Dave Knox

Dave is the Chief Marketing Officer of Rockfish Interactive.  A veteran of Procter & Gamble, Knox was most recently the Brand Manager, Global Branded Entertainment where he led the strategy for new business models in digital media, venture investments, and original content.  Previously, Dave served as P&G’s Corporate Marketing Brand Manager for Digital Business Strategy, responsible for driving digital innovation and capability across P&G’s 300+ brands worldwide.   As the author of HardKnoxLife.com, he was named by AdAge as “1 of 25 Media People You Should Follow on Twitter” and by Media Industry News as a “2010 Social Media Superstar.”  Dave is active in the marketing and start-ups communities, serving as a Board Observer / Advisor to several venture-backed companies and on the board of VCU Brandcenter.   @daveknox

J.B. Kropp

J.B. Kropp is recognized as a leader in interactive marketing and consumer generated media. Prior to joining Twitter in Strategic Partnerships, J.B. was an executive with Vitrue, a social media management company used by some of the top brands today. In addition, J.B. was with ShareThis, the company known for the social-sharing tool that now reaches more than 400 million users across 500,000 sites on the web. During his more than two years at ShareThis, J.B. led the product strategy and distribution efforts helping pave the wave for the company’s notable growth and success. In addition, J.B. was a co-founder of one of the first online video sharing communities, Sharkle.com, which was acquired by Vitrue. J.B. was a founding member of Flycast Network, Web Visible, Cucina.com, SmartyTags.com and an online video sports recruiting company, Go Big Recruiting. A native Cincinnatian, J.B. spends much of his free time helping to promote and assist local start-up businesses. J.B. started Queen City Ventures, which aims at helping entrepreneurs incubate their ideas. He serves as a member of the Board of Trustees for Starfire Council, Starfire U, UGIVE, the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick Foundation, Xavier University Williams College of Business Advisory Board as well as a member of the Greater Cincinnati Venture Association and an Advisory Board member for Dynamic Signal, LifeBlinx and ShareSomeSugar.com. @jbkropp

Bryan Radtke

Bryan Radtke is Vice President, Strategy at Rockfish Interactive.  Bryan helps lead strategy and execution with client partners to realize full business potential, while adding a brand-building lens. Prior to joining Rockfish, Bryan served as the Brand Manager of Household Care Scale, leading commercial innovation and CRM projects across multiple Procter & Gamble brands including Pantene, Herbal Essences, Swiffer and Tide. He also worked in retail innovation at P&G to lead purchase barrier understanding, loyalty, merchandising strategy and shopper-based design. In addition to delivering long-lasting and business-creating partnerships, Bryan leverages his extensive brand and retail marketing background to bring new capabilities and growth to the company’s idea incubation division, Rockfish Labs.  @bryanjradtke

Robert W. McDonald

ROBERT W. MCDONALD is an attorney in the Business & Finance Practice Group at Taft Stettinius & Hollister LLP. Rob’s practice at Taft is focused on corporate, securities, and sports law work. He assists both private and public company clients with a variety of corporate and securities related matters, including mergers and acquisitions and offerings of securities. Rob also assists start-up and emerging companies through business formation, early-stage investments, and other issues that face entrepreneurial businesses. Rob also serves as a Co-founder and Board Member of The Brandery, as the Chair of the Boy Scout’s Professional Leadership Network, as a Board and Executive Team Member of the Dan Beard Council (Boy Scouts of America), as the Co-Chair of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra Encore Committee, as a Board Member of Lead PAC, and as Board of Associates Member of the Cincinnati Opera. Rob received his bachelor’s degree in public policy with a minor in political science and markets and management from Duke University. Rob earned his Juris Doctorate at Washington University School of Law. During his last term of law school, he worked full-time in the Division of Enforcement at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. @robertwmcdonald

Mike Bott

Mike Bott is the General Manager of The Brandery.  In addition to running the day-to-day operations of the space and program, he looks forward to sharing his branding and product management experience with The Brandery companies.  Prior to joining The Brandery, Mike worked in brand management at Procter & Gamble, architecting Olay North America’s digital strategy and ecosystem which was awarded P&G’s internal designation of “Best Digital” at the NA Brand Building Awards.  Before P&G, he led product launches as a product manager at Match.com and AOL.  He has a passion for building brands with high quality user experiences and creative monetization and acquisition strategies.  He’s currently working with two startups – SonicNotify and Wearcast.  Mike graduated from the University of Notre Dame with a BBA and MBA and is active in the Irish Angels network.  @clashmoremike

Pete Blackshaw

Throughout Pete’s varied experiences in marketing, government and entrepreneurship runs a common theme – the power of the Internet to give individuals a voice and change the way things are done. He coined the term “consumer- generated media” (CGM) and authors a blog by that same name.  Pete presently serves as Executive Vice-President of Nielsen Online Digital Strategic Services,  a combination of BuzzMetrics and Nielsen NetRatings. Prior to BuzzMetrics, Pete was Chief Marketing and Customer Satisfaction Officer for Cincinnati based Intelliseek.  Pete is a co-founder and board member of the Word-of-Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA), and a board member of the National Council of Better Business Bureaus (CBBB).  Pete founded PlanetFeedback.com, and prior to that he worked at P&G where his work culminated in P&G being named AdAge Magazine’s “Interactive Marketer of the Year.”  AdAge named Pete one of the nation’s top 20 interactive marketers. @pblackshaw

