2022 judging panel

ANGELA NATIVIDAD is the author of Generation Creation, an AdVerve Media production. She covers European advertising for AdWeek, and co-founded Hurrah.fr, the premier creative agency for the esports market. She lives in Paris. Follow her on Twitter at @luckthelady.

B.L. OCHMAN contributes to AdAge, MediaVillage, YPO Impact, Social Media Today, Verticals Collective and many others. Since 2012, she has been producer and co-host of the award-winning Beyond Social Media Show Podcast. She is a long-time social media star with 11,000 Twitter followers.

A multi-faceted marketing professional skilled in development of high-yield, innovative programs that drive visibility and sales, Ochman is also a member of the Advisory Board of Teens for Food Justice and volunteer advisor to AmanacerLA.org which empowers underserved children, adults and domestic abuse victims with comprehensive mental health and case management services. She has produced more than 500 podcasts, video interviews and live-streamed events.

CHRIS MACDONALD is a professor at the Ted Rogers School of Management in Toronto, where he teaches business ethics and critical thinking. He is director of the Ted Rogers Leadership Centre. A philosopher by training, his scholarly work ranges across corporate ethics, professional ethics, healthcare ethics, and philosophical moral theory. He is the author of two textbooks, and makes frequent media appearances. He recently co-founded Choice Point Solutions, Inc., to design custom ‘mini-simulations’ for ethics & compliance training.

THORNTON MAY is a futurist, a cognitive scientist and an anthropologist studying the value-producing behaviors of the various “tribes” comprising the modern enterprise. His book, The New Know: Innovation Powered by Analytics analyzes what organizations know; how they come to know and how they act upon what they know and don’t know. Passionate about obliterating digital ignorance from the executive suite he currently serves as Co-Director of the Innovation Lab at the Olin College of Engineering; Executive Director of the CIO Solutions Gallery at the Ohio State University College of Engineering. The editors at eWeek honored Thornton, including him on their list of ‘Top 100 Most Influential People in IT.’ The editors at Fast Company labeled him ‘one of the top 50 brains in technology today.’ http://www.thorntonamay.com

MIKE NIETZEL is a senior contributor to Forbes online, writing on higher education. He is president emeritus of Missouri State University. After earning his B.A. from Wheaton College (Illinois), Nietzel was awarded a Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the University of Illinois in 1973. He then joined the faculty at the University of Kentucky, progressing through the professorial ranks and serving as director of the Clinical Psychology Program, chair of the department of psychology, dean of the graduate school, and provost. In 2005, Nietzel was appointed president of Missouri State University. Following retirement from Missouri State in 2011, he became senior policy advisor to Missouri Governor Jay Nixon. Recently, he has authored two books: Degrees and Pedigrees: The Education of America’s Top Executives(2017) and Coming to Grips With Higher Education (2018), both published by Rowman & Littlefield.

ALY WALANSKY is a freelance lifestyle journalist based in New York City who has been writing and editing in the industry for over 20 years. Her bylines can be found in Forbes, Food Network, Southern Living, The Kitchn, AllRecipes, Clean Plates, and many more. A graduate of City University of New York at Brooklyn College with degrees in both Journalism and English Literature, she continues to live in Brooklyn, where her interests include mixology, recipe development, royal history, and her adorable pups.

An executive leader with more than two decades experience leading successful editorial teams, MATT EGAN is Foundry’s (formerly IDG Communications) first ever global content director. Matt leads and supports Foundry’s world class teams of journalists and creators in key markets across the globe, as they create expert content in multiple major world languages. He is responsible for audience development, data, content, ecommerce, analytics, video, and content strategy for the world’s most popular business-to-business and B2C technology publications and events. Prior to his global role Matt managed Foundry’s award-winning enterprise and B2C editorial teams in the US, UK, ASEAN, France and Spain. Matt holds a BA in English and Drama from the University of Hull. He’s married with two children and enjoys running.

KAT BRYANT is a freelance writer and editor based on the Washington Coast. Her most recent newspaper job was with The Daily World in Aberdeen, where she earned a national writing award. Previously, she held numerous editorial positions at the Phoenix Business Journal and the Silicon Valley Business Journal, earning several industry accolades for editing, headline writing and design. She attended the University of Arizona in Tucson, where she worked on the student daily newspaper and discovered her true calling.

