Matt Allison
Todd Bacastow
Brad Bogolea
Nolan Bushnell
Rich Button
Erik Davidson
Aaron Fleishman
Dr. Daniel Hayes
Dr. Dave Landis
John Meier
Tom Taulli
Rick Weyer

Speaker Bios

Matt Allison, Co-Founder of BrioBody

Matt Allison, a senior at Penn State University majoring in Economics with a minor in Engineering Entrepreneurship, is co-founder of M.R. Innovative Solutions, LLC, an innovative technologies company, and Briobody, LLC, a web based company with a direct focus on a motivational health and fitness based social networking website (www.briobody.com).

While at Penn State, Matt was a member of the Penn State Investment Association (PSIA) and the Penn State Network of Entrepreneurs (PSNE), and also participated on several Penn State sports teams, including the Varsity Track and Field team and the Men's Club Volleyball team. Recently, Matt was voted as the May winner of Advanta's $10,000 Ideablob national best small business idea competition for Briobody.com. Matt has also helped manage one of the top performing large cap mutual funds in the country (PBKAX), while working for Berkshire Advisors, Inc.

Todd Bacastow, Associate of FirstMark Capital

Todd M. Bacastow is an Associate at FirstMark Capital (formerly Pequot Ventures) and focuses on investments in the applied technology, enterprise software and digital media. He works closely with the management teams of FirstMark's portfolio companies and assists with strategic business initiatives. Previously, Todd served as an Analyst in the Media & Telecommunications Investment Banking Group at Merrill Lynch & Co. There, he assisted Fortune 500 and emerging technology companies with their financial strategy and performed a variety of merger & acquisitions and capital market transactions.

Todd graduated from The Pennsylvania State University in 2005 with a B.S. in Information Sciences and Technology and is a graduate of the Schreyer Honors College. While at Penn State, Todd served as a Lion Ambassador and was Chair of the Penn State Chapter of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM).In his free time, Todd enjoys mentoring students and helping entrepreneurs starting technology companies. He is an avid runner and enjoys scuba diving, skiing and racquetball. Todd is a diehard Penn State football fan and attends as many games as possible.

Brad Bogolea, Co-Founder of I-Conserve

Brad is a 2006 graduate of the College of Engineering at The Pennsylvania State University, where he studied Computer Science, Engineering Leadership, and Engineering Entrepreneurship. While an undergrad at Penn State, Brad co-founded i-conserve, LLC, with a mission to making it easy for people to conserve energy, help the environment, and save money.

i-conserve raised over $65K in grant money, participated in numerous business plan & product competitions, and developed technology that connected utility companies and residential energy customers to better manage energy usage.

In November 2007, i-conserve was acquired by Greenbox Technology, Inc., a start-up in the San Francisco Bay Area founded by the creators Flash, the most ubiquitous multimedia application on the Internet. Greenbox is developing a Web-based Interactive Energy Management platform for the home. Before i-conserve, Brad worked with private firms on US Department of Defense-sponsored research projects related to technology and information assurance since the age of 15.

Nolan Bushnell of uWink, Inc

Nolan Bushnell is CEO and founder of uWink, Inc. uWink develops digital media entertainment and hospitality software and owns and operates interactive restaurants that allow customers to order food, drinks, games and other digital media at the table through proprietary touch screen terminals. He is best known as the founder of Atari Corporation and Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza Time Theater, and is justifiably revered as the "Father of the Video Game Industry."

Over the past 20 years, Mr. Bushnell has founded numerous other companies, including Catalyst Technologies, the first technology incubator; Etak, the first car navigation system whose mapping is still the basis for car navigation systems today; Androbot, a personal robotics company; and ByVideo, the first online ordering system (1982), which allowed customers to order and pay for product from kiosks. Nolan Bushnell holds several patents on some of the basic technologies for many of the early video games developed and is also the inventor or co-inventor of numerous worldwide patents in various other fields and industries.

Over the years, Mr. Bushnell has received numerous awards of distinction. He is highlighted as one of Silicon Valley's entrepreneurial icons in "The revolutionaries," a historical view of Silicon Valley, which is part of the renowned Tech Museum of Innovation in San Jose, California.

Rich Button, Incubator Manager of CBICC

Mr. Button is associated with the CBICC's Industrial Development Corporation as the Business Incubation Manager. He is a graduate of Penn State University with a BS in Finance and a graduate of New York University with a MS in Real Estate Investment and Asset Management. Mr. Button has over 22 years of experience in investment and asset management. His experiences include creating companies and operating divisions at both institutional and entrepreneurial levels. Prior to returning home, he worked both nationally and internationally from New York City, Toronto and Jacksonville, Fl. He holds an associate brokers license and CCIM certification. Mr. Button volunteers for the Smeal College Alumni Society Board; and serves on Nittany Bank's Community Board, BIACC Chamber of Commerce Board, and Bellefonte Planning Commission.

