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Speakers


Master of Ceremonies

Amanda Coolong
Chief Content Officer & Advisory Board Co-Chair, Women in Technology International
 
308 - Hard-Earned Advice FOR Entrepreneurs FROM Entrepreneurs!

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.


Keynotes & Featured Speakers

Anjul Bhambhri
Vice President, Big Data & Streams, IBM
 
301 - Keynote Breakfast - The Era of Big Data and Its Impact On Our Society
304 - Unleashing the Power of Big Data to Capture Customer Loyalty and Robust Revenue

Anjul Bhambhri is currently IBM's Vice President of Big Data Products, overseeing product strategy, development and business partnerships. She is a big data enthusiast, thought leader and industry influencer. She drives business with large clients across the industry, academia, and government. Previously at IBM, Anjul focused on application and data lifecycle management tools and spearheaded the development of XML capabilities in DB2 database server. She has 25 years of experience in the database industry and has held engineering and management positions at IBM, Informix and Sybase. In 2009, she received the YWCA of Silicon Valley's "Tribute to Women in Technology" Award. She holds a degree in Electrical Engineering.


Catherine Bracy
Director of Community Organizing, Code for America
 
313 - The Women Empowering Code for America

Catherine Bracy is Director of Community Organizing at Code for America. Until November 2012, she was a product manager and director of the Obama campaign's technology field office in San Francisco, the first of its kind in American political history. In that role she was responsible for organizing technologists to volunteer their skills to the campaign's technology and digital efforts.

Prior to joining the campaign, Catherine ran the Knight Foundation's 2011 News Challenge, and before that was the administrative director at Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet & Society. She is on the board of directors at the Citizen Engagement Lab and the Public Laboratory.


Sandy Carter
CEO | CMO | Ecosystems | Business Development Information Technology, Silicon Blitz
 
207 - Combining Social + Big Data + Analytics = Socialytics!
305 - INTRApreneurship: How to Succeed with Entrepreneurial Efforts Inside Today's Corporations

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/


Puja Jaspal
Vice President, Human Resources, Technology, Visa Inc.
 
201 - VISA Breakfast Keynote - Leading with Purpose and Passion

Puja Jaspal is Vice President and HR Business Partner for Visa Inc., where she leads the team providing human resources support for Visa's global technology organization. Puja joined Visa from Google, where she held a number of senior HR leadership roles including HR Business Partner for Google's Product Management function and the Chrome & Apps Product Area. Most recently at Google Puja managed Performance Management Design, Recognition and Compensation Communications.

Prior to joining Google, Puja served as research director in the Corporate Executive Board's Human Resources practice, where she provided thought leadership and developed frameworks for leadership transitions and management of front-line employees. Puja has additional experience at Deloitte Consulting, General Electric, and Procter & Gamble, including marketing roles and as the HR manager for Global Diversity.

Puja earned a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering with Honors from the University of Cincinnati and an M.B.A. from the Harvard Business School. She lives in San Mateo with her husband and daughter and enjoys cooking, soccer and tennis.


Jennifer Pahlka
Founder and Executive Director, Code for America
 
313 - The Women Empowering Code for America

Jennifer Pahlka is the founder and executive director of Code for America, a non-profit organization that helps residents and governments harness technology to solve community problems.

Jennifer is known for her March 2012 TED talk, "Coding a Better Government." She is the recipient of several awards, including MIT's Kevin Lynch Award, the Oxford Internet Institute's Internet and Society Award, and the National Democratic Institute's Democracy Award. She spent eight years at CMP Media, where she ran the Game Developers Conference, Game Developer magazine, Gamasutra.com, and the Independent Games Festival. Previously, Jennifer ran the Web 2.0 and Gov 2.0 events for TechWeb, in conjunction with O'Reilly Media.

A graduate of Yale University, Ms. Pahlka's early career was spent in the non-profit sector. She has just returned to Code for America after a year's leave to serve as Deputy Chief Technology Officer in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy under CTO Todd Park.


Gwynne Shotwell
President, SpaceX
 
211 - Rocket Science, Political Science, and a Bit of Elbow Grease

Gwynne Shotwell is President of Space Explorations Technology Corporation (SpaceX), responsible for day‐to‐day operations and for managing all customer and strategic relations to support company growth. She joined SpaceX in 2002 as Vice President of Business Development and built the Falcon vehicle family manifest to over 40 launches, representing over $3 billion in revenue. Ms. Shotwell is a member of the SpaceX Board of Directors.

Prior to joining SpaceX, Ms. Shotwell spent more than ten years at the Aerospace Corporation. There she held positions in Space Systems Engineering & Technology as well as Project Management. She was promoted to the role of Chief Engineer of an MLV‐class satellite program, managed a landmark study for the Federal Aviation Administration on commercial space transportation, and completed an extensive analysis of space policy for NASA's future investment in space transportation. Ms. Shotwell was subsequently recruited to be Director of Microcosm's Space Systems Division, where she served on the executive committee and directed corporate business development.

In 2004, she was elected statewide to the California Space Authority Board of Directors and served on its executive committee. She has also served as an officer of the AIAA Space Systems Technical Committee. Ms. Shotwell participates in a variety of STEM (Science, Engineering, Technology, and Mathematics)‐related programs, including the Frank J. Redd Student Scholarship Competition; under her leadership the committee raised over $350,000 in scholarships in six years.

Ms. Shotwell received, with honors, her Bachelor's and Master's Degrees from Northwestern University in Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mathematics. She has authored dozens of papers on a variety of subjects including standardizing spacecraft/payload interfaces, conceptual small spacecraft design, infrared signature target modeling, shuttle integration, and reentry vehicle operational risks.


Alexa Swainson-Barreveld
Director, Emerging Watson Technologies, IBM
 
206 - IBM Keynote Lunch - Wo(Man) & Machine: IBM Watson and the Future of Cognitive Computing

Alexa Swainson-Barreveld is the Director of Watson Emerging Technologies at IBM. In her role she is focused on defining both the future state of IBM's Cognitive Computing products, while also building the core technologies that enable complex data discovery and analysis.

Over the course of her 11-year career at IBM, Alexa has held a variety of roles. Most recently, she led the Worldwide Watson Sales Team and focused on helping clients transform their businesses through the use of Watson technologies. Other prior roles include Executive Assistant for Mike Rhodin, SVP/Watson, and leadership positions across Software Group and Sales & Distribution focused on the Insurance Sector, Financial Services and Channel development.

Alexa holds an MBA from Columbia University and a B.Sc. in Engineering from the University of Vermont. She is a member of the Society of Women Engineers and the Columbia Alumni Association. She and her husband Eric and son Charlie live in Austin, TX.


WITI Summit Speakers, Panelists and Moderators

Anousheh Ansari
CEO & Co-Founder, Prodea Systems
 
302 - High Tech and High Touch: Using Technology To Improve Human Connection

Anousheh Ansari is Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of Prodea Systems. As she launched her company on September 18, 2006, she also blasted off for an eight-day expedition aboard the International Space Station and captured headlines around the world as the first female private space explorer. She also earned a place in history as the first astronaut of Iranian descent, the first Muslim woman, and the fourth private explorer to visit space.

As a successful serial entrepreneur and active proponent of world-changing technologies and social entrepreneurship, Anousheh along with her family provided the title sponsorship for the Ansari X Prize, a $10 million cash award for the first non-governmental organization to launch a reusable manned spacecraft into space twice within two weeks. With the success of the X Prize competition, the Ansari family helped launch a new era in private space exploration.

Anousheh currently works to enable social entrepreneurs to bring about radical change globally, with organizations such as ASHOKA, which supports social entrepreneurship around the world, including the Middle East and Central Asia. She runs an annual competition called the "What If?" competition for middle school students to promote free thinking and STEM education.

