Patrick McHenry is serving his fourth term in the United States Congress where he represents the citizens of North Carolina’s 10th District. Congressman McHenry’s district comprises ten counties in Western North Carolina, from the suburbs of Charlotte to the home of NASCAR in Mooresville to the Blue Ridge Mountains.

In the 112th Congress, McHenry serves as a Deputy Republican Whip, helping to manage the legislative priorities of Congressional Republicans on the House floor. Congressman McHenry is a member of the House Financial Services Committee, which deals with federal legislation related to the securities market, banking, insurance and real estate. He is also a member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, where he serves as Chairman of the Subcommittee on TARP, Financial Services and Bailouts of Public and Private Programs.
As a Subcommittee Chairman, Congressman McHenry is at the heart of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee’s effort to make the federal bureaucracy more accountable for how it spends the American people’s money. In this role, McHenry is helping to lead the Committee’s interface with the financial services industry and bring transparency, openness, and solutions for the challenges facing our financial system.

Throughout his career, Congressman McHenry has been a vocal and effective advocate for the men and women who wear the uniform of our country. He received awards from the North Carolina Chapters of the American Legion and Marine Corps League for his extensive work in bringing a veterans’ health care clinic to his district after nearly two decades of delay. The National Guard presented Patrick McHenry with the Charles Dick Medal of Merit for his exceptional service to the North Carolina National Guard.

Recognized as a leader of the conservative movement in America, Patrick McHenry is the Chairman of the House Conservatives Fund. He shares the most conservative voting record in Congress on family values issues, according to National Journal. Having never voted for a tax increase in his career, Congressman McHenry is continually recognized as a “Hero of the Taxpayer” by Americans for Tax Reform.
Congressman McHenry is the recipient of several additional awards including: the National Association of Manufacturing’s “Manufacturing Legislative Excellence” Award, the Small Business and Entrepreneurship Council’s “Small Business Champion” Award, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s “Spirit of Enterprise” Award, the 60 Plus Association’s “Guardian of Seniors’ Rights” Award, the Family Research Council’s “True Blue” Award, and Citizens Against Government Waste’s “Taxpayer Hero” Award.

Most importantly, Congressman McHenry continues to listen to the voters of the 10th District and act as their voice in Washington. His main focus is to provide the highest level of constituent services at home in Western North Carolina.
Prior to being elected to Congress in 2004 at the age of 29, Patrick McHenry represented the 109th District in the North Carolina House of Representatives. He also served as Special Assistant to the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Labor, a post he was appointed to by President Bush. Patrick McHenry is a graduate of Ashbrook High School in Gastonia, N.C. and Belmont Abbey College, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts in History. Congressman McHenry and his wife Giulia live in his hometown of Cherryville, N.C. and worship at Saint Michael’s Church.

Congressman McHenry has appeared on Fox News, Fox Business Channel, CNN, CNBC.

David Weild IV oversees Capital Markets and Institutional Acceptance at Grant Thornton, the ‘Global Six’ Audit, Tax and Advisory firm. He is also Chairman and CEO of Capital Markets Advisory Partners, the firm that specializes in equity capital markets advice to issuers. He is a former Vice Chairman and executive committee member of The NASDAQ Stock Market who had line responsibility for the global listings businesses of NASDAQ.

David and co-author Ed Kim are noted for their work that was first to identify how changes in stock market structure are harming capital formation and job growth in the United States. Their studies ( Why are IPOs in the ICU?; Market structure is causing the IPO crisis – and more; A wake up call for America ) have been cited in over 100 articles including The Economist, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and The Financial Times. These studies have also been cited by Congressmen, Senators and the Executive Branch of the U.S. Government, including most recently in the Interim Report of the White House’s Job Council led by Jeffrey Immelt, CEO of General Electric, and the IPO Task Force report to the U.S. Treasury led by Kate Mitchell, former Chairman of the National Venture Capital Association.

David was also a member of the NYSE and NVCA’s (National Venture Capital Association) Blue Ribbon Panel to restore liquidity in the US venture capital industry and his work was cited in the NVCA’s final report. David has testified in Congress and at the CFTC-SEC Joint Panel on Emerging Regulatory Issues.

Prior to NASDAQ, David spent 14 years at Prudential Securities in senior management roles, including President of PrudentialSecurities.com, Head of Corporate Finance, Head of Technology Investment Banking and Head of Global Equity Capital Markets. He oversaw more than 1,000 IPO’s, Follow-on offerings and convertible transactions and was an innovator in new issue systems and transaction structures.
David holds an MBA from the Stern School of Business and a BA from Wesleyan University. He studied on exchange at The Sorbonne, Ecole des Haute Etudes Commerciales and The Stockholm School of Economics. 9/11 blew out 350 plate glass windows at NASDAQ’s headquarters at Ground Zero in New York. With NASDAQ personnel working from home, David organized the authorization and implementation of hundreds of share repurchase programs that were credited by market insiders as providing needed confidence (buy orders at lower levels) to investors once the markets reopened. David is Chairman of the Board of Tuesday’s Children, the pre-eminent charity providing services to 9/11 families and first responders and has served on that board since shortly after 9/11.

Jason Jones is the founder of HighStep Capital, an investment firm the finds and invests in innovation, with a particular focus on the impact of the Internet on business & society. HighStep Capital has two divisions, a public markets team the runs a global Internet focused long/short equity fund and a private markets team, which helps established private companies solve their cap table and liquidity needs by investing in secondary shares offered by employees, ex-employees, angel investors, and VC investors. Prior to founding HighStep, Jason worked as an Internet focused portfolio manager at J. Goldman & Co, a NYC long/short equity hedge fund. Previously, he was an Internet analyst at Goldman Sachs & Co and he was a venture capital analyst at Cambridge Associates. He has also co-founded four venture backed, web-based startups and he has consulted with Connotate Technologies and MasterCard on investment related data mining. Jason received his BS from Babson College and his MBA from the Johnson School at Cornell University.

Michael is the Co-Founder of GSV Asset Management and GSV Advisors. He has over 25 years of experience and previously co-founded and was CEO of ThinkEquity Partners, a growth focused investment bank. From Think’s inception in July 2001, the firm grew at a 50% CAGR to $70 million in revenue in 2007, reaching 180 employees. ThinkEquity was sold in March 2007 to London-based Panmure Gordon. Prior to that, Mr. Moe was Head of Global Growth Research at Merrill Lynch and before that he was Head of Growth Research and Strategy at Montgomery Securities. Mr. Moe has been named to Institutional Investor’s All American research team and has been awarded “Best on the Street” by The Wall Street Journal. Additionally, he has been called one of the best stock pickers in the country by Business Week magazine. He has testified in front of the U.S. Congress on the subjects of education technology, the new economy and initial public offerings, and he has also appeared before the President’s Information Technology Advisory Committee.

Michael is Chief Portfolio Manager for the GSV X Fund, a long-short global macro equity hedge fund and the CEO of GSV Capital, a publicly traded closed-end fund that invests in leading VC backed private companies. He is the Co-Chair of Arizona State University’s Education Innovation Council along with the university’s president, Michael Crow. He is on the Advisory Board of Institutional Venture Partners (IVP), a member of the Board of Directors for the Center for Education Reform and on the National Leadership Council for Communities in Schools. Mr. Moe is also on the Board of Directors of Sharespost, an alternative stock market for private, emerging companies and ePals, the largest online K-12 community in the world.Mr. Moe is on the board of directors for the National Football Foundation/College Football Hall of Fame and The Churchill Club. In 2007, he published his first book, Finding the Next Starbucks: How to Identify and Invest in the Hot Stocks ofTomorrow (Penguin/PortfolioBooks,2006), which has gone through three printings and has been published in five different languages. He earned his BA in Political Science and Economics at the University of Minnesota.

As founder and chief executive officer of GATE Technologies, Vince Molinari has been the driving force behind GATE’s mission to create new market infrastructure that brings transparency, efficiency, and liquidity to the unstructured global alternative asset markets. He is responsible for GATE’s strategic planning and business initiatives, including corporate alliances and strategic partnerships. His vision is based on a core belief that “actionable knowledge” drives investments, and that technology can close the gap between traditional and emerging alternative markets. Vince believes opening the private market for investment can spearhead economic growth and job creation. The company’s initiatives in Impact Investing reflect Vince’s commitment to bringing positive change through financial innovation.

Vince is also the founder of Global Access Holdings LLC, a financial media and analytics company, which identified a global trend line of illiquid securities and the potential market need for alternative asset trading platforms. Prior to Global Access Holdings, he was chairman & CEO of Burlington Capital Markets LLC, a financial services company specializing in institutional execution services and investment banking activities. In addition, he co­­­­­-founded Inculab, a technology business incubator. Mr. Molinari began his career at Lehman Brothers Inc., and has also held senior positions at Janney Montgomery Scott Inc., and Ridgewood Capital Funding, LLC.

Mr. Molinari is an active speaker on issues related to capital markets and early stage companies and has been invited to testify before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Financial Services, Subcommittee on Capital Markets and Government Sponsored Enterprises.  In addition Vince consults Members of Congress and Senate on these issues.

Mr. Molinari has been featured on CBC Lang and O’Leary Exchange and been quoted and published in a wide range of business media including the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Bloomberg News, Advance Trading and Securities Technology Monitor.

Thomas Foley is the Founder and CEO of Xpert Financial and is responsible for the company’s strategic direction and global operations. He is a frequent speaker at conferences on topics related to the private company securities marketplace.

Prior to Xpert Financial, Thomas was the Director of Business Development for Moblyng, a social mobile media and gaming company. Before joining Moblyng, he was an investment banker in the Software and Clean Tech sectors at Bay Capital Partners and Arbor Advisors. He also worked in the investment division of CB Richard Ellis and in Business Development for two Silicon Valley startups, iPlayMusic and FlipTrack.com.

Thomas has a B.A. degree in economics with a minor in philosophy from UCLA. He has held leadership board positions at Menlo School, The Olympic Club, and the BizWorld Foundation. He is currently an advisor for Language Island and The Valley Girl and, in 2009, was listed as #7 in BusinessWeek’s Top 30 Entrepreneurs Under 30 Years Old. Thomas was an All-American water polo player and, while at UCLA, helped his team to a National Championship. Thomas holds Series 24, 62, 63, and 79 securities licenses.

