Keynotes & Featured Speakers

Heather Andrus

Managing Director/Product Innovation, Radius Innovation & Development, A Jabil Company

204: Want Extraordinary Results? Think Like a Designer!

Heather Andrus is Senior Vice President and General Manager of Product Innovation at Radius Product Development (a Jabil company). She has 25 years of experience developing successful consumer offerings, supported by a broad range of experience in design thinking, consumer research, product strategy, engineering and product development. Prior to joining Radius, Ms. Andrus worked at Altitude from 2001 until 2013. During that time, she held the positions of engineering manager, director of engineering, general manager, and chief innovation officer. She previously worked at 3Com, Ideo, and Oracle. Ms. Andrus received her Master's in mechanical engineering with a focus on product design from Stanford University, and her bachelor's degree in computer science with a minor in cognitive science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Outside of work, Ms. Andrus enjoys renovating houses, raising two fantastic children, and supporting local hospices.


Patricia Arquette

Actor, Humanitarian, GiveLove.org

350: A Conversation with Patricia Arquette

Patricia Arquette is one of the most talented actresses of her generation.

She made her film debut in Chuck Russell's A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987) and following roles included Tony Scott's True Romance (1993), Tim Burton's Ed Wood (1994), David O. Russell's Flirting with Disaster (1996), David Lynch's Lost Highway (1997), Stephen Frears's The Hi-Lo Country (1998), Martin Scorsese's Bringing Out the Dead (1999), Rupert Wainwright's Stigmata (1999), and the Disney film Holes (2003).

For her performance in Richard Linklater's Boyhood, which was filmed from 2002 to 2014, Ms. Arquette received widespread praise and won the Academy Award, BAFTA Award, Critics' Choice Award, Golden Globe Award, Independent Spirit Award, and SAG Award for Best Supporting Actress.


Tim Bajarin

President, Creative Strategies

205: Innovative Technology Trends - Connected, Collaborated Information

Tim Bajarin is recognized as one of the leading industry consultants, analysts, and futurists, covering the field of personal computers and consumer technology. Mr. Bajarin has been with Creative Strategies since 1981 and has served as a consultant to most of the leading hardware and software vendors in the industry including IBM, Apple, Xerox, Hewlett Packard/Compaq, Dell, AT&T, Microsoft, Polaroid, Lotus, Epson, Toshiba and numerous others. His articles and/or analyses have appeared in USA Today, Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Time and Newsweek magazines, BusinessWeek and most of the leading business and trade publications. He has appeared as a business analyst commenting on the computer industry on all of the major television networks and was a frequent guest on PBS' The Computer Chronicles.

Mr. Bajarin has been a columnist for US computer industry publications such as PC Week and Computer Reseller News and wrote for ABCNEWS.COM for two years and Mobile Computing for 10 years. His columns currently appear online in PC Magazine, Time, and Techpinions.com. His various columns and analyses are syndicated in over 30 countries.


Aditi Banerjee

Senior Engagement Manager, HCL

212: Take Charge of Your Own Success: A View from Insiders

Aditi Banerjee is Vice President of IoT business at HCL, responsible for Global Business Development in HCL America across Lifesciences, Healthcare, Energy, and Utilities Industries. She has two decades of experience in Sales Leadership in Product and Engineering Services, Semiconductor Product Marketing, and Technology Development. Prior to joining HCL, Dr. Banerjee led the Engineering Services business for Lifesciences, Healthcare, Semiconductor, and Railroad industries at Infosys Limited. Earlier, she worked at Texas Instruments (TI) for 17 years in various roles, beginning in Research and Development of Semiconductor Technology and rising to become a worldwide Business Manager for Security and Authentication business.

Dr. Banerjee holds three US patents and has authored 13 technical publications. She earned her Ph.D. in Material Science and Engineering from North Carolina State University; M.S. from Pennsylvania State University; and MBA from Southern Methodist University. She is a member of the Advisory Board for Women in Technology International (WITI); Lead Co-Chair of the Engineering and Technology Chapter of International Association of Outsourcing Professionals; and serves an Industry Advisory Board member at Southern Methodist University and at the University of Arkansas.


Prith Banerjee

Executive VP, CTO, Schneider Electric

205: Innovative Technology Trends - Connected, Collaborated Information

Prith Banerjee is Executive Vice President, Chief Technology Officer, and member of the Executive Committee of Schneider Electric, reporting to the Chairman and CEO. He is responsible for driving innovation and technology differentiation, and coordinating the R&D activities of the company across its five businesses with 11,000 R&D personnel, and a 1.2 billion Euro R&D investment. Previously he was Managing Director of Global Technology R&D at Accenture. Prior, he was Chief Technology Officer and Executive Vice President of ABB. Dr. Banerjee's former roles have also included that of senior vice president of research at HP and director of HP Labs; Dean of the College of Engineering at the University of Illinois at Chicago; Walter P. Murphy Professor and Chairman of ECE at Northwestern University; and professor of ECE at the University of Illinois.

In 2000, Dr. Banerjee founded AccelChip which was sold to Xilinx Inc. in 2006. During 2005-2011, he was Founder, Chairman and Chief Scientist of BINACHIP. His research interests are in electronic design automation and parallel computing, and he is the author of some 350 research papers. He has also supervised 37 Ph.D. students. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of Cray and the Technical Advisory Board of Cypress. In the past, he has served on boards for the Anita Borg Institute, the Computer Science Board of the National Academy of Engineering, and the Technical Advisory Boards of Ambit, Atrenta and Calypto. He was listed in the FastCompany list of 100 top business leaders in 2009.

Dr. Banerjee is a fellow of the AAAS, ACM, and IEEE and a recipient of the 1996 ASEE Terman Award and the 1987 NSF Presidential Young Investigator Award. He received a B.Tech. (President's Gold Medalist) in electronics engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur; and an M.S. and Ph.D. in electrical engineering from the University of Illinois, Urbana.


Cheemin Bo-Linn

President and CEO, Peritus Partners

212: Take Charge of Your Own Success: A View from Insiders

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.


Lorna Borenstein

Founder & CEO, Grokker

212: Take Charge of Your Own Success: A View from Insiders

Lorna Borenstein is Founder & CEO of Grokker, a community-driven content network offering expert-led fitness, yoga, meditation, and cooking videos. The idea for Grokker came to Ms. Borenstein while on a multi-year sabbatical, where she became frustrated with the lack of high-quality instructional videos available on the Internet, as well as the difficulty in finding them aggregated in one place.

Prior to her sabbatical, Ms. Borenstein was President of publicly-traded Move Inc. She also held a number of executive positions at Yahoo! including Chief of their global personals online dating service and Head of Marketing for their multi-billion dollar worldwide Search & Marketplace businesses (Shopping, Travel, Autos, etc.). Ms. Borenstein entered the Internet world in 2000, when she launched eBay Canada out of her guest room in Toronto, and went on to serve as eBay Inc.'s Vice President & General Manager.

Before discovering her passion for consumer technology, Ms. Borenstein served as Assistant Legal Counsel at Hewlett Packard and practiced law in both the U.S. and Canada. She is fluent in several languages, an avid yogi, and an active supporter and fundraising member of various charities.


Katie Broderick

Research Vice President, 451 Research

301 - Women In Tech: By the Numbers

Katie Broderick is Research Vice President at 451 Research. She has collaborated on some of the industry's leading quantitative research on colocation, cloud computing, and datacenter infrastructure management. Currently, Ms. Broderick runs 451 Research's Datacenter KnowledgeBase. She also studies market dynamics on a custom basis for clients including topics such as cloud computing, hosting, software-defined infrastructure, and brand awareness.

Prior to joining 451 Research, Ms. Broderick was a Senior Research Analyst at Egon Zehnder International. While there she focused solely on board level consulting and corporate governance research. She was previously a Senior Analyst at IDC, where she conceptualized and led the firm's datacenter infrastructure management research, producing market forecasts and the first vendor comparison across the space. She also led the company's server forecasts for cloud computing. Ms. Broderick holds a Master's in Economics and Finance and an undergraduate degree in Economics and Spanish Language and Literature, both from Brandeis University.


Sandy Carter

CEO | CMO | Ecosystems | Business Development Information Technology, Silicon Blitz

223: The 5 Things Every Wo(man) Needs to Know about the Cognitive Era

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/


Sharon Chiarella

Vice President, Community Shopping, Amazon

302: Amazon Keynote Panel - Taking Bold Risks: The Role of Failure in the Pursuit of Innovation

Sharon Chiarella is the Vice President of Community Shopping at Amazon where she leads the team responsible for iconic Amazon experiences including Customer Reviews and Wish Lists. Prior to joining Amazon in 2007, Ms. Chiarella held leadership positions at Microsoft, Yahoo!, Kodak, and Presto Services. She has over 20 years of experience developing and managing innovative high-technology products and businesses, with over 15 years focused on Internet technologies and connected devices. She earned her bachelor's degree in computer science from Manhattan College and her MBA from Harvard Business School. Ms. Chiarella was named the fifth most powerful woman in technology by Business Insider.


Amanda Coolong

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

224: Leadership Insights of Extraordinary Entrepreneurs

334: WITI WIN Panel:
 Creating a Social Media Community

201 - Welcome and Introduction

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.


Margaux Eng

Softlines Tech Software Development Manager, Amazon

302: Amazon Keynote Panel - Taking Bold Risks: The Role of Failure in the Pursuit of Innovation

Margaux Eng is a Software Development Manager for the Softlines Innovation and Prime Wardrobe organization at Amazon. She joined Amazon 11.5 years ago as a software developer after graduating from the University of Washington in Computer Engineering and Business. Since then, Ms. Eng has tackled multiple technical problems in large-scale systems, workflow management, machine learning, and user experience. She is an advocate for diversity and is a member of Amazon's Women in Engineering (AWE) Leadership Team, which works to improve the lives of women in tech.


Chengya Liang

Senior Product Manager, Thermo Fisher Scientific

212: Take Charge of Your Own Success: A View from Insiders

Chengya Liang is a business professional with a focus on Product Management, Marketing, Strategy, and General Management in the life science and healthcare industry. She has worked as a Cardiologist where she gained wide-ranging experience in clinical medicine; as a Senior Scientist in different organizations where she gained extensive R&D experience in the biotech and pharmaceutical industries; and as a Chief Strategist of Social Media Marketing and eBusiness for a nationally recognized online healthcare community.

Dr. Liang graduated from the Thermo Fisher Scientific Graduated Leadership Development Program in 2015 and became a Senior Manager in Thermo Fisher Scientific. Her leadership program experience was featured in The Association for Women in Science (AWIS) magazine.

