Andrew K. Smith co-founded the Savory Fund in 2018 and raised the largest ‘first-time’ fund in Utah at $90M. As the first Utah-based fund targeted solely on the food & beverage industry, Smith and partner Greg Warnock (founder of Mercato Partners) have invested a controlling interest in three portfolio companies; R&R BBQ, Mo’Bettahs Hawaiian, Swig, and newly acquired Austin, Texas based VIA313 Pizzeria and San Diego, California based The Crack Shack. With over 65 restaurant locations currently open and operating, and 45 in development, Savory is one of the most actively growing restaurant groups in the nation. Over the past 2 decades, Smith has raised over $400 million in business funding, created over 26,000 jobs, and built and sold five companies, 3 in the technology arena and 2 business units with 122 restaurants in the F&B industry. Smith and his team have generated over $1.3B in sales over the past decade and have been listed as one of the top restaurant operators in the nation by Restaurant Monitor. Andrew was a recipient of the 2017 EY Entrepreneur of the Year® award in his category in the mountain west region. He has also served as an EY judge between 2018-2020. Andrew was also recognized by Utah’s BusinessQ Magazine as the 2018 Entrepreneur of the Year, and hit Franchise Times cover issue in November of 2018 with his partner, and President of Savory’s performance team, Shauna Smith. Born and raised in Chicago, Illinois, Andrew currently resides in Highland, Utah with his wife (Partner and Co-Founder, Shauna Smith) and two sons, Christian (20) and Tobin (15).
Devin Graham is a filmmaker and social media influencer who produces adventure and extreme sport videos on YouTube under the name Devinsupertramp. Since 2010, Devin has amassed over 5.9 million followers on YouTube, garnering over 3 billion views on social media. His videos consist of insane stunts, short films, and video games in real life, taking place all around the world.
Alison Faulkner of The Alison Show has made a career doing whatever she feels like doing. But it always involves finding ways to feel awesome and help others feel awesome too. Alison is a branding and events expert with a highly engaged online community. She hosts an iTunes top 100 podcast with her music producer hubby called Awesome with Alison. And founded Alison's Brand School which has helped thousands through workshops and online courses that empower entrepreneurs with heart to build a brand that can support their dreams. She collaborates and consults with Fortune 500 companies and believes in love, dancing inappropriately, and putting your own name in lights.
Mr. Hall is an award winning entrepreneur, venture capitalist, philanthropist, author, speaker and well known advocate for public education. Mr. Hall is the founder of MarketStar Corporation, a global out sourced marketing and sales company. He is also the co-founder of Mercato Partners, a top performing growth equity venture capital fund. Alan is the past chairman of the Utah Technology Council, the past chairman of Weber State University’s board of trustees and the Ogden Weber Chamber of Commerce. He is the chairman of Ogden Pioneer Days and vice chair of the Ogden Union Station Museum. He serves as a board member of the Utah System of Higher Education which oversees sixteen colleges and universities. He and his wife Jeanne are the chairman and president of the Alan and Jeanne Hall Foundation (www.hallfoundation.org). The Halls have six married children and twenty grandchildren. Mr. Hall graduated from Weber State in1969 with a degree in psychology. He earned an MBA from Brigham Young University in 1972.
Amy Caldwell
More Information about Amy Caldwell coming soon!
Tara Spalding
Tara Spalding is the president and founder of Hen House Ventures. Hen House creates, implements and validates successful go-to-market programs for technology companies that need to rapidly scale new products when entering massive emerging technology markets. Tara Spalding, president and founder of Hen House Ventures Tara Spalding is the president and founder of Hen House Ventures. Hen House creates, implements and validates successful go-to-market programs for technology companies that need to rapidly scale new products when entering massive emerging technology markets. Founded in 2012 and headquartered in Salt Lake City, Hen House Ventures has been instrumental in raising over $23M in seed and Series A funding for over 30 startups throughout the U.S. Tara began her high-tech career in Silicon Valley when she taught herself to code software and became the first employee, and eventually VP of Marketing at industry leader, SugarCRM. Her Silicon Valley experience included roles as CMO at GroundWork Open Source and co-founder and CPO at BenchPick. Available to guide startups and corporations in the US and abroad, Hen House Ventures’ innovative, impactful programs are tailored to meet each clients’ specific development and funding needs. Clients include Analytic Orange, Applitools, ApolloGraphQL, Commtrex, eTeam Sponsor, Sequent Software, Inc., Ten Digit Communications and X2CRM.
