Mentor Roster

Dr. David Albert, CEO, AliveCor

David E. Albert, MD, is a physician, inventor and serial entrepreneur who has developed and commercialized numerous medical and other life-saving technologies and products over the last 30 years, turning a number of those innovations into technology startups. Today, he is a founder of three tech companies including InnovAlarm, Lifetone Technology and AliveCor. His previous startups include Corazonix Corp (sold to Arrhythmia Research Technology and Data Critical (sold to GE). Dr. Albert left GE in 2004 as Chief Scientist of GE Cardiology to disrupt several new markets. His latest invention, the iPhone ECG, became a global sensation via a 4-minute YouTube Video at the the Consumer Electronics Show in 2011 and was featured in local media and national media including ABC, CBS, CNN and Fox News. Dr. Albert has 32 issued US patents, a large number of pending patents and several new “secret inventions” in development. He has authored or co-authored over 50 scientific abstracts and publications, principally in cardiology literature. Dr. Albert has lectured at the entrepreneurship programs at the MIT Sloan School and the University of Oklahoma. Dr. Albert graduated with honors from Harvard College and from Duke University Medical School.  Follow him on Twitter @DrDave01.

Bruce Ballengee, CEO, Pariveda Solutions

Bruce Ballengee is Chief Executive Officer of Pariveda Solutions, Inc., an information technology design consultancy with 300 employees in nine markets across the United States.  Headquartered in Dallas, Pariveda has consistently been recognized as one of the fastest growing firms and one of the best places to work in the United States.  Bruce also serves as Chairman of sp3 nanotech, a nanomaterials additive manufacturer for high-performance lubricants and resins. Bruce is involved in several local non-profit organizations and is a current member of the Baylor Angel Network.  He is a Texas Master Naturalist, a member of the Texas Native Prairies Association and the Native Plant Society of Texas.  Bruce graduated in 1979 with a BBA in Finance and Economics from Baylor University.  In 1981, he received an MBA specializing in Finance from the University of Chicago.  Follow him on Twitter @BruceVBallengee.

George Barber, Partner, Traiblazer Capital

A global business and technology executive, George is currently a Partner at Trailblazer Capital.  Mr. Barber has an impressive track record of leading and growing entrepreneurial companies and Fortune 500 business units.  Mr. Barber was most recently Chairman, CEO and President of Vapro, Inc an innovator of patented two-phase cooling solutions for the electronics industry.  The company has since received strategic funding and, as a resul,t was relocated to Korea. Prior to Vapro, Mr. Barber was President and CEO of SyChip-Murata, a wholly owned subsidiary of Murat Manufacturing Corporation of Japan.  Murata acquired SyChip, Inc in April 2006.  Prior to the Company’s acquisition, George was recruited to the venture capital-backed start-up (a Bell Labs spinout) in 2001 as President and CEO.  The wireless Plug-N-Play company designed, developed and marketed Radio Frequency Chip Scale modules, Systems In Package solutions, software and integrated circuits for the portable device market.  SyChip was an innovator in the smartphone revolution.  SyChip was recognized for numerous awards including “Start-up to Watch” and Investor’s Choice by VentureWire.  In addition, the company received “Rising Star” and “Fast 50″ net revenue growth awards from Deloitte LLP.  In 2004 Mr. Barber was recognized as an Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year nominee and 2003 was a Metroplex Technology Business Council Tech Titan Emerging Company CEO finalist.  George led the company in raising nearly $50 million of venture funding.

John Baschab, Founder & Partner, Scout Energy Partners

John Baschab is a founder and Partner at Scout Energy Partners, a private oil and gas investment firm. Scout acquires and directly manages mid‐sized upstream conventional oil and gas properties for institutional investors and is focused on mid‐continent assets with mature, predictable production characteristics and strong operational and production improvement potential. John has authored three books published by John Wiley & Sons, including Outperform: Inside the Investment Strategies of Billion Dollar Endowments (2010). His latest book, Outperform, highlights the investment practices of billion‐dollar academic endowments and relates them to concepts for individual investors. John also serves as adjunct professor at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. Prior to founding Scout Energy, John was the President of Impact Innovations Group, a senior associate at Booz Allen Hamilton and a senior software analyst at Integraph Corporation. John is a graduate of the University of Alabama and the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

Gabe Bass, Managing Partner, Bass Law

Gabe Bass is an entrepreneur and an attorney. He began his career as an early employee of a venture-backed software startup and has founded, helped to develop, and invested in several businesses. Gabe entered the startup scene in 1999 when he joined the team of Handango, a venture-backed mobile computing software publisher. He was one of the company’s first non-founder employees and spent  two years in business development and product management roles at Handango, where he was instrumental in developing the then-nascent third-party software market for handheld computers. After completing his law degree and an MIS degree, Gabe served in the U. S. Marine Corps from 2002 to 2007 on active duty and then returned to Oklahoma to pursue his law practice. Under Gabe’s leadership, Bass Law has developed an innovative business model and implemented recent advances in practice management technology to deliver efficient, effective and affordable legal services to clients throughout the state and the nation.

Robert Bennett, CEO, First Lexington Corporation

Robert M. Bennett is Chief Executive Office of First Lexington Corporation and Chief Executive Officer of HD Republic Productions and Supermassive Films and Vice Chairman of Modulant Solutions.  First Lexington is a boutique buyout firm, with corporate offices in Dallas, TX, that specializes in Tech, Media, Entertainment, and Manufacturing.  Mr. Bennett manages the First Lexington Portfolio of companies as well as individually manages First Lexington’s divested entertainment assets.  First Lexington is concentrating currently on the build up of its Aerospace Fastener and Manufacturing Group.  Mr. Bennett overseas First Lexington’s divested entertainment assets including its cable production company (HD Republic Productions) which currently produces programming for cable channels and its feature film business (Supermassive Films), which operates under a three year operating agreement with Starz Media for feature film production.  Mr. Bennett is a seasoned entrepreneur with three successful ventures in media and entertainment including the build up and sale of CSC Communicaitons, the buyout and sale of Presidio Media, and the current operation of HD Republic/ Supermassive Films.  Two ventures in technology, including the current venture Modulant Solutions, and two ventures in manufacturing, ESC Technologies, sold to the Glenair Corporation, and Long-Lok Fasteners Corporation which is currently in build up mode.  Mr. Bennett received his MBA from the University of Southern California in 1990 and a Bachelor’s in Business and Computer Science from the University of Texas, Dallas in 1984.  He is also member of the Young Presidents Organization (YPO).