Lou Kerner is Head of Liquidnet’s Private Shares Group. Lou is the foremost Wall Street Social Media analyst and has deep expertise in facilitating transactions in private shares. He is known for coining the term “The Second Internet” which refers to the period post the introduction of Facebook’s newsfeed, and those companies born out of the social and mobile revolutions that are best positioned to scale and generate significant shareholder value.

Lou joined Liquidnet in 2011 from Wedbush Securities where he was a Managing Director in Equity Research covering Social Media. For the prior ten years Lou was a serial entrepreneur, with previous ventures including Bolt.com, an early leader in social networking, and The .tv Corporation, which licensed the top-level domain “.tv” from the tiny island nation of Tuvalu.

Lou spent the first seven years of his career as an equity analyst at Goldman Sachs and Merrill Lynch where he followed media companies. He is a frequent guest on CNBC and BloombergTV covering the social media and private shares ecosystem.
Lou has a BS from UCLA in Economics, and an MBA from the Stanford.

Boaz Rahav is a General Partner at Greencrest Capital Management. Mr. Rahav has over 19 years of investment experience, including international finance and macroeconomics, portfolio management and new product development. Formally the Chief Economist for the Government of Israel Ministry of Finance in New York, he was later one of the first investment professionals to launch a complex of specialized index funds, which allowed investors to gain exposure to unique market segments, such as cancer-focused companies and single-country index products. Mr. Rahav was named one of the best international portfolio managers in 2001 by the New York Times, and was interviewed on popular TV shows, such as CNN fn, Fox News and the CNBC morning show. He held senior managerial positions in various Wall Street firms and currently serves as a member of the NYIT School of Management Executive Council and as a Board Member for a private equity fund. Mr. Rahav has a business degree from Tel Aviv College of Business and an MBA (Cum Laude) from the New York Institute of Technology.

Operating at the nexus of executives, scientists, artists, creators, entrepreneurs, educators, philanthropists and visionaries worldwide, Sunny Bates provides the energy fueling countless game-changing ventures in media, technology, business, the environment and the arts. A magnet for talent, passionate about innovation, strategically savvy and adept at identifying investors, Sunny plays lead roles ranging from member of TED’s influential Brain Trust to guiding muse for crowd-sourced, creative projects funder KickStarter. She makes her home in New York City and travels the world whenever possible.

Sunny Bates operates wherever executives, scientists, artists, creators, entrepreneurs, educators, philanthropists and visionaries connect around the globe. Present at the birth of the digital revolution, In 1988 Sunny founded her executive search firm, Sunny Bates Associates, which played a pivotal role in propelling Priceline, Oxygen Media, Fast Company and MapQuest to the top ranks of category-busters.
With an encyclopedic contact list, a firm grasp of the skill-sets that start-ups require and the benchmarks they need to hit to go the distance, and a mind-meld enthusiasm for every project she takes on — Sunny is the renewable energy source fueling countless game-changing ventures in media, technology, business, the environment and the arts.

With a client list that includes Ford Models, Fidelity Investments, Sony, MTV, the National Academy of Sciences, NYU’s Interactive Telecommunications Program, Comedy Central and the Joint Chiefs of Staff, among many others, Sunny has distinguished herself in the care and feeding of pioneering creative and philanthropic efforts such as the Acumen Fund, Creative Capital and KickStarter.
A member of the Brain Trust of TED, Sunny also serves on the advisory boards of Endeavor Global, Middlebury College, Outside.in, Appify.com, Green Drink and The Loop.

Sunny is frequently invited to speak at industry conferences, sharing her expertise in building and leveraging the power of networks. Adamant advocate for CEOs, techies and creative content-providers alike, she is the author of How to Earn What You’re Worth (2003, McGraw-Hill), a guide to taking the stress and uncertainty out of compensation negotiations.
A graduate of Cornell, where she earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Energy and Economics, Sunny has two college-age daughters. She makes her home in New York City and travels the world whenever possible.

Gerard S. DiFiore is a partner at Reed Smith. Gerry joined the firm in 1997. He was the firmwide Chair of the firm’s Corporate & Securities Group and is currently the Chairman of the firm’s Securities Review Committee and Deputy Chair of the Emerging Company/Global Venture Practice. His practice focuses on mergers and acquisitions, securities and corporate finance, corporate governance and corporate transactional matters. He is experienced in working with companies in all stages of the corporate growth cycle, from early stage private companies to large publicly traded companies. He routinely works with senior management and with private equity firms and their portfolio companies in reaching strategic goals. He has broad experience in advising clients on disclosure, regulatory and compliance issues related to public reporting status and often acts as outside general counsel on a broad array of issues and transactions for clients that do not have a large internal legal staff. Gerry also counsels asset managers and other regulated securities professionals on various matters and transactions arising under federal securities law including fund formation. To read Gerry’s full bio and see his long list of accomplishments, please go to
http://www.reedsmith.com/our_people.cfm?cit_id=1057&widCall1=customWidgets.content_view_1.

Gene Massey is the Chairman/CEO of MediaShares.com, a company holding an issued U.S. Patent for a new and innovative business method for Crowdfunding, enabling any company to sell their stock on their own Website or Facebook page. Known as the “Social Media IPO,” MediaShares’ methodology can be used in any company’s IPO and is fully-compliant with SEC rules that now make it possible to advertise and market a company’s stock online through social media. MediaShares uses a well-known process called Direct Registration, enabling companies that already have online fans, customers, or affinity groups to use Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and others to sell their IPO shares to their massive online communities.

In addition to his expertise in securities, Gene Massey is also known as an Internet Marketing Consultant, with extensive experience in Social Media Marketing and the Branding of Retail products online.
In the past Gene has owned and operated a Los Angeles-based advertising and marketing company. From 1990 to 1997 Gene worked personally with Ely Callaway, Chairman/CEO of Callaway Golf, creating over four hundred television commercials that introduced and promoted the “Big Bertha” line of golf clubs. During the period of time that Gene worked with Callaway, their total sales increased from $21 million in 1990 to $843 million in 1997.

Gene is active in community service and donates his time to the Sri Sathya Sai Service Organization, filming volunteer doctors in rural villages in Africa and India. He also teaches a weekly class for teenage boys who are incarcerated at Camp Kilpatrick, a Los Angeles County Youth Correctional Facility.

Jouko Ahvenainen is serial-entrepreneur and private investor, and co-founder of Grow VC, the first global peer-to-peer micro-funding service for startups. Jouko is also a partner and board member in other finance or investments companies, like Springboard Venture Private (India) and Replicon (Finland). He also co-founded data analytics businesses (e.g. Xtract). Before his serial entrepreneur career Jouko held senior positions at diverse technology firms including Cap Gemini Ernst & Young, Powerwave Technologies Inc., Nokia, and Sonera. In all roles he has been a key driver to create new business. He is one of the pioneers in social media marketing, and personally had significant role to develop and sell the first social marketing intelligence solutions for mobile and media companies. He has also traditional marketing experience, starting from some well known political campaigns in mid 90′s. Jouko has vast experience of international business in Asia, Europe, and North America; he has lived and worked in Finland, Malaysia, UK, and the US, and run business in Hong Kong.

Jouko has worked in teams to close several VC deals (from 150k USD to 15M USD), and also closed many large customer deals and been responsible for 40M USD annual revenue. He started his first own software business when he was 16-year-old. Jouko also is also a Certified Adviser in NasdaqOMX First North list at Helsinki and Stockholm stock exchanges. Jouko is on the boards of various start-up companies, and is a co-founder or seed investor in six companies.

Jouko is a regular speaker in many marketing, start-up funding, mobile and web conferences including SXSW, Mobile World Congress, CTIA, Next Conference, Echelon and Singapore Infocomm conferences around Europe, Asia, and the US. He is also a co-author in Social Media Marketing book.
Jouko holds an MBA from Helsinki School of Economics / McCombs School of Business, at the University of Texas, Austin and a M.Sc.(Tech.) from Helsinki University of Technology.

Founder and Managing Director of Arcstone, Bo Brustkern oversees investment research, capital advisory and business valuation services for the firm. Mr. Brustkern has performed countless valuations of private companies for investment, transactional support, financial reporting and other purposes. In 2006 Mr. Brustkern founded Arcstone Partners, an industry-leading valuation, advisory and investment research boutique. From 1997 to 2005, Mr. Brustkern was a private equity and venture capital investor. Prior to his investment career, he was an M&A analyst at one of the largest publicly traded REITs in the country. He is a Charter Member and Executive Committee Member of the Fair Value Forum. Mr. Brustkern earned an MBA with distinction as a Deutschman Venture Fellow from The Anderson School at UCLA, and a BA from Dartmouth College.

Brian Meece is the CEO of RocketHub, one of the world’s top crowdfunding platforms that has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, NPR, Wired, The Economist, CNN, The Washington Post, ABC News, USA Today, etc. while helping thousands of funding campaigns raise millions of dollars. Brian has lectured on crowdsourced funding at SXSW, TEDxBrooklyn, Columbia University, NXNEi (Canada’s largest interactive conference), among other colleges, conferences and institutions.

Andrew Rachmell
Co-Founder and VP of Business Development, peerbackers, LLC.

Rachmell is co-founder of peerbackers.com, a crowd funding web site dedicated to helping entrepreneurs raise capital to start or grow their business. The site and its work have been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Entrepreneur magazine and other business publications, and on MSNBC.As head of business development, Rachmell secures partnerships and sponsorships with organizations serving entrepreneurs, including universities, nonprofits, businesses, government and the media. In addition, he spends a portion of his time educating college students and recent grads by hosting workshops that cover all facets of entrepreneurship, including crowd funding. He also participates as a judge in the annual business plan competition at the Adam’s Center for Entrepreneurship at Florida Atlantic University. Prior to starting peerbackers.com, Rachmell spent 20 years creating programs for television and the web. His expertise in developing strategic alliances, sales and marketing has made him a specialist in helping more than one-third of the Fortune 1000 companies, as well as numerous associations, nonprofits and government agencies promote their image and message through innovative communication methods, sponsorships and distribution channels. These include interactive web video, audio webcasts, nationally televised business roundtables, lifestyle programming and documentaries appearing on ABC, PBS member stations, CNBC, Discovery Channel, ESPN, and Comcast, among others.In addition, Rachmell has been a principal in several production companies and executive producer of more than 400 television programs including the award winning documentary 1955-Seven Days of Fall; the music series Frequency hosted by Dave Koz; The Next Wave with Leonard Nimoy; and the long running interstitial series on public television entitled Fast Focus. Rachmell graduated from Pennsylvania State University in 1983 with a Bachelor of Science degree in marketing. He holds an Airline Transport Pilot license (ATP), enjoys hiking around the world and has bicycled more than 6000 miles coast to coast.