Anousheh earned a bachelor's degree in electronics and computer engineering from George Mason University, followed by a master's degree in electrical engineering from George Washington University. She is currently working toward a master's degree in astronomy from Swinburne University.


Ben Bajarin
Director of Consumer Technology, Creative Strategies
 
306 - Wearables: The Technology, the Opportunity, and YOU

Ben Bajarin joined Creative Strategies in 2000 and has primarily focused his analysis and research on the consumer technology industry and consumer technology products. He has provided custom industry analysis and developed strategic plans for clients in the markets of the digital home, mobile computing, personal electronics, personal computing, the digital lifestyle, and interactive entertainment media. His overarching goal with his analysis is to understand how and why consumers will use new digital technologies in their everyday lives both in the present and in the future.


Suzanne Baran
Content Strategy Director,
 
310- Content Marketing: Blogging for ROI

Suzanne Baran is an industry-leading Digital & Content Strategist. During her 16-year career she has driven digital strategy for brands such as Yahoo!, AT&T, Intel, Toyota, Cisco, Scottrade, DirecTV, POM Wonderful, Teleflora, FIJI Water, California Psychics, Participant Media, Sony, Bethesda Softworks (Brink the game), The Hollywood Reporter, and Spin Media. She effectively programmed content for an audience of 189 million unique visitors per month worldwide for Yahoo's homepage.

Suzanne is also a published author, blogger, and writer. Her columns have appeared on Yahoo Music, KimKardashian.com, Celebuzz.com, The Hollywood Reporter, Internet World, Ticker Magazine, and The Big Takeover.

She was recently featured in Contently Magazine, "Why Content Should Always Align with Brand Sales Goals," and full-length articles in AMEX OPEN, HubSpot and AdKnowledge. Currently, she's an expert panelist for the Digital Growth Summit. Suzanne teaches entrepreneurs and small businesses to Blog for ROI in General Assembly seminars.


Karen Berntson
Principal, Berntson Law
 
105 - Employment and Benefits Negotiation for Women: Leveraging Your Worth

Recognizing that working professionals invest a lot of time and energy to build successful careers, Karen Berntson started her firm (www.berntsonlaw.com) so that professionals would have access to a trusted advisor when making important career decisions. Karen, who specializes in employment and labor matters, has spent 15 years advising working professionals on the career decisions that matter most - like negotiating salary, benefits, and severance packages.

Karen received her law degree from the University of San Francisco School of Law. After law school, Karen joined the joined the law firm Bell, Rosenberg & Hughes LLP in Oakland, where she represented individuals, corporations and public entities. Karen later represented employees and unions at the law firm Davis & Reno in San Francisco before starting her own law practice. Prior to starting her law career, Karen worked in Washington, DC, on the legislative staff for Senator Barbara Boxer.

Karen and her husband, Phil, are the parents of two high-energy kids - Alexa, who is three and a half, and Lucas, who just turned two.


Orna Berry
Corporate VP, Growth and Innovation, EMC Centers of Excellence United States and, EMC Corporation
 
210 - "AHA!" Moments and Success Stories of Women in Technology

Orna Berry is a recognized entrepreneur with over 25 years of experience in the Israeli science, technology, and venture capital industries. She is known for her efforts to promote excellence, entrepreneurship, and innovation in Israeli society.

Dr. Berry has held a wide range of key positions with significant social and public impact throughout her career. She was a founding partner of Ornet Data Communications Ltd. She held the position of Chief Scientist of the Ministry of Industry and Trade in the Israeli government, served as the Chairperson of the Israeli Venture Capital Funds Association (IVA), and was previously a Venture Partner at Gemini Israel Funds. Dr. Berry has also held a number of positions related to consulting and management of scientific research at Fibronics, IBM, Intel, and UNISYS. She also served as a Director at PrimeSense, which was recently acquired by Apple.

Currently Dr. Berry serves as the Corporate Vice President Growth and Innovation EMC Centers of Excellence EMEA (Israel, Ireland, Russia, and Egypt) and the US (Utah and South Carolina), Chairperson of the Israel-Australia Chamber of Commerce (IACC), representative on IAESI's Board of Directors, and as chairperson of the Executive Committee of the Academic College Tel Aviv-Jaffa. Most recently, she was the recipient of the "Yakirat Ha'Negev" award from Ben Gurion University, which recognized her achievements and excellence in the technology industry, as well as her successful entrepreneurship ventures and profound involvement in establishing an EMC R&D branch in the Negev region.


Cheemin Bo-Linn
President and CEO, Peritus Partners
 
304 - Unleashing the Power of Big Data to Capture Customer Loyalty and Robust Revenue

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.


Rebecca Bompiedi
SVP/Business Transformation, Philips Lighting Americas
 
302 - High Tech and High Touch: Using Technology To Improve Human Connection

Rebecca Bompiedi is currently Senior Vice President of Business Transformation for Philips Lighting business across the Americas, responsible for leading a revolutionary business transformation to achieve better alignment to customer needs within the rapidly changing lighting industry. As part of the executive leadership team, she drives end-to-end process improvement and business growth strategies across Philips Professional Luminaries, LED and traditional lighting, and electronic systems portfolios- all of which are focused on helping to improve billions of lives a year through energy-efficient and health-focused lighting solutions.

Rebecca has held leadership positions across diverse functional areas such as engineering, supply chain, sales and marketing, with top brands GELcore, GE, and Philips. At GE, Rebecca developed a distinct passion for empowering women to personally succeed while shaping the future of technology. There she led the GE Women's Network (GEWN) for GE Lighting and chaired the Women in Technology organization in the GEWN. Today, she continues to pursue that passion as a board member for the Cleveland State Foundation, a founding member of Cleveland's In Council with Women Network, and a member of Tiffany Circle for the Northeast Ohio American Red Cross.

Rebecca holds an MS in Industrial Engineering and a BS in Chemical Engineering from Cleveland State University, and is a self-proclaimed proud wife and mother to two wonderful daughters.


Laura Borel
Product Manager, Jawbone
 
306 - Wearables: The Technology, the Opportunity, and YOU

Laura Borel is a Product Manager at Jawbone, where she focuses on Nutrition and Weight Management. Previously, Laura was the Founder and CEO of Nutrivise, a nutrition start-up out of Stanford University.


Nellie Bowles
Associate Editor/Tech Culture, Re/code
 
203 - Insiders' Insights on Technology Trends

Nellie Bowles is currently Associate Editor/Tech Culture for Re/code. Most recently Nellie was a business writer for the San Francisco Chronicle, reporting on tech and zeitgeist. She started at the paper as an intern and was hired as a staff writer for the Style section.

The sixth-generation San Franciscan studied at Columbia University, receiving degrees magna cum laude in comparative literature and psychology, and a Rhodes finalist, before completing a Fulbright Fellowship in Swaziland. While abroad, Nellie freelanced for Foreign Policy and the Mail & Guardian, as well as doing multimedia work for The New Yorker.


Bridget Boyer
Manager, International Sales, DHL
 
101- The WITI HackCamp

Bridget is currently a Manager of International Sales with the world's most international company, DHL. Using her supply chain and competitive analytics expertise, she helps facilitate global commerce on a daily basis for New York City-based organizations with a minimum revenue threshold of $10M per annum. In 2008, Bridget earned her MBA with a concentration on Commercial Diplomacy and Leadership, to complement her Master's of Organizational Management achieved from the Sorbonne in Paris, France. Shortly thereafter, she started her logistics career with UPS, working on pricing and profitability strategies with a micro-market focus.


