BizTechDay 2009 had a wide range of speakers, from business thought leaders to inspired local entrepreneurs who have been there and done that.
Meet our 2009 speakers:
Tim Ferriss
4-Hour Workweek
Timothy Ferriss, nominated as one of Fast Company’s “Most Innovative Business People of 2007,” is author of the #1 New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and BusinessWeek bestseller, The 4-Hour Workweek, which has been sold into 33 languages.
He has been featured by more than 100 media outlets, including The New York Times, The Economist, TIME, Forbes, Fortune, CNN, and CBS. He speaks six languages, runs a multinational firm from wireless locations worldwide, and has been a popular guest lecturer at Princeton University since 2003, where he presents entrepreneurship as a tool for ideal lifestyle design and world change.
Kevin Rose
Digg
Former TechTV/G4 personality Kevin Rose has slowly become a leader in the world of underground technology. Known as “The Dark Tipper,” Rose began work as a technical production assistant for The Screen Savers on TechTV. He began “Dark Tips” which revealed little known computer tips, video game console hacking techniques, fun gadgets and a wide variety of legal hacking tutorials on making your computer function quicker.
Upon graduatinge from UNLV with a degree in computer science, Kevin worked for the Department of Energy as a technology advisor (Level L). Later he would move to San Francisco, California to work for different dot-com startups. During the dot-com crash, he eventualy found his calling at TechTV with The Screen Savers. From there, the tech-based audience began to assciate Rose with techology techniques which the big computer companies didn’t want you tinkering with.
In March 2004, G4 announced a merger with TechTV to form G4TechTV. After the merger, Rose’s The Screen Savers was renamed Attack of the Show! and became less of a technology show and more of one about pop-culture. Rose left the network on May 22, 2005 and became involved with podcasting/vid casting technology over the internet due to it’s closer to independent natures. Rose worked on thebroken while he was still at TechTV but ventured out to create Systm, Digg & Digg Nation. He also is a regular guest on This Week in Tech, a podcast involving former members of The Screen Savers.
Michael Gerber
www.MichaelEGerber.com
Michael Gerber, founder and Chairman of E-Myth Worldwide, is a business visionary, author, and entrepreneur- and has been the leading champion of small business owners for almost three decades. He has indelibly touched hundreds of thousands of small business owners throughout the world with his brilliantly insightful and original message that he coined “the E-Myth.” The E-Myth (“Entrepreneurial Myth”) is the idea that most people who start businesses are entrepreneurs, and it follows the fatal assumption that an individual who understands the technical work of a business can successfully run a business that does that kind of technical work.
Gerber has worked tirelessly to empower business owners to gain more freedom, more money, more time, and more life. Documented in his mega-best selling books, The E-Myth: Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About It, and The E-Myth Revisited, Michael Gerber prescribes a way out of what he calls “the tyranny of routine,” which drags down the owner’s entrepreneurial spirit with dull, repetitive work. The E-Myth “Point of View” powerfully describes how to rise above that tyranny of routine to build a flourishing, innovative, and sustainable business.
Michael Gerber doesn’t just speak; he changes people’s lives.
Matt Mullenweg
Automattic
WordPress
Recently named alongside Steve Jobs and the Google founders as BusinessWeek’s 25 most influential people on the web in 2009, Matt has lived a classic Silicon Valley story.
There are 200 million people per month who read the blogs he helped create. Among them: CNN, Fox News, The New York Times, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Icelandic rocker Bjork.
Starting by programming on a computer in his mother’s kitchen just six years ago, the 25-year-old college dropout turned WordPress into a cultural phenomenon that has now grown to 13 million registered users worldwide. While welcoming anyone to copy, use and adapt his work, yet managed to build a global and profitable company.
In the six years since the 25-year-old college dropout launched his blog company, 12 million blogs have been created on the platform. Other recent honors given to Mat include being named one of PC World’s Top 50 People on the Web, Inc.com’s 30 under 30
Craig Newmark
Craigslist
A web-oriented software engineer by training, with 30 years of IT experience at companies such as IBM and Bank of America, Craig now spends his days working as a customer service rep at craigslist.
In 1995 while Craig was working at Schwab, he started craigslist as an email list for friends and co-workers about events going on in the San Francisco Bay Area. In 1999, Craig retired from IT consulting to work full-time on craigslist. What started as a fun side project in Craig’s living room has since grown into one of the busiest sites on the internet, helping people with basic day-to-day needs such as finding a job, an apartment and a date, all within a culture of trust.
Craig continues to embrace his inner nerd though he no longer wears thick black glasses that are held together with tape, and he retired the plastic pocket protector some years ago.
Craig is involved with a variety of community efforts and is particularly interested in organizations promoting public diplomacy, mideast peace and new forms of media such as participatory journalism. He’s on the boards of Sunlight Foundation, OneVoice, FactCheckED, and VotoLatino.
Craig graduated from Case Western University.
Porter Gale
Vice President of Marketing of Virgin America
Porter Gale is the Vice President of Marketing of Virgin America. Porter Gale is an innovative marketing strategist and out-of-the-box thinker with nearly 20 years of experience working in marketing, advertising and independent filmmaking. Prior to Virgin America, Porter ran the Porter Gale Group where she spearheaded a diverse array of projects. Her clients included Country Music Television, Blue Shield of California and Delta Dental. Porter also held the post of General Manager at Kirshenbaum Bond + Partners where she worked with a variety of clients including Vegas.com, Coach, Snapple Natural Beverages, Van Cleef & Arpels, Judith Leiber and Grand Marnier to name a few.
In the independent film world, Porter has produced or directed documentaries that have aired on Lifetime, PBS, Channel 4/England and in film festivals around the globe. The project that launched Porter’s filmmaking career was “2Chicks, 2Bikes, 1Cause”(1998) a multi-media campaign that included a 5,000 bicycle trek that was documented and turned into a 66-minute documentary to educate young women about breast health. The successful outreach effort raised over $100,000 for breast cancer organizations and taught many young women about breast health. The Rosie O’Donnell Show, CNN Headline News, Newsweek, Self, Harper’s Bazaar, New York 1 and over 100 press vehicles all featured stories on the “2Chicks” campaign. Porter’s recent film work has been honored by the Directors Guild of America, The Academy of Motion Pictures & Sciences and an issue of Filmmaker Magazine cited her as one of the top 25 up and coming filmmakers. Porter has a BSBA from Boston University and a Masters in Documentary Film and Video from Stanford University. Porter loves running, traveling and has a beautiful daughter named Rylee Eleanor.
Mark O’Leary
Comcast
Over the last 24 years, Mark has held various executive positions in the telecommunications, cable, software and networking industries. Mark’s career includes VP/GM roles in Fortune 500 companies and as CEO of venture-backed start-ups in the technology sector. In these roles, he has had a track record of successfully scaling companies and business units in high growth environments.
Mark is currently the Regional Vice President for Business Services for Comcast in Central California. In this capacity, Mark is responsible for building a B2B organization that will provide data, telecommunications and video products to the commercial market.
Prior to joining Comcast, Mark was Founder of Phi Performance Systems, a consulting firm that worked with technology companies in aligning overall execution with corporate strategy. Mark was also CEO of HCORP, a health care applications company that provided in-hospital patient and clinical applications via a broadband content network. After establishing early market leadership in their segment, Mark sold HCORP in 2002.
