions, an enterprise Software-as-a-Service company with customers including Kodak, British Petroleum, and Lockheed Martin. Joseph is an expert in web application design and development, including the architecture of a web-based device management, ad delivery, and content distribution software system licensed by Kodak for use on its worldwide network of 70,000 kiosks.

Joseph holds an MBA with Distinction from the Kellogg School of management, and a law degree Cum Laude from the Northwestern University School of Law, where he was awarded the Order of the Coif. At Kellogg, Joseph was the President of the Association for Private Equity and Entrepreneurship Law, and was founding COO of Kellogg View, the school’s official business publication. Joseph also has an undergraduate degree in International Relations from the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service. Joseph has lived and worked abroad extensively, and speaks French, Spanish, and German.

Co-Founder, Hipmunk

Adam Goldstein was a co-founder of BookTour with Chris Anderson. He was the youngest author ever at O’Reilly, writing AppleScript: The Missing Manual at 16. He graduated from MIT in 2010 with degrees in Electrical Engineering/Computer Science and Mechanical Engineering, and was North American Debating Champion in 2010. Adam lives in San Francisco, and is now a co-founder of the travel search site hipmunk.com.

Architect / Developer & Platform Evangelism, Microsoft

Brian Gorbett is an Architect in Microsoft’s Developer & Platform Evangelism (DPE) Division, responsible for engaging partners and customers around developer tools and platform technologies. He mentors entrepreneurs building on the latest technologies and advises tech startups on the latest software architecture.

He is currently leading the startup initiative for the Central Region of the United States for Microsoft and actively seeks out passionate technology startups with innovating ideas. An active developer and technologist, Gorbett has contributed to national publications on software technologies and still tries to find time to get his ideas into code.


Before joining Microsoft, Gorbett managed a team of developers and designers responsible for delivering next generation rich Internet applications. Gorbett resides in Chicago, IL, but can be found on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, BrianGorbett.com, or just about any other social network.

Co-Founder, ExcelerateLabs
Founder & President, SurePayroll

Troy Henikoff is an adjunct professor of Entrepreneurship at Northwestern University. He is also piloting the “Entrepreneur in Residence” program at the Chicagoland Entrepreneurial Center. He spent most of the last two years as the President of Amacai, a consumer and business data to company, that is known in the industry as the premier source of telephone intelligence.

Previously, Troy co-founded SurePayroll.com, an Internet based payroll service bureau focusing on companies with under 100 employees. Under his leadership as President, SurePayroll grew from an idea on paper to a nationally recognized payroll service bureau in less than three years. Today, SurePayroll is the largest Internet payroll provider and the fifth largest payroll company in the country, managing billions of payroll dollars annually. A two time Inc. 500 honoree, SurePayroll is one of the fastest-growing companies in the country.
Prior to SurePayroll, Troy was at Jellyvision, Inc., recruited specifically to build a software development capability from scratch. Within 18 months, Troy managed to build a team and set of tools for quickly creating highly interactive multimedia experiences. Troy’s team used these tools to build products like “You Don’t Know Jack®” for Jellyvision, and “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire®” for Disney Interactive.

In addition to his “day job,” Troy serves as a board member at Chicagoland Entrepreneurial Center and Kohl Children’s Museum of Greater Chicago.

President, Illinois Technology Association (ITA)

Fred Hoch is President of the Illinois Technology Association, a former executive of the national Software and Information Industry Association, and an entrepreneur. Ever wonder what’s going on in the technology industry and the dramatic changes that are transforming it? Fred Hoch works with companies to sort it all out. A recognized expert on the business models of the technology industry and in particular Software as a Service, which he has championed for the industry since 1999, Fred has worked with hundreds of companies to strategically address the ongoing transformation and challenges of the industry.

Faculty Director, Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship at the Booth School of Business

Steven N. Kaplan is an authority on venture capital, corporate governance, private equity, entrepreneurial finance, corporate control, e-commerce, and corporate finance. He teaches advanced courses in corporate finance and entrepreneurial finance. Kaplan is the Faculty Director of the Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship at the Graduate School of Business.

Kaplan serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of Financial Economics, the Journal of Corporate Finance, and Financial Management. He is a research associate with the National Bureau of Economic Research. He also serves on the board of directors of Accretive Health, Columbia Acorn Funds, and Morningstar. He serves on the Advisory Board of Sterling Capital Partners.

