Networking in Las Vegas Week Ending May 3, 2014 (Page, Startup Grind, Ballard Spahr, NevBio, Tick, AMA, Richard Harris Law Firm)

Met with Kevin Page, Chairman of the Board of Regents and Wells Fargo Wealth Management to discuss NevBio's "Play for Pre-Med" golf tournament on October 15, 2014, a portion of the proceeds will go toward UNLV College of Sciences Pre-Professional Program for Pre-Med, Pre-Dent, Pre-Vet and Pre-Pharmacy. The program has an 80% acceptance rate for medical school admissions. Kevin supported the idea of helping pre-med students and golf.

Attended the Startup Grind featuring Felix Dancui, CEO of Elmcore Capital. Felix is a straight up, no nonsense angel investor. He likes to invest in retail products. As an investor, he will be an active part of the company and seeks to either have control or significant influence. Felix has a laser sharp mind that he uses to identify opportunities and problems. Over 40 attended the meeting. Michael Terpin of Social Radius and angel investor (President of Bitcoin Angels) opened the meeting at the UNLV startup Center. Startup Grind is the best entrepreneurial group in Las Vegas because of its speakers, how the speakers are interviewed and those who attend.

Attended the Ballard Spahr law firm luncheon featuring Jon Ralston (Ralston Report), Steve Sebelius (RJ Columnist) and Patrica Cunningham (KCEP Morning Show). Bill Curran, Managing Partner, opened up the meeting at which 50 clients and friends attended. The first discussion topic was medical marijuana. Each one talked about how the voters approved medical marijuana in 2000 but it has taken 14 years to allow it to happen. They believed that it is good for the state and should raise additional taxes. Next was the rancher in Bunkerville, Cliven Bundy. They were very critical of Cliven Bundy and how some politicians have supported his actions. The last issue was the county hospital, UMC. They all support the hospital and its mission. They felt that the low grades it received was most likely a result of the greater number of sick patients.

Attended the NevBio meeting featuring the Bill Arent, Economic Director of the City of Las Vegas, talking about the Strong Cities, Strong Communities Challenge Grant in which the top team will win $500,000. Bill talked about the ideas coming in as business plan proposals. They want to see detailed business plans and supporting teams. The city is looking at it as an investment in the community and will help to find additional money to help the winning idea. The plan is opened to any group but each group can only submit one proposal. Over 30 attended the meeting. Quite a few of the attendees had ideas and were developing proposals. One of the questions was the ownership of the intellectual property. Craig Miller of Pictographics mentioned that coming to the NevBio meetings has helped his business with contacts he never would have had. He said that NevBio has been invaluable. (Of course, I agree with Craig.)

Met with State Senator Tick Segerblom and talked about the Medical Marijuana industry in Nevada and how the industry needs to be organized so that it can deal with issues and work with community concerns.  

Attended the American Marketing Association luncheon featuring Rob Elliot, SVP of Public Affairs at the Las Vegas Convention & Visitor Authority (LVCVA). Rob has had a history in public service having worked with the attorney general, the legislature and most recently, with Senator Harry Reid. Rob mentioned that this was the 10 year anniversary of "What Happens in Vegas, Stays in Vegas". Although the LVCVA has been successful with promoting Las Vegas and hosting some of the largest conventions in the world, a number of cities are upgrading their convention facilities - Chicago, Orlando, Atlanta, Anaheim, San Diego, San Francisco. The LVCVA has a ten year, $2.5 billion plan to upgrade the convention facility and develop a Global Business District. The LVCVA plans to build a World Trade Center at the convention center. They believe that international companies will want to be close to the top convention destination in the world. The LVCVA will be asking the state of Nevada for an investment in the project. Over 100 attended the meeting at the Thomas & Mack Board Room.

Attended the 5th Annual Richard Harris Law Firm Party. The firm invites clients and friends to the event which is held outside - food, music and drinks. Several hundred attended, including judges, attorneys, legislative candidates and business people.

John Laub

Networking in Las Vegas for the Week Ending April 26, 2014 (NRA, NLV, Ruvo, Vegas Inc, Asian Chamber, AFP)

Attended the Downtown Grand Tour and Mixer at the Art Bar hosted by the Nevada Restaurant Association. Seth Schorr, CEO of Downtown Grand Hotel, gave the group a tour of the property which started on the 18th floor. We visited two beautiful, modern rooms. The hotel is positioning itself as a boutique hotel with 600 rooms. On the 3rd floor was the outdoor pool, patio and beer garden. (Non-guests are welcomed at the beer garden.) The Downtown Grand owns 3rd street and will close it down for special festivals. The Art Bar was hip with paintings on the ceiling and overlooked 3rd Street. About 60 attended the mixer.