Prior to HCORP, Mark served as CEO of Euclid Inc. where he and his team in the US and India brought to market a suite of IT Operational Support System (OSS) software and services to provide large commercial IT departments visibility into their service delivery quality and true cost of IT resources by product, LOB or customer.
Mark also served as the Executive Vice President of Broadband Services at Excite@Home responsible for the $450 Million @Home and @Work business units. Mark’s responsibilities included, P&L, Operations, Sales and Marketing, Product Development and overall Service Delivery of consumer and commercial Internet products. In this capacity, Mark and his team scaled the Excite@Home’s consumer broadband Internet base from 1.8 to 3.6 Million subscribers, resulting in the largest broadband Internet network in existence.
Mark spent 19 years with AT&T in various executive and management positions including Vice President of Managed Network Services, Director of Global Technical Marketing and GM of National Accounts. In these capacities Mark was one of the principals of the transformational management of AT&T Business Services that led to it’s market leadership in the data services industry.
Mark has been active in professional and non-profit organizations over the last 10 years including Board Chairman of Junior Achievement in San Mateo County, Board Chairman of Deuce LLC, Advisory Board positions with Helia Inc., TruVideo Inc. and Global Inventures. He also was the principal representative for AT&T at the Society of Organizational Learning.
Mark holds a BA from SUNY Oneonta and an MBA from St. Mary’s College.
Fabio Rosati
Elance
President and Chief Executive Officer
Fabio and the Elance team are building the leading site for online work, where businesses connect with independent professionals to get work done.
Prior to Elance, Fabio worked in the United States and Europe at CapGemini. In the US, Fabio launched CapGemini’s e-business division, led its Strategic Consulting practice, and was COO of Gemini Consulting. In Europe, Fabio headed Gemini Consulting’s Analysis & Design business across Europe and was CEO of the Italian subsidiary.
Fabio holds a B.S.B.A. from Georgetown University.
Justin Kan
Justin.TV
Justin.tv has been compared to EDtv, Being John Malkovich, and The Truman Show. Wearing a webcam attached to a cap, Kan decided he would wear the camera 24/7, and he began streaming continuous live video and audio at midnight March 19th, 2007. The novelty of the concept attracted media attention, and the resulting interviews included Ann Curry on the Today Show (April 2, 2007), Tom Merritt on the first episode of CNET Live, Nightline (April 6, 2007) and World News Tonight (April 8, 2007).
Adriana Gascoigne
SGN
Adriana is the Director of Global Communications for SGN. SGN’s current network of games commands over ten million downloads of its suite of games on the iPhone and iPod Touch and more than one million game players per day across multiple social networking platforms including Facebook and MySpace. In her role as the Director of Global Communications, she provides strategic guidance on digital marketing and new media campaigns, including word-of-mouth marketing programs, social media initiatives and digital integration project management.
Most recently, Adriana was the Director of Global Communications for hi5. Launched in 2003, hi5 is now one of the world’s largest social networks – ranked as a top 20 website globally and the #1 social network in 33 countries across Latin America, Europe, Asia and Africa. According to comScore, more than 63 million individuals every month visit hi5, which is currently available in 50 languages options.
Previously, Adriana was the Vice President of the 360 Digital Influence Group at Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide where she spearheaded operations for social media, word-of-mouth marketing and digital campaigns for clients such as Intel, Wells Fargo, Brocade, ACC, Sun Power, Case Logic, YieldBuild and Naked Juice. Prior to working at Ogilvy, she served as the Vice President of FutureWorks Media in San Francisco, managing all aspects of operations including business development, digital strategy and account management. Some of her clients included MeeVee, WooMe, Yojo Mobile, DocStoc, Magnify, Fantasy Sports Matrix, Ujogo, StreetAdvisor, Yoono, HeyCosmo, SayHeyHey, GoBig and YourTrumanShow.
A seasoned Web 2.0′er, Adriana is a vlogger for Mevio, Bubblicious, Revision3, MeeVee, TheWeakSpot, BuzzShout, publishes her own tech lifestyle blog and buzzes around Silicon Valley speaking at industry events such as the Billboard Interactive Music Conference, Streaming Media West Summit, Project Startup, Web Video Summit and Tech Innovations Summit.
In March 2007, Adriana launched Girls in Tech, an organization focused on touting women’s achievements in tech and beyond. Also, Adriana recently joined a select group of Web 2.0 enthusiasts that are known as the “Intel Insiders,” which serve as brand advisors for Intel. She is an advisor to Involver.com, Change.org and FantasySportMatrix.com. In Spring 2009, she will be launching Smitten With Mittens, a non-profit providing warm mittens and clothing to orphans in developing countries during their respective winter seasons.
Adriana holds a bachelor’s degree in Sociology and Economics from the University of California at Davis, received a certification from El Tecnologico de Monterrey in Mexico, and was enrolled in Semester at Sea, University of Pittsburgh in 1997. Adriana is also fluent in Spanish and speaks some Japanese and French.
Michelle Broderick
Yelp
Michelle has been involved in online marketing ever since the Internet has had marketing.
Coincidence? Probably.
Regardless, she sure has learned a thing or two over the past decade and loves talk about her work with companies like Continental Airlines, Gap Inc, Yahoo, and RealNetworks. She currently works at Yelp.com – a website that connects people with great local businesses. You can find out more than you’ve ever wanted to know about her at michelle.yelp.com.
Kevin Hartz
Eventbrite
Kevin Hartz – Co-founder and CEO of Eventbrite, Special Technology Partner of Sequoia Capital and seed investor of Paypal
Kevin was previously Co-Founder and CEO of Xoom Corporation, an international money transfer company providing services to over 30 countries worldwide. Xoom is backed by Sequoia Capital, NEA, Fidelity Ventures, Stanford University, and Peter Thiel.
Kevin began his career as a product manager at Silicon Graphics (SGI) and later co-founded ConnectGroup, a start-up providing high-speed Internet access to the hotel industry. ConnectGroup was acquired by Lodgenet (NASDAQ: LNET) in 1998. Kevin then joined Outlook Ventures, a venture capital firm focusing on seed and early stage technology companies.
Ramon Ray
Smallbiztechnology.com
Ramon Ray, Technology Evangelist, is the editor of Smallbiztechnology.com and author of Technology Solutions for Growing Businesses (Amacom).
He has written thousands of technology articles and news items for Smallbiztechnology.com and other media including: Inc. Magazine, New York Enterprise Report, Black Enterprise Magazine, CNet, Var Business, TechTarget, Entrepreneur.com, Small Business Resources and others. He has also written for technology vendors including Microsoft, FileMaker, and Everest.
Ramon is not “just” a technology writer, but, as a former small business technology consultant, he has years of hands on experience in building networks, installing software, upgrading computers and supporting the technology that small businesses use on a daily basis.
He is often quoted in the media, including the New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Entrepreneur Magazine, Inc. Magazine, WCBS Radio, Crains New York, National Federal of Independent Business, Small Business Advocate Radio Show, Wells Fargo Small Business Roundup, Tech Talk with Craig Peterson and Smart Money.
