Kim Arnone
Director of Crowdfunding
Cutting Edge Capital
Afternoon Breakout I: Financing for Growth
Kim has 18 years of experience working with start-up enterprises, small- and medium-sized businesses and Fortune 500 companies to solve business, legal and capital raising challenges. She works with for-profit businesses, non-profit entities, and cooperatives to help them identify the best way to design a capital raising strategy that works with her clients’ business strategy, marketing plans and long-term goals. Kim is Co-Chair of the East Bay Women In Business Roundtable and sits on the Board of Directors of the Oakland Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce. Kim lives, works and plays in Oakland, and is committed to helping her community be vibrant, socially responsible, and inclusive.
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Marsha Bailey
CEO/Founder, Women’s Economic Ventures
Chair, Association of Women’s Business Centers
Lunch Keynote: Introduction
Marsha has been developing educational programs and services for women since 1983 and is the primary author of WEV’s self-employment training curriculum, From Vision to Venture. She has a Master’s Degree in Communication from UCSB and a B.A. from Michigan State University in Fine Art and Sociology. She is a certified Economic Development Finance Professional.
Under Marsha’s leadership, WEV has grown from a small organization with two employees and an annual budget of $75,000 to a nationally recognized women’s business development organization with 14 employees and an annual budget of $1.4 million.
Marsha is a member of the National Women’s Business Council, the President of the Board of Directors of the national Association of Women’s Business Centers, a member of the Union Bank of California’s Community Advisory Board, and past President of the California Association for Micro Enterprise Opportunity (CAMEO). She has served on the Board of Directors of many local organizations including the Fund for Santa Barbara and the Women’s Political Committee.
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Lisa Baird
Business Designer
IDEO
Afternoon Breakout I, II: Branding
Lisa has twelve years experience in finance and financial strategy. She is a business designer with a passion for new-venture design, and she has a particular interest in the interactive power of advanced financial models. Lisa believes that a well-designed financial model doesn’t look like a financial model at all — through beautiful design it empowers non-numbers people and bean-counters alike to imagine (and re-imagine) new businesses, products, services, and experiences.
Lisa started her career in investment banking in New York before moving into enterprise finance at two large public university systems in Texas and California. Immediately prior to IDEO, Lisa was a Senior Program Officer in the postsecondary education group at The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Lisa earned her MBA from the University of California, Berkeley. She earned her bachelor’s degree in finance as well as a bachelor’s degree in journalism from The University of Texas at Austin. Lisa is a luxury/fashion hobbyist, and in her free time, she runs a couple of small consumer-facing startups in the luxury and travel markets.
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Karen Bates
Founder of Military Loans
President, The VApro Network
Lunch Keynote
Karen completed eight years of service as a Naval Air Traffic Controller and then became a Certified Public Accountant. In 2004, Karen combined her military background with her financial expertise and founded Military Home Loans. Her passion is to ensure Veterans never miss the opportunity to experience their American dream. In 2014, loaded with 10 years of knowledge and experience from closing over 600 VA transactions, Karen and her husband Ken created The VApro Network. The VApro Network offers an in-depth VA sales training course and coaching platform for women Veterans. These graduates can then provide exclusive VA training to their own agents and provide the value that agents are craving from their lending partners.
Karen is California’s 2013 Mortgage Professional of the Year and was featured on Yahoo Finance for earning and retaining $1 million as a female entrepreneur. Karen is devoted to her husband of 16 years and is blessed with their beautiful daughter Elizabeth (8).
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Valery Belloso
Business Development Officer
Accion San Diego
Morning Breakout: Microlending
Valery has worked with the organization for over eight years. As a BDO, she is instrumental in referral cultivation, partnership development, planning and executing Accion’s educational business events and raising awareness about Accion’s services in order to serve a larger number of entrepreneurs within San Diego County. She holds a Bachelor’s in Business Administration from University of San Diego and a Masters in Spanish Language and Literature from San Diego State University.
