ABOUT US
From its humble beginnings in a small office on Main Street in Longmont, Colorado, the DaVinci Institute began as the brainchild of Thomas Frey, a seasoned entrepreneur and one of IBM’s most decorated idea laureates.
Launched in 1997 as a non-profit futurist think tank, the Institute has emerged as a center of visionary thought, attracting both a national and international following of idea junkies and business leaders alike.
Unlike Leonardo DaVinci, the Institute set its sights on producing tangible results as opposed to conceptual thinking. The founders decided that they didn’t just want to talk about the future - they wanted to help unlock the future, one idea, one invention, one business at a time. With this directive, the Institute began educating aspiring inventors and entrepreneurs with the critical skills necessary to make their projects viable.
During the past seven years the Institute has been very prolific in its accomplishments, writing and publishing countless papers and producing over 100 events across the country. These events have ranged from a hands-on interactive Inventor Boot Camp for Kids to the international, Forbes Magazine sponsored, Future of Money Summit.
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Thomas Frey - As the Executive Director and Senior Futurist at the DaVinci Institute, he works closely with his Board of Visionaries to develop original research studies, which enables him to speak on unusual topics, translating trends into unique opportunities.
As part of the celebrity speaking circuit, Tom continually pushes the envelope of understanding, creating fascinating images of the world to come. His keynote talks on futurist topics have captivated people ranging from high level government officials to executives in Fortune 500 companies including NASA, IBM, AT&T, Hewlett-Packard, Lucent Technologies, First Data, Boeing, Capital One, Bell Canada, Visa, Ford Motor Company, Qwest, Allied Signal, Hunter Douglas, Direct TV, International Council of Shopping Centers, National Association of Federal Credit Unions, and many more.
Because of his work inspiring inventors and other revolutionary thinkers, the Boulder Daily Camera has referred to him as the "Father of Invention". The Denver Post and Seattle Post Intelligence have referred to him as the "Dean of Futurists".
Before launching the DaVinci Institute, Tom spent 15 years at IBM as an engineer and designer where he received over 270 awards, more than any other IBM engineer. He is also a past member of the Triple Nine Society (High I.Q. society over 99.9 percentile).
Tom has been a columnist for the Denver Post, Rocky Mountain News, and Boulder County Business Report, and is the author of the 1998 book "Inventions of Impact". He currently writes a newsletter entitled "News from the Future" and has written numerous articles on a wide range of futurist topics. He has also been a contributing writer for The Futurist Magazine and is the Editor of the Impact Lab, an online emerging technology blog which was recently rated by Popular Science Magazine as one of the "top five science blogs in the known universe".
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Thomas Frey
Executive Director
Senior Futurist
Keynote Speaker
DaVinci Institute |
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Deb Frey is the Vice President of the DaVinci Institute responsible for Member Relations, Event Planning and Project Scheduling. She also oversees all of the administrative work associated with the Institute. In addition to this work, she serves as the agent and coordinator for speaking engagements. This involves negotiating fees, writing contracts, setting up travel arrangements.
She truly enjoys working with the Institute's Members and those who attend the events. These are very inspiring people, and the energy and enthusiasm that they exude is more than a little contagious.
Whenever she can fit in a few extra moments, Deb serves as a contributing editor to the Impact Lab, the DaVinci Institute blog billed as "a laboratory of the future human experience". The research she does to find stories keeps her on top of the latest trend research, news reviews, topical studies, and all the crazy stuff that doesn't get covered in the regular media.
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Deb Frey
Vice President
Member & Media Relations, Event Planning and Project Scheduling |
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Jack Chang – As the Chief Strategy Officer at the DaVinci Institute, Mr. Chang works closely with the Executive Director, Vice President, and Members of the Advisory Board to achieve a common vision and mission of building and expanding the DaVinci Institute into a World renown institution.
Mr. Chang is known as a successful Internet serial entrepreneur, deal maker, initiator, innovator, speaker, agent & promoter, and a veteran corporate strategist with more than seventeen (17) years of sales, marketing, advertising, corporate & business development, strategic advisory, e-Commerce, and international trade experiences.
Part of Mr. Chang’s responsibility is to help expand and manage corporate relations at the institute through series of sponsorship and collaboration with Fortune 500 & Inc. 5000 companies, and multi-national companies around the World. Mr. Chang’s goal is to create awareness, participation, and collaboration between the DaVinci Institute, its members, and corporations around the World and to further promote and expand the DaVinci Institute as a global invention and innovation community.
Mr. Chang also serves as an Exclusive Agent to Senior Futurist, Mr. Thomas Frey in the Greater China Region. With a vision and strong believe that Mr. Frey’s work, mind opening speeches, innovative thought process, futuristic vision, and his presence will captivate and inspire Chinese audience around the World for many years to come. |
Jack Chang
Chief Strategy Officer |
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Teresa Rabenberg serves as Secretary and Board Member for the DaVinci Institute. She also serves as a Financial Advisor on the Chavez Group at Merrill Lynch in San Francisco. The Chavez Group handles the financial affairs of a select group of high net worth families, businesses, and institutions. The team has more than 19 years of combined wealth management, lending and private banking experience.
"Being a financial advisor is being like a doctor," explains Teresa, "When people feel financially healthy, other aspects of their physical and emotional well-being often improve."
Teresa specializes in identifying opportunities that will maximize returns and income while minimizing exposure to risk. She also strives to mitigate taxable events for her clients by working closely with their CPAs and estate planning attorneys. She speaks regularly to professionals and investment groups on the importance of asset allocation, diversification, corporate cash management and commercial lending.
Teresa was recruited from one of the nation's largest banking and investment institutions. Having earned a MBA and BA in international business and politics, Teresa analyzes the global economy and incorporates current trends to enhance her clients' portfolios.
