Morning Keynote Speaker – Dr. William W. Destler, Ph.D.

Dr. William W. Destler became president of Rochester Institute of Technology on July 1, 2007. He is the ninth president in the university's 178-year history. He was formerly senior vice president for academic affairs and provost of the University of Maryland at College Park.

At RIT, Dr. Destler is responsible for one of the nation's leading career-oriented universities with 15,500-students from all 50 states and more than 100 foreign countries, 2,800 faculty and staff, an annual operating budget of more than $492 million, and an endowment of more than $580 million. The university has one of the oldest and largest cooperative education programs in the country.

Prior to RIT, Dr. Destler spent his entire professional career—more than 30 years—at the University of Maryland, rising from the ranks of research associate and assistant professor of electrical engineering to senior vice president and provost. At Maryland, he also served as electrical engineering department chair, dean of the A. James Clark School of Engineering, interim vice president for university advancement, vice president for research, and dean of the graduate school.

As engineering school dean, Dr. Destler created the Gemstone Program, a multidisciplinary four-year research program for undergraduate honors students of all majors in which teams of students design, direct and conduct research exploring the interdependence of science and technology with society. During his term as graduate school dean, student applications increased by more than 20 percent and research funding rose by more than 30 percent. While interim vice president for advancement, Dr. Destler was credited with securing a $25 million gift from Comcast Corp. for naming rights supporting the construction of the Comcast Center sports arena. As senior vice president for academic affairs, retention increased and the graduation rate rose from 62 percent to 80 percent over five years. Other achievements at Maryland include leading a faculty team in the creation of a cross-disciplinary master’s degree program in telecommunications; originating the Hinman CEOs Program, a living-learning entrepreneurship initiative for undergraduate students; and involvement in the President’s Promise, an outside-the-classroom experiential program for freshmen.

Dr. Destler is an international authority on high-power microwave sources and advanced accelerator concepts. He is best known for his pioneering work in the collective acceleration of heavy ions, achieving the highest energies to date by this method, and for his development of large orbit microwave devices, including large orbit gyrotrons and rotating beam free electron lasers. He has consulted for government agencies and private firms, received more than $40 million in grants and contracts, published more than 200 journal articles and book chapters, and presented many papers. Dr. Destler has also directed 18 master’s and doctoral student theses and earned awards for his teaching.

Dr. Destler earned a bachelor’s degree from Stevens Institute of Technology and a Ph.D. from Cornell University.

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Afternoon Keynote Speaker – David L. Sifry

David L. Sifry

Founder & Chairman of the Board, Technorati, Inc.
David Sifry is a serial entrepreneur with over 20 years of software development and industry experience. Before founding Technorati, Dave was cofounder and CTO of Sputnik, a Wi-Fi gateway company, and previously, he was cofounder of Linuxcare, where he served as CTO and VP of Engineering. Dave also served as a founding member of the board of Linux International and on the technical advisory board of the National Cybercrime Training Partnership for law enforcement. He has a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from Johns Hopkins University. Dave can often be found speaking on panels and giving lectures on a variety of technology issues, ranging from wireless spectrum policy and Wi-Fi, to Weblogs and Open Source software.

Dave’s blog is Sifry’s Alerts.

About Technorati

Currently tracking 103.7 million blogs and over 250 million pieces of tagged social media.

Technorati is the recognized authority on what's happening on the World Live Web, right now. The Live Web is the dynamic and always-updating portion of the Web. We search, surface, and organize blogs and the other forms of independent, user-generated content (photos, videos, voting, etc.) increasingly referred to as “citizen media.”

But it all started with blogs. A blog, or weblog, is a regularly updated journal published on the web. Some blogs are intended for a small audience; others vie for readership with national newspapers. Blogs are influential, personal, or both, and they reflect as many topics and opinions as there are people writing them.

Blogs are powerful because they allow millions of people to easily publish and share their ideas, and millions more to read and respond. They engage the writer and reader in an open conversation, and are shifting the Internet paradigm as we know it.

On the World Live Web, bloggers frequently link to and comment on other blogs, creating the type of immediate connection one would have in a conversation. Technorati tracks these links, and thus the relative relevance of blogs, photos, videos etc. We rapidly index tens of thousands of updates every hour, and so we monitor these live communities and the conversations they foster.

The World Live Web is incredibly active, and according to Technorati data, there are over 175,000 new blogs (that’s just blogs) every day. Bloggers update their blogs regularly to the tune of over 1.6 million posts per day, or over 18 updates a second.

Technorati. Who's saying what. Right now.