Ramon has brought his unique dose of humor, technology insight and practical advice to many events, including the United States Small Business Administration Service Core of Retired Executives’ “Strategies for Succeeding in Business”, Inc 500, PC Expo, Internet World, American Woman’s Economic Development Corporation, Business Development Institute, and SMB Nation.
Small Business Summit 2006, Small Business Summit 2007 and the upcoming 2008 summit are co-produced by Ramon Ray, in addition to his series Taste of Technology @ Lunchtime.
Ramon is a member of Manhattan Chamber of Commerce, serves on their Board of Directors, and coordinates their Technology Committee. He is a Brain Trust Member of Jim Blasingame’s Small Business Advocate Radio Show. He is an expert on CNBC’s Danny Deutsch, The Big Idea
Stu Carty
Constant Contact
Stu Carty is a veteran sales and marketing specialist with 20+ years progressive experience in the enterprise software industry,. Stu has served as both an expert consultant and top executive with several software start-ups and small businesses, helping to define and launch their sales and marketing programs. Carty is currently a Regional Development Director at Constant Contact, where he delivered 90+ workshops to 2600+ attendees in the San Francisco bay area in 2007. Stu offers proven success in both B2B and B2C email marketing.
Edith Yeung
BizTechDay
Edith Yeung is a force of nature.” says Mark O’Leary, Comcast Regional Vice President. Edith is a host of CBS 5 Startup Profile, the go-to consultant in small business marketing, a sought-after speaker, and the Founder of BizTechDay – the most impactful business technology conference serving the entrepreneur community every year in San Francisco.
Edith is passionate about connecting, educating and inspiring entrepreneurs. She delivered many content rich, high-energy and memorable talks in US, Asia and Europe and leads San Francisco Entrepreneur Meetup Group with over 2500 members.
Edith is also cofounder and CEO of Clue Market Inc, a marketing firm specializing in small business marketing. Prior, she consulted and won multiple awards working with Fortune 500 companies including AT&T Wireless, Oracle, Siebel, Autodesk, Cisco Systems, Symantec, American Management Systems (AMS), Telstra Australia, Matav Hungary Telecom and Taiwan Semi-Conductor.
Born and raised in Hong Kong, Edith moved to the United Stated by herself at the age of 16 and survived the culture shock with minimum English. Edith has led many lives: pianist, square dancer, software engineer, corporate slave, road warrior, consultant and entrepreneur. Early 2007, she left Corporate America to pursue something really meaningful to her – her entrepreneurial dream of empowering the small business community.
Seth Godin recommends her as “the person I would hire.” Edith Yeung has been featured on CBS, CNN, Comcast, World Journal News, Marketing Sherpa and Sales & Marketing Management Magazine.
A member of the San Francisco Small Business Week and UC Berkeley Entrepreneurship Certificate Program Advisory Board, Edith Yeung graduated from Purdue University with a degree in Information Technology & Marketing. She lives in San Francisco.
Gary Swart
oDesk
Gary Swart is the CEO of oDesk, the marketplace for online work teams with the best business model for both buyers and providers. For buyers: Guaranteed work (Every hour billed is an hour worked). For providers: Guaranteed payment (Every hour worked is an hour paid) Prior to oDesk Gary was a Business Unit Executive at IBM – Rational Software where he held a number of senior management positions including, Western Field Operations, Americas Medium Business Leader, Area and District Manager, and Director of Telesales. Prior to Rational he held a number of sales, management, and leadership positions with Pure and Pure Atria. Gary holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Business from the University of Maryland.
Daniel Brusilovsky
Teens in Tech
Daniel Brusilovsky is a 16 year old media producer, entrepreneur, consultant and student residing in the Silicon Valley, CA. In June 2009, Daniel started working for TechCrunch as a writer, while also working on events, conferences and business development. In February of 2008, Daniel started working for live mobile streaming service Qik, where is he an evangelist and Product Marketing Manager. At the same time, Daniel had the idea for a teenage community of media producers, later called Teens in Tech. Teens in Tech was born in August of 2008 and has been covered by TechCrunch, CNET, The Blog Herald, Ypulse, GigaOm, Techmeme, Washington Post and many more. In March of 2009, Teens in Tech Networks acquired the Youth Bloggers Network. Daniel has a strong passion for technology and Web 2.0 media.
Matt Mickiewicz
SitePoint
Matt is the co-founder of SitePoint is the #1 destination on the Internet for Web Professionals. The company was named one of the 100 fastest growing businesses among all categories by BRW Magazine for 3 years in a row and has appeared on the Delloite & Touche Technology Fast 50 numerous times. Recently, SitePoint has utilized the power of social media to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for charity to assist with the Australian Bushfire relief efforts.
In February 2008, Matt co-founded 99designs – the largest crowd sourcing marketplace for graphic design. 99designs democratizes the business of design, and gives equal opportunity to designers in the 3rd world. To date, over 25,000 projects have been completed for companies like Dictionary.com, Mashable and HGTV and over $100,000 is paid out to designers every week around the globe.
In June 2009, Matt launched his 3rd company – Flippa.com, a marketplace for buying and selling small websites and other digital assets.
Alison Covarrubias
Hatch Network
Alison Covarrubias has been helping women entrepreneurs start and grow their businesses since 2005 when she left her job at salesforce.com to start her own consulting business, Business Legs, and to run the Bay Area chapter of a national woman’s networking organization, Ladies Who Launch. Earlier this year, Alison wrapped up her time with LWL and changed her consulting practice to Hatch Network – a business education network for women entrepreneurs. Hatch Network emphasizes the importance of ethical business practices and raising awareness of the triple bottom line philosophy to build and grow sustainable companies. Hatch Network delivers a comprehensive learning program that focuses on tools and techniques relevant to the stage of business the entrepreneur is in today. Hatch programs are delivered in person by a network of experienced mentors and will be delivering home-based learning options by early fall.
Joel Comm
Creator of iFart App
Joel Comm is an Internet entrepreneur who has been online for over 20 years. He is the co-creator of ClassicGames.com, which was acquired by Yahoo! in 1997, and now goes by the name Yahoo! Games. Joel is the author of many popular books, including the NY Times Best-Seller, The AdSense Code. He is a social media expert and author of the book, Twitter Power: How to Dominate Your Market One Tweet at a Time. As Executive Producer of The Next Internet Millionaire, Joel and his team broke new ground in producing an original serial reality series for the web. Joel’s company has produced a number of iPhone applications, one which held the #1 position in the iTunes store for three weeks. His latest projects are designed to help entertainers, musicians, actors, celebrities, athletes and corporations enhance and expand their presence and brand in the marketplace. An in-demand speaker at Internet marketing, personal development and technology industry conferences, Joel’s unique brand of speaking educates, entertains and inspires.
Hazel Grace Dircksen
Socialbees
A passionate entrepreneur based in the San Francisco Bay Area, Hazel Grace Dircksen has helped more then 60 companies leverage social networking tools to expand visibility and reach new audiences. Her most recent company, Socialbees, supports small businesses in using social media through an online resource network and by crafting optimized Facebook Fan Pages and Social Ads that drive engagement from a high target audience – never trash traffic.
As an early adopter, product expert, and industry insider, Hazel Grace has been using and working on social networking sites for the past 6 years from Friendster to Facebook and everything in between. Her technical savvy, forward thinking, and personal connections to numerous social networking companies allows her to immediately cut through the clutter to see the true potential in a particular product and, ultimately, the business value for her clients.