Jon Bolen, CTO, Interface Security Systems

Jon is the Chief Technology Officer of Interface Security Systems ,a Managed Service company that connects and protects some of America’s best known commercial, retail and multi-site organizations. While receiving his MBA with High Honors from Emory University he worked for AT&T GIS (NCR) in product marketing. After graduation, he spent several years leading technology initiatives for a petroleum retailer before joining Radiant Systems. In his eight years with Radiant, he led the Petroleum Industry Group, the Petroleum and Grocery Product Development Group and, finally, was their first General Manager of European Operations. In 2004, Jon joined Trax Retail Solutions as Chief Information Officer. He and his team re-architected a retail-focused business intelligence product in just 18 months resulting in the successful sale of the company to March Networks.  In 2006, Jon joined Westec Intelligent Surveillance as their Chief Technology Officer. In addition to leading the redesign of the entire suite of products, Jon played a key role in the acquisition and integration of both Digital Witness and Vyne Industries (two privately held competitors). As EVP, Business Development and Chief Product Officer, Jon introduced programs that increased gross margins two-fold, increased new product sell-through, velocity to market and established strategic relationships for both hardware and managed service solutions. Most recently, Jon played a critical role in the successful sale of Westec to Interface Security Systems and was subsequently named CTO of the combined company.

Christian Brim, President & Founder, Core Business Services

Christian founded Core Business Services to help small businesses make and keep more of their money by providing a full range of accounting, financial, tax, and payroll services. The company has offices in Oklahoma City, Lawton, and Tulsa, and serves all types and sizes of businesses. Under Christian’s leadership, the company utilizes centralized information technology management and services to dramaticly improve the efficiency and quality of services delivered, while remaining highly competitive in the marketplace. Christian also has a strong interest in helping other companies to establish effecient, effective processes.

Chris Camillo, Chief Operating Officer, DealerTrack eCarList

Chris Camillo is the current Chief Operating Officer at DealerTrack eCarList, one of the fastest-growing solution sets in the automotive retail industry.  Chris manages for himself one of the world’s top performing personal stock portfolios, as verified by Covestor.com, the largest portfolio tracking service in the world. His portfolio, ranked Number One in 2010 by Covestor.com among all portfolios valued at over $250k, has averaged triple digit annual returns for two of the past three years. In just over three years, Camillo grew an $85k stock portfolio to over $2 million. Camillo authored a book about his experience entitled Laughing  at Wall Street: How I Beat the Pros at Investing (by Reading Tabloids, Shopping at the Mall, and Connecting on Facebook) and How You Can Too! Prior to taking early retirement at the age of 35 (as a result of his investing profits), Camillo worked as a market research executive at Research Now (formerly e-Rewards Market Research) where he was responsible for building and managing the largest youth research panel in North America. Chris spent 9 years in business leadership positions with e-Rewards, helping to grow the company from a 10-employee start-up to an 800 employee global leader in market research panels.  Follow him on Twitter @ChrisCamillo.

Zac Carman, CEO, Consumer Affairs

Zac is CEO of ConsumerAffairs.com, a consumer information and advocacy website. Consumer Affairs is a top 2,000 web site in the U.S. Their web site gets 2.5 million visitors each month and they broadcast on 150 radio stations.  Formerly, he was Entrepreneur In Residence at Mainsail Partners where he searched for buyout opportunities in technology-enabled services and other highly scalable business models.  He previously served as a Senior Associate at Mainsail Partners, focused on investments and acquistions.  Zac has also served as a program manager at Hitatchi GST and as an engineer at IBM. Of further note, Zac was a 2011 recipient of the Tulsey Young Entrepreneur award.  He holds a degree in mechanical engineering from Dartmouth and was in the Dartmouth Entrepreneurial Network and involved in student government. Before Dartmouth, he graduated from the Oklahoma School of Science and Math.  Follow him on Twitter @Zcarman.

Sean Charnock, Co-Founder, SoftLayer

Sean Charnock is the Managing Director for DH Capital.  Sean has over 15 years of experience in various high tech fields including Telecom, Complex Hosting and Internet Infrastructure as a Service. Prior to DH Capital, Sean was Co-Founder and Senior Vice President of Business Development and Alliances at SoftLayer Technologies, Inc. At SoftLayer, Sean spent much of his time building and managing executive relationships with technology partners, technology vendors and many of the financial partners of SoftLayer. Previous to SoftLayer, Sean was part of the executive management team at The Planet Internet Services and spent time in multiple business development roles at Efficient Networks. Sean Holds a BS in Finance and Banking from the University of North Florida and an MBA in Finance from Regis University.

Shane Cole, EVP & Principal, Covenant Global Investors

Shane Cole is the EVP of Investor Relations for Covenant Global Investors where he oversees the firm’s institutional marketing efforts and client relationships.  Covenant Global Investors is an investment management firm based in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.  As a fiduciary for institutions and high net worth individuals, Covenant strives to preserve capital while generating targeted rates of return in a risk-controlled and consistent manner with a high degree of liquidity.  Shane began his career in 1993 with the business markets division at MCI Communications in Dallas, Texas.  After MCI, Shane held several outside sales positions with technology companies including Parametric Technology Corporation, Siebel Systems (now Oracle Corporation), and Microsoft Corporation.  He decided to transition into the financial services industry with Covenant Global Investors in March of 2010.  Shane joined Covenant as the EVP of Investor Relations responsible for marketing the firm’s funds to foundations, endowments, pensions, family offices, fund of funds, and other money management firms seeking sub-advised relationships.  He has also worked very closely with members of the Covenant team to shape the branding and messaging of the firm.  Follow him on Twitter @EShaneCole.

John Curreri, CFO & COO, Trailblazer Capital

Prior to joining Trailblazer Capital, Mr. Curreri was the CFO for Westec Intelligent Surveillance.  Westec provides real-time interactive video surveillance solutions to over 6,000 businesses across the United States.  Mr. Curreri’s disciplined and metric driven approach to the financial and operational aspects of the organization resulted in the company reporting dramatic improvements in cash flow and becoming EBITDA positive.  Under his leadership the company also successfully consolidated two separate financial systems, implemented a new cost-saving HR/Payroll platform, and integrated an acquired competitor into one seamless organization. For his efforts and results at Westec, Mr. Curreri was nominated for The Dallas Business Journal’s 2010 CFO of the Year competition for small private companies.  He was voted one of the four finalists for 2010. Prior to Westec, Mr. Curreri was a consultant at Virtual CFO, a provider of financial, human resources and systems implementation services.  While consulting for several early-stage to mid-market technology companies, his responsibilities included establishing accounting and operational policies and procedures, creating financial models, managing accounting departments and presenting findings and recommendations to the client CEO and Board of Directors. Prior to VCFO, Mr. Curreri worked with Trailblazer Capital’s Managing Partner, Joel Fontenot, as the CFO for Metreos Corporation (acquired by Cisco Systems, Inc.), and as the VP of Finance of Netrake Corporation (acquired by AudioCodes, Inc.). Additionally, Mr. Curreri served as a Senior Manager in KPMG’s Audit practice and a Manager in Ernst & Young’s mergers and acquisition’s practice.

Sam Curtis, CEO, @Link Services, LLC

Samual Curtis is a professional engineer and co-founder and CEO of @Link Services, LLC.   @Link is a provider of fixed broadband wireless networking solutions with a tower-based broadband Wi-Fi network providing coverage throughout central Oklahoma.  @Link Wi-Fi has been serving Oklahoma City and surrounding rural areas since 2006 and is one of the largest and fastest growing companies in the Oklahoma City metro. His company has recently been in the news for building a new public Cyber Community Center on the Kildare School Campus, near Ponca City, Oklahoma. Per the company’s information, the newly built Cyber Community Center will offer free high-speed Internet service, 10 computer stations and proctors to help new users of the internet.  Sam is a graduate of the University of Central Oklahoma.

