Growsmartbiz Conference Speakers
Raul Fernandez, Vice Chairman, ObjectVideo (Keynote speaker)
Raul Fernandez is the chairman of ObjectVideo, a private technology company that develops video analytics software for automated security surveillance. He is also a special advisor to General Atlantic Partners, a growth equity firm with over $17 billion under management. Fernandez founded Proxicom, an internet services company he started in 1991 with $40,000 in savings. After taking Proxicom public in 1999 and growing his business to more than $200 million in revenue, he sold it to Dimension Data in 2001. Fernandez also serves on the board of Liz Claiborne; TROW, a Toronto-based engineering and consulting firm; ValueOptions, the nation’s largest independent behavioral healthcare company and Network Solutions, the leader in web-based domain name and related services.
Fernandez, a native Washingtonian, is an active philanthropist in D.C. regional non-profits, focusing his energy primarily on educational reform. In 2000, he co-founded Venture Philanthropy Partners, a philanthropic investment organization based in Washington, D.C. Fernandez sits on various non-profit boards, including America’s Promise, the D.C. College Access Program (DCCAP), the D.C. Public Education Fund and the Fernandez Foundation. He holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Maryland.
Marie C. Johns, Deputy Administrator(Keynote speaker)
Marie Johns is Deputy Administrator of the US Small Business Administration, where she contributes to management of the agency and development of SBA policy. Johns was nominated by President Obama on December 17th, 2009 and confirmed by unanimous consent in the Senate on June 22nd, 2010.
Prior to becoming Deputy Administrator, Johns was the Managing Member of L&L Consulting, LLC, an organizational effectiveness and public policy consulting practice. Previously, she served as President of Verizon Washington, where she was responsible for nearly 2000 employees and more than 800,000 customers, including many small businesses. Johns worked to develop products and services to meet the needs of Verizon’s small business customers, and worked closely with Verizon’s vendors, suppliers, and subcontractors, some of whom were SBA borrowers. She retired from Verizon in 2004 after 21 years of service in the telecommunications industry.
Johns has a long record of business and civic leadership. She is the founder of the Washington DC Technology Council, former chair of Leadership Greater Washington, and a member of the board of the Girl Scouts USA. Johns served for 10 years as a trustee at Howard University, where she chaired the Academic Excellence Committee. Johns also served as the founding chair of the Howard University Middle School of Mathematics and Science. As chair of the DC Chamber of Commerce, as well as chair of its Small Business Committee, Johns helped small businesses get technical assistance and mentoring from larger area firms, and helped create a Visitors Center to encourage tourists to explore more of Washington’s many vibrant neighborhoods and visit local small businesses.
While at Verizon Washington, Johns created the Students Educated for Economic Development Success program (SEEDS). SEEDS prepared over 200 high school dropouts for entry-level positions in the telecommunications industry, many of whom were hired by small local firms.
Johns earned her BS and MPA degrees from Indiana University’s School of Public and Environmental Affairs, and was awarded an honorary doctorate of humane letters from Trinity University in Washington, D.C. She is the recipient of many awards in recognition of her business and civic leadership. Among her honors, Johns was recognized as a “Leader of the Years” by the Greater Washington Board of Trade, one the of “25 Most Influential Black Women in Business” by the Network Journal and one of the “100 Most Powerful Women” by Washingtonian Magazine. In 2004, Johns was inducted in the Greater Washington Business Hall of Fame.
Johns has been married for 39 years to Wendell Johns. They reside in Washington, DC, and have one son, Richard, an attorney in private practice in Washington, DC and Maryland. They are the proud grandparents of Richard Franklin II and Lauren Marie Johns.
Barry Moltz
Barry Moltz has founded and run small businesses with a great deal of success and failure for more than 15 years.
His first book, “You Need to Be A Little Crazy: The Truth about Starting and Growing Your Business” describes the ups and downs and emotional trials of running a business. It is in its fourth reprint and has been translated into Chinese, Russian, Korean and Thai. His second book, “Bounce! Failure, Resiliency and the Confidence to Achieve Your Next Great Success”, shows how to bounce back in the Great Recession and has been translated into German and Korean. Barry’s third book, BAM! Delivering Customer Service in a Self Service World talks about the how customer service is the new marketing in a social media world.