She has authored more than 20 conference and journal papers published in renowned academic journals, as well as an academic book chapter. She has also presented at more than 20 of the most widely attended national and international academic conferences, and has won many honors and awards during her career. Dr. Liang earned her MD from Shandong University, PhD from Virginia Tech, and MBA from the Samuel Curtis Johnson School at Cornell University.


Will Marre

Founder, SMART Power Academy

350: A Conversation with Patricia Arquette

315: Why We Need Women Leaders to Win

325: Think Like a Goddess, Work Like a Genius

335: Gender Synergy: How Smart Women and Wise Men Are Working Together To Outperform Their Competitors

Will Marré (rhymes with "Hooray!") is the co-founder and former president of the Covey Leadership Center which brought The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People to millions worldwide. Today, his focus is on developing Smart Power leaders through his Smart Power Institute. The Institute is research-based and develops thinking tools, behavioral skills and leadership practices necessary to be effective in the new disruptive economy. Smart Power is based on gender synergy - how men and women can use gender-based strengths to lead and work together to multiply positive results.

Mr. Marré is the author of Save the World and Still Be Home for Dinner, and Supercharge Your Career and Work Like a Genius, as well as his soon-to-be-released book Why We Need Women Leaders to Win. He was featured by the University of California TV (UCTV) for his online course, Turn your Superpower into your Career. Mr. Marré is a former Leadership Scholar in Residence of The University of San Diego, and currently serves on the leadership faculty of UCSD Extension.


Gayatri Narayan

Softlines Tech GM, FIT Amazon Fashion, Amazon

302: Amazon Keynote Panel - Taking Bold Risks: The Role of Failure in the Pursuit of Innovation

Gayatri Narayan is a General Manager with Amazon Fashion technology, leading global Product and Engineering teams responsible for building personalized fit recommendations for Apparel and Shoes. She has held multiple leadership positions within Amazon across diverse disciplines including product management, marketing, and general management.

Prior to joining Amazon in 2012, Ms. Narayan held leadership positions at Publicis Groupe, Sears Holdings, and Thomson Reuters. She has over 10 years of experience leading cross-functional teams in ecommerce, product management, marketing, analytics, and business development. Originally from India, Ms. Narayan has a Master's in Computer Science from the University of Illinois, Urbana Champaign and a MBA from the University of Chicago.


Margret Schmidt

Chief Design Officer and VP/Design & Engineering, TiVo

205: Innovative Technology Trends - Connected, Collaborated Information

Margret Schmidt is TiVo's Chief Design Officer, and Vice President of Design & Engineering. She is responsible for the design and development of all domestic and international TiVo products, including DVR and set-top box software, and iOS, Android, and Web apps. Ms. Schmidt is an invited speaker on design and innovation, including SXSW, CES, The TV of Tomorrow Show, Lead On CA, and U.C. Berkeley.

Ms. Schmidt holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from U.C. Berkeley. She has a 2006 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Achievement in Interactive Television, and has been named one of the Most Powerful Women in Cable (Top Women in Technology list) for five years running (2010-2014) by CableFAX Magazine. She is a 2013 YWCA Silicon Valley Tribute to Women honoree, and one of Silicon Valley Business Journal's Women of Influence 2013. Ms. Schmidt has been with TiVo since 2001, and holds seven patents.


Unnati Sethi

Biz Dev Software Development Manager, Amazon

302: Amazon Keynote Panel - Taking Bold Risks: The Role of Failure in the Pursuit of Innovation

Unnati Sethi is a Software Development Manager at IMDb.com, where she leads a team of engineers focused on deprecating legacy software and building highly interactive and creative customer-facing systems for film industry professionals. Prior to joining IMDb in 2011, Ms. Sethi worked as a Research and Authoring Engineer at a Blu-ray authoring studio. It was there that she zeroed in on her love for building software within the entertainment industry.

Ms. Sethi holds a Master's in Computer Science from the University of Southern California and over 12 years of experience building software with cross-geographical, multi-cultural teams of varying sizes. She is a vocal advocate for diversity in the technology and entertainment industry while being actively involved in recruitment and diversity outreach initiatives at Amazon/IMDb.


Heidi Sinclair

Senior Strategist, Burson-Marsteller

Hall of Fame Awards Induction Banquet

Heidi Sinclair has spent her 35-year communications career living at the intersection of technology, culture, and social impact. As the first Chief Communications Officer for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, she built and ran the marketing, communications, and content functions, served as spokesperson, and raised Bill and Melinda Gates' profiles as they transitioned to the Foundation.

In addition, Ms. Sinclair has guided CEO and CXO transitions for Richemont, Siemens, SAP, Apple, Chloe, Henkel, and American Airlines. An early player on the technology scene, she has been involved in many of the seminal products and technologies, including the first personal computer and laptop, early mobile technology, Java and various programming languages, a multitude of computing architectures, the genesis of bio and genetic engineering, and various waves of Internet-based applications and businesses.

Ms. Sinclair recently returned to Burson-Marsteller, currently serving as Senior Strategist. During previous stints there, she revitalized the firm's EMEA business as its European CEO and served as the first Global Chairman of Technology for Burson-Marsteller, where she spearheaded a worldwide team working on technology clients including SAP, HP, Sun, and Apple. As an executive at talent agency International Creative Management, Ms. Sinclair ran its corporate, digital, gaming, celebrity estates and investment transaction businesses, then left to pioneer the branded content space. She founded two companies in marketing and communications, the first at age 23, and has written and commented for CNBC, CNN and Fortune, Forbes, Techonomy and in her blog for the Huffington Post.


Cynthia Stoddard

Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer, Adobe Systems

205: Innovative Technology Trends - Connected, Collaborated Information

As senior vice president and chief information officer of Adobe, Cynthia Stoddard oversees Adobe's global Information Technology team. In her leadership role, she spearheads a global strategy for delivering services that form the mission-critical backbone for the company. Ms. Stoddard is an IT industry veteran, with more than 25 years of business experience and IT expertise leading large global organizations in supply chain, retail, and technology development. Before joining Adobe in 2016, she was chief information officer and senior vice president at data storage and management company NetApp, where she led the company's traditional IT functions while also expanding focus on innovation, customer-facing programs, and strategic partnerships. She previously held a number of information technology and technical leadership positions at supply chain, retail, and technology companies including Safeway Inc. and APL Limited.

Ms. Stoddard is a recipient of the Computerworld Premier 100 IT Leaders Award, was named among the top Women of Influence in 2016 by Silicon Valley Business Journal, and was recognized as one of Huffington Post's Top 100 Most Social CIOs in 2015 and 2016. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in accounting from Western New England University, from which she graduated cum laude, and an MBA from Marylhurst University.


Wendy Wallbridge

President / Executive Coach, On Your Mark

203: Spiraling Up for the WITI Summit!

Wendy Wallbridge, a strategic and intuitive advisor to Fortune 100 leaders and teams across industries and a pioneer in the coaching field, has earned a reputation for establishing breakthrough conversations that enhance the way women work, live, play, and contribute. Her singular brand of coaching, defined by her Spiral Up! Model, empowers women to become architects of our own lives by following a radically different roadmap to success. Diagnosed with life-threatening Lupus early in her career, Ms. Wallbridge used that adversity and her return to good health to explore what it means for women to live true to their values, feminine wisdom, and unique calling. She is recognized for her groundbreaking coaching techniques that enable women to become leaders and agents of change in the 21st century and live lives that are more authentic, expansive, and meaningful.

In 1993 Ms. Wallbridge founded On Your Mark Corporate Coaching & Consulting, Inc., when she saw the need for individuals to do work that was both meaningful to them and met the changing needs of the marketplace. On Your Mark's clients have included Intel, Hewlett- Packard, Apple, ABC-Disney, Wells Fargo, Oracle, Texas Instruments, Symantec, Genentech, Dolby, and McAfee. A strong and vocal advocate for women, Ms. Wallbridge is the founder of the Women's Evolutionary Leadership Forum of Silicon Valley (WEL), and Producer of TEDxSandHillRdWomen. She is the author of Spiraling Upward, the 5 Co-Creative Powers for Women on the Rise (Bibliomotion).


Loretta Hidalgo Whitesides

Founder Astronaut, Virgin Galactic

214: WITIstyle Talk: What is Your Mission? Fulfilling What You Came to Earth to Do

Loretta Hidalgo Whitesides has over five hours of weightless time in a 727 aircraft as a Flight Director for Zero-G Corporation. She and her husband George T. Whitesides are also Founder Astronauts slated to be among the first to take a sub-orbital spaceflight on Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo. Trained as an astrobiologist at Stanford and Caltech, Ms. Whitesides has been to the Canadian Arctic to study plant life in extreme environments and to the hydrothermal vents at the bottom of the ocean with "Titanic" director James Cameron to film a 3D IMAX documentary, "Aliens of the Deep." She has two children (aged 3 and 5) and continues her work in the space community training the next generation of leaders, blogging and speaking about space, and working on her book on the impact of human space exploration on societal evolution. Ms. Whitesides' passion is using space to inspire humanity with what is possible.


Breakout Sessions

Vinima Aggarwal

Head of Marketing, Rockstor

322: WITI WIN Panel - Uncluttering the Digital Noise: How to Really Market to Women - Business and Consumers

Vinima Aggarwal is a technology and marketing specialist, applying her background and experience in both fields to iteratively discover growth-hacking strategies that result in product-market fit, attracting customer/user engagement and retention. Ms. Aggarwal has successfully growth-hacked Rockstor, an early stage open source NAS (Network Attached Storage) and Cloud Storage platform.

In addition, Ms. Aggarwal serves as growth advisor to Fitspur, an early stage fitness buddy-finder application. She is always open to participating in projects that will benefit from her knowledge and energy.


Nazila Alasti

Global Head of Product Marketing, eBay

314: Building a Company and the Role of Mobile

Nazila Alasti is currently the Global Head of Product Marketing at eBay. In addition, Ms. Alasti is the Founder of Jooners.com - an easy-to-use volunteer management system designed to eliminate the tedious back-and-forth inherent in organizing group activities and events. Prior, Ms. Alasti spent 15 years in engineering, product management and business development roles in companies such as Apple and Javasoft. She has founded and participated in the successful exits of two companies (Collation/IBM and eCircles/UnitedOnline) and spent a number of formative years as an associate at Glenwood Management, an early-stage venture fund.

