Tuesday, September 29, 2009
6:00 p.m. Registration and Networking (refreshments served)
7:00 p.m. Live Panel Discussion and Q&A
8:45 p.m. Closing Remarks Followed by Networking
Registration: Save $10 by pre-registering online for $25. Tickets at the door are $35 cash or check (space permitting) and Students are $10 with ID.
Location:NOVA Southeastern University – H. Wayne Huizenga School of Business and Entrepreneurship, Carl DeSantis Building, Davie Campus, 3301 College Avenue, Fort Lauderdale, 33314.
Overview:
Are successful entrepreneurs “just lucky”? Are they smarter than most people? Did they attend prestigious business schools? For the majority of entrepreneurs, the answers to most, if not all, of these questions is “No”. The real answer is that many of them are ordinary people who dared to achieve extraordinary things.
So, how do seemingly ordinary people achieve extra-ordinary business success? How do they overcome paralyzing internal self-doubt and drown out external voices of negativity? What drives them to pick themselves up time and time again when confronted by adversity and failure, enabling them to ultimately achieve success?
The MIT Enterprise Forum is proud to present a truly all-star panel of successful serial entrepreneurs willing to share their inspirational stories of triumph over adversity, success over failure, and courage over fear. This season-opening event is designed to appeal to entrepreneurs who have already realized business success; budding entrepreneurs seeking inspiration; and those how have always dreamed of starting their own small business.
The LIVE Local Panel of South Florida Entrepreneurs will include:
Neil Asbury is Chief Executive of Legacy Brands. Mr. Asbury has been an entrepreneur involved in global business since graduating from Rowan State University in New Jersey in 1979 with a Bachelor of Arts degree. He moved to Asia in 1981 to represent the interests of a number of U.S. manufacturers throughout the region.
In 1987, he founded Asbury WorldWide which became the largest American Export Management Company in its segment, with twelve distribution facilities around the globe. In 1989, he began FAB Asia, Inc. in Manila, Philippines, which was the exclusive Asian fabricator of commercial kitchens for McDonalds as well as other well-known American chains.
After selling his group of companies in July of 1999, Mr. Asbury established Greenfield World Trade which is a global Trading Company selling and servicing American manufactured products in over 130 countries to both the retail and commercial markets.
No stranger to Capitol Hill, Mr. Asbury has received the E-Star Export Award and the Export Achievement Award from the U.S. Department of Commerce. He is chairman of the South Florida District Export Council, appointed to serve by the U.S. Secretary of Commerce. He is a member of the International Advisory Committee to Governor Charlie Crist of Florida and a member of the prestigious International Policy Committee of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in Washington. In addition to his opinion pieces on asburysworld.com, Mr. Asbury writes a column on global business issues entitled Asbury’s World for To The Point News (www.tothepointnews.com) which is a Washington D.C. based intel Service widely read by government and business leaders across the country.
Neal Asbury resides in Weston, Florida with his wife, Elizabeth and two daughters, Anjelica and Alyssa.
Edward E. Iacobucci is a long time veteran of the IT industry. Mr. Iacobucci began his career at IBM in 1979. He was a key part of IBM’s entry into the commercial software business after a seminal federal antitrust case forced the company to unbundle — to sell its software separately from the hardware. He worked first in the network management arena (NetView) and later in the Entry Systems (Personal Computer) division with architecture and design leadership responsibilities for IBM’s DOS and OS/2. Mr. Iacobucci led the joint IBM-Microsoft design team that launched the modern era of multi-tasking PC operating systems.
He left IBM in 1989 to co-found Citrix Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq: CTXS), a company to explore and implement his vision of server-based computing. He led the company as CEO through the product’s launch and until 2000. Citrix grew rapidly and joined both the Nasdaq top 100 and the S&P 500 in record time. In 2000, Mr. Iacobucci retired to pursue his interests in aviation.
In May 2000, together with his wife Nancy, Mr. Iacobucci turned his focus to Wingedfoot Services LLC and made its Bombardier Learjet 60 aircraft available to passengers as a traditional on-demand charter operator. But before long he came up with the idea of what amounts to an operating system for aircraft operations — software that can allocate and optimize resources in near real-time. That software — plus a growing team of experienced aviation hands including Bruce Holmes — is the foundation of DayJet. Mr. Iacobucci co-founded DayJet Corporation in May 2002 with the mission of bringing affordable and accessible per-seat, on-demand jet travel to a broad market.
Mike Levy is the founder and CEO of OPENSports.com, a next-generation sports web site that redefines the sports fan’s online experience. OPEN Sports is a comprehensive platform of products and services that offer breaking sports news, social media tools, user generated content and fantasy sports applications.
Prior to launching OPEN Sports, Mr. Levy was the founder and former CEO of SportsLine.com, Inc., a leading Internet sports media company and publisher of CBS SportsLine.com, NFL.com, PGA Tour.com and NCAA Sports.com. Mr. Levy founded the company in February 1994. SportsLine was listed on NASDAQ from November 1997 through December 2004 when it was acquired by CBS.