Technorati Media Contact
Jeff Koo
415-321-1866
jeff@sparkpr.com

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Judy Albers
CEO, Excell Partners Inc.

Judy Albers is the Chief Operating Officer at Excell Partners Inc. She has been
instrumental in the establishment of many start-up companies based upon research from area universities and corporations, particularly in analyzing the commercial potential of new technologies, developing commercialization strategies, positioning and planning early business operations, and providing seed stage capital. Her current focus is on co-managing a state-supported fund at Excell which provides pre-seed and seed stage capital to start-up companies across Upstate NY.

Prior to joining Excell, Judy was a Vice President at Trillium Group, another Rochester based Venture Capital firm, where she co-managed the University Technology Seed Fund, now fully invested. Judy also previously taught Environmental Chemistry at Bates College in Lewiston, Maine. Her classes were the largest in the department, teaching over a hundred non-majors every semester in lectures and laboratory. Prior to that, she served for several years at the Center for Naval Analyses in Washington, D.C. as a defense analyst. Her job was to develop and link analytical conclusions on Navy systems, tactics, and operations to practical recommendations for implementation by the Navy's top-level decision makers at the Pentagon. For two years, Judy was assigned to
the Commander ASW Forces U.S. Sixth Fleet in Naples, Italy where she provided quantitative assessments to the Admiral’s staff on the effectiveness of anti-submarine warfare systems and platforms in the Mediterranean theater. She was also previously a research chemist at 3M Company in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Judy holds a B.S. in Chemistry from Duke University, a Ph.D. in Inorganic Chemistry from Brandeis University, and completed her post-doc in Chemistry at Princeton University.

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Carole Amos
Founder & Principal, Carole Amos & Associates

Carole Amos has a passion for marketing high-tech software products and more than 20 years of experience working with software teams. Her first career in software engineering provides a strong technical foundation that uniquely allows her to crack the code - understanding what the engineering team needs from marketing. She has been successful in shaping and launching packaged software, customizable software and SaaS (software as a service) products that are saleable, usable and desirable.

In working for Sun Microsystems, Rational Software, Adobe Systems and several start-ups, including a dot com that was sold to Google, Carole learned enduring lessons in Silicon Valley style entrepreneurship:

• Your business plan never survives engagement with the first customer. Be flexible.
• Get customer feedback early - and often! Often, the entrepreneur creating the product is not the target customer.
• Tell them what it is, who it's for, why they care - in plain language. If you can't easily explain the value, they won’t buy it.

Carole consults with entrepreneurial clients who are starting a business around a new product or working within a larger organization. She delivers product strategy, roadmaps and value propositions. Her book, Scrappy Marketing, is due to be published in the spring 2008.

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Jason Arena      
Assistant Professor of New Media Design, RIT

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Karthik Bala
CEO & Chief Creative Officer, Vicarious Visions, Inc.

Mr. Bala is the CEO and Chief Creative Officer of Vicarious Visions, Inc., a video game development company that has grown to become a leader in portable and home console game markets. Karthik has led Vicarious Visions since its formation in 1994 while still in high school. He has contributed to the company’s success by serving diverse roles ranging from programming, art/animation to marketing and public relations. Karthik holds degrees in Computer Science and Psychology from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
Over the years VV has been entrusted with top entertainment properties from Disney, Pixar, DreamWorks, Warner Bros. Marvel, Nickelodeon, Tony Hawk, etc. The studio has created top-selling games for console systems such as Microsoft X box and Sony PlayStation 2 as well as handheld platforms such as Nintendo’s DS and Game Boy Advance and Sony PlayStation Portable.

Vicarious Visions has grown to over 150 employees and continues to attract and develop incredibly talented and creative people, who are the heart and soul of the company. VV has studios located in Albany, New York. In 2005 the studio was acquired by Activision, a leading worldwide publisher of entertainment software.

VV has made a great impact on the industry with over 20 million units of its games purchased by consumers, accounting for retail sales of over $750 million dollars.

