FinTech

Craig Schedler

Managing Director with Northwestern Mutual Future Ventures

Craig Schedler has served as Managing Director with Northwestern Mutual Future Ventures since its founding in 2016. In this role he is responsible for setting the strategic direction for the fund, managing existing investments and participating in identifying new investment opportunities.  His areas of investment focus include financial technology, digital health and data analytics.  Craig also serves in a leadership role on multiple committees focused on innovation across Northwestern Mutual. 

Prior to his current role, Craig was a Director in the Corporate Strategy function at Northwestern Mutual. In this role he was responsible for leading the team which provided competitive analysis on the company’s current competitive threats and opportunities. Prior to joining Northwestern Mutual, Craig was a member of the healthcare investment banking team at B.C. Ziegler and Company executing both merger and acquisition and capital markets transactions on behalf of clients nationwide.

Craig received a B.B.A. in Accounting from the University of Wisconsin and an M.B.A. with concentrations in Accounting and Finance from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

John Jorgensen

President & CEO, The Sylint Group, Inc.

Mr. John Jorgensen, the President and CEO of The Sylint Group, formerly worked over 25 years for and with the National Security Agency.  Sylint provides computer systems and digital data forensic analysis, evidentiary data recovery and collection, computer security systems specification, guidance and implementation, and Counter Cyber Warfare expertise. Sylint provides litigation support to include technical data recovery and reconstruction, deposition question assistance, 26(f) and Meet & Confer guidance, Affidavit and Motion preparation and electronic investigation and data search. Mr. Jorgensen has served numerous times as Special Master to the Court, as an Expert Witness in both Federal and local Judicial jurisdiction in civil and criminal matters and has overseen the computer forensic analysis in over 3,500 successful cases. Sylint is composed of 35 professionals to include ex-law enforcement, intelligence community, FBI and military.  Sylint’s clients include Fortune 100 companies and AM 100 Law firms.

Karen A. Holbrook, PhD

Regional Chancellor, University of South Florida Sarasota-Manatee campus

Karen A. Holbrook, PhD was appointed regional chancellor at the University of South Florida Sarasota-Manatee campus on Jan. 2, 2018, after serving as executive vice president at USFSM and senior advisor to the president of the University of South Florida system since the summer of 2017.

Dr. Holbrook was the interim president at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University for one year before returning to USF. She previously served as USF’s senior vice president for global affairs and international research (2010-12), senior vice president for research, innovation and global affairs (2007-10) and as senior advisor to the USF system president (2013-16).

Dr. Holbrook initially came to USF after serving as the president at The Ohio State University (2002-07); the senior vice president for academic affairs and provost at the University of Georgia; vice president for research and dean of the graduate school at the University of Florida; and associate dean for research and professor of biological structure and medicine at the University of Washington School of Medicine.

She has served on the boards of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), ACT, Inc., the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC), the American Council of Education (ACE), the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges (now APLU), the Association of American Universities (AAU), the Council of Graduate Schools (CGS), and Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME), Washington Advisory Group (WAG), among others. Dr. Holbrook has also participated on advisory panels and councils for the National Institutes of Health (NIAMS) and was a member of the Advisory Committee to the immediate past Director of the NIH (Elias Zerhouni). She currently serves on the boards of the Institute of International Education (IIE), CRDF Global, Bio-Techne, Academic Assembly, Inc., INTO USF, and is the immediate past board chair for Oak Ridge Associated Universities (ORAU) and until recently, served on the Board of Trustees for Embry Riddle Aeronautical University and King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST). She is a Distinguished Fellow of the Global Federation of Councils of Competitiveness (GFCC).

Dr. Holbrook was an active biomedical researcher and NIH MERIT Award investigator early in her career. She earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Zoology at the University of Wisconsin in Madison and a doctorate in Biological Structure at the University of Washington School of Medicine where she served as a postdoctoral fellow in dermatology, faculty member and research administrator.

