MAHISHA DELLINGER - Wife, Mother of 4, Innovator, Trailblazer, Mentor, Author, Philanthropist, TV Host
Mahisha Dellinger, star of “Mind Your Business with Mahisha,” a business show on Oprah Winfrey’s Network, pioneered the natural hair care market when she launched CURLS in 2002, a leading organic hair care company that took the natural hair movement by storm.Her journey to the top didn’t come without its own set of challenges. Riding the wave of her success seemed effortless from the outside looking in. The taxing demands of entrepreneurship coupled with the stressors of trying to balance it all, while having it all resulted in her search for a way to “power through.”
Dellinger crafted Huzzy Smart Sips with a curated list of liver protecting properties, detoxifying antioxidants, and a proprietary blend will help of euphoric enhancing ingredients that'll keep you in high spirits all night long. Every Huzzy sip was made to rejuvenate & protect your liver, cleanse your system, aide your gut and invigorate your vitality. Now she drinks Huzzy Smart Sips to relax and revitalize her body, naturally.
Dellinger is an official member of the Forbes Business Council and was appointed a Small Business Advisor for their entrepreneur community. Black Enterprise awarded Dellinger the 2023 Business Disruptor award. Entrepreneur named her 1 of 100 Powerful Women in the US. She served as a keynote speaker for a host of organizations across the nation including Yelp, AT&T, PepsiCO, Black Enterprise Women of Power & their Vision 20/20 Entrepreneur Conference, Essence Fest, Fast Money, Entrepreneur Magazine, and more. Dellinger has also been featured on several television shows throughout the nation and has been seen on OWN, BET, Revolt TV, Good Morning America, etc.. Mahisha’s mantra, “To whom much is given, much is required” led to the founding of her MBA style program & non profit, Black Women Making Millions Academy, that is set to help 25,000 businesses scale with over $450 million dollars’ worth of free resources to African American women all over the nation.
In 2010, I received a call from the hospital that would alter the course of my entire life. The nurse on the other end of the line said bluntly: “You need to stop telling my patients about nutrition.”
I was a Home Health Physical Therapist at the time and had just discovered the vast world of nutrition. More specifically, I discovered how poor nutrition was linked to many of the health issues my patients were dealing with. So of course, I started telling them about it… I explained how gluten and dairy were big inflammatory foods. How sugar plays a role in things like high blood pressure, inflammation, and chronic disease. How toxic oils like canola and sunflower oil result in inflamed, calcified arteries. So when I received that life-altering call, I knew I had to do something more...
So it began…In addition to the nutrition seminars that my wife and I were already hosting, I began researching whole-food nutrition products that would make people feel better. That’s when I stumbled upon this thing called collagen…And on that day—June 6, 2017—NativePath was born.
Nick Lopez attended Arvada West High School and left Colorado as a wide-eyed first-generation college student to work on a BS in business marketing from Michigan State University. His plan was to walk on to the wrestling team, which would ultimately pay for the cost of tuition and living. The reality was that a scholarship was a couple of years away, so Nick made the tough decision to hang up his wrestling shoes for an entrepreneurial endeavor to support the cost of his education.
At the age of 19, Nick founded his first painting LLC, and every summer thereafter he painted homes to help pay for tuition, books, and cost of living. By doing so, Nick developed a real passion and love for the craft of home improvement. In his third year as the owner of the company, the “light bulb” went off. He realized that those years of painting didn’t have to be his last, and that a future in the home improvement industry he had grown to love, made sense. From that point forward, Nick focused himself on building a business that would set the standard for excellence in painting and home improvement.
Upon graduation, Nick and his soon-to-be wife moved back to Colorado to start their family. Soon after, Nick launched LIME Painting in Denver. He created, developed, and perfected a game-changing business model for consistently delivering exceptionally high-quality home improvement services. High-quality people were the secret to LIME’s early and ongoing success. They have been the key to making LIME the special home service company that customers have been searching for. LIME has perfected a partnership model that appeals to the most talented professional painters within a market and marries them directly to clients for exceptional craftsmanship.
Through it all, Nick has retained the passion for excellence that inspired him to build LIME.
