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Advanced Entrepreneurship Seminar II, February
2-4, 2007
Themes: International and High-Tech Start-ups;
Legal Issues for Entrepreneurs
Friday, February 2, 2007
6-6:30pm Dr. Jeff Shay, Course
Introduction
6:30-8:30pm Mike Dores, Jordonna Dores, and
Keith Brown (Merlin Information Services)
Saturday, February 3, 2007
8:30-9:30 Thad Huse, Legal Issues for
Entrepreneurs
9:30-Noon Judy Mohr, Intellectual
Property and Patent Law
Noon-1pm Lunch break
1:00-2:30 Diane Smith, Auroras and
IPTV
2:30-4:00 Brian Loucks, Insights from
a High-tech Industry Consultant
(BrianLoucks.com)
4:00-5:30 George Manlove, Building an
online retail giant (President and CEO,
Vanns.com)
Sunday, February 4, 2007
9-10am Nicole Hagerman, Global
Entrepreneurship (Overstock.com)
10-11am Jordan Lind, Lessons from a
High-tech Start-up (Alps)
11-Noon
Open Q & A Session with Entrepreneurs, Course
Wrap-up
Seminar II: Speaker Profiles
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Name:
Keith Brown
Education: TBA
Current Business: Merlin
Information Services
Business Notes
Keith joined Merlin Information Services
in December 2005 with more than 15 years
experience in business management and
information technology. Six of these
years were here in the Flathead Valley at
Orbit Travel in Whitefish and Mac’s Place
(Egghead Computer) in Kalispell. Prior to
joining Merlin, Keith spent five years at
Starbucks Coffee Company where he enjoyed
a successful career as Vice President of
Information Technology. At Starbucks,
Keith was responsible for multiple teams
supporting worldwide systems for the
Financial, Supply Chain, and Human
Resources divisions. Keith’s teams
collaborated with many other teams across
the organization to successfully deliver
several key initiatives including the
following: the Financials team expanded
globally to Europe and Asia to provide
sound financial systems across the globe;
the e-Business team successfully deployed
an application and business-to-business
infrastructure providing a solid
foundation to integrate the company’s
disparate systems. This infrastructure was
crucial to the implementation of widely
publicized programs such as the Starbucks
Card and Wireless Network. The Supply
Chain team successfully opened two new
roasting plants in Carson City, Nevada and
Amsterdam, Netherlands utilizing state of
the art manufacturing and warehouse
management systems. After a productive
career with Egghead Computer and
PcConnection, Keith spent two years as
President & Chief Operating Officer of
Orbit Network in Whitefish, MT. There he
was responsible for implementing a
business and technology strategy that grew
the company to be consistently ranked
among the top Internet-based travel
companies. The company created technology
that contained detailed information on
over 10,000 leisure travel destinations.
It tied real-time into all the major
travel distribution channels providing
access to 98% of travel agents, AOL and
the Internet, and interfaced with
suppliers directly for real-time
bookings. At Egghead, Keith was
responsible automating systems to provide
real-time clearing of financial
information, inventory management, and
product information across the company’s
direct mail and corporate businesses.
Keith additionally directed the company’s
Internet initiatives, growing the company
to be the second largest Internet based
retailer. Keith enjoys spending time
outdoors, and with his wife, Charlotte,
and their four children, Nicole (11),
Emily (9), Megan (7) and Alex (5). Hobbies
include fishing, hunting, boating, skiing,
and golf.
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Name:
Mike and Jordonna Dores
Education:
TBA
Current Business:
Merlin Information Services
About Mike Dores,
Private Investigator, Owner and Vice
President Business Development
Michael Dores
is the founder of Merlin Information
Services and cuurently Vice President
for Business Development. He has been a
California licensed private investigator
since 1981. He was one of the first to
recognize the potential of newly
emerging CD-ROM technology, and in 1993,
he produced the first Merlin California
public record CD-ROMs, which
revolutionized the method by which
private investigators accessed public
information. His intimate knowledge of
the investigation process enabled him to
develop CD-ROMs with innovative data
search methodology. He also developed
an aggressive marketing campaign that
reflected his straightforward, common
sense sales approach, which has
contributed to the respect that Michael
has earned throughout the industry.
