The following talented individuals provide ongoing strategic guidance to further the mission of ConnectNetwork.  

Michael J. Schewel, Chair
Michael Schewel joined McGuireWoods in 1979. His practice focuses principally on corporate law, mergers and acquisitions, and the development and financing of energy projects. He has also been involved in economic development work in Virginia and across the country. In the energy area, has represented owners, investors and lenders in the development, acquisition and/or financing of biofuel facilities, landfill gas facilities, industrial processing facilities, and coal-fired, gas-fired, nuclear, wood-fired, biomass and hydroelectric power generating facilities throughout the United States. He has also represented electric and gas utilities, as well as non-utility energy companies, in connection with the acquisition and sale of gas pipeline and electric generation and distribution companies and assets across the United States and in Canada, Central America, South America, Australia and Europe.

In January 2002, Mr. Schewel was appointed Virginia’s Secretary of Commerce and Trade by Governor Mark Warner. In that capacity until January 2006, he was responsible for 16 state agencies with approximately 3,000 employees and a budget of more than $800 million. In charge of Virginia’s economic development agencies and programs, his efforts helped to create more than 125,000 new jobs and attract more than $13.4 billion of new business investment.


Kevin Allison
Dr. Kevin Allison joined the faculty of Virginia Commonwealth University in 1996. He holds a Ph.D. in Clinical Community Psychology from DePaul University and is Associate Dean for Community Activities in the College of Humanities and Sciences at Virginia Commonwealth University. He has extensive experience in the development and evaluation of community-based programs, and in the facilitation of community partnerships focusing on community assessment, research and change.


Michael Bisceglia
Mr. Bisceglia is an entrepreneur who is the founder of 4 companies, each of which has grown to more than $20,000,000 in sales. He specializes in launching new products into the marketplace through direct marketing, data driven media buying, and planning the retail rollout for consumer products in a wide range of categories. He has created and executed marketing and retail sales plans for companies including Honeywell, Sunbeam, Timex, Playskool, Jensen, Acoustic Research, Wilson Sporting Goods, Bell South, Cosco Juvenile Products, and many others.

His most recent start up company, Stauer Watch Company, has become the fastest growing watch company in the US achieving over $20,000,000 in sales in just its second year. Currently, the company is moving into the jewelry business and has already exceeded $10,000,000 in sales in this new category.

He continues to oversee operations in Metrix Media which is one of the nation’s largest buyers of magazine advertising purchasing in excess of 200,000,000 full pages of advertising per month. Metrix’s fastest growing division specializes in search engine optimization and response driven web media buying.

He is a regular guest lecturer on entrepreneurship and in data driven marketing techniques at VCU’s Graduate School of Business, and also serves on the board of the Powell Center for Economic Education.


Bruce Kelley
Bruce Kelley is Vice-Chairman of The Martin Agency, an advertising agency located in Richmond, Virginia.  As Vice Chairman, Bruce serves as Director of Account Management, oversees New Business Development, and the Sports/Event Marketing Division, and is responsible for general agency management.  He is currently a participating member of Leadership Metro Richmond and is a board member of Read To Them and Richmond Sportsbackers.  Bruce has a BA in Economics from Lafayette College and an MBA in Marketing from the University of Chicago, Graduate School of Business.  His advertising background includes executive positions with Doyle Dane Berbach, Ogilvy & Mather, Wells Rich Greene, J. Walter Thompson, and Lowe Lintas & Partners.  Bruce has helped steward some of the largest and most valuable advertising accounts in the world, including Procter and Gamble, TWA, Major League Baseball, Mercedes-Benz, Perdue, Lipton, Coca-Cola, Time Inc., Unilever and Clairol, to name a few.


Thomas Rosenthal
Thomas Rosenthal is the CEO of MedOutcomes, Inc. and serves as a member of the Virginia Commonwealth University Board of Visitors. He is also a co-founder of MunRo Partners, a member of the VCU Health System’s Board of Directors, and a former member of the VCU School of Pharmacy’s Advisory Board.


Elizabeth Roark
Elizabeth Roark has consulted with a variety of types and sizes of businesses, non-profits and government agencies since founding Embark Technologies in 2000.  Her combined background in business, technology and project management enables her to objectively assess and advise organizations on their strategy and planning processes as well as on the technology to fulfill operational and strategic needs.

Prior to consulting, she served as Director of Product Development in a Northern Virginia-based technology start-up.  Building on that experience, she managed the review of business plans in a regional business incubator/investment fund.  These positions were preceded by a series of progressively more responsible positions with Nortel Networks in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, and Toronto, Ontario, Canada.  While with Nortel she served as Advisor to the Chief Information Officer, directed the Project Management Center of Excellence as well as global project management initiatives, and advised on business systems, architecture and reengineering efforts.

Ms. Roark is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP), awarded by the Project Management Institute.

Her volunteer work includes chairing the Jefferson Scholars Foundation’s Richmond Regional Selection Committee, responsible for identifying high school seniors with outstanding leadership, citizenship and scholarship to compete for full, merit-based scholarships to the University of Virginia.  She also serves on Board of Directors for the University of Virginia Club of Richmond and Craig Health Center, a private, non-profit organization dedicated to providing comprehensive primary health care to the medically uninsured and underserved in the metro Richmond area.  She is a past board member of The Venture Forum, a Richmond-based group focused on promoting the success of entrepreneurial ventures and the growth of entrepreneurship in Central Virginia.

Ms. Roark received a Bachelor of Arts degree in International Relations followed by a Master of Science in Management Information Systems, both from the University of Virginia, where she was a Jefferson Scholar.


Bill Shelton
Bill Shelton currently serves as Director of the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development and is responsible for the management and policy oversight of the agency, which provides community development and housing program support to communities across the Commonwealth. The Department also administers statewide building and fire prevention codes. Bill works closely with the Secretary of Commerce and Trade and with the Governor to advise on community development, economic development, affordable housing, and state uniform building code issues. The Department has 140 employees and an annual budget of $115 million.

Bill is an ex-officio member of the Board of Commissioners of the Virginia Housing Development Authority and serves on the board of Virginia Community Capital, Inc., the Commonwealth’s newly created community development bank.  Bill also serves as the Governor's state alternate for the Appalachian Regional Commission.

Prior to his appointment as Director in 1998, Bill was the Deputy Director of the Division of Community Development and had responsibility for a variety of community development and capacity-building programs.  During the past twenty years, Bill has been responsible for a variety of state community and economic development programs working with local governments throughout Virginia. A native Virginian, born in Amherst County and raised in the Charlottesville area, Bill was educated at Washington and Lee University, where he received his Bachelor of Arts in Politics, and at Virginia Commonwealth University, where he received a Masters of Urban and Regional Planning.