Mike Docherty

Mike Docherty has over 25 years of innovation management experience with broad-based leadership experience includes senior roles in general management, marketing and new product development.  Mike is currently COO of Third Screen Marketplace, an open innovation marketplace for connecting and commercializing branded consumer experiences on mobile devices.  Mike is also the founder of Venture2 Inc., an open innovation consulting and matchmaking firm that helps consumer product companies create new sources of growth through innovation.   His previous corporate career includes marketing and technical leadership roles for Sunbeam, Ford Motor Company, General Electric Corporation and Rohm & Haas Company. In each of these positions, Mike has combined strategic, creative thinking with the development of high performance teams in order to achieve profit growth through innovation.  He is a highly rated national speaker on innovation and holds four U.S. patents. @medocherty

Wendy Lea

From bootstrap entrepreneur to corporate executive to angel investor for venture backed start-ups, one theme has defined Wendy Lea’s 25 year career: a constant push to stay current, relevant, and to go beyond the expected and the status quo.  Wendy is a recognized expert in multi-channel systems and has worked with technology brands, large and small, to connect them more effectively to their customers. In 1999, Wendy established Siebel Systems’ eBusiness Consulting business unit which she joined after the company’s acquisition of OnTarget, where she served as VP of Marketing and Alliances.  In 2001, Wendy founded The Chatham Group, where she currently serves as an angel investor, board member and strategic advisor for a long list of startup companies including UStream, Eventvue, Metallect, and Aegis Analytics. Today, Wendy serves as CEO of Get Satisfaction, where she is focused on applying her expertise to drive the convergence of social media and customer service to bring brands closer than ever to their customers. @wendyslea

Lucas Watson

Lucas Watson is Vice President Sales & Marketing of YouTube at Google.  Prior to this, Watson was the Global Marketing Director for Procter & Gamble’s Digital Business Strategy. In this role, Lucas led a team responsible for driving digital innovation and capability across P&G’s 300+ brands worldwide. Lucas’ team made the strategic choices on which digital brand building skills and innovations will be areas of focus for P&G’s brands.  Previously, Lucas was the Associate Marketing Director for Pampers in North America. As part of his work on the company’s largest brand, he led all of the brand’s relationship marketing and e-commerce efforts. During his 14-year career at Procter & Gamble, Lucas has worked in a variety of line marketing and sales positions in Boston, Cincinnati, and Kobe Japan. Some of his notable accomplishments include the launch of Pampers Cruisers, the turn around of the Luvs diaper brand, and the growth of the Kandoo brand for toddlers. @lucasewatson

Tim O’Shaughnessy

As co-founder and CEO of LivingSocial, Tim sets and communicates core strategy and oversees the growth of the next great consumer brand. Before LivingSocial, Tim led the consumer products team at Revolution Health and managed product launches at AOL. Tim graduated from Georgetown University with degrees in Marketing and Operations & Information Management. @oshy

Joe Medved

In 2005, Joe Medved joined SoftBank Capital, where he helps identify, evaluate and support early stage investment opportunities.  The fund focuses on companies that address ubiquitous, social computing.  Prior to joining SoftBank Capital, Joe was an Associate with Constellation Ventures, a media and communications venture capital fund under Bear Stearns Asset Management. Prior to Constellation Ventures, he was an Associate and Analyst for the Technology, Media and Telecommunications Group with JPMorgan Investment Banking.  Joe is Chairman Emeritus of the New England Venture Network (NEVN), the largest young venture capital organization on the East Coast. Under NEVN, he co-founded VentureNetwork.VC, the first social network built exclusively for the venture capital community.  @joevc

Mike Brown, Jr.

Mike Brown Jr. is a Founder and Partner at AOL Ventures, the venture capital arm of AOL. At AOL Ventures he focuses on investing in the consumer internet space and works closely with portfolio companies betaworks, 20×200, bit.ly, Movie Pass, gdgt, Soundtracking, Sailthru, Metamarkets, Impermium, Spree Commerce and Solve Media. In addition to his activities at AOL Ventures, Mr. Brown is an angel investor in a variety of seed stage companies including Qwiki, Voxy, Codecademy, Social Amp and Moat. In a prior life, Mr. Brown worked for the investment arm and incubator of Richard Branson’s Virgin Group and helped create new Virgin businesses and invest capital in early stage startups on behalf of the British entrepreneur. Earlier he co-founded the largest healthy vending company in the US (www.healthyvending.com) and began his career at Morgan Stanley. Mr. Brown serves on the boards of the National Forest Foundation and the Conflux Festival and graduated with a B.A. in International Relations from Columbia University. @MikeBrownJr

Suzanne Tosolini

Suzanne Tosolini is currently VP of “Third Screen Marketplace”, an open innovation marketplace for connecting and commercializing branded consumer experiences on mobile devices.  In this role she works with Fortune 500 companies to drive consumer led strategy into their mobile thinking and help create cross company platforms on which to deliver the programs. Prior to this she was a marketing director at P&G, where she worked for 18 years in a variety of leadership roles spanning 6 countries and brands such as Tide, Gain, Pantene, Old Spice, Always, Ariel, and Febreze.  Suzanne’s career started in the UK and then saw her leading brands in Europe and North America.  Her main achievements lie in repositioning brands and creating marketing platforms and campaigns which endure time to drive long terms business growth.  Suzanne also spent 7 years as a director of P&G’s communication department as an in-house communication expert and consultant to the businesses on brand equity, strategy and communication execution.  Her last 2 years at P&G were spent leading communication planning and digital marketing capability building within corporate marketing.