A mother of two daughters, Ms. Alasti is a passionate advocate of increasing women's power in the workplace by finding creative solutions. She is a docent at the SFMOMA and speaks four languages fluently. She holds a BS in Electrical Engineering from Cornell University and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.


Nadia Banks

Sports & Fitness Market Strategist, Intel

333: WITI WIN Panel - High Tech On and Off the Field: The Business of Sports Wearables

In 2005 Nadia Banks joined Intel, where she is currently Wearable Sports & Fitness Market Strategist. Ms. Banks is a business professional with 9+ years of global consumer/B2B product marketing strategy and implementation experience in high-tech industries. She has direct experience in campaign development and execution, market and product strategy, opportunity assessment, account management, customer marketing, digital research, and consumer research. She is passionate about technology, bringing technology to the mass market, and strategy. Ms. Banks holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of California at Davis.


Sigal Bareket

Co-Founder and General Manager/US, Taptica

224: Leadership Insights of Extraordinary Entrepreneurs

314: Building a Company and the Role of Mobile

Sigal Bareket is co-founder and CEO of Taptica, a global user acquisition-based ad-network. Ms Bareket's background consists of over eight years' experience in the mobile apps and mobile content business, including app design and marketing. After holding senior management positions in multimedia, Internet and interactive TV companies, Ms. Bareket served as the CEO of Logia Mobile which managed the content activities for Israel's largest mobile operator, Cellcom, as well as for other leading operators around the world.

In addition, Ms. Bareket's background includes content development, app creation, mobile content marketing and content team management. She also founded and managed Bookid, a startup company that turned classical children's books into interactive mobile apps.


Aimen Barma

CMO, YouCaring.com

344: Prove It! Busting the Myth of Social Media ROI

Aimen Barma is currently Chief Marketing Officer at YouCaring, a leader in free online fundraising. Ms. Barma is a results-oriented senior marketing and product management executive with a proven record of creating and implementing dynamic, high growth programs.

Ms. Barma has over 20 years of experience in formulating e-commerce, CRM and Omni channel experiences designed to drive loyalty, growth, and customer satisfaction. She has repeated, demonstrated success in building cutting-edge strategies and products. Her strengths also include that of creative problem solver with strong team building and relationship management skills. Ms. Barma has worked with brands such as: Microsoft, NASCAR, Xerox, Lexmark, Amazon, eBay, PayPal, United Nations, Venmo, Apple, and many others.


Jennifer Barr

Social Media Manager, Stanford Children's Health

322: WITI WIN Panel - Uncluttering the Digital Noise: How to Really Market to Women - Business and Consumers

Jennifer Barr has been involved with digital marketing for technology and health care companies for over six years, currently serving as social media manager for Stanford Children's Health. Previously she was social media manager for two divisions of Cisco where she managed the ongoing global strategy, execution and metrics analysis of social media marketing to strengthen and increase brand and global awareness. Prior to Cisco, Ms. Barr was a Product Marketing Manager at Google where she helped to launch Google+ pages. She also launched the social media platforms for Palo Alto startup HealthTap, where she was one of the first 30 Twitter advertisers in the world.


John Bates

Founder & CEO, Executive Speaking Success

122: Speak Like a Leader Bootcamp

104C-003 - Speak Like a Leader

213C-037 - Speak Like A Leader

John Bates is the founder and chief executive officer at Executive Speaking Success and is responsible for the day-to-day operations of the company, developing the curriculum of the programs, and leading the executive speaking staff. He is internationally regarded as a top communications trainer and keynote speaker, as well as a savvy entrepreneur. John has been actively coaching since 2005, working with CEOs and the executive teams of PlaySpan, Prescience Intl., Motorola, Goldstar, Oculus International, LAZ Parking, Johnson & Johnson Innovation Labs, Janssen Labs, DudaMobile and many others on their presentation, media and business skills.

Prior to his training career, John was involved in helping to found and start up Goldstar, BigWords.com (which raised over $80 million) and VirtualVegas (the first online virtual destination site). He has raised hundreds of millions of dollars in venture capital funds, successfully opened resistant markets for new products, and has run the customer service department for a multi- million dollar company. John is also a contributing author to the book World Class Speaking in Action: 50 Certified World Class Speaking Coaches Show You How to Present, Persuade, and Profit, which became a multiple Amazon best seller. He graduated summa cum laude with a bachelor's degree in sociology and social psychology from the University of California, Los Angeles.


Leslie Bates

Founder, SheDrones

105: Drone Engineering: Exploring New Capabilities in STEM Education

Leslie Bates is Founder of SheDrones, a Kentucky-based nonprofit organization focused on the intersection of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV)/Drone Engineering and STEM Education. Ms. Bates has undergraduate and graduate degrees in Environmental Planning from Rollins College in Winter Park, FL, and in City/Regional Planning from UMASS Amherst, respectively. She has been working for Schneider Electric in the energy management industry for the last 15 years as an energy analyst and researcher. Her interest in the unmanned aerial systems industry developed through observation of their growing use within the energy industry. As the mother of two daughters, Ms. Bates' focus in founding SheDrones is to engage girls and youth in STEM education through drone engineering, in order to expand the next generation workforce for a multidisciplinary, burgeoning UAV industry.


Ayelet Biger-Levin

Senior Manager, Professional Services, RSA

311 - Cybersecurity Is Everyone's Business

Ayelet Biger-Levin has been with RSA for eight years, currently serving as Senior Manager of Professional Services. She spent her first four years with the firm as a Principal Product Manager on the identity protection and verification team, focusing on fraud prevention and detection for Web and Mobile in the consumer space. In the last four years, she has been focusing on identity and access protection for the enterprise, as the Outbound Lead Product Manager for RSA Via Access. She recently took a new role on the consumer side, leading the Professional Services team for Americas.

Before joining RSA, Ms. Biger-Levin spent seven years in various roles at IBM, including Research Engineer, Product Manager and Sales. She has a Master's in Information Systems Engineering, with a Thesis in Complex Event Processing. She is a Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) with 15+ years of experience in the technology and information security industry.


Tansy Brook

Marketing Director & Research Lead, Lumo Bodytech

333: WITI WIN Panel - High Tech On and Off the Field: The Business of Sports Wearables

Tansy Brook is the Marketing Director and a Research Lead at Lumo Bodytech, a wearables technology platform company that leverages algorithms, software, and smart sensors to optimize performance and address human biomechanics through the real-time tracking of body movement. Current Lumo Bodytech products include the Lumo Lift and Lumo Back posture coaches and activity trackers, as well as the Lumo Run smart running shorts and sensor.

Previously, Ms. Brook was the Marketing Director and Technology Evangelist for NeuroSky Brain-Computer Interface Technologies and the Marketing Chair of the MIT/Stanford Venture Lab. She has spent the last several years helping Silicon Valley companies bolster their revenue through business strategy, product design, and brand development - in wearable devices / human machine interaction, b2b Internet-of-Things, and sustainability products. Ms. Brook has also been an entertainment producer for an award-winning independent television pilot, a research consultant in non-profit for education, and a grant writer. She graduated Summa Cum Laude from the University of Colorado with a BA in Branding and Social Marketing, and is currently completing the Berkley Haas Executive MBA Program.


Gail Burns

Senior Director, IT, RSA - EMC

311 - Cybersecurity Is Everyone's Business

Gail Burns is a Senior Director at RSA, responsible for leading the IT organization that helps to enable and support RSA's business growth and objectives. This global team is responsible for supporting all RSA business functions. The team consists of business consultants, analysts, architects, developers, security and system administrators who deliver new solutions and support current applications and infrastructure.

Ms. Burns completed an Executive MBA Program at Northeastern, with a focus on Business and International Management. She is President of the RSA Chapter of the Women's Leadership Forum (WLF) and is passionate about the development and advancement of women.


Donna Ceriani

Leadership Success Coach, Success Compass

111: Leverage Your Personal Brand to Achieve Your Goals

213C-032 - Leverage Your Personal Brand to Achieve Your Goals

305C-092 - Leverage Your Personal Brand to Achieve Your Goals

Donna Ceriani is a Leadership Success Coach, helping leaders in technology navigate career choices, enhance their leadership impact, and inspire their teams to achieve their best results.

For more than 25 years, Ms. Ceriani has held senior management roles leading teams across the U.S., Europe, and Asia in the financial services, health care, and technology industries. She was recently the Chief People Officer for SmartBear Software, winning a 2013 "Best Place to Work" award in Boston. Prior to that, she was an Executive Director for Global Client Operations for a company owned by Thomson Reuters and the DTCC, living in Boston, NYC, and Singapore. Ms. Ceriani now brings her vast experience to support her clients on their own journey to achieve their goals. When she isn't immersed in the adventures in today's workplace, she's counting the days until the next snowboarding season.


Angie Chang

Vice President, Partnerships & Mentorship, Hackbright Academy

112: Non-Traditional Pathways for Women into Tech

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.


Diane Chang

Leadership and Management Development Coach, Diane Chang Coaching

324: Building and Managing Productive Teams

114C-013 - How to Create a More Engaging Working Environment When Leading and Managing Teams

219C-044 - How to Create a More Engaging Working Environment When Leading and Managing Teams

Diane Chang is a Certified Professional Coach who works to advance the careers and personal lives of those who work in technology. Having been a technology professional for over 20 years, she has firsthand experience in the opportunities and challenges faced in tech and is still actively engaged as a consultant. Prior to becoming a coach, Ms. Chang was a Vice President / Senior Manager of Applications Development at the Capital Group in Southern California where she worked for over 16 years. She started her career in large consulting companies as a developer and product specialist.

Ms. Chang seeks to be the voice of encouragement, trust, growth, and achievement to those who want to make a difference, influence culture, and improve their circumstances. She is passionate about creating a positive work environment and helping others to actively develop their leadership skills. In addition to serving as WITI Regional Network Director for New York City, Ms. Chang also mentors Africa's youth through the Infinite Family global program.


Desi Ekstein

Drone Diva Desi, On The Go Video.biz

105: Drone Engineering: Exploring New Capabilities in STEM Education

Desi Ekstein - a female UAS (Unmanned Aircraft Systems) pilot with over 100 flights and a passion to fly and to help others - has a Federal Aviation Administration Section 333 exemption and is currently working on obtaining her sport pilot license.

Desi uses her drones for photography and videography. She has written for two UAS Internet sites - Skylabflightsystems.com and DigitalAviators.net - regarding drone safety and awareness. She has owned and operated a successful business for over 20 years. Her "Fly Right" program promotes the value of drones and teaches safety in accordance with current FAA guidelines. Desi also works with Leslie Bates at SheDrones and STEM education.