Carlos Diggs
Carlos Diggs is the Co-Founder and Managing Partner at 360 Sales Focus, a full service sales and marketing consultancy specializing in small-to-mid size businesses. Carlos leads the Sales Solutions practice area. With 20+ years of professional experience as an innovator and business strategist, Carlos is successful in creating vision, identifying
go-to-market strategies, building relationships, organizations and teams, and delivering strong profitable results. Carlos believes that sometimes a fresh perspective is what is needed to achieve goals & objectives, especially when one is in the thick running a business. His LinkedIn profile can be viewed at www.linkedin.com/in/carlosdiggs. Reach Carlos at cdiggs@360salesfocus.com or 410.782.0360 or follow him on Twitter
Deborah Ager
Deborah Ager is principal at ClickWisdom, LLC, which publishes websites based on an affiliate business model. She speaks and consults on search engine optimization (SEO) best practices and writes about SEO for the Women Grow Business blog. Recently, Ager spoke on Baltimore’s WYPR about 32 Poems Magazine, the poetry magazine she publishes. Ager publishes poetry in academic and literary journals, and her book is entitled Midnight Voices (WordTech 2009). Connect with her on Twitter.
Hope A. Lane, Officer, Aronson & Company
Hope A. Lane, CPA leads Aronson & Company’s Government Contract Services Group with over 20 years of broad-based experience in the government contracting arena. She earned her Bachelor of Science Degree in Accounting from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte in 1987 and is responsible for assisting clients in all areas of government contracting-related financial compliance and contract administration.
With an exclusive focus on government contracting, Ms. Lane possesses in-depth understanding and intensive hands-on experience. She has served in financial management positions with several regional federal contractors and has extensive experience in the management of all accounting and finance functions. Hope is actively involved in the National Contract Management Association, and the Professional Services Council.
Ms. Lane is a guest speaker and lecturer for associations and industry trade groups and a featured speaker on GSA Schedules at Aronson & Company’s Executive Briefings. Additionally, her industry expertise is frequently sought out by GSA.
Jason Falls
Jason Falls is one of the leading educators and thinkers in the social media, public relations and communications industries. He has the unique perspective of having led a national advertising agency’s Interactive and social media efforts, worked with Fortune 100 brands as a social media strategist and served as an independent consultant in the social media industry. He has advised major, regional and niche brands including Humana, The Envelope Manufacturers of America, Jim Beam and Maker’s Mark bourbons, Louisville Slugger, and The National Center for Family Literacy. His work has resulted in acclaim and recognition in publication and honors, including a 2009 SAMMY Award for Best Integrated Social/Cross Media Campaign. He has brought that experience and his industry contacts to bear on ExploringSocialMedia.com, an online learning community focused on social media education.
One of the most in-demand speakers in the social media space, Falls has spoken internationally and nationally and is known for his engaging style, wit and humor, brutal honesty and for adding value to each audience’s experience. Falls is co-founder of the Social Media Club Louisville. He is an educator, consultant and professional speaker and can be found online at http://socialmediaexplorer.com, consistently rated at or near the top of the prestigious Advertising Age Power 150 Blogs and at http://exploringsocialmedia.com, an online learning community focused on social media tools, technology and strategy.
Jeremy Epstein
Jeremy Epstein graduated Phi Beta Kappa with a B.A. in History and a double minor in German and Economics from Johns Hopkins University and received two prestigious international fellowships. He spent 1 year as a DAAD scholar studying International Politics and Business at the Johann Wolfgang von Goethe University of Frankfurt and 1 year as a Monbusho scholar in International Relations at the International University of Japan in Niigata.
He then joined FACT Communications in Tokyo, where he oversaw interactive marketing projects for clients such as Heineken, IBM, and Unilever and was recognized with a Japanese “Webby” award for his work. In addition to executing one of the first email marketing campaigns in Japanese Internet history, he was co-chair of the Ecommerce special interest group at the American Chamber of Commerce in Japan.
Returning to the US, Jeremy joined Snickelways Interactive in New York City, a leading e-commerce development firm and was instrumental in growing the business from 20 to 150 employees. His clients included Tumi luggage, Rand McNally, and WebLoyalty.
Upon the burst of the dot-com bubble, Jeremy raised over $500k in private financing for an Internet start-up, SilentFrog, a marketplace for services. The company existed for 2 years, was mentioned in the WSJ and Washington Post and generated revenue…but, alas, not enough profit.