Attended the public hearing on Medical Marijuana at the North Las Vegas Council Chambers. The hearing was to begin gathering information for dispensaries in North Las Vegas. The mayor and council members attended. State Senator Tick Segerblom and Chad Westom, State of Nevada Medical Marijuana Department spoke. Nevada is unique in that it requires testing and labeling of the medical marijuana. About 100 people attended the hearing.

Attended the lunch & learn on clinical trials at the Ruvo Center. The Cleveland Clinic has lunch & learns each Wednesday at 12 pm. Sam Hickson, Research Associate for Cleveland Clinic, talked about six current trials, all involving alzheimer's patients (although at times they have trials for other diseases).  Five of the trials were testing oral medical or infusions and one was a medical device that used magnetic energy to help the brain (apparently magnetic energy is being used to relieve migraines). The lengths of the trials can be months to several years. All of these trials help test and hopefully advance promising drugs and treatments for alzheimer's. As part of the presentation one of the caregivers (his wife has alzheimer's) talked about how important it is to be involved in medical trials and their personal story. Both were professionals in the Bay Area. She was the CEO of a large non-profit. Once they retired to Las Vegas they continued coaching executives until she began developing signs of memory impairment which led to a alzheimer's. They feel fortunate to have retired in Las Vegas which has the Cleveland Clinic Ruvo Brain Center. About 35 attended the talk, including Kelsey Zanoli of Roseman University.

Attended the Healthcare Headliners sponsored by Vegas INC at Ruvo Center. Numerous health care professionals were recognized including Renee Coffman of Roseman, Mitch Forman of Touro, and many others. The stories are moving as those in healthcare work to help people in a compassionate manner. Over 200 atteneded the event.

Attended the Asian Chamber of Commerce with Congressman Joe Heck. Joe talked the difficulties of moving legislation through the divided houses. He talked about healthcare, veterans, transportation, unmanned aerial vehicles and jobs. Over 250 attended the event, including Assistant Sheriff Joe Lombardo and numerous candidates for judicial office. 

Attended the Association of Fundraising Professionals luncheon which featured Anna Pikovsky Auerbach. She began her career at McKinsey & Co., advising CEOs of Fortune 500 companies. She has an MBA with honors at Harvard Business School.  Her talk was on strategic planning for non-profits (although the talk would have been appropriate for any organization). The key point is alignment - purpose and focus - for the board, mission and service area. Anna provide great handouts and examples. About 50 attended.

John Laub

Networking in Las Vegas for the Week Ending April 19, 2014 (TBAN, RJ, Stitch, Metro Chamber, UNLV Geoscience)

Attended the Technology Business Alliance of Nevada (TBAN) luncheon at which Jane Poynter, CEO of World View and President & Chairman of Paragon Space Development Corporation, spoke. Jane was one of the members of the Biosphere 2 project in which a group of eight individuals lived in a enclosed environment for 2 years. The experience led to the creation of Paragon Space Development Corporation to deal with living in extreme environments. A spinoff of that company was World View which uses a high-tech balloon to take people, experiments and payloads up 100,000 feet into the upper atmosphere. Their initial focus is bringing passengers up to space at $75,000 per person which will be less than Virgin Galactic at $250K and SpaceX at $95K. They can also quickly take up telecommunication systems. In addition they are planning to haul up satellites to be launched inexpensively from 100,000 feet. They have an office in Las Vegas and their operations are in Tuscon, Arizona. Tony Hsieh is one of their investors. The meeting was attended by over 60, including several judicial candidates, Jim Crockett and William Horne, two commissioners from Nye County, Jim Marsh, and Steve Curtis. Mike Maier ran the meeting. 

