After receiving degrees from Tufts University, The School of the Museum of Fine Arts, and The University of Pennsylvania, Clay Neigher ventured west towards L.A stopping only for what he thought was a short visit to Chicago. Six years later, he is happily still here. Besides Co-Founding the engineering collective Three Man Rocket, Clay works as a creative consultant and strategist. Additionally, Clay is a Technori.com evangelist and has served Technori as a writer and creative consultant since post inception.
Perhaps more importantly, Clay Neigher is a stubborn cyclist. He always prefers two wheels to four and pedals to any destination whether it's miles of icy road to commute to work or a few blocks to visit a pal. Needless to say, Clay loves bikes. After enduring his fourth bike theft, he came up with an idea that would benefit cyclists everywhere. Since then, he has been developing what is now known as the BikeSpike. This is another reason he is considered a creative Swiss Army knife by his colleagues. You can follow him on Twitter @madpitcher82
Bill Fienup was born and raised in St. Louis Missouri. He earned his BSME and MSME in Mechanical Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. After 7 years of product design consulting for Insight and IDEO, he has now shifted focus towards the BikeSpike. Armed with his own private machine shop and electronics lab in Chicago, he cranks out projects faster than the internet can document them. In the time he doesn't have to spare, he keeps active with volleyball, touch football, metal sculpting and biking on the lake front. He enjoys experimenting in the kitchen and is an aficionado of fine food and tequila.
Similar to C-3PO Josh knows many languages, including Objective-C, C, Python, and Java. Josh leads hardware and embedded software design, implementing every whim and fancy of Clay's. If you're a developer looking to write an awesome app to take advantage of the BikeSpike Josh is the right guy to talk to.
Harvey Moon is a new media artist and graduate from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He works with emerging technologies finding new and creative ways of connecting people to the world around us. Harvey has worked with the BikeSpike since its inception, aiding in the concept and technological development.
As the co-founder of ColorJar, David has led projects for a wide range of clients - from startups and charities, to big brands and celebrities. In 2011, David received the Empact100 award at the White House on behalf of ColorJar. His passion for entrepreneurship has resulted in speaking engagements across America, a position on the Young Entrepreneurs Council (YEC), and mentor roles at Excelerate Labs and the Chicago Lean Startup Challenge.
Bryan is a Partner at ColorJar and the technology head. He is the founder of a development company that merged with ColorJar in late 2010.
Bryan wrote his first computer application, a program that generated car recommendations based on a user's answers to a list of questions, on an Apple IIc while still in elementary school and never looked back. He graduated from Cornell College with a double major in Computer Science and Psychology with a minor in English under the umbrella of a special program that aimed to bridge the gap between technology and people.
Howard B. Rockman is a Chicago patent attorney, Intellectual Property Management consultant, author and lecturer. He counsels companies and individual innovators and creators on a variety of intellectual property matters. Fifty years ago, Howard began his legal career as a Patent Examiner at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office before moving on to his role as an Assistant Attorney General at the U.S. Department of Justice. Howard represents clients in litigation of patent, copyright, trademark and trade secret cases in Federal and State Courts, as well as clients seeking to secure domestic and foreign intellectual property rights before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, the U.S. Copyright Office, and similar intellectual property offices throughout the world.
Mr. Rockman is a member of the American Bar Association, the Intellectual Property Law Association of Chicago, and the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE). He has a B.S. in mechanical engineering from Drexel University, and a J.D. with honors from The George Washington University Law School. In addition to his legal accolades, Mr. Rockman served as an officer in the U.S. Army on active duty and reserve status with the Corps of Engineers and the Judge Advocate General Corps from 1960 to 1968.
Ben Turner received his Bachelor of Arts in History from Hamilton College in 2005. Moving to Colorado in 2006,Ben received his Masters of Business Administration from the University of Denver in 2008. Upon graduating,Ben began working for Transportation Solutions, a local non-profit focused on encouraging people to try and use transportation alternatives to driving alone. In January of 2011, Ben became Sales, Marketing & Communications Manager at Denver Bike Sharing, owner and operator of Denver B-cycle. There, Ben oversaw all aspects of the sales, marketing, and communications efforts while working closely with operations, customer service, sponsorship staff members. At the start of 2013, Ben became Program Director for Omaha B-cycle and is currently working to expand bike sharing in Omaha.
Matt Daniel is a veteran of the bicycle industry of nearly seventeen years and currently operates as a the General Manager of one of Chicago lands oldest bike shops, Cycle Smithy. Matt's experience and expertise as professional mechanic, bicycle fit technician, bike shop founder as well as bicycle advocate has earned him a stellar reputation within the Chicago land cycling community. Matt is a highly sought after expert mechanic and has an incredibly loyal following of daily commuters, amateur and professional racers from nearly every discipline. His passion and dedication for the bicycle as well as his positive energy has made him an invaluable asset to a myriad of charitable cycling events such as the Ride for Aids Chicago, Bike MS Tour de Farms as well as his own Non-Profit foundation and cycling event, The Ride Against Lyme. Beyond Matt's bike shop persona, he can be found gettin' zesty on the local trails on his mountain bike or laying the law with the best in the local cyclocross scene.
Hungarian born professional triathlete Balazs Csoke has been a competitive athlete since entering his first race at age ten as a swimmer. He spent the next 9 years completely dedicated to competitive swimming, training 12 times a week and racing all over the world.
When Balazs finally came up for air at age 16, he watched a film about racing in a triathlon and decided to give it a shot. Over a decade later, Balazs is quickly becoming a rising star in the triathlon community most recently earning a place on the podium in the 2013 Ironman competition in New Zealand.
Balazs has been a helpful mentor to Team BikeSpike. His consulting work has helped us tailor the BikeSpike experience to the competitive cycling community. Balazs spends most of his time in Texas training for the next race and training other serious triathletes.
David Hull is an award-winning product designer with 10+ years of experience. David received his undergraduate degree in Industrial Design from Western Washington University, and his MFA in Designed Objects at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. His work ranges from textile design to electronics, branding to user interface development with a speciality in guiding products from concept to reality. In his spare time David enjoys barbecuing, tinkering with arduinos, sketching, and collaborating on side projects. More of his work can be seen at davidhulldesign.com
Mercedes is very familiar with different programming languages, but where she really thrives is in hardware design, and by that she means electrical and mechanical. She can design a circuit, simulate, test, prototype, debug and make sure that it all fits, even in the strangest shape and application.
