Advisor and investor in creatively driven start-ups

Bill Foulkes

Bill Foulkes is an advisor and investor in creatively driven start-ups, an entrepreneur, and currently a faculty member at the Rhode Island School of Design. The course he has created, Design and Entrepreneurial Thinking, introduces artists and designers to business concepts and enhances their abilities to bring their ideas to reality.

Through his work at RISD, Bill has helped artists and designers understand that their approaches and mindsets are uniquely suited for entrepreneurship and instrumental in fostering innovation, change and growth.

Bill has over twenty years of experience in strategic planning, people development, marketing and finance in both high tech and consumer companies where he has successfully identified, communicated and implemented new business concepts and initiatives, led organizational change, built strategic partner relationships and led creative processes.

Bill holds an A.B. in History from Harvard College and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.

Las Vegas, NV

John Doffing

CEO of Walls360, Inc.

Entrepreneur John Doffing has pursued two parallel passions: technology and art.  Early in his career, John worked with a number of bleeding-edge startups in Virtual Reality (first-generation HMDs for consumer gaming applications), 3D Graphics (stereoscopic display, NURBs modeling, full-body laser scanning, motion-capture), and Human-Computer Interaction (haptic interfaces).  During this period, John also worked on a series of groundbreaking online art projects and exhibitions and curated his first ‘real world’ art show in a small San Francisco art gallery in 2002.  This first show was called PROPAGANDA and featured the artwork of Shepard Fairey, Winston Smith, and Aidan Hughes.  PROPAGANDA would grow into a global series of traveling art exhibitions, featuring hundreds of artists from around the world.  John founded the START SOMA art gallery in San Francisco in 2003, and over the past seven years has curated dozens of exhibitions, including a pioneering series of Video Game Art Shows.  John is also the creator and curator of the ‘Painted Rooms’ exhibitions at the Hotel des Arts in San Francisco, in which 50 guest rooms were completely transformed by artists.  In 2004, John was one of the executive producers of ‘Quality of Life’, an independent film created and shot amidst San Francisco’s burgeoning graffiti scene.  In 2005, John founded START MOBILE to bring the artwork of emerging and underground artists from around the world to the nascent mobile medium and is a former juror (2007) and member of the emeritus board of INTO THE PIXEL.  His most recent project is LTL PRINTS, a Philadelphia startup company that is bringing characters, artwork, and imagery from video games and ‘virtual worlds’ to real-world walls.

John earned his BA from Marquette University (Phi Beta Kappa – Triple Major in Philosophy, History, and Political Science; Minor in Psychology), along with a graduate BA/MA with Honours from St. John’s College, Cambridge University, where he was a Davies-Jackson Scholar. At Cambridge, John was the recipient of the Mansergh Prize in History, was appointed to the President’s Committee at the Cambridge Union Society, played rugby and rowed crew for his college, and played American Football for the University.  John firmly believes that ‘art should be for everyone’, and his favorite video games of all time include Temptest, Berzerk, Dragon’s Lair, and Jet Set Radio Future.

Adjunct Professor at Stanford Engineering

Tom Kosnik

Tom Kosnik is an Adjunct Professor at Stanford Engineering, Department of MS&E (1990-present). He is also a Consulting Professor for National University of Singapore (NUS) College in Silicon Valley (NCSV) and the NUS iLEAD program (2002-present). His current Stanford courses include Global Entrepreneurial Marketing (GEM), Technology Entrepreneurship, and Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders (ETL) Program. He also teaches New Venture Creation for NUS. He taught Marketing at Harvard Business School from 1985-89, and launched HBS’s Entrepreneurial Marketing course in 1995-97. Tom Kosnik is a coauthor of Ramfelt, Kjellberg and Kosnik (2014) Gear Up: Test Your Business Model Potential and Plan your Path to Success, John Wiley and Sons. Gear Up helps executives and new product development teams in organizations large and small to launch innovations that create new markets or disrupt existing markets. Kosnik has worked with hundreds of startups on the Pacific Rim since 1981, helping them to raise money, attract talent, acquire customers, and enter new countries. He is Venture Partner, FoundersX Ventures. Early stage cross border investor focused on Silicon Valley; Singapore; Chengdu; Beijing; Shanghai; Chongqing; Hangzhou; Bangkok; Ho Chi Minh City; Jakarta.

Santa Fe, NM

Katelyn Hillburn

Founder and CEO Madre Foods

USA

Molly Hughes

Molly Hughes is a retired broadcast journalist who spent more than 25 years anchoring the news at various affiliates in Denver, San Diego, Dayton, Ohio, and Yuma, Arizona. Since leaving CBS4 news in Denver in 2010, her entrepreneurial spirit has come alive. Her most recent venture is called SelfieEssentials.com (gadgets and pro-tips for Zoom calls, YouTubers, influencers, online educators, etc.) It’s a great way to put her skill set to good use while the world transforms into meetings over Zoom. In 2014, Hughes co-created Denver Post TV (DPTV), the newspaper’s online video operation.

