Who We Are: iFEST Principals

Mike Snyder, President & co-Founder

Mike Snyder is a social entrepreneur and an international economist based in Washington DC and Salt Lake City, Utah. He is the chief evangelist and principal co-Founder of iFEST. He has most recently served as a senior international manager at the American Chemical Society, handling all cooperative programs for Asia. He has also worked for the US Secretary of Education on science and math education reform at the Department of Education, and has managed international life sciences cooperation at the Fogarty International Center of NIH in Bethesda, Maryland. As an entrepreneur, Mike started Asia-Pacific programs from scratch at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in 1996 with over $1 million in grant funding from the US National Science Foundation, the John D. Evans Foundation, the Japan-US Friendship Commission, the Korea-US Science Cooperation Center, and other sources. Mike also served over 3 years researching science and technology policy issues for congressional leaders as an analyst at the congressional Office of Technology Assessment.

Mike earned his baccalaureate and then his MA in Economics from the University of Utah, where he graduated cum laude and was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa. He has lived and worked extensively in Asia, and studied economics and finance for one year at Kyoto University and Doshisha University in Japan as a Rotary Foundation International Graduate Fellow. He is fluent in Japanese. Mike has published numerous articles and presented at numerous conferences on innovation, entrepreneurship, international science cooperation, education policy, and related topics. He has over 15 years of experience leading analytical and program teams to develop and implement landmark scientific, technological, educational, and economic cooperation programs between the US, Asia, and Europe.

Sundeep Dugar, Counselor & co-Founder

Sundeep Dugar is co-Founder and Counselor for iFEST, based on very early discussions with Mike Snyder that started in India in 2005. iFEST programs would not be what they are without Sundeep’s guidance. He has also been heavily involved with several life science start-ups, most recently as President and Chief Scientific Officer of Sai Advantium Pharma Ltd., a Chemistry CRO based in India focused on drug discovery and development collaborations. He has also been Senior Partner and Founder of Advantium LLC, (US) and Advantium Pharma Pvt. Ltd., (India), and Vice President for Chemistry at Johnson&Johnson Pharmaceutical after the buy-out of Scios Inc. in 2002. As the Director of Medicinal Chemistry at Scios, Sundeep was responsible for all drug discovery and development - - he established the small molecule Drug Discovery and Development Program at Scios Inc. laboratories, with 2 clinical and 3 development candidates in 3 years, before acquisition by J&J. Sundeep was also Group Leader at Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharmaceutical Research Institute and Senior Principal Scientist at Schering-Plough Research Institute.

Sundeep is best known as the co-Inventor of ZETIA® and VYTORIN®, two well known anti-cholesterol blockbuster drugs. Prior to his stellar career in industry, Sundeep was a Postdoctoral Fellow at Cornell University under Prof. J. McMurry, and earned a Postdoctoral Fellowship at ETH-Zurich, in Switzerland under Prof. A. Eschenmoser.

Sundeep earned his PhD from the University of California at Davis in 1984, with his Dissertation entitled "Synthetic Approaches to the 6H-Pyrido-[4,3-b]carbazole Alkaloids" under the mentorship of Prof. Bryan Miller. He also earned a Master’s of Science in Chemistry from Delhi University in 1980. Sundeep has received numerous awards and honors including:

- Commencement speaker, University of California at Davis, Graduate School Commencement, 2007
- US National Inventor of the Year Award, 2005
- American Chemical Society, Heroes of Chemistry Award, 2004
- New Jersey R&D Council’s Thomas Alva Edison Patent Award, 2002
- Schering-Plough Research Institute President's Award, 1995.
- Schering Plough Research Institute Excellence Award, 1996 and 1994.
- University of California, Dept. of Chemistry, Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award. 1984.
- Raychem Corporation Graduate Merit Award. 1983
- University of California Distinguished Scholars Fellowship. 1983
- Phi Kappa Phi, National Honor Society. 1983
- University of California Graduate Research Award. 1981

He is also serving on the Advisory Board of the One World Health Institute, and he has co-authored over 60 publications and presentations, and is named as co-inventor on over 60 issued and applied/published patents.

Yuan Youxin, Counselor & co-Founder

Yuan Youxin is a thought leader and co-Founder of iFEST, and has been particularly instrumental in guiding our vision and program development in relation to China. He is currently serving as the Director-General of the Center for International Exchange of National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC). His work includes organizing international research and academic exchange activities of NSFC, such as international conferences, professional training programs, and scientific tours and visits in and outside China. In this position he has extensive relationships with key research communities in China.