From 1978 to
1981, Michael managed Marvin Givant
Attorney Service in Los Angeles, the
largest attorney service in California
at that time. In 1981, he opened
Merlin Investigations, specializing in
wholesale skiptracing, and in 1991, he
started Merlin Information Services, in
Ojai, California. He sold the
investigation portion of the business to
his employees in 1994 and relocated
Merlin Information Services to
Kalispell, Montana. Michael was
President of Merlin Information Services
until Keith Brown joined Merlin in 2005
as CEO. His current position is Vice
President of Business Development, as he
oversees all activities related to new
product development, project management,
product management and data analysis.
The business development department has
expanded to include two business
analysts/project managers.
Michael
continues to be a hands-on entrepreneur,
staying in touch with all phases of the
business. His associates consider his
most valuable attributes to be his
comprehensive knowledge of the
customer’s needs, his product
innovations and his marketing skills.
He is a nationally recognized speaker
and a leading authority on skiptracing
and pubic record research.
About Jordonna Dores, Co-Founder & Board
Member
Jordonna Dores was actively involved in
Merlin Information Services from its
inception in 1992 until her retirement in
September, 2005. She and her husband
Michael Dores began with an idea for a new
product and nurtured it into a successful
company that now employs more than 50
people. With a background in sales and
communications, Jordonna was instrumental
in developing Merlin’s sales and customer
service departments during its critical
growth years. With Mike and Jordonna’s
“treat each customer as a valued friend”
approach, the company built and continues
to uphold its reputation for excellent,
personalized customer service. Jordonna
has attended hundreds of industry
tradeshows and seminars, building valuable
personal relationships with a vast number
of Merlin customers. This kind of close
customer contact has contributed
significantly to Merlin’s success in a
competitive marketplace.
Prior to launching Merlin Information
Services, Jordonna spent two years
building her own sales agency, Flat Rate
Communications of Ventura County. Prior
to that, she was a technical recruiter for
Survival Systems in Oxnard, CA, where she
specialized in corporate staffing and
helped develop and implement strategic
marketing plans. She spent three years as
the assistant to the president of Sales
Systems Development in Palo Alto, CA,
producing sales training materials for
major distributors of consumer products.
Five years of teaching language arts to
teens at a private co-ed boarding school
gave Jordonna a strong foundation in
leadership, team-building, and
understanding group dynamics.
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Name:
Nicole Hagerman
Education:
University of Montana (BS)
Current Business:
Director of International Sourcing,
Overstock.com and Worldstock.com
Business Notes
When Nicole Hagerman started working at
Overstock.com, the company didn’t have an
international sourcing department. Over
the following three and half years,
Hagerman has built the department from
scratch into a formidable part of the
business. She has built a team of
domestic and international based
individuals supporting over $35 Million in
international purchasing. Recently her
work with Worldstock.com has enabled her
to combine business with humanitarianism.
Worldstock’s mission is to help people in
developing countries establish sustainable
businesses to sell their products at fair
wages. Nicole was also a part of
eLocal.com for 2 years focusing on
international development and the Montana
World Trade Center during undergraduate
and graduate studies and at the University
of Montana. She has recently received
the Utah Business “Forty under 40” Award
for her work at Overstock.com.
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Name: Thad Huse
Education: Gonzaga University (JD),
University of Montana (BS)
Current Business: Partner, Huse Law
Office, P.C.
Business Notes
Thad Huse started his career as a tax
attorney and consultant with the Seattle
office of Deloitte & Touche, LLP. While
practicing with Deloitte, Thad provided
tax advice and consulting services to some
of the largest companies in the United
States, including Microsoft, Safeco, and
Boeing. While in Seattle, Thad found that
his real passion was representing and
providing advice to smaller companies and
entrepreneurs, and assisting such
companies through initial growth stages
and Thad returned to Missoula in 1999 to
join the Datsopoulos firm. Thad is
currently representing three separate
entrepreneurial-derived businesses with
multi-million dollar business endeavors,
including one company that is undertaking
one of the largest condominium
developments in the State of Montana and
another that is currently in negotiations
with a major electronics company for the
sale of recently-patented technology. In
October 2006, Thad founded his own law
firm, Huse Law Office, P.C. Thad has
judged several business plan competitions
in the past and is a member of MADE’s
special task force assigned to the John
Ruffatto Business Plan Competition.
