Barry has 36 years’ experience enabling organizations to enter & scale & new markets, become the industry go to brand, and improve sales and customer retention by executing best in class customer care. He has a BS degree in Business/MIS from Cal Poly SLO and an MBA from Chapman University.

Becky brings 30 years of experience in marketing and public relations to guide her business coaching. She is an intuitive listener who is passionate about empowering entrepreneurs to tell their stories in compelling ways. Becky holds a BA in Journalism from Cal Poly Humboldt where she later served as their Director of Alumni Relations and Annual Funds prior to launching her consulting practice: YOBECKO, Brand Cheerleaders & Storytellers. Her experience spans PR and marketing strategy, branding, copywriting, advertising, event planning and social media marketing

Christine Sommer brings 30 years of experience working with start ups to Fortune 500 companies ranging in various industries including high tech, service, and consumer goods. Through her consulting and coaching, she helps to uncover gaps to success through exploration and accountability. Christine helps business owners establish clear goals, expand on their skill sets and remove obstacles. Prior to her executive role as the VP of Sales and Marketing for Comevo, a cloud based software company, she provided business consulting and facilitated classes at Collaboration, LLC. She has recently re-launched her own coaching and consulting practice.

Honored for teaching excellence and club advising, I have held positions in a broad range of industries, including nonprofits, sole proprietorships, and a major corporation. As the driver behind Cal Poly’s new Sales Minor, I act as a liaison between industry and Orfalea College of Business, coach competitors in the Orfalea College of Business Sales Competition and National Collegiate Sales Competition, advise the student marketing club (AMA – American Marketing Association), and coordinate Cal Poly’s Marketing Career Conference.

Dr. Metcalf joined the marketing faculty at Cal Poly in 1986.

In 1995, Dr. Metcalf began her journey supporting innovation and entrepreneurship during a five-year appointment at a Philips incubator in Silicon Valley. She returned to Cal Poly in 2000 and worked with the marketing faculty to focus the marketing curriculum on innovation and data-driven decision making. Dr. Metcalf was named a CIE Faculty Fellow in 2013, a program which she now directs. She joined the entrepreneurship faculty in 2016.

Dr. Metcalf is a graduate of the University of Oregon and the Thunderbird School of Global Management. She earned her Ph.D. from the University of South Carolina Moore School of Business.

I’m an author, public speaker, consultant, instructor, and academic business librarian.

I have written and presented on: academic library spaces and how those spaces help creativity and innovation, applying lean principles to managing radical innovations in academic libraries, how to create a welcoming environment for non-binary job seekers and employees, and big data and data literacy. I am currently completing a book on job searching: The 3 Most Powerful Communications: Research Your Way to a Great Job!

As an business librarian I provide research consultations to diverse range of students and community members. I create and teach information literacy classes for business, economics, and entrepreneurship classes. I am passionate about student success, especially in helping with the job search.

Matt Bennetti is a seasoned marketing and operations professional with over 18 years of experience in driving operational excellence and go-to-market strategies. Currently a Limited Partner at Stage 2 Capital Catalyst, he empowers early-stage B2B software companies by combining venture capital with hands-on coaching from an extensive network of industry leaders.

As a Marketing Consultant at Sherpa Marketing Consulting, Matt leverages his expertise to help businesses scale effectively. Previously, he held key roles at Salesforce, including Director of Operations at The CMO Club, where he excelled in community management and digital engagement. Matt’s career also includes time at Mercury Interactive, where he worked as a System Engineer, and he has a strong educational background with a BS in Economics from Santa Clara University.

Jose is a founder and startup community builder leveraging over 10+ years’ experience in digital marketing, event execution, venture design, to partner with startups and various clients helping them launch and scale innovative ideas. Previously served as the President of the Latino Startup Alliance, a Silicon Valley based organization helping to accelerate Latino led tech ventures. He is also the Founder at Santa Maria Valley Tech (santamariavalley.tech), an online community platform highlighting all things tech and entrepreneurship in northern Santa Barbara County.  

