Pre Forum Speakers
Jacki Boldt, Executive Director
Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses Program
jlboldt@dmacc.edu
dmacc.edu/dbr/Iowa10KSB
Jacki serves as the Executive Director for the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses program in Iowa and has supported the program since it originated in Iowa in 2019. Prior to joining the program, she worked in a variety of roles at Des Moines Area Community College focusing on workforce development and employee training initiatives in the central Iowa region. Jacki holds an MS in Business Analytics and undergraduate degrees in Business and Education.
Brian Waddingham, Executive Director
Coalition to Support Iowa’s Farmers
BWaddingham@SupportFarmers.com
www.supportfarmers.com
Brian Waddingham serves as Executive Director of the Coalition to Support Iowa's Farmers.
Waddingham directs the Coalition’s work in helping farmers follow all rules and regulations, choose good locations for new farms, strengthen neighbor relations and safeguard air and water quality.
Prior to his work with the Coalition, Waddingham served 9 years with the Iowa Beef Industry Council as the Director of Industry Relations. He worked in the areas of producer communication, checkoff collection and compliance, coordination of research projects and the development and execution of the Beef Quality Assurance program. He also served as the Agriculture and FFA instructor at Baxter High School located in central Iowa for 6 years.
He is a native of Klemme, Iowa, with a degree in agriculture education from Iowa State University.
Kaylee Williams, Investment Director
InnoVenture Iowa
kaylee@innoventureiowa.com
innoventureiowa.com
Kaylee Williams is an entrepreneur and business strategist for early-stage startup companies. She is the Investment Director at InnoVenture Iowa, a $30 million co-investment fund designed to support early-stage startup companies in bioscience, advanced manufacturing, and information technology.
She is the former President of VolunteerLocal, a volunteer management software company, and the former Head of Customer Development at Roboflow, a Y-Combinator backed startup pioneering the adoption of computer vision across industries. Williams graduated from the University of Iowa in 2012 with a degree in English, and she is passionate about the arts, community service and inclusion/equity in tech. She is the recipient of the 2022 Young Alumni Entrepreneurial Leadership Award from the University of Iowa and the founder of Eat Free Pie DSM, a charity that connects volunteer bakers with pie recipients throughout the Des Moines metro on Thanksgiving Day.