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Betsy Densmore
Founder/Director
Academies for Social Entrepreneurship (ASE)
Morning Breakout: Demystifying Entrepreneurship
As ASE’s Director, Betsy has counseled two hundred not-for-profit organizations, catalyzing over ten million dollars in new revenue for charitable ventures. Densmore is an entrepreneur herself, having founded three hospitality businesses, an insurance agency and two nonprofit organizations. In addition to running ASE, she is part owner of two Mexican restaurants. She is also an Adjunct Professor at Pepperdine University’s School of Education and Psychology, where she teaches in their Social Entrepreneurship and Change Masters Program. Prior to launching ASE, she managed an office and lead programs for a global training and development organization for ten years. Her experience also includes a decade of service as the Executive Director of a community foundation, running an energy services social enterprise, and serving as the Manager of Consumer and Community Affairs for a Fortune 500 retailer. Born in Massachusetts, and a veteran of 25 years in the Midwest, she now serves on the Boards LA Social Venture Partners and the LA Chapter of Social Enterprise Alliance. She holds an MA in Public Policy and Administration from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
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Sharon Evans
Executive Director
Business Resources Group
Afternoon Breakout I: Financing for Growth
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Daniel Fernandez
Regional Manager, Los Angeles
Opportunity Fund
Morning Breakout: Microlending
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Eldonna Lewis Fernandez
CEO, Dynamic Vision International Inc.
author, ThinkLikeANegotiator.com
Afternoon Breakout II: Think Like a Negotiator
Eldonna is a retired Air Force veteran with 23 years of honorable military service. She is a negotiation and contracts expert with over 30 years of leadership, contracts management and negotiation experience. She has negotiated contracts from $1 to over $100 million both stateside and internationally. She was selected for an assignment to the White House Military Office in 2002. She has 7 years of extensive experience working for defense contractors in the Aerospace Industry. She holds a Top Secret security clearance and has been a trusted agent of the U.S. Government for 30 years. As CEO of Dynamic Vision, she trains people how to think like a negotiator by creating win-win results and understanding pitfalls. She is an international award winning speaker and an award winning author.
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Daniel J. Healy
Manager
Centro Community Partner
Entrepreneur Readiness Program
Afternoon Breakout I, II: Business Planning
Daniel’s primary responsibilities include managing Centro’s entrepreneurship development programs and training entrepreneurs. Daniel has also been leading Centro’s efforts to innovate its educational content by designing interactive learning activities that develop entrepreneurs’ business competencies, analytical abilities and creative thinking skills. Daniel has more than eight years of experience in education and economic development. Before joining Centro, he worked as Peace Corps, Business English teacher, professional trainer, business advisor and social entrepreneur. He has a BA in International Affairs from the University of Colorado and an MBA from the Peter F. Drucker School of Management.
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Archie Holton
Program Leader
Academies for Social Entrepreneurship (ASE)
Morning Breakout: Demystifying Entrepreneurship
Archie Holton is an entrepreneur, actor and executive coach. While running a successful plumbing business, he has also amassed over twenty years of experience as a transformative educator, working with thousands of people, giving them the tools they needed to create their dreams as realities. He has also created a number of record-breaking sales teams. Love (he is known as the “Love Coach”) and empowerment are keys to his unique style of training.
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Misa Misono
Business Design Lead
IDEO
Afternoon Breakout I, II: Branding
Since joining IDEO, she has led work across industries, ranging from education to beauty to food. She is especially interested in prototyping, connecting the physical with digital, and helping brands grow. Misa previously worked in brand management at Procter and Gamble. She was a digital leader within the company, helping Secret Deodorant to win marketing innovation awards and receive national media attention from publications including The New York Times, CNN, and AdAge. Prior to P&G, Misa ran her own fashion design business, where she created custom clothing, bags, and accessories. She also ran a research group and public relations for two major universities. She holds an MBA from Duke University and bachelor’s degrees in Economics and Political Science from Boston University. In her free time, you might find Misa behind a sewing machine, working on her latest clothing project, or planning her next dive trip.
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Brandon Napoli
Director of Microlending
VEDC
Morning Breakout: Microlending
Brandon holds an MBA in Strategic Management and has over seven years of economic development experience. He founded the microfinance club at Point Loma Nazarene University and has taught financial literacy to refugees at the International Rescue Center in San Diego. His passion for microfinance led him from Kenya to the Microfinance Summit in Nova Scotia before joining the Peace Corps in Latin America. Brandon’s work is focused on empowering small and medium businesses by providing quality alternative lending options.