Randy Eisenman, Managing Partner, Satori Capital

Randy Eisenman is a founding partner of Satori Capital, a private equity firm that invests in profitable, growing, sustainable businesses. Prior to co-founding Satori Capital, Mr. Eisenman spent ten years at Q Investments, a multi-billion dollar private investment firm founded by two former investment advisors to the Bass Family. Mr. Eisenman launched the firm’s private equity business and served as a Partner for seven years. He was the youngest ever to be named Partner at age 25.  While at Q Investments, Mr. Eisenman founded Handango to capitalize on the emerging mobile content market. Stepping into an operating role as President and Chief Executive Officer, he drove the company’s strategy and built a world-class team, positioning Handango as the global leader in the smartphone content market.  Before joining Q Investments, Mr. Eisenman worked as a financial analyst for Goldman Sachs and Bear Sterns.  Currently, Randy is a member of several non-profits and serves as a member of the Board of Directors of Stagen and Investors’ Circle, a community of for-profit social entrepreneurs and investors.  Mr. Eisenman holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of Texas.

Kraettli L. Epperson, Black Mesa Consulting & VentureSpur

Kraettli is CEO and founder of Black Mesa Consulting and its affiliated companies, including R7 Solutions, publisher of the GeoIntelis.com online service. Kraettli spent 18 years in Houston and London, building and investing in technology and financial services companies serving the energy, right-of-way, manufacturing and shipping industries. In 1998, Epperson co-founded Questia Media, which raised $160MM and built the world’s largest digital library before being acquired by Gale Publishing. He founded and served as the first CEO of ManorNet, London, which provided encrypted communications to the shipping industry and members of Parliament. He has also served as chief investor, chairman, CEO or CTO of several early and mid-stage companies and holds patents in emergency digital communications. He has served on the board of the Houston Angel Network and created and taught the first undergraduate entrepreneurship course at Rice University. He has also judged both the Southwest Business Plan Competition at Rice University and the Governor’s Cup Business Plan Competition in Oklahoma.

Ray Estep, CEO, Executive Leadership

Ray is a leader for navigating development of disruptive solutions and creation of new markets that leverage emerging mobile technologies.  Currently holding board advisory roles and consulting to high growth companies, he brings several years of extensive competencies in business development, strategy and finance from the mobile ecosystem.  With valuable experiences in both early stage companies and global industry leaders, he focuses on assisting companies and teams bring relevant and compelling mobile initiatives to market and expand existing positions across a variety of verticals such as healthcare (mHealth), telematics, industrial, entertainment and consumer. During his career, Ray has been successful with CEOs, Boards and management teams to grow and position three companies for sale.  He has also assisted companies obtain significant funding for growth initiatives around the world through traditional fundraising activities and M&A.  Ray has held positions of broad and critical responsibility including C level, Board seats and VP positions with leading global brands, Fortune 50 and emerging growth organizations.  His efforts have resulted in increased market share capture, leadership within their respective industry sector and strong returns for investors. As a previous co-founder of a successful startup and leader for new business inside major global brands, Ray has a deep passion for building businesses and achieving success.  With a distinctive industry track record encompassing wireless and mobile solutions (Nokia), enterprise technology solutions (Fortune 500 company), digital media and content (Sony / BMG), supply chain and value added logistics services (ATC Logistics & Electronics), and international M&A (PwC Consulting), he has demonstrated a clear understanding of how to lead and grow businesses in these sectors. 

Chris Fagan, Founder & CEO, KeyRing

Chris Fagan is the founder and CEO of KeyRing, a mobile wallet for loyalty card and coupons.  The company was acquired in Sept  2012 by Gannett (GCI), a major media company that owns and operates 80 newspapers and television stations across the US including the USA today.  Chris and his team continue to operate the Key Ring business in Dallas TX under the Gannett Digital Marketing Services umbrella.  Chris raised a series A investment from Austin Ventures and is a 2010 graduate from the Tech Wildcatters accelerator program.  Chris is on the board of NITICA, a nonprofit truck insurance company and helps advise various startups in Dallas area. Prior to starting Key Ring, Chris was a technology consultant for Accenture, a global management consulting firm.  Prior to Accenture, Chris was enlisted in Army as an artillery sergeant.  Chris has a bachelors in Finance from Oklahoma State University.

Greg Fasullo, CEO, EnTouch Controls

Greg is the CEO of EnTouch Controls, an energy management company.  Greg is an experienced executive and entrepreneur with a history of building and leading high performance teams, his passion is aligning emerging technologies with underserved market needs. Greg was a co-founder, officer, and director at Valere Power (now Eltek-Valere), General Manager of the Energy Systems business unit at Lineage Power (now GE Energy), and began his career with AT&T’s Bell Laboratories.  Greg has 12 US patents and degrees from Lehigh (BSEE), UC Berkeley (MSEE), and SMU (EMBA).

Joel Fontenot, Managing Partner, Trailblazer Capital

Joel is a Managing Partner of Trailblazer Capital in Dallas, Texas. Prior to joining Trailblazer Capital, Mr. Fontenot worked for Cisco Systems.  Joel was a Director of Business Development in the Voice Technology Group and managed the partnerships and strategic alliances involving the Cisco Unified Application Environment and related application offerings from Cisco’s Voice Technology Group.  In  2002, Joel assisted Metreos Corporation as a founder in establishing itself as the first enterprise voice-over-IP applications platform for the development and deployment of innovative, media-rich IP communications applications. Previously, Joel co-founded Netrake Corporation in 2000 and served as the Company’s President from founding through 2002. He was responsible for all areas of the Company which created a unique, patented IP network processing system capable of recognizing, remembering and responding in real-time to network traffic on a session basis.  Prior to founding Netrake, Joel incubated the company through his activities as a Founding Partner and Managing Director of Arkoma Venture Partners. Beginning in 1997, Joel made and managed seed stage and early round investments in technology companies focused upon telecommunications, Internet infrastructure, and enterprise software.  Joel holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics from The University of Texas at Austin and a Masters of Business Administration from Southern Methodist University.

Todd Foster, Founder & Managing Partner, Sabine Capital Partners

Todd is Founder and Managing Partner of Sabine Capital Partners, a Dallas-based private investment firm that provides growth capital to successful entrepreneurs and direct PE and VC opportunities to high-net-worth investors and family offices. He is also a Special General Partner with Santa Fe-based Cottonwood Capital Partners, sponsors of the Cottonwood Technology Fund II, a seed and early-stage technology commercialization fund. As an investor, Todd has a particular interest in disruptive technologies impacting P16 education, financial services, social networking and healthcare.  Prior to founding Sabine Capital Partners, Mr. Foster was the founding CFO of Educate Texas (formerly the Texas High School Project), a $375 million public-private partnership sponsored by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Communities Foundation of Texas and the Texas Education Agency, working to prepare students for college and career success in the global workplace.  In that role, he managed investments in the areas of campus learning systems, teacher effectiveness, education leadership, performance management and online learning. Mr. Foster co-founded  and currently serves on the board Industry + Education Texas, a nonprofit organization dedicated to connecting students’ classroom learning with real-world careers in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines.

