WAKEFIELD PRESENTS: CHICAGO UNCUBED

Speakers Include:

Fred Hoch, President & CEO, Illinois Technology Association (ITA) and Founder of TechNexus

Fred leads the overall strategic direction and management of the association. When he’s not doing that he is jumping in the fray with companies each and every day to figure out their needs and provide insight, connections and collaboration. A native Californian, now a deep-rooted Chicagoan, he is always seeking out ways to get in the water. If that’s not available, he enjoys the outdoors through biking, hiking or kayaking with and without his wife, three children and black lab.

Mike McGee, Co-founder, The Starter League

Co-founder of The Starter League with Neal (Sales-Griffin), Mike likes designing products with purpose, and motivating others to exceed their potential. Learn more about why he and Neal decided to create a school teaching people how to code in his interview with Tastytrade.

Troy Henikoff, CEO and Co-Founder, Excelerate

Troy Henikoff is the CEO and Co-founder of Excelerate, a seed stage accelerator in Chicago. Additionally he teaches Entrepreneurship at Northwestern University, is on the board of the Chicagoland Entrepreneurial Center and an advisor to Hyde Park Angels. His last 25 years have been spent starting, running and advising early stage technology companies.

Joshua Hernandez, Founder In Residence, Lightbank

Joshua Hernandez joined Lightbank in June 2012 as a Founder-in-Residence. Joshua’s career has spanned multiple industries from advertising to video games. In 2009, Joshua founded Tap.Me, a mobile in-game advertising platform that to date raised a total of $4.6 million and is working with advertising customers like U.S. Cellular and P&G. Previous to Tap.Me Joshua served over 2.5 million users with a gamer identification platform called TripleTags.com that enabled users to tout game accomplishments. In 2006, Josh lead a team of developers to create the first instant result real estate search in Illinois that was used by dozens of brokerages in Chicagoland including @properties. In 2005 Joshua launched SectionZ Records and launched the career of superstar DJ, Deadmau5. This was possible because of SectionZ.com, which was a peer learning platform for electronic musicians that Joshua launched in 1999.

Andrew Sieja, President and CEO, kCura

Andrew founded kCura in February 2001 as the President and CEO. During his tenure with kCura, he has transformed the group from a consulting firm to a software company providing electronic discovery solutions for the legal community. Prior to kCura, he was a senior consultant at Lante, Inc., an e-business consulting firm. At Lante, he led development and was a project manager working with clients such as Microsoft. From 1995 to 1999, Andrew served as the Messaging System Architect for Siemens Build Technology, where he was responsible for the messaging infrastructure of the North American region. Andrew studied computer science at DePaul University and has been a speaker on the subjects of programming and electronic messaging. His professional success in the litigation support industry stems from his philosophy “It’s all about the software and the people who use it.”

Seth Kravitz, CoFounder of Technori & Bow Truss Coffee

Seth Kravitz is the cofounder of Technori (a publication the celebrates entrepreneurship) and Bow Truss (a premium coffee roasting company). Seth is a mentor at the Coleman Center at DePaul University, Excelerate Labs, and The Starter League. Born and raised in Youngstown, Ohio, Seth would eventually start a web design company out of his dorm room at Ohio State when he was 19. At 20, he met a local insurance agent with a big idea and co-founded his largest company to date, InsuranceAgents.com in 2004. InsuranceAgents.com grew to a 65 person operation and reached number 24 on the Inc. 500 before being acquired by Bankrate (NYSE: RATE) in 2012. Along the way, Seth also co-founded DebtHelp.com, which after less than a year and a half was acquired by Quinstreet (NASDAQ: QNST).

Alex Campbell, Co-Founder and Chief Innovation Officer, Vibes

A pioneer in mobile marketing for over a decade, Alex is highly regarded throughout the industry as a champion for the value of mobile as a viable discipline for marketers. Under his leadership, Vibes has enjoyed double-digit growth every year since 2004. Alex holds a Bachelor of Science in Economics degree from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He has received numerous accolades including Red Herring’s Top 25 Tech Rebels, Crain’s Chicago Business “40 Under 40″ and induction into the Chicago Area Entrepreneurship Hall of Fame in 2009.

Sandee Kastrul, President and co-founder, i.c.stars

Prior to i.c.stars Sandee’s experience as an educator, diversity trainer, educational consultant and a performing artist drew her creative talents to the fore. Her accomplishments include designing a comprehensive science and civics interactive program for GED students at Jobs for Youth, implementing a professional development program with Harold Washington College Career Center, developing experiential learning modules for over 70 schools and creating artist in residency programs as well as training artists to work in classrooms for arts organizations.

