OC Business Journal

2022 INNOVATOR OF THE YEAR AWARD NOMINEES

Tax Relief Associates, Irvine Jeff Nickel, CEO

Jeff Nickel, the CEO of Tax Relief Advocates, is truly a relentless innovator when it comes to building a tax company that helps everyday American’s transform their lives. His approach has changed the industry and the perception of the Fresh Start Program itself.

Through tireless effort, he has ensured that his team provides the kind of ethical tax preparation, planning, and resolution services that, while rooted in creative strategy, are truly grounded in transforming lives.

You don’t have to look far to see that, thru his leadership, otherwise mondain entity formation, bookkeeping and accounting translate into stories of American families who are uplifted by the hope turned to reality of a new beginning. Nickel’s company provides a multitude of services that enhance one another, building on the belief that education and understanding, paired with steadfast drive, produce amazing results. His larger goal, though, is to inspire the American people one client at a time.

Tebra, Corona Del Mar Dan Rodrigues, Co-Founder & CEO

Dan Rodrigues is the CEO of Tebra, a cloud-based healthcare technology platform, formed in 2021 with the merger of Kareo and

PatientPop. Kareo provides technology to support practice operations, PatientPop provides technology to support practice growth. Together as Tebra, PatientPop and Kareo will support the connected practice of the future. Rodrigues founded Kareo in 2004 with the vision of making medical billing easy for doctors and their staff. Today, Tebra helps over 100,000 healthcare providers run more efficient and profitable practices, while delivering outstanding patient care. Prior to launching Kareo, Rodrigues started creating technology for the healthcare industry in 2001 as a cofounder and managing partner of Skematix, a software consulting firm based in Southern California. In the late 1990’s, Rodrigues was the co-founder and CEO of Scour, a very popular search engine for finding music and video files online used by more than 10 million consumers. Rodrigues began his career as a software developer for RealNetworks and Visio.

Technologent, Irvine Mike McLaughlin, CIO & SVP

Mike McLaughlin is a seasoned IT executive with proven success leading manufacturer, consulting firms and distributor organizations. Since his start in 1986 with IBM, he has led support, services, sales and IT to drive value for customers and efficiency and effectiveness for his companies. McLaughlin is an expert in the design and delivery of cost-effective, high-performance technology solutions and skilled in all phases of the project lifecycle. Prior to joining Technologent,

McLaughlin has built and run Professional Services, Technology and Operations organizations across solutions integrators, manufacturers and consulting businesses. While serving as the CIO and VP of Professional Services of the IT distribution division of GE Capital, McLaughlin led the delivery of cost-effective, high-performance technology solutions in support of rapid international growth with capital budget responsibilities up to $26 million annually. McLaughlin also built the Professional Services P&L for the GE component to over $100 million in revenue in North American, EMEA and South American markets. In 2004, McLaughlin assumed the operations leader role, retaining IT and Professional Services and adding indirect sourcing, procurement, marketing operations, logistics and facilities, reporting to the CEO. He was part of the senior leadership team that managed and consummated the $425.5 million sale of the GE division to Avnet in 2006.

The Wooden Floor, Santa Ana Dawn S. Reese, Chief Executive Officer

Dawn S. Reese, chief executive officer of The Wooden Floor, is a social innovator who leverages her unique blend of experience in business, technology, education and the arts to propel young people forward. In 2020, under Reese’s leadership with The Wooden Floor Board of Directors, Campaign Cabinet and staff, the organization successfully culminated a 4-year, $20.2 million dollar comprehensive campaign called Lift, and its Endowment Fund has grown from $2.7M to $8.5M since 2016. Reese received the 2020 Women of Distinction Award from 34th CA Senate District, 2019 Women Breaking Barriers Award from Connected Women of Influence, the 2018 Founders Award from the Institute for Community Impact, the 2016 Center for Leadership Award for Innovation from California State University Fullerton. Reese serves on the Board of Directors for Advisors in Philanthropy, OneOC as Treasurer, Orange County Music and Dance, Passkeys Foundation as Board Chair and the Santa Ana Chamber of Commerce. Reese is the founder of the OC Nonprofit CEO Forum, and is a coach, mentor, and conference presenter on topics of board governance, strategic planning, and fundraising. Reese received her Certified Fund Raising Executive in 2015.