Bob Gilbreath

Bob Gilbreath is Chief Marketing Strategist at Bridge Worldwide, one of the nation’s largest digital advertising agencies and part of WPP.  Bob leads the Strategic Planning team within the agency, advising clients such as Procter & Gamble, ConAgra Foods, Kroger, Luxottica, and Abbott.  He is the author of The Next Evolution of Marketing: Connect with your Customers by Marketing with Meaning and his writing has been featured in Brandweek and Entrepreneur.   Bob joined Bridge Worldwide after driving a dramatic turnaround of the Mr. Clean brand at Procter & Gamble.  He successfully launched innovative products including the Magic Eraser, which was featured in Harvard Business Review.  This innovation helped nearly triple the business in one year. Bob was recognized by Advertising Age as one of the Top 50 marketers of 2004.  He received his MBA in marketing from the NYU/Stern School of Business and his BA in Economics from Duke University.  @mktgwithmeaning

Adam Symson

Adam Symson is the VP, Interactive for the E.W. Scripps television station group. Symson is responsible for the operation, content and revenue for the division’s interactive businesses, including community news and information websites, micro-sites and mobile businesses in 9 local markets across the country. He is also responsible for directing the division’s overall growth strategy in the interactive space. Prior to his current appointment, Symson served as the director of content & marketing for the Scripps interactive media division. Symson joined Scripps corporate in 2002 as the director of investigations and special projects for the television stations group. Shortly thereafter, he was named director of news strategy and operations, with responsibilities for the station’s 9 NBC and ABC affiliated stations. Mr. Symson first joined the E.W. Scripps Company as the executive producer of investigations and special projects for KNXV TV, in Phoenix, Arizona. At KNXV, Mr. Symson re-launched the ABC15 Investigators and grew it to be a nationally recognized investigative unit, specializing in long-form journalism.

Christina Cacioppo

Christina Cacioppo is part of the investment team at Union Square Ventures, a New York City venture capital firm, where she splits her time between evaluating potential new investments and working with existing portfolio companies. Union Square Ventures focuses on investments in mobile and web-based networks and marketplaces and counts Etsy, Twitter, Zynga, Kickstarter, and Foursquare as early investments.  Previously, Christina conducted design research at Deutsche Telekom in Berlin, Germany. She’s also spent time living and researching in Kigali, Rwanda, Kampala, Uganda, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and Bangkok, Thailand.  Christina graduated from Stanford University with a BA in Economics and an MS in Design. She speaks French, some German and Kinyarwanda, and has studied Spanish and Swahili.  @christinacaci

Reggie Bradford

Reggie Bradford brings nearly two decades of technology leadership and experience to Vitrue, the company he founded in 2006.   Bradford’s leadership experience spans 18 years in the consumer packaged goods, Internet and television industries. Prior to Vitrue, he was president and board member with TANDBERG Television, an organization of more than 400 employees and over $100 million in revenues. In his 14-month tenure, he led the company to a 40 percent annual growth rate, successfully integrated two major acquisitions and led the global repositioning of the brand.  Bradford also served as the president and CEO of N2 Broadband, the leading provider of open-platform, on-demand entertainment solutions. During his tenure, N2 Broadband grew annual revenues from less than $1 million to more than $35 million in just under five years.  Prior to joining N2 Broadband, Bradford served as Chief Marketing Officer at WebMD from 1998 to 2000. During his tenure there, the company grew from 40 to 4,000 employees and received more than $2 billion in funding. While at WebMD, Reggie was instrumental in defining interactivity on the web as an early pioneer of social communities.  He previously held various marketing and management positions with Miller Brewing Company, a subsidiary of Phillip Morris.  @ReggieBradford

Phin Barnes

Phin is a Principal at First Round Capital, a leading seed stage venture capital firm.  Before joining First Round Capital, Phin founded an independent videogame company that developed and published Yourself!Fitness, the first fitness game for Xbox and PlayStation2. While managing the marketing and distribution of Yourself!Fitness from 2003-2006, Phin secured retail partnerships with Nordstrom and Best Buy as well as promotional partnerships with Proctor & Gamble and McDonald’s.  One of the earliest employees at AND 1 Basketball, Phin spent six years helping to grow the company from revenues of $15 million to over $225 million. While at AND 1 Phin led product direction, managed relationships with national retail accounts and created the initial concept for the signature AND 1 marketing property—the AND 1 Mix Tape.  Phin also has consulted with several companies, including MTV Networks, where he focused on non-traditional games and the growth of the MTV Games division. @phineasb

Peter Flint

Peter Flint is a general partner at Polaris Ventures in Boston.  He brings over 25 years of experience as an operating executive in the consumer media industry combined with building senior management teams for early stage venture backed companies.  Prior to joining Polaris, Peter was a managing director with Ramsey Beirne Associates, the leading provider of executive searches to high growth, leading edge information technology companies. Peter has enjoyed a successful 15-year sales and marketing career in the cable television industry, initially with Showtime Entertainment and MTV Networks. He also worked with the Boston Red Sox and Boston Bruins to develop and launch the New England Sports Network. In addition, as VP of Sales and Marketing for QVC Network, Peter directed a team to secure long-term distribution agreements with the nation’s largest cable companies, which was instrumental in the successful initial public offering. Peter was an early entrant in the interactive television marketplace asVP of Video Jukebox Network, the company that built out the first nationally distributed, on-demand TV network.  @pflint

Sonny Jandial

Sonny has 12 years of experience with Procter & Gamble and is currently a Brand Manager within P&G FutureWorks, the business unit that works across many of P&G’s businesses to develop and incubate new corporate growth ventures.   Sonny has most recently focused on vetting, developing, and implementing new business models and external partnerships within Futureworks ranging from health care to new mobile/digital business models being tested for P&G.  Sonny recently moved to Silicon Valley to work on a Venture Capital backed start-up within the mobile space as part of P&G Futureworks innovation portfolio.  Sonny is the single point of contact between P&G and the Venture Capital firm Kleiner Perkins.  Sonny has worked across multiple functions within P&G including manufacturing, sales, and marketing and multiple categories from home care and coffee to health care services to his most recent work focused on innovating within the mobile space.  Sonny has led innovations both in marketing with the launch of Swiffer Dusters and new business model ventures within health care.  Sonny has managed external partnerships with major retailers like Safeway while also leading relationships with renowned health care thought leading organizations.