PRESIDENT of Gate Impact LLC. Bill provides Leadership with extensive hands on managerial experience rooted in “Best Practices” and “Guaranteed Delivery”. He has earned the “Go-To” label by C Level Executives and Board Members in organizations that are facing tough decisions, tight budgets and deadlines. As part of Gate Impact, he provides CIO services to the leading Micropayment and Virtual Currency company in Europe. He specializes in Business & Logistical Intelligence with prior engagements with American Express, IBM and Boeing. He provides advisory services to some of the largest Social Investment Portfolios and passionate consultants in the U.S. He coauthored the Impact Intelligence for High Performing Organizations Roadmap with Sara Olsen, the founder of the Social Ventures Technology Group.

Over his 20 year career, Bill has provided leadership that resulted in financial, technical, operational and most importantly cultural transformation (work ethic, quality of work, timelines & governance) for his clients. Bill has extensive experience providing merger and acquisition due diligence, performance management analysis, customer and product profitability analysis and other business intelligence services. He brings extensive project management & technology application experience to ensure projects adhere to strict disciplines within the relevant life cycles for minimizing risks and guaranteeing success. These accomplishments prepared Bill to lead the build out of the Impact Investing Infrastructure for the GATE Impact Community.

Karla D’Alleva Valas is managing director of the Complex Asset Group for Fidelity CharitableSM, an independent public charity with a donor-advised fund program.

In her current role, Ms. Valas manages a team of attorneys that bring deep knowledge and technical expertise to donors who wish to contribute sophisticated assets, such as privately held C-corp or S-corp shares, to charity. Ms. Valas and her team work directly with donors, their advisors, and corporate and business lawyers to facilitate charitable transfers of these assets to achieve the most favorable tax treatment with the greatest charitable impact.

Prior to overseeing the Complex Asset Group for Fidelity CharitableSM and its unique service offering, beginning in 2001, Ms. Valas was Fidelity Charitable’s chief compliance officer responsible for providing integrated tax, legal and compliance support for the donor advised fund program.

Ms. Valas joined Fidelity Investments in 1998, serving in various roles before supporting Fidelity Charitable. Previously, Ms. Valas was an appellate court attorney for the New York Supreme Court Appellate Division Third Judicial Department.
Ms. Valas earned her bachelor of arts degree in chemistry and sociology from Mount Holyoke College and a juris doctorate from the New England School of Law. She also earned a master of laws degree in taxation from Boston University School of Law. She is admitted to practice law in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and the State of New York. Ms. Valas is an active member of the Junior League of Worcester, Inc., where she is a past president and also served as vice president of finance and treasurer.

Bert Szostak originally joined GFI Group in 1991 were he co-headed the International ADR desk for more than 10 years. From 2005 to 2007 he held various positions at Prebon working to increase market share in their equity division. Most recently, he spent three years at ICAP’s Private Equity Secondary Division acting as an intermediary in the placement of Limited Partnerships and Portfolios. In September 2011 he re-joined GFI to launch their entry into the Private Share Marketplace. Mr. Szostak holds a BS in finance and management from Susquehanna University.

Zak Cassady-Dorion is co founder and partner of Startup Exemption, responsible for the framework of all current Crowdfunding legislation in congress, as well as the Crowdfunding portions of President Obama’s 2011 jobs act. The 3 co founders of Startup Exemption have bootstrapped their advocacy efforts and have worked closely with Chairman McHenry on hr 2930, including testifying before his committee on Crowdfunding.

Zak is currently the VP business development for a small business in upstate New York and has a passion for entrepreneurship. He has successful entrepreneurial experience in Latin America and South East Asia, in addition to a successful business development career with Wyndham Worldwide. He earned his MBA from Thunderbird School of Global Management, ranked as the world’s top international MBA program and a BS from the University of Vermont. Zak is also fluent in English, Spanish, and Portuguese.

Julia Dilts is the Co-Founder & CEO of Maverick Angels, an International Angel Investment Network based in Southern California and Utah which she founded with her late husband, John Dilts. Maverick Angels focuses on mentoring and training global Entrepreneurs to fund promising early-stage companies resulting in successful and self-sustaining businesses.

Ms. Dilts was previously the Vice-President of Maverick Angels and served as the Liaison between Entrepreneurs, Investors, the Media, other Angel Groups and Venture Capitalists in order to acquire capital and other requested resources for Start-Up Companies.

Before her work with Maverick Angels, Julia was the Co-Owner of Dilts Ventures, with her husband, John. The Company was an Entrepreneurial-Focused Management Consulting Firm which advised global corporations and emerging companies in areas such as Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Leadership. Ms. Dilts helped develop the Company’s Entrepreneurship Program and served as its Sales & Marketing Executive.

At Dilts Ventures, Julia also served as an Entrepreneur & Innovation Consultant for in-house “Corporate Entrepreneurs” for her Company’s clients, including Fortune 500 Companies, focusing on Internal & External Entrepreneurship & Innovation in areas such as Entrepreneurship Training, Product Development and Market-Entry Strategies.

Ms. Dilts strongly believes in giving back to the community personally as well as professionally. She has spearheaded a Maverick Angels Charitable Program which has supported dozens of charities in our area. Additionally, Julia has picked up where John had left off in volunteering at El Nido Family Centers’ Program, “Hub City Teens,” located in Compton, California. The goal of this program is to teach urban youth how to become successful entrepreneurs, and they are well on their way.

Dr. Charles Sidman’s current major occupation is Managing Partner of ECS Capital Partners, LLC, an early-stage venture fund built on “evolutionary principles” and based in Bar Harbor, Maine (although operating nationally and internationally.)  He is an active member of the NASVF, serving on its Strategy and Conferences/Education committees, chairing its Advocacy committee, and teaching in its on-line webinars.

Previously, he held positions in public and private universities, as well as not-for-profit and for-profit enterprises, in the U.S. and abroad.  He has published over ninety research papers and patents, consulted or lectured at over two hundred companies and organizations, and is active in economic development and entrepreneurial advising and training worldwide.  He retired as Professor of Molecular Genetics, Biochemistry and Microbiology from the College of Medicine at the University of Cincinnati, where he also served for many years as Adjunct Professor of Management in the College of Business and Professor in the university-wide Honors Scholars Program.  His education includes Bachelors and Masters degrees in Biochemistry and a PhD in Immunology from Harvard University, an MBA specializing in Management from the University of Cincinnati, and sabbatical study in Complex Systems at the Santa Fe Institute.

Richard J. Salute, CPA, is Capital Markets and SEC Practice Director with J.H. Cohn.  As an expert in SEC matters, Rich has been the key accounting and finance professional in numerous initial public offerings, and has represented clients that trade securities on the New York Stock Exchange, the American Stock Exchange, the NASDAQ and other over-the-counter markets.  Rich is the Office Managing Partner for J.H. Cohn’s Long Island office.  He has over 35 years of audit, accounting and tax experience.

Prior to joining J.H. Cohn, Rich spent 29 years at a global accounting firm managing complex audits for both public and private companies.  During his tenure there, he was responsible for providing clients with strategic planning services, as well as consultation with regard to corporate finance, mergers and acquisitions, and process evaluation.  Rich’s clients included large multinational companies and entrepreneurial start ups.  In addition to his client responsibilities, he started three businesses for that firm – the Enterprise Group (New York Metropolitan area), the Technology Practice (New York office) and the Bankruptcy and Corporate Recovery Practice (nationwide).

Rich is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the New York State Society of Certified Public Accountants.

Philip Reicherz founded Magnolia Ventures in November 2009 and became its Managing Partner in January 2011.  Magnolia Ventures is an opportunistic venture capital fund that looks to invest in top entrepreneurial teams with great concepts and a need for advisory services and capital.  With their partner’s assistance, entrepreneurs’ ideas are turned into great companies with plans to revolutionize their industries.  From January 2005 through January 2011, he was a Partner at SecondMarket, Inc.  SecondMarket has streamlined the historically inefficient process for buying and selling alternative investments by connecting buyers directly with sellers and providing world-class market and operations expertise.  Philip helped build out their network of more than 50,000 accredited individuals and institutions and assisted the firm complete billions of dollars in privately negotiated transactions. From May 2002 through January 2005, he was the East Coast Sales Manager for the CEFS division of UBS Financial Services, LLC.  From September 1997 through May 2001, Mr. Reicherz was the Head of the Online Executive Services Group at Credit Suisse.  From September 1995 through September 1997, he was a Single Stock Risk Management Analyst at Smith Barney.  He received his B.S. from the University of Rhode Island. He holds his Series 7, 24, 63 and 79 licenses. He was the Chairman of the SecondMarket’s Risk Management Committee and member of the UBS Financial Services Inc.  / NFLPA Investment Advisor Committee.