Strategic and execution-oriented professional

Greta Gerazimaite

Greta is a strategic and execution-oriented professional with experience across European, US and Indian markets. Greta started her career as a Future Leaders Associate at GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) where she worked in product management, marketing and process set-up & optimization across Scandinavia and Baltics, and where she gained global recognition for her work in digitizing selling models. She learnt how to implement change and act as an owner with much fewer resources when she digitized sales and diversified strategy for her family business – a local property developer in Lithuania. Greta honed her strategic and analytical skills as a Consultant at Bain & Company and has a record in world-class education: she completed a summer program at Stanford University with a focus on Technology Entrepreneurship and has an MBA with Distinction from Harvard Business School.

USA

Marie-Laure Davy

Currently head of brand strategy and consumer experiences at Havas Sports & Entertainment. Marie-Laure has worked in creative agencies for 10 years and as a consultant for a few years. Her skills range from project management to brand strategy, experiential, content and sponsorship activations. Originally from France she has lived in France, Germany, Canada and in the US (New-York) and a lot of her work experiences have revolved around global brands and understanding consumers at a global level until recently.

Santa Fe, NM

Sean Di Ianni

Co-founder of Meow Wolf

Sean has been an integral member of the art collective and art production company, Meow Wolf since 2008. In addition to making art, Sean has experience in project management, construction, fabrication, and exhibition design. As COO for Meow Wolf Sean coordinates the permitting, construction, scheduling and fabrication of the group’s massive installations. He also sets up systems for daily operations, finances, staffing, and strategic planning and business development with an eye towards integrating the group’s many facets into a cohesive whole. Sean holds a BFA in Sculpture from RISD and a Masters from St. John’s College.

Associate Professor of Computational Thinking

Daniel Spikol

Scientist, educator, and creative technologist investigating how people learn and play. Currently, I am Associate Professor of Computational Thinking at the University of Copenhagen’s Center for Digital Education. From 2011-2021, I have worked for Malmö University in the Department of Computer Science and Media Technology. I previously worked for Linnæus University and Sweden’s Interactive Institute. My passion is to design and develop digital experiences to provoke people’s curiosity to explore the physical and digital world. My background combines design, digital art, and computer science to investigate how people learn and play. I have worked for different companies previous to academia, founded several companies, and actively integrated design, science, industry, and culture. My current research looks at understanding how people to collaborate to solve open-ended design tasks with physical computing to inspire learners for computational tinkering and thinking. In my free time, I like bicycle adventures on gravel, dirt, and road, snowboarding, and the practice of martial arts.

Los Angeles, CA

Louise Murray

Louise, aka Lou, is a results-driven leader currently at the helm of Thinkwell’s Los Angeles Studio. In her role as President, Lou oversees the company’s growth, management, and operations out of LA to ensure the continued delivery of value, reliability, and excellence to all clients and partners.

She takes a vision statement and makes it reality through strategic development of her teams and her constant quest for innovation. She intuitively sees the threads of opportunity present in organizations and environments, connects the pieces, parts and stakeholders and brings them together into a coherent process to answer the identified need. Alone she could go faster, but she knows that with an integrated cross functional team, everyone will go further; she helps stakeholders extend their thinking, so material business advantages are driven.

She is an inspirational and transformational leader who, through storytelling, inspires action, legitimatizes participants and has at heart the financial resources management that levers the business. Respected for her decision making, finding strategic processes that create value, reliability in delivering quality experiential products and offerings on time and on budget, Lou is highly sought as business partner in all environments she joins. In creating the Aspire-Inspire-Emote Transmedia Experiential model for entertainment experiences at WDW and drastically reducing the go to market period, she has set her entire organization up for repeated success.

When one is part of the fabric of an iconic brands and organizations like Tennis Canada, Cirque du Soleil, Walt Disney World, TD Garden and Thinkwell Group, one knows that the need for constant reinvention is the path for sustainability and continued health for the enterprise, Lou delivers on that.

NYC

Stefani Bardin

Stefani explores the influences of corporate culture and industrial food production on our food system and the environment. She works with neuroscientists, biologists, and gastroenterologists to ground her research in the scientific world. These investigations take the form of single and multi-channel videos, immersive and interactive installations as well as tools for measuring and/or mediating these influences.

KUWAIT

Fahad AlFalah

Founding Partner of MENAfile

Nina Yozell-Epstein

Nina Yozell-Epstein is the founder of Squash Blossom Local Food, a social enterprise, serving farmers of and around Northern New Mexico, distributing their produce to restaurants and to the general public in Santa Fe. Nina has worked in food and farming both in her home state of New Mexico, and around the globe. Her experience in small-scale agriculture ranges from growing, to distribution, managing and vending at farmers’ markets, and years in the non-profit sector. Nina’s passion is to make small-scale, family farming viable for generations to come. She sees the work of Squash Blossom as a way to protect the earth, preserve culture and diversity, strengthen the local economy, and imbue health for all eaters.

