Featured Speaker(s)

Jane Barr is the CEO of Kinnexion, specializing in coaching leaders to build careers and businesses that are fun, fulfilling and financially rewarding.

For 30 years Jane consulted with national retailers such as, CVS, GAP, and REI, leading business and technical teams to successfully complete projects in business process re-engineering, software selection and system implementation. She knows what it takes to complete a project on time and on budget. And she developed client relationship skills which allowed her to bring in add-on business worth millions of dollars to the consulting and software companies who employed her.

On the other hand, she also knows exactly what it's like to have great products and services and still not get the project, not get promoted, even to get the boot! (Ouch!)

As a leadership and communication coach, Jane shares with you what she has learned works and doesn't work in the real world. She supports you in enhancing your ability to connect with clients, exceed their expectations and gain their commitment. Jane also provides you with tools to inspire your team to work collaboratively, to take action and get things done. In addition you'll discover ways to work with difficult people, say no without losing trust and think on your feet in any type of situation. 

Jane's coaching certifications include: iPEC Energy Leadership Coach, Dale Carnegie Coach for Leadership and Communications, High Power! Presentations, Relationship Savvy, and Perfect Customers,

As President and founder of Tampa Bay WaVE, Linda Olson has grown this non-profit to over 100 early-stage technology ventures in under 5 years.

In 2012, she led a regional effort that was awarded a $1million federal grant from the US Department of Commerce to launch the FirstWaVE Accelerator program and an open innovation space in downtown Tampa, called the FirstWaVE Venture Center. This 16,000 sq/ft center provides dedicated office and coworking space for tech entrepreneurs, as well as event space for the local tech startup community. In the first 12 months of FirstWaVE, 62 local companies have been supported by program, several of whom have raised over $4 million in outside capital and have created and retained 144 jobs for the region.

Linda has been working with tech startups since 1999 when she joined yet2.com in Boston, a VC- funded tech transfer company, as their Controller/CFO. She has also founded several of her own technology ventures including Total Web Concierge and WOMbeat!.

In her early career, Linda worked with Fortune 500 companies as an ERP consultant for Arthur Andersen. She also was a Sarbanes-Oxley compliance pioneer, developing her own Big4-approved methodology and directing the company-wide Sarbanes-Oxley compliance efforts for The New York Times Company.

Linda was named to the founding leadership team of Startup Florida, the Florida arm of Startup America Partnership (now called Up America). She also serves on the board of Tech Start Tampa Bay, the charitable arm of the Tampa Bay Technology Forum.

Linda has a CPA license from the State of Florida, MACC and BS degrees from Florida State in accounting, and an MBA from Columbia University.

Jayne Jenkins is a certified Executive Coach (ACTP) and Fortune 500 Leadership business veteran working for some of the largest companies in the world including Exxon, AstraZeneca and Sanofi-Aventis. Over 23 years Jayne refined her team development and leadership capabilities, and built finely tuned teams of 120+ people, responsible for delivering revenue of over $600M /yr. Through her effective leadership, collaboration and organizational development, results included an increased market share of a $4 billion business unit from 32 to 41% in just four years. In addition, Jayne has been a successful leader in Marketing, Strategic Operations and Organization Development, which translates to her understanding and effectiveness in many key areas of business.

Jayne founded the "Churchill Leadership Group," an Executive Coaching and Leadership and Team Development Organization to provide lasting results to organizations in the areas of Leadership Development, Team Effectiveness, Employee Engagement and Talent Management. Churchill's global team is made up of experienced certified coaches (30+) with extensive business leadership backgrounds. This means Churchill's clients work with trusted experts who have a deep understanding of what each client is going through. This real world experience combined with certified coaching and facilitation expertise transforms leaders and teams for results that last.

Jayne is a certified global Strengths coach and facilitator and has worked with worldwide experts at the Gallup organization (Strengths Finder) and the Marcus Buckingham team (Renowned Management expert and author of Now Discover Your Strengths/First Break All the Rules/STAND OUT). Strength based leadership development has been adopted by many Fortune 500 companies because they have seen the positive and sustainable results and organizational growth this approach brings. Companies including Pfizer, Hilton, Facebook, Chic-fill-A, Coca Cola, Cisco, ESPN, Microsoft and Best Buy are among many. Churchill's clients include EBay, Paypal, Nickelodeon, EA Sports, AstraZeneca, Nestle Health, Wood Group Engineering, PWC, Roche and Passport Health.

"Churchill Leadership Group was built on a foundation that starts with our client's Strengths. We believe each leader is a true individual and has untapped talents that can be applied for greater confidence and authentic leadership impact. Churchill works with leaders and teams to bring solutions to their challenges and turn that talent into performance using executive coaching, leadership tools and workshops for sustainable results."

Jayne proudly serves on multiple leadership boards including her role as President of the "Healthcare Business Woman's Association Florida," an International organization for building stronger women leaders. Jayne inspires and develops global women leaders at eBay and PayPal and is also active in WITI, WID, WEL, CFHLA,TBTF and non-profit organizations. Through her inspirational talks, executive coaching, facilitated workshops and mentoring Jayne ensures she gives back to others and her community.

Outside of work Jayne spends as much time as possible with family and friends. She loves boating, fishing, traveling and practicing her faith and teaching yoga. A proud dual citizen of the USA and UK she is constantly looking to learn and push the boundaries of what is possible for herself and Churchill's clients.

Maria Zabetakis is a seasoned IT leader with over thirty years of experience in large, multi-national organizations leading global initiatives in IT and Operations. Her latest full time positions was with a global organization headquartered in Florida with facilities in Europe (Ireland), Asia (Philippines and Thailand) and Latin America (Brazil). She was the CIO of the Americas and a member of the leadership team governing Operations and Commercial functions with full responsibility for managing all IT departments. Most recent accomplishment was to upgrade and migrate nine regional ERP systems to two consolidated data centers with development teams in each region. The project lasted two years and created a savings of over $2M. Currently Maria is the Global Program Manager for a Microsoft partner managing one of the largest Microsoft Dynamics implementations for a manufacturing organization for over 225 plants in 100 countries.

Her career began at Westinghouse Electric in Pittsburgh, PA, as a programmer in mainframe technologies. As her career unfolded, she advanced to more senior-level analysis and project management roles for the Westinghouse Nuclear Division. Accepting a position as a Senior IT Auditor for Rockwell International, Maria traveled extensively auditing IT facilities for Rockwell across the US. She then decided to start her own IT consulting firm, which she grew from two to twenty five consultants. The company was absorbed by a major bank in Pittsburgh, where Maria took the position of Vice President of Software Development. After nine years in that role, the Board of Directors asked Maria to start a new division offering IT and start-up services to small businesses in the western Pennsylvania area advising on hardware and software selections and implementing software systems.

Maria moved to Florida accepting a position with Citigroup. She became the Program Manager for several global initiatives, managing complex systems with teams in various countries globally. Because of her innovations at Citibank, Maria was asked to manage the Latin American corporate division implementing several new systems in that region both regionally and locally in each country. In addition, she was instrumental in the consolidation of data centers to Florida realizing a $10M savings in operating costs for Citigroup.

Maria is a graduate of the University of Pittsburgh and has completed the coursework for both an MBA and a Masters in Education from Duquesne University. She is active in the Tampa Bay community as a mentor at UT, member of TBTF Executive Leadership group, member of Alzheimer’s Association Walk Committee, Professional Job Coach and CEO of a newly formed non-profit, MARTE Foundation, Inc.