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The University of Denver Daniels College of Business Announces 2024-2025 Marketing Advisory Board

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Colorado’s Top Thought Leaders Positively Inform Marketing Department 

DENVER, Jan. 28, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — The University of Denver Daniels College of Business is pleased to announce its 2024-2025 Marketing Advisory Board. Led by co-chairs Jack Buffington, a professor at the University of Denver, and Jen Lester, CEO of Philosophy Communication, Inc., the board is a dedicated group of industry experts who advise on key strategic, operational, and curriculum initiatives that positively shape the Daniels College of Business Marketing Department’s academic and student experience.  

“The collaboration between industry thought leaders and the Marketing Department elevates our curriculum and staff in innovative ways,” said Jack Buffington, co-chair of the Marketing Advisory Board and professor at the University of Denver. We continue to build a board that makes a difference for our students and administration.”

The Marketing Advisory Board members are committed to playing a critical role in raising the bar for the Daniels College of Business marketing students. During the 2024-2025 academic year, the board will focus on integrating three main initiatives: Syllabi Enrichment, Industry Insights, and Student Success.

“Since 2013, I’ve watched the Marketing Advisory Board positively impact the university with ground-breaking initiatives to satisfy the demands from hiring managers,” said Jen Lester, co-chair of the Marketing Advisory Board and CEO of Philosophy Communication, Inc. “This year, we’ll push to do even more with our strategic initiatives. We’ve built an ‘A’ bench that undoubtedly will make a mark for students.”

The 2024-2025 Marketing Advisory Board members include:

Jack Buffington is co-chair of the Marketing Advisory Board and a professor at the University of Denver.Jen Lester is co-chair of the Marketing Advisory Board and CEO of Philosophy Communication, Inc., a marketing, public relations, and digital agency. She has spent more than two decades leading one of Colorado’s top-ranked creative agencies representing national, local, and government clients.Alison Wolfe is vice president of product management at Empower. She is a customer-centric leader focusing on marketing, growth strategy, product development, and the overall customer experience. She has more than 25 years of experience in CPG, tech, and financial services.Cache Mundy is a senior strategist and partner at Genesis Inc., a strategic and creative consultancy. He has spent nearly 30 years of his professional career helping brands thrive across the outdoor, natural products, ski resort, destination, and technology sectors.Debra Dodson is a senior director at Microsoft, where she’s held roles of increasing responsibility across the Devices and Cloud Supply Chain organizations. She brings a background to the board from the high-tech and consumer goods industries, experience leading global organizations, and a passion for helping students and early-in-career professionals.Gretchen Rosenberg is CEO and president of Kentwood Real Estate, a prominent real estate firm in Denver, Colorado, and a Berkshire Hathaway affiliate. She received the Denver Business Journal’s Most Admired CEOs in 2022 and was recognized by the University of Denver Daniels College of Business Distinguished Marketing Alumni Award in 2021.Heather Moran, senior managing director of business strategy for health care, life sciences, and manufacturing at Salesforce, is an accomplished professional with exemplary communications and marketing experience. With more than 27 years of experience, she demonstrates highly creative strategic skills and communication abilities.Jen Banken is the senior director of consumer insights at Purple, a digitally native mattress brand disruptor. She brings 24 years of marketing experience from the CPG, telecom, and quick-service restaurant industries, helping organizations turn consumer insights into action.Kate Sowder is the global head of advanced analytics at GutCheck, a Toluna Company. She has more than 15 years of experience leading high-performing market research teams. She is committed to delivering holistic, human-centric, and predictive data insights that deepen customer relationships, foster exceptional user experiences, and drive repeat business.Kathy Hagan, co-president of Karsh & Hagan, a national advertising agency, is a Colorado legend in the advertising world. Her leadership in the Denver community has supported many of the state’s major initiatives, including the launch of Denver International Airport.Lisa Kislak is a partner and fractional chief marketing officer with Chief Outsiders. She provides executive CMO services to small and mid-cap companies. As a strategic marketing leader, she delivers brand strategy and omnichannel execution across B2B and B2C businesses. For more than thirty years, she has held marketing and sales leadership positions in the hospitality, CPG, and service industries.Lora Louise Broady is a visiting executive in residence at the Department of Economics and Business at Colorado College. With more than 20 years of experience, Lora Louise is a marketing strategy consultant who helps design business and brand management strategies and execute go-to-market programs.Scott Prindle is a partner at Spatial Matters, a company of technologists specializing in strategy, design, and software engineering for the new era of spatial computing. He has spent more than 27 years in the marketing industry, furthering his digital skills.Theresa Conley, Ph.D., is a professor emeritus in the Department of Marketing at the University of Denver, past co-chair of the Marketing Advisory Board, and the executive director/CEO of the DCIS Foundation. Before her 20+ years of academic service, she was a marketing executive in the high-tech industry.Tim Shonsey is the vice president of marketing at Intermountain Health. He has spent nearly 19 years of his career successfully executing marketing efforts for various companies, including Oncure Medical Group and Centura Health.Troy Lerner, CEO of Booyah Advertising, Inc., a full-service digital agency, has worked in the digital space for more than 18 years.Whitney Trujillo, CEO of Luminary Digital, specializes in strategic implementation and helping companies leverage AI and advanced systems to drive growth. With 20+ years of marketing experience, she consults with startups on launch strategies and is known for building strong consumer communities for global brands.

