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Ken Costello is the chief operating officer of MST Solutions where he strategically guides the company’s customer acquisition, engagement and retention strategies. As part of this focus, he plays an integral role in identifying how to leverage emerging technologies to support clients in scaling and automating their marketing, sales and operational systems to achieve real business results. Effective at translating big visions to achievable plans, Ken also leads company culture, team development, and operational efficiency initiatives, driving MST Solutions to exceed growth goals year over year.
With more than 10 years in operations and business intelligence roles, Ken previously served as the executive vice president of operations at Apollo Education Group where he was responsible for company-wide process improvement and enterprise program management. Ken holds a bachelor’s degree in accounting and a master’s degree in Information Management from Arizona State University. He also volunteers with Phoenix Children’s Hospital and Branching Out Family Services, and serves as an informal mentor to colleagues, guiding them through career growth and development. |
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Eric Miller is a co-owner of Tempe based PADT, Inc., a provider of tools and services to companies who design and manufacture physical products. He holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the UC Berkeley and started his career focusing on the application Computer Aided Engineering to turbine engine components. As a co-founder of PADT in 1994, Eric was able to also pursue his interests in IT, graphic design, 3D printing, database programming, and small business management.
Eric is often called upon to write and speak on simulation, design, and 3D Printing as well as on startups and the high-tech sector. In addition, he is Vice Chairman of the Arizona Technology Council Board of Directors, the BioAccel Advisory Council and Board of Directors, the screening committee of Arizona Technology Investors, and he is an Entrepreneur in Residence at the Arizona Commerce Authority. He enjoys traveling, writing, history, cooking, and learning about new things. He also contributes regularly to the Phoenix Business Journal blog and hosts the All Things ANSYS podcast. |
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Burt Skiba specializes in intellectual property law, he has extensive experience in mechanical engineering and advising clients on various aspects of intellectual property law. He advises a wide range of companies in all manner of transactions involving intellectual property matters. Mr. Skiba has had three startups himself, so he can relate on a personal level with the startups he helps. Mr. Skiba assists companies with patents, trademarks, copyrights, trade secrets, and other IP related business counseling. He specializes in early-stage startups by helping establish and implementing intellectual property strategies that protects and builds value within the company. Mr. Skiba worked as a Mechanical Engineer for 11 years, and has considerable technical experience with complex systems such as turbine engines, rockets, and missiles. While as an engineer Mr. Skiba received his MBA in Finance. Mr. Skiba spends his free time with his wife and four kids.
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Charlie Tombazian is currently Principal/President, Innovative Strategies LLC, a consulting firm helping companies grow by differentiating themselves through extraordinary customer and employee experiences. He specializes in Service Profit Chain customer experience improvement, employee engagement, leadership development and differentiating strategy creation. He also assists successful companies in achieving higher and higher levels of significance through a suite of 21st Century “triple bottom line” consulting services, assessment products and tools.
Charlie was Chairman of the Advisory Board for LevelUp in 2019—a Phoenix-based company with smart-rent technology for multi-dwelling units. His recent and past consulting clients are Pipeline AZ, GPEC, Tech Data, StrongMind, MicroAge, Shelvspace, Allstate Insurance Company, Solera Health, Tallwave, Ethology, Fox and Fin, Everest College Phoenix, MobiSquad, Hunter Contracting, AZ Humane Society, Avnet, Aon and Harley Davidson University. He has consulted across the U.S. with over 50 companies and non-profits of all sizes and industries in his 14 years of management consulting. A frequent speaker for business groups, Charlie was closing keynote speaker for YPO’s Business Transformation Summit in Atlanta, November 2018. Over the past 18 months he has spoken 7 additional times, most often for CEO forums and ASU’s Compete Through Service Symposium. He is past Adjunct Faculty member at Grand Canyon University (2006-2007) and the University of Phoenix (1998-2004), teaching graduate MBA and Masters in Leadership OD/OB courses. He was honored by UOP’s Graduate Business School with his appointment as Area Chair, Organizational Behavior and Development (2002-2003). |
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Karen Cummings founded Radiant Marketing to apply a creative, market-centric and metric-forward marketing approach for brands. Radiant Marketing is passionate about creating positive change by connecting individuals to brands that can impact their lives for the better.