Jennifer Cambern
Vice President, Product Management and Chief Product Owner, ADP
 
210 - "AHA!" Moments and Success Stories of Women in Technology

Jennifer Cambern is the Vice President of Product Management and Chief Product Owner for ADP's Workforce Now™. She joined ADP in 2010, having previously worked as Vice President of Product Management with Ceridian and as COO for H&R Block's RSM McGladrey Employer Services. As Chief Product Owner, Ms. Cambern directs a team of ~30 product owners in multiple locations who manage the Workforce Now portfolio of projects. Workforce Now™ is a SaaS offering with over 47000+ clients which includes Human Resources, Benefits, Time and Labor Management, Talent and Payroll.

In addition to her work at ADP, Ms. Cambern volunteers for the American Whitewater Association, completing river cleanups and volunteering for whitewater rescue duties across Georgia, North Carolina, and Tennessee. She also volunteers with the Nature Conservatory completing cleanups of America's Wild spaces. She holds a BS in Business Administration and an MBA from the Georgia State University's Robinson School of Business. Ms. Cambern also holds certifications as a PMP, AIPMM and CPO.


Cora Carmody
Senior Vice President, Information Technology, Jacobs Engineering
 
204 - Women Leaders in Tech: How/Why Did They Choose a STEM Career?

As the Senior Vice President, Information Technology for Jacobs Engineering, Cora Carmody provides leadership for Jacobs' mission-critical IT Systems including Enterprise Resources systems such as HR, Financial, Operational support systems such as project control, engineering/design and collaboration, infrastructure systems and services such as networks, servers, desktops and web/social and collaborative systems. Cora was with Litton/PRC from 1978 - 2001 (and CIO there from 1996-2001), Invensys plc from 2001-2003, and SAIC from 2003-2008.

*Recipient of NASA's Manned Flight Honoree Award for work on Space Station Freedom Software Build Process, 1991

*Named one of the ComputerWorld "Premier 100," Top IT Leaders of 2002
*IT group recognized in ComputerWorld's "Top 100 Places to Work in IT," 2000 and 2005

*Led Litton/PRC to CMM Level 3; then supported maturity increase to CMM Level 5, crystallizing PRC's culture of continuous improvement

*A lifetime member of the Girl Scouts of the United States of America and the founder of Technology Goddesses, a Girl Scout oriented program to mentor girls of all ages in all manner of information technology.

Cora has an M.S. degree in Computer Science from Fairleigh Dickinson University (1985) and B.A. and M.A. degrees in Mathematics from the Johns Hopkins University (1978). She and her husband, Colonel Kevin O. Carmody USMC retired, live in Southern California and have 4 children.


Jennifer Ceran
Vice President, Finance, Box Inc.
 
309 - Beyond Coding: Uncovering Today's Most Influential Technical Jobs for Women

Jennifer Ceran is VP Finance at Box Inc. She joined the company October 2012 to build and lead world-class Procurement, Treasury and Investor Relations functions as Box expands internationally and grows in scale.

Prior to Box, Jenny spent more than nine years at eBay Inc. in various roles including VP Investor Relations, VP Financial Planning & Analysis and VP Treasurer. While at eBay, she managed treasury during the company's huge growth period and the financial market crisis, as well as investor relations during eBay's turnaround period.

In 2012, she was Ranked #1 Investor Relations Professional in Internet by the Sell Side in Institutional Investor's 2012 survey and in 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009 she was recognized by Treasury and Risk Management Magazine as one of the "100 Most Influential People in Finance."

Prior to joining eBay, Jenny spent three years at Cisco Systems where she held various positions including Head of European Treasury, Director - Global Treasury Operations and Director - Corporate Finance. She also spent more than 10 years at Sara Lee Corporation in Finance roles.

Jenny holds an MBA in Finance, Marketing and Accounting from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, and BAs in Communications and French from Vanderbilt University.


Angie Chang
Vice President, Partnerships & Mentorship, Hackbright Academy
 
308 - Hard-Earned Advice FOR Entrepreneurs FROM Entrepreneurs!

Angie Chang is Vice President of Strategic Partnerships at Hackbright Academy, whinch runs a 12-week accelerated engineering fellowship exclusively for women quarterly in San Francisco. In 2008, Ms. Chang started Bay Area Girl Geek Dinners to network women in technology. Dinners are sponsored by companies including Google, Facebook, Yahoo! and Palantir. Prior to that, she co-founded Women 2.0, a media company promoting women in high-growth, high-tech entrepreneurship.

Ms. Chang was named in Fast Company's 2010 "Most Influential Women in Technology" and more recently Business Insider named her one of "30 Most Important Women Under 30 In Tech." She has been invited by the U.S. State Department to speak on women's high-tech, high-growth entrepreneurship in the West Bank, Switzerland, and Germany. Ms. Chang has held positions in product management and web/UI production at various Silicon Valley startups. She holds a B.A. in English and Social Welfare from UC Berkeley.


Carolyn Crandall
Vice President, Marketing, Maxta
 
208 - Personal Innovation and Business Leadership

With 25 years of proven track record, Carolyn Crandall is an acknowledged expert in marketing, sales, and channel best practices. At Nimble Storage she is responsible for driving company brand awareness and visibility. She also creates worldwide marketing programs to accelerate revenue, build out enablement programs to fuel growth with partners, and establish robust social media and customer community programs. Prior to joining Nimble Storage, Carolyn served as vice president of worldwide marketing at Riverbed. Before joining Riverbed she held vice president roles with Seagate and Juniper Networks as well as positions with Cisco Systems and National Semiconductor.


Michelle Crosby
Co-Founder & CEO, Wevorce
 
302 - High Tech and High Touch: Using Technology To Improve Human Connection

Michelle Crosby is an accomplished mediator, attorney and founder of Wevorce, a company that brings a high tech + high touch approach to divorce. Wevorce's proven methodology and technology work together seamlessly to provide a civilized approach to transitioning from one household to two while helping couples maintain their roles as mom and dad.

Though Michelle's expertise spans business law, securities law and family law, her passion is teaching others how to overcome challenges creatively and collaboratively. Michelle has led hundreds of negotiations for clients ranging from Fortune 1000 corporations to couples in the midst of divorce. The lessons she's learned, along with her extensive research on human behavior and the law, provide a rich backdrop for inspiring and empowering her audiences to become peacemakers in their own lives.

Michelle holds Mediation certification from Harvard University, and earned her law degree from Gonzaga University School of Law. She is a Y Combinator participant, and was named an "Up & Coming Entrepreneur" by Forbes Magazine, May 2013.


Lake Dai
Operating Unit Lead, Search, Quixey Inc
 
305 - INTRApreneurship: How to Succeed with Entrepreneurial Efforts Inside Today's Corporations

Lake Dai is the Operating Unit Lead of Search at Quixey, a California-based private company that is evolving search for the mobile era. Lake is responsible for the overall success of the Operating Unit focused on Quixey's core technology, Functional Search™. She has 15 years of product management and product marketing experience with an exemplary track record of establishing advanced product concepts, launching industry-leading products, and creating and growing profitable businesses. Prior to Quixey, Lake held leadership roles at Yahoo! and Alibaba, among others. She holds an MBA from the USC Marshall School of Business.


Cindy Elkins
Vice President/IT Americas, Genentech
 
204 - Women Leaders in Tech: How/Why Did They Choose a STEM Career?

Cindy Elkins is the Vice President, IT Americas, at Genentech. She led a 100% transformation of all commercial IT systems, emphasizing employee-centric, cloud and mobile technologies, while materially reducing the investment needed to support the growing pipeline. Her teams are responsible for 36,000 users and deliver 90%+ end user support satisfaction. She is also the IT leader for Genentech's Healthcare IT efforts.

