Monique and Jocelyne will discuss their road to the top of the Olympic podium.  During that journey, they faced adversity as individuals and as a team.  Most notably, their team threatened to boycott the 2017 world championships in order to secure better working conditions and benefits for the National team and girls hockey players in the United States.  They will discuss how their leadership roles grew and evolved through their careers and the lessons they learned along the way that translate into their daily lives.  

Andrew Towne is an endurance athlete, speaker, lawyer, and international business consultant. He holds five world records in ocean rowing, U.S. national championships in collegiate rowing and club running, and a black belt in Tae Kwon Do. He has also climbed the tallest mountain on every continent (including Mount Everest). Passionate about international relations, Towne advises governments and multi-national corporations on strategic and organizational issues as a Principal in the Boston Consulting Group’s Minneapolis office. He has lived/worked in eight countries, promotes intercultural exchange as the Board Chair of Youth For Understanding USA, and has served the U.S. government in a variety of foreign policy roles. 

Towne earned his JD/MBA from The Wharton School and the University of Pennsylvania Law School, where he was a Morgenthau Scholar, Friedman Scholar, and Institute of Law and Economics Scholar. He holds a bachelor’s degree in political science with honors from Yale University and studied for a year at the University of Nairobi as an NSEP Boren Scholar. Towne grew up in Grand Forks, North Dakota, attending Belmont (now Phoenix) Elementary School, South Junior High School, and Central High School. 

If you have a desire to learn how to make an incredible difference, or if you want to live a purpose-filled life, this session is for you. Scott Holdman of the High Impact Institute will be sharing the three essential elements of making an extraordinary difference and how to apply them in your life.

Holdman is Chief Transformation Officer of the Impact Foundation. Through training, coaching, and product creation, he is an innovator for nonprofits who develops pathways for them to thrive. He has helped hundreds of nonprofits in his over 20 years of service to solve complex challenges. Holdman serves as the lead trainer and coach for Giving Hearts Day, the longest-running giving day in the U.S. that, to date, has raised over $110 million. Holdman has spoken and served internationally with nonprofit causes. He was named to the 40 Under 40 List by Prairie Business Magazine and is certified in Fundraising Management by Indiana University. He is a Certified Nonprofit Professional (CNP) through the Nonprofit Leadership Alliance, which honored him as its 2019 Certified Nonprofit Professional of the Year.

Join local technology leaders in unmanned aerial systems, higher education, digital marketing, and finance for an open discussion on the current state of technological advancement in our region, the challenges their industries face, and their hopes for innovation and advancement.

Ben Sailer – Inbound Marketing Director, CoSchedule

Madhavi Marasinghe – Chief Information Officer, University of North Dakota

Michelle Kommer – Owner, High Road Partners

Nicholas Flom – Executive Director, Northern Plains UAS Test Site

About the panelists

Ben Sailer is the Inbound Marketing Director at CoSchedule. His specialties include content strategy, SEO, copywriting, and more. When he’s not hard at work helping people do better marketing, he can be found cross-country skiing with his wife and their dog.

Madhavi Marasinghe is the chief information officer (CIO) at the University of North Dakota (UND), responsible for the vision and strategy for the university’s information technology (IT) to advance its academic and research mission. She holds a bachelor of science in Management Systems from the University of Missouri Science and Technology (UMS&T) and a master of science in Higher Education from UND.

Marasinghe began her career as a software programmer at UMS&T and has been UND’s CIO since 2017. She leads and mentors a team of professionals committed to providing UND with exceptional technology support, innovation, and vision. Under her leadership, UND consolidated academic and business IT units to create the University Information Technology department to ensure current and future technology needs are addressed holistically and technical support is simplified across campus. In an industry where only 24% of women are in a senior leadership position across the nation, Marasinghe has steadily progressed her career over the years to hold the highest technology leadership position at UND. A resident of Grand Forks since 2000, Marasinghe is an avid fan of tennis, music, and serves as a board member of the Northern Valley Youth Orchestra.