Gretchen Fox

CEO, MTO Agency

334: WITI WIN Panel:
 Creating a Social Media Community

344: Prove It! Busting the Myth of Social Media ROI

Gretchen Fox is a recognized executive and thought leader in social marketing. She provides a social vision and strategy for startups and Fortune 500 brands striving to take social to the next level. Prior to launching Made To Order (MTO), Ms. Fox served as Vice President of Social at Live Nation Entertainment, the world's leading live entertainment company, where she built an in-house social agency servicing over 100 live music venues and superstar touring artists including Pink, Rihanna, and Jay-Z.

Before joining Live Nation, Ms. Fox launched one of the first Social TV products to deliver interactive and live streaming experiences at NASPERS R&D project and Silicon Valley start-up, MediaZone. In this role, she managed online marketing for some of the world's biggest sport properties including: AELTC's Wimbledon Championships, IndyCar Race Control, Rugby World Cup, ING New York City Marathon, and NBC's Winter Olympics. Her work has earned her the Billboard Magazine Top Women in Social, regular press coverage, and a role as contributing writer for Forbes online.


Juliana Furtado

Founder, Juliana Bicycles

333: WITI WIN Panel - High Tech On and Off the Field: The Business of Sports Wearables

Juliana Furtado has over 30 years' experience in the sporting world, both as an athlete and business woman. She understands the dynamics between product, marketing, sponsorship. and branding. As an athlete, Ms. Furtado strove to compete at the highest level while keeping integrity and good sportsmanship at the forefront.

After her racing career, Ms. Furtado switched to the business side of cycling, opening up new markets with Juliana Bicycles, the first women-specific bicycle in the cycling market. Her key strengths include a keen awareness regarding branding, market niches, product development, sales, and personal connections.


Terri Givens

Professor and Provost/Dean of Arts and Sciences, Menlo College

333: WITI WIN Panel - High Tech On and Off the Field: The Business of Sports Wearables

In July 2015 Terri Givens moved to Menlo College as the new Provost. As a scholar, she focuses on the global politics of immigration, as well as European politics. Having joined The University of Texas at Austin as a government professor in 2003, she served there as director of the Center for European Studies, the France-UT Institute, the Robert S. Strauss Center's European Union Center for Excellence, the Texas Language Roadmap, and as co-director of the Longhorn Scholars Program. Dr. Givens also served as a vice provost, overseeing the university's undergraduate curriculum and spearheading global initiatives as the chief international officer.

Dr. Givens' international recognition includes an appointment as Public Policy Scholar of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, a Visiting Fellow at the Freie Universitäet in Berlin, a Visiting Fellow at the Centre d'Etudes et de Recherches Internationales in Paris, an appointment as a Distinguished Scholar Alumna from Stanford, and a German Marshall Fund Fellow of the Rockefeller Foundation. She regularly attends the Brussels Forum.

In between earning her bachelor's degree in international relations from Stanford University and her doctoral degree in political science from UCLA, Dr. Givens worked in the fields of community service and nonprofit administration. She is the author of several publications and is a regular columnist for Inside Higher Ed. A lifelong athlete who believes fitness helps strengthen the foundation of families and communities, she founded Take Back the Trail (http://www.takebackthetrail.com) to empower women and encourage the development of healthy families.


Sonia Gonzalez

Co-Founder and General Manager, CrossChannel

314: Building a Company and the Role of Mobile

Sonia Gonzalez is Co-Founder and General Manager of CrossChannel, a leading programmatic advertising company. CrossChannel's solutions focus on taking a data-driven approach to efficiently targeting the right audience across multiple channels. Previously, Ms. Gonzalez was Co-Founder of MdotM, a performance-based mobile Demand Side Platform, where she also served as director of advertising and VP of Sales. Ms. Gonzalez holds a Bachelor of Science degree from UC Berkeley.


Angel Grant

Vice President, Product & Market Strategy, f5 Security

311 - Cybersecurity Is Everyone's Business

Angel Grant is currently Vice President of Product and Market Strategy at f5 Security. She is a visionary leader with a passion for developing and evangelizing cybersecurity, fraud prevention, and risk management solutions to help make our digital world a safer place. Angel has over 20 years of experience in the cybersecurity, eCommerce, and financial services industries with a background in product development, marketing, and sales. Prior to f5, she held various positions in RSA Security authentication, identity, fraud, risk, and threat intelligence teams. She has influenced many industry initiatives while serving on the FS-ISAC Board, PCI Council Board of Advisors, Federal Reserve Secure Payments Task Force and Nacha's Payments Innovation Alliance Risk, Regulatory and Security Advisory Committees. She is also a prominent diversity evangelist, spokesperson, blogger, and is CISSP certified.


Isabelle Guis

VP Product Marketing | Sales Cloud, Salesforce

343: WITI Industry-Based Networks (WIN) Panel: Disruptive Cloud Technologies for the Digital/Mobile Workplace in a Connected Age

Voted among the Top 100 Most Influential B2B Tech Marketers in North America in 2016 and the first woman Chief Strategy Officer in a cloud company, Isabelle Guis is passionate about developing and bringing to market innovative SaaS solutions leveraging analytics, machine learning, and block chain technologies to solve business-critical problems.

She was the Chief Marketing and Strategy Officer at Egnyte, leading portfolio and market expansion with the creation of a new content governance solution. She previously served as EMC's VP of Marketing for the Public Cloud Solutions Group and Enterprise Storage Division. Ms. Guis helped companies shape and grow the Software-Defined Networking industry and was part of the executive team at Big Switch Networks, one of the pioneering SDN start-ups. She was founding Chair of the Market Education committee at the Open Networking Foundation (ONF). Prior, she managed the P&L of Avaya's Small and Medium Enterprise Communications Business Unit as its General Manager. At Cisco, she was instrumental in the post-acquisition integration of the WLAN start-up Airespace with Cisco Go-To-Market and also led several Mobile Vertical Solutions from design and testing to launch. Ms. Guis holds a Master of Science in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from Supelec in France and an MBA from Harvard Business School.


Akhil Gupta

Vice President, Infrastructure, Dropbox

304 - Tech Tales, WITIstyle: IoT, Engineering Derring-Do, and Ghanaian Girls and Tech

Akhil Gupta is the Vice President of Infrastructure at Dropbox, responsible for Dropbox's physical and technical infrastructure, technology operations, and network security. In this role, Mr. Gupta and his team ensure that the hundreds of petabytes of data stored in Dropbox are safe and available to Dropbox's users around the world.

Prior to Dropbox, Mr. Gupta oversaw Google's search ads infrastructure and products, where he was responsible for building and scaling the infrastructure that serves ads on Google dot com. He holds a bachelor's degree in computer science from the Indian Institute of Technology and a master's degree in Computer Science from the University of Maryland.


Amanda Healy

Senior Marketing Manager & Social Media Storyteller, TIBCO Software

113: Making LinkedIn Work for YOU

219C-054 - Making LinkedIn Work for YOU

316C-112 - Making LinkedIn Work for YOU

Amanda Healy is an award-winning B2B marketing manager and social media expert, national speaker, and syndicated blogger. She currently works as a Marketing Manager for TIBCO Software, overseeing a global budget of $1.5M+ and leading a team of three to devise and execute multi-touch, multi-dimensional campaigns for lead generation. She runs all corporate social media accounts for TIBCO, as well as the company's internal social advocacy platform, PostBeyond. Ms. Healy also writes for PersonalBrandingBlog.com, interviewing thought leaders and celebrities such as Jonah Berger and Michelle Phan. The site has over 100,000 monthly readers and is syndicated by AOL, Yahoo!, Business Insider, and Entrepreneur magazine, among others.

Prior to TIBCO, Ms. Healy managed a $1M+ marketing budget for Akamai Technologies and spearheaded the company's delivery of the 2013 Winter Olympics. Previously at CA Technologies, Ms. Healy created the first-ever social media training academy for the firm's 14,000+ employees. She was recently featured in The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal best-selling author Dan Schawbel's book "Promote Yourself" and was spotlighted by the Washington Post.


Marlene Hirose

Data Engineer, IMVU

112: Non-Traditional Pathways for Women into Tech

Marlene Hirose took a long and winding path to become a data engineer - starting with a B.S. in Mathematics, heading to desktop publishing, teaching English in Japan, teaching 4th and 5th grade in San Jose, getting a second B.S. in Media Arts and Animation. After a few years as a digital artist, Ms. Hirose decided to change careers again and went to Hackbright Academy to become a software engineer. Currently working at IMVU, she happily constructs SQL queries in Hive, codes in Python, and sets up Tableau data visualizations for product, finance, and marketing teams.


Carla Holtze

Founder and CEO, Parrable

314: Building a Company and the Role of Mobile

Carla Holtze is the CEO and co-founder of Parrable, an innovative technology platform designed to solve the issues of fragmentation and blind spots on mobile due to third-party cookie restrictions. The proprietary platform allows advertisers, publishers and their technology partners to maintain state on computers and mobile devices, facilitating the personalization of content, experiences and advertising for consumers.

Previous to Parrable, Ms. Holtze worked at the BBC, The Economist Intelligence Unit and at Lehman Brothers in both New York and Hong Kong. She earned her MBA at Columbia Business School, MS in Journalism at Columbia University, and BS at Northwestern University. Ms. Holtze serves on the Board of the San Francisco Symphony Soundbox and is involved as mentor for emerging entrepreneurs and technology companies through Startup Mexico (SUM).


Kirsten Hunter

API Evangelist, Akamai Technologies

121: Creating Irresistible APIs

Kirsten Hunter is an unapologetic hacker and passionate advocate for the development community. Her technical interests range from graph databases to cloud services, and her experience supporting and evangelizing REST APIs has given her a unique perspective on developer success.

As the lead API Evangelist at Akamai (an API Management company), Ms. Hunter is responsible for evangelizing the API to internal and external developers. In addition, she spends a great deal of time teaching the community best practices in API design and development. Most of her presentations and blog posts focus on API design and development, on creating APIs that are successful, engaging and long-lasting. She has spoken at Future Insights, OSCON, Future of Web Apps, and API Strategy and Practice. As well, she is responsible on a yearly basis for providing a full-day workshop for Akamai customers for the Akamai EDGE conference, to help users interact with this somewhat complex API system. Ms. Hunter also blogs on her site at http://www.princesspolymath.com


Radhika Iyengar-Emens

Managing Partner, DoubleNova Group

312: WITI WIN Panel - Disruptive Healthcare: Unlocking the Gates to the Data

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.


