Board of Advisors

Stephen B. Garner

Chairman, Board of Advisors

Stephen B. Garner has been President of Effective Marketing Associates for 27 years. EMA is a management consulting firm devoted to increasing shareholder value through optimized sales and marketing management, processes, personnel, activities, and tools. EMA's client base includes work with the executives at AT&T Wireless, US Bank, InFocus, Milwaukee Electronics Companies, Veber Partners, Bechtel Corp., Climax Portable Machine Tools, Miles Fiberglass & Composites, Portland General Electric, Symantec Corp., Teledyne Corp., Wacker Siltronic, Midas, NetIQ, Jubitz Fleet Services, and many other firms in various industrial segments. www.e-m-a.com

Prior to founding EMA, Mr. Garner worked in successively higher executive positions for Raychem, Intel, Spectra-Physics, Prometrix, and Pacific Western Systems in California. Mr. Garner has served on numerous Boards and spoken at national and international conferences. For 10 years Mr. Garner managed a group of 24 local CEO's and consultants that provided free strategic advice to smaller companies in the Portland, OR area.
Mr. Garner is a graduate of Princeton University, AB in Biology, 1972, was granted an MS in Biology from the University of Oregon, 1974, and an MBA from the Amos Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College, 1980.

Curt Smith

Curt directs the Game Changer program under which each BP business unit annually implements new technologies that change the game in terms of measurably increased service, or reduction in cost, or increased competitiveness. Curt worked as Geologist before moving into the world of Information Technology. Among the notable recent gamechangers are "ntel inside BP" and "Clipboard-to-Computer". Recent public appearances include the keynote at the Society of Petroleum Engineers "Digital and Communications Technologies for the Oil and Gas Industry", and at the Computer World Mobility and Wireless Summit. "RFID Technology in BP". He led the development of the world's first Location Aware Safety System for positively accounting for people in the event of an emergency evacuation in industrial heavy metal environments and is currently working on a number of location aware systems including Lone Worker tracking, pipeline surveillance with unmanned aerial vehicles, People on Board management for offshore platforms, and asset management using low-power WiFi tags.

Information on BP Gamechangers

Rob Wiltbank, PhD

Dr. Wiltbank is Associate Professor of Strategic Management for the Atkinson Graduate School of Management at Willamette University, and a former Partner with Buerk Dale Victor LLC, a Seattle based venture capital fund.

He has published research covering topics from top management teams to non-predictive control strategies, to formal venture capital practices among angel investors. He is a Batten Institute Research Fellow with the Darden School at the University of Virginia, conducting an in depth study on organic growth in existing corporations, and is on the editorial board of the Journal of Business Venturing. He also works with the Kauffman Foundation and the Angel Capital Education Foundation to expand his angel investor performance research throughout North America. He holds a Ph.D. in Strategic Management from the University of Washington, and a degree in Finance and Accounting from Oregon State University.

Kauffman Foundation Angel Group ROI Study