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Firoz H. Lalji has lived the ultimate American success story. Born of Indian ancestry in the East African country of Uganda, Lalji became the principal provider for his household at 24 when Idi Amin ousted his family from their home and their sugar-cane processing and coffee plantation business. Lalji immigrated with his family to Canada in 1971, completely impoverished. He banked on his finance skills honed while earning his degree at the London School of Economics to navigate the sea of obstacles in his entrepreneurial ambition. In Vancouver, BC, he swiftly built a life for his family, founding the successful Kits Cameras photographic retailer chain in 1973 that eventually numbered 225 locations in both Canada and the Unites States. Lalji moved to Washington state in 1981 and, following the sale of Kits in 1997, he co-founded Zones, Inc. in 1988--a nationwide provider of progressive technology solutions to business and public sectors. In 1989, he found the real estate investment company Fana Capital Corporation. Lalji had reinvented and revolutionized Zones, shaping the company into the fifth largest private company headquartered in Washington for 2013. In hopes of fueling success for other emerging minority entrepreneurs, Zones, under Lalji's leadership, was a founding corporate partner of the University of Washington's annual one-week immersive Minority Business Executive Program. Lalji additionally established the Program for African Leadership, a public charity which supports the development of the next generation of African leaders by providing funding for 15 participants at the London School of Economics annually, as well as other programs to benefit his home continent of Africa.

Donald Massaro is responsible for managing Rainmaker’s overall operations and driving company strategy. A renowned Silicon Valley entrepreneur and leader, Don has a 30 year track record of successfully leading both public and privately-held cutting-edge technology-based companies, and bringing innovative products to market. Prior to Rainmaker, Massaro held the position of CEO of Sendmail, a leader in messaging infrastructure serving the world’s largest corporations. Mr. Massaro has been a founder and CEO of six Silicon Valley technology companies including Reconnex, Yotta Navigation, Silicon Gaming, Inversion Development Corp, Metaphor Computer Systems and Shugart.

Lingping Gao is a Founder, CEO & Chairman at NETBRAIN TECHNOLOGIES INC and is based in Boston, Massachusetts. He has worked as CAD Engineer at EcoAir and Network Engineer / Chief Network Architect at Thomson Reuters. Lingping attended Yale between 1993 and 1995 and Tsinghua University between 1988 and 1993.

David Wise is a Strategic Advisor at Wando Search Partners, LLC; Mentor at Citadel; and Chief Executive Officer and Founder at AVOXI and is based in Charleston, South Carolina. He has worked as Senior Account Executive at Intermedia Communications and Business Development, VP at Rapid Link. David works or has worked as CEO at CallForwarding. He attended Wando High School between 1987 and 1990, Porter-Gaud School between 1978 and 1984, and Citadel Safe between 1991 and 1994.

Scott has thirty years of experience in financial services and mortgage lending technology. He founded Mortgagebot in 1997 and built the company into a nationally recognized SaaS solutions provider, selling the company to D+H in 2011. In 2016, Scott teamed with GTCR, a leading private equity firm, to acquire Optimal Blue, where he serves as CEO. Scott has a Bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Wisconsin and is a member of Phi Beta Kappa.

Jaime Bowman is a President and Chief Executive Officer at SBS Group and is based in Red Hill, Pennsylvania.