Kevin Dugan

For the bulk of his 18-year career in marketing communications, Kevin Dugan has used the Internet to advance his clients and his industry.  Kevin has been blogging since 2002 and has nearly 16,000 Twitter followers. His blogs Strategic Public Relations and The Bad Pitch Blog are award-winning and ranked by Advertising Age magazine’s Power 150 — a ranking of the world’s top marketing blogs.  He also explores the intersections of owned, paid and earned media as Director of Marketing for Empower MediaMarketing in Mt. Adams.  Kevin is the founder of Cincinnati Social Media, with over 1,200 current members. @prblog

Steve Schlafman

Jon Steinberg

Jon Steinberg is the President of BuzzFeed.  He was previously Strategic Partner Development Manager on Google’s SMB (Small Medium Business) Partnerships team and an EIR at Polaris Venture Partners.  Prior to Google, Jon was the Director of Business Development at Majestic Research and the founder of iBuilding, a commercial real estate software company backed by Tishman Speyer Properties, Benchmark Capital, and 12 Entrepreneuring.  He is a graduate of Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs and holds an MBA from Columbia University.He’s “jonsteinberg” on most consumer web services and blogs at jonsteinberg.com.  @jonsteinberg

Michael Stich

Michael Stich is Chief Operating Officer at Rockfish Interactive.  Michael’s specializations include e-commerce, analytics / measurement, mobile, digital retail, social media, relationship marketing, product development and organizational consulting. Prior to Rockfish, he served as group director of strategic planning at WPP agency Bridge Worldwide. While at Bridge, Michael and his team served market leaders in CPG, retail, healthcare, technology and financial services. Previously, he served in venture capital, marketing and strategy roles for Texas Instruments, McKinsey & Company, and Dell. Michael holds a B.S. in computer engineering from Tufts University and an M.B.A. with a marketing focus from the MIT Sloan School of Management. @mstich

Nick Seguin

Nick has a combination of entrepreneurial experience and wide-angle exposure to founders, funders and startup ecosystems. He is a partner at DYNAMIT, a  Columbus, Ohio digital consultancy and agency building strategy, experience, applications and infrastructure, where he leads strategy and business development. He is an advisor to the board at Startup Weekend and has been organizing events since 2008. Nick is also the Manager of Entrepreneurship at the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation – the largest foundation committed to entrepreneurship. With an endowment of nearly $2 billion, Kauffman is a global leader in the research and development of entrepreneurial economies. @nickseguin

Ann Mooney

Ann Mooney is an 18-year P&G veteran and the founder and CEO of Rising Moon Consulting, a firm specializing in brand building, marketing, strategy and in-store experience.  Ann forged a multi-faceted career at P&G – thriving across brands, departments, disciplines, retail channels and regions.  She made her mark as a commercially savvy Marketer and unconventional corporate pioneer.  A few of her notable achievements include:  leading Pampers, P&G’s biggest global brand, to record results in NA;  pioneering the application of P&G’s brand building framework to the retail environment to drive joint value creation with top retailers;  and, providing strategic guidance to dozens of P&G brands – using the lens of in-store to offer candid feedback and actionable direction on initiative launch plans to improve go-to-market strategy and increase the odds of success.  Ann is a popular and engaging keynoter and industry thought leader.  She was recently recognized by the In-store Marketing Institute as a “Who’s Who in Shopper Marketing 2009,” and is a frequent contributor to leading industry publications including Ad Age, Shopper Marketing Magazine and DDI.

Blair Garrou

Since the late 90’s, Blair Garrou has focused on funding, operating and incubating start-up software companies. Blair is currently a Managing Director of DFJ Mercury, a Houston-based seed and early-stage venture capital firm and a partner in the DFJ Global Network of venture funds.  Blair is also an Adjunct Professor at the Jones Graduate School of Business at Rice University where he teaches venture capital.  Prior to co-founding DFJ Mercury, Blair was CEO of Intermat (NYSE: IHS), a leader in product information management software; a Principal with Genesis Park, a Houston-based private equity firm; and helped launch and was the Director of Operations for the Houston Technology Center, the largest non-profit technology incubator in the Southwest, where he led the formation of the Houston Angel Network.  Blair’s current venture investments include Alert Logic, Fluensee, Gendai Games, Graphic.ly, Kabongo, Performix, and ShareThis.  Blair’s previous investments have included Phurnace Software (BMC Software), FuelQuest (Saracen Energy), Intermat (IHS) and SAT Corporation (Invensys).