Co-Founder, crowdSPRING

Ross co-founded and is co-executive of Chicago-based crowdSPRING – the world’s largest marketplace for crowdsourced graphic, web and industrial design services, and copywriting. Buyers who need a logo, website, custom graphic design, industrial design or written content post what they need, when they need it and how much they’ll pay. Once posted, creatives from around the world (more than 72,000 from 185+ countries) submit actual work. Buyers select from among actual work, not bids or proposals. crowdSPRING has helped thousands of buyers from over 75 countries (including entrepreneurs, startups, small businesses and the world’s best Brands and agencies) meet their creative needs.

Ross actively talks about startup issues at conferences and on his personal blog, where he’s published over 100 videos for entrepreneurs and startups (on diverse topics including: marketing, online tools, software development, legal, fundraising, SEO, social media and much more), sharing many lessons he’s learned and his many mistakes from the past several years with crowdSPRING.

Prior to crowdSPRING, for 13 years as a successful trial attorney, Ross counseled and represented clients (from small Internet startups to Fortune 100 companies) in complex disputes involving intellectual property in United States state and federal courts and before the World Intellectual Property Organization.

Senior Strategist, Manifest Digital

At Manifest Digital, Jeff works with highly-placed change agents within large brands and mission-driven organizations to design significantly more meaningful and effective engagements with the marketplace. As Dean of The Insight Labs, Jeff convenes teams of experienced and innovative thinkers from the private sector, universities and the arts to help non-profits and government agencies solve intractable problems.

VP of Strategic Development, Sonicbids

Brenden Mulligan has seen the music industry from almost every angle. Throughout his career, he’s worked as a label exec, manager, agent’s assistant, promoter/talent buyer, and tour manager. In 2008, he launched ArtistData to help artists manage the overwhelming number of online resources continually appearing online and offline. Today, tens of thousands of musicians use ArtistData, which was recently acquired by Sonicbids, to simultaneously publish information to over 20 social networks and concert databases, as well as print tour documents and alert local press about upcoming gigs. Mulligan continues to innovate in the music industry and create products that help musicians take the next steps in their careers.

Co-Founder & CEO, Adaptly

Nikhil Sethi is Founder and CEO of Adaptly, a startup solution that allows users to deploy ads simultaneously on social networks’ ad platforms.

While other advertising channels such as search often have complicated tools to streamline the marketing process, social media marketers have largely been left behind. So Sethi and his co-founders are seeking to bridge the gap with Adapt.ly, a web application that helps businesses manage marketing campaigns across multiple social networking sites.

President, Plug and Play Chicago

Chris has extensive experience building venture capital backed companies. As the founder of Lake Forest Venture Management, a consulting company focused on building market-leading companies, Chris has helped secure more than $30 million for early-stage ventures, creating a total return of $135 million to investors. Chris was the lead author of the original ITEC business plan submitted to Illinois Governor George Ryan.

Chris is a co-founder of m-Via and serves on the company’s Board of Directors. As creator of the first mobile remittance service in the United States, Chris is a recognized thought leader on financial services innovations. He is a published author on the topic and a frequent speaker at numerous industry forums.

Previously Chris served as Director of Strategy for Art.com, which became the recognized market leader in custom framed art on the internet. He also served as the Director of Marketing and Product Design for MediaShare Inc., which became an early leader in Sales Force Automation.

Chris began his career at Accenture Consulting and was selected as a founding member of the prestigious Advanced Technology Group where he led the development of strategies and applications for commercializing leading edge technologies including artificial intelligence based systems, performance support systems and online financial services.

Chris holds a BA in Economics and a MBA in Finance from the University of Illinois, as well as a MS in Computer Science from Northwestern University. He has also completed coursework in entrepreneurship and business strategy at Stanford University.

Founder, InklingMarkets

Adam is the co-founder of Inkling Markets, a leading provider of collective intelligence solutions for business and government. Before founding Inkling, Adam worked at Accenture, a global consulting firm where he served over a dozen clients across multiple industries for over a decade. At Accenture, Adam also directed a research initiative in next generation user experiences and ran a small internal venture fund to seed innovative ideas. Adam holds a B.A. in Political Science from Indiana University.

Founder & President, GiveForward

GiveForward.org gives people free personal fundraising websites to raise money online for medical expenses, pet medical expenses, favorite charities, and more.

Contributor, Gizmodo.com
Founder, Panorama Media Inc.

Mark Wilson is best known for his contribution to Gawker Media technology blog Gizmodo, where since 2006 he’s covered the industry from nearly every aspect – gadgets, the web, and the culture behind it all. He’s watched as Gizmodo mutated exponentially to break 185 million pageviews a month in the last year. Along the way he’s, found time to write for Kotaku, PopMech and Esquire.

