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QCA's 26th Annual
Entrepreneur Boot Camp
Speakers
Leah Wyman is a seasoned leader with 15+ years in engineering, operations, and business strategy across startups, defense, consumer goods, and B2B sectors. As Director of Startup Services at Alloy Growth Lab, she guides emerging businesses toward growth and operational excellence. Her background includes senior engineering leadership at L3Harris, COO at 3Doodler, and supply network operations at P&G. She holds an MBA from Purdue and a BS in Aerospace Engineering.
Leah Wyman Alloy Growth Labs
Sally spent 36 years with The Dow Chemical Company and GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare. Since retiring she has started her own consulting business, Strategic Product Development, which focuses on the front end of the innovation process. She also mentors start-ups and entrepreneurs through various programs in the Cincinnati area and at Purdue University. Sally has been active in The Product Development & Management Association (PDMA) since 1988 both nationally and at the chapter level.
Sally Kay
Strategic Product Development
Marvin Abrinica
Wunderfund
Marvin is the founder of the Wunderfund, a company that supports small businesses and startups looking to raise capital. He helps entrepreneurs create their brands to help them get funded and into growth stage. Prior to Wunderfund, Marvin spent 18 years with Procter & Gamble as a Brand Manager, Sourcing Leader, and Corporate trainer. He’s an active advisor and investor to startups including Frameri, Wyzerr, and many others. Marvin is also a public speaker & leadership trainer who regularly gives talks on branding & marketing for businesses, accelerators, incubators. He gave his first TEDx talk in 2014.
Dr. Glenn Platt is Gameful Strategist at JukeStrat a boutique consulting group focused on venture building; transformational, social justice & impact consulting; communications & media strategy; and brand & market positioning. He has been a Professor at Miami University for almost 3 decades. He brings insight from the frontiers of digital marketing, technology, video games, design, and business to build next generation models for higher education and industry.
Dr. Glenn Platt, PhD
PerceptX/Lyceum AI
Tom Humphrey joined Wood Herron & Evans in 1993. He concentrates his practice on electronic, software and computer technologies, including systems and methodologies for practicing and doing business. Tom is involved in acquisition, licensing and analysis of all types of intellectual property, and litigation relating to intellectual property.
“Businesses need to understand how IP relates to their products, their customers, and their competitors, and use that understanding to optimize their use of IP. That’s why I’m here.”
Tom Humphrey
Wood Herron & Evans
Mark Faust is CEO at Echelon Management International a growth and turnaround consultancy since 1990. Mark is a published author, professional speaker, and advisor to founders and CEOs. He has worked with many Fortune 500 CEOs, hundreds of #1 sales performers and thousands of his client's top customers, uncovering literally over a Billion in new review that his clients have realized.
Mark Faust
Echelon Management
RJ Sargent
1819 Innovation Hub
RJ is Assistant Vice President of Partner Success at the University of Cincinnati's 1819 Innovation Hub, the centerpiece of Cincinnati's Innovation District. A Procter & Gamble alumnus, he leverages his background in organizational culture and change management to help companies and startups collaborate and accelerate innovation. RJ founded the 1819 Learning Lab, a hands-on program helping leaders build empathy and think differently. He is also a partner at Innovation Acceleration, applying generative AI to augment human creativity. He represents 1819 statewide, including at the Ohio AI Symposium.
Michael Hurley
Calfee Halter
Michael Hurley represents businesses on formation, mergers, acquisitions and divestitures, and venture capital arrangements. He provides counsel to venture capital and buyout funds, start-up companies and investors in such funds and companies, as well as assisting clients access the capital markets through angel and venture funding rounds. His counsel covers full spectrum of the business cycle - from start-up through maturation and exit strategies - and a broad range of industries, including chemicals, construction, healthcare, energy and consumer products.
Dr. Charles H. Matthews, PhD
University of Cincinnati
Dr. Matthews is one of the most respected voices in entrepreneurship, education and small business leadership in the country. In 2024, he was recognized as the Entrepreneurship Educator of the Year by the United States Association for Small Business & Entrepreneurship.
He has published extensively in publications such as The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, BusinessWeek, and Industry Week. He also co-authored Innovation & Entrepreneurship (Routledge, 2015; 2nd edition 2025).
At the University of Cincinnati, Dr. Matthews founded the UC Center for Entrepreneurship in 1997, and led its rise to national recognition.
Melissa Monich is a retired VP of R&D at Procter & Gamble, where she led global teams and managed budgets up to $300 million. With expertise in innovation strategy and talent development, she earned the CTO Pathfinder Award for advancing women in R&D. She’s been an investor with Queen City Angels since 2019 and serves on a pet products board. Melissa is also the mayor of Wyoming, Ohio, a dedicated volunteer, and a University of Toledo Distinguished Alumna in chemical engineering.
Melissa Monich
QCA member
Tony is Founder and Chairman of Queen City Angels. QCA is an inaugural member of the Angel Capital Association. Tony served as Past Chair of ACA and Chairs the AIF Seed the Future Campaign. He has founded and/or invested in over 50 start-ups and has served on various QCA portfolio company boards. During his career he worked as an engineer and marketing manager. In 1981 he founded Entek Scientific, a software company providing mechanical engineering application packages that he built to be an internationally recognized supplier of plant machinery monitoring systems. He sold to Rockwell Automation in 2000.