Wil Schroter is a serial entrepreneur.  In 1994 at age 19, while a still a student at the Ohio State University, he began his first company, Blue Diesel, an interactive marketing agency serving clients such as Best Buy, BMW, and Eli Lilly.  As CEO of the company, Wil grew Blue Diesel from his dorm room beginnings to over $60 million in capitalized billings in just over 5 years.  Wil sold Blue Diesel to inChord Communications, joined their Board, and helped the company grow to over $600 million in annual billings. In 1997, Wil co-founded Kelltech Internet Services, a technology consulting company based in Cleveland, Ohio.  Kelltech was sold three years later to GTCR. In 2002, Wil launched Swapalease.com, an on-line marketplace for automotive leasing.  Within just three years Wil grew the company from a pure startup to the world’s largest automotive finance marketplace, with over $2 billion in vehicles listed on its service.  In 2004 Wil founded the Go BIG Network, which quickly became the largest community of startup companies.  Today over 200,000 companies use Go BIG to find funding, recruit talent and seek expert advice.  In 2006 Wil founded GotCast.com to connect aspiring talent to on-camera roles.  GotCast soon became the leader in on-line talent casting, finding new talent for every major network including NBC, ABC, FOX, MTV and E! Entertainment Television. In 2007 Wil founded Virtucon Ventures, a technology incubator for startup companies whose focus is on using the Internet to create a new breed of companies in a host of industries.  Virtucon’s holdings now include the Go BIG Network, GotCast.com, Affordit.com, and BizPlan.com among other investments. In 2008 Wil founded AffordIt.com to help consumers purchase large ticket items by turning big prices into smart, affordable payments.  Offering over 100,000 products for sale, Affordit has pioneered an entirely new type of consumer finance option. In 2009 Wil founded BizPlan.com, an on-line business planning and management tool that helps upstart entrepreneurs turn their ideas into viable plans and great companies. In addition to starting companies, Wil also writes about them.  He is a nationally syndicated columnist for American City Business Journals where his entrepreneurial advice appears in over 40 major markets.  He is a contributing columnist for Forbes as well as the author of “Go BIG or Go HOME” which details how to grow startup companies as quickly as possible. Wil has been named Young Entrepreneur of the Year by the U.S. Small Business Association and is has also been recognized by the Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year program.  He has also been named the Ohio Businessperson of the Year as well as Business First’s Top 40 Under 40.  He is frequently featured in national media including NBC, The Wall Street Journal and Red Herring.

Steve has been engaged in corporate finance, strategy, business development and financial technology throughout his career.  Beginning with Bank of America, he served in its Technology Banking Group, later to become part of Security Pacific Bank’s Merchant Banking Group focused on leveraged buyout financing, and initiated the Bank’s mezzanine lending activities.  He served as a principal at Knightsbridge Partners, a private equity firm.

Before “crowdfunding” was became a term, Steve co-founded, in 1999, OffRoad Capital, a private capital market for unregistered securities, enabling emerging growth companies to raise up to $15 million of equity funding through a captive global market of 12,000 accredited investors.  Serving on the board and overseeing the investment banking and international activities, he is recognized as the “inventor” on the patent filing of the market system, having designed the framework, protocols, and business model.

Ten years later, Steve founded another market platform, PRIMARQ, which addresses the need to bring new equity capital into the housing finance system.   Recognizing that the excessive use of mortgage debt is no longer a viable in financing residential real estate, PRIMARQ is a paradigm shift approach in a multi-trillion dollar market in the US and abroad.

Academically, he received a Bachelor of Science in Commerce from Santa Clara University, and was awarded a Masters Degree in International Finance from Golden Gate University. A frequent speaker on technology and capital markets, he has served as a founding panelist at Oxford University (UK) in its Silicon Valley Comes to Oxford program, the Global Technology Conference in Southern California and the GrowCalifornia Conference. He has published a number of papers regarding housing finance, sustainable home ownership and mortgage risk mitigation, and has been interviewed on similar topics by the major media.

Steve dedicates significant time to non-profit activities, including serving as Chairman of the Charles A. Becker Foundation and formerly as President of Saints and Sinners Fund, two foundations devoted to needy and deserving children, providing grants for artistic and educational development, family services and health care.  He was a founding board member of the California Music Project, a private-public initiative to promote music education within the California school system.  Furthering his commitment to music education, he is a Trustee of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, a member of The Recording Academy and the Grammy Foundation, and has produced a series of concerts and theatrical productions benefiting music education.

Alon Hillel-Tuch is one of the co-founders of RocketHub, one of the world’s largest crowdfunding platforms. Alon grew up in The Netherlands, and speaks English, Dutch, German, and Mandarin Chinese. Prior to RocketHub, Alon worked at BCMS Corporate (an international mid-market investment bank) overseeing their special situations department. Alon has enjoyed working as a strategic digital consultant with a variety of startups to help get their feet off the ground before becoming part of RocketHub’s founding team. Alon holds a B.A. from Hamilton College in Economics and Chinese Culture & Language, and received his M.Sc from Columbia University where he was awarded the Advanced Consortium on Cooperation, Conflict and Complexity (AC4) Graduate Fellowship from the Earth Institute at Columbia University.

Joseph Omansky is a financial technology entrepreneur with particular focus on alternative investments and social media.  He is an operating partner of venture-funded Trusted Insight, the fastest growing social network for institutional investors, now with 4,000 LPs each with over $1 billion in assets. In 2003, he founded SkyRank, a U.S. patented hedge fund ratings process now covering 11,000 funds worldwide,85% of the industry.  SkyRank has been profiled on CNBC, and has served hundreds of clients including Dow Jones, Louisiana State Treasury, Montreal Stock Exchange, Fidelity, Janus, and Evergreen, among others.  Prior to founding SkyRank, Mr. Omansky created and managed an equity options volatility arbitrage hedge fund for Tradelink LLC in Chicago.  Prior to his employ with Tradelink, between 1998-2000, he was an equity options market maker on the CBOE employed with Lakota Trading Inc(Chicago), a market making entity formerly owned by Steve Fossett and subsequently purchased by GBar.

He has been quoted in the Wall Street Journal, Financial Times,Institutional Investor, Crain’s, and other publications.  SkyRank has been profiled on CNBC.  He has been a speaker and moderator at hedge fund conferences in the U.S.  Joseph received his MA in International Economics and Finance from the Lemberg School at Brandeis University (1995) and his BS from Clark University (1991)and studied international business at ITAM in Mexico City.

He is a registered investment advisor Series 65.  He currently resides in New Jersey, works in New York City, and grew up in Winter Park, Florida.

Alex Budak is the co-founder of StartSomeGood, a crowdfunding platform that empowers people from around the world to become social innovators.

StartSomeGood provides social entrepreneurs with a platform to raise start-up funds and build a community of supporters — all in a fun, engaging and community-driven way.

Alex received an MPP from Georgetown University and a B.A. from UCLA in Geography and Political Science. A published travel writer, he’s swam with baby penguins in the Galapagos and visited rat temples in India. In 5th grade he competed in a POGs tournament. Alex is a StartingBloc fellow.

Jason Best is a Co-Founder and partner of Startup Exemption and brings over 10 years of executive management at a 2 SaaS healthcare business (one of which he co-founded) in the bay area.  His work there included building broad coalitions of US medical societies in support of Internet-based physician-patient communication and changing FDA regulations to enable physicians to receive electronic medication and device warnings instead of paper.  This change dramatically increases patient safety while reducing time and costs for physicians and the pharmaceutical industry.

He is a successful entrepreneur and consultant to technology companies on business development and strategy issues to enable companies to grow quickly and effectively.  His work in strategy development building scalable organization and branding/marketing, led to one of his clients, Kinnser Software, being named by Inc. Magazine as one of the 500 fastest growing private companies in the USA in both 201o and 2011.

In Dec 2010, he also Co-Founded A Single Production Company, a documentary film company based in Bangkok, Thailand.  He has served as the Executive Producer for its first feature “The Cheer Ambassadors”.  The film premiered at the Bangkok World Film Festival in January 2012.  HE is also working on a program with local entrepreneurs and educators to create a more entrepreneurial Web development industry in Thailand.

Jason earned his MBA from the Thunderbird School of Global Management, the world’s top international MBA program.  He has lived and worked in Europe, South America and Asia.  He grew up in Louisiana and is now based in San Francisco, California.

Candace Klein is the founder and CEO of two successful startup companies: Bad Girl Ventures and SoMoLend.

Bad Girl Ventures (bgv.bz) is a non-profit organization that focuses on educating and investing in woman-owned startup companies. In its first year of operations, BGV has received over 400 applicants, has educated over 250 businesses, has financed 26 women with $700,000, and has created 156 jobs across Ohio. SoMoLend (somolend.com) is new technology platform that connects business borrowers seeking loans with lenders looking to make a return on investment. SoMoLend is now live and has partnered with KeyBank who has at least $50 million to lend.

Candace has six years of lobbying experience, with the Northern Kentucky Chamber and United Way and four years of legal experience. Candace continues to practice as an attorney with Ulmer & Berne LLP with a focus on corporate matters, business advocacy and government relations for startup companies and small business clients.

Candace led the Communities Practice at Property Advisors, with the title of “Maven” and the job description, “run and think.” She is actively committed to her neighborhood, Over the Rhine, where she lives and has based both of her businesses.

Candace is a 2008 graduate of Salmon P. Chase College of Law where she earned her J.D. She also received her bachelor degrees from Northern Kentucky University.

Connie Koch is the President, Southern California Region of Keiretsu Forum, the world’s largest angel investor network with 850 accredited investor members throughout twenty one chapters on three continents. Connie’s unique business sense and creative vision is the blueprint for her proven successes in various industries as both a serial entrepreneur with retail, telecommunications, printing, graphics and forms design, technology, Internet community development and CEO/COO over companies in publications, telecommunications, technology with enterprise management systems, public relations, and fundraising. With a belief that people and relationships are the most vital part of life, along with her pioneering attitude and insatiable desire for new experiences, Connie is growing the chapters of Keiretsu Forum in Southern California.

Charlie Tribbet is a Co-Founder of Bolstr, the first investment based fundraising platform for small businesses.  After growing up in Chicago, Charlie attended the University of Virginia (UVA) where he received a B.A. in History.  Three years in Investment Banking and Global Capital Markets at Morgan Stanley in New York helped entice and prepare Charlie for his entrepreneurial endeavor.  While working in Capital Markets Charlie helped provide strategic direction and insight to 200+ Fortune 500 clients on the short-term credit market during an unprecedented period of volatility.  Then he joined Macy’s and graduated from its Buying/Planning Executive Development Program.  In short order, he was responsible for running a $14 million Men’s Sportswear brand.  Recognizing a need for main street small business to access capital, Charlie left Macy’s to start Bolstr with a close friend from his internship days in finance, Larry Baker.  Charlie has always strived for excellence and to “set the pace;” in 2001 he was designated as a “Future Leader of Chicago” by the distinguished Leadership Greater Chicago program.  He has volunteered his time as a mentor at the high school level for New York’s Student Sponsors Program, and has served as a member of UVA’s Jefferson Scholars Selection Committee (for the NY area), and on UVA’s Ridley Scholorship Board in NY.  His high energy directs him to “work hard” and to “play hard”.  In his free time he recreates through boxing, skiing, playing basketball and golf.

