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Phil Aucutt, Managing Partner WR Holdings & President of Junit, LLC
Phil Aucutt has over a decade's experience advising companies and entrepreneurs. At WR Holdings Phil manages and directs the firm's equity research and funding strategies. He has significant operational and board experience, along with extensive deal-making experience in the information technology sector. Phil is a co-founder and President of Junit, LLC, a cloud-based converged media publishing platform, funded in part by the University of Missouri. Phil is a serial entrepreneur, and has co-founded or invested in companies in educational software, mobile phones, and the financial sector. Prior to his current roles Phil was Vice President of Business Development for Fintel a leading provider of private company data which provides data to D&B's First Research unit, the Brookings Institution, and other financial institutions.
CEO of PerBlue Software (formerly of Google and Microsoft)
Justin has been programming since he was 12 years old. He graduated from the University of Wisconsin with a Computer Engineering and Computer Science degree. He has interned as a Software Engineer at Google with the Product Search team, and as a Program Manager at Microsoft with the ASP.NET team. He is a passionate software entrepreneur, and is the co-founder and CEO of PerBlue where he leads a profitable small business of 7 people building mobile and social games like Parallel Kingdom which has over 120,000 players worldwide.
Brent Beshore is the CEO/Chief Innovation Officer of whygopure.com. Beshore has launched five companies, sold one, and bought one. He has around 60 employees, clients in 26 states and solves communication challenges with tools that vary from film production and primary quantitative research, to branded art and mobile software development.
Co-Founder VA Mortgage Center.com and Serial Entrepreneur
Brant Bukowsky is the co-founder of Growth Partner, which provides online marketing services as well as growth capital in exchange for capital to growing companies. He also co-founded VA Mortgage Center, which helps borrowers obtain a home loan across the United States and received the Inc 500 award in 2007. Previously he launched Show Me Tickets (sold to Tickets Now), LakeRentals.com (sold to The Weather Channel), and Plus 1 Media.
Head of Journalism Libraries, University of Missouri
Dorothy Carner is the head of libraries at the Missouri School of Journalism. In that role, she oversees both the Frank L. Martin Journalism Library and the Columbia Missourian Newspaper Library. For 11 years, Carner served as reference librarian and business bibliographer at the University of Texas-Austin McCombs School of Business, a top-20 business school with more than 6,000 students. She earned a master's degree in library and information sciences from the University of Texas-Austin and bachelor's and master's degrees in education from Missouri State University.
Former Director of Software Engineering for WalMart.com and entrepreneur
Al Chang is a consultant specializing in the development of large scale customer-facing internet services. He loves interesting ideas and has a keen insight into the intersection of user behavior, business models and technology.
Al led development of Walmart’s e-commerce platform, back-end systems and online store services while revenue went from $40 million to over $750 million. Al's other clients have included Target.com, Best Buy, RedEnvelope and numerous Silicon Valley startups.
Previously, Al was VP of Engineering for Violet.com and Fidget.com, where he designed the core technology platforms. Over the last 15 years, he has held technical and management positions at Silicon Graphics (SGI), The 3DO Company, Boeing, and Wolfram Research.
Al holds a BS in Computer Science Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He also attended the Peter Stark graduate film producing program at the University of Southern California.
Vice Chancellor for Research, University of Missouri
Robert Duncan received his bachelor's degree in physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1982 and his doctorate in physics from the University of California-Santa Barbara in 1988. He has served as a professor of physics and astronomy at the University of New Mexico (UNM), as a visiting associate on the physics faculty of the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), as a joint associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at UNM, and as the associate dean for research in the College of Arts and Sciences at UNM.
