We discussed a number of things including: 

1. His entrepreneurial journey and vision for Field Trip 

2. State of the pyschedilics and cannabis industries 

3. Funding outlook for startups in this space 

4. Industry outlook 

An entrepreneur and a visionary, Ronan is one the founders of Field Trip. Concurrent with his work at Field Trip, he is a partner at Grassfed Ventures, a venture capital and advisory firm focused on the cannabis and biotech industries and is Chief Strategy Officer and Member of the Board of Directors for Trait Biosciences Inc., a leading biotech company in the hemp and cannabis industries. 

Prior to his current roles, Ronan (along with Joseph, Hannan and Ryan) co-founded Canadian Cannabis Clinics and CanvasRx Inc., the latter of which was acquired by Aurora Cannabis Inc. (NYSE: ACB) in 2016, after which he served as Senior Vice President, Business and Corporate Affairs for Aurora. 

A lawyer by training, Ronan started his career as a corporate lawyer at Blake, Cassels Graydon LLP and Legal Counsel at CTVglobemedia Inc. (now Bell Media Inc.) He holds a Juris Doctor and a Bachelor of Commerce degree, both from the University of Toronto.

We discussed a number of things including: 

1. State of philanthropy across the state and region 

2. Examples of how foundations/nonprofits weathered the pandemic 

3. Innovations across the spectrum worth highlighting 

4. Outlook for the sector in short and long term 

Jeffrey Vega is the President and CEO of the Princeton Area Community Foundation, which has the mission of promoting philanthropy to advance the well-being of communities forever. With more than two decades of nonprofit leadership experience, Mr. Vega is an expert in creating social change through community building, leadership, and grantmaking. 

He has been honored and recognized for his work by various nonprofit and faith-based organizations and government agencies. Prior to joining the Community Foundation in 2015, Mr. Vega served as President of New Brunswick Tomorrow, an organization established to revitalize the City of New Brunswick through private/public partnerships. 

Mr. Vega is Board Chair of the Council of New Jersey Grantmakers and serves on the Board of the Princeton Mercer Regional Chamber of Commerce. He earned a bachelor’s degree in three majors, Urban Studies, Human Ecology, and International Environmental Studies from Cook College, Rutgers University, and a master’s degree as an Eagleton Fellow in Political Science/Public Policy from the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers University. 

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Maria Vizcarrondo is the President and CEO of the Council of New Jersey Grantmakers. She brings more than 25 years of experience transforming service organizations and has served her communities as both an appointed and elected official. 

In 2006, when he was first elected Mayor of Newark Cory Booker tapped Ms. Vizcarrondo to head Newark’s Health and Human Service Department, the largest of its kind in New Jersey. One of her first actions in that role was to develop a Children’s Bill of Rights to benchmark improvements in the lives of children and families throughout the city. 

Her accomplishments included securing state funding to establish Family Success Centers to provide neighborhood-based services, and launching a major citywide campaign to raise the immunization rates of Newark’s children. Prior to her mayoral appointment, Ms. Vizcarrondo served as the first woman president and CEO of United Way of Essex and West Hudson. Her pioneer work in re-engineering the organization’s mission into community building was documented in the United Way Transformation Diaries. 

In the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, Ms. Vizcarrondo led the New Jersey United Ways in a statewide coordination of services for affected families and managed the distribution of corporate funding for these efforts. She was elected Essex County Surrogate in 1993 and served four years of a five-year term before leaving to join United Way. 

Ms. Vizcarrondo has been listed among the “100 Most Influential People in New Jersey” and was a founding member of the New Jersey Institute for Social Justice.

We discussed a few things including Anjalee's journalistic journey, the dynamics of the pharma, biotech and healthcare industries and the COVID pandemic. 

Anjalee Khemlani is an award-winning journalist with a decade of experience spanning numerous beats and media. She is currently the Senior Reporter at Yahoo! Finance covering all things health care, including the COVID-19 global pandemic. 

As an immigrant and woman of color, she prides herself on the reputation she has built as a simultaneously enthusiastic and tough reporter. Her life experiences have given her a rich knowledge base that allows her to easily connect with folks from all walks of life. Prior to joining YF, Anjalee was Managing Editor at ROI-NJ, the premier business news site for New Jersey. 

