Tom Vincent is the Founder and Director of Education at Texas Coffee School in Dallas, Texas. Tom has been in specialty coffee since 2006 when a chance encounter with a couple of coffee professionals on an elevator led him to set sail on a two-year apprenticeship with a prominent East Coast coffee roasting company. With…

Mai Lyn Ngo is a Dallas-based food & fitness influencer with a motto all of us can live by: “I workout to eat.” She founded Deep Fried Fit in order to share her unconditional love of food and fitness, while promoting a balanced lifestyle of green juice and fried chicken. She is also the founder…

David Garcia is the CEO & Founder of Boomerang Strategies, a Full Service Marketing Agency that believes, “the more you throw out, the more you get back.” What I thought was interesting about David’s story was how he starting a marketing agency in the first place. Before Boomerang Strategies, he was in the moving business.…

Dr. Daren Martin is the CEO & Founder of the Global Company Culture Association, the author of multiple business books including the bestselling A Company of Owners: Maximizing Employee Engagement. Dr. Martin’s thought leadership and change strategies in transforming companies earned him the title The Culture Architect. Combining humor, thought provoking content, and a dynamic…

Hirbod Bigvand is a young CEO who translates vision into reality. He came to the United States at 16 years old, couldn’t speak English, and only had 300 dollars in his pocket. Fast forward to present day, he runs a fast-growing software startup, Surfboard, and recently graduated from UTD with a B.S in finance. Hirbod…

  Lara Korba serves as the Chief Executive Officer of Journey of Hope Grief Support Center in Plano, Texas. Her drive to help others has led her to the nonprofit world in the past several years. Previously, she worked in corporate responsibility in the United States, the United Kingdom, and in Canada with various various…

Mark Burge is the Senior Vice President at CityCentral and has over 20 years of global sales leadership experience. CityCentral is an innovative community and workspace designed to help members connect, collaborate, and thrive. I’ve been a member of CityCentral since March 2019 and have grown tremendously as an entrepreneur. I’m a believer in collaboration…

LeRon L. Barton is a writer from Kansas City, MO currently living in San Francisco, Ca. A graduate of Paseo Academy of Fine Arts, LeRon is the author of two books, “Straight Dope: A 360 degree look into American Drug Culture” and “All We Really Need Is Love: Stories of Dating, Relationships, Heartbreak, and Marriage.”…

Alex Quian is the Executive Director of 30 Days of Service, a non-profit led by college students he helped create with his mentor, Greg Weatherford. Over the course of July 2019, Quian completed 30 different service projects in 30 days as part of the organization’s efforts to inspire other young people to give back to…

Philip J. Romano is an investor, entrepreneur, artist and nationally-renowned restaurateur. Involved in the restaurant business for over fifty years, he has created over twenty-five concepts with six of them national concepts: Fuddruckers, Romano’s Macaroni Grill, Spageddies, Cozymel’s, Rudy’s Country Store and BBQ and eatZi’s Market & Bakery. Romano currently owns and operates eatZi’s Market…