Speakers

Jeff Bussgang

http://www.flybridge.com/

Jeff is a General Partner at Flybridge Capital Partners whose investment interests and entrepreneurial experience are in consumer, Internet commerce, marketing services, software and mobile start-ups. Jeff currently represents the firm on the boards of Cartera Commerce, ClickSquared, DataXu, i4cp, SavingStar, SimpleTuition, tracx, and is a board observer at ZestCash. Jeff also serves as a Senior Lecturer at Harvard Business School where he teaches a class on entrepreneurship and lean start-ups called High Risk Guys, Launching Technology Ventures.  In addition, he serves on the board of MITX, the Massachusetts Innovation and Technology Exchange and is a Founding Executive Committee Member of FirstGrowth Venture Network, a network of venture and angel investors supporting first and second time entrepreneurs building exciting companies.

Jeff authored a book on venture capital and entrepreneurship, Mastering the VC Game, which is an insider's guide for entrepreneurs on financing and company-building.  He also writes a blog on helping demystify the venture business for entrepreneurs called, "Seeing Both Sides.”

Prior to Flybridge, Jeff co-founded Upromise (acquired by Sallie Mae) and was an executive at Open Market.

Jeff holds a BA in Computer Science from Harvard University where he graduated magna cum laude and an MBA from Harvard Business School where he was a Baker Scholar and a Ford Scholar.

Carol Roth

http://CarolRoth.com

Carol Roth is a recovering investment banker, business/lifestyle expert and author of the New York Times bestselling book, The Entrepreneur Equation. She has helped her clients, ranging from solopreneurs to multinational corporations, raise more than $1 billion in capital, complete more than $750 million worth of M&A transactions, secure high-profile licensing and partnership deals and create million dollar brand loyalty programs. Carol is a frequent radio, television and print media contributor on the topics of business and current events, appearing regularly on Fox Business, CNN, Fox News, MSNBC and more. Additionally, Carol’s blog at CarolRoth.com was recently named as one of the Top 10 small business blogs online and she was named a 2011 Top 100 Small Business Influencer.

Carol is a contributing blogger to outlets like The New York Times, The Huffington Post and Crain’s Chicago Business/Enterprise City and is the only business strategist with a fashion doll / action figure made in her own likeness.

To get Carol's free eBook "60 Low and No Cost Marketing and PR Strategies", go to http://www.carolroth.com/free_ebook/.

John Frankel

http://ffvc.com/

John Frankel has been an early-stage venture investor since 1999. Mr. Frankel was one of the earliest investors in Quigo Technologies, which was purchased by AOL in December 2007, and in Cornerstone OnDemand (CSOD on NASDAQ) which had a successful IPO in March 2011. He has also served and/or now serves on the boards of 500px, Apparel Media Group, Alerts.com, Centzy, ClearPath Immigration, Gobbler, Infochimps, Klout, Phone.com, Quigo Technologies, The Goldman Sachs Trust Company, and Voxy. He is also a Mentor with the Entrepreneurs Roundtable Accelerator program. 

In particular, he established Goldman’s Cayman offshore administration business, their London global custody business, and reengineered their global prime brokerage business. In capital markets, he worked closely with some of the world’s leading hedge funds, and developed a keen understanding of portfolio risk/return management. He started his business career with Arthur Anderson & Co. in the audit and insolvency divisions.

Mr. Frankel earned a Master of Arts from New College, Oxford where he studied Mathematics, Philosophy and Logic, and is a Fellow Chartered Accountant of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales.

Tim Davis

http://www.cmitsolutions.com/westmidtown

Tim has coached top comedians for over 25 years that have appeared on Leno, Letterman and Comedy Central, as well as CEOs, Entrepreneurs and sales teams in Behavioral Communications. He has a teaching certificate from UCLA Extension Studies, a certified behavioral analyst and acclaimed as one of the best comedy & sales trainer in the country. Tim Davis has a one of a kind approached to help his clients with performance anxiety for selling, presentations and overcoming objections. As a national known speaker, his talks are funny and educational.

Peter Shankman

http://shankman.com/about/

An author, entrepreneur, speaker, and worldwide connector, Peter is recognized worldwide for radically new ways of thinking about Social Media, PR, marketing, advertising, and customer service. Peter is best known for founding Help A Reporter Out, (HARO) which in under a year became the de-facto standard for thousands of journalists looking for sources on deadline, offering them more than 200,000 sources around the world looking to be quoted in the media. HARO is currently the largest free source repository in the world, sending out over 1,500 queries from worldwide media each week. HARO’s tagline, “Everyone is an Expert at Something”, proves over and over again to be true, as thousands of new members join at helpareporter.com each week.

In June of 2010, less than two years after Peter started HARO in his apartment, it was acquired by Vocus, Inc. Peter is now Vice President and Small Business Evangelist for Vocus, working out of New York City.

Peter is also the founder and CEO of The Geek Factory, Inc., a boutique Social Media, Marketing and PR Strategy firm located in New York City, with clients worldwide. His blog, which he launched in 1995 athttp://shankman.com, both comments on and generates news and conversation.

Peter’s PR and Social Media clients have included American Express, Sprint, The US Department of Defense, Royal Bank of Canada, Snapple Beverage Group, Saudi Aramco, Foley Hoag, LLP, NASA, Haworth, Walt Disney World, Abercrombie and Kent, The Ad Council, Discovery Networks, New Frontier Media, Napster, Juno, Dream Catcher Destinations Club, Harrah’s Hotels, and many, many others.

