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* Entrepreneur/executive/innovator with 25 years of general management, sales, marketing and investment experience in environments ranging from nanotechnology to advanced materials to consumer products. * Acknowledged leader in technology commercialization (tech transfer) with extensive start-up as well as big company experience (IBM and Microsoft). * 10 year track record of raising venture capital, angel financing, strategic investments and government grants. * Program administrator and instructor for undergraduate and executive MBA-level university classes in entrepreneurship, innovation and emerging technologies. * Very experienced public speaker, writer and dealmaker. * Contributor to Forbes.com on topics related to entrepreneurship, innovation and leadership. * Co-author of The Innovator's Secret Formula.

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Neil Kane, a leading authority on technology commercialization and innovation, is the president and founder of Illinois Partners Executive Services, LLC. Most recently he was the CEO of Advanced Diamond Technologies, Inc., a company he co-founded in 2003 by licensing technology from Argonne National Laboratory (U.S. Dept. of Energy). Mr. Kane is the former co-Executive Director of the Illinois Technology Enterprise Center at Argonne and was Entrepreneur-in-Residence at the Research Park at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and at Northern Illinois University. In these roles he was founding CEO of several startup companies based on university or federal laboratory research in areas such as nanotechnology, advanced materials, software, renewable energy and printed electronics. He has closed multiple rounds of venture capital from investors worldwide and has secured numerous SBIR/STTR and other government contracts and awards.

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Hara Estroff Marano: Editing-Tips From a Top-Notch Editor Everybody needs an editor. No, they are not simply (or even mostly) grammar police. See what the best editors do—and why.

Bill "Ches" Cheswick Nerd Maker Bill Cheswick logged into his first computer in 1968. He has been programming and working for (and against) computer security ever since. He joined ARPAnet and then Bell Labs in the 1980s. He co-created and patented the first DNS proxy and co-authored Firewalls and Internet Security: Repelling the Wily Hacker. Along with Hal Burch, he worked on corporate and Internet mapping that still appear in publications and talks today. He has earned more than a dozen patents in visualization and authentication. Ches "retired" in 2012: it is not likely to last. He is a Visiting Scholar at the University of Pennsylvania where he hangs out and occasionally teaches classes. He is now an enthusiastic, dedicated, and inspiring mentor!

Robert "Bob" Cousins Co-Founder/CTO Bob Cousins has worked with startups in both energy and computing for more than 35 years. Bob has served as CTO and/or Engineering VP of multiple technology companies from New York to California. He is an inventor and technologist, holding over twenty patents in diverse areas including filesystem design, data storage and security, high frequency RADAR, imaging and medical instrumentation, and virtual credit cards. He has also written two novels, Pipov and Miller's Trials.