Due to the Financial situation - our original keynote Speaker Pierre Everaert has had to excuse himself as his presence is urgently required in the Far East.

Fred von Dewall - ex Chief Economist ING Bank, now MD of Von Dewall's Advisory & Management, has kindly agreed to take Pierre's place for a discussion on "The Financial crisis and effect on entreprneurship and a brief outlook on M/A". Given the current economic climate - Fred's presentation will be enlightening for anyone wanting to gain a deeper understanding on the opportunities and outlook for entrepreneurs.

Bio Fred: Fred von Dewall, served more than 25 years at ING. He joined NMB Bank from the Dutch Central Bank in 1980, becoming head of Macroeconomics of Marketing and Planning. He has been General Manager and Chief Economist since 1983. Since his retirement from ING, Fred started his consultancy firm Von Dewall Advisory & Management, where he advises clients on management (strategic, financial, governance), capital funding, and government related issues. He continues to hold a number of high-profile external positions, including Chairman of the Technology Rating Institute.

Panel:

Evelyn YK Lee, Lead Principal & CEO, The Vine Group
Paul Schroder, CEO Capital C Ventures
Mark Wilson, CEO, Ryla Telservices;
Tom Pecht, Managing Director, The Jordan Edmiston Group
Joshua Backer, Founder of Teach the People/Marketing Strategist for SocialCash

From 6pm - Networking, Jazz, Wine and Spelman Museum Exhibition: “Dreaming of an Island,” a multi-panel Polaroid by acclaimed Afro-Cuban artist María Magdalena Campos-Pons. The Speaker will commence at 7pm.

Location: Spelman College. Camille Olivia Hanks Cosby Academic Center, 350 Spelman Lane, SW, Atlanta, GA 30314-4399.

Event Charge: US$ 40.00 for basic members, FREE for Business Class and First Class members

This event is held in affiliation with the Wall Street Journal.

Bios Panelists:

Paul Schroder
Mr. Schroder currently serves as Chief Executive Officer of Capital C Ventures. He previously was the CEO of Residex, one of the oldest Venture Capital and Private Equity firms in Holland. Residex had about euro 750 mln under management. His leadership drives an investment strategy which focuses on Agritech, ICT and Life Sciences.

Evelyn YK Lee
Evelyn YK Lee, is the lead principal, CEO and Managing Partner of The Vine Group. The Vine Group serves as advisors and investors in both privately held and publicly listed companies. Ms. Lee has led corporate advisory teams, fostered strategic business development, prepared joint ventures, planned new market entries, and actively engaged in transaction negotiations, business facilitations, executions, international investment road-shows, securities promotions, and fund-raising initiatives for emerging and small-to-medium sized Chinese, Canadian, U.S., and U.K. based entities.

Mark Wilson
Mark’s philosophy regarding customer contact services is simple: “Excellent Interactions Every Time™”. Mark’s commitment to this brand promise has allowed Ryla to grow to a nationally recognized contact center with best-in-breed technologies, a Fortune 500 client portfolio, more than 700 employees, and revenues in excess of $25 million. Prior to founding Ryla, Mark was a twenty year veteran at Dun & Bradstreet (D&B), the leading provider of global business information, where his career had begun on the phones at one of the company’s call centers. Over time Mark ascended to the level of Assistant Vice President and was ultimately tapped to manage one of D&B’s most successful contact center bureaus.

Joshua Backer
Joshua is the founder and COO of Teach the People, a casual learning platform for Facebook. Teach the People was a TechCrunch40 finalist in 2007, featured as an exhibition partner at Facebook's f8 developer conference in 2008, and is currently in private beta (Nov 2008 release). In 2007, Josh also founded Dank Apps, Inc., a Facebook application company which builds charity-based fundraising applications. Dank Apps, Inc. received funding from Bay Partners in 2007 and is currently in the process of being acquired. In addition to running Teach the People, Josh also consults on Facebook strategy, monetization, and marketing.

Tom Pecht

Tom Pecht, a Managing Director with JEGI, has nearly 20 years of investment banking experience, having served the small- and middle-market publishing community since 1989. Since joining JEGI in 2004, Mr. Pecht has successfully completed a number of notable transactions. Prior to joining JEGI, Mr. Pecht was President of Publishers Network, where he initiated, negotiated and completed transactions involving B2B magazines, special interest consumer titles, weekly business journals, newsletters, and book publishing imprints.

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Spelman College