Peter is the author of two books:  Can We Do That?! Outrageous PR Stunts That Work and Why Your Company Needs Them (Wiley and Sons 2006) and Customer Service: New Rules for a Social-Enabled World (Que/Pearson, 2010) and a frequent keynote speaker and workshop presenter at conferences and tradeshows worldwide, including South By Southwest, Affiliate Summit, BlogWorld, The Public Relations Society of America, The International Association of Business Communicators, CTIA, CTAM, CES, PMA, OMMA, Mobile Marketing Asia, and the Direct Marketing Association.

Peter sits on the advisory boards of several companies, including ScotteVest and Pixability, and is honored to sit on the NASA Civilian Advisory Council. He was appointed to his position by NASA Administrator Charles Bolden. He’s also an angel investor, specializing mostly in very early stage tech and social media companies.

A marketing pundit for several national and international news channels, including Fox News, CNN, and MSNBC, Peter is frequently quoted in major media and trade publications, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Los Angeles Times, The New York Daily News, The Associated Press, Reuters and USA Today.

A proud Boston University graduate, Peter started his career at America Online as a Senior News Editor, helping found the AOL Newsroom and spearheading coverage of the Democratic and Republican 1996 conventions, which marked the first time an online news service covered any major political event.

Born and raised in New York City, Peter still resides there with his NASA the Wonder Cat, who consistently denies his repeated requests to relinquish the couch. In the few hours of spare time Peter has per month he’s completed 13 marathons, seven Olympic distance triathlons, two half-Ironman triathlons, and one full Ironman Triathlon. He’s also a “B” licensed skydiver with over 260 jumps. He’s currently training for the 2012 Inaugural NYC Ironman.

In 2011, Peter authored a Tweet that was voted as one of the Top Ten Tweets of the year by Twitter, out of more than 160,000,000,000 tweets sent.

Steve Kessler

http://www.sunrisepremiums.com/

A trendsetter in the Travel Incentives industry since 1997, Steve Kessler launched Sunrise Premiums because he holds the recipe to growing your business. By partnering with top-notch airlines, hotels and travel businesses worldwide, Steve developed unparalleled results-oriented travel incentive packages for pennies on the dollar. The theory of saying “thank you” to your customer coupled with a travel reward is the bottom line conceptSince Sunrise Premiums’ inception, Steve has been involved in the sales arena managing and directing firms all related to travel incentive rewards. Sunrise Premiums Corporation has leaped into the forefront of the incentive industry with innovative and customer care programs directed by Steve and a staff second to none.
In 2003 Steve and Sunrise Premiums created a financial partnership with one of the largest and fastest growing travel agencies in North America, PrWest Travel & Vacation Rental Systems. A very well respected and trusted name in the travel incentive industry, Steve Kessler and Sunrise Premiums.

Mary Agnes Antonopoulos

http://MaryAgnes.com

Mary Agnes Antonopoulos is the Chief Marketing Officer for Viral Integrity – a branding and social media consulting firm based in NYC. Mary Agnes is a well known social strategist, speaker and writer whose client list reads like the Who’s Who. She has spoken at the Javits Center, teaching BlogTalkRadio for podcasting and Meetup.com to create a consulting business. She is a featured speaker and expert for the Independent Book Publishers Association, as well as a guest speaker for Move People to Action (a 3-day training event for speakers and coaches in Stamford, CT). She is on the agenda for Author101 in October, 2012 and personally mentored 250 entrepreneurs in social media and branding at Christine Comaford's 7-Figure Business Summit in San Francisco. She has co-authored an Amazon best seller on Social Media and blogs weekly for over a dozen clients and is currently the Social Media Editor for We Online Magazine.

Prior to her role at Viral Integrity, Mary Agnes was the CEO of RockawayWriter.com a freelance writing company specializing in short content for social platforms, such as Blogs, Facebook and Linedin Groups, and websites. In that capacity, Mary Agnes often worked by-proxy, maintaining an online presence for some of the biggest corporations, brands and celebs around the world. Proudly born and raised in Brooklyn, NY, Mary Agnes also teaches one of the most respected courses in Social Media and Online Branding available today. In a field crowded with noise, Mary Agnes Antonopoulos is definitely the top 1%.

“To this date, Mary Agnes is my go-to expert when I need quick advice. ~ Lisa Williams, Marketing Director, The Canfield Training Group”

“Mary Agnes is a knowledge powerhouse. She is one of the sharpest people that I’ve come across. She fully understands all aspects of Social Media Marketing and strategy. Her insight is truly invaluable. I would highly recommend her services to anyone who wants to grow their business and their client base.” ~ Christine Comaford, NY Times Bestselling Author of Rules for Renegades

“Mary Agnes Antonopoulos took my brand to a whole new level with her strategic social media planning and implementation. Endlessly creative, passionately dedicated to her clients, a kick-ass writer and a pleasure to work with, ‘MA’ is a force of nature!” ~ Libby Gill

Nihal Mehta

https://localresponse.com

With over 12 years of experience in innovating marketing technologies through founding five startups to date, Nihal Mehta, is a noted expert in the emerging adoption of mobile technologies for media properties and consumer brands. Named a top 25 "Up-And-Coming Startup CEO in New York" in 2012 by Business Insider, a 2012 AlwaysOn "Power Player NYC," a top 10 NYC 'Game Changer' in the 2010 New York Enterprise Report, one of twenty RCR Wireless News 'Mobile Movers and Shakers' in 2008, a Business Week 'M-Commerce Baron' in 2006 and named one of AdAge's 'Top 20 Marketers in Their 20s' in 2005, Nihal is currently CEO and co-founder of LocalResponse, Inc. which helps marketers respond to real-time consumer intent. Prior to LocalResponse, Nihal founded ipsh!, one of the first full-service mobile marketing agencies in 2001, which he sold to Omnicom (NYSE: OMC) in 2005.

