Best Startup
At Best Startup US we track over 1,000,000 US startups and over 3 million people who hold key positions in these companies. We use this directory of startups to highlight top employees, founders and board members we think deserve more appreciation than they are currently getting.
This list showcases the top United States based CEO’ operating in the Events space. If you think a CEO’ is missing from this list, feel free to contact our editor on editor@beststartup.us.
The individuals on this list have been included because of exceptional performance in one of the following categories:
- Innovation – Operating as a key part in an extremely innovative business or startup.
- Growth – Operating as a key figure in the growth and upscale of a market leading business or startup.
- Management – Showing exceptional management skills.
- Societal impact – Putting their business on the map for their positive societal or environmental impact.
Our Data – We source our data from OSINT (open source intelligence) and public directories such as Crunchbase, SemRush and many more. The data from these sources should be treated with a degree of caution and verified yourself.
Ryan Simonetti
CEO & Co-Founder of Convene
Ryan is the Co-Founder and CEO of Convene, commercial real estate’s first workplace-as-a-service platform. His unique expertise in real estate acquisitions, development, and structured finance has helped catapult Convene to become a pioneer in the industry.
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About Convene: Convene designs and services premium places to work, meet, and host events.
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Candice Peters
CEO and Founder of Hello Parent
Candice is the Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of Hello Parent and Lolihops.
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About Hello Parent: Hello Parent provides parents a convenient way to plan playdates, parties, special events and other activities.
Trisha Bousfield
Founder & CEO of Pozvat
Trisha Bousfield has extensive experience in marketing, event planning, sales, management, and operations. In 2010, Ms. Bousfield combined her passion for event planning with her strong entrepreneurial spirit, and founded Pozvat. Prior to Pozvat, Ms. Bousfield was a Project Manager at Google, where she was specifically credited for the creation and success of the Hardware Depot onsite stores. Ms. Bousfield has spent over a decade in prominent philanthropic roles. She has served in numerous capacities for the Buena Vista Auxiliary, UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital, and the Junior League.
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About Pozvat: Online invitations, group-funded gifts, and thank you cards wrapped up in a neat little bow.
Tom Shannon
Founder, President & CEO of Bowlmor AMF
CEO Tom Shannon joined Gregg Greenberg of “The Street” to discuss millennials, expansion, and making bowling cool again. “It’s going to be an iconic ad campaign because it’s fresh, unique and legitimate,” said Shannon regarding Bowlmor AMF’s highly-anticipated new ad campaign featuring elite bowler Jason Belmonte.
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About Bowlmor AMF: Bowlmor AMF in bowling and entertainment in North America.
Numaan Akram
Founder & CEO of Rally
Numaan is the founder and CEO of Rally Bus, a New Haven startup which combines crowdsourcing and event travel.
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About Rally: Rally is Mass Mobility as a Service: technology and model innovations for the business of buses.
Lee Rubin
Founder & CEO of Confetti
Lee Rubin is the Founder & CEO at Confetti
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About Confetti: Discover unique workplace activities & corporate events that fit your company’s culture, goals & budget.
Michael Rapino
President and Chief Executive Officer of Live Nation Entertainment
Live Nation President and CEO, Michael Rapino, has led Live Nation since it separated from Clear Channel Communications in August 2005. During his tenure at Live Nation, Rapino oversaw the merger of Live Nation and Ticketmaster in 2010 to form Live Nation Entertainment, now the leading concert promoter and live entertainment company in the world. He is also a Director at Sirius XM Holdings Inc, and has served as an Executive Producer on Live Nation Film projects, including A Star is Born and Believer. As Live Nation’s President and CEO, Rapino has led the company through a series of acquisitions and investments to grow the brand’s reach and capabilities. One of these investments was in C3 Presents, the promoter behind prominent music festivals like Lollapalooza and Austin City Limits. Rapino has also supported a number of initiatives that help make live music and entertainment more available to people around the world, increasing Live Nation’s reach to more than 40 countries and nearly 100 million fans each year. Prior to Live Nation, Rapino began his career at Labatt’s Breweries of Canada where he spent ten years working in various marketing and entertainment roles. After leaving Labatt’s, Rapino co-founded Core Audience Entertainment, which was acquired by Clear Channel Communications in 1999. After the acquisition, Rapino served as the head of several divisions at Clear Channel Communications before becoming President and CEO of Live Nation in 2005. Rapino’s work has earned him recognition by several top publications, such as Forbes and Variety. In 2017, he was listed as one of Forbes’ Global Game Changers and one of Variety’s 500 Influential Business Leaders. He was named one of Los Angeles Business Journal’s 500 Most Influential People in Business in 2018. Billboard has recognized Rapino in their Power 100 list every year from 2012 to 2018, with him leading the rankings in 2018. Rapino is a Thunder Bay, Ontario native. He studied business at Lakehead University and graduated with a bachelor’s of administration in 1989. He currently resides in California with his wife and three children.
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About Live Nation Entertainment, Ticketmaster: Live Nation Entertainment is the live entertainment and eCommerce company.
Stan Chia
CEO of Vivid Seats
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About Creative Destruction Lab (CDL), Vivid Seats: Vivid Seats operates as an online ticket marketplace that connects fans with event ticket sellers.
Jonathan Wygant
Founder and CEO of BigSpeak Speakers Bureau
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About BigSpeak Speakers Bureau: BigSpeak is a full-spectrum speakers bureau providing business speakers to corporations, non-profits, and associations.
Vojta Drmota
Co-Founder and CEO of Ribbon
Vojta Drmota is the Co-Founder and CEO of Ribbon.
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About Ribbon: Ribbon is a one-stop-shop online platform for live and recorded events that provides services such as Zoom integrations and email marketing.
Reggie Aggarwal (CEO and Founder)
Founder & CEO of Cvent
Reggie Aggarwal is the CEO and Founder of Cvent, the leader in meetings, events and hospitality software. A lawyer by trade, Reggie founded Cvent in 1999 as a two-person startup, with the goal of making meeting planning easier for his peers in the business community. Reggie was named the #1 SaaS CEO by The SaaS Report in their 2019 Top 50 SaaS CEO list and Entrepreneur of the Year for the Washington, DC area by Ernst & Young. He was also named the most admired CEO in the Washington, DC area by the Washington Business Journal, one of the 100 most Intriguing Entrepreneurs by Goldman Sachs, and a rising star by Forbes Magazine. He has been featured in publications such as The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Forbes and Business Week. He has also been interviewed on CNN, MSNBC, the BBC and several other popular news shows.
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About Cvent: Cvent delivers the most comprehensive event marketing & management platform, maximizing the impact of in-person, virtual, and hybrid events.
Paolo Privitera
Co-Founder and CEO of Evensi
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About Doochoo, Evensi, Lombardstreet Ventures: Evensi is a platform to discover, experience, ideate, and promote events.
Andy Wirth
President & CEO of Squaw Valley Ski Resort
Mr. Andrew Wirth, also known as Andy, serves as the Chief Executive Officer and President of Alpine Meadows of Tahoe, Inc. Mr. Wirth has been the Chief Executive Officer of Squaw Valley Ski Corporation since August 2, 2010 and serves as its President. He served as Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing of Steamboat Ski & Resort Corporation since June 2009. He has direct responsibilities for all aspects of marketing and sales at the resort. He serves as Senior Vice President of Sales & Marketing – Steamboat of Intrawest ULC since June 1, 2006. He served as the Chief Marketing Officer and Executive Vice President of Sales & Marketing of Intrawest ULC (formerly Intrawest Corp.), since July 2007. He joined Intrawest as a result of the acquisition of Steamboat Ski & Resort Corporation that was completed in March 2007. He has 24 years of sales and marketing experience and based in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, where he served as Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Steamboat Ski & Resort Corporation. He serves as the President of Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club Board of Directors. He has been a Trustee of Reno-Tahoe Airport Authority since July 2013. Mr. Wirth has a Bachelor of Science degree from Colorado State University and attended Edinburgh University in Scotland.