At SportsLine, Mr. Levy forged alliances with CBS Sports, AOL, the NFL, the NBA, MLB, the PGA Tour, the NCAA, various players’ associations and many superstar athletes including Tiger Woods, Michael Jordan, Shaquille O’Neal, Joe Namath, John Elway, Jerry Rice, Mike Schmidt and Wayne Gretzky.
Mr. Levy took SportsLine public in 1997 raising $32 million. In 1998, SportsLine raised $150 million in a secondary offering and in 1999 raised $150 million in a convertible bond offering. During the Internet boom years from 1998 to early 2000, SportsLine’s market cap routinely exceeded $1 billion.
From 1978 through 1993, Mr. Levy was CEO of Lexicon Corporation, a company he co-founded to develop and market the world’s first electronic language translator. Under Levy, Lexicon went on to develop data communications terminals for the Department of Defense and Fortune 500 clients, and financial transaction terminals for major credit card issuers, banks and large retailers. Sports-Tech International, Inc., a Lexicon subsidiary developed the video analysis systems which were used by a majority of NFL and NBA teams, and over 150 collegiate sports programs.
From 1969 through 1977 Mr. Levy held engineering design and management positions with Racal Datacom and Harris Corporation. Mr. Levy holds six patents for innovative high-tech products and received his Bachelor of Electrical Engineering degree from Georgia Tech in 1969.
Mr. Levy was selected as one of The Sporting News 100 most powerful people in sports for three consecutive years (1999-2001). In 1999, he was given the Annual Achievement in Technology and New Media Award by UJA Federation of New York. In 1998, Mr. Levy was inducted by Georgia Tech’s College of Engineering into the Academy of Distinguished Alumni. In 1997, Mr. Levy received the “Florida Entrepreneur of the Year Award” sponsored by Ernst & Young and the “1997 Interactive Entrepreneur Award” by the Interactive Services Association.
Gigi Stetler is the sole female owner of three RV dealerships in the country. Ms. Stetler operates in a man’s world, carving out her own path to success. She has rewritten the rules and redefined the business climate of the RV industry. Ms. Stetler’s gift of innovation has enabled her to expand her business, while her competitors are closing their doors. With a recession under way, RVs are a tough sell, but her business grosses more than $18 million a year. That’s a big jump from the $500-a-week base pay Stetler earned as an employee at a Fort Lauderdale RV dealership in 1986 where she was promoted to manager after only two weeks, and stayed for 13 years. Along the way, she transformed the business into a customer service focused operation. “We had all these buyers who were unhappy, so I fixed toilets and made homes level and did whatever it took to get them to trust us,” she says. “Then I threw a thank-you party for them at the dealership and offered a $500 credit for every new customer they brought. People saw we were paying attention to them and started coming in by the truckload.” Keeping her customers front and center has also enabled her to successfully expand into new markets.
As the author of Unstoppable, Gigi’s book reads like a best-seller, replete with plot twists, shady characters, and a heroine with many layers. A father-figure mentor who gave Gigi her first opportunity but later stabbed her in the back. An attacker who literally stabbed her 21 times and left her for dead and success in an industry that conspired to keep her out. In every instance, Ms. Stetler was knocked down, brushed herself off, and came back stronger than ever. There are many sides to this tough-as-nails businesswoman: She is also a single mom, an accomplished equestrian, and a woman of such immeasurable grace that she visited every day at the deathbed of the mentor who had tried to destroy her.
Luda Kopeikina (Moderator) is President and CEO of Noventra Corporation www.noventra.com – a strategy consulting firm focused on innovation and growth. Ms. Kopeikina spent six years at General Electric in various senior leadership positions where she had an opportunity to work with Jack Welch and observe his methods in action.
Later she was President and CEO of Celerity Solutions, Inc., a publicly traded company. Under her leadership, the company executed a complete turnaround in two years and grew six-fold. Interactive Week’s Executive Worth Survey ranked Ms. Kopeikina within the top twenty CEOs of US high-tech public companies for her performance and total return to shareholders.
Ms. Kopeikina is an entrepreneur who started two successful companies. She enjoys working with entrepreneurs and helping businesses prosper. Ms. Kopeikina is an active member of Common Angels www.commonangels.com – a group of 75 leading private investors. Ms. Kopeikina is a Founder of MIT Enterprise Forum of South Florida, www.mitforumfl.org – a non-profit organization that promotes entrepreneurship. She also serves on the Board of Directors of MITEF http://enterpriseforum.mit.edu as well as several companies. She is a Lead Catalyst at the MIT Deshpande Center for Technological Innovation http://web.mit.edu/deshpandecenter.
Ms. Kopeikina is a prominent business speaker and a published writer. She speaks on topics of innovation, entrepreneurship, clear business decision making and leadership. Her book The Right Decision Every Time: How to Reach Clarity on Tough Decisions was published by Prentice Hall in October 2005. For more information about the book, visit www.ludakopeikina.com.
Ms. Kopeikina holds a Master’s Degree from MIT’s Sloan School of Management as a Sloan Fellow. She also holds a Master’s Degree in Computer Science from St. Petersburg University, Russia, and completed a Ph.D. thesis in Computer Science there. She served two Visiting Scholar appointments at the MIT Sloan School of Management in 2003 and 2004.