Blair Garrou, Co-Founder & Managing Director, Mercury Fund

Since the late 1990’s, Blair Garrou has focused on funding, operating and incubating startup software companies.  He is a co-founder of  MercuryFund, a seed and startup venture capital firm based in Houston, Texas. Prior to co-founding Mercury Fund, Blair was the CEO of Intermat (acquired by IHS), a leader in product information management software; a Principal with Genesis Park, a Houston-based private equity firm where he led investments in FuelQuest (acq. by Saracen Energy), Intermat and SAT Corporation (acq. by Invensys); helped launch and was the Director of Operations for the Houston Technology Center, the largest tech incubator in the Southwest, where he led the formation of the Houston Angel Network, one of the largest angel investment organizations in the U.S. Blair is also a co-founder and Board Member of SURGE Accelerator, a mentor-driven seed accelerator focused on entrepreneurs seeking to solve the world’s energy problems using software. Mercury Fund’s sole focus is seed and start-up investing. Mercury Fund initially invests between $100,000 and $1.5 million into an opportunity and will build syndicates for investments needing larger amounts of capital.  They typically lead the first round of investment, and expect to invest between $2 million and $5 million over the life of an investment.  Follow him on Twitter @BGarrou.

Gabriel Goncalves, Founder & CEO, PeopleAnswers

Gabriel is the founder, and President & CEO of PeopleAnswers, a “Software as a Service” company with solutions in the talent sciences space.  PeopleAnswers helps enterprise and mid-market companies decrease employee turnover and increase employee performance. Its patented software solution combines behavioral and performance data to create highly predictive job-specific hiring benchmarks.  Ten million people last year were evaluated across the globe by its software. Prior to PeopleAnswers, Gabriel co-founded HomeTracker, a successful asset management software company administering tens of thousands of properties in real estate portfolios. Goncalves also founded, built, and sold Erapmus, Inc., a professional services firm that provided outsourced network services to telecommunication companies across the United States. Born in São Paulo, Brazil in 1967, Gabriel immigrated to the United States in 1985 to study computer science at The University of Texas at Austin. Gabriel joined YEO in 1996 and was actively involved in its local leadership roles until 2008 when he switched to YPO. He is currently Membership Chair for the Dallas YPO chapter.

Kelby Hagar, President & CEO, Westec Intelligent Surveillance

Kelby Hagar is a Harvard-educated attorney and certified public accountant with extensive experience in running technology and software development companies.  In 2001, Hagar formed Digital Witness, LLC, a company dedicated to the development of software applications that enable businesses to utilize video surveillance technology to improve their management efficiencies. When Westec InterActive, Inc acquired Digital Witness in November 2007, Hagar was made President of the combined companies. In 1998, Hagar founded GroceryWorks.com, Inc and served as the company’s President. During his tenure, GroceryWorks developed its initial e-commerce website, initiated operations in Dallas, Fort Worth and Houston, and generated annualized revenues of $25M. After leading GroceryWorks through a merger with Safeway, Inc in 2001, Hagar founded Digital Witness. Additionally, Hagar has held positions with Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, LLP, a national law firm, and with Hunt Investment Group, a Dallas-based private equity firm.

Albert Hoover, Managing Director, Leadout Advisors LLC

Albert (Al) Hoover is Managing Director of Leadout Advisors, which provides executive leadership and hands-on execution to companies seeking strategic planning and corporate development expertise, including companies contemplating mergers and acquisitions, strategic partnerships, financings or other significant transactions and strategic initiatives. Previously, he was Managing Director—Corporate Development at AT&T where he oversaw mergers and acquisitions and strategic alliances and investments primarily related to value added services and technology. Prior to AT&T, Al was Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary of Sterling Commerce, a NYSE listed software and services company, where he oversaw all corporate development (M&A and strategic alliances and investments), corporate governance and legal matters and was a key participant in corporate strategy, acquisition integration planning, investor relations and significant business decisions and activities. Al also previously served as Vice President and Assistant General Counsel at Sterling Software and as a corporate law associate at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher and Hughes & Luce.  Al holds a J.D. (Cum Laude) from Harvard Law School and a B.A. in Economics (Highest Distinction) from Northwestern University.  He is a member of the Texas Bar.

Steve Irby, Founder & President, Stillwater Design & Audio Inc.

Steve Irby is The Founder & President of KICKER, a consumer electronics  manufacturer that exists under his parent company, Stillwater Designs. Kicker produces home/portbable, marine & mobile audio products; best known for subwoofers as well as audio crossovers and amplifiers.  With very few resources and an intense love for music, Steve invented the mobile-stereo enclosure market in his hometown of Stillwater, Oklahoma, when he developed the Original KICKER. It was the first full-frequency-range speaker box designed specifically for cars and trucks.  Taking his company from a 1-car garage in 1973, Kicker now boasts a staff of over 200, with products designed and shipped from a 280,000-square-foot facility headquartered in Stillwater.  KICKER products are currently sold by approximately 1,200 authorized dealers in the United States, and export sales are managed through a network of distributors serving over 2,000 dealers in approximately 50 countries.  Steve Irby is a graduate of Oklahoma State University.

Jason Ledlow, Owner, uTphone

Jason Ledlow is CEO and owner of uTphone, a telecommunications company based in Oklahoma City providing both wired and wireless communications services.  He is also a past and incoming 2012-2013 officer on the Board of Directors of the Entrepreneurs Organization of Oklahoma.  Mr. Ledlow has a wide range of business and life experience, including having served as an Oklahoma City firefighter, an auctioneer, and owner of a telecommunications equipment company, prior to starting his latest venture.

Robert Maher, Vice President, Hunt Energy Enterprises

Robert is the Vice Presidet at Hunt Energy Enterprises in Dallas, TX.  Since 1988, Maher has helped lead early stage start-up ventures to convert innovative ideas into commercial successes. He has held numerous executive positions in the companies and has experienced the life cycle from concept to public offering and acquisition. Recently, he was a co-founder, chief technology officer, and Board Director for Netrake Corporation, which was venture funded by Austin Ventures, Trinity Ventures, TL Ventures, and Prism Ventures. Netrake delivered specialized global security solutions for internet applications and was acquired by Audiocodes (AUDC Nasdaq). Prior to Netrake, Maher was the 4th employee and became vice president of engineering at Cyrix, a venture funded by Sevin Rosen Funds and Interwest Partners. Cyrix was the first microprocessor company to develop an original x86 processor to compete with Intel Corporation. Cyrix IPO’d on Nasdaq and was later acquired by National Semiconductor. Maher started his career at Texas Instruments, where he held engineering and technical positions of increasing responsibility. More recently, he has been working in the energy field in both conventional fuel technologies and clean tech. Among his activities in these areas have been desulfurization technologies for crude oil, signal processing technologies for advanced exploration, and technologies for energy enterprise networks.