Prior to debuting Socialbees, Hazel Grace was an award winning fashion designer and later launched Fashion for the People (a social fashion site that was a Facebook Developer Platform launch partner at F8 2007), via the San Francisco Ladies Who Launch Incubator Program. She went on to become the Ladies Who Launch Silicon Valley leader and San Francisco co-leader where she consulted to more then 100 female owned businesses, helping them launch and grow.
Her clients include: Closet Couture (a TechCrunch50 startup), The Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising, Andy Baldwin, Ladies Who Launch, Savor the Success, 29-Day Giving Challenge, Feel Your Boobies Foundation, BigSuccess.tv, Hey Lady Shoes, Payson & Co., LLC, CRAVEcompany, Slap Energy Drinks, Lula Lu Petite Lingerie, Curtis Financial and Peternity.
When she’s not working on an exciting new project, you can find Hazel Grace on Facebook (first GEO network user-ask about her top secret Facebook account!), MySpace (member at the 500,000 mark), Yelp (Elite member for the past four years), Savor the Success (where she heads the Social Networking Expert Cafe) and Twitter (@socialbees)… just to name a few.
Bruce A. Nasby
SIFE
Bruce A. Nasby is the Executive Vice President for Students In Free Enterprise (SIFE). He brings to the organization over 30 years of service to the non-profit sector. His involvement with youth, education, and business advocacy based organizations as a CEO and consultant is comprehensive and extensive. SIFE is active on more than 1,400 university campuses in over 40 countries, making it the largest worldwide university-based economic education organization. At SIFE, Bruce is responsible for raising funds from the corporate sector for SIFE World Headquarters and affiliated countries as well as coordinating the benefits for Global Strategic Partners.
Bruce joined SIFE in 1998 as Senior Vice President, overseeing the Fund Development and Career Services departments. During his three-year tenure in this position, he helped to double the contribution income and significantly increase the volunteer base. In 2001, he assumed the role of Senior Vice President for Global Operations and over a three-year period, launched 27 new countries for SIFE and tripled the number of universities worldwide. In September 2006, he assumed his current position as Executive Vice President for SIFE International.
In addition, Bruce has been the President of Non-Profit Management Resources (NPMR). This consulting firm specializes in major gift and capital campaign fund raising, board development, and non-profit organizational management. NPMR clients have included Hilton Hotels, DECA, NFIB Education Foundation, Junior Achievement, Boys and Girls Club of America, Wildlife Waystation, Childhelp USA, St. Vincent’s Medical Foundation, and Mad About Rising Crime.
He served for fifteen years as CEO of various Junior Achievement area offices including locations in Tucson, Arizona; San Jose, California; and JA’s largest United States program operation in Los Angeles, California. During his tenure with Junior Achievement, he also served as the organization’s National Program Director at their headquarters in Stamford, Connecticut. He has also been the President of the Greater Los Angeles Zoo Association, one of the world’s largest zoological institutions. Several capital campaigns were successfully launched and closed during his tenure as President. The revenue and attendance records achieved during his four years at the association continue to stand today as the highest in the zoo’s 40-year history.
Bruce has been a speaker at World Economic Forum Regional Summits in Moscow, Russia and Almaty, Kazakhstan. He was a guest on NBC’s Today Show, and has been a panelist or participant at the UBS Philanthropy Forum in Geneva, Switzerland, the Forbes CEO Forum in Singapore, the Forbes CEO Middle East Forum in Doha, Qatar, the annual Milken Institute Global Conference in Los Angeles and the Global Forum in Santiago De Chile. He currently is a member of several international boards and has traveled to over 40 countries on international business. Bruce is a graduate of the University of Arizona.
Julie Castro Abrams
Women’s Initiative
Julie Castro Abrams is a national leader in microfinance and women’s issues. She has been CEO of Women’s Initiative since 2001, following a non-profit career that spanned 20 years in Chicago. She led the transition of Women’s Initiative from a founder-led organization to a rapidly growing non-profit that has expanded throughout the Bay Area and increased the number of women trained and receiving microloans tenfold. Under her leadership, significant new services have been developed that contribute to the success of entrepreneurs and the economic growth in the communities served by the organization, and the Women’s Initiative has been recognized by the Urban Institute Best Practices Foundation, the Equal Rights Advocates and Cisco Innovation in Technology, among others. Julie currently serves on the Board of the California Association for Microenterprise Opportunity (CAMEO), on the OneCalifornia Bank Advisory board and is a highly sought after speaker and expert on microenterprise in the U.S. Julie is the recipient of the League of Women Voter’s “Women Who Could Be President” Award, SBA Advocate of the year 2009, Human Rights Award from the Commission on the Status of Women, the Women of Color Action Network Award. Prior to her work at Women’s Initiative, Julie served as Deputy Director and Director of Development and Marketing at Chicago’s Merit School of Music. Julie’s previous positions include Director of Development at Community Christian Alternative Academy and principal at the Catalyst Group consulting firm. She has also held positions with the Illinois Pro-Choice Alliance, the Chicago Department of Health, and the Chicago Foundation for Women. Julie studied for her masters degree in Social Service Administration at the University of Chicago and she has a BA in Human Development and Social Policy from the school of Education at Northwestern University. She currently lives in Novato with her husband and two children.
Jill Lublin
http://www.jilllublin.com/
Praised as a modern-day Dale Carnegie for how to be influential, Jill Lublin authored the bestselling book Get Noticed… Get Referrals: Build Your Client Base and Your Business by Making a Name for Yourself (McGraw-Hill 2008). She is also the coauthor of two other national bestselling books, Networking Magic which rose to #1 on the Barnes and Noble charts for three weeks, and Guerrilla Publicity, the PR bible. Jill is the founder of GoodNews Media, Inc. and hosts the TV program, Messages of Hope, and the nationally syndicated radio show, Do the Dream. In addition she has created two audio programs, three DVD training videos, and a workbook.
Jill is a popular international speaker who teaches powerful publicity, networking, and how to be influential techniques. As the CEO of the strategic consulting firm, Promising Promotion, Jill has trained companies in innovative techniques to improve bottom line results. In the past twenty years, she has worked with ABC, NBC, CBS, and other national media, and knows what the media wants.
Jill has been featured in The New York Times, Women’s Day, Fortune Small Business, Inc, and Entrepreneur Magazine, and on ABC and NBC radio and TV national affiliates.
David Rodnitzky
PPC Associates
David Rodnitzky received a BA with honors from the University of Chicago and a JD with honors from the University of Iowa. Upon graduating law school in 1999, he moved to San Francisco to pursue a career in online marketing.
From 2000 to 2001, David was Director of Marketing at Rentals.com, an apartment rental web site funded by Sequoia Capital and Softbank Venture Partners. While at Rentals.com, David launched the Company’s first paid search campaigns with GoTo.com (now Yahoo Search Marketing), driving more than 10,000 qualified visitors a day to the Company’s site. In addition to search engine marketing, David also oversaw public relations and branding at Rentals.com.
