Archive for July, 2009
Women Entrepreneurs Episode 3
July 31st, 2009 | 1 comment
This week, we bring you the stories of 4 women entrepreneurs and explore how men and women approach business. Find out why women are starting businesses at a higher rate than men and how women stay true to their values as the companies they lead show excellent financial results.
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Deb Parsons
Co-Director, Investor’s Circle
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Deb is Co-Director of Investors’ Circle, a group made up of angel investors, professional venture capitalists, foundations, family offices and others who are using private capital to promote the transition to a sustainable economy. Prior to joining IC, Deb served as a member of SJF Ventures and Good Capital. For the past two years she was Vice President at Good Capital, where she managed the fund’s operational aspects, investor relations, and deployment of capital. Deb was formerly an associate at SJF Ventures, a community development fund focusing on cleantech and the LOHAS sector. Before that, she spent six years in business development, marketing, and partner management at WGGH, Intuit, and North Face.
Sheryl O’Loughlin
Co-Founder and CEO, Nest Collective
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Sheryl spent six years in brand management with General Foods, Quaker Oaks, and Gatorade. She then joined CLIF Bar, where served three of ten years as CEO. While there she spearheaded Luna Bar, the first and top-selling energy bar for women. Now, as Co-Founder and CEO of Nest Naturals, Sheryl provides consumers with food, home, and body products to nurture both body and spirit.
Stephanie Bernstein
Founder, To-Go Ware
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Stephanie Bernstein founded To-Go Ware and Eyes of the Forest, Inc. in 2004. Previously, Stephanie worked for Guayaki Yerba Mate, Manitoba Harvest Hemp Foods, and Pangea Organics Bodycare. Stephanie was named Rocky Mountain Regional Accounts Director for World of Good, a fair trade import company that takes artisan crafts to high-volume, mainstream channels of distribution. She hosts socially conscious television shows like Sourcecode on Free Speech TV and pledge drives for LinkTV. Stephanie has also written and modeled for magazines such as Alternative Medicine and Yoga Journal, and is currently featured on boxes of Yogi Tea.
Suzanne Sebion
Founder, Sibby’s Ice Cream
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After spending 19 years as a parcel delivery truck driver, Suzanne Sebion caught the bug for the organic farming movement in Wisconsin’s Kickapoo Valley. In 2001, Sebion began producing Sibby’s Homestead Organic Ice Cream. It’s free of preservatives, chemical additives and genetically engineered ingredients. She makes her specially-crafted ice cream daily at the 3,500-square-foot homestead creamery she built on her 150-year-old family farm.
The Business of Cooperatives
July 24th, 2009 | 2 comments
This week we’re examining how businesses can expand and stay strong even in rough economic times through the cooperative model. In time of diminished trust in remote corporate and financial institutions, co-ops provide a model for how to increase the level of trust in every level of business relations. From consumers knowing that their dollars are benefiting local economies to members gaining strength through numbers, we’ll find out ways co-ops can be the most democratic business model around.
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Paul Hazen
President, National Cooperative Business Association
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Members of the NCBA range from large Fortune 500 companies to small consumer food cooperatives located in small towns across the United States. In addition to being President of the NCBA, the only cross-sector member association representing all cooperatives in the US, Paul is on the board of the International Cooperative Alliance.
Tom Knox
Director of Retail Development, ACE Hardware
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Founded in Chicago in 1924, Ace is the largest retailer-owned cooperative in the industry with 4,600 stores in all 50 states and 60 countries generating annual retail sales of more than $13 billion.
Theresa Marquez
Chief Marketing Executive, Organic Valley
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CROPP Cooperative, and its brand, Organic Valley Family of Farms is the largest organic farmers cooperative in the United States, CROPP consists of over 700 small and mid-size family farmers. Theresa Marquez has been involved in food and farming since the mid 1970s, and she joined the Cooperative in 1995 and has helped to grow the business from $5 million to $209 million in 2004.
-This Weekend: July 25-26, 6th Annual Kickapoo County Fair
Small Business Award Winners
July 17th, 2009 | post a comment
This week, we’ll talk with regional winners of Small Business Administration awards for outstanding small businesspeople in several different categories from all over the country. Each of our guest has been honored in different fields and in different regions, but by listening to their stories together, we’ll explore the most important and consistent elements that make a small business successful.