Throughout her career, she has dabbled in local, national and international news and has also appeared as a guest on Canada’s CTV, the U.K.’s BBC Radio 5 Live, NJTV-PBS, New Jersey 12, TV Asia and CNN in India. 

She has moderated panels in the U.S. and globally, including at the CES Digital Health in Las Vegas and Web Summit in Europe. Previous event topics have included health care, business, investigative reporting and politics.

We discussed a number of things including: 

1. State of entrepreneurship in the entertainment and influencer marketing industries 

2. Funding outlook in media, blockchain and crypto/NFT sectors 

3. Diversity gains in startups from their vantage points 

4. Talent pipeline challenges; NAMIC efforts 

Always keeping ‘profit with a purpose’ in mind through various career roles as a hedge fund analyst, music producer & now investor / social philanthropist, Atul is founding partner of umbrella investment / advisory company, KMH Group, focusing on tech in media/sports verticals as well as various entertainment projects. 

Atul manages two portfolio companies, SAVA360 Ventures, a diversity driven platform connecting influential leaders with innovative entrepreneurs to share ideas and source deals, and the Results Venture, a social impact advisory group. Sava360 Ventures has partnered with NAMIC National the past few years to host and industry leading Entertainment Startup Showcase during the 2nd day General Session of the annual conference. 

Prior to this, Atul produced music for Sony Music artists & TV programming for all major US networks as well as two Bollywood films produced by the acclaimed Chopra family. Desperate Housewives, Gossip Girl , Girlfriends and Bernie Mac are just a few of many shows to feature Atul's music. 

Atul is frequent speaker at private and corporate events, sharing his views on investing in public and private markets, emerging technology such as AI, Crypto and NFTs, and culture. These discussions are often featured on a weekly podcast he co-hosts, “The Whiskey Hue”, and various Clubhouse rooms. 

He is a founding board member of philanthropy organization NEXUS Global India, an 1871 Entrepreneur/Tech Center Mentor, Board Member for Digital Diversity Network, 2019 NAMIC ELDP alum, past board member of NAMIC NY and Programming Chair for NAMIC National the past two years running, with a hyper focus on supporting Diversity, Gender Equality and Global Sustainability initiatives. 

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Angela Fisher has 10+ years of experience building and launching influencer-driven brands for MTV, VH1, BET, and AMF Media.

 Angela is now the Founder of a revolutionary platform called Neufluence - an inclusive online marketplace that is reimagining influencer marketing using technology and tools to help brands boost sales and expand their customer base through collaborations with the largest community of diverse micro-level creators. 

Angela has helped relaunch several digital brands and she served as a producer for VH1 awards shows including Hip Hop Honors, Divas, and Big Awards. Angela served on the senior team that launched a Viacom cable network now called BET Her. During her time with AMF Media, Angela has connected influencers with various brands ranging from McDonald’s to Patreon.

 Angela is also an avid runner who has completed 4 marathons and a 50K.

We discussed a number of things including:

1. State of female entrepreneurship  

2. Funding outlook including blockchain and crypto/NFT trends

3. Their personal experiences as female leaders in tech

4. Talent pipeline challenges

5. Victoria's new book, Digital Goddess

Kelcey Gosserand is the Program Director, Developer Advocacy for North America at IBM.

Kelcey is the City Leader and Program Director for IBM, overseeing Developer Advocacy for North America. Kelcey is driving the strategy and execution of developer engagements focusing on Blockchain and emerging tech. Her team is responsible for building the trust and respect required to engage with today’s new developers.

Kelcey is a pioneer in the blockchain landscape entering the scene as an early investor and participant in the crypto-economy. She founded the blockchain community building engine, Trellis, working with clients in new market development, brand positioning, and strategy. Kelcey is a community builder, storyteller, and blockchain evangelist.

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Victoria Montgomery Brown is a Media, Technology, Education and Operations Executive with significant experience building leading digital brands and platforms to drive engagement, adoption and business results for global enterprises and high growth startups.