Jim Price

Jim Price is the President of Empower MediaMarketing, a firm with 170 employees and more than $300 million in billings for clients such as Bush Brothers, US Bank, Meijer,  Long John Silver’s and Hoover Vacuums.  At Empower, Jim built the Media Innovation team from scratch, when the Internet was still considered an emerging advertising medium and established a full array of best in class services including Digital Strategy, Digital Media, Web Development, Digital Creative, Search and Analytics, Mobile, Word of Mouth Marketing and Social Media.  Jim has a passion for branding and entrepreneurism having recently created and launched Hoist, a new beverage brand. He was recently named a “40 Under 40” award recipient by The Cincinnati Business Courier.  @cincinnatijim

Rob Heimann

Rob is a Principal at River Cities Capital Funds, responsible for sourcing and evaluating new investment opportunities as well as helping support existing portfolio companies.  He joined the firm with operations and investment experience in venture-funded technology companies and particular expertise in M&A transactions, channel development and corporate strategy. Prior to joining River Cities, Rob was VP of Corporate Development at IntelliSeek, Inc., a marketing services company that was acquired by Nielsen. At IntelliSeek, Rob oversaw several acquisitions, managed financing initiatives and helped establish several strategic OEM and reseller partnerships. Prior to that, he worked with Arthur Andersen & Co. consulting with new ventures on financing, M&A transactions, and other systems, accounting and tax issues.  Rob serves as a member of the Board of Directors of the Greater Cincinnati Venture Association, Director Emeritus for Starfire Council of Greater Cincinnati, and is a member of the University of Virginia’s regional selection committee for the Jefferson Scholarship Program.

Walter Solomon

Walter Solomon has learned a lot about growing businesses through 30 years in both Fortune 500 and Inc. 500 business environments.  He currently serves as VP/Chief Growth Officer for Ashland Inc, where he and his team architected Ashland’s transformation from an 87 year old Kentucky oil refiner into an $8 billion global specialty chemicals company.    Walter spent the first decade of his career in brand management with Procter & Gamble, ultimately as a Marketing Director in P&G’s hair care and juice drink businesses. As brand manager, he led Pantene’s initial growth, from a $4 million boutique business into a $100 million brand, en route to becoming one of P&G’s billion dollar global brands.  He spent the next decade leading multiple start-ups in health care and software, including an Inc. 500 Company, and another sold to a publicly-held competitor.  Walter served as the first President of Over-the-Rhine technology incubator Main Street Ventures, and currently serves as Vice-Chairman of the Board of Directors of BBYO, Inc., which trains over 30,000 Jewish teens globally in leadership, social action and community service.

Tarek Kamil

Tarek Kamil most recently served as a VP of Interactive Games for Los Angeles-based FoxSports.com. He oversaw all facets of the online operations for the FoxSports.com Interactive Unit, including WhatIfSports.com based in Cincinnati. Mr. Kamil has served in this capacity since the acquisition of WhatIfSports.com by News Corp’s Fox Interactive Media unit in September of 2005 – a company founded by Mr. Kamil in 2000.

Prior to the sale of WhatIfSports to FOX, Mr. Kamil served as President/Founder of WhatIfSports.com, the Internet’s leader in sports simulation technology, games and content. In just 5 short years, Mr. Kamil grew WhatIfSports from an idea to nearly 500,000 members and orchestrated partnerships with some of the largest names in sports, including ESPN, Fox Sports, MLB, NBA and the NHL. In February of 2005, WhatIfSports was named Sports Site of the Year by the International Academy of Digital Arts & Sciences, beating out both ESPN.com and BBCSports.com.

Prior to founding WhatIfSports, Mr. Kamil worked in the Emerging Technologies division of Anthem Insurance and led the health care giant into the online world of the Internet and distributed computing. Mr. Kamil is a graduate of both the University of Dayton (1990) and the Xavier School of Business (1997) and was named as a finalist for the 2005 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award.

He resides in Madeira Ohio with his wife Nicole and two children where he volunteers for numerous local organizations and is currently serving as an elected official on the Madeira Board of Education.

Meredith Schwarz

Sean McCosh

Sean is VP of Marketing & Partnerships at SparkPeople, Inc. – a Cincinnati based media company whose flagship website, SparkPeople.com, has grown to become the largest and most active diet and fitness site on the web.  Sean currently leads advertising & sponsorship sales and sales strategy for SparkPeople, in addition to contributing to the overall brand strategy for the company’s various brands and web properties.  Prior to joining SparkPeople in 2002, Sean spent 6 years with Eureka! Ranch – a new product “think tank” and innovation consulting company that has invented several products and services used by the average American home.  While with Eureka, Sean led innovation sessions and created new product/brand concepts and business strategies for dozens of Fortune 500 companies in wide range of categories. Sean has taught MBA and undergraduate classes and seminars on business innovation and creativity at the University of Chicago, Xavier University, Miami University and The University of Cincinnati.

Bob Arnold

Bob Arnold is associate director of global digital strategy for Kellogg’s where he works to define and enable digital strategy for some of the world’s most iconic brands. Prior to Kellogg Bob was a 10 year veteran at Procter & Gamble leading digital marketing efforts across several global categories. This included Feminine Care where he led the awarding winning beinggirl.com digital platform into 50 countries and consistently delivered the category’s highest ROIs – several times higher than traditional media.  Bob and his work has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, as a case study by Forrester and in “Groundswell”, a Businessweek best selling book.

Chris Stutzman

Chris serves CMO & Marketing Leadership Professionals as Forrester’s Vice President, Principal Analyst. He is an expert at transforming brands for the digital era through innovative brand experience strategy, media-agnostic communications, and organizational adaptability.

