This week marks national “Women’s Health Week” in America! The goal is empower women to make their health a priority and to take time out to reflect on how we can improve our health. Women are never too busy to take care of their health! Dr. Anne Patterson, a board-certified OBGYN and past President of the GA OBGYN Society will be discussing steps women can take to improve and maintain their health throughout their lives and preventive screenings for women.
Cory Hewett / Gimme Vending
CEO and Co-Founder
While he isn’t your typical techie startup founder, Cory Hewett always had a vision, drive, and an ability to think outside the box. His 10+ years of vending experience began back in high school after his parents told him if he wanted to drive, he’d have to buy his first car. Not only did Cory grow his route to 26 machines, but he eventually hired a close friend to service the machines.
When the iPhone released, Cory was first in line (and is still Apple’s biggest fan). This leap forward in technology sparked an idea in his mind: always be connected to my vending machines.
Cory ran with this idea and convinced his smart friend Evan to help him develop the technology. They learned from hundreds of vending operators exactly what they were looking for before crafting Gimme into the award-winning technology it is today.
Evan Jarecki / Gimme Vending
CTO and Co-Founder
Evan Jarecki was an electrical engineering intern working at Gulfstream Aerospace in Savannah, GA when he first met Cory, a like-minded entrepreneurial dreamer. While working together, Evan learned all about Cory’s vending business and they tossed around ideas to start a business together one day. That day came right before graduating from Georgia Tech, when Cory pitched Evan the idea to connect every vending machine in America. Evan agreed.
He serviced a machine daily at Georgia Tech for 6 months before spending another 6 months in the field alongside a vending service driver, to learn the nuts and bolts of the business. Teaming his technology background together with Cory, Evan has helped turn Gimme into the award-winning technology it is today.
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Rodney Koop / The New Flat Rate
CEO and Founder
Rodney Koop – CEO and Founder of The New Flat Rate, is a motivational speaker, author, entrepreneur, and solutions based enthusiast. Over the last three decades, Koop has founded and sold HVAC, Electrical, and Plumbing service companies. Koop is a Master Electrician holding 10 unrestricted electrical licenses and has helped to write and qualify exam questions for state board testing. During his career, Koop has contributed numerous articles and industry assessments to multiple publications and recently authored his first book. Koop is dedicated to challenging all audiences to utilize their brains in creative ways for growing their companies.
Working from a place of strength is Koop’s motto, where he believes success and advancement can be achieved with the right tools in our expertise. When he’s not advancing his company forward, Koop can be found on the trails riding one of his four-wheelers or traveling around the world with his wife Karen.
Brandon Vallorani / Vallorani Estates
Founder
Brandon Vallorani is a practiced entrepreneur and accomplished CEO. He founded a five-time Inc. 5000 media conglomerate, author of the new bestselling book, The Wolves and the Mandolin: Celebrating Life’s Privileges In A Harsh World (ForbesBooks, March 20, 2017), and now has shifted his focus to Vallorani Estates, a brand of hand-curated luxury goods. Vallorani began his career in the non-profit sector, quickly rising through the ranks to become director of media, and then executive vice president. He simultaneously earned his Master of Business Administration, a testimony to his hard-working attitude and drive that would propel him through the rest of his career. He went on to boost revenue at another non-profit from a few hundred thousand dollars to several million per year in a period of only three years.
Vallorani graduated from West Virginia University with a Bachelor’s of Fine Arts in graphic design. He also holds of Master of Business Administration from Thomas More College. He lives in Atlanta, Ga., with his wife, seven children and two dogs. In his free time, he enjoys playing in casinos around the country and world.
Justin’s guest is Professor Olivier Oullier, neuroscientist and strategist, Fortune Magazine – Your Brain on Business.
Hosted by Adam Wozniak and Darren Parkinson
Sven Cowart / Traxion
Head of Design & Engineering
Sven Cowart is the co-founder of Traxion, a business accelerator that focuses on supporting start-up companies by harnessing the collective power of our community by bringing local governments, corporations, educational institutions and individuals together to provide a solid foundation for early-stage companies to establish themselves, gain traction and thrive.
