Josh Wulf is the CEO of Magikcraft.io – the world’s #1 platform for teaching kids to code in Minecraft. Josh lives in Brisbane, Australia, with his wife Param and their teenage son Prahlad, dx T1D in 2010. They use Magikcraft to build an experience of T1D in Minecraft, to teach children about their condition when diagnosed, and to empower them in the conversation with their community of support. he is committed to empowering children and families living with Type 1 Diabetes globally.
Jen Horonjeff, PhD is a patient advocate and founder & CEO of Savvy Cooperative. Savvy is a patient co-op that provides an online marketplace for savvy patients to share their insights with healthcare innovators in order to co-create better patient-centered solutions. Savvy grew out of a need that Jen saw as both a patient with multiple chronic illnesses and as an researcher and industry consultant. She noticed that professionals talk about patients–not with actual patients. Patient insights are invaluable, because many patients, like herself, have multiple conditions and co-morbidities they are trying to manage, and their priorities may be different than their care teams’. Jen got her PhD in Environmental Medicine at NYU, is a patient-centered outcomes researcher at Columbia University Medical Center, a Consumer Representative for the FDA, a speaker on the importance of patient engagement, and a longtime non-profit volunteer. In 2015, Jen and her husband rode a tandem bicycle from NYC to Florida to raise awareness and funds for one of the patient charities she supports.
Prior to creating her diabetes fashion brand, Myabetic, Kyrra Richards was a professional dancer, choreographer, and model. She worked with Nickelodeon, Spike TV, BET, Kids’ Choice Awards, Guys’ Choice Awards, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, ZZ Top, Jessica Biel, Tracy Morgan, Shaquille O’Neal, Carrie Ann Inaba, the Jonas Brothers, Carmen Electra, and photographer David LaChappelle on music videos, commercials, premieres, stage productions, print campaigns, and concerts. Her type 1 diabetes diagnosis at the age of 24 caused discouragement and insecurity. She was embarrassed to carry and use her medical supplies because she didn’t want to be associated with a disease. In an effort to brighten her outlook, Richards decided to give diabetes a makeover by designing stylish wallets, bags and accessories. Her company, Myabetic, continues to create products that promote style, not shame.
Peter and his team are developing a Smart Diabetes App that intelligently pick up patterns in the diabetics data and uses it for personalized recommendations. Peter is a born entrepreneur. He makes things happen, sees opportunities, and is good at motivating people around him. Peter has a Bachelors in innovation and entrepreneurship as well as several years of experience running businesses. Peter grew up with type 1 diabetes. His father was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in 1989 at the age of 27 and Peter got diagnosed with type 1 in 2010, at the age of 27.
Brianna Wolin is a passionate entrepreneur, biomedical engineer and food blogger. Find Your Ditto, FYD, began as a student project during her time at the University of Michigan, has earned Brianna several awards at the University as well as recognition by SPARK Ann Arbor, including a fully-funded entrepreneurial bootcamp experience and a commitment to continued guidance. Brianna has lived with Type 1 Diabetes and Celiac Disease the majority of her life. Her food blog, A Different Survival Guide, grew out of her need to cook all of her own low carb, gluten free meals unavailable in campus dining halls. Brianna is the Chief Executive officer of Find Your Ditto, responsible for engagement with universities and healthcare systems, marketing, legal matters, and company finances. Find Your Ditto is the only mobile platform that connects individuals living with the same chronic illness locally for on-demand, in-person peer support to mitigate feelings of loneliness and depression. Users can find their “dittos” and begin to feel like “it’s not just me.”
Charles O’Connell recognized the lack of guidance and support related to exercise and diabetes, and therefore founded FITSCRIPT.COM to help others with diabetes reach their fitness and diabetes goals. In the fall of 2013, Charlie opened the FITSCRIPT Diabetes Fitness and Technology Center, a unique facility dedicated to developing multi-media content related to exercise, diabetes metrics, and integrated data from bio-metric devices. Through August of 2016, over 200,000 people living with diabetes around the world have utilized Fitscript’s GLUCOSEZONE program for exercise guidance and support, and thousands of exercise sessions have been performed in-person at the Fitscript Diabetes Fitness and Technology center. Diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes at Yale New Haven Hospital in the fall of 1996, Charlie is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania (’02) where he was a two-sport varsity athlete (Football and Track and Field), as well as high school All-American in Track and Field.
David Weingard is the founder and CEO of Fit4D, a company whose mission is to improve the lives of people with Diabetes and other chronic conditions. David was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes, at the age of 36, while training for a survival race. A veteran of numerous running and triathlons races (including Ironman triathlons consisting of a 2.4M swim, 112M bike and 26.2M run), David committed to rebuild his life and provide positive energy to the diabetes community while coping with the condition on a 24×7 basis. David’s personal experience receiving meaningful education and support from a Certified Diabetes Educator (CDE) sparked the idea for Fit4D to leverage technology to scale the patient reach of adherence and outcome improvement programs for pharmaceutical, payer and provider organizations. In 2008, David left Microsoft to found Fit4D, building on his career as an executive in the technology sector. David has a BA in Computer Science and a MBA in Marketing.
Shai Rozen is the co-founder & CMO at Suggestic Serial entrepreneur, a marketing guy, and a product builder. At a co-founder at Suggestic, he use artificial intelligence to tackle health and nutrition. He is passionate about putting an end to disease and the inevitability of immortality.Best advice ever received: don’t panic.
Luka Zupancic is the founder of Easycarb, a project devoted to revolutionize the outdated and complex process of carbohydrate management in diabetes. Being affected by the disease in his professional and personal life, he quickly realized how extremely inefficient the current standard for tracking carbs is, despite it being key for preventing health complications. Luka obtained his MSc degree in Regenerative Medicine at the University of Applied Sciences in Vienna and had worked as a researcher in the biomedical field, prior to switching to entrepreneurship. Apart from his scientific endeavors, his interests include innovative ventures and technology, clinical nutrition and everything sports-related.
Elizabeth Sacco is the founder of Diabetic Dabs® Inc. A stay-at-home mom turned entrepreneur, Liz developed the concept of Diabetic Dabs® after her son was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes in 2011. While adjusting to the change in lifestyle and facing the challenges associated with diabetes, Liz realized there was a missing component to the blood glucose testing process. Frustrated by not being able to find an easy and efficient solution to removing the excess blood from the finger after testing, Liz took the matters into her own hands to resolve this issue. She conceived, developed, and patented Diabetic Dabs®. Diabetic Dabs® are an ideal companion product to the diabetes monitoring and diagnostic devices. Dabs® are non-toxic, highly absorbent sheets that are designed to fit conveniently into any blood glucose testing kit with its adhesive backing. Dabs® provide the most hygienic method of blood removal and disposal.