Karen loves helping businesses with great products and services bring possibility to life by sharing their story in an authentic way, to an audience with shared views, values and goals. Her experience includes digital marketing, content and branding strategy, print, logo & digital media design, social media marketing, content strategy, inbound marketing and more. Karen loves working with passionate teams on a mission to do good. Karen enjoys quality time with my husband, son, family & friends; traveling; the beach (really any beach); and her incredible Radiant team. Specialties: Certified HubSpot Partner, Google Partner Agency, Certified Social Media Strategist, sales enablement, branding development, nonprofit marketing |
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Dave Blackledge is an Attorney of Counsel with Davis Miles McGuire Gardner, PLLC. He is an experienced businessman and later in life attorney focusing his practice on corporate/business transactions. He is an active angel investor and frequent volunteer at various business incubators and accelerators in the valley. Dave is a Professor at GCU’s College of Business.
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Ronald J. Kisicki is a Partner in the firm's Business & Finance Department and a member of the Intellectual Property Practice Group. He is admitted to practice before the U.S. Patent Office, and concentrates his practice in Intellectual Property Law. He is experienced in managing large patent portfolios and in counseling clients on various intellectual property matters. He also has extensive experience handling intellectual property litigation, representing both plaintiffs and defendants in patent, trademark, copyright and trade secret infringement suits.
Prior to joining Woods Oviatt he was a partner with Jaeckle Fleischmann and Mugel, LLP. Before earning a law degree, Mr. Kisicki worked for 16 years as an engineer and manager with General Motors. His experience included work in the occupant safety and crash worthiness design with GM's Chevrolet Engineering. |
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Lee Benson is one of the world’s most influential thinkers on helping organizations align employees to strategy and culture to achieve extraordinary results and is a highly regarded keynote speaker. He has a powerful yet practical approach to leadership and culture that he created through his own personal business success and which has been adopted by thousands of managers and employees around the world.
Lee started his leadership journey when he became the first employee in a small specialty electroplating services company. After the company lost virtually all of its business overnight, he purchased the entity and with only 2 employees immediately set out to build his vision which he quickly grew to become Able Aerospace, a company with 500 employees and 2,000 customers in 60 countries. Able Aerospace was well known in the aerospace industry as having the best culture, innovation, and ability to effectively execute in a very complex and regulated environment. In 2016, Able was acquired by Textron Aviation, Inc., a Textron, Inc. company. Lee has been extensively quoted and interviewed as an expert on the topic of leadership, execution and culture in accredited MBA courses, featured guest on CNBC, written numerous articles, and has been a keynote speaker with prominent business leaders like Jack Welch and Blake Irving. His innovative, common sense approach has helped thousands of employees in hundreds of public, private and government organizations drive, scale and sustain an intentional culture and consistently execute on strategy. Lee believes better alignment leads to better conversations prompting better actions to yield better results. Using this foundation Lee founded and is the CEO of Execute to Win (ETW) whose sole mission is to help organizations turn strategy and culture into tangible results. Lee is an avid guitarist, practices tae kwon do and enjoys vigorous outdoor activities. He sits on several philanthropic boards. Lee works with high school and college students, introducing basic tenets of entrepreneurship and leadership. He and his family reside in Phoenix. |
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Marty is an accomplished Silicon Valley sales executive and a B2B sales best practices thought leader. His 30 years of tech industry sales experience is applied in assisting companies in building, growing, and scaling their tech businesses. Marty’s expertise encompasses direct sales (outside and inside) and utilization of sales channels to grow revenue. His industry background includes:
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Judi Pine Sellers, M.Ed, is President of Advanced Systems Designs and a leadership consultant with over 30 years of business experience in industries including health care, manufacturing, higher education, hospitality, transportation services and non-profit agencies.
Judi served on the Enterprise Leadership Development teams for fortune 500 companies including Aetna and AlliedSignal; designing, developing, and delivering leadership development strategies and programs targeted to achievement of organizational goals. She has produced programs covering a broad range of topics including The Leadership Role, Driving and Executing Strategy, Transforming the Service Experience, Performance Management, Scorecard Implementation, and many topics relating to the core skills of an effective manager and leader. Judi has also been successful as a small business owner. She scaled her family small business from 6 employees to 67 and sold it in 2014. Now she works with entrepreneurs who are growing their businesses; developing leaders, designing training, training managers and optimizing and documenting processes. As a consultant, her corporate clients have included, AlliedSignal, American Compensation Association, Amkor Technologies, Avnet, Decision One, Lockheed Martin, Mayo Clinic, Tosco, and many others. |
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Anjali Nennelli is entrepreneurial by choice and a technologist. She is a problem solver, tech futurist, serial entrepreneur, community builder, women in tech advocate, lifelong learner and a thought leader.
