Robert Eyler – Director, Center for Regional
Economic Analysis Sonoma State University

Robert Eyler is Professor and Chair of Economics at Sonoma State University. He earned a Ph.D. from the University of California, Davis in 1998. He earned a B.A. in Economics at CSU, Chico in 1992. He has been a visiting scholar at both the University of Bologna and Stanford University. Dr. Eyler specializes in research on macroeconomic and monetary policies, and is finalizing a textbook on monetary and banking topics. His academic work has focused on the economics of the wine industry, monetary policy and theory, derivative markets, and international finance. Robert has authored two books. The first, “Economic Sanctions: International Theory and Policy at Work” (2007), investigated the efficacy of using economic sanctions as a political tool and constructed a theoretical model using new open economy macroeconomic modeling to show that import sanctions are the most effective form of these political decisions. His most recent text, “Money and Banking: An International Text” (2009), is a college-level textbook for classes on central banking, financial institutions and markets, and banking as a business.

He is the director of the Center for Regional Economic Analysis at Sonoma State University and has worked on multiple regional studies for Sonoma, Napa, Marin, and Mendocino counties. Robert has acted as an expert witness in interstate trade litigation, and as a forensic economist. He acts as the North Bay’s leading economic forecaster, providing a semiannual forecast for each of the North Bay counties in California. Robert also provides economic impact analyses for both private firms and public entities to help guide public policy at the local and state level.

Dr. Eyler also currently acts as the interim CEO of the Marin Economic Forum. This organization provides resources for Marin County economic stakeholders to work collaboratively to improve sustainability as defined as driving economic vitality, while reducing the costs of poverty and income inequality (social equity) as well as protecting Marin’s natural environment (environmental balance).

Back to Top »

Barbara Findlay Schenck – Author, Branding for Dummies and other noted publications

Barbara Findlay Schenck is a marketing strategist and small business advocate. She is the author of Small Business Marketing for Dummies and Selling Your Business for Dummies, and co-author of Branding for Dummies and Business Plans Kit for Dummies.

A graduate of Oregon State University, she began her career in Honolulu, where she was admissions director and writing instructor at Hawaii Loa College (now part of Hawaii Pacific University) before joining the staff of Hawaii's largest public relations firm. Seven years later she moved with her husband, Peter, to Southeast Asia to manage a community development program for the Peace Corps in Malaysia. In 1980 they founded a marketing agency in Oregon, which was one of the Northwest's Top 15 at the time of its sale in 1995. Following the sale, they packed up writing projects and moved with their son to Italy for nearly two years.

Since 2000, Barbara's accomplishments include:

Co-writer, Portraits of Guilt, the Edgar Award-nominated memoir of internationally recognized facial identification artist Jeanne Boylan. (Pocket Books/Simon & Schuster, 2001)

Author, Small Business Marketing For Dummies, praised by BusinessWeek (“marketing ideas are presented as real-world problems with real-world solutions…”), Scripps-Howard (“easy-to-implement solutions, 4 ½ stars…”), and Entrepreneur (“the ammunition entrepreneurs need to survive – and thrive…”), among others. Published in an updated second edition and in multiple languages. (Wiley, 2001, 2005)

Co-Author, Business Plans Kit For Dummies, a top-selling business planning guide for ten years. Published in multiple languages and to be released in an updated third edition in April 2010. (Wiley, 2001, 2005, 2010)

Co-Author, Branding for Dummies, named February 2007 Book of the Month by Intrabrand’s BrandChannel and listed on dozens of Amazon-reader Best Book lists. (Wiley 2007)

Author, Selling Your Business for Dummies, with expert advice and a foreward by John Davies, CEO of Sunbelt, the world’s largest business brokerage firm. (Wiley 2009)

Marketing Specialist, Microsoft Small Business programs, including online training for the Microsoft Small Business Relationship Program, columns and video programs for BusinessBreakthrough presented by Microsoft and Visa, and twice-monthly marketing columns for Business on Main, the MSN small business channel presented by Microsoft and Sprint.