Teresa resides in San Francisco. She serves as the president of the Golden Gate Opera and on the board of directors for the Meridian Health Foundation. Teresa has also been active with Rotary International.
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Teresa Rabenberg
Secretary of the DaVinci Institute. She is a Financial Advisor on the Chavez Group at Merrill Lynch |
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Steve Baker is a founder of successful businesses, a corporate executive and business advisor. With proven leadership in every phase of business cycle from startup to exit, Steve has the unique ability to generate immediate and sustainable improvements in business. He directs strategic marketing and business development and has taken companies from startup to millions of dollars in revenues in such diverse industries as international travel, financial software, casinos, manufacturing, cosmetic surgery, and ergonomics. Always the entrepreneur and Startup Junkie, Steve is a well known speaker and author of the award winning book PUSHING WATER UPHILL With A Rake.
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Steve Baker
Senior Fellow
Host of the Startup Junkie Underground |
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Allison Taylor is the co-host the Startup Junkie Underground, a Senior Fellow, and part of the core team leading the direction of the DaVinci Institute. As a serial entrepreneur, she has a keen understanding of what it takes to create a business and grow it into a successful enterprise.
Allison is a Business Consultant and Marketing Strategist specializing in networking, sales training, word-of-mouth marketing, and executive skill development. Through her business, Paravox, she offers consulting and training in innovative marketing and performance tactics to significantly improve business growth and profitability. Additionally, Allison counsels corporate executives in understanding and overcoming subconscious barriers to ultimate success. With a background in psychology and physics, Allison uses simple strategies to influence positive human behavior, and performance measurement principles to improve bottom-line results.
Allison is a Certified Instructor in the N.U.D.E. Model of Referral Marketing. Before Paravox, Allison had a 10 year career in market research, and held multiple corporate executive positions in marketing and sales. Allison lives in Denver, Colorado, and can be reached at 303-956-2280 or allison@paravox.com.
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Allison Taylor
Chief Inspiration Officer
Senior Fellow
Host of the Startup Junkie Underground |
Bert Vermeulen is a Senior Fellow at the DaVinci Institute, and the Founder of Corp21. Bert Vermeulen worked twenty years for manufacturing and technology companies including:
- Over eight years with Hewlett Packard in Colorado, England and Russia as a senior manager in the marketing and quality functions, primarily for mass-storage technologies. This included managing the product strategy that generated a $150 million/year DDS tape drive business.
- Over eight years with Plasco, Inc (a plastic injection molding business that is now part of Trend Technologies) as a business partner, vice president and general manager. Key experience included growing the business to $25 million in revenues, operating at world-class profitability, and selling the business to a strategic buyer. This included work in Colorado, Mexico and Hungary.
- Shorter assignments with Incon (development of electrical connectors), Datametrics (development of optical shaft encoders) and the Boston Consulting Group (business strategy).
His academic background includes a bachelor's and a master's degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an MBA from Stanford University.
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Bert Vermeulen
Senior Fellow |
Michael Cushman, The Engaging Guru, is a Senior Fellow at the DaVinci Institute who loves helping others create the future. Michael is an expert in business culture and change leadership. His approach towards engaging and managing group dynamics and non-verbal leadership has changed how others view branding, relationship development, and leading change.
He has successfully led cultural tune-ups, operational excellence, created award-winning products, and introduced profitable technology and process improvements at over 50 companies, including Verizon, BT, Holiday Hospitality, American Red Cross, Waste Management, Revlon, and Chevron. Besides working on projects and writing for DaVinci, Michael blogs at engagingchange.com, coaches executives, and speaks on how to accelerate business results by engaging others.
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Michael Cushman
The Engaging Guru
Senior Fellow
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Dave Taylor is a Senior Fellow at the DaVinci Institute and has been involved with the Internet since 1980 and is widely recognized as an expert on both technical and business issues. He has been published over a thousand times, launched four Internet-related startup companies, has written eighteen business and technical books and holds both an MBA and MS Ed. Dave maintains three weblogs, one focused on business and industry analysis, the eponymously named Ask Dave Taylor devoted to tech and business Q&A and APparenting.com, discussing topics of interest to parents. Dave is a highly-rated speaker, sought after workshop facilitator and frequent radio guest.
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Dave Taylor
Senior Fellow
Social Director
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Tom Franklin is on the Advisory Board at the Institute and a long time supporter. Besides regularly speaking at the Inventor Boot Camp, Tom donates his time to advise the Institute on Intellectual Property (IP) legal issues. He can be found at many Institute events giving attendees advice on patent and trademark issues and regularly contributes to the planning and long term vision of the Institute.
Tom is a Patent Attorney with the Denver office of Townsend and Townsend and Crew, the oldest and largest group of IP attorneys in the West. He frequently speaks to groups around town on the importance of protecting IP. Tom's technical background is in electronics and software and his IP practice focuses on high-tech companies wanting to sensibly protect their IP.
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Tom Franklin
Advisory Board
Patent Attorney
Townsend & Townsend
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| Darby Frey is the Chief Technical Officer at the Institute. Besides maintaining the office network and the bank of in-house servers, he spends his time researching emerging Internet technologies and business trends.
Darby brings with him a vast experience as a Systems Developer for Electricshoes Productions in designing computer networks, configuring hardware, programming web interfaces, and in developing e-commerce systems. His extensive technical background gives him unusually good insight into the intricacies of the emerging technologies.
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Darby Frey
Chief Technical Officer |
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Contact:
The DaVinci Institute
Thomas J. Frey, Executive Director
PO Box 270315
Louisville, CO 80027
(303) 666-4133
tom(at)davinciinstitute(dot)com
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