After leaving Rentals.com in 2001, David joined FindLaw – the largest legal Web site – as Senior Manager of Search Marketing. At FindLaw, David was responsible for all aspects of search marketing and public relations. His marketing efforts resulted in an increase in monthly visitors to the site from 1.4 million unique visitors monthly to more than 4.8 million unique visitors. FindLaw’s search efforts were recognized by Google in 2003 when the company asked David to present to the entire AdWords team at the first ever Google Client Forum.
In 2004, David joined Adteractive, an online lead generation company, as Director of Search Marketing. At Adteractive, David grew search marketing from less than $250,000 of revenue a month to fifteen straight months of revenue over $1,000,000 a month. He grew his search marketing team from two to eight team members and was promoted to Senior Director after barely a year at the Company. At Adteractive, he was recognized as a Google AdWords Professional and a Yahoo Search Marketing Diamond Ambassador.
David then joined Mercantila, an online retailer, in January of 2007 as Vice President of Advertising. At Mercantila, David was responsible for all search engine marketing, affiliate marketing, SEO, marketplaces, and email marketing. David managed an advertising team in San Francisco as well as in Bangalore, India. In less than nine months he doubled the Company’s monthly profit from advertising. He also negotiated business development relationships with eBay and Amazon.
In January, 2008, David founded PPC Associates, a search engine marketing management firm. Representative clients include Zappos, Tiny Prints, EchoSign, and Flock.com.
David is a featured columnist for Search Marketing Standard (www.searchmarketingstandard.com) and DM Confidential (www.dmconfidential.com), and also writes a personal blog on search engine marketing at www.blogation.net. He is also the founder of The Online Lead Generation networking group, an organization with more than 8300 members.
Linda Hollander
Wealthy Bag Lady
Linda Hollander is known as the “Wealthy Bag Lady”. She is the author of the #1 best-selling book, Bags to Riches: 7 Success Secrets for Women in Business. She is the industry leader in teaching entrepreneurs and speakers about small business success. As the founder of the Women’s Small Business Expo, she has engineered massive empowerment events that take place every year all over the country.
Her corporate sponsors include Citibank, Fed Ex, Southwest Airlines, Staples, Health Net, Wal Mart / Sam’s Club, Bank of America, Omega World Travel and IBM.
Randy Williams
Keiretsu Forum
Randy Williams founded the Keiretsu Forum in September 2000 to provide a disciplined and structured approach to private equity investing. Randy’s passion for investing and bringing together like-minded community leaders has created a powerful and giving environment for entrepreneurs. Since its inception, Keiretsu Forum members have invested over $180m in 200 companies in technology, real estate, healthcare/biotech/life sciences and other sectors of the economy with high growth opportunity. Keiretsu Forum has expanded to eighteen chapters throughout the United States, China and Europe. With over 750 members, Keiretsu Forum is the largest angel investment community in world. Randy has 30 years of experience in finance, real estate, and marketing. He currently holds board and advisory positions in eight companies. Randy was Co-Founder and Director of Diablo Valley Bank from 2003 to 2007. During its first three years the bank grew to more than $250m in assets, serving the entrepreneurial community of the San Francisco Bay Area. Heritage Bank recently acquired the bank for $70m creating a $50m increase in shareholder value realizing a 4X return on investment. Randy was President of Pacific Union Commercial Brokerage, Founder of the LaMorinda Bank, and Managing Director of Kennedy-Wilson International, an international real estate investment company. Randy is also the Founder of the Keiretsu Forum Charitable Foundation. Since its inception in 2001, 97 deserving charities have been granted sizable donations. The goal of the Keiretsu Forum Charitable Foundation is to grant $250,000 annually to worthy local charities throughout the Keiretsu Forum chapter network. Randy holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of California Berkeley and Masters degree from St. Mary’s College of California. He is an avid Masters swimmer, holding past Master’s World Records. He was also was an All-American Water Polo player at UC Berkeley. He lives in Orinda with his wife Maile and their two children, Ford and Summer.
Megan Casey
Squidoo
Megan Casey is Editor in Chief of Squidoo.com, the popular publishing platform she cofounded with Seth Godin in 2005. She is widely regarded as one of the most inspiring online strategists and community leaders, and speaks around the country about her “first 100 people” marketing tactics, building core fanbases, and teaching the value of creating your own Recommendation Economy. She spends her free time helping entrepreneurs take their ideas from vision to execution.
Prior to starting Squidoo, Megan made a name for herself in book publishing at Random House and Penguin Group, developing pioneering business and technology bestsellers.
Her favorite parts of Squidoo are their Org 2.0 movement for charity, putting the community in charge, and the fact that there are actually hundreds of incredible lenses about zombies.
Megan lives in San Jose, CA with her video game developer husband.
Kristy Rogers
eWomenNetwork
If you want to connect with other key business people, who do you call? Kristy Rogers. She was crowned “The Royal Schmoozer 2006″ by the San Jose Silicon Valley Chamber of Commerce. She has 12+ years experience supporting women business owners in marketing their businesses through networking. As the executive managing director of eWomenNetwork San Jose, Kristy has built the largest chapter with over 500 members. She co-founded the 750-member Women In Networking group. Recently she launched KristyRogersConnects, which is dedicated to helping business people network, follow up, and connect at a meaningful level.
In 2009, Kristy was named one of the “Women of Influence in Silicon Valley” by the Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal. She was awarded “Managing Director of the Year 2006″ by eWomenNetwork. If you haven’t met Kristy yet, make sure you do. She wants to connect with you.
Sue Kwon
CBS 5
Sue Kwon is a ConsumerWatch reporter for CBS 5 Eyewitness News and host of Bay Sunday. She brings years of experience covering Bay Area technology and business news for CBS 5 Eyewitness News. Prior to coming to CBS 5, she served as the high-tech reporter for KRON. Sue covers emerging technology, Silicon Valley companies, stock market developments, and economic trends.
Sue is a Bay Area native and an active member of the Asian American Journalists Association. She has won three AAJA National Awards for News Reporting. The National Federation of Press Women honored Sue with First Place Reporting Awards in 2002-2005. She has also received a 2007 Emmy Award, 2005 Emmy Award, 2004 Peninsula Press Club Award, International Communicator Crystal Awards of Excellence, and recognition as an Association of Women Journalists Vivian Castelberry Finalist.
Sue started her journalism career in the White House Press Office, gathering news summaries for President George H.W. Bush and his staff. She worked as a production assistant at KGO (ABC) in San Francisco before moving to KRON (NBC) to be the Newsroom Trainee. Sue became a newscast producer at KVUE (ABC) in Austin where she field-produced coverage for the Waco Cult Standoff. She moved West to be a radio and television reporter at KRNV (NBC) in Reno. Sue returned to KRON in 1996 to anchor local CNN cable news updates and report. Sue spent a month in Australia bringing the Bay Area live-coverage from the Sydney 2000 Olympics.
Sue studied British Mass Media at Oxford University in Oxford, England. She graduated from Stanford University in 1990 with a Bachelor’s degree in political science and communication. At Stanford, she taught public speaking and wrote for the Stanford Daily. Sue grew up in Clayton and now lives in San Francisco.