Kuwait

Abdullah Alzabin

Founder & CEO of Lamba

Founder of Lamba – a mobile gaming company focused on the Arabic region with four games and ten million players. Prior to Lamba, Abdullah was a consultant with Bain & Company in San Francisco. Abdullah earned his MBA from Harvard Business School and bachelors from University of Virginia.

Kuwait

Sundeep Singh Sahni

Chief E-Commerce Officer at the Middle East Internet Group

Sundeep Sahni is the Chief E-Commerce Officer at the Middle East Internet Group, a fund committed to promoting entrepreneurship and launching the next generation of Internet Giants in the Middle East. Sundeep Sahni is also a serial entrepreneur having been a co-founder at Lazada, the biggest e-commerce company in South East Asia, which was acquired by Alibaba for $1.5bn. Post Lazada, Sundeep joined Ola as head of their New Initiatives and launched four new verticals for Ola. Sundeep had earlier worked at Credit Suisse Investment Bank in New York and London. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Boston College in Computer Science and an MBA degree from INSEAD. He is also a CFA charter holder.

Santa Fe, NM

Vince Kadlubek

Co-founder, Former CEO of Meow Wolf

Vince Kadlubek is Co-Founder and CEO of Meow Wolf, an arts production company in Santa Fe, NM. Meow Wolf was the winner of Creative Startups inaugural startup competition, and is currently constructing its first permanent family entertainment center in collaboration with Game of Thrones author George RR Martin.

NYC

Justin Harter

Creator & Owner of CITYSTICKS

Created by Justin Harter, CITYSTICKS is a New York City based ice pop company focused on providing a healthier alternative to many frozen treats. Justin acquired various techniques working as a bartender to create one-of-a-kind infusions and syrups which he uses to craft each CITYSTICKS flavors.

As seen in: Vogue Magazine, Eater, Time Out, Tasting Table, CBS, NY1, Bedford & Bowery and more!

Rochester, NY

Amber Odhner

Eat Me is an American duo dedicated to impulse and wild pairings of food, culture, and art. Amber Odhner, pastry artist and yogi, and Catelyn Augustine, masseur and spirit whisperer, emerged onto Kodak’s scene after a geographic separation of many years. Magnetizing like sun and moon, yin and yang, whipped cream, and maraschino cherry, they find ice cream the perfect medium for creative output.

USA

Andy Alsop

CEO of The Receptionist

First and foremost I am the proud CEO of The Receptionist. I am a profit-driven, team-oriented executive with substantial technology startup background. Demonstrated success in all aspects of a startup including management, operations, finance, marketing, and sales.

Julie Penner

Julie is a leadership coach, facilitator, investor and fractional COO. She serves as the Entrepreneur in Residence at the Telluride Venture Accelerator. She was formerly a Venture Partner at Next Frontier Capital and a Director at Techstars Boulder from 2014-209. Her prior work was in operations and corporate development. She holds an JD/MBA from University of Colorado with an emphasis in entrepreneurship and a BA from Brown University. She began her career at Zeo, a Boston-based consumer hardware startup. She is also an active potter and serves on the board for Studio Arts Boulder.

Santa Fe, NM

Candice Owens

Founder of the Owens Law Firm

Candice Lee Owens is the founder and principal of The Owens Law Firm, a boutique business law firm with offices in Santa Fe and Albuquerque New Mexico. The firm is committed to providing thoughtful and strategic legal counsel to businesses, emerging companies, technology innovators, commercial interests, real estate interests, and investor clients throughout Santa Fe, Albuquerque, and Northern New Mexico.  Prior to opening the firm, Ms. Owens was a partner at Sommer Udall Sutin Law Firm.  Ms. Owens graduated magna cum laude from Santa Clara University School of Law and practiced at Cooley LP in Palo Alto prior to moving to New Mexico. For more information, please visit theowenslawfirmpc.com.

Atlanta, GA

Trevor Wolfe

A serial tech entrepreneur, Trevor sold BigTeam to Mailchimp in 2020 and now leads Mailchimp’s product development team. BigTeam was an award-winning feedback platform that made it simple to engage customers, users, and fans through feedback.

USA

Richard Kylberg

Rich Kylberg spent over twenty entrepreneurial years owning and operating radio stations across the country. He was then recruited to oversee marketing and communications worldwide for a Fortune 125 technology company; Arrow Electronics. Today he works with numerous companies, particularly focusing on strategy. He graduated from Stanford University and Harvard Business School.

WESTMINSTER, CO

Kelly Holmes

Founder & President of Native Max New Media

Mnicoujou Lakota from the Cheyenne River Reservation in South Dakota, calls herself an inspirational storyteller, in hopes to strengthen connections to culture and identity by inspiring and empowering readers while sharing stories with the world.