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About Squaw Valley Ski Resort: Squaw Valley Ski Resort in Olympic Valley, California, is one of the largest ski areas in the United States.
Osman Rashid
CEO & Chairman of Convo
Osman is a seasoned entrepreneur in the field of educational technology. He is currently the CEO of Convo Corp. and Founder & CEO of **Galxyz** , an intergalactic science adventure on a mission to ignite the fascination of science and unlock the true potential in every student. Previously he was the co-founder and CEO of online textbook rental leader **Chegg** (NYSE:CHGG) until early 2010, and also co-founder and CEO of **Kno, Inc.** (acquired by Intel in 2013), a digital education platform company. He is also on the Board of Trustees at a health focused non-profit, ChildLife Foundation, which provides urgent care to the poorest in Karachi, Pakistan. CLF runs Karachi’s largest children emergency rooms and is deploying satellite urgent care centers to provide critical care and prevention education. Osman has received several honors, including Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur of The Year Award (CA) in 2009, which is the world’s most prestigious business award for entrepreneurs, as well as Forbes Impact 15 for 2012 and Inc.’s Immigrant Edge: 9 Wildly Successful Entrepreneurs. To find out more about Osman, check out his LinkedIn profile. You can also follow him on Twitter @osmanrashid.
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About Convo, Galxyz: Convo provides an enterprise social collaboration platform that enables easy, secure conversations between desk/non-desk workers.
Carlos Watson
Co-Founder & CEO of OZY Media
Carlos Watson co-anchors MSNBC 2 p.m. news program from NBC headquarters at 30 Rock. A Harvard grad, he got his start in politics, serving as campaign manager and chief of staff for Florida Representative Daryl Jones and managing Bill Clintonâs 1992 Election Day effort in Miami-Dade County. While at Harvard, he also worked with Senator Bob Graham, DNC Chair Ron Brown, and Miami Mayor Xavier Suarez. After graduating from Stanford Law, where he edited the Law Review, Watson joined the business world, advising Fortune 500 companies as a management consultant for McKinsey & Company. He later struck out on his own and co-founded Achieva College Prep Services, which helped thousands of high school students prepare for college and was written about in Time and Forbes, among others. Watson sold the firm to the Washington Post/Kaplan in 2002.
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About Achieva.com, OZY Media, The Stimulist: OZY Media is a premium media and entertainment for curious people — across TV, events, podcasts and news.
Timothy Campos
Chief Executive Officer of Woven
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About JDSU (now Viavi Solutions), Rackspace, Woven: Woven is an intelligent calendar to manage your schedule and get the most out of your meetings.
Derek Andersen
CEO and Co-Founder of Bevy
Derek Andersen is the founder of Startup Grind, a 50+ cities community designed to educate, inspire, and connect entrepreneurs. In 2013 Startup Grind will host 20,000 entrepreneurs at 300 events in 20 countries. After founding Vaporware Labs in 2009, he incubated many products (most of which failed spectacularly) including Startup Grind and professional social network Commonred. In 2012 Commonred was sold to Income.com. He is also Ex-Electronic Arts where he worked on games like Burnout, Mirror’s Edge, The Sims, and Need For Speed. Having spent 8-years living outside the United States, he currently lives in Palo Alto California with his wife and two children.
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About Bevy, Startup Grind: Bevy is an enterprise-grade virtual conference and community events platform designed to build, grow, and scale global communities.
Victor Gajendran
Co-founder and CEO of Ticketmaster
Co-founder and CEO at Gento.
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About Gento, Ticketmaster: Ticketmaster is the world’s largest ticket marketplace and the global market leader in live event ticketing.
E Hao
Co-CEO of GWC
He is currently Partner and Co-CEO of GWC. He was Vice President of TCL Corporation and CEO of TCL Multimedia. He had held the positions of Assistant to Chairman of TCL Corporation, VP of TCL Multimedia and GM of Emerging Markets Business Center. He has rich experiences in international business operation. Mr. Hao is skilled in cross-border/culture business and experienced in automotive, on-line gaming and consumer electronics industry. Mr. Hao earned a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from York University (Canada) and EMBA degree from Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business.
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About GWC: Enabling Innovation that Improves the World
Jared Augustine
CEO & Co-Founder of Thuzio
Jared is the CEO and Co-Founder of Thuzio, and the Founder of Julius.
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About Julius, Thuzio: Thuzio is a client entertainment platform for b-to-b sales organizations and professionals.
Roberto Ortiz
CEO and Co-Founder of Welcome
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About Welcome: Welcome creates jaw-dropping virtual events.
Tim O’Reilly
Founder, Chairman & CEO of O’Reilly
Tim O’Reilly is the founder and CEO of O’Reilly Media Inc. Considered by many to be the best computer book publisher in the world, O’Reilly Media also hosts conferences on technology topics, including the O’Reilly Open Source Convention, Strata: The Business of Data, the Velocity Conference on Web Performance and Operations, and many others. Tim’s blog, the O’Reilly Radar “watches the alpha geeks” to determine emerging technology trends, and serves as a platform for advocacy about issues of importance to the technical community. Tim is also a partner at O’Reilly AlphaTech Ventures, O’Reilly’s early stage venture firm, and is on the board of Safari Books Online, PeerJ, Code for America, and Maker Media, which was recently spun out from O’Reilly Media. Maker Media’s Maker Faire has been compared to the West Coast Computer Faire, which launched the personal computer revolution.
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About O’Reilly, Oreilly AlphaTech Ventures, Oreilly AlphaTech Ventures, POPVOX: O’Reilly provides technology and business training, knowledge, and insight to help companies succeed.
Antony Taylor
Founder and CEO of Lyte
Ant Taylor is the founder and CEO of Lyte. Lyte powers mobile ticketing solutions for event owners and fans, providing both a mobile-first alternative to resale websites. Since 2014, Lyte has partnered with over 300 top sports and entertainment brands, including BottleRock Music Festival, Newport Folk Festival, Arkansas Razorbacks Athletics, Mumford & Sons, Stagecoach Music Festival and more. Major ticketing platforms such as Eventbrite, Ticketfly, and Gingerbread Shed, owned by Goldenvoice, have integrated Lyte into their offering. Ant founded Lyte after observing the impact of the secondary ticket market on fans at the London Olympics. Hundreds of thousands of fans have since benefited from the Lyte solution. Before Lyte, Ant was an executive at ad technology pioneer Right Media, acquired by Yahoo in 2007 and ad cofounder of Moat, acquired by Oracle in 2017; two of the top five venture-backed exits in NYC history.
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About Lyte: Lyte is a technology platform that makes it easy for fans to buy, sell, and exchange tickets to live events.
António Trincão
Co-Founder, CEO, Investor of Youcanevent
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About Youcanevent: Is the first marketplace where you can visualize your next event in VR and book the vendors needed for your real-world event experience.
Bob Bickel
Founder & CEO of GiveSignup | RunSignUp
Bob Bickel is the Founder and CEO at RunSignUp.
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About GiveSignup, GiveSignup | RunSignUp, RedLine13: GiveSignup | RunSignup is the leading endurance and fundraising platform used by more than 25,000 events, supporting over 10,000 nonprofits.
Scott Owens
Founder / CEO of DoStuff Media
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About DoStuff Media: DoStuff Media is a network of local media properties for people looking to do awesome stuff.
