Philly Tech Week 2020

Three Times Dope was a hip hop/rap group from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania consisting of EST (Robert Waller), Chuck Nice (Walter Griggs) and Woody Wood (Duerwood Beale). 3xD, as they were called for short, were a part of the Hilltop Hustlers Crew (which also included Steady B, Cool C, Da Youngsta's, Mentally Gifted, and others). At first, they recorded under the name 3-D.

Their debut LP, Original Stylin' was well-received, peaking at #122 on the Billboard 200 Album Chart and the group became well known for the terminology they created, such as “Acknickulous” and “The Giddy Up”.

EST would eventually go on to become an award-winning songwriter for top-tier acts, most notably a Grammy nomination in 2005 for Destiny's Child's "Cater 2 U".

April Walker is the Director of the Philadelphia Microsoft Technology Center (MTC) located in Malvern, Pennsylvania and a member of Microsoft’s North American MTC leadership team. April oversees Microsoft’s state-of-the-art innovation center that enables digital transformation for enterprises throughout the greater Philadelphia area. An accomplished engineer and expert in cybersecurity, AI, and cloud, April began her career in STEM more than 30 years ago in the DC area and amassed an impressive portfolio of success leading organizations in the corporate arena. A technology evangelist and change-leader, she has been the catalyst for driving innovation for many F500 corporations. A well-known and respected thought leader in both technology and D&I, April has a noteworthy array of keynote and speaking engagements conducted throughout the country where she is sought after to share her experiences as a technology leader and woman of color thriving in the world STEM. April is a graduate of MIT Sloan School of Management and earned an MBA and an Executive Certification in AI, George Washington University, M.S. in Engineering Management and University of Maryland, B.S. in Global Business. A community advocate, she recently was appointed by the Mayor of Philadelphia, Jim Kenney to the Philadelphia Works, Inc. board and is board member of the Philadelphia POWER of Professional Women’s organization.

Lisha is a venture builder and investor, startup advisor, and business strategist and operator who has served on all sides of the business table. She is the founder of Arable Ventures LLC., a boutique innovation consulting and advisory practice helping organizations develop full scale operating models to deliver innovative solutions. Prior to launching Arable Ventures, Lisha was the founder and head of Vanguard’s Innovation Studio, where she led the vision for enterprise innovation and owned the ongoing delivery of a venture portfolio focused on addressing white spaces with the potential to transform businesses and disrupt the financial services industry.

Throughout her work, alongside crafting effective strategy and operations enabled through technology and data wherever possible, Lisha has always placed high emphasis on growing the best functioning teams and company culture. She is an active investor with 37Angels, an early growth stage women's syndicate focused on increasing representation of diverse founders and funders, and serves as mentor and advisor to startups across the consumer, enterprise, and fintech sectors. She is also an adjunct professor @ Temple's Fox School of Business, teaching on open innovation & strategic partnerships. Lisha currently lives in Brooklyn and travels often in pursuit of new adventures.

Michael Winslow picked up his love for programming when he was 10 years old writing GW-Basic code on his Tandy-1000. With his passion for designing simple solutions to complex problems, Michael has played key roles at companies like Aramark, Ortho-McNeil, Oracle and Xfinity Mobile. He is a seasoned, international public speaker who enjoys using his platform to uplift engineers and create powerfully diverse teams in technology. Michael is currently a DevOps advocate, Agile enthusiast, and dedicated people-leader for the Software Strategy and Transformation group at Comcast.

Kareem is the Director of Outreach and Partnership at the Collective Success Network. This organization provides mentoring to First Gen and Low Income (FGLI) college students by matching them with mentors in their chosen professions.

He is also an IT Auditor at Chubb Limited and sits on the finance and audit committee for the Philadelphia Youth Network.

Kareem is a graduate of Drexel University with a BSBA in Management Information Systems and enjoys all things gaming in his off time.

