Speaker Bios

Brady Allison, Vice President and Commercial Lender of Busey Bank www.busey.com Brady M. Allison grew up in Tolono, Illinois and graduated from Unity High School in 1996. After high school Brady attended Parkland College in Champaign to pursue a degree in business and eventually transferred to Eastern Illinois University in Charleston. Upon arriving at EIU Brady began his banking career in 1998 at First Mid-Illinois Bank & Trust as a loan assistant. Brady eventually worked for the marketing department of FMIB&T and graduated from EIU in 2001 with a degree in Marketing with a concentration in small business entrepreneurship. In 2002 Brady began his banking career with Busey Bank in Mahomet IL as a retail and mortgage lender. Then in 2006 Brady was promoted to commercial lender in Tolono were he helped local farmers with financing their operations along with financing other commercial customers in the area. In 2008 Brady was promoted to Vice President and Commercial Lender for the Champaign County area. He has experience with all types of loans; from operating lines, equipment loans, commercial real estate, special SBA financing, SBA 504, Illinois Finance Authority, to farm land loans, Ag finance programs from the State of Illinois, the Farm Service Agency and USDA. Back To Top ^

Joe Barich, Patent Attorney and Shareholder of McAndrews, Held & Malloy, Ltd. www.joebarich.com In his practice as a Patent Attorney, Professor Barich works with start-up and established companies to help them develop and commercialize their Intellectual Property. He has been involved in prosecuting more than 800 patents in the US and foreign countries, several hundred copyrights, and numerous trademarks, and has experience working with just about all other IP rights, including design patents, trade dress, and trade secrets. Professor Barich has successfully asserted his client's patent and other IP rights in numerous successful licensing or settlement efforts and has successfully defended his clients from a multitude of attacks by adverse parties, including patent, trademark, design patent, trade dress, and trade secret claims. Back To Top ^

Bill Colburn, Senior Patent Coordinator of Office of Technology Management www.otm.illinois.edu Bill Colburn, the OTM's Senior Patent Coordinator, manages resources that secure intellectual property protection for UIUC technologies. Bill works closely with the Technology Managers in monitoring the preparation and filing of patent applications, responding to patent office actions, and providing recommendations regarding US and foreign patent decisions. He serves as a liaison between OTM, the University's legal counsel, outside patent counsel, and inventors, and he monitors the OTM's patent budget. Prior to joining the OTM, Bill had more than 30 years experience in optical engineering, much of that time working for startup organizations. He served as Vice President and Chief Scientist at Kaiser Optical Systems, where he worked on the development and manufacture of products utilizing holographic optical elements and was also involved in the drafting and prosecution of patent applications. Bill has also held engineering positions at the Environmental Research Institute of Michigan, Harris Electro-Optics Center of Radiation, and Holotron Corporation. Bill is an inventor on 2 issued US patents and an author on several journal publications. He received his bachelor's and master's degrees in Electrical Engineering from the University of Wisconsin at Madison, and he is a registered patent agent. Back To Top ^

Brian Frizzell, CFA and CFE of Charles River Associates www.crai.com Mr. Frizzell is a Principal with the international consulting firm Charles River Associates. He has extensive experience providing intellectual property and valuation consulting services to a wide array of clients across a diverse set of industries, including software, telecommunications, consumer products, medical devices, financial markets, energy, utilities, and media. His experience includes valuation of patents, trade secrets, trademarks, software, and ongoing and startup businesses. He enjoys informally advising and mentoring startup companies and has acted in this role for a number of Midwestern companies and is also a member of Cornerstone Angels, a Chicago based angel capital investment group. Mr. Frizzell received his Bachelors of Science in Electrical Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and his Masters of Business Administration from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management. He is a Chartered Financial Analyst ("CFA") and a Certified Fraud Examiner ("CFE") and has spoken at events and guest lectured at universities on the topics of IP strategy and patent damages. Back To Top ^

