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Key Note Speaker Bio
Mike DeLazzer is a serial entrepreneur who was featured by Crain’s Chicago Business in an article about serial entrepreneurs in Illinois. In 1996 he founded Kodel Corporation which does Industrial design and manufacturing in Asia. In 2006 he was inducted into the Chicago Entrepreneur Hall of Fame for his work as founder of GetAMovie Inc. which developed the redbox kiosk. In 2005 the two companies merged and re-launched as redbox LLC. Redbox has since become the 2rd largest video rental company in the world, with over 35,000 locations in the U.S. and revenues approaching $2 billion.
After participating in international business for over 20 years in various sales and leadership roles, Mike started Kodel Corporation, an industrial design and manufacturing company in 1996. Kodel grew over the years and opened offices in Taiwan and Shanghai developing, sourcing and selling custom electronic and mechanical devices to OEMs in the U.S.
In 2005 Mike founded Safeguard Shutters, a manufacturer and installer of hurricane shutters in Florida and quickly signed an exclusive contract with Home Depot to sell and install shutters for them in Southwest Florida.
Building on past success in the DVD kiosk industry, Mike co-founded New Retail LTD, which is a licensee of redbox. This company is currently deploying a new platform of redbox machines in the UK.
Wanting to further entrepreneurial expertise in emerging countries, in 2010 Mike founded and funded Gaton Ltd., a non-profit organization that fosters entrepreneurship in Ghana, West Africa. It supplies micro credit to pastors in that country through rice distributions, which they in turn sell as a self sustaining method to cover their living expenses in the mission field.
In 2009 he was given a lifetime achievement award from the Collegiate Entrepreneur Organization for his word in supporting entrepreneurship globally.
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