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Speakers


Keynotes & Featured Speakers

Maya Baratz
Senior Product Manager, ABC News
Keynote Lunch

A media and technology aficionado, Maya Baratz has spent some time on both the product and editorial sides of new media - previously working at companies including The Wall Street Journal, MTV Networks, Flickr, Monster.com, and Terra Lycos. Picking up The Knight Foundation's Silver Knight Award in 1996 and a Webby Award in 2006, she's been also published and quoted by publications including The Wall Street Journal, VentureBeat, SF Weekly, The Huffington Post, Neiman Journalism Lab, Forbes and the BBC, among others. She led the product release of WSJ Social, The Wall Street Journal's standalone publication on Facebook, and recently joined ABC News to run the new and social product strategy and development team.


Marissa Mayer
CEO, Yahoo
Opening Keynote

Marissa Mayer leads the product management and engineering efforts of Google's local, mobile, and contextual discovery products including Google Maps, Google Maps for Mobile, Local Search, Google Earth, Street View, Latitude and more. During her 12 years at Google, Marissa led product management and design efforts for Google search for more than a decade and has also helmed images, news, books, products, toolbar, and iGoogle. She started at Google in 1999 as Google's 20th employee and first woman engineer.

Marissa's contributions and leadership have been recognized by numerous publications. Fortune magazine has listed her for the past 3 years on their annual Most Powerful Women's list, and she was the youngest ever to appear on the list. In 2011, she was also recognized on Forbes Most Powerful Women's list. She has also been honored by the New York Women in Communications, Inc. with a Matrix Award, by the World Economic Forum as a Young Global Leader, and by Glamour Magazine as Woman of the Year. Marissa serves on the board of various non-profits, including the Smithsonian National Design Museum, the New York City Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

Marissa received her B.S. in Symbolic Systems and her M.S. in Computer Science from Stanford University. For both degrees, she specialized in artificial intelligence.


Elizabeth Mayo
Head of Department, Laboratory Services, DNV GL
Keynote Lunch - Claim Your Career: The 3 Simple Truths to Career Development

Dr. Mayo is a renewable energy consultant with more than 12 years of research and manufacturing experience. Throughout her career she has served in a broad array of roles in business development, product marketing, operations, and independent engineering as well being responsible for overall product and department financial performance. She currently manages all business operations for DNV GL’s Energy Advisory Laboratory Services for PV Module, Inverter and Battery reliability and performance testing. Prior to DNV GL, she was a product manager for a number of disruptive Solar and Semiconductor technologies at Applied Materials.


Suchitra Subrahmanyan, Ph.D.
Managing Director, Business Development, Applied Materials
Keynote Lunch - Claim Your Career: The 3 Simple Truths to Career Development

Suchitra Subrahmanyan is a Senior Director in Business Development at Applied Materials with responsibilities in mergers and acquisitions, strategy, venture investments, market research and analysis. During her career, Suchitra has held various managerial roles in business management, operations, product management, customer technology support and process engineering. She has also worked on developing new business models and the supporting processes to increase top line growth.

Most recently, she has played a key role in the announced merger of Varian with Applied Materials. Suchitra received a doctoral degree in Chemistry from Columbia University, a master's degree in Chemisty from Indian Institute of Technology, Madras and a bachelor's of science degree in Chemistry from University of Madras, India. She was awarded the TWIN Award in 2010 by YWCA of Silicon Valley in honor of women that exemplify excellence in executive level positions.


Jennifer Sun
Engineering Director, ETCH, Applied Materials
Keynote Lunch - Claim Your Career: The 3 Simple Truths to Career Development

Jennifer Sun is an Engineering Director in the ETCH business unit at Applied Materials as well as the AMAT Engineering Governess Board ETL (Engineering & Technology Lead) in Materials. Jennifer is responsible for all ETCH critical chamber hardware and chamber material development, including wafer defect diagnostics and reduction. She has lead major efforts with cross-functional organizations on manufacturing & fabrication process streamlining for critical chamber components for lead time and cost reduction.

Jennifer has been with Applied Materials for over 12 years and has also held roles in Program Management and Supply Chain Management Technology. Previously Jennifer has held positions as a Senior Process manager and Materials Technology Manager

Jennifer has had 15 patents issued and holds a BS in Chemical Engineering from National Taiwan University, Taipei and a PhD in Materials Science & Engineering from University of Florida. She is currently working on her MBA at Santa Clara University.


Sophie V. Vandebroek, Ph.D.
COO, IBM Research
Keynote: The Future of Work - Are We Ready?

Sophie Vandebroek has been Xerox's Chief Technology Officer and the President of the Xerox Innovation Group since January 2006. She is responsible for overseeing Xerox's research centers in Europe, Asia, Canada and US as well as the Palo Alto Research Center (PARC Inc.).

Previously, Dr. Vandebroek was Chief Engineer of Xerox Corporation and Vice President of the Xerox Engineering Center, technical advisor to Xerox's chief operating officer and Director of the Xerox Research Centre of Canada.

Dr. Vandebroek is a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical & Electronics Engineers, a Fulbright Fellow and a Fellow of the Belgian-American Educational Foundation. She holds 12 US patents. Dr. Vandebroek has received awards from Xerox, IBM, HP, Monsanto, the Belgium National Science Foundation, Semiconductor Research Corporation, IEEE, and Cornell University.

Dr. Vandebroek is a member of the Board of Directors of Analogic Corporation, of Nypro Corporation, and is a member of The US National Academies Committee on Science, Technology & Law. She is a trustee of Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) and also serves on the advisory council of the deans of Engineering at Cornell University and at MIT.

Vandebroek was born in Leuven, Belgium where she earned a master's degree in electro-mechanical engineering from Katholieke Universiteit, Leuven, Belgium. She received her Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Cornell University, Ithaca, NY. She and her husband live in Lincoln, MA and enjoy time with their six children.


WITI Summit Speakers, Panelists and Moderators

Alicia Abella, Ph.D.
Executive Director, Innovative Services Research, AT&T Labs
Sweet Serendipity or Shrewd Strategy?

Dr. Alicia Abella is Executive Director of the Innovative Services Research Department at AT&T Labs Research, where she manages a group of multi-disciplinary technical staff specializing in data mining, user interfaces, IPTV, mobile services, and SIP/VoIP technology, and also chairs the AT&T Labs Fellowship program. As well, Dr. Abella is Executive Vice President for the Young Science Achievers Program, where she encourages high school-aged women and minority students to pursue careers in science and engineering. Dr. Abella has been recognized as one of the Top Five Women of the Year by Hispanic Business Magazine and was the recipient of the Pioneer Award from the Women of Color STEM Conference and the Latinos in Information Sciences and Technology Association Leadership of the Year Award. She was also recognized by the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute for her contributions in the area of green technology. Dr. Abella holds a B.S. degree from New York University, and an M.S., M.Phil, and Ph.D. from Columbia University. In May 2011, she was appointed by Barack Obama to the President's Advisory Commission on Educational Excellence for Hispanics.


Anne Adams, Ph.D.
President, ACS
The World Cafe

Anne has worked with many Fortune 50 companies and educational institutions both nationally and internationally. She has designed and led organizational transformation programs through seminars, workshops and educational programs for individuals, corporations, professional groups and educational institutions for more than 30 years.

She has been a teacher, school director, university instructor, a manager in an international educational corporation, and a business consultant to both large and small corporations.

Anne has worked with senior leaders and their teams from companies as varied as IBM, Mars, Heinz, AT&T, Lucent Technologies, Procter & Gamble, The Rouse Company, EZ Communications, to government entities like the Pentagon and non profits, e.g. IONS, and many schools throughout the United States and India.