She is an innovator and strategist and has transformed a startup into a globally-recognized knowledge company in both B2B and B2C markets. Forecasting emerging education, technology and media trends to drive strategic initiatives from product development to go-to-market, she led digital multimedia projects with global reach through cross-channel distribution to develop brand narratives that attract, engage and retain new audiences and customers.

During her13 years as Board Chairman and CEO of Big Think, Victoria led development and operations, from idea to implementation. She sourced investors, strategic partners, talent, clients, and prospective buyers, managing relationships and brokering deals. She secured 3 rounds of funding to launch the business, attracted a buyer, and negotiated deal terms for a successful exit.  

In addition to spearheading growth and exit initiatives, Victoria oversaw product development, acquisition of 3,000+ thought leaders to join her network of contributors, sourced and secured dozens of partnerships, established high-visibility brand relationships, and expanded distribution.

In her book, Digital Goddess-The Unfiltered Lessons of a Female Entrepreneur, Victoria shares her story in an entertaining and educational light. Told from the unique, female entrepreneurial perspective that unpacks all the hurdles other female founders may face in their own journey to the top.

We discussed a few things including:

1. AI trends and how companies are leveraging it

2. The challenges and opportunities with AI

3. AI concerns including bias

4. Tero's new book, Platform Strategy

Tero is CEO and Co-Founder of Silo.AI, the largest private AI Lab in Nordics. Silo.AI transforms businesses using AI and machine learning. He is Chairman of the Board and Co-Founder of Vision+ Fund, early stage VC fund and Chairman of the Board of Tampere University of Technology, Finland. Tero serves as a member of the Board of DNA Capital Plc and Bittium Plc.

Previously, he served as Nokia's CTO and Chief Strategy Officer as well as Head of Research. Tero was a Member of the Group Executive Board of Nokia for seven years. He served as a Member of the Board of Directors of the NAVTEQ Corporation. He also served as Member of the Board of Directors of Veikkaus Oy, a Finnish lottery company.

Tero was nominated as Young Global Leader of World Economic Forum 2006. He has been recognized as 7th Most Creative People In Business 2009 by Fast Company.

Tero has a Ph.D. from Technische Universiteit Delft in the Netherlands. He is married and has three children and in his spare time he enjoys olympic weightlifting, boating, triathlon and skiing.

We discussed a few things including: 

1. eSports/sports tech trends 

2. How the funding of companies in this sector is changing 

3. How fans are investing in their favorite athletes 

4. Online betting and fintech integratiion into sports industry. 

5. The intersection of crypto/NFTs and sports 

6. Deven's startup, Prediction Strike 

Kai is a partner at Courtside Ventures. 

He is a: 

3x Founder – marketplace, mobile gaming, and streaming platforms 

Investor at Hatch Labs, SamsungNEXT, and Comcast Ventures 

Formerly at Microsoft, Gerson Lehrman, IAC, and Oberon Media 

Graduate of Wesleyan Univerity

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Deven is the co-founder and CEO of PredictionStrike, a fantasy sports stock market that allows users to buy and sell shares of pro-athletes as if they were stocks. Prediction Strike was born from Deven's passion for sports, and aims to serve every type of sports fan. 

Prior to co-founding his company in 2018, he worked for Nike as a cybersecurity analyst. Deven’s background is impressive. In addition to earning a bachelor’s from Harvard (where he’s now in law school), he’s had stints at Google, Microsoft, the NBA, and Nike. 

Prediction Strike was born from his passion for sports and aims to serve every type of sports fan. Deven saw a golden opportunity at the intersection of personal finance and fantasy sports, one that has been magnified by the recent trend of stock market gamification. With Prediction Strike, users can buy and sell shares of their favorite pro athletes as if they were stocks. This is investing in its most engaging and exciting form, as it allows users to strategically customize portfolios that reflect their fandom. 

So far Prediction Strike has processed $4.5M worth of transactions and received $1.9M in funding. Deven is working to bring consumer investing into an exciting new arena, and would love to talk about transforming his passion into a venture-backed startup. 

As he sits at the forefront of an innovative new business model, he can offer valuable insights into what it’s like to navigate the uncharted waters of entrepreneurship and industry disruption. 