Youxin worked at the Chinese Embassy in Washington, D.C., from 1996 to 1999, where he was the principal Secretary in charge of information technology and telecommunication issues. Other responsibilities at the Office of Science and Technology included basic sciences, intellectual property rights protection, science and technology policy, and science and technology information exchange. During his service in Washington, he established an unusually wide range of cooperative relationships with public and private sectors in the USA and China.

Before coming to the US, Mr. Yuan was the Deputy Division Chief for American, Pacific and East European Affairs in the Bureau of International Cooperation of NSFC. There he was in charge of NSFC’s international cooperation programs with foreign science funding agencies and organizations in those three continents. He worked at the NSFC from 1992 to June 1996.

Since 1983, Youxin was a research scientist at the Beijing Institute of Aerodynamics in Beijing, China. His research was mainly in the fields of theoretical analysis of aerodynamic characteristics of aircraft, and application of computational fluid dynamics to control surfaces and aircraft configurations, in addition to the studies of high-speed aerodynamics. From 1989 to 1991, he was a visiting scientist at the University of Tennessee Space Institute in the field of computational fluid dynamics.

Mr. Yuan graduated with B.Sc. degree (Honors) in Aeronautical Engineering from Imperial College of Science and Technology in London, England in 1983. He is the recipient of the Government Special Subsidy awarded by the State Council of China for his outstanding contributions to the cause of science and technology of China. Three times, he received the Award for Science and Technology Progress of the Ministry of Aerospace of China (two in second class, and one in third class) for his research in aerodynamics.

Youxin was born in Beijing in June 1959. He is married to Wang Huaiting, and they now live in Beijing with their daughter, Xiaolei. He loves Ping-Pong, badminton, and other sports. Youxin also enjoys reading, and playing Weiqi, an ancient Chinese board game.

Sunil Paul, Counselor

Sunil Paul brings to iFEST his successful work as an entrepreneur and investor in clean energy and transportation companies combined with his years of experience in business, technology, and policy. He was the first investor in companies such as Advent Solar, nanoSolar, and Oorja Protonics. As an entrepreneur he's founded and sold two internet companies: Brightmail, the leading anti-spam company that serves over 300 million email addresses and was sold to Symantec in 2004 for $370M, and FreeLoader, the first open “push” service, sold for $38M in 1996. Sunil was also an advisor and board member for City Carshare. He founded "Power Lunch," a group of over 100 San Francisco Bay Area entrepreneurs, investors, and technologists engaged in clean or alternative energy. His early career included three years as a policy analyst at the congressional Office of Technology Assessment working on nanotechnology and information technology and work on NASA Space Station information systems. Sunil was very active in the 2004 election as a fundraiser and also as founder of a 527 organization, iCanvas.org which leveraged the Internet to better engage voters on progressive causes. He lives in the Cole Valley neighborhood of San Francisco with his six year old twins.

Robert Chernow, Counselor

Rob Chernow shares his wealth of knowledge about entrepreneurship and innovation with iFEST, as well as his extensive global resources and contacts. At present, Rob serves as the Vice Provost for Entrepreneurship at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) in Troy, NY, a position he assumed in January of 2006. One year earlier, Rob was awarded an “Atlantic Fellowship” by the Chancellor of the Exchequer in the United Kingdom (Gordon Brown at that time), to develop recommendations to help the UK become a more enterprising or entrepreneurial nation. During his year of Fellowship service, he traveled extensively throughout the UK and Europe.

Before going to London, Rob was the Senior Vice President of Entrepreneurship at the Kauffman Foundation - - the largest foundation in the world dedicated to fostering entrepreneurship - - where he was responsible for directing all entrepreneurship programs. Rob has consulted with more than fifty colleges and universities (including directly with 18 college presidents) on entrepreneurship both here and abroad, as well as with the OECD and the United Nations.

Rob has over thirty years of entrepreneurial and business related experience, both in the domestic and international arenas. Prior to joining Kauffman, he was the founder and president of two health care IT companies, one domestic and one international (Corporate Health Strategies and World Specialists Online); President of two major health care companies (MetLife’s Managed Care Group and The New York Presbyterian Health Care System, the largest hospital system at the time in the nation). Later, he was a Partner for PricewaterhouseCoopers, where he directed their international health care operations, many in developing countries and Latin America. Rob was also a Peace Corps Volunteer in Brazil.

