Our Mission:
To cultivate a network of thought leaders with a global context across community, education, non-profit, civic and private sectors – to share and learn best practices for navigating the challenges of an ever-learning, constantly-changing and always-connected 3.0 world.
Thought Leader Exchange Speakers
Walt Ritscher
Senior Staff Instructor at LinkedIn Learning and Lynda.com
Kevin Weiss
VP of Growth & Strategy at Amplio Digital
Chris Castro
Director of Sustainability and Co-chair of the Smart Cities initiative for
the City of Orlando
Carl Callahan
City Administrator and Director of Economic Development, City of Bradenton, FL
Glenn Palmiere
VP Business Development for MediVu
Kaushal Chokshi
President Scaale Group and Founder Cross Border Angels
Celena Aponte
Director of Strategic Initiatives, Nasdaq Entrepreneurial Center
Dr. Will Rees
Award Winning Scientist, Engineer, Leader in National Security
Raymmar Tirado
Chief Disruption Officer
Ashwin Sanzgiri
VP Scaale Group Global Operations: Capital, Sales & Advisory
Carlos Garcia
The Godfather of Traffic – Scale.College, Scale.Fund, ScaleXPO.com
Professor Gordon Sanson
Emeritus Professor Monash University, Melbourne, Australia & Associate Learning Innovation, Saint Leo University
Patrick Gannon
Managing Director of SaraBay Advisors
David Houle
Futurist, Speaker & Thinker
Stan Schultes
Innovation Architect, Co-Founder Spark Growth
Jeff Johnson
AARP, Florida State Director
Diana Shoemaker
Executive Director of Manatee County Habitat for Humanity
Don Hall
Founder and Executive Director, Transition Sarasota
Dave Gustafson
Executive Director, Downtown Development Authority, City of Bradenton
Esther Dassanou
Global Specialist Women’s Access to Finance at the International Finance Corporation, World Bank Group
Brad Patrick
Formerly interim Executive Director and the first General Counsel for the Wikimedia Foundation
Mike Potts
CEO + Co-founder at Docio
Doug Wagner
Executive Director of Adult, Career and Technical Education, School District of Manatee County
Kunal Jain
Healthcare Technology Innovator and Entrepreneur
John Gamba
Serial Entrepreneur and President, MassiveU
Liz Nilsen
Sr. Program Officer, VentureWell
Mark Sharpe
Commissioner Mark Sharpe, Chair Hillsborough BOCC
Amy Rettig
SVP, Nielsen External Affairs Regional Community Alliances Florida Site Leadership
Mireya Eavey
CEO, CareerEdge Funders Collaborative
Tom Phillips
Executive Director, Lakeland Area Mass Transit District (The Citrus Connection) and Polk Transit
Bob Clifford
Executive Director of the Tampa Bay Area Regional Transportation Authority (TBARTA)
Ed Morrison
Strategic Doer and Staff Member at the Center for Regional Development at Purdue University
Rob Brady
Founder, ROBRADY Design
Ava Parker
COO, Florida Polytechnical University
Lou Oberndorf
Founder, Medical Education Technologies, Inc (METI)
Jane Muir
Director of UF Tech Connect and Director of the Florida Innovation Hub at UF
Jeremy Vaughn
Principal Consultant at feature[23]
Michael O'Donnell
Founder and CEO of StartupLeaves.com, and Director of the Founder Institute local chapter
Tim Cartwright
Partner at Fifth Avenue Advisors and Managing Director of the Compass Advisory Group
David S. Ricketts
Innovator, Scholar, Harvard Innovation Fellow
Heather Holst-Knudsen
CEO & Founder, HatchPad – Chairman of the Board & Founder, KidBacker Foundation for Entrepreneurship
Kevin Burgoyne
Ron Klein
THE GRANDFATHER OF POSSIBILITIES TM, Strategic Advisor – Mentor – Entrepreneur – Inventor – Speaker
Saru Seshadri
COO FIBA (Florida-Israeli Business Accelerator)
Simone Peterson
MPA MBA DTM, Manatee County Neighborhood Services Specialist, Knight Cities Challenge Finalist
Glenn Wintrich
Innovation Leader at Dell
Neil Beckingham
Director Sustainability The Mosaic Corporation
Tony Collins
President and CEO at Blake Collins Group
Sara Hand
Visionary Leader, Founder of Spark Growth and the Thought Leader Exchange
