Speaker Bios

Marvin N. Benn, Chair of MuchShelist's Intellectual Property Group

Marvin N. Benn serves as Chair of the MuchShelist's Intellectual Property group. He handles all types of intellectual property litigation and protection, and has a broad consulting and license-drafting practice with an emphasis on matters related to patents, trademarks, and computer hardware and software. He currently represents a number of cellular telecommunications and Internet industry clients with regard to patent and trade secret protection and litigation. Marvin has taught computer law as an adjunct faculty member at The John Marshall Law School since 1984. He is a member of the Chicago Bar Association (Computer Law Committee Chairman, 1989) and the Illinois State Bar Association
(Computer Law Committee Chairman, 1984-88). Marvin is a member of the Leading Lawyers Network in Illinois and, in the February 2006 issue of Chicago magazine, was designated an Illinois Super Lawyer, an honor given to the top 5% of attorneys in the state. Marvin received his Bachelor's Degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Illinois, and later his JD from the University of Illinois College of Law.

Back To Top ^

David Carroll, Co-Founder and Engineering Director of CU Aerospace

Dr. David Carroll, who received his Ph.D. degree in 1992 from the
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), is the Engineering Director and a co-founder of CU Aerospace. Dr. Carroll specializes in multidisciplinary topics which include high energy laser systems, low-pressure discharges, high enthalpy flows, frozen flows, dissociating, non-equilibrium flows, nozzles, radiation, radiation heat transfer, efficiency of high power flow systems, power electronics, and thermal management. He is an Associate Fellow of the AIAA and a Senior Member of IEEE. He has published over 65 papers and holds 3 patents and patents-pending in the multidisciplinary fields of high-energy discharge and gas lasers, space propulsion systems, pulsed plasma thrusters, fluid dynamics, laser physics, and genetic algorithms.

Back To Top ^

Rhiannon Clifton, Assistant Director of Technology Entrepreneur Center UIUC

Rhiannon Clifton is the Assistant Director of the Technology Entrepreneur Center (TEC) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She joined the TEC's staff in 2005, and is responsible for directing all outreach and communications of the TEC, as well as managing day-to-day operations of the Center.

Rhiannon also assists in curriculum development for the Center, and is an instructor for the TEC's Sales and Marketing for Engineers course.

Rhiannon is a graduate of the University of Illinois with a BS in Advertising. Prior to joining the TEC, she was a Media Supervisor, and later, the training class instructor for Starcom MediaVest Group (SMG), a sister company to Leo Burnett in Chicago. During her tenure at SMG, Rhiannon and her team won several awards including an SMG's Fuel Award, Media Magazine's "Media Plan of the Year," and was short-listed for a Cannes Gold Lion.

Back To Top ^

Tim Hoerr, CEO of iCyt

Tim Hoerr is the Chief Executive Officer of iCyt, a rapidly growing bioscience technology firm located in the University of Illinois Research Park, Champaign, Illinois. iCyt provides software, engineering consulting, design, prototyping and manufacturing services to global clients in the field of cytometry, the science of biological cell measurement. It most recently released to the market the world's first highly automated parallel sorting instrument, the Reflection® (for more information, see www.i-cyt.com).

Tim is also the founder and president of LifeVision, Inc., an organization development consulting, training and professional speaking firm. He is a board member of Gill Athletics, the world leader in track and field manufacturing, and he is a shareholder and strategic advisor to Collegiate Marketing, Inc., one of the premier suppliers of dorm furniture to universities in the United States. He is also an owner of Gameday Spirit, the world's largest reseller of University of Illinois sports apparel and the official fan store of the University of Illinois since 2001.

Back To Top ^

Mr. Jeff Holden, CEO of pelago, inc. - creators of whrrl.com

www.pelago.com

Prior to co-founding Pelago, Jeff spent almost 8 1/2 years (1997-2006) at Amazon.com. Jeff left the company as a Senior Vice President responsible for Amazon's worldwide consumer websites. As SVP he oversaw the end-to-end customer experience: search, navigation, personalization, social computing, ordering, merchandising and automated email in addition to Amazon's online traffic initiatives: the Amazon Associates program, search engine optimization & advertising, and the experimental platform that enabled Amazon to conduct quantitative experiments with regard to consumer behavior and measure incremental value of new initiatives.