An expert in low temperature physics, Dr. Duncan has served as principal investigator on a fundamental physics research program for NASA. As director of the New Mexico Consortium’s Institute for Advanced Studies at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, he has worked to fund major conferences and summer schools in quantitative biology, information science and technology, energy and environment, and astrophysics and cosmology. To date Dr. Duncan has received more than $8 million in funding for research efforts he has led as principle investigator. He joined the University of Missouri faculty as Vice Chancellor for Research in August 2008. As vice chancellor, Dr. Duncan heads the University’s research enterprise and its more than $250 million per year in contracts and grants. His responsibilities include management of MU's major research facilities (among them the nation’s largest university-based research reactor), its multiple interdisciplinary research centers, and its economic development and technology incubation efforts.
Dr. Duncan is a fellow and life member of the American Physical Society (APS). He was named the Gordon and Betty Moore Distinguished Scholar in the Division of Physics, Mathematics, and Astronomy at Caltech in 2004, and has recently served as chair for both the APS's Topical Group on Instrumentation and Measurement and the International Symposium on Quantum Fluids and Solids. He has consulted extensively to industry, co-inventing and assisting in the formation of three companies working in alternative energy and in minimally invasive cancer surgery and diagnostics.
Scott Ford, Managing Director, Open Air Ventures
Scott Ford is managing director of Open Air Ventures. He was the founder and former general manager of Sprint Nextel Ventures (SNV), Sprint’s corporate venture capital unit. During his time as leader of SNV, Scott and his team deployed more than $10M direct investments in 8 strategic wireless start-up companies. He also led business development efforts for Sprint, directing a team responsible for discovering, executing, and managing hundreds of partnerships delivering greater than $1B in contract value. Scott is recognized in the wireless industry as a knowledgeable industry influencer with the rare experience of carrier-side innovation realization coupled with a very solid venture and start-up market reputation and network. He was selected for and graduated from the prestigious Kauffman Fellowship through the Center for Venture Education.
Scott is a Desert Storm Veteran and flew more than 300 combat hours (3,000 total) aboard Navy P-3C aircraft. It is through his military experiences where he developed his passion for mobile technologies having operated sophisticated airborne electronic warfare equipment during his five years as a Naval Aviator.
In addition to the Kauffman Fellowship and extensive electronics and technology training in the Navy, Scott holds a Bachelor’s degree in Management and Human Relations from MidAmerica Nazarene University. Married with two young sons, Scott and his family reside in Overland Park, Kansas.
Kim Garretson is a partner at Ovative/Group, Minneapolis, an advisory services firm specializing in innovation for mass retailers, media and advertising and marketing firms. Ovative/Group works with major retailers such as Best Buy and Target, and the major media companies and many brands to connect them with vetted and validated innovation, primarily from the venture capital industry.
Previously, Garretson was the principal of Realist Advisory Services, which also worked with early-stage companies seeking to sell their products and services to enterprises. While there, Garretson worked with the Missouri School of Journalism and the Reynolds Institute on a Technology Summit that featured 17 venture-capital backed companies.
From 2002 to 2006 Garretson was Director of Emerging Media and liaison to the venture capital industry for Best Buy's corporate Strategy and Innovation department. In this role, he built early prototypes for embedding digital media content and services in IP-connected consumer electronics devices. Garretson also worked with the top 20 venture capital firms to connect their portfolio companies with multiple strategic initiatives at Best Buy.
Prior to Best Buy, Garretson was the co-founder of NOVO, which was the fourth largest digital agency at its sale to Leo Burnett advertising and related agencies in 2001. While there, Garretson won Advertising Age magazine's first ever award for interactive marketing for NOVO's Toyota.com site launched in 1995.
Garretson also was a partner in a leading midwestern agency sold to IPG, and began his career as the technology columnist for Better Homes and Garden magazine. He is a graduate of the Missouri School of Journalism.
