Entrepreneurs Panel Profiles

I'm so excited about our upcoming panel discussion! I've been collecting more information about our panelists to help you get to know a bit more about them before next Tuesday.

Andrea Ridder, founder and CEO of Levelsix Marketing and Public Relations, has a vision for marketing the truth through creativity and innovation and powerful alliance-based business practices. Her passion is to help companies reach a higher level and truly develop their unique identity to stand out in the marketplace and achieve successes. In 2002, Levelsix began with a strong desire to create positive change through powerful messaging and the development of new business models that support creativity, freedom and growth of individuals. Andrea’s background in media buying/planning, promotional event planning, community relations, marketing and public relations allowed her to see more than enough subpar design coupled with dishonest messaging. She uses her unique abilities in understanding how people think to direct beautifully functional design and create messaging with an impact. Andrea believes in the power of collaboration and strongly encourages all clients to reach out the community, be cutting edge without scaring people (too much) and telling the truth of what you represent.

Kimberly Small serves as the Co-Owner and Vice President of Sales for TEXTBYREQUEST, a company offering clients mobile marketing solutions. Kimberly has a diverse professional background. After graduating from Indiana University in 1995, she served as a paralegal for a couple years with the initial intent of pursuing law school. She discovered an interest in creating marketing and promotional materials and had the opportunity to pursue that by working on an Employee Development catalog for Eli Lilly and Company. Realizing that the legal profession was no longer her career of choice, she later served in roles that allowed her to create events for both business and non-profit agencies while completing her MBA. Small is well connected within the Indianapolis area, supporting many charitable organizations and serving as the President of the networking group Friday Lunch Club Indianapolis, Inc. She and her husband Adam started TEXTBYREQUEST in July, 2007.

Ann Rockley is President of The Rockley Group, Inc, a consultancy that has an international reputation for developing customer-centric enterprise content management strategies and underlying information architecture. Rockley is a frequent contributor to trade and industry publications and a featured speaker at numerous conferences in North America and Europe.
She has been instrumental in establishing the fields of online documentation, single sourcing (content reuse), unified content strategies, and content management best practices. Rockley is co-chair of the OASIS DITA Enterprise Business Documents Subcommittee. Rockley led Content Management Professionals to a prestigious eContent 100 award in 2005. Rockley is also Fellow of the Society for Technical Communication and has a Master of Information Science from the University of Toronto. Rockley is the author of the best-selling book, “Managing Enterprise Content: A Unified Content Strategy” (New Riders Publishing ISBN 0-7357-1306-5).

Ann Clifford graduated from Indiana University with a BS in accounting. She worked for Price Waterhouse and the American College of Sports Medicine before beginning the first of several entrepreneurial ventures in 1987. Active in the local business community, she is a member of Indiana CPA Society, TechPoint, Venture Club of Indiana, National Association of Women Business Owners, CEO Focus, SHRM and HRACI. Today, as the founder of Safari Solutions, she and her team provide on-demand (outsource) recruiting services tailored toward the hiring needs of small businesses. Safari Solutions is an Indianapolis based HR consulting firm providing recruitment process outsourcing services to meet the specific hiring needs of small and mid-size companies. Over 200 business owners have benefited from the expertise of a Safari Solutions recruiting specialist for their hiring initiatives. For more information visit: http://www.safarisolutions.com/

Rae Hostetler is the words behind the business at Hostetler Groth Marketing Communications. A former newscaster, Rae has worked in the public relations field for 15 years. She founded Hostetler Public Relations in 2000 after working in the marketing communications offices at the Indianapolis Museum of Art and Resort Condominiums International (the world’s largest timeshare exchange company). She graduated with a journalism degree from Indiana University and has taken classes toward an MBA degree from Butler University in Indianapolis. Rae is a board member of Dress for Success Indianapolis and Women’s Fund of Central Indiana.

I'm really looking forward to learning more about these dynamic women and their businesses and hope you are too!