Nihal is also a Founding General Partner at the world's first venture fund focused on mobile startups, ENIAC ventures; a Founding Partner of the India Internet Group which incubates and invests in Indian startups; and is an active angel investor including investments/advisories in Admob (sold to Google), Greystripe (sold to Valueclick), Movoxx (sold to Adenyo). Nihal graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a BA in Philosophy and a BSE in Computer Science.

Bob Dorf

http://amzn.to/MeGW9V

Bob Dorf is often called the "midwife of Customer Development", helping Steve Blank deploy it when Blank's eight startup, E.piphany, opened its doors with five employees in 1996. Dorf later critiqued the earliest versions of Steve's Four Steps to the Epiphany mercilessly along the way, and they've been friends and colleagues ever since. In March, 2012, along with Steve Blank, Bob published The Startup Owner's Manual: a step-by-step guide to Building a Great Company, two years in nearly-fulltime research and development. The 500-page, painstakingly detailed guide is much more than update of Blank's groundbreaking Four Steps, with parallel Customer Development pathways for companies in the web and mobile channels, as well as traditional physical goods and enterprise software startups, and web and channel marketing tutorials.

When Bob and Steve aren't writing, Bob runs the Four Steps consultancy, helping major corporations and startups alike effectively deploy Customer Development process through workshops and hands-on consulting. Bob's deep experience consulting to Fortune 500 companies and service, retail, and web businesses balances Steve's VC and software-centric experience. this spring, Bob begins lecturing a full semester course at columbia Business School, "Introduction to Venturing, " on getting startups right. Entrepreneurial from the age of 12, Bob received his last W-2 almost 40 years ago, when he left a great news editor's job at WINS Radio in New York to launch his first major startup. Since then, he has personally founded six companies, including-as he puts it- "two homeruns, two base hits, and two solid tax losses." Dorf+Stanton Communications, founded at age 22 in his living room, grew from a staff of two - Bob and a St. Bernard - to more than 150, when Bob sold it in 1989. He has since invested in and/or advised more than a score of startups on Customer Development and "get customers" sales and marketing strategy. He's counseled dozens of nonprofits probono as well.

Bob co-founded Marketing 1to1 (later Peppers & Rogers Group), growing it to 400+ people. The March 1999 Fortune magazine raved about The One to One Fieldbook, he co-authored, saying, "If your company is launching a customer-focused strategy...it sets the agenda." As founding CEO, Dorf spearheaded major strategic customer programs at a veritable "who's who" of companies including 3M, Bertelsmann, Ford, HP, Jaguar, NCR, Oracle, and Schwab. He has spoken before scores of U.S. and international audiences, conducted in-depth workshops, and published dozens of articles including a Harvard Business Review indepth treatise.

Dorf lives in Stamford with his wife Fran, a therapist and thrice published novelist. An avid bicyclist and skier, Bob's proudest startup by far is daughter Rachel, a psychologist who recently made him a grandpa.

Sam Liebowitz

http://www.talkingalternative.com/

Sam Liebowitz, the Conscious Consultant, is a mentor, coach, healer and serial entrepreneur. He has been in business for himself since 1993 and has owned several successful businesses, including a software consulting firm, a video publishing business and an internet business for aerospace engineers and managers. His current ventures include Talking Alternative Broadcasting, an Internet Radio Station which reaches over 60 countries worldwide, The Conscious Consultant, a coaching and mentoring service which promotes sensible, ethical, moral and conscious ways to build careers and businesses, and Double Diamond Wellness a healing center to which he brings his high level business and intuitive skills. In these various roles Sam has inspired hundreds of people to live that are happier, healthier and more fulfilled.

In his capacity as producer at Talking Alternative Broadcasting, Sam finds and develops new broadcast talents who have empowering and enlightening viewpoints to share with the world. He is responsible for marketing and business development of the station.

As The Conscious Consultant, Sam uses sound business principles to develop businesses and bridges the worlds of business & healing by helping people overcome the physical, mental or spiritual blocks that may be preventing them from achieving their full potential. He holds Abundance & Business Building workshops, provides prosperity coaching, and offers on site and over the phone consulting services to individuals & businesses seeking to improve their current situation.  He also hosts a weekly radio program called The Conscious Consultant Hour  ~  Awakening Humanity  ~ which airs every Friday at 11am  eastern time on www.TalkingAlternative.com.

As a co-owner of Double Diamond Wellness he provides healing, guidance and support to individuals using several healing techniques: The Yuen Method, Reiki, and Celestial Light Healing. The center is home to several gifted professionals, a haven of healing in the midst of the upper west side. The center offers a professional environment in which reputable practitioners of the healing arts can see clients and build a practice, and hosts several workshops that advance the understanding of healing in many forms.