Tim Hoerr, CEO of Serra Ventures, Inc. www.serraventures.com Tim Hoerr is a seasoned business executive with over 25 years of experience spanning a variety of industries. In addition to his role at Serra Ventures, a consultancy offering professional services to emerging technology enterprises, Tim serves as CEO of Cbana Labs and ImmuVen, two start-up technology ventures located in the University of Illinois Research Park, Champaign, Illinois. Tim also works with the University of Illinois technology community in the role of Entrepreneur-in-Residence at EnterpriseWorks business incubator in the Research Park. He was formerly co-founder and CEO of iCyt Mission Technology, a highly successful bio-instrument company that has won numerous awards for technology and business excellence. Tim was awarded the Entrepreneurial Excellence in Management Award at the Innovation Celebration, 2009. Since 1983 he has assisted over 400 organizations to achieve high performance by providing strategic, operational and leadership consulting. Tim spent nearly all of the first 15 years of his professional career with RSM McGladrey in Illinois and San Diego, leading teams of consultants focused on serving middle market clients. In his capacity as Consulting Partner with McGladrey, Tim provided leadership on a regional and national level. He also served on two national committees for the American Society of Certified Public Accountants (Business Valuation and Emerging Services). Also a professional author and speaker, he has given over 200 speaking and workshop presentations in his professional career to such diverse groups as Nabisco, Buck Knives, Saab and Nationalease. Back To Top ^

Dave Kellner, VP of Engineering of ANDalyze, Inc. http://www.andalyze.com/ Mr. Kellner has been active in the Champaign-Urbana business community since 2001 when he co-founded a sensor research company, Caviton, Inc. In his role at Caviton, he was responsible for all business, financial and operational aspects of the corporation, including authoring and managing four Phase I and two Phase II SBIRs, two projects with Honeywell International as lead (DOE, and DARPA), a software development project for the DHS, and a State of Illinois development project. Mr. Kellner has a customer list that includes; Honeywell, USAF, DOE, USMC, EPA, Indiana DHS, Illinois Homeland Security Market Development and others. As Caviton was winding down, he started a consulting company, Cogent Innovations Incorporated where he is the President and CEO. The initial focus of Cogent was as a marketing firm for emergency operations center software co-developed with Autonomous Innovations, Inc. Since then the company has developed relationships in the automotive and racing sensors industry, and help to secure SBIR funding and test teams for the development of next generation sensing solutions. Currently, Dave is employed full time with ANDalzye, Inc. as the Vice President of Engineering. In this role, he is responsible for all engineering aspects of the company, including development of sensor housings and a state-of-the art field portable fluorimeter. Dave's educational background is in business, biochemistry, biology and chemistry. Back To Top ^

Nate Kontny, CTO of Inkling www.inklingmarkets.com Nate Kontny serves as CTO and leads application development at Inkling. Inkling was recently listed on the Ruby on Rails site as one of the "most prolific", a spot shared with Twitter and Hulu. Nate believes people often over engineer their ideas, making them much bigger than they should start out to be. Nate is an active blogger, actor, and amateur bartender. Nate holds a Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering from the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana. Back To Top ^

Raymond Reinhardt, Co-Founder and CEO of Cuddlephish www.cuddlephish.com Raymond has devoted his life to entrepreneurship, education, and technology. He received his MBA from the University of Chicago with concentrations in entrepreneurship and strategic management in December of 2009. In February of 2008, Raymond started Cuddlephish with his identical twin brother Vince to create a better path for innovation in the US and hopefully change the world a bit for the better. Raymond is an avid boxer and an ambassador for technology in Chicago and throughout the World. During the last week in January he helped start CrisisCamp Chicago with three other volunteeers. He also started the "Your Mobile Visionary Roundtable" series of events at the Illinois Technology Association and Mobile Cocktail in Chicago to help connect mobility minded entrepreneurs with area professionals. He routinely reaches out to companies to create and implement innovative ideas that will propel new ventures and unique business model innovations into uncharted territory. Cuddlephish is housed in the "Phish Bowl" (A front office with glass walls) and has the full support of the leaders of the TechNexus Clubhouse with several initiatives that he is helping implement. Come visit him at 200 South Wacker, 15th Floor. The Entreprenuerial community is always welcome to check out the TechNexus Clubhouse. Back To Top ^