Loic Le Meur
Founder & CEO of Leade.rs
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About Leade.rs: Leade.rs is a speaker and event marketplace that identifies new trends and the intriguing people behind them.
Tommaso Trionfi
Co-Founder and CEO of Tocca
Tommaso co-founded Tocca in January 2018 and he is serving as its CEO. Before then Tommaso was the CEO of Monsoon Commerce, a holding company owned by PE firm Oak Hill Capital, between January 2014 and August 2017, when the last of the holding companies was successfully sold. Prior to joining Monsoon Commerce in January 2014, he had joined Merchantry along side investors Greycroftpartners and eVentures. Before then he was the Chief Executive Officer of Wimba from 2000 to 2009. He led the growth of the company from a Research Institute technology to the leading provider of Web-based SaaS collaboration software for the education market. At Wimba, Tommaso built a team of more than 140 people spanning three countries, and organized marketing, sales, business development, product management and finance into a structured organization before the company was sold to Blackboard (BBBB). Prior to Wimba, Tommaso led business development at Omniticket Network, worked as Chief Operating Officer of Southern Europe for Colorlux, a global engineering company, and served as Chief Operating Officer of Fontenay Industries, where he led operations and key acquisitions. Tommaso received his MBA from INSEAD, and master’s degree in Science and Technology with honors from the University of Grenoble. Tommaso is currently a member of the US council of INSEAD and a trustee of the INSEAD foundation.
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About Tocca: A virtual event solution focussed on demand generation for B2B companies that want to engage with prospects and customers.
Julie Roth Novack
CEO & Co-Founder of PartySlate
Julie is the CEO and Co-Founder of PartySlate, a marketplace for party hosts and event professionals. Before founding the company, Julie led the Sales & Service team at Vibes Media – a mobile marketing technology company. Julie brings more than 20 years of digital marketing experience working with leading brands such as State Farm, Kraft, 3M and JC Penney. Prior to Vibes, Julie held a number of leadership positions at Razorfish including the GM of the agency’s Chicago office and then GM of the Experience and Platforms Group for the Central Region. Prior to Razorfish, she served on the executive team of Agency.com for 10 years where she ran its global sales, marketing and corporate strategy organization. Julie received an MBA in marketing and finance from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University and a BA in Economics from the University of Michigan. Prior to PartySlate, Julie led the Sales & Service team at Vibes, a mobile marketing SAAS company. Julie also held a number of leadership positions at Razorfish, including the GM of the agency’s Chicago office and Central Region. Prior to Razorfish, she served on the executive team of Agency.com for 10 years where she ran its global sales, marketing, and the P&L for North America.
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About PartySlate, Women Tech Founders: PartySlate is the first digital platform designed specifically for event professionals for a better way to showcase their work.
Josh McCall
Chairman & CEO of Jack Morton Worldwide
Josh McCall is Chairman and CEO of Jack Morton Worldwide, the world’s leading brand experience agency. He instills an ideas-focused culture that drives the agency to create extraordinary work that transforms client brands and business. Josh has been an integral part of Jack since 1984. Prior to becoming CEO in 2003 and Chairman in 2007, he served in various capacities of increasing responsibility from an Account Executive to Chief Operating Officer. Under his leadership, the agency has expanded its reach across the US, Europe, Australia, Asia and South America and has been recognized for its creativity, winning dozens of awards that include Cannes Lions, Stevies, Ex Awards, PRO Awards, and Webby Awards. Josh’s passion to develop experiences that create emotional connections and strengthen relationships between brands and people pushes the agency to innovate in an increasingly cluttered marketplace. It is this passion that fueled the agency’s recent acquisition of digital shop, Genuine Interactive, enhancing the agency’s core offerings of event marketing, promotional marketing, sponsorship marketing, employee engagement, to include digital, social and mobile. Josh defines industry best practices, trends, and thought leadership by contributing to professional groups and business and trade publications, including Advertising Age and PR Week. He has addressed groups including the Wharton School of Business and The World Congress of Sports. He serves on the boards of the City Year Boston and Metro Lacrosse. Josh earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania, completed business and management training at the Amos Tuck School at Dartmouth College and The Kenan-Flagler School at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill and holds an honorary Doctor of Commercial Science degree from Suffolk University in Boston.
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About Jack Morton Worldwide: Jack Morton Worldwide is an American multinational brand experience agency.
Jim Lucchese
CEO of Sofar Sounds
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About Sofar Sounds: Sofar Sounds is a global community hosting curated, secret performances in more than 400 cities around the world.
Colin Jacobsen
CEO of Arlene
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About Arlene: Connecting people and brands in immersive environments.
Calista Redmond
CEO, RISC-V International of Linux Foundation
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About Linux Foundation: The Linux Foundation builds sustainable ecosystems around open source projects to accelerate technology development and industry adoption.
David Wachsman
CEO of Wachsman
David Wachsman is a world-renowned blockchain expert and thought leader. He is a regular speaker at the most highly recognized technology conferences around the world and his commentary is regularly featured by mainstream media outlets globally. In late 2015, David founded Wachsman to provide professional public relations services to the rapidly growing financial technology industry with cryptocurrency and blockchain at its foundation. Wachsman has since become a global organization with more than 70 employees based in offices in New York City and Dublin. David and his team have represented and acted as communications advisors to many of the most indispensible organizations in blockchain, including Dash, Crypto Valley Association, Bitcoin Suisse AG, CoinDesk, IOHK, Lisk, Steemit, tZERO, Jaxx, and Coinsource. Before founding Wachsman, David led the day-to-day operations for a boutique public relations agency in Manhattan and held roles in advertising, political affairs, and biotechnology.
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About Wachsman: Wachsman is a global, communications-based strategy consultancy.
Joseph Terzi
CEO & Co-Founder of Priv
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About Priv: PRIV is a mobile and web platform where clients can book vetted beauty and wellness professionals to their location.
David Cao
Founder & CEO of F50
David is a pioneer and passionate leader of the venture capital ecosystem in Silicon Valley. He has led the evaluation process of selecting 350 startups out of over 5000 startups during his first 2 ½ years at F50. He continued to lead the investment processes for over 30 of the selected startups. David is personally involved in A.I., Robotics, FinTech, and HealthTech. David founded Silicon Valley Entrepreneurs & Startups (the world’s largest entrepreneur community with over 27,000 members), He is also host for the Startup Tea Talk. David Cao was the Founder & CEO of GWC US (Sold to holding company), where he oversaw the CEO clubs and the production of GMIC SV (the leading global mobile conference), and also organized private meetings for top tier investors & founders from USA and China. He is also the founding president of the Silicon Valley Entrepreneur Toastmaster Club, a nonprofit organization for public speaking training.
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About Chushou, F50, F50 Elevate, Silicon Valley Entrepreneurs: POWERING INNOVATION FOR GLOBAL IMPACT
Andrew Birkholz
Co-Founder & CEO of RedRex
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About RedRex: The metaverse for every day use
Allison Magyar
CEO, Founder & President of Hubb
Allie Magyar is a skilled entrepreneur and technology maven with over 15 years of experience driving successful technology enabled service companies. She founded Hubb to build a technology solution that directly addressed the needs of meeting planners as they manage the overload of information for their event content. As CEO of Hubb, she is responsible for directing the company’s strategic direction with an emphasis on key partnerships, integrations, and growth. Allie is also passionate about driving positive corporate culture and her companies have won several regional awards such as “Healthiest Workplace” and “Most Philanthropic”. Allie combines her real-world experience in marketing, sales, partner relationship building, and show production with a strong vision for the technology-enabled future of event management. She is an experienced speaker who has spoken at conferences such as CEMA, Event Tech Live and ACT-W Portland. Allie is CMP certified, a board member for TAO (Technology Association of Oregon), a member of Vistage, a two-time Inc. 5000 award winner, and was listed on the 2013 Collaborate 40 Under 40 in the meetings industry and the 2017 Portland Business Journal’s 40 Under 40. She was named a 2017 Top Woman Entrepreneur by Smart Meetings Magazine and, in 2018 was an EY Pacific NW Entrepreneur of the Year finalist.