David Matthews, Managing Partner, Trailblazer Capital

David Matthews is a Managing Partner with Trailblazer Capital.  David brings a wealth of relevant experience through his background as an entrepreneur, lead investor in emerging funds, venture capitalist, and venture philanthropist. As an entrepreneur, David launched several successful start-ups including Intelecon, Green Mountain Dallas, and Toyscapes. Intelecon was a audio-visual services company that he and two co-founders grew from $0 to $22 million of annual revenue between 1991 and 1998. He  cultivated customer relationships with companies including Sterling Software, Dell, AMD, First USA, and Nortel. David also developed a marketing strategy for Green Mountain Dallas that targeted high-credit, high-usage, low-churn home owners in North Texas. After reducing the customer acquisition cost from $1,000 to under $300 and growing the acquisition rate from 10 to over 600 homes monthly between 2004 and 2005, he successfully integrated the business into the parent company. David also serves as a lead investor in alternative investment funds, including Red River Ventures, INCAP Financial Grup, Green Bull Fund, Elm Creek Partners and Trailblazer Capital. David has invested in a number of early-stage ventures including PeopleAnswers, Urban Labs, Coquest Structured Products, Avvantica, Zaadz, SensorLogic, Jumpstart Innovations, Variview Technology, SE2 Labs, and Noofangle Media.

Jon McNaught, President & CEO, Jon P. McNaught Consulting

Jon McNaught is an Attnorney & Entrepreneur.  In 2011, Jon opened JPM Consulting Solutions.  His firm currently serves dozens of clients in multiple states by providing results-oriented business and legal solutions to business and individuals. Prior to JPM Consulting Solutions, McNaught worked for the Moore Family of Oklahoma City in their private family office, providing consultation and oversight on a wide array of legal, business and risk management matters. During this time, McNaught also served as the CEO and President of SourceCheck Ltd., a Moore Family Company, and COO of Public Supply Company.  Previously, McNaught held the position of CEO and President of Davacord Inc., a technology company that produces proprietary software and hardware for voice recording and voice and data analysis and identification for use in many different business and governmental applications.  Mr. McNaught also founded HRAnswers, and served as the organization’s CEO and President. HRAnswers provided legal and business consulting services designed to assist small-to-medium-sized businesses with day-to-day legal, risk management, HR, business and employee development issues.  McNaught has a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology and a Juris Doctorate from the University of Oklahoma College of Law.

Cory Miller, CEO & Founder, iThemes

Cory Miller is a former newspaper journalist and public relations/communications practitioner, turned freelance web designer and then full-time entrepreneur. In January 2008, he founded iThemes in his home, fulfilling a lifelong dream of running his own company. Now, he has WebDesign.com and PluginBuddy.com among several other projects, a staff of 25, and his company was named the 7th fastest growing in Oklahoma City in the Metro50 for 2011. As the leader of a high-tech web company based in Edmond, Oklahoma, but selling globally, Cory has had to master worldwide digital marketing and e-commerce while keeping his products and services competitive in a worldwide marketplace.  Follow him on Twitter @CoryMiller303.

Brendon Mills, Managing Director, Vspeed Capital

For over 23 years, Mr. Mills has served as a serial entrepreneur, investor and CEO in the communications and web-based technology market.   Mr. Mills has been involved in multiple venture-backed technology start-ups, Fortune 500 companies, and private equity investment and portfolio companies during his career. Mr. Mills founded venture-backed GENBAND (General Bandwidth) in 1999 and led the company as CEO, President until 2005. During his tenure at GENBAND, Mr. Mills secured financing venture capital funding from Sevin Rosen, Sequoia Capital, Venrock, and Thomas Weisel Capital Partners and, through a successful partnership with Alcatel, won a significant part of the SBC Communications APON, VOIP (Project Lightspeed) contract in 2004.  In 2006, Mr. Mills founded RipCode, Inc., a video technology company based in Dallas and Austin, Texas that focused on the deployment of mobile, three-screen video transcoding and delivery. In 2010, RipCode merged with RGB Networks, a Kleiner Perkins and Accel backed video technology company based in Sunnyvale, California. Mr. Mills has held previous positions with ATEME, S.A., RGB Networks, Cisco Systems through its acquisition of NetSpeed in 1998, Dell Computers and NetWorth, Inc. Mr. Mills currently serves as Managing Partner of Vspeed Capital and as CEO, President of Fortress Solutions. Mr. Mills has earned four US technology patents with five patents pending and holds a B.A. degree from Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri.

Jeff Moore, Executive Director, CCEW

Prior to joining the University of Oklahoma, Moore addressed growth and entrepreneurship in a variety of roles and institutions, across a spectrum of industries.  As President of Superior Silica Sands, an early-stage mining company, he oversaw a capital expansion that doubled capacity and introduced new products for the oil services, golf course, and industrial sand industries.  As an Associate Principal with McKinsey & Co., a global management consulting firm,  Moore provided senior leadership counsel to a wide variety of manufacturing, financial, and energy businesses in capital project evaluation and execution, transaction due diligence, and strategic planning.  Jeff was McKinsey Pittsburgh’s liaison to the Pittsburgh Technology Council, and business plan screener for the city of Pittsburgh “Enterprize” business plan competition.  A Navy veteran, Moore is a graduate of the Naval Nuclear Power School, a graduate level program in nuclear reactor plant theory and operations.  Moore is also a graduate of Rice University, with degrees in Electrical Engineering (solid state electronics focus) and Economics. He holds a masters degree in Applied Physics from the University of Washington (with a focus on nano-engineering), and an M.B.A. from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University with majors in Finance, Accounting, and Strategy.

Mike Moradi, CEO, Century Venture Partners

Mike is the CEO of Century Venture Partners and a successful entrepreneur, having founded or been a principal in several Nanotech and BioPharma startups. Mike was a founder and CEO of an ocular pharma company, Charlesson, the #264 fastest growing private company in the 2009 Inc. 500. He co-founded Southwest Nanotechnologies (“SWeNT”), a manufacturer of carbon nanotubes based in Norman, OK. He was also a principal in NanoSource, which was acquired by DuPont (NYSE:DD) in 2002 – widely considered the first liquidity event in nanotech. Mr. Moradi is a member of The Future Trends Forum, a Madrid-based think tank. In 2003, Mike was awarded a community service commendation by Congress. He is the author of The Impact of Nanotechnology in Drug Delivery. Mike is Vice Chairman of Prevent Blindness of Oklahoma, Vice Chairman of the BioScience Roundtable, a member of the National Science Foundation’s (Directorate for Engineering) Committee of Visitors, a Director of the Oklahoma City University Meinders School of Business, a Director of Creative Oklahoma, Inc. (host of the 2010 World Creativity Forum), a TEDxOKC committee member, and a former director of OKBio. Mr. Moradi earned a Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry from the University of Oklahoma.  Follow him on Twitter @MikeMoradi.