Ryan Caldbeck started CircleUp after almost seven years of investing experience in consumer product and retail-focused private equity at TSG Consumer Partners and Encore Consumer Capital.  As a Director at Encore, Ryan led a number of private investments and served on the Board of Zuke’s, The Isopure Company and Philly Swirl.   His experience in private equity exposed him to many great consumer and retail businesses that were too small to obtain funding through the customary private equity channels. As a result, he decided to make funding available to these small and promising companies through CircleUp.

Ryan received his MBA from Stanford and a dual BA from Duke, where he was a member of the 2001 NCAA basketball National Championship team. He currently serves as a Board Member of Summit Prep Charter School in Redwood City, California.

Allen Sussman is a Partner at Reed Smith. Mr. Sussman engages in a general corporate and securities practice for companies ranging from newly formed startup teams to mature public companies in a variety of industries, including information technology, entertainment, healthcare, life sciences and financial services. Allen also represents venture capitalists, investors and investment banks in financing and acquisition transactions. Below is a summary of some of these services:

• Public-Company Issues. Allen regularly advises U.S. and foreign public companies on their disclosure and compliance obligations under SEC and stock exchange rules, corporate governance and activist shareholder issues, complex securities law problems and capital-raising transactions.
• Mergers and Acquisitions. Allen represents companies and investors in public and private mergers and acquisitions, tender and exchange offers, asset acquisitions and dispositions, spin-offs, and strategic partnering and joint venture arrangements.
• Public and 144A Offerings. Allen represents companies and underwriters in offerings of equity and debt securities in the United States and internationally.
• Emerging-Company Issues. Allen counsels start-up and emerging companies on a variety of topics, including choice of entity and other formation issues, capital raising transactions, stock compensation programs and executive employment matters.
• Venture Capital/Private Equity. Allen represents venture capitalists, private equity investors and placement agents in transactions involving investment in equity, debt and convertible instruments.
• Banking and Financial Services. Allen represents banks, thrifts and other financial services companies on corporate and securities matters, mergers and acquisitions and regulatory compliance issues. Allen also advises the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation from time-to-time on regulatory issues concerning the resolution of failed depository institutions.

Allen was named a Best Lawyer in America in the field of Corporate Law, 2006-2012 and has been ranked within the top 100 IPO lawyers nationwide by the IPO Lawyer Yearbook. He is a frequent speaker on corporate and securities topics, and has appeared as a guest commentator on CNBC to discuss SEC matters. Prior to private practice, Allen served as an attorney in the Financial Institutions Task Force of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in Washington, D.C. from 1990 to 1993, and as counsel at the Office of Thrift Supervision, Department of the Treasury from 1988 to 1990. At Boston University School of Law, Allen was Editor of the Annual Review of Banking Law. He has published a number of scholarly articles on banking topics, including The Case for Direct Investment in High Yield Bonds, 7 Ann. Rev. Banking L. 425 (1988), and has appeared as a witness at GAO hearings in Washington, DC to investigate junk bond investments by depository institutions. Prior to Reed Smith, Mr. Sussman held positions at Morrison & Foerster LLP, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and Office of Thrift Supervision, Department of the Treasury. Professional affiliations include American Bar Association, Business Law Section.

COO/CFO/Co-Founder of Caplinked.  Chris was a senior executive and managing partner in private equity, finance, and banking for 15 years and directly involved in the origination and management of billions of dollars of debt and equity investments in various industries.

He founded two companies, Crestridge Investments, a private equity firm that made debt and equity investments in micro cap and middle market companies, and Third Wave Partners, which made debt and equity investments in distressed situations, and was managing director of subsidiary of Emigrant Bank, the largest privately owned bank in the country.

Howard Leonhardt is an inventor and serial entrepreneur.  He has 21 patents for products for treating cardiovascular and heart disease.  These include;  cardiovascular balloon catheters, stent grafts for aneurysm repair, percutaneous heart valves, heart pacemakers with stem cell recruiting capabilities, electrical stimulation devices for promoting blood flow, electrical stimulation device for converting stem cells to heart muscle, stem cell compositions for heart repair, stem cell delivery systems, biological pacemakers and artificial lung catheter.  His TALENT stent graft developed in the early 1990′s holds a leading world market share for repairing aortic aneurysms without surgery.  In early 1999 Leonhardt founded Bioheart, Inc. www.bioheartinc.com a leader in applying adult muscle stem cells to treat heart failure.  Bioheart has raised over $105 million in paid in capital and additionally $40 million in loans and grants. Bioheart MyoCell is in Phase II/III clinical trials at 33 leading centers in the USA (The MARVEL Study).  MARVEL Part I results were published in the American Heart Journal October of 2011 and demonstrated Bioheart MyoCell patients improved 95.7 meters in exercise capacity over placebo patients receiving optimal CHF drugs, whom declined minus 4 meters.

Leonhardt has founded 21 companies to date, most them them majority funded by his venture firm Leonhardt Ventures www.leonhardtventures.com,  and their affiliated angel investor network – see web site for full portfolio.  He holds a diploma in International Trade from Anoka Technical College in Minneapolis, Minnesota and attended Anoka-Ramsey College and the University of Minnesota.  He has received an honorary Doctorate in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Northern California and is an honorary alumnus of the University of Florida and Florida International University, where he has served both as a consulting professor teaching entrepreneurship.  He continues to serve on various boards of all three universities.  He has lectured on entrepreneurship at Princeton University, UCLA, the University of Minnesota and at numerous other campuses.

In 1983 he was a founding member of American General Medical Corporation and helped build and equip numerous cardiac cath labs around the globe as Export Sales Manager.  In late 1984 he became Vice President of IMA Medical Group in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.  In 1986 he founded World Medical Corp. a firm that assisted cardiovascular device makers to reach export markets.  World Medical Medical Mfg. Corp. founded 1988 developed over 20 products for cardiovascular disease and grew from a few employees to over 500 before merging with Arterial Vascular Engineering of Santa Rosa, California in April 1998 and subsequently selling to Medtronic Vascular in November 1998.  Leonhardt was voted South Florida Entrepreneur of the Year in 2003 and State of Florida Entrepreneur of the Year in 2004.  Spin outs from Bioheart, Inc. he has founded include MyoStim Pacers www.myostimpacers.com in San Diego, a firm based on his patents for enabling a heart to become self regenerating by recruiting stem cells.  Biopace is a biological pacemaker company in development stage in California.  AortaCell utilizes a cell composition to repair aortic aneurysms.  MyoValve utilizes cells for heart valve repair.  EndoCell uses cells to repair damaged arteries.  Peri-Cell utilizes cells to treat limb ischemia in combination with the electronic MyoStim Limb Blood Flow Stimulator.  Leonhardt is a consultant to BioCell Therapies of Minneapolis that focuses on utilizing stem cells and grafts from fat tissue for breast reconstruction.  Leonhardt serves on the advisory board of the Cell Therapy Foundation and Adult Stem Cell Research Network.  Leonhardt’s restaurant Lucille’s Cafe in Weston, Florida www.lucillescafe.com (50% stake with Paul Nunez) has been profitable for nearly a dozen years and is not expanding to food trucks nationwide.  Leonhardt Vineyards acquired land in Sonoma County in 2000 and produces Gold Medal winning wines with sales of over 6,000 cases a year to outlets such as Trader Joes in California www.leonhardtvineyards.com. Howard’s son Ryan Leonhardt is now running their wine business.  In 2006 Leonhardt formed The Entrepreneurship Party www.entrepreneurshipparty.com a public policy institute for entrepreneurs and is the author of many related articles.  This organization helped lobby for years for the Crowdfunding and Small Company Capital Formation Acts recently passed by the House of Representatives 407 to 17 and 521-1 with the purpose reducing the costs and complexity for small firms raising capital.

He founded in 2008 The California Stock Exchange www.calstockexchange.com, a firm for assisting small firms to raise capital, which is coupled with Leonhardt’s Launchpads www.leonhardtslaunchpads.com his startup business incubator booster program.  Leonhardt owns 12 collegiate summer league baseball teams and the Wine Country Old Fashioned Baseball League www.winecountrybaseball.com which is modeled after the Cape Cod League for college players seeking to get signed into a major league contract.  He previously owned two indoor arena football league teams, the Miami Morays and the Florida Frenzy.  In 2011 he started two online radio stations RadioVeronicaUSA www.radioveronicausa.com and RadioSantaMonicaUSA.   His firm Kindheart Lionheart Media Company www.kindheartlionheart.com publishes and retails inspirational books, movies and music.  This includes his own book Dolphin Smiles:  The Legend of Kindheart Lionheart an inspiring fictional tale about a Dolphin that remembers his previous life as a human.  Leonhardt produces regular podcasts of his radio show The Kindheart Lionheart Radio Program which highlights inspiring works and advocates causes for social good entrepreneurs.  Kindheart Lionheart Adventures www.lionheartadventures.com helps organize people to do charity work for others on their vacations, and has adventure packages for auctions to help charitable foundations raise funds.

Creator of the:

http://fundingroadmap.com

http://www.startupsacrossamerica.com/SAA/

Http://crowdfundingroadmap.com

Ruth Hedges is the CEO of Unismart Capital Software Inc. Ms. Hedges has a proven executive managerial track record spanning over 27 years, driving sales, marketing, publicity and strategic alliance development. As the inventor and key architect of the Funding Roadmap online licensable platform, Ms. Hedges has been responsible for pioneering a new and innovative virtual system for business planning and due diligence reporting on the cloud.

Under Ms. Hedges’ leadership, the company has developed partnerships or alliances with the Cisco Entrepreneur Institute, the California Hispanic Chambers of Commerce, Collegiate Entrepreneurs’ Organization, The CPA Directory, Laughlin Associates and the California Stock exchange, to name just a few.