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Ilan Sobel has been the CEO of BioHarvest Sciences since July 2020. Ilan has brought the company’s first product, VINIA, to North America, building a direct-to-consumer machine that is now generating significant revenues. VINIA’s go-to-market success has established a template for the company’s near-term product pipeline of nutraceutical plant cell banks. In addition to commercial focus and planning, Ilan has scaled production capabilities from R+D up to industrial levels, and is building a biotech company with novel, and even patentable plant-based products that are based on science and backed by clinical trials.. Prior to BioHarvest, Ilan served for 6 years at Weissbeerger, as both Chief Operating Officer and then Chief Commercial Officer. In this capacity, Ilan played a major leadership role in building a disruptive BIG Data, IOT & Software Company servicing major Beverage players which was ultimately purchased by Anheuser Busch InBev. Previously, Ilan served an 18 year stint as an International Employee of The Coca-Cola Company, where he played a pivotal role in key senior leadership positions generating significant revenue and profit growth and improving brand health trends across diverse global markets including the United States, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, the Philippines and South Africa.
Robin Ganzert, Ph.D., serves as president and CEO of American Humane, the country’s first national humane organization and the first to serve animals, whenever and wherever they are in need of rescue, shelter or protection. She is the executive producer of the acclaimed documentary, Escape from Extinction, narrated by Dame Helen Mirren, and its follow-up, Escape from Extinction Rewilding, which features narration by Oscar winner Meryl Streep. She is also the executive producer of the annual American Humane Hero Dog Awards which aired for ten years on Hallmark Channel and most recently aired on A&E and fyi networks. Additionally, she is the author of The Humane Table: Cooking with Compassion, Mission Metamorphosis and Animal Stars. Her next book, Escape from Extinction, is set to come out in 2025. Dr. Ganzert serves on the board of Loro Parque Foundation, the Lois Pope LIFE Foundation and is a member of The Explorers Club, the Palm Beach Chamber of Commerce Trustee Program, and the International Women’s Forum. She has been awarded the prestigious Gorilla Prize by world-renowned zoological organization Loro Parque for her efforts in conservation.
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Matt Calkins is Appian's founder, CEO, and Chairman of the Board. Matt grew Appian from a startup in his basement to the most successful software IPO of 2017 with only $10 million of outside capital. He serves on the board of the Sorensen Institute and sits on the Leadership Council for the Virginia Public Access Project. Matt was the top Economics graduate of his class at Dartmouth. He is the author of several award-winning board games, and is frequently a top finisher at the World Boardgaming Championships.
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With over a decade of pioneering work at Heirloom Traditions Paint and my current leadership role as CEO of CamCoat, I bring a wealth of experience in product development and the creative direction of our products. My core competencies lie in transforming spaces with a keen eye for color, interior design aesthetic, furniture placement and kitchen & bath design. At CamCoat/Heirloom Traditions, our mission is to deliver sustainable coating solutions that aligns with my dedication to innovation and excellence in the realm of home aesthetics and paint & coatings. By leveraging my background in design, we aim to make a positive environmental impact while enhancing the beauty and functionality of our customers living spaces using our innovative paint products.
In her 23 years of leadership at PanCAN, Julie Fleshman has been a global catalyst for change in the fight against pancreatic cancer. Her commitment began after she lost her dad to the disease, just four months after his diagnosis. He was 52. Fleshman wanted to know why more wasn’t being done – why her dad and thousands of other patients were offered no treatment options and sent home to die.
The pancreatic cancer landscape back then was quite different from today. Very little was known about the disease, only a handful of researchers were studying it and the five-year survival rate was just 4%.
In 1999, Fleshman was hired as PanCAN’s first employee, became its first Executive Director in 2000 and in 2004, became President and CEO.
Under her leadership, PanCAN has grown from a staff of one with annual revenues of $228,000 to a staff of over 175 with a budget of more than $58 million.
Advocacy and grassroots efforts have expanded to nearly 60 affiliates nationwide and yielded a 1075% increase in federal funding for pancreatic cancer research.