Attended the RJ Hashtags & Headlines luncheon featuring Senator Harry Reid. Steve Schorr, Review-Journal, opened the meeting. Steve Sebelius, RJ Columnist interviewed the senator. The senator told the audience that he was going unscripted in his remarks. He was very proud of a number of accomplishments that the Senate under his leadership accomplished. He said in 2008 after the President Obama was elected that they accomplished more legislation and changes since President Franklin Roosevelt. More pertinent to Las Vegas, he talked about how he help the airport with their financing for Terminal 3 during a difficult period for Las Vegas. He also said that he made numerous phone calls to the White House to help Nevada's efforts to secure the UAV testing site designation. He worked closely with Governor Brian Sandoval on that project and others that help Nevada such as the Tesla Battery Plant. He talked about the highway trust fund running out of money which will make it more difficult for the Interstate 11 freeway to Phoenix. He mentioned that they are looking at ways to allow the repatriation of corporate money from overseas to help the economy and that the new patent bill should be heard next week. He also talked about how they are closely monitoring events in Bunkerville. He has talked to Sheriff Gillespie, the FBI, the BLM, the Cattleman's Association and others about the situation. Over 250 attended the luncheon including Dean of the UNLV Law School Dan Hamilton, Tim Cashman, Ray Specht (Toyota Bank), Dr. Lonnie Hammargren, Tony Sanchez (NV Energy), Doug Puppel and others. 

Attendedthe monthly (3rd Thursday) Stitch Factory Speaker Series at the Learning Village downtown. The series brings in speakers from around the country. Afterwards, everyone meets at the Gold Spike. This month's speakers were Josh Clark of Global Moxie, a designer who is working on user interface of devices. David VanEsselstyn of Amplify Education & the Brooklyn Robot Foundry. He talked about coming up with the idea of the Brooklyn Robert Foundry and starting the business. Scott Jenson talked about his work with Google which involves devices communicating to cell phones. The last speaker was Liza Kindred of Third Wave Fashion on "The Future of Commerce". Her firm has developed a list of 25 marketing channels. One example of a new channel is a company that she called "Netflix for Nail Polish". The company sends nail polish to people for a month, they send it back and send it out to the next customer, very successful. Another successful company ($30 million) has people voting on the designs for their shirts - Threadless. Another company does ebay for people's closets, a kind of garage sale online. Its sales are over $200 million. Over 50 attended including Adam Zalesny (Hansen Networks) and Daniel Braisted of the Inventors Meetup.  

Attended the Chamber of Commerce Eggs & Issues breakfast with Congresswoman Dina Titus. She talked about issues in District 1 such as improving the corridor between Downtown and UNLV, Maryland Parkway, which goes from the University, pass the Boulevard Mall, pass Sunrise Hospital to Downtown Las Vegas. Another issue is bus stops. They are talking to companies such as Lowes, Home Depot and others, to donate land so that they can move bus stops back by 5 feet to prevent accidents. She is also working to support more tourism by reducing the visa restrictions to countries such as Brazil and China. Currently, they can only come once a year. She's pushing funding for Brand USA which encourages more foreign visitors. She worked hard on the UAV project and also on Google's driverless cars. She is focused on the improving the Veterans' Hospital. She also sits on the Transportation Committee and is pushing for the I-11 project. 

Over 300 attended the breakfast including numerous legislators and business people. 

I attended the UNLV Geoscience Symposium, a full day of presentations, key note speakers, posters and networking. I was able to catch a few of the student presentations on areas such as ancient buffalo fossils in North America to Asbestos sampling around Boulder City and Henderson. Barrick Gold was one of the sponsors. UNLV has a top notch Geoscience department which works with mining and oil & gas companies. 

John Laub

Networking in Las Vegas for the Week Ending April 12, 2014 (in DC)

I was in Washington DC with the Biotechnology Industry last week with Dr. Tim Porter, Dean of the UNLV College of Sciences. We had numerous meetings with the Nevada Congressional Delegation. 

We had two meetings with Senator Reid's staff, Robert Herbert, Chief of Staff and Kate Leone, Healthcare. We talked about how Reid's office can help with NIH RO1 grants. UNLV has researchers that have moved from other colleges and the grants are not renewed, same researcher, same science but different university. The office was not aware of the problem but will help. We also talked about their efforts to bring the Tesla Battery plant to Nevada, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (drones), Interstate 11 and the Test Site. The office is working closely with members of GOED on these projects. 

We also met with Ryan McBride, the healthcare specialist in Senator Heller's office. (The Senator was at a vote.) We talked about the importance of FDA and NIH funding to the biomedical industry. Ryan is also the expert on labor issues and had been busy with the extension of unemployment benefits which Senator Heller supported. He is the son of Dr Dan McBride and Linzel McBride.  (Linzel and I worked at Deloitte & Touche together.)

We met Congresswoman, Dina Titus and her healthcare specialist, Katherine Cassling.  We had met Katherine the previous year and updated her on the changes and issues. They are very supportive of UNLV. We also talked about UNLV's research on naturally occurring Asbestos that has been found around Boulder City and parts of Henderson. The office was very interested to know more about this issue.