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Oscar and Melinda Vizcarra,
Owners of Becker Farms & Vizcarra Vinyards
Winners of the Family Owned Business Award for Buffalo Region
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Becker Farms and Vizcarra Vineyards is a 5th Generation family owned 340 acre working fruit and vegetable farm that sells most of their products directly to the public. For the past 100 years Becker Farms has harvested its own fruits and vegetables to provide fresh produce and a wide variety hand-made products. In the last two years Becker Farms has adopted a field to table approach with all of its catered events serving items grown and picked for the occasion right from the farm or brought in from other local growers within a 100 mile radius of Becker Farms. 
Robert Beadle, Founder Northeast Public Relations
Winner of the Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award for New England
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Robert Beadle is president of Northeast Public Relations, Inc., (NEPR) a communications firm that helps organizations become successful by enhancing their public image. NEPR specializes in a variety of public relations and marketing services including new media and Web 2.0 strategies, news releases, social media outreach, Internet video and corporate social responsibility programs.
Dalen Gunn, Owner BulletTools
Winner, Small Business Exporter of the Year for Northwest Region
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Gunntech Manufacturing/Bullet Tools began in 1998 when Dalen Gunn, after working in the various facets of the floor covering industry for more than 25 years, invented a tool called the Skimmer. The tool was an instant success and was sold throughout the U.S. and around the world. The BulletTools brand has earned a permanent place in the flooring tool market, helping installers and distributors become more profitable through time saving innovations.
The Business of Making Green from Being Green
July 10th, 2009 | post a comment
This week, we’ll examine ways that large and small companies can maintain sustainable practices for combining sustainable practices with a for-profit business model. First, we’ll talk to two entrepreneurs from sustainable start-ups and then hear about a new initiative by one of the world’s largest corporations to be greener by building smarter technology.
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Dan Tefft – CEO, Treebanking
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Rob Brazzele – CEO, Safety Power
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Matt Preschern – VP of Ecosystem Communications, IBM
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Jack Mason – IBM Smarter Planet Initiative
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The Business of Youth Sports
July 3rd, 2009 | post a comment
This week, we explore the marketplace and culture of youth sports. How are adults and our broader national culture of competition impacting childhood development? How can youth sports help kids grow up to be successful? We’ll lay out some of the challenges facing youth sports today and then talk to some innovators in the field to find out new ways for parents, coaches and kids to build healthy emotional and physical skills.
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Mark Hyman
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Mark Hyman is a contributing editor at BusinessWeek and the author of the new book Until It Hurts: America’s Obsession With Youth Sports. Prior to joining BusinessWeek, he spent nearly 20 years as a reporter for newspapers including the Baltimore Sun where he was an enterprise and investigative reporter in the sports department. During his time at the Sun, earned his law degree from the University of Maryland. He blogs at youthsportsparents.blogspot.com and also contributes to BusinessWeek’s Working Parents blog.
Jim Thompson
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Jim Thompson is the founder and director of Positive Coaching Alliance, a national nonprofit organization of parents, coaches and youth sports organizations dedicated to improving youth sports by developing a positive character building approach. Jim has more than 20 years of teaching, coaching and management experience working with a variety of individuals and groups. He was formerly Director of Stanford Business School’s Public Management Program and his experiences as a youth coach led him to write two books on the subject: “Positive Coaching: Building Character and Self-Esteem Through Sports” and “Shooting in the Dark: Tales of Coaching and Leadership“.
Frank Fiume
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Frank Fiume is founder and CEO of i9 Sports Corporation. Noticing from his own experience that the amateur sports industry was poorly organized on the local level, Frank applied the marketing and business skills he acquired with medical device companies to create ABA Sports in 1995. Over time, it grew at an astonishing rate, becoming i9 Sports corporation, the nation‘s first complete amateur sports franchise business allowing individuals to organize leagues, tournaments, camps, clinics, train officials, and sell sporting goods and custom uniforms while working with the local amateur organizations and parks and recreation departments.
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