The Marketing Advisory Board members commit annually to their board positions. Each year, co-chairs review the board composition and engage in a thoughtful process of identifying potential skill sets needed to further support the Marketing Department and the demands that today’s hiring community desires from graduates.  

About the Daniels College of Business Marketing Advisory Board 

The Daniels College of Business Marketing Advisory Board consists of 17 top leaders who bring a wealth of knowledge and industry connections to the Marketing Department. The Board supports the Department’s commitment to meeting the ever-changing needs of the marketing field. Industry experts gather bimonthly during the academic school year to solve strategic department initiatives, act as a sounding board, and serve as guest lecturers on relevant class topics. For information about the University of Denver Daniels Marketing Advisory Board, please visit https://daniels.du.edu/marketing/advisory-board/.

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SOURCE University of Denver Daniels College of Business

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Toku launches Makimoto Flows, a visual builder for speech AI pipelines, taking its open-source initiative beyond transcription

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Developers can chain transcription, summarisation and call tagging on one canvas, test each step and export the pipeline as code, with every step processed in Singapore

SINGAPORE, Oct. 21, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Toku Ltd. (SGX: TKU), a Singapore-headquartered AI-powered customer experience (CX) platform, has launched Makimoto Flows (“Flows”), a visual builder within its open-source conversational AI initiative where developers assemble speech AI pipelines block by block and test each stage on a recorded call. Flows is now live at makimoto.ai.

On the Flows canvas, developers connect blocks to build a speech AI pipeline and test each step individually. The Transcribe block converts audio into text using Kawa, the Summarise block generates a topic and short summary from the transcript, and the Tags block classifies each call across seven categories, including customer sentiment. Developers can see how audio moves from transcription to analysis, and control how each stage connects and runs. Every block runs in Singapore, so audio, transcripts and the resulting analysis stay in-country.

The Chained Analysis starter template puts these blocks together in one click, and developers can adjust any block and rerun it to compare results. Each block maps to a Makimoto API endpoint, and any flow can be exported as ready-to-run Python code, so developers can take the same capabilities into their own code for applications such as call recaps and call triage.

“Developers should have control over how their voice AI works, from the models they use to the way each stage connects. That is the principle behind Makimoto. Flows puts the orchestration layer in front of them: they can build a pipeline, run a recorded call through it and see what each step produces before anything reaches their customers. Models will keep changing. The ability to compose them, and to know where they run, is what lasts,” said Thomas Laboulle, Founder and CEO at Toku.

Flows builds on the composable architecture Toku set out when it introduced Makimoto in April 2026, and takes the initiative beyond transcription. Kawa, released on schedule on 1 July 2026, established the transcription layer through a Singapore-hosted API; summarisation and tagging endpoints followed in September; Flows now lets developers compose them visually. Next, Makimoto plans to add audio preparation blocks, starting with noise filtering, giving developers more control over how recordings are processed before transcription.

By pairing open-source development with enterprise-grade deployment, Makimoto complements Toku’s existing customer experience platform and supports long-term innovation opportunities across the Group’s AI roadmap.

Developers can create a free account at makimoto.ai, open the Chained Analysis template and run a sample recording, or one of their own call recordings, through it; each account includes 1,000 free minutes. Feedback reaches the Makimoto team directly from the portal.

About Toku

Headquartered in Singapore, Toku Ltd. (SGX Catalist: TKU) is a cloud-native, AI-powered customer experience platform purpose-built for enterprises operating in complex, multi-market environments. With deep roots in the APAC region and an expanding global footprint, Toku’s modular 360° CX Platform orchestrates customer interactions across voice, chat, email and digital channels while managing regulatory, linguistic and infrastructure complexity at scale.

Built on end-to-end ownership of its technology stack, from carrier-grade connectivity to AI applications, Toku delivers enterprise-grade security, reliability and deployment flexibility in commercial cloud, private data centres and hybrid environments. Its AI capabilities include transcription, summarisation, sentiment analysis, conversation analytics and governed virtual agents, designed to integrate seamlessly with enterprise systems and customer data.

