Speakers

Mark I. Piland is the Fire Chief for the City of Frisco, Texas, a CFAI Accredited Department and the fastest growing city in the U.S.

Previously, Chief Piland served as the Fire Chief for Volusia County Fire Services in Volusia County Florida and as a Shift Commander in Operations for the Virginia Beach Fire Department in Virginia Beach VA.

He also served 16 years on Virginia Task Force 2, a FEMA Urban Search and Rescue Team as Task Force Leader, East Coast Task Force Leader Representative, as well as Incident Support Team Leader for the Federal US&R system with deployments to the Pentagon during 911, Hurricane Katrina, and the 2010 earthquake in Haiti.

Chief Piland possess a Master of Public Health with a concentration in Hospital Management from Eastern Virginia Medical School, and a Bachelor of Psychology from Old Dominion University.

Chief Piland is a graduate of the National Fire Academy 's Executive Fire Officer Program, the Executive Leader Program at the Naval Postgraduate School Center for Homeland Defense and Security, and the Senior Executives in State and Local Government at the Kennedy School at Harvard.

With over 20 years intra- and entrepreneurial experience, Wendi McGowan-Ellis is the Co-Founder and CEO of LifestyleFrisco.com, where she leads a team of digital, mobile, social, and content strategists and creators. 

Combining written content, audio podcasting, and video production, Lifestyle Frisco is the premier local media digital platform for What to DO, Where to GO, and Who to KNOW in Frisco, Texas, and we encourage you to read the company's "WHY" page. 

Wendi's experience includes:
* Consulting to Fortune 10 firms, medium companies, and over seventy-five small businesses
* Published author and sought-after speaker on digital and omni-channel strategy, branding, online marketing, content creation, digital multi-media, and mobile topics
* Ghost-writer for new women's leadership book hitting the shelves in Spring 2020