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Sue Barnes
Associate Professor of Communications, RIT

Susan B. Barnes, Ph.D., is an associate professor in the Department of Communication and Associate Director of the Social Computing Lab (social.it.rit.edu) at the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT).   Prior to joining academia, she worked as a new media consultant and multimedia designer in New York City.  She developed computer-aided instruction for Fairchild Publiations.  Professionally, she has been Co-Chair of the New York Macintosh User’s Group Multimedia Special Interest Group (SIG) and Chair of the Computer Graphics SIG for the Graphic Artist’s Guild.  Her artwork has been exhibited internationally and her design clients included: AdWeek, Apple Computer, Commodore Computer, McCann Erickson, Seagrams, Xerox, WWOR-TV, and HOT ‘97, a New York radio station.
Dr. Barnes received her Ph.D. from the Media Ecology Program founded by Neil Postman.  For over the past decade, she has been researching and writing about the Internet and social behavior. Dr. Barnes is recognized as an International expert on the topic of computer-mediated communication and has been a contributor to texts published in the United States, Asia, Europe, and South America. Recent publishing projects include:

• Barnes, S. B. (2003). Computer-Mediated Communication: Human to Human Communication Across the Internet.  Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon,  (2003).
• Radford, M. L., Barnes, S. B. & Barr, L., Web Research: Selecting, Evaluating, Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon,  (2003). Citing, 2nd Edition, (2006).

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Lotfi Belkhir
CEO, Kirtas Technologies, Inc.

Lotfi Belkhir brings more than two decades of experience in research, development, and management to his role as CEO of Kirtas Technologies, Inc. In 2001, Lotfi founded Kirtas with the vision of digitizing information from bound documents, achieving an unprecedented level of speed, accuracy, and quality. At Kirtas, Lotfi oversees the management and implementation of the company’s revolutionary automatic bookscanning technology, which is redefining digitization and information sharing in the marketplace. In his career, Lotfi has held key positions at Xerox Corporation facilities in New York, Connecticut, and California. While at Xerox PARC, Lotfi negotiated the exclusive license to key book scanning technology. Lotfi holds a Ph.D. in Condensed Matter Physics from the State University of New York at Stony Brook, and an MBA in Management of Technology from National Technology University.

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Richard Brainerd
Partner, Digital Lightning

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Tommy Brunett
Creative Executive Officer and Founder, Universal Buzz

Creator and Founder of Universal Buzz “The Bravest Multi Media Company From Earth”, a New York City based multimedia creative agency and viral marketing company. Brunett is known and respected for his visionary and creative marketing concepts as well as his highly effective and “off the wall” multi-tiered media programs. Specializing in entertainment and lifestyle brands, on and off line, Universal Buzz is a privately held company and is hailed as one of the fastest growing marketing and creative agencies operating within the ever-changing world of marketing. His diverse list of clients include: Olympus, Virgin Megastores, Altoids, Sony, Dreamworks, Fuse TV, MTV, The White Stripes, Iggy Pop, National Lampoon, PBS and Disney.

Tommy Brunett is also the creator and voice of Universal Buzz Radio. UBR is a nationally syndicated radio program featuring live performances from up and coming as well as legendary recording artists, which is broadcast on non-commercial radio stations throughout North America. Universal Buzz has a catalog of over 400 recorded live performances from artists such as Ani Difranco, The White Stripes, Kid Rock, Dresdon Dolls, Steve Earl, Fugazi and Willie Nelson. Currently Universal Buzz Radio boasts a listenership of 3.2 million loyal, new music addicts worldwide.

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Suzanne Clarridge
President & CEO, My Brands Inc.

Suzanne Clarridge is President/CEO and Founder of My Brands Inc. (2000), the world’s best solution for consumer where-to-buy issues. My Brands solves the where-to-buy problem for nearly 50 notable CPG manufacturers including Nestle, Alcoa and Ocean Spray. Today, the company sells over 6,000 items, employs 15 people.

Suzanne has more than twenty years experience in sales & marketing; working in Brand Management for companies including Hefty and Fisher Price. She earned a BA in Political Science from Oakland University and her MBA in Marketing from Rochester Institute of Technology.

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Frank Codella
Vice President of Sales, Synacor Inc.

Frank Codella has served as Synacor’s VP of Sales since February 2002. Previously, Codella was VP of Sales and Business Development at Global Crossing Ltd. In addition, he served as President and CEO at Integrated Personnel & Systems Solutions, Inc.; Sales Director at Lucent Technologies, Inc., and held various positions in the Global Enterprise Division, at AT&T Inc. Codella is a co-founder and serves as a Director of MedRecovery Management LLC, a technology company that provides coordination of workers’ compensation benefits services to health insurers. Codella holds an M.B.A., Rochester Institute of Technology, a B.S. in Economics and Political Science, Brockport State College and also earned an Advanced Certificate from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.

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Sean Colombo
Founder, Motive Force LLC.

