2021 OPEN WASHINGTON DC ANNUAL EVENT
Date: Saturday, November 6, 2021
Time: 8:30 AM – 4:00 PM ET
Meals: Breakfast and Lunch Provided
Location: Tysons Corner Marriott
8208 Leesburg Pike Tysons Corner, VA 22182
Purchase Online: $75
Purchase at Event: $100
We will be following CDC and local COVID-19 guidelines to ensure a safe, comfortable and positive event experience for all attendees. To learn more, check out Tysons Corner Marriott website for more information.
Keynote Speakers & Workshop Leaders
Ben Schrag (New Speaker) is an Program Director and Policy Liaison for Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer Programs at the National Science Foundation. His role is to award development grants to small businesses commercializing new technologies. This program over many years has launched such well known companies as Qualcomm.
Ben joined NSF as a Program Director in 2009, leading the Advanced Materials and Instrumentation. Prior to NSF, he was the Director of Research and Development at Micro Magnetics, where he led a development effort to commercialize a new family of high-performance magnetic microsensor products for demanding consumer and military applications. During this time, he also served as a visiting scientist at Brown University and as the Principal Investigator on a number of federal grants and contracts, including NSF Phase I and Phase II Small Business Innovation Research projects and an Advanced Technology Program award from NIST. Ben received his Ph.D. in Physics from Brown University. 
Aneesa Muthana is CEO and President of Pioneer Service Inc. a Chicago-based contract manufacturer that provides advanced precision parts to Tesla, Jaguar, General Motors, aerospace, medical and dental manufacturers. She is nationally recognized speaker and industry leader and brings a a hands-on leadership style with extensive experience in almost every aspect of a production environment. Aneesa is known for both her business acumen and for leading-from-the-heart in everything she participates in. She attributes her success to building a high-performance team that embraces continuous improvement, diversity, and leading-edge technology. She’s won numerous awards including Manufacturing Institute’s 2017 STEP Award, NAWBO Chicago’s 2019 Woman Business Owner of The Year, Crain’s 2019 and 2020 Notable Woman in Manufacturing, 2020 Society Of Women Engineers’ (SWE) 2020 Women Engineers You Should Know.” Pioneer Service is proud to be manufacturing components for ventilators, portable oxygen concentrators, lab equipment, and many other products being used on the frontlines in the battle to defeat the COVID 19 virus. 
Shahreze Shah is Co-Founder, Executive Board Member and Chief Strategy Officer (CSO) of SBE. Since 2003, Shahrez and his twin brother Khurram Shah built and grown a multi-line government contracting business as a defense contractor in IT. In 2012, they acquired Swiftships, a shipbuilding company for the United States Navy and Foreign Militaries, and in 2018 entered into Ammunition and Weapons production for the USG. Today, Mr. Shah leads the production of Defense assets globally and is recognized as a critical defense base arm by USG.
About SBE: Strategics Business Ent. is a holding company that supports Infrastructure, Marine, and Logistics industries for USG and Allied partners globally. With 9 strategic locations, 4 shipyards, two Ammunition & Weapons production facilities, and 1000+ employees, SBE is recognized for its quality and proficiency in deploying Miltary assets globally. 
Zak Shaik is Founder of Sabur Private Wealth Management, an independent RIA and Multi family office. He has also founded Beacon Fund a mid term Bridge Fund currently raising $200 Million. For the past 30 years Zak has been working with affluent and ultra affluent families across the United States including members of the Kennedy, Romney, Gore and other prominent business and political families. Zak’s expertise covers the full spectrum of financial, lending, retirement, secession and risk mitigation strategies, combined with an intimate knowledge of the US tax code from decades old tax statutes from the 1920s to the Pension Protection Act of 2006. His holistic approach enables him to design unique proprietary strategies for individuals and families, that are integrative,US based, and on-shore, and result in zero capital gains tax on sale of real or personal assets, income tax mitigation to single digit tax rates regardless of income size, and zero estate taxation regardless of federal exemptions. exponentially improving net worth and impacting personal, family and generational wealth. Zak will talk about how he built this business, what it took to reach this level of success and impact, and how his ideas help, preserve and grow wealth. Following the keynote, Zak will lead an in-depth workshop describing strategies to enhance personal and family wealth. 
