Skip to main content

Entrepreneur Connect Speaker Series

Image of the College of Business and Economics building masked in blue and orange squares

Next speaker:

 

Scott and Carmen MoscripScott & Carmen Moscrip

Founder of TruckStop.com

Wednesday, March 27, 2024

3:00-4:15 p.m.

Skaggs Hall of Learning (room 1301), Micron Business and Economics Building

 

Connecting entrepreneurs, students and the community

  • Entrepreneur Connect Speaker Series seeks to connect successful entrepreneurs with students and the community to share stories and advice in a casual, open setting. A faculty panel will asks questions about entrepreneurship and encourages members of the audience to share inquiries of their own.
  • Entrepreneur Connect will be held twice a year, once in the fall near or during the Global Entrepreneurship Week and once in the spring.
  • Entrepreneur Connect celebrates fresh perspectives, taking risks and bringing new ideas to life.

Impact beyond the scheduled event

The speaker series has impact beyond the date of the event. Classes watch past presentations and instructors pull out words of wisdom for learning moments. For example instructor Karen Nicholas plans to use material from Jay Parkinson’s presentation on March 16, 20 in her Managerial Problem Solving (BUS420) class.

“When Jay talked about what makes a company valuable, he describes it so succinctly and clearly — and that’s not an easy task! I feel that our students will identify with his words. I plan to use several snippets from his talk this fall in BUS 420 and hope to use it in future classes as well.” — Karen Nicholas, assistant professor

Past Events:

Jesse McKinney - Nov. 8, 2023

Jesse McKiinneyRed Aspen, CEO & Co-Founder

Jesse McKinney is the CEO of Red Aspen, a social selling beauty company that she co-founded in 2017. As an entrepreneur and leader of a company posting more than $30M in sales annually, she is a staunch advocate for women in business, and believes that with hard work, grit and determination women are capable of achieving their wildest dreams. In 2019, she was named one of Idaho’s Accomplished Under 40 and in 2021 she was named as an Idaho CEO of Influence. McKinney is a graduate of the University of Denver Daniels College of Business and has a Master of Arts in Organizational Leadership from Gonzaga University. In her free time she loves spending time with her two young boys and her husband, and is a sucker for a good skincare product. Video and transcript coming soon.

Alan Dykman - Co-founder, Dykman Electrical, Inc.

Allen Dykman and his wife Dixie founded Dykman Electrical, Inc., selling motors out of their home garage. Since then, the company has become one of North America’s largest suppliers of motors and electrical solutions, with presence in ten U.S. states, as well as a sales and distribution network that spans the globe.

Read more about Allen Dykman

John Jackson, CEO and Founder of Jacksons Food Stores

Starting with one store while in his 20s, Jackson grew an empire of c-stores, travel centers and car washes and one of the largest privately held corporations in Idaho. Watch the presentation to learn how this nationally recognized c-store leader expanded Jacksons stores across nine western states.

Jay Parkinson, CEO and Founder, Stonehill Environmental Partners

On March 16, 2022, Idaho native Jay Parkinson shared the path his career took from private equity to founder and CEO to serial entrepreneur. Founded in 2021, Stonehill provides infrastructure and environmental solutions to the upstream energy industry. Their financial partner is Golden Gate Capital, a $19 billion private equity fund based in San Francisco, California. (Video of the lecture is not available.)

Read more about Jay

Randy Hales, CEO, Next Level Apparel

Learn the what the levers are to lift any enterprise and the simple way to value you company and the competition — play the “Using Four Simple Levers to Dramatically Increase Enterprise Value” video.

Read more about Randy Hales

Amy Gile, Co-founder and CEO, Silverdraft Supercomputing

November 4, 2020

Amy Gile began her career in the media and entertainment industry in multiple aspects of the industry including actor and producer. Amy identified a need in the industry for a better solution for production and for the artist. The demands of rendering, animation, and visual effects required a sophisticated approach to computing. Amy knew that there was a better, faster way to bring complex content to the masses. She co-founded Silverdraft and has dedicated herself to building the highest performance compact supercomputers on the market for various industries including Automotive, and Media and Entertainment. Amy is a TEDx speaker and is passionate about technology and pushing what’s possible. (Video of the lecture is not available.)

Tales of the 2nd Largest Grocery Store Chain

Andy Scoggin, Founding member and Executive VP, Albertsons LLC

February 5, 2020

Learn how Albertsons LLC  grew from a regional chain with $4 billion in annual sales to the second-largest nationwide traditional grocery chain and the third-largest private company in the United States with more than $63 billion in annual sales.

Starting PetIQ - From Card Table to Millions

Cord Christensen, Founder and CEO, PetIQ

November 18, 2019

Learn how successful entrepreneur Cord Christensen disrupted the animal health and wellness industry and created a company with a billion dollars in sales. He gives excellent business and personal advice, too. Have a listen.

Starting ClickBank and Kount

Founder Eileen Langan Barber and Founding CEO Brad Wiskirchen Share Their Stories

February 6, 2019

From the leaders of ClickBank and Kount. Keynetics, the parent company of ClickBank and Kount, has grown to become Idaho’s largest privately held technology company.

Inaugural Event Nov. 13, 2018

Ward and Joe Parkinson Tell the Story of Starting Micron

Tuesday, November 13, 2018 marked the inaugural lecture of the College of Business and Economics’ new Entrepreneur Connect Speaker Series. A standing-room-only crowd welcomed Micron co-founders Ward and Joe Parkinson to Skaggs Hall in the aptly named Micron Business and Economics building. The twin brothers took turns recounting the early days of founding one of Boise’s biggest success stories. Ward, the engineer of the duo, had never before spoken publicly about the company making it truly a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the students, faculty and community members in attendance. There were lots of laughs and lessons as the duo shared experiences. They talked of the ups and down — times they nearly lost the company and times when they worked with a team of Boise’s best to keep things going.