Speakers

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  Trisha Degg

  /in/tdegg/

  Trisha is the VP of Talent Programs and Operations for Illinois Technology Association - a business services organization focused on helping great tech companies scale. Trisha helps ITA’s 500-plus member companies navigate Chicago’s talent pool to find the best of the best. With almost 10 years of corporate recruiting, campus recruitment, and HR experience, Trisha excels at finding new ways to locate talent, and is passionate about networking. She works with the heads of HR/Talent at ITA companies to help develop and refine their procedures and processes. Trisha’s specialties are talent attraction and retention, organizational development, manager training, interview skills/resume writing, building and refining internship programs, and employment branding.

  INTERESTING FACT: helps ITA’s 500-plus member companies navigate Chicago’s talent pool

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  Caitlin Mcallister

  /in/caitlinmcallister/

  Caitlin is the Executive Director of Catapult Chicago, the only non-profit, peer-selected community for startups with business traction. With the bulk of her career based in hospitality at luxury-level resorts, her path to running a tech hub is an interesting one! No matter where that path has led, building great teams has always been at the core. In her current role, she helps 90+ startup founders do just that. In her free time, Caitlin enjoys exploring the world and has visited over 22 countries.

  INTERESTING FACT: runs a tech hub

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  Debra Giunta

  /in/debra-giunta-161b5628/

  Debra is a social entrepreneur focusing on youth development through the arts. She is the Founder of Design Dance, an arts education company using dance to teach social-emotional skills to over 3000 Chicago students annually and Prismatic, an education organization teaching mission-driven leadership to middle and high-school students through in-school, after-school and community based programs. Debra is a TEDx speaker, recipient of the 2016 Goodcity Women's Innovation Fund Award and a founding board member of the Illinois Dance Education Organization.

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  Balaji Rajagopalan

  /in/balaji-rajagopalan-ba77492/

  Balaji is dean of the Northern Illinois University (NIU) College of Business, which has been ranked in the U.S. for 34 consecutive years per the U.S. News & World Report annual survey.  He is an experienced dean with a demonstrated track record of success in higher education. He is passionate about, and accomplished in, inspiring innovation throughout all levels of the organization.  A proven leader, Balaji also possesses significant experience in the areas of strategic planning, curricular innovation, enrollment management, and external relations. His academic preparation and research has focused on the impact of technological innovations on business and society.
  
  INTERESTING FACT:  member of the WorldChicago Board of Directors

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  Roland Kulla

  www.rolandkulla.com

  Roland is an artist who specializes in urban landscapes, with an emphasis on bridge structures. His creative path to a career in fine art has not been a direct one. He spent ten years in the seminary before making a lateral career move into social work. This was his occupation for more than 30 years as a caseworker, administrator, researcher, teacher and consultant. In his artistic work he creates places and moods that invite the viewer to enter into the work and form their own relationship to it. For Roland art is essentially about communicating, which means sharing his visions with others.

  INTERESTING FACT: hosted 300+ people from 50+ countries through fellowship programs

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  Luisa Prista

  /in/luisa-prista-02b0b316b/

  From May 2018 she is Head of department at EASME dealing with COSME, Horizon 2020 for SMEs and European Maritime and Fisheries Fund. Luisa Prista has a degree in Mechanical engineering, Applied Thermodynamics. She initiated her career as researcher and lecturer at university of Lisbon and moved to private sector dealing with manufacturing and construction in Portugal and Switzerland. In Switzerland she was also heading the InfoEnergie office at the Cantonal and Swiss Federal Government. In 1994 she joined in European Commission in Brussels where she had different management positions related to research, innovation and legislation in a  wide variety of industrial sectors including transport at DG Research and DG GROW.

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  Frank Saviane

  /in/frankmanuelsaviane/

  Frank is an entrepreneurial business engineer, who combines business and finance acumen with passion for technology and innovation within global contexts and markets. He defines himself as a team player, with organizational talent, who knows how to connect the dots and loves to make things happen. Frank works in innovation & growth topics since 2008, executes training, consulting and advisory on these topics in Europe, Asia and South America with an ever growing experience in emerging markets.

  INTERESTING FACT: His company has offices in Italy, Germany, Poland, Vietnam and Singapore

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  Corey Friedman

  /in/coreyfriedman1/

  Corey is a financial professional, who has his own financial consulting business, has worked with companies in several countries and across industries in technology, government, community development nonprofits, healthcare, finance, manufacturing, entertainment, and music. This has included taking on various leadership roles in these companies. Prior to that he was a Director at Standard & Poor’s, where he was for 14 years and at Allstate Insurance prior to that. Corey has served on several boards and associations throughout Chicago, including WorldChicago currently.

  INTERESTING FACT: Corey enjoys traveling, writing, and is an avid sports fan (including his Cubs)

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  Heather Johnston

  /in/heatherjohnston1/

  Heather is chief operating officer of Moonrise, a corporate venture backed by American Family Insurance that she had the privilege to design. Moonrise helps millions of people reach or maintain financial stability by connecting them with supplementary income. Heather is a Mechanical Engineer and earned an MBA from The Univ. of Chicago Booth School of Business. In her previous life, she co-founded a real estate startup, moved around the country while in a leadership program at Harley-Davidson Motor Company, and led a team in a corporate innovation lab.

  INTERESTING FACT: Heather programmed robots at Harley-Davidson and was on the team that created the first International motorcycle.

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  Abigail Ingram

  /in/abigailingram1/

  Abigail is the inaugural Director of the Women in Entrepreneurship Institute at DePaul University, designed to support women founders through programming and actionable research. Abigail worked with the Coleman Entrepreneurship Center team for three years before taking this role, connecting the DePaul community to the greater entrepreneurial ecosystem in Chicago and beyond.

  INTERESTING FACT: Abigail cofounded and bootstrapped a music studio in Denver, Colorado.

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  Marc Rolfes

  /in/marc-rolfes-85221211/

  Marc is a partner and Board Director of Social Venture Partners. About a decade ago, he shifted from a corporate focus to one supporting the U.S. social impact sector. His background includes management and business development positions in various technology fields including wireless telecom, high-temperature superconductors and nuclear power. Marc provides strategic advisory consulting support mainly in the areas of mergers, acquisitions and Board governance.

  Interesting Fact:  was a stay at home dad to 3 kids for 6 years

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  Jonathan Fritz

  /in/bioitatty/

  Jonathan is the Executive Director of CHIME Innovation. The College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) is a global organization of senior healthcare IT and innovation executives, with 2,800 members in 51 countries and 150 business partners. Jonathan has been focused on innovation throughout his career, including more than a decade as a practicing patent and start-up business attorney. He has advised countless emerging companies, the founder of a health and wellness startup, and judged more than 14 business plan competitions.

  INTERESTING FACT: Bright Star, an early stage venture capital investment fund

Previously on Voogle conference