Meredith Jacobson

Network Director, WITI LA

342: Starting A Women-in-Tech Group in Your Organization

101: Starting a Women-in-Tech Group In Your Organization

Meredith Jacobson is the Business Development Manager for North Highland, a Global Consulting firm specializing in IT, Finance, and Engineering positions in LA and across the country. Ms. Jacobson has been involved professionally with sales and recruiting for the past 13 years. She has developed client relationships with businesses large and small, placing hundreds of employees and temporary personnel over the years.

Ms. Jacobson has been passionate about WITI since her first meeting in 2004 and is very excited about working with the WITI LA Team. Additionally, she is actively involved in the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) and Temple Aliyah synagogue. She volunteers at the Jewish Federation on Super Sunday and at the Los Angeles Jewish Home Walk of Ages.


Rosa Javadi

Engineering Services Manager, Jabil

332: WITI WIN Panel - Industrial IoT: Hot Human Jobs to Careers in the Era of Smart Machines

Rosa Javadi is responsible for leading cross-functional teams in a multitude of projects ranging from Chip-On-Board (COB) micro-electronic assemblies to complex macro-level assemblies, such as diagnostics instrumentation. Ms. Javadi started her professional career in R&D of high-technology servers, from which she moved to R&D and manufacturing of flow cytometers, specializing in DFX and design optimization. Prior to joining Jabil, she co-founded Stratedigm, a platform-based flow cytometry OEM. Ms. Javadi holds a Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering, a Master's degree in Engineering with an emphasis in Operations, and an MBA.


Nicole Johnson

Global Head of Digital Content Marketing & Strategy, Hearsay Social

322: WITI WIN Panel - Uncluttering the Digital Noise: How to Really Market to Women - Business and Consumers

Nicole Johnson is a senior content, digital, and social media marketing professional with over 15 years of experience helping companies tell authentic and engaging stories around their brand's vision and offerings. Currently, Ms. Johnson is head of content strategy at Hearsay Social, a Silicon Valley start-up that empowers global financial services teams to efficiently and successfully use social, mobile and digital technology to attract prospects, retain customers, and grow business,

Previously, Ms. Johnson was U.S. head of content at BlackRock, the world's largest asset management company, and has previously served as senior editor at FindLaw, the highest-trafficked legal website and leading provider of online marketing solutions for law firms. Ms. Johnson is passionate about helping organizations obtain excellence and profitability through content and social, and helping to improve diversity in the tech industry. Her work has appeared in numerous publications including Fast Company, Investment News, Matthew Bender, WealthManagement.com and ThinkAdvisor. Ms. Johnson earned a J.D. from the University of Maryland School of Law and a B.A. from UCLA.


Amanda Kahlow

CEO, 6Sense

224: Leadership Insights of Extraordinary Entrepreneurs

Amanda Kahlow is passionate about bringing the power of predictive marketing and sales intelligence to B2B enterprise and mid-market companies. She makes 6sense customers' needs a priority, applying her proven aptitude for relationship building and sales. Prior to 6sense, Ms. Kahlow spent 14 years as the CEO and founder of CI Insights, a big-data services company that used multichannel analytics to help enterprise companies generate hundreds of millions in net-new business.

The ultimate optimist, Ms. Kahlow is focused on giving back to the community. She is an advisor to the organization Girl Rising, committed to their mission to educate girls in developing countries as a way to build thriving, prosperous, healthy communities and effect positive social change.


Arum Kang

Founder and CEO, Coffee Meets Bagel

314: Building a Company and the Role of Mobile

After completing her BSE in Marketing at the University of Pennsylvania, Arum Kang focused on delighting customers in the consumer product space. She has worked with a variety of companies including Lord and Taylor, Avon, and Amazon. After earning her MBA degree from Harvard Business School, Ms. Kang co-founded Coffee Meets Bagel with sisters Soo and Dawoon.

As CEO, Ms. Kang creates and executes the vision of Coffee Meets Bagel, now available around the world. Over the past three years, she has built a team that shares her passion for bringing people together. Her overarching goal is to always make sure that the users' needs are heard and that Coffee Meets Bagel is providing the best product experience. In addition to her day-to-day work, Ms. Kang has given many talks about the intersection of dating and technology in the startup scene, including a TEDx talk on "Redefining Normal."


Julie Kantor

President & CEO, Twomentor

225: 11 Steps for Launching Your Corporate Mentoring Program and Keeping Your Millennials

Julie Kantor is a social impact and serial entrepreneur committed to seeing a diverse workforce not survive, but thrive in the world of work. She is a strong advocate of companies not just building Mentoring Programs, but building mentoring cultures to better serve the needs of our growing Millennial and Generation Z workforce. She believes we need to teach Sponsorship to all women and leaders, and that we lose women and minorities mid-career due to lack of Sponsorship.

At the age of 21, Ms. Kantor became Executive Director of Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE); building nationally and globally for 20 years, she co-founded a tech company, and then went on to build and launch Million Women Mentors and STEMconnector (consulting clients such as: Cisco, TCS, Intel, BP, Samsung and more on STEM talent strategies). In late 2015 she launched her own management consulting firm, Twomentor, which offers mentor training and consults corporations on their mentor strategy to drive significant employee retention. In addition, Ms. Kantor is the author of I Said YES! (Gazelles Publishing), and a Huffington Post Business & Tech Blogger since 2012.


Kristiane Koontz

President, The Club

112: Non-Traditional Pathways for Women into Tech

Kristiane Koontz helps banks and financial technology companies envision and execute complex business and technology transformation projects. As a management consultant at PwC she leads teams that bridge the gap between IT and the business on large-scale business and technology changes. She had led merger / acquisition programs, international market entry, product development, complex systems implementation, cost reduction, process improvement and regulatory-driven change programs for banks, payments, and financial technology companies.

Ms. Koontz is also the Founder of Internet marketing firm k2 Web Development & Marketing LLC. In addition, she is a Founder, Board Member, and current President of The CLUB - a Silicon Valley/Bay Area organization dedicated to advancing women in leadership, and is passionate about building a diverse and inclusive workplace.


Carolyn Leighton

Founder/Chairwoman, WITI

300: WITI Perspectives

201 - 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."


Janet Levesque

Chief Information Security Officer, RSA

311 - Cybersecurity Is Everyone's Business

Janet Levesque is the Chief Information Security Officer at RSA, the Security Division of EMC. In her role as CISO, Ms. Levesque spearheads the enterprise information security program and is responsible for maintaining a global risk strategy to determine acceptable levels of risk for the enterprise. She joined RSA after 25 years of progressive leadership experience in technical audit, information security and risk management domains.

Prior to RSA, Ms. Levesque established the information security and compliance program at Aspect Software. She designed and built the information security program to support initial SOX; PCI compliance mandates at Circles, a Sodexo company; and wore several hats at an Internet grocery delivery service during the dot com boom. Her foundational years were spent in public accounting at Arthur Andersen. She graduated from the University of Vermont with a Bachelor of Science and holds Certified Information Security Manager (CISM) and Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA) designations. Ms. Levesque was appointed to the National Cyber Security Alliance Board of Directors in 2015.


Emily Lindin

Founder and Director, The Unslut Project

102 -Overcoming Cyberbullying

Emily Lindin is the author of the new book "UnSlut: A Diary and a Memoir" and founder of The UnSlut Project, an online community where survivors of sexual bullying and "slut" shaming can share their stories, and where girls who are currently suffering can find support and solidarity. The UnSlut Project was inspired by Ms. Lindin's own experience. When she was 11 years old, she was labeled a "slut" by her classmates and was bullied at school, after school, and online. During all this, she kept a regular diary. Now a Harvard graduate pursuing her Ph.D. in California, Ms. Lindin started The UnSlut Project by blogging her own middle school diaries.

In addition to Ms. Lindin's recently released book, "UnSlut: A Diary and a Memoir," The UnSlut Project's award-winning, completely crowd-funded film, "UnSlut: A Documentary Film" is currently screening at universities, theaters, and festivals around North America. She has been featured sharing her story and speaking out against "slut" shaming on television and radio shows including ABC with Katie Couric, CNN with Brooke Baldwin, The Doctors, Al Jazeera America, HLN, DNTO radio with Sook-Yin Lee, NPR's Here and Now, Deutsche Welle radio, Radio Ireland, and in many magazines and blogs including Women's Health Magazine, Glamour UK, Salon.com, The Telegraph, The New Statesman, This Magazine, The Huffington Post, and The Observer.


Anne Lopez

STEM Educator, Eastside Middle School

105: Drone Engineering: Exploring New Capabilities in STEM Education

Anne Lopez is a science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) teacher at Eastside Middle School, Mt. Washington, Kentucky. With 11 years of experience, Ms. Lopez is highly qualified in both middle and high school science. Her passion is teaching, inspiring, and challenging children to love learning. As a lifelong learner herself, she continues to develop new courses and curriculum to push the boundaries of education and learning. She is an active member in her community, serving with her husband and two children in the preschool ministry and mission ministry at their church.

Currently, Ms. Lopez serves as the STEM coordinator, Virtual Curriculum Integration Coach, and Project Lead the Way instructor at Eastside Middle School. Additionally, she has partnered with the national non-profit SheDrones to develop an easy-to-follow curriculum that can be utilized in classrooms around the country, inspiring kids to be passionate about science, technology, engineering and math.


Aidan Madigan-Curtis

Head of New Product Introduction, Samsara Networks

304 - Tech Tales, WITIstyle: IoT, Engineering Derring-Do, and Ghanaian Girls and Tech

Aidan Madigan-Curtis is the Head of New Product Introduction for Samsara Networks, an a16z-backed IoT company focused on sensors and wireless gateways for Industrial applications. Previously, Ms. Madigan-Curtis was a Hardware Operations PM for System-in-Package technologies at Apple, Inc. She has ramped products into the iPhone and AppleWatch and loves bringing new technologies to market. Ms. Madigan-Curtis is originally Canadian; she holds a masters degree from Stanford University and undergraduate degree from Harvard University.


Alam Mo

CEO, Silicon Valley Nest

312: WITI WIN Panel - Disruptive Healthcare: Unlocking the Gates to the Data

Alam Mo is the founder and CEO of Silicon Valley Nest, a Bay area technology startup accelerator since 2010. His primary focus is to bring technology innovation into the public health sector. He has helped accelerate more than 10 successful startups, including an Addiction Recovery startup and a Chronic Care Management startup.