More recently, he’s founded Panoramic Media Inc, the pretentious business name behind an even more pretentious first site, lifepanoramic.com. Over the next several months, Panoramic Media will be expanding its scope and sites. In the meantime, Mark would like to comment on how much he loathes writing about himself in the third person.

Senior Consultant, Obtiva

Joe has been developing software using agile practices for over ten years. He is a strong proponent of TDD, and has delivered test driven projects ranging from embedded Java applications to large scale EAI efforts. Having consulted for the finance, travel and insurance industries among others, his repertoire includes experience as a developer, project manager and coach. Joe helps organizations adopt and adapts agile practices, delivers software, and is currently obsessing over just how lean a development process can be.

Frmr. Senior Vice President, Chicago Climate Exchange

Mr. Cushing is an attorney and independent sustainability professional who served most recently as Senior Vice President with the Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX). CCX has been the world wide pioneer in the development of carbon markets and market solutions to environmental challenges. Mr. Cushing has spoken across the country in manufacturing, electric utility and academic settings on carbon markets and pricing mechanisms to achieve cost effective emissions reductions. He has been invited to lecture at Northwestern University, Kellogg School of Business, Washington University School of Law, and the University of Notre Dame, and to speak at dozens of conferences and symposia around the country. He was an integral member of the leadership team at CCX that grew the company in advance of its successful public sale to InterContinental Exchange in 2010.

Before joining CCX, Mr. Cushing enjoyed a distinguished eighteen year career as a civil trial attorney in Cook County, Illinois, recording dozens of verdicts and appeals. He was an invited member of the Chicago Society of Trial Lawyers and Loyola University School of Law’s Circle of Advocates. He also taught as an adjunct professor at the Loyola University School of Law, was an invited speaker at DePaul Law School and the National Institute of Trial Advocacy, and lectured for various bar groups. Mr. Cushing adjusted the focus of his advocacy toward the issues of sustainability and global climate change when he joined the Chicago Climate Exchange. A Chicago native, Mr. Cushing has been a lifelong teacher, starting his professional career teaching sixth grade. He earned his JD from Loyola University School of Law, and his BA from the University of Notre Dame.

CEO, Where I’ve Been

Michael’s many responsibilities as CEO of Where I’ve Been include leading the strategic direction, positioning, finances and business development of the company. Because of his obsessive bidding at a charity auction, Michael purchased a trip around the world and hasn’t stopped traveling since. His favorite travel destinations include Istanbul, Florence & Bali. Michael is a career long entrepreneur who started in the financial & derivates space. He has funded & managed various companies including DRO|WST Trading, Victory Networks, M&R executions, The Point Derivative Fund & Blueye.com.

Dalesandro is also a consulting partner with Blueye Corp., the Chicago-based agency partially responsible for the success of the Where I’ve Been application. He funded the company three years ago to ensure that he would have a qualified creative resource for his other entrepreneurial endeavors.

Executive Director, Clean Energy Trust

Amy Francetic has over 18 years of operational and executive management experience in the high technology sector with specialties in cleantech and information technology. She is also co-founder and Managing Director at Invention Bridge. Prior to founding Invention Bridge, Ms. Francetic worked as an investment professional for MVC Capital, a publicly-traded private equity firm (NYSE:MVC), in their Chicago office. Before joining MVC, she commercialized R&D as an Entrepreneur-In-Residence for Stanford Research Institute in Menlo Park, California. Before that she produced the prestigious wireless product launch event, DEMOmobile, for IDG Publishing for two years with high-tech industry expert Chris Shipley.

Ms. Francetic served on the Board of Directors of Glu Mobile (NASDAQ:GLUU), a wireless games publisher, whose founder she advised during fundraising. Earlier in her career Ms. Francetic was Co-Founder and CEO of Zowie Intertainment, a high-tech toy company funded by Vulcan Ventures which spun-out of Interval Research. She sold Zowie to Lego Systems, the Danish toymaker, in 2000. Zowie employed RF sensing tags, a custom ASIC, and software to enable a natural interface for the PC for children. She began her career producing software for Electronic Arts and Hasbro Interactive. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and Political Science from Stanford University where she ran Varsity Track.

Executive Director, Illinois Biotechnology Industry Organization
General Manager, PROPEL

Barbara Goodman joined iBIO in December 2007 and has over fifteen years of experience in the planning and implementation of strategic growth initiatives at both for-profit and not-for-profit corporations. She is responsible for managing iBIO’s international activities and leading PROPEL, a series of programs aimed at boosting the number and success rate of early stage life sciences companies in Illinois. Previously, Barbara worked in corporate strategy and business development at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, Cardinal Health in its Medical Products & Services Division, and Chesapeake Corporation (Richmond, Virginia). Barbara earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in International Relations from the University of Minnesota and a Master’s of Business Administration from Thunderbird School of Global Management.