Ms. Hedges and her staff have also been selected as monthly bloggers for the the Association of Small Business Development Centers,(  http://www.asbdc-us.org  ) the most comprehensive small business assistance network in the United States.

Ms. Hedges has been interviewed on Small Biz America radio and on the front page of the business section of the Las Vegas Review Journal and

http://www.vegasinc.com/news/2012/mar/05/how-create-business-plan-and-who-can-help/

http://www.theicosamagazine.com/the-best-business-plan-tool-for-startups

http://www.thestreet.com/story/11243484/2/business-plans-theyre-not-just-for-startups.html

http://www.celebritydialogue.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=295:ruth-hedges-assisting-start-ups-in-getting-discovered&catid=41:any&Itemid=49

Ms Hedges has worked from the beginning with the principals of Startup Exemption to promote HR2930 and the Jobs Act to help get the bills passed. These bills contain provisions for expanding the parameters of crowdfunding. Unismart Capital Software has created the first standardized crowdfunding reporting system http://crowdfundingroadmap.com

Previously, Ms. Hedges was featured in the Chronicle of Philanthropy as well as the New York Times, the LA times and People magazine for her work with Oxfam America and the Hollywood Hunger Banquets.She was featured on ABC’s Home Show, and the Financial News Network produced a two-part series on Ms. Hedges for their show” American Entrepreneur”.  She was invited to fill a cabinet seat on the Second Century Campaign board which raised over 16 million dollars to build the new Union Rescue Mission. She is the recipient of the Certificate of Appreciation from the City of Los Angeles for that work.

Ms. Hedges was also honored with an award from the late Mayor Tom Bradley in 1989 for her work with feeding the homeless of the City of Los Angeles. In 1999 Ms. Hedges started and developed an incubation company in Pasadena California helping dot-com companies properly structure their operations, write business plans, and raise venture capital. Her lifelong entrepreneurial experience was a resource many companies needed. Helping those companies became the inspiration for the idea behind the Funding Roadmap.

“Give us your fired, your under-funded start-ups, your huddled masses of innovative entrepreneurs yearning for access to capital. The wretched refuse of your economically broken shores. Send us the Twitters, the LinkedIn and Facebook tempest-tossed pioneers fighting to claim their piece of the American dream and let them stake a claim on the Startups Across America map, so we can all walk through the golden door.” -Ruth E. Hedges (with help from Emma Lazarus)” http://www.startupsacrossamerica.com/SAA/

As the Chief Marketing Officer, Scott is responsible for connecting to Lending Club’s customers through advertising, PR, and the website. Before joining Lending Club Scott was the Chief Marketing and Revenue Officer for eHealthInsurance, a publicly traded ecommerce company where he lead double digit growth in revenue and new customer acquisition. Prior experience includes various senior marketing roles including Chief Marketing Officer and interim president of RedEnvelope, Inc., an e-commerce and catalog retailer of upscale gifts, and Senior Vice President of Marketing for the Home Shopping Network, a television and internet retailer of consumer products.

Peter Healy is a partner in O’Melveny’s San Francisco office and a member of the Corporate Finance/Capital Markets Practice.  He has extensive experience representing companies and underwriters in public offerings, private placements, mergers and acquisitions, going-private transactions, public and private debt offerings, and other capital market transactions.  Peter also has recent experience in fund formation, private equity and hedge fund activities.  He frequently advises boards of directors and independent committees in connection with various capital market and M&A transactions.

Professional Activities
Author/Editor, articles and books for various continuing legal education and industry publications
Speaker, various industry groups, continuing legal education seminars and boards of directors, pertaining to various matters, including capital markets, fund formation, and M&A topics.  Vice Chair, ABA Section Panelist, Practicing Law Institute on Going Private Transactions

Howard Lindzon is co-founder and CEO of StockTwits® – a social network for traders and investors to share real-time ideas and information. StockTwits was recently named “one of the top 10 most innovative companies in web” by FastCompany and one of the “50 best websites” by Time magazine.

Mr. Lindzon has more than twenty years experience in the financial community acting in both an entrepreneurial and investing capacity. With a unique vision for starting and successfully managing innovative companies, he is the Managing Partner of Social Leverage, a holding company that invests in early stage web businesses. Howard continues to manage a hedge fund he started in 1998.

He created Wallstrip, and more than 400 original web video shows, which was purchased by CBS Corp. in 2007. He is an active angel with many success angel investments including: Rent.com, (purchased by Ebay in 2005 for $415 million), Golfnow.com (purchased by Comcast in June 2008), and Lifelock (lead investors include Bessemer Venture Partners and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers). Mr. Lindzon’s new media and internet business investments also include: Limos.com, Blogtalkradio.com, Buddy Media, Ticketfly, Assistly, Bit.ly and Tweetdeck (purchased by Twitter in June 2011).

Mr. Lindzon received an MBA at Arizona State University and an MIM from The American Graduate School of International Management.

Johan Gorecki is the founder/owner and CEO of Globe Forum, an internationally recognized marketplace for sustainable innovation.  Globe Forum brings together innovators, investors, multinationals and entrepreneurs, and holds sustainability forums throughout Europe.  Johan is also the founder of Globe Award, the leading sustainability prize for innovation.

An entrepreneur himself, he worked with the founding team of Skype, sold to eBay for $4.1 billion in 2005. He also worked NS with the international entertainment broadcasting group Modern Times Group (MTG) where he was responsible for the internet portal Everyday AB. He is a board member of the Swedish–Polish Chamber of Commerce and the Solar energy company Solarus.

Johan Gorecki is committed to the search for sustainable ideas. His entrepreneurial career has included working with the creators of the pioneering IP telephony company, Skype. Today, as CEO of Globe Forum, he helps innovators and entrepreneurs focused on sustainability find partners and investors that will bring their ideas to life.

Danae Ringelmann co-founded IndieGoGo – an online crowdfunding platform for ideas – to democratize fundraising.  Passionate about helping artists and entrepreneurs embrace the DIWO (Do-It-With-Others) approach, Danae speaks often at conferences.  Recent speaking engagements include SXSW, MAD Hong Kong, Ted, Big Omaha.  Fast Company Magazine recently named Danae one of the Top 50 Most Influential Women in Technology.

Prior to IndieGoGo, Danae was a Securities Analyst at Cowen & Co. where she covered entertainment companies including Pixar, Lionsgate, Disney, and Electronic Arts.  Danae also focused on cable network, NFL, newspaper and hedge fund clientele while at JPMorgan’s Investment Bank and Private Bank.  In the wake of 9/11, Danae co-produced a concert reading of Incident at Vichy, an Arthur Miller play addressing the politically charged topic of racial profiling.

Danae is a CFA charterholder and holds an MBA from the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley. Danae graduated with a B.A. in Humanities from UNC-Chapel Hill, where she was a Morehead Scholar and varsity rower.

Chance Barnett is the founder and CEO of crowdfunder (www.crowdfunder.com), a platform that enables businesses to raise equity and revenue-based financing. This exciting venture will allow everyday Americans to, for the first time, participate and invest in companies and founders they believe in, while providing small businesses with the guidance and training necessary to establish a successful future and accelerate the rebuilding of the American economy.

Chance is a respected entrepreneur in the field of startups, product development, marketing, strategy, social media, and fundraising. Highlights of his accomplishments include: bootstrapping businesses that sell over $25 million in products annually; actualizing multiple online services and accumulating active subscriber bases in the millions; and spearheading high-scale advertising and marketing communications which have been seen by over 850 million users.

He is a published best-selling Author & Speaker in the area of Personal Development & Entrepreneurship. He extends that role into mentoring and counseling many new businesses and Internet company founders in Southern California. Chance plays a central role in fostering mutually beneficial relationships in the Los Angeles start-up community as the founder of NetPositive, an invite-only network of Technology and Media entrepreneurs.

Chance is a graduate of University of California, Santa Cruz with a degree in Economics. He lives in Venice, California where he is an Advisor or Board Member to a select group of nonprofits, social businesses and early stage startups to help them find similar success online.

Slava Rubin is CEO and co-founder of Indiegogo the world’s funding platform, which provides anyone with passion the opportunity to fulfill their dreams and fund creative, entrepreneurial, or cause campaigns. The service has been used for over 30,000 campaigns and distributed millions of dollars in 200 countries. In 2011, IndieGoGo was named one of the partner companies for Startup America, President Obama’s initiative to stimulate entrepreneurship in America.

Slava’s recent speaking engagements include Skoll World Forum, TedX, SXSW, CMJ & Internet Week NY, and press includes NY Times, Wall Street Journal, Good Morning America, Oprah, BBC, and CNNMoney.

Prior to Indiegogo, Slava was a Strategy Consultant leading growth initiatives for clients ranging from MasterCard to Goldman Sachs to Fedex. He started Music Against Myeloma, an annual charity event raising funds and awareness to fight this rare form of cancer. Slava is also an advisor to Ubershare and Romper Games.

Slava is a member of Renaissance Weekend and the KIN Global Summit (Kellogg Innovation Network). He is a former member of the Young Leadership Fund of Chicago and currently a media advisor to multiple Jewish non-profits in NYC. Slava graduated with a B.S.E. from the Wharton School of Business. He loves food, film, travel and the World Cup.

Daniel is a Member of Mintz Levin in the Corporate & Securities Section in the New York office and Co-chair of the Venture Capital & Emerging Companies Practice Group. He is also a Member of the Sports & Entertainment Practice Group. Daniel brings a unique blend of talent and expertise to our venture capital and emerging companies practice. In addition to his active legal practice, he is an Adjunct Professor of Law at the NYU Law School and he has a wealth of experience as an active venture capital investor, having co-founded Dawntreader Ventures, an early stage venture capital firm based in New York. Daniel is also the Co-Editor of Venture Capital: Forms and Analysis, a leading treatise on venture capital published by the Law Journal Press. In addition to venture capital, his practice focuses on private equity funds, representing venture-backed companies, corporate governance, and general corporate law.

Before joining Mintz Levin, Daniel was Head of Venture Capital Funds and a Managing Director of SoundView Technology Group, Inc. (formerly Wit Capital), a technology-focused investment bank. Prior to joining SoundView, he was Head of the Corporate Group and the New Media and E-Law Group at one of the leading New York firms representing early stage and technology companies.