Prior to founding Silicon Valley Nest, Mr. Mo was involved in a research project funded by RockwellCollins as a data scientist involving simulation and modeling of thermal behavior in avionics and military radio. He also worked as a software engineer for semiconductor designing and testing for Intel. In 1994, after graduating as an Electrical Engineer from Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, Mr. Mo started his career as a healthcare technology solution provider in a local public health company. He earned his B.S. in Electrical & Electronic Engineering at BUET, Dhaka, Bangladesh; and his M.S. in Computer Engineering from Texas A&M University. The author of numerous technical articles, Mr. Mo also holds multiple US patents.


Gloria Moskowitz-Sweet

Co-Founder, My Digital TAT2

321: The Psychology of Technology: Understanding the Always-On Generation

Gloria Moskowitz-Sweet, LCSW, PPSC, is Co-Founder of My Digital TAT2. She has been a school social worker, educator, program developer, and university lecturer since 1981. She was the coordinator of Parents Place Community Education and Bullying Prevention Center on the Peninsula for five years and a lecturer in the graduate program of social work at San Jose State University for 20 years. Ms. Moskowitz-Sweet is a strong believer in the importance of working with teachers, parents, and students to create a safe environment conducive to learning. She is bicultural and the parent of three sons.


Michael Neuendorff

President, Bay Area Executive Coach

226: Success Secrets of the Super Achievers

219C-056 - Grow Your Small Business

213C-036 - Using LinkedIn for Personal Branding

Michael Neuendorff, PCC, is the president of Bay Area Executive Coach. The firm provides coaching, training, and assessments for small and mid-size businesses that are committed to excellence in leadership, and organizational health. Mr. Neuendorff has been in the professional development field since 2008; he is certified by the International Coach Federation and is a Master Certified Coach Trainer via the Center for Executive Coaching.


Wendy Ollenborger

Consultant Security Engineer, RSA

311 - Cybersecurity Is Everyone's Business

Wendy Ollenborger, a seasoned security practitioner with over 15 years of experience in the IT and Information Security industry, is currently a Consultant Security Engineer at RSA. Her responsibilities have included security architecture, risk assessment, penetration testing, technology deployment, integrations and operations. Ms. Ollenborger began her IT journey as a programmer/analyst at RSA and later transitioned to a role focused on information security. She returned to RSA in 2015 after spending 9 years with RSA's parent company EMC.

Ms. Ollenborger received her Bachelor of Science degree from Northeastern University in Management Information Systems and International Business. She is a Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP).


Glennis Orloff

Sr Director, R&D Operations, Rodan + Fields

312: WITI WIN Panel - Disruptive Healthcare: Unlocking the Gates to the Data

Glennis J. Orloff is an Innovation Development Executive with a great deal of experience delivering consumer-focused technology into the marketplace. Throughout her career, she has managed organizations to identify, develop, and deliver innovative products and technology covering many industries including semiconductor, personal care, and health care.

Dr. Orloff's technology-diverse career began with the manufacturing of infrared detectors for missile guidance systems at Texas instruments. She moved into consumer products at Schick Wilkinson Sword where she invented the Schick Intuition razor which created a new billion-dollar razor category. She used this experience to start her own company in the healthcare sector which developed patented athletic apparel technology designed to protect female athletes from ACL injuries. Following that venture, Dr. Orloff was the VP of Product Development at i-Health, Inc., a consumer health and wellness division of DSM (a L9.3B life sciences and materials company) that develops, markets, and distributes branded products which support natural health and wellness. More recently, she has joined the team at Whole Biome, Inc., as Chief Operating Officer, developing novel classes of therapeutics and diagnostics that target the human microbiome to maintain and restore good health.


Natalie Pace

Co-Creator, Earth Day Gratitude Project

323: Green is Good. For the Planet. For your Wallet.

Natalie Pace is the author of the Amazon bestsellers The Gratitude Game, The ABCs of Money, and You Vs. Wall Street (aka Put Your Money Where Your Heart Is in hard cover). Ms. Pace has been adding a splash of green to Wall Street and transforming lives on Main Street for 14 years, while at the same time earning the ranking of No. 1 stock picker. She features the world's most sustainable companies, thought leaders, and real estate on her HuffingtonPost.com blog and is the co-creator of the global Earth Day Gratitude celebration. Ms. Pace is a repeat guest on national television and radio shows such as Good Morning America, Fox News, CNBC, ABC-TV, Forbes.com, NPR, and more. As a strong believer in giving back, she has been instrumental in raising tens of millions for public schools, financial literacy, the arts, and underserved women and girls worldwide.


Preethy Padman

Solutions Marketing, Nutanix

343: WITI Industry-Based Networks (WIN) Panel: Disruptive Cloud Technologies for the Digital/Mobile Workplace in a Connected Age

Preethy Padman is a Senior Manager of Solutions Marketing at start-up Nutanix, a leader in hyperconverged infrastructure. Ms. Padman heads VDI and healthcare marketing at Nutanix, and has a passion for delivering use-case focused solutions solving customer pain points.

Prior to Nutanix, Ms. Padman held marketing positions at Dell Cloud Client computing division and Cisco TelePresence services group. She has built a strong career in technology across engineering, management, and marketing. She is also an accomplished singer and has composed popular music albums fostering world peace. Ms. Padman holds an M.S. in Information Systems from BITS Pilani, India, and an MBA from UCLA Anderson School of Management.


Erica Pelavin

Co-Founder, My Digital TAT2

321: The Psychology of Technology: Understanding the Always-On Generation

Erica Pelavin, LCSW, Ph.D., is Co-Founder of My Digital TAT2. She is a psychologist with over 20 years' experience. Working from a strength-based perspective, Dr. Pelavin specializes in bullying prevention, relational aggression, digital drama, digital safety, and conflict resolution. She has a passion for helping children and teens learn the skills to become their own advocates, as well as helping schools become caring communities. She is the mother of two boys, and for the past eight years has been a high school counselor.


Reema Poddar

Executive - VP of Software Engineering, General Electric Company

332: WITI WIN Panel - Industrial IoT: Hot Human Jobs to Careers in the Era of Smart Machines

Reema Poddar leads GE Digitals's Core software technology team that drives thought leadership and execution of the digitalization strategy. She is responsible for identifying and executing on growth levers that leverage IT, Operations, Security, and Go-to-market functions across GE's Product and Application portfolio on PREDIX platform for Industrial Internet Initiatives. Ms. Poddar has a unique profile that spans Global Engineering, Product Development, and Professional Services expertise. In GE she has held several strategic roles leading such varied business verticals as Industrial Automation, Manufacturing, Healthcare. In her current role within GE's new start up software business, she laid the foundation, processes and practices for Asset Performance Management software portfolio, a SAAS offering that delivered a substantial year over year growth.

Prior to joining GE, Ms. Poddar was the technology leader for Intellution Inc., a startup business that GE acquired. She is very passionate about talent development and strongly believes in creating high performance organizations. She dedicates time for coaching and mentoring to create a driven and motivational team, and strongly believes that high employee satisfaction leads to high customer satisfaction. She has created and led several programs within and outside GE to support this cause through affinity groups and technology adoption. Ms. Poddar holds a Master's in Computer Science and a Master's in Electronics.


Sridevi Koneru Rao

Senior Director, Chief Digitization Office, Cisco Systems

343: WITI Industry-Based Networks (WIN) Panel: Disruptive Cloud Technologies for the Digital/Mobile Workplace in a Connected Age

Sridevi Koneru Rao leads Cisco's core data and analytics team that drives thought leadership and execution of the digitization strategy. She is responsible for identifying and executing on growth levers that leverage IT, Operations and Go-to-Market functions across Cisco's product and services portfolio. Ms. Rao has a unique profile that spans Product Development, International Market development, Sales operations and Business development.

In her previous role, Ms. Rao was General Manager for the Wireless Business Unit for the APJC region based out of India. In this role, she developed several programs to accelerate wireless adoption in Asia and Emerging markets and led the R&D team in the region. She excels at business planning and mapping insights to decision making to enable growth strategies. Ms. Rao is very passionate about talent development to create high performance organizations. She strongly believes that high employee satisfaction leads to high customer satisfaction, and has created and led several programs within and outside Cisco to support this cause through affinity groups and technology adoption. Ms. Rao has an MS in Computer Science from SCU, California and an MBA from Wharton, University of Pennsylvania. An avid hiker, her recent accomplishments include summiting Mt. Kilimanjaro and Mt. Whitney. Ms. Rao is very passionate about giving back to society and is an active member of Akshaya Patra Foundation, Sankara Eye Foundation specifically oriented to address poverty and hunger for school children.


Kyra Reed

Co-Founder, MTO Agency

334: WITI WIN Panel:
 Creating a Social Media Community

Kyra Reed is an industry veteran and a community-focused brand innovator who brings a unique and fresh social-first approach to brand marketing and digital strategy. Prior to co-founding Made To Order (MTO), Ms. Reed spent 15 years working with dozens of companies of all sizes ranging from traditional to social marketing, including start-ups, mid-size businesses, and well-known events such as the Monterey Pop Festival.

For her work spearheading the revitalization of the iconic Roxy Theater and Sunset Strip in Los Angeles entertainment district, Ms. Reed was named a "Social Media Pioneer" by Entrepreneur Magazine. In this role, she has one of the most prominent social media case studies to date. She is the author of Blog 101, a beginner's guide to blogging; and a contributor to The Power of Real-Time Social Media Marketing by Beverly Macy. Ms. Reed has guest-lectured at UCLA and USC and has spoken at a number of conferences, including Digital Music Forum West, Blog World, ASCAP Expos, and SXSW. Her work has been featured in top tier media outlets including TechCrunch, The New York Times, and NPR.


Miriam Reiss

Executive Coach, Wisdom Executive & Career Coaching

123: Get Rewarded Using Your Introvert Style

104C-002 - Power Trip: Tools for Maximizing Your Personal Power at Work

213C-035 - Power Trip: Tools for Maximizing Your Personal Power at Work

219C-042 - Self-Esteem and Self-Confidence: Essential Keys for Women in IT

303C-082 - Self-Esteem and Self-Confidence: Essential Keys for Women in IT

316C-101 - Driving Your Destiny: Managing Your Career from Covey's Quadrants

Miriam Reiss helps women in technology grow their skills, maximize their professional success, and increase their level of sustained self-confidence and well-being. As co-author of Branding & Marketing Mastery, Dr. Reiss is an executive coach, former marketing director, and consultant. Her coaching clients have ranged from biotech professionals to women in engineering, at companies including Boeing and Microsoft. She is Past President, Washington State Chapter, International Coach Federation (ICF), and a Master Certified Coach, the ICF's senior ranking. Dr. Reiss holds a doctorate from Peace Theological Seminary, degrees from Cornell and Columbia Universities, and a master's degree in spiritual psychology from the University of Santa Monica.


