Collaboration-
powered Open Science

Alexandra Damsker

Alexandra Damsker is a securities attorney with over 15 years of experience. She trained with the US Securities and Exchange Commission and international law firm Mayer, Brown, Row & Maw before starting her own successful securities practice. Mrs. Damsker founded two profitable startups (biotech and consumer packaged goods industries), with one exit.

Mrs. Damsker has written a variety of articles and talks relating to US regulation. These addressed a variety of legal topics, including securities, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, legal implications for US companies manufacturing in China, the impact of various forms of technology on industries, electronic communication and securities issues, and blockchain regulatory issues. She has been published in various locations including Huffington Post, Time.com, and Business Insider, as well as journals, such as American Banker. She also co- edited a treatise on securities law, and wrote a practitioners’ manual on US regulatory issues on trusts and estates.

Mrs. Damsker has been invited to speak at events of various sizes, including NASDAQ, the LendIt Fintech Conference, CryptoBlockCon, the Fintech Disrupt Conference, the Marketplace Lending and Alternative Financing Summit, and the data science IDEAS conference. She currently serves as regulatory and business strategy advisor to several companies, directors, investors and attorneys.

Diego Esponosa

Diego has designed and launched decentralized platforms in both self-sovereign data and fintech. At ConsenSys, he led a team that architected and built a protocol for Web 3.0-enabled data sharing. Its core set of smart contracts allows any app to help users collect, own and share their personal data, including mobility, health and social. He is a recognized expert on blockchain-based healthcare data applications, and has spoken at Stanford MedicineX, Health2.0, and Distributed Health. He also writes and speaks on the subjects of data sovereignty and the design of decentralized platforms. Prior to falling down the blockchain rabbit hole, Espinosa had a successful career on Wall Street. He served as Portfolio Manager of a $10b fund and as a Director of Research. He has was also a Senior Lecturer at the University of San Diego, where he designed original courses on complex systems and the behavior of financial institutions during the 2008 Crisis. Espinosa has an MBA from Wharton, an M.A. in International Relations from Johns Hopkins, and a BSCE from Tufts University.

Mark Hamade

Mark Hamade is a Partner at an 18 year old Private Equity firm Vivaris Capital, Conscious Capitalist, Public Speaker, Venture & PE Adviser.

A team player recognized as an exceptional communicator and a visionary leader that applies a lens to visualize the whole picture. He knows when and how to apply strategy, operations, financial savvy, vision, pattern recognition, critical thinking, and leadership in every facet of business delivering uncommon results in industries ranging from technology, energy, aerospace, AI, manufacturing, law, banking, healthcare, real estate, retail, software to name a few.

Mark has also advised a number of country governments, funds, and companies on the complexities of blockchain, securities, and best practices.

His expertise ranges from working with CEOs from small, mid, large, and start-up to turnaround organizations.  He has established created/turned around organizations in Mexico, Middle East, Europe, and Asia to name a few. He maintains business connections in over 50 countries, including those with the wealthiest economies. Adept at pitching and closing he has raised/assisted/managed in excess of $750 Million with IRRs ranging from 30-60%.

He is a founding member of a blockchain incubator and a collaboration platform for people with ideas and those who are interested in new ideas.  It is a place for people, communities, and companies to work together towards a better future.

Mark’s positive, energetic speaking style makes him a sought out national speaker, influencer, radio guest and host. Mark hosted a weekly radio show called “On the Mark with Mark Hamade.” He is a frequent blogger and is cited in journals, magazines, and newspapers. 

A USMC veteran who survived 7 surgeries, cancer and shedding 220 lbs has allowed Mark to offer organizations a way to help scale and mentor employees, partners, customers from a different lens. 

Mark earned his B.S. in Criminal Justice at Washburn University.

Jerome Hamilton

Jerome Hamilton, CEO of Open Therapeutics, leads the company's scale and global expansion, as well as manages business development, sales, marketing, and investor relations. He joined Open TherapeuticsTM after serving as Stratasys’ Senior Vice President of Global Operations, before which he was Vice President of LEAN Six Sigma Operations, Corporate Quality and Acquisition Integration for 3M. There, he played a major role in devising strategy and operational plans for the company’s largest business group, Industrial Business Group. He also led the company’s Masking and Surface Protection Business with full P&L responsibility.

Hamilton received his Bachelor of General Science from Morehouse College, his Bachelor of Science in Industrial Engineering from Georgia Tech, Master of Science in Engineering Management from University of Detroit, Mercy; and Master of Science for International Logistics from Georgia Tech; he is a graduate of the Advanced Management Program, Harvard Business School.

