Speakers

The Arizona Entrepreneurship Conferences have a well established history of bringing local CEOs, entrepreneurs and thought leaders to the stage so that they can share ideas and connect with our local and global entrepreneurial community.

To see the speaker list from prior years, click here:  AZEC10, AZEC09, AZEC08, AZEC07,  AZ Social Media Conference-07, AZEC06

Mark joined GRP Partners in 2007 after having worked with GRP for nearly 8 years as a two-time entrepreneur. Most recently Mark was Vice President, Product Management at Salesforce.com (NASDAQ: CRM) following its acquisition of Koral,where Mark was Founder and CEO. Prior to Koral, Mark was Founder and CEO of BuildOnline, the largest independent global content collaboration
company focused on the engineering and construction sectors,
which was acquired by SWORD Group (PARIS: SWP). Earlier in his career, Mark spent nearly ten years working for Accenture in Europe, Japan and the U.S. Mark received a BA in Economics from the University of California, San Diego, and an MBA from the University of Chicago. He grew up in the U.S. and is also a citizen of the UK.

In the current portfolio, Mark sits on the Boards of Ad.ly, Awe.sm, Burstly, GumGum and Ring Revenue and is a Board Observer of Qualys.

Ms. Hudson leads two nonprofit organizations:  the Angel Capital Association (ACA), the professional alliance of angel groups in North America, with 20 affiliates and 150 member groups representing 6,500 individual accredited investors, and the Angel Capital Education Foundation (ACEF), which provides information, education, and research about angel investing to investors, policy makers, university leaders, entrepreneurial support professionals, and entrepreneurs.  ACEF was founded by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation in 2005 and spun out of Kauffman as an independent charitable organization in March, 2007.  Ms. Hudson led the angel initiative at the Kauffman Foundation that resulted in ACEF and also oversaw many of the Foundation’s entrepreneurial education and mentoring programs designed to ensure that more entrepreneurs develop sustainable, innovative businesses.  Ms Hudson has worked in the entrepreneurial support field for more than twenty years. She holds a B.A. in Economics and Political Science from the University of Kansas and an M.A. in Public Policy from Rutgers University.

After graduating from ASU, Bret Giles planned media for Ketchum Advertising and The Sharper Image, before joining SkyMall, where he spent five years overseeing the production of its first catalog. A few years later he moved to MicroAge, a Fortune 500 company, and met future business partner Margie Traylor. A short time later, the two left to start Sitewire, where Bret has collaborated on ideas with great clients and employees alike to create measured, never-before-seen marketing outcomes. Bret is the recipient of numerous honors, including a ‘Forty Under 40′ Award, a ‘Best Bosses’ Award from Fortune Small Business magazine, an ‘SBDC Master Small Business Success’ Award and an ‘ASU Alumni’ Award from the WP Carey Spirit of Enterprise Center. He was also recognized by the U.S. Small Business Administration, along with fellow co-founder Margie Traylor, as Arizona’s 2010 Small Business Person of the Year.

Gelie is the founder of NetworkingPhoenix.com, an online resource that has become the Valley’s leading resource for professionals, entrepreneurs and business owners looking to network and connect locally. The website has an online calendar that lists nearly 600 networking events, mixers and business seminars in the Phoenix metro area on a monthly basis.  In the 2 years that NetworkingPhoenix.com has been around, it has become one of the most popular local websites and has attracted 14,000 members. The quarterly NetworkingPhoenix.com Signature Events attract approximately 1,500 attendees and are the most popular networking events in Phoenix. Gelie is the recipient of NAWBO’s Emerging Visionary 2010 Award; AZ Magazine’s 35 women entrepreneurs under 35 who are helping elevate Arizona’s business community 2009 recipient; Is on the board of the Suns Nite Hoops charity organization; And is also a SCORE counselor where she helps small business owners with networking.

Jerry Ross is an experienced entrepreneur and businessman whose two decades of experience include leadership positions with AT&T, Ohio Bell, and Goal Systems Software. His local entrepreneurial ventures include Sky-Tracker of Florida, Semco Properties and Maverick Business Magazine.  Jerry was selected in a nationwide search to become the Executive Director of the National Entrepreneur Center located in Orlando, Florida. The Entrepreneur Center is a unique public/private partnership, and is home to 11 business support organizations who are dedicated to the development and growth of businesses throughout Florida. He has an MBA from Dayton University and is a Certified Business Consultant from the University of Central Florida and he calls Orlando home. The NEC is getting results by it’s unique style of collaboration including: $125,000,000 in loans facilitated, 70,000 business coached and trained, 700 new business start-ups.

Josh Strebel has been working in the web industry in Phoenix since 2003. Leveraging the success and revenues of their small design agency, Joshua & his Wife and business partner Sally, have bootstrapped their latest endeavor Page.ly from prototype to a remarkable level of success in less then 2 years. As a founding anchor of Chandler based collaborative workspace Gangplank, Joshua also enjoys mentoring and working with the up and coming companies in Valley’s web/tech industry.

Anu Bhardwaj a 2008 US Fulbright Scholar to the Indian Institute of Technology in Mumbai, has been engaged in a global canvass of women entrepreneurs, intrapreneurs, and over 750 senior executives in private equity/venture capital within high-tech clusters of innovation. She is currently engaged in the development of the “OECD-MENA Women in Private Equity Initiative”, in collaboration with the U.S. State Department and the OECD-MENA Businesswomen’s Forum. Ms. Bhardwaj is the Founder of the Nordic Chapter of The Indus Entrepreneurs, Venture Catalyst Private Equity Partners, ATMA SEVA Journeys, and is the Founding Co-President of 85 Broads Phoenix.