Robert Grede, BA, MBA, is a graduate of DePauw University and The Emory University School of Business.

In 1990, after 12 years in advertising working with premier marketers like McDonald’s, Procter & Gamble, and Union Carbide, he founded The Grede Company, consultants in business planning and strategic growth.  Clients range from start-up operations to Fortune 500 firms.

Grede has been on the faculty of Marquette University and Carroll University, is a syndicated columnist, frequent contributor to magazines, and author of the best selling Naked Marketing – The Bare Essentials [Prentice-Hall] and The 5 Kick-Ass Strategies (Every Business Needs) [SourceBooks]. 

 A familiar face on television and radio talk shows, Mr. Grede speaks on the subject of marketing and strategic thinking at civic organizations and corporate venues.   Mr. Grede’s novel, from Three Towers Press, is due out in September, 2010. 

Jeff Koser is the founder of Selling to Zebras, LLC , a sales tools and consulting firm established in 1999. Jeff is also an award winning author of Selling to Zebras, HOW TO CLOSE 90% of the BUSINESS YOU PURSUE FASTER, MORE EASILY and MORE PROFITABLY.

He offers more than thirty years of experience in speaking, consulting, executive sales management, business strategy, and business development, in various industries. His current consulting customers range from Global 2000 companies to pre-IPO companies aspiring to do a liquidity event. 

Using the Zebra sales methodology, chronicled in Selling to Zebras, Jeff has established a proven track record of successfully helping companies increase sales and reduce the cost of sales. Companies of all sizes from emerging to mature markets, in a variety of industries, have enjoyed Zebra initiated sales success.

Previously, Jeff served as Chief Operating Officer at Baan Supply Chain Solutions. Under his leadership at Baan, revenues grew more than tenfold in fewer than five years. Prior to joining Baan, Jeff held various management and sales positions at companies such as NCR Corporation, MAI Basic Four, and Xerox Computer Services.

Brenda Cárdenas is the 2010-2012 Poet Laureate of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Her collection of poetry Boomerang was published by Bilingual Review Press in 2009, and her chapbook From the Tongues of Brick and Stone by Momotombo Press (Institute for Latino/a Studies) in 2005. She also co-edited Between the Heart and the Land: Latina Poets in the Midwest (MARCH/Abrazo Press, 2001). Cardenas’ work has appeared in a range of publications, including Achiote Seeds, The City Visible: Chicago Poetry for the New Century, The Wind Shifts: The New Latino Poetry, Prairie Schooner, RATTLE, and the Poetry Daily web site, among others. Her poem “Song” was made into an animated film in the Poetry Everywhere series sponsored by the Poetry Foundation, and her honors include two Illinois Arts Council finalist awards. Cardenas is an Assistant Professor in the Creative Writing program at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

Fabu Carter Brisco is Madison’s 3rd Poet Laureate.  Her poetry focuses on children, women, and African Americans.  Poems, Dreams and Roses, a compilation of poetry about Fabu’s growing up as a poet is aimed at encouraging young poets and was published in December 2009.  In Our Own Tongues will be published by The University of Nairobi Press, Nairobi Kenya in 2010 and  African-American Life in Haiku will be published by Parallel Press in 2011. Fabu has been published in Callallo, Southern Women’s Review, Verse Wisconsin and many other Wisconsin and Southern publications.