University of Missouri Social Sciences Librarian
Dr. Halliday pursues his career-long interest in innovation-based economic development as CEO of the Missouri Innovation Center and the recently opened MU Life Science Business Incubator at Monsanto Place. He also teaches technology entrepreneurship at the graduate level in the Trulaske College of Business where he holds an adjunct faculty position. Dr. Halliday has 32 years experience in the Life Science industry. He spent four years with the International Center for Tropical Agriculture in Cali, Colombia, six years with the Research Corporation of the University of Hawaii, 10 years with Battelle - where he was Vice President of Pharmaceutical Business Development, and 11 years with Analytical Bio-Chemistry Laboratories in Columbia, Missouri as its President & CEO. Dr. Halliday served on the Board on Science and Technology in International Development of the National Academy of Sciences, was appointed by Ronald Reagan to the Presidential Agricultural Task Force to Zaire, and by Secretary Ron Brown to the Board on Science and Technology Cooperation between the United States and Northern Ireland. Dr. Halliday earned his undergraduate degree in science from Queens University, Belfast and his PhD from the University of Western Australia.
Ph.D. grants writer
Kafryn W. Lieder, Ph.D., of The Well-Tempered Word, LLC, has been providing scientific and technical writing and editing services to companies and individuals since 2003. She has more than 30 years technical writing experience in the life sciences and law. Kafryn has extensive experience with all aspects of the Federal grant (SBIR/STTR) application and review processes, including electronic submission requirements and agency-specific systems (e.g., eRA Commons and FastLane). She specializes in working with biotech and high-tech startup and small businesses. Her services include project management, drafting and editing assistance, finding other specialists (e.g., graphic designers and desktop publishers), and assisting with various details of preparing, submitting, and managing proposals and grants/contracts. Kafryn received her Ph.D. in Biochemistry (minor: organic chemistry) from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and completed post-doctoral research at UW-Madison’s Pharmacy Department. She is a member of the American Chemical Society (ACS).
Manager of the Technology Testing Center, Reynolds Journalism Institute
Keith Politte earned his BA with honors from Boston University and his JD from Golden Gate University School of Law in San Francisco. He also has extensive course work in internet design and development from San Francisco State University’s Multimedia Studies Program.
Politte's career spans a wide range of experiences in law, politics, and strategic communications. He has served as a development officer for the Missouri School of Journalism and the MU campus.
President and Chief Development Officer, Guidewire Group
Mike Sigal brings to Guidewire Group a 20-year record of building innovative technology-based businesses for existing and emerging global companies. Previously, he ran a strategic advisory and interim management consulting firm, with clients such as the Daily Mail General Trust, Fresher Information Corp, IDG, Office Depot, Pacific Bell, Philips Electronics, Synoptics and the U.S. Postal Service.
He has lived and worked in Europe, providing marketing and business development services to technology companies as they developed their trans-Atlantic strategies. As director of DASAR, producer of the annual European Technology Roundtable Exposition (ETRE) conferences, Mike built communities which fostered relationships among technology industry executives and investors.
An entrepreneur at heart, Mike has founded a number of technology ventures, including FM Waves and WiFinder. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of California, Berkeley.
Jim is President and founder of Newsy.com and has helped lead several successful Internet start-ups and established online companies. Jim was a founding VP of Ask Jeeves (Ask.com) where he was responsible for all search queries and helped lead the company to the 14th most popular site on the Internet and through a successful initial public offering. Prior to Ask Jeeves, Jim was the GM of News and Information Programming at AOL (News, Sports, Health, Research and International) leading the content, business and partnership operations for one of AOL’s major business units. He also served as director of strategic partnerships at NBC for MSNBC.com, leading the design and direction of the MSNC.com website and the coordination of the newsrooms of NBC News in New York and MSNBC’s newsroom on Microsoft’s campus in Redmond, WA. Jim began his online career as GM of New Media at Multimedia, Inc. Prior to graduate school, Jim represented and distributed motion pictures including Academy Award-winning movies, foreign films and U.S. independent cinema. Jim earned his MA in journalism at the University of Missouri-Columbia and his BFA from New York University’s Film School.
RJI IT Analyst and Mobile App Entrepreneur