Erik Davidson, Co-Founder of Buzby Networks

Erik Davidson is the co-founder and current president of Buzby Networks, LLC, the developer of an innovative technology that facilitates real-time location tracking of small, low-power wireless mobile devices. The company's technology can be integrated into its customers' existing wireless sensor networks to enable reliable location tracking. Erik is also the co-founder and managing partner of Triple Overtime Promotions, LLC, a growing and profitable producer of highly-customized, officially-licensed collegiate merchandise for over ten universities around the country. Erik holds a B.S. degree from Penn State in Electrical Engineering and is now in pursuit of a M.S. degree in the same field. Erik currently resides in State College, Pennsylvania.

Aaron Fleishman, Co-Founder of Mashavu, Penn State University

Aaron Fleishman, a senior at Penn State University majoring in Chemical Engineering, is co-founder of Mashavu: Networked Health Solutions For the Developing World. The venture was voted February's winner in Advanta's $10,000 Ideablob national best small business idea competition and was awarded a $1,000 CASE Grant. Mashavu was also selected to participate in the 2008 National Idea-to-Product Competition for Social Entrepreneurship and the 2008 ASME Innovation Showcase. For his work with developing nations, Aaron received the Penn State College of Engineering Humanitarian Engineering Award.

Aaron currently interns as an Applications Engineer for the College of Engineering's Electronics & Computer Services. In his free time he enjoys traveling, hiking, watching Penn State Football, and spending time with family and friends.

Dr. Daniel Hayes of NanoHorizons

Dr. Daniel Hayes, one of NanoHorizons' founders and an inventor of its technology, is a graduate of Penn State University with a BS in Science, and a PhD in Engineering Science and Mechanics. Dr Hayes has extensive experience in the nanomaterials development, molecular biology, and neuroscience. His scientific endeavors include work at New York University, Sloan-Kettering Memorial Hospital, and Case Western Reserve University. He has authored numerous journal articles and holds several US patents. Dr. Hayes joined NanoHorizons full time in 2004 as the Director of Operations after the completion of his doctoral work.

NanoHorizons was founded in 2002 by a team of scientists from The Pennsylvania State University for the purpose of developing and commercializing nanomaterial-enabled products. The company's early work included the development of high performance flexible electronics, and nanomaterial-based analytical devices for drug discovery.

Today, NanoHorizons invents, designs, and manufactures nanoscale additives provide cost-effective, and environmentally friendly antimicrobial and performance-enhancing characteristics for consumer, commercial, and industrial products.

Dr. Dave Landis, Vice President of The Technology Collaborative

Dave Landis is V.P. for Education and Training at The Technology Collaborative where he manages Professional Development, Workforce Development, Continuing Education, and University Curriculum programs. Prior to his current employment, Dr. Landis held University appointments including Senior Scientist and Professor of Electrical Engineering at the Pennsylvania State University and Professor of Electrical Engineering at the University of South Florida. He is a Senior Member of the IEEE, a member of the American Society for Engineering Education, and a registered Professional Engineer in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. His industrial experience includes work at RCA's Advanced Technology Laboratory and Honeywell's Space Systems Group. Dr. Landis received the Ph.D. EE from the Pennsylvania State University, the MS degree in Systems Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania, and the BS EE Degree from Carnegie-Mellon University.

John Meier, Science Librarian of Penn State

John Meier is a Science Librarian in the Physical and Mathematical Sciences Library at Penn State. He is the librarian responsible for the U.S. Patent and Trademark Depository collection for Penn State and has spoken on intellectual property and patent searching in many classes at University Park.

John originally recieved his Masters in Electical and Computer Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University. After a short time in industry, he returned to school and earned his Masters of Library and Information Science from the University of Pittsburgh. He has held two science or engineering librarian positions at smaller schools before coming to Penn State in Spring of 2007.

Tom Taulli, Founder of BizEquity

Tom Taulli is the founder of BizEquity. He also writes a weekly column for BusinessWeek Online (on venture funding) and contributes to AOL's financial blogs.

Mr. Taulli has started several other companies, such as Hypermart.net (which was sold to InfoSpace) and ExamWeb. He also has invested in startup companies like JFax.com (sold to J2 Global Communications).

Mr. Taulli is the author of seven books on finance (examples include the Complete M&A Handbook and Investing in IPOs) and has also taught at the USC School of Business.

Rick Weyer of Penn State University

Mr. Weyer is a senior technology licensing officer in the Intellectual Property Office at Penn State University. In this role, Mr. Weyer focuses on working with faculty inventors in engineering and the physical sciences to establish patent strategies. In addition, he interacts with industry to transfer inventions from the university into companies for commercial development.

Mr. Weyer has served as an adjunct instructor in the Smeal College of Business at Penn State. Mr. Weyer served as vice president for sales and marketing at Videon Central, Inc., a small, but fast-growing business located in State College, PA. Mr. Weyer served as the Director for Business Partnerships at the Ben Franklin Technology Center in University Park, PA. Mr. Weyer worked previously as an acoustical engineer at the Applied Research Lab at Penn State University and at the Naval Surface Weapons Center - Carderock in Bethesda, MD. He received a MBA degree from the Smeal College of Business Administration at Penn State University in 1998. Mr. Weyer earned a Master's degree in Ocean Engineering from the University of Rhode Island in 1984, and a Bachelor's degree in Aerospace Engineering from Virginia Tech in 1981.

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