Moving back to his native Washington, DC, he joined Microsoft where, over the course of an almost 6 year career, Jeremy implemented numerous scalable community building (and revenue generating) programs. His efforts were recognized as US-wide best practices and he authored one of Microsoft’s most successful marketing blogs with over 110,000 views per month.
Since leaving Microsoft,” he has signed contracts with a number of clients including Johnson & Johnson, Microsoft, Yes To Carrots, NYT best-selling author, Dan Pink and #1 New York Times best-selling author, Gretchen Rubin. He is also the author of ‘It’s All on the Blog, Don’t Buy the Book!”
A passionate technologist, Jeremy prides himself as early adopter with email (1991), a personal home page (1992), and blogging (2000).
You can read his blog (and more) at www.ignitingtherevolution.com or find him on LinkedIn,
Jill Foster
Cited by ForbesWomen as one of 30 women entrepreneurs to follow on Twitter, Jill Foster’s work has been in conversation in The Washington Post, Huffington Post, Guardian UK, Washingtonian Magazine, and a range of media outlets. As principal of her business Live Your Talk http://liveyourtalk.com/ , she is a speechwriter teaching creatives, community builders, and entrepreneurs to be distinct conversation leaders through public speaking skill. Jill has a particular expertise with women in leadership and technology communities and works in theWashington, DC <x-apple-data-detectors://0> area.
A social tech ent
husiast, she co-founded DC Media Makers, a peer learning community that teaches digital technology. She is the founding editor of the blog community Women Grow Business http://www.womengrowbusiness.com/- a top ranked blog on social media and marketing. In 2009, Jill won the Apps for Democracy Social Citizen Award for a co-produced project on how technology could helpWashington, DC <x-apple-data-detectors://1> neighborhoods. And during the 2008 presidential election, she fulfilled a lifelong dream by serving as a “Big Tent” credentialed blogger for the Democratic National Convention.
Jim Kukral
For over 15-years, Jim Kukral has helped small businesses and large companies like Fedex, Sherwin Williams, Ernst & Young and Progressive Auto Insurance understand how find success on the Web. Jim is the author of the book, “Attention! This Book Will Make You Money”, as well as a professional speaker, blogger and Web business consultant. Find out more by visiting www.JimKukral.com. You can also follow Jim on Twitter @JimKukral.
Jocelyn Harmon
Jocelyn is passionate about helping charitable organizations succeed online so that they can change the world! As Director of Business Development for Care2 <http://www.care2.com> , she connects progressive nonprofits to Care2’s 14 million + passionate members. Jocelyn has been a member of the capacity-building community for nonprofits since 2000. She started her career at the Georgia Center for Nonprofits and then led the development and communications activities for the National Council of Nonprofits, an association of 22,000 local charities. Jocelyn is a recognized blogger and speaker on online marketing for social change. She pens, Marketing for Nonprofits <http://www.marketingfornonprofits. org> , an Alltop blog. She also writes a bi-monthly column for Fundraising Success <http://www.fundraisingsuccessmag.com/ search/?itc=p&action=filter&addFilter=byline:%22Jocelyn+Harmon% 22> magazine. In 2009, Jocelyn was recognized by Fast Company as a Woman in Nonprofit Technology Who Rocks! You can reach Jocelyn at jocelynh@care2team.com or @jocelynharmon on Twitter.
Kathy Korman Frey
Kathy Korman Frey is the founder of the world’s largest women’s case study database: The Hot Mommas Project. The cutting edge, crowd-sourced online library is the recipient of a 2006 Coleman Foundation Case Award and has been profiled by The Washington Post Magazine, NPR, and featured in Prentice Hall textbooks. The endeavor was an outgrowth of her consulting firm Vision Forward, LLC which measurably empowers and educates businesses with female leadership. Clients include AARP, The US Department of Justice, Entrepreneur’s Organization, Chief Executive’s Organization, Visa, and The Federal Drug Administration. Frey is a faculty member at the George Washington University School of Business, Center for Entrepreneurial Excellence where she teaches Women’s Entrepreneurial Leadership. The class is a recipient of a National Excellence in Entrepreneurship Education award.
