Michael B. Reidbord, President
Founded technical apparel producer Brilliant Asia Corp, was President & CEO of Blue Dasher Technologies, an award winning location-based services provider. Managing Director Global Supply Chain Management GmbH Germany, overseeing global manufacturing and operations. Developed a Wearable Technology business for MediaTek, Chief Operating Officer of Kloog, Inc., an IoT and Wearables enabling platform acquired by Facebook. Built companies in the U.S., Asia, Latin America, and Europe. Involved in numerous start-up successes within the technology and consumer products sectors. Michael is a professor at The Fashion Institute of Technology and received his BA from the University of Pittsburgh.
Robert Mallia, Executive Vice President of Retail Solutions
Global Business Lead, Managing Director NA, Shopic, Inc.; Member of the Board of Advisors, Exceedr; Member of the Board of Advisors, HOP; Sales & Advisory Consultant, Global Advisory Services; Two decades of executive level enterprise sales and marketing of critical systems to Fortune 500 companies. Recent focus on facilitating innovative startups in roles such as rainmaker, brand evangelist & advisory board member, while enabling those companies throughout the funding lifecycle, creating a scalable sales and marketing infrastructure. Retail industry leader in disruptive tech, customer experience and frictionless solutions. BA, Frank G Zarb School of Business, Hofstra University.
TINKESH S. KOTHARI, Vice President, Director of Engineering & Supply Chain
Six Sigma Process Engineer Dallas Parkland Hospital, Lean Manufacturing Engineer Powerlift and Piling Systems, Certified Lean Six Sigma (DMAIC). Masters Industrial Engineering Advanced Engineering Economy, University of Texas, Bachelors Mechanical Engineering University of Mumbai.
WILLIAN D’ANDREA, Managing Director Consumer Goods Division
Vice President for Customer Marketing & Sales Operations at Unilever United States; Vice President Customer Development Operations at Unilever Americas Division; Head of Sales at Unilever de México; Vice President Customer Development – Sales Capabilities at Unilever Latin America; Director for Customer Marketing. Senior executive experienced within large FMCG manufactures, retailers and professional service providers across Americas, Europe and South East Asia. Global MBA, University of Michigan and a BS degree, Mechanical and Industrial Management Engineer degree, from Escola Politecnica, Universidade de Sao Paulo.
MARC NADDELL, Principal
Chairman of the Board for the Developer Program Management Association (dpmassoc.org), Vice President of Ecosystems, MediaTek, Vice President, Partner & Developer Programs, HERE (formerly NAVTEQ), acquired by Nokia. Head of Developer Programs at Nokia. Ecosystem builder for Mobility, Cloud and IoT, including Wearables, Smart Home, M2M, drones, robotics & mobility. International business expertise, holder of 20 patents for new features in location based services, network operation and mobile device user interfaces. Worked with hundreds of start-ups over the course of his career, providing guidance, making introductions and finding funding. Corporate spokesperson at CES, Mobilize, Where 2.0, Mobile World Congress, and Computex with an MBA from the University of Chicago, Booth School of Business.
MICHAEL I. NAAR, CFO
Chief Financial Officer, Vice-President Finance, Treasurer & Secretary Embarcadero Media, CFO, Forum Software/Trident Systems Inc., Corporate & Divisional Controller, Wilsey Bennett Co., Senior Tax Accountant Deloitte, Haskins & Sells. MBA University of Michigan, BA Princeton University, CPA – State of California
CHARLES KALIMAN, Supply Chain Advisor
Sourcing Director at Sears Holdings, Merchandise Manager at Macy’s Product Development, VP of Production at Henry Cotton’s. Supply Chain specialist and retail merchandiser with expertise in sourcing, product development and manufacturing. Directed the product development and sourcing for numerous brands, establishing production initiatives in Asia, Africa, the Indian Subcontinent, Italy, Turkey, and Central America. Extensive experience in strategic global production planning, apparel manufacturing and Product Life Cycle Management. MBA from Columbia University.
NIAZ JALAL, Advisor
Head of Human Understanding & Virtual Humans at Facebook/Oculus Computer Vision. Leading computer – virtual humans efforts for Virtual Reality/Mixed Reality/Augmented Reality. Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Kloog, Inc., a Smart Cloud and IoT and Wearables enabling platform acquired by Facebook. Head of Web & Browser Technologies and Core Tegra Software at NVIDIA. Managing Partner NS Squared Systems and Director of Engineering, Web & Mobile Technologies at Monitise. MBA from St. Mary’s School of Economics & Business.
KURT DANIEL, Advisor
President at Ubersmith, the premier subscription business suite company. Built and scaled Parallels, Worklight (acquired by IBM) and MongoDB into highly successful companies worth $3 billion. Led a product management team at Microsoft and consulted at A.T. Kearney. Software and Internet executive with over twenty years of experience. Independent board member, advisor, investor and mentor with: Code Climate, Kloog (acquired by Facebook), NextGen Venture Partners and others. MBA from Harvard.
MARK COHEN, Advisor
Professor Cohen has been in the retail business since 1971. Of his 35 years’ experience in the industry, more than 20 were in president/chairman, chief executive officer level positions. Most recently he was Chairman/CEO of Sears Canada Inc., Chairman/CEO of Bradlees Inc., and Chairman/CEO of Lazarus Department Stores. He has also held positions with Abraham & Strauss, The Gap, Lord & Taylor, Mervyn’s, and Goldsmith’s Department Stores. He currently serves as Director of Retail Studies at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Business, and as an independent consultant to retailers, as well as marketing, manufacturing and technology partners serving the retail industry.
Grace Moran, Director of Marketing and Event Cooridnator
Grace Moran is a student at the University of Dayton studying Communications with a concentration in Public Relations and Management. Before joining the FTC team, Grace worked for Med Tech/Med Care LLC and The Andiron Group, leading projects in media/content strategy, market research, and experiential marketing