Trusted by leading enterprises and public-sector organisations, Toku helps organisations streamline operations, scale customer engagement and deliver consistent experiences in fragmented markets worldwide.

For more information about Toku, visit toku.co.

About Makimoto

Makimoto is Toku’s open-source initiative, operated through Makimoto Technology Pte Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Toku Group, dedicated to building composable conversational AI infrastructure for Asia-Pacific. Its releases include Makimoto Kawa, a Singapore-hosted transcription API; summarisation and tagging endpoints; and Makimoto Flows, a visual builder for composing speech AI pipelines. For more information about Makimoto, visit makimoto.ai.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements regarding Toku’s expansion plans, business strategy and planned product releases. These statements are based on current expectations and assumptions and are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially. Toku undertakes no obligation to update these statements to reflect subsequent events or circumstances.

Sponsor’s Statement

Toku Ltd. (the “Company”) was listed on Catalist of the Singapore Exchange Securities Trading Limited (the “Exchange”) on 22 January 2026. The initial public offering of the Company was sponsored by PrimePartners Corporate Finance Pte. Ltd. (the “Sponsor”). This press release has been reviewed by the Sponsor. It has not been examined or approved by the Exchange and the Exchange assumes no responsibility for the contents of this press release, including the correctness of any of the statements or opinions made or reports contained in this press release. The contact person for the Sponsor is Ms. Ng Shi Qing, 16 Collyer Quay, #10-00 Collyer Quay Centre, Singapore 049318, sponsorship@ppcf.com.sg.

Investor Relations Contact:
investor.relations@toku.co

Developers and Partners:
contact@makimoto.ai  

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SOURCE Toku Ltd.

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Conscious Spark LLC Launches Alphimiya® Neuro-Recalibration Framework Designed to Resolve C-Suite Revenue Plateaus

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New research-backed neuro-recalibration framework targets the autonomic nervous system’s threat response to managing high financial amounts, offering enterprise leaders a biological pathway to scaling.

ANTALYA, Turkey and ALBUQUERQUE, N.M., Oct. 21, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Conscious Spark LLC, a research and advisory firm specializing in applied neuroscience for executive leadership, today announced the official launch of Alphimiya®, a proprietary C-suite neuro-recalibration framework designed to resolve corporate revenue plateaus by upgrading the biological capacity of enterprise decision-makers.

Developed to address the root causes of stalled enterprise growth, the Alphimiya® framework targets the human autonomic nervous system’s subconscious threat response to managing high financial amounts. When commercial leaders and CEOs attempt to scale past historical capital thresholds without recalibrating their stress response, the body’s natural survival mechanism triggers decision fatigue, strategic risk aversion, and systemic self-sabotage. Alphimiya® recalibrates this biological safety brake, enabling executive teams to hold, absorb, and scale larger financial volumes without physiological or operational friction.

“A corporate revenue plateau is rarely an operational or marketing failure; it is a biological safety brake embedded within executive leadership,” stated Dr. Ahmed Al-Nashi, Founder of Conscious Spark LLC. “When managing high financial amounts triggers an underlying physical stress response, the enterprise subconsciously contracts to remain in its perceived safe zone. Alphimiya® removes that biological friction, allowing C-level leaders to multiply revenue with calm, biological authority.”

The Alphimiya® framework restructures executive performance across three core operational pillars:

Sovereign Enterprise Scaling: Expands the nervous system’s tolerance for high-stakes capital, allowing leadership teams to scale revenue without experiencing executive burnout.

High-Value Deal Execution: Regulates autonomic stress responses during multi-million-dollar negotiations and volatile market entries, eliminating hesitation under pressure.

Restored Strategic Clarity: Removes chronic decision fatigue across C-suite teams, restoring mental focus and strategic presence inside and outside the boardroom.

By recalibrating the autonomic nervous system’s response to high capital exposure, Alphimiya® removes the subconscious biological brakes that lock corporate revenue at a standstill. Senior C-level executives and enterprise leadership teams seeking to evaluate their organization’s biological capacity can access the official executive briefing, case studies, and framework assessment directly at https://alphimiya.co/.

About Conscious Spark LLC

Conscious Spark LLC is a U.S.-registered firm specializing in executive education, training, and strategic performance consulting. Pioneering applied neuroscience for C-level leaders, founders, and commercial decision-makers, the firm utilizes its proprietary Alphimiya® methodology to enable leadership teams to recalibrate biological stress responses, resolve revenue ceilings, and build scalable corporations.

