Wednesday, September 25, 5:30 – 7 p.m.
Speaker program 5:30 – 7 p.m., followed by light refreshments (in-person, free, open to the public, register at the door the day of the event)
Location: Grainger Hall 1310, The Plenary Room, 975 University Ave.
Hear from UW–Madison founders and CEOs at the Wisconsin Entrepreneurs Showcase. Three exceptional Badger alumni will share their entrepreneurial journeys, leadership insights, and how their UW experiences set them on the road to success.
Please register at the door the day of the event. Free and open to students, faculty, staff, alumni and community.
If you need an accommodation to attend, please contact Lisa Collins by September 11.
Presented by the Weinert Center for Entrepreneurship, Startup Learning Community, and Discovery to Product (D2P).
Featured speakers:
Lenoria Addison ’12, Founding Partner, KeyTV Network
Lenoria “Nora” Addison is a multifaceted entrepreneur, executive and producer in the entertainment and advertising industries. She co-launched KeyTV Network — a digital platform spotlighting the next generation of creators and entrepreneurs — with Keke Palmer. Addison’s experience spans media, TV/film, branded content, talent relations, influencer marketing, and more. She launched a fashion app, and worked for AwesomenessTV, Deutsch, and R/GA and with brands such as Mother, Samsung, Taco Bell, eBay Fashion, FX Networks, Snapchat, Tinder, Uber, PepsiCo, and HBO. A Milwaukee native, she has a BS in Life Sciences Communications from UW-Madison and was a Powers-Knapp Scholar (Mercile J. Lee Scholars Program).
Justin Beck ‘09, CEO of Playback Rewards and Co-Founder of PerBlue
With a background in software engineering, Justin Beck is a business operator specializing in mobile apps, games, e-commerce, and ad-tech. He’s passionate about building products, analyzing markets, and tackling the complex challenges of business growth. As a UW-Madison student, Beck co-developed a mobile role-playing game for the then-new smartphones. With other UW alumni, Beck co-founded PerBlue, a Madison mobile and social gaming company. PerBlue launched Parallel Kingdom, one of the first and most successful mobile role-playing games, and successful titles such as DragonSoul and Disney Heroes. Recently, Beck became CEO of Playback Rewards, a mobile gaming loyalty platform. He received his BS in Computer Sciences and Computer Engineering from UW in 2009.
Kevin Hykes ’87, President and CEO of CVRx
An accomplished medical device industry executive, Kevin Hykes has over 30 years’ experience successfully commercializing novel therapies on a global basis. He’s held President, CEO and other C-suite roles for numerous high-growth, early- to mid-stage health and medical technology companies, including Augmedics, Bardy Diagnostics (acquired by Hillrom Corporation), Relievant Medsystems, Metavention, Cameron Health (Boston Scientific), and Visiogen (Abbott). He is an advisor with Revival Healthcare Capital, was a partner at Versant Ventures, and spent sixteen years in leadership roles at Medtronic. Hykes received his MBA from Northwestern University and a BBA in Information Systems from the Wisconsin School of Business.
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