Philadelphia native, James Lindsay, graduated from Cheyney University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Marketing. He initially developed his marketing skills while serving as a manager in the consumer products industry for Johnson Products, an ethnic hair care company, and Warner-Lambert. These experiences, and his desire to own a business, empowered him to start Rap Snacks, Inc in 1994. The initial success of Rap Snacks helped solidify a co-marketing agreement with Universal Records. The deal consisted of advertising Universal’s Artists on all Rap Snacks bags. Eventually the company grew into a five million dollar business selling mostly twenty-five cent bags of chips.

In 2001 Mr. Lindsay decided to expand his product line by purchasing a snack foods line called “Mr. G” snack foods. Mr. G was a locally owned Philly brand that was best know for its hot and barbeque cheddar flavored chips.

In 2007, Mr. Lindsay launched Soulful Foods, Inc. The mission of the company is to provide consumers with a great cultural experience through unique products and seasonings, and to partner with other ethnic brands in order to expand their product reach in the marketplace.

The first product launched under Soulful Foods, Inc was a venture between Mr. Lindsay and Sylvia Woods, the “Queen of Soul Food”. They came together to develop a nationally recognized brand of snack foods called “Sylvia’s”.

The introduction included three flavors of Kettle Cooked Potato Chips fried in Sunflower seed oil, which eliminates trans fats. The initial flavors included honey barbeque, lemon pepper, and Louisiana hot.

Mr. Lindsay has been in the consumer marketing industry over 17 years. His unique marketing concepts and flavor profiles have differentiated his products from other snack items on the shelf and helped him build the company’s loyal consumer base.

In 2010, Mr. Lindsay continued to be an big influence in the music marketing industry; guiding platinum selling recording artist, Meek Mill by connecting his brand with corporate America and securing brand deals with companies such as, PUMA, Monster Energy Drink, and Ciroc. As well as partnering with Monster Headphones to help create the Monster’s 24k Headphones. Mr. Lindsay also assisted Meek Mill in growing PUMA’s business an additional 200 million over a five year period. He’s also worked with Master P and his family.

Over the past 12 years he has been featured on “CBS Morning Show”, ABC’s “The Jimmy Kimmel Show”, BET, Fox News, People Magazine, The “Tavis Smiley” Show, Black Enterprise, Forbes, and Entrepreneur Magazine. He was also recognized by Business Philadelphia Magazine as “Top 100 People to Watch”

Barrie E. Litzky received her Ph.D. in organizational sciences and psychology from Drexel University and taught for the past 18 years at Penn State Great Valley. At PSU, Barrie’s primary teaching responsibilities included business, ethics, and society; sustainability; diversity leadership; and career management. She established the Consortium for Sustainable Business Development at Penn State Great Valley, which operated from 2010 through 2013 and supported various faculty research projects, a campus lecture series, and a variety of student initiatives including service learning and field trips. Barrie created courses in sustainability and social entrepreneurship and led the effort to create a graduate certificate in Sustainable Management Practices. In September 2017, Barrie returned to Drexel as an associate professor of entrepreneurship in the Charles D. Close School of Entrepreneurship. Excited to be at The Close School, Barrie is currently developing and teaching courses in social entrepreneurship and sustainability, resilience and failure, and mindfulness.

A past columnist for both The New York Times and The Washington Post, Gene now writes regularly for The Hill, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Forbes, Inc. Magazine, Entrepreneur Magazine and The Guardian.

Gene has written 5 books on business management, specifically geared towards small and medium sized companies. His most recent is In God We Trust, Everyone Else Pays Cash.

Nationally, Gene appears regularly on MSNBC and Fox News as well as The John Batchelor Show and SiriusXM's Wharton Business Channel where he talks about the financial, economic and technology issues that affect business leaders today.

Through his keynotes and breakout sessions, Gene helps business owners, executives and managers understand the political, economic and technological trends that will affect their companies and—most importantly—the actions they can take to continue to grow and profit.

Gene owns and operates the Marks Group PC, a highly successful ten-person firm that provides technology and consulting services to small and medium sized businesses.

Prior to starting the Marks Group PC Gene, a Certified Public Accountant, spent nine years in the entrepreneurial services arm of the international consulting firm KPMG in Philadelphia where he was a Senior Manager.