Sean Colombo majored in Computer Science and minored in Entrepreneurship at the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) before working full-time on his start-up, Motive Force LLC. Sean gained Motive Force LLC’s admittance to the High Technology Incubator affiliated with RIT and he won first-place in the Saunders College of Business' business plan competition in the spring of 2006.  Motive Force's largest products include the Projectories project-management application, the Pedlr Social Marketplace, LyricWiki.org, and the LyricWiki Challenge Facebook application - together grossing around half a million impressions per day.  Sean is also a member of American Mensa, and lives in Pittsburgh, PA with his wife, Nicki.

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Anne Coon
Professor of English, Senior Associate Dean, COLA, RIT

Anne C. Coon is a Professor of English and Senior Associate Dean in the College of Liberal Arts at RIT. She received a Ph.D. in English Literature from the State University of New York at Buffalo. Prof. Coon is the editor of the book Hear Me Patiently: The Reform Speeches of Amelia Jenks Bloomer and the author of three books of poetry, Daedalus’ Daughter, Via del Paradiso, and Henry James Sat Here. With Marcia Birken (Professor Emeritus, Department of Mathematics, RIT), she is the co-author of the forthcoming book Discovering Patterns in Mathematics and Poetry. She organized the 2006-07 grassroots faculty initiative, the Creativity and Invention Working Group, that sponsored a day-long symposium in May 2006 and is now part of a larger, campus-wide partnership exploring creativity and innovation.

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Richard DeMartino, Ph. D.
Associate Professor of Management, RIT

Richard DeMartino is an Associate Professor of Management in the E. Philip Saunders College of Business at the Rochester Institute of Technology.

Dr. DeMartino's research and teaching interests include Entrepreneurship, Commercializing Radical Innovation, Corporate Venturing, and Small Firm Strategic Growth. He currently works on three research projects.

Prior to his doctoral studies, Dr. DeMartino worked in industry as a foreign currency, bond, and risk trader. He continues to do consulting in economic development and technology-related new business ventures.

Dr. DeMartino has taught at the McIntire School of Commerce, University of Virginia, and at Virginia Commonwealth University.

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Diane Garga, Ph. D.
Senior Consultant, Idea Connection Systems

Diane Casbolt Garga has an extensive career in Organization Development and Human Resource Management that includes a full range of experience in corporate, government and non-profit organizations in the U.S. and abroad. As an organization development consultant, she has worked with executives to examine and align their company’s work culture in view of its mission, vision, values, diversity, and business. As a stand-up trainer, she has designed and delivered training programs to over 2000 supervisors, managers and executives. Diane is responsible for program development and delivery for Idea Connection Systems’ clients as well as oversight of the cognitive and intercultural instruments, and organizational culture and communication assessment tools used by the company. Her clients have included Aventis Pharmaceuticals, Bausch & Lomb, City of Greensboro, NC, Eastman Kodak, ExxonMobil, General Motors, Hewlett-Packard, the Ohio State Department of Mental Health, and Wegmans Food Markets. Diane remains active in her field by teaching graduate courses in organization behavior and communication, serving as President of the Board of the Rochester Chapter of the Association for Women in Communications and membership on the Greater Rochester Diversity Council.

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Bruno Glavich
Founder & CEO, Applied Image Group, Director, New Scale Technologies

Bruno is founder and CEO of Applied Image Group, a leading provider of photonic, imaging, and electro-optical components and systems for markets including optics, fiber optics, lighting, medical, communications, scanning, automotive, imaging, and photonics. He is also active in numerous VC equity funding efforts through private equity company Istria, Inc.

Bruno has over 30 years of experience in photonics and imaging, including prior leadership and technical positions at PSC, Inc. and Bausch & Lomb. He is a founding member of the Rochester Region Photonics Cluster (RRPC) for the promotion of optical photonic technology in the Rochester, NY region, and is a member of the Saunders College Dean's Advisory Council at the Rochester Institute of Technology.

He earned a BS in photographic and imaging science and an MBA from the Rochester Institute of Technology, and was awarded the RIT Saunders College of Business Distinguished Alumnus Award in 1984.

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Neil Hair
Assistant Professor in Marketing, RIT

Professor Hair re-joined the college of business in November 2004 having worked as a visiting assistant professor in marketing 1999-2001. Dr Hair holds a PhD from Cranfield University in the United Kingdom, a Masters in International Marketing from Sheffield Hallam University, and a BSc in Business Administration from Cardiff University. He is a fully accredited Chartered Marketer and member of the Academy of Higher Education. He consults within the fields of internet marketing, electronic consumer behavior and strategic marketing planning. His expertise more specifically focuses on the use of the internet in enhancing customer service particularly customer relationship management initiatives, virtual ethnography, brand equity and personal branding. He is an avid technologist who enjoys being in the classroom. His student centered approach is widely considered to be applied, rigorous and challenging. Professor Hair was the winner of the Richard and Virginia Eisenhart Provost's Award for Excellence in Teaching in 2006 for RIT.

