National Summit on
Summary Welcome to the National Summit on Rural Entrepreneurship. This Summit is part of the Rural Entrepreneurship Initiative (REI), a joint program of the American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) and the Global Social Enterprise Initiative and Startup Hoyas at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business. The Rural Entrepreneurship Initiative is directly tied to AFBF’s mission of building strong and prosperous agricultural communities. Entrepreneurs are at the heart of what has always made rural America strong in many sectors, both within and beyond the farm gate. Rural entrepreneurs are a driving force in today’s economy, and they face unique challenges. Economic development has halted in many areas after decades-long migration from the rural communities, leaving remaining businesses in search of employees and customers. But the inspiration of new ideas by rural Americans has not halted and remains ever strong. We are here to provide resources and tools to fuel rural entrepreneurs to turn great ideas into great businesses. Rising to the occasion, it is these entrepreneurs who will build even stronger rural communities across the nation. This is REI’s mission.
Please join us for our ongoing educational webinars Tuesday, October 28, 3 p.m. (EST) Finding the Money to Grow Define your business and revenue model, and raise capital. Microenterprise, bank loans, angel and Venture Capital finance, as well as public-private partnerships will be covered. To register, visit: strongruralamerica.com/community/events Tuesday, December 2, 3 p.m. (EST) Finding and Keeping Talent Growing a business requires growing your team by developing staff in new ways, but also recruiting outside expertise for legal, export, or marketing assistance. To register, visit: strongruralamerica.com/community/events
National Summit on Rural Entrepreneurship October 14, 2014
Agenda 8:45 a.m.
Registration
9:30 a.m.
Summit Opening: Rural Entrepreneurship— An Engine of Growth for a Strong Rural America Bill Novelli | Founder and Professor, Global Social Enterprise Initiative, Georgetown’s McDonough School of Business Bob Stallman | President, American Farm Bureau Federation Maria Contreras-Sweet | U.S. Small Business Administrator & White House Rural Council Member
10:15 a.m.
Panel: Tackling the Challenges Introductions Ladan Manteghi | Executive Director, Global Social Enterprise Initiative, Georgetown’s McDonough School of Business Moderator Doug Rand | Assistant Director for Entrepreneurship, White House Office of Science and Technology Policy Panel Becky McCray | SmallBizSurvival.com Dave Alwan | Echo Valley Meats Jordan Lloyd Bookey | Chief Mom and Co-Founder of Zoobean Jeffrey L. Humber, Jr. | Senior Vice President and Group Manager, PNC Bank Mark L. Rockefeller | Co-Founder and CEO, StreetShares.com
12:00 p.m.
Luncheon Keynotes: Investing in Rural America David Thomas | Dean, Georgetown’s McDonough School of Business Tom Vilsack | U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Entrepreneurial Strengths Finder—Where do you excel? Jim Clifton | Chairman and CEO, Gallup
1:30 p.m.
A Walk In Their Shoes: Today’s Rural Entrepreneurs, Tomorrow’s Success Stories Each table is given an actual rural business challenge. Teams must develop their approach to solving the challenge through an innovative idea while addressing challenges raised and discussed during the morning panel. The business challenge will be in two categories: farm/agribusiness and non-agricultural. Moderator Jeff Reid | Georgetown’s Startup Hoyas
3:00 p.m.
Rural Entrepreneurship Challenge Semi-finalists Announcement
Speakers DAVE ALWAN
Third generation in a family-owned meat business, Dave Alwan left the family business to found Echo Valley Meats Inc. in 1998 with his wife, Dawn. Together they’ve grown Echo Valley from an old-fashioned style retail meat market, into wholesale products, a mail-order gift catalog, fundraising division, and gourmet catering.
JORDAN LLOYD BOOKEY Jordan Lloyd Bookey is co-founder and chief mom at Zoobean, a fun, easy-touse resource that helps families discover apps and books for their children. Bookey previously worked at Google, leading the Diversity & Talent Inclusion efforts for their Midwest and East Coast offices and later serving as Head of K-12 Education Outreach. Prior to that, she received an MBA from The Wharton School of Business, worked as a teacher in Washington, D.C., and served as a program director at a literacy-focused nonprofit.
Alwan purchased his first farm at age 23 to breed and raise Angus cattle. With that experience, he knows the meat business from “conception to consumption.” Because of his desire to offer high quality products, Alwan also decided to learn from the “best” and traveled to Germany and Denmark for training in the art of making smoked hams and sausages, completing a three-year apprenticeship in just six months.