CEO, Emmi Solutions

As Emmi Solutions CEO, Devin is responsible for the company’s nationwide operations and overall success. Under his leadership, the company continues to invest, innovate and defend its position as a market leader.

Widely regarded as a patient engagement pioneer, Devin has spent 15 years making patient-centered care a reality. In addition to Emmi Solutions, Devin has experience as both a hospital administrator and a healthcare information technology consultant. As such, he understands the challenges of bringing innovation to healthcare and what it takes to make new solutions successful.

Prior to joining Emmi Solutions in 2003, Devin was the Director of Health Plan Practice at First Consulting Group.

Chairman, Illinois Technology Association

Terry Howerton was the founding Chairman of the Illinois Technology Association, and continues to serve in that role today. He is a frequent speaker and thought leader within community, and actively influences public policy for the industry.

Together with Fred Hoch, ITA President, Howerton has built the ITA into an internationally recognized organization passionately committed to building a more connected, collaborative and successful technology industry. The ITA is a social enterprise that acts as a strategic development arm for member companies, and an economic development leader within the region.

Terry is a lifelong entrepreneur, starting his first successful company at the age of 15. Most recently the founder and CEO of FastRoot, an infrastructure and IT consulting company specializing in Software-as-a-Service, he is now a principal in Zealous Capital LLC, a venture development cooperative, and serves on several private corporate Boards of Directors or Advisers. Terry built and remains a principal in an offshore software and product development lab based in Eastern Europe.

Founder, CEO & Chief Medical Officer, HealthCodex

Dr. Janet Huber, the founder and CEO of HealthCodex, is a practicing physician who spent many years in the field of chronic disease treatment. She has seen all aspects of the case management process, and from that extensive experience created a vision for the next generation of information technology in case management, one that demands a high degree of automation of mundane tasks, compliance checking and patient monitoring.

Dr. Huber has previous experience as a successful medical IT entrepreneur. She authored a medical knowledge base in the late 1990s, consisting of complete descriptions of inpatient and outpatient conditions that an admitting department could click on in a user interface to add to the patient record, thereby partly automating the admissions process. She copyrighted her work and sold it to seven medical organizations that incorporated it into their electronic patient records systems, earning $250,000 in royalties. After selling the knowledge base to McKessonHBOC she was invited to continue working on their behalf as an Enterprise Product Consultant.

In 2000, Dr. Huber took the opportunity to become Medical Director of Healinx, a dot-com startup web-based online physician consulting service. While in this position, she conceived of several ways to improve web-based communication in the field of medicine. When Healinx fell victim to the dot-com bubble, Dr. Huber found herself with time to reflect on her recent experiences and write out her early ideas. She came to the conclusion that there was a better way to use the web to manage chronic disease.

In 2001, she became a Medical Director for Promina Health System, focusing on case management. At Promina she trained and directly supervised Case Managers, developed medical treatment pathways, gave industry lectures and published journal articles on computer technology and case management. Her ideas for how a new level of medical IT could make case management more cost efficient and more medically effective solidified and became the conceptual basis for the HealthCodex system. She maintains a blog on the HealthCodex site where she talks about medical issues.

CEO, NanoInk

James M. Hussey joined NanoInk, as Chief Executive Officer and member of the Board of Directors, in January 2008. Mr. Hussey brings 25 years of experience in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry as executive, founder, investor and consultant to senior management and boards of directors. Prior to joining NanoInk, Mr. Hussey was with Ovation Pharmaceuticals, where he was a member of the senior operating committee, serving as Head of Alliances and Vice President of Corporate Development. He was President and CEO of NeoPharm, Inc., as well as a member of the Board of Directors and an investor/shareholder. In 1994, he founded Physicians Quality Care, a health care services IPA Management Company, which was sold to a public company in 1998. Prior to founding Physicians Quality Care, he was with Bristol Myers Squibb in Princeton, New Jersey, serving as General Manager as well as other positions in marketing, new business development and sales. Mr. Hussey holds a B.S. in Pharmacy from Butler University, Indianapolis, Indiana, and an M.B.A. from University of Illinois at Chicago.

Principal Consultant, Obtiva

Jennings is a Principal Consultant at Obtiva, a Chicago-based Agile software development company. He is involved in the Craftsmanship, Agile, Ruby, JRuby and Java communities and has presented at many conference and user group meetings across the United States. His recent interests include functional & multi-paradigm languages, genetic algorithms and machine vision.