Frey served as Chief Operating Officer for the National Council on the Aging Development Corporation and as an analyst and manager for the competitive analysis and merger & acquisition firm Markowitz & McNaughton (MMI). Frey earned her MBA from Harvard Business School and her B.A. in English from the University of Virginia where she received the Seven Society’s James Earle Sargeant award for community service. She is a featured contributor on Maria Shriver’s Women’s Conference site, the author of the NFIB Young Entrepreneur Foundation blog, a Harvard Business School case author, a DC Twitter Elite, and dubbed one of “America’s Top Business Bloggers” by the HSM World Business Forum. She is a regular speaker on the topics of women’s leadership, mentorship, and work-life balance. Frey is a former board member of the Alzheimer’s Association, National Capital Area. She lives in DC with entrepreneur husband Josh Frey, their two children, Maxwell and Delilah, and dog Foxy. She hates the word “moist.”
Katya Andresen
Katya Andresen is Chief Operating Officer of the leading online charitable resource, Network for Good, as well as a speaker, author and blogger about nonprofit marketing, online outreach and social media. In addition, she teaches at American University’s Key Certificate Program and serves on the board of NTEN. Katya has trained thousands of causes in effective marketing and media relations, and her marketing materials for non-profits have won national and international awards. She is the author of the book, Robin Hood Marketing: Stealing Corporate Savvy to Sell Just Causes, which has been translated into four languages. She is also a co-author featured in the book, People to People Fundraising – Social Networking and Web 2.0 for Charities. Fundraising Success Magazine named her Fundraising Professional of the Year in 2007.
Before joining Network for Good, she was Senior Vice President of Sutton Group, a marketing and communications firm and a marketing consultant overseas in Ukraine. She also worked for CARE International. Katya traces her passion for good causes to the enormous social need she witnessed as a journalist prior to her work in the non-profit sector. She was a foreign correspondent for Reuters News andTelevision in Asia and for Associated Press and major US newspapers in Africa.
Laurie McCabe, Co-founder and Partner, SMB Group
Laurie McCabe brings more than 20 years of experience in the IT industry to her current role as Partner at the SMB Group. Laurie’s expertise in market, chan
nel and competitive analysis helps vendor clients capitalize on shifting market trends, and create successful go-to-market and outcomes. Laurie has built widespread recognition for her capabilities and insights in the small and medium business (SMB) market in several areas, including cloud computing, software-as-service (SaaS), collaboration, business solutions, social networking and managed services.
From 2009 to 2010, Laurie was a Partner at Hurwitz & Associates, where she co-authored Collaboration for Dummies (Wiley Publishing) and led SMB-related projects. Prior to that, Laurie served as Vice President of SMB Insights & Solutions at AMI-Partners for five years. In this role, she directed syndicated research in the business solutions area, and led numerous projects to help clients enter new markets, launch solutions, and elevate brand awareness and consideration in the SMB market. Previously, Laurie was Vice President at Summit Strategies for seven years, where her original research and analysis of the emerging SaaS market earned her broad recognition as a thought leader in this area. Laurie’s nine years at Digital Equipment Corporation, including her last role as Director of Market and Competitive Intelligence, provide her with critical experience from the vendor perspective.
Ms. McCabe is frequently quoted in leading business and trade publications and has been a featured speaker at many industry and vendor events, is a frequent blogger, and a regular contributor to Small Business Computing. She holds a bachelor’s degree in communications and psychology from the University of Delaware, and has completed numerous graduate-level courses in business administration.
Patricia Frame
Patricia A. Frame is a management consultant, author and speaker. She founded Strategies for Human Resources www.SHRinsight.com, to help organizations achieve their goals through more effective strategies and practices related to employees. Her website, SHRinsight.com, contains many articles useful to entrepreneurs. Patricia has been a seminar leader and guest speaker for a wide range of national conferences as well as Metro DC groups. She writes for WomenGrowBusiness.com, DCWebWomen, and ClearedJobs.net
Ramon Ray
Ramon is a journalist, technology evangelist and editor of Smallbiztechnology.com and author of “Technology Solutions for Growing Businesses” and has written thousands of articles in how small businesses can use technology as a tool to grow their business.
He co-produces the Annual Small Business Summit (since 2006), produces the Taste of Technology Small Business Series and is a speaker (including Inc 500) and the Small Business Technology Tour.
