Philly Tech Week 2019

Brendan Lowry is a Philadelphia-based artist and entrepreneur. All of his client-work, investments, and ventures are currently produced through his creative agency, Rory. Prior to Rory, Brendan was part of the founding team at Curalate. He still doesn’t know what he wants to be when he grows up.

Phil is Think Company's Executive Vice President, overseeing organizational strategy, design processes, knowledge management, and consulting on new business opportunities. He was hired as Think Company's second employee in 2008. Phil has been consulting, teaching, and writing about innovation, design, and technology since 1992. He has led consultative design teams across many industries including Life Science, Finance, Consulting, Retail, Healthcare, and Big Data. Additionally, Phil was an adjunct faculty member for the Digital Design program at Jefferson University (formerly Philadelphia University) from 1995-2014 and led experience design for the team that won the Qualcomm Tricorder XPRIZE in 2017.

Emily Allen is the Director of People Operations & Success at Seer Interactive. Emily joined Seer in September of 2013 as the agency's first HR and recruiting person and over the last 5.5 years has built out the People Operations function to support a company of ~200 employees. As a member of the Executive Team, Emily is charged with ensuring Seer's talent acquisition strategy, HR practices, benefits, compensation and employee development resources appropriately support the growing team, while keeping culture in the forefront of it all. Recently, Emily has launched the second version of the company’s Compensation Strategy including salary transparency. As a (very) busy mom of three children three and under, Emily strives to create a work environment amenable to a diverse team with support mechanisms in place as team members move through the various seasons of their lives; enabling them to bring their true, best selves to work.

Laurie Actman serves as the Chief Marketing, Communications and Program Officer at the Penn Center for Innovation (PCI) at the University of Pennsylvania. Laurie as part of the Executive Team oversees the strategic implementation of PCI’s programs and partnerships, marketing, and communications and helped to plan and launch the Pennovation Center, Penn’s new startup incubator where she actively manages programs and partnerships as well. Previously she served as PCI’s Chief Operating Officer from launch in 2014 to December 2016. Before PCI she has worked for notable organizations in the private, non-profit and public sectors in Philadelphia, New York City and Washington, D.C. including as Chief Policy Officer for the CEO Council for Growth, Consultant to Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter on his sustainability and ARRA initiatives, Director of Strategic Partnerships at Viridity Energy, and Deputy and Interim Director for the Consortium for Building Energy Innovation, a $150 million public private project capitalized by the US Department of Energy and based at Philadelphia’s Navy Yard.. She received her undergraduate degree from Washington University in St. Louis and a Masters Degree in Urban Planning and Real Estate from UNC-Chapel Hill. Actman lives in Bala Cynwyd with her husband and three children and is an elected Board Member of the Lower Merion School District.

Michael is a recognized expert in the field, with over 20 years’ experience in information security and investigations. Michael’s professional experience includes several leadership positions in the medical, public accounting, technology, finance, and pharmaceutical industries. During his time with AIG he designed the IT Risk Management group for the Personal Lines Division. At Clifton Gunderson, Michael created and led the Information Security Solutions group under the assurance umbrella. Building from his experience Michael created a Risk Organization with over 20 employees and targeted, high profile clients. In September 2012 ionRISK had been acquired by Essex technology Group, one of IBM’S few premier partners. He was asked to join Essextec as Vice President of Business Risk Services and CISO to lead a strategic initiative for the future placement of the company, their clients and partners. He has led and worked numerous fraud and other investigations some very notable. While in the corporate world, he developed and implemented security policies, compliance programs, disaster recovery, business continuity, digital forensics and technical security assessments. Currently, Michael holds a Global Information Security and Compliance position with Amber Road, a leader in global trade compliance. Additionally, Michael has been working with several organizations around Artificial Intelligence and its impacts on security and risk through deep learning and predictive modeling.

Lisa Gelobter is the CEO and Founder of tEQuitable. Using technology to make workplaces more equitable, tEQuitable provides an independent, confidential platform to address issues of bias, harassment, and discrimination.

With 25 years in the industry and products that have been used by billions of people, Lisa has a deep and proven track record in software. She has worked on several pioneering Internet technologies, including Shockwave, Hulu, and the ascent of online video.

Lisa’s experience ranges from small, entrepreneurial startups to large, established organizations. Most recently, she worked at the White House, in the U.S. Digital Service, serving as the Chief Digital Service Officer for the Department of Education. Previously, Lisa acted as the Chief Digital Officer for BET Networks and was a member of the senior management team for the launch of Hulu. She has an expansive background in strategy development, business operations, user-centered design, product management, and engineering. Lisa brings consumer focus and transformative practice to bear in technology, media, and the social sector.

She is also proud to be a Black Woman with a degree in Computer Science. Go STEM!

Kory Collins has spent over 10 years in human resources leading initiatives in the areas of Diversity & Inclusion, Employment Brand, and Diversity Recruiting and Leadership Development. Currently, he is responsible for managing the diversity talent strategy at Cigna which involves working with leaders and business groups across the organization to build internal and external talent pipelines, provide training and measure results.

In tandem with his partner Leon Huff, producer and songwriter Kenny Gamble was the principal architect behind the lush and seductive Philly Soul sound, one of the most popular and influential musical developments of the 1970s. Born in Philadelphia on August 11, 1943, he first teamed with Huff during the late '50s while a member of the harmony group the Romeos, a unit which also included another aspiring area musician named Thom Bell, who would become crucial to Gamble's later success. "The 81," a 1964 single by the little-known Candy & the Kisses, was the inaugural Gamble-Huff co-production, and three years later the duo scored their first Top Five pop hit with the Soul Survivors' "Expressway to Your Heart." Soon recruiting the aforementioned Bell as arranger, they subsequently scored with smashes including Archie Bell & the Drells' "I Can't Stop Dancing" and Jerry Butler's "Only the Strong Survive," gradually forging their own distinctive sound.

Gamble and Huff's success on labels including Atlantic and Chess — as well as their own Neptune and Gamble imprints — spurred them to contact Columbia in the hopes of opening a new affiliate company, one inspired by the continued success of Berry Gordy and Motown. Columbia agreed, and in 1970 the duo's Philadelphia International Records was born. Given a $75,000 advance for 15 singles, with LPs budgeted at $25,000 apiece, Gamble and Huff soon exploded into the national musical consciousness, selling some ten million records in the span of nine months thanks to monster hits including Billy Paul's "Me and Mrs. Jones," Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes' "If You Don't Know Me by Now" and the O'Jays' "Back Stabbers" and "Love Train." Their signature aesthetic — an intoxicating combination of sweeping strings, smoky horns and insistent rhythms — emerged as the definitive soul sound of the early '70s, also becoming the blueprint for the rise of disco during the latter half of the decade.

Under Gamble and Huff, Philadelphia International launched hit after hit from acts including the Intruders, MFSB, and the Three Degrees. The bottom fell out in 1975, however, when the label became embroiled in a payola scandal; charged with offering bribes in exchange for radio airplay, Gamble was fined $2500, although Huff was acquitted. Probably not coincidentally, the duo's work began to suffer at much the same time, and as the decade drew to a sound their classic Philly soul sound began to grow stale and derivative. Hits became increasingly rare, although the 1979 McFadden & Whitehead single "Ain't No Stoppin' Us Now" was a significant return to form. Throughout the disco era Philadelphia International's most consistent hitmaker was Teddy Pendergrass, but in the wake of the tragic 1982 car accident which left the singer paralyzed, the career of Gamble and Huff began to dissipate as well, and they rarely resurfaced on record in the years to follow.