Each week, our panel of distinguished hosts bring their expertise to the air in discussing the important issues facing our community.
More information about The Pulse...
 Tom Jones:
Tom Jones is the founder of WORx, a management engineering firm based in Fresno, California. He has spent the past 25 years in corporate America working with both Fortune 500 companies and smaller businesses helping to make them functional and profitable. Tom is also author of several management books If It's Broken You Can Fix It and Help! I'm Surrounded By Idiots.
 Lee Lockhart:
A longtime Valley journalist, and former Executive Editor of The Business Journal, Lee is the author of the syndicated column "The Backbench" which appears in several Central California newspapers. Lee is also a member of the Board of Directors of The Maddy Institue, former director of the University Business Center at Fresno State and former president of The Bulldog Foundation (2004).
 Dr. Timothy Stearns:
Tim is the executive director of the Lyles Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at California State University, Fresno. He also holds the Coleman Foundation Chair in Entrepreneurial Studies at Fresno State.
He has co-authored a textbook on management and is the author of more than 75 research articles and presentations. He has taught and lectured about entrepreneurship and innovation to students and executives in Thailand, Poland, Japan, Kazakhstan, Macau and the People’s Republic of China. He is a founder of the National Network for Technology Entrepreneurship and Commercialization, a nonprofit in Rapid City, S.D.
Stearns serves as chair of the entrepreneurship division of the Academy of Management and is also vice president of research of the United States Association of Small Business and Entrepreneurship.
Stearns is currently leading an effort to bring Fortune 50 patents to firms in the Central Valley that will lead to job and business growth. He writes a monthly column for Fresno’s Business Journal called “Venture Ink.” He is also a member of the Regional Jobs Initiative Implementation Task Force. He is currently leading an effort to bring Fortune 50 patents to firms in the Central Valley that will lead to job and business growth. He writes a monthly column for Fresno’s Business Journal called “Venture Ink.” He is a member of the Regional Jobs Initiative Implementation Task Force
Craig Scharton:
 Craig Scharton is CEO of the Central Valley Business Incubator, and manages CVBI’s two new facilities housing staff and on-site members – the Claude Laval WET Incubator and the mixed-use Launching Pad. He is directly involved in managing the fiscal health of CVBI, consults with members in one-on-one training and assists staff in the planning and implementation of Entrepreneurial Training Process classes.
Before joining CVBI, Craig served as an elected official, private entrepreneur and non-profit executive director. Scharton has dedicated his life’s work to downtown and neighborhood revitalization, historic preservation, economic development, cultural arts and the environment.
Scharton’s prior work experience includes serving as the senior director of economic development for One by One Leadership. While there, he assisted in the creation of two urban revitalization districts for Fresno. Scharton has also served as the executive director for Main Street Hanford and the Pleasanton Downtown Association, both organizations with the goal of developing and promoting the downtown community.
An entrepreneur himself, he owned Scharton Urban Development Strategies for nearly four years, serving as a local consultant and assembling investors to purchase buildings.
From 1991 to ‘97, Scharton served as a Fresno City Council Member for District One. Throughout his time as an elected official, Scharton helped to initiate the adoption of the Tower District Specific Plan, which is Fresno’s first neighborhood conservation plan -- it is still in use today.
Born and raised in Fresno, Scharton has served as a member of many professional and community organizations, including the Mayor’s Creative Economy Council, United States Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship, California Main Street Alliance, National Trust for Historic Preservation, California Downtown Association and California Assembly of Local Arts Agencies.
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