I am an experienced human-centric leader with 10+ years of experience in high growth, cross-collaborative, global/remote teams. I consider myself an innovative brainstormer, creative problem solver, and a big believer in diverse and collaborative teams and solutions. I believe that HAPPIER people produce better work and culture needs to be woven through systems. I enjoy providing a psychologically safe space to share ideas, provide input, and come up with solutions or perhaps that next big thing! I value communication, growth-mindset, emotional intelligence, diversity, and trust.

Dr. Ahmed Deif is an Associate Professor of Operation and Supply Chain Management. Before joining Cal Poly, Dr. Deif was an assistant professor and the program director of the industrial and service engineering department at Nile University in Egypt from 2010-2013. Dr. Deif was also an assistant professor at the industrial systems engineering dept., at University of Regina in Canada from 2008-2010 where he still serves as an adjunct professor. He is also currently an adjunct associate professor at the Industrial & Manufacturing Systems Engineering at the University of Windsor in Canada where he served as a visiting scholar from 2013-2014.

Amy brings 20+ years of experience in working with small businesses. She has a strong background in helping companies find a bookkeeping system that works best for their organization. Amy enjoys working with clients on understanding financial reports, gauging the health & profitability of their business.

Damon is an experienced Accounting Manager with a 15+ year track record in multiple aspects of financial control, management and policies and procedures. He is a strong operations professional with a Associate’s degree focused in Computer Engineering & Economics from University of Durban.

Javier is an industrial and graphic designer with more than 20 years of professional experience. He is a specialist in creating innovative and conceptually solid designs in a variety of 2D and 3D formats. 

Jean has extensive experience both at the bench in molecular biology research as well as applying bioinformatics and genomics solutions to a variety of agricultural, biomedical, and other biotechnology applications. Her focus is on leveraging computational technology to advance biological research. She received her PhD in Genetics at the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill, has years of collaborative research experience with various consortium science projects like ENCODE and the Undiagnosed Disease Network. She is currently an Assistant Professor of Biology, focusing on genetics and bioinformatics and serves as the Co-Director of the Bioinformatics and Applied Data Science in the Center for Applied Biotechnology. She also is the co-founder and CSO of Cerro Data Science.

Carolyn Kreuzkamp is an accomplished consultant specializing in grant preparation, innovation management, and biotechnology. She is a Reviewer for SBIR/STTR Programs at the NIH, assessing grant applications. As the founder of C. Kreuz Consulting LLC, Carolyn advises high-growth research teams on market strategy and grant applications. Her diverse roles include Market Research Consultant at Med Aditus, Interim COO at Cervu Health, and Co-Founder of REESHI. Carolyn is also involved in strategic events and fundraising with the Small Business Association for International Companies.

Ben is a Central Coast native with over 25 years of hospitality experience. He owns and operates Benny’s Pizza Palace & Social Club, known for Detroit-style pizza, craft cocktails, and live music in SLO. He also manages a commercial kitchen, providing affordable space to caterers and pop-up restaurants. With Slow Money SLO’s support, he mentors aspiring restaurant owners. Ben, a Cuesta College History instructor for 7 years, is pursuing a PhD at the University of Oxford. 

Jeff works with local start up and early to mid stage businesses, primarily in Food and Beverage industries, and also supports tech, transportation, manufacturing and other market segments. Jeff has held senior management positions in the software industry and became an independent consultant in 2010 to focus on the marketing needs and budgets of small, local businesses. Jeff holds a BSEE from WPI and an MBA from Pepperdine. 

BJ has over 36 years of industry experience leading software teams and providing
computer services to customers. His career encompassed diverse management and technical
positions where he drove strategy, acquisitions, architecture, software development and
quality assurance.

He holds a BS from the University of Illinois and a MS from the University of Arizona.

Dr. Anderson is an Associate Professor in the Computer Science and Software Engineering Department at California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly). Dr. Anderson directs the Data Science Research Group at Cal Poly where his team specializes in developing and applying data mining, machine learning, and artificial intelligence to the fields of bioinformatics, genomics, biomedical informatics, and metabolomics. His research group also specializes in the foundations of data science with a focus on explainable and fair ranking algorithms. He has served as the Director of Data Science at the College of Charleston where he founded the first MS in Data Science and Analytics in South Carolina. Dr. Anderson is actively engaged in Software Engineering and Data Science with extensive experience deploying AI and machine learning systems in production.