Management
Cooper Marcus
Founder & CEO
Cooper Marcus has nine years of entrepreneurial experience, having founded, funded and sold two successful companies. His experience ranges from textbook retailing to gourmet food marketing and real estate investing. He holds an MBA from Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management, where he was a recipient of the Top Student Award for Technology & e-Commerce.
Get more of Cooper's story here. Cooper is also about Spark Parking, startups, sensors, telephony, and other interesting items.
Cooper is available to speak at workshops and conferences across the country on topics including cutting edge parking technology, innovative wireless applications, and parking as an economic development tool. Click here for a list of past speaking engagements and see what audience members had to say.
Brandon Bidlack
CFO & CMO
Amazed by how inefficient parking can be in major cities, Brandon Bidlack joined Spark Parking in September 2005. In previous lives, he has served as a Market Intelligence Manager for Hewlett-Packard's Networked Storage Group and has survived a tour of duty as a strategy consultant with Arthur D. Little. He holds an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Rice University.
Click here to learn more than you ever wanted to know about Brandon.
Advisors
Brett Bonthron
Adjunct Professor, USF School of Business and Management
Brett Bonthron is an Adjunct Professor at the USF School of Business and Management. Brett is a member of the USF Entrepreneurship Program and a previous judge at the USF International Business Plan Competition.
Brett works for Microsoft in Silicon Valley. At Microsoft, his role is to maintain relationships with Senior Business Executives proving the Business Value of Microsoft solutions. Several of the customers Brett works closely with include HP, Electronic Arts, Informatica, nvidia, ebay, Applied Materials, SanDisk, Xilinx, Yahoo, Google and other Silicon Valley icons. Brett is also a thought leader and frequent speaker inside Microsoft, relied upon for his business analytical and strategic skills. He is also called on frequently to speak to Executive MBAs from University of San Francisco and its international affiliates about Microsoft’s business.
Prior to Microsoft, his professional career focused on management consulting and start-ups. Brett’s management consulting experience includes Accenture, CSC Index, DiamondCluster, and the McKenna Group – focused on building strategic growth agendas with CEOs. In start-ups, Brett has served as CEO, COO, VP of Operations, VP of Business Development, and Partner in four ventures based in the Bay Area and Atlanta. His most recent venture raised $20M in Series A financing and was featured in Forbes Magazine. Brett has authored articles on Corporate Venturing and Innovation.
He holds a Masters of Management from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management, Northwestern University; and a Bachelors of Science in Electrical Engineering from the Illinois Institute of Technology.
Amiel M. Kornel
Senior Managing Director, Spencer Trask Emerging Technologies Group
Since September 2004, Mr. Kornel has been a Senior Managing Director of Spencer Trask Emerging Technologies Group, LLC where he is responsible for growing the firm's relationship network, identifying qualified early-stage investment opportunities, and supporting strategic management of companies within the Spencer Trask portfolio. From January 2003 to August 2004, Mr. Kornel founded and was the managing partner at Kornel & Associates, the Silicon Valley affiliate of Strategos, an innovation consultancy firm. From January 1998 to December 2002, Mr. Kornel was a Partner at The McKenna Group, where he founded the Innovation Practice, dedicated to helping clients extract more value from their technologies, know-how, brands and relationships. From 1992 to 1998, he was a consultant in the high technology strategy practice of Lochridge & Co., where he worked with numerous Global 1000 companies in the telecommunications and networking sectors. Mr. Kornel received a B.A. in Biological Sciences from the University of Chicago and an M.B.A. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Sloan School of Management.
Dr. Robert Palmatier
President of Argo Consulting Group
Assistant Professor, University of Cincinnati
Dr. Palmatier is an assistant professor researching and teaching sales management, relationship marketing, and marketing strategy at the University of Cincinnati. He is also president of Argo Consulting Group, Inc., which assists technologically focused companies in developing effective business and sales channel strategies. He retired from industry in 2000 as the President and Chief Operating Officer of C&K Components, Inc. Prior to C&K, Mr. Palmatier worked for Raychem Corporation, where he served as General manager of a European Division, Director European Commercial Sales, Director of Worldwide Marketing, Director of Worldwide Strategic Planning, and North American Sales and Marketing Manager, among other positions. He has also served as a Lieutenant onboard nuclear submarines in the United States Navy and as a licensed Professional Electrical Engineer. Mr. Palmatier holds a Bachelors and Masters in Electrical Engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology, an MBA from Georgia State University, and a Ph.D. from the University of Missouri.
Sam Shank
Founder & CEO of
Sam Shank, founder and CEO of TravelPost, has over a decade of experience in the consumer Internet industry including leadership roles in sales and product management at NexTag, Excite, CNET, and Oracle. At NexTag, Sam launched the Electronics and Small Sellers categories, now multi-million dollar business units. Additionally, under his product leadership, NexTag team won numerous industry awards including Forbes Best of the Web. He has successfully executed contracts with over 75 companies, including Wells Fargo Bank and Citibank. Sam holds an Masters in Business Administration from the J.L. Kellogg School of Management where he received the Entrepreneurial Studies award, and a BA in English from the University of Virginia. . Check out TravelPost for .
Dan Wagenmaker
Klaff Realty, LP
President, Millstone Properties
Dan is currently employed with Klaff Realty, LP, a private entrepreneurial real estate investment firm in Chicago. At Klaff, he works with portfolios of commercial properties associated with retailers that Klaff acquired with its investment partners. These include Mervyn's, Albertsons, ShopKo, and former Service Merchandise locations throughout the United States. Prior to working at Klaff, Dan was a real estate economist at Economics Research Associates, providing consulting services to clients in the public, private, and non-profit sectors, advising them on investment and development strategies. He previously worked as a commercial appraiser and housing developer.
Dan is owner of Millstone Properties, Inc., which invests in urban real estate in Chicago. He also participates in revitalization efforts through a variety of community redevelopment organizations.
Dan earned a Masters in City Planning from the Georgia Institute of Technology, a Masters Certificate in Real Estate from the Georgia State Business School, and a Bachelors of Science in Architecture from the University of Michigan.
Craig Wortmann
President & CEO,
CEO and President Craig Wortmann leads the strategic sales and marketing process, oversees the client service and delight process, and directs the day-to-day operations of WisdomTools.
Craig's eyes were opened to the value and potential of learning while developing and delivering executive coaching and management training. "Seeing the faces looking back at me, they were wondering what they would get from spending two or three days with me. Helping people learn something new that would increase their likelihood of success was very challenging but also hugely rewarding."
Craig entered the work force as a dump truck driver. Since then, he has amassed a mountain of strategic marketing and sales experience at companies including IBM and Forum, the nation's sixth largest training company. At Forum, he was responsible for managing and coordinating strategic partnerships to deliver high-impact training solutions. An alum of Kellogg Graduate School of Business, Craig has focused heavily on learning technology and performance improvement.