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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
PerceptX/Lyceum AI
Tom Humphrey
Wood Herron & Evans
RJ Sargeant
University of Cincinnati
Dr. Charles Matthews, PhD
University of Cincinnati
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.”
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
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. Matthews
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 Shipley
Founder & Chairman
QCA Ventures
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
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 Oravitz
QCA Member
Jeff
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.
These are just a few of our guest speakers that will guide your professional development during the Boot Camp!