Judges

Announcing Judges for The Gigabit Challenge.  Judges will evaluate the executive summaries, business plans and investor presentations submitted by contestants and will select the winner of The Gigabit Challenge Grand Prize valued at $100,000. The judges will use a software-as-a-service (SaaS) application called iStart, which is provided by the Kauffman Foundation, a Gigabit Challenge Partner, to review, evaluate and vote on the materials submitted by the contestants. The initial Judging Panel members for The Gigabit Challenge are:

  • Jennifer Bailey - Partner, Hovey Williams LLP
  • Jeff Barco - Chief Executive Officer and Founding Partner, Barco Partners LLC
  • Chris Bernard - Entrepreneurship, Innovation & Design Startup Director and Advisor, Microsoft
  • Gerald Brady - Managing Director Venture Capital Group, Silicon Valley Bank
  • Richard Brenner - President & Chief Executive Officer, The Brenner Group
  • Erik Brynjolfsson -  Professor of Management, MIT & Director, MIT Center for Digital Business
  • Michael Burke - Vice President, King Hershey PC & Co-Chairman of the Bi-State Innovation Committee
  • Jeff Chambers - Chief Strategy Officer, Alterra Bank
  • Aaron Deacon - Event Chairman, Social Media Club of Kansas City
  • Steve Fennel - Director of Communications Outreach, KU Medical Center
  • Victor Friedberg - Executive Director, Launch.org
  • Michael Gale - Chief Executive Officer, Gramercy Private Equity
  • Stuart Gannes - CEO, XVD Technology Holdings & Director of Partnership Projects, O'Reilly Media
  • Michael Gelphman - Founder, KCITP
  • Jonathan Gleason - Director of Business Development, Gunderson Dettmer
  • Matt Heinrich - Vice President for Facilities and Technology, Rockhurst University
  • David Isenberg - Founder, isen.com LLC
  • Philip Korn - Relationship Manager and Managing Director, First Republic Bank
  • Greg Kratofil - Shareholder, Polsinelli Shughart
  • Thad Langford - Executive in Residence, Openair Equity Partners & President/Chief Executive, Zave Networks (acquired by Google)
  • Mike Liebhold - Institute for the Future
  • Casey McGlynn - Partner, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati
  • Eric Melin - Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer, Philanthropist.org
  • Mark Radcliffe - Partner, DLA Piper
  • Bryan Richard - Founder, iCode
  • David Silverman - Partner, Crosslink Capital
  • Adeline Tang - Director of Business Development, SingTel Idea Factory
  • Angela Tower - Director, PricewaterhouseCoopers
  • Bud Vick - Owner, Cochran Head Vick & Company, former KPMG East coast connections
  • Radd Way - Executive Vice President, Weitz Construction Company
  • Jase Wilson - Principal, Luminopolis & Member, Bi-State Innovation Committee