Hamilton is Chairman of the Board for Goodwill Easter Seals Minnesota, Real Life 101 Board member, and V2SOFT Board Member. He was listed in the 2014 Savoy Magazine list of Most Influential Blacks in Corporate America and was recognized as one of the Top 50 diversity professionals in industry– Global Diversity List, supported by The Economist, (globaldiversitylist.com).

In the coming months Open TherapeuticsTM will provide to global researchers, a crowdsourcing web platform that will host freely available open pharma and medical technologies framework, created by Jason Barkeloo and his team, to global researchers. Scientists can freely adopt the open technologies and develop manuscripts on the science they conduct around the technologies.

Jackie Hart

Jackie has more than twenty years as a strategist and project manager consultant on both coasts, specifically New York/Silicon Valley. Ms. Hart has managed and led large-scale Fortune 500 software development projects in the high-technology, biotech and financial sectors with market leading companies including Oracle, Microsoft, Genentech, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, and Bechtel. With over seven years in the non-profit sector working in strategy, marketing, fundraising Jackie is currently working with organizations and their emergent leaders that are accelerating the blockchain economy by creating ethical and high social impact for humanity and the planet through ChainReaction Labs, a purpose-driven marketing agency where she is Co-Founder. By working with ChainReaction Labs global team she sees the decentralized blockchain technology as a mechanism that can create and sustain a safer, fairer and more prosperous society. Jackie has been a speaker and Co-Producer on numerous conferences on the topic of Blockchain for Social Impact. She serves on the Board for a regenerative community blockchain company - Serendipia and a Advisor for Earth Cycle- a cryptocurrency empowering a decentralized funding pool for positive change businesses. Ms. Hart is a Founding Partner with Women Investing In Women/Qrypto Queens as she is passionate about gender equality for women investors and entrepreneurs in the Fintech space. Jackie is also Founder of ZeroPoint: Blockchain in Balance. The ZeroPoint is an immersive zone & experience. It is a place for attendees at Blockchain/Crypto conferences to come undone to re-center and regroup in the eye of the storm and connect with other attendees in a more grounded environment. ZeroPoint is a movement as well as a destination and promotes a (re)evolution in the ways of doing business that offers balance over burnout.

Dave Knox

As a brand marketer, venture investor, and startup advisor, Dave Knox bridges the worlds of the Fortune 500 and entrepreneurship. The intersection of these two worlds is the subject of his book, Predicting The Turn: The High Stakes Game of Business Between Startups and Blue Chips, which was named the Grand Prix winner of the 2017 Atticus Award. Dave is the former Chief Marketing Officer for Rockfish, a widely recognized digital innovation agency that was acquired by WPP, where he also served as the Managing Director for WPP Ventures. Prior to Rockfish, Knox was a seven-year veteran of Procter & Gamble, where he was instrumental in the digital turnaround that led to P&G being named to AdAge’s Digital A-List. Dave was named to the iMedia 25 Class of Digital Innovators, by Cincinnati Business Courier as the CMO of the Year in the inaugural C-Suite Awards, and as a 40 Under 40 by both AdAge and the P&G Alumni Network. Dave is a frequent keynote on digital innovation and disruption, including appearances at SXSW, TEDx, Back End of Innovation, NRFtech, Brand Innovators, AdTech NYC, and the iMedia Summit. He is the co-founder of The Brandery – one of the top 10 startup accelerators in the country. Dave is also a Managing Partner in the seed fund Vine St Ventures, and an advisor to Bullpen Capital, Glasswing Ventures, and Hyde Park Venture Partners.

Austin Kimm

COO and Co-Founder of Crypterium, the most successful blockchain-based ICO ever as measured by the number of token buyers. Crypterium, the world’s first mobile cryptocurrency bank, will enable everybody to transact with cryptocurrency in real world situations from the simplicity of their mobile phones. Austin in currently rolling out Crypterium on a global level, building the Crypterium infrastructure and opening offices in London, Singapore, USA and Moscow. Austin has advised on a number of successful ICO’s including STORIQA, which sold over $30m in token sales at the start of 2018.  Austin is an experienced results proven financial services CEO with long history of building successful insurance companies in both developing (Russia, Ukraine, Czech Republic) and developed (Australia, UK) insurance markets. Most recently (2006 to 2012) Austin built from the ground-up one of Russia’s most successful Insurance Companies, Renaissance Life & Pensions, having previously served in a number of country CEO or C-suit positions for Aviva, including Director of Strategy for Aviva’s International operations operating out of London. Since 2013 Austin has been focused on developing ground breaking Fintech start-ups, including CEO roles at Workle, Russia’s largest on-line employer that enables everybody to become their own self employed salesperson and Dynamic Re, where Austin is a co-founder of a unique life assurance distribution company offering life savings plans via retailer loyalty programs.

