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ENTREPRENEURSHIP SPONSORING SPEAKER SERIES |
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August 20, 2007
GROVE CITY, Pa. – The Grove City College Department of Entrepreneurship’s 2007-08 Visionary Entrepreneurship Speakers Series begins with four presentations in September. All presentations are set for 7 p.m. in Sticht Lecture Hall in the Hall of Arts and Letters on campus and are open to the public.
Babs Carryer, president and CEO of RemComm, Inc., a provider of radio-based emergency communication and data transfer, kicks off the series Sept. 4 with “Invention to Customer: Charting the Path to Market.”
Prior to RemComm, Carryer was president of Carryer Consulting for 13 years, providing strategic marketing and business planning services to technology companies and organizations in the software and life sciences sectors. Widely experienced in the start-up community, Carryer was founding CEO of MIDASBio Inc., an early-stage cancer diagnostic platform based on proprietary panels of cancer biomarkers. She also founded and was president of LaunchCyte LLC, a development company that creates, seeds and harvests life sciences innovations from leading research universities across the U.S.
Carryer teaches entrepreneurship at Carnegie Mellon University’s Don Jones Center for Entrepreneurship and at CMU’s Heinz School. She also teaches entrepreneurial commercialization of new technologies at the University of Pittsburgh’s Office of Enterprise Development.
Debra Dinnocenzo, president of VirtualWorks!, will present “Leadership in the Virtual Workplace on Sept. 12.
Dinnocenzo has expertise in virtual workplace issues including virtual leadership, virtual teams, telework and work-life balance. She is president of VirtualWorks!, a provider of information, tools and learning resources for people in the virtual workplace and those living in the digital age. A senior executive with more than two decades of corporate and academic experience, Dinnocenzo has an extensive background in sales and marketing. She is a nationally recognized expert in the field of telework and a frequent speaker at national conferences on virtual workplace and work-life balance issues. She is often quoted in the media and is widely published on virtual work strategies and techniques.
Dinnocenzo has served on the board of directors of the national American Automobile Association, is vice chairman of East Central AAA and is a member of the governing board, serves on the board of trustees of University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Passavant Hospital and is a member of the board of directors of the Passavant Hospital Foundation. She has served on the faculty of the Institute for Management Studies and the Lehigh University Iacocca Institute’s Global Village. She is an instructor in the special studies program at Chautauqua Institution and an adjunct faculty member with Duquesne University, where she delivers an online course, “Leadership in the Virtual Workplace.”
The Venture Capital Panel on how to find start-up funding on Sept. 20 features successful venture capitalists with experience in a variety of areas in the financial world. Panelists include: Mike Stubler, managing director of Draper Triangle Ventures and director and president of Pittsburgh Venture Capital Association; Tom Jones, managing partner and co-founder of Blue Tree Capital Group; Steve Robinson, general partner of Pittsburgh Equity Partners and managing general partner of Robinson Venture Partners; and Brian McGowan '87, senior client partner in global consumer markets with Korn/Ferry International’s Atlanta, Ga., office.
Stubler is managing director and co-founder of Draper Triangle Ventures, an affiliate of Draper Fisher Jurvertson. He serves on the boards of Active Media, Ayalogic, Unitask, TOA Technologies and Landslide and oversees the fund’s investment in Renal Solutions. Stubler is also a director and president of the Pittsburgh Venture Capital Association and a director of the Ohio Venture Association. He was a co-founder and vice president of finance of IndustryNet, an early stage electronic commerce company, which he led in raising more than $15 million in growth capital from strategic partners and nationally known venture capital organizations prior to its merger with a division of AT&T. He also served as vice president and chief financial officer of International Cybernetics Corp., one of the nation’s fastest-growing robotic controls companies, where he directed the financial operations and led the merger into Gould Electronics in 1985.
Jones is a managing partner and co-founder of BlueTree Capital Group, LLC, the entity that manages the BlueTree Allied Angels, a southwestern Pennsylvania angel investment network based in Pittsburgh. Jones also runs the day-to-day operations of BlueTree Allied Angels and is responsible for member recruitment and relations, deal flow generation, due diligence, closing and monitoring of portfolio investments. Prior to forming BlueTree, he spent 14 years researching companies for corporate acquisition and/or equity positions for companies. Jones founded Mainlink Communication, Inc., a networking software and services company established in 1985. As a board member or advisory board member for 14 companies over the past 23 years, his focus has been on three key areas: business and market strategy, management team recruiting and building strategic partners and customers.
Robinson is active in both business and non-profit sectors in the Pittsburgh area. He is one of the general partners of Pittsburgh Equity Partners, LP, an early stage venture fund; of Robinson Venture Partners, a Pittsburgh area family venture capital partnership; and of Robinson Properties, L.P., a real estate investment and development partnership. He is vice president and director of Gateway Travel Management, the largest independent travel management and meeting planning company in western Pennsylvania. He is also an investor and current or former director of numerous early stage venture capital backed technology-oriented companies in western Pennsylvania, including Webmedx, Precision Therapeutics, Bit Armor, mSpoke, True Commerce and Bethany Hospice.
McGowan is a senior client partner in global consumer markets with Korn Ferry International’s Atlanta, Ga., office. In his position, he focuses on assignments in consumer goods and services, hospitality and leisure and the global life sciences markets. McGowan was most recently a partner at Spencer Stuart, where he was a member of the consumer goods and services and marketing officer practices, with sub-specialties in life sciences and industrial. McGowan spent 14 years in the consumer packaged goods industry at the Coca-Cola Co. and Campbell Soup Co. He also built and commercialized two successful start-up companies.
Xela Batchelder, executive director, artistic director and found of Rocket Venues, will speak about the start-up experience with social enterprise on Sept. 26
As a college undergraduate, Batchelder started Rocket Venues, independent venue management organization that runs every summer during the world’s largest arts festival in the world in Edinburgh, Scotland. Over the past 12 years, she has grown it into one of the best known venues for the Edinburgh International Fringe Festival. In 2005, Rocket Venues produced over 568 performances of more than 75 different productions in four theater spaces, as well as hosting two exhibitions.
Batchelder has taught and motivated hundreds of volunteers from all over the world to fill such diverse positions as venue managers, technical directors, box office staff, and press and publicity. She runs Rocket Venues from the U.S. 10 months out of the year.
For more information, contact the Department of Entrepreneurship at (724) 458-2003.
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