President, FGMK, LLC

Steven Kolber has spent a career working with privately held middle market and entreprenuerial businesses as well as individuals helping them achieve their goals.

In the process of business consulting, Steven performs tax, accounting, auditing and other services as required. At FGMK, he works with many qualified people who all work together to help FGMK’s clients achieve their goals.

Founder, InsuranceAgents.com

Seth Kravitz is the CEO of InsuranceAgents.com, an insurance marketing company based in Columbus, Ohio. Seth started his first business at age 19 and has been in the internet marketing industry since 2002. He also writes a weekly blog, SecondCityCEO, about the struggles of running a small business.

Chairman and CEO, Trading Block Holdings, Inc.

Biju Kulathakal is a serial entrepreneur and active angel investor. He is currently Chairman and CEO of Trading Block Holdings, Inc., a retail broker-dealer in Chicago. He was an early investor and partner at GetAMovie which was later sold to McDonald’s and is now Redbox. Redbox is one of the largest movie rental companies in the U.S. and the fastest-growing in terms of revenue. Previously, he was a founder of Enterprise Logic Systems, a software development firm specializing in the financial services and trading industry. He is a board member of the Beck Foundation and has previously served on the board of the Chicago Charter School foundation, Civitas Schools, Leap Learning Systems and the Heartland Institute. Biju received his B.S. in Aerospace Engineering from Illinois Institute of Technology.

Founder & CEO, SA Ignite

Inspired by family experiences with the healthcare system, Tom founded SA Ignite with a deep belief that the next generation of health IT solutions and tools can bring transformative improvements to the quality, efficiency, and safety of healthcare delivery. SA Ignite drives improvements in physician productivity and the quality of care through analyzing the usage and performance of electronic health records (EHRs).

Tom has served as a consultant to the Northwestern University School of Medicine, for which he played an instrumental role in Northwestern’s successful bid to establish the Chicago Health IT Regional Extension Center (CHITREC) with funding support from the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. He has also consulted for Erie Family Health Center, a leading Chicago-area community health network, and the Alliance of Chicago, a pioneering provider of health IT solutions to community health centers nationwide.

Tom was previously Director of Software Product Management at Research In Motion (BlackBerry) overseeing the software portfolio targeting small and medium businesses, including physician practices. He also has a successful track record as a leader and entrepreneur at venture-funded technology startups, including being a general manager and chief technology officer of Enorbus Technologies, a wireless application company funded by Qualcomm Ventures and The Carlyle Group and subsequently acquired by Disney. Tom holds seven U.S. patents garnered as the 20th employee of Symyx Technologies, a corporate R&D and informatics company which executed a successful NASDAQ IPO during Tom’s tenure and grew to more than 500 employees worldwide. In addition, Tom has led product strategy, business development, and new product development for U.S. Cellular. Tom earned a B.S. with Distinction in physics from Stanford, Ph.D. in physics from UC-Berkeley, where he was a National Science Foundation Fellow, and an MBA with Distinction from the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University. He enjoys taking family trips and re-learning how to ice skate and play the piano so he can keep up with his kids.

Media Marketer, Mix Media

Jess Loren is a natural-born entrepreneur. As a product of the digital age, she considers herself an “ever-growing web enthusiast.” Jess was on Facebook before it even was Facebook (yes, it was once The Facebook), and not a day goes by where she doesn’t find something new on the Internet. When Jess was seven, she sold cookies and lemonade. Today, she sells strategies and ideas. Jess witnessed the takeoff of social media and understands it shows no signs of slowing down. So instead, she shows companies how they can keep up. Not only by opening their eyes to the vast array of opportunities social media can offer, but also by helping them find their way along this new digital landscape to create their own individualized media mix. Jess just gets it. But the good news is: she and her team can help your company get it too.

Founder, Forté Consulting

Uki D. Lucas is a founder of Forté Consultacy. He is an accomplished project manager, veteran of many start-up companies, mentor to other Java developers and organizer of Chicago Google Technology conferences Chicago-GTUG.com and ChicagoAndroid.com.

Director of Project and Grant Development, Metro Chicago Information Center

Justin’s work centers around civil and human rights, new technologies, open data, and new forms of collaboration. He is a co-founder of MoveSmart.org and is currently the Director of Project and Grant Development at the Metro Chicago Information Center. In 2009, he was named one of the “35 Under 35″ emerging civil rights leader in Chicago by the Community Renewal Society.

From the spring of 2009 through February 2010 Justin was the Program and Technical Coordinator at NetSquared, where he coordinated internal communication and helped run innovation competitions. Before that, he was the Fair Housing Testing and Outreach Coordinator for the Chicago Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. There he supervised the testing program, handled intake and investigation, and conducted fair housing trainings for 3.5 years. At CLCCRUL, his work focused on the intersection of fair housing and technology and he the led the investigation into craigslist’s publication of discriminatory advertisements, helping create the model for pursuing complaints against creators of discriminatory online housing ads.