Julian Sturton

http://thelanguageofleading.com

Julian develops executives and entrepreneurs into World Class Leaders beyond their already successful accomplishments. Over the last 25 years he has developed a distinctive leadership methodology, the Language of Leading, that empowers executives, business owners and other leaders to turn their personal visions into reality and excel beyond all expectations. His methodology is a synergy of his highly refined business skills, his intense athletic training at Olympic level, and his accomplishments as a scuba diver and as an experienced explorer.
In the early eighties, with a successful and impressive track record in international corporate marketing, Julian founded and led one of Northern Europe's leading motivational incentive and special events agencies.
He met with extraordinary success in the design, development and implementation of his distinctive business motivation tools and major corporate events for a roster of multinational corporations including Ford, Volvo, Mobil Oil, Exxon, Ericsson and Noble Industries. Now at the helm of The Business of Leading, Inc., senior management and CEO's of leading institutions as well as startup companies, recognize the transformational results of Julian's proven leadership methodology – these include financial institutions, law firms, advertising agencies and Fortune 500 companies, including American Express, Salomon Smith Barney, Pfizer, Ernst & Young, Fleet Bank, British Airways, Toyota and Young & Rubicam. Julian is an innovator in the field, teaching the skills to break through, break out and lead within any given circumstances.

Julian has been credited with creating what is called the Constitutional Leadership Model, an operating system, freeing executives of their fears and frustrations that have kept them from attaining their goals. Corporations have seen 100% achievement of desired, measurable results due to having Julian and The Business of Leading empower their executive teams.

Avi Fogel

http://www.linkedin.com/in/fogelavi

Avi Fogel is a full time investor in private and public technology companies, with interest in advisory work and board positions with tech startups. As an angel investor, Avi has had 5 exits in 13 investments, with a 76% IRR on these 5 exits. Avi is a former 4 time tech CEO: LANNET America, CommHome Systems, Network-1, and ProActivity. Additional previous roles for Avi include Venture Partner at Infinity Venture Capital, EIR at YankeeTek Ventures, VP of Marketing at Digital Equipment - Networking Products BU and VP at EMC Software.

Dan Porter

http://linkedin.com/in/danporter

Dan Porter is the GM of Zynga New York (ZNGA). Before he sold his company to Zynga, he was CEO of OMGPOP, the creator of Draw Something, the fastest growing mobile app in the history of mobile. The game hit 1 million users in 9 days and 50 million users in 50 days. Prior to OMGPOP, Dan was the SVP Corporate Development for Richard Branson and The Virgin Group in North America where he led investments and sat on a number of Boards of Virgin Companies. Dan was also President of TicketWeb, the first online ticketing company, which he sold to Ticketmaster CitySearch.

Before getting into business, Dan was a founder and President of Teach For America, launched some of the first Charter schools in NYC and was a public school teacher in Brooklyn Dan has a BA from Princeton University, an MA in Latin American Studies from NYU and lives in Brooklyn with his wife, kids, various pets and guitar. He is also active in First Growth Network, TechStars and is the founder of Inside Startups.

Tom Murray

http://www.carbonite.com/en/

Tom Murray, SVP of Consumer and Small Business Markets.

Tom is responsible for leading Carbonite's marketing efforts across its lines of business. With more than 17 years of experience, Tom has helped build strong brands and marketing organizations in the consumer electronics and consumer packaged goods industries.

Prior to joining Carbonite, Tom most-recently served as Senior Vice President of Marketing and Product Management for TomTom, Inc. Before that, Tom held marketing leadership positions at Procter & Gamble, The Gillette Company, and Duracell. Tom holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Fairfield University, and attended the University of Connecticut Graduate School of Business.

Ryan Feit

http://www.seedinvest.com/

Ryan is the CEO and Co-Founder of SeedInvest, a revolutionary funding platform for startups and small businesses. Prior to the passage of the JOBS Act, Ryan supported The Startup Exemption, the nonprofit responsible for bringing the concept of Equity Crowdfunding to Washington, DC. Ryan co-founded the Crowdfunding Professional Association and currently serves as an Executive Board Member and the Co-Chair of the Education and Training Committee. Ryan also serves as a Governing Board Member of the Crowdfund Intermediary Regulatory Advocates group and as Co-Chair of the Crowdfunding Portals Committee.

Prior to founding SeedInvest, Ryan worked at Carlson Capital, a $7 billion multi-strategy hedge fund, where he evaluated and recommended public equity investments. Prior to Carlson, Ryan worked as a Senior Associate at Wellspring Capital Management, a private equity fund with $3 billion under management, where he led small deal teams in conducting detailed due diligence, structured deals, raised hundreds of millions in financing and managed an array of portfolio companies. Prior to that, Ryan was an Investment Banking Analyst at Lehman Brothers where he structured and executed financings to support leveraged buyouts, refinancings, recapitalizations and acquisitions.

Ryan received an MBA in Entrepreneurial Management from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and a BBA in Finance and Accounting from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Adam Rothenberg

http://www.techstars.com/

Adam Rothenberg is the Director of TechStars in New York City.  TechStars is a mentorship-driven seed stage accelerator program with the mission of helping entrepreneurs build the next generation of great technology companies. 

Adam is also a Principal of the BoxGroup, a New York City based angel fund that invests in talented entrepreneurs building disruptive technology companies.  BoxGroup is invested in more than 60 companies including Fab, Flavors.me, PaymentSphere, Art.sy, Lore, Skillshare, GroupMe, DataMinr and 9gag.

Prior to joining TechStars, Adam spent 4 years investing in the public markets at a long-short equity hedge fund in New York City. Adam attended The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania where he concentrated in Finance and minored in Fine Arts. Adam is a native New Yorker. You can find Adam on Twitter @adamrothenberg

Brad Szollose

http://bradszollose.com/

Web Pioneer Brad Szollose is the *award-winning author of Liquid Leadership: From Woodstock to Wikipedia which explores the subject of new leadership styles — mainly how to get the tech-savvy Generation Y and analogue driven Baby Boomers working together. But this is not based on management theory: Brad is a former C-Level Internet Executive who went from entrepreneur to IPO in 3 yrs—co-founding K2 Design, the very first Dot Com Agency to go public on NASDAQ!!!

