Ray Bowman, D.B.A., is the director of the Small Business Development Center of Ventura and Santa Barbara counties. He's a business veteran with more than 30 years' experience. He started three businesses, including an international trade consulting firm, and has worked as a consultant, trainer, and manager for several SBDC offices. Ray is a specialized consultant in international trade logistics, trade finance, vendor compliance, import and export compliance management, and overseas vendor and buyer issues. He has been an international and national keynote speaker and presenter in logistics infrastructure, international marketing, import and export, non-tariff trade barriers, and international export economy. Ray serves as adjunct at Babson in Executive Education. Ray has a Green Belt in Lean Six Sigma and is the program chair for the District Export Council of Southern California.

Bill Bartels, B.A., is the principal in a diversified farming/management/organizational development company generalizing in facilitation of diverse teams with divergent ideas and goals. Bill works in public policy and spent 17 years with the city of Fillmore in various roles, concluding his tenure as deputy city manager. Bill served on the Ventura County Planning Commission for 12 years and is a fourth-generation Ventura County farmer.

Tracy Beard has served as Executive Director of the Solvang Chamber of Commerce since 2015. Prior to joining the Chamber, Tracy worked as Human Resources Manager at Marriott Corporation Restaurants Division in Washington, D.C. specializing in workforce development for over 25 years. She has owned and operated a property management company for the past 30 years. Tracy currently serves as President of the Association of California Commissions for Women (ACCW) which works to ensure the implementation of key policy and legislative changes for women in business. Tracy is an advocate for female entrepreneurs and regularly lends her expertise to local nonprofits looking to build their fundraising capacity and improve operational efficiency.

Sebastian De Vivo, Ph.D. is the co-founder of List Ventures and Sophist Capital, both focused on inclusive access to capital for women and minority entrepreneurs. In this role, he has facilitated over $35M in debt and venture capital investments to portfolio companies. He serves on the Investment Committee at Stanford Angels and Entrepreneurs of Southern California. In addition, he has worked on several initiatives focused on building inclusive ecosystems nationwide. Sebastian received his Ph.D. in Classics from Stanford University.

Dean Dela Cruz, B.S., is a principal consultant with a consulting firm supporting business leaders in the deployment and training of Lean Six Sigma in manufacturing and healthcare. In addition, his team of highly skilled consultants provides specialized engineering-based studies key to generating cash flow: R&D/manufacturing, software development tax credits, cost segregation and energy management.

Deborah Deras has a Master's degree in Education and Bachelor's degree in Marketing. Deborah is a business owner since 2002, providing Fortune 100 companies with peak performance corporate training, and is also an international speaker and author. She has served as a marketing consultant to various Small Business Development Centers with expertise in digital marketing with a specialty in content creation, social media strategy, YouTube, SEO, Facebook, livestreaming, podcasting, Instagram sales, and how to speak with confidence on camera. She speaks English and Spanish and has been a sought after professional speaker for over 20 years.

Anthony Curtis Elliott, B.A., CPA, is a forensic accountant and intellectual property “royalty audit” specialist who performs royalty and contract compliance and related consulting services to a broad base of companies. With more than 30 years’ experience in accounting and finance, he has held positions as accounting director and controller for both medium and large companies. In 1993, he developed a broad-based accounting and consulting practice. His corporate clients are based in the United States, Canada, and Japan.

Gonzalo Fernandez has a business degree from La Salle Business College in Havana, Cuba. He is the founder of a small business financing advisory firm. His areas of expertise are analyzing and securing business loans, and strategic planning. An experienced banker, he had held senior management positions at national, regional and community banks, including First California and Santa Barbara Bank & Trust. He has also developed and grown SBA lending programs throughout California.

Melissa Forziat is a Hermosa Beach-based marketer, speaker, consultant, and author. She helps small businesses market on a budget with specialties including marketing strategy, email marketing, social media marketing, sponsorship marketing, and partnership marketing. Before starting Melissa Forziat Events and Marketing, Melissa’s career involved roles with the Olympic Winter Games, Rugby World Cup, and the US Olympic Committee. Now she adapts this knowledge for microbusinesses and those operating with more limited resources. Melissa is the author of the free eBook Small Business Marketing on a Budget and is the former Board President of Ventures nonprofit in Seattle.