Ramon is not simply a technology writer, but as a former technology consultant, has years of hands on experience in building networks, installing software, upgrading computers, configuring mobile technology and supporting the technology small businesses use on a daily basis.
He is an in demand speaker and often quoted in the media, including Entrepreneur Magazine, Inc Magazine, WSJ, NY Times and other media.
Rieva Lesonsky
Rieva Lesonsky is CEO and founder of GrowBiz Media, a content and consulting company specializing in covering small businesses and entrepreneurship. A nationally known speaker and authority on entrepreneurship, Lesonsky has been covering America’s entrepreneurs for nearly 30 years. Before co-founding GrowBiz Media, Lesonsky was Editorial Director of Entrepreneur Magazine.
Lesonsky has appeared on hundreds of radio shows and numerous local and national television programs, including the Today Show, Good Morning America, CNN, Fox Business News, The Martha Stewart show and Oprah, and can regularly be seen on MSNBC’s Your Business.
She has written several books about small business, including the bestselling Start Your Own Business. Lesonsky is an editor-at-large for AllBusiness.com and the Resident Moderator on Small Biz Nation. She also writes about small business on her blog, SmallBizDaily.com and for Aol Small Business, Business on Main, SCORE, Small Business Trends, Business.Gov, AT&T, Earn.com, HP and The Huffington Post. In 2009, she was named to Folio Magazine’s “Folio 40” list, which honors publishing’s top innovators.
Many organizations have recognized Lesonsky for her tireless devotion to helping entrepreneurs. She served on the Small Business Administration’s National Advisory Council for six years, and was honored by the SBA as a Small Business Media Advocate and a Woman in Business Advocate. The Collegiate Entrepreneurs Organization honored her for helping drive “the entrepreneurial revolution in secondary education.” The ASBDC awarded her a “Champion of Small Business” award.
Steve King
Steve is a partner at Emergent Research where he leads an ongoing project to identify, analyze and forecast the global trends and shifts impacting small businesses.
Steve has over 20 years of industry and consulting experience. Prior to founding Emergent Research, he held a number of executive, general management, and marketing positions with both large and small corporations including Vice President of Corporate Marketing for Macromedia, Vice President and General Manager Asia-Pacific for Lotus Development Corporation, and Vice President of Marketing for Isys Corporation. He has served on the fiduciary or advisory boards of over a dozen companies.
Steve is a Senior Fellow and board member at the Society for New Communications Research and an advisory board member at Pond Ventures. Steve has an MBA from Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Business and a BS from the University of Richmond.
Steve blogs on the future of small business at www.smallbizlabs.com.
Steven Fisher, Manager, SapientNitro
Steve Fisher’s focus revolves around designing highly relevant customer experiences that accelerate business growth and fuel brand advocacy. Known for his passion for helping businesses grow, Steve’s background as an entrepreneur and filmmaker along with working for large corporations, has given him unique insight into what businesses need to do in order to stay innovative, entrepreneurial and fiscally fit. At SapientNitro, the world’s first global customer experience company, he is responsible for helping his clients leverage their online customer service experiences while reinforcing their brand and usability.
Known as an advocate for helping businesses think and act
differently, Steve speaks and writes extensively on Creative Leadership, Experiential Marketing, Technology Trends and Product Innovation. Currently, Steve is working on his first book, “Rules for Business,” which compliments his blog RulesForBusiness.com.
Connect with him on Facebook (stevenjohnfisher), Twitter (@stevenfisher), LinkedIn (stevenfisher), Plaxo (stevenfisher) or Flickr (stevenfisher).
Miles Reidy, Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operations Officer, Network Solutions
Miles Reidy joined Network Solutions in May 2009. As Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operations Officer, Miles directs the company’s finance department and our product fulfillment and delivery operations. Together with the entire executive team, he offers fresh insights into our customers’ needs and the products and services we develop.
Before joining Network Solutions, Miles enjoyed working at Sears Holdings Corporation where he was Executive Vice President and CFO.During his tenure as CFO for Sears Holding Company, he led the development of strategy and financial management for the multi-billion dollar retailer. Prior to this role, he spent more than eight years at Capital One Financial Corporation, leading activities in banking integration, corporate planning, and financial strategy. In addition, he served as the CFO for Capital One Credit Card and Bank. Miles’ experience also includes senior posts at a number of large commercial banks.