Adam Koehler

As a serial entrepreneur, Adam is involved in several synergistic endeavors. His recent venture as co-founder of Crypto Properties has him traveling the world connecting a blockchain real estate solution with property portals. He is heavily involved in the blockchain and ICO space and passionate about helping the global startup communities grow small businesses through these alternative funding and incubation channels. Adam is also involved in coordinating blockchain and cryptocurrency events, most recently with the US Chamber of Commerce and the first ever event in the Midwest.

His leadership in blockchain is further demonstrated as the founding member of the Kentucky Blockchain Alliance and Block Valley in Ohio. The goals of both organizations are to answer questions from legislators and regulators, and to help create a positive business environment for blockchain-based businesses to operate.

Adam’s interest in real estate spans many years as an investor, but also as co-founder of dotloop®, an agent favorite real estate collaboration platform. Almost half of all US purchase contracts are signed on the dotloop platform, which has totaled over $4 trillion in deals. In August of 2015, dotloop was sold to the Zillow Group in a transaction worth $108M.

He founded CovWorx, a 20,000 sq. ft. co-working space in Covington, KY. In 2008 Adam also founded the ad agency Reversed Out in 2008, a creative and technology firm focused on assisting small to medium-sized businesses with creative, branding, web design and maintenance as well as application development.

Kelly Land

Nearly twenty years as both an investor and advisor to numerous companies throughout the U.S. and international markets. His passion is working with unique, promising seed stage and early stage technology companies. He has experience in a number of industries including software, e-commerce, medical device, and manufacturing, having participated in over fifty transactions. With a focus on blockchain and open science, Mr. Land believes in being a first mover in breakthrough technologies and businesses. He has a Bachelor’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering from Rose Hulman Institute of Technology.

Martin Dueñas, MPA

Martin is currently is the Director of the Health Research Management Practice (HRMP) at Leidos (previously SAIC) – a fortune 500 company that supports government and non-government organizations in National Security, Engineering and Health . He works at the center of the life science ecosystem including government and private funding organizations, research academic centers, biotechs, and pharmaceuticals.  He is the founder of ONPAR - Online Partnership to Accelerate Research - a Global Public–Private Partnership that was launched with National Institute of Health and it now expands globally to include over 40 biomedical research funding organizations.  OnPAR seeks to advance research by funding highly scored unfunded research applications globally.  In addition, he serves as an advisor to several biotech companies and private biomedical foundations.  Mr. Dueñas experience includes research/faculty and executive positions at Columbia Medical Center, Weill Cornell Medical Center, Memorial-Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Hospital for Special Surgery, New York University Medical Center, and the New York Academy of Medicine.

Dr. Roland Everett Langford

He has more than 40 years experience in environmental protection, occupational safety and health, and radiation protection. He holds Ph.D. degrees in Physical Chemistry from the University of Georgia and in Radiation Health Physics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, as well as a Masters degree in thermodynamics from the University of Georgia. In addition to academic degrees, he is a Certified Industrial Hygienist, a Certified Safety Professional, a licensed Professional Engineer in the State of Texas, a Certified Professional Environmental Auditor, a Certified Process Safety Auditor, a Fellow of the American Institute of Chemists, a Diplomat of the American Academy of Sanitarians, a Registered Hazardous Materials Professional, a Board Certified Environmental Scientist, and a registered Sanitarian. Dr. Langford is the author or co-author of three books (on Hazardous Materials Incidents, Workplace Drug Abuse, and Weapons of Mass Destruction). He served for twenty years in the U.S. Army Medical Department, retiring in the rank of Lieutenant Colonel, following command of the Army Research Detachment for Toxicology of the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research. He served with NATO in Bosnia and Croatia, receiving both the NATO Yugoslavia Medal and the Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal. He was awarded the Legion of Merit among other decorations. He worked in industry with the Huntsman Petrochemical Corporation, then as a Department of the Army civilian. He lived and worked in Korea and the Peoples Republic of China. Prior to military career, he was a college professor of chemistry and geology.