We met with the Anna Leieritz, legislative counsel with Congressman Mark Amodei's office. We talked about the UNLV and UNR Med Schools. We also talked about UNLV's Geoscience department working with Noble Energy. Noble is drilling for oil and natural gas in Northeastern Nevada.

We met Congressman Joe Heck as he went off to a vote and talked with his healthcare specialist, Catie Fulton Spivey, about graduate medical education (residencies) and the issues around retaining doctors in Nevada. These are two big issues that his office is focused on.

We had reached out to Congressman Steven Horsford's office but our calls and emails were not returned.

I ran into Clark County Commissioner Larry Brown who was in Washington DC with the Regional Transportation Commission working on Interstate 11.

John Laub

Networking in Las Vegas for the Week Ending April 5, 2014

Attended the Touro University Research Day at which Dr. Chowdhury Ahsan, a Clinical Professor of Medicine with the University of Nevada School of Medicine and the Director of Cardiovascular Research at University Medical Center, was the featured speaker. Dr. Mitch Foreman, Founding Dean of Touro University Nevada, opened the lecture, saying that Touro is going to continue to push research at the University.  Dr. Mahboob Qureshi, Director of Research introduced Dr. Ahsan.  The title of his talk was "Global Perspective of Acute Coronary Syndrome and the Significance of Pharmacogenetics in Therapeutic Intervention". He primarily talked about how different ethnic populations react to differently to drugs which will greatly affect their medical outcomes especially when receiving angioplasty and stents. These patients are given anticoagulants and antiplatelets which work differently in south asians than caucasians. The rest of the day was student presentations. The students and faculty had over  

30 poster presentations of their research. This type of research is the basis for new treatment methods, devices and drugs and helps build the medical science community in Southern Nevada.

Attended the Startup Grind meeting, featuring Leith Martin, CEO of Equiinet. Anthony Hurtado of Raster Media opened the meeting. Michael Terpin, Founder of the Las Vegas Chapter of Startup Grind (over 60 chapters around the world) began the meeting with an interview of Leith. Equiinet provides phone, internet, security, backup, storage and other services in one box. The customer pays for the monthly service. One of their advantages is that the design of their system is that voice has priority over everything else which allows the phone quality to be clear. The price of their system is competitive and they are seeing tremendous success in Nevada, California and Phoenix. Leith said that their success is due to their business model. Although all these services are already available, packaging them together in a simple box that's installed at the customers office with a reasonable monthly price has broken open the market. Dominic Marrocco is also one of the co-founders. Leith and Dominic met at the Harvard Business School. Over sixty people attended the talk including Daniel Braisted, Steve Miller, Mark Cenicola and others. 

Attended the workshop on licensing medical marijuana in the city of Las Vegas. The event was moved to the city hall chambers due to the anticipated crowd. The council chambers filled up to the point that it was standing room only (300 attendees). The city licencing department was having this hearing to receive feedback on their proposed regulations. The meeting was very well handled by the city. The audience had a number of suggestions to improve the 35 pages of regulations. The audience was half entrepreneurs, a quarter patients and the rest, lawyers and contractors. The city will continue to take feedback as it finishes the licensing regulations by the end of the month.

Attended the Henderson Chamber of Commerce panel on education. On the panel were Shelley Berkley, Touro; Renee Coffman, Roseman; Bart Patterson, Nevada State College and Rick Smith, RDS Properties, moderator. Henderson Mayor Andy Hafen started the meeting noting that Henderson is home to 10 universities and colleges. 

Bart Patterson, President of Nevada State College talked about how his school is serving many who are the first in their family to attend college, including a large minority population. Their class sizes are smaller at a limit of 21. The college works closely with its students; the nursing students have a 100% pass rate this last year on their boards. Nevada State College sits on 500 acres and is planning to expand. They are looking for public-private partnerships with businesses.  

Renee Coffman, President & Co-founder of Roseman, talked about the Roseman teaching method. Each student takes one class at a time, six hour per day and is required to achieve 90% on all exams and tests. Roseman expects and demand proficiency of the material. Its pharmacy students consistently achieve 100% pass rates on their board exams. Roseman has expanded into Orthodontics. They have also set up a clinic at which they have state-of-the art equipment and students seeing over 70 appointments per day. Their pass rates have been at 100%. Roseman has added research space for Pharmacy and Dentistry over 40,000 square feet. They have obtained the Englestad building at the Nevada Cancer Institute and are supporting a team of researchers that are working on cancer, diabetes, prostrate, obesity and other areas.  Roseman plans to open its Medical School in 2017 and has already hired its Dean, Mark Penn, MD. They are also going to add new clinics to treat patients.

