Triangle Entrepreneurship Week was created out of a desire to bolster the thriving business community in the Triangle area; a region that is nicknamed the “new silicon valley” (NewsWeek 10′). Designed for entrepreneurs by entrepreneurs, the multi-faceted symposium aims to increase the awareness of North Carolina’s startup entrepreneur community, provide a networking platform and foster... Read More About TEW »

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Opening Day Speakers

  • Andy

    Andy Albright

    Andy Albright is the co-founder and President/CEO of National Agents Alliance, arguably the country’s largest and most successful insurance marketing organization specializing in life event marketing and sales. Albright has appeared in regional North Carolina magazines and newspapers, and his company NAA was selected from a pool of 35,000 area businesses as the North Carolina...

    Read More About Andy Albright »
  • heather-hesketh

    Heather Hesketh

    In 1995, Heather Hesketh founded hesketh.com as an Internet technology consultancy working with corporate marketing, sales, graphic design, and public relations professionals. From the start, she attracted a steady stream of clients who relied on her ability to balance projects’ technical aspects with the strategic vision that energized her projects. hesketh.com quickly grew, becoming a...

    Read More About Heather Hesketh »
  • thomask

    Thomas Miller

    Thomas Kenan Miller III received the BA degree in Mathematics and Chemistry from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1976. He received the MS degree in Biomedical Engineering and Mathematics in 1980, and the PhD in 1982, both from UNC-Chapel Hill. Since 1982 he has been with the Department of Electrical and...

    Read More About Thomas Miller »
  • johnh

    John Harthorne

    John Harthorne is the Founder and CEO of MassChallenge, a startup competition and accelerator designed to catalyze a startup renaissance by connecting high-impact startups from around the world with the resources they need to launch and succeed. The first annual competition launched in April 2010 and 16 winners split a prize pool of $1 million...

    Read More About John Harthorne »

Discovery & Roundtable Speakers

John Harthorne

johnh John Harthorne is the Founder and CEO of MassChallenge, a startup competition and accelerator designed to catalyze a startup renaissance by connecting high-impact startups from around the world with the resources they need to launch and succeed. The first annual competition launched in April 2010 and 16 winners split a prize pool of $1 million...

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Rich Brown

Rich Formal Headshot Rich has a 24+ year successful track record of working with technology companies of all sizes and all stages of growth.  As a venture capitalist, he has evaluated hundreds of businesses, made numerous investments, been responsible for dozens of rounds of financings, and achieved exits via both IPOs and M&A.  He has extensive experience with...

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Carl Nordgren

u89 Carl Nordgren is a creative populist. He has been an entrepreneur, helping found two pioneer cellular telephone companies, two innovative marketing services firms, a semiconductor company, a software venture, a sport magazine publisher, and a new business incubator. He worked in four of the Creative Industries, and for ten years has been teaching courses in...

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Houston Barnes

Barnes Headshot Houston Barnes is the founding member of The Barnes Law Firm in North Carolina. Houston is experienced and well seasoned with a background in both business and law. He has worked in a number of areas as varied as consulting for a Fortune 500 company, to serving as counsel for a number of start-up entrepreneural businesses....

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Matthew Coppedge

Matthew has been the Director of Marketing & Communications with Downtown Durham Inc since 2004. Before joining DDI, he worked as a business and computer consultant in the triangle area, mainly at UNC Chapel Hill. Prior to that he was a marketing intern with the Charlotte Hornets. Since starting with DDI, Matthew has developed numerous...

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William M. Geist

william-m-geist William M. Geist is CEO of The Madison Energy Group. He received a degree in Business Finance from The Richard Stockton College of NJ and was accepted to the North Carolina Central University law program before deciding to build the Madison group of companies. Each one of the Madison companies are named after his daughter,...

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Dorian Bolden

dbolden Dorian Bolden, 31, owns and operates Beyu Caffé, a unique coffeehouse, restaurant, and bar with live music in downtown Durham, North Carolina. Beyu Caffé has been featured in over 20 publications and television shows such as My Carolina Today. It has received many awards including the Downtown Durham Retail Business of the Year, Triangle Business...

