Inventing your professional self is one of the most important actions you'll ever take. But tackling a mid-career re-invention can be just as important, and just as challenging. Hear from a panel of Chicago innovators as they divulge their secrets to invention and re-invention. We will also be awarding $10,000 in scholarships to the student winners of the Chicago Innovation Foundation scholarship competition with IIT, and will hear how they're beginning to invent their future selves.
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Orlando is the COO at CityScan, Inc. He has led several early stage companies with a combined exit valuation of $50M including Boingo Wireless. He held several software engineering and product management roles at Motorola and AT&T Bell Laboratories. Before joining CityScan, Orlando was the Director of the Office of Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Technology for the State of Illinois and the General Partner of a $20M early stage venture fund. Orlando holds a B.S. in Computer Engineering from the University of Puerto Rico, a Masters in Computer Science from the Illinois Institute of Technology and an MBA from IIT Stuart Graduate School of Business.
Ted Souder
A 13+ year veteran at Google, Ted is currently the Head of Industry, Retail, based in Google’s Chicago office. In this role, he manages a team who oversees the Google experience for some of the largest retail companies in the United States. Key efforts that his team is responsible for include developing winning strategies and tactics utilizing various Google solutions such as AdWords, Mobile and YouTube.
Prior to his role in Retail, Ted spent a year in Paris, France as part of an exclusive rotation program for senior leaders in the company. While in Paris, Ted oversaw key efforts in Southern and Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa as the Head of International Strategic Sales and Operations. Ted also served as a regular industry speaker, employee mentor and was a member of the executive management team for the SEEMEA region.
Heidi Brown
Heidi Brown is the co-founder of Options Away, a B2B company that enables the customers of its strategic partners to lock-in the price of their flights while they finalize their travel plans. Born and raised in Toronto where she earned a degree in Economics from the University of Toronto, Heidi made Germany her home for almost a decade trading foreign currencies and heading up an international relations desk. Heidi received her MBA in Finance and Strategy from the London Business School and shortly thereafter moved to Chicago where she founded Options Away. In addition to her roles as CMO and Head of Operations, Heidi sits on the board of Options Away and spends a great deal of her time on fund raising initiatives and business development. As a founding member of 1871, the largest digital startup hub in the US, Heidi is very active in the Chicago Entrepreneurial scene and regularly speaks publically about startups and founders’ issues.
Hazem Dawani
Hazem Dawani co-founded OptionsCity Software in 2006 and serves as CEO. With offices in Chicago, New York, and London, he oversees the continuous expansion of the company while maintaining its focus on bringing technological advancement and innovation to the financial industry. In 2008, Hazem and the firm’s co-founders launched Metro, an end-to-end electronic trading solution. Hazem lead the efforts to grow the company’s client base and expanded operations to connect to 17 global derivatives exchanges. In 2011, OptionsCity continued its innovation and introduced Freeway, a multi-asset, micro-second execution automated trading platform and winner of the 2012 Chicago Innovation Awards. In 2012, Hazem was named in the Crain’s Chicago Business “40 under 40″ list, and was selected for the IIT Outstanding Young Alumnus Award. Hazem was recently featured alongside a number of financial industry leaders in The 2015 Trading Technology 40.
Maria Wynne
Maria Wynne has distinguished herself as an executive with broad leadership experience in the corporate, public and nonprofit sectors. She has led national sales and marketing organizations as a Vice President and General Manager for U.S. leading brands, Microsoft and Xerox, and her successes include accomplishments in executive leadership, P&L growth and innovation in technology and telecommunications in sales, marketing, business development, and operations management. Prior to joining LGC in June of 2014, Maria served as chief executive officer for Girl Scouts of Greater Chicago and Northwest Indiana from 2008 to 2013. The largest Girl Scout council globally with $18M in revenue and $31M in assets, the council served 84,000 girls and supported a network of more than 24,000 volunteers
A recognized executive, Wynne has received an Outstanding Alumni distinction by her alma mater, North Central College (2012) and was named Chicago Executive of the Year by the Public Relations Society of America and (2011). She was also recognized as one of Today’s Chicago Woman magazine’s 100 Women of Influence (2013) and as one of 100 Women Making a Difference (2011). She was also awarded the inaugural ATHENA Organizational Leadership Award in 2010.
Tom Kuczmarski
Thomas D. Kuczmarski, senior partner and president of Kuczmarski Innovation, is a nationally recognized expert in the innovation and development of new products and services. The author of six books and many articles, Mr. Kuczmarski has taught product and service innovation at Northwestern University’s Kellogg Graduate School of Management for 31 years. Mr. Kuczmarski is the founder and co-chair, along with Dan Miller, of the Chicago Innovation Awards, which recognizes each year the most innovative new products, services, business models and processes developed in the Chicago area.
© Illinois Science and Technology Coalition
Illustration by Dieter Braun
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