​​Michelle Kommer is the founder and owner of HighRoad Partners, LLC.  HighRoad Partners is a full-service health insurance agency specializing in group employer and individual benefit policies, including Medicare supplemental policies. HighRoad Partners is proud to partner with small companies to achieve success, offering a breadth of HR competence and experience, along with the HR technology of a large company, at a reasonable price. 

In the four years preceding the launch of her business, Michelle responded to an invitation from North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum to leave a successful career in the private sector for an exciting opportunity to join, learn, lead, and be a change maker as a public servant.  Upon his taking office, the Governor appointed Michelle to serve the citizens of North Dakota in his cabinet as Commissioner of Labor.  In 2019, Governor Burgum invited Michelle to take on the challenge of serving as the state’s Commissioner of Commerce. In that role, she was responsible for leading efforts to diversify the economy, recruit visitors and new residents, anticipate and address workforce demands, and help equip North Dakota communities for today’s changing environment, while assisting their efforts in preparing for tomorrow’s opportunities.  Prior to Michelle’s appointment as Commerce Commissioner, she served as Executive Director of Job Service North Dakota, in addition to her duties as Labor Commissioner, making her the first person to lead two cabinet agencies at the same time.   

Michelle was named the “Woman of Impact” by the ND Women’s Business Network in 2021, YWCA’s “Woman of the Year” for Child Advocacy in 2016, and one of the “Top 25 Women in Business” by Prairie Business Magazine in both 2014 and 2015.

Outside of work, Michelle has served on numerous nonprofit boards in the Fargo-Moorhead area, including The Village Foundation, The FMWF Chamber of Commerce, Fraser, Ltd., and Churches United for the Homeless. Michelle has been a passionate advocate for child welfare in North Dakota, both as a foster and adoptive parent.  Responding to a need for adoptive parents for North Dakota foster children, Michelle founded the North Dakota Heart Gallery in 2007 and continues to serve as President and Chair of the board today.  Through the help of amazing volunteers, the Heart Gallery has served more than 200 children in finding “forever families”.  

Nicholas Flom started his career in aviation when he graduated from the University of North Dakota. Flom spent the early part of his aviation career flight instructing, flight management, and obtaining a Part 135 Air Carrier Certificate for a start-up company to provide on-demand air taxi operations. During this time, he acquired over 4,000 flight hours and earned his Airline Transport Pilot certificate.

In 2016, Flom became the executive director of the Northern Plains UAS Test Site. He is now responsible for Vantis, the state of North Dakota’s statewide beyond visual line of sight initiative. Under Flom’s leadership, North Dakota was selected as one of 10 participants of the UAS Integration Pilot Program, selected to participate in the FAA’s UTM Pilot Program, and has supported multiple federal agencies like CBP, NASA, and DHS. Flom has also been instrumental in the advancement of beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) operations for multiple users and use cases.

Gallery has served more than 200 children in finding “forever families”.  

Moderated by Dr. Amy Whitney

Dr. Amy Whitney is the Director of the UND Center for Innovation. She brings 20+ years of entrepreneurial, innovative, collaborative and creative thinking skills to her work. Whitney has used her background in non-profit management, business, education, and public policy advocacy to prioritize town-gown relationship building as the foundation of entrepreneurial activity. She oversees a vibrant Center supporting entrepreneurs, students and faculty members in Grand Forks and across North Dakota. Her areas of teaching and research are focused on creative problem solving, design thinking and using these skills to create organizational change and inspire entrepreneurial activity.

Before joining the UND Center for Innovation, Whitney was director of innovation and entrepreneurship at Clark University in Worcester, MA. for seven years where she worked on curriculum development, hiring adjunct faculty, strategic planning, student mentorship and business creation, and collaboration with the community, alumni and the university.  In addition, she served as state program coordinator and Chapter Executive Director for Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) in the Boston area. 

Dr. Whitney grew up in Northern Vermont as the oldest daughter of a dairy farmer and nurse. She has a bachelor’s degree in American government, a Masters degree in Business Administration and a doctorate in organizational leadership and education. Her doctoral research and teaching focuses on the instruction and application of creative problem solving skills to address complex economic and social challenges in business and society.