Prior to working in fair housing, Justin was a Chicago Public School teacher (8th and 3rd grades) for two years and a research analyst for the Center for New Community for four years. At the Center, he monitored white nationalist activity and trained more than 5,000 young people on how to spot and respond to hate. While at the Center, he wrote for Fellowship, Intelligence Report, and Searchlight magazines and appeared on CLTV, VH1, and NPR’s “All Things Considered”.

Justin holds a BA in Political Science, with a minor in Womens’ Studies, from Loyola University of Chicago and a MA in Teaching from National Louis University. He completed the Fair Housing Accessibility FIRST training and NFHA’s Fair Housing School. In the past, he helped organize meetings of the now-dormant Illinois Data Exchange Affiliates and was a founding co-covener of Chicago Net Tuesdays.

From 1998 through 2002, he was the co-host of Government Music on WLUW, 88.7fm in Chicago, a Friday night punk and hardcore radio show. During the same time he co-founded and ran a record label of the same name, releasing one great and one truly amazing record. Born and raised in New Orleans (geaux Saints!), Justin now lives in Chicago’s South Loop with his wife Abbie and their daughter Marlowe. In his spare time, he is an avid boxing fan.

Associate Professor & Entrepreneurship Faculty Member, Kellstadt Graduate School of Business at DePaul University

Dr. Murphy is associate professor and a member of DePaul University’s entrepreneurship faculty. His award-winning research has been published in leading academic journals such as Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice and reported in major media outlets such as USA Today and the Financial Times. He directs business outreach activity in Chicago and has consulted to managers and entrepreneurs around the world.

Dr. Murphy is a speaker of Mandarin Chinese and was previously Organizational Development Specialist at the North American headquarters of French multinational Schneider Electric. He serves on the Executive Board of the Management History Division in the Academy of Management and Editorial Boards of Academy of Management Perspectives and Journal of Management History. His teaching has been recognized by multiple formal accolades for excellence. Currently, he is co-authoring a book for Yale University Press on the parallels between notable historic mutinies and intellectual and social mutinies in modern organizational settings.

Co-Founder & People Person, EveryBlock

Daniel X. O’Neil is a co-founder of and People Person for EveryBlock, a neighborhood news site serving 15 cities. He is responsible for uncovering new data sets through online research and working with local governments. He also works on content partnerships at EveryBlock. In August 2009 EveryBlock was purchased by msnbc.com.

Prior to EveryBlock, O’Neil spent 10 years as an Internet strategist and project manager for Streams Online Media, one of the first web design firms in Chicago. He continued this work at Dunn Solutions Group after their purchase of Streams in 2001, with a focus on technology requirements training and the development of Web-based tools for training, e-commerce, and content management. He also created a number of sites for municipalities, including the first Web site for the Chicago Inspector General, the person in charge of rooting out corruption in Chicago city government.

Since 2002 he’s run a number of independent Web projects, including CTA Alerts/ CTA Tweet and CityPayments.org. He’s developed dozens of Web sites for nonprofits, schools, and small businesses using easy-to-use and inexpensive tools such as weblogs, wikis, and social networking sites.

He writes poetry books, has written for a number of Chicago news outlets, and has the inevitable weblog. See more at www.juggernautco.com/about.html.

Founder & Principal, PaskyIP

Jonathan has worked as an intellectual property attorney, prosecuting patents, filing trademarks and copyrights and negotiating licenses for start-up companies and established corporations alike.

However, after becoming the Vice President and Chief Legal Officer of a social networking website, FanFound.com, Jonathan realized traditional intellectual property and business law firms failed to meet the needs of modern business.

His goal is to educate and provide entrepreneurs on the necessity and benefits of robust intellectual property protection and utilization while operating with the agility and expertise that the business world demands.

Experienced in both offensive and defensive intellectual property asset management, Jonathan works with clients to protect their intellectual property as well as minimize defensive litigation. When a dispute arises, he uses effective negotiation and conflict resolution to secure the best outcome for his client (and if the other side is also pleased, all the better for everyone’s business goals).

Successful patent prosecution requires technical knowledge and legal expertise. Successful negotiation requires persuasive oral advocacy and effective writing skills.

Jonathan received his B.S.E.E. from Valparaiso University and was published in the Journal of Applied Physics for his undergraduate research in nontechnology. Jonathan also has J.D. from Valparaiso University where he was an active member of the Moot Court Board and won Best Oralist at the Swegert Moot Court Competition.