Greg is a member and ACA Board Chair Emeritus at QCA Ventures, formerly Queen City Angels, Cincinnati's first and oldest angel investor group. He is a passionate advocate for Cincinnati's entrepreneurial ecosystem and has been active in early-stage investing and mentoring for years. Greg has held numerous civic leadership roles, including Co-Chairman of the Xavier University Center for Catholic Education and Past Chairman of Purcell Marian High School.
Tony Shipley
Founder & Chairman
QCA Ventures
Greg Bell
QCA Member
Scott Mindrum
QCA Member
Scott is serial entrepreneur having founded two startups. He is the former Founder & CEO of CRӓKN, a leading digital solution revolutionizing the death care industry and Making Everlasting Memories, an Internet-based publishing company which offered its’ customer members digital archive and state of the art paper publishing services for important personal events and memories. With a strong background in M&A, venture capital, and executive leadership, he is also an active member of IrishAngels and Queen City Angels, supporting early-stage ventures.
Jeff is a QCA Ventures member and Senior Advisor with Edgewater Funds. He retired as CEO of Seal For Life Industries, where he led the sale to Henkel Corporation in 2024. Jeff is the former VP of PPG Coatings Services and former President and CEO of MetoKote Corporation, which he sold to PPG Industries. He brings over 25 years of leadership in specialty industrial and coatings industries. Jeff holds degrees from the University of Pittsburgh, chairs the Ohio Manufacturers Association Board, and serves on the University of Dayton Parent Leadership Council.
Paul Gaitan
QCA Member
An active QCA member, Paul Gaitan is the CFO for Sense Neuro Diagnostics and Kurome Therapeutics. Paul has more than three decades of experience serving businesses as a top financial executive. He is a seasoned CFO and is highly skilled in financial analysis, budgeting, and enhancing financial reporting processes. Prior to Sense Neuro and Kurome Therapeutics, Paul served as CFO for several companies, public and private, across several industries - life sciences, automotive, construction materials, and materials science. Paul earned his BS degree in business from the University of Southern California and his MBA from Stanford University with a concentration in production control systems.
Teresa Evans, PhD
TiER1 Performance
Dr. Evans, is a member of QCA Ventures and a Principal at TiER1 Performance. A trained neuroscientist, she earned her PhD in Neuroscience from UT Health San Antonio and served as COO of LumaBridge, a clinical research organization. Her career spans clinical research, life science commercialization, entrepreneurship, STEM education, and government and military health programs. Her published research on graduate trainee mental health, featured in Nature, sparked a national conversation. Recognized as a San Antonio 40 Under 40 honoree in 2018, Teresa brings a rare blend of scientific depth and entrepreneurial insight to early-stage investing.
Jeff Oravitz
QCA Member
Ethan Grob
Another Nine
Ethan is the Co-Founder and CEO of Another Nine, a 24/7 indoor golf simulator franchise headquartered in Covington, KY. Founded in 2023, Another Nine features all-private simulator suites with Trackman gameplay and autonomous access requiring no onsite staff. The company opened its first Cincinnati location in March 2024, reached operational profitability in Q1 2026, and has since signed more than 65 franchise territories across 16 states. Before founding Another Nine, Ethan served as VP of Product at Shipt and held product and strategy roles at Kroger. He holds an MBA from Miami University.
Tanner Dowdy
Croke Fairchild Duarte & Beres
Tanner is an Associate at Croke Fairchild Duarte & Beres, a boutique firm specializing in commercially focused legal counsel for clients facing complex challenges. His practice covers corporate, securities, and regulatory matters, with a particular focus on investment fund formation, investment company and adviser regulation, and capital raising exemptions under federal and state securities laws. Previously, Tanner was a Corporate and Securities Associate at Dinsmore. He holds a J.D. from the University of Cincinnati College of Law and dual degrees in Finance and Political Science from the University of Kentucky.
Zach Bahorik
FBT Gibbons
Zach Bahorik is a Partner at FBT Gibbons in Cincinnati, where he specializes in corporate and transactional law for venture-backed companies and investment funds. His practice spans entity formation, fundraising, business and corporate matters, employment and labor, and intellectual property. Zach has been repeatedly recognized as a Super Lawyers Rising Star. He earned his J.D. from Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law and has been a licensed Ohio attorney since 2009.
Ella Frye
Women's Business Center
Ella Frye is the Director of the Women's Business Center (WBC) of Greater Cincinnati, a program of ECDI, the nation's #1 SBA microlender. With 30 years of experience in economic development and small business consulting, she leads the Cincinnati office delivering lending, training, and one-on-one support to women and underserved entrepreneurs. A passionate advocate for inclusive ecosystems, Ella helps founders across Greater Cincinnati access the capital and resources they need to grow.
These are just a few of our guest speakers that will guide your professional development during the Boot Camp!