We Love Our FLF Location Leaders
We love our FLF Location Leaders! This all volunteer group of amazing entrepreneurs takes time from their busy schedules to feed the hungry startups & entrepreneurs in their local community with a steady diet of free food, beer, community and content each month. We wanted to take a minute to introduce the leaders of our 4 locations to our global community.
Delane Parnell
Delane is an entrepreneur and Detroit native. He accelerates startups from a marketing and business perspective. He loves hearing stories of people who chase their dreams and is known for lending a hand to anyone in need. You can usually find Delane conversing over coffee at a local café, various events around town, or shooting hoops wherever there is a basketball court. Connect with him on Twitter @Delane.
Nevin Groce
Nevin Groce is an entrepreneur, executive manager engineering consultant and business activist as well as a leader of value driven companies. His specialties include engineering, consulting, operations in manufacturing, process improvement, collaboration, project management, business development & politics.
Nevin is current the CEO of Think Tables, Inc and the Founder/President of Avian Lightweight Board.
Patrick Vlaskovits
Patrick is an entrepreneur, mentor and author. He has founded (as well as crashed-and-burned) two startups and is am now on his third, Superpowered. He is the co-author of the new Lean Entrepreneur Book.
He co-wrote The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development: A Cheat Sheet to The Four Steps to the Epiphany. Affectionately known as the “CustDev book,” The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development serves as course text for classes at Stanford University, Boston University, DePaul University, University of Minnesota and University of Norway. Follow him on Twitter @pv
Sean H. Heyboer
Sean H. Heyboer is an entrepreneur, a connector, and a leader. Having been involved in many early stage businesses, Sean understands and easily relates to those involved in what he refers to as the "startup lifestyle." His most recent business venture has been co-founding Think Tables, a furniture company that through its products fosters learning, collaboration, and innovation. Sean is also a leader in the business community, including serving as the Team Lead for Startup LA (a region of the Startup America Partnership). Most recently, he was named to the Advisory Board of Free Lunch Friday, where he'll invest his part of his time and energy into supporting the startup community and in doing so helping stimulate job growth across America. Follow him on Twitter @SeanHeyboer.
Walter W. Grieves
Walter W. Grieves has extensive experience in the finance and corporate sectors amassed over the last 17 years. Upon completing his undergraduate work at the University of California, Berkeley, Walter went to work for Research Magazine/Multex Data Group where he managed the International Investor Relations Division. Mr. Grieves then went to work for Morgan Stanley spending time between the Wailuku Maui Branch and the World Trade Center location in New York City. Further looking to expand his experience in the securities industry, Mr. Grieves partnered with a group of Securities Attorneys structuring, capitalizing and restructuring small publicly traded companies. Over the next 5 years he served as President of several Public companies including Newbridge Capital, US West Homes, and DMT Energy. Over the last 7 years, Mr. Grieves specialized in capitalization, corporate structure, restructure, revenue expansion and assistance in exit strategy to many small to medium sized private companies. Mr. Grieves is pleased to serve ROC integrating corporations, entrepreneurs, investors, and professional organizations into the largest open source workspace solution in the greater Los Angeles area.
Heather Rees
Heather Rees is the founder of the Excellerator and is in the process of expanding her brand and offerings at HeatherRees.com. Prior to these endeavors, Heather was the COO at Roadmonkey Adventure Philanthropy, which she helped grow into a thriving business in a crowded market. For over a decade, Heather also created and ran programs that improved communities in Guatemala, Afghanistan and Rwanda. While in the Big Apple, she founded the NYC Venture Philanthropy Fund, which supports NYC's burgeoning social entrepreneurs. She's been a consultant to the Fair Trade Foundation, Artisans United for the Development of Atitlán (Guatemala), and Business Council for Peace. Heather earned an MSc from the London School of Economics, and a BA from UNC. Follow Heather on Twitter @heathererees
Pat Ryan
Pat Ryan grew up in the beach communities of Southern California where he developed a love for the ocean and surfing. He had a successful amateur career where he went on to become Captain of University of California Santa Cruz surf team. After university, he transitioned into semiconductor distribution where he honed skills in sales and relationship building. In the process he got to work with some of the largest manufactures in the world including Apple, Emerson Network Power, Hewlett-Packard and more. He has extensive experience in sales and relationship building as well as a passion for networking and community development. His current position at ROC (Real Office Centers) is the perfect platform to jumpstart #FLFOC as well as the startup community at large.
Oscar Gonzalez
Oscar Gonzalez is a business owner and entrepreneur, and an active member of the Orange County business community. He helps entrepreneurs and established companies get their business online with Oscarstech.com and OCweb.pro.
OCweb.pro, Oscar's webdesign and webs solutions company helps you discover, design and deploy the right technology to make your business successful. Oscar has worked with notable companies such as Pfizer, IBM, Wellpoint and successful local startups like Mirth Corporation.
Oscar lives in Irvine with his wife and daughter and a cool dog named Picasso. When he's not building a website or deploying a small network, you can catch up to him at one of the many tech and social media meetups throughout Southern California. Follow Oscar on Twitter @notagrouch
Courtney Klein Johnson
Courtney Klein Johnson is the Co-Founder of SEED SPOT. Courtney is an Arizona native and graduate of Arizona State University where she received her undergraduate and master’s degree in Nonprofit Management.
Previously, Courtney served as the Co-Founder & CEO of New Global Citizens, the result of a nonprofit organization she launched in her senior year of college on a $1,000 seed grant with a mission to educate, empower, and invest in young people to change the world.
In 2011, Courtney was recognized by Splashlife Magazine as one of the nation’s top 30 Civic Leaders under the age of 30.
You can follow Courtney here: @courtkleinaz
Chris Petroff
Chris Petroff is the Co-Founder of SEED SPOT. Chris is an Arizona native and graduate of Northern Arizona University where he received his undergraduate degree in Business Management with an emphasis in entrepreneurship. Additionally, he has a Certificate in Global Leadership & Management from Thunderbird School of Global Management.
Previously, Chris spent 4 years with Pulte Homes and at the age of 25 he was one of the youngest sales managers in the country; instrumental in the development of Westwing Mountain and Dynamite Mountain Ranch and Anthem.
Chris currently serves as a mentor for Arizona State University’s Edson Student Entrepreneurship program, is a Board Member for the Sigma Chi National Fraternity CHOICES program, presented at the 2012 Ignite Phoenix Food event, and previously served as board member of the Phoenix Art Museum’s Men’s Arts Council.
You can follow Chris here: @chrispetroff
Tishin Donkersley
Tishin Donkersley, M.A. is the Editor-in-Chief for AZ Tech Beat and Founder of Elements Communication. She is an award-winning journalist with over 10 years of experience in media. She has been seen on national TV networks and featured on radio, blogs, web radio and expert panels. Tishin is an Arizona native, graduate of Arizona State University, and holds a Masters degree in psychology and sport psychology-graduating cum laude. She is a mentor at Arizona State University Venture Catalyst Program. Tishin is a former professor at Mesa Community College where she won Professor of the Year for her interdisciplinary approach to learning. Tishin is better known around town as a storyteller, connector of good people, energizer, educator and approaches life with a flip flop vibe. @TishinD
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