Co-Founder & Senior VP, Halo Monitoring

Chirag Patel co-founded Halo Monitoring, and made the key observation that user compliance and ease of use hinges on a portable platform for caregiver connection. Chirag’s expertise in user interface design and web and database development fueled the industry’s first and most advanced continuous health monitoring and fault tolerant web application – the myHalo health server. Before Halo, Chirag worked for 12 years in design engineering with full product responsibility and also co-founded a startup which developed the world’s first portable, virtual keyboard.

Chirag also founded Chicago Health 2.0, a meetup group focused on discussing and showcasing Health-related technology. The group profiles start-ups and individuals to present technologies such as personal health records (PHRs), information therapy (Ix), patient/caregiver communities, patient/doctor communication, fitness/wellness, remote monitoring, and patient engagement/education.

Chirag holds a B.S. in Computer Engineering from University of Alabama in Huntsville and an M.S. in Computer Engineering from Rutgers University.

Founder & President, ChicagoMicro

Julian Pretto is the founder of ChicagoMicro, a Chicago based technology VAR and consulting firm. Julian is a true Chicago entrepreneur, starting in 1982 when he consolidated all of the paper routes for twelve Chicago blocks from Normandy Ave all the way to Harlem Ave, enabling him to always have money to play Defender. In addition to running ChicagoMicro, Julian is a diehard supporter of the Chicago entrepreneur and technology scene, sponsoring numerous local events and mentoring many Chicagoland startups.

Senior Reporter, LightReading

Sarah Reedy joined Light Reading as a Senior Reporter in April 2010. Her first cellphone was a bedazzled pink RAZR, which she abandoned for an iPhone when she began covering the technology three years ago as an editor at Telephony, later Connected Planet.

Sarah’s past work experience includes internships at Fleishman-Hillard, AT&T, Ingram’s (Kansas City’s business magazine), American Spa magazine, and QuizFest in NYC. She has lived in Chicago since graduating from the University of Missouri-Columbia in 2007. Loves the city; hates the hot dogs.

CEO & Founder, ContextMedia

Rishi U. Shah, Chief Executive Officer and Founder of Contextmedia, is a successful media and technology entrepreneur. Rishi started ContextMedia in 2006 to help patients with chronic disease live healthier through contextually relevant media services. The company’s DOOH networks and mobile media offerings are now used by over a million patients monthly and the firm’s clients include more than half of the 20 largest pharmaceutical companies.

He is past founder of the Northwestern Business Review, a Northwestern University-based collaborative publication distributed to more than 60 leading campuses nationwide. Prior to that, he founded a home computer consulting firm whose clients were acquired by Best Buy. Rishi has also founded several non-profit initiatives at the intersection of youth, education and media including the Urban-Suburban Domestic Exchange Initiative, a program sponsored by the Gates foundation to facilitate cross-school interaction.

Rishi advises several early stage companies and serves on the Board of Directors of civic organizations including the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce and the Institute for Student Business Education at Northwestern University. He was recognized by Crain’s Chicago Business as a member of their 40-Under-40 class in 2009 and is a member of the Executives Club of Chicago, Chicagoland Entrepreneurial Center and the Illinois Technology Association. He has studied economics, government and learning and organizational change at Northwestern University, Harvard University and the University of Illinois at Chicago. Rishi is an avid fan of the Chicago Bulls, ancient Indian philosophy and new media.

Chief Handshaker, FreshBooks

Sunir has led many lives. He recently shed his software development background by attaining a Masters in Knowledge Media Design at the University of Toronto. He is most well-known for building up the wiki community through MeatballWiki, including his most recent project, BibWiki. He hails from Deep River, Ontario, and consequently he is an Ottawa Senators fan.

President & Founder, Obtiva

Kevin P. Taylor is a passionate advocate of Agile software development principles, and founded Obtiva in 2005 to create a community and a culture of like-minded programmers who could hone their craft and produce exceptional work. Kevin’s approach, like Obtiva, is centered on the practices of collaboration, pair programming, test driven development and software craftsmanship, which advocates quality work as well as a focus on a holistic view of programming as a profession that can span a lifetime.

Kevin has been programming computers since the age of 13, when he earned enough money delivering flyers house to house to buy his first TRS-80 Color Computer. In hindsight, this summer experience was the genesis of two great passions in his life: the craft of software and the craft of commerce.

A natural leader, Kevin makes a habit of surrounding himself with immensely talented, slightly eclectic individuals with exceptional creativity and expertise. This team has enabled Obtiva to thrive and earn a reputation as one of the most innovative and sought-after software development companies in the nation.