Peter McCrea

President and a Director of the Cavendish Impact Foundation, a donor advised Impact Investment platform. He began his career in his native California as a film editor, writer and cinematographer. He was a founding member of the American Cinema Awards Foundation, benefitting the Motion Picture and Television Fund. Subsequently, Peter was a partner at Americana Land Company, designing environmentally sustainable land developments. After moving to the East Coast in 1995, he served as Director of Development at LHO Group for Leif H. Olsen, former Chief Economist of Citibank, and since 2009 has been an acquisitions advisor for Hinduja Group, a multinational corporation. Before joining the Cavendish Impact Foundation, Peter was Vice President of Development at American Endowment Foundation with over 4,700 donor advised fund clients in all 50 states, and he was a Business Development Advisor at Foundation Source with 1,500 foundations and $9 billion in assets. Peter was also a member of the Board of Directors of the Morgan Stanley Global Impact Funding Trust, and served as Chairman of the Livelihoods Council at Save the Children. Since 2001, Peter has been a Trustee of the Lemmon Foundation, a conservation foundation.

Ed McKinzie

Principal Research Associate supporting the Sensors and Intelligent Systems and the Sensors and Electromagnetic Applications Laboratories at Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI). He has extensive experience in military operations, project management, developing advanced concepts, tests, and tactics, techniques, & procedures, and with creating a vision/plan to develop ground-breaking capabilities. Ed served over 28 years in the United States Air Force as an Air Battle Manager accumulating over 4,500 flying hours in command & control and surveillance aircraft (E-3 AWACS/E-8 JSTARS) and served in over 50 deployments/contingency operations. He had the pleasure of leading airmen as the Commander of an Air Force Squadron (965th AWACS) and as the Wing Commander for the 505th Air Control Wing improving the USAF warfighting capability through command and control testing, tactics development, and training. Mr. McKinzie held key positions on the Joint Staff, United States Central Command, International Security Assistance Force, United States Africa Command, NORAD and United States Northern Command.

Louis Page

Louise Page, formerly with Chief Innovation Officer, PLOS was responsible for actualizing PLOS’ strategy in Open Science to maximize the influence, impact, and dissemination of research globally leveraging emerging technology and new opportunities to open up scientific communication. Prior to PLOS, Louise was Vice President, Publisher Relations and Business Development at HighWire Press where she successfully managed teams responsible for publisher account management, business development, and strategic planning for the company’s global publisher network. Previously, Louise held technology and editorial leadership positions at John Wiley & Sons where she steered the organization into the digital age with its first online journal and Wiley InterScience. She has also held editorial positions at Oxford University Press. Louise currently serves on the Board of the Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association and is on the Free the Science Advisory Board of the Electrochemical Society.

Raymond Scalettar, MD, DSc, FACP

A practicing physician specializing in Rheumatology and Internal medicine in Washington DC. He is Clinical Professor Emeritus of Medicine at the George Washington University Medical Center, Master of the American College of Rheumatology, a Fellow of the American College of Physicians and a distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association. He was instrumental in the development of the world class National Rehabilitation Hospital and was its first Medical Staff President. Affordable, quality medical care for patients has been a foremost objective throughout his professional career. He was elected to the Board of Trustees of the American Medical Association and ultimately its Chair; he was a Commissioner and later a Consultant to the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations; he helped form and was an executive in a physician owned professional liability organization, NCRIC. He is a Medical Expert Consultant to the Social Security Administration and a Consultant to the American College of Rheumatology

Rosemarie Truman

Founder and CEO of the Center for Advancing Innovation (CAI), a 501c3 non-profit which has been coined “Tinder for Startups” and “Shark Tank on Steroids.” CAI's mission is to identify breakthrough inventions and maximize their commercial potential. With over 25 years of experience in entrepreneurship, executive leadership, and philanthropy, Rosemarie’s specialty is venture investment strategy, having led growth strategies for 50 of the global Fortune 100 companies in over 15 countries. The strategies that Rosemarie led have resulted in $300+ billion in “net new” top line yearly revenue and 190+ new products on the market.

As CAI’s leader, Rosemarie has pioneered a first-of-a-kind, award-winning, disruptive innovation platform. Orchestrating 6 innovative challenge-accelerator models CAI has been the catalyst for the launch of 100+ companies, 5000+ entrepreneurs, and 80+ partnerships across federal labs, universities and hospitals. CAI has created new business model architectures for obtaining inventions, now an established paradigm for commercializing federally-funded inventions.

Prior to launching her own firm, Rosemarie spearheaded IBM’s Innovation strategy practice globally and was awarded IBM’s most laudable honor, the Golden Circle Award. In addition, she has also held leadership roles at Booz Allen Hamilton, Oracle, PRTM, and Marsh & McLennan, where she served as VP of global strategy. Rosemarie began her career at Goldman Sachs.

