Barbara Kasoff is currently the President and CEO, and Co-Founder, of Women Impacting Public Policy, Inc., a non-profit, public policy advocacy organization with over half a million members advocating on economic issues for women in business. She is also Co-Founder of GrassRoots Impact, Inc. a public policy strategies firm whose mission is to connect Corporate America and Political Leaders to small business owners, including women-owned businesses, minorities, and women in business. Other companies that she has owned and managed, are Voice-Tel of Michigan, the fourth largest voice messaging company in the United States, Voice-Tel of Central Michigan, and Voice Response Corporation, a telemarketing and database marketing company. Barbara also opened and developed Voice-Tel of Australia, a company with 11 offices throughout Australia and New Zealand for the Voice-Tel franchisor. With her experience, Barbara has been able to incorporate her skills in management, her strengths in communications, and her considerable energies in powering her fledgling companies to secure a solid foothold in the rapidly expanding world of communications. Prior to becoming a business owner, Barbara previously served as Vice President of Customer Service and Senior Vice President of Research and Software Development for World Computer Corporation in Michigan for ten years where her team designed and installed new financial services software for credit unions. Altogether, she has been a business owner and corporate executive for 20 years, and has successfully sold 3 of her four companies. For many years, Barbara has been an active supporter for small businesses, and women and minorities in business in particular. She continues this work both nationally and internationally. She has linked together thousands of small business owners with her voice messaging network, enabling them to communicate directly with one another to improve their businesses, learn of programs, opportunities and appointments in the communities, improve the climate of entrepreneurship, and play a part in public policy making. Her efforts to unite various organizations, has enabled small business owners to share information with each other, learn from one another, and become better informed in economic and political issues. Barbara speaks nationally and internationally on issues concerning leadership and advocacy for business women. Barbara currently serves on the following corporate and non-profit Boards: Board of Directors, nFocus Software SCORE Association National Board of Directors, a national nonprofit organization of volunteers who counsel small business owners; Co-Chair of the National Global Trade and Technology Board of Directors, whose mission is to help reverse the long standing trends in balance of trade deficits by making the task of finding, selling and delivering US products and services into global markets as simple as doing business next door; Board of Directors of the National Women Business Owners Council, the premier certification agency for women business owners; National Board of Directors of the Women’s Leadership Forum for the Democratic National Committee, Small Business Chair for Kerry for President Barbara is also a media resource for the White House Project. She has been recently cited as CEO of one of the top 3 most powerful non-profits in Washington, DC. In addition, Barbara has previously served as President of The National Association of Business Owners in Detroit, Vice President of Public Policy for the national NAWBO organization, and on various community Boards, including: Detroit Edison Community Relations Board, Forgotten Harvest, International Institute and Majority Business Initiative. She has helped develop new and closer relationships with the US Small Business Administration, Small Business Development Centers, Department of Commerce and local, national and international corporate leaders. She also advises for the Committee for Working Families for Wal*Mart. Barbara has served as a Delegate to the White House Conference on Small Business, was an invited delegate to President Clinton’s Midwest Regional Economic Summit and was the recipient of the State of Michigan Women in Business Advocate of the Year in 1995. Barbara and her family now reside in San Francisco, CA.