Mark Coopersmith
Entrepreneurship – UC Berkeley, Haas School of Business – Entrepreneurship
Founder – The Argonauts Group
Mark has spent more than 20 years launching, building and restructuring high-growth global businesses as an entrepreneur, intrapreneur (corporate entrepreneur) and advisor, with a focus on technology, consumer brands and media. He has raised funding from VCs, angels and corporate investors, has made angel investments, and has been both a seller and a buyer of companies.
Mark recently launched The Argonauts Group, which works with executives, advisors and investors to identify opportunities, restructure and transform companies, and accelerate revenues and value.
Previously Mark led the $300mm Global Technology Brands group at consumer products company Newell Rubbermaid; served as President of Strategy for brand consultancy Addis Creson; and co-founded a $150mm consumer products, branding and e-commerce unit at Sony. He was the founding CEO of pioneer online payments company WebOrder (now part of Motorola); and earlier in his career was a strategy and M&A consultant with Ernst & Young.
Mark has been an advisor to companies ranging from innovative start-ups to Fortune 500 firms such as Intel, Sony and DirecTV. A member of multiple boards of directors, Mark is an adjunct professor at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business where he lectures on Entrepreneurship and Innovation. He is an alum of UC Berkeley, where he earned his MBA degree and his B.A. in Political Economies of Industrial Societies.
Ryan Hayward
Google
Ryan Hayward has spent the last two years at Google working on products made to help small businesses market themselves online. For Google AdWords, he managed product development and marketing for a new feature that allowed anyone to create simple image-based ads at no cost, and to advertise them across Google’s network of partner website. Most recently, he leads marketing for Google Local Business Center, the free tool that helps businesses list their locations on Google and Google Maps, and to get insights on how people are finding their listings.
Ryan lives in San Francisco and graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, with a B.S. in Economics.
Chris Larsen
Prosper
Chris Larsen is CEO and Co-founder of Prosper, America’s largest peer-to-peer lending marketplace with 850,000 members and $180 million in loans facilitated. Prosper is a continuation of Larsen’s commitment to leveraging the Internet to make consumer lending markets more efficient, transparent, and trustworthy.
Prior to Prosper, Larsen co-founded and served as Chairman and CEO of E-Loan. Under his leadership, E-Loan was heralded as one of the America’s most trusted consumer brands. During his tenure, Larsen pioneered the open access to credit scores movement by making E-Loan the first company to show consumers their FICOTM scores. Mr. Larsen also played a pivotal role in the passage of the strongest consumer financial privacy protection law in the nation and was hailed by Congresswoman Jackie Speier as being, “critical to the success of the bill.”
Mr. Larsen serves at the Board and Advisory levels at numerous companies and organizations including, ACCION International’s Center for Financial Inclusion, Center for Financial Inclusion / Mott Foundation un- and underbanked financial services research group, CreditKarma, Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), Progresso Financial, Qifang, and The Silicon Valley Community Foundation’s anti-payday lending policy committee. He is also a member of the Young Presidents’ Organization (YPO).
Mr. Larsen holds an M.B.A. degree from Stanford University and a B.S. degree from San Francisco State University, where he was named the 2004 Alumnus of the Year.
Ranjith Kumaran
YouSendIt
Ranjith Kumaran is the founder and Chief Technology Officer for YouSendIt, the trusted global leader in digital content delivery. In this role, he manages the Customer Service, IT, and Ops teams to guarantee optimum customer service, and efficiency in the IT and Ops departments.
Prior to YouSendIt, Kumaran held marketing positions at Verisity Design, a key provider of verification process automation (VPA) solutions, where he managed product marketing for the software tools of Access Systems. Previously, he was the director of sales engineering at Celoxica, a leading provider of C-based design and behavioral synthesis tools, where he built the company’s sales applications and established its engineering team.
Kumaran also was a software systems engineer at Red Hat, one of the largest and most recognized companies dedicated to open-source software and the largest distributor of the GNU/Linux operating system.
Kumaran received a bachelor of engineering degree in computer engineering from McGill University and is an active member of TiE Silicon Valley.
Jonathan Rochelle
Google
Jonathan Rochelle is a Group Product Manager at Google, primarily responsible for Google Docs and Google Sites and working from their NYC office. Prior to joining Google in 2005, Jonathan co-founded, built, and sold two profitable technology companies – ITK Solutions, a technology focused consulting firm, and 2Web Technologies, a software product company which developed products that converted and published complex spreadsheet models into interactive web applications. 2Web Technologies was acquired by Google as the technology behind Google spreadsheets, which launched in 2006 as the first component of what later became Google Docs. Before founding his companies, Jonathan spent sixteen years as a software engineer and Applications Development manager, primarily at JP Morgan & Co., working across a broad set of financial service businesses. He’s a strong advocate of web-based software and is always enthusiastic to help businesses, schools and other organizations gain extreme value from web apps and to help developers bring interesting technology products to market. He holds a degree in computer science and Business Administration from the State University of New York at Albany.
Jay Blazensky
RingCentral
Throughout his career Mr. Blazensky has had a passion for identifying meaningful yet challenging business opportunities best be served through strategic partnerships that provide unique technical and business advantages. As VP of Business Development at RingCentral Mr. Blazensky has played a key role in establishing a series of creative partnerships and business models designed to drive broad adoption of hosted voice services, even in a struggling economy. Prior to RingCentral, he was the Strategic Sales Director at Sylantro Systems and has 25 years of engineering, marketing and business related experience in the communications industry.
Marty Keller
Office of Small Business Advocate
Marty Keller was appointed Director of the Office of Small Business Advocate by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in May, 2007.
In his tenure he helped organize the first-ever Governor’s Conference on Small Business & Entrepreneurship in November of 2008, which produced eleven recommendations for improving the working relationship between small businesses and state government.
His focus is on enlarging the network of small businesses to help them have a greater say in regulation and legislation that impacts them. Among his office’s efforts is helping small businesses interface with the California Air Resources Board on the development of regulations under AB 32, the greenhouse gas reductions measure.
Prior to joining the Governor’s Office, Keller served for five years as executive director of the California Automotive Business Coalition (CalABC). In that capacity he helped auto repair shops deal with the state’s regulatory environment and with strategies to improve the automotive repair market. He also served four for years as CalABC’s representative on the Board of Directors of the California Small Business Association, and was elected its Secretary in 2006. From 1999 to 2001, Keller was president of Greenslip, Inc., an independent automotive inspection service in Silicon Valley. From 1995 to 1999, Keller served in the administration of Governor Pete Wilson as chief of the Bureau of Automotive Repair. Additionally, in Governor Wilson’s first term, Keller served as chief of the Bureau of Home Furnishings and Thermal Insulation and of the Bureau of Electronic and Appliance Repair. During the 1980s, Keller was sales manager for Pacific Financial Printing, a small business in San Francisco.
Phil Libin
Evernote
Phil Libin is the CEO of Evernote. He is an entrepreneur and executive who has led two Internet companies from the very beginning to proven commercial success, and helped three others through rapid growth. Prior to joining Evernote, Phil founded and served as president of CoreStreet, currently one of the top companies providing smart credential and identity management technologies to governments and large corporations throughout the world. Previously, Phil was founder and CEO of Engine 5, a leading Boston-based Internet software development company acquired by Vignette Corporation in early 2000, where he went on to serve as principal architect and chief technologist for applications.