Fleshman encourages convening of leading experts and stakeholders in the field – researchers, healthcare professionals, industry and key opinion leaders. This allows her to build a continually expanding community of hundreds of pancreatic cancer thought leaders across the country who work in concert and devote their research efforts to improving patient outcomes.
During Fleshman’s tenure, the organization has awarded 236 pancreatic cancer research grants and has a projected total research investment of approximately $208 million, including the competitive Research Grants Program and leading-edge scientific and clinical initiatives.
Her collaborative leadership style enabled the organization to launch ground-breaking initiatives like PanCAN’s Precision Promise℠ – a clinical trials platform designed to accelerate new treatment options for pancreatic cancer patients. In 2021, PanCAN launched the Early Detection Initiative, the largest prospective clinical trial of its kind, to create an early detection strategy for the disease.
Fleshman is sought after as an expert by the national media including The New York Times, CNN, PBS, Headline News, CBS News and ABC News, as well as local press throughout the country. Fleshman addresses diverse stakeholder groups including industry, patients, scientists, donors and volunteers and she is often on Capitol Hill meeting with members of Congress about the importance of the federal investment in pancreatic cancer research.
Fleshman holds her JD and MBA degrees from Santa Clara University and a BA from the University of California, Santa Barbara, where she graduated Magna Cum Laude. She also studied abroad at Oxford University and in Tokyo, Japan.
Fleshman has been honored for her leadership and dedication in the fight against pancreatic cancer by many organizations. In 2021, she was named Los Angeles Business Journal’s Nonprofit Executive of the Year. She serves on the boards of several cancer care and research committees and organizations. She recently served as a National Cancer Research Advocate for the National Cancer Institute (NCI), providing advice to the NCI Director with respect to promoting research outcomes that are in the best interest of cancer patients. She is currently Chair of Clearity’s Board of Directors, a patient advocacy organization for ovarian cancer patients.
In addition, Fleshman is the Chair of the World Pancreatic Cancer Coalition, an international group of pancreatic cancer patient advocacy groups with a mission to drive transformational change for all those affected by the disease. PanCAN is a founding member of the Coalition, which includes more than 100 pancreatic cancer organizations representing 38 countries on six continents.
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Rita Nakashima Brock, Rel. M., M.A., Ph.D., is Senior Vice President for Moral Injury Recovery Programs at Volunteers of America. She leads the organization’s efforts to deepen understanding about moral injury in the many populations who experience it. The center builds on Volunteers of America’s work, spanning more than a century, of helping veterans and others who live with this emotional trauma.
A noted theologian, Dr. Brock was the Founding Director of the Soul Repair Center at Brite Divinity School, Texas Christian University, where she also was a Research Professor of Theology and Culture. She is co-author of Soul Repair: Recovering from Moral Injury after War, Beacon Press, 2012, and Proverbs of Ashes: Violence, Redemptive Suffering and the Search for What Saves Us, Beacon Press, 2001. She is a leading national expert on moral injury in combat veterans and has offered trainings for VA mental health providers, for professional chaplains, and for veterans and their families.
In her first master’s degree, Dr. Brock studied youth development, psychology of religion, and pastoral counseling and was employed as a youth minister. From 1974 to 1988, Dr. Brock was Protestant chaplain for a high school level, human relations and justice, summer-school program in Los Angeles County called Brotherhood/Sisterhood USA, administered by the National Conference of Christians and Jews. In addition, from 1979-1981, she served as Assistant Chaplain and Instructor in Religion at Chapman University.
For 18 years, Dr. Brock was a Professor of World Religions, Philosophy of Religion, Spiritual Biography, Psychology of Religion, Theology and Women’s Studies, and she held the Endowed Chair in the Humanities at Hamline University in St. Paul, MN, from 1990-1997. In 1997, she became the Director the Bunting Institute at Radcliffe College, a research fellowship program for distinguished scientists, scholars, humanitarians, and artists. An experienced non-profit program and institution builder, she was a member of the strategic planning team for the 1999 Radcliffe-Harvard merger that led to the creation of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University. From 2001-2002, she was a fellow at the Harvard Divinity School Center for Values in Public Life. She also served from 2006-2008 as senior editor in religion for The New Press in New York City. She has edited or contributed to three manuals for navigating careers in religion for the American Academy of Religion. In 2012, she received a grant from the Lilly Endowment, Inc. to create the Soul Repair Center, which is dedicated to research and education on moral injury and recovery.