Before moving into the website-focused role, Jeff was the Director of Supply Chain Optimization Systems at Amazon (for approximately 4 years). In this position, Jeff led the design and development of Amazon's unique and powerful forecasting, inventory planning, order fulfillment optimization and transactional purchasing systems. Jeff championed the idea that fulfillment planning could be sufficiently real-time that the order pipeline could be connected directly to the fulfillment planning engine to generate optimal plans from which shipping promises are made to the customer during the check-out process. The system realizing this vision was launched in 2001 and continues to power the Amazon site today.

Prior to Amazon Jeff spent five years (1992-1997) at D. E. Shaw & Co., L.P. in New York. He joined the firm as a software engineer and his first assignment was to help Jeff Bezos build and launch the Third Market strategy, one of Shaw's early sell-side strategies. After Bezos left to found Amazon.com, Jeff remained at Shaw as the Vice President responsible for the firm's front office software infrastructure.

Prior to joining D. E. Shaw & Co., Jeff earned his BS and MS in computer science from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.

Back To Top ^

James Keating of IllinoisVENTURES

www.illinoisventures.com

Jim is an Associate with IllinoisVENTURES and focuses on emerging clean technologies, device physics, and advanced materials. Jim started his career as an Analytical Chemist at Abbott Laboratories, in the Chemical and Agricultural Products Division. From there he served as an Analytical Consultant to a trust management partnership contributing grant monies for cancer research to worldwide organizations. He went on to pursue a graduate degree in Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Texas, where he specialized in composite materials for biomedical, aerospace, and auto racing applications. Jim has an M.B.A. from the University of Illinois and has been with IllinoisVENTURES for the past three years.

Back To Top ^

Curley M. Lee, President & CEO of Ford of Champaign

www.fordofchampaign.com

Curley M. Lee is President & CEO of Ford of Champaign in Champaign, IL. Mr. Lee is also the President of Leeology, Inc. a sales, leadership and motivational training company. Curley graduated with a degree in Business Management from McNeese State University in Shreveport, LA. Afterward, he played on the LA Clippers traveling team as a point guard. Mr. Lee has spent decades in the automotive industry, and graduated from the National Automobile Dealers Association Academy in McLean, VA in 1995.

Mr. Lee joined the staff of the Technology Entrepreneur Center in 2008, as a Visiting Lecturer and co-instructor of "Sales and Marketing for Engineers."

In his spare time, Curley enjoys playing golf and spending time with his family. He is married to his wife Lori and is a father of six children and four grandchildren.

Mr. Lee's philosophy is by the great words of Theodore Roosevelt, "Far better it is to dare mighty things." He lives by this philosophy everyday and it has been instrumental in his success.

Back To Top ^

Brian P. Lilly, Adjunct Associate Professor of Technology Entrepreneur Center UIUC

Brian Lilly is a faculty member in the Technology Entrepreneur Center at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Dr. Lilly's entrepreneurial experience includes founding and managing several
companies. He is president of SmartSolutions, Inc., which manufactures and sells products he designed for the outdoor recreation and vehicle industries, and is also vice president of Ergo-Tech, Inc., which manufactures and sells a patented line of industrial washdown equipment throughout North America.

Professor Lilly received his B.S. and M.S. in General Engineering and his Ph.D. in Aeronautical Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Professor Lilly teaches Introduction to the Business Side of Engineering and Introduction to Technology Entrepreneurship.

Back To Top ^

Lesley Millar, Director of Office of Technology Management (OTM), UIUC

Lesley Millar, was appointed Director of the Office of Technology Management (OTM) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2006 after serving as Interim Director for most of 2005; she originally joined the Office in 2002 as an Engineering Technology Manager.