His love of sailing is perhaps a metaphorical indication of his entrepreneurial personality: journeying hundreds of miles into the middle of the ocean with no shoreline in sight, just the wind to power him; raising the sails and taking the helm, dependent on the teamwork of his crew and the forces of nature to generate the momentum to propel him back to shore.

Kevin has worked as an Agile coach, developer, trainer and project manager. He enjoys speaking about entrepreneurship, early-stage startups, technology, software development, and Agile practices at conferences, training classes, workshops, and other venues around the country. He holds a degree in Economics from DePaul University and lives with his wife and two children in Wheaton, Illinois.

Director, Citizenship & Technology, IBM Corporation

John Tolva is the Director of Citizenship & Technology for the IBM Corporation. John is responsible for developing new social, educational, environmental and cultural heritage projects in partnership with non-profit institutions and governmental entities. John manages international teams from specialized IBM skill groups and labs around the world.

Recent projects include Beyond Space and Time, a fully-immersive multi-user virtual world for the Forbidden City in Beijing (http://www.beyondspaceandtime.org); Meedan, a social network for discussion of current affairs of interest to the Middle East, machine-translated between English and Arabic (http://meedan.net); and the upcoming City Forward urban decision-support tool (http://www.cityforward.org).

John maintains a personal website at http://www.ascentstage.com.

Creative Director, World Business Chicago

Jake Trussell is the Creative Director for World Business Chicago, the city’s economic development agency, where he’s responsible for creative strategy and design including graphics, multi-media, and web development.

Before joining WBC, Trussell was Webmaster at Massachusetts College of Art and Design (MassArt) in Boston, MA where he developed and managed web strategies, policies, and initiatives. During his nearly 8 years in the position he oversaw multiple website redesigns.

He has also worked in the music industry as a producer and musician with a discography of approximately 50 CD, Vinyl, and Digital releases. His experience running record labels and producing events has required him to wear hats in marketing & public relations, using new-media and internet tools to build and communicate with communities.

Between leaving MassArt and joining WBC Trussell blogged about, and made music while freelancing as a web consultant on projects for The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, and a number of other organizations.

Director of Client Services, Obtiva

Todd Webb is the leader and motivator behind Obtiva’s delivery team. He sets the direction and vision for the developers and, working with the other Obtiva senior managers, helps further the inimitable culture that makes Obtiva special.

When you meet Todd, you are first struck by his kindness and quality of reserve. He listens closely, allows for others to grow and succeed, and helps push them up when they’re in need of support. He is a respected sounding board to many at Obtiva.

Todd loves to see his teams excel and become self sufficient. He continually looks for new ways to implement change using a new frame of reference or a different approach to problem solving. His career and ideology and are entrenched in Agile development principles, and his work centers around the implementation of lean, value-driven processes.

Previously, he worked for Subimo managing a team of onshore and offshore employees and contractors and acquiring the ability to work within various cultures to meet objectives. Subimo was acquired by WebMD, where Todd worked as a member of the product management team. He also was a project manager and applications manager for Daimler Chrysler in Detroit for six years.

Despite his years of experience at large corporations, Todd thrives in the smaller start-up world he was exposed to at Subimo and now Obtiva. He delivers great value by knowing what to do — and what not to do — based on his past corporate experience.

Todd holds an undergraduate degree in engineering from the University of Michigan and an MBA from Loyola University in Chicago. He and his wife have two sons and live in Wheaton, Ill.

Founder & Publisher, Chicago Scene

Ted Widen is the founder & publisher of Chicago-Scene.com & SCENE Magazine. Mr. Widen has an extensive background as a successful entrepreneur over the past 30 years. His vast experience in computers, the Internet, website design and marketing led to the 1995 launch of Unlocked, Inc. one of the first web site design and consulting firms. The rapid growth and success of Chicago-Scene.com led Mr. Widen to devote 100% of his time to the social website. Chicago-Scene.com was one of the very first social media sites on the internet. Since 1998 Chicago-Scene.com has proven itself to be the most popular web site for urban young professionals with the most up-to-date information. It is the place to go for what’s happening around Chicago’s Nightclub, Bar, Restaurant, Music and Party scene.

In June of 2001 Mr. Widen launched SCENE Magazine a print companion to the website and the hottest publication reaching Chicago’s young professionals. SCENE Magazine delivers the most up-to-date information on “What’s Hot…What’s New…” in Chicago’s social scene.

Mr. Widen just returned from China where he is looking to expand his publishing model. Ted grew up on Chicago’s North Shore and currently resides with his wife and two children in Winnetka, IL.