Genentech was ranked #9 in Computerworld's "100 Best Places to Work in IT" in 2013 and Cindy was named to Computerworld's Premier 100 IT Leaders for 2014.

At Ariba, as VP and GM of Supplier Solutions, her team created the largest transacting B2B supplier community in the world. She also was a transformational leader at ATP, Aspect Communications, VeriFone and began her career as a software developer at Digital Equipment Corporation.

Cindy is a graduate of UCLA in Applied Mathematics and earned an MBA from Santa Clara University.


Rob Enderle
President & Principal Analyst, Enderle Group
 
304 - Unleashing the Power of Big Data to Capture Customer Loyalty and Robust Revenue

As President and Principal Analyst of the Enderle Group, Rob Enderle provides regional and global companies with guidance in how to create credible dialogue with the market, target customer needs, create new business opportunities, anticipate technology changes, select vendors and products, and practice zero dollar marketing. For over 20 years Rob has worked for and with companies like Microsoft, HP, IBM, Dell, Toshiba, Gateway, Sony, USAA, Texas Instruments, AMD, Intel, Credit Suisse First Boston, ROLM, and Siemens.

An Internet search of media quotes validates Rob Enderle as one of the most influential technology pundits in the world. Leveraging world-class IT industry analysis skills honed at DataQuest, Giga Information Group, and Forrester Research, Rob seized upon the power of the information channel as a conduit to reach business strategists and deliver valuable, experienced-based insight on how to leverage industry advances for maximum business advantage.


Susan Etlinger
Industry Analyst, Altimeter Group
 
202 - Big Data and The Internet of Things: Get Ready to Connect!

Susan Etlinger is an Industry Analyst with Altimeter Group, focusing on social media analytics, listening and measurement strategies that support business objectives. With a diverse background in marketing and strategic planning, Susan has worked at the intersection of people, processes, and technology, in both corporations and agencies, including at Charles Schwab, Inc. and Horn Group.

Susan focuses on helping clients develop strategic, actionable plans that support their unique objectives and organizations through periods of rapid change. Her experience across the enterprise in information technology, marketing, customer service, and retail enables her to assimilate the needs of multiple constituencies and apply them pragmatically to real-world business requirements.

Susan has a deep grounding in interactive marketing and social technologies. As a Senior Vice President at Horn Group, she pioneered the agency's social strategy offering, advising start-ups to Fortune 500 companies on social media best practices and strategic plan development. She has launched dozens of companies and products and counseled businesses through crises, liquidity events, and large-scale organizational initiatives.

Susan is a published translator and has a BA in Rhetoric from the University of California at Berkeley.


Yael Garten
Manager, Mobile Data Science, LinkedIn
 
304 - Unleashing the Power of Big Data to Capture Customer Loyalty and Robust Revenue

Yael Garten leads the Mobile Data Science team at LinkedIn, which converts LinkedIn's rich data into actionable product and business insights that optimize the LinkedIn mobile experience, creating powerful data-driven products to help LinkedIn's 275 million members be productive and successful. Her team also focuses on understanding the impact of mobile usage on the rich LinkedIn ecosystem.

Before joining LinkedIn, Yael was at Stanford University, where she completed her Ph.D. in Biomedical Informatics, focusing on information extraction via natural language processing to understand how human genetic variations impacts drug response. Yael advises biomedical companies on informatics methodologies to transform high throughput data into insights. She has a Ph.D. from Stanford University School of Medicine, and an M.Sc. from the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel.


Kim Gaxiola
Founder, TechGirl Financial
 
105 - Employment and Benefits Negotiation for Women: Leveraging Your Worth

Business owner, speaker, educator, and advisor, Kim Gaxiola's mission is to provide objective and timely financial advice and guidance, with the highest level of professional service. Serving investors managing their assets from trusts, retirement plans, IRAs, and 401(k)s, Kim has over 10 years of experience as a financial advisor, and 15 years in the financial services industry.

In 1994 Kim graduated with a bachelor's degree in economics from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Kim received the CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER(tm) certification from the College for Financial Planning in 2008. Thinking it would be more fun to write exams than take them, Kim volunteered as a subject matter expert for the College of Financial Planning and helped write exam questions for the 2012 CFP® certification test. After spending over 10 years working for Wall Street banks and broker-dealers, in 2010 Kim crossed over to the independent world where she now enjoys the entrepreneurial spirit to grow her business, delivering unbiased, independent advice without the pressure of Wall Street quotas.

Embracing the culture of technology in Silicon Valley, Kim serves as the network coordinator for the Silicon Valley WITI (Women In Technology International) regional network. She is a KidLead Koach for kids aged 10-13 training them in leadership skills in Morgan Hill, and a board member for the San Jose Catholic Professionals. When she is not working or volunteering she likes to travel, read, exercise, drink wine with the girls, or just hang out with family and friends.


Marie Gutgesell
Global Watch CIO, Nielsen Research
 
204 - Women Leaders in Tech: How/Why Did They Choose a STEM Career?

Marie Gutgesell has led information technology at multiple prominent firms during her 20-year career, including PriceWaterhouse Coopers and Home Shopping Network. She currently serves as Global Watch CIO for Nielsen, a leading global provider of information and insights into what consumers watch and buy. In this role, she works with industry-leading advertising and media companies to deliver innovative technology solutions. Her teams combine extensive program management experience to lead large complex initiatives with the deep technology and data architecture skills to deliver robust software systems. Marie is a graduate of the University of South Florida College Of Engineering.


Petra Hofer
Chief of Staff to the CTO, eBay
 
309 - Beyond Coding: Uncovering Today's Most Influential Technical Jobs for Women

Petra Hofer has over 25 years of experience in the software and high technology industries as an engineer, consultant, and engineering manager. She has been with eBay since April 1999, helping the company manage its exponential growth and transforming its organizational structures in response to changing and emerging market requirements. Her team was responsible for the launch and support of eBay's international sites, growing their revenue share to account for over 50% of eBay's overall revenue. After two years of managing the development of eBay recommendations, she currently holds the position of Chief of Staff to the CTO of eBay Inc., Mark Carges. She is passionate about engineering excellence.

Prior to joining eBay, Petra spent six years at IBM's software lab in Vienna, Austria, working on IBM's speech recognition products. She also worked with public and privately held companies of all sizes including Bank of Austria, Amro Bank, and MQ-Tech, Inc.

Petra holds a degree in Computer Science and Business Administration.


Radhika Iyengar-Emens
Managing Partner, DoubleNova Group
 
305 - INTRApreneurship: How to Succeed with Entrepreneurial Efforts Inside Today's Corporations

Radhika Iyengar-Emens is Managing Partner of DoubleNova Group, a Silicon Valley-based blockchain consultancy and ICO advisory. She is a TEDx speaker, a Silicon Valley Woman of Influence, a serial entrepreneur, a crypto investor, and an expert in blockchain, digital health, and global entrepreneurship. She is raising a new blockchain VC fund named StarChain Ventures focused on foundational blockchain technology and enterprise blockchain solutions.

Multilingual in 9 languages, Ms. Iyengar-Emens is a global business advisor to high-tech startups and digital health companies from Europe, Israel, Asia, and Latin America. She is an expert in ICO and Silicon Valley fundraising, international expansion and business acceleration. As well, Ms. Iyengar-Emens is an advisor to governments and has set up and run accelerators and US market access programs for top startups. She has raised over $100 million for advised startups. A passionate advocate for women in technology and diversity, Ms. Iyengar-Emens is an Advisory Board Member at Women in Technology International (WITI) and an active speaker on Women in Blockchain panels and at global women's conferences. She holds an A.B. from Bryn Mawr College and an MBA from Chapman University.