She is married to Jim Holbrook, a physical oceanographer who spent his career with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) at Pacific Marine Environmental Lab in Seattle, Washington and in Washington, D.C. They have one married son, James who is the Senior Art Director and Producer for ABC World News in New York City.

Rachel Wei West

CEO and Co-Founder, InfoAlliance LLC

For more than 25 years, Rachel has advised and evolved some of the world’s most successful companies, both in the U.S. and abroad.

With a wide range of expertise in high tech, finance, economics, sales and marketing, Rachel creates and influences technology vision and execution roadmap for Fortune Global 2000 companies. As a strategic advisor and consulting partner at Dell EMC, she’s led many innovative initiatives in Cloud, Big Data, SaaS and Digital Transformation for its most strategic clients including Vanguard, Bank of America, FiServe, Caterpillar, BNY, Republic Services, Fidelity and State Street.

Before joining EMC, Rachel worked at Putnam Investment Management Co., spearheading the new enterprise-wide data architecture, process and workflow integration that was one of the first in the mutual fund industry. Soon after, Rachel joined BusinessEdge Solutions (acquired by EMC), a highly specialized technology consultancy to guide many top tier financial institutions in developing next generation investment platform, operating and service models at global scale.

Rachel was a SEC registered investment advisor and an early investor in many successful tech companies today. In 2009, she co-founded InfoAlliance LLC, a strategic venture consultancy where she takes the visionary thinking and unparalleled insight from the top of the corporate world to help early-stage companies to scale up, grow, and build the best of what's next.

Rachel attended Harvard University’s T.H Chan School of Public Health and Babson College in Boston, MA. She has a MBA in finance and marketing, and a BA degree in economics from the top ranked International Business School at University of Nanjing, China.

Bhuvan Unhelkar, BE, MDBA, MSc, PhD

Professor of IT, USF Sarasota-Manatee

Dr Bhuvan Unhelkar (BE, MDBA, MSc, PhD) is an accomplished IT professional and Professor of IT at the University of South Florida, Sarasota-Manatee (Lead Faculty). He is also Founding Consultant at MethodScience and PlatiFi, with Mastery in Business Analysis & Requirements Modeling, Software Engineering, Big Data Strategies, Agile Processes, Mobile Business and Green IT. His domain experience is banking, financial, insurance, government and telecommunications. Bhuvan is a thought-leader and a prolific author of 20 books – including Big Data Strategies for Agile Business and The Art of Agile Practice (Taylor and Francis/CRC Press, USA). Recent Cutter executive reports (Boston, USA) include Psychology of Agile, Business Transformation, Collaborative Business & Enterprise Agility and Agile in Practice-a Composite approach. He is a winner of the Computerworld Object Developer Award (1995), Consensus IT Professional Award (2006) and IT Writer Award (2010). He has a Doctorate in the area of “Object Orientation” from the University of Technology, Sydney, in 1997. He is also an adjunct Professor at Western Sydney University, where he is supervising doctoral research. Bhuvan is Fellow of the Australian Computer Society, IEEE Senior Member, Life member of Computer Society of India and Baroda Management Association, Professional Scrum Master, SAFe Agile Leader, Member of SDPS, Past President of Rotary Sarasota Sunrise (Florida) & Paul Harris Fellow, Discovery volunteer at NSW parks and wildlife, and a previous TiE Mentor.

