Duane Cantrell

Payless ShoeSource, Inc. (Delaware) owns and operates footwear specialty retailer stores in the Western Hemisphere with 4,605 retail stores. The stores offer fashionable, private and branded label footwear and accessories for women, men and children in a self-selection shopping format. Their stores sell a broad assortment of footwear, including athletic, casual and dress shoes, sandals, work and fashion boots, slippers and accessories, such as handbags and hosiery. The company's retail stores in the United States, Canada, the Caribbean, Central America, South America and Japan sold over 182 million pairs of footwear. The company is headquartered in Topeka, KS

Kansas Bioscience Authority LLC operates as a venture investor. It invests its own funds, attracts co-investors, manages its portfolio companies, and calls on its network of partners and experts to generate a return on and of invested capital. The firm focuses on agribusiness, animal health, human health, and life sciences technology sectors. The company was founded in 2004 and is headquartered in Olathe, KS.

HiPer Technology, Inc. develops and manufactures carbon fiber racing wheels for motor sport vehicles. It offers wheels, accessories and parts. The company was founded by Thomas A. Darnell in 2001 and is headquartered in Lawrence, KS.

Talam Biotech operates as a biotech company. It has database of microbes for degrading/immobilizing pollutants from soil and for promoting plant growth. The firm utilizes patented isolation and screening methods to isolate microbiomes for application in agricultural crop production and environmental remediation. The company was founded by Xuemei Germaine and David Ryan in 2012 and is headquartered in Carlow, Ireland.

Telesense, Inc. operates as an industrial IoT technology company which specializes in temperature and humidity monitoring for the grain and food industries. Its solutions include grain storage; cold storage; and local transport and tracking. The company was founded by Naeem Zafar and Nick Garner in 2013 and is headquartered in Sunnyvale, CA.

Fulcrum Global Capital LLC (Fulcrum Global Capital) is an venture capital firm founded in 2016 by Keith Harrington and John Peryam. The firm is headquartered in Shawnee, Kansas.

Green Dot Bioplastics, Inc. engages in the engages in the development of bioplastic materials. Its product development lab compounds a wide range of natural fibers, wood flours, starches, and liquids with an array of biobased, biodegradable, and recycled or virgin plastics. The company was founded by Mark Mahoney and is headquartered in Emporia, KS.

Vytelle LLC is a precision livestock company that helps cattle producers worldwide optimize their herds through an integrated technology platform. The company is based in Lenexa, KS and has subsidiaries in the United States. The company aims to make generations of genetic gains in just a few years, allowing producers to sustainably deliver more protein with fewer inputs. This helps ensure that meat and milk remain viable and competitive food choices for future generations. The company was founded in 2015, and Kerryann Kocher has been the CEO of the company since 2020.