Miles received his Bachelor of Science in Finance from Georgetown University and his Master of Science in Economics, from the Heinz School of Public Policy at Carnegie-Mellon University.
Miles is currently a member of the following boards of directors: Easter Seals, Heinz School of Public Policy at Carnegie-Mellon University, and the Cambridge Winter Center for Financial Institutions Policy
Ben Cook
Ben Cook is the SEO Manager for Network Solutions and has been in the Search Engine Optimization industry for over 5 years. He’s helped companies achieve first page rankings across a wide variety of competitive niches including real estate, sports, and the technology sectors.
Dan F. Sturdivant, II, Assistant to the Director, Outreach Programs Department of Homeland Security Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization (OSDBU) 7th & D Streets, SW/ Room: 3514-16 Washington, D.C. 20528
Dan Sturdivant, serves as the Assistant Director for Outreach & Service Disabled Veteran Owned Business Coordinator; OSDBU, U. S. Department of Homeland Security. As such, he is responsible for policy; strategic planning, outreach and the development and oversight of DHS’s small business programs (including, Minority, Women-Owned, Veterans, & HUBZone firms). Dan is responsible for activities and program implementation, DHS-wide, which would increase opportunities for the small business community nation-wide. Under Dan’s leadership and support, DHS is generally recognized as a leader in innovative, outreach activities. Additionally, at Homeland Security, Dan’s also responsible for the newly implemented Service Disabled Veteran Owned Business set-aside Program; as well as he’s the DHS, OSDBU liaison to the Congressional Black Caucus; keeping them apprised of the DHS small business programs, goals & achievements, new initiatives and continuous outreach efforts and activities.
One of Dan’s most effective & innovative outreach activities is one that he created in 1994, while at the Department of Treasury, which is called Vendor Outreach Sessions or (VOS). This unique concept allows the small business community access to the DHS component Small Business Specialists, “IT” Program Managers, or prime contractors, once a month, via prearranged 15 minute appointments. The appointments, which are made online, provides the vendors with a future “onsite”, opportunity to discuss their capabilities and learn of potential procurement opportunities. DHS, held its first Vendor Outreach Session October of 2003.
Before coming to the Department of Homeland Security; for years Dan won numerous awards while at Treasury, and before that as the Minority Business Advocate, with the Department of Transportation, Coast Guard Headquarters. The Coast Guard met or exceeded its Small Business Administration mandatory, government-wide goals each year that Dan was there, and in 1987 Dan was awarded Transportation’s Minority Business Officer of the year award.
The numerous government awards and achievements accumulated by Dan included; the Treasury Secretary’s Certificate of Excellence, 1993, the Secretary’s Certificate for Major Contributions to the Small Business Program, 1995, the Secretary’s Certificate of Achievement, 2001 and also the Ronald H. Brown, Free Enterprise Award 2002, which was given by Auburn University, during its Annual African-American Entrepreneurship Summit.
Dan also served, for twelve years as Chairman of the Department of Defense Regional Council for Small Business Education & Advocacy, Washington, DC, Chapter. During Dan’s tenure, the Council steadily grew from approximately 47 members in 1987 to over 250 in 1998. For ten years, Dan also served as the Outreach Coordinator for the OSDBU Directors Interagency Council, and prior to coming to DHS, was also responsible for the Council’s Annual Procurement Conference. According to an article in one of the recent small business trade magazines, this conference currently ranks in Washington only behind the SBA’s Joint Industry Procurement Conference & MEDWeek as a “must attend” conference for the small business community seeking to do business with the Federal government, in the Washington Metropolitan area. This conference, which is a one-day event, draws approximately 2,500 – 3,000 individuals from all over the United States.
In August of 2000, Dan was privileged to have had the opportunity to become the first Federal Government employee to attend the prestigious Darden Graduate School of Business, Minority Executive Business Program. This program, which is taught at the University of Virginia, in Charlottesville, is designed for the small business entrepreneur who is seeking to enhance their entrepreneurial and business skills. Dan’s rationale for attending was to gain a deeper and a more astute insight into the inner workings and intricacies of a small business, which he would in turn use to strengthen Treasury’s and now, the Department of Homeland Security’s small business programs.
