SPEAKER: Drew Crouch

Vice President, Corporate Strategy and Development, Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp

Drew Crouch - Vice President, Corporate Strategy and Development, Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. - Drew has played a critical role in the growth and success of Ball Aerospace, an innovative provider of space and aerospace systems. His current portfolio includes: enterprise strategy development; mergers and acquisitions; public and corporate relations and communications; and oversight of the company's Washington DC operations. 

Drew has served in a variety of technical, business development, operations, finance and strategy leadership roles in the company. Most recently, he was VP & GM of Ball Aerospace's Advanced Technologies & Products strategic business unit. During the 90's Drew served in executive leadership positions for two Boulder-based venture funded internet software and services companies, and provided portfolio management to a privately funded group of internet and telecommunications growth companies.   He is a member of the Board of Advisors of RavenBrick, LLC, a developer of "smart" and "green" technology for the building materials industry, and of the Dean's Board of Advisors for the Colorado State University College of Engineering.

SPEAKER: Jim Franklin

Vice President of Enterprise Performance Management, General Manager of the Crystal Ball Global Business Unit of Oracle Corp.

Jim Franklin is the Vice President of Enterprise Performance Management and the General Manager of the Crystal Ball Global Business Unit of Oracle Corporation. The Crystal Ball Global Business Unit was formed in 2007 as a part of the acquisition of Hyperion Solutions. At Hyperion, Jim served as VP and General Manager. Jim had held the roles of Decisioneering's CEO, CFO and VP of Sales prior to Decisioneering’s acquisition by Hyperion.  Decisioneering was the maker of the Crystal Ball brand of software. Mr. Franklin was also the founder of webfamilies.com and the CFO of Vericept Corporation.

Jim serves on the board of Enforce, Inc. and has been the president of the Rockies Venture Club since 2006. Jim is a frequent speaker at technology conferences and in academia and serves as an advisor to several technology businesses. Jim has passed the CPA exam, is licensed to practice law in Pennsylvania and Colorado and holds a JD/MBA and BBA-Accounting all from the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia.

SPEAKER: Mark Soane

Managing Director Appian Ventures

Mark Soane is the Managing Director of Appian Venture Partners, an early-stage technology fund.

As an experienced venture capital investor, Mark works closely with management and co-investors in strategy and corporate development, management recruitment and oversight, and equity and debt financing.  His current and former boards include OpenLogic, AdPay, OneRiot, Vessels Coal Gas, Cadre Technologies, Controlled Products Systems Group, Carefx (acquired by Harris Corp.), Voyant Technologies (acquired by Polycom), Ischemia Technologies (acquired by Alere), Datria Systems, Pixxures (acquired by Xedar). Some of his other investments include Veritas Software and Ping Identity.  He has been a frequent lecturer on Venture Capital and has served as an expert witness in venture capital related matters.  He is Chairman Elect of the Colorado Venture Capital Authority and former Chairman of the Rocky Mountain Venture Capital Association and the Colorado Fourteeners Initiative.  He is a board member of the Colorado Chapter of the National Association of Corporate Directors.  He holds a B.A. in History with highest distinction from Dartmouth College and an MBA from Stanford Business School.

SPEAKER: Mike Koclanes

President and CEO Bolder Data Solutions, Inc

Mike Koclanes, President and CEO Bolder Data Solutions, Inc - Mike has more than 25 years of IT, storage and data management expertise. Previously, he was CSO of Plasmon, a leader in data archival storage. Prior to that he was CEO and CTO of CreekPath Systems Inc, an early innovator in storage management software. At CreekPath, Mike was recognized as a "Storage CTO of the Year" in 2003 by the Enterprise Strategy Group. He has also held titles of Vice President of Marketing, GM of Storage Automation, and Director of New Products, at Sun Microsystems and Exabyte. At Sun Microsystems, Mike was part of the executive team that launched their operations in Europe and at Exabyte he led the introduction of the first fibre-attached tape libraries.

SPEAKER: Thomas Frey

Executive Director and Senior Futurist at the DaVinci Institute

Thomas Frey is Executive Director and Senior Futurist at the DaVinci Institute as well as Google top rated futurist speaker.

As part of the celebrity speaking circuit, Tom continually pushes the envelope of understanding, creating fascinating images of the world to come.  His keynote talks on futurist topics have captivated people ranging from high level government officials to executives in Fortune 500 companies including NASA, IBM, AT&T, Hewlett-Packard, Lucent Technologies, First Data, Boeing, Capital One, Bell Canada, Visa, Ford Motor Company, Qwest, Allied Signal, Hunter Douglas, Direct TV, International Council of Shopping Centers, National Association of Federal Credit Unions, Times of India, Leaders in Dubai, and many more.

Because of his work inspiring inventors and other revolutionary thinkers, Tom has been referred to as the modern "Father of Invention" and the "Dean of Futurists."  Before launching the DaVinci Institute, Tom spent 15 years at IBM as an engineer and designer where he received over 270 awards, more than any other IBM engineer.

MODERATOR: Mike Cote

Editor of ColoradoBiz Magazine

Mike Cote is the Editor of ColoradoBiz Magazine. He has spent more than 20 years in the media industry as a reporter and editor at newspapers in Florida and Colorado, and now at ColoradoBiz magazine in the metro Denver area. He has also taught reporting and editing at the University of Colorado, where he earned his master's degree in journalism.

Before joining the team at ColoradoBiz, Mike served as both the City Editor and the Business Editor at the Boulder Daily Camera.