His management model was applied to the first wave of Gen Y workers with great results—winning K2 the Arthur Andersen NY Enterprise Award for Best Practices in Fostering Innovation among K2 employees!

Brad is frequently invited to speak at conferences and conventions across the US, Canada and the Far East, helping audiences discover their untapped goldmine of motivating, managing, marketing and selling to Generation Y.

#1 Best Selling Book on Amazon.com

2011 Axiom Business Book Award silver medal in Leadership

David Teten

http://teten.com/

David Teten is a Partner with ff Venture Capital and Founder and Chairman of Harvard Business School Alumni Angels of Greater New York. He is cofounder of the Venture Capital Access Program, which helps women and minority entrepreneurs raise venture capital from members of the HBS Angels network. 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 Founder and CEO of Navon Partners, a data analytics startup, and 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. He speaks passable French and Hebrew but has completely lost the Portuguese he learned while working in Brazil.

Chris Dessi

http://silverbacksocial.com

Chris Dessi is a CEO of Silverback Social. He is also an award winning digital thinker, television & radio commentator, author, blogger, and public speaker. Throughout his career in New York and London Chris has worked with Fortune 500 businesses and start-ups alike. His deep marketing acumen combined with his passion for psychology, sociology and cultural studies all reside at the fulcrum of his manifesto that social media is much more of a spiritual awakening rather than a technological one. This revolutionary perspective has propelled his personality into the
national media landscape.

Dessi is a regular social media expert contributor on Fox Evening News, Good Day New York, and FOX BUSINESS's Varney &Co. He has appeared on Inside Edition, the Steve Adubato show One to One, and has made Radio appearances on the John Gambling show on WOR Radio in NYC, and the Mary Beth Marsden show in Baltimore on WBAL. His first book “Your World is Exploding: How Social Media is Changing Everything and How You Need to Change With It”, shot to #1 on Amazon.com’s Hot New Releases in it’s first two weeks of publication.

In addition to his writing and work in social media, Chris is active on the college lecturing circuit. Coaching students how to leverage social media to benefit their personal brand message and their career. He has guest lectured to students around the country including Marist College, Manhattanville College, Loyola University in Maryland, and at Harrisburg University of Science and Technology Social Media Summit.

As a result of the work and impact via television and radio in the New York metropolitan area Chris was recently selected by the Business Council of Westchester’s 40 under 40. He has been quoted in Mashable, and has lectured about the power of social media to the United States Marines aboard the Intrepid Sea Air and Space Museum. He is a featured contributor on Social Media Today and The Social Customer.

Sam Hamadeh

http://PrivCo.com

SAM HAMADEH, Founder and CEO of PrivCo and Founder of Vault.com, is a veteran media and Internet entrepreneur, as well as corporate attorney, and financial and entrepreneurship expert based in New York. In 1997 Sam co-founded VAULT.com, the web's leading career information website, upon graduation from the Wharton School and University of Pennsylvania Law School. Sam served as the venture-capital-backed company’s President through the successful sale of a majority of the Vault.com in 2007 to a major private equity firm for nearly $100 Million.

In 2009, Sam then founded the leading private company financial data provider PrivCo and has since served as PrivCo's Chief Executive Officer.  PrivCo is considered the leader in providing online financial data on major privately-held companies, including startups, leading entrepreneurs, venture capital and private equity, IPOs, and other fast growing companies in the innovation economy.

Sam is an Economics graduate of UCLA, a JD graduate of the University of Pennsylvania Law School and MBA graduate of the Wharton School of Business. His honors and awards have included Entrepreneur of the Year by Crain’s, the Harvard Business School Club’s Entrepreneur of the Year, Silicon Alley Reporter’s "100 Most Influential Media Executives," Crain's "40 Under 40" Nominee, Deloitte & Touche's 50 Fastest Growing Companies, and the University of Pennsylvania Law School's Young Alumnus of the Year award. Sam has also served on the Board of Managers of the University of Pennsylvania Law School, has served on the Entrepreneurship & Innovation Advisory Board for a major U.S. Congressional Candidate, and has been the official Entrepreneurship-in-Residence at the Wharton School, advising Wharton MBA students on their startup business plans. He also serves each year as a Final Round Judge for the annual Wharton Business Plan Competition.

Sam has also worked on mergers & acquisitions and on IPOs as an media & technology investment banker at Goldman Sachs, and on IPOs and securities transactions at the leading New York law firms Cravath Swaine & Moore and Skadden Arps. Sam Hamadeh also holds an attorney's license in the state of New York and is an expert on corporate law related to private companies, including IPOs, mergers & acquisitions, private equity, SEC regulations, and venture capital.

Sam Hamadeh is also a published author, and has authored 12 books about entrepreneurship and business, all published by Random House and Houghton Mifflin. 

Sam Hamadeh has also been Executive Producer of several successful films, including "Made For Each Other" (IFC Films 2011) starring Danny Masterson, Chris Masterson, and Bijou Phillips, "Home Movie" (IFC Films 2010) starring Adrian Pasdar, star of NBC's "Heroes, and "Headspace" (Showtime 2009) starring Sean Young.

Hamadeh's prominent charitable activities include supporting the charity Right to Play, which sets up sports and athletic programs for children in the world's war-torn areas, recently hosting a major benefit in New York City attended by prominent U.S. Olympic medalists and New York Governor David Paterson, raising over $50,000 from just this event.