Daniel has more than 30 years of corporate transactional experience, both as a lawyer and as a businessman, and has been an advisor to many emerging and developmental stage companies. He is a board member of several technology companies and a Managing Director of Dawntreader Ventures. Daniel is admitted to practice in New York, California, and New Jersey. He received his B.A., cum laude, from the University of Pennsylvania (1979) and his J.D from the University of Pennsylvania (1982).

Publications

• Venture Capital: Forms and Analysis, Law Journal Press (www. lawcatalog.com) 2007.

Recent Speaking Engagements

• Panelist, “Secondary Market Takes Off: What you Need to Know to get On Board,” The Association for Corporate Growth, February 9, 2012.

Berkeley Geddes, Grow America CEO and DooBizz Creator

Berkeley is the father of six wonderful children and a devoted husband. He is also a serial entrepreneur, having started over 24 for profit businesses. 17 reached the proven point and achieved market success and 7 did not succeed and are now referred to as “ 7 wonderful life experiences”. Berkeley aspires to be an entrepreneur champion and continue to learn the art and science of entrepreneurism. Working with extremely talented entrepreneurs he has sought to create an on-line environment of training, support, and encouragement. Leveraging several personal experiences over a 30 year entrepreneurial track record the “Foundational Pillars Directly Linked to Entrepreneur Success” are being identified and refined.

Prior to becoming Grow America CEO and creating DooBizz.com Berkeley co-founded Arizona’s largest Venus disease service organization-Vanishing Veins. He also founded the Perinatal Women’s Center in Arizona, which he sold. Before entering the medical market, Berkeley founded “Gang of Four”, co-founded WhizBang Labs and launched FlipDog, an online recruiting website, which was sold to Monster.com.

Berkeley served as a CIO for Times Mirror Corporation where he helped merge four companies into the largest professional soft skills training company in the industry. Berkeley has started several non-profit associations, served as president of the Network Professional Association, which he founded and was the director of Novell’s Certified NetWare Engineer program. He started his entrepreneurial career as CEO of LAN Management Resources in Pennsylvania. He was a visiting professor at Brigham Young University and founder of the BYU IT Center.

In April of 2010, Berkeley joined Alan Hall to develop a solution for the 1000’s of entrepreneurs who need help in chasing their dreams.

For nearly twenty years Karen Kerrigan’s advocacy and training has helped foster U.S. entrepreneurship and global small business growth.  She is president & CEO of the Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council, and chairs the Center for International Private Enterprise (CIPE).  Ms. Kerrigan regularly testifies before the U.S. Congress on key issues impacting small business and the economy, and has been appointed to numerous federal advisory boards including the National Women’s Business Council. Kerrigan has participated in two White House economic summits, and regularly provides counsel to governments and private sector associations across the globe regarding entrepreneurial development, capacity building and policy formation and implementation. She has been called America’s “entrepreneurial envoy” and “small business ambassador” for her extensive work overseas and is a founding member of the World Entrepreneurship Forum.  Among other accolades, Inc. Magazine named Kerrigan to its small business “Best Friends in D.C.” (2006) list; Fortune Small Business  to its “Power 30” list (2000); and The Hill newspaper to its “most influential small business” list (2006) describing her as “the hardest working woman in show business.”  In November of 2009 she was presented with the “Small Business Advocate of the Year” award by the NY Enterprise Report, and was named a Top 2011 Small Business Influencer by Blackberry and Small Business Trends. Kerrigan has written hundreds of Op-Eds and newspaper columns, and regularly appears on national television and talk radio programs.

Jonathan Marino, Editor, peHUB.com
Jonathan Marino joined Thomson Reuters to edit peHUB in 2010. Prior to coming to peHUB, he worked as a writer and editor with the M&A Journal, covering private equity and investment banking. He has also written for publications including the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, New York Post, Washington Examiner and mergermarket.

Lina Constantinovici is Head of US Operations at GrowVC US, the first global peer-to-peer micro-funding service for startups. Lina is also a Founder of the Biomimicry Incubator, the first business incubator focused on increasing the number of viable biomimetic products, services, and organizations. For over 20 years, Lina has been engaged in innovation in the public, private, and NGO sectors as an entrepreneur, strategist, and educator. Lina has been driven by the insights of the DotBoom and DotBust experience gained as a consultant in the high tech sector in the 1990s and early 2000s, to contribute to innovating towards more sustainable systems. Her consulting practice has been focused on enabling organizations to meet and exceed integrated bottom line/long term resilience goals with clarity and alignment through collaboration and innovation. Lina is a mentor to the Hub Ventures program, an accelerator for Social Entrepreneurs, and a founding team member of WomenImpactProject, an accelerator focused on increasing the number of women entrepreneurs launching integrated bottom line ventures. As Vice-President of Silicon Valley Environmental Partnership, and President of the Advisory Board of Presidio Graduate School’s Alumni Association, Lina is invested in building capacity for increasing both the tangible and intangible assets of the communities she is part of. Lina has earned an MBA in Sustainable Management from Presidio Graduate School.

Don Reinke is a partner at Reed Smith. Don has extensive experience as a corporate lawyer in the areas of venture capital finance, public securities offerings, mergers and acquisitions, and other general corporate representation of technology start-up and emerging growth companies, as well as venture funds and investment banks. Before joining Crosby Heafey in late 2001 to chair its Corporate Department, which combined with Reed Smith in 2003, Don was a co-founder and the managing partner of Bay Venture Counsel, LLP. Don is currently a Deputy Chair of the firm’s Global Emerging Company/Venture Capital Practice. Don has also previously been selected as a Northern California “Super Lawyer” by Law & Politics magazine and the publishers of San Francisco Magazine.
Professional Affiliations include:

• Member of the State Bar’s Corporations Committee (1996-2000)
• Board Member and Audit and Governance Committees member of East Bay Community Foundation (EBCF) (2009)
• Past Chairperson of the non-profit Inner City Advisors, Board member since 2002 (Board Chair 2005 and 2006)
• BARTA (Bay Area Regional Technology Alliance ) Board member from 2001-2004
• Board of Directors (1989-1995) and Board Secretary (1991-1993) of the San Francisco Renaissance Entrepreneurship Center
• Past Board member of the CCSBI (Contra Costa Software Business Incubator)

John Katovich co-founded Cutting Edge Capital with Jenny Kassan, as a related service to the Katovich and Kassan Law Group founded in 2001.  Cutting Edge Capital provides strategic consulting to the impact economy, including businesses, communities and a wide range of organizations.  Katovich and Kassan Law Group provides general legal counsel to start-up and mid-level companies, exchanges and broker-dealers. John also began teaching Capital Markets at the Presidio Graduate School MBA program in San Francisco in 2005 and continues to be involved there.  John has been involved in a wide range of legal and financial services throughout his career.  After practicing law in Chicago, he began his capital markets path as an Assistant Specialist at the Pacific Stock Exchange in 1983, and later joined the exchange as an enforcement and regulatory attorney.  He became their General Counsel and Secretary from 1987 to 1998, responsible for all legal and regulatory matters.  From 1998 to 2001, John served as General Counsel and Secretary for OptiMark Technologies, which employed proprietary computer-based trading methods, and served as the EVP and General Counsel of ePit, which provided enterprise-class trading and exchange software for world-wide markets.  He served on the executive management team for each of these companies as well.  John rejoined exchanges with the Boston Stock Exchange in 2007 as EVP and Chief Legal Officer, responsible for all legal matters, including the merger and acquisition activity with NASDAQ OMX.  John was also responsible for all regulatory matters involving the BSE and BOXR, including reviews, investigations, examinations and enforcement actions. As counsel in the financial-services industry and in his private practice, John’s experience has touched upon all areas of securities and corporate law and management, including general advisory matters, regulatory and legislative issues, debt and securities financings, product development, licensing, IP, mergers and acquisitions, internal investigations, enforcement actions, litigation, arbitration, and employment matters. He also co-developed two patents involving trading methods.  In addition, he has represented and dealt with major securities regulators and governmental entities, including, among others, the SEC, FINRA, state regulators, Congressional banking and finance subcommittees, the CFTC, and emerging/developing country governments as an advisor and consultant in capital market development.  He has also been an exchange participant in front of the U.S. Supreme Court. John also served as an Adjunct Professor at the University of California, Berkeley, and INSEAD, France, teaching Options and Regulation. John currently lives in Berkeley, CA with his wife, Lisa. His son Kiefer and daughter Scout are now working in their desired fields of study after graduating from Stanford and Columbia.

Tim Sullivan is a Managing Director of Sharespost and is responsible for all transaction and execution of private company shares on the Sharespost platform. He works directly with companies, investors and other parties in an effort to provide liquidity in the secondary direct market. Tim also serves as President of SharesPost Financial Corporation. Tim began his career at Oracle and IBM where he led sales efforts which culminated in the initial sale of Oracle products and services to Hewlett-Packard, the first sale of Oracle database to Yahoo, and the management of the IBM Software effort in Silicon Valley during the dot com frenzy. Subsequently, Tim entered the financial services realm — initially as a fixed income trader and ultimately running the global private placement group for Susquehanna International Group. Tim has since managed more than $500M worth of private equity transactions and enjoys a consistent track record of surpassing his clients’ expectations. Tim has a Bachelor of Art in Political Science from Colgate University and he holds FINRA Series 7, 66 & 79 licenses.

Scott Purcell is the founder of Arctic Island. Mr. Purcell has considerable experience in both the securities and internet industries. In 1988 he founded a trust company that managed fixed income instruments for institutional investors and quickly grew it to $300 million in assets. After selling the company to a    regional bank, as SVP of the bank trust department, his unit added over $1 billion in assets in the first 6 months post acquisition. During this time Mr. Purcell also started a bond trading desk, a    clearing firm for institutional investors, and published a book “The Guide to Fixed Income Investing”. In 1994 he founded Epoch Networks, one of the industry’s first ISP’s, and raised over $60 million in venture capital. One of the early Board members of the Commercial Internet eXchange (CIX), he often represented the nascent industry before Congress and the FCC. In 1999 Mr. Purcell founded OnAir Networks, raised over $40 million in venture capital and built the    first music storage, streaming and downloading services for Sony and Universal. During this time he was retained by the Recording Industry Association of America to advise them on internet technology issues and copyright matters, and to represent the industry before Congress. Since selling OnAir in 2001, Mr. Purcell has started several ventures, including a search engine wholesale business, a family tree and journaling website, and an adult social    network. In 2011 he founded the equity based crowdfunding platform, Arctic Island.