Amy Roiland

CEO, FashionTap

322: WITI WIN Panel - Uncluttering the Digital Noise: How to Really Market to Women - Business and Consumers

While working PR at a clothing company, one day Amy Roiland was tasked by marketing to find several bloggers in different cities to whom to send clothes. "It was incredibly difficult to locate bloggers. There was no way to search for bloggers by location or to search for top bloggers in general." Why hadn't anybody built an IMDB for the fashion world? Suddenly an idea was born. Ms. Roiland quit her job and assembled a bold team of entrepreneurs and developers who shared in her vision of filling the void at the intersection of tech and fashion.

Over the next six months, FashionTap worked tirelessly to build the world's first fashion social network, empowering users to shop the products they see in each post. Brands, boutiques, and designers can search for bloggers, models, and other influencers by location to work with them. Today FashionTap has grown to a team of ten and the FashionTap community, available for free download in the iOS app store, has grown to tens of thousands of users.


Maryanna Saenko

Senior Associate, Draper Fisher Jurvetson

332: WITI WIN Panel - Industrial IoT: Hot Human Jobs to Careers in the Era of Smart Machines

Maryanna Saenko recently joined the venture capital firm Draper Fisher Jurvetson (DFJ). Previously, Ms. Saenko was Director of Ventures at A3, focused on developing and supporting seed-stage investments in aerospace and adjacent domains. Prior to that, she led Lux Research's autonomous systems group where she traveled the world and spoke about robots. Ms. Saenko completed her undergraduate and Master's degrees from Carnegie Mellon University, following which she became a research engineer and worked on projects ranging from autonomous vehicles to MEMS devices for wireless power transfer.


Mada Seghete

Co-Founder, Branch Metrics

224: Leadership Insights of Extraordinary Entrepreneurs

Mada Seghete leads community and developer marketing and is one of the co-founders of Branch Metrics, a startup that provides free deep linking technology to mobile app developers and marketers. In the last year, Branch Metrics has grown into a 10,000-person Mobile Growth community by hosting 146 meetups, lunch and learns, hackathons, and workshops in 50 cities around the world.

Born and raised in Romania, Ms. Seghete came to the US to study Electrical and Computer Engineering at Cornell University, then earned her Master's of Engineering and MBA from Stanford. Ms. Seghete was included in Linkedin's Next Wave, 150 top professionals in 15 industries all 35 & under, and recently joined the App Developers Alliance board.


Donna Spielberg

Senior Vice President, City National Bank

342: Starting A Women-in-Tech Group in Your Organization

101: Starting a Women-in-Tech Group In Your Organization

Donna Spielberg is Senior Vice President and IT Delivery Team Manager at City National Bank (CNB) in Los Angeles. In addition, she serves as Co-Network Director of WITI Los Angeles.

In CNB's technology division, Ms. Spielberg currently manages a team of project and program managers whose focus is to deliver a wide variety of technology solutions across the bank's highest priority initiatives, touching multiple business units. She works closely with business units to understand their project roadmaps and business priorities, as well as help them in early stages to fine-tune their requirements. Ms. Spielberg joined CNB in 1982; she has held several positions there, including underwriting for 15 years, followed by branching out into process improvement, project management, business analysis, risk management, and loan operations management roles.


Ching Valdezco

Director, Exec|Comm

322: WITI WIN Panel - Uncluttering the Digital Noise: How to Really Market to Women - Business and Consumers

Ching Valdezco helps professionals present with confidence, write clearly, influence effectively, and build strong client relationships. Her firm, Exec-Comm, has worked with top companies for over 30 years. Ms. Valdezco and her colleagues have led workshops at major tech companies including Oracle, Microsoft, Amazon, and more. Silicon Valley Business Journal named her one of their top Women of Influence for 2016. Prior to joining Exec-Comm, Ms. Valdezco served as Director of Strategy and Planning at Hewlett-Packard.


Dale Thomas Vaughn

Co-Founder, Better Man Conference, Director of DEI, Good Men Project

345: The Next Generation of Gender Partnership

Dale Thomas Vaughn is an activist for gender equality and healthy masculinity. If you've seen NEVERTHELESS, the award-winning #MeToo documentary, you will remember him as the guy who says "sexism is the anchor that is holding society back." As co-founder of the Healthy Masculinity Initiative and the Better Man Conference, he has presented alongside leaders like Gloria Steinem, Sheryl Sandberg, and Tony Porter.


Sophia Viklund

Co-Founder, Silicon Valley Deep Learning Group

112: Non-Traditional Pathways for Women into Tech

101: Starting a Women-in-Tech Group In Your Organization

Sophia Viklund is a co-founder at New Sun Technologies, a Silicon Valley-based technology company working on implementing an innovative idea and bringing it into the market. Previously, she was a founder at backCODE (based in Los Angeles), building serious games that blend education with immersive game technology to teach complex skills. One of the early founders of PyLadies, Ms. Viklund is fluent in people, progress, C++ and user experience. She is passionate about guiding new generations and building communities. As a main organizer of Silicon Valley Deep Learning Group, she mentors innovative teams such as the Caltech Entrepreneurs Forum and organizations centered around entrepreneurship and education.


Karen Wickre

Principal, KVOX Media

304 - Tech Tales, WITIstyle: IoT, Engineering Derring-Do, and Ghanaian Girls and Tech

Karen Wickre is a veteran editor, curator, content strategist, and connector of people and ideas. She recently left her position as editorial director for Twitter to start her own consultancy, KVOX Media, to provide editorial strategy services to companies and teams needing to communicate clearly and consistently.

While at Twitter, Ms. Wickre oversaw two teams encompassing corporate content. Her editorial team was responsible for articulating, documenting, and educating employee stakeholders on the voice of Twitter for corporate marketing communications. Her second team, internal communications, was responsible for managing messaging, events, and cultural touchpoints to inform and inspire Twitter employees around the world.

Before joining Twitter in 2011, Ms. Wickre spent almost a decade on Google's global communications team, where she advised teams on corporate media relations, social media, and best practices in public communications. She built the Google blog platform for publishing news and views across products, countries, vertical audiences, as well as the flagship, the Official Google Blog. Early in 2009 she launched Google's official Twitter presence, which gained 3.4m followers during her tenure. Ms. Wickre began her Silicon Valley career with PCW Communications, a subsidiary of IDG, publishers of such early tech publications as PC World, Macworld, Publish, and Macintosh Today.


Jennifer Wong

Software Engineer, Eventbrite

112: Non-Traditional Pathways for Women into Tech

Jenn Wong is a self-taught software engineer at Eventbrite where she spends her days making the web a prettier and more user-friendly place. She has written for Net Magazine and had projects such as (Human) Wasteland covered by Mashable, Engadget, Gizmodo, and more. Ms. Wong is an avid conference speaker and loves eating, coding, and sleeping.


Susan Wu

Outbound Product Manager, Google Cloud

343: WITI Industry-Based Networks (WIN) Panel: Disruptive Cloud Technologies for the Digital/Mobile Workplace in a Connected Age

Susan is an Outbound Product Manager at Google Cloud and co-author of Wiley's Container Network Security for Dummies, Service Mesh for Dummies and Network Automation for Dummies books. She previously led product and technical marketing roles at Sun/Oracle, Canonical, Docker, Citrix, Midokura (SDN startup now part of Sony Group), VMware NSX and Tanzu Service Mesh. She is a frequent speaker at conferences such as OSCON, Open Source Summit, Container World, Interop, Open Networking Summit and VMworld. Follow Susan on Twitter @susanwu88 and on Github.com/susanwu88


Rasheeda Yehuza

Founder & Sofware Engineer, Nasara Tech

304 - Tech Tales, WITIstyle: IoT, Engineering Derring-Do, and Ghanaian Girls and Tech

Rasheeda Yehuza is a Ghanaian with over three years' experience in the technology field. She currently works as a software engineer at VOTO Mobile, a technology platform that amplifies the voice of the under-heard. Ms. Yehuza is the Founder of Nasara Tech Ltd., a technology-focused company that creates solutions that can be applied worldwide for problems identified in local communities. She has led and managed the development of Nasara Tech's products and built computer games and freeware desktop applications.

Ms. Yehuza also co-founded Tech Needs Girls Ghana, an interactive STEM workshop for girls in Ghana. She holds a B.Sc. degree and M.Phil. (2016) in computer science from University of Science and Technology, Ghana. In the future, she plans to expand the Tech Needs Girls program across Ghana and beyond, and to build her entrepreneurial skills to create change with technology and solve problems to improve systems.


Coaching Circle

Tina Ambrosini

Success Coach, Creativosity

303C-090 - Crucial Conversations in the Workplace

336C-136 - FEAR: False Evidence Appearing Real

222C-062 - Crucial Conversations in the Workplace

316C-102 - Shift Your Thoughts and Change Your World

Tina Ambrosini is a professional development coach who works with purpose-driven individuals, to enable them to break free from limitations, identify their true passions, and create a roadmap for success to thrive in all aspects of their personal and professional lives. Tina offers customized programs to individuals and small businesses that are ready to take action and achieve rapid and profound change. Within SF Bay Area Coaches, she creates and coordinates events outside of monthly gatherings to add value to the membership, connect with the community, raise awareness about the benefits of coaching, and provide ongoing opportunities for members to collaborate with fellow coaches and grow their skill sets.


Bonita Banducci

Lecturer, Gender and Engineering, Santa Clara U/Institute for Women's Leadership

219: Demonstrating New Leadership Skills: Calling Out the Brilliance of Women

124C-021 - Engaging Men in Women's Leadership

303C-083 - Calling Out the Brilliance of Women: Demonstrating New Leadership Skills

336C-133 - Calling Out the Brilliance of Women: Demonstrating New Leadership Skills

Named one of 100 Women of Influence of Silicon Valley by the 2014 Silicon Valley Business Journal 2014, Bonita Banducci is a coach, consultant, author, trainer and mentor, and university faculty member. She adds a powerful dimension to the development of men's and women's leadership through her Gender Competence and RISE methodology.