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Dave Halladay
Senior Vice President, Genesee Regional Bank

David Halladay as Senior Vice President of Genesee Regional Bank and member of its senior management team.  Halladay’s responsibilities include overseeing commercial real estate and secondary market lending for the bank.  He comes to Genesee Regional Bank with 17 years of management and banking experience, a majority of that time he served as a Middle Market Relationship Manager in Rochester and a Group Manager of M&T Bank’s Commercial Equipment Leasing business.

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Jerry Infantino
Shade Tree Greetings

Following a Masters Degree from R.I.T., Jerry entered the marketing communication field where he operated two agencies until their sale. The sale of the first agency in 1983 was followed by the founding of the second agency in 1986 and it's eventual sale in 2005. During those years, his primary contribution to those agencies was business development and executive creative direction. The agencies focused on new product development, including product positioning, packaging, trade introductions and advertising.

Currently "semi-employed", he acts as the primary concept and copy source for his most recent endeavor; Shade Tree Greetings a national marketing firm with it's emphasis on stationary and greeting card products. With accounts in 50 states and Canada, Shade Tree Greetings offers eight high quality lines to thousands of specialty and card shops, as well as national chains. Additionally, Infantino has founded or been a partner in two other new business start-ups and sales.

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Claire Kaler
President, K2 Design Inc.

Claire's keen business sense and designer's eye have guided K2 to the forefront of creative innovation since the firm's inception in 1991. After graduating from the Maryland Institute College of Art, Claire joined Park Ridge Health System's marketing department and later worked as a design consultant to several corporations and healthcare organizations before founding K2.

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David Koretz
President & CEO, Blue Tie Inc.

David Koretz is a serial entrepreneur who has founded and run four successful technology companies by the age of 25. His current venture is BlueTie, which he founded in March 1999. Mr. Koretz is responsible for the company’s vision, strategy, and growth. He is also the inventor of several technology patents for BlueTie’s technology.

BlueTie, Inc. is a leading global provider of email and collaboration solutions for small to mid-sized enterprises and service providers. BlueTie’s software enables small and mid-sized businesses to instantly deploy a business-class messaging solution without additional investments in hardware, software, or IT support. BlueTie also licenses this best-in-class messaging application to service providers seeking to enhance their product offerings. BlueTie’s software provides end users with a complete, secure, web-based email solution that includes spam filtering and virus protection, along with collaborative business necessities like shared contacts, calendars, files and instant messaging.
Under the leadership of Mr. Koretz, BlueTie has received industry accolades including being a Forbes Magazine “Best of the Web” company in 2002, 2003 and 2004, named one of the top four Websites in the world for small businesses. BlueTie was selected for William Blair’s B2B book of the top privately-held companies in the US, the Hewlett Packard Garage Program, and was a recipient of the prestigious Hewlett Packard Success Story award.

BlueTie’s software has received numerous industry accolades including Palm Computing Five Star Award, Apps.com Five Star Award, Tucows.com Five Cow Award, and FindApps Five Star Award. BlueTie’s website currently receives in excess of a billion hits each month, and is growing at 30% per month.

At 14 years old, Mr. Koretz founded his first company, Compucepts, a mass distributor of consumer electronics and computer products from Asia and the Pacific Rim. During his tenure at Compucepts, Mr. Koretz established relationships with over 150 manufacturers worldwide, and grew Compucepts to become one of the top ten computer distributors in the US.
In 1999 at 19 years old, Teen People Magazine selected Mr. Koretz as one of “20 Teens Who Will Change the World."

Mr. Koretz was “The Entrepreneur.” In 2004, at 25 years old Mr. Koretz was a winner of the "40 Under 40 Award" by the Rochester Business Journal.

Mr. Koretz currently serves as Chairman of the University of Rochester Medical Center Venture Development Board, a Board Member of the RIT Incubator, and President of the Rochester Angel Investment Network.

In his free time, Mr. Koretz races Porsche and BMW automobiles. He was a 2003 Cannonball Run, One Lap of America participant, a 5,000-mile road race around America. He is a competitive tennis player, an avid world traveler, and a frequent speaker to students about entrepreneurship and the future of technology.