Alexander Muse, Co-Founder, The Haul Company

Alexander is a serial entrepreneur with more than a decade of startup experience. In October he transitioned from CEO to Chairman of ShopSavvy which has allowed him to focus on his work with Startup America and several startups including Socialyzer, PayTap, Order Mapper, iTag and recognize.im. Over the past four years under his leadership, ShopSavvy built the world’s largest mobile shopping community (100M+ downloads of the technology) leveraged Big Data to sell mobile ad units at an average CPM of $500 created a mobile wallet and augmented payment platform for more than 60 major retailers
and licensed its technology to hundreds of companies including Walmart, CNET, Macy’s and Experian.
Prior to co-founding ShopSavvy Alexander and his partner launched Fancast ultimately selling the social web property to Comcast Interactive.  Before that he co-founded Architel, one of the largest cloud companies in North Texas. Started in 2001, the company helps Fortune 1000 companies bring their IT operations into the cloud. In 1999, Alexander founded LayerOne, a neutral interconnection and colocation provider that was sold in 2003 to Switch & Data (Equinix). Alexander speaks at conferences and universities in the United States and Europe on topics ranging from the future of retail to entrepreneurship. He has spoken in Bangalore, Barcelona, Hamburg, Amsterdam and London, and at conferences including the Mobile World Congress, 4G World, SXSW, Barcamp and CITA.  Mr. Muse’s latest venture is The Haul Company, a talent management business.

Wade Nicolas, Co-Founder & President, Enkitec

Wade is the Co-Founder & President of Enkitec.  Enkitec is an IT services firm specializing in the Oracle platform. As a leading Oracle Platinum Partner, Enkitec employs experts in database technologies such as Oracle Exadata and Big Data. Enkitec was established in 2004 and is headquartered in Dallas, Texas, including established locations throughout North America and Europe.  Enkitec has been recognized as one of Dallas’ 100 Fastest Growing Companies, Enkitec was also ranked #1,127 on Inc Magazine’s list of Fastest Growing Companies and recognized as one of the  ”Best Places to Work” by Dallas Business Journal.  Previously, Wade was Vice President of Sales for Oracle.  Wade spent over 11 years with Oracle before Co-Founding Enkitec.  Mr. Nicolas was also an early employee at the beginning of Netscape.

Ken Novotny, President, CSI Oklahoma

Ken is the president of CSI Oklahoma, a $30 million IT and engineering services company based in Oklahoma City.   The company has won many awards, and was named the 2011 #1 Fastest Growing Native American company on the INC 500, the 2011 #42 Government Services fastest growing company on the INC 500 and the 2011 #333 Fastest Growing company in the US on the INC 500.  Consulting Services Inc. (CSI), was founded by Novotny in 2002.  Novotny, an Oklahoma State University graduate with a degree in Management Information Systems, founded CSI while working as a government contractor at Tinker Air Force Base. In 2005, CSI acquired a subcontract with Northrop Grumman on the Blue Strike as the small business concern to run the servers and networks within the network operations center.  In 2007 Northrop Grumman awarded CSI the Socio-Economic Small Business Supplier of the Year award out of 13,000+ subcontractors.  Now, CSI manages over 23 contracts, boasting over 1600 and 900% growth respectively the last two years with 285+ employees in 17 states and sales in excess of $26M for 2011.   When Novotny isn’t busy running CSI he’s helping the future stars of the government services contracting business.  Ken is currently assisting many companies in business but his focus is using the SBA’s Mentor-Protégé program to assist these companies to grow and prosper, similar to the CSI success story.

Kenneth Overton, Founder & President, Vistas Unlimited

Kenneth Overton began his career in industry with over 10 years in the corporate research labs at DEC and GE.  This work was followed by more than 20 years of senior executive experience leading and managing large technology development and commercialization efforts at companies such as E-Systems (now part of Raytheon) and General Electric. In 1999, Dr. Overton formed a team to develop his concept for real-time virtual insertion. The company, Mirage Systems, had substantial expertise not only in the core technologies employed in the MVP but also in television sports production, distribution, and advertising. Mirage Systems was superseded in 2002 by Vistas Unlimited. Vistas Unlimited was successfully aquired by ESPN in early 2012.  Following the aquisition of Vistas Unlimited, Overton held a VP-level position with ESPN as Chief Technologist responsible for strategic planning and execution relating to the development and application of new and emerging technologies to enhance ESPN content.  Dr. Overton holds 12 U.S. and international patents, has authored 20 papers, and was co-winner of the 2007 George Wensel Technical Achievement Emmy.  Dr. Overton holds a Bachelor’s degree in Physics and Computer Science from Indiana University, and MS and Ph.D. degrees in Computer and Information Science from the University of Massachusetts with postgraduate work focused on robotic sensing systems.

Ron Packard, CEO & Co-Founder, K¹²

Mr. Packard is the CEO & Co-Founder of K¹²; a leader in online learning for grades K through 12. Packard was previously a Vice President of Knowledge Universe, and CEO of Knowledge Schools, which provides high-quality childhood education in community and employer-sponsored centers, and invests in, incubates, and operates several charter school companies. Previously, Mr. Packard worked for McKinsey & Company, as well as for Goldman Sachs in mergers and acquisitions. Mr. Packard holds a BA in economics and mechanical engineering with honors from the University of California, Berkeley.  As a Hughes Scholar, he spent his undergraduate summers writing an image-processing language. He holds an MBA with honors from The University of Chicago, and he is a chartered financial analyst. Mr. Packard was the 2007 recipient of the Education Industry Association’s James P. Boyle Entrepreneurial Leadership Award, bestowed to individuals whose achievements in the for-profit education industry serve as a guidepost for others starting and building entrepreneurial education endeavors. In 2008, he won the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award in the IT Services & Solutions category in Greater Washington for his outstanding leadership in building and leading a dynamic and growing business. He was also the recipient of the Distinguished Entrepreneurial Award from Chicago Booth in 2009 for his achievements in public service, entrepreneurship, finance, and corporate leadership. In 2010, he won the USDLA Award for demonstrating Outstanding Leadership in the field of Distance Learning.

William Paiva, Partner, Sevin Rosen Funds

William D. Paiva, a partner, joined Sevin Rosen Funds in 2006. He brings more than 20 years of venture capital, biomedical industry and management consulting experience to the firm. William specializes in identifying early-stage venture opportunities at the intersection of traditional technology sectors and healthcare. He also uses his healthcare expertise and network to assist Sevin Rosen portfolio companies in developing applications and services for the healthcare market. Prior to Sevin Rosen, William was a partner at Chisholm Private Capital Partners and manager at the Oklahoma Life Science Fund.  Previously, William served as a management consultant for the Life Sciences Industry Group at Pittiglio Rabin Todd & McGrath where he consulted with the top five pharmaceutical companies on product development and technology management projects.  William also served as an investment banking associate at JP Morgan in New York, providing strategic and investment banking advisory services to Fortune 100 healthcare companies. William holds a Ph.D. in molecular biology from the University of Oklahoma, an MBA from Dartmouth College’s Amos Tuck School of Business, a master’s degree in microbiology and immunology from the University of Oklahoma Health Science Center and a BS in microbiology from the University of Oklahoma.