Rob did his undergraduate work at Colgate University; his Master’s at the University of California, Berkeley; and his doctorate work at Yale University in Epidemiology and Public Health.

Richard Dasher, Counselor

Richard Dasher is a leading advisor who brings to iFEST his deep network of contacts and extensive experience in Silicon Valley and in Asia. Based at Stanford University, Richard has been Director of the US-Asia Technology Management Center since 1994, and Executive Director of the Center for Integrated Systems since 1998 in a concurrent appointment. He also holds Consulting Professor appointments at Stanford in the Department of Electrical Engineering (technology management), Department of Asian Languages (Japanese business), and the Asia-Pacific Research Center. From 2004, Richard became the first non-Japanese person ever asked to join the senior governance of a Japanese national university, serving a term on the Board of Directors of Tohoku University. He continues on the Management Council of Tohoku University and as Special Advisor to the Tohoku University president. He is on the Program Review Committee for the Japanese Ministry of Education’s World Premier International Research Center initiative and has served on the International Advisory Committee to the Japanese Minister of State for Science and Technology Policy. Richard is an outside board director of ZyCube Inc. in Tokyo, Japan, and advisor to several start-up companies in the US and China.

During 1990-93, Richard was a salaried board director of two Japanese companies in Tokyo, at which he developed new business in international licensing of media rights packages and other intellectual properties. From 1986-90, he was Director of the US State Department’s Foreign Service Institute advanced training centers in Japan and Korea, which provide full-time curricula to US and select Commonwealth country diplomats assigned to those countries. Richard received his MA and PhD degrees in Linguistics from Stanford University and is co-author of the book Regularity in Semantic Change (Cambridge University Press, 2002). Having received the Bachelor of Music degree in clarinet and orchestra conducting in 1977 from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, where he served on the faculty from 1978-85.

Jack Fensterstock, Counselor

Jack Fensterstock is a key advisor for iFEST based on his unique overseas experience and depth of knowledge about innovation policy. Jack has extensive international background in the global science and technology sector, starting in the 1970’s as project manager for India’s software development and informatics centers; and, in China since 1978 when he was invited to assess the state of Chinese science and technology and management processes as a prelude to the entry of international multilateral institutions such as the World Bank and other UN agencies. He led the first of such programs and over the past 29 years he has had extensive experience in conducting policy studies for key units of the Chinese Government and conducting technical assistance projects. His experience is unique in relation to China, as an independent outside expert trusted by the top economic and technology policy leaders in Beijing. Jack is regularly consulted for his advice on emerging issues of key importance to China’s economic reform program.

He has advised on and structured joint ventures and other forms of cooperation between Chinese and foreign firms. Most recently he has served as President of the China Capital Corporation, a seed and venture capital investment vehicle. Activities have included the conduct of market entry and feasibility studies, identification of potential joint venture partners, screening and matchmaking, deal structuring, and negotiations assistance.

Although in semi-retirement, Jack continues to work closely with the Ministry of Science and Technology on the development of China’s Venture Capital industry. This initiative evolved from a major study he managed for the Ministry on the reform of the science and technology sector and especially how to commercialize R&D results. He has held corporate positions at the Founder, President, and Chairman levels for several US-based and China-based entities. He is author of numerous policy and scholarly papers, and has presented at numerous conferences.

Sadiq Ahamed, Counselor

Sadiq Ahamed is the youngest Counselor of iFEST, but he has enjoyed several early years of very successful computer engineering and technology entrepreneurship in the United States and India. Currently, Sadiq serves as a Director and Product Architect for Incture Technologies. In this role at Incture in India, he drives the Products Development and Engineering functions. Before that he co-founded the start-up Shunya Inc. with several mates from his college days, which he ran for more than a year before successfully merging with Incture. He was awarded the "Dr. Dayananda Sagar Young Entrepreneur Award" in 2008.

Prior to that, Sadiq was an engineer with Dell for four years where he was the lead on four US patents along with ten other inventions. While at Dell, he won numerous awards including the "Inventor of the year," "Extra Mile Award," and others. He has also presented research papers in various international conferences. Sadiq worked closely with the Office of the CTO at Dell on Disk Data Format Standardization, along with Bill Dawkins who was the founder of the group. Sadiq is graduate of National Institute of Technology-Warangal and is now based in Bangalore, India.