Bookey lives with her family in Washington, D.C. She has been featured in Washingtonian MOM, The Wall Street Journal, the “SmartTalk” speaker series, and ABC’s “Shark Tank.” She currently leads Zoobean’s marketing and curation efforts, maintaining the content and creative direction of the site. She also blogs regularly for Zoobean and The Huffington Post.
Not satisfied with his local success, Alwan decided to audition for the ABC TV show “Shark Tank.” He flew to California, gave his pitch, and impressed producers enough to make it to the show. Though he didn’t secure a deal with the sharks, he impressed them with his meat products, authenticity, and enthusiasm. Not getting a deal has still been successful in many ways. Online sales have increased over 600%, and Alwan has been recruited to speak at colleges, universities, corporations, and business organizations across the country. His common-sense approach to life and business is truly inspiring.
Since 1988, Jim Clifton has served as CEO of Gallup, a global leader in consulting and public opinion research and analytics. Under his leadership, Gallup has expanded from a predominantly U.S.based company to a worldwide organization with 30 offices in 20 countries and regions.
In addition to being featured on “Shark Tank,” Alwan has received several significant awards including 40 Leaders Under Forty, Central Illinois (2005), Small Business of the Year Award from the Peoria Area Chamber of Commerce (2006), and Business of the Year by International Profit Associates Business Today Magazine (2008).
JIM CLIFTON
Clifton is the creator of The Gallup Path, a metric-based economic model that establishes the linkages among human nature in the workplace, customer engagement, and business outcomes. This model is used in performance management systems in more than 500 companies worldwide. His most recent innovation, the Gallup World Poll, is designed to give the world’s 7 billion citizens a voice in virtually all key global issues. Clifton is the author of The Coming Jobs War and coauthor of Entrepreneurial StrengthsFinder, as well as many articles on global leadership. His blog appears regularly in the Influencer section of LinkedIn and on Gallup.com’s Chairman’s Blog. He serves on several boards and is chairman of the Thurgood Marshall College Fund. He has received honorary degrees from Jackson State, Medgar Evers, and Bellevue Universities.
MARIA CONTRERAS-SWEET Maria Contreras-Sweet became the 24th Administrator of the U.S. Small Business Administration and a member of President Obama’s Cabinet on April 7, 2014. ContrerasSweet is a successful entrepreneur, business executive, and state cabinet official. Throughout her career in the public and private sector, she has been a champion of diversity, access to capital, and equal opportunity for all Americans. Prior to her arrival in Washington, Contreras-Sweet founded the first Latino-formed commercial bank in California in more than 35 years. As the bank’s executive chairwoman, she focused on providing access to capital and counseling to small- and mid-size businesses in Los Angeles. She previously started a venture capital firm that invested in small businesses. Contreras-Sweet was the first Latina to hold a state cabinet post in California. As Secretary of Business, Transportation and Housing, she managed 13 departments, including Caltrans, the California Highway Patrol, the Department of Motor Vehicles and the Department of Financial Institutions. She managed a $14 billion budget and a workforce of more than 42,000 employees during her five-year tenure. She led in the creation of the state’s Department of Managed Health Care and its Office of Patient Advocate and in the implementation of a $2.1 billion housing bond that stimulated the state’s economy. During California’s energy crisis, she chaired the finance committee of the state’s electrical power grid, CA-ISO, helping to stabilize the state’s volatile energy market.
JEFFREY L. HUMBER, JR. As manager of PNC’s Mid-Atlantic Public Finance Group, Jeffrey L. Humber, Jr. has overall responsibility for PNC’s banking relationships with state and local governments, not-forprofit organizations, and institutions of higher education throughout Virginia, Washington, D.C., and Maryland. Humber has more than three decades of experience in public service and tax-exempt finance/investment banking. In the course of his career, he has led Merrill Lynch’s public finance group and served as Director
of Finance and Revenue of the District of Columbia government. Humber is a graduate of Virginia Union University. He earned an MBA at Harvard University School of Business and a J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law. He serves on the boards of Gallaudet University, the University of Virginia Law School Foundation, and the Bert King Foundation at Harvard Business School.