Kelly is the founder and President of Native Max New Media, an award-winning global multimedia brand with a constellation of platforms and networks that expands indigenous talent across print, digital, web, mobile, video, events, e-commerce and partnerships. She is also editor-in-chief of Native Max Magazine, a glossy publication which features the fashion, culture, and lifestyle of Native American and First Nations people.

Boston, MA

Priyama Barua

Priyama Barua is an Experience Strategy Director at Mad*Pow – a strategic design agency focused on creating innovative experiences and compelling digital solutions. In her efforts to improve people’s experiences, she employs a range of human-centered, experience-led, service design approaches that can change the strategic direction of large Fortune 500 member companies.

She is passionate about building more bridges between design and business, and getting people aligned on innovative thinking and doing. She believes that things can always work better than they do in this current moment, if we stop to consider the end-to-end impact of what we’re planning.

In her past lives, Priyama has been a successful entrepreneur and a college professor. She holds a Masters in Design Management and an MBA in Operations, both of which enable her to build solutions that are sustainable and scalable.

Albuquerque, NM

Bob Borden

Founder and CEO of Ideas And People

Bob H. Borden leads Ideas And People. His keen ingenuity and passion for entrepreneurship have fueled decades of accomplishments in design and marketing. He is widely recognized for his cross-sector competence and his ability to analyze—and redefine—markets, businesses, and brands. What’s important? Listening. Timing. Engaging. Sometimes bocce and beer. Decisiveness. Strategy. Family. Skiing. Recognizing that taking things seriously sometimes means not taking yourself too seriously. Laughter. Candor. Positivity. Baseball caps. Bob relishes the process of creating. He savors the dialogue that unfolds from making people feel comfortable. He delights in nailing the essence of things.   During his 15-year tenure as Vice-President of Design and Brand Development for Nambé, Bob established the brand as an international leader in product design, integrated marketing, and award-winning retail store design and merchandising. Under his creative direction, Nambé products were accepted into the permanent collections of more than 25 museums around the world.   Bob’s versatility and his meticulous eye for quality design are noted by international clients such as MoMA, Neiman Marcus, Bloomingdales, Nambé, Luigi Bormioli, Royal Selangor, and Elite Model Management. His exuberance for life, ideas, and people is noted by everyone he works with.

Kuwait

Rakan Alfadalah

Co-founder – Director of Marketing & Franchising; Chocolateness

Co-founder of Chocolateness. Hold a bachelor BSC in Computer Sciences from GUST, and graduated from executive programs at HBS, Stanford GSB, and KCL. Elected president of the students union of GUST, plus worked as consulting mentor for startups and entrepreneurs in Kuwait.

Co-founder of Make A Difference "MAD"

Fiona Hazell

Fiona is the co-founder of MAD, an organization that works with entrepreneurs from over 40 countries to catalyze leaps in social innovation. (MAD is an acronym for Make A Difference, and a nod to the fact that it is the ones who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, actually do.)

Through MAD she has supported the growth of social entrepreneurs across Africa, Middle East, Asia and Europe; developing international incubators, accelerators and fellowship programs on behalf of development agencies, impact investors and NGOs around the globe.

Prior to adopting the MAD lifestyle, as a single woman under 30 she “business backpacked” through Africa (Botswana, Ghana, Kenya, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia) working with entrepreneurs to build sustainable businesses that provide vital community services whilst also stimulating local economies.

An adventurer at heart, Fiona is happiest when she is exploring new countries and concepts. Forming deep connections and relationships with local leaders across the globe, she loves to identify patterns in the seemingly disconnected. e.g discussing the merits of; Universal Basic Income with the chief of a Masaai tribe in Kenya, rebuilding Gaza with rubble from demolished houses with a Gazan female engineer, environmentally friendly menstruation products with girls in a Malaysian rainforest, digital education with members of the Amazonian Kichwa tribe and the feasibility of sanitation innovations providing an income for community schools in Uganda. It’s working with these leaders from too-often overlooked markets that Fiona continues to learn and be inspired.

Keen to ensure that impactful projects are funded, she sits on Social Innovation review panels for the Swedish Development Agency (Sida) and the European Union. And in an effort to cultivate the next generation of conscientious leaders she is the social innovation advisor for ECIU – a collaboration between 12 European universities where learners, teachers and researchers cooperate with cities and businesses to solve real-life challenges – pioneering a degree that really makes a difference.

Seattle, WA

Steve Arnold

Co-Founder & Partner Emeritus of Polaris Partners

Kuwait

Abdulaziz AlMulla

CEO and Co-Founder of Madar Farms

Abdulaziz is the CEO and Co-Founder of Madar Farms – a UAE based AgriTech startup dedicated to addressing Food & Water Security in the Arab region. Madar Farms provides both growing techs for all and grows themselves. Their tech uses 95% less water and land than conventional farming, making them one of the most efficient and sustainable produce growers in the GCC. Abdulaziz has also been a serial investor in disruptive technologies (Lyft, Hyperloop One, Agolo) and is a GP with Madar Ventures.