We discussed a few things including: 

1. Cybersecurity trends 

2. Forecasts for the future and how companies should best prepare 

3. Talent pipeline challenges 

4. Paul's latest cyber startup, Calamu 

Paul Lewis is the Founder and CEO of Calamu, an innovative company providing next-gen, ransomware-safe data protection software. A serial cybersecurity entrepreneur with more than 30 years in the industry, he was formerly the Founder and CEO of PG Lewis LLC, a cyber security and data forensics company that was strategically acquired by Robert Half International (NYSE:RHI), and the Founder and CEO of MC2, a data security company that was strategically acquired by Volt Information Sciences (NYSE:VOL). 

Lewis has been granted numerous patents to advance data privacy and protection. He is the inventor of the world’s first data harbor, a resilient and virtual storage environment that can instantly nullify the impact of a data breach or ransomware attack while also enabling compliance with data privacy regulations. A court-appointed expert in data security and incident response, Lewis is a contributor to the NIST Cybersecurity Practice Guide (Special Publication 1800-4), the NY Department of Financial Services Cyber Security Requirements 23 NYCRR 500, and the United States Federal Rules Committee on electronically stored information (ESI).

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 Mary N. Chaney, Esq., CISSP, CIPP/US has over 25 years of progressive experience within the fields of Information Security, Privacy and Risk Management. She graduated from Xavier University in Cincinnati, Ohio with a B.S.B.A with a S.T.E.M. related focus in Information Systems, graduated Salutatorian and Summa Cum Ladue from Texas Southern University, Thurgood Marshall School of Law and became a licensed attorney in the State of Texas in 1999. Ms. Chaney began her career journey by serving as a Special Agent for the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in Los Angeles. 

Mary’s global experience includes executive level information security and privacy roles with GE Capital (NYSE: GE), Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ), Comcast Corporation (NYSE: CMCSA) and Esperion Therapeutics (NASDAQ: ESPR). At GE Capital, she was the Director of Incident Response where she led a team responsible for supporting over 14,000 GE Capital Americas end-users. At Johnson & Johnson, she was the Director of the Security Operations Center, where she led the 24x7 Global Security Operations Center that monitored over 130,000 employees across 250 businesses. At Comcast Corporation, Mary was a Senior Director of Information Security, in the Global CISO’s office, which had oversight responsibilities for both Comcast Cable and NBC Universal for cyber risk management. 

At Esperion, Mary is the Director of Information Security and Privacy, having direct responsibility for creating and addressing risk in both information security and privacy. Mary’s entrepreneur endeavors include starting and running MBS Information Security Consulting, LLC (MBS) and most recently Mary opened the Law Offices of Mary N. Chaney, P.L.L.C, The Cyber Security Law Firm Of Texas, with the specific mission of helping translate and advise, Boards of Directors, CIO's, CISO's and General Counsel's on how to legally protect their company from cyber related risk. 

Mary serves the overall cybersecurity community in multiple ways. She has served on several advisory boards including: Post University; ChickTech; CompTIA© Cybersecurity Advisory Board; The Cyber Law Consortium; and The Cyber Future Foundation. Mary is an adjunct professor with the University of Cincinnati, where she teaches online courses in cybersecurity to assist with the development of the next generation of cybersecurity professionals. Lastly, she recently launched her own nonprofit, Minorities in Cybersecurity, Inc. (MiC) which focuses on support, leadership and career development for women and minorities in cybersecurity. 
 

We discussed a number of things including: 

1. State of the entrepreneurial community in the region and worldwide 

2. Investment outlook in various sectors in short and medium term 

3. Advice for entrepreneurs as we look to the other side of the pandemic 

Steve has been a technology investor for over twenty years. Steve’s interests are in enterprise software (particularly applications of AI/ML), infrastructure required to collect, store, and process data, internet of things, wireless, and environmental and materials technologies. He is currently on the board of ChoiceWORX, Data Inventions, Kintra Fibers, SunRay Scientific, and Vydia. He was recently a director of Airclic (sold to Descartes Systems), Alverix (sold to BD), Everspin Technologies (NASDAQ: MRAM), Neohapsis (sold to Cisco), Silicon Hive (sold to Intel), Sychip (sold to Murata), and an observer of Flarion Technologies (sold to Qualcomm). 