Tilly’s, Irvine Ed Thomas, President & CEO

Ed Thomas has worked in the retail, restaurant, and service industries for 30+ years. A senior executive and board member for public and private companies, he offers strategic vision, leadership competency, and decades of experience taking organizations to the next level through restructuring and rapid growth. As president and CEO of Tilly’s, Thomas has led the Company towards increased profitability while preserving its culture and brand. Prior to Tilly’s, Thomas guided The Wet Seal through critical stages of its life cycle, from early days shortly after going public through returning later in 2014 to lead the entity through a restructuring and transition to new ownership. Thomas is a member of Tilly’s board of

directors, and formerly served on the boards of public and private companies. Thomas is a Certified Public Accountant and holds a Bachelor of Science in Accounting from Villanova University.

Titan Health & Security Technologies Inc., Newport Beach Vic Merjanian, Founder & CEO

Vic Merjanian is founder & CEO of Titan Health & Security Technologies Inc., a next-gen tech company dedicated to making the world a safer place. Titan HST provides seamlessly integrated software & hardware solutions in all vertical markets, including sports & entertainment, hotel & casino, education, festivals, business enterprise, tv & movie production, healthcare & more. Designed to provide immediately accessible, reliable and comprehensive 2-way mass notification, Titan HST’s patented technology reduces response times and allows clients to minimize damage to property and most importantly loss of life during emergencies. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Merjanian continued to innovate and deployed several COVID-19 features with the support of his team including health pre-screening, contact tracing, population density monitoring, and sanitization confirmation that allowed sites to re-open and remain open safely with reduced spread of infection. Most recently, custom integrations and platform partnerships have supported clients with a seamless and reliable ecosystem of security and incident management as they welcome employees and the public back into their facilities.

University of California, Irvine Mari Kimura, Professor of Music

A internationally acclaimed prolific violinist, composer and researcher,

Mari Kimura is a leader in the field of interactive computer music and is a renowned master of “subharmonics.” Kimura received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2010, and named a “Great Immigrants: The Pride of

America” recognized by the Carnegie Corporation. The President of

KIMARI, LLC, Kimura created MUGIC®, a motion sensor system for performance, at UCI’s Calit2, and commercially released MUGIC® in

September 2020. The founder of the Future Music Lab at the Atlantic

Music Festival, Kimura has been a professor at Julliard since 1998, where she teaches a graduate course in Interactive Computer Music. In 2017, Kimura was named a Professor of Music for UCI’s Claire Trevor School of the Arts, Department of Music within the Integrated Composition, Improvisation and Technology program. In 2020, she was nominated for UCI’s Entrepreneurial Leader of the Year award and received the Certificate of Recognition from the House of Representatives and California State Assembly. In June, Kimura received her Executive MBA degree at UCI.

University of California, Irvine Brett Sanders, Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering

Brett Sanders, PhD., is a professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of California, Irvine’s Department of Urban Planning and Public Policy. Ever since he was a child, Professor Sanders was fascinated by the everyday implications of how humans interact with water. Now, with more than two decades of experience at UCI, he has educated students on the contentious interaction between the built environment and the natural environment - particularly in the area of fluid dynamics associated with flooding and coastal erosion. Professor Sanders’ research group created the first-ever fine resolution model of flood risk across the Los Angeles/Orange County floodplain and a public dataset displaying beach erosion throughout the same region - models that are now used across communities to assess risk and take preventative measures to mitigate urban water damage and coastal erosion. Outside of UCI, Sanders is the founding member and head of Research and Development for Zeppelin Floods, LLC, a new startup that helps cities and businesses avoid damage during times of extreme flooding.