LADAN MANTEGHI Ladan Manteghi is executive director of the Global Social Enterprise Initiative at Georgetown’s McDonough School of Business. She leads the initiative, building crosssector partnerships and programs that help train business leaders to create economic and social value. Before joining Georgetown University, she led AARP’s international strategy, including leading the international policy team and helping create, launch, and serve as president of the AARP Global Network. Manteghi served as advisor to the CEO of PowerUp, a former digital divide non-profit subsidiary of the Case Foundation; led business development for Voter. com; and was a political appointee in the Clinton–Gore administration including at the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, Department of Health and Human Services and Department of Interior. She holds a B.A. in political science/public service from the University of California at Davis.
BECKY MCCRAY Becky McCray says that small businesses and small towns have a future. She is a small town business owner, as she and her husband Joe co-own a retail liquor store and a cattle ranch. She writes and speaks about small town business, and she and Chicago entrepreneur Barry Moltz are the authors of the award-winning book Small Town Rules. McCray has been featured in The New York Times, BusinessWeek, and Entrepreneur Magazine. Her blog, Small Biz Survival, ranks in the top 20 small business blogs worldwide. She makes her home base in Hopeton, Oklahoma, a community of 30 people.
BILL NOVELLI Bill Novelli is a professor in the McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University. He teaches corporate responsibility and nonprofit management. In addition, he is leading the Global Social Enterprise Initiative for the school. He is co-chair of the Coalition to Transform Advanced Care (C-TAC), a national organization dedicated to reforming advanced illness care by empowering consumers, changing the health care delivery system, improving public policies and enhancing provider capacity. Previously, Novelli was CEO of AARP, a membership organization of 40 million people 50 and older. Prior to joining AARP, he was president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, served as EVP of CARE, the world’s largest private relief and development organization, and co-founded and was president of Porter Novelli, now one of the world’s largest public relations firms. Novelli is a recognized leader in social marketing and social change. He served on the Dominici-Rivlin Task Force on Debt Reduction and the Institute of Medicine Committee on the Future of Nursing. He currently is a member of the Institute of Medicine Committee on Dying in America: Improving Quality and Honoring Individual Preferences Nearing the End of Life. Novelli holds a B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania and an M.A. from Penn’s Annenberg School for Communication, and pursued doctoral studies at New York University. He taught marketing management for 10 years in the University of Maryland’s MBA program and also taught health communications there.
DOUG RAND Doug Rand is the Assistant Director for Entrepreneurship at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, where his work focuses on the Startup America initiative and efforts to promote entrepreneurship across the country. Prior to working at the White House, Rand served as co-founder and CEO of the innovative publishing company Playscripts, Inc., as well as a co-founder of the review aggregator StageGrade. He is a graduate of Yale Law School and the Yale School of Management, and received master’s
and undergraduate degrees from Harvard, where he studied evolutionary biology. As a writer, Rand’s plays have been performed worldwide, and he has published numerous articles covering subjects from theater to politics to insects.
JEFF REID Jeff Reid, the founding director of the Georgetown Entrepreneurship Initiative, is a catalyst for entrepreneurship and well known as a leader of entrepreneurship education. In 2009, Reid launched the Georgetown Entrepreneurship Initiative to catalyze entrepreneurial thinking and activities across Georgetown University and make a broader impact in growing the D.C. community. The initiative has grown rapidly, and in October 2012 Georgetown was recognized by the Global Consortium of Entrepreneurship Centers as a global leader in entrepreneurship education. Earlier in his career, Reid founded UNC-Chapel Hill’s Center for Entrepreneurship and grew it from inception to a No. 1 national ranking by Forbes and Princeton Review and was chosen by his peers and Entrepreneur magazine as one of the top five entrepreneurship center directors in the United States. He has also held leadership roles at NFTE, DLA Piper, and DigitalBridge Communications.
MARK ROCKEFELLER
Mark L. Rockefeller is an entrepreneur and attorney. He is currently the co-founder and CEO of StreetShares.com, an interactive marketplace where investors compete to provide shares of commercial loans to small businesses. StreetShares has been described by the business press as “Shark Tank meets eBay” for small business loans. Rockefeller began his career as a military officer and federal prosecutor. Following military service in Iraq, Rockefeller worked briefly on a pro bono micro-finance project in Africa before joining the prominent global financial services law firm Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP. His law practice focused on securities, financial restructuring, and international investment disputes.