Back to Top »

John C. Fish – Attorney, Littler Mendelson

Mr. Fish has defended employers in a wide variety of employment and labor relations matters before state and federal courts and administrative agencies. He has also counseled employers on employee disciplinary matters, litigation avoidance, employee handbook policies, arbitration agreements, leaves of absence, the California Family Rights Act, the federal Family and Medical Leave Act, and the Americans with Disabilities Act. Mr. Fish has developed hundreds of employee handbooks for employers around the country and has also co-authored a multi-faceted employee handbook computer software program.

Back to Top »

Marc Friedman – Chief Executive Officer of Cadalys, Inc.

Mr. Friedman has been in the consulting industry for fifteen years. After receiving his MBA, he began his career at Accenture (then Andersen Consulting) designing, developing and deploying enterprise business applications. At a subsequent consultancy, he achieved the only perfect Client Satisfaction score in a company’s European operations, and authored Best Practices for multinational application implementations. He worked at Salesforce.com running the Professional Services group for their flagship Northwest Region covering parts of the United States and Canada, which covered two of the four largest implementations of Salesforce.com at that time.

In the late 90s, he was published in Siebel Magazine for his original methodology for rapid application development (“Turbocharging Siebel Enterprise Application Deployments”. Siebel Magazine (Volume I Issue 5): p43 – 45.). He has since also been interviewed for / published in CXO, InformationWeek and Forbes.com.

He is presently the Chief Executive Officer of Cadalys, Inc., a premier Salesforce.com Consulting Partner with one of the highest Customer Satisfaction ratings as measured by Salesforce.com. His company has worked on some of the most complex implementations of Salesforce.com, including the largest-ever implementation of Salesforce.com in the world (130,000 Users).

Back to Top »

David Goldman – Attorney, Littler Mendelson

Mr. Goldman has advised management in all areas of employment and labor law in over a decade of practice. He now focuses his practice on helping employers prevent employee-related problems before they become lawsuits.

Mr. Goldman is currently the managing attorney of the Littler Learning Group, the division of Littler Mendelson devoted to meeting clients' employment law training needs. In this position he helps ensure that all training programs contain Littler’s best legal practices and cutting edge learning techniques and meet clients’ individual needs. Mr. Goldman has also trained management and industry leaders and published articles on numerous employment law, management, and training topics.

Mr. Goldman has also developed and reviewed employee handbooks, policies, and contracts. He has implemented alternative dispute resolution programs involving both arbitration and mediation of employment issues. When disputes do arise, Mr. Goldman has represented management in federal and state court and before government agencies. Mr. Goldman has counseled employers on traditional labor law as well, defending them against charges of unfair labor practices before the NLRB and state and federal courts.

Prior to his legal career, Mr. Goldman was an Assistant Vice President at Bank of Boston. In this position, he dealt with many of the legal issues relevant to the clients he now advises and trains.

Back to Top »

Gary Schlossberg – Vice President and Senior Economist

Mr. Schlossberg analyzes the economic and investment environment for Wells Capital Management and for other investment groups within Wells Fargo & Co. In that capacity, he participates in daily conference calls to the organization’s investment managers and sales people throughout the country. He is a member of Wells Capital’s Investment Policy and Liquidity Management strategy committees and also participates in the Fixed-Income Strategy Committee of the Wealth Management Group.

Additionally, he regularly makes presentations to Wells Capital’s customers and prospects, analyzing conditions in the equity and fixed income markets along with developments in the foreign exchange and international capital markets. He is quoted in the financial press and appears on business radio and TV programs here, in Japan and in the U.K. Prior to joining Wells Fargo, Mr. Schlossberg worked as a researcher at the U.S. Treasury and Federal Reserve Board covering international economic conditions. He did his graduate work at Pennsylvania State University and is a native of New York.

Back to Top »