Rosemarie Truman is an entrepreneur, growth strategist, distinguished corporate executive, angel investor and prolific startup catalyst. Rosemarie’s specialty is growth and investment strategy, having led growth strategies for 50 of the global Fortune 100 companies in over 15 countries. The strategies that Rosemarie led have resulted in $300+ billion in “net new” top line yearly revenue and 190+ new products on the market. In her spare time, Rosemarie also writes for Forbes and sits on company boards.

Rosemarie has led the due diligence of over 500,000 pieces of intellectual property and commercialization of over 2000 resulting in more than 200 startups and $210 billion.  In addition, Rosemarie has led growth strategies and transformations for 50 of the top 100 technology transfer/commercialization organizations in the world.

Mike Sharples, PhD

Mike Sharples is Emeritus Professor of Educational Technology in the Institute of Educational Technology at The Open University, UK. His research involves human-centered design of new technologies and environments for learning. He has led collaborative projects on mobile learning, AI and education, and learning at scale with partners including BBC, British Telecom, Microsoft, Sharp, and IBM. As Academic Lead for the FutureLearn company, he informed the design of its innovative social learning approach. He is Associate Editor in Chief of IEEE Transactions on Learning Technologies. He is lead author of the Innovating Pedagogy report series and has authored over 300 published papers in the areas of educational technology, science education, human-centered design of personal technologies, artificial intelligence, blockchain, and cognitive science.

Dr. Jeff Teo

Dr. Jeff Teo was appointed Professor of Cybersecurity at Bluefield College in 2017. Prior to Bluefield College, he was Professor of Cybersecurity at Montreat College from August 2004 to Spring 2017. As lead faculty, he designed and launched the college’s Bachelor of Science degree in Cybersecurity, a first among private colleges and universities in North Carolina. Under Dr. Teo's leadership and vision, the institution became the first CCCU college/university to receive the coveted National Security Agency (NSA)/Department of Homeland Security (DHS) designation as a National Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense (NSA CAE CD).

Dr. Teo's dissertation focused on Trusted Computing Technologies and Adoption and, as a researcher, he has published journal articles and contributed a textbook chapter on Trusted Computing. He has been an industry liaison member of Trusted Computing Group (TCG) since 2011. Rotary International selected him for their distinguished Overseas University Professor program, and in the summer of 2009 he was invited to teach a course on Trusted Computing at Xiamen University in Xiamen, China. His current research focuses on the intersection and applications of cybersecurity and blockchain technologies in academic, business and scientific research. 

Dr. Teo is developing blockchain curricula both at the undergraduate and graduate levels to increase program capacity to meet a growing shortage of blockchain expertise in this emerging space. For example, undergraduate students will acquire skills and knowledge mapped to the Certified Ethereum Developer (CED) certification offered by the Crypto Currency Certification Consortium (CCCC) whose board consists of notables such as Andrea Antonopoulos and Vitalik Buterin. In conjunction with business department colleagues, he will oversee graduate students who will acquire the skills and knowledge to transform a business idea/need and launch successful products or services, taking into account technical, legal, governance and social constructs into the blockchain space. He is also a crypto enthusiast and an avid contributor to the emerging crypto space. Dr. Teo advises clients with leading-edge operational security techniques to protect their crypto assets. On the enterprise side, he was invited to ‘red-team’ an ICO platform during its beta testing phase. This ICO platform is now fully-operational on the blockchain and performing as designed. Dr. Teo travels extensively to Europe and Asia, acquiring keen insights and fostering connections to stay abreast of emerging technologies adoption and implementation. 

Dr. Teo is a recipient of grants awarded by leading IT companies including Palo Alto Networks and Cisco, government agencies such as the National Science Foundation (NSF), and nonprofits such as Rotary International. He is a Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP), an InfraGard member (partnership of U.S businesses and FBI) of the Charlotte, North Carolina Chapter, a Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH), and holds certifications in Security+, Network+ and A+. His professional website is www.drjeffteo.com.

Jeffrey S. Wallace

Professor of Personal Finance at Snow College and an active Real Estate, Private Business, and Cryptocurrency Investor. He completed his graduate work at Utah State University with an emphasis in Family-Owned Businesses (Determinants of Business Success and Profitability) and possesses an active Utah real estate license. He is an expert negotiator, business consultant, and a highly rated professor of Business and Social & Behavior Sciences. Jeff has published many articles related to business and personal finance and is an avid blockchain technology advocate.