Nick Wichert

Senior Director of Strategic Business Development, Northwestern Mutual’s Corporate Office in Milwaukee

Nick Wichert is the Senior Director of Strategic Business Development at Northwestern Mutual’s Corporate Office in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Nick’s role is to help grow and transform the future of what it means to be a life insurance company by finding new ways to leverage technology and insights to drive new growth. In 2015, after spending nearly a decade as an entrepreneur and early-stage investor, Nick turned his sights on bringing his experience into large companies to transform innovation events into entrepreneurial endeavors. Nick’s work has been featured in Forbes, The Wall Street Journal, TechCrunch and on National Public Radio (NPR). In 2012, Nick and his team were recognized by The White House as Champions of Change for their work with U.S. Military Veteran entrepreneurs, and in 2014, he was honored as the Graduate of the Last Decade by his alma mater, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Nick attributes much of his entrepreneurial and career success to his tenure as a Division-I athlete and his excessive list of hobbies which include 3D modeling and marathon running. His hobbies also double as activities to keep his three kids busy, despite his wife suggesting he needs to slow down once in a while.

Kiran Garimella, PhD

Chief Scientist & CTO, KoreConX

Kiran is a Chief Scientist & CTO at KoreConX, leading the strategy & development of an AI- based blockchain platform for digital securities in the global private capital markets. His latest book is AI+Blockchain: A Brief Guide for Game Changers (with a foreword by Vint Cerf, co- founder of the Internet). It is targeted to executives to help them make informed decisions about blockchain and AI. Selected in BookAuthority’s 100 Best Blockchain Books of All Time.

Experienced in senior executive leadership and multiple startups, Kiran has first-level connections with over 22,000 carefully selected professionals on LinkedIn, of which 13,200 are decision-makers and influencers in companies (with 7300 of them in companies with 1000 employees or more). Kiran has written numerous articles, blogs, and academic publications. He is a Forbes contributor and has been quoted in the London Financial Times.

A highly regarded speaker, he has delivered over 40 keynote and conference presentations, press interviews, executive Masterclasses, and consultative sessions. His consulting and speaking engagements have been conducted in over 20 countries. He has worked with standards and reference architectures such as APQC, COBIT, CMMi, Lean, Six Sigma, ITIL, PMO, Balanced Scorecards, BMC, TOGAF, and Zachman.

He is also the author of a business novel, The Power of Process: Unleashing the Source of Competitive Advantage, and the lead author of BPM Basics for Dummies (translated into German, French, Spanish, and Japanese). His books have been adopted as supplemental reading texts for MBA/EMBA curricula at various universities worldwide. The Power of Process is #4 in Channel Insider’s 21 Must-Read Books for Business Success.

Kiran has a Ph.D. in artificial intelligence & machine learning from the University of Florida, focused on the application of machine learning to economic modeling. He is an adjunct faculty at the University of South Florida.

Thomas E. Becker, PhD

Professor of Management & Interim Dean of the College of Business, USF Sarasota-Manatee campus

Dr. Thomas E. Becker is a professor of management and the Interim Dean of the College of Business, where he collaborates with faculty and staff to continue building an outstanding school of business and information technology education.  Other key strategic goals include:

• Attracting and retaining first-rate faculty who develop high quality programs that attract excellent students;
• Encouraging and supporting faculty intellectual contributions and innovative research;
• Supporting faculty and student engagement and service to the business and professional communities

Dr. Becker received his PhD from The Ohio State University.  He teaches management courses to undergraduate and MBA students and has received awards for excellence in teaching based on his core values of meaningful learning, rigorous standards, enthusiasm for the topic, and genuine concern for students. His primary research interests are employee commitment and motivation, job performance and research methods and statistics.  His work has appeared in top journals in the field and has been cited more than 11,000 times.  He is a fellow of the Society for Industrial & Organizational Psychology and the Association for Psychological Science. 

Dr. Becker has also worked with prominent organizations to improve individual and organizational effectiveness, including Blue Cross Blue Shield, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, McDonald’s, Newport News Shipbuilding, Procter & Gamble, the US Army, and other healthcare, manufacturing and service organizations.

He is unabashedly proud to work with the finest faculty, staff, and students in the world.

Greg Smogard, PhD

Assistant Vice President of Innovation and Business Development, USF Sarasota-Manatee campus

Dr. Greg Smogard is the Assistant Vice President of Innovation and Business Development at the USF Sarasota-Manatee campus. He leads the campus’ business engagement efforts with a focus on creating and enhancing mutually beneficial partnerships with businesses by leveraging the university’s resources and innovation expertise.