Abdulaziz’s interest in food security began during his time at McKinsey &Co. working extensively with GCC governments addressing a variety of national risk challenges. Previously a banker with HSBC, Abdulaziz’s coverage included Middle Eastern sovereigns, financial institutions, corporates, and both the entire international Islamic Finance and African bond space. He holds a BA and an MBA from the University of Pennsylvania and the Wharton School of Business.

Mohammed A Fitaihi

I attained a Bachelor in System Analysis Engineering, Masters in Finance, an MBA, and a Doctorate in Business Administration. The degrees were from leading US universities including Babson college. I founded several brands including “Baby Fitaihi” with showrooms around the Gulf. I served as the Jeddah chapter chairman of the angel investment club “Oqal”. I served as a mentor in several accelerator programs including “Flat6Labs”. I am a member of the Board of Directors in Al Jouf Agricultural Development public company, and the International Medical Center Co. (IMC). I’ve received many local and international awards for my entrepreneurship ventures and have been active in most entrepreneurship events in Saudi Arabia.

Puerto Rico

Frances Vieras Blanc

Creatrix of extraordinary immersive universes
Co-founder & CEO of Eat the Cake Studio

Creatrix of extraordinary immersive universes & Co-founder & CEO of Eat the Cake Studio, an immersive entertainment company specializing in interactive story-based experiences for diverse industries.

We are universe creators. We thrive in building story worlds and manifesting them dynamically, both as immersive and interactive adventures for the public to enjoy and as a way for companies to ignite customer brand advocacy.

Thanks to a vast international network of talented artists, creators, and professionals, we offer a robust selection of services ranging from concept creation to execution and management.

Kuwait

Dalal Alrayes

CEO & Founder, caravan

Dalal is the CEO and founder of caravan, a tech academy based in Kuwait, focused on preparing students with futureproof, applicable knowledge. Dalal is a full stack developer with a background in finance and private equity. As an investment manager at Global Investment House, she helped companies increase their value by turning around their operations, restructuring management and redefining products.

Dalal also co-founded GiftOn, a gift inspiration company that won Startup Weekend Chicago and was part of WiSTEM, an incubator for women-led tech businesses.

She is passionate about empowering women, and is a board member of Write/Speak/Code. Dalal holds an MBA from London Business School and a B.S in Finance and Economics from Babson College.

Santa Fe, NM

Francine Sommer

Venture Capitalist, Founder of Oculus Media Inc., Partner of Village Ventures

Formerly, Francine was co-Founder & General Partner of Gabelli Multimedia Partners, a new media venture capital fund; Senior Vice President of the Angel™ Funds Group, Wit Capital; Managing Director, First Security Management, a value oriented hedge fund; President of 655 Associates, a Gabelli & Co. venture portfolio turnaround and Vice President, Research & Science Investors, a venture capital firm.

Francine is a founder of the predecessor to newyorkangels.com and is a past President of the Venture Investors Association of NY and the 2005 Chairperson of New Mexico Angels. She worked with the Giuliani administration on the Board and Executive Committee of the New York City Economic Development Corporation, and was on the Board & Executive Committee of the Lensic Performing Art Center. She is currently on the Board of Coronado Ventures Forum.

Lancaster, PA

Srirupa Dasgupta

Upohar LLC is a certified B Corporation, which includes a full-service catering branch, a restaurant, a food truck and a market stand. Srirupa Dasgupta is a social entrepreneur who enjoys using her strategic planning, business development and marketing skills to making the world a better place. She is also a certified Integral Coach®.

Ahmad Maqram

A passionate entrepreneur who wants to make a difference by empowering talents and utilize technology he founded ‘Vocally’, a musical platform providing talents management and musical experiences with other tailored B2B services.

USA

Theo Edmunds

Theo is an innovator, artist, researcher and cultural strategist who was named one of “50 People Changing the Face of the South” by Southern Living Magazine. Theo guides the next-gen entrepreneurship program for the Derby Diversity & Business Summit, served as founding Vice-Chair of Civitas (the Ohio River Valley LGBTQ Chamber of Commerce), and was founding co-chair of the Louisville Health Advisory Board’s Cultural/Social Impact Committee. He is the co-founder of IDEAS xLab, an arts-based nonprofit, and was co-leader for Louisville’s successful 2016 bid to be named a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Culture of Health Prize winner.

NYC

David Kantor

Bio Coming Soon

Kuwait

Mohammed Jaffar

Deputy Chairman & CEO of Faith Capital Holding

Mohammed is the Deputy Chairman & CEO of Faith Capital Holding, a Kuwait based venture capital fund which focuses on young, e-commerce businesses, based in the GCC that have high growth potential for the future.Faith Capital was created by Mohammed in order to harness his previous experience and success to promote and fund a new generation of Internet entrepreneurs in the region. Mohammed believes in a hands-on approach with Faith Capital’s portfolio companies to create maximum value and to encourage these businesses to compete successfully on a regional and global stage.