Karly Venuto / WeWork
VP of Events
As WeWork’s director of events, Karly Giaramita’s main goal is to encourage connection among company members and staff through memorable live experiences. Based in New York, Giaramita has overseen events for the company since 2012, when she was hired to plan its first summer conference, known as the WeWork Summer Camp. The remote event turned into an annual conference, which in 2015 brought more than 2,000 members and staff to Raquette Lake Camps in the Adirondacks for three days of classic camp activities combined with networking events, educational sessions, and festival-style concerts from acts including The Weeknd.
The work of Women in Technology has an incredible impact.
Since 1992, Women in Technology has had a mission dedicated to promoting the advancement of women in Georgia’s technology community. Through the WIT COMMUNITY, WIT Also educates and encourages girls and young women to pursue careers in STEM.
Christina Beyer / WIT
Director of Programs and Events
Joining WIT (Women in Technology) as Director of Programs and Events, Christina serves as a primary leader in the organization with oversight of programs, volunteer services and events. Christina is a personable, detail-oriented manager with experience demonstrating improvements in sales and marketing efforts, operations, customer service ratings and team productivity.
Kathryn Finney / digitalundivided
Founder and Managing Director
Kathryn Finney is the founder and Managing Director of digitalundivided (DID), an organization that invests in the success of Black and Latina women tech founders by providing them with the network, coaching, and funding to build, scale, and exit their high growth companies. DID runs the BIG Innovation Center, home to the BIG accelerator program, a 16 week program for high potential startups led by Black and Latina Founders. She is also a General Partner in the Harriet Fund, the first pre-seed venture fund focused on investing the untapped potential of high potential Black and Latina women led startups.
One of the first social media “stars”, in 2014 Kathryn sold her site, The Budget Fashionista, to a midwest media company and later was the editor at large at BlogHer (sold to Sheknows), a platform representing 40MM+ women influencers.
An honors graduate of Yale University, and Rutgers University, Kathryn received the Champion of Change Award in 2013 from the White House for her work increasing inclusion in the tech industry and is an Eisenhower Fellow. She’s also listed in Marie Claire’s 10 Women to Watch in 2016, Entrepreneurs Magazine’s “Woman to Watch in 2016”, New York Business Journal’s Women of Influence Award, SXSW Black Innovator Award, The Grio 100, Ebony Power 100, Black Enterprise “40 under 40” list, and inducted into Spelman College’s “Game Changers Academy.”
On February 26, 2015 she was honored by Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer with the “Kathryn Finney Appreciation Day.”
Dan Huff
All medical malpractice cases involve bad outcomes that generally involve significant damages.
In addition to the patient and their family, bad outcomes often devastate the physician and other
care providers. Unfortunately, bad outcomes are unpreventable in many cases.
How a physician handles a bad outcome with the patient and their family is critical when it comes to avoiding litigation, and how a physician responds to a bad outcome can say more about them than the fact that the bad outcome occurred. In the event of a bad outcome, the interest of the patient must be first and foremost.
A physician must put his or her pride aside and do what is best for the patient under the circumstances – and the patient’s needs and timeliness should always govern the decision-making process. Good communications and documentation are also important factors when a bad outcome occurs.
All medical malpractice cases involve bad outcomes that generally involve significant damages.
In addition to the patient and their family, bad outcomes often devastate the physician and other
care providers. Unfortunately, bad outcomes are unpreventable in many cases. How a physician handles a bad outcome with the patient and their family is critical when it comes to avoiding litigation, and how a physician responds to a bad outcome can say more about them
than the fact that the bad outcome occurred.
In the event of a bad outcome, the interest of the patient must be first and foremost. A physician
must put his or her pride aside and do what is best for the patient under the circumstances – and
the patient’s needs and timeliness should always govern the decision-making process. Good communications and documentation are also important factors when a bad outcome occurs.