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Bob Young

BobYoung Bob Young is the founder and CEO of Lulu.com, the premiere international marketplace for new digital content on the Internet, with more than 100,000 recently published titles and more than 2,500 new titles added each week, created by people in 80 different countries. Lulu.com, founded in 2002, is Young’s most recent endeavour. The success of...

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Adam Klein

adam Adam Klein is Director of Strategic Initiatives for the Greater Durham Chamber of Commerce in Durham, NC. He has held this position since July of 2010 and is responsible for leading the Chamber’s entrepreneurship efforts and accelerating Durham’s position as the hub for entrepreneurship in the Southeast. He is particularly focused on serving and supporting...

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Rebecca Antonelli

RebeccaAntonelli Rebecca Antonelli is the founder and CEO of AmericaPR, Market Smart, Inc. and Meet the New Media. She is a successful four-time entrepreneur and a highly sought-after keynote speaker, consultant, company and product launch specialist and publicist. Rebecca conceived and developed a proprietary Internet facilitated public relations firm, TrianglePR, to assist in the exchange of...

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Don Draughon

bio-draughon-donald Donald R. Draughon has been in investment banking for over 20 years. Previous to opening KeySource as President and CEO, Mr. Draughon was Managing Director/Senior Vice President for Anderson & Strudwick, Inc., a full service brokerage firm headquartered in Richmond, VA. Mr. Draughon also previously served as a Director for Smith River Community Bank in...

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Thomas Miller

thomask Thomas Kenan Miller III received the BA degree in Mathematics and Chemistry from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1976. He received the MS degree in Biomedical Engineering and Mathematics in 1980, and the PhD in 1982, both from UNC-Chapel Hill. Since 1982 he has been with the Department of Electrical and...

Read More About Thomas Miller »

Heather Hesketh

heather-hesketh In 1995, Heather Hesketh founded hesketh.com as an Internet technology consultancy working with corporate marketing, sales, graphic design, and public relations professionals. From the start, she attracted a steady stream of clients who relied on her ability to balance projects’ technical aspects with the strategic vision that energized her projects. hesketh.com quickly grew, becoming a...

Read More About Heather Hesketh »

David Jackson

david David is the founder of S2Jeans. After the devastating January 12 earthquake, David travelled to Haiti on a mission trip with the Hope for Haiti Foundation. Based on this experience, David gathered a group together to discuss how to help the victims of this earthquake. Since textiles are Haiti’s primary export, the idea for S2Jeans...

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Mark Saad

universal-saad-kindersoles-desk013-600x375 Mark Saad is Chief Kinder Sole at Kinder Soles, LLC. Kinder Soles is a socially responsible designer of eco-friendly flip-flops. As an importer/exporter, Mark has traveled around the world, often to third-world countries, where he was appalled to see tragic living conditions. Mark saw children walking barefoot in landfills; it made him sick to think...

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Derrick Minor

DerrickMinor The Director of Downtown Development is responsible for identifying and recruiting companies into the Downtown Raleigh market and works to promote Downtown Raleigh as a desirable location for corporate, divisional, and regional level companies, as well as national and international businesses. In addition, he is responsible for the retention of existing tenants and businesses in...

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Bill Sarine

Bill_Sarine Bill is a founder of a number of technology and marketing companies such as PotsTek, a telecommunications equipment company, Global Data Networking System, a successful distributorship and consulting firm, and William L. Douglas Associates, a consulting and sales company focused on emerging technologies. He has been a director of sales, a national sales manager and...

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Darleen Johns

darleen Darleen Johns has run her own boutique, Gecko’s Corner, in the Shops of Baileywick for over five years. Her love of shopping and all things retail led her to open the boutique originally and it grew from there. She now has three boutiques offering furniture, art, home goods, gourmet food, humorous gifts – most every...