Ken Parker, Co-Founder & CEO, NextThought

Ken Parker co-founded NextThought in 2011, an education technology startup focused on connecting people to learn together. A lifelong learner and optimist, Parker developed software for Martin Marietta Aerospace and JPMorgan. In 1998, Parker co-founded RiskMetrics Group, a global financial technology company. Its mantra was unique on Wall Street: “Change the World, Have Fun and Make Money – In That Order.” After RiskMetrics sold in 2011 for $1.5B, Parker left to pursue the same mantra. NextThought is creating technology to help change the world through education. Parker serves on a number of boards at Oklahoma Christian University and University of Oklahoma. He earned a Computer Science BS from Oklahoma Christian University and an MS from the University of Colorado at Boulder.  Follow him on Twitter @NextThoughter.

Piyush Patel, CEO & Founder, Digital-Tutors, PL Studios, Inc

Patel founded Digital-Tutors, a division of PL Studios, Inc. and leading innovator of interactive learning solutions in 2003. Today, PL Studios, Inc. and Digital-Tutors maintains a client list which includes top companies, government agencies, academic institutions, and studios from across the globe. Over the past decade, Patel has had the opportunity to teach artists at Electronic Arts, assist in product visualization at Motorola, develop educational curriculum for the University of Michigan, and work with software developers such as Autodesk, Pixar, Next Limit, Skymatter, Pixologic, Softimage, and Adobe. Today, the award-winning training solutions first developed by Patel are aiding artists and creative professionals in the creation of next generation Feature Films, Commercials, Video Games, and Visual Effects.

Paul Peck, Senior Advisor, C-Level Advisors

Paul is a Senior Advisor at C-Level Advisors LLC., a boutique strategy consulting and investment advisory firm providing strategic planning, growth strategy, competitive positioning, go-to-market strategy, channel strategy, strategic alliance development, M&A services and exit strategy to emerging, mid-market and large technology companies.  In 2007, Mr. Peck founded End of Restrictions, a consulting firm specializing in the areas of manufacturing, outsourcing/insourcing and the related supply chain management strategies with a special focus on PLM, CRM, and ERP systens, as well as multi-entity and international transactions models. In previous years, Paul has served as Vice President of Operations at Monterey Networks and Vice President of Operations at Navini Networks, both of which were acquired by Cisco.  In 2003, Paul was Vice President of Operations at Covaro Networks, a telecommunications firm  later acquired by ADVA Optical in 2006.  Among his many accomplishments, Mr. Peck specializes in multi-national manufacturing and materials management with both in-house and out-sourced scenarios, especially with regard to entity and transaction structuring.  Paul has a wealth of experience with modern information technology (ERP, CRM, PDM) solutions including Oracle, SAP, Net Suite, Salesforce, Agile and Arena. Mr. Peck continues to serve as a consultant for several Dallas-based start-ups and is a board member with the Metroplex Technology Business Council.

TJ Person, CEO & Founder, Koupon Media

TJ Person, CEO TJ Person is CEO and founder of Koupon Media, provider of the Digital Campaign Management (DCM) Platform to help retailers and brands deploy coupon, loyalty and offer programs in a matter of days. The Company works with global brands including 7 Eleven, Pepsi, Michaels, just to name a few. Having started Koupon Media in 2011, Person is notably one of two entrepreneur advisors for Startup America in Texas and was awarded Dallas 40 under 40 in 2012. Person is a seasoned entrepreneur with 15+ years of mobile experience, notably as co-founder and president of Mango Mobile. In 2005, Mango Mobile raised $1.5 million and after 2 years as the fastest growing mobile marketing company, Omnicom Group acquired it in February, 2007. TJ spent several years with Omnicon where Mango continues as a leader in the mobile space.

Jay Ridley, CEO, American Intellectual

Ridley is the co-founder of American Intellectual : Invention Development Company (AI). Jay and his father Clay Ridley has a unique background in intellectual property development and ownership which they bring to their inventor clients through partnerships and joint ventures.  From concept to product launch and IP licensing, the Ridleys have a broad experience in a variety of industries including Transportation, Fashion, Energy, Material Handing, Construction, and Agriculture. Previously, the father-son team founded Ridley® Motorcycle Company in 1997 which produced several thousand vehicles most notably known for their innovative automatic transmission.  A first for on-road motorcycles.  Follow him on Twitter @JayRidley.

Ryan Samples, President & Co-Founder of BankOnIT

Ryan Samples co-founded and is president of BankOnIt, a company providing complete IT solutions for community banks. Since a young age Samples has always been able to express complicated technology concepts in simple words and he implements complicated solutions in ways that are easy to understand. He emphasizes the importance of this to all employees. Under his direction, the company works to provide IT solutions that are “better; faster; cheaper.” Before he formed BankOnIT, Samples founded the DCN network, one of the first providers of Internet access in Oklahoma, and served as vice president of a regional internet service provider. Samples is a graduate of Oklahoma State University and holds numerous industry certifications. He is also a commercial pilot.

Jeffrey O. Smith, Ph.D, CTO, Numerex

Dr. Smith is currently Chief Technical Officer of Numerex (NASDAQ: NMRX).  Numerex offers the broadest choice of secure machine- to-machine (M2M) network services and solutions. Previously a scientist for Motorola, The Robotics Institute, and the 
Super conducting Super Collider (SSC), Dr. Smith has worked on wireless
 sensor and control systems developed for the FBI, CIA, DOD, DOE,
 NASA, and USPS – from autonomous unmanned aerial vehicles to 
particle accelerators. In 1993, he co-founded and served as President 
and CEO of OnRamp Technologies, a pioneer internet service provider,
 subsequently acquired by Verio, which is now a wholly-owned subsidiary
 of NTT communications. During Jeff’s tenure at Verio as Regional President and Board member, the company grew to one of the largest web-hosting companies in the world and a principal international ISP. In 2000, Verio was sold to NTT for $5.5B. In 2002, Dr. Smith founded SensorLogic, now one of the industry’s leading telemetry service providers. Recently he founded Ublip, a provider of Web 2.0 applications for remote asset management. Jeff currently serves on Numerex’s board of directors. He has also served on the boards of technology companies including Winning Habits, CreditAnswers, Vericenter, and Verio.

Renzi Stone, Chairman & CEO, Saxum

C. Renzi Stone is chairman and CEO of Saxum, a marketing communications agency offering expertise in public relations, advertising, marketing and social media. Stone has grown his business from a one-person start-up in 2003 to a team of more than 25 full-time professionals headquartered in Oklahoma City with a satellite office in Tulsa. Stone is the architect of the Saxum Experience, which takes strategic thinking and creates demand and awareness for brands, people and causes.  He is active in national media, business and political circles and is a frequent contributor to news organizations on a number of topics. Also, he is currently president of the Americas for IPREX, one of the world’s largest global public relations networks. He is on the leadership team of the Oklahoma City chapter of Young President’s Organization (YPO). Stone serves as a close advisor to a number of elected officials and C-level executives. Stone leads the agency’s management team, specializes in high-level crisis management and provides guidance on strategic initiatives for the agency and its clients.  Follow him on Twitter @RenziStone33.

