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Justin Sacks / StartupPoint   

StartupPoint’s founder, Justin Sacks, has been a passionate advocate for local entrepreneurship and asset based community development for more than a decade. He has consulted to a range of organizations, from large institutions like the US Agency for International Development to myriad grassroots community groups, in an ongoing mission to support communities to grow their economy based on the resources they already possess. Justin is a serial entrepreneur, patent-holding inventor, and internationally published author on sustainable local economic development. For this work, Justin was named one of the UK’s top 100 social entrepreneurs under 35 in 2008. Justin holds a B.A. in Architecture magna cum laude from Yale University and a M.Sc. in Economic History with merit from the London School of Economics. And, Justin has always loved maps.

Timothy C. Gaines / Mitel   

Vice President of Channel Sales, US

With more than 20 years of sales and general management experience in the telecommunications industry Tim is a VoIP and UC pioneer. A proven leader in building high-powered sales teams with a strong track record of developing successful channel organizations with premier partners.

Prior to Mitel Mr. Gaines spent 6 years at ShoreTel where he served as VP of Sales for North America. Other assignments include leadership positions as Senior Vice President of Sales at Covad (now MegaPath), a leading provider of Broadband and VoIP solutions for commercial and government business segments, and as WW VP of Sales at StarVox.

Previously, Mr. Gaines also served as Regional Director and General Manager for a U.S. subsidiary of Fujitsu, and as Regional Director at PictureTel where he was one of the architects of a high-growth distribution strategy that led PictureTel to be recognized by Fortune magazine as one of the 100 fastest growing companies in the U.S. (1992 to 1996).

Mr. Gaines received a BS in Business Administration from California State University, Sacramento.