Links: 

• LinkedIn

Co-Founder and CEO | Cornerstone Technologies

Fisher graduated from the University of Memphis in 1995 with a BS in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. Upon graduation, he founded a company specializing in Internet software development for enterprises using a new programming language released that year called Java.

In 1997, Fisher designed the web-based event management solution that became the core of EventU, now in use by thousands of non-profit organizations and Fortune 500 companies.

In 1998 after a trip to Romania, he sold his business (dba ServiceU) and moved to Romania to start Cornerstone Technologies, an outsourcing software development firm. While living in Bucharest, Fisher helped build churches, organize Bible studies in government and organize Romania’s annual National Prayer Dinner in Parliament. During the era of the dot-com bubble, Cornerstone Technologies was blessed to do highly specialized software development for a number of Fortune 500 companies.

In 2002, Fisher acquired the intellectual property for an application he developed for Regions Bank and co-founded Asentinel. Fisher is the principal architect and patent inventor for Asentinel’s telecom expense management (TEM) solutions. In 2003, Gartner began tracking the TEM industry which grew to over $2B by 2015. In 2008, Fisher received the first of his patents and successfully licensed his patents with several publicly traded competitors.

In 2013, he left Asentinel to again be the CEO of Cornerstone Technologies. In 2014, he finished his Master of Divinity at Mid-America Baptist Theological Seminary and co-founded Highland Harvesters, the largest apple orchard in Ethiopia located among thirty-two unreached, unengaged people groups. In 2016, he became the Executive in Residence at Emanuel University where he is pursuing graduate work on “business as missions”. Currently, he is overseeing over a dozen kingdom businesses on five continents.

Links: 

• LinkedIn

Managing Director | Koch Disruptive Technologies

Jason Illian is the Managing Director of Koch Disruptive Technologies (KDT), the venture and growth arm of Koch Industries. KDT’s role is to invest in technology companies that disrupt and transform Koch’s core businesses and expand into new platforms and capabilities. Artificial intelligence, blockchain and crypto, bio IT and genomics, and industrial robotics are just a few segments being explored by KDT. Jason serves on the board of D2iQ, the cloud-native leader in open-source applications and Kubernetes management, and as an advisor to 8VC and Steve Case’s Rise of the Rest fund.

Jason has 20+ years of experience leading and building technology companies. Prior to assuming this role, Mr. Illian was the Founder and CEO of BookShout, the world’s leading B2B e-book company which was acquired by a private equity group. In addition to being a Senior Advisor/Entrepreneur-in-Residence to the PE group, Jason has advised and consulted for numerous investment and technology companies.

Jason is also a published author and nationally-renown speaker. Jason has presented at the Amazon Web Services (AWS) re: Invent conference, the Goldman Sachs Technology & Internet Conference, and hundreds of other organizations. He has been featured in Bloomberg, The New York Times, VentureBeat and regularly does interviews on behalf of KDT and Koch.

Jason graduated Magna Cum Laude from Texas Christian University with a BBA in International Finance. He continued his education with TCU and the London School of Economics, held the distinguished honor of being named one of the top 20 students in America by USA Today, was a Rhodes scholar finalist, and was an NCAA Academic All-American while being captain of the TCU football team.

When Jason isn’t spending time with his family or digging deeper in his faith, Jason is studying blockchain and cryptocurrencies, AI, medical technologies, robotics and manufacturing and other future technologies. He lives in Wichita, KS.

 Links:

• LinkedIn

Chairman | Impact Foundation

Bio:

Greg is committed to making a positive difference in the lives of others and has refocused his life with this purpose.  He currently dedicates his time to mentoring budding entrepreneurs, investing in impact-related companies, and supporting Christian ministries passionately serving Chicago and other parts of the world. Greg is Co-Founder of Convergint Technologies. Started in a basement in 2001, Convergint is now the world’s largest privately held electronic security firm with over 2,400 colleagues globally. Greg spent 20 years at Siemens before leaving as Sr. Vice President for North America. Active in professional and civic organizations, Greg mentors inner-city youth and serves on several boards, including a national entrepreneurship program for high school students, Impact Engine, and other impact companies he has invested in.

Life:

Greg earned a Bachelor’s of Science degree in Business from Purdue University. He is married and has been blessed with three children and two grandchildren.