Dr Adams contributes her expertise in Organization Transformation by integrating transformative practices, e.g. The World Cafe, a process in collaborative dialogue, Appreciative Inquiry, a framework for creating a learning organization, The Collaborative Way, a company's values and culture brought to the forefront, with Navigating From the Future, an approach FOR sustaining transformation.

Currently her work is focused on integral education practices both within educational institutions and businesses - accentuating the need to honor the integral nature of the human being, e.g., developing and integrating all of our intelligences - mental, the emotional, physical, social and spiritual. The impact this has on our relationships, the quality of results produced, and a worldview literary that is truly integral is of great interest.


Tiffani Ashley Bell
CEO & Founder, Pencil You In
Panel Discussion: Starting Your Start-Up: Success Stories from Women Who Took A Chance on Themselves

Tiffani Ashley Bell is a twenty-something in pursuit of better living through software.

She is the CEO and founder of Pencil You In (http://pencilyou.in), a platform enabling the world's hairstylists and barbers to delight their clients and more efficiently manage their businesses by accepting appointments online. Tiffani graduated from Howard University in 2008 with a Bachelor of Science in Systems and Computer Science. In college, she interned at IBM as a mobile developer and twice at HP as a web developer, and after college, worked at a government contractor as a web developer before leaving to work on Pencil You In full-time.

A Ruby on Rails developer since 2005, she also develops for Apple iOS and Google Android. Most recently, she was a member of the first class of the NewME Accelerator (http://www.newmeaccelerator.com), an accelerator whose aim is to introduce minority-led startups to the inner workings of Silicon Valley. CNN chronicled Tiffani and other startuppers in the NewME Accelerator in Silicon Valley for Summer 2011 for its newest Black in America installment airing November 13th. An avid tweeter since 2007, Tiffani can be found tweeting at http://twitter.com/tiffani or http://twitter.com/pencilyouin.


Cheemin Bo-Linn
President and CEO, Peritus Partners
Panel Discussion: Moving Target - The Mobile Enterprise

Cheemin Bo-Linn is CEO and President of Peritus Partners, Inc., an analytic platform and business IT consultancy. Leveraging her expertise in digital transformation and application of technology to drive competitiveness, Dr. Bo-Linn was IBM Vice-President and CSO, CRO, and Digital CMO at e-commerce, mobile, finance, and software companies. She has also been appointed to serve on the board Board of Directors and as Audit Chair for global public companies in Canada, US, and Europe, as well as private health IT, energy, digital, and tech firms.

Dr. Bo-Linn was inducted into the Women In Technology Hall of Fame in 2015. She is also a Most Influential Silicon Valley Exec awardee; was named to the Top 100 CEOs in STEM; and has been an invited speaker to the United Nations, Dow Jones, and British Chamber. She attended the University of Houston earning a Doctorate degree in Computer Information Systems, as well as the Stanford University GSB Exec Program. Dr. Bo-Linn was appointed Visiting Professor on digital tech (AI, big data, cyber security) and marketing at the joint Columbia University, London School of Business, and Hong Kong University EMBA/MBA program.


Sandy Carter
CEO | CMO | Ecosystems | Business Development Information Technology, Silicon Blitz
Get Bold! How To Capitalize on The Social Enterprise

Sandy Carter is a recognized leader in social business, a best selling author, and one of the most influential women in Web 2.0 technology. As IBM Vice President, Social Business Evangelism and Sales, she is responsible for setting the direction for IBM's Social Business initiative, a $200B market opportunity. Her numerous industry awards include: "Brand Leader of the Year" from the World Brand Congress, "Top 10 in Social Media" from Altimeter Group and Fast Company's "Most Influential Women in Technology." She was also named one of "The Top 25 Social Business Leaders..." . She is an avid social business evangelist, blogger, and twitterer. She holds an MBA from Harvard and a Bachelor of Science degree in math and computer science from Duke University. Visit Sandy at: socialmediasandy.wordpress.com/


Laura Chambers
Senior Director, Paypal Mobile
Panel Discussion: Moving Target - The Mobile Enterprise

Laura Chambers is senior director of PayPal Mobile with overall responsibilities focused on "mobilizing PayPal" and bringing outstanding PayPal applications and features onto the mobile platform. Chambers leads the design and development of PayPal mobile, ensuring excellent end-to-end mobile experiences for all PayPal customers. She also directs the development of mobile Web technologies and helps to develop and communicate PayPal strategy and financial plans across the organization. Laura oversees all of PayPal's mobile products and any new mobile initiatives.

Throughout her five year career at PayPal and eBay, Chambers has held numerous strategic roles in PayPal, Marketplaces, Skype and eBay Inc. Chambers headed PayPal's funding mix product team and was a member of the strategy team, where she developed new product ideas and led several strategy projects for merchant services. Most recently, as the chief of staff at eBay Inc., Chambers developed and shaped executive communications and events and led critical business projects including customer retention and corporate strategy.

Prior to PayPal, Chambers worked for McKinsey & Company, focusing on strategy, financial performance improvement and organizational design/governance for the telecommunications/technology, financial services, airlines and retail industries.

Chambers received a master's degree from Stanford Graduate School of Business and a bachelor's degree in arts/commerce from the University of Melbourne.


Angie Chang
Co-Founder & Editor-in-Chief, Women 2.0
Panel Discussion: Starting Your Start-Up: Success Stories from Women Who Took A Chance on Themselves

Angie Chang is a Co-Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Women 2.0, a global media company for aspiring and current female entrepreneurs to launch successful scalable, innovative ventures. Angie has been driving the Women 2.0 brand, marketing, and content strategy since 2006. Along with her co-founder Shaherose Charania, Angie is developing a global network and social platform for influencers that drive trends and decisions - as startup founders and as consumers. In January 2008, Angie launched Bay Area Girl Geek Dinners, asking that guys come as the "+1" for once. Girl Geek Dinners have included Google, Facebook, Yahoo, and Genentech. Angie holds a B.A. in English and Social Welfare from UC Berkeley. Follow her on Twitter at @thisgirlangie and check out Women 2.0 at www.women2.org


Special Events

Amanda Coolong
Chief Content Officer & Advisory Board Co-Chair, Women in Technology International

Amanda Coolong has been shaping technology narratives for nearly 20 years. A senior digital media executive and content strategist, she is a powerful voice advocating positive change for women in STEM. Ms. Coolong currently serves as Chief Content Officer and Advisory Board Co-Chair for Women in Technology International (WITI), a leading authority on the issues impacting women in technology. Previously, she led worldwide women's initiatives for a division of IBM. Ms. Coolong was also a founding partner and COO of TechZulu, growing the brand to become Southern California's leading online destination for technology news. While at TechZulu, she was a pioneer of participatory media, utilizing early live streaming video platforms and social media to interact with her audience.

Ms. Coolong is also an established podcaster, having produced, written, and hosted This Week in Cloud Computing under the guidance of Jason Calacanis, and Bitcoin News Weekly with her long-time co-host, Mark Jeffrey. An accomplished online host, emcee, and moderator, she has interviewed hundreds of leaders in the tech ecosystem from events like CES, SXSW, BlogWorld & New Media Expo, the Launch Conference, and more. Her consulting brand, Context & Narrative, specializes in the art and science of storytelling. In her "spare" time, Ms. Coolong advises early stage startups on their go-to-market strategies, and mentors young women pursuing STEM careers.


WITI Summit Speakers, Panelists and Moderators

Sheigh Crabtree
VP of Audience Development, Perfect Market
Panel Discussion: Effective Social Media and the Social Enterprise

Sheigh Crabtree is a journalist and editor with an unparalleled background in SEO and SMO. Most recently she served as the Los Angeles Times' director of news and programming for entertainment online, in addition to overseeing the premier Oscar website, TheEnvelope.com.