He has worked at Fortune 500 companies and global brands in more than 40 countries and held management positions at American Express’ Latin American Division, Blockbuster/Viacom and other major corporations.

Recently, he worked at the Center for International Business Education and Research (CIBER) at the University of Miami Business School, serving as director of the Innovators for the Americas program, an experiential entrepreneurship course that partnered Miami students and professors with their counterparts at four Latin American universities. He also participated in the Global Business Consulting program, which enabled MBA students to consult with international corporations.

Dr. Smogard is author of the book, “A World of Opportunities for Aspiring Entrepreneurs: Creating Your Own Job in the New Normal.”

He earned a bachelor’s degree in history and political science at Minnesota State University-Moorhead, a master’s degree in psychology at St. Cloud State University and a PhD in international studies at the University of Miami. He was recognized as a Minnesota State University-Moorhead Distinguished Alumni in 2013.

Eddie Sanchez, Jr., PhD

Professor of Finance, USF Sarasota-Manatee campus

Dr. Eddie Sanchez, Jr., is a finance professor at the University of Sarasota-Manatee campus. He earned a doctorate in business administration with a concentration in finance from the University of Florida. He received a Master degree in Business Administration and Portfolio Management/Security Analysis from the Heider College of Business at Creighton University. He received a Master degree in Economics from Trinity College and Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science from Quinnipiac University.

Dr. Sanchez’s research interests are in Municipal Bonds, Hedge Funds, Mutual Funds, Capital Markets, and Financial Institutions. He has taught principles of investments, advanced investment analysis and management, and financial markets and institutions.

Dr. Sanchez has over 20 years of experience as a hedge fund portfolio manager and securities analyst. He managed long/short Technology and Telecommunications portfolios at Citigroup Investments, First New York Securities, The Galleon Group, Credit Suisse, and the Blackthorn Group.

Gabe Higgins

BlockSpaces Cofounder/CBO (Chief Blockchain Officer)

A seven year veteran of the blockchain industry, Gabe was an early adopter and one of the countries first Certified Bitcoin Professionals. He's a cofounder of BlockSpaces, a blockchain solutions studio, he currently advises enterprises and VC funded blockchain companies with strategic partnerships and technical direction. Gabe has spoken with number of Universities & Government organizations such as the Secret Service, Dept of Homeland Security & the Florida Blockchain Task Force, as well as private corporations about blockchain. 

Ehsan Sheybani, Ph.D.

Associate Professor, Information Systems and Decision Sciences, USF Sarasota-Manatee campus

Ehsan Sheybani is an Associate Professor of Information Systems and Decision Sciences College of Business at the USFSM campus. He has earned BS, MS, and PhD in Electrical Engineering from UF, FSU, and USF respectively. His main research area has been applications of communication, signal processing, and data analysis. He has been involved in teaching, practicing, researching, and consulting applications of DSP in technology, system analysis, and data sciences for the past 20 years. He has a long list of publications and research grants including projects with NASA, NSF, NIH, DoD, DEd, and industry partners. Currently he serves as a faculty at the University of South Florida. He is a senior member of IEEE. He will present some of the innovative techniques that he has used for cybersecurity data analytics as well as its impact on cryptography and blockchain.

Tom Witmer

Founder and CEO, SageLegion Inc. & Instructor, Data Mining for Healthcare Analytics, University of California- Davis Continuing and Professional Education

Over the last 30 years, Tom has worked in manufacturing, consulting and primarily as a health care executive, instructor and entrepreneur. He currently works as a startup founder and instructor and just prior to that supported 165,000 information consumers at Kaiser Permanente as the IT executive leader for corporate systems and shared services analytics environments for 10 years.
Practical and outcomes driven, Tom strives to apply innovative solutions to everyday challenges for the benefit of individuals, non-profits, and large corporations. He served as an officer in the United States Marine Corps and had the benefit of attending George Mason University (MS Information Systems), Vanderbilt University (BS Economics and Psychology) and Hagerstown Community College.