Gordon Flake, Counselor

Gordon Flake has been a significant senior advisor and contributor to iFEST programs since 2006. Gordon currently serves as Executive Director of the Mike and Maureen Mansfield Foundation, having been appointed in February 1999. Prior to joining the Mansfield Foundation, he was a Senior Fellow and Associate Director of the Program on Conflict Resolution at The Atlantic Council of the United States. Before moving to The Atlantic Council, he served as Director for Research and Academic Affairs at the Korea Economic Institute of America.

Mr. Flake travels frequently to Japan, Korea, China and other countries in Asia as a conference participant and lecturer. He is a regular contributor on Korea issues in the U.S. and Asian press, and he has traveled to North Korea on four occasions. Gordon has published extensively on policy issues in Asia. His most recent publication, entitled Paved with Good Intentions: The NGO Experience in North Korea, examines the impact of NGO and UN humanitarian relief efforts in North Korea after 1995.

Gordon is a native of Rehoboth, New Mexico. He received his BA degree in Korean with a minor in international relations from Brigham Young University (BYU) in Provo, Utah. He completed his MA at the David M. Kennedy Center for International and Area Studies, also at BYU. His master's thesis was on economic reforms in Laos. He lived in Korea for a number of years and speaks both fluent Korean and Laotian. He has seven young children and is married to Pakayvanh Sisoutham of Vientiane, Laos.

Mariana Bozesan, Counselor

We are very fortunate to have Mariana Bozesan working with us as part of iFEST. As a social and serial entrepreneur with more than 25 years of experience, Mariana is an internationally recognized authority on the psychology of Consciousness Leadership and peak performance. In addition to being a trained computer scientist and psychologist, Bozesan is an inspiring public speaker and futurist who has also been a high-tech and clean-tech investor since 1995. She is also a humanitarian, philanthropist, and successful author of the first integral diet books and program entitled Diet for a New Life

Through her Consciousness Leadership Model based on Ken Wilber’s integral map of consciousness, Mariana advocates ecologically sustainable human development, socially responsible business practices, and conscious capitalism that bridges personal fulfillment with global sustainability for the benefit of all humanity.

As a social entrepreneur, Mariana is the Co-founder and President of SageEra Institute, a Silicon Valley based socially-conscious and philanthropy-driven integral health company that currently supports more than 38 humanitarian organizations worldwide www.sageera.com. Furthermore, she is founder of Infobahn Romania SRL and Infobahn International GmbH. Prior to becoming an entrepreneur, Bozesan served Oracle Corporation and Digital Equipment in various executive functions worldwide. As a humanitarian, she served as a board member of The International Museum of Women in San Francisco, California. Mariana is a member of the Founders Council of The Chopra Foundation, advisory board member of The Spiritual Alliance to Stop Intimate Violence (SAIV), and the President and Founder of the Bozesan Foundation. The Bozesan Foundation is a privately held philanthropic organization, which contributes to the education of young people in Africa, China, India, and in former communist countries.

Educated at Stanford University and Karlsruhe University, Germany, Mariana holds a MS degree (Diplom Informatikerin) in Artificial Intelligence and Computer Science from Karlsruhe University. A native born Romanian, she is fluent in five languages and is currently enrolled in a PhD Program at the Institute for Transpersonal Psychology in Palo Alto California, from which she also received a Masters degree (MATS).

Harvey Scott, Counselor

Harvey Scott brings to iFEST his extensive international venture experience, as well as his current leadership role as Vice President of Corporate Ventures for Rolls-Royce Plc. In this highly autonomous role he works closely with the Rolls-Royce Board and Top Management at Rolls-Royce, as well as US and European Private Equity/Venture/Angel funds. He also works closely with government development agencies on executing new business ventures.

Harvey has broad international experience and has expertise in Corporate Venture Capital, Supply-Chain Management, Cross-Functional Team Integration, Negotiations, and Risk Management. He also has experience in M&A, non-profit management, and macro- and micro-economic development policy.

In addition, Harvey currently serves on several boards and councils including: the European Council on Innovation, the Market Development Board for the Society of British Aerospace Companies (SBAC), and the Business Innovation Council for the University of Leicester.

Harvey earned a B.Sc. in Business Management and Finance with a minor in Mandarin Chinese from Southern Virginia University. He also earned Masters Degrees from Cornell University in Organizational Management and an MPA in International Development and Economics. Harvey currently resides with his family in Griffydam, Leicestershire in the United Kingdom.