She oversaw five of the Times' 10 top-performing blogs and launched and edited numerous event blogs and web features. While at latimes.com, she doubled site traffic month-over-month by devising popular original content and through strategic use of SEO and SMO. In terms of revenue, Sheigh and her team's entertainment sites out-performed sites in competing categories at the Los Angeles Times by 5:1.

Prior to the L.A. Times, Sheigh was new media editor at the Hollywood Reporter, where she penned the popular Cinema Technology column and was awarded the Robert Wise Award for Outstanding Journalism.

Sheigh got her professional start in digital media in Northern California, where she was a technical writer for Pixar Animation Studios and PDI/DreamWorks. During the 2008 presidential election, she served as deputy commissioner on a social media Get Out the Vote effort for the California for Obama campaign.

Sheigh graduated with honors and holds a B.A. in religion and biblical literature from Smith College.

Follow Sheigh on Twitter: @sheigh


Kathy Curtis
Senior Manager, Global Relocation, Cisco
Panel Discussion: Expanding Business to New Territories and Securing the Best Talent Internationally

Kathy Curtis is the Senior Manager, Global Relocation for Cisco, headquartered in San Jose, CA. Prior to joining Cisco, Kathy was the SR Global Mobility manager for Flextronics International USA, Inc. Kathy has over 30 years in the global mobility arena with experience on both the service and corporate side. Prior to joining Flextronics, Kathy was a partner in Transition Solutions Group, a consulting/auditing company working exclusively with corporations. Kathy was also at GMAC Global Relocation Services, KPMG LLP and Worldwide Relocation Manager for Apple Computer.

Kathy is an active member of ACIP, WIPA and ERC, NFTC and the Mercer Technology Roundtable. Kathy has served on numerous panels and has taught several of the GMS classes for ERC. Kathy was president of ERC in 1997 and was inducted into the Hall of Leaders in 2000. She has been on the Board of Directors for WIPA, (Western International Personnel Association), and is a past president of BAPRM (Bay Area Professionals in Relocation Management.


Deborah Davy
Senior Counsel, Gibney, Anthony & Flaherty, LLP
Panel Discussion: Expanding Business to New Territories and Securing the Best Talent Internationally

Deborah B. Davy manages the global immigration team of the Immigration Practice Group, specializing in global visas and compliance at Gibney in San Francisco, California. She has practiced Immigration and Nationality Law since 1997.

Ms. Davy is skilled at managing high-volume international personnel transfers, including short term and long term assignments, for large multinational companies in the high technology, manufacturing and financial sectors. She specializes in assisting global corporations in designing, developing and implementing successful international visa programs. Ms. Davy has established strong working relationships with premier service providers worldwide and has extensive knowledge of the rules and procedures associated with the global business visa and work permit processes.

Prior to joining Gibney, Ms. Davy developed and managed the global immigration practice for a major international law firm.


Mona DeFrawi
CEO, Equidity
Panel Discussion: Money Matters: Getting the Right Funding

Mona DeFrawi is CEO and Founder of Equidity, an Investor Relationship Management (or IRM) Advisory and Platform, and previously was CEO and Founder of InsideVenture, which was acquired by SecondMarket in 2009. Mona has been a passionate supporter of entrepreneurial companies and the venture industry for over 20 years and began her venture career in investor relations and corporate development roles for four companies involved in IPOs in the Mid-Atlantic region during the 1990's. Bringing together her public market IR and private fundraising skills, Mona supported many client companies in venture fundraising, and also joined CapGen Financial as Director in 2007 to raise their $500 million, first-time, private equity fund in under 7 months in 2007. She was then recruited by venture leaders to deliver liquidity solutions to the industry, and moved to Silicon Valley to found InsideVenture in 2008. Mona then founded Equidity in 2010 to address remaining primary liquidity issues, and deliver solutions for enhanced late-stage funding, IPO success and aftermarket performance. Mona has supported entrepreneurs during her career in many ways, including authoring and lobbying legislation that has since delivered over $3B in venture investments in Maryland, and she also created and taught the graduate level Entrepreneurship course at Johns Hopkins University.


April Dembosky
San Francisco Correspondent, Financial Times
Panel Discussion: Effective Social Media and the Social Enterprise

April Dembosky is the San Francisco correspondent for the Financial Times. Her beat includes social networking, e-commerce and venture capital in the Silicon Valley. She also covers political and economic news in California.

Prior to joining the FT in 2011, Dembosky worked as a freelance writer and radio producer, reporting for outlets including NPR, Marketplace Radio, the New York Times, the San Jose Mercury News and the Sacramento Bee, covering business, health and the arts.

Dembosky is a graduate of Smith College and the University of California, Berkeley, Graduate School of Journalism. She holds degrees in Philosophy, French Studies and Journalism.


LeAnn Erickson
Associate Professor of Film and Video Production, Temple University
Film Screening:

LEANN ERICKSON is an Associate Professor of film and video production at Temple University in the Department of Film and Media Arts and has been an independent video/filmmaker for over 25 years. Her work has appeared on public and cable television, in media and art galleries, and has won national and international recognition in video/film festivals.

Her documentary film titles include: Top Secret Rosies: The Female Computers of WWII, c. 2010; Folk Songs, c.2007; Everybody Promenade, c. 2007; Neighbor Ladies, c. 2005 and From One Place to Another, 1996.

Her experimental videos include: interference, c. 2005; hours, minutes, seconds, frame, c. 1999, and Essential Things, c. 1997.

Animation titles include: Fun Days with Jake, c. 2002, and bees, a documentary, c. 2001.

Festival screenings include: Hot Docs International Documentary Film Festival (Toronto CN), Oberhausen International Short Film Festival (Germany), Feminale International Women's Film Festival (Cologne, Germany), Women in the Director's Chair (Chicago) and L'immagine Leggera: International Competition of Videoart and Experimental Film (Palermo, Italy).

Erickson is a recipient of regional and national production grants for her work from such funding sources as NEA, AAUW, the Jerome Foundation and The Leeway Foundation. In 2003 and 2006 she was awarded the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts Fellowship for media arts.


Cindy Gallop
Founder & CEO, IfWeRanTheWorld
WITIStyle Storytelling - THE NO-HOUR WORKWEEK: How To Redesign Your Work to Fit Your Life, Not The Other Way Round

Cindy Gallop is the founder and CEO of IfWeRanTheWorld, co-action software launched in beta at TED 2010 and subsequently written up and taught as a Harvard Business School case study, which enables brands to implement the business model of the future — Shared Values + Shared Action = Shared Profit (financial and social).She is also the founder of MakeLoveNotPorn – “Pro-sex. Pro-porn. Pro-knowing the difference” — a social sextech platform designed to promote good sexual behavior and good sexual values, which she launched at TED 2009, and for which she has raised $2million to build out MLNP.tv as “the Social Sex Revolution.” Cindy acts as board advisor to a number of tech ventures and works as a personal brand/life/executive coach and a consultant on brand and business innovation for companies around the world. Business Insider named her one of 15 Most Important Marketing Strategy Thinkers Today, alongside Malcolm Gladwell and Seth Godin, and cited her as number 33 on their list of 100 Most Influential Tech Women On Twitter, and number one on their list of Top 30 People In Advertising To Follow On Twitter. An outspoken advocate of diversity and inclusion in advertising, tech, and business, Cindy recently partnered with AARP on their Disrupt Aging initiative to challenge and change ageism. She is a graduate of Somerville College, Oxford, with a background of over 30 years in brand-building, marketing, and advertising. As well, Cindy started up the US office of ad agency Bartle Bogle Hegarty in New York in 1998 and in 2003 was named Advertising Woman of the Year.