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Name:
Brian Loucks
Education:
Stanford University (BS)
Current Business:
Independent Consultant
Business Notes
After graduating from Stanford University
in 1988, Brian spent the next 10 years
working for innovative Silicon Valley
companies such as Apple, Global Village
Communications, and PointCast with
increasing levels of responsibility in the
fields of product management and product
marketing. For the past 7 years he has
helped short-handed marketing teams on a
contract-basis while residing in the Rocky
Mountain college town of Missoula,
Montana. During that time he has conducted
extended contracts for companies such as
PointCast, madetoorder.com, Roxio, Ofoto/Kodak,
and Symbol Technologies.
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Name:
George L. Manlove
Education: University of Washington
(BS)
Current Business: President/CEO,
Vanns.com
Business Notes
George L. Manlove serves as chairman,
president and CEO of Vann's, Inc. He
brings 25 years of retail and
high-technology experience to his
position, including 21 years at Vann’s.
Before joining Vann’s, Mr. Manlove worked
for Apple Computer during that company’s
early and high-growth years. He is
recognized nationally for his vision and
integrating national e-commerce into a
successful Montana retail company. Mr.
Manlove oversees all Vann’s daily
operations, internet strategy and all new
business development.
Mr. Manlove also serves and Chairman of
the Progressive Retailers Organizaion
(PRO), which is
dedicated to keeping the independent
retailer and wholesaler relationship
thriving. Vann’s, an audio, video,
and appliance specialist based in
Missoula, has been serving Montana since
1961. Vann’s, Inc consists of six retail
stores — located in Billings, Bozeman,
Flathead Valley, Hamilton, Helena and
Missoula — and an e-commerce site. Vann’s
strives to provide a best-in-class
customer experience and became a 100
percent employee-owned company in 2005.
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Name:
Dr. Judy Mohr
Education:
Santa Clara University (JD), University of Texas –
Austin (Ph.D.), Pepperdine University (BS)
Current Business:
Partner, Perkins Coie LLP
Business Notes
Judy Mohr is a Partner in the firm’s Menlo
Park office. With over ten years of
experience in life sciences intellectual
property law, Dr. Mohr’s practice
encompasses all aspects of patent
procurement, patent portfolio strategic
counseling, and comprehensive portfolio
management for emerging as well as mature
life science companies. Her practice also
includes patentability opinions, freedom
to operate analysis, infringement
evaluations, and validity opinions. She
conducts due diligence studies in
connection with venture capital, private
and public financing, mergers and
acquisitions. Dr. Mohr has a wide range
of technical capabilities in therapeutics,
molecular biology, immunology, proteomics,
diagnostics, drug delivery systems,
liposomal technology, microarray
technology, gas and liquid separations,
small molecules, and materials science.
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Name:
Diane Smith
Education:
TBA
Current Business:
CEO, Auroras
Business Notes
Diane Smith serves as Auroras’ Chief
Executive Officer. She is a Telco industry
veteran with 20 years of experience in
strategic planning and management with the
independent telephone, wireless, and long
distance industries. Earlier in her
career, Ms. Smith spent 14 years as a
Senior Vice President for ALLTEL
Corporation. During that time, she oversaw
the development and execution of legal
strategies and public policies designed to
optimize the company’s success in rapidly
changing communications businesses. Ms.
Smith also spent 5 years at Sprint,
representing the start-up long distance
company in the first years of emerging
long distance competition. Ms. Smith is a
former board member of the United States
Telecom Association and a co-founder of
the Independent Telephone and
Telecommunications Alliance. She is the
Chairman of the Board of the F
Corporation, a broadcasting subsidiary of
George Mason University and a Director of
the ComCare Alliance, a national
organization dedicated to improving
emergency response systems. Ms. Smith is a
member of the State Bars of Montana and
Virginia. |
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