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About Hubb: The Hubb Platform makes virtual, in-person and hybrid events with powerful attendee engagement tools that bring brands to life.
Paul Tollett
CEO of Goldenvoice
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About Goldenvoice: Goldenvoice is concerts and festivals.
Smita Saxena
Founder and CEO of Stanza
Smita Saxena is Co-founder and CEO of Stanza (stanza.co), which was founded in July of 2012. Saxena previously founded Accevia, Inc which was part of StartX’s inaugural class. Accevia was a secure platform for independent financial advisors to communicate with clients. The platform allowed clients to automatically upload their portfolios and receive automated performance reports. Saxena received her Masters in Financial Mathematics from Stanford University and her Bachelors in Mathematics & Economics from the University of Toronto.
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About Stanza: Stanza is an internet company that creates own events calendars, and share with family, friends, and beyond.
Mark Hinkle
CEO and Co-Founder of Triggermesh
Mark has a long history in emerging technologies and open source. Before co-founding TriggerMesh, he was the Executive Director of the Node.js Foundation with membership including Microsoft, IBM, Google, Intel, PayPal, and other industry leaders. Previously he was the VP of Marketing at The Linux Foundation. Mark joined the Linux Foundation from Citrix were he was the Head of the Citrix Open Source Business Office with participation in numerous trade organizations including the Xen Project, Apache CloudStack, and the Open Stack Foundation. Mark joined Citrix as a result of the acquisition of Cloud.com where he was Vice President of Community. Previously he held the position Vice President of Zenoss, an open source enterprise management company and Director of Technical Support for Earthlink. Mark also has extensive publishing experience as the Editor-in-Chief of LinuxWorld and Enterprise Open Source Magazines and as the author of Windows to Linux Business Desktop Migration Thomson (2006).
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About Triggermesh: Triggermesh develops a serverless management platform for managing functions and event triggers
Bob Schwartz
CEO of 47 B The Company Builder
Bob Schwartz has established himself as a business builder and leader of technology and consumer-facing internet companies. He has produced over $1Billion+ in market value for shareholders and founders. Bob is a pioneer and thought leader in eCommerce and has created industry leaders in diverse markets such as: Enterprise commerce technology, Fashion, Apparel & Shoes, Luxury Markets, Computers, Software and Insurance. Bob Schwartz is currently Managing Partner at SchwartzGroup Advisory LLC and most recently was President of Magento (sold to eBay Inc).
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About 47 B The Company Builder, Schwartz Group: We Build Great Commerce Companies. We advise, invest & develop growth companies focused on Commerce
Liz Pearce
Co-founder & CEO of Fresh Chalk
Liz Pearce is the CEO of Seattle-based Fresh Chalk, a social network that helps you find professionals that your friends recommend. Prior to that, Liz was with LiquidPlanner for 11 years, starting as the company’s marketing contractor and working her way up to COO in 2011 and ultimately to CEO in 2012. Before LiquidPlanner, she held marketing roles at Amazon, Google, and PlayStation and ran an independent marketing consulting business. She holds a B.A. and M.A. from The George Washington University.
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About Fresh Chalk: Fresh Chalk connects you with trusted home improvement, health, and beauty professionals recommended by your personal network.
Adam Olalde
CEO and Founder of Xtreme Xperience
After a sales and management stint in the luxury concierge industry it didn’t take Adam long to realize that people everywhere, from all walks of life, wanted the same thing: to experience the adrenaline and allure of the world’s finest automobiles in a setting that was heart-pounding, yet safe, but most of all convenient and affordable. In 2012, with a small team, Adam proved his point and hosted the first Xtreme Xperience event. Each day he uses that same mentality to continually improve the program, lead the best team, provide new experiences and, above all, help each one of Xtreme Xperience’s customers check something off of their bucket list and create memories that will last a lifetime.
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About Xtreme Xperience: Xtreme Xperience makes the world’s best exotic cars accessible for everyone to enjoy on real racetracks.
Xiaoyin Qu
Co-Founder & CEO of Run The World
Xiaoyin Qu is the Founder and CEO at Run The World.
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About Run The World: Run The World is a digital event platform that is designed to host all types of events from cocktail parties to global conferences.
Brad Sexton
President / CEO of Live Media Group
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About Live Media Group: Live Media Group is a multi media company
Max Roper
CEO of Appetize
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About Appetize: Appetize develops point-of-sale and payment systems for entertainment, leisure and education enterprise businesses around the world.
Mareza Larizadeh
Founder & CEO of pulsd
Mareza Larizadeh works as a Founder and CEO at pulsd.
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About pulsd: Pulsd is a personal concierge service for the exclusive events in NYC.
Nate Tepper
CEO & Co-Founder of Set The Set
Mission driven, entrepreneurial minded, sales leader, passionate about music & technology, and inspiring and empowering others to take action and achieve their dreams! Nate first learned about entrepreneurship/sales before he even understood what the words meant! When he was 14, he sold $5000+ of my band’s CDs in the hallways of high school. Since then, he has done sales at LinkedIn, founded TEDxUMassAmherst, started the mobile application company, Unight, did global sales in Israel, India, Singapore, Thailand, and Australia for Taboola, and worked with 125 startup companies from around the world at MassChallenge. He is passionate about music and has played guitar in over 300 gigs across the country. Currently, Nate has combined his passions for music and tech full-time as the CEO & Co-Founder of Set The Set. Their mission is to connect the world’s artists and fans to create better live music experiences!
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About Set The Set, TED: Request songs for your upcoming concerts!
Chuck Elias
Co-Founder & CEO of 42Chat
As senior vice president, strategy & corporate development, Chuck Elias works with FBHS operating unit leadership on strategies across a wide range of strategic initiatives. He also leads the company’s corporate development activities, including mergers & acquisitions. Prior to joining FBHS, Chuck served in senior leadership roles at Supervalu, a $35 billion grocery retailer/wholesaler. Most recently, he was Supervalu’s senior vice president of retail operations. Prior to joining Supervalu, Elias was a managing director for portfolio operations at Ridgeview Capital, a private equity firm. He also held several leadership positions at The Home Depot. Elias holds a Bachelor’s degree in Management, with honors, from the United States Coast Guard Academy in New London, Conn., and a Master’s degree in Business Administration from the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration in Boston.
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About 42Chat: 42Chat make AI Chatbots that provide instant answers and personalized connection over regular text (and other channels)
Alex Backer
Founder & Chief Executive Officer of QLess
A National Champion of Informatics, Alex holds a degree in Biology and Economics from MIT, and a M.S. and Ph.D. in Computation and Neural Systems and Biology from the California Institute of Technology, where he was awarded the Dean’s award for ‘great contributions and outstanding qualities of Leadership and Responsibility’. He has held positions at McKinsey & Co., the Center for Computation, Computers, Information and Mathematics of Sandia National Labs, and Caltech. Alex conceived QLess while standing in line. Prior to starting QLess, Alex was also the founder of a pioneer of search engine marketing technology that has boosted the reach of search engine marketing campaigns by up to 580% while simultaneously reducing their cost per action by up to 78%, the invention factory, a semantic people search engine with machine vision which beat Google and every other search engine tested 3 to 1 or more in results relevance in a blind people search comparison, and the first resume- or file-based search engine. Alex was appointed by the President to serve in the California Institute of Technology’s Information Sciences and Technology Board of Advisors. In 2013, Alex was named the Gold Stevie Winner of IT Executive of the Year and Silver Stevie Winner of Innovator of the Year by the International Business Awards. In 2011, Alex was honored as the keynote speaker at LA County’s Tech Week, an honor that was previously accorded a Nobel Prize winner, the CEO of Cisco, the CEO of Adobe, the Chairman of Deloitte, and an astronaut. In 2010, Alex was honored as one of “40 under 40″ for the inaugural 40 Under 40 M&A Advisor Recognition Awards. Alex’s research on neural coding and artificial intelligence has been published in the world’s leading publications such as Nature and Neural Computation.
