Short Bios of Speakers
Steve Glynn
Steve Glynn is President of Spreenkler LLC, an organization focused on accelerating regional business creativity and innovation. Spreenkler is an interactive marketing agency that hires college students as a way to provide them with real world experience through client-based internships. Spreenkler's purpose is to build a stronger base of talent in the Milwaukee region. So local companies have more knowledgeable, mature, job-ready grads to choose from. And confidence to grow their business knowing there will be talent to support it. Through Spreenkler, Steve has united a regional community of professionals, students and entrepreneurs using social media, word-of-mouth and in-person events. Steve is leading a resurgence of the creative class to greater exposure and influence. Immersed in the local startup scene, Steve is consistently asked to share his perspective and expertise on the challenges Milwaukee entrepreneurs face today. Having launched a business himself, he’s keenly aware of and involved in supporting critical economic issues such as workforce development, talent retention and transit..
Donato Diorio
Donato Diorio is a pioneer in the field of Internet research. As software architect and the owner of a top billin
g placement firm, Donato envisioned applications that could automate many of the most time-consuming research functions performed by his recruiters. With the assistance of a team of developers, Donato created a series of innovative tools that immediately impacted revenue for his firm. It didn’t take long to realize the potential of these applications beyond the scope of internal use, and in 2001, Broadlook Technologies was born. Today, Broadlook serves 1000’s of clients worldwide including Fortune 100 companies; with applications to aid in staffing, sales, and overall business intelligence initiatives
Teresa Esser
A graduate of MIT, has served as the Managing Director of the Silicon Pastures angel investment network, through which, she has invested her own capital in fifteen deals. Ms. Esser is active in an established network of angel and venture capital syndication and the Angel Capital Association's Syndication Committee Fund. Teresa authored a book on venture capital, The Venture Cafe: Secrets, Strategies, and Stories from America's High Tech Entrepreneurs (Warner Business Books, 2002). She has given keynote speeches and served on panels at a number of conferences including the Nanostructured Advanced Materials Conference held at the University of Amman in Amman, Jordan.
Tim Cigelske
Tim Cigelske engages with Marquette University’s social media communities as the the Communication Specialist for the university's Office of Marketing and Communications. He earned a bachelor’s degree in Journalism from Marquette in 2004, and prior to returning to Marquette in October 2008 he wrote for The Associated Press, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and has been quoted in the New York Times. In his spare time he runs a used t-shirt website Teecycle.org and blogs about craft beer and endurance sports for DRAFT Magazine.
Rania El-Sorrogy
Rania El-Sorrogy is a serial entrepreneur and compulsive innovator with experience starting her own business, being recruited for new businesses, selling her portion of a business, and is about to embark on licensing her patent-pending inventions. El-Sorrogy has been featured in Crain’s Chicago Business Journal and on NBC Chicago as one of the emerging young women entrepreneurs. As an inventor with four patents pending on a modular bookbinding technology called Hooking Book, El-Sorrogy has established herself as an innovator and paradigm shifter. She has participated in and led a number of charity activities, including founding Students for Entrepreneurs (a student-driven scholarship fund at DePaul) while attending school on the Fritz A. Bauer scholarship. Following graduation, El-Sorrogy joined the Coleman Entrepreneurship Center's Advisory Council and the Illinois Institute of Entrepreneurship Education's Board of Directors.
Dan Voell
Dan started GoBuzz while an MBA student at Marquette in 2008. His Co-Founder, Max Lynch is scheduled to graduate from UW-Madison in May 2010. GoBuzz recently won the 2009 Marquette Business Plan Competition and was a finalist in the 2009 Governor's Business Plan Competition. GoBuzz currently has over 50 business users, 20,000 contacts being searched, 2,000,000 articles found and is running a pilot program for a Fortune 20 company. GoBuzz is generating revenue and expects to be profitable in mid 2010.