Links: 

• LinkedIn

Independent Consultant

Greg Spencer is as much at home in a village in East Africa as he is in the mountains of Park City, Utah where he grew up. At age 23, he stepped off the airplane in Nairobi as an under qualified but eager co-founder of The Paradigm Project, a last-mile clean energy distribution business. After 10 years of launching and operating social enterprises in Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia and Rwanda, seeing opportunity in emerging markets has become his norm. Building diverse teams to deliver social, environmental and economic impact has been the avenue to achieve Greg’s long-standing desire to reach underserved communities.

Currently, Greg is working to leverage his decade of experience in social and environmental impact to create a non-profit impact exchange that quantifies, verifies, economically values and trades impact as a new asset class. He sees the exchange, Common Good Marketplace, as an important piece in catalyzing a new marketplace to drive greater impact results that bring prosperity to people and the planet.

Greg met his wife of four years, Elizabeth, in East Africa while she was working for the President of Malawi. Currently they live in North Carolina in a converted 2001 Bluebird school bus with their two children and a vizsla.

Links: 

• LinkedIn

• Eventide

President-Elect | North Carolina Baptist Foundation

Harry Nelson serves as the President-Elect of the North Carolina Baptist Foundation. He was elected in May, 2023 and will serve a transition period with retiring President, Dr. Clay Warf until the end of 2023. He will become President and CEO on January 1, 2024.

Harry joined the Foundation on June 1, 2023. Prior to joining the foundation, he served as Chief Operating Officer for Eventide Asset Management, as well as other roles with Eventide. Before that, Harry was President of GuideStone Capital Management. He has an extensive investment and financial services career having held leadership roles at GuideStone, Golden Capital Management (now Allspring Global Investments), Charles Schwab, and First Union (now Wells Fargo) Institutional Trust division.

Harry earned a BA at The Citadel and a MA in Leadership from Dallas Baptist University. He has earned a Certified Investment Management Analyst (CIMA®) designation from the Investments and Wealth Institute and taught in conjunction with the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania.

Harry has served on the Board of the Charlotte Institute of Faith and Work and the Christian Investment Forum. He is a member of the Southeastern Society at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary and is a member of Faith Baptist Church in Youngsville, NC. Harry enjoys spending time with his family and is a trail runner.

Links: 

• The Business Lessons that God has taught us at Bandwidth.com

• CEF 2020 White Paper – The Five Marks of a Faith Driven Entrepreneur

• LinkedIn

• Twitter

• “My Faith Story” from the Silicon Valley Prayer Breakfast

Founder and Podcast Host | Sovereign’s Capital and Faith Driven Media

Henry Kaestner co-founded the Faith Driven Entrepreneur and Faith Driven Investor ministries, and has been a catalyst behind both movements. He and his team seek to serve faith driven entrepreneurs, investors, funds, partners, and advisors through content, community, and connections.

Henry is also a Co-Founder and Partner at Sovereign’s Capital, a private equity and venture capital management company that invests in faith driven entrepreneurs in Southeast Asia and the U.S. from its offices in Silicon Valley, Durham, Nashville, Chattanooga, Atlanta, and Jakarta, Indonesia. Prior to co-founding Sovereign’s Capital, Henry was Co-founder and previous CEO, and then Chairman, of Bandwidth (NASDAQ:BAND) and its sister company, Republic Wireless (which spun out of Bandwidth in 2016). Together the companies have grown from $0 to more than $600 million in revenue. The founding values of Bandwidth are: Faith, Family, Work and Fitness (in that order). Prior to co-founding Bandwidth.com with David Morken, Henry founded Chapel Hill Brokers (a predecessor to ICAP Energy), an institutional energy derivatives broker that became the top ranked electricity broker in the country.

Henry has been involved in a number of other ministries and philanthropic activities. He co-founded DurhamCares, was a founding Board Member of Praxis, and sits on a variety of business and ministry boards including Valley Christian Schools where his 3 boys attend. Go Warriors!

Henry is a member of the broader Church in the Bay Area, attends Venture Christian Church in Los Gatos, CA and serves as an elder in the Presbyterian Church of America. Henry lives in Los Gatos with his wife Kimberley and their three sons.