Juan Benitez, CTO, Braintree

Juan Benitez brings over 15 years of experience leading technology organizations. Mr. Benitez comes to Braintree from Yahoo! where he spent 9 years in various capacities including several years as VP of Engineering in Yahoo!’s Advertising Products Group and VP of Search Advertising. Prior to Yahoo!, Mr. Benitez held engineering leadership positions at SEVEN Networks and Healtheon/WebMD. Mr. Benitez has a BS and MS in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University.

Emerson Spartz, CEO, Spartz Media

Emerson Spartz is best-known for founding MuggleNet, the #1 Harry Potter website, at the age of 12. Currently CEO of Spartz Media, one of the fastest-growing digital media publishers. The Spartz Media Network – including OMG Facts, GivesMeHope, and more – receives 10 million visitors each month, and has over 12 million followers on Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter. Spartz was invited by J.K. Rowling to her home for a personal interview and has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, CBS Evening News, CNN, MTV, MSNBC, Fox News, and more. Spartz is a New York Times Bestselling Author and holds a degree from the University of Notre Dame.

Peter Merholz, VP, Global Design at Groupon

Mr. Peter Merholz has been Vice President of UX at Inflection since January 2012. Mr. Merholz co-founded Adaptive Path, LLC in 2001 and served as its Founding Partner and Chief Executive Officer until January 2012. Mr. Merholz has been instrumental in developing Adaptive Path’s ability to provide world-class consulting, training and public events for more than six years. He has worked with a wide variety of clients, from large companies such as Intel, Wells Fargo, PeopleSoft, and United Airlines, to smaller, avant-garde firms like SocialText (an enterprise wiki startup) and Rojo (a RSS feedreader acquired by Six Apart). He is an internationally recognized thought leader on user experience. He served as President of Adaptive Path, Inc. He is keynoted such conferences as the IA Summit; About, With, and For and SIGCHI.nl. He is a passionate teacher, and has traveled throughout the United States and Europe giving one- and two-day workshops on user experience methods and fundamentals. He served as a Director of Adaptive Path, Inc. until January 2012.

Genevieve Thiers, Founder, Sittercity

Genevieve Thiers has founded three companies in the Chicago area with her husband, Dan Ratner. Her first company, Sittercity.com, is America’s first company to take caregiving services online. Sittercity.com now has millions of users nationwide, and serves clients like the U.S. Department of Defense, Avon, Mastercard, Monster WW and many others. Genevieve was recognized by President Bush at the White House as the Small Business Administration Young Entrepreneur Champion of the Year for 2006, her companies have won over 15 major awards, including the CEC Momentum Award, the WBDC Rising Start Award, the UPS Out of the Box Award, the INC 500 list, and more.

Paper Napkin Pitch Judges:

Kristin Barrett, COO, Excelerate Labs

Kristin Barrett is the COO of Excelerate Labs. Prior to Excelerate, Kristin worked for Hyde Park Angels and Winona Capital Management while completing her MBA at University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business. Before business school, she worked in Strategy and New Ventures for Redbox and in consulting at A.T. Kearney, with clients in pharmacy, retail and logistics. Kristin received her BS from Northwestern University in journalism and economics.

Maida Swenson-Fortune, Founder, Cureeo.com

Maida Swenson-Fortune is the founder of Cureeo.com, a curated, online marketplace for artists to sell their artwork. Cureeo is an alumn of Excelerate Lab’s class of 2012. Prior to starting Cureeo, she attended Booth School of Business where she concentrated in entrepreneurship and marketing. During her tenure at Booth, she worked in venture capital, led a classroom module on leadership and conflict and was consistently recognized for strong academic performance. Before starting her MBA, she spent four years at General Mills where she worked in supply chain, sales and she worked overseas. She also speaks Spanish and Swedish.

Joe Jablonski, technology serial entrepreneur

Joe Jablonski is a technology serial entrepreneur that has founded several companies. He is currently starting an insurance carrier using IT technology to compute optimal pricing strategies. His previous company, WeGather.com, is a financial fundraising and private community platform for faith based organizations and schools. Prior to that, Joe founded Acumence, where he built and sold a predictive analytics monitoring package for high speed discrete manufacturing. Acumence software is used to produce 60% of the world’s beverage cans in 17 countries. Prior to Acumence, Joe started a machine OEM company dedicated to inspection in the food industry.

