Joan Koerber-Walker, Chairman
Joan Koerber-Walker has served as Chairman of the Opportunity Through Entrepreneurship Foundation Board of Directors since 2006.
As President and CEO of AZBio, Ms. Koerber-Walker works on behalf of the Arizona Bioscience and Medical Technology Industry to support the growth of the industry, its members and our community on the local and national level. Ms. Koerber-Walker is also a life science investor and has served on the boards of numerous for-profit and non-profit organizations.
In the life science industry, Ms. Koerber-Walker is a past Chair of the State Medical Technology Alliance (SMTA), a consortium of state and regional trade associations representing their local medical technology companies. She currently represents Arizona as a member of SMTA, on the Council of State Bioscience Associations (CSBA) and on the Coalition of State Bioscience Institutes (CSBI).
Active in the entrepreneurial and investment communities, she also serves on the Board of Advisors to CellTrust, Inc. which provides secure communication technology to the healthcare industry, and as Chairman of CorePurpose, Inc. which she founded in 2002. Her past experience includes two years as the CEO of ASBA (the Arizona Small Business Association), service as a member of the Board of Trustees of the National Small Business Association in Washington D.C., President of the National Speakers Association/Arizona, Chair of the Board of Advisors to Parenting Arizona, as a member of the Executive Committee of the Industry Advisory Board for the Thomas and Joan Read Center at Texas A&M University, on the Board of Directors of the Arizona Technology Council, as Treasurer and Board Member for RiboMed Biotechnologies, Inc. in San Diego, California and as an executive at Avnet, Inc, where, for over a 20 year span she held a wide variety of roles in sales, marketing, technology, supply chain management, and global administration.
Robert Dunaway, Esq., Board of Directors
Robert Dunaway is one of the most experienced business attorneys in Arizona, and over the past several decades has helped thousands of companies of all sizes to succeed. From his start in the Silicon Valley, counseling technology companies like Sun Microsystems and Tandem Computers, to his 17 years in Arizona guiding hundreds of startup ventures – including over 50 merger & acquisition transactions and over 400 private investor fundings. Dunaway’s Phoenix business law practice specializes in helping companies of all types build a solid foundation and grow into a thriving business.
To support entrepreneurs in their efforts, Dunaway is a co-founder and director of the Opportunity Through Entrepreneurship Foundation, a non-profit that teaches entrepreneurship skills. He also has been named one of Phoenix’s Top 12 Business Advisors in a poll conducted by the Phoenix New Times. Dunaway’s expertise is focused on general corporate, contract and intellectual property law, with an emphasis on corporate and LLC formation, technology licensing and other technology-related contracts such as consulting, OEM, distribution and development agreements; venture capital and other private investor financings; mergers and acquisitions; protection of intellectual property; and internet law.
Ed Nusbaum, Board 0f Directors
Ed Nusbaum is a cofounder and partner of Stealthmode Partners. Since 2008, Ed has served on the board of the Monterey Institute for Technology and Education. The Monterey Institute for Technology and Education [montereyinstitute.org] is a non-profit organization committed to improving access to education. Previously, Ed has served as a board member of the Arizona Technology Council, Arizona Internet Professionals Association, AeA, and TiE-Arizona. (EdNusbaum.com)
Francine Hardaway, Executive Director
Francine Hardaway, Ph.D is the co-founder of Stealthmode Partners, an accelerator and advocate for entrepreneurs in technology and health care that was founded in 1998. Prior to Stealthmode, she owned two marketing companies, and served as Director of Worldwide Press Relations for Intel and the CMO of Innovative Environmental Products. Her communications specialties are technology, healthcare and financial services.
Francine was an Entrepreneurial Fellow of the Eller Entrepreneurship Center at University of Arizona, and was a founder of Social Media Club Arizona and the Arizona Software Association. She is also founder and Executive Director of the Opportunity Through Entrepreneurship Foundation, which provides entrepreneurship training to at-risk populations.
She is co-founder of the blog USHealthCrisis, and blogs for Fast Company, Huffington Post, and Stealthmode’s blog.