Bill Lamond
, Human Potential 2.0
 
103 - Developing and Using a Powerful Voice

For more than 30 years, Bill Lamond has been a champion of women in leadership. He is the inventor of Fulfillment-based Thinking (FBT), which transforms the commitment-driven, working-harder ethic into one that is based on passion, partnership, and the intuitive and heartfelt way of thinking that women are famous for.

Mr. Lamond's clients are women who want to produce sustainable results in the style that women cherish: one of growing, developing, loving, acknowledging, and sustaining. His clients have included a Tony-nominated Broadway producer, a championship bodybuilder, a founder of a national breast cancer non-profit, a nationally recognized visionary architect, thousands of women business owners, saleswomen, and executives from such leading companies as Microsoft and Google.

As a featured speaker at the Microsoft Global Women's Conference, Mr. Lamond's talk on developing and using a powerful Voice was broadcast to the 20,000 women of Microsoft around the world. In his own words, "Voice is not a rehearsed speech. It is the ability to develop your own deepest relationship with yourself and to announce it to the world around you in ways that have magic happen for anyone listening."


Carolyn Leighton
Founder/Chairwoman, WITI
 
Founder's Reception
200 - Networking Breakfast - Welcome and Introduction

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."


Colleen Lindow
Vice President, Payment Operations, YapStone
 
309 - Beyond Coding: Uncovering Today's Most Influential Technical Jobs for Women

Colleen Lindow serves as Vice President, Payment Operations for YapStone, Inc., where she is responsible for processor, payment network, and strategic client relationships. With more than 20 years of experience in payments and risk, Colleen has held leadership positions in product management, sales, and operations at PayPal, eBay, Visa, and Square. Much of her focus has been on international, including her role as senior director of EMEA risk for PayPal in the EU. In addition, she has held key roles focusing on B2B payments, including as a founding team member and VP of Payment Operations at Bill.com as well as VP of Purchasing & Corporate Cards at Visa. She started her payments career at Bank of NY Mellon, where she held a variety of roles in merchant card acquiring and cash management.


Holly Liu
Co-Founder and Chief of Staff, Kabam
 
308 - Hard-Earned Advice FOR Entrepreneurs FROM Entrepreneurs!

Holly Liu is co-founder and Chief of Staff of Kabam, the leader in the western world for free-to-play core games. Holly also oversees Kabam's corporate culture as head of People Operations ("People Ops"), which is responsible for driving Kabam's vision, mission, and values for its more than 750 employees in offices around the world. Holly has helped build a world-class human resources team that is responsible for recruiting and retaining top talent and has grown Kabam's personnel base by 500% in three years.

Prior to her role as Chief of Staff, Holly was VP of People Ops and Director of User Experience. She led the product design for Kabam's award-winning Kingdoms of Camelot, which has grown into a $250 million franchise in less than four years. Holly was also an initial designer for the mobile extension "Kingdoms of Camelot: Battle for the North," which was the top grossing app on iOS in 2012.

Before co-founding Kabam, Holly was Senior User Interface Designer for AOL, where she led design of community web products. She has also worked as a consultant for Arthur Andersen and Accenture.

Holly received her Master's in Information Management & Systems from UC Berkeley and her B.A. in Mass Communications from UCLA. She was named to Forbes' "Top 10 Women Entrepreneurs to Watch" in 2013 and one of Fortune's "10 Most Powerful Women in Gaming."


Abbie Lundberg
President, Lundberg Media
 
204 - Women Leaders in Tech: How/Why Did They Choose a STEM Career?

Abbie Lundberg is a business technology analyst, adviser, and professional speaker with over 20 years' experience reporting and commenting on the use of technology in business. As President of Lundberg Media, she helps leaders and their teams more effectively use communication and the art of engagement for organizational change and better business results.

In addition to her advisory work, Abbie conducts original research, writes thought-leadership articles and white papers and offers other media, communication and facilitation services to businesses and non-profits of all sizes. She helps organizations develop online and face-to-face communities, and she writes about business technology and effective communication in her blog at lundbergmedia.com.

Prior to founding Lundberg Media, Abbie led the award-winning CIO editorial team as Editor in Chief from 1995 through 2008. Under her stewardship, CIO received over 230 editorial awards and became the leading source of trusted information for chief information officers and all executives interested in the use of information technology for business value and competitive advantage.


Bonnie Marcus
President and Founder, Women's Success Coaching
 
106 - GPS Your Career: Navigate Your Path to Career Success
303 - Understanding Your Value Proposition: The Key to Marketing Yourself in Business Today
307 - Strategic Networking: How to Identify and Cultivate the Workplace Relationships That Count
201 - VISA Breakfast Keynote - Leading with Purpose and Passion

Award-winning entrepreneur and Forbes contributing writer, Bonnie Marcus, M.Ed., has real conversations for real women about real situations in the workplace today. As the President of Women's Success Coaching, Bonnie assists professional women to successfully navigate the workplace and position and promote themselves to advance their careers.

With 20+ years of sales and management experience, Bonnie's extensive business background includes CEO of a ServiceMaster company and VP of Sales at Medical Staffing Network and two others national companies in the healthcare and software industries. She has held executive positions in startup companies and Fortune 500 companies. Bonnie started her corporate career at an entry-level position and worked her way up to the top of a national company by using her savvy promotion and relational skills.

Forbes.com honored Women's Success Coaching in 2010, 2011, and 2012 as one of the Top 100 Websites for Professional Women. Bonnie's syndicated radio show, GPS Your Career: A Woman's Guide to Success, provides practical tips and resources for professional women to succeed in business and is broadcast live each week on a CBS station. She has been published in ForbesWoman, WomenEntrepreneur, and Central Valley Business Times, and featured in the Wall Street Journal, Diversity MBA, and CIO Magazine.


Barbara Martin
President and CEO, Walrus Link
 
308 - Hard-Earned Advice FOR Entrepreneurs FROM Entrepreneurs!

Barbara Martin is a current Founder Institute student and President and CEO of Walrus, a cloud-based Family SaaS. Walrus's magical solutions and wondrous technology designs dynamic weekend itineraries that are fun and engaging for the entire family - turning an everyday mom into a weekend hero.

Barbara is based in Silicon Valley, operating globally with International experience in Asia, Europe, and South America. Her expertise includes cloud computing, virtualization, and mobile payments, with a background in Fiscal Accountability and Performance, Operations Management, Strategic Planning, and Contract Negotiations. Barbara has an MBA in Finance and is an entrepreneur at heart.


Gerri Martin-Flickinger
CIO, Adobe
 
202 - Big Data and The Internet of Things: Get Ready to Connect!

As senior vice president and chief information officer, Gerri Martin-Flickinger oversees Adobe's global Information Technology team, providing strategic direction and management for the company's IT infrastructure worldwide, including its hosted services. In partnership with the business, Gerri also has responsibility for developing innovative enterprise solutions built with Adobe products and technologies that solve business issues and reduce IT costs.

Gerri has more than 20 years of experience leading large-scale global IT organizations for companies experiencing explosive growth through acquisition, global expansion and/or implementing new business models. Her expertise includes leading organizations through transformational change, connecting IT to the needs of the business and aligning IT costs.

Before joining Adobe, Gerri was CIO of VeriSign, where she oversaw corporate IT services for the company's 60 offices worldwide. She had previously served as CIO for Network Associates, Inc. and McAfee Associates, Inc. Prior, Gerri held several senior systems roles at Chevron Corporation, including serving as process consultant to Chevron's executive staff.

Gerri holds a bachelor's degree in computer science from Washington State University.


