Matt joined Red Idea LLC in 2010 and is a Partner, General Manager, and Food & Beverage Consulting Practice Director.
Matt was named a 2016 40 Under Forty honoree by BizWest Media as one of the top young professionals in Boulder and Broomfield counties. 40 Under Forty honorees are selected as the best and brightest emerging leaders making a difference in their companies, industries and communities.
Matt earned his MBA with a focus in Entrepreneurship at the University of Colorado at Boulder, and a B.A. in Economics from Emory University.
Sam Allen is an Executive Coach based in Boulder, CO. As a Chair with Vistage International, the worlds leading chief executive membership organization, he facilitates peer groups and coaches CEOs and Business Owners to increase their effectiveness and enhance their lives.
Sam is an experienced CEO. He was International President for The Sports Authority, and managed the creation of a subsidiary in Canada and a joint venture company in Japan, which quickly grew to eighteen stores and $200 million in sales. Before, he was President and CEO of a regional chain of sporting goods stores in Southern California, Sport Chalet. While under his leadership, sales increased from $23 million to $135 million, and he took the Company public. During this time, Sam was a Vistage member for seven years. Before becoming a retail executive, Sam was a business consultant with the accounting firm, Ernst & Whinney, where he received his CPA certification. Education: Master of Business Administration, University of Southern California, and Bachelor of Arts, Pomona College.
Jacqueline Claudia, CEO and Co-Founder of LoveTheWild, is a lifelong fish nerd who thought she was going to be a marine biologist when she grew up. Instead, after graduating from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and the Darden School of the University of Virginia, she spent 15 years working in corporate strategy and innovation before finding her way back to fish. She fell in love with the potential for sustainable aquaculture while working on the Velella Project. She founded LoveTheWild to de-demonize great farmed fish, make it easier for people to cook great fish at home, and is passionately building a company that has a real shot at saving the world.
Christy Brouker came from a background in tech start-ups and food/natural products writing. The next natural step for Christy was, of course, fish. With a love of all things water, serious "get things done" chops, and a drive to have a positive impact on the world, Christy is a natural fit as co-founder of LoveTheWild. Christy wants to make an impact on the world. Looking forward to showing people that frozen fish can be super fresh, sustainable, and most importantly, delicious.
Kimberly Smith, a former compliance officer developed the highly acclaimed client due diligence and Anti Money Laundering compliance software application, SILO in 2012. This software is the compliance solution many regulated businesses seek. For too long compliance professionals have struggled with AML obligations, frequently using inadequate software or Excel spreadsheets to manage the mountain of client data and due diligence documents, unable to run timely, adequate, informative reports often leave senior management in the dark and at risk of regulatory fines or worse.
Leo Bottary is Vice President, Peer Advantage for Vistage Worldwide, where he directs a thought leadership initiative on the power of peer influence for business leaders. Leo recently coauthored the book, The Power of Peers with Leon Shapiro, which was released by the publisher in March, 2016. Since 2008, Leo has also served as an adjunct professor, teaching online and on campus residencies for two of Seton Hall University’s graduate communication and leadership programs. In 2015, he was named adjunct teacher of the year for the College of Communication and the Arts.
Earlier in his career, Leo served in senior leadership positions at Mullen and at Hill & Knowlton (H&K), where he was also Director of Client Service for the US. In the mid 1990s, Leo founded a public relations agency that a leading industry trade publication hailed as a regional powerhouse, new media pioneer, and great place to work. Bottary & Partners Public Relations won national and regional awards and developed a website that was named best PR Agency website in America by Ragan Communications in 1997. He sold the firm in 2000.
Leo has earned a BA from Jacksonville University, an MA in Strategic Communication and Leadership from Seton Hall University and is expected to receive his EdD from Northeastern University with a concentration in Organizational Leadership upon completion of his Leos dissertation topic focuses on learning outcomes for CEOs who participate in peer advisory groups.
Adam Cookson co-founded TekDry International in 2013 — a company that recovers wet smart devices such as cell phones, tablets, computers, watches, cameras, wearables and other devices from moisture intrusion. As co-founder and CEO, Adam’s responsibilities include strategic business planning, domestic and international business development, capital formation, investor relations, and leading the TekDry’s business team for growth and expansion.
Adam brings over 25 years of successful corporate start-ups and manufacturing experiences including, technology, wind energy, automotive assembly, synthetic rubber and plastics extrusion molding.
Adam is fluent in Spanish and Portuguese and has strong computer skills in multiple operating systems, simulation software, and data analysis tools. He holds an executive MBA from the University of Denver, and a BS in Electrical Engineering from Kettering University, Flint, MI.
Adam enjoys networking with other startup and business professionals, reading, skiing, photography and amateur astronomy near Denver, Colorado where he resides with his wife Mirela and their three children.
Kirk Dando helped scale and sell a billion-dollar company. As a C-level executive, he walked the lonely road of leadership and worried himself to distraction, but learned a lot. For more than 20 years, he has worked with more than 6,000 executives. These include ten Ernst & Young Entrepreneurs of the Year and several Best CEO winners.
His bestselling book, Predictive Leadership: Avoiding the 12 Most Common Mistakes that Derail Growth-Hungry Companies, shows execs how to predict and prepare for the most common business pitfalls. It helps eradicate their fears and doubts that make it lonely at the top. Kirk has a stunning track record of causing breakthrough growth for companies that face problems stemming from their own success.
As seen on Fox Business and Bloomberg Television, audiences relate to his real-world stories and his high-energy, no-nonsense style as he demonstrates how leaders can predict problems before they show up in the results.
You wont find another leadership expert like Kirk. He combines the raw emotion felt by leaders with the real-world action needed to achieve and sustain success. Forget complicated theories and bogus acronyms; Kirk gets to the heart of the matter to help leaders create real change in the lives of their employees, shareholders and themselves.