Philly Tech Week 2019

Liz is a proud generalist committed to utilizing her interdisciplinary skillset as an urban planner, experience designer, and technologist to bridge gaps and highlight the importance of inclusion within innovation ecosystems. Recently she was named Managing Director at Backstage Philadelphia, an arm of Backstage Capital, a venture capital investment firm that invests in underrepresented founders. Additionally, Liz is the cofounder of BCKG, a think tank and consultancy that provides thought leadership and curated experiences to support leadership, growth, and momentum for startups.

Prior to launching BCKG, she cofounded and served as Co-CEO & Head of Design at Webjunto, a user experience focused design and software development agency that served 100+ startups and enterprises globally. In her free time, Liz continues to do work in the community as a civic hacking enthusiast, meetup organizer, and globetrotting public speaker.

David Dylan Thomas serves as Principal, Content Strategy at Think Company and is the creator and host of the Cognitive Bias Podcast. He has developed digital strategies for major clients in entertainment, healthcare, publishing, finance, and retail. A co-organizer of Content Strategy Philly, he previously consulted at the Corzo Center for the Creative Economy and is the creator, director, and co-producer of Developing Philly, a web series about the rise of the Philadelphia tech community. He has given standing-room-only presentations at TEDNYC, SXSW Interactive, UX Copenhagen, and the Wharton Web Conference on content strategy and emerging content trends.

Leigh has been an active member of Investors Circle Philadelphia, now Social Venture Network, since 2013 and over that time has made investments in over 20 early stage companies in the social impact space. She also serves on the Investment Committee of two of the Patient Capital Collaborative Social Impact funds. Leigh has extensive operational experience managing both startups and high growth communications businesses. Her career has included stints as Chief Operating Officer of NTL Inc., the largest cable company in the UK (now part of Virgin Media). More recently, Leigh was an investor, Board member, COO and CFO of RealWinWin Inc., a Philadelphia based startup which captures energy efficiency incentives for large corporate customers.

Jumoke K. Dada, Principal and Founder, Signature RED and Tech Women Network

Jumoke Dada is best described as a techie and visionary whose sweet spot lies at the intersection on innovation, entrepreneurship, goodwill and girl power.

Dada holds a Bachelor of Science in Computer and Information Sciences and real estate certification from Temple University. She is also a certified Scrum Master. Her corporate technical experience includes work as an application developer, business and systems analyst, quality assurance tester, and technical project manager. As the principal of Signature RED, she offers tech consulting services to companies and creates tools and resources for women interested in careers in technology. In 2017, she created the Tech Women Network - an online, searchable platform and community for women with technical skills.

Over the years, she has hosted several educational events and workshops including Building iOS Mobile Apps, Rails Girls, Techies Who Brunch, and the HUE Tech Summit for women of color in tech. Dada is a public speaker with a growing passion to empower women and girls especially those with interests in STEM fields. In the summer, she gives back through her non-profit Signature Red Cares whose main program, Project ALOE, gives care packages and advice to college-bound girls. Dada has been recognized in several media outlets for her innovative ideas, leadership skills and community involvement. Additionally, she is a contributing writer for ForbesWomen where she covers diversity in tech.

To learn more about her work, visit dadaverse.org or follow @jumokedada on Twitter.

OMAR GRANT DIRECTOR, CREATIVE – NEW YORK As Director, Creative, New York for Broadcast Music Inc. (BMI), Omar Grant is responsible for discovering, signing and fostering the growth of songwriters and producers in the R&B, hip-hop and gospel genres. In addition, Grant oversees showcases, workshops and panels aimed at educating and supporting the creative community. He reports directly to BMI Vice President, Creative, Atlanta, Catherine Brewton. Since joining BMI in 2017, Grant has been instrumental in signing and fostering the growth of decorated songwriters and producers in the R&B, hip-hop and gospel genres, such as 2019 GRAMMY-Award winning producer Ayo, Ari Lennox, Pi’erre Bourne, TrifeDrew, Lil TJay, Maddox Grayson, and STREETRUNNER. Grant has also spearheaded many of BMI’s signature programs including “How I Wrote That Song®” surrounding the 2018 GRAMMY Awards, “Songwriters Social Club”, and the hip-hop “Know Them Now” series where he was responsible for bringing the primarily Atlanta-based showcase to New York City. Before coming to BMI, Grant worked at BET Networks where he was the director of BET’s Music Matters, a broadcast and digital platform that promotes both emerging and well-established talent through original programming, monthly events and nationwide tours. Grant was responsible for scouting talent, managing all live events and the supervision of new marketing strategies and releases. Prior to BET Networks, he worked at AOL in Television Production where he developed, managed and executed creative show concepts for on-air programming. Grant received a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration, Management and Operations from Nyack College.

Frank is an Associate Principal Engineer with Cerner in Malvern. For the past 23 years, he has worked on the Document Management product, part of the Electronic Health Record. He is an alumni of Penn State University, with a BS in Electrical Engineering and an MS in Computer Engineering.

Robert Mascioli counsels entrepreneurs, family businesses and middle-market companies on a wide variety of business matters. Acting as their outside general counsel, Bob strives to learn the background, operations and strategies of his clients and seeks to align his legal advice with their goals to operate efficiently and effectively. He provides business and transactional representation to clients within industries such as technology and information technology, software and services, industrial services and distribution, venture capital/private equity, health care, and engineering and professional services.

Drawing on his past roles as an investment banker and the director of a university-based center for entrepreneurship, Bob has a diverse set of skills to help clients with mergers and acquisitions, angel, venture and private equity investments, board and shareholder relations, technology licensing, strategic partnerships and joint ventures, and business formation and structuring. Bob brings nearly 20 years of experience as a business and transactional attorney to his engagements.

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.