She sees with her feelings. Reaches out, actually, and gets into the world of the person she is coaching, training or mentoring, sees things for what they are, and then knows what her proteges need to do to get extraordinary results. It is a visceral affinity for the real, as she puts it. Yoda would like this one. Not your usual approach to sales and leadership improvement. But Cindy Taylor is anything but usual. When it comes to sales and coaching, the force is strong with this one. Her results are almost supernatural. Cindy excelled as a salesperson. A quick look at her resume shows her regularly blowing through the 100 percent of sales quota barrier year after year. But her real skills lie in helping others climb the Everests of their dreams. One way to look at her career is as a wandering VP of sales on a journey that took her to some of the major stops on the monopoly board of high-tech companies: IBM, Oracle, Servio, RightNow Technologies. Her MO is to build startups, often within the walls of a large company, starting from nothing. Her education is not in marketing or business. She has undergraduate and graduate degrees in mathematics. She chose math because at the time few schools had computer science degrees and math training helped her think clearly. But she also took a minor in art, which gave expression to her intuitive side and helped her combine technical competence with the creative impulse. Today Cindy lives near Bozeman, Mont. in a trout fishing heaven 50 feet from the West Gallatin River. She still reaches out with her feelings and still coaches and trains sales and marketing people who have dreams of success that haunt their waking hours. And after working with Cindy, they get such good results that their colleagues wonder if the force is not strong with them.

Rick Hays, former Montana president for Qwest, has spent nearly 30 years in the telecommunications industry. Rick currently serves on the National Advisory Board of the Burns Telecommunications Center, the President's Advisory Council at Montana State University, the board of St. Peter's Hospital, American Federal Savings Bank, Montana Business Assistance Connection, and Montana Taxpayers Association. Rick earned a Bachelor of Science degree in journalism from the University of Northern Colorado and a certificate in the Executive Management Program in Telecommunications from the Center for Telecommunications Management at the University of Southern California. In his free time, he enjoys golfing, photography, antiques, genealogy, viewing wildlife, and hiking in national parks.

Robert Bargatze, Ph.D. is the executive vice president and chief scientific officer of LigoCyte Pharmaceuticals. Dr. Bargatze manages LigoCyte's research programs with a focus on product development. He has 25 years of experience in leading immunological research projects to define the role of selectins, integrins and chemokines in white blood cell recruitment, and has published extensively on endothelial cell trafficking and signaling. Dr. Bargatze was a key member of the team at Stanford University that pioneered leukocyte recruitment research.

Gordon Davidson is the Chief Financial Officer for Bozeman Deaconess Health Services. Prior to joining BDHS, Gordon worked in public accounting as a Certified Public Accountant for a local accounting firm, as well as the national firm KPMG. Gordon earned his degree from Montana State University-Bozeman. He is the past president of the Montana Chapter of Healthcare Financial Management Association and the past treasurer and board member of the Bozeman Area Chamber of Commerce. During his professional career, Gordon has belonged to numerous healthcare and financial organizations. He also serves as the president of local youth sports organizations.

Page Dabney is a vice president and financial consultant with D.A. Davidson and Co. in Bozeman where he has worked since 1984. His practice is focused on wealth management for high net-worth families and individuals. Dabney has been actively involved in civic activities for many years. In 2000, he received D.A. Davidson and Co.'s Bragg-Lewis-Knutson Community Service Award. He has served on the Gallatin Gateway School board, was a founding member of the Gallatin County Planning Board, is a trustee of the Montana Chapter of The Nature Conservancy (chairman 1999-2002) and the Gallatin Valley Land Trust. Dabney holds a bachelor of arts degree in geography from Middlebury College and a master’s degree in business administration from the University of Denver.

Tom McCoy is currently vice president for research, creativity, and technology Transfer at Montana State University, Bozeman. In this capacity, he is working to build and maintain MSU as one of the top research universities in the country, particularly in its key specializations, which include biomedical and agricultural biotechnology, optics, nanotechnology, and energy-related activities. Tom is also working to ensure that MSU's research is commercialized to the benefit of the university and the state of Montana as a whole. Previously, Tom served as the dean of the College of Agriculture and director of the Montana Agricultural Experiment Station. He was also the department head and a professor in the Department of Plant, Soil, and Environmental Sciences at MSU, which he joined after teaching for three years in the Department of Plant Sciences at the University of Arizona. Prior to his career in universities, Tom was a research leader and research geneticist at the USDA/ARS Alfalfa Production Research Unit in Reno, Nev. Tom received his bachelor of science and master of science in zoology and plant breeding and genetics, respectively, from the University of Wisconsin. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota in plant breeding and genetics. He is a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Crop Science Society of America, Genetics Society of America, and International Society for Plant Molecular Biology.

Jack Manning is a partner in the Corporate practice and head of the Dorsey Missoula office. His clients include start-up companies, public companies, venture capital and angel investors, underwriters, banks and individuals. His practice is focused on counseling emerging companies and corporate and securities transactional matters, including venture capital financing, private and public securities offerings, mergers and acquisitions, SEC regulatory matters and general corporate advice. He also advises banks and other financial institutions on lending and loan workout matters and has experience in public finance, project finance, cooperative law, limited partnership and limited liability company financings and Indian law. Jack was formerly an associate in the corporate and banking areas of Davis Polk & Wardwell in New York, New York, from 1975 – 1980.