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Speaker Profiles
2005 MN VC Conference
Sheraton Bloomington Hotel
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Speakers (To Date)
	Tom Gegax, Founder & CEO, Gegax Management Systems (MN), served as Chairman and CEO (head coach) of Tires Plus Stores for twenty-four years. By the time Tom sold the company to Bridgestone/Firestone in July 2000, it had mushroomed from a concept sketched on a restaurant napkin to a market leader with 150 upscale stores in ten states and $200 million in revenue. Tom was a pioneer of the tough-minded, warm-hearted “coaching” style of management. Tires Plus’ healthy corporate culture was legendary for its focus on the well-being of its employees and customers (or, as Tom preferred to call them, teammates and guests). The unique pairing of hard-nosed efficiency and a caring environment was a core ingredient in the company’s secret sauce. Tom’s comprehensive, no-nonsense management system catapulted Tires Plus to the top in a competitive industry populated by some of the largest companies in the world.  Tom’s groundbreaking management methods have been featured in the New York Times and Fast Company magazine, and on CNN, CNBC, and PBS. He was named a 1995 Midwest Entrepreneur of the Year by Inc. magazine and Ernst & Young, and is the youngest person to be inducted into the Minnesota Business Hall of Fame™. Tom has served on numerous corporate and nonprofit boards, including the Center for Ethical Business Cultures.  Tom’s first book, Winning in the Game of Life: Self-Coaching Secrets for Success, is a blueprint for creating a productive, well-balanced life. It received critical acclaim from Publishers Weekly and Booklist and endorsements from self-help guru, Deepak Chopra, and from national business and political leaders, including Curt Carlson, Founder/Chairman, Carlson Companies, and former vice president of the United States, Walter Mondale. Tom’s By The Seat Of Your Pants: The No-Nonsense Business Management Guide is endorsed by America’s leading business minds, including Ken Blanchard (The One-Minute Manager), Harvey Mackay (Swim with the Sharks) and Richard Schulze, Founder and Chairman of Best Buy.  Tom’s guide connects the dots between all aspects of a business with unprecedented breadth and depth.  Tom founded Gegax Management Systems in 2000 to share his Synergy Circle business management system with growing companies. Gegax Management Systems has offices in Minneapolis and San Diego. To learn how Tom can help solve your business challenges, visit gegax.com or e-mail him at tom.gegax@gegax.com.
	Cong. Gil Gutknecht (MN)
	Keith Harrison, CEO, Compass Marketing (MN).  Keith co-founded the precursor to Compass Marketing in 1985 when he was 27 years old. The pathway leading to that event repeatedly telegraphed his leadership, ethics and respect for people.  Graduating from Bethel College in 1977 with a degree in biochemistry and business, Keith began his career as a sales representative for Duracell, soon becoming a regional manager. He took sales training while at Proctor & Gamble and then moved ahead to become an independent representative for Sharp and Atari. This founded his understanding of the video game category.  He started Compass as an independent sales organization that has quickly grown to nearly a billion dollars in sales. Nearly 80 people in three divisions — Productions, Labs and Marketing—accommodate the spectrum of what retailers and manufacturers need to bring product and consumer together. Today, Compass is a product development, marketing and sales enterprise specializing in some of the largest brands on the planet.  Keith’s own understanding of retail comes from many intersecting experiences such as the U.S. launch of Sony PlayStation, private label music created for retail sale and collaborating with an array of Tier One retailers and world class manufacturers. His retail intuition, experience and leadership have brought Compass to the forefront of independent product development, representation and marketing for retail.  As Principle of Compass, Keith demonstrates consummate skill in managing the art of potential. Across the business environment it translates into strong partnerships, trusted relationships and highly ethical behavior. Within Compass, it nurtures a culture that respects individuals and encourages innovative thinking. Throughout the marketplace and across the retail space, it delivers new ideas and astonishingly successful results.  Keith is a dedicated husband, father, church leader and business advocate at the helm of a highly inventive and energized group. He works constantly because he is drawn by the focus on what’s possible and the multi-layered reward realized through developing people, opportunities, relationships and product solutions. His brilliant insight, serious concern for each person and tireless filtering of information predicts the continued success of Compass, its employees and its partners around the world.