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About abInventio, Confidential (In stealth mode), Office of Science and Technology Austria, QLess: QLess is a platform that provides mobile, remote and interactive queueing; analytics; real-time CRM; and marketing.
Tim Angelillo
Founder & CEO of Sourced Craft Cocktails
Tim Angelillo is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Sourced Craft Cocktails.
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About Sourced Craft Cocktails: Sourced Craft Cocktails provides a cocktail delivery service intended to serve events.
John H. Meyer
CEO of Fresco News
Thiel Fellow CEO with the vision, John has created over 40 apps, grossing over 4 million downloads, all by the age of 20. Creator of the first flashlight app, John has a tremendous relationships with Apple and an incredible understanding of the mobile/social revolution upon us. John has been leading Fresco, a crowdsourced video platform, since late 2014.
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About Fox Business Network, Fresco News, Starship Capital, The Thiel Foundation, Yahoo Finance: Fresco combines the incredible powers of their mobile devices with the content needs of global news outlets.
Jay Manickam
Co-Founder & CEO of Everfest.com
Jay Manickam Co-Founder of Hitch
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About Everfest.com: Everfest is the festival authority and home of the world’s first cross-festival ticketing and rewards program.
Scott Henderson
Co-Founder, CEO of Keanr
Business development executive, advisor and entrepreneur. Has held senior operating and consulting roles for startups and established Fortune 500 companies. Scott’s background includes deep expertise in business development, sales, marketing, strategic positioning, leadership development, executive counsel and change management. Part of five founding startup teams and continues to be directly involved in the startup ecosystem
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About Keanr: Revolutionary tool to upgrade your social life experience. Discover, share, and purchase the best activities and events
Jaime Siegel
CEO & Co-Founder of FlipTix
Jaime Siegel is the CEO and co-founder of FlipTix, Inc., an early stage technology start-up that is creating a new market in event ticketing with the goal of collecting big data around events and attendees that is not currently collected. Jaime is also CEO of Cerebral Assets, LLC, a multipurpose Global IP and Digital Strategy advisory which provides global IP, digital and business strategy consulting, deal facilitations, brokerage services, as well as expert witness services on patent and technology licensing and damages. Cerebral Assets’ clients cover the spectrum from Fortune Top 10 to early stage start-ups, Private Equity firms and foreign government incubator programs, and technology areas including electronics, consumer products, life sciences, biotechnology and medical devices. Jaime Siegel acts as the Global Director of Licensing for one of his clients, the Open Invention Network (OIN). OIN is the world’s largest patent non-aggression community, creating a collaborative space around the Linux System Definition to promote innovation in Linux. Prior to starting Cerebral Assets, Jaime Siegel was EVP in charge of licensing for Acacia Research Group LLC, one of the largest publicly held patent licensing organizations. Previously he spent over 15 years at Sony Corporation of America as Vice President and Senior IP Counsel, where he was responsible for global patent litigation for Sony family companies and out licensing programs, among other duties, including being the official representative of Sony Corporation of America to Taiwan. He is also a designated Neutral (Mediator/Arbitrator) by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). Jaime Siegel served as Chairman of the Board of MPEG LA, the world’s most successful patent licensing pool, for two years. Prior to joining Sony, he was an associate attorney at the leading IP firms of Fish & Neave and Kenyon & Kenyon, and an engineer in the aerospace industry. Jaime Siegel was recently named by WIPR as a 2017 Leader in IP, and has been designated by IAM as one of the World’s Leading IP Strategists for four consecutive years from 2014-2018. He received his J.D. from Brooklyn Law School (night program) and his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Clarkson University.
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About Cerebral Assets, LLC, FlipTix, Open Invention Network, The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, University of California, Irvine, World Intellectual Property Organization: Life is Flexible. Events Should be, Too!
Gannon Giguiere
Founder, CEO of Eventure Interactive
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About Eventure Interactive, Separation Degrees: Every day, there are hundreds of millions of events attended, where billions of photos and videos are taken
Andrew Goldberger
Advisor to CEO of Flavorus
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About : Flavorus is an online ticketing website that allows event organizers to sell tickets of various events.
Boris Patronoff
Chief Executive Officer of Flavorus
As CEO of See Tickets US/Flavorus, Boris brings a wealth of experience in the areas of entertainment and media. He led the expansion into North America after serving on the Board of Directors for See Tickets and Digitick and working on multiple acquisitions and divestments for Vivendi. A former pro athlete, Boris has always been passionate about Sports and Entertainment. He loves to spend time with his wife and two boys and rooting for his favorite football and soccer teams. He has also lived on three continents and is fluent in French, English and Spanish.
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About Flavorus: Flavorus is an online ticketing website that allows event organizers to sell tickets of various events.
Stefania Olafsdottir
CEO and Co-Founder of Avo
Stefania Olafsdottir is the co-founder and CEO of Avo.
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About Avo: Avo is a next-gen analytics governance platform for PMs, devs, and data scientists to plan and govern their product analytics.
Victoria Brown
Co-founder, CEO of Big Think
Victoria R. Montgomery-Brown is the CEO and co-founder of Big Think.
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About Big Think: Big Think is a corporate learning platform offering actionable video insights from today’s leading experts.
Michael Balyasny
Co-Founder & CEO of Attendify
Co-Founder of KitApps
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About Attendify: Attendify is a SaaS-based in-person virtual & hybrid event platform, dedicated bridging the gap between event marketing & digital marketing.
Justin Shaffer
CEO of HOTPOTATO MEDIA
Justin Shaffer works on the product team at Facebook. He’s led teams that have worked on Groups, Places, Privacy, Timeline, Photos, and Events. Justin came to Facebook via the acquisition of Hot Potato in mid-2010 where he was the Founder and CEO. Hot Potato built software that made it easy to share what you were doing, where you were, and with whom – and connect to others doing the same. Prior to founding Hot Potato, Justin served as Senior Vice President, New Media at MLB Advanced Media L.P., the online arm of Major League Baseball. Since 2001, he served in a variety of leadership roles focused on the development of the technology and product vision for the suite of offerings available to fans on MLB.com today. Prior to MLBAM, Justin served at ScreamingMedia Inc., an internet based content aggregator and syndicator in New York. He’s an avid skier and racing sailor, and also enjoys engineering pursuits of all kinds.
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About HOTPOTATO MEDIA: Hot Potato is a social media agency that provides event-based service.