Alan Singleton, Attorney of Singleton Law Firm www.singletonlawfirm.com Alan Singleton provides legal services to business clients in the areas of corporate formation and transactions, intellectual property, securities law, and real estate. He has over 17 years of experience working with entrepreneurs to develop solutions to the wide variety of business and legal issues they face in establishing and growing their companies. Through his commitment to serving the needs of clients beginning with the selection of an appropriate business entity and continuing throughout their stages of development, Alan has established a reputation as one of the leading advocates for technology transfer and early stage companies in East Central Illinois. In recognition of his work, Alan was selected by the University of Illinois and the Champaign County EDC as the 2008 recipient of the Entrepreneurial Advocacy Award. Alan has worked with clients to form limited liability companies, subchapter S corporations, subchapter C corporations, professional corporations, and not-for-profit corporations, including publicly supported organizations and private foundations. After formation, Alan regularly advises clients on issues including raising capital, securities compliance, taxation and implementing stock option plans. He has also assisted clients with mergers and acquisitions, asset sales, recapitalizations and real estate matters, including purchases and sales, leases, installment contracts, like kind exchanges, and zoning and land use issues. A member of the patent bar, Alan has represented clients in patent prosecution, trademark registration and negotiation of licenses and joint development agreements. He is familiar with the University of Illinois policies on technology transfer and has assisted with licensure of University technology on numerous occasions. Back To Top ^

Amit Sudharshan, Senior Analyst of Illinois Ventures www.illinoisventures.com Amit Sudharshan is a Senior Analyst at IllinoisVENTURES focusing on IT, digital media, and the iVentures10 program. He brings both cutting edge technical knowledge as well as strategic business insight to the firm. Amit focuses on new investment opportunities as well as supporting Directors in managing existing portfolio companies, and also manages the iVentures10 program. Amit is a founder of the IllinoisVENTURES funded company, ONE LLAMA and has served as a board member and operationally as the Director of Product Development. At ONE LLAMA Amit had oversight over day to day operations and worked closely with the board of directors to set strategy. Amit has developed many of the core proprietary technologies for ONE LLAMA. He was named one of the Chicagoland Entrepreneurial Center's "Entrepreneurs to Watch for in 2008." Amit has a BS in Computer Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. Back To Top ^

Sam Yagan, Co-Founder of OkCupid.com www.OkCupid.com Sam grew up in Bourbonnais, IL and attended high school at the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy in Aurora. He graduated from Harvard University with an honors degree in Applied Mathematics & Economics before embarking on a career as a serial entrepreneur. While still in College, Sam co-founded SparkNotes-a company he grew into the most popular destination for online educational resources as well as a leading publisher of study guides and test prep books. After selling his company - for the second time - to Barnes & Noble, Inc., Sam left to begin a new venture. In 2002, Sam became President of startup software company MetaMachine, Inc., the developer and marketer of eDonkey, then the world's largest peer-to-peer file-sharing network. Just prior to matriculating at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, Sam co-founded his newest business endeavor, the online dating business OkCupid.com. OkCupid is one of the 300 largest sites in the US and one of the top 5 online dating sites. With an industry-best user experience and a highly accurate matching algorithm, OkCupid has grown exclusively by word of mouth. Recently, OkCupid has earned tremendous recognition for its blog, OkTrends (http://blog.okcupid.com), which was named one of the top 5 corporate blogs on the web and has been covered across a variety of traditional and social media. Back To Top ^

Mark Zediker, Chief Technology Officer of Foro Energy www.foroenergy.com Mark Zediker is currently the Chief Technology Officer for Foro Energy which is a startup funded by Northbridge and CMEA in 2009 that is developing a novel thermal-mechanical drilling technology. In his former career, Mark was as Vice President for Coherent Direct Diode Systems (DDS) where he managed his division. Prior to DDS, he was President & CEO of Nuvonyx Incorporated which was founded in 1998 to bring high power direct diode laser systems to the industrial marketplace based on patents and technology developed at McDonnell Douglas. He licensed the technology from McDonnell Douglas, developed a commercial product line, and developed a strong brand name around the product's technology and acquired Thales Laser Diode in 2005 to expand into Europe, successfully integrated Thales. He then sold Nuvonyx Europe to Quantel and sold Nuvonyx to Coherent in 2007. Mark also filed for five patents, and successfully received three. Mark graduated from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign with his BS in Engineering Physics in 1978. He also received his MS (1983) and a PhD (1984) in Nuclear and Plasma Engineering from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. As an alum, Mark serves as a member of University of Illinois Physics Advisory Board. Mark currently has received 24 patents for his work and has 8 other patents pending. Mark has written over 200 conference publications, magazine articles and journal articles. He is also a member of SPIE, Directed Energy Professional Society and the Tau Beta PI Honor Society. Back To Top ^