Wachholz Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center hosts event on overcoming challenges in business
Daily Inter-Lake | UPDATED 15 hours, 18 minutes AGO
The Wachholz Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center at Flathead Valley Community College is hosting a panel of speakers from Northwest Montana who have overcome the region’s challenges to build businesses and careers.
The inaugural Night at the WIEC is Feb. 24 from 5:30-7 p.m. and is a free event. The evening’s topic is “Clear Your Mind of Can’t.”
Speakers for the event are Marianne Smith, founder and CEO of Code Girls United and Eric Fulton, venture partner at Two Bear Capital. Kathleen Warner will be the host moderator for the evening.
Smith is an engineer with both bachelor’s and master’s degrees. She brings more than 35 years of experience across technology, business and education, including work as a NASA engineer and as an adjunct professor of computer science at Flathead Valley Community College. She is the architect of CGU’s AI Academy, a rigorous, project-based program that integrates AI literacy, ethical reasoning, real-world problem solving and entrepreneurial thinking, equipping students not only to build technology, but to understand how it becomes products, companies and solutions in the real world.
Fulton is focused on enterprise technology, cybersecurity and health care IT, with previous leadership roles including Head of Global Telecom at Citadel Securities and CTO of Evenio Networks. His background spans ethical hacking, ultra-low-latency network design and higher education, including teaching information security courses as an adjunct professor at Montana State University.
Warner is a nationally recognized leader in place-based economic development and entrepreneurial ecosystem building, helping organizations and startups launch, grow and drive transformative economic outcomes.
She is actively engaged in advancing Montana’s entrepreneurial and innovation ecosystem, including as a member of the advisory council of the Wachholz Innovation & Entrepreneurship Center, as a board member of the Montana High Tech Business Alliance and as an active volunteer with the Headwaters Tech Hub.
For more information, visit wiecmt.org.