John Pasmore
CEO of Yestime
John is seasoned executive creating, managing or embedded as a C-level executive with emerging and established companies. His strengths are in designing and executing a strategy to align a business focus to key performance indicators, strategic business development, fund-raising, and tactical marketing. John spent his early career in banking at Chemical Bank (now Chase) and Texas Commerce Bank and brokerage (Series 7 & 63 licensed). From 1995 to 2005, John partnered with music impresario Russell Simmons, founder of Def Jam Records to create Oneworld Media, Inc. where he served as CEO. Oneworld produced a magazine of the same name, a TV program with Warner Bros., and entered into a multi-year custom publishing relationship with Hearst Magazines. He served as co-founder and CEO in the venture-backed, video-based travel platform VoyageTV. VoyageTV raised $10 million in an A-Round led by Syncom Venture Partners in 2008, and in 2013 was sold to Next 1 Interactive. Voyages maintained offices in New York City and Taiwan and syndicated short-form travel video and commerce opportunities to over 40 million cable homes through Cablevision, Charter Communications, Verizon FiOS and Comcast. Since 2013 John has led tech-focused ventures with SaaS and D2C products.
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About Healthy You Now, Yestime: Yestime is building software connecting on-line platforms to off-line experiences from shopping to venues and/or events.
Sharmeen Mitha-Sehgal
Founder and CEO of Appy Couple
Sharmeen Mitha-Sehgal is CEO and co-founder of Appy Couple.
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About Appy Couple: Appy Couple enables users to create and publish personal mobile wedding apps and websites to share details and photos.
Alice Rossiter
Founder and CEO of Alice’s Table
Alice is founder and CEO at Alice’s Table. She envisions a world where lifestyle blogs are realized through events. She is building the network of flexible creative talent ready to host fun-filled maker events across the country. Alice surrounds herself with the arts and entrepreneurship. She pursued this intersection at the University of Pennsylvania where she studied Visual Studies and Consumer Psychology. She went on to get her masters degree in Art Business from the Sotheby’s Institute in New York City, before joining the start-up community.
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About Alice’s Table: Alice’s Table brings women together to learn new skills, and live a social and creative lifestyle.
Scot Chisholm
CEO & Co-Founder of Classy
Scot is the CEO & Co-Founder of Classy, a social enterprise that creates world-class online fundraising tools for nonprofits, modernizing the giving experience to accelerate global social impact. When one of the largest cancer organizations refused to accept the money he raised during a pub crawl held to honor his mom, a two-time breast cancer survivor, Scot was inspired to start Classy to make it easier for anyone to support a cause that’s meaningful to them—and just as easy for organizations to make purposeful and lasting connections with their supporters. Since 2011, fundraising on the Classy platform has doubled each year—resulting in thousands of nonprofits collectively raising over half a billion dollars. Classy partners with organizations of all sizes, from the fastest-growing nonprofits such as Team Rubicon and Malala Fund, to some of the world’s largest social organizations, such as Acumen Fund, Oxfam, and Shriners Hospitals for Children. Based in San Diego, CA, Classy has raised $53 million to-date in growth capital and is backed by prominent technology investors including JMI Equity, Mithril, Salesforce Ventures, and Bullpen Capital. Classy was selected by Fast Company as one of “The World’s Most Innovative Companies in Social Good,” and recognized on the “100 Brilliant Companies” list by Entrepreneur Magazine. Most recently, Scot was recognized by Glassdoor as a Highest Rated CEO in 2017. Outside of Classy, Scot is an active advisor and angel investor, investing out of a fund called Mixture that includes investments in Change.org, inDinero, Casetext and FanDuel. He’s also part of the founding investor group and on the Board of Directors at San Francisco City Football Club, the country’s first social enterprise semi-professional soccer club. Previously he served for four years on the founding Board of Directors at Team Rubicon, a veteran-led disaster relief nonprofit. Prior to Classy, Scot was a Senior Consultant and Lean Six Sigma Black Belt at Booz Allen Hamilton. Scot earned a B.S in Mechanical & Industrial Engineering from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.
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About Classy, Mixture: Classy offers an online and mobile platform that enables socially good organizations to raise funds for various causes.
Ryan Byrne
Co-Founder & CEO of BuzzCast
Ryan Byrne is the Co-Founder and CEO at BuzzCast.
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About BuzzCast, The Buzz Lab: BuzzCast is a virtual events platform that produces large-scale virtual and hybrid events.
Felice Gorordo
CEO of eMerge Americas
L. Felice Gorordo is a serial entrepreneur, investor, and advisor. Currently, Felice is CEO of eMerge Americas, a venture-backed platform which fosters innovation and entrepreneurship across the Americas, and organizes the largest annual tech event connecting the Americas. In 2019, he led the organizing of eMerge’s sixth annual conference, which attracted more than 16,000 attendees and 400 participating companies from over 40 countries. Felice is also a venture partner at I Squared Capital, a global infrastructure platform managing assets with over $30B in Enterprise Value. Additionally, Felice co-founded and leads Roots of Hope, a non-profit focused on youth empowerment in Cuba through technology and entrepreneurship. He worked on the re-establishment of U.S.-Cuba diplomatic ties, and served as an advisor to Grammy-winner Juanes to help organize the historic Peace without Borders concert in Cuba, which resulted in 1.2 million in attendance. Previously, Felice was President & CEO of Clearpath, (acquired by L1BRE), a venture-backed tech company focused on revolutionizing the immigration filing process – just as TurboTax transformed tax filing. Felice also served as advisor to the Biden Cancer Initiative, helping organize and mobilize support from stakeholders in the cancer space. In 2018, Felice led the organizing of more than 450 community summits across the U.S. to focus national attention on creating actionable solutions in the fight against cancer. Prior to that, Felice was appointed by President Obama as one of fifteen 2011-2012 White House Fellows and served in the White House Office of Public Engagement & Intergovernmental Affairs. In President Bush’s Administration, Felice served in various positions at the U.S. Departments of Commerce, State, and Homeland Security, including as trade specialist managing a cross-sector portfolio valued at $1.5 billion in export content. PODER Magazine has named Felice one of the “100 Poderosos” Most Influential Hispanics in the U.S. and he is a Term Member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
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About eMerge Americas: eMerge Americas is the premiere technology event connecting the Americas.
Mark Hodges
Founder and CEO of Hodges Advisory
Mark Hodges joined Baird Capital as an Operating Partner with more than 20 years of experience in business process outsourcing. (BPO). Mark is an acknowledged pioneer of BPO, and was responsible for a research paper which coined the term in 1989. Currently, Mark is the Founder and CEO of Hodges Advisory, LLC, a built-for-purpose advisory firm that counsels founders and their companies on high growth and liquidity alternatives. Mark serves on the board of Myelin and Vitalyst. Prior to Hodges Advisory, Mark served as Co-Founder and Chairman of the Board for EquaTerra, Inc. the global leader in outsourcing and shared services advisory services. Prior to EquaTerra, he served as Managing Partner of Strategy, Corporate Development and BPO Practice for TPI, Inc. Before TPI, Mark was the Vice President of Strategy & Corporate Development at Exult, Inc. Prior to joining Exult, Mark was the Worldwide Director of Gartner’s Dataquest IT Services (ITO and BPO) Vendor Group, and before Gartner, he served as the Chief Operating Officer of G2 Research, Inc. (G2R), where he spent 11 years before it sold to Gartner in January 1999. Mark received his bachelor’s degree in Political Economies of Industrial Societies (Economics and Political Science) from the University of California at Berkeley.
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About Hodges Advisory: Hodges advisory positions themselves for multiple liquidity events in an efficient manner.
Rust Felix
CEO of Slope.io
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About Slope.io: Slope.io is a provider of a healthcare software designed to offer an easy way to prevent inventory outages.
