Vivek Kumar
Founder & CEO, Qlicket
I’m a founder and CEO of Qlicket. We help enterprises and midsize businesses reduce turnover by giving frontline employees a voice. Our kiosk feedback system bridges the communication gap between high turnover workers and company executives. By collecting employee sentiment more consistently and naturally than typical surveys, company leadership has insights necessary to create a happier and more productive workforce, and a healthier bottom line.
Before founding Qlicket, I worked at Blackstone in New York, where I marketed alternative credit funds to some of the world’s largest institutional investors from the company's credit platform, GSO Capital Partners. My role encompassed business development, client relations, and marketing. I was assigned to many of GSO’s most critical client development priorities, serving as the lead Analyst on a strategic partnership valued at $1 billion.
Prior to that, I was a management consultant at Katzenbach Partners, a firm started by ex-McKinsey folks focused on breakthrough organizational performance. I worked on projects that drove multimillion dollar cost savings and large scale organizational restructurings. People strategy was integral to my work: I completed organizational network analyses with hundreds of employees to develop company and department specific onboarding programs.
I graduated in 2007 from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, where I focused on Finance and Management. I was actively involved with school life – as Social Committee Chairperson of the Wharton Council, Advisory Board Member of Wharton Leadership Ventures, and Teaching Assistant of Management 100 – and remain close to the Wharton network.
Over the past 7 years, I’ve lived in India, Pittsburgh, and New York. My home is now San Francisco.
My team is always on the lookout to work with great people and great organizations. If what we do sounds interesting, and you would like to know more, please get in touch!
Albert Whale
CEO & Founder, IT Security Solutions
IT Security is lead by its founder, Albert E. Whale. Mr. Whale has worked exclusively in the IT Security field since 9/11 and has supported Multinational corporations, SMB, Government Projects, as well as training for the US Air Force.
It was the actions on 9/11 when he redirected his efforts towards implementing security, because it was apparent that we needed better security in our country to protect us.
Mr Whale has extensive work in GRC matters starting with his previous work for the Largest Software development project for the Gov't with the VA. While employed with Engility, Mr. Whale was able to change the course of security controls which were addressed by the business owners and help to improve the implementation of security in software, thus saving the VA more than $1 Million in 6 months.
His accomplishments include being a Co-Founder and Sponsor of the Pittsburgh FBI InfraGard, developing security tools for protecting *nix based servers on Internet and Intranet networks, working with the Largest Government sponsored Software Development project, and introducing the ideas of making everyone a member of the Security Team and implementing Security into the SDLC before it was completed.
Recently Mr. Whale is a IT Sector Chief Candidate for the Pittsburgh InfraGard member alliance. He also has accepted a seat on the Advisory board for both EC Council and the Pittsburgh Technical College.
Mr. Whale has an extensive background with protecting everything from International Corporations to Small to Mid-sized Businesses (SMBs). His background extends from Application Development & Security, Training and Enterprise solutions as well.
As a Technical Editor, Mr. Whale worked with Wiley & Sons CEHv8 book. He continues to be extensively interviewed on Radio and has been quoted in Newspapers. When interviewed for TV, Mr Whale is the Cybersecurity Expert providing an understanding on the security and privacy issues of the day, and why they all matter.
Mr. Whale's favorite sayings are: "You don't know what you don't know.", "Once the Genie is out, you cannot get him back into the bottle." and "The time to get started with Security is today, before the Hackers break in."
Bryan Whittington
Managing Member
Bryan’s vision and lifelong passion for entrepreneurs is why he launched ebs/Growth. Bryan believes entrepreneurs positively impact our communities more than virtually any other entity and is dedicated to helping them create jobs, grow wealth, and live charitably from the abundance that we create. “We believe that wealth is only good for the good that it can do, and we want to do a lot of good!”
Bryan’s role is to develop the strategic direction and execution plans, then work daily at coaching, training, and mentoring the ebs/Growth team to perform at the highest levels. His experience in sales and leadership provide the skills necessary to help his clients achieve their growth goals. He is also a certified sales trainer and multi-award winner for Sandler Training, to which he credits the discipline that he learned as a decorated veteran and Air Force pilot. He has already guided hundreds of business owners and sales professionals to achieve their business goals over the last decade.
When asked about something humorous in his life, he described himself as a “bit boring.” With 6 kids, a wife, a dog, basketball coaching, studying theology and investing in real estate, boring isn’t the right word. “Tired” maybe…but not boring!