First Interstate Bank hosts 120 tech leaders at Missoula reception on Oct. 30
With Halloween-themed food, decor, and a photo booth, Tom Severson, First Interstate Bank President – Missoula Market, and team hosted a fun gathering for attendees from across the state. Photos by Slikati.
CONNECT: Founders, CEOs network with booming tech companies
Stef Sample, Founder of The Insight Studio, chats with Alliance board members Paige Williams, Founder of Audience Awards, and Kelly Schwager, Vice President, Global Communications for Oracle, at the Oct. 30 reception. The Insight Studio recently received grant funding to help it create seven new jobs in Missoula County. The company was also named a 2019 Startup to Watch.
PROMOTE: ExcelliMatrix and Inimmune give lightning talks about their growing companies
Leland Johnson, ExcelliMatrix Founder and CEO, describes his company’s growth and mission to provide onshore and offshore outsourcing solutions to businesses worldwide. ExcelliMatrix has about 10 employees in Kalispell and Bozeman and approximately 20 workers in India and the Czech Republic.
Jay Evans, President and CEO, speaks about Inimmune‘s continued growth developing immunotherapeutics in partnership with the University of Montana. The Missoula company was recently awarded a $1 million grant from the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases under its SBIR Phase II program to advance a new immunotherapeutic for the prevention of respiratory infectious diseases. The company is also pursuing treatment of allergy, infectious disease, autoimmunity, cancer, and opioid addiction.
ACCELERATE: University of Montana President Seth Bodnar discusses workforce needs with Alliance leaders
University of Montana President Seth Bodnar had a candid conversation with Alliance business leaders about workforce needs and how the university can adapt to a changing business landscape.
“We need to create students who can think, who can create, who can adapt,” Bodnar said. “There are pretty tangible skills that we want to make sure our students know… We do want to adapt our curriculum, to make sure that we’re not just living in the world as it was 20 years ago.”
The meeting was part of a conversation that began last year with the MHTBA Missoula reception in November and continued with Monday’s launch of Tech Skills for Tomorrow, an initiative aimed to bolster UM’s education and training opportunities to fill Montana workforce needs.
Watch for a written recap of the meeting and more opportunities to get involved in the conversation.