SPEAKER: Becky DeStigter

International Business Consultant

Becky DeStigter is an international business consultant with an emphasis on entrepreneurship. She helps growing companies become more globally competitive. Her focus is on aligning international business strategy with company goals, international business expansion and troubleshooting existing international operations. Before consulting, Becky worked for two years for the Institute for International Business at the University of Colorado Denver serving as business outreach to Colorado companies and working under top international entrepreneurship scholar, Dr. Manuel Serapio. She will be finishing two Masters degrees – an MBA and an MS in International Business in May. Before graduate school, Becky was an entrepreneur - owning a strategic marketing consultancy in Northern California and later in Cincinnati. She started her career in marketing and sales in the healthcare software industry. She speaks Dutch, Spanish and German; and is now working on Mandarin Chinese. She volunteers as a Girl Scout leader and AFS exchange student liaison. Becky's home town is Appleton, Wisconsin.

PANELIST: David Keenan

International Sales and Business Development Consultant

David Keenan is a Sales and Business Development Consultant with a specialty in International Business and a proven track record developing new markets, initiating strategic sales directions and developing strong sales operations for both established and start up operations, domestically and internationally.

He uses his extensive expertise as a successful, strategic leader in Global Sales, Marketing and Business Development, to enable his Clients achieve these objectives. In the current tough and competitive market conditions, he relishes applying his skills and knowledge to help companies expand and succeed in the Global Marketplace.       

David has led sales, marketing and support teams, managed client accounts and developed territories in highly dynamic and complex environments. He has increased sales, profitability and global market share for companies.

His expertise is in developing new business and creating strategic partnerships.  He earns the trust of his customers and partners, by providing quality service and revenue growth. David succeeds where others have failed.

David was educated in the UK and has a Masters in Applied Mathematics.

PANELIST: Jeff Wang

President of Poetica LLC

Jeff Wang is the president of Poetica LLC, a consulting firm focusing on market research, market entry, and business relationship management for business enterprises and educational institutes in U.S. and China, while working with Chinese investors in selecting emerging technologies and products for commercialization and
further growth.

Jeff has over 18 year experience in academic research, technology development, and business management. He worked at various information technology companies ranging from IBM to startups. He started from the technical side as a developer, technical lead, and then architect of enterprise applications, and moved into the
management, and finally the business side. As Director of Operations at Click Commerce and Merge Healthcare, he was responsible for P&L, and oversaw business development (in markets such as U.S., Canada, Germany, U.K., Italy, Australia, Japan,and China), product management, channel management, intellectual property management, professional services, vendor relationship (including offshore outsourcing in India and China), and engineering management.

He is an adjunct professor at Colorado State University’s College of Business, and a member of Executive Advisory Board of Colorado State University Denver Executive MBA Program.

Jeff received a B.S. degree from Peking (Beijing) University, China, a Ph.D. from University of Rochester, and an MBA from Colorado State University. He is a member of international honor society Beta Gamma Sigma. He published research papers in a world-class journal, and is a co-inventor of two issued U.S. patents. He has
been an invited speaker at various forums on the topic of business development in China.

HOST: Brian Tsuchiya

Founder of Startup Guru

Brian Tsuchiya is an authority on crowdfunding, after spending the last 8 years researching a variety of methods he has unique experiences with crowds. Including having a company entirely funded with "sweat equity" from over one hundred people. Managing that many shareholders is unique for a privately held startup. Brian also has raised over $2M of private equity.

Brian is the founder of StartUp Guru and started his entrepreneurial journey 18 years ago and has since launched ten startups. Startup Guru is the culmination of this extraordinary journey. He has openly shared for the first 40 years of his life he primarily served himself and lived a life without purpose.  Then in June of 2006 he read a book that would change his life forever.  He embarked on a journey that connected his life purpose with his entrepreneurial career.  Through this work he understood his patterns and defined his life in a way that revealed his purpose.  Forged in him was the way of the entrepreneur.