Tom Dudley

http://wordivate.com/

Tom is Vice President of Sales for Wordivate a Mobile Marketing Company. He has been in the Telecommunications industry for 18 years. He was part of launches, branding and rebranding for At&t, Nextel, Voicestream, T Mobile, Cingular and Boost Mobile Wireless in the New York Metro Market. He launched the largest New York wholesale distribution for At&t's first pre paid product.

In late 2003 joined Boost Mobile as the first employee on the East coast. Tom then built out the teams in the Northeast and Midwest regions and developed and managed the distributor program that still produces over 60% of Boost Mobile’s business today.He is responsible for preparing a launch in the Florida market. Being part of the leadership team at Boost Mobile he was instrumental in contract negotiations and developing marketing and sales strategies for the entire country.

In 2008 he founded R Club Productions Inc. He consulted for the relaunch of Total Call Mobile in the North east region in 2010. In 2012 joined on as Vice President of Sales for Wordivate a national mobile marketing company. Tom is also a seasoned musician, singer songwriter and producer of music and videos Retail /Wholesale specialist, a motivator and a leader.

Specialties:
- Sales (Retail Products)
- Wholesale Distribution (Indirect Channels)
- Forecasting & Analysis
- Marketing/Cooperative Advertising Programs
- Policy and Procedure Development and Execution
- Retail Footprint Strategy & Selection
- Sales Channel Management
- Presentations & Sales Training for Large Groups
- Organizational Design and Development
- Employee Development
-Leadership of Remote Sales Teams

Maurice Lopes

http://earlyshares.com/

Maurice Lopes is an expert in building successful businesses. He is currently the CEO and co-founder of EarlyShares.com. Conceived out of Mr. Lopes’ frustration in the lack of resources afforded to the small business owner, EarlyShares.com is dedicated to bridging the funding gap for small business entrepreneurs through the application of Crowdfunding.

Matthew Cavnar

http://vook.com/

Matthew is the VP of Business Development at Vook where he extends Vook's cloud-based ePublishing platform to content holders everywhere. At Vook, Matthew has produced the award-winning JFK:50 Days enhanced eBook with NBC and Perseus, Unleashing the Super IdeaVirus with Seth Godin, Winning the Zero Moment of Truth / with Google, as well as a variety of eBook projects for Simon & Schuster, Penguin, Harvard Business Review, Franklin Covey, HayHouse and Hachette.

Matthew Weiss

http://nytrafficticket.com/

Matthew Weiss - a self-proclaimed entrepreneurial attorney, Matthew is President of a Manhattan law firm that fights thousands of traffic tickets throughout New York State. His firm launched this month a new cloud-based database that will automate most of his firm's operations including marketing, sales, customer service and social media, and will serve as a free "virtual lawyer".

Eventually, Matthew plans on licensing the technology to law firms nation-wide. Matthew is the Past President of the Entrepreneurs' Organization, a former member of the Executive Association of Greater New York and a member of various chambers of commerce.

Shep Sepaniak

http://eoaccess.eonetwork.org/NY/Pages/

A parallel entrepreneur who grows good ideas into great opportunities. He is currently the president of the Entrepreneurs' Organization, New York Chapter, as well as a founder/owner of five businesses including a mobile application, a social media site, and micro-cap securities holding company.

Julia Pimsleur

http://littlepim.com/about/about-julia-pimsleur/

CEO and Founder of Little Pim, the leading system for introducing young children to a second language. Prior to Little Pim, Julia was the co-founder and CEO of a film production company for five years, which produced independently made documentaries broadcast on HBO, Cinemax and PBS.

Julia serves on the board of the Entrepreneurs' Organization, and as an advisor to Global Language Project, which brings free foreign language instruction to disadvantaged kids in New York City public schools.

Basil C. Puglisi

http://digitalethos.org/

Executive Director for Digital Ethos, President of Puglisi Consulting Group, Inc.

Basil Puglisi started his “Read, Write & Share” blog about digital and social media as a way to learn and share. Today the blog has evolved into a non-profit organization called Digital Ethos (formerly DBMEi) which produces the Digital Media Daily and has a global readership.

As the Executive Director for Digital Ethos and the Publisher for Digital Media Daily, he receives invites and attends the top conferences which include SMX (Search Engine Marketing Expo), BlogWorld & New Media Expo, Social Media World Forum, SxSW, Internet Week and more. Basil Puglisi has turned these events into learning experiences that he uses to generate future content used to create awareness and educate others through Digital Ethos’s publications.

@basilpuglisi has been recognized as a Top Conference Influencer on Twitter for Social Media Week NYC 2012 (@Kred & Ogilvy), The Corporate Social Media Summit NYC 2012 (@Radian6 & Useful Social Media) and the Social Media World Forum North America (@Synthesio).

As a speaker Basil has presented at Social Media Week, #140ConfLI, Social Media Day of Giving at Touro Law Center, NYXPO, TradeBrooklyn and more. Basil Puglisi harnesses his passion and utilizes it as a journalist to seek out and distribute information to educate the public. Enabling individuals to participate in digital communication, both as consumers and contributors. Savvy digital media communicators keep digital media communication open and free to all without unwarranted censorship or limitation.

Basil has contributed hundreds of articles through various internet sources, while delivering over 350 publications to Digital Ethos, where he is joined by other contributing authors who are professionals that share his passion. Basil C. Puglisi is also the Principal of Puglisi Consulting Group, Inc. A Digital Brand Marketing Consultancy that manages professional and personal branding for Fortune 500 CEOs, Hedge Fund Managers and Small Business Owners.