	Cong. Mark Kennedy (MN)
	Scott Litman, Co-chairman, Breakthrough Ideas is an entrepreneur and visionary leader who has spent 15 years growing fledgling businesses into industry powerhouses.  Most recently, his foresight and leadership helped catapult connect@jwt, the digital solutions business of J. Walter Thompson, to become one of the ten largest providers of integrated marketing communications in the United States. Litman began early, founding Minneapolis-based Imaginet just a year out of college.  Imaginet was one of the first vendors of its kind in the Midwest with an initial focus on Macintosh-based publishing solutions.  At the beginning of 2005, Litman & Mallin left J.Walter Thompson after sucessful completion of their management contracts and formed SDWA Ventures.  Their first venture has been the creation and launch of the widely acclaimed Breakthrough Ideas competition, the search for the next great business idea in Minnesota.
	Barry Moltz has been running small businesses with a great deal of success and failure for 15 years. He co-founded Prairie Angels (www.prairieangels.org) which invests in local seed stage companies. Barry also is on the Advisory Board of the Angel Capital Association (www.angelcapitalassociation.org)  which is the national professional alliance of angel groups. His book, “You Need to Be A Little Crazy: The Truth about Starting and Growing Your Business” describes the crazy ups and downs and emotional trials of running a business. It is in its fourth reprint and has been translated into Chinese, Russian, Korean and Thai.  Barry speaks at 100 business events a year through out the country. He has received numerous awards such as Angel of the Year and was inducted into the Entrepreneurship Hall of Fame.  Barry can be contacted at www.barrymoltz.com.
	Matt Noah, Conference Chairman.  Matt started NetSuds after leaving ADC in Minnetonka, Minnesota where he worked in Business Development and the Office of Technology until March 2000. Prior to ADC, Matt held engineering positions at Telogy Networks, ACT Networks, AT&T Bell Labs, ITT and Rockwell. He holds a BS degree in Electrical Engineering from North Dakota State University and a MS degree in EE from Stanford University where he graduated in 1981.
	Jay Novak, Editor, Twin Cities Business Monthly (MN)
	Benjamin Wu, Assistant Secretary for Technology Policy, US Dept. of Technology (DC), was nominated by President George W. Bush on April 8, 2004 to be the Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Technology Policy and was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on November 21, 2004. He was previously appointed by President Bush as the Deputy Under Secretary of Commerce for Technology and was sworn-in to that position on November 6, 2001.  As the Assistant Secretary for Technology Policy, Ben advocates on behalf of technology promotion and U.S. competitiveness, contributing to the advancement of the President’s high-technology agenda. He works with Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez, and previously in the first term of the Bush Administration with Secretary Don Evans, to support entrepreneurship and innovation, improve technology transfer, strengthen technology collaboration, enhance research and development in our nation’s federal laboratory systems, and create greater partnerships between government, industry, and universities.  Ben has also led Administration and Commerce initiatives to eliminate barriers to technology trade, open technology access for the disabled, endorse industry-led standards development internationally, and remove impediments to technology commercialization. He participates in activities with the National Science and Technology Council (NSTC), a Cabinet-level council established by the President to coordinate science, space, and technology policy within the Federal research and development enterprise, and was the Executive Secretary for the NSTC Committee on Technology.  As the Deputy Under Secretary for Technology, Ben supervised policy development, direction, and management at the Technology Administration, a bureau of over 3,000 employees that includes the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the nation’s oldest federal laboratory. The Technology Administration serves as the principal resource to support the Commerce Secretary in developing policies to maximize science and technology's contribution to America's economic growth. Ben has worked with the Technology Administration, first in Congress and now in the Administration, since its inception in 1989.  Prior to his presidential appointment, Ben held senior staff positions in the U.S. Congress for 13 years, as both Counsel to Congresswoman Constance A. Morella of Maryland and on the House Science Committee, first serving on the Investigations and Oversight Subcommittee in 1993-1994 and then on the Technology Subcommittee from 1995-2001. In Congress, Ben focused on information technology, biomedical technology, and technology transfer policy. He was the primary congressional staff on legislation affecting federal intellectual property and federal technology transfer. Ben was also the most senior member and the lead Committee staff of the House Y2K Task Force that directed congressional efforts to correct the Year 2000 computer problem.  Ben received a Bachelor of Arts from New York University in 1985 and a Juris Doctor from the University of Pittsburgh in 1988.