Philly Tech Week 2018

Laurie Actman serves as the Chief Marketing, Communications and Program Officer at the Penn Center for Innovation (PCI) at the University of Pennsylvania. Laurie as part of the Executive Team oversees the strategic implementation of PCI’s programs and partnerships, marketing, and communications and helped to plan and launch the Pennovation Center, Penn’s new startup incubator where she actively manages programs and partnerships as well. Previously she served as PCI’s Chief Operating Officer from launch in 2014 to December 2016. Before PCI she has worked for notable organizations in the private, non-profit and public sectors in Philadelphia, New York City and Washington, D.C. including as Chief Policy Officer for the CEO Council for Growth, Consultant to Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter on his sustainability and ARRA initiatives, Director of Strategic Partnerships at Viridity Energy, and Deputy and Interim Director for the Consortium for Building Energy Innovation, a $150 million public private project capitalized by the US Department of Energy and based at Philadelphia’s Navy Yard.. She received her undergraduate degree from Washington University in St. Louis and a Masters Degree in Urban Planning and Real Estate from UNC-Chapel Hill. Actman lives in Bala Cynwyd with her husband and three children and is an elected Board Member of the Lower Merion School District.

Morgan is a Principal with Genacast Ventures where his responsibilities include evaluating investment opportunities, sourcing new deals, and managing the growth of existing portfolio companies.

Prior to joining Genacast, Morgan worked at Bloomberg Beta, the venture firm backed by Bloomberg. He also spent time as a software engineer at Tapad and Market-Based Management instructor at the Charles Koch Institute. Morgan earned his BS from Northeastern University.

Dr. Sophia B Liu is an Innovation Specialist at the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Science and Decisions Center focused on participatory science and innovation. Dr. Liu is also the Co-Chair of the Federal Community of Practice for Crowdsourcing and Citizen Science (CCS) as well as the CCS Coordinator for USGS and the Department of Interior (DOI). She was recently mission assigned to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to be one of the first FEMA Crowdsourcing Coordinators in response to the 2017 hurricanes. As a USGS Mendenhall Postdoctoral Fellow, Dr. Liu previously worked at the USGS National Earthquake Information Center in Colorado on the Tweet Earthquake Dispatch project, the USGS St. Petersburg Coastal Marine Science Center in Florida on the iCoast – Did the Coast Change? project, and the USGS National Center in Virginia with the Minerals program organizing GeoHackJams. Dr. Liu was also awarded a National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship in 2006 conducting research on social media use in disasters. She received her Ph.D. at the University of Colorado, Boulder in an interdisciplinary program called Technology, Media, and Society. She received a B.A. at University of California, Irvine in Social Science with a minor in Information & Computer Science and in Digital Arts.

Dan Berry is the Head of Integrated Solutions at Nuix . Dan has over 15 years of experience as an application architect providing expertise in analysis, design, implementation, and delivery of eDiscovery, information governance and enterprise content management solutions. At Nuix, he consults with clients and partners on design, implementation, and delivery using Nuix’s scripting, Java, and RESTful APIs.

Jason Berger is a partner at the Philadelphia based law firm Margolis Edelstein and chairs the firm’s Entertainment and New Media practice group.

Jason’s expertise lies in recognizing talented artists, individuals and companies, developing strategy to achieve long-term success, and protecting their interests by rigorously negotiating and drafting the agreements forming the basis of their business relationships.

Jason’s practice focuses on securing and negotiating agreements in the music, television/film, digital media, technology, art and fashion industries. Jason’s client base covers the entertainment, media and technology industries and includes established and developing artists, songwriters, producers, bands, independent record labels, digital distribution companies, content creation and management companies, music publishing companies, apparel companies, management companies, executives, actors, models, and multimedia fashion and lifestyle companies.

Jason is a member and active participant in The Recording Academy’s Philadelphia Chapter, formally serving as an Advisor to the Board of Directors and currently involved in the Chapter’s Advocacy Committee.

Jason is active in his community of Philadelphia, PA, where he is an adjunct professor at Drexel University’s acclaimed Music Industry Program, teaching a wide variety of music and entertainment related topics. When not assisting his clients or working with his students, he is involved in a variety of music related endeavors from curating live performances to cofounding and developing nicethingsMUSIC, a technology inspired independent record label and distributor.

Caroline Samponaro is the Head of Government Affairs and Public Policy for the Northeast Region at ofo North America, working to bring dockless bike share to new markets from Maine to Delaware, and cities in between. Before joining ofo, Caroline spent 12 years at Transportation Alternatives and was one of the nation’s foremost advocates for traffic justice and urban bicycling. During her tenure at TransAlt, she spearheaded the city's adoption of Vision Zero, led the grassroots campaign to lower New York City's speed limit, and co-founded Families for Safe Streets, a victim advocacy organization comprised of members who have lost loved ones or been injured in traffic crashes. Caroline is an expert on urban bicycling and helped lead New York City’s rapid transformation into a bike-friendly city by leading dozens of grassroots campaigns to redesign dangerous streets with high quality bike lanes. Caroline is frequently quoted in the New York Times and New York Magazine, and she is a sought-out speaker on reckless driving prevention, the growth of urban cycling and the transition away from the automobile in cities across the globe. Caroline lives in Brooklyn and holds a BA in Cultural Anthropology from Columbia University.

Kip Wetzel is a Principal at Navigate, a Strategy and Management Consulting firm focused on the success of organizations in greater-Philadelphia. Kip leads Navigate’s Digital Transformation and Design Thinking Practice, bringing extensive strategic knowledge and practical insight from his digital leadership across a number of industries. In his role, Kip is helping partners leverage human-centered design and disruptive technologies to drive innovation around their most critical business imperatives. Prior to joining Navigate, Kip was Vice President of Enterprise Social Media Strategy at Capital One where he developed and executed a company-wide social media strategy to maximize the impact of emerging technology platforms for banking, lending, and credit business lines. Kip also spent over a decade at Comcast as a digital product manager; spanning a number of roles, Kip launched myriad cross- platform entertainment experiences for millions of Comcast users and lead the company’s transformation of customer engagement through social media. Kip is an alumnus of Villanova University and currently sits on the boards of The Philadelphia Outward Bound School and The Philadelphia Arts & Business Council.

Everette Taylor is serial entrepreneur and marketing executive who founded 4 million-dollar companies before the age of 28. After overcoming homelessness as a teenager, he started his first company at the age of 19 and successfully sold it 2 years later. Since then he has founded the social media software company PopSocial and marketing firm MilliSense where he both currently serves as CEO and also co-founded GrowthHackers in 2013.

As a marketing executive, he led both Qualaroo (acquired by Xenon Ventures) and Skurt (acquired by Fair.com) to successful exits and StickerMule to unprecedented growth as CMO.

His most recent work includes serving as the National Brand Ambassador of NASA's Startup Initiative, launching the media company BESE with Zoe Saldana which highlights the stories and voices of the LatinX community and Hayver, an app to prevent drug and alcohol addiction. He was most recently named "one of the most influential African Americans in 2017" by The Root and Forbes 30 under 30 for 2018.