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Rich Karlgaard Publisher Forbes |
Rich Karlgaard is the publisher of Forbes – the world’s most popular business and financial magazine, read by 4.5 million people per issue. He also is the author of the book, Life 2.0 How People Across America Are Transforming Their Lives by Finding the Where of Their Happiness, which was an Amazon and Wall Street Journal business best-seller. Rich joined Forbes in 1992 to start Forbes ASAP, a technology magazine, along with Forbes CEO and editor-in-chief Steve Forbes, and the futurist and writer George Gilder. At Forbes ASAP Rich commissioned original works by Tom Wolfe, John Updike and other notable American writers. Rich is an accomplished entrepreneur. He has co-founded two companies (Garage Technology Ventures, in 1997; and Upside Magazine in 1988) and one civic organization (the 5,500-member Churchill Club in 1985). For the latter, Rich was a co-winner of the Ernst & Young Northern California "Entrepreneur of the Year" award.
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William H. Payne Entrepreneur & Angel Investor | Mr. William Payne is a business executive, entrepreneur and "angel investor" (investor/mentor in to startup companies). He received degrees in ceramic engineering in the mid '60s from the University of Illinois and has since lived in Southern California and Southern Nevada. He held positions with two Fortune 500 companies before co-founding Solid State Dielectrics, Inc. in 1971. After selling SSD to DuPont in 1982, he managed the merged business and sought new opportunities for DuPont in advanced ceramics until 1986. Since 1980, Mr. Payne has invested his time and money in over 30 startup companies. He is currently an Entrepreneur in Residence at the E. M. Kauffman Foundation (www.emkf.org) and active investor in early stage companies. |
John J. Calvert AdministratorInventor Resources and Outreach |
Mr. John Calvert was recently named Administrator for Inventor Resources and Outreach for the US Patent and Trademark Office. His responsibilities include oversight for individual inventor programs, establishment of programs with other federal agencies and university outreach. Prior to becoming Administrator, John has been responsible for supervising as many as 21 examiners in the area of textile technology in Art Unit 3765 and six examiners in the area of absorbent products in Art Unit 3761.
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Paul Batcheller Managing PrincipalPrairieGold Venture Partners |
Paul Batcheller is a Partner at PrairieGold Venture Partners where he oversees all aspects of the firm’s investment activities, from sourcing, structuring and negotiating investments to serving as a board member for portfolio companies. Paul’s investment activities at PrairieGold are focused on Greentech and IT. He currently serves on the boards of iCentera, Game Plan Technologies, Augusta Systems, and a cellulosic ethanol company that is currently in stealth mode. In addition, Paul oversees PrairieGold’s investment in General Compression, a developer of next-generation wind turbines. Paul is also a board member of South Dakota Rural Enterprise, a statewide non-profit economic development organization. Prior to joining PrairieGold, Paul served for seven years as an advisor to Senator Tom Daschle, where he worked on economic policy, science and technology issues. He received his B.A. in economics from Macalester College. |
Jim Doolittle DirectorNorth-Central Sun Grant Center |
Jim Doolittle is Director of the North-Central Sun Grant Center located at South Dakota State University. The Sun Grant Initiative is a national effort to expand the teaching, research and extension mission of Land Grant Universities into biofuels, biopower and bioproducts. The goals of this initiative include improving national energy security and rural economic development. Dr. Doolittle is also a professor of soil chemistry and biochemistry in the Plant Science Department. He joined the faculty in 1991 as an Assistant Professor and was promoted to tenured Professor in 2001. He earned his B.S. from Purdue University and his M.S. and Ph.D. from Texas A&M University. Dr. Doolittle’s research interests are in the bioavailability of nutrients and trace/heavy metals in soils. He is particularly interested in selenium rich wheat as a value added product unique to the Dakotas.
