Scottsdale 01.18.2018

Chris Fox

Well, I started my collegiate career as an athlete on a full ride to Utah Stat University for football. I spent two years there studying business and finance before realizing that the football route wasn’t for me. Teachers in my gen-ed classes would pass us through because we were athletes with little worry as to how we were comprehending the material. Read more>>

David Dodge

I spent nearly all of my 20s in Silicon Valley making award-winning video games for the Sony Playstation, PC, and several Sega platforms. Many years of 100+ hour weeks eventually took their toll, and I decided to return to school and get an MBA. Read more>>

Pauline Martinez

I was born and raised in the restaurant business, my father has owned restaurants since before I was born. I opened my first restaurant in Michigan in 2004 at the age of 25. Six months later I opened a second location. Restaurants are a difficult business to be in – so I swore them off forever! Read more>>

Jenny Willigrod

You can ask any artist, “What drives you to create?” and the response will be the same. “It is part of my existence.” My love of art began as a child and has been an essential part of my life ever since. I obtained my degree from Texas A&M University, began a career in graphic design, and was ultimately promoted to advertising creative director. Read more>>

Lauren Rosenberg

Except for the time my father worked as chief engineer at CBS Studios in NYC (he was instrumental in the creation of color TV) my parents were both entrepreneurs, so it’s pretty much what my siblings and I knew. The entrepreneurial spirit lived happily and confidentially in our household, and we were encouraged to go out into the world and create businesses and opportunities that we envisioned for ourselves. Read more>>

Howard Myers

Protect Our Preserve (POP) was formed by several Scottsdale residents with the goal of informing residents of plans to build a large commercial tourist attraction in the McDowell Sonoran Preserve, a 30,000 acre preserve that Scottsdale citizens formed and voted to tax themselves to buy. Read more>>

Ryan McCarthy

I think people will best understand who we are, and what we do by understanding a little bit of my personal story, so let me start with a little context. My vision for True Strength Fitness from the very beginning was to help people create the best version of themselves, so they can live a long, full, and happy life. Read more>>

Douglas Ledger

My long time friend Tom Davidson and I both come from cities rich in brewing history (Seattle, WA and Fort Collins, CO respectively). When we both came to Arizona in 2006, the brewery scene was underdeveloped. Read more>>

Kevin Turner

I spent most of my early years drawing the world around me. It was a gift I did not understand fully until later in life. The most interesting thing to me about drawing was recreating the human body, it held many answers and even more questions. Read more>>

Clayton MacGregor

My best friend/business partner have been in the restaurant business for most of our lives and were sick of working for other people. We felt we could do our own restaurant for the people by us the people. We knew what we didnt like about the way restaurants were going so we wanted to do what we felt was right. Read more>>

Laura Spalding Best

As a working artist, the natural place for me to have a career is in the art world. I am extremely lucky to have started working at Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art (SMoCA) in 2006. I have been the Exhibitions Manager there for over 11 years. I work on everything that directly involves the art objects in the museum. Read more>>

Dr. Darla Logan

Medicine is a second career for me. I was 35 years old when I decided to go to medical school. I had a successful career in IT (Information Technology), yet I felt that I wasn’t impacting the world in a way that I wanted to. When I decided to change careers, I took some time to really determine who I wanted to be in the world, as opposed to what I wanted to do. Read more>>

Dave Fitzner, Chrissy Fitzner

Dave has been a plumber for over 20 years. He got laid off from his job of 5 years in 2009. He tried getting another plumber job, but nobody was hiring. He settled for a pool cleaning job, that was part time for 1 year. During that time, Chrissy suggested to go back to school to get Dave’s plumbing license to start our own business. Read more>>

Lauren Wise

I’ve been a writer and editor for over 15 years. A few years after graduating from the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism, it was right when the economy and job market crashed. I started freelance writing and editing. I worked as a magazine columnist, and an editor for an array of magazines, including True West, a Western history magazine; Runway, a fashion magazine emulated in the Devil Wears Prada film. Read more>>

Karen Vernetti

My husband, David and I have been motorcyclists since the 1980s. David began as a young boy riding and racing dirt bikes and I, riding horses, dirt bikes and 3-wheelers. Since he was young David had a natural mechanical ability and worked on his own motorcycles with passion for the sport. Read more>>

Colleen Horan

I grew up in a family that loved a party. When I discovered I could earn a living planning parties my course was set. My career began with stints in hotels and restaurants and progressed to traveling the world coordinating incentive events for corporations. Read more>>