Award-winning journalist MICHELE LERNER has been covering business and real estate topics for more than three decades for The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, Washingtonian magazine, REIT magazine, Mansion Global, Bankrate, Forbes, Barron’s, Penta, Pro Builder, Green Builder, numerous realtor association publications and more. She has written two books for consumers about buying and building homes, as well as hundreds of articles for business owners and entrepreneurs. Michele previously served as a judge at the International Builders Show.

JEFF SIEGEL, the Wine Curmudgeon, is a wine writer and wine critic who specializes in inexpensive wine – the wine, he says, that most of us drink. His most recent book is The Wine Curmudgeon’s Guide to Cheap Wine (Vintage Noir Media) and he oversees the award-winning Wine Curmudgeon website (winecurmudgeon.com). He has taught wine, spirits, and beer at El Centro College and the Cordon Bleu in Dallas.

MARY WELCH is an Atlanta-based freelance writer whose work has appeared in such publications as the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Travelgirl magazine, the Atlanta Business Chronicle and American Lawyer. A native of West Hartford, CN., she has successfully melded a career as a business writer into a broad range of specialities including writing about automobiles, restaurants and travel.

JENN VANDEZANDE is an experienced writer, editor, and content strategist, and is the Editor in Chief of The Future of Customer Engagement & Experience, an industry award-winning site.

She’s a contributor to some of the biggest names, including Forbes, and Inc., as well as a TEDxMoorgate host. She’s also a Circklo Business Configurator Academy mentor, where she takes incubator candidates on a journey to demonstrate to them the power of words, relevant content, and how intelligent, targeted, and purposeful thought leadership analysis can elevate the credibility, reputation, and long-term success of any start-up.

She’s worked with brands to provide strategic planning, thought leadership, SEO guidance, copy and marketing content, technical writing, corporate communications, and grant writing. She donates her time to several non-profits, assisting with their leadership and strategic planning, messaging, social, and branding efforts.

SAVAS ABADSIDIS is the founder, editor and publisher at #GayNrd. Prior to founding #GayNrd, he served as editor-in-chief and executive editor at a vast variety of outlets, including Antenna Magazine, B Magazine, Complex Magazine, Paper Magazine and Tally Ho! Magazine. A graduate of Hobart College, he also worked at Warner Bros. and Wizard Publications, and was behind the early success of Abercrombie & Fitch Quarterly.

TEMUR DURRANI is a technology reporter at The Globe and Mail, based in Toronto. He joined The Globe after most recently working at BNN Bloomberg, where he reported national enterprise stories and business features for broadcast and digital audiences. Prior to that, he was a staff reporter at The Winnipeg Free Press, The Toronto Star, iPolitics (Ottawa) and the New Brunswick Telegraph-Journal. A globe-trotting newshound, he’s also written for Maclean’s Magazine, The Financial Post, The Wire and Bloomberg Businessweek among many other international media outlets. Temur was a juror for the 2022 Dalton Camp Award, and he frequently appears on live-audience and broadcast panels to provide analysis about the Canadian economy.

Bio and photo coming soon

DALE DAUTEN has been researching achievers and innovation since his days at Arizona State and at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business. His early work prompted a government publication to call him a “guru” to White House staffers, and during the past four decades, his six books have been published in a dozen languages and have developed a large following worldwide. Dale writes newspaper columns nationally syndicated by King Features. For many years, he wrote “The Corporate Curmudgeon,” and he continues to write “JT and Dale Talk Jobs” with employment expert, Jeanine “JT” O’Donnell. Their work appears weekly in dozens of newspapers.

BOBBY HOYT is a former band director that paid off $40,000 of student loan debt in 18 months on a teaching salary. He started M$M (Millennial Money Man) and now has over 1 million yearly readers. Bobby helps Millennials make more money, save more, and pay off debt quickly by teaching them how to live within their means, start incredible side hustles, budget like a pro, and ultimately get on a path to financial freedom.

KEN WENTWORTH, aka “Mr. Biz®”, is the award-winning host of “Mr. Biz Radio”, which airs for 20+ hours each week across several different networks, and has been featured 250+ times on Forbes, Yahoo Finance, Fast Company, The New York Finance, and American Express. The Mr. Biz® brand also operates a streaming channel, Mr. Biz Network, which airs several shows that help entrepreneurs and business owners globally. Ken is the author of three bestselling books, including the most recent “Don’t Fake the Funk”, which provides an easy-to-implement, proprietary four-step methodology. Ken is also a strategic business partner who helps business owners run their companies more profitably and more efficiently. After ascending to the top 3% at a Fortune 15 company and breaking six World Records, Mr. Biz® now uses his experience and expertise to help others develop their skills to become the best version of themselves.