She has hands-on experience and expertise with mobile & emerging technologies and their ecosystems. With over 17 years in the tech industry, she has worked in software solutions from start-up to large-scale enterprise architecture. She co-founded Mokriya, a product creation studio that delivered products to Fortune 100 enterprises like Intel, Google, Twitter, Verizon, L’Oreal etc. She built one of the first ‘remote-first’ company and successfully took it to an exit. She has also taken one of her products through the YC startup school. Currently in its eighth year, Phoenix Mobile & Emerging Tech Festival is Nennelli’s passion project; she’s thrilled to use her thought leadership to bring people together to witness the cutting edge of technology, and along with her products, hopes to make a difference in this world. She is currently growing a product services company around AI and Machine Learning. You can often find her mentoring founders, startups across the Phoenix Valley. Social media handles, website links - Twitter: @anjalisa, Website: http://lotuslabs.co Applicable calls to action, i.e. find out more about Anjali- If you have a tough software problem or looking to build something innovative, we can help. You can reach me at anjali@lotuslabs.co or find me on linked in - https://www.linkedin.com/in/anjalinennelli/ |
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Alan Carey has over 30 years business experience in Europe and the US in both manufacturing and service industries, ranging from large, Fortune 500 companies to smaller businesses. At one time, he was the successful owner of an import/export company. Alan holds an advanced degree in Organization Development and has specialized in that field, with an emphasis on sales and marketing. He is the author of numerous published articles and has been involved in many community-based organizations. Alan has served as both an internal and external consultant to individuals and organizations in Europe, the US, and Africa, with additional contacts in Asia, Central and South America.
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Brian Martinitz is a Business Consultant passionate about process improvement. Brian has over 30 years of experience optimizing supply chains and improving operational outcomes leading to increased revenues, reduced costs, and increased profits for global fortune 500 companies.
Brian is a respected leader, subject matter expert, and project manager with the ability to influence and focus diverse teams on achieving organizational goals and objectives by creatively balancing resources, scope, and schedule. Specifically, collaborating with cross functional personnel to identify Operational Excellence (OpEx) opportunities that support business and financial objectives in Engineering, Information Technology, Human Resources, Customer Service, Manufacturing, Planning, Finance, and Logistics organizations amongst a myriad of industries. Brian holds B.S. and M.S. degrees in Industrial Engineering from Kansas State University and an MBA with an emphasis in Finance from California Lutheran University. In addition, Brian is a licensed Professional Engineer - P.E., Project Management Professional - PMP®, and Certified Supply Chain Professional - CSCP®. Brian’s areas of expertise include: Process Improvement, Business Case Development, Capacity Analysis, Data Mining & Analytics, Work Measurement, Facility Layout, Technical Problem Solving, Metrics Development, Strategic Planning, System Thinking, Lean Six Sigma, Business Process Modeling, Methods Engineering, Capital Justification, and Supply/Demand Planning. |
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Melissa Wilson is a Strategist at Intel Corporation, where she is responsible for defining and monitoring execution of strategy within IT. She stays abreast of external IT industry trends (including disruptive technology) and collaborates with IT senior leaders to drive annual refresh of IT strategy, priorities, and metrics.
In addition to her 5 years in IT Strategy, she brings 19 years of experience in a variety of roles including Corporate Real Estate/Site Development, Assembly Technology Development, Information Security, and Emergency Communications. She is a Lean Six Sigma Green Belt and has professional certifications in Crisis Management/Communication and ITIL (IT Infrastructure Library). She holds a B.S. in Business Management after beginning her studies at Auburn University at Montgomery and completing her degree at the University of Phoenix, cum laude. Melissa has a strong interest in making a difference within the community both professionally and personally: · Professionally: With a background in IT, she wants to help the Chandler Innovation Program develop and grow future technology leaders in Chandler. Her professional experience with senior IT leaders, venture capitalists and start-ups will help guide new businesses/local start-ups. · Personally: She was the founder and now co-leader of a local community support group for parents of children with ADD/ADHD and other learning challenges. Starting as a grass-root effort, the support group grew through word-of-mouth with now more than 1300 local Chandler members. The rate of growth attracted interest from a national CHADD network which resulted in the creation of an East Valley CHADD Chapter. Outside of work and community focus, Melissa devotes her time to her husband of 26+ years, teenage son and their two dogs. |
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Madhu is the President of WSI-Optimized Web Solutions. She has over 19 years of experience helping small and medium size businesses with their digital marketing. WSI's mission is to help small and medium sized businesses use the internet to become more effective and profitable. The organization benefits its clients by increasing their Rank in various search engines and generating qualified leads through proven search engine strategies. WSI is one of the largest digital marketing agencies in the world with over 1,000 offices in 81 Countries, with their local office being in the Phoenix area. Madhu is also a certified LinkedIn coach and offers LinkedIn coaching to individuals and businesses. Madhu is a member of Ahwatukee Chamber of Commerce and serves as an ambassador. She also belongs to Chandler Chamber of Commerce, National Association of Women Business Organization. Specialties- Website Design & Development, SEO, Google adwords, Social Media Marketing, Marketing Automation and Data Analytics.