Joe is on the board of directors for the Illinois Technology Association, Falcon Insurance, and Smartbet. He is on the board of advisors for Cleversafe, Classfill and St. Clement School. Joe is also an angel investor in technology companies and real estate.

Lon Chow, General Partner, Apex Venture Partners

Lon Chow is a general partner with investment focus in software applications and technology-enabled services. Prior to joining Apex, Lon was a partner with Mercer Management Consulting (formerly Strategic Planning Associates), where he developed and implemented growth strategies for clients in computing, media, and telecommunications industries. He also held various operating management positions with Pacific Telesis. Lon received an MBA from the Wharton School and a BA from the University of California, Davis.

Lon currently serves on the boards of Analyte Health, ALI Solutions, Appolicious, Current Analysis, Sittercity, TargetData, and Timelines. He is a board observer of Trunk Club. Lon’s outside board membership includes Chicagoland Entrepreneurial Center and Viewpoints Network

Lia Yu, Senior Product Marketing Manager, Microsoft

Lia has been at Microsoft for the past 5 years where she has worked in roles ranging from partner investment strategy to incubation and planning in the startup business group. She is currently a senior product marketing manager on the SkyDrive team, focusing on evangelism and partner integrations. Previous to joining Microsoft, Lia received her BA (A.B.) in politics from Princeton University.

Tyrue “Slang” Jones

A self-taught artist, Tyrue “Slang” Jones has been cultivating and innovating ideas reflected though his artwork for over 25 years. His wide array of styles, ranging from graffiti to fine art, has gained attention around the globe.

His signature style of “Figurative Graffiti,” recognized both nationally and internationally, combines flowing shapes and abstracted letterforms with traditional figure painting.

He has worked as an established graffiti artist, fine artist, graphic designer, and professional television animator. His clients have included: Warner Bros. Animation Studios, Startoons Animation Studios, Walt Disney Interactive, General Mills, Universal Music, Def Jam, Interscope, Allstate, Leo Burnett and Viacom (MTV, VH1 and Nickelodeon).

The fusing of different genres of art has given his work an unmistakable originality and flair that is constantly evolving.

He is currently being the sole proprietor of the Gala Gallery, located in the West Town area of Chicago, IL.

Kyle Van Heck

If all stories have a beginning and an ending, you will find me somewhere in the middle, constantly creating the role of the lead character who will allow the others to see who they truly are inside. Our world has become overrun with images and information, all of it passing before our eyes which can only absorb the smallest fraction of data, process it, and delete it in order to make room for so…mething else. However, within the overflow of information that we have created and which we now live, there is ample opportunity for education, transformation and realization. In reality, things are never as they seem, nor as we intended them to be.

The mediums in which I create my work, were never intended to be used as such, yet almost as soon as newspapers were printed they were being used for purposes other than that which was intended. Not only does this process re-purpose old material, but it takes original images or pieces of images intended to make a certain message and turns them upside-down or into something else entirely, creating a message built out of small pieces of pop culture than says something infinitely larger as a whole. Still even seen as a whole, the process by which my art is created allows the individual to break down the piece into its original components and draw further meaning from their own point of view. In the end what is created is a work of art with a specific message that can still be interpreted in as many different ways as there are people who view it.

Through the use of news paper as a medium and the addition of other materials such as oil paints, spray paints, old books, electrical wire, plastics, children’s toys, and other recycled, re-purposed or reused materials, it is possible not only to create art, but further to create something out of that with was once rendered as nothing. Order from chaos, a puzzle from the pieces, a message from the fragment, a key to the cipher…

DEAL (Dale Paracuelles)

The Chicago-based artist known as DEAL (Dale Paracuelles) specializes in street art and caricature illustrations. His interest in drawing and painting began at an early age, with influences stemming from comics and cartoons, graffiti art and hip hop culture, to sports, television and movies. A graduate of Columbia College, much of Deal’s works are often humorous situation or tribute portraits depicting his renditions of famous cartoon icons, music, pop culture and sports figures, and original character designs. Working with his preferred media of acrylic paints and water colors, his pieces have been showcased nationally and can be found on everything from painted canvases, to skateboards, t-shirts and stickers. His works have also been featured in several magazine and book publications, various websites, and gallery shows

Matt Tetzloff

Matt Tetzloff lives and paints in Logan Square in Chicago. This is his first art battle, unless you count that ceramic lizard disaster in sixth grade.

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