Media Relations Team
Conscious Spark LLC
Email: hello@consciousspark.online 
Website: https://alphimiya.co/

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SOURCE Conscious Spark LLC

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Daffodil Software Brings Multilingual Conversational AI to Aadhaar’s Udai Mascot

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GURUGRAM, India, Oct. 21, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Daffodil Software showcased an AI-powered conversational experience featuring UIDAI’s Udai mascot at Aadhaar Samvaad 2026. Developed by Daffodil Software, the assistant is designed to help users access Aadhaar-related information through natural conversation, using official UIDAI as its reference knowledge base.

Daffodil Software has developed Udai, an AI-powered virtual mascot that helps users get clear, reliable answers about Aadhaar simply by talking to it. The assistant was showcased at Aadhaar Samvaad 2026, held in Kolkata on 29 September, coinciding with the 17th Aadhaar Day, where visitors watched it listen, respond, and gesture in real time in their own language.

For most people, questions about Aadhaar come up in daily life, and they usually need answers fast. Which documents do I need for an address change? How much does an update cost? How do I link Aadhaar to my bank account or mobile number? The answers exist, but finding them usually means working through long help pages and documents.

 Udai is designed to answer exactly these questions in a natural conversation, without anyone having to search through long help pages.

A conversation in the user’s own language

Udai speaks and understands 11 languages: Hindi, Tamil, Bengali, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Gujarati, Punjabi, Odia, and English. A user simply asks a question. Udai listens, works out the answer, and replies in the same language, with natural speech, matching lip movements and expressive hand gestures.

What sets Udai apart is how it is built. AI avatars rely on expensive, specialised graphics hardware to bring a face to life. Udai takes a simpler route. The character is created from pre-filmed footage, and its lip movements are matched to its speech in real time using lightweight processing that runs in a web browser.

The result is a smooth experience at 24 frames per second on ordinary servers, at a fraction of the usual cost per user. For a programme that serves hundreds of millions of people, that efficiency is what turns a nationwide rollout from an ambition into a practical plan.

“Our focus with Udai was to make Aadhaar-related information easier to access through natural conversation. Combining multilingual voice interaction with official reference content allowed our team to build an experience that is practical, approachable, and useful to users,” said Yogesh Agarwal, Founder and CEO, Daffodil Software.

Answers drawn only from official sources

The assistant uses official UIDAI material as its reference knowledge base: frequently asked questions, provisions of the Aadhaar Act, and government policy documents on Aadhaar services. It covers the topics users ask about most:

Enrolment and registrationAddress and demographic updatesFees, required documents and eligibilityeKYC and Virtual IDLinking Aadhaar with bank accounts, PAN and mobile numbersmAadhaar servicesGrievance redressal

Users don’t need to phrase their questions in any particular way. Udai understands everyday language, whether a question is spoken in English, Hindi, or asked in a mix of both, and finds the most relevant official information to answer it.

Built to be accurate, respectful, and secure

When a public service speaks directly to users, trust matters as much as convenience. Udai is protected by three layers of safeguards.

Accuracy first. Udai answers only from its verified knowledge base. Responses are grounded in a curated knowledge base of official UIDAI material. If a question falls outside Aadhaar, it guides the user back rather than offering an answer it cannot stand behind.

Respectful conversations. A screening layer catches abusive or offensive language in English, Hindi, and Hinglish before it reaches the assistant. Screening is designed to identify abusive language while supporting legitimate queries

Protection against misuse. Udai cannot be talked into abandoning its role, pretending to be someone else, revealing its internal setup, or answering beyond its approved scope. These checks work almost instantly, so users experience no delay.

What comes next?

Udai is planned to roll out in two phases.

In the first phase, the mascot will be placed in Aadhaar Centres. Visitors will be able to check information and understand processes on their own, such as which documents they need for an address change. This frees centre staff to focus on their core work instead of answering the same questions again and again.

In the second phase, Udai will come to the Aadhaar website and mobile app, taking the place of the current text-based chatbot, which was also built by Daffodil.

About Daffodil Software

Daffodil Software is a software engineering and AI solutions company serving businesses across industries. Its services span software consulting, product engineering, UI/UX design, AI/ML development, quality assurance, cloud and DevOps, and maintenance. The company serves sectors including healthcare, fintech, banking, technology, and digital commerce. Its client portfolio includes organizations such as the Reserve Bank of India, Mount Sinai Hospital, Maruti, Samsung, Pramerica Insurance, and Dangote Group. Daffodil Software has also been featured in industry research and recognition by Gartner, Everest Group, Zinnov, and Frost & Sullivan. For more information, visit https://www.daffodilsw.com

Media contact

Kunwar Pal Singh
media-relations@daffodilsw.com

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