University of California, Irvine Ian Williamson, Dean of The UCI Paul Merage School of Business

Ian Williamson was appointed dean of The UCI Paul Merage School of Business on January 1, 2021, and is globally recognized in the area of human resource management. His research focuses on how organizations and communities can develop strong talent pipelines that support positive outcomes. Dean Williamson has lived in four different countries and assisted executives across a wide range of industries in more than 20 countries across six continents to enhance operational and financial outcomes, improve talent recruitment and retention, boost innovation and understand the impact of social issues on firm outcomes. Williamson is recognized for his innovative approaches to business education research and has been published in leading academic journals, media outlets, and inducted into the Ph.D. Project Hall of Fame for his efforts to enhance diversity in academia and the business world. Dean Williamson brings his area of expertise to the Merage School of Business to ensure that a sustainable pipeline of business talent, focused on inclusiveness and digital leadership, is created to support the economic and social well-being of the community.

University of California, Irvine Krzysztof Palczewski, Distinguished Professor, School of Medicine Donald Bren Professor and Irving H. Leopold Professor of Ophthalmology, University of California, Irvine Director of the Center for Translational Vision Research

Working with the Gavin Herbert Eye Institute, Dr. Krzysztof Palczewski, an internationally acclaimed vision scientist, has positioned the Unviersity of California, Irvine’s School of Medicine to take the lead in cutting-edge research contributing to the field of ophthalmology and eye health. In the spring of 2022, Dr. Palczewski’s team published a study in Nature Communications demonstrating how genomic base editing could offer durable treatment for inherited retinal disease. If this approach is broadly adopted and translated to clinical practice, it’s expected that within 10 years all inherited retinal diseases could be treatable. The base editing technique could provide potentially

long-lasting retinal protection and prevent vision deterioration in patients with inherited retinal degeneration. Dr. Palczewski’s research has changed the field of eye health, leading to treatment and prevention options with an immeasurable impact on patients and the eye health industry. As a leader and innovator in the field of opthamolology, Dr. Palczewski currently holds 29 patents, has nine patents pending, and published research that has been cited more than 54,000 times.

US Metro Bank, Garden Grove Janette K Mah, Senior EVP & Chief Banking Officer

At US Metro Bank, Janette Mah has built a scalable, nimble mortgage platform. Part of the way she has done this is leveraging fintech partners to improve efficiency and automation in a highly competitive space. Mah is credited with successfully building out a retail lending platform coast-to-coast in geographic markets containing major concentrations of Korean-Americans at her prior institution. She was instrumental in establishing a warehouse lending platform there as well, and in 2016 set a record with more than $450 million in committed facilities. Mah is driven by her passion around mentoring Korean-American women in the banking industry and serving the underserved minority communities in the areas she serves.

Van Speed Shop / The Van Mart.com, Westminster Duran Morley, Chief Executive Officer

Duran Morley is the chief executive officer of the Van Speed Shop and the online distribution hub called theVanMart.com. The Van Speed Shop is a turnkey Mercedes Benz van customization lifestyle company. In-house capabilities include full fabrication, upholstery, energy efficient electrical, installation and custom production. Vans can be produced in a 8-9 week period vs. the industry timeframe of 6-9 months. The Van Mart is online e-commerce for people worldwide to purchase a comprehensive and innovative Van Speed part and DIY parts for customer conversions. Additionally, both companies offer a dealer portal. At the early age of 22, Morley has built Van Speed into 27 employees and over a 26,000 square foot manufacturing and customization adventure facility. VanSpeed customers include sports athletes, celebrities, media celebrities and business leaders. Morley has been awarded the SEMA top 35 under 35 worldwide builders by SEMA and is currently on tour with the Adventure Van Expo stops throughout the Western United States and is currently building digital mega media super star, Ken Block’s Mercedes Benz Sprinter Van.

