7 Questions

Dax Dasilva is the creative mind behind Canadian tech company Lightspeed, cultural centre Never Apart, and new book out now, Age of Union.

Founded in 2005, Lightspeed develops a cloud commerce platform used by independent retail and restaurant customers in over a hundred countries, employs over 750 staff located in eight cities, and has raised $292M USD from investors. The company went public in March 2019 on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol LSPD, becoming one of Canada’s top 10 technology IPOs.

In 2015, Dasilva also founded Never Apart, housed in Lightspeed’s former offices, and is a cultural non-profit determined to bring about positive social change and unity through original programming with global reach and impact; cultivating a diverse following and welcoming thousands into its 12,000-square-foot space.

Helping entrepreneurs become leaders in their communities through Lightspeed’s technology and elevating artists through his work at Never Apart are fundamental to Dasilva’s philosophy—fostering cultures of innovation, promoting diverse leadership, and valuing different viewpoints. 

With his new book, Age of Union, Dasilva brings leadership, spirituality and environmental guardianship together with themes of identity, diversity, cultural expression, and individual empowerment to ignite the impactful changemakers that the world needs now.

Judith Regan is an American editor, producer, book publisher, and television and radio talk show host. She is the founder of Regan Arts, has been called, “the smartest executive in book publishing”, by Vanity Fair, and is often referred to as, “the Queen Of All Media”. Judith has published books with authors such as Rush Limbaugh, Howard Stern, Michael Moore, Sean Hannity, Jenna Jameson, Neil Strauss, including legendary titles such as Gregory Maguire's 'Wicked', which later became a musical, Dr Barry Sears' 'The Zone', Francis Ford Coppola's 'The Godfather Notebook', and, 'The Audacity Of Inez Burns', by Stephen Bloom. In 2006, Judith interviewed OJ Simpson for Fox Network, where he “confessed” to the murder in a controversial special entitled, “O.J. Simpson: The Lost Confession:”, which led to the publishing of the book, “If I Did It”.

Honored to have Gareb on this weeks episode of 7 Questions. Gareb Shamus, CEO of ACE Universe is building the largest community of Superhero fans around the world. Gareb is a world-renowned authority on Superheroes and started and produced the largest Comic Con tour for over twenty years. He started and published many of the leading award-winning magazines, including Wizard and ToyFare, about Superheroes across movies, TV, toys, games, animation and comic books, selling over 100 million copies in 75 countries, in dozens of languages.

Gareb is credited with leading the charge to help make the Geeks and Nerds into the “Cool” people.

Gareb Shamus is a professional contemporary artist, whose paintings are currently on display in galleries in Los Angeles, Toronto and New York City. His paintings are noted for breaking the ‘3rd wall’ with their three-dimensional textures and use of a proprietary painting technique designed to provoke conversation by reaching out to the viewer.

Honored to have my friend Tammy on today's episode! Tammy Tibbetts drives the fundraising and communications strategy of She's the First (STF), a nonprofit that fights gender inequality by educating girls and training students. To date, she’s led STF through nine years of positive financial growth and manages more than $1M+ in assets annually. She’s known for building remarkable teams and creating compelling ways for supporters to get involved in the mission at all levels. Tammy is a frequent keynote speaker and panelist and has done three TEDx talks. 

Over the years, her work has been shortlisted in Marie Claire's 20 Women Changing the World, in Forbes' 30 Under 30, TIME's 30 Under 30 World-Changers, and in Fast Company's Most Creative People in Business. Currently, she’s working on a book project with her co-founder, Christen Brandt, to help individuals craft their own personal impact plans, using the frameworks and philosophies that have made She's the First successful.

Tammy is a proud first-generation college graduate who attended The College of New Jersey, earning a B.A. in journalism, summa cum laude. Although voted “Most Shy” in her high school yearbook, she is anything but that today, whether she’s speaking on stage or being a clown in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade (yes, really). She started her career at Hearst Magazines, where she launched three profitable digital properties and became Seventeen’s inaugural, award-winning social media editor.

With over 20 years in the music business as an executive at some of the most prestigious major record labels in the world, it is no wonder why this tastemaker has been sought after by the music industry's elite. Big Billy Clark started out his career at Def Jam Recordings in 1994 when then CEO Russell Simmons recruited him into their west coast office. Clark hustled his way from intern to Senior Director of A&R/West Coast Office Manager. Clark was given the responsibility of running the west coast offices daily operations on top of being a creative executive that could sign and work in various capacities with some of the labels biggest artists which included Ja Rule, Ludacris, Jay-Z, DMX, Method Man, Redman, Mariah Carey, Hoobastank, Christina Milian, Bon Jovi, LL Cool J, Slick Rick, Sisqo, and Fefe Dobson.


After 9 years at his post at Island Def Jam, Clark ventured out and started Tour Managing. He traveled around the world to Japan, Germany & France for 2 years w/ Hoobastank and Christina Milian before he was brought into Atlantic Records as A&R by the labels President Craig Kallman.

