Aaron Cooper

Industrial Design grad from the Art Center College of Design and first ever intern in Nike Footwear. Aaron spent 25  years at Nike where he worked with athletes like LeBron, Scottie Pippen, and Serena Williams to create industry  defining footwear. Aaron has traveled the world working extensively in Asia and lived 3 years in Amsterdam while  starting the Footwear Design Studio for Nike. Passionate about holistic Human Performance and active biohacker  himself, Aaron left Nike to pursue greater impact for our Health System becoming VP of Strategic Innovation at Thorne  Health Tech. For the last 4 years Aaron has been working with leaders in the health and performance industry on brand  strategy, design leadership, product design, social media influence, new business development, and marketing.

Aaron continues to work for big brands, budget brands, and start-ups. He has designed, engineered, and created  footwear and apparel for the elite athletes on earth, literally. He has also created for “everyday” people in pursuit of  something a little bit better. His greatest asset is solving problems beautifully that creates culture for communities,  blending art and science into a symbiotic relationship. With modern technology it is very easy to create amazing  renderings. Making great performance product is hard. Aaron has the unique ability to design, engineer, and build the  greatest footwear in the world. With over 30 years of experience, Aaron has designed for almost every sport and activity.

IG @aaron.ac.cooper

Ana Milicevic

Ana is an entrepreneur, media executive, and digital technology innovator. She is the co-founder of Sparrow Advisers, a strategic consultancy helping marketers and C-suite executives navigate the data-driven adtech and martech waters. A pioneer of digital data management in advertising, Ms. Milicevic was responsible for the development of the Demdex platform (now Adobe Audience Manager) from its early days through its successful acquisition and integration into the Adobe Digital Marketing suite. Prior to starting Sparrow she established Signal's Global Strategic Consulting group and helped Fortune 500 customers adopt advanced and predictive analytics across their marketing, ad ops, and digital content business units at SAS. Earlier in her career Ms. Milicevic has held key leadership roles in media & entertainment startups and scale-ups in Europe and the United States. Her consulting portfolio includes working for the United Nations and the World Bank, executing initiatives in 50+ countries, and advising companies on go-to-market strategies all around the globe. Ana is frequently quoted by media powerhouses like The Wall Street Journal and Business Insider (who in 2018 named her as one of 23 industry leaders working on fixing advertising) as well as industry trades like AdWeek, AdAge, Digiday, Marketing Magazine, AdExchanger, and Exchangewire. She has headlined marquee conferences in North America, Europe, and Asia Pacific and is a sought-after speaker on topics of adtech, martech, innovation, customer experience, data management and new frontiers of technology.  

Kevin Gilboe

A service-focused leader with extensive experience in building international teams, Kevin Gilboe is an investor, advisor and advocate for creative people. As a member of the Global Epicenter of Mobility coalition, Kevin provides business coaching, talent search and resource navigation for Detroit’s tech startup

community. At College for Creative Studies, Kevin builds global partnerships in collaboration with the UNESCO Cities of Design, DO, for-profit companies and academic institutions around the world.

Previously as Director and Head of Design, International at 3M, Kevin led multidisciplinary teams in six countries across Asia, Europe, and the US with a primary focus on OEM and key account innovation. Kevin’s international experience includes a four-year

role based in Tokyo, where he led the development of design studios in Japan, India, China and Korea for 3M. While based in the US, Kevin led award- winning studios for global brands such as Post-it, Scotch, Scotch-Brite, Command, Filtrete, DI-NOC and KitchenAid.

An Industrial Designer’s Society of America member since 2002 and current Vice Chair, IDSA Detroit, Kevin has received 28 design and two utility patents as an industrial designer. His academic background includes a BFA in Industrial Design from the University of Michigan, an MS in Product Development from Northwestern, and multiple university projects and guest lectures in Asia, Europe and the Americas.

Bijan Vaez

Bijan Vaez is a seasoned technology executive and serial entrepreneur. As the Founder & CEO of Merchkit, he is building AI-native commerce technology, empowering retailers and brands with enriched product catalogs that rank, are recommended, and convert everywhere they sell.

Prior to Merchkit, Bijan helped scale a high-growth D2C marketplace as CTO , where he architected the platform's expansion to $65M GMV and helped secured Series A funding. He currently serves as a Venture Partner at Antler VC, where he leverages his operational experience to support portfolio companies in their growth journey.

Priyaa Kalyanaraman

Priyaa has been working on generative AI long before it was cool. From engineer to product leader to startup founder, she has a track record of shipping world-class consumer products to millions.