Veritone Inc., Irvine Ryan Steelberg, President & Co-Founder

Ryan Steelberg is a seasoned technology executive and pioneer of digital and data-driven businesses. He is currently the co-founder and President of Veritone Inc., a public company on NASDAQ. He also serves on its Board of Directors. Previously, he served as the president and chief executive officer of Brand Affinity Technologies, Inc. Prior to that, Mr. Steelberg served as the head of Broadcast at Google Inc. From 2002 to 2007, he was the co-founder and president of dMarc Broadcasting, an advertising company that was acquired by Google Inc. in 2006. From 1998 to 2000, he served as president and CEO of 2CAN Media, a company that was acquired by CMGi. From 1995 to 1998 he served as president of AdForce, a company that was also acquired by CMGi in September of 1999, after its IPO earlier that year.

Viant Technology, Irvine Tim & Chris Vanderhook, CEO & COO

Tim and Chris Vanderhook are co-founders of Viant Technology, a leading advertising software company that enables marketers and agencies to centralize the planning, buying and measurement of their advertising investments. Viant’s self-service Demand Side Platform (DSP), Adelphic, is an enterprise software platform enabling marketers to execute programmatic advertising campaigns across Connected TV, Linear TV, mobile, desktop, audio and digital out-of-home channels. For more than two decades, the Vanderhooks have steered Viant’s mission of automating the planning, buying, and measurement of advertising through technology and innovation. Their early vision led to the development and standardization of using web cookies for behavioral targeting that pioneered interest-based digital advertising practices widely used today. In 2021, they led Viant’s IPO to Nasdaq, and have seen tremendous growth as a publicly traded organization. Under their leadership, Viant maintains its position as a leader in advertising technology. The company was featured on AdExchanger’s Programmatic Power Players list, earned a 2022 Great Place to Work certification and the Vanderhooks were named to the list of 2022 Pacific Southwest Ernst & Young Entrepreneurs of the Year.

ViridiSTOR LLC, Tustin Terry Mullin, CEO

Terry Mullin is an active innovator and business builder in OC. He has formed and lead teams in market leading companies that have brought first in class software and hardware to the market. His latest venture, ViridiSTOR, Mullin has launched a new era in content management systems to deliver information to the over $1Trillion event, conference, and tradeshow industry. It is unique in being a truly sustainable solution that actually reduces costs, increases profits for those who deploy it, and makes information more accessible and easier to use at events around the world. In parallel, Mullin continues to expand his patent pending WYSIWYD® technology which provides a human interface to training, allowing more to use and maintain technology easily through visual cues. Mullin has innovated and patented other products including an oral irrigation system for post oral surgery recovery. Mullin has other patents pending in the area of wireless networking, retail management, and sustainable products. Mullin is active in community education in addition to instructing Project Management practices based upon his book “The Project Management Paradox.”

Vivera Pharmaceuticals, Newport Beach Paul Edalat, CEO & Chairman of the Board

With over 30 years of brand and product development experience in the nutraceutical, pharmaceutical, and medical device sectors, Edalat founded Vivera to create a pharmaceutical company whose core mission would be to put patients first. His forward-thinking management approach as CEO has seen Vivera Pharmaceuticals grow from a single division at its founding to over six divisions and counting today. Leading Vivera’s business development domestically and internationally, Edalat works closely with Vivera’s sales and marketing teams to anticipate and meet market demands. With trusted global relationships built over the decades, Edalat has worked to leverage his connections and expand Vivera’s reach. In addition, he has led the company through innovative research and development at home.