In 2006 Clark was offered an executive A&R position at Sony Music where he developed and signed new artists. He also jumped on board to run a production company for The Black Eyed Peas' Printz Board called Beets & Produce, where he was able to develop singers, producers & songwriters. Clark shortly after accepted the post of GM at The Writing Camp, which housed songwriters and producers responsible for hit songs such as Beyonce's "Halo" and Rihanna's "SOS". Clark was also is a producer on the The Hub's hit TV show Majors & Minors.


Currently Clark is the EVP / A&R at Hitmakers Entertainment in Los Angeles working with mega producer Mark Feist, signing, developing and breaking artists worldwide.

Today's guest is my friend Nick Melvoin. Nick has spent his career fighting for our city’s schoolchildren. He believes that together, with the right leadership, we can ensure that every student in Los Angeles has the opportunity to succeed. Born and raised on the Westside of LA, Nick served as a seventh and eighth grade English teacher at Markham Middle School, an LAUSD campus in Watts, where he coached soccer and baseball and helped his students launch a school newspaper. At Markham, he saw firsthand how LAUSD failed to support schools and neglected the needs of our city’s most vulnerable students. When he and two-thirds of Markham’s teachers lost their jobs due to budget cuts, he fought to be re-hired and worked to end the indiscriminate, seniority-based teacher layoffs that harm so many LA families. As a teacher, Nick joined the ACLU, Mayors Riordan and Villaraigosa, and others to bring a ground-breaking civil rights lawsuit which argued that LA’s layoffs violated the rights of students. They won. Nick holds a Bachelor’s degree from Harvard University, a Masters in Urban Education from Loyola Marymount University (LMU), and a law degree from the New York University School of Law, where he was a Root-Tilden-Kern Scholar. In addition to serving as a teacher, Nick has worked in the Obama White House with the Domestic Policy Council and the US Attorney’s office where he took part in various civil rights investigations as a legal clerk. Today, Nick leads and facilitates efforts by students, parents, teachers, and community members to rethink and shape the future of our city’s schools. He is also an adjunct professor at LMU where he teaches teachers how to improve their own advocacy in the classroom. In working for nonprofits such as Teach Plus and Educators 4 Excellence, Nick helps to improve the support teachers across the state receive before and during their time in the classroom, as well as amplify teacher voice in policy-making. Nick serves on the boards of the Los Angeles County Young Democrats, Brentwood Community Council, Teach For America Associates, University Synagogue's Social Justice Committee, and United in Harmony. He is a graduate of the Jewish Federation’s New Leaders Project and the New Leaders Council and chairs the Jewish Federation’s Educators’ Network. Nick is also proud to serve as a director of Camp Harmony, a camp for homeless and underserved children. His commitment to solving educational inequity was first sparked as a volunteer at Camp Harmony more than fifteen years ago.

Ever wonder what an indoor modern amusement park would be? Two Bit Circus has figured it out!!! So honored to have Brent Bushnell as todays guest on 7 Questions. Brent is the CEO and co-founder of Two Bit Circus, a Los Angeles-based experiential entertainment company. The interdisciplinary team strives to create immersive, social fun and is currently building a network of micro-amusement parks featuring free-roaming VR, robot bartenders, an interactive supper club and more. They’ve captured action sports content in 360 video for brands like the NFL, NBA, Indy and the Olympics for use in VR activations at the Super Bowl, All Star Games and in retail. The company regularly serves as immersive entertainment partners for brands and location-based facilities.

Dr. Vallecillos is the son of Spanish immigrants and descends from generations of mathematicians, engineers, and theologians.

After completing an undergraduate education at the University of California, Los Angeles, Dr. Vallecillos underwent his clinical training at St. Bartholomew’s and the Royal Medical College in London. Continuing, Dr. Vallecillos then trained in general surgery at Ann Arbor’s St. Joseph Mercy Hospital, and completed his fellowship training in Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery at the Providence & St. John’s Medical Center. Dr. Glenn Vallecillos is a Board Certified Plastic Surgeon serving clients both locally and globally. As Fellow of the American College of Surgeons, with a comprehensive background in plastic and reconstructive procedures, Dr. Vallecillos has a practice emphasis in facial detailing, body contouring, and breast revision.

In this weeks episode of 7 Questions I sit down with Governor David Alexander Paterson. Governor Paterson is an American politician who served as the 55th Governor of New York, succeeding Eliot Spitzer and serving out the final three years of Spitzer's term from March 2008 to the end of 2010. He is the first African American to hold that position and the second legally blind U.S. Governor of any state after Bob C. Riley, who was Acting Governor of Arkansas for 11 days in January 1975. Since leaving office, Paterson has been a radio talk show host on station WOR in New York City, and was in 2014 appointed chairman of the New York Democratic Party by his successor as governor, Andrew Cuomo.