Entrepreneur Spotlights

Co-founder and CEO of WaterPlanet

Over two decades, Dr. Eric Hoek has dedicated his life’s work to education, research, engineering, innovation, entrepreneurial and philanthropic activities related to his passion – clean water. He currently serves as the CEO of Water Planet, Inc., which offers the world’s first smart membrane filtration technology. Water Planet's products include PolyCera membranes and IntelliFlux controls, which offer a new level of productivity, reliability and affordability in water filtration. Their key markets are industrial wastewater (treatment, recycling and reuse) and drinking water purification.

Founder and CEO of Contender

With over 15 years experience in the ticketing industry, Wes serves at CEO and Founder of Contender. Contender is an offer-based live event marketplace & consumer app that encourages buyers & sellers to agree on fair deals that reflect the real-time value of a ticket.

In essence, Contender makes every ticket on the $12b resale market negotiable, while providing tools for teams, artists, venues and resellers to maximize inventory and optimize unsold seats.

CEO of Agent.ai

Fred is CEO of Agent.ai, a company that is transforming customer service using machine learning, artificial intelligence and customer service training data. Featured on Forbes and Venturebeat, Agent.ai is transforming customer service using machine learning, artificial intelligence and customer service training data.

Founder of TVG Executive Search

Mike Vanneman is the founder of TVG Executive Search. After a successful twenty plus year run as a technology sales executive, Mike founded an executive search firm, TVG Executive Search. The focus of his company is to identify and recruit world class sales leaders and to help technology companies build quota exceeding sales teams. He has also conducted successful searches in the non-profit sector.

Co-Founder and President of FreedomPop

Steven Sesar is a seasoned consumer internet entrepreneur, Co-Founder and President of FreedomPop, the highly publicized free mobile phone startup, responsible for customer acquisition, retention, monetization and all company operations.

Prior to FreedomPop, Steven served as VP Marketing & Revenue for Woo Media, Inc., an online interactive video platform with multiple consumer properties across web, Facebook and mobile platforms, and was responsible for driving over 10 million registered users, developing a multi-million dollar revenue stream and positioning Woo Media for acquisition.