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Mike Jerstad Managing PrincipalPrairieGold Venture Partners |
Mike Jerstad is a Partner at PrairieGold Venture Partners where he oversees all aspects of the firm’s investment activities, from sourcing, structuring and negotiating investments to serving as a board member for portfolio companies. Mike focuses on life sciences opportunities, and represents PrairieGold on the boards of Chronix Biomedical, PetMedicus Labs and Orasi Medical. Prior to joining PrairieGold, Mike worked in Piper Jaffray's Investment Banking Group in its Minneapolis and San Francisco offices, specializing in merger and acquisition advisory services and public and private equity financing. Before Piper, Mike was an attorney at Briggs and Morgan in Minneapolis, specializing in business litigation, employment law and contracts. He received his B.A. from Tufts University, his J.D. from Georgetown University and his M.B.A. from the University of Chicago. |
Kevin Kephart Vice President for Research & DeanSouth Dakota State University |
Kevin Kephart is the Vice President for Research and Dean of the Graduate School at South Dakota State University. Between 1998 and 2005, Kephart served as Associate Dean of the College of Agriculture and Biological Sciences and Director of the South Dakota Agricultural Experiment Station. He is a Professor in the Department of Plant Science. Kephart has led national efforts since 2001 to establish the Sun Grant Initiative and advocate for research and education programs regarding ag-based renewable energy conducted at land grant colleges and universities. |
Gene McGowan President/CEOThe McGowan Group |
Mr. McGowan began his financial service career in 1981 with Merrill Lynch. In 1985, he joined Piper Jaffray, Inc. and became the Sioux Falls Branch Manager in 1990. As Branch Manager, he continued full-time production as one of the firm’s top financial professionals. In 1997, Mr. McGowan accepted a position in the Piper Jaffray corporate headquarters in Minneapolis. In 1999, Mr. McGowan was promoted to COO of Individual Investor Services with U.S. Bancorp Piper Jaffray in Minneapolis. He directed the day-to-day activities of over one hundred branch offices comprised of nearly 2,000 employees and over $400,000,000 in annual revenue. Since 2001, Mr. McGowan has been the President and CEO of The McGowan Group in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, which provides capital and comprehensive business and management services to a broad and diverse client base. In 2004, he formed and now chairs a 10 member CEO Roundtable. From 2002 - 2004, McGowan held the position of Entrepreneur in Residence at Bluestem Capital Company. He has served as a board member and/or board chair, and has led the re-organization and successful turn-around of portfolio companies. |
Robert Nelson Director of Technology DevelopmentVeraSun Energy Corporation |
Robert Nelson joined VeraSun Energy Corporation in February 2007 as Director of Technology Development. In his role, he is responsible for analyzing new technologies associated with the production of second generation biofuels, as well as technology enhancements to corn-based ethanol production. Mr. Nelson has worked for more than 20 years in research, development and commercialization roles in life science industries and holds more than 10 issued and pending patents. |
Sherri Rotert AttorneyBoyce, Greenfield, Pashby, & Welk, LLC |
Sherri Rotert joined the firm in 2003 after working as an attorney at Cooley Godward, LLP a national law firm. A partner in our business section, Sherri has extensive experience with representing businesses and investors in complex business transactions. |
David Songstad New Products Pipeline LeadMonsanto |
Dr. Songstad has been involved in plant biotechnology for 25 years and has worked with improvement of corn as well as propagation and improvement of native and introduced forage grasses. He currently is Monsanto’s Global New Products Pipeline Lead in the Regulatory Division of the organization. Previously, David led Monsanto’s corn transformation production team in Saint Louis and also discovered some of the key enabling transformation and tissue culture technology associated with generation Yieldgard, Roundup Ready Corn and Yieldgard Rootworm products that are currently present on over 50% of the U.S. corn acreage. David was born in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, in 1958. He attended South Dakota State University and received a B.S. in Microbiology, with a minor in Chemistry (1981) and M.S. in Botany (1983). His M.S. thesis was entitled “Tissue Culture of Little Bluestem”, which is a native species to the Great Plains. David received his Ph.D. from the Plant and Soil Science Department at the University of Tennessee (1986) with a dissertation entitled “Embryo Induction and Plant Regeneration from Cultured Anthers and Pistils of Orchardgrass (Dactylis glomerata)”. While at the University of Tennessee, he received the 1986 Chancellor’s Citation for Extraordinary Professional Promise. Through his career, Dr. Songstad has worked at the University of Illinois as a Post-doc, the National Research Council of Canada’s Plant Biotechnology Institute, Pioneer Hi-Bred International and Monsanto. His portfolio includes over 35 refereed journal publications, several book chapters, 3 issued patents, several pending patents and approximately 60 presentations (invited and volunteered) at various institutions and scientific meetings throughout the world. He has received several awards including the “Above and Beyond” award from Monsanto in 2004 for his corn transformation efforts and was recognized by his scientific colleagues throughout the world when he was awarded the status of Fellow with the Society for In Vitro Biology in 2005. |
John Webster Founder and Strategy OfficerCERTUS |
John Webster has nearly 20 years of leadership experience in developing Information Technology service offerings, application hosting, and developing hosting programs for some of the leading technology vendors in the world such as Oracle, Hyperion and Microsoft. In addition, Mr. Webster has over 15 years of teaching and administrating in higher education institutions. Since founding CRESH in 1998, Mr. Webster has directed the development and business operations of the Center for Remote Enterprise Systems Hosting (CRESH), an enterprise application hosting company, specializing in servicing Public Sector Higher Ed. Under his leadership, CRESH collaborated with Oracle|PeopleSoft Hosting Business Unit to develop and deploy their global hosting solution for Higher Education and Public Sector customers in the Americas, EMEA, and Asia. In addition, he was instrumental in partnering with Hyperion to develop and deploy hosting strategy for Business Intelligence Platform 8.3 to select customers worldwide. As a recognized expert in the hosting industry and is consistently asked to present technology presentations and serve on panels, including: PeopleSoft Connect, Oracle Open World, and EMEA ACBSP, write articles, and is quoted in industry press articles such as eWeek.com Enterprise News and Reviews section. Mr. Webster has a PH.D from Dakota State University, an MBA and BBA from Eastern Kentucky University |
