Philly Tech Week 2018

Dr. Bora Ozkan is the Assistant Professor of Instruction in Finance at the Fox School of Business, Temple University. He joined the Fox School from Tulane University, where he served as an adjunct lecturer of Economics, and Southeastern Louisiana University, where he functioned as an adjunct lecturer of Accounting and Finance, since 2013. Professionally, Dr. Ozkan worked as the director of international marketing at Alexander & Hamilton, Inc. in New Orleans, where he oversaw the international marketing and credit reports departments, while also managing international legal cases and expansion strategy. He completed his Bachelor’s degree studies in Science and Economics at Hacettepe University in Ankara, Turkey. Dr. Ozkan obtained his Master’s degrees in Financial Economics and Business Administration from the University of New Orleans, where he also earned his PhD in Financial Economics on a Dean’s Scholarship.

The founder of Palette Group, Nate Nichols has over a decade of digital marketing and creative professional experience. His firm specializes in digital marketing strategy, helping companies ideate, execute and deliver new content and campaigns to better connect with their audience. Palette Group has now done work for corporations like Chevrolet and Starr Restaurants, as well as local businesses including City Fitness and Visit Philly.

A CHSP certified professional, Adria is the Program Assistant for the Information Systems & Technology department at the Camden Coalition. Prior to joining the Coalition, Adria was a trainee and intern at Hopeworks’n Camden, overcoming tremendous obstacles to achieve her current level of success. Her journey is described in the award-winning documentary Hope Works Here, which recently won first place at the Philadelphia Freedom Shorts Film Festival.

Michelle is an Assistant Professor and Associate Director at Temple University, where she teaches creativity and design in the Fox School of Business. She loves helping students realize their creative potential and develop new ideas. Michelle also leads a project with Flinders University in South Australia, an initiative to develop innovation curriculum and embed it across the university. In her other role, Michelle is Director of Innovation at Independence Blue Cross, where she stood up their innovation culture and capability team, and applies design techniques to help solve sticky healthcare problems. She has her bachelor’s degree in Liberal Arts and her master’s in Writing Studies from St. Joseph’s University. She’s currently pursuing her doctorate in Higher Education at Temple.

When she’s not drawing flip charts and ideating, Michelle spends her time in South Philadelphia with her husband and three amazing boys, who do their best to exhaust her tireless energy.

Todd Marks, 2-time EY Entrepreneur of the Year nominee, member of Baltimore Magazine’s 40 under 40, and The Daily Record’s Innovator of the Year, is the founder and CEO of Mindgrub Technologies. Mindgrub, a Clutch.co Top Web Design Firm, a member of the Inc. 5000 for five years running, and the Maryland Tech Council’s Tech Company of the Year, is an agency at the intersection of technology and business, designing and engineering solutions that define a company’s digital presence. Marks founded Mindgrub in 2002 and has since overseen award- winning projects for clients such as Wendy’s, DELL, Exelon, Under Armour, Yamaha, Crayola, Adobe, Geico, ORACLE, A&E, The Economist, Polk Audio, University of Maryland, NASA, The Smithsonian, and Discovery Communications. Marks, a teacher-turned- technologist serves as the agency’s Chief Everything Officer, leading information architects, user experience specialists, creative interface designers, digital marketing experts, and world-class developers to solve business challenges in the areas of mobile and web application development, digital and traditional marketing, virtual and augmented reality, enterprise information systems, and more. Recently, he built a Holodeck at Mindgrub headquarters to serve as space for the research and development of virtual, augmented, and mixed reality training applications. In addition, Marks has spearheaded Mindgrub’s robotics division, and has launched the agency’s first robot called SNAX, that will serve as a digital docent in the Mindgrub office and serve snacks and drinks to employees and guests. He has been recognized for excellence in leadership multiple times by The Daily Record, as he was named one of Maryland’s Most Admired CEOs three years in a row. Mindgrub has received two gold ADDY Awards for Best Mobile App, the American Marketing Association’s awards for Best Overall Marketing Campaign and Best Branding Campaign, the Gold Communicator Award for Best Mobile App, the BlueDrop Award for Best Fundraising Website, the Baltimore Business Journal’s Big Buzz Award for Best Mobile App, MTC’s Emerging Technology Company of the Year, Technical.ly’s Design Development Firm of the Year, and was one of Inc.’s Best Workplaces of 2017. Marks has shared his vision for innovation in technology and business at conferences such as SXSW, Adobe Max, and SALT, and has been profiled in The Huffington Post, CNN, and Newsweek. He currently serves as the Tech Board Chair for the Maryland Tech Council, and is a member of the Northeastern Maryland Technology Council Board of Directors and the Loyola University MBA Program advisory board.

Darian Davis is an Experience Designer at Think Company. In his role, he is focused on building evidence-based designs and crafting well-considered experiences. Darian has previously worked in the IoT industry crafting UX solutions for apps linking internet-connected devices for companies including ADT and T-Mobile. With a background in visual design, Darian maintains a balance of form and function in his design process, offering clients a well-rounded perspective when approaching new challenges.