Prior to Faith Capital, Mohammed was the CEO of Talabat.com an e-commerce business he acquired in 2010. Under his leadership the firm moved from a Kuwaiti domestic player to a market leading business throughout the GCC. In 2015 Mohammed sold the business for US$170m to Rocket Internet, a German based e-commerce giant and widely viewed as the largest Internet platform outside of the U.S. and China. This deal remains the largest Internet technology transaction to the date in the Arab world and Talabat and Mohammed Jaffar are recognized as pioneers and key innovators of the e-commerce space in the GCC.
Mohammed also previously held the position of deputy chairman of Danah Al Safat Foodstuff Company, a Kuwaiti listed company holding a prominent position as one of the leading companies in its field and was a board member of Al Safat Dhiafa Company.

Mohammed is currently a board member of Azzad Trading Group Company, Nexgen Group Company and Tujjar Events Management & Execution Company.
Prior to Talabat, having spent four years in the Corporate Banking Division of Gulf Bank in Kuwait, Mohammed embarked upon his entrepreneurial endeavors by establishing his own business in the F&B industry in 2008. The business continues to flourish under his family’s F&B portfolio.
Mohammed completed his education in England and graduated with a BSc in Economics from the University of Surrey.

LAS CRUCES, NM

Silvia Terrazas

Co-founder of La Reyna Michoacana

Detroit, MI

Joe Caruso

Joe has spent his career in and around many facets of creative marketing services with a wealth of experience focused on digital, content, and production. He brings a great right brain/left brain mix of integrated production leadership and business operations. As the Head of Digital Production at Imagination, Joe oversees the processes, resources, operations, and financial management of the Detroit digital team.

Kuwait

Karim Samakie

Entrepreneurship Expert, The World Bank

Currently consulting with the World Bank Group on Entrepreneurship Ecosystem Development and working with several early-stage startups with a focus on Business Development and fundraising. Karim is helping startups grow their businesses by analyzing, developing, and implementing customer acquisition, business development, and fundraising strategies. He has been heavily involved in the Startup scene across the MENA region for the past few years. As Head of Investment at Oasis500, he was involved in identifying potential startups, training the startups on basic startup foundations such as business modeling, financials, and pitching to investors. In addition, he worked closely with Oasis500 portfolio companies to help them build sustainable businesses, grow and penetrate new markets, fundraise, pitching to investors, etc. Karim was also closely involved with the mentorship and training of the team on various Projects for both Oasis500 and the World Bank. The projects spanned many countries in the GCC such as Saudi Arabia, Oman, and other countries around the MENA region and the Caribbean. Karim left Oasis500 in July of 2015 in pursuit of different opportunities and decided to get hands-on involvement with startups. He Joined Sajilni, an event management, and ticketing platform, as Head of Business Development after spending several months in Silicon Valley part of the 500Startups acceleration program. Karim holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree with a specialization in Finance, International Business, and Entrepreneurship from Desautels Faculty of Management, McGill University (2005), and a Management Certificate in Business Administration.

USA

Karen Gibbs

Karen Gibbs is the co-founder of ByHand Consulting. Her career spans over 25 years working with artisan enterprises around the world to help them expand their markets. She has served on the board of Aid to Artisans and Hand/Eye Fund, co-founded a successful wholesale lifestyle company, worked with economic development initiatives and private enterprises in over 70 countries and regularly collaborates with trade shows, major retailers and ethical sourcing programs in the US market. Her passion is the global artisan sector and sharing her knowledge and connections with entrepreneurs worldwide.

Kuwait

Ali Boshehry

Managing Director, Global Markets

Ali Boshehry’s local and international experience enabled him to establish and develop his business, Global Markets, and introduce new market research and business intelligence services to the region. Global Markets’ research methodology depends on covering 100% of businesses that have physical market presence. The 100% business profiling helps reach new conclusions and ideas that are impossible to obtain by estimating only samples of the market.

Santa Fe, NM

Chris Castro

Christine has 25 years of experience leading corporate communications, investor relations, and marketing/brand functions for some of the world’s most prominent brand-name companies in the entertainment, technology, and health sciences industries. Previously she was Vice President, Corporate Communications for The Walt Disney Company; Chief Communications Officer, Yahoo! Inc.; Senior Vice President, Corporate Relations, Genentech, Inc.; and Senior Vice President, Communications for CBS Corp.

Santa Fe, NM

Hillary Randolph

Founder and Designer, SOMERS and Wear your GRACE

Hillary entered the world of jewelry design in 1999 with the SOMERS line of sophisticated gold and silver pieces, based upon her creative partner’s outsized marble and alabaster sculptures. The brand had great success in galleries, museum shops, and luxury retailers nationwide, and in 2014 Hillary opened the flagship SOMERS store on Palace Avenue in Santa Fe, where the jewelry is designed and produced.
Inspired by her face-to-face connections with her customers and committed to taking her creativity to a new level, Hillary decided to pursue a new jewelry and lifestyle brand called wear your GRACE, debuting the new designs and rechristening the storefront on Valentine’s Day of 2016.

