Three exceptional Badger alumni will share their entrepreneurial journeys, leadership insights, and how their UW experience set them on the road to success at the Wisconsin Entrepreneurs Showcase on September 25. The event offers the chance to hear from UW–Madison founders and CEOs and be inspired by the entrepreneurial mindset.
Featured speakers range from an entrepreneur in the media and advertising industry who co-founded KeyTV with Keke Palmer, to a business founder and operator specializing in mobile apps, e-commerce, ad-tech, and games, including Disney Heroes and DragonSoul, to an accomplished medical device industry executive who spent 16 years at Medtronic and now successfully commercializes novel therapies on a global basis at high-growth, early- to mid-stage companies.
The Wisconsin Entrepreneurs Showcase is Wednesday, September 25, with speaker program from 5:30 to 7 p.m. (followed by light refreshments) in Grainger Hall 1310, The Plenary Room, 975 University Ave. on the UW–Madison campus. It is free and open to UW–Madison students, faculty, staff, alumni, and the public. Pre-registration is requested at d2p.wisc.edu/WES.
The featured speakers are:
Lenoria Addison ’12, Founding Partner, KeyTV Network.
Lenoria “Nora” Addison is an accomplished and multifaceted entrepreneur in the media and advertising industry. She co-launched KeyTV Network — a digital platform spotlighting the next generation of creators and entrepreneurs — with Keke Palmer. Addison’s experience spans media, TV/film, branded content, talent relations, influencer marketing, and more. She launched a fashion app, and worked for AwesomenessTV, Deutsch, and R/GA and with brands such as Mother, Samsung, Taco Bell, eBay Fashion, FX Networks, Snapchat, Tinder, Uber, PepsiCo, and HBO.
A Milwaukee native, she has a BS in Life Sciences Communications from UW-Madison and was a Powers-Knapp Scholar (Mercile J. Lee Scholars Program).
Justin Beck ‘09, CEO of Playback Rewards and Co-Founder of PerBlue.
With a background in software engineering, Justin Beck is a business operator specializing in mobile apps, games, e-commerce, and ad-tech. He’s passionate about building products, analyzing markets, and tackling the complex challenges of business growth. As a UW-Madison student, Beck co-developed a mobile role-playing game for the then-new smartphones. With other UW alumni, Beck co-founded PerBlue, a Madison mobile and social gaming company. PerBlue launched Parallel Kingdom, one of the first and most successful mobile role-playing games, and successful titles such as DragonSoul and Disney Heroes.
Recently, Beck became CEO of Playback Rewards, a mobile gaming loyalty platform. He received his BS in Computer Sciences and Computer Engineering from UW in 2009.
Kevin Hykes ’87, President and CEO of CVRx
An accomplished medical device industry executive, Kevin Hykes has over 30 years’ experience successfully commercializing novel therapies on a global basis. He’s held President, CEO, and other C-suite roles for numerous high-growth, early- to mid-stage health and medical technology companies, including Augmedics, Bardy Diagnostics (acquired by Hillrom Corporation), Relievant Medsystems, Metavention, Cameron Health (Boston Scientific), and Visiogen (Abbott). He is an advisor with Revival Healthcare Capital, was a partner at Versant Ventures, and spent sixteen years in leadership roles at Medtronic.
Hykes received his MBA from Northwestern University and a BBA in Information Systems from the Wisconsin School of Business.
The Wisconsin Entrepreneur’s Showcase is presented by the Weinert Center for Entrepreneurship, Startup Learning Community, and Discovery to Product (D2P) as part of the UW’s weeklong Innovate Week series of entrepreneurship and innovation events.