Susan Sclafani, Counselor

Susan Sclafani is currently serving as Managing Director of Chartwell Education Group in Washington DC. Susan recently retired as Assistant Secretary of Education and Counselor to the US Secretary of Education, where she worked with Mike Snyder. She brings a wealth of domestic and global experience and relationships as an advisor to iFEST. At the US Department of Education, Susan was the US representative to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum (APEC). Her passion for the task of promoting and ensuring the highest standards in education was well demonstrated during her tenure at the United States Department of Education. Among the highlights of her term at the Department was her leadership in the creation of the Mathematics and Science Initiative (MSI). The MSI focused attention on the importance of mathematics and science in the education of all students, emphasizing the need for knowledgeable math and science teachers at every level of schooling and the importance of further research in both areas.

Susan’s global work led to her leadership of the joint E-Language Learning System with the Chinese Ministry of Education. She also led the Department’s High School Initiative to better prepare students for 21st Century education, training, and the workplace. Prior to serving at the Department, Dr. Sclafani was Chief Academic Officer for Houston, Texas - - one of the nation’s largest urban school districts - - and in that capacity perfected her diverse skills focusing on technology, curriculum development, and construction management. She also has extensive state education and business experience.

Guillermo Söhnlein, Counselor

Guillermo Söhnlein is committed to the iFEST vision of encouraging transnational technology entrepreneurship, particularly for young people. He has spent ten years in leadership roles with various technology startups in the Washington DC area as well as Silicon Valley. Guillermo’s recent East Coast ventures include an online service helping commuters to share rides, a mobile games distribution platform, and a Web-based communication suite for small and mid-sized businesses. Previously, he was co-founder of a San Francisco-based speech recognition application development firm that was acquired in 2001.

Guillermo co-founded the International Association of Space Entrepreneurs, a membership trade association promoting global entrepreneurship in the space industry, as well as Space Angels Network, a virtual network of angel investors focused on early stage space ventures. He currently serves as Chairman of the Executive Advisory Board for The Center for Social Leadership and as an Advisor to The Entrepreneur Center for the Northern Virginia Technology Council. He previously served on active duty in the US Marine Corps as a Judge Advocate, volunteered as a mentor and judge for the National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship, and developed and taught graduate-level courses in entrepreneurship at Stratford University.

Guillermo earned an AB in Economics from the University of California at Berkeley and a JD from the University of California Hastings College of the Law. He currently resides in Leesburg, Virginia, with his wife, Julie, and their three young children, Rebecca, Daniel, and Caleb.

Andrew Hargadon, Advisor & Lead Seminar Instructor

Andrew Hargadon is an Associate Professor of Technology Management at the Graduate School of Management, and Director of the Center for Entrepreneurship at the University of California at Davis. Prior to his academic appointment, he worked as a product designer at IDEO and Apple Computer and taught in the Product Design program at Stanford University. Professor Hargadon's research focuses on the effective management of innovation, and he has written extensively on knowledge and technology brokering, the role of learning and knowledge management in innovation, and the strategic role of design in managing technology transitions.

His research has been used to develop or guide new innovation programs in organizations as diverse as the Canadian Health Services, Silicon Valley start-ups, Hewlett-Packard and the US Navy. He has published numerous articles and chapters in leading scholarly and applied publications. He teaches corporate executive programs and serves on the advisory boards of several start-up companies.

Andrew Hargadon received his Ph.D. from the Management Science and Engineering Department in Stanford University's School of Engineering, where he was named Boeing Fellow and Sloan Foundation Future Professor of Manufacturing. He received his B.S. and M.S. in Stanford University's Product Design Program in the Mechanical Engineering Department. Additional information and articles by Andrew can be found at www.andrewhargadon.com.

Rao Buddhavarapu, Counselor & Seminar Manager

Rao Buddhavarapu brings to iFEST over 15 years of experience (5 years in engineering) in wireless and internet services, enterprise application integration, enterprise collaboration, product knowledge management, and computer systems. He worked many years in the Silicon Valley start-up community in companies such as Holomage, InfoSpace, Saraide, Tibco Software, and HaL Computer Systems. Rao established “TIB University” Tibco’s training department, from scratch and developed it into a profit making business unit. He currently works as an independent consultant and investor, as well as technical advisor and seminar manager for iFEST.

