Mark Payne is the Co-founder and President of Fahrenheit 212.

As the co-founder, President and Head of Idea Development of Fahrenheit 212, a New York-based innovation consultancy, Mark Payne draws on his twenty plus years’ experience in the creation of new products, new brands and new businesses, with a global perspective born of having lived and worked across Asia-Pacific, Europe and North America, and a skill set fusing creative abandon and strategic discipline.

His pursuit of a better way to invent has shaped Fahrenheit 212’s unique “Money & Magic” philosophy, business model and idea development practices, and uncovered potent new insights into how ideas interact with the human mind – both on the street and in the boardroom.

Among the great companies he’s had the pleasure to work with are Procter & Gamble, Nestle, Samsung, The Coca-Cola Company, Toyota, Starwood Hotels, Best Buy, Lowe's, Campbell's Soup, Citibank, Starbucks, Hershey's and General Mills.

Mark’s perspectives on innovation’s past, present and future have appeared in leading publications including Fast Company, Fortune, BusinessWeek and Crane’s, and been shared through speaking engagements at forums including the International Food Technology’s Wellness 10 Conference, New York University’s ‘Investigatio’ Scholar-in-Residence Series, HEC Paris, Johns Hopkins University, the Pratt Institute of Design, and innovation leadership conferences at many top tier companies.

A regular contributor to Business Insider and Portfolio.com, writing on the topics of innovation strategy and practice, Mark is a member of Mensa and holds a BA cum laude in economics and psychology from Middlebury College.

Veeral Rathod is the President and Co-founder of J. Hilburn.

Hil Davis and Veeral Rathod were working on Wall Street when they first bought custom shirts. While they loved the fit, feel and style of custom shirts, they didn’t understand why they were so expensive.

They studied the men’s market and discovered that the supply chain was inherently inefficient and that consumers were being stuck with the bill. Hil and Veeral saw an opportunity to build a new type of company for men, and the vision for J.Hilburn was born. Drawing inspiration from direct sales, they found a way to bring luxury clothing to men at historically low prices and to create a clothing brand that was about the individual and accessible to anyone.

In 2007, J.Hilburn launched with custom shirts and is now a rapidly growing luxury lifestyle brand.

Veeral graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a BA in International Relations and Economics. He started his career at Credit Suisse First Boston Technology Group as a mergers and acquisitions analyst, and then joined Cogent Partners, an advisory firm specializing in private equity secondary transactions.