Vivera Pharmaceuticals, Newport Beach Mehdi Hatamian, Chief Scientific Advisor, Interim Chief Scientific Officer

Dr. Mehdi Hatamian’s 45 years of professional career spans positions at NASA (Space Shuttle program engineer), Bell Laboratories (Distinguished Member of Technical Staff), Silicon Design Experts (Co-Founder), a 20-year career at Broadcom (Chief Scientist for Central Engineering), and 2Pi-Sigma Corporation (Founder and CEO). Dr. Hatamian brings an engineer’s mindset to Vivera Pharmaceuticals. He works closely with Vivera’s team to expand the Medical Technology and Medical Device divisions, bringing not only his engineering expertise but his knowledge of medical research. Dr. Hatamian is leading the team in developing ZICOH, an electronic, dose-controlled medication delivery system that works seamlessly through the medication supply chain from the manufacturer to the patient. ZICOH is designed to help end the opioid epidemic by providing a fully integrated solution to prescription drug abuse. Dr. Hatamian is dedicated to Vivera’s core value of putting patients first by bringing real-life solutions to the United States’ current issues. In addition to developing ZICOH, as Vivera’s Chief Scientific Advisor Dr. Hatamian oversees the company’s team and provides insight into the ongoing medical research.

Westcliff University, Irvine Dr. Anthony Lee, President

Dr. Anthony Lee is the president of Westcliff University in Irvine, Calif., one of the fastest growing universities in the U.S., going from less than 1000 students in 2016 to over 4,000 students in 2022. Dr. Lee has served leadership positions across numerous universities and schools in the U.S. and internationally. In these roles, he has successfully led schools through the accreditation process at the university and K-12 levels. With expertise in innovative online and hybrid programs, Dr. Lee has launched new programs infusing and integrating technology with traditional campus-based classes for an enhanced learning experience. He is a proven leader in many critical areas within higher education including marketing, finance, operations, compliance and accreditation. Dr. Lee earned his doctorate in educational leadership from the University of Southern California Rossier School of Education with a concentration in higher education administration. He earned his MBA from the University of California, Los Angeles Anderson School of Management, focusing on strategy and entrepreneurship. He earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Irvine, majoring in economics

WhiskerCloud, Newport Beach Adam Greenbaum, CEO

Adam Greenbaum founded WhiskerCloud in 2016 to help modernize the veterinary industry. Since then, Greenbaum led a bootstrapped company to become a globally recognized brand that supports veterinary professionals worldwide. Today, WhiskerCloud works with and supports thousands of veterinary professionals and partners with several organizations with missions to make veterinary medicine more inclusive and accessible. Greenbaum’s background in marketing and website design has helped an industry that had long been fearful of technology thrive in the digital age. The veterinary industry is expected to have $109 billion in revenue in 2022, and digital marketing and technology have never been more critical for veterinary medicine. Before founding and building WhiskerCloud, Greenbaum was a multiple-award winner for work in the travel and healthcare industry. Greenbaum is obsessed with automation, speed, and creating a world that makes it easier to care for your pets and interact with your veterinarian. WhiskerCloud’s mission is dedicated to Greenbaum and his wife Elizabeth’s love of their three pets-Sophie, Baxter, and Nala.

YouAttest, Irvine Garret Grajek, President & CEO

Garret Grajek is a 15 U.S. patent holder and thought leader in identity technology and cyber security. He has led projects and created products for some of America’s most established companies: IBM, Cisco, Motorola, Texas Instruments before starting his own companies, including SecureAuth and now YouAttest. His hands-on and real world approach to solving problems stems from his background as a programmer since graduating at the University of Texas and then working in the exploding community of established and newly funded ventures that came from the Austin community. He modeled his life long “we can do it” spirit from the energy he received from this start-up community. From there Grajek has spread his wings w/ world travel and employment in Germany, Canada, Costa Rica and Singapore. He learned in his work and travels to incorporate all ideas and people into his solutions. Which brought him to YouAttest, a new venture started out of O.C. but using the talents of the world to create a better identity security and compliance solution.

INNOVATOR OF THE YEAR AWARDS

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