Karen Garcia
IS&T Chief of Staff, BMC Software, Inc.
Panel Discussion: Lifting the Fog on Cloud Computing

As Information Services & Technology (IS&T) Chief of Staff of BMC Software, Karen Garcia leads the strategy, definition, and implementation of IS&T internal business management practices. This includes Demand and Resource Management, Vendor and Asset Management, Financial Management, IS&T SOX governance, Organizational Training, and Communications and Marketing. Karen joined BMC Software in 1993 as a Business Analyst and has progressively advanced to Senior Manager of IS&T Order Services, Sr. Program Manager of BSM@BMC, SOX Compliance and M&A Strategy, IS&T Customer Support Account Manager, Director of IS&T Program Management Office and currently, IT Chief of Staff.

Karen has more than 25 years of IS&T business and project management experience inclusive of 15 years management experience. Prior to joining BMC Software, Karen held various IT positions at ExxonMobil Company and Shell Oil Company.

Karen holds a Bachelor Degree with an emphasis in Accounting and Management Information Services from the University of South Florida.


Jocelyn Goldfein
Director of Engineering, Facebook
Giving STEM Roots: Fostering Interest and Overcoming Obstacles

Jocelyn Goldfein is a Director of Engineering at Facebook, where she helps manage the engineering team and oversees new product design and architecture. Presently she is focused on Facebook News Feed and Facebook Search. Prior to joining Facebook, Jocelyn was Vice President of R&D at VMware, where she managed the engineering and product teams for VMware's desktop products. She previously was Director of Engineering at e-mail management start-up MessageOne. Jocelyn holds a bachelors degree in computer science from Stanford University.


Cheryl Goodman
Senior Director, Qualcomm Inc
Panel Discussion: Moving Target - The Mobile Enterprise

Cheryl Goodman is the senior director of publisher relations for Qualcomm Inc. In this role, Goodman is responsible for forging connections in the publishing industry and facilitating their engagement in the wireless ecosystem. Currently one of Cheryl's chief directives is to secure content for Qualcomm MEMS Technologies (QMT) mirasol® display-enabled e-readers. In addition, Cheryl oversees global marketing efforts for QMT, providing strategic insight to product development and product launches.

Prior to joining Qualcomm's display division, she managed the industry analyst relations program and public relations for Qualcomm. Prior to joining Qualcomm, Cheryl served as the director of public relations and marketing for start-up Lindows.com, creator of a Linux-based operating system, and also led marketing for MP3.com. She has extensive experience in broadcast journalism, having served as the technology Web reporter for ABC affiliate KGTV and Web reporter for CBS affiliate KFMB.

Goodman is a frequent spokesperson for Qualcomm; she has been quoted in multiple publications and has spoken at top tier industry events such as The Digital Publishing & Advertising Conference, the Magazine Publishers Association's Dimensional to Digital, M-Publishing, and DEMO 2009. Most recently she delivered a keynote address at O'Reilly Tools of Change for Publishing 2011. She also oversees QMT's successful awards program, which includes honors such as the WSJ Innovation Award, PC Magazine Technical Excellence Award, EDN Innovation Award, Andrew Seybold Choice Award and finalist standing for the CES Innovation Awards and GSMA Global Mobile Awards.

Goodman attended San Diego State University, where she earned a bachelor's in political science and television, new media and film. She was named the 2010 Marketing/Marcomm Leader of the Year by PRNews. In 2004, she was nominated for PR Leader of the Year by T-Sector Magazine.

Find Cheryl's updates on digital publishing and portable device ecosystem at Qualcomm's blog, OnQ, and via QMT's Twitter feed, @mirasoldisplays.


Nicole Graebner
Senior Account Executive, Key Information Systems
Panel Discussion: Lifting the Fog on Cloud Computing

Nicole Graebner is a Senior Account Executive for Key Information Systems in Woodland Hills, CA. Ms. Graebner delivers strategic solutions for large scale business customers with regard to Data Warehouse, corporate storage infrastructure and information management including the transition to cloud-based infrastructure and services for information security, archiving storage and business intelligence.

Ms. Graebner has a multi-faceted Information Technology Sales background, working with both global and national consulting firms on projects in High Technology, Finance, and Telecommunications with a strong focus on identifying business development opportunities and sales strategy advisement for Entrepreneurs. Ms. Graebner's successes have encompassed customized solutions in Project Management and Systems Operations for Accenture LLP and Vanguard Group of Investments gathering and delivering clear system business requirements for multi-million dollar infrastructure projects in Telecommunications and Finance.

Previously Ms. Graebner worked with a Business Intelligence firm, overseeing the sales services, management of analytical reporting and data warehousing environments that capture segmented elements of customer data such as: demographics, marketing effectiveness, customer conversion, sales, advertising spend and geographic distribution for multi-national corporations. While working with an Anti-piracy firm, Ms. Graebner promoted the importance of monitoring and securing data intelligence to assist global digital media companies in identifying global piracy and copyright infringements, while leveraging this information to aid these companies in both protecting copyright data and in the collection of transaction payments on Intellectual property.

Ms. Graebner holds a M.B.A. in International Business Management from the Fox School of Business and Management at Temple University in Philadelphia, PA. An undergraduate M.S. Business Marketing degree was conferred at West Virginia Wesleyan College. She is also an Alpha Delta Pi.

Ms. Graebner is a certified IBM reseller of Netezza Data Warehouse and Guardium information security products.


Joselle Ho
Co-Founder and Creative Director, Miso Media
Panel Discussion: Starting Your Start-Up: Success Stories from Women Who Took A Chance on Themselves

Joselle Ho is the Co-Founder and Creative Director of Miso Media, a Santa Monica-based tech startup. Miso Media develops music education software with a focus on mobile and web-based applications. Miso Media's guitar learning app, Miso Music, won TechCrunch Disrupt's People's Choice Award in 2010 and shortly after closed its seed round of funding led by Google Ventures. An illustrator by training, Joselle began designing for iOS in 2008 with the founding of Miso Media. She was featured in Women 2.0's list of Female Founder Successes for 2010, sat on an iPhone/iPad Design Panel hosted by GX and Apple, and is an active advocate for women in tech. Prior to Miso Media, Joselle graduated from Art Center College of Design with honors, and worked on various projects including CBS's Ghost Whisperer, comic covers for IDG Publishing, and as a Design Coordinator for Prologue Films where she worked on dozens of projects, including, The Walking Dead, the Stand Up to Cancer Broadcast, and the FIFA World Cup. Tweeting from @joselleho.


Sandy Jen
Co-Founder, Meebo
Panel Discussion: Starting Your Start-Up: Success Stories from Women Who Took A Chance on Themselves

Sandy Jen is Vice President of Engineering and Cofounder of Meebo, one of the Web's fastest growing consumer Internet companies that enables over 170 million users to share and connect with their friends online. Jen leads Meebo's engineering team and is responsible for the company's backend technology and innovations.

Jen, along with friends Seth Sternberg and Elaine Wherry, started Meebo in 2005 with one goal in mind: to connect people to their friends across the Web. Jen has ultimately been responsible for ensuring that Meebo's engineering efforts are well-equipped to handle all the people and the over 8,000 websites who use Meebo today.

Jen began her engineering career at San Jose-based Xilinx, the first semiconductor company, as an enterprise software developer. She spent more than two years there with a fabless manufacturing model. Originally an aspiring art student, Jen switched gears and decided to help start Meebo.