Erin Fredregill, B.A., is the Founder/CEO of a full-service social media agency providing strategy, content marketing, and implementation services to small and medium-sized brands in a variety of industries. Her experience spans over 6 years of in-house and agency experience managing integrated marketing campaigns for accounts in numerous industries as diverse as software, retail, entertainment and construction.

Shalene Hayman, B.S., has worked in the accounting industry for more than 20 years. She has experience with local public accounting firms and as a partner and principal in her own firms specializing on managerial finance/accounting functions. She is the CFO/Controller for many large nonprofit organizations and small businesses in Ventura and Santa Barbara Counties.

Noel Heredia has more than 25 years of global experience and an outcome-driven, entrepreneurial mindset that underpins his successes in establishing, supervising and motivating multinational teams of specialists. His visionary thought leadership is based on a solid, routinely updated, engineering background. He is a practicing software engineering process architect and enterprise management executive with a servant leader mindset and business acumen, accomplished at inspiring and driving successful tactical teams on a mission, as well as managing complex international operations. He designs and implements digital-centric operating models for enterprises and governments looking to compete and grow in the evolving digital economy.

Doug Korte is an internationally recognized global technology business executive, investor, and transformational leader, experienced in turning-around and growing high-tech companies sized from start-up to Fortune 50.  In addition to serving as an executive for IBM, HP and Harris Corporation, responsible for multi-million-dollar business operations, he has helped over a thousand C-level and other top executives at companies of all sizes around the world break through to new levels of success. Today, Doug serves as an Executive Partner, Leadership Advisor, and Interim Executive, providing actionable, outcome-based advice and execution to accelerate the achievement of client goals.

Ed Lee is a go-to-market expert, and CEO of HelloAdvisr, a growth consultancy helping leadership teams accelerate growth with high-impact strategies. Ed works with businesses across growth stages and draws on experience from industries including eCommerce/retail, software, digital health and wellness and consumer goods.

Sylvia Martini, B.A., CGBP, supports clients with international trade, marketing and sales, public relations and web communications. Bilingual in German and English, she has over 30 years experience in international marketing and sales in several diverse industries, where she conducted competitive analyses, identified markets for start-ups, developed marketing strategies, provided sales training, organized events and trade shows. Sylvia has an international business certificate, and is a certified global business professional from NASBITE International.

As an SBDC Business Advisor since 2012, Kevin McVearry specializes …

Lauryn Nwankpa specializes in early stage impact/social enterprise support including impact business models, impact measurement, impact strategy, product/market/fit, customer discovery, pitch decks and narrative development, product and mvp development, and monetization strategy.

Simona Racek is an International Expansion Advisor. She grew up in Romania and began her work in international trade as a paralegal for a large law firm in downtown Los Angeles. Simona is the CEO and Founder of Just Down the Street, an export management company. Her expertise touches on different areas of exporting from building global export market plans and export budgets, to obtaining state, federal, and regional grants to support export activities. Simona also advises companies on export regulatory compliance.

Juliana Ramirez is an accountant, entrepreneur, business adviser and Certified QuickBooks Online ProAdvisor. With over 20 years of experience, she has trained and helped small businesses including her own—from restaurants to retails stores, car dealerships to dental offices and Non-profit organizations.

Karen Scuncio, B.A., has over 25 years of experience in international business. Scuncio’s expertise touches on all areas of exporting from export pricing, screening potential customers, distributor agreements, product labeling requirements, international shipping and payment terms as well as sales and marketing. Since 1997, she has been a principal in a business consulting and sales representative services company which she helped start, to assist small business in increasing their US and International sales.

Al Spector brings over 30 years of business experience to …

Sonata Taman is an experienced business advisor specializing in B2B growth, strategic marketing, alternative revenue streams, and global scaling. As a Fortune 100 trained CSO and an entrepreneur, she has extensive experience in global strategy and marketing operations with an eye for sustainable scaling.

Dr. Eric Zackrison, MBA, MA/PhD Organizational Communication, has been teaching, training, and consulting in Santa Barbara and Ventura for the last five years, with a heavy focus on team building, leadership, and strategy. His published research indicates that workplace relationships are at the core of coordinated teams and organizations. His work embraces the understanding that we have diverse ways of interacting and empowers people to manage those differences to be more successful.

Kelly Noble has been the office manager for EDC since 2003, giving her extensive experience managing workflow and office systems. She has expert organizational skills, honed through catering and party-planning. She is an entrepreneur and former owner of an appliance repair shop, where she handled all aspects of the business.