In addition to his operational expertise, Phil is a software engineer by training and started his career by building complex systems for ATG, Exchange Applications and EF. Phil is an active technology author and public speaker, having appeared in numerous industry events and publications. In 2004 was named an “Innovator of the Year” by InfoWorld magazine.
Kristy Hall
Universal Synergy Group
Kristy Hall is an inspiring leader and in-demand speaker, trainer and coach for nonprofits. Kristy has helped hundreds of leaders and organizations around the world more effectively raise funds and execute their vision.
Kristy has been a featured speaker at the Global Engagement Summit and at the Nonprofit Congress. She also has been featured in the Boston Metro and the Chronicle of Philanthropy for her work.
Kristy’s products and presentations on nonprofit leadership, advocacy, fundraising, and board development have made her an in-demand and innovative expert in the nonprofit world. She is the creator of the Nonprofit Super Series (www.NonprofitSuperSeries.com), a cutting-edge audio and video training series focused on fundraising & development.
Prior to founding Universal Synergy Group, LLC and helping clients worldwide achieve their cause-related missions, Kristy practiced communications law. She lives outside of Washington, DC in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Will Bunker
Founder of the dating site that became Match.com
Will Bunker graduated from Industrial Engineering at MSU in 1992. His first job was working for N.B Hunt out of Dallas, TX. He was sent to Moscow, Russia for two years working on mineral resource project evaluation. Hunt Enterprises then had him start an Internet service provider in Dallas, TX during 1994. Later, Will was transferred down to Nicaragua as controller for a gold mining operation.
Will returned to Dallas in 1996 and entered the computer industry as a network administrator. During nights and weekends he and his partner, Dave Kennedy, founded Web Media Ventures, which launched an online dating service. This grew into the largest online dating company and is now known as Match.com. It was sold to Ticket-Master City Search at the end of 1999.
He has been involved in many startups over the last ten years, including: Click Patrol (sold to rival), Cookbook Wiki (sold to Wikia), and owns a large comercial fish farm in AR (good reason to talk to father every day). His latest major project is an online educational platform, YoYoBrain.com He is actively mentoring other entrepreneurs and looking for interesting projects to work on.
Giovanna Masci
Kiva
Regional Director, the Americas
As the Regional Director for the Americas, Giovanna is responsible for growing and managing Kiva’s portfolio in the region. In particular, Giovanna was responsible for driving Kiva’s entry into the US microfinance market earlier this year. Prior to Kiva, Giovanna worked as a consultant in the technical assistance department at ACCION New York. In that role she was responsible for growing the department while providing one-on-one technical assistance services to entrepreneurs. Giovanna has been passionate about economic development, microfinance, and Latin America for many years. She has worked on community development projects in Mexico and Paraguay, and has done research on the interplay between eco-tourism and economic development in Costa Rica. Giovanna holds a B.A . In Economics from Yale University and an M.B.A from the Yale School of Management.
Luanne Teoh
BizTechDay
Luanne Teoh has been working in online marketing for the last 10 years. From Fortune 500 companies like Oracle, SonyBMG to start-ups like Skates.com, Luanne is passionate about e-Commerce, Business Development and Search Engine Marketing.
Born and raised in Malaysia and educated in Australia, Luanne graduated from Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology with a degree in Journalism and Cambridge University with a degree in Marketing & Mangement.
Luanne’s passion is to help businesses use technology to reach non-traditional markets and audiences to compete and conduct business on a global level.
7 years ago, she bought a one way ticket to America and with nothing more than two suitcases in hand and made the journey to follow her passion.
Matt Jordan
Skype
Enterprise Development Manager
As the Enterprise Development Manager for the Skype Business Team, Matt works with enterprise customers interested in deploying any number of Skype for Business solutions within their organization. This may take the form of Skype software being deployed at the desktop/laptop level or integrating Skype with existing phone systems or mobility offerings. Matt is also engaged in developing vertical solutions for the travel and leisure, telemedicine and broadcast entertainment industries.
Matt joined Skype in early 2009 from eBay, where he served as Telecom Services Manager. In this role, he successfully deployed Skype to over 10,000 employees globally, integrated Skype into eBay’s legacy telecommunications systems, such as PBXes and call centers, and replaced or supplemented legacy video conferencing gear with Skype in its conference rooms. Joining Skype has given him the opportunity to share these business solutions with other enterprises that are looking to save time, save money, and stay ahead by using Skype in their business.
Matt has over a decade’s worth of telecommunications engineering and management experience. Prior to eBay, he worked for global organizations like Siebel Systems and McAfee/Network Associates, where he was responsible for managing call center design, as well as sourcing and deploying mobility, conferencing and collaboration offerings.
Matt lives in San Jose with his wife. Together, they have two sons who love to use Skype video to follow their dad’s business travels around the globe.
Nelly Yusupova
Webgrrls International
Founder of DigitalWoman.com
Nelly Yusupova is the CTO at Webgrrls International, and Cybergrrl, Inc. She oversees and implements the technical strategy for The Cybergrrl Network of women’s online communities which is comprised of Cybergrrl.com, Webgrrls.com, and Femina.com. She organizes and manages team projects ensuring they run smoothly. The Webgrrls International and Cybergrrl mission is: To empower women through promoting the use of technology in both their personal and professional lives. She is also the founder of Digitalwoman.com, an Internet consulting practice helping small and mid-sized companies get online and realize their strategic online goals.
In December 2004, Nelly assumed the reins of the New York City Webgrrls chapter leader. NYC chapter is the first and largest chapter of the 100 chapters that make up Webgrrls International.
Prior to joining Cybergrrl, Inc., Ms. Yusupova was a programmer and Web developer with PaineWebber responsible for upgrading their brokerage applications.
Ms. Yusupova earned a bachelor’s degree in computer science from Queens College of the City University of New York and is working towards a master’s degree in management information systems. Her programming skill set includes: PHP, MySQL, Java, ASP, JSP, Oracle, Perl/CGI, HTML, JavaScript, Unix scripting, Telnet, FTP, UNIX.
As featured in the Wall Street Journal, Nelly Yusupova is a woman on the IT fast track. She has been a featured tech expert on INC Magazine’s Website inc.com and has appeared as a guest expert on the NBC Today Show. She is frequently asked to speak across the country at many industry events about careers in technology, Web 2.0, marketing online, building communities, blogging, and social media. She conducts workshops and courses and writes extensively for the industry.
Barbara Russo
Barbara Russo STRATEGICS
Barbara is an Executive/Organizational/Life Coach, trained and certified through New York University’s School of Continuing Professional Studies, and serves as an adjunct faculty member in the NYU-SCPS Coaching Program. Barbara is certified through the International Coach Federation and holds additional certifications, including SDI – Strength Development Inventory and Power Coaching.
As a facilitator, moderator, workshop and teleconference leader, coach, coach-trainer and presenter, Barbara’s focus is career transition and leadership development.
A former executive vice president of a national, New York-based personnel staffing firm and entrepreneur, Barbara combines the synergy of these roles and the breadth of her professional and personal experience to support and facilitate executives, career professionals, entrepreneurs, individuals, teams and organizations across the country through successful strategic transition and growth.
Barbara serves on the boards of several non-profit organizations enjoys living life and does so in both New York City and the San Francisco Bay area.