Chris has more than 15 years of experience helping companies build brands and consumer relationships to gain a competitive advantage. He is a leading expert on brand strategy, brand experience, integrated communications, and advertising agency relationships.  Prior to Forrester, Chris worked in advertising for more than eight years, developing brand strategies and discovering breakthrough consumer insights for clients such as Mars, Michelin, Novartis, and Wachovia. Chris started his career as a management consultant for Accenture, where he developed customer experience strategies for clients such as AT&T and Bell South.  Chris attended Bucknell University, earning a B.A. in English, and Duke University, earning an M.B.A.

Jonathon Triest

Jonathon Triest was previously creative director for New Yorks Discovery Productions. In 2005 he launched the Atlanta based Triest Group, an advertising and strategic marketing firm. Jonathon currently sits on the Board of the Trico Foundation, and the Board of Investors for Venture for America. He is currently Managing Director of Ludlow Ventures.

Mike Venerable

Mike Venerable is an executive-in-residence for information technology at CincyTech and a member of the CincyTech investment committee. He evaluates investment opportunities, advises startup companies and helps them prepare to receive venture capital.    Venerable has more than 20 years of experience as a software industry entrepreneur and executive.  He was co-founder and CEO of Talus, a leading data warehouse consultancy, from 1993-1998. Talus was then acquired by Sagent Technology, where he led the company’s services organization through the company’s successful IPO in 1999.  Prior to joining CincyTech he was a managing director of Scius Capital, a NY-based boutique investment bank focused on early-stage capitalization and liquidity strategies for intellectual-property owners in biosciences, information technology and industrial technology.  At Scius he assisted in raising capital for companies in the life sciences, software and advanced manufacturing markets.

Cheryl Cheng

Cheryl drives marketing strategy, messaging and business development for BlueRun Ventures and BRV portfolio companies. Cheryl works with entrepreneur groups, incubators, and developer communities to identify investment opportunities and partners for the firm and the BRV portfolio.  She also supports BRV portfolio companies in their marketing strategy, execution and business development needs.  Prior to BlueRun, Cheryl was a Brand Manager at Clorox where she focused new product launches and retail marketing for Glad, Fresh Step, and Scoop Away.  Cheryl has a B.A. from Stanford University and an MBA from Kellogg School of Management.  @cheryltamcheng

Yael Cosset

At dunnhumby, Yael Cosset provides strategic leadership on all aspects of technology, infrastructure and product offerings throughout the organization. As Global Chief Information Officer, Cosset provides leadership focused on building innovative, world class products and solutions including an expanded portfolio in the digital personalization area. Cosset also serves as Chief Executive Officer of KSS Retail, a dunnhumby company and a global enterprise software provider of price modeling and optimisation solutions for retailers worldwide. He also serves on the Board of Directors for KSS Retail.  Prior to joining dunnhumby, Cosset served as Vice President of Operations, West Region of MicroStrategy, a global leader in business intelligence technology, where he managed one of the largest and fastest growing segments of the business, including complex data analytics and business intelligence implementations with Fortune 500 companies. Prior to his work with MicroStrategy, Cosset served as an executive business consultant in which he provided insight and direction on market expansion, product launches and growth strategies for global companies including Schneider Electric and Gregori International.

Thad Langford

Thad Langford is an Executive in Residence at OPENAIR Equity Partners in Kansas City, Missouri.  Most recently, Thad served as the President & Chief Executive Officer of Zave Networks, an early stage technology venture dedicated to creating a service that closes the loop between online/mobile digital advertising and the sale of the product in brick and mortar retail stores.  He redefined the go to market approach and grew the company to position Zave as the leading digital incentive platform provider.  Prior to his position at Zave, Thad led several different businesses during his eight year tenure at Sprint in the areas of wireless data, wireless wholesale and local services. Among his accomplishments, he spearheaded the initiative to be able to download applications over the air to the phone and led business development efforts to forge partnerships in the wireless data space, all culminating in industry-leading products and services in music, imaging, multimedia, gaming, location and content. In addition, he managed Sprint’s Innovation program to identify and commercialize disruptive products/services and founded Sprint Nextel Ventures to invest in game changing start-up companies.

Yujin Chung

Yujin Chung is a Partner at Andreessen Horowitz, a leading Silicon Valley venture capital firm. Prior to joining Andreessen Horowitz, Yujin finished his graduate school business studies at the Wharton School, where he interned in the investment banking division at Morgan Stanley, worked as part-time associate for Genacast Ventures (Comcast Interactive Capital’s seed stage fund), and assisted with marketing programs for Mixer Labs (eventually acquired by Twitter).  Prior to Wharton, Yujin was Associate Director in the digital strategy and business development team at Warner Music Group in NYC, working on deals with partners ranging from YouTube, iTunes, and MySpace, and also as an Associate Consultant at Bain & Co in Boston.  In addition to his MBA degree from the Wharton School, Yujin has a Bachelor of Science and Masters of Engineering in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Cornell University.   @Enderdoon

Larry Lieberman

Larry Lieberman leads SocialVibe’s global marketing efforts by initiating large-scale engagement advertising campaigns for the world’s biggest brands across SocialVibe’s platform.  Larry works with brand marketers to optimize performance and ROI from their ad spends with our pay for performance ad model.  Larry brings over 25 years of experience in connecting major brands with emerging technologies including his role as CMO for cloud-computing virtual animation studio Aniboom and CMO for Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Comics and Virgin Animation.  He has also held senior marketing positions at Comedy Central, Warner Music Group and MTV where he built media brands and led sales teams with over $1 billion in revenue from the U.S. and overseas. @liebermanlarry