Anna Anisin
Founder and CEO of Formulatedby
Anna Anisin is a Russian born American entrepreneur, data driven growth hacker, start-up advisor, early adopter and an advocate for women in tech. Founding her first start-up, at the age of 22, Anisin had her first exit at 25. Anisin raised $10 million in Series A funding and oversaw two acquisitions in her carrier. She was named tech industry insider by CNN two years in a row. Currently running her own boutique consulting firm, Formulated.by, focused on using data and science to formulate one of a kind face-to-face and digital experiences for the most innovative B2B enterprise software companies in the US.
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About Data Science Salon, Forbes Magazine, Formulatedby: Formulatedby is an experiential marketing agency.
Babatunde Ogunfemi
Co-Founder and CEO of InnerCircle, Inc.
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About InnerCircle, Inc.: Musician to Fan relationship builder
Jerry Cifarelli
Co-Founder, President, & Chief Executive Officer of ANC
Jerry Cifarelli has spent more than 35 years in marketing and advertising sales. He co-founded ANC in 1997 and has played a prominent role implementing digital signage in sports and non-sports spectaculars. Consistently exploring growth opportunities, he has spearheaded the development of strategic alliances with global Fortune500 companies, started an ANC Private Label LED product line, and expanded the company’s market presence beyond sports to retail and transportation venues. Prior to founding ANC, Cifarelli spent six years with Dorna USA, first as VP of Marketing and later as President & Chief Executive Officer, where he introduced rotational signage technology in the NBA and MLB.
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About ANC: ANC offers integrated technology, display design, and marketing solutions for sports, retail and transportation facilities.
Douglas J. Stanard
CEO of Amf Bowling
CEO of Amf Bowling.
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About Amf Bowling: AMF is the largest bowling company in the world.
Sam Ulu
Founder & CEO of Candidly
Sam E. Ulu is a Founder & CEO at Candidly (formerly Kandid.ly)
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About Candidly: Book an event photographer on Candidly.com and receive photos back within 24 hours. We shoot all events EXCEPT weddings.
Roberto Angulo
CEO of Recruitology
Roberto Angulo is the CEO of Recruitology U.S.
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About AfterCollege, For Dummies, Recruitology: Recruitology is a recruitment marketing platform that combines white label job board software & programmatic job advertising.
Stephen Carter
Group CEO of Informa
Stephen Carter is the Group Chief Executive of Informa plc, one of the world’s leading Academic Publishing, Information, Knowledge & Exhibitions businesses, with a career having spanned both the Public and Private sectors. In the Private sector he is a career Senior Executive, having held senior positions in a range of Media & Technology businesses, and prior to becoming the Group CEO of Informa plc, was President & Managing Director EMEA at Alcatel Lucent Inc, Managing Director and COO of ntl (now Virgin Media), and CEO and Managing Director of JWT UK & Ireland. In the Public sector Stephen was the Founding CEO of Ofcom (the UK’s Media & Communications Regulator). He then served as Chief of Strategy to Prime Minister, The Right Hon Gordon Brown, and was Minister for the Media & Telecommunications industry, where he wrote and published the Digital Britain Report. Which subsequently led to the Digital Economy Act 2010. Stephen has served on a number of Company Boards, including as a Non-Executive on the Board of Informa, and is currently a Non-Executive Director of United Utilities plc. He was awarded a CBE for services to the Communications Industry in 2007, and was made a Life Peer in 2008.
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About Informa: Informa is a business intelligence, academic publishing, knowledge and events group.
Joe Davy
Founder & CEO of Banzai
Joe Davy is Co-Founder and CEO of Banzai, a SaaS-based Engagement Marketing company. Banzai, founded in 2016, has nearly 100 employees globally with offices in Seattle’s Pioneer Square, and in Raleigh, North Carolina. Joe is a North Carolina native and attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Prior to starting Banzai, Joe was a software engineer at IBM, launched a startup called EvoApp, and was General Manager at Avalara, which went public in 2018 and currently has a $15B market cap. In 2019, he was named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 list for Enterprise Technology. Joe is an active investor and also serves as a Director of LegalPad and as a board member of the Seattle Symphony.
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About Banzai: Banzai is a leading enterprise SaaS Engagement Marketing platform for virtual events. On a mission to make marketing more human, the company makes it easy for marketers to drive and track ROI on virtual events by targeting new audiences and deepening those relationships. To that end, Banzai covers a wide array of marketing event products. Banzai customers include Argyle, HubSpot, Nutshell, and ActiveCampaign, among thousands of others. Learn more at www.banzai.io.
Jim McCarthy
Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer of Goldstar Events
Jim McCarthy is the co-founder and CEO of Goldstar. An 18-year veteran of the Internet and e-commerce, Jim has spent his entire career in high-growth businesses and likes to share his knowledge and insight with others. He’s the editor and main contributor to SellingOut.com, a website for live entertainment and arts marketers. He’s the curator and co-founder of TEDxBroadway. He’s spoken at conferences all over the world, including TED, SXSW, INTIX and more. His articles have been in Forbes, Fast Company and Business Insider. Jim studied English at Harvard University and received an MBA at UCLA Anderson School of Management.
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About Goldstar Events, USC Marshall School of Business: Goldstar is the largest seller of excess tickets to live entertainment.
Josue Mpia
Founder and CEO of Betterticket
Josue Mpia is the Founder and CEO at Betterticket.
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About Betterticket: Betterticket is a Web 3.0 decentralized event management and ticketing platform for In-Person, Online, Metaverse or Hybrid Events.
CEO and Portfolio Manager of Jeereddi Investments LP
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About Jeereddi Investments LP: Jeereddi Investments is a value-driven, event-oriented investment organization dedicated to achieving superior, risk-adjusted-total returns.
Joshua Hollis
Chief Executive Officer of Movez
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About Movez: Movez is a social event platform that hones in on the most integral factors of social event attendance and planning.
Douglas A. Miller
President & Chief Executive Officer of Urban Expositions
Doug Miller, a trade show industry veteran of almost 30 years, began his career by single handedly creating the Orlando Gift Show. The successful launch and development of that project attracted the attention of the Atlanta Market Center which brought Doug in as General Manager and VP of AMC Trade Shows. At the Atlanta Market Center, Doug ran one of the largest and most diverse trade show divisions in the country. Overseeing more than 100 events in a variety of industry categories during his tenure with the Atlanta Market Center (now AmericasMart), Doug Miller became one of the most sought after trade show executives in the industry. Doug founded Urban Expositions in 1995 and now leads one of the most successful, fastest growing trade show companies in the United States. Doug is a graduate of Florida International University and lives in Canton, Georgia with his wife and three children.
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About Urban Expositions: Urban Expositions is the gift, restaurant, airport, and souvenir trade show organizer in the U.S.
Maureen Ryan-Fable
Group CEO / CEO – Americas of First Protocol
Prior to launching First Protocol US in 2004, Maureen held several senior event management positions, including Director of Events at Billboard Magazine and The New York Stock Exchange. A shareholder and Board Director of First Protocol, Maureen leads the operational and management team in the US, while also overseeing large complex international accounts including First Protocol’s Managed Services offering.
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About First Protocol: First Protocol is an international events agency.
David Rudolph
Founder & CEO of PlayOn! Sports
David Rudolph is the CEO at PlayOn! Sports.
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About 2080 Media, PlayOn! Sports: PlayOn! Sports is a high school sports media company that streams events and videos on-demand.
Zhu-Song Mei
Founder & CEO of BigMarker
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About BigMarker: Full-stack webinar hosting, marketing & automation platform
Ritesh Patel
Co-Founder & CEO of The Ticket Fairy
Ritesh Patel, Co-founder of The Ticket Fairy, is an interesting mix of event promoter and tech wizard. With more than 15 years in event management and marketing, he also has experience as a cloud engineer.