The gallery’s location just off the historic Plaza in the heart of Santa Fe brings locals downtown and exposes the brand to visitors from all across the globe.
Today GRACE jewelry and lifestyle offers Hillary’s signature exquisitely crafted, effortlessly luxurious jewelry, accessories, and objects for the home. Her new designs are an inspired departure from her earlier work, emphasizing movement and incorporating wood, horn, and semi-precious stones. The collection includes best-selling bangles designed by her daughter Coco, who donates a portion of the proceeds to the Heart and Soul Animal Sanctuary outside Santa Fe.

Hillary’s business plan was designed for impact as well as profit, and so she regularly offers “share with GRACE” trunk shows nationwide that raise funds for the host’s favorite charity. GRACE also supports Santa Fe’s 100 Women Who Care, which donates over $40,000 per year to local nonprofits.

Albuquerque, NM

Jim Spadaccini

CEO and Creative Director Ideum, Inc.

Jim is the Founder, Creative Director, and CEO of Ideum. He helps direct Ideum’s commercial hardware and software initiatives and provides creative direction for custom software and installation projects.  For more than a decade, Jim has taught courses on digital media and museums for the San Francisco State University’s (SFSU) Multimedia Studies Program, the Cultural Resource Management Program at the University of Victoria, British Columbia, and the Technology-Enhanced Communication for the Cultural Heritage (TEC-CH) program at the University of Lugano, Switzerland. Before founding Ideum, Jim was the Director of Interactive Media at the Exploratorium in San Francisco where he received a Smithsonian Computerworld Award, an Association of Science and Technology Centers Award for Innovation, and three consecutive Webby Awards for “Best Science Site.”

NYC

Betsy Fox

Betsy began her career as a multinational advertising executive at DDB Chicago in strategic media planning for Bud Light and has since helped to build some of the world’s most innovative and profitable CPG brands for DDB, Y&R, Grey Group, and Euro RSCG BETC in Paris before founding Forklift. Today, Betsy brings her suite of expertise to help fledgling food and lifestyle brands achieve their full potential.

Puerto Rico

Carlos Melendez

COO & Co-founder of Wovenware

As COO and co-founder of artificial intelligence and software engineering services firm, Wovenware, Carlos Meléndez helps companies achieve customized digital transformation to propel their businesses to the next level. With expertise in business strategy and software engineering, Carlos has a strong track record bringing game-changing AI, machine learning and deep learning solutions to organizations across a variety of industries.

Under his direction, and that of Wovenware founder and CEO, Christian González, the company has realized double-digit growth since its founding in 2003. Prior to Wovenware, Carlos was a senior software engineer with several start-up software firms and held strategic consulting positions with Accenture.

SAN FRANCISCO, CA

Lisa Alderson

CEO and Founder at Genome Medical, Inc.

Dedicated and highly successful executive with extensive experience starting and building businesses in genomics, precision medicine, digital health and technology/consumer.

Global educator and keynote speaker on the future of healthcare. Company founder and serial entrepreneur with a passion for creating and scaling innovative, high-growth businesses at the intersection of technology and healthcare. I am an energetic leader with a proven track record of success.

Kuwait

Basil Alsalem

CEO and Founder of Gastronomica ME

Restauranteur and founder of one of the Middle East’s leading and award-winning restaurants, operating in 6 countries of the GCC.

Kuwait

Heather Henyon

Founding Partner at Mindshift Capital

Heather Henyon is Founding General Partner of Mindshift Capital, a venture fund investing in women-led technology start-up companies in the Middle East, Europe, and US. She is the Founder of the Women’s Angel Investor Network (WAIN), the first and largest women’s angel group in the Middle East. An active venture investor with a passion for fintech and women-led start-ups, Heather has over 80 direct and fund investments in the US, Europe, and the Middle East. She started her career on Wall Street and has almost 20 years of experience in venture finance, entrepreneurship, emerging markets, angel investing, fintech, crowdfunding, credit, microfinance, and impact investment. Heather is a member of the Investment Committee of Dubai Angel Investors and US-based Next Wave Impact Fund. She serves on the Board of Directors of the Sekem Holding Group in Egypt and several start-up Advisory Boards.  Heather has been nominated as “Investor of the Year” by Arabian Business in 2016 and 2017. She holds an MBA from the Johnson School at Cornell  University and a BA from Oberlin College. Heather lives in Dubai, UAE.

USA

Joshua Richau

Grew up in Montana, stint in the Bay Area, now happily living in CO with wife and 2 kids. EE at Stanford, Chip design at SGI, Enterprise Software with Kintana bought by Mercury bought by HP, Products at Jive, now Founder and CTO at Overlay/Memery.