Kimmy Paluch
Kimmy is founder and Managing Partner of Beta Boom and a strong advocate for impact investing, women, and diversity and inclusion efforts in the tech space.
Prior to Beta Boom, Kimmy founded a Silicon Valley innovation firm which she ran for over a decade. She also developed and led the whitespace gaming division for LeapFrog Inc. and served as Director of Digital Marketing for a 3D printing toy startup with locations across the MidWest.
Kimmy has a B.A. in Computer Science from Dartmouth College and MBA from MIT Sloan School of Management.
Monte Deere is the CEO of HandsFree Labs, a Vineyard, Utah-based company that creates hands-free footwear technology, licenses that technology to Nike and other footwear companies, and commercializes the technology in its own Kizik® brand. Monte loves spending time with his wife, Bobbi, and with his four children and one granddaughter. He has degrees in accounting and law from Brigham Young University and practiced corporate law for more than 25 years before making the jump to the start-up world.
Lexi Walker is a singer and songwriter signed with SONY Music and actress signed with Paradigm Talent Agency. Global performances and appearances include headlining as a featured artist on stage, TV, and film. Lexi recently returned from touring in Japan, South Korea, and China. Lexi’s explosive young career includes performances on stage in front an audience of 50,000 and TV broadcast to over 500 million viewers. Lexi has performed with Kristen Chenoweth, The Piano Guys, Santino Fontana, and Lindsey Stirling. Lexi has opened for international tenor sensation Alfie Boe, country mega star Clint Black, and Tony-award winning vocalist Idina Menzel. Lexi’s work in TV and film include headlining in two nationally syndicated PBS holiday specials, character voiceover work for the animated feature film “Ozzy”, and featured performances for Disney. Notable global performance venues include the Kennedy Center, Carnegie Hall, and Radio City Music Hall.
Crystalee Beck
More information about Crystalee Beck coming soon!
Erin Weist
Erin was raised in Utah with 4 brothers and an entrepreneur dad who helped them see possibilities everywhere.She stayed home full-time for 13 years raising kids, during which time she homeschooled, moved their family to Malaysia for 2 years (that was an adventure, ask her about it sometime!), sang in a jazz trio and with anyone else that would take her, and practiced guest writing on various blogs.When her kids went to public school and she looked to return to the workforce she realized how much support was lacking for women in the workplace. She had the vision for a large-scale women's business conference in Utah, the first of which was held June 2020--online due to Covid gathering restrictions. She looks forward to many years of conferences in person and hopes you'll gather with Aspire Her!
James Clarke is the CEO of Clarke Capital Partners, a Global Growth Equity and Alternatives
Investment Firm. In 2001, James founded and led Utah-based CLEARLINK—with over 2,000
full-time employees today—until it was acquired in 2011 by Pamlico Capital (formerly
Wachovia), which has since been acquired in 2016 by Sykes (NSDQ:SYKE).
Today, Clarke serves as chair or director on the boards of various private and public
companies in the US and abroad, including the 2017 IPO of PetIQ (NSDQ:PetQ) and recent
private equity sale of Contour. He has also served as a trustee and board member of
several universities as well as regional and global non-profit organizations. Currently,
James is a Governor appointed Trustee at Utah Valley University, where he serves as
Chairman of the Foundation Board and oversees its endowment.
Clarke Capital portfolio companies have been named as some of the nation’s fastest-growing
organizations and many have been voted repeatedly as their regions' "Best Place to
Work”. In 2013, the Utah State Bar named Clarke as the "Technology Pioneer of the
Year" and in 2015 BusinessQ Magazine named him as one of their “10 Coolest Entrepreneurs”.
He has further been recognized with the NESA Outstanding Eagle Scout Award, The Excellence
in Leadership Award from UVU’s Woodbury School of Business and honored with The Southeast
Idaho Chamber of Commerce Award.
James is married to the former Andrea Earl of Holladay, Utah and they are parents to three children. He is an alumnus of BYU, Harvard Business School (OPM) and holds a Masters Degree in Major Programme Management from the University of Oxford.
Derrin is a builder. He builds empowered individuals and teams, systems for growth, motivated communities, and strong companies. He graduated from Duke University Fuqua School of Business with an MBA and completed his undergraduate studies in Business Management and International Marketing at BYU. He founded or co-founded eight companies, including Imagine Learning, and had record-breaking achievements in other companies. His greatest priority is his role in building a great marriage and a wonderful family with his wife Nicole and their 5 children. As a family, they have visited dozens of countries across the globe and have given their time and talents to many charitable and civic organizations.