Matt Ethington / ChronicCareIQ
CEO
Matt Ethington is a successful serial entrepreneur and seasoned professional with nearly two decades of experience in the healthcare and IT space. Prior to ChronicCareIQ, he founded and led the award-winning simplifyMD, which grew from concept to managing more than 45 Million electronic medical records for doctors on two continents, including the largest hospital in the Southern Hemisphere.
Darrell Tyler / Steller Creative
Digital Marketing Strategist
Darrell Tyler is a dedicated entrepreneur born and raised in New York, NY. He became obsessed with entrepreneurship after taking a class on it the very last semester of his senior year in high school. From that moment on he became hyper-focused on educating himself on business fundamentals, marketing, and sales. His first day out of high school was spent going door to door selling kitchen products. A few months later, his would-be business partner introduced him to internet marketing. Since then, Darrell has gone on to create massive success for himself in e-commerce and now helps other businesses do the same.
Darrell’s favorite hobbies include reading, meditating, and socializing. Although he spends a lot of time on social media, he is passionate about getting people to connect organically, in real life. His current interests include bio hacking and the saxophone, which will probably change in 6 months because he gets bored easily.
Imen Ben / Fashino, LLC
Founder and Fashion Designer
Imen Ben is the Founder of Fashino. Born in Canada, Imen graduated from ESMOD Paris, one of the most reputable academies of fashion design in the world, with a degree in Fashion Design. She then pursued further studies at the University of Quebec where she received a Masters in Arts and Graphic Design.
In 2004, Imen started her own fashion and graphic design studio, Fashino.net, where she has successfully delivered high end 3D clothing lines for customers all over the world. With Fashino.net, Imen was able to fulfill her dream of showcasing her design skills.
In September 2015, Imen started crafting and developing her first clothing line “Relentless by Fashino”. It was two years of hard work, perseverance, and commitment to creating unique styles and ideas for her new clothing line. Relentless by Fashino is a clothing line comprised of creative and limited edition styles made with high quality performance fabric that was designed for athletes and gym goers.
Alex Pollak / ParaDocs Worldwide
CEO
Alex Pollak has been a paramedic since 1998 and worked for 911 throughout his undergrad and graduate studies. He received an MBA in Finance in 2008, and after he left his job at a hedge fund, he began working for a national ME company in their finance department. It was there that he saw a niche market for event medical services. Most festivals at the time would call to have ambulances stationed at the event, but never any proper on-site services.
Alex Pollak, created his company about 5 years ago and will hit about $3 million in revenue in 2017.
James Marlow / Radiance Solar
President and Co-Founder
Marlow has over 30 years of high tech sales and marketing experience with Computerland, Lotus Development, IBM, and Yahoo!. He is the founder of Internet startup, AnythingSouthern.com, a candidate for United States Congress in the 10th District of Georgia and a Georgia Southern University graduate. He is on the Board of Directors for the Georgia Solar Energy Industry Association, Georgia Chamber of Commerce Energy and Environment Committee, and has been a founding Board Member and Vice Chairman of the Georgia Solar Energy Association. He is also a founding board member of the Technology Association of Georgia Smart Energy Society, a member of The Metro Atlanta Chamber CleanTech Leadership Council, and a board member of The Environmental Fund for Georgia and The Savannah Riverkeeper.
Jamie Porges / Radiance Solar
CEO and Co-Founder
Mr. Jamie Porges serves as Chief Executive Officer at Radiance Solar. He is also the co-founder of the firm. Mr. Porges leads the company’s financial and strategic planning efforts and oversees the design, engineering and construction on all solar photovoltaic and thermal installations. Prior to Radiance Solar, Mr. Porges founded Riverview Properties. Before that he served as an executive at Turner Broadcasting for more than 13 years. Mr. Porges launched and managed new ventures across multiple divisions, including publishing and licensing. He holds a BA from Emory University.