While at Treasury, one of Dan’s additional responsibilities was to write a quarterly article for Treasury’s newsletter NEAR & FAR (As in Federal Acquisition Regulations), which he had done for approximately two years. One of his articles, “High-Tech/High-Touch-Leveraging Technology with Interpersonal Skills”, when submitted, was so well received, th
at it appeared, as the featured article, in the April 2002 edition of the Federal Times magazine. Additionally, in May of 2003, Dan appeared with Ms. Melanie Sabelhaus, Deputy Administrator, SBA, and an invited small business owner on CNNfn, a syndicated program that discusses a myriad of financial topics, including those involving small business owners. The focus of this hour long program was SBA’s nation-wide “Match-Making” Program, which Dan was intimately involved in helping SBA to launch by his support and with his presence.
Additionally, during Black History Month for 2004, Dan received an unexpected honor, when he was contacted by the Commanding General, Brigadier General, J. M. Paxton, Jr., U. S. Marine Corps Recruit Depot/Western Recruiting Region, San Diego, California. A member of the General’s staff, Colonel Paul C. Allen had previously heard Dan teach a seminar on “How to do Business with the Department of Homeland Security”, for the U. S. Chamber of Commerce, in San Diego, during 2003. Dan was subsequently invited back to be the “Parade Reviewing Officer”, at the recruit graduation program, during Black History Month 2004. This was indeed a very high honor for any former Marine, and Dan was selected because of his prior outstanding military service, his long standing personal involvement in his community and his recent “hand-picked” selection as the Assistant to the Director, for Outreach Programs, Department of Homeland Security. Also while at the Marine facilities in San Diego, Dan was given the “VIP” tour, and was also the General’s invited “guest breakfast speaker” at his quarters, for a select group of Marines and sailors.
Dan, who did undergraduate studies at Howard University, also held or currently holds memberships in the National Association of Black Procurement Professionals, the NAACP (Washington, DC chapter), 100 Black Men of America, Inc. (Washington, DC Chapter), and the Disabled American Veterans Association. He is, as previously stated, a former Marine, who was wounded while serving his second of two combat tours of duty in Viet Nam, and was highly decorated, for his numerous combat achievements.
Mike Maiorana
Verizon Wireless President – Washington-Baltimore-Virginia Region
Mike Maiorana is president of the Washington, Baltimore, Virginia Region for Verizon Wireless, responsible for sales, marketing, customer service, retail stores and expansion of the nation’s most
reliable wireless network in Washington DC, Maryland and the Commonwealth of Virginia. He oversees a $3-billion-a-year operation and more than 2,000 employees for the nation’s largest wireless company.
Maiorana was formerly vice president of National Government Sales and Operations at Verizon Wireless. In that role he was responsible for sales and customer service for the company’s federal, state and local government customers including those in law enforcement, public safety, the military and municipalities.
He began his wireless career in 1990 as a sales representative and moved on to assignments of increasing responsibility including regional director of Corporate and Government Accounts, director of Retail Sales, and director of Sales Operations and Training. He is a four-time winner of the Verizon Wireless President’s Cabinet award for sales achievement.
Maiorana earned an MBA in Finance at Montclair (NJ) State University, and an undergraduate degree in Marketing at Rutgers University.
Dr. Alan Glazier
Dr. Alan Glazier is an optometrist and Founder/CEO of a large private optometric practice in the Rockville, Maryland suburbs of Washington, DC. In 2006 Dr. Glazier made the decision to eliminate traditional forms of advertising and started the transition of his practice towards electronic medical records and online marketing. His practice is one of the very few that use no traditional marketing. Dr. Glazier is a frequent lecturer on social and new media and blogs professionally at SightNation.com and for Jobson’s “Click” e-Newsletter publication. He has been interviewed by Entrepreneur magazine, on Blog Talk Radio and by Network Solutions regarding his cutting edge use of social media. His book on social media in the healtcare industry “Searchial Marketing” is due to be published this winter. He also conceptualized and brought to market Schedgehog.com, a free mobile app which connects patients with cancelled or rescheduled doctors appointments, making them happy and recouping lost revenue for physicians. In 2010, Dr. Glazier won “Best Use of Twitter”, awarded by the Northern Virginia Technology Council. Connect with him on twitter @EyeInfo.
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