David Tucker, Vice President & General Manager, Cisco SBBU

David Tucker is the Vice President & General Manager of Cisco’s Small Businesses Business Unit.  Prior to Cisco, Tucker was a co-founder, President & CEO of Selsius Systems, a telecommunications company in Dallas, Texas that developed and marketed some of the first IP telephony gear. David helped pioneer voice and data network convergence before it’s aquisition by Cisco Systems in 1998 for $145 million.  Currently, Tucker is responsible for Cisco Connect division, which links together business switching, routing, and cloud storage. The connect division, which is targeted at small business owners, delivers a diverse product portfolio of voice systems, phones, video, and UCC. Cisco Connect is also designed to work with other Cisco products ensuring smooth scalability and continued brand loyalty. Prior to his current role, Mr. Tucker was the Vice President of the Connected Office Business Organization (COBO) for Cisco’s Linksys division. David was recently a keynote speaker at ITEXPO West, the world’s largest communications conference in 2012.

Dirk Wakeham, Managing Director, Westlake Ventures

Dirk is Managing Director of Westlake Ventures in Dallas TX.  Prior to forming Westlake Ventures, Dirk was President of RealPage, Inc., a leading provider of enterprise SaaS solutions for the real estate industry. RealPage completed an IPO in 2010 and was later named as the #2 best 2010 IPO performer for a US-based company according to The Wall Street Journal’s Global Initial Public Offerings of Stock.  Dirk also founded and was CEO of LeasingDesk a company focused on delivering web-based risk mitigation solutions for the landlords and property managers which sold to RealPage in 2007.   He also is an active investor and advisor in several early stage companies and the current Membership Chair for the North Texas Chapter of YPO.

Mike Whitaker, CEO, Idea Gateway

With more than 20 years of experience moving businesses from start-ups to marketable positions, Mike is the founder of Idea Gateway, an entrepreneurial development platform that creates innovative business models for entrepreneurs and investors. Idea Gateway is currently launching a photo technology software company, Memory Pix Technologies – currently operating at Seattle’s Space Needle.   Mike also owns a growing Oklahoma City manufacturing company, Lucas Color Card, which he started in his garage in 1995. With only $480 in start up cash, Mike went on to develop Lucas into a $12 million enterprise. By 2008, Mike and partners had grown the multi-factory company beyond $100 million in annual sales. In 2010, Mike found an opportunity to repurchase the Lucas division, which he continues to grow. Mike is also an investor and advisor to Invision Capital Group of Chicago, a private equity fund with holdings in many diversified industries within the lower-middle market. He actively pursues additional business acquisitions.   Mike attended the University of Kansas where he received his B.S. in Cognitive Psychology. He earned his MBA from the Price College of Business at the University of Oklahoma.

Rod Whitson, President, Bank2

Rod is the president of Bank2, a Chickasaw Nation-owned community bank.  Bank2 has received state and national recognition for its success and has become the #1 source of Native American home loans in the state of Oklahoma.  During the founding days of Bank2, Whitson served as a critical advisor to the Chickasaw Nation.  Rod was integral to the development of the company through facilitating and leading strategic planning and product development.  An expert in the areas of banking, business growth strategies and branding, Rod’s contributions have played a key role in the success of several companies. Formerly, Whitson served as Chief Operating Officer of the Townsend Agency in San Diego- a marketing-communications firm specializing in business-to-business marketing.  He served Townsend as President and Chief Brand Strategist. Rod has personally led recent branding engagements with Intel, BAE Systems, Merck, DowPharma, Marsh & McLennan, the University of California system, National University and Siemens. Previously, Rod has taught at the University of California in San Diego. He has also worked with a host of successful early-stage technology and life sciences companies.  Rod holds a degree from Oklahoma State University.

Sunny Vanderbeck, Managing Partner, Satori Capital, Data Return

Sunny Vanderbeck has a track record of high achievement in all of his endeavors, including as an entrepreneur, CEO, investor, board member, and military leader. Prior to co-founding Satori Capital, Mr. Vanderbeck co-founded and served as Chief Executive Officer of Data Return, a leading provider of managed services and utility computing. As CEO for eleven years, Mr. Vanderbeck led the company through all phases of growth and transformation. After a successful IPO, the company achieved a market capitalization in excess of $3 billion, and Mr. Vanderbeck was one of the youngest CEOs ever to lead a NASDAQ company. In recognition of Data Return’s industry leadership, Microsoft named Data Return Global Hosting Partner of the Year, while Mr. Vanderbeck received numerous individual honors including being named “Top 25 Technology Executives” and Entrepreneur of the Year finalist by Ernst and Young.  Mr. Vanderbeck is actively engaged with several private businesses as an investor, advisor, and board member. Additionally, Mr. Vanderbeck is a member of Young Presidents’ Organization (YPO) where he serves as the North American Co-Chair of the organization’s Corporate Social Responsibility Network.  Follow him on Twitter @SunnyVanderbeck.

Kevin Vela, Founding Partner, Vela | Keller P.C.

Kevin Vela is a founding partner at Vela | Keller P.C., and focuses his practice in the areas of startups, corporate law, capital raises, and commercial real estate. Kevin represents a number of small and mid-sized businesses as their general counsel, and provides day-to-day guidance on legal and operational issues. Before attending law school, Kevin spent seven years in Dallas working in finance and marketing. Starting his career with Fortune 500 companies, an entrepreneurial spirit led Kevin to roles in several start-up companies and later to developing his own test preparation company. Kevin scored in the top 5% on the GMAT, LSAT, and GRE, and has used his expertise to help hundreds of students increase their test scores to gain admission to graduate school. Kevin is an entrepreneur himself with a few “learning experiences” under his belt and is currently working on fanbaby.com as a way to make sure that college fanaticism starts from day one. Kevin is a graduate of the University of Texas where he earned his Bachelor degree in Business Administration and Juris Doctorate degree with honors.

Mike Yonker, President, SVI

Mike Yonker is President of the Learner Mobile division at SVI, a learning development company.  Mike has more than 21 years experience in mobile technology strategy and marketing, leadership, systems architecture, software management and development.  He has successfully founded and built profitable businesses at both startups and Fortune 500 companies alike.  In early 2012, Mike Co-Founded TangoTab, an online social enterprise business that offers diners discounts at participating restaurants, and donates 20% of its gross revenues to the fight against hunger.  Previously with Rockfish, Michael led the Mobile practice, building the mobile strategy, creative and solutions for clients, building business and managing the P&L to triple revenue in less than 1 year, with projections to grow revenues over 9x by the end of 2012. Prior to Rockfish, Mike led an engineering group at The Nielsen Company to build the system to measure what people do on their mobile phones, to feed data for audience measurement and for product planning purposes. Mike co-founded TI’s successful OMAP™ applications processor business, which grew greater than $500M in revenues per year, and led team of 70 people worldwide through formation before becoming CTO of OMAP. Mike is a proven technical and strategic leader with excellent communication, innovation, leadership, analysis and team skills, experienced in interfacing with executive staffs internally and externally.  He has extensive knowledge of worldwide mobile phone market, manufacturers, operators, investors, trade associations, and third parties.  Follow him on Twitter @TheYonks.