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Dr. Garnett Newcombe
President/CEO
Human Potential Consultants, LLC
Morning Breakout: Government Contracting
In 1997, Newcombe and Joyce Keener, established HPC as a unique resource to provide comprehensive employment solutions for federal, state and local governmental agencies. Services include support staffing and program management for individuals classified as having extraordinary challenges with re-entering the workforce. The company is one of only a handful that provides a wide range of diverse employment solution services. Newcombe has over 20 years of experience in community outreach, recruitment and working with individuals classified as having extraordinary challenges with re-entering the workforce such as persons with disabilities, veterans, dislocated workers and formerly incarcerated persons. Her expertise in research, program management and development; and, service delivery of various programs evolved while teaching as an Adjunct Professor at several Southern California Community Colleges and California State University, Dominguez Hills, for more than ten years. Read her full bio.
Mike Sabellico
Executive Director
Disabled Veterans Business Alliance
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Morning Breakout: Government Contracting (moderator)
Mike possesses over twenty-five years of diverse work experience in leading programs, managing multimillion dollar budgets and assets, and improving quality and processes. Mike is a twenty year veteran of the US Coast Guard (USCG) with several Command Cadre tours. During his time with the Coast Guard, Mike gained a significant amount of experience in Maritime and Emergency Response, ranging from Search and Rescue and Maritime counter smuggling efforts to hurricane and natural disaster response. He has hands on executive experience from both a planning and actual operations perspective. After leaving the Coast Guard, he managed a robust business development program for a San Diego based defense contractor with offices throughout the US. He left that company in 2010 to launch Vanguard Global Solutions, a Service Disabled Veteran Owned Small Business specializing in Homeland Security, Emergency Preparedness, and specialized business consulting focusing on marketing, growth strategy, certifications, and sales. (Read Mike Sabellico’s full bio)
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Sandra Schneeberger
Founder
Sanberg Group, Inc
Morning Breakout: Government Contracting
Ms. Sandy Schneeberger retired from the United States Army Reserves in 2005, having served from 1984-2005 for over twenty one years, including four years in active duty status. Her specialty training allowed her to work in several job positions in Administration, Training, Logistics, and Transportation serving first at the company level, promoted to battalion, brigade and retiring out of the Headquarters Regional Support Command G-1 at Los Alamitos.
Sandy started her business during her military career, and focused on growing an environmental consulting firm providing a variety of services including hazardous materials, geology/hydrogeology, and her specialty, cultural resources management. She received a Master’s Degree in Anthropology from California State University, Fullerton. Once retired from the Army, Sandy grew her company as President and CEO of The Sanberg Group, Inc. to three locations, including Los Angeles, San Diego, and recently Henderson, Nevada. The firm has projects throughout the California region, Arizona, Nevada, Maryland and Minnesota. (read Ms. Schneeberger’s full bio)
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Lindsey Sin
Deputy Secretary, Women Veterans Affairs
California Department of Veterans Affairs
Special guest welcome
Lindsey Sin was appointed as Deputy Secretary for Women Veterans Affairs by Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. on November 22, 2011. Sin enlisted in the United States Navy in 1997 as a Cryptologic Technician Interpretive. She completed two flight tours in Rota, Spain during which time she deployed in support of Operations Northern Watch, Southern Watch, Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom and achieved the rank of Petty Officer First Class.
Sin returned to her native Sacramento in 2005 after receiving an honorable discharge and immediately began her undergraduate studies in History. Upon her graduation from Sacramento State with a BA in History, Magna Cum Laude, in 2008, Sin became the Lead Certifying Official for veterans services at American River College. She continued her work with veterans at Sacramento State as the Veterans Benefit Advisor and Certifying Official, focusing on developing programs for student veterans.
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Veronica Soto
E-Contractor Academy
County of Los Angeles Public Works
Morning Breakout: Government Contracting (moderator)
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Jesse Torres
Regional Director, Los Angeles SBDC Lead Center
Chair, CA SBDC Leadership Council
Afternoon Breakout I: Financing for Growth