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Veer Gidwaney is the Founder and CEO of Ansel Health. Previously, he was Co-founder and CEO of Maxwell Health, which was acquired by Sun Life in 2018. Maxwell Health was ranked #100 on Deloitte's 2017 Technology Fast 500™ list. Veer is a proven entrepreneur and insurance innovator whose energy and experience have long been devoted to solving the problems of our time. Veer lives with his family in the greater New York City area.
Jarrod Lopiccolo
CEO / Co-Founder
With one foot firmly in Reno and the other across the pond at our Bristol, UK office, Jarrod’s globetrotting nature has led him to make meaningful connections with people all over the world. His attention to listening first let’s him learn what makes people tick and, admittedly, helps him harness the insights to propel Noble’s success.
Over the last two decades Jarrod has grown our creative digital performance marketing agency from a single-laptop endeavor to an international company. To date, Noble partnered with brands like Visit Lake Tahoe, Santa Monica, Autodesk, The Islands of Tahiti, Niantic Inc., Adobe, Disney, Visa, Google and more. His passion for creating beautiful human experiences (and his architectural background) have helped Noble translate the best of the real world into virtual architecture.
Jarrod seeks inspiration from the world around him. An avid photographer and outdoorsman, he’s our original Wild Bear—hungry to see the world and always searching for a way to be better. On any given day that could mean sharing his experiences at national conferences, swapping stories with a client or hiking Patagonia with Season, his wife. (Everest is up next. Be better every day, right?)
A mentor, father, husband and visionary, Jarrod has held leadership roles with several non-profit and public-private initiatives in Nevada. He previously served as Co-Executive Director of the San Francisco/Silicon Valley Inc. Magazine’s Business Owners Council, was a board member for Northern Nevada Development Authority (NNDA) and an advisory board member for the Nevada Center for Entrepreneurship & Technology (NCET). He’s taken the stage around the world at Destinations International’s Annual Convention, Social Media Week Bristol, eTourism, DMA West, University of Nevada – Reno, University of Nevada – Las Vegas and Truckee Meadows Community College, just to name a few.
Outside of his office in Reno, Nevada, Jarrod likes to keep his hands busy. He prides himself on being an early adopter, trying any interesting technology that comes on the scene and attending CES in Vegas just for the fun of seeing into the future (and how it can be applied to digital marketing, of course). His passion for photography has led him to new horizons–Iceland, in the near future–and led him to form a group for agency photogs throughout the country.
Want to know more about Jarrod? Pull up a handmade chair, grab a glass of homemade beer, wine or mead, and come prepared to share a story of your own.
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Adam Nash is the co-founder & CEO of Daffy.org, a fast-growing platform and community for charitable giving. Adam has served as an executive, angel investor, and advisor to some of the most successful technology companies to come out of Silicon Valley. Adam previously served as President & CEO of Wealthfront. He has held executive and technical roles at Dropbox, LinkedIn, eBay, and Apple. Adam also serves as an Adjunct Lecturer at Stanford University, where he teaches “Personal Finance for Engineers.” As an angel investor, Adam is well known for being an early investor in Firebase (sold to Google), Opendoor (Ticker: OPEN), Figma, Gusto, and over 120 other startups. Adam holds BS and MS degrees in Computer Science from Stanford University, as well as an MBA from Harvard.
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Terry Andre
Terry Andre has led AmCoat Industrial as its CEO since 2010. With more than twenty years of contract manufacturing experience, he is uniquely qualified to help dealers develop their businesses and keep the supply chain moving. Terry and his wife Kathy, reside in Destin, Florida and have three adult children.
AmCoat Industrial is the manufacturer of high performance coatings for walls, roofs and specialty industrial applications. AmCoat is home to some of the most recognized paint brands in the U.S. most notably Rhino Shield Ceramic Coatings and Floor Shield 100% Polyaspartic Coating Systems. Through a network of independent dealers, AmCoat distributes its products nationally and internationally coating thousands of homes and buildings.
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