Steve has also been a leader in the corporate venture community and was Chair of the Corporate Venture Group within the National Venture Capital Association and on the Advisory Board of Global Corporate Venturing. 

Prior to Tech Council Ventures, he created a venture incubator for Lucent’s Bell Laboratories for 5 years and then formed and ran New Venture Partners for 15 years investing in commercialization of technologies spun out of corporate labs. 

Steve received an MBA from The Amos Tuck School at Dartmouth College where he is currently on the board of the Center for the Study of VC & PE. He received degrees in economics and mathematical sciences from Stanford University. 

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Daniella has been building life sciences businesses, developing and commercializing life sciences products for 20 years. Having co-founded Wave Biotech LLC from her dormitory room, she and a partner drove the start-up, growth and commercialization of a highly disruptive technology. As Vice President of the organization, Daniella established a high growth company with significant brand recognition, and led the group to a successful exit and acquisition by GE Healthcare in 2007. At GE Healthcare, 

Daniella held a variety of strategic, M&A and business development roles. One of her most notable achievements is the success in an entrepreneurial group within the broader GE Healthcare, where a focus on integrating the acquired Xcellerex business enabled global commercialization of a several hundred million dollar enterprise solutions business. Her extensive business development, negotiations and deal-making experience with multinational biopharma and governments in developed and emerging markets provides Dynamk with a broad network of colleagues, customers, innovators and key opinion leaders. 

She holds a B.E. in Chemical Engineering from Stevens Institute of Technology and an Executive MBA from New York University Stern School of Business and has attended Harvard Business School Executive Education Courses in Private Equity & Venture Capital.

We discussed a number of things including: 

1. Ways that businesses and new startups can survive 

2. Best practices for entrepreneurs and small business owners 

3. Role of academia, government and nonprofit sectors 

Panelists: Marjorie Perry is President and CEO of MZM Construction Management Co. She is widely recognized as an innovator, public speaker, writer and role model for women and minorities in business. Using 26 years of experience as fodder for inspiration, Perry finds her mission to be one who motivates nascent entrepreneurs to develop and pursue their dreams by sharing the lessons she has learned from her own success, which often meant taking life's lemons and making lemonade. Trained as an educator , Perry’s path in teaching was diverted after she was caught in a series of layoffs. In a fortuitous career move, she decided to try her luck in sales and marketing—which turned out to be an unexpected perfect fit. She went on to work for corporations, ultimately cultivating a burgeoning vision for life as a passionate, self-made entrepreneur. 

Ramon Ray is an entrepreneur, author and speaker who loves burnt pancakes and bacon on the weekends. He's the founder of Smart Hustle Media, has started four companies and sold two. Ramon has authored four books and his latest book is "Celebrity CEO - How Entrepreneurs Can Thrive By Building a Strong Personal Brand." Ramon has been invited as an expert witness to the United States Congress, invited to speak at the White House on personal branding. He's interviewed President Obama in the President's first live video chat and was with Ivanka Trump at the Global Entrepreneurship Summit in India. Get to know Ramon better at http://www.ramonray.com. 

Alfred E. Blake IV is the Assistant Director of Entrepreneurship Programs at Rutgers Business School. He is excited about anything that deals with entrepreneurship and innovation. He is the author of The Students Handbook To Breaking All The Rules, a Huffington Post/Elite Daily Contributor and the founder of Rule Breaker University - a company focused on helping students to break rules to break records in life. Even with the aforementioned accomplishments, the one he is most proud of is being the father of Skylar Jaelle Blake. 

Alex Hamilton - After over 10 years in the restaurant business as both a manager and a senior buyer as well as 12 years of success as a GM of marketing in the music industry, Alex chose to become an entrepreneur. Serving as the former CEO of media startup Vipeline Inc., Alex went on to become a patented inventor. He is currently an elected member of the Jersey City Board of Education and partner at Quintrix where he serves as the Director of Talent Management. Quintrix is a startup that focuses on IT training for entry level candidates fresh out of college and helps them complete “last mile training”. This unique approach ensures all candidates obtain cost free training, IT industry certification and a guaranteed job interview with an interested client of Quintrix.