Erin McCune
Payment Strategy & Financial Process Improvement, Glenbrook Partners
 
309 - Beyond Coding: Uncovering Today's Most Influential Technical Jobs for Women

At Glenbrook Partners, Erin McCune focuses her efforts on client engagements in commercial payments, global eCommerce, and the intersection of social media / Web 2.0 and payments. Erin has over 12 years of experience leading increasingly complex business-to-business (B2B) payment initiatives for corporate clients and advising financial technologists and financial institutions on the development of their cash management capabilities.

In addition to consulting, Erin is the editor of Glenbrook's Payments Views blog, where we share our opinions and points of views on the payments news of the day. Erin's blog posts and articles cover topics related to corporate finance, treasury technology, B2B payments, change leadership and financial process improvement.

Before joining Glenbrook, Erin was the founder of Forte Financial, a consulting firm focused on corporate finance efficiency, accuracy, and technology. Her work is grounded in proven change leadership and program management methodology, ensuring lasting results. She believes that "great strategy and clever technology solutions are too often casualties of poor execution" and is therefore committed to supporting clients from concept to reality.

Erin holds a B.A. in English from the University of California, Davis, and an MBA from the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California. She is a Certified Treasury Professional (CTP), a certification granted by the Association for Financial Professionals. As well, Erin is vice president and immediate past president of the Financial Women's Association of San Francisco and a member and president of the San Francisco Treasury Management Association.


Zassmin Montes de Oca
Executive Director and Vice Chair, Women Who Code
 
101- The WITI HackCamp

Zassmin Montes de Oca is Executive Director and Vice Chair of Women Who Code, a global nonprofit organization dedicated to inspiring women to excel in technology careers by creating a global, connected community of women in technology. The organization tripled in 2013 and has grown to be one of the largest communities of women engineers in the world.

Zassmin is currently hacking on Lumosity and leading the expansion of Women Who Code into different countries. She enjoys solving problems, especially technical ones; refactoring and testing are her favorite parts of programming.


Anasuya Morrill
Veteran Tech Executive & Business Leader,
 
208 - Personal Innovation and Business Leadership

Anasuya Morrill is the Vice President Sales, HP Americas Alliances. Anasuya is responsible for growing the partner revenue stream through three selling motions: sell with, sell to, and sell through. Prior to joining HP, Anasuya worked at Oracle Corporation where she drove Business Development for Oracle's Support Consulting Services and served in Strategic Planning and Business Development roles for Oracle's strategic accounts group. Anasuya has also worked in the consulting space at companies including Andersen Consulting and PwC.


Lama Nachman
Principal Engineer, Intel Labs
 
210 - "AHA!" Moments and Success Stories of Women in Technology

Lama Nachman is a Principal Engineer in Intel Labs Interaction and Experience Research. Her current research is focused on creating contextually aware experiences that understand users through sensing and sense making and act on that context to help with many aspects of their lives. Lama has 16 years of experience in the areas of computer architecture, context aware computing, multi-modal adaptive interfaces, embedded systems, wireless technologies, and sensor networks.

Previous assignments at Intel involved researching and developing the next generation of self-organizing sensor network nodes (Intel Mote Platforms). Lama has pioneered deployments of these technologies in health applications as well as various commercial and industrial settings. Other major achievements include the development and performance evaluation of microarchitecture components for the Itanium® 2 processor family.

Prior to joining Intel, Lama held senior positions at Ubicom Inc, Weave Innovations, and Microsoft Corporation. Lama received her MS and BS in computer engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.


Adrian Ott
CEO, Exponential Edge
 
208 - Personal Innovation and Business Leadership

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.


Alaina Percival
CEO and Board Chair, Women Who Code
 
101- The WITI HackCamp

Alaina Percival is Chief Executive Officer and Board Chair at Women Who Code, with which she has been involved since 2011, driving the organization's strategic goals, partnerships, and sponsorships. She is also an Advisor for CodePath, the first mobile developer school that is free for engineers.

Alaina spent the first three years of her career working at the PUMA headquarters in Herzogenaurach, Germany as the International Niche Product Manager. Upon completing her MBA, she accepted a Brand Marketing Manager position for Nfinity, a performance footwear company, where she led the rollout of the first women-specific volleyball and basketball shoes. Her migration to the technical sector took place in 2010. Her tech industry experience includes heading up developer relations at top technical recruiting firm Riviera Partners, and working as Director of Marketing for Snipit, a startup which was eventually acquired by Yahoo!

Alaina was invited to speak this year at the Belfast Technology Conference, which brought together business leaders and politicians from Belfast, Europe, and the US to discuss emerging technologies and best technology industry practices. She has also been a featured speaker at She Talks Forum discussing Women In Tech, The O'Reilly Fluent Conference discussing how to master the technologies driving the web, and has been interviewed by the Huffington Post and Women 2.0 to share her expertise on best practices for female engineers to advance their careers.

Alaina lives in the San Francisco Bay area with her husband and is active in both the technology and education circles. She has traveled to more than 60 countries and speaks fluent German.


Kim Polese
Chairman, ClearStreet
 
203 - Insiders' Insights on Technology Trends

Kim Polese is a longtime Silicon Valley entrepreneur and innovator. Currently she is Chairman of ClearStreet, a social finance startup focused on helping people eliminate debt and achieve long-term financial health.

Kim recently served as CEO of software company SpikeSource, which pioneered the industry's first self-service automated app validation platform to help accelerate software and platform innovation through the validation of “any app on any platform” for the world's App Stores. Prior, Kim co-founded Marimba, which helped to usher in a new era of systems management software for the Internet age. She served as President, Chief Executive Officer, and Chairman of Marimba, leading the company to profitability and a successful public offering prior to its acquisition by BMC Corporation in 2004.

Before co-founding Marimba, Kim worked in software management at Sun Microsystems and was the original product manager for Java, leading its launch in 1995. Prior to joining Sun, she was a consulting engineer at IntelliCorp Inc., helping Fortune 500 companies in the development of expert systems. Kim earned a Bachelor's degree in Biophysics from the University of California, Berkeley and studied Computer Science at the University of Washington, Seattle. She is an Aspen Institute Crown Fellow and serves on several boards, including the Silicon Valley Leadership Group, the University of California President's Board on Science and Innovation, UC Berkeley's College of Engineering, the Long Now Foundation, and the Global Security Institute.


Sheleen Quish
former CIO, Ameristar Casinos
 
204 - Women Leaders in Tech: How/Why Did They Choose a STEM Career?

Sheleen Quish is the former SVP of HR and IT for Ameristar Casinos Inc. in Las Vegas, NV. Her position was eliminated in 2013 when the company was acquired by Pinnacle Entertainment. Sheleen is currently a CIO At Large, sharing her knowledge and experience with IT professionals. She became the CIO for Ameristar in 2007. The primary goal was to transform the IT organization from a business obstacle to a business enabler by upgrading the skill set on the IT team, building effective relationships with business leaders and aligning the projects of the IT team with business initiatives. In 2011, Sheleen assumed additional responsibilities and was named SVP HR & IT - arguably an odd combination, but one which proved to be an advantage to business operations.

Prior to joining Ameristar Sheleen had formed a consulting firm, Box 9 Consulting, providing IT leadership in a variety of industries. She had previously served as VP & Global CIO for US Can Company, responsible for the global technology infrastructure, three data centers and a wide array of applications to support the $750 million company in 24 locations in six countries.

Sheleen is a graduate of the College of New Rochelle. She has been a Senior Consultant with the Cutter Consortium, Boston, MA, and is an Emeritus member of CIO Magazine Editorial Advisory Board. She recently received the Lifetime Achievement Award from Gaming & Leisure magazine, and is featured in the recently published book Confessions of a Successful CIO: How the Best CIOs Tackle Their Toughest Business Challenges.


Kris Rinne
Senior Vice President, Network & Product Planning, AT&T Services, Inc.
 
