Community & Guest List
Michael H. Drobnis is the CEO of OptfinITy, LLC, , a technology solutions firm which has received numerous industry awards including a ranking of the top 250 small technology businesses worldwide. Mr. Drobnis has over 22 years of technology experience across many different industries and disciplines, including but not limited to records management, disaster recovery and business continuance planning, system security, web design and development, project management, technology and infrastructure design. As an accomplished technology executive and project manager, his vision and expertise have helped hundred's of organizations work smarter and more efficiently through the use and development of proper technology solutions and collaboration tools. Mr. Drobnis received his MBA with a concentration in technology from the McCallum Graduate School of Business at Bentley University in Massachusetts. He has served on the Fairfax County Information Technology Policy Advisory Committee, the ITT Technical Institute Curriculum Advisory Board, as the President and on the board of the Springfield Chamber of Commerce and on the board of the Central Fairfax Chamber of Commerce. Mr. Drobnis is an alumni of Leadership Fairfax and The FBI Citizens Academy and is the proud father of 3 girls in West Springfield.
Michelle Nipko is the Chief Marketing Officer for the Austin Theatre Alliance (ATA), the organization the runs the Paramount and Stateside Theatres in Austin, Texas. She brings over 20 years of experience to this role leveraging her deep knowledge in the science of marketing analytics. In her previous roles she has served as a Senior Economist for American Express, a Product Manager for Financial Optimization Solutions for SAP, and a Vice President for Marketing Analytics at Bank of America. In addition to this varied industry experience, Michelle is also an entrepreneur at heart. Shortly after moving to Austin, she leveraged her expertise in social media and digital marketing optimization to form a company focused on lead generation in real estate. Most recently, she founded the podcast she hosts: ‘That One Big Decision’.
Marc Snyderman is the CEO of Snyderman Law Group and a serial entrepreneur. A former C-level executive who led an international engineering and information technology firm through significant growth, Marc recognizes industries that are ripe for disruption and leads strategic change for those industries. Marc is currently an angel investor and board member for companies ranging from a healthcare payment technology solution using blockchain to a carvana-like platform for semi-trucks. He's a life-long learner and an avid management theory reader.
Michela Quilici (pronounced: ME-KAY-LA KWEE-LEE-CHEE), CEO MQ Consulting and Business Training Inc. Michela is an International business growth + marketing expert passionate about supporting coaches, consultants and service professionals who struggle with sales, marketing and systems - to gain more exposure, magnetize qualified buyers, and double revenues with much less effort. Over the past 17 years she has coached and consulted hundreds of entrepreneurially minded companies globally, from start-up to $20+ million to take business owners and their business to the next level of excellence. Michela has been featured in USA Weekly, Canadian Living Magazine and Profit Magazine. She is a member of the Forbes Coaches Council and is a contributing author in the bestselling book Conscious Business.
By the age of 25 Marcus Taylor Founded and is CEO of Venture Harbour, a digital innovation studio that has built a multi-million dollar portfolio of highly-automated online businesses with ZERO outside funding. Marcus also developed the World's first scientifically-valid method of measuring human comfort zones and has been featured in the Forbes 30 Under 30. Marcus wants to show budding entrepreneurs how they too can build a profitable business without taking investment!
Marion Zola has always been a writer and animal lover. Her first writing was poetry, until she began writing screenplays and sitcoms. Eventually, she wrote her first book, “All The Good Ones Are Married,” which became a Lifetime movie. Along the way she began producing with a vampire movie and, for the last few years, a show on shelter dogs entitled “Shelter Me. Her second book is “Romancing The Dog, The Struggle to Make a Pound Dog Happy in Beverly Hills.”
Melane Mullings is a successful entrepreneur, Founder of Aere Management Consulting and author. A self-described ‘Venture Catalyst’, Melane catalyzes the reaction that turns seemingly simple, esoteric business ideas - born out of passion and purpose - into ventures that experience combustible success. Thirteen years after establishing and operating her first entrepreneurial venture in the healthcare recruiting space, Melane successfully sold the business, and is now sharing her unconventional strategies to success in her book: 'Lemonade! Squeeze Your Challenging Life Experiences Into a Successful Business', and through her consulting practice, Aere Management Consulting. Her book and consultancy grant her the opportunity to help struggling entrepreneurs and business owners build a solid foundation for their ventures, and achieve purpose-driven, impactful, sustainable success.
Martin Glenday is the Founder and President of Moxie Media, a full-service media design and production company. He received his Bachelor of Arts in mass communication from the University of Vermont in 1982 and earned a Masters of Science in film production and business from Boston University in 1984. When he was just 25 years old, he founded Moxie Media to provide employee training materials for the oil and gas industry. In the 35 years since then, Moxie Media has expanded to include around 20 employees and over 500 training courses, serving more than 50,000 learners across industries.
Monique Russell is the communications expert you want on your team. She teaches women leaders and teams how to turn likes into loves in their business and life. Originally from the beautiful islands of The Bahamas and Nigeria, she's an author, professional speaker, executive coach, and sushi lover.
My name is Melissa Lin and I am a previously successful chemical engineer turned multiple six figure business coach and business owner. I am a business, sales, and content expert in the online space. I went from stuck in my 9-5 to making multiple five figure months and working for myself. Now I help other women do the same with their online businesses!
