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Oct
27 (MST)
Phoenix
Oct
27
5:00 PM
5:30 PM
6:00 PM
6:30 PM
7:00 PM
General Session
Guest Highlights
Thursday Oct. 27 - 5:15 PM - 5:30 PM (15 min)
Speakers
Fast Pitches
Thursday Oct. 27 - 5:30 PM - 7:00 PM (90 min)
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Michael Groeger
Vice President, Group Commercial and Specialty Sales at Blue Cross Blue Shield of AZ
In his role as vice president of commercial group and specialty sales for Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona (BCBSAZ), Mike leads a team of sales professionals dedicated to serving clients’ needs throughout the state.
In this role, Mike’s primary responsibility is to drive revenue and
sustain his high-performing team for the BCBSAZ Commercial
Segment. He leads both sales and service, while overseeing external engagement on the commercial side of the organization for all segments:
● Small Business
● Middle Market
● Large Group
● Specialty Business
With more than 20 years of healthcare industry experience, Mike possesses a wealth of expertise in strategic sales execution, product development, team organization, marketing, public relations, and operations.
Prior to re-joining BCBSAZ in 2018, Mike led the national employer solutions team for the Banner | Aetna joint venture. Earlier, he was responsible for building healthcare purchasing coalitions in the private equity sector through his national role at United Healthcare and worked in Sales Management at BCBSAZ.
Mike has a proven track record of successfully leading teams to exceed year-over-year growth and profitability projections as well as achieving high customer satisfaction and retention rates.
Sessions
Nicolle believes financial literacy for children is key to reducing income inequality. She brings over seventeen years of experience as a business attorney, non-profit board member, and negotiations law professor at ASU to creating a solution. A graduate of USC and Notre Dame Law, Nicolle spent the last decade as general counsel to several private equity companies, that scaled quickly from start-up to regional and national success. During that time, she demonstrated expertise at strategic planning, company structuring, financing, and mergers and acquisitions.
Named one of Arizona’s most influential minority business leaders by AZ Big Media, Nicolle has served as a board member on various non-profit boards including two terms as the Chairman of the Board of Native American Connections, a low-income and homeless housing provider, where she helped develop a successful growth strategy during major acquisition and expansion.
Sessions
Mark Moeremans
Senior Vice President, Innovation & Venture Development at Arizona Commerce Authority
Mark has built his career at the intersection of the private, public, and social sectors. Devoted to economic development both domestically and internationally, Mark has pursued a path supporting entrepreneurship as a way to lift others out of poverty while celebrating innovation and creating sustainable economies.
Mark has worked at startups across 4 continents and consulted for Fortune 100 companies like Pfizer, Nike, and EMC. After graduating from Stanford’s Graduate School of Business with his MBA in 2017, Mark joined a Private Equity firm and moved to Arizona to lead one of their portfolio companies.
Today, Mark brings that same enthusiasm and passion to the Arizona Commerce Authority where he supports entrepreneurs and startups across the state by leading programs like the Arizona Innovation Challenge and the Venture Ready Accelerator.
Sessions
Forbes Shannon is a Wall Street Journal and USA Today Best Selling Co-Author of Exponential Theory: The Power of Thinking Big. At Venture Cafe Phoenix, Forbes is the show producer and master of ceremonies. He looks forward to creating and engaging experience for Venture Cafe Phoenix attendees, and build a platform for others to share their stories.
Sessions
Annie is passionate about financial literacy and believes that every child deserves a financially stable future. A career prosecutor, Annie spent years in the criminal justice system working with vulnerable and undereducated populations. She has seen first-hand what inadequacies in childhood education can produce, and is determined to empower all children to realize their unending potential.
Sessions
Hamid Shojaee is a local veteran entrepreneur and investor. He is the founder of Axosoft, a software development tools company, and Pure Chat, a live chat software company. Both companies were acquired in 2020, at which time Hamid shifted his focus more towards his passion for startups and investing.
As an investor, Hamid has been involved with numerous Arizona tech startups, including being an angel seed investor to companies like CampusLogic, Prenda and Equipifi to name a few. He is also a board member of the StartupAZ Foundation and Venture Madness.