202 - Big Data and The Internet of Things: Get Ready to Connect!

As AT&T Senior Vice President/Network and Product Planning, Kris Rinne is responsible for network architecture, service platforms, radio access roadmap and initial implementation, wireless device requirements and certification, network platforms, network performance analysis, and industry standards development at AT&T.

Ms. Rinne's career within AT&T and its predecessor companies includes positions as chief technology officer - Cingular Wireless, vice president - technology strategy for SBC Wireless, and managing director - operations with Southwestern Bell Mobile Systems.

In 2011, she was named as "The Most Influential Woman in Wireless" by Fierce Wireless and was listed in the Global Telecom Business Power 100 list of the most powerful telecom executives. She has also contributed to the industry as the Chairperson of the Board of Governors at 3G Americas, LLC, and as a Director of the Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions (ATIS). Ms. Rinne is a 2013 inductee in the Wireless Hall of Fame.


Sheryl Root
Director/Assoc. Professor, Carnegie Mellon, President and CEO, RootAnalysis
 
305 - INTRApreneurship: How to Succeed with Entrepreneurial Efforts Inside Today's Corporations

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.


Ekta Sahasi
Vice President, Business Innovation Center, Konica Minolta
 
305 - INTRApreneurship: How to Succeed with Entrepreneurial Efforts Inside Today's Corporations

Ekta Sahasi is VP Business Innovation Center for Konica Minolta, where she is responsible for creating a portfolio of new businesses. She is partnering with leading technology companies to create new world-class software and services capabilities for Konica Minolta. Ekta is also working closely with startups, VCs, and Academia to incubate and invest in technologies that will accelerate the pace of innovation at Konica Minolta. With over 15 years of Research, Strategy, Innovation and Operations experience at both large companies and startups, Ekta is an experienced executive and a product visionary. She is seasoned in building global, cross-cultural teams, driving innovation, and developing new product lines.

Prior to joining Konica Minolta, Ekta spent 10 years at eBay Inc. She co-founded and led both eBay and PayPal's Research and Innovation Labs. In her tenure there, she successfully developed one of the largest corporate innovation programs. A graduate of the Stanford d-School, Ekta is a technologist and an entrepreneur with a relentless focus on exploiting technology to create new, impactful solutions and opportunities for consumer.


Chia-Lin Simmons
Marketing & Business Development Executive,
 
308 - Hard-Earned Advice FOR Entrepreneurs FROM Entrepreneurs!

Chia-Lin Simmons is an international marketing and business development executive, with a proven track record of significantly growing global markets and market share; creating, building and launching compelling products; generating sustainable revenue and EBIT gains; and generating revenue and visibility for companies such as Amazon/Audible, Wired, CNET, Playphone, Newscorp Online and Time Warner.

Chia-Lin was named in Huffington Post as one of "27 Women In Tech You Need to Follow on Twitter" and "Top 100 under 50" by Diversity MBA Magazine.


Lauren States
Advanced Leadership Initiative Fellow, Harvard University
 
210 - "AHA!" Moments and Success Stories of Women in Technology

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.


Kara Swisher
Editor-at-Large, New York Media; Contributing Writer, New York Times Opinion
 
203 - Insiders' Insights on Technology Trends

Kara Swisher is currently Co-CEO, Revere Digital; Co-Executive Editor, Re/code; and Co-Executive Producer, The Code Conference.

Kara started covering digital issues for The Wall Street Journal's San Francisco bureau in 1997. Her column, "BoomTown," originally appeared on the front page of the Marketplace section and also online at WSJ.com.

Previously, Kara covered breaking news about the Web's major players and Internet policy issues, as one of its first hires to cover the Web, and also wrote feature articles on technology for the newspaper. She has also written a weekly column for the Personal Journal on home gadget issues called "Home Economics."

With Walt Mossberg, over the last 11 years, she has been co-producing D: All Things Digital, a major high-tech conference with interviewees such as Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and many other leading players in the tech and media industries. The gathering is considered one of the leading conferences focused on the convergence of tech and media industries. Kara and Walt also were co-executive editors of the AllThingsD.com Web site from 2007 until the end of 2013.

Kara won a Loeb Award while at AllThingsD.com for her coverage of Yahoo. She also writes occasionally for Vanity Fair magazine, which is owned by Condé Nast.

Previously, she worked as a reporter at the Washington Post. She is also the author of "aol.com: How Steve Case Beat Bill Gates, Nailed the Netheads and Made Millions in the War for the Web," published by Times Business Books in July 1998. The sequel, "There Must Be a Pony in Here Somewhere: The AOL Time Warner Debacle and the Quest for a Digital Future," was published in the fall of 2003 by Crown Business Books.

Kara was an undergraduate at Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service and did her graduate work at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.


Hayley Tabor
VP Global Industry Solutions, EMC
 
208 - Personal Innovation and Business Leadership

Hayley Tabor is Vice President of Global Industries at EMC. She leads a diversified global team responsible for EMC’s Healthcare, Oil and Gas and SLED business. Hayley brings 21 years of successful global management and sales leadership experience to EMC.

Prior to that Hayley was responsible for HP Software’s global channel and alliances, field and partner sales enablement, and the advancement and growth of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS). Previously, she was Vice President of global sales at independent wireless infrastructure provider Xirrus, where she improved sales productivity and market share by developing an effective global go-to-market strategy, creating an all-inclusive channel partner plan, and implementing a new operational sales process that featured progressive selling tools and thorough outcome-based training.

Hayley began her career at Computer Associates where, over the course of 14 years, she took on progressively challenging roles in IT Management, IT Security sales, and partner strategy development. Hayley had also served as Senior Vice President of U.S. Enterprise Sales at Juniper Networks, where she owned the development and execution of the company's worldwide enterprise strategy.


Barbara Trautlein
Principal, Change Catalysts, LLC
 
102 - What's Your Style of Leading Change? Boost Your Change Intelligence to Get Results
302 - High Tech and High Touch: Using Technology To Improve Human Connection

Barbara is principal and founder of Change Catalysts, author of the book Change Intelligence: Use the Power of CQ to Lead Change that Sticks and originator of the CQ/Change Intelligence System. For over 20 years, Barbara has conducted workshops for thousands of participants, coached many dozens of people from CEOs to union workers, and facilitated over a dozen mission-critical multi-year change management initiatives - achieving bottom-line business and powerful personal results for clients. She is gifted at sharing strategies and tactics that are accessible, actionable, and immediately applicable. In addition to her "hands on" work with clients, she is a recognized expert, author and researcher on leadership and change management best practices. This blend of research and real-world expertise makes her an in-demand speaker at conferences in North America, South America, Asia, and Africa. Barbara has a unique ability to connect with her audiences, from C-level executives in Fortune 50 organizations to front line employees, and across industries, from steel mills to sales teams, refineries to retail outlets, and healthcare to high tech. Clients served include Baxter Healthcare, CareerBuilder, Catholic Health System, Ford Motor Company, Hyatt International, Motorola, the NYPD, Sears, Steel Dynamics, US Cellular, and Whole Foods. Barbara holds a Ph.D. in Organizational Psychology from the University of Michigan


Karen Walker
Senior Vice President, Marketing, Cisco
 
202 - Big Data and The Internet of Things: Get Ready to Connect!

Karen Walker is Senior Vice President of Marketing at Cisco. She leads the global Go To Market Organization that manages the outbound marketing of Cisco products and solutions, while accelerating sales through Cisco's sales force and partners. Her team takes an integrated marketing approach from brand to demand, using digital and social media to engage customers and partners on their purchase journey.

