Tara Spalding is the Chief Experience Officer and Managing Director of International Programs for World Trade Center Utah (WTC Utah), based in Salt Lake City. WTC Utah elevates Utah’s global status and international engagement. WTC Utah helps Utah companies increase revenue and create jobs by expanding international sales, attracting foreign investment, and facilitating international partnerships. In 2023, Tara was the Interim CEO and CPO at Kinect Capital, Utah-based non-profit organization that assists, coaches, and provides mentoring to entrepreneurs who are raising investment capital. She was the Chairperson at Kinect WeAngels, providing an educational program and community-advised investment path to activate investors who intend to support women+ founded and gender-diverse businesses in Utah and surrounding states. Tara is involved with Utah's Bolder Way Forward, as the Entrepreneur Spoke co-manager. Tara is also joined B:Side Capital Advisory Board. In 2022, Tara is on the University of Utah UVF Fund II Advisory Board.Previously, she was Managing Director at BoomStartup Accelerator, which was acquired by Kinect Capital in 2022. Under Tara’s leadership BoomStartup became a global, angel stage investment preparedness program for startups. It worked with more than 1,000 startups from over 50 countries and helped raise over $12M in pre-seed funding. In 2022, Tara co-authored “10 Preparation Stages to Start a Successful Business” designed to help founders substantially think through company creation to improve their success rate when starting their business. Spalding founded Hen House Ventures in 2012, an early stage incubator that helps tech companies rapidly scale when entering massive markets, and is also on the board of trustees for VentureCapital.org. Tara is the recipient of the 2020 Utah Business 30 Women to Watch award.Spalding began her high-tech career in Silicon Valley when she taught herself to code software and became the first employee, and eventually VP of marketing at industry leader, SugarCRM. Her Silicon Valley experience included roles as CMO at GroundWork Open Source, VP marketing at Magnet Systems, and co-founder and CPO at BenchPick. Spalding received her bachelors from University of Colorado, Boulder.