She is the co-founder and CEO of Lica, where she and her team are developing foundational AI Models that democratize visual design and storytelling for consumer brands and enterprises. Backed by top VCs in silicon valley like Accel, Village Global, and South Park Commons, Lica's AI models are putting the power of an entire content production house in the hands of marketing teams, transforming how they bring stories to life to connect with customers. Before founding Lica, Priyaa led Microsoft Designer and spearheaded incubation efforts to bring generative AI to the M365 suite. At Snap, she led AI-powered Augmented Reality experiences for enterprises across mobile and Spectacles. Most recently, she worked at Waymo, leading autonomous driving in multilane roads.

When she’s not obsessing over AI-led creative expression, you’ll find her mentoring aspiring founders, or creating AI-generated comics of her dog, Dobby.

Nalin Gupta

Nalin's journey began in India, where he graduated from IIT Kharagpur with a degree in Electronics engineering. After graduation, he co-founded Auro Robotics along with some college friends to develop self-driving cars. Soon they reached a saturation point in terms of growth opportunities for such a deep-tech company in India.

So in 2015, Nalin took a one-way flight to the US on a tourist visa and came to the Silicon Valley. Auro Robotics eventually went through the Y Combinator program, raised venture funding, and got acquired by Ridecell.

Currently Nalin is building a new startup, Wingman, which provides freelance product experts (such as gadget geeks or pro sportsmen) who give live 1:1 video shopping consultations on e-commerce websites.

Nalin is a Forbes 30 Under 30 recipient. He lives in the San Francisco bay area, where he enjoys working with startups and bold thinkers on world-changing ideas.

Katie Thomas

Katie is a consumer expert, with over 15 years of consumer and retail experience, now leading the

Kearney Consumer Institute (KCI), the consumer think tank within the management consulting firm

Kearney.

Katie's career began in management consulting at Kearney, working on projects across consumer

goods, retail, and media. She then shifted into brand management for beloved brands at Tyson and

Kraft Heinz. Upon returning to Kearney to lead the KCI, Katie partners with leading Fortune 500

consumer and retail clients to reframe business challenges from a consumer-centric perspective.

She has published over 60 pieces of content and surveyed 250,000 consumers.

Katie is Kearney’s leading media spokesperson, regularly featured on and in top tier media,

including CNBC, Bloomberg, NPR, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, and the Financial Times, as

well as regularly presenting at global industry conferences.

She has a BBA from the Ross School of Business, University of Michigan (go blue!) and an MBA from

Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University. She lives in Pittsburgh, PA, USA.

Sarah Russell

Sarah Russell is a partner and point person for domestic and international tax strategies at Wipfli. With over 20 years of experience, she brings a practical approach to helping closely held business owners and multi-national corporations with tax consulting and compliance. Sarah also advises clients on the latest tax changes and potential impacts to their business.

Sarah is a CPA and MBA with degrees from University of Michigan and Wayne State.

She is a member of:

• American Institute of Certified Public Accountants
• Michigan Association of Certified Public Accountants
• Control Systems Integrators Association
• Michigan Manufacturers Association (MMA) Tax Committee
• Association for Advancing Automation (A3)

The BPO (Business Process Outsourcing) industry is relatively young but has gained a bad reputation in that short time. When people think about outsourcing, they usually think about low quality and even worse ethics. We’re proof that there’s a better way.

We connect talented people from all over the world with innovative companies that care about business metrics and values. We're big fans of integrity, finding the right fit, and bringing opportunity to places that have traditionally been left behind.

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As a leading retail insurance agency group, we offer a diverse range of solutions tailored to meet our customers' unique needs. At the core of RIA's mission is the empowerment of our clients. We will provide you with the tools and data necessary to manage and understand your insurance coverages and our experience, our relationships in the industry and our belief in delivering unparalleled customer service is what sets our agency apart. RIA offers services for standard and niche commercial lines, surety bonds, personal lines and employee benefits.

Diag Partners is a Michigan-based talent services company that builds better teams through better relationships.

We are in the business of solving problems and building relationships. Think of us as a trusted extension of your team that you can count on to listen and to create strategic solutions that are tailored to your unique vision, needs and opportunities.

We are in the business of solving problems and building relationships. Think of us as a trusted extension of your team that you can count on to listen and to create strategic solutions that are tailored to your unique vision, needs and opportunities.We are in the business of solving problems and building relationships. Think of us as a trusted extension of your team that you can count on to listen and to create strategic solutions that are tailored to your unique vision, needs and opportunities.