Overview

For a private company, building a board can be one of the most critical and important steps in the evolution, growth and future of a firm. When to start a board? What professional experience and background should you look for in board members? Should family members be a part of the board? Where do you find experienced and qualified people? Should you build a board in stages? How should board members be compensated? Our distinguished panel of executives bring their experience and knowledge to this prime subject. Drawing from broad and deep firsthand experience over many industries and companies, our panel will provide key insights that will benefit you, your company and your clients.

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Panelists

Sanjeev Kuwadekar Entrepreneur

Sanjeev Kuwadekar is a seasoned serial entrepreneur with software engineering background. Sanjeev Kuwadekar is the CEO of InfoGen Labs, a software consulting firm with offices in California, Poland and India. Prior to InfoGen Labs, sanjeev founded MediaShift, online advertising technology firm where he served as the CTO and guided the technical architecture for next generation online advertising platform.

Prior to GrowBiz, Sanjeev founded HeyAnita Inc, a leading speech recognition product company in the wireless field. Sanjeev served as CEO of the company for over 6 years. In that role, he expanded the company’s operations in Europe and Asia, turned the company profitable in less than 2 years, formed strategic partnerships with Verizon Wireless, Sprint, Vodafone, Mitsubishi and Hewlett Packard, and negotiated the successful sale of the company. Sanjeev received the Software Entrepreneur of the Year Award from Software Council of Southern California in 2002 for his outstanding contribution to the field of wireless communications software.

Prior to HeyAnita, Sanjeev served in various executive roles at Microsoft for over 9 years. Sanjeev has authored over 25 patents in data communication and online advertising field. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering and a Master of Science degree in Computer Science with specialization in artificial intelligence and natural language processing systems from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT Bombay).

Susan Schroeder Partner  Compensation Advisory Partners LLC

Susan Schroeder is a partner of Compensation Advisory Partners LLC (CAP) in Los Angeles. She has over 20 years of experience advising Boards and company management on compensation strategies, performance measurement customization, and short and long-term incentive plan design. Susan’s experience includes work for Fortune 500 companies as well as smaller public, private, and non-profit organizations across many industries.

Susan received a M.B.A. from The UCLA Anderson School of Management and an A.B. in Economics from Occidental College, where she graduated with honors. She currently serves on the Board of Trustees of the National MS Society, Southern California Chapter, and the Board of Directors of The UCLA Anderson Alumni Association. She is a past member of the Board of Trustees of Occidental College, and a current member of the National Association of Corporate Directors. She earned the Certified Executive Compensation Professional designation from WorldatWork.

David Grant Entrepreneur

David Grant is a successful entrepreneur with over two decades of startup and executive leadership experience.

After honing his enterprise skills at Fortune 100 companies, David created and ran several Startup companies in Healthcare, eCommerce, Digital Advertising, Telecom, and FinTech which were acquired in whole or in part by industry leading corporations.

David has authored many patents that have been purchased by well-known companies. His patents are the basis for products and services we use in our everyday lives.

Early in his career, David was recognized as one of the nations top CTOs. Thoughout his career David has served as board member or an advisor to numerious tech, healthcare and SaaS companies.

In his professional life, David enjoys solving problems, innovation and mentoring talented people.

Moderator

Frank Adell Entrepreneur & Business Leader

Frank Adell is a successful entrepreneur and business leader with over 30-years of experience in strategic planning. Frank’s forte is in building early stage organizational structures in order to attract early seed investment money and funding for subsequent rounds of finance leading to commercial exits for these companies. In addition, Frank is recognized for his ability to recruit strategic executive industry leaders who have proven track records in delivering results and industry recognition with effective business acumen and knowledge in a specific industry, creating dynamic result oriented directors and management teams. Frank also has a winning track record in assembling highly skilled technical teams with expertise in the targeted field of endeavor. Frank also has the ability to seek, negotiate and form strategic and collaborative partnerships with major well-capitalized companies with expertise and infrastructure in the relevant industry which has earned him high regard from his peers. His success in maturing these relationships has resulted in these strategies often becoming future customers, acquirers, or investment capital partners in a marriage between capital and technology to produce a better produce that could be offered separately.

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