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Phillip Zucchino

PhillipZom Phillip Zucchino took one trip to Saint-Emilion, France and parlayed it into a three year winemaking experience. Through his inquisitive nature and love of travel, Phillip was able to learn firsthand about wine from almost every wine region of Europe during his stay. While he still maintains there is a lifetime left to learn about...

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Vispi Daver

vispi Vispi Daver is a Founding Partner at Sierra Ventures, a Silicon Valley bay area based venture capital firm with over $1.5 Billion under management. Vispi focuses on investments in the Software sector and on driving the Firm’s cross-border investments in India. Vispi serves on the boards of Parature, Revionics, Razorsight and CarWale (India) and is...

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Glenn Jackman

Glenn Jackman is currently the Director, Textile Development for the Textile, Apparel, Hosiery, and Textile Machinery sector of the North Carolina Department of Commerce (NCDOC), International Trade Division. This Division is responsible for developing overseas business opportunities for North Carolina firms. Before joining the NCDOC, Glenn was the owner, President and CEO of Holiday Sportswear,...

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Zack Mansfield

zackm Zack Mansfield manages the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic operations for Square Roots, a program designed to establish value-added relationships with venture-track early stage companies from incorporation through Series A. Zack actively assists clients in business planning, investment preparation, talent evaluation, networking, fundraising strategy and execution. Prior to joining Square 1, Zack spent two years at the...

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Bill Warner

BillWarner Bill Warner is the founder and Managing Partner of Paladin and Associates, a firm that helps executives create successful businesses by providing a broad array of executive services. He is co-founder and Chairman of the Triangle Accredited Capital Forum, an angel investor network that reaches throughout the southeast. Bill has forty years of business experience,...

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Tom Livingston

Tom Livingston Tom Livingston- CFO & Partner, Scale Finance Tom is a veteran in the field of finance with 35 years of experience, working primarily in entrepreneurial environments.  He is a CFO and Partner with Scale Finance LLC where he currently provides contract CFO services to companies in the Ag-biotech, medical device, and molecular diagnostics industries.  He...

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Katrin Burt

katrin Katrin Burt joined Intersouth from London-based HSBC, one of the largest banking and financial services organizations in the world. At HSBC she moved through a series of roles, starting as a foreign exchange trader in London, managing portfolios of treasury products and equities in Tokyo and eventually moving to a business development role managing the...

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James Avery

JamesAvery.jpeg James Avery is the founder of Adzerk and co-founder of TekPub, a site devoted to helping developers learn from high-quality screencasts. In addition to Max Foundry, James is also involved with DotNetKicks, Zerk Media, Infozerk, and Epic Win Hosting. James has been writing code and starting companies for the last 10 years, and has also...

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Tim McGuiness

Mcguinesso The Power of We’s President, has worked with small to medium sized businesses for over 25 years. Having successfully started and sold two different businesses, he has helped multiple companies achieve the prestigious Inc. 5000 list for being among the nation’s fastest growing privately held companies. A graduate of Cornell University, he particularly enjoys working...

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Brooks Bell

brooks_bell_cropped Brooks leads Brooks Bell Interactive to design creative solutions, online conversion strategy, and A/B test plans for clients including Chase Bank, Nickelodeon, ServiceMaster and AARP. She is a 2002 graduate of Duke University with a BA in Psychology. Prior to founding Brooks Bell Interactive in 2003, she was a Co-founder and Creative Director at novelProjects,...

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Gary Hayes

GaryHayes Gary Hayes- Managing Director, Scale Finance. Gary is a seasoned financial executive with over 35 years of experience across multiple industries. He is currently Managing Director and Co-Founder of Scale Finance LLC which is a leading provider of part time CFO and Controller support along with transaction advisory services to small  businesses primarily In North...

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Craig Stone

craigom Craig Stone, with 20 years of technology, leadership, and entrepreneurial experience, is the CEO of HireNetworks, an RTP-based recruiting and staffing firm, and the Managing Partner of Campbell & James Executive Search.  Before founding HireNetworks in April of 2001, Craig spent three years as VP/COO of the DC-based recruiting firm Edgesource. Prior to this, he...