Brian Sallee

CEO for Avorit

Brian Sallee is a serial entrepreneur & business growth strategist. He is CEO for Avorit, an agency that specializes in helping companies grow faster. Brian’s had several successful exits including going from startup to $25bb company in under 10 years, and knows which levers in the business to pull, in order to gain exponential growth.

Brent Arslaner

Chief Revenue Officer, Aperity

Brent has been helping Silicon Valley venture backed start-ups scale for the last 20 years.  He combines a proven track record of success with broad executive and cross-functional experience. His focus is building the business and driving results. He brings thought leadership to the sales, product and marketing functions.   During his career he has been acquired four times and went public once.

Brent has held executive positions for leading technology brands including Oracle, Broadbase, Unisfair, Switchfly and Pros.  Brent is currently the Chief Revenue Officer at Aperity an Analytic Application and Artificial Intelligence provider for the CPG industry.  He also has experience building Customer Relationship Management, Enterprise Resource Planning, e-Commerce and Collaboration cloud companies.

Faizan Ali, PhD

Assistant Professor, College of Hospitality and Tourism Leadership, USF Sarasota-Manatee campus

Dr. Faizan Ali received his PhD in Marketing with a dissertation written on customer experience in the hospitality industry at the International Business School, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM-IBS) in June 2015. Dr. Ali also holds an undergraduate degree in Business Administration and Information Technology [BBA-IT (Hons)] with distinction from Institute of Management Sciences, University of Peshawar, Pakistan, and a Masters in Management with a dissertation on consumer behaviour in airline industry from Glyndwr University, United Kingdom.

Dr. Ali’s research interests are in the areas of customer experience, service performance and quality, customer satisfaction and behaviour. Dr Ali is also enthusiastic about developing new scales and working on various methodological aspects of hospitality and tourism research. He has authored more than 40 international refereed journal articles and international conference papers. His recent research has been accepted and published in internationally-refereed journals such as The Journal of Hospitality, Leisure, Sport & Tourism Education, Journal of Destination Marketing & Management, Journal of Hospitality Marketing & Management, Journal of Travel and Tourism Marketing, Worldwide Hospitality and Tourism Themes, Journal of Quality Assurance in Hospitality & Tourism, International Journal of Hospitality and Event Management, International Journal of Quality and Reliability Management and other reputable hospitality and tourism and business journals. Dr. Ali is recipient of four “best paper” awards: one from Academy of Global Business Advancement at the 10th World Congress at Bangkok; second at the 2014 World Hospitality & Tourism Forum. Seoul, Republic of Korea; third at the 5th International Interdisciplinary Business-Economics Advancement Conference and fourth at the 2016 WDSI Annual Meeting, Las Vegas, USA.

Dr. Ali is an active member of academic hospitality associations. Currently, he serves as the Coordinating Editor for International Journal of Hospitality Management and as an Assistant Editor for International Interdisciplinary Business Advancement (IIBA) Journal. He also serves on the editorial boards of various journals including Journal of Hotel and Tourism Management, Asia Pacific Journal of Innovation in Hospitality and Tourism Research, Journal of Marine Tourism and City University Research Journal. Dr. Ali is a trained expert in usage of various statistical tools such as Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) and Partial Least Squares (PLS-SEM). He has also conducted SEM and Business Research Methods related workshops in International Business School, University Teknologi Malaysia (IBS-UTM). Prior to joining the USFSM campus, Dr. Ali was a Post-doctoral researcher at the Dedman School of Hospitality, The College of Business, at Florida State University. Moreover, he has worked as a research consultant for two years on various hospitality and tourism related projects in Malaysia. His industry experience includes working at Liverpool Football Club in the UK.