Karen's 20-plus years in the IT industry have included senior field and marketing leadership roles in Europe, North America, and the Asia Pacific region. She joined Cisco from Hewlett-Packard, where she held business and consumer leadership positions including Vice President of Alliances and Marketing for HP Services, and Vice President of Strategy and Marketing for both the Consumer Digital Entertainment and Personal Systems groups.

A recognized industry authority on both technology and marketing topics, Karen is a Board member of the I.T. Services Marketing Association and a member of the CMO Council, the Marketers that Matter Council, Advancing Women Executives (AWE) in Silicon Valley, and CRN's 2013 Women of the Channel. She also sponsors multiple initiatives to accelerate female leadership within Cisco and has lectured on business thought leadership at UC Berkeley, Haas Business School. Karen holds a bachelor of science degree with joint honors in chemistry and business studies from Loughborough University in England.


Yanrong Wang
Senior Director, Advanced Risk Science, PayPal
 
309 - Beyond Coding: Uncovering Today's Most Influential Technical Jobs for Women

Working at eBay/Paypal for some 12 years, Yanrong Wang currently leads Paypal's Risk Data and Analytics team, responsible for driving better risk decisions and operations by more effective use of Paypal's data assets. Previously, Yanrong managed risk decision for Paypal's 100+ million consumer portfolio, as well as developing risk solutions for the new venture areas including mobile payment and digital goods. Her eBay experience included using analytics to drive better operations and cost management for eBay's billing and collections.

Prior to eBay, Yanrong worked in risk management in Wells Fargo's small business lending division and Chase's consumer credit card area. She holds a bachelor's degree in Engineering from Tsinghua University in China, as well as dual master's degrees in Statistics and Economics from Iowa State University.


Theresa Wilson
EVP and CIO of Consumer Lending Technology, Wells Fargo
 
204 - Women Leaders in Tech: How/Why Did They Choose a STEM Career?

As EVP and CIO, Theresa Wilson leads Wells Fargo's Consumer Lending Technology team of over 2,100, providing end-to-end system development and integration, along with technology and production support for the Consumer Lending Group.

The Consumer Lending Technology team members focus on delivering technology solutions to support key business objectives in support of the Line of Business goals for:
Home Lending, Home Mortgage, Home Equity, Credit Card, Personal Loans and Lines of Credit, Dealer Services, Direct Auto, Education Financial Services, Rewards Program, and Retail Services. Theresa also manages special projects for Information Services, including the Quality Assurance, Customer Relationship, Management and Testing Councils.

Theresa began her career with First Union in 1976 and has held various technology leadership roles supporting retail, commercial, and wealth/retirement businesses with application software development. She also led system conversions while managing the areas that supported branch operations, service center operations, deposits, teller automation, and marketing.

She received her B.S. from Howard University in Washington, D.C., with a major in Math and minor in Computer Science; she also received her M.B.A. from Queens College in Charlotte, N.C. Theresa is a member of the North Carolina Technology Association and Women In Science and Engineering.


Michael Winwood
CEO, Optomi
 
309 - Beyond Coding: Uncovering Today's Most Influential Technical Jobs for Women

Michael Winwood is CEO and Co-Founder of Optomi, rapidly-growing U.S. technology staffing firm. Mr. Winwood has more than 20 years of technology industry experience as a national and international executive leader. Most recently, he led Technisource from a mid-sized IT staffing company to one of the largest technology staffing and solutions firms in the US, with an industry-leading suite of services. With a passion for innovation, client and consultant service excellence, and strong values based on "doing the right thing," Mr. Winwood brings unique executive skills to the industry.


Tao Ye
Senior Scientist, Pandora
 
202 - Big Data and The Internet of Things: Get Ready to Connect!

Tao Ye has been a Senior Scientist on the Pandora playlist team since 2010, working on research driven system building for recommendation systems, measurements and user modeling. She has 15 years of experience in the software industry, holding research scientist and lead engineer positions in social media, networking and mobile systems. She holds 11 granted patents and has published 12 peer reviewed papers. Tao received a Master's degree from UC Berkeley in Computer Science and duo Bachelor's degrees from State University of New York at Stony Brook in Computer Science and Engineering Chemistry.


Alan Zeichick
Principal Analyst, Camden Associates
 
306 - Wearables: The Technology, the Opportunity, and YOU

Writer. Speaker. Analyst. Consultant. With a career exceeding three decades as a technologist, Alan Zeichick brings depth, experience, vision, and thought leadership to developers, engineers, and the industry. As Editor-in-Chief of Software Development International, AI Expert, the Mathematica Journal, LAN Magazine, and Network Magazine, Alan pioneered coverage of leading-edge covering programming, networking, virtual reality and more. As Founder and Editorial Director of SD Times, he created a leading publication for software development managers. Today, Alan is President and Principal Analyst of Camden Associates, an analyst firm focused on all aspects of IT, from mobile to enterprise, from consumer to carrier to cloud. Reach Alan at [email protected], and follow him at @zeichick.


Emcee

Peggy Kilburn
Program Director, WITI Summit and Hall of Fame, Managing Director, Peggy Kilburn Conferences
 

Since 2013, Peggy Kilburn has served as Program Director for WITI's annual Women in Technology Summit, as well as Managing Director for the Women in Technology Hall of Fame Awards. A seasoned director of such major conferences as COMDEX, AppleFest, ComNet, Harvard Computer Graphics Week, and Softcon, Ms. Kilburn was the founding conference director for Macworld Expo and ran it for 14 years, zestfully growing the program to over 100 sessions with 375+ speakers.

Since its founding, Peggy Kilburn Conferences has developed and administered more than 2,000 programs for such clients as Boston University, CeBIT America, Clasma Events, Customer Engagement Technology World, Harvard University, pulvermedia, SRI International, and Worcester Polytechnic Institute. Most recently, she served as Program Manager for the Smart Grid Interoperability Panel annual conference.

Ms. Kilburn is a member of the Advisory Committee for RSVP Community Theatre of Asheboro, NC, and serves as RSVP's Social Media Manager while dabbling as a character actress and voice-over artist. She is also a residential energy customer keenly interested in Smart Grid, and an incipient champion for Intellectually Gifted Adult Aspergians. Ms. Kilburn holds a BA in Broadcast Journalism from the University of South Carolina.


Alice Lankester
Master of Ceremonies, WITI Hall of Fame Awards Ceremony, & Chief Marketing Officer, Friend2Friend
 

Alice Lankester is an executive-level marketing professional with more than 25 years experience working for companies in the heart of Silicon Valley and Europe. She currently serves as Chief Marketing Officer for Friend2Friend, where she brings her deep knowledge of marketing to help some of the world's leading brands market to their audiences on digital and social platforms. She is also a Partner at Florence Venture Partners, an angel investment firm that helps the next generation of technology entrepreneurs bring their dreams out of the garage.

Previously, Ms. Lankester led the marketing team at Photobucket, one of the world's largest photo- and video-sharing sites, through that site's growth and acquisition by News Corporation, and at Loopt, one of the industry's first location-sharing mobile startups, a company acquired by Green Dot Corporation in 2011. Her career in Silicon Valley began in the mid '80s at one of the first Macintosh software startups, Living Videotext, where she worked with some of the pioneers of the software industry. Over her marketing career, Ms. Lankester has worked with companies of all sizes, from Apple Computer, Novell, Sun, and Symantec to dozens of exciting and interesting startups. Originally from the United Kingdom, Ms. Lankester holds a degree in History and Art from Leeds University, and goes back to Europe with her three children every year for a firmware upgrade. She can be found at the Blue Bottle Cafe in downtown Palo Alto every Friday morning, networking with new entrepreneurs met through Weave(dot)In (www.weave.in)


And more to be announced soon!

* Speakers and Sessions are subject to change