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Dr. Bipin Chadha has over 25 years of experience in developing advanced analytics, AI, simulation, and optimization models to solve challenging business problems for a broad range of industries. As the Chief Data Scientist for Ascential, he is responsible for guiding and mentoring distributed data science teams, establish a data science lab to work on forward looking use cases and bring promising technologies into the organization. Previously as the AVP of Data Science and Analytics at CopperPoint, he established their data science practice and laid out their analytics strategy. He trained and mentored several data scientists and analysts and helped identify key use cases. At Copperpoint, he helped develop and deploy pricing and underwriting models, claims triaging models, and loss prevention models. Prior to CopperPoint, Chadha was the first data scientist for USAA, where he helped establish the data science practice and developed a wide range of analytical models. There he developed a first of its kind digital-twin model that created a large-scale behavioral representation of the entire market. This model was frequently used for making strategic decisions. He has won several awards and patents for data visualization, analytical models, and chatbots. Prior to USAA he worked in several verticals where he developed a wide range of analytical and digital twin models for: strategic decision support, marketing, war-gaming, large system design, cyber-defense, and operational improvements. He has worked on several projects and advanced research programs for Fortune 500 companies, DARPA, and defense research labs. He has published over 50 papers in international conferences and journals and is frequently invited to speak at industry events. He received his PhD from Georgia Tech, a MS from Southern Illinois University, and a BE degree from IIT-Roorkee.
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With nearly 30 years of experience in manufacturing and supply chain operations leadership, Jim Harrison is currently a Sr. Client Advisor for the Arizona Manufacturing Extension Partnership (AZ- MEP), helping manufacturers to be successful and strengthening manufacturing in Arizona. Jim has worked to transform organizations through improving production and global supply chain processes in manufacturing organizations that produce products such as aerospace components, medical devices, consumer products, and industrial machines. His leadership has led to successfully eliminating waste resulting in lower cost, higher margins, better efficiencies, and increased employee satisfaction. His contributions have been instrumental in start-ups and business turnarounds. Jim is a proud veteran of the Arizona Air National Guard. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Business-Information Systems and earned his MBA from the WP Carey School of Business at Arizona State University in the High Technology Program. He has a Lean Green Belt certification and is credited on multiple US and foreign patents.
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Jay Mattisson is a solution finder, who brings fresh perspectives to the discussion. As a founder and investor, Jay shake things up - be it software solutions, SaaS, websites, workflows or data gathering. Jay has a sensitive ear to what the users actually need. He builds close-knit teams that translate customer requirements into solid services. Experienced Scrum master and team leader using Agile methodology to bring projects in on time and on budget.
Selected positions: Founder Eventkey - next generation event management solution. President Swedish American Chamber of Commerce Arizona - promotes trade, investment and business opportunities between Sweden and Arizona. Adviser to the German American Chamber of Commerce Arizona. Founding board member of a community bank (in formation). |
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Steven Rose is a serial entrepreneur and a people-oriented technologist interested in creating raving fans through delivering value and delightful customer experiences. He is a lifelong learner who believes in collaboration, transparency, and alignment. Steve enjoys helping people strategically plan long-term goals and map those back to short-term deliverables.
