Thom Ruhe is the Vice President of Entrepreneurship for the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, and former founding Chief Marketing Officer for JumpStart Inc. venture capital fund. Thom is also the former president of Optiem, a fully integrated internet marketing and digital marketing agency.

Jim Wilson is formerly the B2B technical architect for Cleveland-based PolyOne Incorporated and has served as a technical systems architect & senior application developer for Schwab, Key Corp., and others.

John is a seasoned IT professional with 30+ years of experience leading large capital investments in technology and business. He sits on several startup advisory councils, and has been the recipient of numerous awards related to management and technology

Dr. Cesar Zamudio is a Professor of Marketing and Paul Mills is a PhD candidate at Kent State University. They are using the Ringside Shopper platform to investigate how consumers respond to mobile coupons. Their current research examines how consumer, store, category, and brand characteristics influence purchase behavior.