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Trevor Chambers

Modern & Edgy Photography Trevor Chambers is a husband, a father and an entrepreneur. He and his family own and run Raleigh-based Bella Monica Italian Restaurant and Bella Monica FlatBread Company – a frozen food wholesale business. As such, Mr. Chambers likes to say he has a passion for being in the “delicious business.” In 2003, Mr. Chambers wanted...

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Gigi Karmous-Edwards

GigiPic Gigi Karmous-Edwards is the owner and designer of Uvo Luxury. All of Uvo’s designs are infused with Gigi’s values of quality, modern aesthetics, functionality and her love of fashion. By applying her creative design skills accumulated during her 27 years spent as a research scientist in the technology sector, Gigi leverages her engineering mindset with...

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Leoneda Inge

Leoneda Leoneda Inge is WUNC’s Changing Economy Reporter. She came to North Carolina in 2001 and has spent most of that time tracking job loss and other major changes in the state’s Tobacco, Furniture, and Textile industries. In 2006, Leoneda and a team of journalists won an Alfred I. DuPont Award from Columbia University for the...

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Nicole Wicker

NicoleWicker Nicole Wicker is Vice President of Finance of TearScience, Inc., a RTP ophthalmic medical device company focused on the diagnosis and treatment of evaporative dry eye. Recently, Nicole financed TearScience through a $44.5 million venture capital raise and $15 million in venture debt, enabling the company to commercialize its products throughout the world. Prior to...

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Erik Lensch

Erik Erik is responsible for strategic direction of Argand Energy Solutions, its key initiatives and business and community alliances. Erik is the son of a solar installer and is active in renewable energy advocacy, education and advancement efforts. He brings a strong finance and management background to Argand Energy Solutions with a Bachelors of Science in...

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Sougata Mukerjee

Sougata Editor, Triangle Business Journal

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Rich Kramarik

Rich.com Rich Kramarik is currently the Founder/Managing Partner for Research Triangle Business Advisors, which provides executive coaching and mentoring services to startup and small/medium businesses. His substantial career experience in managing all facets of a business, including strategic and tactical planning, funding, and total P&L responsibility provides RTBA clients with a ‘real world’ perspective on major...

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Bernie Brown

Berniee.com The Power of We’s CEO, has over 15 years experience advising companies in CFO and VP of Treasury roles for both public companies and family-owned businesses. A Delaware licensed CPA, Bernie has worked with companies experiencing fast growth, reorganization, recapitalization, acquisition and divestiture. During his career, he has acquired extensive experience in forecasting, budgeting, strategic...

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Jenn Halweil

JennLagacy CEO, Legacy Event Planners Founder, StrataJem Jenn Halweil is an entrepreneur at heart. A double major in electrical engineering and media communication at NC State University, she has started several local companies including Legacy Event Planners, who helped organize and promote TEW. In addition to her involvement in local entrepreneurship, Jenn recently made a splash...

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Jeff Singh

jeffvybee Jeff Singh is the founder of Vybee.com, a web and mobile platform designed to bring together our local communities with an easy, social way to find, share, and keep up with local interests and promote local business. Jeff grew up as an active participant in the Triangle arts and music communities and studied Design and...

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Martin Sinozich

MartinShot Martin Sinozich, Managing Member of Venn Capital and Executive Committee Member of Piedmont Angel Network III, has held operational and information technology roles since 1984.  Before moving to North Carolina in 2004, Martin served in a variety of operations and problem-solving assignments with MBNA America Bank, Fidelity Investments, and Prudential Home Mortgage.  Martin is currently an active...

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Steve Thompson

SteveThompson Mr. Thompson has almost 30 years of senior management and financial executive experience. He is currently the Chief Financial Officer of Noel Group, LLC,  a privately-held, international industrial holding company that manages manufacturing and distribution activities in the transformation of engineered synthetic materials. Mr. Thompson is primarily responsible for the financing strategies and needs of...