Manatee Millennial Movement
Ogden Clark, Simone Peterson, Anisley Mena
Betsy Benac
Manatee County Commissioner
Noreen Kinney
Culinary Impresario and Celebrity Master Chef
Wayne Poston
Mayor, City of Bradenton, FL
Peter Kageyama
Community Development Consultant and Grassroots Engagement Strategist
Dr. Surya Raghu
Founder & President – ETCube International/Advanced Fluidics
Andi Watson
Development Director at Just for Girls
Penny Parks
President at Links Financial
Virginia Orenstein
Owner and CFO at Suncoast Digital Press
Rich Arter
Former Manufacturing Investor Relations, Marketing and Business Development
Janyce Fadden
Executive-in-Residence, College of Business at the University of North Alabama
Mike Magill
National Sales Director, Ekso Bionics
Howard Rutherford
Director of Development at University of South Florida Foundation and College of Marine Science
Kathryn Starkey
County Commissioner, Pasco County, FL
Michael van Butsel
Project Executive of DPR Construction and Business Co-chair of the Tampa Bay Chapter, BioFlorida
Tammie Nemecek
Executive Director, GrowFL
Jesse Biter
President/CEO of Biter Enterprises, LLC and Board of Directors Enterprise Florida
Stuart Rogel
President and CEO, Tampa Bay Partnership
Anand Pallegar
Founder of atLarge, Inc.
Valerie McDevitt
Assistant Vice President at the University of South Florida Division of Patents and Licensing
Marvin Scaff
Software Entrepreneur and Former Founder, CEO, CTO and EIR for a venture capital fund
Laurence Liebson
Investor and Seasoned Technology CEO
Brian Caswell
Founder and President of the Economic Development Investment Fund (EDIF)
Frank Dalton
Founder of Fulcrum Equity Partners
Jorge Varela
Entrepreneur, Investor, Economic Development Advisor
Gail Gillian-Bain
President, Food Business Incubation International (FBII)
Peter Righi
Global Director – Center for Entrepreneurship & Executive Development (CEED)
Bonny Moellenbrock
Executive Director Investors’ Circle
Davis Graham
Educational Technology Consultant Scheller Teacher Education Program (Prof. Eric Klopfer, Director) MIT
Lupe Garcia
Founder: ScaleXpo.com, Sexxysuccess.com
Jeff Borden
Vice President St. Leo University Learning Innovation Lab
Vic Ahmed
Jonathan Fleece
Health Care Attorney, Adviser, Professional Speaker
Bob Harrigan
Chief Meteorologist WWSB ABC 7
Dave Herbert
Chief Engineer, Sun Hydraulics Corp.
Nan Summers
Grants Coordinator at Manatee County Parks and Natural Resources
Bryan Kamm
Executive Director of Industry Certification Training Centers (ICTC)
Allan H. Weis
Internet Pioneer, Author, Inventor, Engineer and Philanthropist
John Annis
Senior Vice President of Community Investment at the Community Foundation of Sarasota County
Jim Stikeleather
Chief Innovation Officer and Executive Strategist for Dell Services
Tom O'Neal
Associate VP at University of Central Florida
Sally Dionne
District Director at Congressman Vern Buchanan
Matthew Falls
Director of National Outreach, BusinessUSA, US Department of Commerce
Daniel James Scott
Executive Director at Tampa Bay Tech
Rena Cotsones
Associate Vice President of Engagement and Innovation Partnerships, Northern Illinois University
Bevan Gray-Rogel
President and founder of Encore Tampa Bay
Melodie Hillier
Event and Program Manager, TechStart Tampa Bay
Jamie Humphrey
Former COO of Roskamp Institute – Science Chair Bio Florida
Patrick Wright
President, The Payton Wright Foundation
Tracy Ingram
CEO, Intention Technology
Christine Meeker-Lange
Special Assistant to the President at Ringling College of Art and Design
Johnette Isham
Executive Director, Realize Bradenton
Wes Roberts
Executive Publisher and Vice President of SRQ Media Group
Chris Morton
Co-founder and CEO of NanoPhotonica
Wilfredo Fernandez
CEO/Co-Founder of The LAB Miami
Ron Hollis
Founder and Former President & CEO of Quickparts.com
Robert Faber
Associate, Ballast Point Ventures
John Clark
New World Angels