The New York Times
Small Business Summit

Ms. Applegate is one of America's leading small business experts. A former syndicated columnist for the Los Angeles Times, she is the author of four popular books on small business management; Bloomberg Press published her “201 Great Ideas for Your Small Business” and ”The Entrepreneur’s Desk Reference”. The Applegate Group Inc., founded in 1991, provides strategic marketing consulting to corporations doing business with entrepreneurs. In addition to her consulting work, Applegate is an experienced producer. She recently wrote, directed and produced "Brain Attack: A Stroke Survival Guide" for the NBC Station Group.

Mr. Ackerman is responsible for building and executing the strategic vision of Fresh Direct, a company that has revolutionized the online grocery space and the way New Yorkers shop for fresh foods, meals and groceries. During its five-year history FreshDirect has consistently set the industry standard churning out an average of 40,000 orders per week. Before developing FreshDirect, Mr. Ackerman was a founding partner of Crown Capital Group Incorporated, a private Equity and Venture Capital Investment company.

Mr. Goldberg is the founding visionary behind Jobster and he runs the daily operations of the company. He and Jobster's CTO, Phil Bogle, guide Jobster's overall product strategy. Mr. Goldberg also directly manages Jobster's sales and marketing organizations and is a frequent public speaker on employment issues and recruiting industry trends.

Prior to founding Jobster, Mr. Goldberg led Strategic Planning & Alliances for T-Mobile USA. His successes at T-Mobile include sourcing and negotiating several multi-million dollar product, marketing, and services relationships, overseeing new business planning, and leading the development and launch of a series of next generation products. Prior to joining T-Mobile, he held management positions at AOL Time Warner.

Mr. Ganzi, Jr. oversees the management of the Palm Restaurant Group including the strategic planning and long-term development. Under his tenure The Palm has grown from one to 28 locations across the United States and Mexico with all of the growth coming from internal capital. Ganzi successfully pioneered the expansion by packing up his family and moving to each new city to pass on The Palms culture, focus on quality, unsurpassed customer service and Palm-style hospitality. In this manner, he built The Palm's legacy one city at a time, only leaving when the restaurant was ready to stand on its own two feet.

In 1989 Ms. Miller founded her training and business-consulting firm that provides practical, hands-on, customized skills training and business development programs, based on real-world selling situations and specific client needs. Her training programs have proven to be highly effective for traditional sales reps as well as "rainmakers" in law, accounting and architectural firms. A leading force in the local business community, Adrian is the New York City coordinator for Company of Friends (Fast Company magazine's global reader's network).

Mr. Faulkner brings more than 20 years of visionary experience to his role at Pelican™ Products, Inc.-- a leading, internationally recognized manufacturer of rugged, watertight equipment Protector™ Cases and technically advanced flashlights. Throughout his career, Faulkner has been recognized in key senior executive roles and driven billions in revenue to industry-shaping, Fortune 100 companies, including Technicolor®/Nimbus CD International and Microsoft ®. Building international organizations, he led an IPO on the NASDAQ stock market, which fueled numerous corporate acquisitions and the building of a hi-tech, world-class operation spanning the globe.

Ms. Otero’s not-for-profit organization is dedicated to assisting women in becoming successful entrepreneurs. She began it in 1994 with the deeply rooted beliefs that “success changes people” and that micro-enterprise development has the potential to alleviate poverty among women living in economically disadvantaged communities. The Fund now serves the New York/NJ Metropolitan area, providing skills training and small loans to women owned firms. In 2002 the Mayor of New York City appointed Ms. Otero to the Commission on Women’s Issues.

Ms. McCoy-Pinderhughes is the author of "How to Be an Entrepreneur and Keep Your Sanity: The African-American Handbook & Guide to Owning, Building and Maintaining Successfully Your Own Small Business." She is the former Small Business Editor for Black Enterprise Magazine where she wrote, assigned and edited articles for the ‘Enterprise’ (How-To) section of the international publication. Her contributions advised seasoned business owners on more efficient ways of running their enterprises. The sharing of her business knowledge with countless entrepreneurs has enabled them to begin the journey of realizing life long dreams.

Ms. Gaddis started her company in 1989 with a cashed in IRA and two employees. Today, T3 is the largest independent advertising agency wholly-owned by a woman in the country, with offices in Austin, New York and San Francisco and over $200 million in capitalized billings. Organized as a marketing and creative think tank, T3 works with clients including Dell, Marriott, JCPenney, Chase Card Services, UPS, MSN, John Deere, Universal, Ingenix and MTV. The White House, NBC’s Today Show, The New York Times and Fortune Small Business have recognized T3’s family-friendly workplace programs.

Shuman and GarageTek co-founder, Skip Barrett, were brainstorming ideas for the next “killer application” of TekPanel, a thermoplastic wall panel product they had developed and perfected for retail clients such as JC Penney and Saks, when the inspiration for a garage organization and storage system hit Shuman. Today, GarageTek can be found in thousands of homes nationwide. Mr. Sherman oversees the company’s marketing, engineering, operational and franchise development functions and expects GarageTek to reach $36 million in sales during 2007.

Ms. Cohen launched the innovative in-home wig shopping service for cancer patients in December 2003. After surviving a 14-month bout of an advanced cancer, she returned to her job as VP of Brand and Relationship Manager at JP Morgan Chase and decided she wanted to use her personal experience and her professional background to help those in similar circumstances. She leveraged both worlds by offering women the opportunity to shop for a wig in the privacy of their own homes - - as no other wig retailer in the nation offers home appointments. She has been featured in Business Week, NY1, More Magazine, MSNBC’s "Your Biz", Senator Bill Bradley's American Voices on Serius Satellite, The New York Daily News, CBS, ABC, Fox, Ganette News, and XM radio's PULSE talk.

Mr. Goldberg is the founding visionary behind Jobster and he runs the daily operations of the company. He and Jobster's CTO, Phil Bogle, guide Jobster's overall product strategy. Mr. Goldberg also directly manages Jobster's sales and marketing organizations and is a frequent public speaker on employment issues and recruiting industry trends.

Prior to founding Jobster, Mr. Goldberg led Strategic Planning & Alliances for T-Mobile USA. His successes at T-Mobile include sourcing and negotiating several multi-million dollar product, marketing, and services relationships, overseeing new business planning, and leading the development and launch of a series of next generation products. Prior to joining T-Mobile, he held management positions at AOL Time Warner.