Shelley Berkley, CEO & Senior Provost of Touro University Western Division, talked about how Touro is meeting the needs of the community such as graduating nearly twice as many doctors (135) than the University of Nevada School of Medicine (70), developing a physician assistant (PA) program - over 1100 apply for 60 slots, developing physical therapists and occupational therapists, over 600 apply for 40 slots, developing an autism clinic which already has a nine-month waiting list, developing an active aging clinic for geriatric issues and plans to develop a Mental Health Clinic. Touro has saved the cities and countries money by having Touro medical students provide medical services to Shade Tree shelter and also to homeless veterans and is expanding the program to the general homeless. She said that Touro and Roseman are working together to strengthen the medical education in Southern Nevada. One of the main issues is Residencies for doctors. Without an expanded Residency program which must be funded by the state, Nevada will lose from 25% to 50% of the doctors that it trains. Nevada is 48th in doctors per capita in the United States.  

Councilwoman Gerri Schroder, David Dahan, James York, Luis Valera and over 150 people were in attendance at the event. 

Attended the Las Vegas Heals Medical Mixer at McFaddens. Over 100 were at the mixer. The mixer had doctors and individuals from different medical related industries. It's one of the friendliest mixers that I attend. People are eager to talk about their companies and issues. It's a great cross section of the medical community. Dr. Bob Odell's Neuropathy & Pain Centers had a booth on their innovative method to treat neuropathy, fibromyalgia and chronic pain using electrical currents. 

Finally, on Friday, I attended the Dominic Marrocco Southern Nevada Business Plan Competition. Debbie Donaldson, Las Vegas Business Press, opened the meeting. Dominic Marrocco, a primary sponsor of the competition, spoke about how impressive the business plans were. He also gave words of encouragement to the large group students that attended. The winner was Skyworks which developed UAVs for use in buildings such as flying in burning buildings to search for people. Runner ups had projects such as helping Chinese students, stem cells and brain exercises. Over 80 attended the events - many entrepreneurs, angel investors - Fred Cox, Ross Williams, Eugene Wong, Bill Botts, the law firm of Howard & Howard, Business Dean, Brent Hathaway, PhD, Oliver Hemmers, PhD, Ismail Onat, Michael Maier and many others.

John Laub

Networking in Las Vegas for the Week Ending March 29, 2014

Attended the Association for Corporate Counsel luncheon meeting featuring three attorneys from Howard & Howard, Kim Stein, Robert Rosenthal and James Kohl on "Problems that You Didn't Know You Had." Insightful presentations on 1) how to protect you and your company with a proper social media policy (update your employee manual & comply with the rules under the Fair Labor Act) , 2) when putting data on the cloud (using a data storage company) a) involve legal as part of the process and b) make sure that your company retains ownership of their data and 3) step up to protect your rights when a vendor declares bankruptcy. Make sure you file a claim promptly and work with counsel to exert your rights. 

Attended the Sunrise Hospital lecture by Dr. Charles St. Hill on Liver Health. Many things can affect your liver such as Hepatitis B & C, Alcohol, Smoking, Diabetes and diet.  One of the problems with liver cancer is that until the tumor is large enough to push against an organ, there is no way to feel it (it's painless). If you are prone to liver cancer, it was suggested that you be tested on a regular basis. Brendan Bussmann helped run the talk.

Attended the Exploding Stars lecture at the UNLV Physic's Department that is underwritten by Russell Frank. The presentation was better than the last three episodes of Cosmos. Exploding stars are important because they create the elements needs for carbon-based life. Al Trivelpiece and over sixty others attended.

Attended the Nevada Biotechnology & Health Science luncheon on Medical Marijuana had a packed house. Over 57 people attended the talks by Dr. Martin Schiller and State Senator Tick Segerblom. Both talks were very lively and at times, humorous. Dr. Schiller focused on how cannabis sativa interferes with the neurotransmitters in the brain. He stated that there over 50 different chemicals that can affect the body in cannabis. The cannabidiol (CBD) in marijuana has a medicinal effect without the psychoactive "high". Tick Segerblom talked about how the polls in Nevada show that 80% approve medical marijuana and over 50% approve legalizing marijuana. He believes that the law did not authorized enough marijuana dispensaries (40 in Southern Nevada). He said that a petition is being circulated in Nevada for full legalization. A number of entrepreneurs, scientists, medical professionals, drug rehab and lawyers attended. Candidates for Judges - Jim Crockett and Linda Marquis attended saying that they wanted to better understand the issues.

