Tom is founder and Principal of Nutrition Capital Network (NCN) and Managing Director of Nutrition Business Advisors, a strategic advisory firm focused on the nutrition industry. NCN is focused on connecting Nutrition/LOHAS companies with sources of growth capital. He co-founded Nutrition Business Journal and is Founder and Co-Chair of The NBJ Summit, the premier executive retreat for the nutrition industry. Prior to this, Mr. Aarts was a Founding Partner of Health Business Partners, an investment banking and consulting firm serving the natural products industry.

He has more than 22 years experience in management consulting, M&A transactions, capital raising and strategic market research. Mr. Aarts has managed sales of many nutrition companies and has advised the CEOs of leading nutrition industry companies on their strategy and acquisitions (buy side and sell side), including GNC, Rexall, Nestle, Bayer, Ideasphere, and Cargill. Mr. Aarts also sits on several Boards, including Vitamin Angels, a non-profit. He is a graduate of Colgate University and completed his MBA from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.
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Each day Lyle Gregory interfaces with national and international newsmakers from the President of the United States to world leaders in business, finance, medicine and science as well as major television and film celebrities. Being in this highly visible and influential position for over two decades, Lyle has developed countless friendships and professional relationships in Hollywood, Washington D.C. and around the globe. He has produced numerous shows from the White House, the United States Senate and at the National Press Club.

Lyle is the executive producer of the internationally acclaimed British talk show host, Michael Robin Jackson. He produced the award winning show for 20 years for ABC, CBS and Clear Channel Radio. In addition to his radio career, he has successfully served as a producer, and executive consultant for a wide variety of radio, television, and live events.

Lyle co-produced a special broadcast and live event for our troops in Iraq. Lyle was a talent consultant for ABC Television, “Name Your Adventure” (NBC Television), and the FOXTEL Network in Australia. Prior to that he secured the rights to some very rare backstage Hollywood footage, then worked with numerous production houses developing scenarios and vehicles for the footage. This resulted in an ABC Television special titled, “Hollywood’s Private Home Movies” In addition, footage was included in episodes of “Hollywood Close Up,” “Eye On LA,” and “Life’s Most Embarrassing Moments.”

In television, Lyle has been in front of the camera and behind it. He appeared in and choreographed numerous stage productions and television commercials. Early in his career he was under contract with Opryland USA Productions.

Mr. Gregory resides in Culver City, California and the Mojave Desert.
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William Nesmith is currently the Senior Energy Advisor for the National Association of State Energy Officials (NASEO) located in Alexandria, Virginia. In this position William provides expert advice and consultation to NASEO on a variety of energy efficiency, renewable energy, sustainable development, and international programs. A major client for international advice is the United States Department of Energy.

William’s background includes a Master of Science degree and over twenty-five years experience in the field of energy efficiency and renewable energy. He has worked as a land use planner for local government, been a program manager with state government, served as a public utilities specialist with the US Department of Energy, Bonneville Power Administration, and served as the Assistant Director for Energy Efficiency at the Oregon Department of Energy.

William received the Energy Advocate of the Year award from the Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance, in October 2007. He also served as special advisor to the City of Shanghai, China, for Sustainable Development and Energy Conservation from 2003 to present. In 2005, he was awarded the City of Shanghai’s highest civilian award, the “Silver Magnolia.” He currently serves as Secretary on the Board of Directors of Earth Advantage Program, a non-profit entity promoting sustainable housing.
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Richard D. Stromback is the founder and Chairman of Stromback Ventures. Stromback is a former professional hockey player, Venture Capitalist and Entrepreneur. Among other things, he also currently serves as the chairman of Ecology Coatings, a cleantech research pioneer and world leader in nano-engineered industrial coatings. Ecology develops revolutionary high-value, high-performance coatings for military, automotive, industrial, electronic and medical applications. Ecology is a publicly traded company based in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan.

An early entrant to the cleantech market, Stromback purchased Ecology – at that time a fifteen year old R&D concern, in 2003. Within nine months of acquisition, Stromback took Ecology from the lab and into production. He moved quickly to secure Ecology’s proprietary technology by directing the filing of ten patents and focusing his efforts on the commercialization of the underlying technology. Stromback negotiated strategic relationships to license Ecology’s technology across of wide swath of markets, including the automotive, electronics and medical device markets. This included deals with DuPont, Guidant and Red Spot.

Stromback’s efforts have garnered global recognition for the company. Under his leadership, Ecology’s offering was named one of Time Magazine’s “Best Inventions 2005,” and was awarded the Wall Street Journal’s “Technology Innovator” and the World Economic Forum’s “Technology Pioneer” awards that same year. In early 2007, Stromback was named a “Young Global Leader” by the Forum.

Prior to purchasing Ecology, Stromback founded several successful ventures in the information technology and services space, including Web Group, Cutter Hinmann and Sports44. As founder and chief executive officer of Web Group he pioneered the staffing and search industry through his innovative sales management techniques. Stromback conceptualized and instituted information and sales systems to electronically track performance and provide incentives for sales personnel to achieve award-winning growth. Under his leadership, the company grew from a sole employee to over ninety employees with $10 million in annual sales – a compounded growth of over 1,400% for four years while completely self-funded. Stromback’s accomplishments were recognized by Inc. Magazine, which named Web Group the 189th fastest growing private company in the United States for the year 2002.

Stromback’s repeated successes have been acknowledged by both the media and global business community. His insight has been sought by such publications as the New York Times, Time Magazine, Inc., Red Herring and the Wall Street Journal. In addition, Stromback is a regular attendee of the World Economic Forum and was given the 2006 Technology Pioneer Award by the organization for his efforts with Ecology Coatings. In 2007 Stromback was named a Young Global Leader and in 2008 Crains Business listed him as one of the top 40 leaders under 40 years of age.

Stromback holds a bachelor’s degree in computer science from Brandon University, in Brandon, Manitoba. Prior to earning his degree, played professional hockey for a number of years in the Ontario Hockey League and the East Coast Hockey League.
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Dave Newman brings twenty-five years experience in climate & energy, logistics, finance and accounting within Nike. His experience spans the entire supply chain processes from manufacturing to warehouse to retail and has rolled out projects that resulted in millions of dollars in savings, increased efficiencies and improved service levels. Dave’s work includes developing climate strategies and managing energy efficiency programs for Nike’s contract manufacturing. Dave’s management of the global climate reporting initiative to the Carbon Disclosure Project and Climate Counts resulted in Nike achieved the highest rating of any company from Climate Counts in 2008. His programs revealed millions of dollars in energy savings potential for Nike’s contract factories.

Dave Newman has partnered with the World Federation of Sporting Goods Industry to pilot energy efficiency within apparel and equipment contract manufacturing. He has also partnered with key climate organizations such as The Climate Group, World Resources Institute (WRI) and World Wildlife Fund (WWF) to explore energy efficiency opportunities with supply chains for top 100 companies. Dave co-founded Business for Social Responsibility’s Clean Cargo Working Group, the first shipper/ocean carrier collaborative work group to measure impacts of global ocean transportation. Dave maintains an extensive network with leading climate thinkers from US and European companies that provide information and feedback on current climate issues, strategies and policies.
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