Rao also serves as CEO of ObjectOne Information Systems Ltd., parent company of popular ethnic portal www.teluguone.com and edutainment portal www.kidsone.in, based in Hyderabad." Rao completed the Executive MBA program at Santa Clara University, California. He received his MS degree in Electrical Engineering (Computer Networking and Operating Systems) from Clemson University, South Carolina, and his BE degree in Electrical Engineering from Osmania University, India. He lives in Hyderabad (nicknamed Cyberabad), India, with his wife Lalitha Sista, a scientist in organic chemistry, and two daughters Thulasi and Thanmayi.

Ann Korando, Advisor

Ann Korando is a nationally recognized leader with over twelve years of fund raising, program development, hands-on program management in the science and engineering education philanthropic sector. She is known for her ability to create partnerships and alliances, nationally and internationally - - lending her expertise and contacts to iFEST as a trusted fundraising advisor. Ann is highly regarded among a significant list of high-level colleagues in Education, Government, and Industry. She is recognized as a visionary with the ability of moving an organization toward reachable goals and objectives.

Ann is the founding principal of BBF&K Consulting, a newly formed consulting practice in the areas of Fund Raising, Public Relations, Program Development and Management, Outreach and Marketing. Ann is perhaps best known for her leadership at Science Service in Washington, D.C. where she served as Director of Development and Public Relations. She was responsible for raising over $100 million in sponsorships for existing and new educational programs over a twelve-year period. She secured new title sponsorship from Intel Corporation for the former Westinghouse Science Talent Search (STS) the premier US national science competition that has existed for 57 years. Sponsorship funding was increased from $600,000 per year under Westinghouse to $1.2 million in the first year thanks to Ann’s leadership with Intel as a partner, and the sponsorship continues to this day. She secured first ever National Sponsorships for the International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF), which had existed for 46 years by securing Intel as the title sponsor for this program as well. This sponsorship has resulted in $15 million of sponsorship dollars over the past nine years. To enhance the ISEF program, Ann created and secured funding for the Distinguished Scientist Panel, a group of Nobel laureates and Medal of Science and Technology winners. Ann created and secured funding for the International Exchange Night as an additional enhancement to ISEF. She also created and secured title sponsor for the Discovery Channel Young Scientist Challenge, receiving $6.3 million in sponsorship over seven years. Her other corporate accomplishments include:

- Created national program for NEC Foundation of Americas Tenth Anniversary.
- Created outreach program for Shell Oil Company.
- Created national program for Unisys Corporation.
- Secured financial support for National Children’s Magazine, Science News for Kids.
- Secured financial support for National Conference on Engineering Education, known as SEEK-16 (Science Engineering, Education K-16)

Ann graduated from Vanderbilt University, with a BS in Human Development in 1985

Scott May, Advisor

Scott May advises iFEST on a number of education and program development issues. He currently serves as Vice President for Systems and Curriculum at the Biotechnology Institute in Arlington, Virginia. He oversees an initiative that promotes interest in biotechnology education, state by state, at the school system level. Scott previously served with Mike Snyder and Susan Sclafani at the US Department of Education on the Mathematics and Science Initiative. He also managed the Education Department’s response to the needs of community colleges in Louisiana and Mississippi in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

Prior to that, he was Executive Director of Project 2061 Professional Development Programs of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and director of strategic initiatives and partnerships at the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA). Scott holds an MBA from Texas A&M University, a BA in Economics from Austin College, and is fluent in Spanish. He serves on the Presidential Advisory Board of Ana G. Mendez University System, the Board of Directors of the Triangle Coalition, and Legacy Direct.

Ryan Wilson, Advisor

Ryan Wilson is a gifted young advisor bringing a decade of experience in international alliance building, branding, marketing, and business development to iFEST. He is presently working at the X PRIZE Foundation in Santa Monica, California. During his career, Ryan has served Fortune 100 clients as an Account Executive for Ha-Lo Industries, one of the largest promotional advertising agency in the world. He also served as one of the initial stakeholders of Marketworks Inc, a global technology and marketing services company that currently supports more than 4,000 businesses in 37 countries. Ryan has worked as a marketing and business intelligence consultant for some of the world's top brands in industries such as financial services, sporting goods, health & fitness, and consumer technology.

As Director of Global Alliances for X PRIZE Foundation, Ryan focuses on worldwide strategic alliance program design for individual and institutional partners who support the Foundation's ongoing operations and prize initiatives. Wilson received his BA from Emory University in Atlanta and his MBA from Thunderbird's School of Global Management in Phoenix.