Jen, a rock climber and Ultimate Frisbee player, mentors young entrepreneurs and students in her spare time. She graduated from Stanford University with a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science, and is a recent recipient of the Founders Fund TechFellows Award in Engineering Leadership.


Margie Jones
American Immigration Manager, Intel Corporation
Panel Discussion: Expanding Business to New Territories and Securing the Best Talent Internationally

Ms. Jones has worked for Intel Corporation for the last 21 years, 18 of which have been in immigration. Her current responsibilities include managing the U.S. immigration function, working closely with outside counsel on outsourcing and working on special projects with the international sites. She earned a B.S. in Business in 1984 from San Jose State University.


Sharon Kan
Co-Founder and General Manager, Tikatok.com at Barnes & Noble
Getting Women to Think Big

Sharon's mission is to unleash the creativity and imagination of children by giving them an environment to design and share their original creations online and in print. With this goal in mind, she co-founded Tikatok.com, the first online book community that empowers children to use their imagination to write, illustrate, and publish their own books and read other books created by children from around the world.

Tikatok has been embraced by parents and educators as a creative platform to inspire self-expression in children. Children all over the world have created books using Tikatok's Web 2.0 platform, while teachers are using it in the classroom as part of their creative writing curriculum.

Recognized by the online community for its innovativeness in inspiring children and creating a safe community for children to interact, Tikatok.com received the 2010 Parents' Choice Approved Award and 2010 Moms Gold Award.

Before Sharon co-founded Tikatok she was CEO of Zoomix, a data management solution provider that was acquired by Microsoft in 2008 (Nasdaq: MSFT).
Prior, Sharon was President North America (NA) of c-Ark, a PLM (product lifecycle management) company. c-Ark was acquired by SSA (now Infor).
Prior to c-Ark, Ms. Kan spent 5 years with Demantra Inc., a leading global provider of SCM (supply chain management) and established its activity in NA. Demantra was acquired by Oracle (Nasdaq: ORCL) in 2006.

Sharon is a mentor at The MIT Venture Mentoring Service (VMS). VMS is an organization formed to support entrepreneurial activity throughout the MIT community by matching prospective entrepreneurs with skilled mentors.
Sharon is on the advisory board of Entrepreneurship Program at Simmons College School of Management.

Sharon has been a speaker at conferences and educational institutions on the subjects of entrepreneurship, innovation, core values and leadership.
Sharon holds an Executive MBA from the University of Bradford in the UK, a BA degree in Business from the College of Management in Israel, and is a graduate of the French Culture program of the Sorbonne University in Paris, France.


Special Events

Carolyn Leighton
Founder/Chairwoman, WITI
WITI Founder's Reception

Carolyn Leighton founded WITI in 1989 as a worldwide e-mail network for women in all technology sectors. At the time WITI was established, Ms. Leighton was President of Criterion Research, a research consulting firm for the high tech industry which she founded in 1984, as well as chair of the Core Competency Database Project at Stanford University.

Due to Ms. Leighton's leadership and vision, WITI has grown to be the premiere brand and worldwide organization dedicated to empowering women worldwide to achieve unimagined possibilities and transformations through technology, leadership and economic prosperity.

Ms. Leighton has 35 years of experience as an educator and entrepreneur. In addition to WITI, she founded four start-ups in the high-tech, legal sectors and, most recently, the pet industry. She attended the University of Michigan and has a bachelor's degree in human development from Pacific Oaks College. Ms. Leighton has received numerous accolades, twice named as one of the "Top 100 Women in Computing." More recently, she was named one of Fast Company Magazine's "Most Influential Women in Technology."


WITI Summit Speakers, Panelists and Moderators

Martha Lyons
Enterprise Services - Distinguished Technologist, Hewlett-Packard
Intrapreneur/Entrepreneur: What Are The Lessons in Creating a Startup, either Externally or Within a Company?

Martha Lyons is a Strategist and Senior Program Manager in HP Enterprise Services focused on incubating and delivering innovative capabilities to HP's customers. She has over 20 years of experience developing new services and leading co-innovation programs. Martha specializes in sustainability, cloud computing, and information management and has most recently led HP Labs demonstration projects in the area of residential energy and resource management. In the past, Martha led the HP Services CTO Innovation Program while advising customers on innovation best practices within corporate environments. She also led the development of a number of solutions which introduced and extended HP's electronic and automated service capabilities over the web. Martha has also held a variety of technical, management, and strategy positions in HP Labs, HP services and HP Global Operations.


Cheree McAlpine
General Counsel, Wyse Technology Inc
Panel Discussion: Expanding Business to New Territories and Securing the Best Talent Internationally

Ms. Cheree McAlpine is the General Counsel at Wyse Technology and a 15-year veteran of the Silicon Valley legal community. As General Counsel, Cheree McAlpine is responsible for the worldwide legal affairs of Wyse, as well as advising the company's executive management on strategic and corporate governance matters. As Wyse continues to pioneer new cloud computing solutions, Ms. McAlpine is often charting new legal ground in this emerging field.

Ms. McAlpine also brings significant experience to Wyse. Prior to joining Wyse in 2005, Cheree was with Sun Microsystems. Earlier in her career, Cheree was an associate with Graham and James, LLP and McCutchen Doyle Brown and Enernsen, LLP., concentrating on Intellectual Property Transactions and Licensing.

Ms. McAlpine holds her J.D. from Suffolk University Law School and is a member of the American Corporate Counsel Association, American Bar Association, National Bar Association, California Bar, American Intellectual Property Law Association, Minority Corporate Counsel Association and the California Minority Counsel Association.


Amanda McConnell
Head of Product, rent.com
Panel Discussion: Moving Target - The Mobile Enterprise

Amanda McConnell is the Senior Director of User Experience & Product Management at ReachLocal, Inc. (Nasdaq:RLOC), a global Internet marketing company that provides small businesses products and solutions to acquire, manage and retain customers online.

Amanda is responsible for determining enterprise-level mobile strategies for the most effective development across Web, tablet and smart phone applications. She also oversees the mobile experience for clients by leveraging mobile devices to communicate high priority campaign activity and results, as well as creating sales tools that optimize the sales process for ReachLocal’s 700-person sales force by utilizing multi-platform devices at every stage.

In her two years at ReachLocal, Amanda has drawn upon her 12-year-career in Product Management and User Experience to guide the build-out of the client portal and reporting platforms that include multi-language launches in the European Union and Asia. She is currently focused on expanding the UxUi team to become a global resource for all products, ensuring consistency and usability across internal and external applications.

Prior to ReachLocal, Amanda had focused her work in social media at companies such as BuzzMedia (Buzznet, Celebuzz) and TagWorld, as well as leading projects for Southern Poverty Law Center, California Pizza Kitchen, HealthNet and many others. She received a Bachelors of Science in Applied Mathematics, with an emphasis in Statistics from the University of California Los Angeles.


Dina McKinney
Corporate Vice President, Bulldozer Cores Technology Group, AMD
Panel Discussion: Lifting the Fog on Cloud Computing

Dina is the Corporate Vice President of AMD's "Bulldozer" Core, the company's next-generation core that will be the foundation for microprocessors for several years, powering tomorrow's notebooks, desktops and servers.

In the company's 40-plus year history as an innovator, Dina is the first female designer to lead a major core. Her leadership was especially pivotal in bridging global barriers by leading a major technology design that represented contribution from teams in Sunnyvale, Austin, Ft. Collins, Boston and Bangalore.

Prior to leading the Bulldozer team, Dina led the "Bobcat" and "Griffin" low power CPU development at AMD. The company has been a leader in power efficiency due to the innovation of designers like Dina.