Janice Edwards
Edwards Unlimited
Janice Edwards is a published writer, talk show host and producer and media consultant.
She is the host and executive producer of “Bay Area Vista” and President and CEO of Edwards Unlimited. Janice has served as Community Relations Director and Executive Producer & Host of “Bay Area Vista” at NBC BAY AREA, where she launched the show.
“Bay Area Vista” received the American Women in Radio and Television’s 2007 Kudo award for best public affairs show and Janice also received a Kudo; she was voted best host of a non-news Program by AWRT.
Before joining NBC BAY AREA, Janice was a reporter and anchor in San Francisco and the host and contributing producer of “Black Renaissance”. Her notable interviews span a variety and include Barack Obama, Oprah Winfrey, Rachel Maddow, Robert Redford, John Travolta, Jerry Seinfeld, Gloria Steinem, Robin Williams, Andre 3000, Danny Glover, Dennis Quaid, Dr. Cornel West and John Cena. Janice has also worked as a special projects producer and writer at KPIX-TV, an update anchor/writer/producer and reporter/photographer/editor at KRON-TV. She has also earned her AFTRA, SAG and Equity cards.
Janice’s career in broadcasting began in Atlanta, Georgia, as co-host of a teen radio talk show. She continued to work in radio and to write for newspapers as an undergraduate at Harvard University and a graduate student at UC Berkeley School of Journalism. During that time she also studied in Spain and wrote for El Mundo, in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Janice is a published co-author of the book “Quality Angles” featuring interviews with Kevin Costner, Robert Townsend, veteran news anchor Evan White, and Lloyd Richards.
Janice’s awards include the 2009 Western Regional Communications Award from the American Heart Association, the 2008 Woman of Excellence for Advocacy (Woman of the Year Award) by the National Coalition of 100 Black Women, Silicon Valley chapter, the Caring Through Communication award from the American Cancer Society and the Bronze award from Junior Achievement. Additionally, she has received recognition from NAWBO, the National Association of Women Business Owners –Silicon Valley, Healthy Silicon Valley, and Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. In 2006, Janice was recognized as one of 101 Women Making A Difference in Our Community. 100 Black Men of Silicon Valley, 100 Black Men of the Bay Area, and the Bay Area Black Media Coalition have also honored Janice for her work. Janice is a member of the Board of Governors for the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS). Janice emcees or moderates over 40 community events each year. Support of those organizations is a critical part of her commitment and vision for community empowerment.
Tracey Awad
Marketing Manager – Business Services
Comcast
Tracey is the Marketing Manager for Comcast Business Class in California. She has been instrumental in the launch and growth of Comcast Business Class, a new product line that offers advanced Internet, Voice and Video services to small business.
Tracey’s experience spans over 15 years in marketing, advertising and production and is known as the “go to person” for successful new product launches and implementing seamless and innovated marketing campaigns. Recently Tracey was awarded a Top National Presidents award for the work she has done with Comcast Business Class.
“Tracey’s can do attitude and tireless dedication is one of the power engines behind our success” Mark O’Leary- VP Comcast Business Class
Previously Tracey worked at AAA where she was responsible for marketing, promotion and retention of their multiple services across a member base of 4.5M in Northern California, Nevada and Utah and has experience with working in marketing and production with top Fortune 500 companies such as Gap and Coca-Cola.
Born in Hawaii and raised in California, Tracey considers herself a native Californian with a love for the beach, mountains and wine country.
Tracey graduated from San Jose State University with a degree in Advertising. She lives in San Francisco Bay Area.
Ken Stram
Director of Economic Development
San Francisco LGBT Community Center
Ken Stram is the founder of the world’s first LGBT Economic Development Program, a groundbreaking program that provides business development services to LGBT entrepreneurs. In this role, Ken has worked with over 1,500 entrepreneurs through one-on-one consulting services and educational workshops. He has also helped a wide variety of businesses gain access to capital to start and grow their businesses. Ken places strong emphasis on serving the full spectrum of the LGBT community and its allies.
Prior to founding the LGBT Economic Development Program, Ken ran his own small business, 2Bridge Communications, a public relations firm that helped clients get the press they needed to supercharge their business results. Before that, Ken worked in Washington, D.C., as the Associate Administrator for Field Operations at the U.S. Small Business Administration, and before that, he was a legislative aide to the House of Representatives’ Science, Space, and Technology Committee where he helped save Space Station Freedom.
Bill Reichert
Managing Director
Garage Technology Ventures
Bill Reichert is Managing Director of Garage Technology Ventures, a leading seed-stage and early-stage venture capital fund. Garage makes small investments – generally $500,000 to $1 million – in promising early stage technology companies and works intensively with them to help them to the next step. Bill has been on the boards of CaseStack, WhiteHat Security, Miasole, cFares, ThermoCeramix, STEP Labs, and ClearFuels Technology in conjunction with Garage’s investments in those companies. The Firm is located in Palo Alto, California.
Bill has spent most of his career as an entrepreneur and operating executive. Prior to joining Garage in 1998, Bill was a co-founder and senior executive at several early-stage, venture-backed technology companies, including Trademark Software, The Learning Company, Infa Technologies, and Academic Systems. Earlier in his career, Bill worked at McKinsey & Co. in Los Angeles, the World Bank in Washington, DC, and Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. in New York. Bill earned his BA from Harvard University and his MBA from Stanford University.
Kevin Reeth
Founder
Outright
Kevin has spent more than 14 years bringing successful software applications and services to market while working for companies like Intuit, Yahoo! and eGroups. In more than 9 years with Intuit, Kevin launched or helped drive multiple products for small businesses, including small business versions of Quicken, rental property software, a 1099 e-filing service, and the JumpUp community for entrepreneurs. Reeth, created Outright.com after watching a number of small businesses still struggle to capture business deductions, often piecing together different solutions. Believing business owners spend too much time and effort on the least enjoyable part of running one’s own business, Kevin’s goal is to make the back office simple, helping entrepreneurs track all of their income and expenses and get their taxes done accurately.
Daniel Guillory
CEO
Innovations International
Daniel Guillory serves as CEO for Innovations International, a human resources development firm. Prior to working with Innovations, Mr. Guillory was a corporate and securities associate at Pillsbury Madison & Sutro LLP, and remains a member of the California Bar. He received his J.D. from Harvard Law School and his B.A. in international relations from Stanford University. In addition, Mr. Guillory studied international law at the Université de Paris I – Panthéon Sorbonne. He is fluent in French and conversant in German. Daniel delivers classroom training for Innovations International on topics such as leadership, diversity and empowerment for many different corporations and non-profits including the YMCA, Merck & Co, and Anheuser-Busch. He also has spearheaded the development of Innovations’ e-learning tools, web 2.0 marketing strategies, and also oversaw the conversion of the company to a virtual organization in 2008.
Randy Almond
Vice President of Marketing
Yola.com
Randy is the Vice President of Marketing at Yola.com, a free website creation tool that helps small businesses create professional quality websites.
Before joining Yola, Randy led the online marketing team at Walmart.com, driving customer acquisition through a variety of online marketing channels and partnerships. Randy has also worked as a consultant for Accenture and The Boston Consulting Group. Randy graduated with honors in History from Princeton University, and earned a Masters in Business Administration from the University of Southern California.
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