University of Southern California – BS, Business
MIT Sloan School of Management – Birthing of Giants Executive    Entrepreneurship Program

Alejandro Cremades is the founder and CEO of Rock The Post (www.rockthepost.com), a crowdfunding site oriented to fund small businesses, entrepreneurs, and artists. Rock The Post, is committed to bring funding to main street. Prior to Rock The Post, Alejandro worked as an attorney at King & Spalding (New York office). During his time there, Alejandro was involved in one of the biggest arbitration cases in history, which was Chevron v. Ecuador, where the dispute in place was $113 billion dollars. Alejandro also provided advice on other complex international arbitration cases before the World Bank’s International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) and under the UNCITRAL rules, as well as international commercial arbitrations under the ICC, AAA and SCC rules. Alejandro graduated from Universidad San Pablo-CEU (Spain), where he obtained his law degree. After his graduation, at the age of 23, Alejandro landed in New York in order to complete his Master’s Degree in International Business & Trade Law at Fordham Law School. Alejandro is one of the youngest people to ever graduate from a Master’s Degree at that University.

Carlo D’Itri, Co-Founder of crowdfunder, Attorney at Cypress, LLP

Carlo D’Itri is the Co-Founder and General Counsel of crowdfunder, Inc. (www.crowdfunder.com), an online platform that will enable businesses to raise funds by selling debt, equity and revenue-based financing to non-accredited investors. Carlo leads the Startup Company and Venture Financing practice group at Cypress, LLP (www.cypressllp.com), an innovative law firm in Los Angeles. He guides his clients through venture financings, mergers & acquisitions, intellectual property transactions, and all types of corporate and commercial matters. While he works with companies of all sizes, his practice focuses on startups and emerging businesses. Carlo’s legal experience has also included real estate transactions and complex business litigation with a focus on intellectual property.

David Teten is a Partner with ff Venture Capital, Founder and Chairman of Harvard Business School Angels New York, and co-founder and Chairman of Navon Partners, a data mining and research analytics company focused on analyzing private company data. David is a Mentor with Founder Institute in New York and Singapore, Dreamit Ventures, Entrepreneurs Roundtable Accelerator, Lean Startup Machine, and Startup Leadership Program.

David was formerly Acting CEO of Vertical Key, a web-based software service for managing large-scale events. He was previously a Managing Director with Evalueserve, a 2,500-person global research and analytics company, and Founder and CEO of Circle of Experts, an investment research firm acquired by Evalueserve.

David was formerly Founder and CEO of GoldNames, an Israel-based investment bank focusing on the internet domain name asset class. He worked with Bear Stearns’ Investment Banking division in their technology/defense mergers and acquisitions team, and was a strategy consultant with Mars & Co. David holds a Harvard MBA and a Yale BA, both with honors. While still in college, he started and ran a computer consulting group with over 35 clients.

David is a frequent keynote speaker to audiences such as technology entrepreneurs (MIT CIO Symposium; NY Software Industry Association; Software Information Industry Association); institutional investors (Kauffman Fellows; Franklin Templeton; Association for Corporate Growth); and senior executives (Vistage; CEO Trust). He has received the highest ratings of any speaker at three different conferences.

David led the first-ever study of best practices of venture capital and private equity funds in originating new deals, published in Harvard Business Review, Institutional Investor, and the Journal of Private Equity. He is the lead author of The Virtual Handshake: Opening Doors and Closing Deals Online, with Scott Allen. He grew up in Marin County, Northern California, and learned to program on an Atari 800. He trains in parkour, a sport in which crossing the chasm is more than a metaphor.

John D’Agostino is a globally recognized leader in exchanges, asset management and market structure with a unique industry perspective drawn from 10 years experience creating liquidity under challenging conditions across the globe.

While head of strategy for the New York Mercantile Exchange, John spearheaded the Exchange’s breakthrough international partnership: the first ever Middle Eastern based energy exchange, the Dubai Mercantile Exchange (DME).

John has spoken and taught around the world on capital markets and market structure. In 2008, John’s story was the focus of the New York Times Bestseller, “Rigged” by Ben Mezrich. Recently, he was profiled in “The Start-Up of You” by Reid Hoffman. He has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg Television, Barron’s, The O’Reilly Factor and many other financial and non-financial media.

John attended Williams College and the Harvard Business School and has been a guest lecturer for INSEAD University.

Maurice Lopes is the founder and CEO of EarlyShares.com. He previously served as CEO and founder of HotBrickNetwork Solutions, an international network security appliance manufacturerwith offices across the globe. In addition, he has held a variety of management positions at VisualCom, Motorola, MCI-WorldCom, GICC and BellSouth.

Aaron Sokol is a principle at Paratum Inc. and focuses on creating and utilizing innovative structured solutions for high net worth individuals, closely held businesses, and hedge funds. Preceding the formation of Paratum Inc., Aaron was a Managing Director of Euram Structured Products with primary responsibility for client marketing, and whose remit included Euram’s products and services related to Asset Management, Private Banking and Corporate Finance.

Prior to joining Euram, Aaron was a Managing Director at Bear, Stearns and Co. Inc. in Los Angeles where his responsibilities included providing global investment management services for existing and prospective clients. He also offered wealthy individuals and families innovative and customized solutions in the areas of wealth preservation, investment analytics, restricted and control stock management, and philanthropic planning.

Aaron joined Bear, Stearns and Co., Inc. from Los Angeles based Deutsche Bank Alex Brown where he was responsible for new business development as well as global financial advisory services for high net-worth individuals. Aaron also was a portfolio manager and Vice President at Scudder Kemper Investments, Inc. overseeing investment portfolios for high net-worth individuals and companies. He began his financial services career after graduate school in Corporate Finance as an Assistant Vice President at First Chicago Capital Markets, Inc., and just before that, as an Associate in Corporate Finance at Nationsbank Capital Markets, Inc.

Aaron earned his J.D. in 1993 from Boston University School of Law, and completed his M.B.A. in Finance and New Venture Management from the University of Southern California in 1991. In 1987, Aaron graduated with a B.S. in History from Yeshiva University in New York.

Eric Corl has spent his entire career helping entrepreneurs launch their ideas.

In 2004 he was part of the founding team behind the Go BIG Network, the world’s largest fundraising platform for startups, which grew to over 330,000 small businesses and millions of dollars in funded ideas.

Three years later in 2007, Eric launched IdeaBuyer.com, the first Online Marketplace for Intellectual Property to allow for the licensing and sale of patents. IdeaBuyer.com has since listed over 10,000 patents and has attracted an all star list of buyers including Johnson and Johnson, HP, 3M, and GE.

In 2010 Eric then became a Partner at Virtucon Ventures, an incubator for early stage Internet companies.  There, Eric co-founded Fundable.com, a crowdfunding platform for startup companies where he is currently the President.

Rory is an experienced investor and advisor, most recently serving as Director of Investments at Humanity United, part of The Omidyar Group. At Humanity United, he invested in small businesses and social enterprises on a global basis.   Rory is a former consultant with The Boston Consulting Group, where he worked in the Financial Services, Technology and Consumer practices.

Rory received his MBA from Stanford as well as a public policy degree from Princeton. He holds Series 24, 63, and 82 licenses.

CircleUp (www.circleup.com) is an online social marketplace that supports direct equity investments from individual investors into privately held consumer and retail companies.  At CircleUp, accredited investors find free access to select private investments, easy tools to identify and diligence companies, and online transaction capability to make investments.  In addition, CircleUp provides investor relations tools to help maintain strong engagement between companies and investors beyond the initial financing.

David Teten is a Partner with ff Venture Capital, Founder and Chairman of Harvard Business School Angels New York, and co-founder and Chairman of Navon Partners, a data mining and research analytics company focused on analyzing private company data. David is a Mentor with Founder Institute in New York and Singapore, Dreamit Ventures, Entrepreneurs Roundtable Accelerator, Lean Startup Machine, and Startup Leadership Program.

David was formerly Acting CEO of Vertical Key, a web-based software service for managing large-scale events. He was previously a Managing Director with Evalueserve, a 2,500-person global research and analytics company, and Founder and CEO of Circle of Experts, an investment research firm acquired by Evalueserve.

David was formerly Founder and CEO of GoldNames, an Israel-based investment bank focusing on the internet domain name asset class. He worked with Bear Stearns’ Investment Banking division in their technology/defense mergers and acquisitions team, and was a strategy consultant with Mars & Co. David holds a Harvard MBA and a Yale BA, both with honors. While still in college, he started and ran a computer consulting group with over 35 clients.

David is a frequent keynote speaker to audiences such as technology entrepreneurs (MIT CIO Symposium; NY Software Industry Association; Software Information Industry Association); institutional investors (Kauffman Fellows; Franklin Templeton; Association for Corporate Growth); and senior executives (Vistage; CEO Trust). He has received the highest ratings of any speaker at three different conferences.
David led the first-ever study of best practices of venture capital and private equity funds in originating new deals, published in Harvard Business Review, Institutional Investor, and the Journal of Private Equity. He is the lead author of The Virtual Handshake: Opening Doors and Closing Deals Online, with Scott Allen. He grew up in Marin County, Northern California, and learned to program on an Atari 800. He trains in parkour, a sport in which crossing the chasm is more than a metaphor.

Based in New York City, Ryan combines his legal training and startup experience to position Grow VC’s global platform within the United States’ emerging equity crowdfunding market. Ryan has experienced the hurdles that can prevent promising entrepreneurs from securing funding and maintains strong opinions on how to ensure the JOBS Act actually lowers these hurdles. He (shamelessly) shares these views while exploring global startup ecosystems as host of Grow VC’s Everyone Funding Startups podcast. Ryan recently graduated from NYU School of Law and will begin his legal practice as a capital markets and securities associate at the New York office of Morrison Foerster.