Dina is passionate about helping other women succeed in technical careers and Dina is a founding executive member of the AMD Women's Forum, and the executive sponsor for the Sunnyvale AWF. She is also actively engaged in community support through AMD's Changing the Game relationship with the Boys & Girls Clubs of Silicon Valley.

Dina has been a microprocessor designer for over 25 years, holding various design and leadership positions at Digital Equipment Corporation, Motorola/IBM/Apple alliance on the PowerPC, and at the startup, Alchemy Semiconductor, which was acquired by AMD in 2002.

Dina holds a Masters in Electrical Engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute and undergraduate degree in Electrical Engineering from Central New England College.


Miriam McLemore
CIO, Market Facing Functions, Coca-Cola
Panel Discussion: Effective Social Media and the Social Enterprise

Miriam is the Chief Information Officer, Market Facing Functions at The Coca-Cola Company. She is responsible for Global Information Technology strategy, process definition, application development, and delivery for the Global Marketing and Commercial Leadership and Global Technical Functions. The application landscape for Global Marketing & Commercial Leadership includes solutions for our Global Brands, Media, Design, Creative, Interactive Marketing, Marketing Research, Global Properties ( Olympics, FIFA, etc), and Global Customer teams. These solutions range from consumer websites like My Coke Rewards, Digital Asset Management solutions, to Customer and Marketing Analytic solutions. The application landscape for the Technical Function includes solutions for our Supply Chain, Science, Product Quality, Environmental, and R&D teams. These solutions range from Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) tools to Manufacturing and Laboratory Information Management solutions. Knowledge Management, community and productivity tools are required by all functions. The capabilities Miriam and her team develop are deployed across the 200 countries in which The Coca-Cola Company operates.

Miriam joined The Coca-Cola Company in 1991 in the Finance Division working with international locations driving financial process consistency and improvements in analysis and reporting. While in the Finance Division, Miriam established the Company’s information standards capability called ISSCOM. Miriam moved to the Marketing Division as the Director of INforM and managed the creation and expansion of Coca-Cola’s global Business Intelligence (BI) capability. Miriam drove the integration of existing BI solutions across Europe and Coca-Cola North America (CCNA). She then took a leadership position in CCNA responsible for the process, operation and integration of North America Volume Reporting (VALUE) and Market Insights solutions. Miriam then joined the Global Information Technology Group in 2002. She has held positions of increasing responsibility in Global IT. She established the consumer facing IT team that partners with Interactive Marketing and drove the IT business cases for Interactive Marketing, PLM and Innovation Pipeline Management. Miriam started her career with Andersen Consulting and worked across a variety of industries including Healthcare, Utilities, and Telecommunications before focusing on Banking. She has a Business Administration degree with an Accounting concentration from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.


Heather Meeker
VP of Corporate Communications, GOGII
Panel Discussion: Effective Social Media and the Social Enterprise

Heather Meeker is a communications, marketing and business development executive with a strong focus in mobile and social media. She is currently Vice President of Corporate Communications for Los Angeles-based startup GOGII - makers of the leading free messaging app textPlus.

Most recently, Heather was Director of Marketing and Corporate Communications for Pelago, makers of the location-based app Whrrl. There, she oversaw the company's marketing, communication and community strategies, and served as the west coast business development liaison. Pelago was acquired by Groupon in April 2011.

Heather has over 15 years working for well-known technology companies and startups in a myriad of roles. She began her career working in communications and marketing for EarthLink and held similar roles at Stamps.com and Homestore.com (now Move.com). After the dot com bust, she transitioned intao pharmaceutical sales at Pfizer, selling blockbuster drugs including Zithromax, Lipitor and Viagra. Despite success, Heather knew her passion was technology and communications, so she transitioned back into both as PR Manager for Yahoo helping launch "Project Panama" - the company's search marketing initiative. After Yahoo, she managed Burson Marsteller's Consumer Technology Practice, working with high-profile clients including Sony Ericsson and HP.

An active leader in the technology and start-up community nationwide, Heather speaks at industry leading events regularly including BlogWorld Expo, Social Media Club, Girls in Tech and WITI. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Mass Communications and Journalism from her hometown school, Fresno State.


Joanne Moretti
GM, RADIUS INNOVATION & DEVELOPMENT SVP & CHIEF MARKETING OFFICER, Jabil Blue Sky
Panel Discussion: Lifting the Fog on Cloud Computing

Joanne has over 30 years experience, including 7+ years in IT within the finance, and manufacturing sectors; 21 years in sales; and 2 years in WW product marketing and analyst relations; and most recently 2 years in Learning & Development. She has won two Women of Influence Awards and has published numerous articles. Joanne's specialties include building global and enabling account teams, growing revenues, and maintaining client loyalty, carrying quotas between 2.0M and .500B.

As HP Sales University's first dean, Joanne's mission is to deliver a complete, world-class learning experience that develops the skills, knowledge and behavior needed to set sales professionals on the path to personal and professional success. She focuses on supporting four empowering factors: industry knowledge, business acumen, enterprise business solutions, and sales methodologies.

A business thought leader, social networking enthusiast, and prolific author who speaks frequently at industry events, Joanne is a board member for Alteryx, a software company located in the Bay Area. In addition to all that, Joanne is the proud mom to two children and yet remains active in numerous IT and women's leadership organizations.


Donna Morris
Senior Vice President of Human Resources, Adobe Systems Incorporated
Panel Discussion: Effective Social Media and the Social Enterprise

As senior vice president of human resources, Donna Morris leads Adobe's global human resources organization with responsibility for driving organizational development strategies that support the company's global growth, talent management and total rewards for more than 9,500 employees worldwide. A key priority for Morris is continuing to build upon a culture and set of values that are recognized for attracting and developing exceptional people, and are instrumental in Adobe being named as one of the best places to work by FORTUNE Magazine in the United States and other publications around the world.

During her career, Morris has led both generalist and specialist human resources functions in the high technology, communications and government fields. Prior to becoming senior vice president in March 2007, Morris held several other management positions within Adobe Human Resources, providing leadership to the company's global human resources activities. Before joining Adobe, Morris was vice president of human resources and learning at Accelio Corporation, a Canadian software company acquired by Adobe in 2002.

Morris has earned several industry honors, including Human Resources Professional of the Year in Ottawa, Canada, and the Silicon Valley YWCA's Tribute to Women (TWIN) Award. She is currently on the board of directors for the Adobe Foundation and Second Harvest Food Bank of Santa Clara and San Mateo Counties in California. Morris has a bachelor's degree from Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada, and holds the Senior HR Professional (SHRP) and Canadian Certified Human Resources Professional (CHRP) designations. Follow Morris on Twitter @DonnaMorrisHR.


Special Events

Jolie O'Dell
Tech Journalist, VentureBeat;, Master of Ceremonies for the 16th Annual WITI Hall of Fame Awards
16th Annual WITI Hall of Fame Awards Banquet

Jolie O'Dell is a technology journalist. She's been a reporter since 2000 and has worked extensively in the tech and startup words since 2005. She also began studying object-oriented programming in 2010, both to improve her tech reporting and to address on a personal level the lack of gender parity in the technology industry.


WITI Summit Speakers, Panelists and Moderators

Adrian Ott
CEO, Exponential Edge
Panel Discussion: Lifting the Fog on Cloud Computing

Adrian Ott was called, "One of Silicon Valley's most respected (if not the most respected) strategists." by Consulting Magazine. As CEO of Exponential Edge Inc. consulting (www.exponentialedge.com), she was named Silicon Valley Enterprising Woman of the Year by NAWBO-SV in 2011 for her work assisting relentless visionaries to achieve market leadership and differentiation for their companies.