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Ki-Young Lee
Assistant Professor of Communications, RIT

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Carl A. Lundgren
Professor of Manufacturing & Mechanical Engineering Technology, RIT

Professor Carl Lundgren joined RIT in January 1981 specifically to bring energy management and HVAC design entrepreneurial experience to coursework in the Mechanical Engineering Technology program. Prior to joining RIT he was principal managing partner of Energy Systems Analysis, an energy design services company. Lundgren has also been Vice President of Young Energy Corporation, an energy conservation product manufacturer in the solar and horticultural industries. Simultaneously he was Vice president of Young/Rochester Corporation, a mechanical contracting firm.

Professor Lundgren’s undergraduate work was completed in 1971 at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. In 1980 he received his MBA from the Executive Development Program of the University of Rochester’s William Simon Graduate School of Business Administration.

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Jerry Mahone
Director, RIT High-Technology Incubator

Mahone comes to RIT with experience in university-based business incubators, playing a major role in the development of startup companies that created new jobs and exceed a combined $100 million in sales.  In 1983, Mahone became the first full-time director of Rensselaer Technology Park at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, the first business incubator to be located on a university campus. Other assignments at Rensselaer included managing director of the Severino Center for Technological Entrepreneurship in the Lally School of Management and Technology. He also served as the program development director of the Rensselaer Technological Entrepreneurship Council.Most recently, Mahone held the position of executive director of the National Environmental Technology Incubator at Central State University in Wilberforce, Ohio. He has also served as assistant dean and director of the Entrepreneurship Center at George Mason University in Washington, D.C.

Mahone earned his degrees from Howard University. He has also taught courses in entrepreneurship and business plan development, and he is currently working on a book that covers his past 25 years in supporting entrepreneurs.

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Doug Manchee
Professor of Digital Photography, RIT
                    
Manchee, a native of Pittsford, N.Y., moved back to the area with his wife and two sons in 1989. While working as a freelance photographer, he started teaching part-time in the RIT School of Design in 1991. Manchee says he “wandered” over to the School of Photographic Arts and Sciences in 1993 curious to learn more about it. Soon he began teaching advertising photography—a path he continues to follow. At the start of the 2004-05 academic year, he was appointed chair of the advertising photography department.

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Stu Marsh
President, Marsh Business Advisors

Stuart W. Marsh has spent his professional career financing businesses, helping them grow, and managing organizational transformations.  He has been actively engaged at the board level of a dozen organizations, involving operations, marketing, finance, mergers and acquisitions, and executive compensation. 

As President of Genesee Capital, Inc. from 1989 to 2002, Stu managed all financial, operational, and administrative functions of the venture capital fund; sourced, evaluated, negotiated, structured, monitored and managed all fund investments; provided extensive managerial and financial advice to the Boards and Executive Committees, and oversaw all financial management of the commercial equipment finance subsidiary.

From 1981 to 1989, Stu was a commercial banker providing all types of debt financing to companies with annual sales from $100,000 to $100,000,000.

He is now President of Marsh Business Advisors, a management advisory firm providing strategic planning and analysis, market research and analysis, marketing program design and implementation, financial modeling, analysis and reporting, and capital structuring and management of debt, equity and mezzanine financing.

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Josh Olin
Product Manager, myTimeHero.com, Student, RIT

Josh Olin is a 3rd year Software Engineering student at RIT. He, along with two other partners, founded a new tech startup, TimeHero LLC, which provides for their social networking website for adults, myTimeHero.com. Working as product manager on the site, Josh has designed and deployed the site through three iterations and releases, with his current goals set on scaling the website as fast as possible.

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Vic Perotti
Associate Professor, Management Information Systems, RIT

Victor Perotti, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of Management Information Systems (MIS) in the E. Philip Saunders College of Business of the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT). He teaches MIS and e-Business courses at both the graduate and undergraduate levels.

Dr. Perotti has been honored for both his teaching and research. In March 2000, he was awarded the Richard and Virginia Eisenhart Provost's Award for Excellence in Teaching. This award is available to faculty who have been at RIT less than seven years. In March 2005, he was awarded the Eisenhart Outstanding Teaching Award. The second Eisenhart award is given to outstanding teachers who have been at RIT seven years or more. Perotti and co-author Tom Pray were awarded the "Best Paper Award" at the 2000 ABSEL conference for their work, Visual Modeling.of Business Simulations.

Before joining the Saunders College of Business, Vic was a research assistant at The Vision Lab at The Ohio State University. At Ohio State, he wrote several publications in the area of visual perception. Since that time, Vic has been doing research on a variety of MIS topics, centered on the theme of understanding business through complex adaptive systems. In this research, he has applied a variety of techniques including: computer graphics, neural networks, genetic algorithms, and information visualization. He has also published methodological papers on active learning techniques and technology-enhanced education.