Jonathan Krinn Acclaimed chef and entrepreneur, Jon Krinn is Known as the “Pivoter in Chief” in the Washington DC region during the pandemic. He is the Chef and Founder of a fine dining restaurant called Clarity in Vienna, Virginia, recognized as one of the best restaurants in the DC region. Jon uniquely, nimbly, and creatively diversified his footprint, product profiles and income streams to successfully navigate his entire staff of 80 people through the pandemic, fully employed and fully paid, never closing. He has shown resilience and skill building since losing a restaurant in the Great Recession of 2008.
With his holistic and diversified skill set of cooking, business and team leadership, marketing, managing, communication and relationship building, he can describe to listeners how to think differently and strategically during a crisis to be “that leader” that thrives when others can’t. Jon is a firm believer that successful business is all about how you handle moments in time that challenge, not how one handles the good times. Jon is deeply insightful as to where the food industry is headed and how to innovate to stay ahead of the curve. He is recognized in the Washingtonian, Washington Post, WashingtonExec and Northern Virginia Magazine. 
Sameer Qudsi, Like many who live in the greater DC area, Sameer built his career as a software and systems engineer for many years. Inspired by examples of those who launched their companies and made a successful run at government contracting, including those he met through attending OPEN DC events, Sameer co-founded Omni Federal in 2017 and within 4 years, he and his colleagues grew it to $35M in revenue.
During his workshop “How to Launch and Grow a $35M GovCon Business in 4 Years”. Sameer, will take you through the steps he and his partners took to launch and grow Omni Federal from 2017 to today, and answer your questions about how to start and grow a successful govcon business.
Sameer has a diverse background supporting a wide range of programs for the US Government and international partners. He started his career as a Software/Systems Engineer at Lockheed Martin and then moved into Project/Capture Management roles. He has designed and delivered complex systems including Radars, Training Simulators, Aircraft Systems, Command & Control Software, and IT Systems. Sameer also volunteers with The Citizens Foundation providing education to underprivileged children in Pakistan and has recently begun his training for a Private Pilot License. 
Arshaq Meraj will lead a workshop on “How Entrepreneurs Can Tap into the SBA to Build, Buy and Grow Companies.” A serial entrepreneur with extensive financial background, Arshaq has become an expert in the process of utilizing SBA tools and lending to propel his entrepreneurial ambitions. He has acquired and sold multiple businesses before the age of 30. During this workshop Arshaq will walk us through his process for sourcing and evaluating opportunities and the step by step process of accessing capital utilizing the SBA.
Arshaq’s entrepreneurial experience is in corporate team building services, logistics/transportation, and healthcare. He built a multi-state corporate team-building consulting firm and exited in 2019. Afterward, he worked as a consultant with small business owners in the healthcare, F&B, and retail sectors. He currently runs a portfolio of transportation companies with an ambulances division, non emergency livery division, and taxi division. He also operates a fleet maintenance center. 
Umar Hameed led a remarkable workshop at OPEN DC Annual Event 2019 that received tremendous positive feedback. Since then he has continued to impact the performance and lives of people all over the world.
In the past two yeas he has focused on the connection between “Happiness and Professional, and Executive Effectiveness”, and developed a brand new program that you will find insightful, inspiring, engaging and fun.
Umar has been called by colleagues “our local Tony Robbins”. He has over 20 years experience as a successful business and sales consultant, over 15 years experience in changing human behavior using Neuroscience, NLP and Hypnosis. He is the author of two books and his podcast has been listened to and downloaded by hundreds of thousands of people, and has keynoted conferences and events across 14 countries world wide. COME TO NETWORK, CONNECT, LEARN, SHARE AND FORGE NEW RELATIONSHIPS