Adrian is also the award-winning author of The 24-Hour Customer: New Rules for Winning in a Time-Starved, Always-Connected Economy (HarperCollins) which was named a Best Business Book of the Year in 2011 by Library Journal and USA Book News.

Adrian is an expert contributor to Fast Company. Her award-winning work has also appeared in Harvard Business Review, Strategy & Leadership Journal, Bloomberg TV, Fox News, The Washington Post, and Forbes. She keynotes frequently at private client events, for major universities (U.C., Harvard Business School alumni, USC, Rice University), industry groups such as TEDx, and was the commencement speaker for Carnegie Mellon Silicon Valley in 2011

Prior to founding Exponential Edge, she was an HP executive who was recognized in an annual report for "infusing HP with new revenue streams, new technologies, and new business models." She holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a B.S. from U.C. Berkeley.


Cindy Padnos
Founder and Managing Partner, Illuminate Ventures
Intrapreneur/Entrepreneur: What Are The Lessons in Creating a Startup, either Externally or Within a Company?

Cindy Padnos is the founder and managing partner of Illuminate Ventures, an early stage, high-tech venture capital firm. Illuminate is cutting edge in style and strategy, making investments in start-ups leveraging new technologies and business models, with a particular focus in the fast growing category of cloud computing. Current investments include BrightEdge, CalmSea, Red Aril and Xactly Corporation.

Named by Fast Company magazine as one of the Most Influential Women in Technology and by the San Francisco Business Times as one of the Most Influential Women in Business in the Bay Area, Cindy has been helping accelerate emerging technology companies for over twenty five years - as an entrepreneur, executive, advisor, investor and board member. She has helped to raise and deploy more than $100 million in venture funding to help launch dozens of innovative start-up companies.


Ana Pinczuk
Vice President, Cisco Systems
Intrapreneur/Entrepreneur: What Are The Lessons in Creating a Startup, either Externally or Within a Company?

Ana Pinczuk leads Cisco's Global Technical Center, a worldwide team of 3000 professionals who deliver technical support, define the service experience, and partner with engineering to drive product excellence. A transformational leader with a diverse background, Ana has also led teams in Engineering, Sales, and Product Management. Before joining Cisco, she spent 15 years at AT&T and Lucent, where one of her main responsibilities was developing and deploying AT&T's Internet backbone. Ana received a Bachelor of Science and Master of Engineering from Cornell University, an Executive Master's in Technology Management from the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School, and a Master of Science in Software Management from Carnegie Mellon University. Ana serves on several academic and industry advisory boards including the Consortium for Services Innovation, Cornell Computer and Information Sciences, and CMU Silicon Valley. Ana is married and has two sons.


Diane Pozefsky, Ph.D.
Research Professor, Department of Computer Science, University of North Carolina
eMentoring: Boon or Bane?

Diane Pozefsky is currently a research professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. After 25 years at IBM, Diane headed back to her alma mater and has been teaching for the past eight years. Diane's teaching and research interests include software engineering, user interfaces, the use of technology in entrepreneurships, and the social impacts of technology.


Sheryl Root
Director/Assoc. Professor, Carnegie Mellon, President and CEO, RootAnalysis
Intrapreneur/Entrepreneur: What Are The Lessons in Creating a Startup, either Externally or Within a Company?
Executive Roundtables: The Business Case for Hiring/Advancing More Women - and Why

Sheryl Root is currently Director/Professor for the Masters in Technology Ventures and Professor for Masters in Software Management at Carnegie Mellon University, Silicon Valley. Ms. Root is a strategy, marketing, and product development executive with over 18 years of experience at Hewlett-Packard Company and 10 years of software systems experience and leadership in the financial and computing industries. Her strategic and program leadership experience focused on the definition and delivery of technology-based products and solutions, and her marketing operations experience has been in creating new business models, organizational structures, cost reductions, and revenue generation programs. She has demonstrated proven leadership in business strategy development/execution, marketing operations, and software systems delivery working across departments, functional areas and geographic regions.

In addition to her work at CMU, Ms. Root is President/CEO of RootAnalysis, and consults in business strategy creation and execution, program management, and marketing effectiveness for companies including HP, PeopleSoft, Santa Clara University, Novell, and Philips.

Ms. Root sits on several boards, including Sloan School of Business, WITI (Women in Technology International), Teach for America, and the Stanford Institute on Research in Women and Gender. She holds a Sloan Master's in Business from Stanford University.


Steve Rosenberg
Associate Director, Silicon Valley Campus, Carnegie Mellon University
Intrapreneur/Entrepreneur: What Are The Lessons in Creating a Startup, either Externally or Within a Company?

Before coming to Carnegie Mellon Silicon Valley in September 2009, Steven worked for many years at HP Labs. As an Associate Director in the Technology Transfer Office at HP labs, Steven was responsible for developing technology incubations with the potential to be significant disruptive business opportunities. He most recently created a cloud-based scalable service for long tail and web-to-print publishing. He has held a variety of research management roles at HP Labs, and has led the development of technology for numerous businesses, including Print-On-Demand, novel computer input devices, enterprise workflow solutions, disk drives, and solutions for enterprise and commercial printing. Earlier in his career at HP, Steven developed and ran HP Labs' University Research program, resulting in many successful research collaborations. He created HP Labs research science centers in China, Israel and in the US at Stanford, UC Berkeley and MIT. As manager of the Expert Systems department in HP Labs, Steven led the creation of an expert systems language and tool kit used within HP and at several leading universities. Expert system solutions developed for HP included photolithography error diagnosis, computer configuration tools, mass spectroscopy analysis, handwriting recognition, etc.

While at the Computer Science and Applied Mathematics Department of the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, U.C. Berkeley, Steven created tools for visualizing the distribution systems for energy resources in the U.S. and understanding the impact of disruptions to the US energy distribution grid. As a member of M.I.T.'s Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, Steven engaged in research on computational linguistics, reasoning and knowledge representation. At Carnegie Mellon Silicon Valley, Steven is focused on growing the context aware mobile computing work in the CyLab Mobility Research Center.


Scott Russell
Adjunct Professor; Managing Director, eCarnegie Tech
Intrapreneur/Entrepreneur: What Are The Lessons in Creating a Startup, either Externally or Within a Company?

Scott Russell is an adjunct professor at Carnegie Mellon Silicon Valley and has had a 25-year career in information technology; first as a senior manager of technology for some of the world's largest financial institutions and later as an investor in technology start-ups. For the last 11 years, Scott has been a general partner with Diamondhead Ventures and Mobius Venture Capital. During his tenure as a venture capitalist, Scott has helped manage funds totaling over 2 billion dollars and has invested in over 150 technology companies.

In 1996, Scott co-founded Mobius Venture Capital (formerly known as SOFTBANK Technology Ventures), where he focused on software, financial services, and Internet opportunities. Scott and his partners invested in and helped build many well known successful startups including Yahoo!, E*Trade, Verisign, E-Loan , Geocities (sold to Yahoo!), Buy.com, and many others. Scott has personally served as a director on the boards of over 30 companies, including the public boards of Supportsoft and Buy.com.

Prior to his career in venture capital, Scott spent 14 years managing corporate technology for several multi-national firms, including Swiss Bank, S.G. Warburg (London), Goldman Sachs (Tokyo) and J.P. Morgan (New York). As Managing Director of Information Technology, Scott was responsible for all aspects of the banks' technology including the development of proprietary global trading systems and the acquisition of third party software and hardware products.

Scott is a graduate of Carnegie Mellon University and London Business School. He is a founder of Carnegie Mellon's Silicon Valley campus and is on the School of Computer Science Dean's advisory board. He is a frequent speaker, panelist and business plan contest judge at several leading universities.