Logan LaHive

Logan LaHive joined Lightbank in May 2011 as a Founder in Residence. Resulting in his time as a Founder-In-Residence at Lightbank, Logan founded Belly – a digital loyalty solution for SMBs.  He is currently working to grow Belly as its CEO.  Previously, Logan was the Director of New Business at Redbox, where he was tasked with sourcing, testing, and launching new businesses for the company. He was promoted to the position after successfully leading the company’s initiative to test and rollout video game rentals, forecasted to be a $100+ million business annually. Logan has spent the last 6-7 years in startups, focusing on launching (features, marketing plans, new product lines, seed businesses, etc), with a strong background is in project management, marketing, strategy/analytics, and product launch.  @loganlahive

Jodi Allen

Jodi Allen is Procter and Gamble’s Vice President North America Marketing and Brand Operations.  In 24 year P&G career, she spent her first 17 years in IT.  Throughout her IT career she has had roles in Business Analysis and she led the project to build P&G’s Corporate Data Warehouse that houses all financial, shipment and market share data for the Company.  Her last IT role was in 2003-2006 as Vice President Global Business Services Central and Eastern Europe Middle East and Africa (CEEMEA) based in Geneva, Switzerland. In this role she led the SAP implementations that enabled a significant tax restructuring.   In 2006 she moved on a broadening assignment as the Marketing Director of N. America Baby Care and into General Management in 2008.   In addition to her NA Baby Care P&L responsibilities she also led the Pampers Global Relationship Marketing Program.  Jodi led Pampers foray into e-Commerce.  Amazon is now one of Pampers top 5 customers.  She launched the Pampers Facebook page which now has almost a million moms as well as a Pampers Latino page targeted at Hispanic moms.  She’s driven the concept of community managers and given them the flexibility to serve parents in more personalized ways and she’s tripled the digital media spend on Pampers, P&G’s largest brand, in the last 5 years.  She is actively involved in her alma mater – Xavier University.  She is on the XU Advisory Board, she is also an XU Executive Mentor, and she is a strong supporter of XU tennis having been a tennis player at Xavier herself.

Jon Kiehnau

Jon was an early investor in social media, helping launch and build Houseparty.com as the first “people-powered” brand-activation network.  He founded Meitimedia in 2003 to provide strategic insight on agile commerce platforms.  Not long ago, Jon was VP of strategy and innovation at American Express.  He acted as entrepreneur-in-residence for Enterprise Growth, the elite unit responsible for bringing new types of experiences to digital platforms to add value to buyers and sellers through online, offline, social, mobile and location-based services.  He is a veteran of Time Warner, serving as president Emphasis, a business focused on monetizing content, business insights and customer behavior data.  He held leadership positions in sales, marketing, business development and strategic planning and was honored with the President’s Award, “the company’s highest honor recognizing innovative problem solving and extraordinary performance.”  @explore360

Geoff Allen

Geoff Allen is a serial entrepreneur with over 20 years experience in software technology spanning product development, sales, marketing and business operations. As founder of ZipList, he formulated the original vision behind the company, with the goal to develop a service that reduces the everyday hassles associated with grocery shopping.  Prior to ZipList, he founded and served as CEO of both Echo360, Inc. and Grab Networks, Inc. (formerly Anystream, Inc.) of which he still serves as Chairman. Echo360 is the leading provider of enterprise software that enables universities worldwide to capture and publish classroom lectures to the web and mobile media devices. Grab Networks helps content producers manage, syndicate and monetize their video online, and customers include media companies such as CNN, NFL Films, NBC, MTV and HBO.  Previously he also founded and served as CEO of Axicom, a developer of digital advertising systems for cable television providers.  Geoff is a member of the Young President’s Organization (YPO), and formerly served as the vice president of technology for the Young Entrepreneurs’ Organization international board of directors. He attended George Mason University’s Computer Science program and the Birthing of Giants Entrepreneurial Management Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Joshua MacAdam

Josh is the Co-founder and Chief Technology Officer at Mingly, a Los Angeles based social CRM startup backed by Idealab.  Prior to Mingly, Josh founded and led AuctionWagon, a national chain of eBay drop-off stores and affiliate locations. He opened AuctionWagon’s first retail store on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles and developed its custom enterprise software platform. AuctionWagon was acquired in 2005 by Net2Auction Inc. Before AuctionWagon, Josh served as Chief Technology Officer at QIXO, a travel meta-search engine based in San Francisco and backed by Eastgate Capital. He led the engineering team in creating QIXO’s real-time deep-web crawling technology, and supporting its extensive infrastructure.  He also held a position on the Office XP team at Microsoft, and has consulted for companies such as IBM and Disney. Josh holds a BS in Applied Math from University of California at Santa Barbara.

Joe DiNunzio

As President of Fido Management, Joe leads a consulting partnership that works with senior executives to identify and exploit emerging opportunities at the intersection of media, entertainment, marketing and technology.  Fido works directly with leaders in Fortune 100, non-profit, and early-stage companies on key initiatives to drive growth through creation and evaluation of new products; identification of strategic partnerships; development of business, operational, and marketing plans; and implementation of go-to-market efforts.  Joe’s prior entrepreneurial experience includes Chairman, CEO, and co-founder of 42 Entertainment, the leading creator of experiences that seamlessly integrate online, mobile, and physical world narrative content with user communities; and founding CEO of Z.com, a venture-backed digital media studio and network.  Joe’s prior corporate work includes serving as SVP of New Product Development at Walt Disney Imagineering, where he led the global development of theme park concepts and digital media initiatives; as a Principal at management consultancy Booz, Allen & Hamilton; and in brand management at Procter & Gamble.