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Chris Duke

ChrisDuke Chris Duke is a husband, a father, an entrepreneur, a technologist, a writer, a teacher, a speaker – someone that is passionate about learning and always seeking to live life on purpose. He is the co-founder of Anna’s Gourmet Goodies, an online retailer of gourmet cookies and brownies serving customers throughout the United States and...

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Guy Harvey

guy-harvey Mr. Harvey’s career spans more than 20 years and includes broad experience in business development, leadership and the management of complex commercial real estate transactions. He has served clients in diverse sectors to include technology, healthcare, biotechnology, telecommunications, service and manufacturing. Guy began his commercial real estate career in 1989 with a regional, full-service firm...

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Jeff Dupuie

JeffD Jeff Dupuie is the Managing Director of OakStone Partners, a boutique management consultancy focused on helping its clients achieve breakthrough performance improvements in the areas of innovation, product development, product management, and profitability improvement.   OakStone serves companies in the high-tech, chemicals and materials, manufacturing, life sciences, and services verticals.  Jeff is a member of the...

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David Jones

DavidJones - SCV David joined SCV in 2004 and currently serves on the board of BrightContext Corp. Prior to joining Southern Capitol Ventures, David was with Deloitte Consulting where he managed strategic technology projects for the newly formed Department of Homeland Security. David was on the boards of SCV portfolio companies ArtusLabs (acquired by PerkinElmer – March 2011)...

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Chris Carmody

chrisgreen Chris Carmody has spent over 20 years helping communities utilize sustainability, social entrepreneurship, and philanthropy as catalysts for economic growth. Carmody currently serves as Executive Director of the Institute for Sustainable Development and Green Plus™, an alliance of universities and chambers of commerce that helps America’s smaller employers and their communities become more competitive through...

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ELAINE D. BOLLE

elaine-bolle ELAINE D. BOLLE is an experienced entrepreneur, senior executive and board director leading domestic and global organizations from venture-backed start-ups to $750M+ enterprises. She has built and successfully exited several early stage venture backed companies including Achex, a payment processor, sold to First Data Corp. She currently serves as a board member and advisor to...

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Andrew Schwab

Schwab2*280 Andrew Schwab is a successful entrepreneur with over 20 years experience building technology based startup companies. As a seasoned senior executive with proven management and startup skills, he has led two local companies featured in the Triangle Fast 50, which recognizes the 50 fastest growing, privately held companies in the Research Triangle area. His diverse...

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Lister Delgado

Lister Lister Delgado is a founder and general partner at IDEA Fund Partners. He is passionate about entrepreneurship and company formation, and has been an early stage investor and advisor to entrepreneurs since 2001. During his career as an investor spanning more than 10 years, Lister has led the evaluation of over 1,000 companies and has...

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Mary-Ann Baldwin

When printed by line should read "Steve Becker/Beckermedia.com". Mary-Ann Baldwin is the founder of Baldwin Communications, which focuses on brand development and execution, integrated marketing, and public policy initiatives. Additionally, she serves as an at-large Raleigh City Councilor, recently elected to her third term. Before starting her firm four years ago, she served as marketing director for several professional service organizations, including Stewart...

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Chris Penttila

chris Freelance journalist Chris Penttila has covered employee management and leadership issues for more than a decade. Her work has appeared in a number of publications including Entrepreneur magazine, where she served as a contributing editor and monthly management columnist for ten years. Penttila has interviewed hundreds of small business owners, consultants, professors and other business experts, and...

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Andy Albright

Andy Andy Albright is the co-founder and President/CEO of National Agents Alliance, arguably the country’s largest and most successful insurance marketing organization specializing in life event marketing and sales. Albright has appeared in regional North Carolina magazines and newspapers, and his company NAA was selected from a pool of 35,000 area businesses as the North Carolina...

Read More About Andy Albright »

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