Julie Schoenfeld
CEO, PerfectMarket
Engineer to CEO and the Survival Skills In Between

Chief Executive Officer of Perfect Market, Inc., is a proven entrepreneur with a passion for identifying talent and assembling effective teams.

Julie previously was a founding member and CEO of two other successful venture-backed startups. From its creation in 2000 to February 2007, Julie was president-CEO of OEwaves Inc. She remains active on OEwaves' board of directors.

Before that, Julie was president-CEO of Net Effect Systems Inc. In her 18-month tenure at Net Effect, she raised two rounds of financing from Greylock Management, Trinity Ventures and TL Ventures, built a world-class management team, launched the company and product and sold the company to Ask Jeeves Inc. for more than $288 million.

Before Net Effect, she was VP of worldwide sales for Stream International, where she grew sales from $30 million to more than $200 million in three years.

A recognized industry spokesperson, she serves on the board of the Young Presidents Organization of Los Angeles (YPOLA).

Julie holds a B.S. in engineering from Tufts University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.


Minal Shah
Senior Counsel, Gibney, Anthony & Flaherty, LLP.
Panel Discussion: Expanding Business to New Territories and Securing the Best Talent Internationally

Minal A. Shah joined Gibney, Anthony & Flaherty, LLP as Senior Counsel in San Francisco, California. She practices in the area of immigration and nationality law, concentrating in business immigration.

Ms. Shah represents corporate and individual clients before the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Citizenship and Immigration Services, the U.S. Department of Labor and the U.S. Department of State. Advising companies regarding the employment of foreign nationals, Ms. Shah consults with employers to implement effective immigration policies. She has managed immigration programs for established multinational companies and start-ups in a wide range of industries, including information technology, entertainment, biotechnology, financial services, and non-profit institutions.

Ms. Shah is a cum laude graduate of the University of California, Hastings College of the Law, and a cum laude graduate of the University of California Irvine. Prior to beginning her immigration practice, she served as Appellate Law Clerk to the Honorable Chief Justice Ronald T. Y. Moon of the Supreme Court of the State of Hawai’i.

Ms. Shah was admitted to the California State Bar in 1998 and is an active member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association.


Lauren States
Advanced Leadership Initiative Fellow, Harvard University
WITIStyle Storytelling: From Wharton to CTO of Cloud Computing: The Many Faces of a Technical Career

As Vice President, Technology Strategy, Growth Initiatives and CTO for Cloud Computing on the IBM Corporate Strategy team, Lauren is responsible for the technology strategy for IBM's growth initiatives, including cloud computing, Smarter Planet, business analytics and emerging markets. In her previous role in the IBM Software Group, Lauren engaged directly with clients to deliver leading edge cloud solutions globally. She joined IBM as a systems engineer after graduating from the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School.

Lauren was a leader in the company's client/server emerging business, led the client/server Midwest sales team and has also served as global technical sales and customer deployment executive for IBM Software Group. As a senior executive on IBM's Integration and Values Leadership Team, she was a leader in the company-wide Client Value Initiative - responsible for the reshaping of IBM's skills development.

In 2012, Lauren received the Federal 100 Award and was recognized by CloudNOW as one of the Top Women in Cloud.


Joey Tamer
Consultant, Expert, JoeyTamer.com
Panel Discussion: Money Matters: Getting the Right Funding

Joey Tamer (www.joeytamer.com) is a "shadow CEO," extending her entrepreneur-clients' bandwidth. She consults to product and service companies, and to consultancies. She has worked in the U.S., Europe, China and Qatar.

Successes include the 1st Internet B2B IPO with $30M to each of the founders in year 5; the sale of a husband/wife software company for $50M in year 4; the raising of $2.2M in seed capital with no equity out, for a software venture she built in China; and the sale of a start-up Internet company within 8 months of writing their first investment pitch piece.

Her Fortune 500 clients retain her to start in-house new business unit initiatives; these have included J.P. Morgan Capital, Sony, IBM, Apple, Hearst, Blockbuster, Technicolor, Harper Collins, Discovery Channel, Time-Warner, Agfa and Scitex. Among her many early stage ventures, she includes Earthweb (IPO 1998) and iSuppli.

She speaks and publishes widely on entrepreneurship. Her published credits include 5 books, 60 published articles, and a weblog with hundreds of blogposts of advice to entrepreneurs. Her website is www.joeytamer.com and she can be reached at joey @ joeytamer.com, or 1+310 245 5310.


Pemo Theodore
Media Producer & Startup Coach, EZebis
Panel Discussion: Money Matters: Getting the Right Funding

Pemo Theodore is an online entrepreneur & startup coach. Originally from Australia she has been in online business for over 6 years. She has been involved in small business for 33 years in Australia, Canada, Ireland & London. She video interviews venture capitalists, angel investors & women founders in the US & Europe on the shortfall in funding for women. She recently launched an ebook with 120 short embedded clips & summary of her findings "Why are Women Funded Less than Men? a crowdsourced conversation" www.ezebis.com/ebook. She created a virtual program PitchPerfect to prepare entrepreneurs for funding ezebis.com/pitch-perfect/


Lynda Weinman
Co-Founder and Executive Chair, lynda.com
Re-inventing Education

Lynda Weinman is co-founder and executive chair of lynda.com, one of the pioneering companies in online education. Through a comprehensive library of high quality, instructional videos taught by recognized industry experts, lynda.com teaches technology and design skills to over one million individual, corporate, academic and government subscribers. Lynda is a self-taught computer expert, author, educator, and entrepreneur. A Web graphics and design veteran and author of dozens of best-selling books, Lynda wrote the very first industry book on Web design, Designing Web Graphics, in 1995. Before launching lynda.com, she was a faculty member at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, CA, and worked as an animator and motion graphics director in the film special effects industry. Lynda has also been a consultant for Adobe, Macromedia, and Microsoft, and has conducted workshops at those organizations in addition to Disney. She, along with her husband and co-founder Bruce Heavin, evolved lynda.com from its original conception as a free web resource for her students, to the site for her books on Web design, to the registration hub for physical classrooms and conferences, to a highly successful online training library. Considered one of the top leaders in the field of online education and paid subscription services, Lynda Weinman is a long-time champion of standing strong and visible as a successful woman to show others that creating your own path is not only possible, but achievable.


Kathrin Winkler
Vice President and Chief Sustainability Officer, EMC Corporation
WITIStyle Storytelling: Women Creating a Sustainable Future

As Vice President and Chief Sustainability Officer, Kathrin is charged with providing vision and leadership in the development and implementation of EMC's strategy for environmental and social sustainability. Kathrin teams with functional leaders in EMC's Green Business Leadership, a cross-functional virtual team that champions company-wide environmental initiatives and works to ensure integration of sustainability principles both in strategy and in day-to-day operations. In her previous role as Sr. Director for EMC's hardware engineering group, Kathrin founded the company's Engineering Green Team and its Design for Environment program, which are driving leadership designs in environmental stewardship and energy efficiency throughout EMC's product portfolio.

Kathrin joined EMC in 2003 as Director, NAS Product Management. Her past positions included Principal Consultant/Analyst specializing in enterprise management systems and service level architectures at Renaissance Worldwide, Vice President Technical Marketing in a Web services security startup, and Consultant Software Engineer in Network Systems Engineering at Digital Equipment Corporation. In addition to her work at EMC, Kathrin serves as a Director of EcoLogic Development Fund, a non-profit organization dedicated to community-based conservation in Central America.


And more to be announced soon!

* Speakers and Sessions are subject to change