Attended the public lecture at the UNLV Law School with Frank Fahrenkopf, founder and former president of the American Gaming Association. Don Snyder, President of UNLV opened up the talk. Richard Bryan, former US Senator, also had a few choice words to say. Frank talked about the history of gaming, its current status and issues affecting the industry. He believes that internet gaming won't be as big as expected. Also attending were Joe Brown, Adam Laxalt (candidate for AG), Jeff Silver, Steve Schorr (RJ), Gov. Bob Miller, Professor Bill Thompson, Jonathan Ullman (Mob Museum) Steve Lake, Frank Schreck, Annette Teijeiro (Candidate for Congress) and 60 others.

Attended the Desert Research Dinner featuring the Nevada Medal Winner Albert Lin, PhD, who discovered Genghis Khan's tomb in Mongolia. Dr. Lin gave a great presentation on his trip to Mongolia. Dr. Lin had several messages - to follow your passion and to think out of the box. He used Crowdsourcing to help him find the tomb. He put satellite photographs on line and several million people analyzed and voted where they thought he should looked (it worked). I sat with the Atomic Testing Museum which included Mark Hall-Patton (Pawn Stars) and Allan Palmer, Director. Also, in attendance, Governor Brian Sandoval, Regent Kevin Page, Mayor John Lee, County Commissioner Chris Giunchigliani, Henderson City Councilperson Debra March, Justin McVay (UNLV) and Lesley McVay (Switch), Mike Wixom (Regent), Joe Brown and hundreds of others. 

Attended the UNLV-NSTec Sympositum at UNLV. Don Snyder opened up the symposium, Tom Piechota, UNLV VP of Research, introduced the main speaker, US Assistant Secretary of Nuclear Energy, Dr. Peter Lyons. Lyons, an MIT graduate, grew up in Boulder City, NV. The push by the department is for safe nuclear energy. Four new Westinghouse AP 1000 are being built in the United States. The reactors can operate for three days in a crisis without a problem. In comparison the Fukushima reactor needed operator intervention in 30 minutes. The department is also pushing SMRs (small modular reactors) that can be built in factories and are easier to control. He said the US needs a permanent nuclear repository but it needs to be consent driven. The citizens of that city and/or state must want it. He said that Yucca Mountain was off the table. Over 60 attended the symposium, including Zane Wilson (GMIS), Francis Tsang (GMIS), Mike Mohar (NSTec), Mike Maier (TBAN) and Steve Curtis (DRI).

John Laub

Networking in Las Vegas for the Week Ending March 22, 2014

Attended the Las Vegas Metro Chamber of Commerce Breakfast with Congressman Kline at the Four Seasons. Former Nevada Congressman Jon Porter introduce Congressman Kline who now chairs the Labor and Education committees. In attendance were State Senators Michael Roberson, Joyce Woodhouse, Barbara Cegavske & Dr. Joe Hardy, on the Assembly side, John Hambrick, Paul Aizley and Dr. Andy Eisen. Also from UNLV, Dean of Education, Kim Metcalf, Bill Brown, Carl Reiber. Tom Piechota & Pat Iannuzzi.  Chairman of Board of Regents, Kevin Paige, Doug Geinzer, Las Vegas HEALS and many others.   

Attended the Las Vegas Metro Chamber of Commerce Seminar on UNLV's Need for Tier 1 Status. Two great panels. Exceptionally well done. UNLV Provost John White, Vice Provost Greg Brown, Marcus Conklin, Rob Lang, Stephen Bown, Alan Schlottman and John Restrepo (RCG Economics). In addition, panel speakers included professors from Arizona State University and University of Central Florida. Tier 1 requires a focus on research and creating more doctoral students. Both Phoenix and Orlando have greatly diversified their economics as a result of their university's focus on research, tech transfer and granting doctorates. 

Attended the Las Vegas Metro Chamber of Commerce luncheon with UNLV President Don Snyder. Over 350 attended the luncheon. Clay Overlien was awarded Ambassador of the Year Award. Don talked about his background from University of Wyoming, California, Taiwan and Nevada. He went on to talk about how important to Nevada's economy Tier 1 status would be. (Besides more funding, the university can take steps toward Tier 1 now by supporting applied research with businesses, granting tenure for researchers and improving tech transfer.) 

John Laub