Tony Alexander

Tony is the co-founder of Traveler’s Joy and SimpleRegistry, two of the leading gift registry sites on the web. More recently, he helped start SmartyTags, a 2D barcode analytics platform. He likes to structure his businesses to allow him (and his partners) to work from anywhere. Though based in Cincinnati, during the past few years he has spent extended time working from New York, San Francisco, Shanghai, Florence, London, Nairobi, and Tbilisi. Tony has a business degree from Miami University and spent 4 years at Accenture managing ERP implementations for multiple Fortune 500 companies.

Hunter Thurman

Hunter is the Founder and President of ThrivePlan: worldwide innovation and brand strategy. His firm partners with global brands to create disruptive strategies that drive expansive growth. Throughout his career, he’s helped marquis brands reframe themselves to create inspired new products and meaning for their consumers everywhere – one of Hunter’s creations is guaranteed to be in your home right now. Beyond his clients at ThrivePlan, Hunter works with a variety of venture-backed and bootstrap startups. @thriveplan

Adam Weber

Adam is the Marketing Director at GILT Groupe, leading all of the marketing & strategy development for Women – the e-commerce innovator’s original and largest business unit. In this role, he builds marketing strategies & plans across paid media, search, CRM, & social media as well as builds partnerships with some of the world’s most prestigious fashion & beauty brands. Prior to GILT Groupe, Adam was a Sr. Brand Manager at Procter & Gamble where he enabled break though innovation in digital, entertainment marketing, & e-commerce. His most recent Brand Manager role was leading the P&G’s acquisition & rapid expansion of the prestige grooming brand & retailer, The Art of Shaving.

Bill Hildebolt

As President and Co-founder of EXPO, Bill oversees Technology, Finance, and Business Development. He helped design the company’s landmark VideopinionsSM product and has been leading the company’s in expanding internationally as well as working with retail clients & partners. Previously, Bill spent his career in finance. Most recently, he was a Principal at General Atlantic Partners, a technology focused private equity firm in Greenwich, Connecticut. Bill has also worked in corporate finance at Morgan Stanley and at Wachovia. Bill graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where he was Student Body President and the Harvard Business School.

Bill Forquer

Bill Forquer is a principal at Priiva, a boutique consulting firm specializing in applying game theory to simulate market outcomes and optimize acquisition and exit strategies.  Previously, Bill led a variety of strategic, marketing, alliance, and go-to-market initiatives at Open Text Corp as the company grew from $60M to $1B in revenue.  This included applying game theory to market and competitive analysis.  Bill began his career at Battelle Labs developing library and litigation software that subsequently spun-off to become Information Dimensions where he ultimately became CEO.  Information Dimensions was acquired by Open Text in 1998.  Bill received a B.S. degree in Mathematics Education and a M.S. degree in Computer & Information Science, both from The Ohio State University.  Bill is an active angel investor with The Ohio Tech Angels Fund.  @billforquer

Josh Hernandez

As the Co-Founder of Tap.Me, Josh Hernandez represents an extraordinary fusion of creativity and passion for community development and interaction. A seasoned leader, designer and developer, Josh has formal training in the video game development pipeline from Tribeca Flashpoint Academy in Chicago, IL. and has transitioned years of experience to become a strong producer of talent.

In 1999 Joshua founded SectionZ.com a peer-to-peer musicians community branded the “Original Electronic Music Underground” where musicians would swap music projects with each other, collaborate and review iterations. Over time the quality of the community spawned SectionZ Records and helped launch the careers of some very well known electronic musicians including Deadmau5. In 2006 Joshua launched a PlayStation 3 and Wii gamer ID card service called TripleTags which at it’s peek catered custom gamer cards to over 2.5M gamers around the world.

His previous experience includes 10+ years working in the advertising and marketing industry serving clients like @properties, Bayer, Caterpillar, Radio Flyer, True Value and more. Joshua also attended The School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Rick Webb

Rick Webb is a co-founder of The Barbarian Group LLC, an interactive marketing and technology firm. Since its founding in 2001, Rick has been instrumental in building the company from four dirty nerds working out of an apartment to a multi-city, internationally recognized interactive creative and technology boutique. In addition to being one of the creative shepherds of the company, Rick has primarily been responsible for developing the celebrated “secret-sauce” of The Barbarian Group: its consistent ability to deliver uncompromising creative work, and undisputedly brilliant interactive marketing, over and over, even as the company grows.

Rick has over a decade of experience in design, advertising and “The Internet.” Prior to co-founding The Barbarian Group, he worked as an interactive studio manager at Arnold Worldwide during their celebrated Volkswagen days, working with fellow Barbarian partners Keith and Robert on a variety of award winning campaigns. Rick has also worked at Philip Johnson Associates, a Cambridge-based technology-focused advertising agency, and at Ernst &Young LLP, where he was when the Web was born. Rick has a degree in international economics and art history from Boston University, and was born and raised in Fairbanks, Alaska.

Taylor Davidson

Taylor Davidson is a Senior Associate at kbs+ Ventures, the thematic early-stage venture investment arm of the advertising agency kbs+. He is an advisor to a range of early-stage ventures and a mentor with Launch Pad Ignition, a New Orleans-based TechStars accelerator. Over 6,000 entrepreneurs have downloaded one of his Excel template financial models for startups at unstructuredventures.com. @tdavidson