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About The Ticket Fairy: Full-stack event marketing, ticketing, analytics and advertising platform
Bryce Phillips
Founder & CEO of Evo.com
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About Evo.com, Evolution Projects: Evo.com is an online retailer of outdoor gear and fashion apparel.
Justin Brezhnev
President & CEO of Hacker Fund
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About Hacker Fund: Hacker Fund is a nonprofit incubator for charitable, educational, and scientific projects.
Marian Goodell
CEO of Burning Man Project
As the organization’s recently named first CEO, Marian oversees Burning Man’s year-round staff of 70+ employees and its annual operating budget of approximately $30 million. Marian first attended Burning Man in 1995, and in 1997 was a co-founder of the management organization that eventually became Black Rock City, LLC, which produces the Burning Man event. Throughout her leadership in the Burning Man organization, she has been the Director of Business and Communications, and also oversaw the Black Rock City Department of Public Works. She has steered the development of the Burning Man Regional Network, which is now on six continents, with more than 250 representatives in 30 countries. Marian is a founding board member of the Burning Man Project, the Black Rock Arts Foundation, and Black Rock Solar. She is currently leading the organization’s efforts to facilitate and extend the Burning Man ethos globally. Marian holds a BA in Creative Writing from Goucher College in Baltimore, Maryland and an MFA in photography from the Academy of Art University in San Francisco. Marian has worked in sales and public relations, and was a project manager for a software development firm when she first arrived as a participant at Burning Man in 1995.
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About Burning Man Project: Facilitating and extending the culture that has issued from the Burning Man event into the larger world.
Steve Gottlieb
Founder and CEO of Shindig
Serial Entrepreneur and angel investor Steve Gottlieb is the Founder and CEO of Shindig, a patented new video chat technology that enables large-scale interactive events. Shindig participants can see and be seen by one another in a shared environment accommodating thousands. They can move freely in and out of conversations with whomever they chose, and at the same time enjoy a talk, presentation or interview with their favorite author, artist, speaker or personality. Participants can also be called on to share the stage with presenters to ask them questions “face-to-face” in front of the entire gathering. Still in Beta, hundreds of prominent hosts (including Hugh Howey, Michael Pollan, TEDx, Big Daddy Kane, David Houle, and Guy Kawasaki) have already embraced Shindig for their online events. With Shindig, Gottlieb aims to redefine the state of the art of online engagement in a multitude of verticals from online promotional events, conferences, nightclubs, business meetings, games and distance learning. Prior to Shindig, Gottlieb was the founder of TVT Records, one of the largest and most successful independent record labels in US history. Over the course of its 25 year history the label released over 25 Gold, Platinum and Multi Platinum albums. Gottlieb discovered and spearheaded the careers of such artists as Nine Inch Nails, Ja Rule, Lil Jon, Pitbull, Sevendust, Brian Jonestown Massacre and KMFDM among many others. Significant releases on the label also included the Televisions Greatest Hits series, Snoop Dogg and Tha Eastsidaz, XTC, Ambulance LTD, Guided by Voices, Modern English, Jusk Jack, Default, The Connells, Underworld, Gil Scott Heron, Jimmy Page and The Black Crowes and a large number of well known movie and TV soundtracks. Gottlieb has been recognized as a pioneer in digital exploitation of music. He appeared before the House Judiciary Committee on Digital Music Rights and has been a pioneering dealmaker providing hit content to many music startups initially denied access to music from the Majors. Under Gottlieb’s leadership TVT was the first label to make its repertoire freely available for download in 2000. TVT was also the first label to settle with Napster and authorize their distribution of TVT copyrights. TVT was one of the first labels to authorize subscription services Rhapsody, emusic and others. Gottlieb was a founding member of A2IM the association of American Independent labels. Gottlieb served on the Board of Directors of MusicMatch. Gottlieb has invested and advised many companies over the years and is currently an investor and advisor to Tune Up Media.
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About Shindig: Shindig is a platform for large scale, participatory virtual events.
Bryan Edelstein
Chief Executive Officer of Eventplicity
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About Eventplicity: Eventplicity provides an end-to-end sales system for events that captures inquiries and engages customers.
Jo Jenkins
Chief Executive Officer of AARP
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About AARP: AARP is leading a revolution in the way people view and live life after 50.
Eugene Lewis
CEO of Bison
Eugene is an advisor at Republic, the equity crowdfunding portal backed by and spun out of AngelList. Before joining Republic, Eugene was one of the first employees at iCapital Network, a digital fundraising platform, backed by UBS and BlackRock. Eugene started his career in private equity at Hamilton Lane and Oppenheimer and Co. He received his BA from NYU, an MSc from the London School of Economics, and Studied for an MPhil at Cambridge University. He was a Fulbright Scholar in Taiwan.
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About Bison: Bison is the blockchain to reimagine how fans engage with esports live events.
Arun Parimi
Founder & CEO of Arevea Inc.
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About Arevea Inc., BOOKMYCARGO: Arevea is an online end to end event experience platform that enables users to create memorable experiences for any type of event.
Ali Fakhri
CEO of EventHi
Ali Fakhri is the CEO and Founder of EventHi, an event management platform built for the cannabis culture. EventHi was one of the first companies in California to obtain an MRB bank account with Partner Colorado Credit Union. Ali’s background consists of working with two of the largest Fortune 500 companies, leading sales and business development. Ali has ample experience in sponsoring and coordinating professional events related to cannabis which allowed him to come face to face with the banking issues surrounding the cannabis industry. Ali developed EventHi to help bring a solution and fill a void for the cannabis industry in event planning.
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About Cannabis Travel Association, EventHi: EventHi is an event management platform, built for the cannabis event culture.
George Pyne
Chief Executive Officer and Founder of Bruin Sports Capital
George Pyne is an international business executive and founder of Bruin Sports Capital, an investment firm that utilizes private funds to acquire and build the most innovative businesses across the global sports, entertainment, media and lifestyle landscape. Since its founding eighteen months ago, Bruin’s portfolio of companies has grown to include more than 1,000 employees across twenty-four offices in nine countries and spans three powerful core platforms – Experiences & Hospitality, Marketing Services and Sports Media & Technology. Pyne is also Non-Executive Chairman of Courtside Ventures, a venture capital fund launched by Bruin that invests in early-stage technology and media companies with a focus on sports.
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About Bruin Sports Capital, Courtside Ventures: Bruin Sports Capital seeks to invest in companies that operates in the media, sports, marketing, and branded lifestyle sectors.
Oana Manolache
Founder & CEO of Introvoke
Oana Manolache is the Founder and CEO at Introvoke.
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About Introvoke: Introvoke is an embeddable solution allowing organizations to turn their virtual programs into digital stages with plug-and-play components.
Stephanie Ping
Co-Founder and CEO of WORQ
Steph is co-founder & CEO of WORQ, where she developed the initial idea and leads the company. She was previously Head of Business Development and Investor Relations at AXIS REIT. She was instrumental in growing the REIT from RM1b to RM2b in 3.5 years – providing 27% shareholder returns per annum at its peak. This was the highest return achieved at the REIT to-date and within the industry. Average yield on the properties that she acquired was 14-16%, compared to the property industry average of 5%. Stephanie graduated in the top 5% of her department at Stanford University with a BA in Economics and MS in Management Science and Engineering. She hopes to create a similar entreprenuership community for Asia inspired by the one she experienced at Stanford. Steph also has an uncanny ability to introduce significant others who are made for each other, sometimes with success, sometimes not.
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About WORQ: WORQ is Malaysia’s biggest co-working space.
Brooke Battle
CEO/Founder of Swell Fundraising
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About Swell Fundraising: Swell Fundraising provides event fundraising software solution to nonprofit organizations around the U.S.