Walter H. Sanchez

http://queensledger.com/

Publisher Queens Ledger & Brooklyn Star Weekly Community Newspaper Group

Have been publishing weekly community newspapers in Queens - and more recently Brooklyn since 1986. Queens Ledger was founded in 1873, Leader Observer of Woodhaven in 1909, Glendale Register in 1935 and the Greenpoint Star was first published in 1898. We also publish 'It's Queens Magazine' - a quarterly glossy sold on newsstands as well as emailed in lively digital format.

We love the idea of taking on journalism interns who might have a passion for the field. I believe the "J" schools don't really hit the essence of what real community journalism is. It's about knowing and caring about your community, learning about your subject and interacting with people. It's less about constructing a sentence than it is about understanding how to relate to people to get a great story. Too often we see people who are at the entry level of their journalism career who write very well, but don't have the ability to communicate with people - or worse yet, are uncomfortable talking to people. Young journalists should have that early experience at a group of papers like ours to, if nothing else, test their notion of what journalists actually do. Many waste their education years because some professor told them they write well enough to be a journalist. Well guess what - most of those professors can't understand that 99.9% of the journalists out there don't have the benefit of working for the New York Times, where story subjects typically want to talk to you. They know they will be written about in the Times. Journalism is more about making connections with people so they trust you and give you great information for your stories. So a journalist has to be comfortable talking to people - and better yet be passionate for learning about people and issues. It's all about 'information.'

Our company actively use social media, QR codes, mobile web sites, short text and our social networking web sites to add readers, followers and consumers of Brooklyn and Queens news and events.

William J. Wright

http://nbcnews.com/

Senior News Editor at NBC News

William (Will) J. Wright is a career news and broadcast management professional who is a native from Brooklyn New York. He is recognized for his iconoclastic, out of the box thinking that has put a positive imprint on the way New York and network TV serve their viewers. This senior television manager and executive is known as a diversity champion, a digital journalism advocate, a news management guru, and a staunch devotee of community inclusion.

Wright is currently the Manager of Digital Production for NBC News, tasked with helping to transform the workforce through training and corporate culture development. The role also tasks him as a consultant, helping NBC take advantage of new and emerging technologies that “future proof” the Company.

Diversity is Will’s passion. He has been honored as a 2012 Black History Legend and Trailblazer by The McDonalds Corporation, and the winner of the 2011 Diversity Champion Award from The National Association of Black Journalists. He has helmed news operations into areas of diversity that led to ratings success and commercial viability. He is among the NBCUniversal staffers supporting diversity in its ranks and on-air.

Among his accolades are 12 Emmy awards for Best Newscast, Investigative Reporting, to Set Design. He has won New York Film Festival Awards for a 2-year long series on Poverty In America, The Edward R. Murrow Award for Best Overall News Operation, Telly Awards and Gabriel Awards for coverage of Hurricane Katrina, and A Communications Excellence to Black Audiences (CEBA) Award for a series on The Tuskegee Airmen/Black Aviators.

Wright has served as a member of Fordham University’s Board of Trustees, The Board of Directors of the Radio Television News Directors Association (now RTDNA) and is the Director of his Broadcast Journalism Coaching Foundation.

Richard Greenwald, Ph.D.

http://www.sjcny.edu/

Academic Dean of the School of Arts and Sciences

Richard Greenwald, a professor of history and sociology, is Dean at St. Joseph's College in New York. He was until recently, professor of history, Dean of the Caspersen School of Graduate Studies, Director of University Partnerships, and was the Founding Director of the Business, Society & Culture Program at Drew University in Madison, New Jersey. He is the author or editor of four books. His most recent book is "Labor Rising: The Past and Future of the American Working Class" (New Press, 2012).

His current projects include a book under contract with Bloomsbury Books entitled: "The Death of 9-5: Permanent Freelancers, Empty Offices and the New Way America Works"; and book-length project to be published by the New Press, entitled "Woven Together for Justice: Garment Unions and the Making of Modern Liberalism", which is supported by a grant for the Hillman Foundation (2014). He is a member of the editorial boards of two scholarly journals and In These Times. Richard was the senior editor of the book series on the economy at a university press. He writes regularly for Businessweek, Bookforum, In These Times, The Progressive, The Brooklyn Rail, The Rumpus and The Wall Street Journal among other places. And he blogs regularly on urban living for the Atlantic Monthly's Atlantic Cities blog.

Jim Pavia

http://linkedin.com/pub/jim-pavia/2/b05/76b

Jim Pavia is the editorial director of InvestmentNews, a weekly business newspaper owned by Crain Communications. His main responsibility is to ensure integration among all initiatives within the InvestmentNews brand: print, web content, social media, research, web casts and industry business conferences and workshops.

Jim has 30-plus years of journalism experience. He graduated from New York University with a BA in journalism and worked in daily newspaper newsrooms when reporters and editors were using typewriters and pages were designed on boards with hot wax.

Miranda Tan

http://myprgenie.com/

Miranda has over 10 years experience in PR, marketing and tech. Prior to MyPRGenie, Miranda was the president of Excite Media Group, where she specialized in PR and marketing for start-ups and fast growth companies.Prior to Excite Media Group, Miranda founded ExcitePR, a $2 MM hi-tech PR agency. Miranda merged ExcitePR with a $15M PR and marketing firm in Silicon Valley, where she became their VP and head of biz dev for their NY office.