Vic has done multimedia consulting for Ion (San Rafael, CA) and technology consulting for the Gerig Law Firm (Athens, OH). He has also consulted on the development of RIT's Executive Program web sites.

Vic earned B.S. and M.S. degrees in Computer Science, as well as M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in Cognitive Psychology. All of these degrees were earned at The Ohio State University. In 1996-1997, Dr. Perotti served as a Visiting Professor at Ohio University in his hometown of Athens, Ohio.

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Kenneth J. Reed
Vice President and Co-Founder, Cerion Energy, Inc.
                     
Dr. Ken Reed is the vice president for research and co-founder of Cerion Energy, Inc. He is responsible for setting the technical direction of the company, securing VC and Angel financing, investor liaison and is the primary author of its three provisional patent applications (with 14 sub-divisionals).

Dr. Reed has over 32 years industrial experience in the design, formulation,  precipitation, and functionalizaiton of inorganic nano-particles and the reduction/oxidation mechanisms related to their reaction chemistry.  In 2005 he retired as a research associate in the research laboratories of Eastman Kodak. He led three fundamental research groups (two of them French/American) and received the Eastman Kodak CTO Distinguished Inventors Award for his 24 patents.  Dr. Reed received a BSc highest honors from the Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester New York, and a Ph.D. in  Physical Chemistry (molecular quantum mechanics) from Stanford University. He is a former Trustee of RIT and currently serves on the RIT Alumni Network Board of Directors.

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Mark Smith
Director of Product Development and Manufacturing Leadership, RIT

Mark Smith is Director of the Product Development and Manufacturing Leadership programs at the Rochester Institute of Technology.  Both executive programs are designed to help experienced professionals move into mid- and senior-level management positions within their organizations.  Prior to joining RIT in 1998, Mark spent nearly 20 years in medical electronics R&D, most recently with Kodak where he was Product Development Manager for the Cardiology electronics business.

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George (Mick) Stadler
Executive Director, RIT High-Technology Incubator

Mick Stadler was appointed Executive Director of the RIT High Technology Incubator (HTI) February 1, 2005.The goals of HTI are to promote entrepreneurship among the RIT community by identifying opportunities from RIT students, faculty, staff, alumni and partners to initiate and launch new businesses.  Mick is responsible for the day to day operations of the Incubator, and he works with the entire RIT community as the first point of contact for all incubator candidates. He manages the due diligence process for evaluating and accepting incubator clients where they will receive an array of support services.

In addition to his position as Executive Director of HTI, Mick is the Senior Managing Partner of a start-up venture capital fund--Seges Capital; and the former President and Chief Executive Officer of Vanderbilt University Technology Company (VUTC) and Managing Partner of Vanderbilt’s Chancellor Fund.  The Chancellor Fund is an early stage, venture capital funds, while VUTC provided Vanderbilt faculty with “New Enterprise” development services and incubator space.  At present, Seges is in the market attempting to raise a large investment fund that will work with the growing number of university venture programs and will act as a co-investor for their deals.

Prior to Vanderbilt and Seges, Mick was the Founder, Chairman, CEO, and President of Competitive Technologies, Inc., a public company he founded in 1991 while at Lehigh University.  CTT is involved in the commercialization of technologies developed by universities, corporations, and federal laboratories.  Under his leadership, CTT was selected as one of the Top 50 fastest growing companies in Connecticut in both 1997 and 1998. Mick has been involved in establishing and financing more than 60 university-affiliated companies and the negotiation of over 750 licenses and/or joint venture agreements in his thirty-year business career. 

Mick is a Registered Patent Agent and is also an Advisor to the Institute of Social Network Analysis for the Economy (ISNAE), which is associated with Stanford University.  Mick holds a B.S. in biology and chemistry and an M.S. in physics from John Carroll University.

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Mike Stone
President & CEO, Brand Orchard

Mike founded Brand Orchard in 1987 with a single-minded desire to help clients outsmart rather than outspend their competition through innovative marketing strategies and superior tactical execution.

Mike spends 90% of his time working with clients’ businesses from the frontlines.  This hands-on approach is why, Brand Orchard limits itself to a small number of clients. Mike’s deep knowledge of brand issues, combined with a strong strategic approach to marketing problems and his passion to achieve results, make him invaluable to the CEOs he serves. At Brand Orchard, Mike ensures everyone knows that marketplace accountability must always be the ultimate measure of success.