Steve is highly involved in the local Phoenix community and has several successes under his belt. He organized and presented at Phoenix Startup Week and also founded the AZ Marketing Technology group. Steven is a sports fanatic and family man, loving the time he gets to spend with two fast-growing munchkins that can always bring a smile to his face. Specialties: Strategy, Marketing, Development/Technology, User Experience, Analytics, Product/Project Management |
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Steven earned his Masters in Business, from Arizona State University in 2004. His first management role was as Inventory Control Manager of the NAPA auto parts distribution center, he left NAPA to become operations manager of small distribution company from there he, as part of senior leadership team, grew the Blockbuster video local franchise from 7 stores to 21, one of his many accomplishments was growing the video game product from concept to a $2million revenue stream. Founded a cleaning service, that specialized in cleaning single family homes for rental property managers, grew to 6 employees the first year. Was one of the owners/founders of a B2B service repair company, grew the organization from $800k/year to $6mil/year in four years-the procedures he created were in place several years after his departure. Spent over 10 years in a call center, collection agency, holding many different senior leadership roles including Operational Excellence, Director of IT, Director of Client services, Payment Processing and Ffinance Manager, Project Manager and Global Process Owner (ISO 9001 and 27001) for multiple processes. He now takes his skills and experience and uses them to help as many Local organizations as he can.
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Dan Viza has over 25 years’ experience leading corporate strategy, strategic financing/M&A, managing multi-disciplinary marketing and technical teams, and heading global business development for technology companies in the telecommunications, semiconductor, automotive and robotics industries. Dan has also been a seed investor, corporate VC, board advisor and board member of several privately held software companies.
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Being in love with technology his whole life, Zack earned a degree in computer science from Mississippi State University and has been professionally developing software since he was 19 years old. He’s developed numerous successful commercial products, led many software development teams, and has served as the technology executive for several successful companies. Zack has a deep passion for sharing his experience with others and for helping businesses solve problems with technology. He is the founder of RoboRapid, LLC, a company specializing in the development of innovative, problem solving robots. In 2017, Zack moved his family to Arizona and is proud to call Chandler home.
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Biz Coach Steve Feld, MBA, is a Certified Business Coach, Author, Professional Speaker, and award-winning Business Management Executive. Over 300 businesses have sought out his services to work with them on gaining much needed clarity, implementing solid strategic plans, and achieving positive growth results. How does he obtain the best results for them so quickly? He focuses on the foundation of the business. Steve is passionate about businesses growth, efficient operations, and long-term success. With the high-end content he delivers in his presentations, his audience is able to immediately implement for fast results. He believes business can be fun, so his delivery is entertaining thus resulting in high engagement. Steve has built, owned, and operated 6 lucrative businesses. He has consulted with other businesses providing change management and process improvement. He operated within 3 Fortune 500 companies, manning and boosting an entire division for them. In addition to his extensive U.S. experience, he works with global businesses to improve and streamline their operations. Today, businesses hire Biz Coach Steve to skyrocket their revenue and profits. With an array of resources from 1-on-1 and group coaching to mastermind facilitation and an E-Learning Academy, Steve has all the proven tools and resources businesses need to expand. You will find Biz Coach Steve featured at many conferences, associations, and corporations. His high energy and easy connection with participants allow him to deliver great content which benefits all who attend.
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Layson Logistics, 1999 to date Independent consultant and management advisor. Focus on strategic planning, marketing and financial analysis. Quickly address quantifiable business issues and opportunities. Advised “for profit” businesses of various size. Represented large retail bank in business acquisition. Held temporary executive positions with Autobytel and OpenAuto in California. Led Marketing Conference in Amman, Jordan. Addressed homeless issues and opportunities in Concord NC Presently (In Charlotte, NC) Completing work with two business clients. Member of the Board and Finance Committee at Ronald McDonald House. Active at Discovery Place Science Center. Guest lectured at University of North Carolina, Charlotte. University Faculty, 1999 through 2012 Initially with Ottawa University. Taught in Malaysia. Then Faculty member, Arizona State University, School of Business. Coopers & Lybrand and Deloitte Consulting, 1996 to 1999 As Director of Worldwide Automotive Consulting, advised large clients regarding strategic planning, business development, supply chain management, and international operations. Advised clients throughout the world, particularly Asia. Ford Motor Company, 1966 to 1995 Senior management positions in Vehicle Planning and Scheduling, Material Procurement, and International Strategic Planning. Lead internal Business Process Reengineering and Process Improvement projects. Developed and implemented the marketing aspect of Ford/Mazda relationship. Chief Information Officer with Ford Motor Credit Company. Education, MBA, University of Michigan
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