Miranda founded MyPRGenie in 2007 with the goal of providing a more effective and efficient tool for Small Businesses to publicize themselves. Since then, thousands of companies across the globe have used MyPRGenie. The MyPRGenie platform integrates PR with social media to make digital marketing messaging more effective.

Since launching, MyPRGenie was featured in Entrepreneur magazine (2X), Wall Street Journal 4X, Fox Small Business as a great marketing tool for companies to get the word out. In addition, MyPRGenie was recognized as a top 100 OnDemand company, top 100 OnMedia company, and top 100 Mid-Atlantic company by Alwayson in 2010.

Miranda is an avid speaker and writer on helping small companies promote their business using the power of PR and social media.  Miranda has a BS from Cornell University and a JD from St. John's University School of Law.

Cindy Gallop

http://cindygallop.com/

Cindy Gallop is a graduate of Somerville College, Oxford, whose background is brandbuilding, marketing and advertising - she started up the US office of ad agency Bartle Bogle Hegarty in New York in 1998 and in 2003 was named Advertising Woman of the Year. She is the founder and CEO of www.IfWeRanTheWorld.com, a marketing platform that turns human and corporate good intentions into collective action, launched in beta at TED 2010, and subsequently written up and taught as a Harvard Business School case study; and of www.makelovenotporn.com, launched at TED 2009.

She has just launched https://www.makelovenotporn.tv/ in invitation-only beta: details can be found at http://talkabout.makelovenotporn.tv/ . She acts as board advisor to a number of tech startups and consults for companies around the world, describing her consultancy approach as 'I like to blow shit up. I am the Michael Bay of business.'

She has a reputation as a highly compelling and inspirational speaker at conferences and events around the world on a variety of topics: her talks on the future of advertising and marketing have been tweeted as: ‘The most brilliant speech on the future of advertising ever – not the usual buzzword-laden bullshit’; ‘Watching @cindygallop slice and dice the ad industry status quo like a ginsu knife. #purewin’; and ‘There must be a DeLorean parked outside, because Cindy Gallop is from the FUTURE!’ Pardeep Sall introduced her at InfluencerCon NYC as ‘Cindy Gallop is the truth Jack Nicholson told Tom Cruise he couldn’t handle.’ She published ‘Make Love Not Porn: Technology’s Hardcore Impact on Human Behavior’ as one of TED’s line of TEDBooks and is currently working on a book about her philosophy of life and business. You can follow her on Twitter @cindygallop.

Lori S. Hoberman

http://chadbourne.com/

Lori S. Hoberman is the chair of the Emerging Companies / Venture Capital practice. Her practice emphasizes venture capital, private equity, and general corporate counseling for emerging as well as later stage and publicly traded companies. She focuses on a range of industries, including telecommunications, software, biotechnology and life sciences, social networking, consumer products, Internet search and advertising, gaming and other media.

Ms. Hoberman has significant experience in the structuring of, and tax planning for, domestic and offshore private equity funds.

Adam Enbar

http://flatironschool.com/

Adam joined CRV in 2012 as the first full-time team member in New York and brings deepexpertise in Sales Business Development and Inbound Marketing. He came to CRV from HubSpotwhere he founded led the National Accounts sales team. Previously, Adam worked withseveral startups on Sales Business Development and was a Real Estate Developer in NYC. Adam holds a BA in Policy Analysis from Cornell University and MBA from Harvard BusinessSchool. When he’s not working he’s fixing the engineering talent shortage at The FlatironSchool, and continuing his quest to find the world’s greatest sandwich. Check him out on twitter at http://www.twitter.com/aenbar

Ben Uretsky

https://www.digitalocean.com

Ben Uretsky is the CEO of DigitalOcean, a simple cloud hosting provider for developers and their startups. With over 10 years of experience in the managed hosting industry prior to DigitalOcean, Ben has expertise in scaling some of the world's largest web infrastructures. Ben and the rest of the DigitalOcea team have recently completed the TechStars accelerator program in Boulder, CO and have been experiencing serious traction and growth since graduating with almost 40,000 virtual servers launched since inception. Ben has been interviewed and featured on Forbes, TechCrunch, PandoDaily, and TheNextWeb.

Marc H. Michel

http://metamorphic.vc/metamorphic-ventures-nyc/team

Marc has over 20 years of private equity and venture investment experience and was a founding Director of Metamorphic Ventures before joining as a Managing Partner. Marc was formerly Group Head at TD Capital (USA) in New York, TD Bank's $500 million private equity fund focused on the media and communications sectors. Prior to joining TD Capital, Marc was the Managing Partner of EOS Partners SBIC, a $60 million venture capital fund focused on business services, media and telecommunications. Marc began his career at Merrill Lynch Interfunding, a $1.3 billion middle market buyout fund. While leading TD Capital, Marc co-founded Precyse Solutions, a leading health information management company still operating and growing today.

Marc's passion is helping entrepreneurs build their businesses from start-up to ramp to exit. He has helped management teams build their executive teams, develop their operational and corporate strategy and assisted them with executing financings of every type. Marc has served on numerous boards of directors in partnership with management and co-investors.

Marc has been involved in many successful companies including Coinstar, Mountain Union Telecom, CADIS Software, FrontierVision, Open Development Software, Precyse Solutions, Telemundo, Robb Report, Reiman Publishing, Alaska Native Wireless, Tritel PCS, Triton PCS, Wireless One, Brooks Fiber, Bresnan Cable, and Peapod.

Marc graduated with a BA degree from Emory University in 1983 and a MBA from Wharton School of Business of the University of Pennsylvania in 1987.

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