His brand experience includes working with clients such as AT&T, Buster Brown, Cornell, Corning, Oppenheimer Funds and Strong Museum. In addition, the firm specializes in marketing early stage brands such as Balan Biomedical, LAGeT Technologies, Lumetrics, QED Technologies, and VirtualScopics.

Currently Mike serves as a Board Director for the Ronald McDonald House, Memorial Art Gallery, Susan B. Anthony House and the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

Prior to launching Brand Orchard, Mike founded and managed Rochester Card Company and New York Design Group. Mike studied Mechanical Engineering and Marketing at Rochester Institute of Technology. Mike and his wife Bridget reside in Rochester, New York with their four children Hayley, Hanna, Lindsay, and Jack.

Brand Orchard works for organizations that want to challenge or maintain market dominance through the practice of branding. Mike’s firm helps its clients improve revenue, customer loyalty and employee satisfaction by applying customer research and insights that help marketers identify the best opportunities to connect with their customers and employees. The firm’s approach increases the effectiveness of communications by delivering on all aspects of the brand experience.

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Dan Tessoni
Assistant Professor of Accounting, RIT

Daniel Tessoni is an assistant professor of Accounting in the E. Philip Saunders College of Business at Rochester Institute of Technology and a CPA. He received his Ph.D. in Accounting from Syracuse University, a MS from Clarkson and a bachelor's degree from St. John Fisher College. He has presented seminars and executive programs on accounting and finance related issues to numerous companies including Constellation Brands, ITT Industries, Eastman Kodak, Xerox, Bausch & Lomb, Chase Manhattan Bank, First Empire Bank and Apple Computer.

He served as a member of the Board of Directors of ACC Corp., a publicly- held long distance and cellular telephone company from 1987 until 1998 when the company was purchased by AT&T. Dr. Tessoni served as chairman of the Audit Committee, and as a member of the Compensation Committee and the Executive Committee and several special committees. He currently serves on the board of several privately held corporations.

His research interests are in the areas of agency theory and positive accounting theory.

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David Thiel
CEO, Auragen Communications, Inc.

David Thiel is co-founder and Chief Executive of Auragen Communications, a brand-focused interactive services firm based in Rochester.  In addition, he is founder and President/CEO of locally based online retailer BetterCoffee.com, Inc.

Auragen specializes in developing brand focused web experiences which convert: leading directly to increased sales or reduced costs for our clients. David's personal experience is in consumer retail brands in particular, and he's worked with many of the nation's leading brands on many projects.

Having moved to Rochester for college, David avoided the brain drain to stay through his twenties and settle in Fairport with his wife Vita and two boys. David is an active participant in (and booster for) the quality of our community – serving on several local boards, mixing it up in local politics, and assisting with other entrepreneurial ventures.

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Paul Travers
President, Icuiti/Vuzix

Paul is responsible for setting the direction of the company. He founded both e-Tek and Forte Technologies, Inc. and has been the driving force behind Icuiti’s development of Video Eyewear products for the consumer market. With 20 years experience in the consumer electronics field and nine years experience in the Virtual Reality and Virtual Display fields, he is a nationally recognized industry expert. Paul was responsible for bringing the first application of wave table synthesis to the PC platform. Through his corporation, Forte Technologies, he defined the core for HID class specification for the ubiquitous USB standard found on all PCs today.

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Mark Wilson
Founder and CEO, Initiatives Consulting, LLC

Mark W. Wilson founded Initiatives consulting, LLC eight years ago to help clients craft commercialization strategies for patents and research that wish to become new products and companies. Prior to Initiatives, Mark held positions in
engineering and engineering management with Baxter Healthcare and Bausch & Lomb.

Mark’s idea investigations, business plans, marketing support, and road show coaching have been involved in raising several million dollars of seed money and in closing one sales deal valued at over $100 million dollars. Mark has been
commissioned for hundreds of conceptual sketches. He has created cartoons, video storyboards, and marketing collateral for numerous technology and product areas.

With diverse roles in product design, process engineering, optical tooling, lean manufacturing and automation, Mark has been involved in the creation and launch of five new medical device platforms enabling a total of more than $400
million in new revenue. As a project manager, Mark has installed over $12 million in capital. He has over eight years engineering management experience leading groups of up to 70 with resources and budgets to $3.5 million. Mark earned his Bachelor and Master of Mechanical Engineering degrees from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and serves as an Entrepreneur in Residence at the University of Rochester River Campus.

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