Lecturer on Economic Development

Rodolfo Acosta-Pérez

Rodolfo Acosta-Pérez holds a Doctorate in Economic Development and an MBA from New Mexico State University (NMSU), and a Bachelor’s in Industrial Engineering from the Instituto Tecnológico de Chihuahua. Rodolfo has worked for multinational companies, educational institutions, the Chihuahua State Government, economic development organizations, and non-profits.

Throughout his career, Rodolfo has provided technical assistance to small businesses while advancing economic development initiatives in economically depressed areas in southern New Mexico and in other parts of the country. Whether designed for youth or adults living in urban and rural areas, Rodolfo has delivered numerous business development workshops in English and Spanish to established and nascent entrepreneurs.

Rodolfo is an international speaker and has lectured on economic development, leadership, and business topics in Russia, Finland, Canada, the United States, and Mexico. Rodolfo is fluent in English and Spanish and has full working proficiency in French. He also completed introductory courses to Japanese and Italian.

He is the proud parent of a girl and a boy and he holds a Chess National Master title awarded by the Mexican Federation of Chess.

Albuquerque, NM

Steve Prickett

Currently, Steve is Founder of Eldora Chocolate, a Craft Bean to Bar retail fine chocolate business.  In 2018, he retired from Prickett and Associates, a Merrill Lynch team headquartered in Albuquerque that provided financial advice and guidance to institutions and high net worth clients throughout the United States for 32 years.

USA

Brian Rashap

Retired, Intel Corporation Dr. Rashap is retired from Intel Corporation where he was most recently the General Manager of Corporate Services for the Americas Region. In this role, he was responsible for Intel physical infrastructure and facilities in the United States and Canada, including three large manufacturing sites. His team managed facilities operations, building services, construction, environmental health and safety, and on-site employee conveniences. In addition, he had managed Intel’s aviation program and drove an internal drone operations program to improve safety, cost, and productivity. Brian’s past roles include running the manufacturing operations for Intel’s highest volume wafer fabrication facility, as well as leading the engineering to ramp Intel’s High-K / Metal Gate technology into high volume manufacturing. Prior to Intel, Brian received his B.S.E., M.S.E., and Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Michigan. He worked at the NASA Langley Research Center on control of large unmanned space structures, as well as autonomous space-based robotics. Brian’s expertise includes Structured Problem Solving, Lean Manufacturing, Organizational Development, Business Process Design, and Creating Diverse and Inclusive work environments. He is a member of the Board of Directors of a technology start-up firm, Ring-IR, Inc., where he is focused on helping stand up their first manufacturing line. Finally, Brian is actively engaged in the local community. He is currently a Trustee and Treasurer of Bosque School, a member of the advisory council for the Arrowhead Innovation Network at New Mexico State University.

Kuwait

Nouf Almutawa

Partner & MD, Bon Group

Boston University Graduate: Communications & Advertising with a concentration in French. Worked in Gulf Bank in the Marketing & PR department for 5 years. Started up The Chocolate Bar in 2004 and it has been her full time 24/7 happy hour job ever since.

USA

Colleen Fanning

Since 1996 Colleen Fanning has provided fine art services, project management on commissioned works of art, valuation services for families placing objects on the market for disposal, divestment strategies, curatorial expertise, contract negotiations on complex art-related issues such as indemnity and liens and ownership title. Fanning manages all aspects of her client’s collections from loans to institutions to framing, crating and shipping. Following her undergraduate studies, she held positions in the highly regarded Denver Public Art Program and Denver International Airport for three mayoral administrations, including Wellington Webb, John Hickenlooper, and Michael Hancock.

Fanning specializes in Post War, Modern & Contemporary Fine Art. Fanning commissioned site-specific works with notable Contemporary artists, Larry Kirkland, Bernar Venet, Ed Ruscha, Dennis Oppenheim, Donald Lipski, Luis Jimenez, Fernando Botero, Jonathan Borofsky, Betty Woodman, and Buster Simpson. In private practice, placement of blue-chip Modern and Contemporary artists, Elaine de Kooning, Purvis Young, Yoshitomo Nara, Takashi Murakami, Zhang Huan, Louise Bourgeois, Roger Shimomura, Alexander Calder, Ed Ruscha, Catherine Opie, Marilyn Minter, Robert Peterson, Damien Hirst, Madison Fred Mitchell, Mikey Pallas and numerous other emerging and mid-career Contemporary artists.

USA

Brendan Cosgrove

Brendan Cosgrove is an Investment Director at the Capital Access Lab, where he leads the investment due diligence, strategy development, and deal sourcing. Brendan has been a member of the CAL team since its inception at the beginning of 2019.

Before joining CAL, Brendan worked as an Associate Investment Director at global investment firm Cambridge Associates helping a wide range of institutional clients build and evaluate their private investment portfolios. He also co-founded the Resource Efficiency Group and conducted due diligence on venture capital and private equity funds focused on addressing sustainability challenges as a member of the Impact Investing Research team.
Brendan earned his BA in Economics and Geology at Colby College.