Bio and photo coming soon

Bio and photo coming soon

JULES ROGERS, associate editor of The Portland Tribune and editor of The Business Tribune and Opportunity Magazine with Pamplin Media Group, has been a business journalist for more than 12 years. An alumnx of the University of Oregon with a B.S. degree from the School of Journalism and Communication, Rogers has also been published in U.S. News & World Report, Business Insider, MSN, Quiltfolk magazine and more.

Bio and photo coming soon

A ceaseless appreciation for interactive entertainment is what drives ROBERT ALLEN, Tech-Gaming.com’s editor and podcasting personality. Having written over two thousand reviews, and interviewed a wide swath of the industries’ luminaries, Robert aspires to share his appreciation for the medium with an ever-growing audience interested the intersection of technology, gaming, and culture. When a controller isn’t in hand, he can usually be found clutching a dry-erase marker- instructing classes in writing, communication, and technology at two Southern California colleges.

KAREN CHRISTENSEN is the editor in chief of Rotman Management magazine, published by the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management. She has held this position since 2006, during which time the magazine has been nominated for several National Magazine Awards (Canada) and won two Silver Awards. A graduate of McGill University (BA) and Simon Fraser University’s Publishing Program, she co-edited the book Rotman on Design: The Best in Design Thinking from Rotman Management Magazine. Since 2009, feature articles from Rotman Management have been sold by Harvard Business Review at www.hbr.org.

DUSTIN KLEIN is an award-winning business journalist, bestselling author, and chief content officer of Smart Business. Over the past 30 years, he has interviewed thousands of business and civic leaders, and helped more than 60 CEOs and entrepreneurs transform their ideas into books. As chief content officer, Dustin oversees all aspects of Smart Business’ content strategies across print, digital, and live channels, and spearheads the national Dealmakers Conference series, which each year brings together thousands of CEOs, entrepreneurs, family office leaders, private equity firm partners, venture capitalists, and M&A advisors across more than a dozen cities. A former investigative politics reporter and digital media entrepreneur, Dustin joined Smart Business in 1997 after serving as the business editor of several daily newspapers. When he’s not knee-deep in content, Dustin can be found either spending time with his wife and children or indulging in his greatest passion: baseball.

LAUREN COFFEY is an Iowa native, now living in the Sunshine State. She originally covered crime in Florida, before moving to the equally exciting world of tech and startups. She writes about companies that are freshly launched from stealth mode, all the way up to publicly traded entities for the Tampa Bay Business Journal. She also heads up Tampa Bay Inno, a twice-weekly startup-focused newsletter focused on Tampa Bay.

BETTY BRENNAN has been published in several nature and business publications. She founded and led Taylor Studios, creating timeless exhibits for museums and nature centers across the country. With her oversight, Taylor Studios completed over 750 projects in the last 32 years ranging from $500 to over $3 million each. Having sold Taylor Studios in 2021 and passed on the reigns to the new owner, Betty is now focusing on agriculture, which has been the foundation of her life. From early life on the farm to owning and managing acres of land with horses, she understands the importance and impact of agriculture. Her current farm project involves removing invasive species and planting native plants.

Bio and photo coming soon

JOSEPH S. PETE covers steel mills, unions, ports, oil refineries, auto plants, start-ups, craft breweries, banks, supermarkets, restaurants, and other beats for The Times of Northwest Indiana just outside Chicago, where he works as a Business Reporter. He also writes for The Times Media Co.’s IN Business Magazine, prattles as a panelist on the That’s So Region Podcast, appears frequently on Lakeshore Public Radio and serves as a board member on the Indiana chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. Pete has won numerous journalism awards, including several Lisagors from the Chicago Headline Club and honors from the Hoosier State Press Association, the Indiana Society of Professional Journalists, the Inland Press Association, the Associated Press Media Editors and the National Federation of Press Women. He has appeared on Lakeshore Public Television and WGN Radio in Chicago. He’s also an infantry veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

ROB ENDERLE is author of Unfiltered Opinion and has been published in Computerworld, Datamation, TechNewsWorld, techspective and TG Daily. He is also president and principal analyst of the Enderle Group, a forward looking emerging technology advisory firm. With over 25 years experience in emerging technologies, he has provided regional and global companies with guidance in how to better target customer needs, create new business opportunities, anticipate technology changes and present their products. Currently Rob focuses on the emerging technology trends in personal technology.