Over the past several years, Covington has emerged as a thriving hub for innovative companies and startups. In this panel discussion with our region's entrepreneurial leaders, we'll explore:
Meet the Panelists
Dave Knox - Executive Director, Blue North
Dave Knox is an investor, startup advisor, and speaker in the areas of innovation, marketing, and digital transformation. Blending classical brand marketing acumen with entrepreneurial instinct, Dave is recognized throughout the industry as an innovator who bridges the worlds between brand marketing, digital, and entrepreneurship. As Chief Marketing Officer of Rockfish, Dave helped the company become one of the fastest- growing agencies in the country, going from $8 million in 2010 to $70+ million in revenue in 2016. Simultaneously, Dave cofounded The Brandery, one of the top 10 startup accelerators in the US. Combining these two worlds, Dave is also the author of the bestselling Predicting the Turn: The High Stakes Game of Business Between Startups and Blue Chips. In his latest entrepreneurial journey, Dave was the CEO of Nature’s Willow, a leading natural pain relief brand he acquired in 2019 and sold in 2022 after growing the business 4x. Today Dave is the Executive Director of Blue North, serving as a front door for the entrepreneurial community, helping startups and small businesses to connect with the right resources to accelerate their business in Northern Kentucky.
Ben lives in Hebron, KY with his wife Karen whom he met while at Georgia Tech where they both studied Engineering. He studied Civil Engineer while she earned a degree in Industrial Engineering. They have two sons. Adam is a Senior and Tyler is a Sophomore in High School. Both boys play golf, basketball, and baseball for their school.
In his spare time Ben has built a real estate portfolio consisting of office, restaurant, and industrial properties as well as urban surface parking. Some of which have a family business component.
Catherine O'Shea, Narratize
Catherine O’Shea is COO & Co-founder at Narratize. She is committed to building people-centered cultures that support individuals and companies to have aligned success. Before Narratize, she scaled Untold Content, tripling revenue in four years through systems implementation and productization. Catherine previously managed operations at nonprofits in Cincinnati and Houston and taught Writing at the University of Cincinnati.
Matt Sichterman, Flamel.ai
Matt Sichterman is an entrepreneur and Sr. Software Engineer at Flamel.ai. Flamel.ai is a software platform that enables multi-location brands and agencies to create meaningful engagement and conversion with local, personalized social media content while preserving brand integrity.
Matt returned to Cincinnati in 2021 after attending the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, where he played football for the Cornhuskers and studied Software Engineering. He also earned his Master's degree in Engineering Management with a focus on Business Administration.
His career began in sports tech at Hudl, optimizing user engagement for the AI-enabled, autonomous camera product line, Hudl Focus. At Hudl, he contributed to mobile applications, web applications, a handful of hardware products, and more.
Matt then transitioned to American Express, working on the Consumer products team. He deployed full-stack user experiences to tens of millions of customers, focusing on security, performance, accessibility, and UX at scale.
In his spare time, Matt co-founded a beef jerky company called Jurgy with his best friend and college teammate, Cam Jurgens. Jurgy is on a mission to create the best beef jerky in the world. He also enjoys lifting weights, playing/watching sports, traveling around the world, and finding new rabbit holes to continue his lifelong quest of learning and creating.
Justin Frye, Fidelity Private Shares
Justin Frye has been with Fidelity over 20 years and brings an extensive background in benefits, business development and leadership. Justin is currently the Head of Public Market Sales and GM for Fidelity Private Shares for Fidelity’s Equity Compensation team. Prior this role, Justin spent the 5 years as a Senior Vice President of 401(k) sales where he was responsible for leading a team of retirement directors who develop and manage relationships with retirement plan advisors in the Central and Southeast United States who assist companies in Total Retirement and Benefits sourcing decisions.
Prior to this role, Justin was a Vice President of Consultant Relations where he supported the large for profit and not for profit consultant community and was a Vice President and Group Manager in Fidelity's Relationship Management organization and a Sales Executive for Fidelity. Before joining Fidelity, Justin consulted with companies on their group health and retirement plans as a Sales Executive at Great-West Life.
Justin holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Economics from Denison University. He currently resides in Cincinnati, OH with his wife and three children.
CBC Member - Early Bird Registration: $35
CBC Member - Week of Registration: $40
CBC Future Member - Early Bird Registration: $60
CBC Future Member - Week of Registration: $65
11:30-1:00 PM