Prior to joining the OTM, Ms. Millar had an extensive career in government in England where she worked in consulting, contract and small business management, strategic planning, and policy development. Her direction during 13 years of service as a Section Leader for Information Technology Strategy and Consulting in the Bristol City Council involved interactions with both national government and local community leaders. Ms. Millar also oversaw a team managing the introduction of new legislation to the
Bristol city council, and was subsequently responsible for the award, implementation, and management of contracts across a range of service areas.

A native of Scotland, Ms. Millar earned a bachelors degree in Education Dunfermline College (now part of the University of Edinburgh) and came to the United States for a masters degree in Education at the University of Georgia, Athens. While earning her MBA at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Ms. Millar also served as the Executive Student Director of OSBI Consulting, where she managed operations of the consulting arm of the MBA program.

Back To Top ^

Joel Oschwald, Vice President of First State Bank

Joel Oschwald is a Vice President at First State Bank. Joel began his banking career 14 years ago with the American National Bank of Chicago, lending to middle-market companies. In 2000, he joined National City Bank, where he was a small business lender and provided cash management solutions to large corporations. Joel relocated to Champaign County from the St. Louis area to assist in the opening of First State Bank's new Champaign facility. He earned a Bachelor's Degree in Finance from the University of Illinois and an MBA from the Olin School of Business at Washington University in St. Louis. Joel has earned the Certified Treasury Professional designation from the Association for Financial Professionals. He currently serves on the Champaign County Chamber of Commerce Government Council and is an active member of the Champaign-West Rotary Club.

Back To Top ^

Alan Singleton of Singleton Law Firm, PC

http://www.singleton.law.pro/

Mr. Singleton provides legal services to business clients with respect to corporate, intellectual property, securities law and other legal matters. He frequently assists entrepreneurs with selection and organization of an appropriate entity and also with obtaining capital. He has formed business entities such as limited liability companies, subchapter S corporations, subchapter C corporations, professional corporations, and not-for-profit corporations, including private foundations. As well, Mr. Singleton has assisted clients with mergers and acquisitions, implementing stock option programs, venture capital investments and angel investments.

A member of the patent bar, Mr. Singleton represents clients in the areas of patent prosecution, trademark prosecution, copyright registration, negotiation of licenses, and negotiation of joint development agreements. He is familiar with the University of Illinois policies on technology transfer and has negotiated licenses of University technology. Mr. Singleton's real estate law experience includes counseling clients in the areas of purchases and sales, leases, installment contracts, like kind exchanges, and zoning and land use issues.

Mr. Singleton is active in both the business and educational communities. He has served on the Advisory Boards of a number of local high tech companies. He is a member of the business plan review group Second Saturday and has served as an officer and on the board of ECI Emerge.

Mr. Singleton maintains an adjunct faculty appointment with the University of Illinois College of Medicine. He has served as a guest lecturer at the University of Illinois MBA course on technology commercialization, the senior Capstone Design Course in the Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering and as a guest speaker at the TEC, and at medical residency programs throughout the state.

Back To Top ^

Jed Taylor of Cleanmake, Inc.

www.cleanmake.com

CleanMake is an enterprise software company providing cutting edge solutions to businesses to intelligently analyze, search, and mine valuable information contained in large amounts of technical data.
The foundational technology for CleanMake SysMiner Code Expert (CE) evolved from research at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) in Urbana, Illinois and was funded in part by a grant from the National Science Foundation.
CleanMake, Inc. is a privately held company with offices in Urbana-Champaign, Illinois and Shanghai, China.

Back To Top ^

Anu Varadharajan, Faculty, College of Business of University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Anu Varadharajan is a faculty member at the College of Business at the University of Illinois. Prior to joining the University, she was an Investment Analyst at Fox Development Corporation, where she made investment recommendations on a number of start-ups. She assisted these start-ups to refine their corporate vision, identify potential foreign markets and develop business relationships to enter foreign markets.

She also spent nine years at PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP in several roles, including Regional Finance Director for the Tax Division. Anu holds an MBA from the University of Rochester - William E. Simon School of Business, BBA from the National University of Singapore and is a member of the Association of Certified Chartered Accountants from the UK.

Back To Top ^