David Weaver is a Senior Executive experienced in full P&L, general/global sales & marketing management, strategic planning, business & new product development in Fortune 500 and startup businesses. He has steered various companies— primarily in the biomedical instrumentation & life sciences sector at top leadership positions. As a results-driven leader and a skilful negotiator, he has developed numerous global corporate partnerships and has driven growth, profit & business opportunities for several organizations.

His entrepreneurial spirit and innovative approach to problem solving lead him create a virtual consulting business, Aimattech Consulting LLC to advice and support startups and small enterprises. Also, he founded the first organized angel group In Michigan, Great Lakes Angels Inc. and helped kickstart others. He frequents as a guest speaker on early stage and angel investing to entrepreneurs and accredited investors.

Donna Rippin is a Partner with the recently formed Business Brains LLC, a consortium of senior level strategists and C Level executives specializing in strategic planning and business growth initiatives. A rich and diverse 30+ year track record of leading consumer goods businesses to profitable growth enables her to tap into world-class best practices; she readily applies those experiences to benefit clients from any industry and of any size.

Donna is a multi-functional expert, who because of her ability to lead, manage and develop people, has been functioning as a general manager with P&L accountability for the past 10 years, prior to joining Business Brains LLC. Her functional background includes 7 years of technical R&D practice at a Fortune 100 Petrochemical company, where she worked on human drug and medical device development; 3 years of financial work at Kimberly-Clark, where she became the first woman plant controller for a KC Consumer Sector mill in the history of the company; and 30 years of progressive marketing and business leadership positions at some of the world’s largest and most respected companies including: Unilever, Kimberly-Clark, Birds Eye Foods, Chiquita Brand International, and Lactalis International. At these companies, she established a reputation of being a high-energy, results-driven business leader, with a knack for driving profitable growth, rebuilding heritage brands, and successfully launching new categories and product lines.

Her competencies include: deep expertise in strategic planning and implementation, company and product positioning and branding work, business management for profitable growth, new business and product development and startup, integrated marketing strategy formulation, and creative concept development and writing. While her expertise is both broad and deep in all areas of business management, as a creative, her true passion lies in the area of new business startups and business/brand expansion.

In addition to being an innovative and inspired risk-taker, Donna is recognized as a team builder and a strategic thought leader. During her time in Corporate America, she has spoken at various Innovator Conferences to share not only her know-how with colleagues, but her passion for building brands and businesses as well.

A native of Northeast Ohio, Donna holds a Bachelor of Science degree, as well as a Masters of Business Administration with a Finance focus, both from Cleveland State University.

With over 20 years of experience building high-performance teams, Renee’ Gauze has held leadership roles at The U-Group LLC, Ur Solution Solutions (commercial arm of Globalwatt), and Wisconsin Investment Strategic Capital (WISC) Partners. While at The U-Group, an advisory firm driving growth and exits for small and mid-cap enterprises, she was promoted to lead business development and played a key role in scaling the organization.

She holds a BA in Hospitality Service Administration from Central Michigan University.

John Hemken is the President of Hemken Enterprises, LLC. He provides strategic counsel tobusinesses, basedon more than 35 years of experience and senior leadership. His “10,000 hours of expertise” are best leveraged in business model innovation, whereby constraint(s) are identified and broken by maximizing innovative solutions within a highly effective leadership culture.

Hemken remains affiliated with Initative One, a privately owned consulting firm based in Green Bay, WI, as a Leadership Transformation Consultant.Since joining Initiative One in 2015 as the Strategy/Business Development Vice-President, Hemken has led the business model innovation efforts that have resulted in a unique, non-traditional consulting business model. The firm now has a value stream, brand promise, strategic plan, demand creation feeder streams and business development processes to support it.

Previously, Hemken was Vice President Sales with Cary Francis Group(CFG) in Franklin, WI where he turned around the STIHL account (world’s #1 brand of outdoor power equipment). He engineered the turnaround in 18 months, increasing revenue 700% to>$2,600,000 at record margins. The key business model innovation was creating a retail branding platform that could leverage STIHL’s 8000+ independent servicing dealers in a way that created a significant additional revenue stream for the dealers.

Overall Hemken has accumulated many years of entrepreneurial innovation and leadershipexperience in the corporate world (P&G), non-profit world (Executive Pastor for Sherwood Church) while also founding and owning his own business.

Hemken graduated fromIowa State Universityin 1981, majoring in Chemical Engineering. John, and his wife Kathleen, have been married for 32 years and have five grown children& three grandchildren. John’s outside interests include antique car restoration, helping his kids with their fixer upper homes, finishing one marathon a year and serving as the volunteer leader of the Prayer Ministry at Elmbrook Church in Brookfield, WI. He has been active with The Executive Committee since 2005 (Vistage nationally)

Alicia is a seasoned C-Suite high tech executive with deep experience in developing and driving business strategy and transformations, M&A, governance and HR solutions for public and private companies ranging in size from pre-money private to $1B+, across technology and industries, including semiconductors, Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) and Internet of Things (IoT).

Alicia has demonstrated leadership in business strategy, sales, and both organic and inorganic growth. She has established worldwide processes, templates and tools to support the sales strategies and market expansion. She has architected and implemented global intellectual property strategies. And Alicia has deep expertise in leading and supporting numerous successful M&A transactions, divestitures, and initial and secondary public offerings.

Alicia has guided several Boards of Directors and companies through developing best practices and trainings regarding ethics and integrity, social mandates, cybersecurity, legal compliance and managing crises.

Alicia also has extensive experience in attracting and retaining human resources and building teams. She works with the Board of Directors, executives, and employees to define strategy and meet tactical worldwide corporate objectives, including recruiting, retention, culture, succession planning, executive compensation, and organizational growth and development.