Inspired by his experience in Africa and a desire to reinvigorate small businesses in the United States, he left the law firm in 2013 to co-found StreetShares. His goal is to breathe new life into the American dream for a new generation of business owners, particularly military veterans. Rockefeller has published in financial and legal academic journals, and he speaks frequently on alternative finance. He holds a bachelor’s degree in finance and advanced degrees in business and law. He was a Stone Scholar at Columbia Law School and is a term member in the Council on Foreign Relations.
BOB STALLMAN Bob Stallman, a rice and cattle producer from Columbus, Texas, is president of the American Farm Bureau Federation, the nation’s largest and most influential general farm organization. The 11th president in the organization’s history, Stallman was first elected president on Jan. 13, 2000. Prior to becoming AFBF president, Stallman was president of the Texas Farm Bureau. He became a member of AFBF’s board of directors in 1994. In addition to Farm Bureau involvement, Stallman has been selected to serve on various state and federal committees. In 2007, the President appointed Stallman to serve as a member of the White House Advisory Committee for Trade Policy and Negotiations (ACTPN).
DAVID A. THOMAS David A. Thomas is dean and William R. Berkley Chair of Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business, where he is committed to creating transformational educational experiences that prepare students to become principled and globally minded leaders poised to serve both business and society. Since joining Georgetown McDonough in 2011 following a two-decade career at Harvard Business School, Thomas has enhanced academic and professional opportunities for the school’s undergraduate and graduate students, including a curriculum redesign and expansion of career management activities for MBA students and the addition of the Global Business Experience and an Office of Professional Development for undergraduates.
He also has increased the diversity of faculty and staff, launched new research initiatives, grown Executive Education program revenues by 400 percent, and increased giving to the school. Partnering with the Washington, D.C., community, Thomas is a member of the Federal City Council, and in 2014, the Washington Business Journal recognized him as a top Minority Business Leader. Thomas received a bachelor’s degree, as well as master’s and doctoral degrees in organizational behavior, from Yale University. He also holds a master’s in organizational psychology from Columbia University. He currently is a member of the Board of Directors of DTE Energy, American Red Cross and the Estoril Conferences Advisory Board.
TOM VILSACK Tom Vilsack serves as the nation’s 30th Secretary of Agriculture. As leader of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), Vilsack is working hard to strengthen the American agricultural economy, build vibrant rural communities and create new markets for the tremendous innovation of rural America. In five years at the Department, Vilsack has worked to implement President Obama’s agenda to put Americans back to work and create an economy built to last. USDA has supported America’s farmers, ranchers, and growers who are driving the rural economy forward, provided food assistance to millions of Americans, carried out record conservation efforts, made record investments in our rural communities, and helped provide a safe, sufficient and nutritious food supply for the American people.
About Us AMERICAN FARM BUREAU FEDERATION With family members at the county or parish level in all 50 states and Puerto Rico, the American Farm Bureau Federation is the unified national “Voice of Agriculture,” working to enhance and strengthen the lives of rural Americans to build strong, prosperous agricultural communities. AFBF is the nation’s largest and most influential grassroots organization of farm and ranch families. Additional information may be found at www.fb.org.
GLOBAL SOCIAL ENTERPRISE INITIATIVE The Global Social Enterprise Initiative at Georgetown’s McDonough School of Business aims to prepare current and future leaders to make responsible management decisions that yield both economic and social value. Through practical training for global business leaders, the initiative promotes
transformative solutions to and impactful investments in the world’s significant challenges in health and well-being, economic growth, the environment and international development. Learn more at socialenterprise. georgetown.edu.
STARTUP HOYAS The Georgetown Entrepreneurship Initiative enables students to see the world as entrepreneurs do, while providing the knowledge and skills they need to act on their insights and add value to society. Under the banner of Startup Hoyas, we provide a growing suite of academic, extracurricular, and off-campus programs, and connect our students to accomplished alumni, industry experts, entrepreneurs and business executives. Our mission is to create a culture of entrepreneurship throughout the Georgetown University community and to ensure that every graduate and undergraduate student has the opportunity to explore and experience what is means to behave like an entrepreneur.
WHITE HOUSE RURAL COUNCIL To address challenges in rural America, build on the administration’s rural economic strategy, and improve the implementation of that strategy, the president signed an Executive Order establishing the White House Rural Council. The Council coordinates the Administration’s efforts in rural America by performing three core functions: • Streamlining and improving the effectiveness of federal programs serving rural America. • Engaging stakeholders, including farmers, ranchers, and local citizens, on issues and solutions in rural communities. • Promoting and coordinating private-sector partnerships.
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