Ms. Banducci has worked across Silicon Valley; she represented the Commission on the Status of Women of Santa Clara Country at the UN NGO Forum World Conference on Women in Beijing, leading a workshop on Creating Partnership of Women in Business with Women in Development for Sustainable Global Development. At the 2017 UN Women NGO Parallel Conference, for the fulfillment of the UN Sustainable Development Goals, Ms. Banducci led a panel workshop, "Realize 50/50: Brilliant Women and Great Men in Partnership." At Santa Clara University, she teaches Gender and Engineering, a Core curriculum course, for the School of Engineering Graduate Program. Ms. Banducci is a founding Board member of the Global Women's Leadership Network, first sponsored by the Leavey School of Business, and a faculty member and coach for the Women Leaders for the World Program.


Roxann Bauerle

President, Inspire Marketing Group

104C-007 - Speak Up Soulfully: Igniting Your Inspired and Authentic Voice

228C-078 - Do It Now - While You Still Have the Chance

346C-145 - Selling with Soul: Sell without Wear or Stress

Roxann Bauerle has realized that real change - the kind that leads to healing, bold self-expression, transformation, and unleashed potential - requires dedication, curiosity, and strength. After 18 years in corporate America working in management and sales for companies such as NBC, Clear Channel, and Comcast, she felt there had to be a better way to balance work, life, and a passion to help others; thus did she become a coach, and founded Inspire Marketing and Coaching Group.

Ms. Bauerle runs inspired life and business programs, designed to help individuals create authentic and mission-driven lives and businesses. Her programs combine spirituality and business with a blend of wisdom and practicality. It is her mission to inspire greatness in people around the world so they can live a life they love and experience the freedom they desire. Ms. Bauerle is a marketer, author, trainer, and certified life coach.


Maryann Baumgarten

Head of Diversity & Inclusion Culture, SLAC

104: Breaking Through Bias: Retraining the Brain to Ignite Innovation

305C-094 - Mindful Innovation: Leading Creative Breakthroughs in Your Organization

326C-123 - Making Diversity and Inclusion Really Work at Work

Maryann Baumgarten is a motivational advisor to business leaders around the world. As an organizational psychologist and the Founder & CEO of Lit Up Leadership, Dr. Baumgarten helps leaders activate the often hidden potential latent in their teams and themselves for exponential performance growth, leadership impact, and business innovation. She has been recognized as a global award-winning leadership development consultant working alongside numerous business leaders at Microsoft, Google, Apple, and other successful large, mid-sized, and small businesses.

Prior to founding Lit Up Leadership, Dr. Baumgarten spent 14 years at Microsoft, building the company's Gen Y career and leadership development programs. She holds five academic degrees in human science, including a Ph.D in Human and Organizational Systems; and is the author of Engage: How Leaders Bring More Energy to Work and Life. Dr. Baumgarten is currently the Head of Diversity and Inclusion at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (operated by Stanford University and funded by the US Department of Energy).


Holly Berkley

Founder/CEO, Bliss:Smart

114C-017 - How To Be Relaxed, Confident and Super-Effective in Interviews

228C-079 - How to Know If You're Ready for a Career Change, and What Steps to Take Next

336C-137 - Returning to the Workforce Confidently (Even If You've Been Out of the Game for a While)

Holly Berkley, CNLP, COT, CBP, QEP, is an Energy Psychology expert with 20+ years experience freeing female professionals from the negative emotions and limiting beliefs inhibiting greater success and happiness. In her early career, she was a fixed-income arbitrage trader on Wall Street, and a technology strategy executive for Sun Microsystems and American Express.

An innovative thinker, Ms. Berkley distills complex neuro-technology into accessible personal development tools designed to produce immediate and profound results for women in STEM fields seeking to eliminate self-confidence issues and become effective, influential leaders.


Mayla Clark

Principal, Mayla Clark Training

228: Presenting with Impact: Skills to Build Confidence and Get Results

222C-065 - Presenting with Power

Mayla Clark is a communication skills coach and workshop facilitator. With over 25 years of corporate, university, and non-profit experience, she consults with accomplished professionals who want to increase their influence and impact when interacting with and speaking to others. For 10 years, she was an Adjunct Professor at Santa Clara University where she taught her 11-week class "Effective Oral Technical Presentation Skills," as part of the MBA program for Engineers.

Ms. Clark also developed and facilitated her 1-day workshop "Productive Meetings" at Cisco Systems; for 8 1/2 years she conducted open enrollment classes in the Bay Area and around the U.S. Additionally, NetApp's corporate training programs grew as the company did, offering Ms. Clark the opportunity to conduct her 1-day "Effective Presentations" class once a month for over 6 1/2 years throughout the U.S. She then created her advanced "Presenting with Impact" workshop, enabling attendees to refine both the content and delivery of their presentations while increasing their level of comfort and effectiveness in front of groups. Ms. Clark earned a B.A. degree from the University of California, Los Angeles, and an M.A. from San Jose State University. She is a fourth-generation Californian, a Board Member of Silicon Valley Product Management Association (SVPMA), and an active supporter of Breast Cancer Connections as well as Teen Success in San Jose, a program to help teen moms break the cycle of poverty and its accompanying challenges.


Craig Copeland

Principal, Results Mastery

124C-027 - Connective Authenticity - Building a Powerful Network

222C-067 - Connective Authenticity: Building a Powerful Network

303C-089 - Finish What You Start: 5 Tools for Life Mastery

316C-105 - Mastering Limiting Belief Systems

Craig Copeland is a coach and an author. He has consulted and trained at USC's Lloyd Greif Entrepreneurial School and the Marshall School of Business, and advises entrepreneurs on the best strategies for taking their concept, service, or innovation to the next level. His book Finish What You Start, based upon the insights and experiences of former high-performing employers, continues to be used as a primer by companies and individuals to help their teams and productivity become stronger while growing in their business and personal objectives.

Mr. Copeland has worked with Eben Pagan, founder of Get Altitude, helping entrepreneurs to grow and streamline their businesses through marketing strategies and business skills, and to identify niche marketing opportunities that have potential for strong revenue generation. Today he uses his experience and background to take clients to a higher performance level, and radically grow business and personal goals.


Karen Cornwell

Senior Innovation Strategist, Gender Intelligence Group

124: New Leadership Model for Rocketing Innovation, Productivity, and Engagement

336C-138 - New Leadership Model for Rocketing Innovation, Growth, Engagement

Karen Cornwell has spent the majority of her career in high tech working in Engineering, Systems, Account Management, Business Development, Product Management, R&D, Sales Training, Product Development, and Marketing. Her lifelong quest to improve the acceptance and utilization of a diverse workforce continues with her current work to offer change management programs to high-tech companies that want to maximize their productivity and innovation by leveraging the differences between genders and making their workplaces inclusive with strong employee engagement.

With a BS and MS in Mechanical Engineering and an MBA from Santa Clara University, Ms. Cornwell is uniquely qualified to drive high-tech companies to significantly higher performance levels while engendering high employee engagement. She is also the Network Advisor for the Silicon Valley Network of Women in Technology International (WITI), and volunteers in many community organizations.


Frank Del Fiugo

Founder, Del Fiugo Consulting

305: Dealing with Difficult People

104C-001 - High Impact Communication

219C-046 - Resilience and Flow

326C-121 - Dealing with Difficult People

346C-141 - Dealing with Difficult People

Frank Del Fiugo is the founder of Del Fiugo Consulting, an executive coaching firm that helps today's leaders acquire a psychological understanding of individuals to help drive organizational and personal performance. Mr. Del Fiugo has decades of experience working with emotionally charged situations, addressing and resolving personal and professional conflict, resolving peer disputes, addressing communication deficiencies, and fostering leadership development. He works with public and private companies in Silicon Valley, southern California, and nationally.

Mr. Del Fiugo is a professional speaker and provides training on leadership, stress management, dealing with difficult people, and high impact communication. He is also the author of a book focused upon aggression and anger management. He earned his B.A. in Psychology from the University of Southern California, and his Master's degree in Psychology from JFK University.


Meg Dennison

Principal, Conscious Leap

219C-055 - Adding Body Intelligence to Your IQ and EQ (or: What Are Your Feelings Really Saying?)

213C-038 - Best Date Ever: Creating Awesome Business Relationships

303C-087 - Keeping the Conversation Going: How to Build A Generative Conversation

316C-103 - Hack Your Fear Signature For Innovation and Engagement

Meg Dennison is a conscious-leadership coach who specializes in coaching women to consciously create leadership in their careers and lives, and in building creative cultures and relationships in the workplace. She uses the power of physical movement, whole-brain learning, and emotional intelligence to bring deeper levels of understanding to 21st Century creative workers and their organizations. Ms. Dennison believes creating successful workplaces requires heart and body as well as a keen intellect.


Carol Evanoff

CEO, Mapping Your Career Success

104C-006 - Changing the Perceived Success Molds: How to Get Noticed When You Don't Look Like the Boss

222C-066 - Overcoming the Bamboo Ceiling (the Asian Leadership Gap)

303C-088 - Changing the Perceived Success Molds: How to Get Noticed When You Don't Look Like the Boss

316C-104 - Edge Out the Competition for Promotions

Mentored 1,095 proteges and 3,000 employees in 40 years. 36 years in Leadership in Aerospace supporting the deployment of the Trident Missiles including: Engineering, Digital Engineering, Model Based Engineering, Manufacturing, Product Assurance, IT, Calibration, Machining, Composites, Electronics, Chemical Processing, Tooling, Maintenance, Transportation, Warehousing, Human Resources, Safety, Security, Explosive Processing for DoD/DoE with 100% Mission Success. 167 consecutive successful Trident Missile Launches. Currently working for Systems Planning and Analysis on strategic planning for the next 60 years of Trident II D5 Missile.


Heather Furby

CEO & Director, Camp CAS

213: Lead Outside Your Comfort Zone: Four Strategies to Create a Greater Impact

114C-011 - Self-To-Sell Funded: The Questions You Need to Know That Will Sell Any Idea

219C-045 - Cause Your Success: Create Your Vision and Take Action

228C-072 - Build Your Dream Team: Stop Trying To Do this Life Thing Alone

305C-098 - Being Influential: How to Get Comfortable with Presenting Wild Ideas

Heather Furby is a business strategist and innovative leader who works with high-potential individuals to create lives of meaning and financial freedom. Through consulting, executive coaching, and personal development programs, she helps clients to masterfully navigate the special needs of today's business environment and become persons of influence whose ideas are heard, respected, and sought. As a business strategist and innovative leader, Heather has worked with businesses including Apple, IntelliTools, Institute of Noetic Sciences, and other cutting-edge companies to develop products that break the mold and make a difference. Her newest program is a Business Leadership Summer Camp, where participants can explore and discover new levels of leadership without risking their reputation, business progress or trusted teams. Heather is lead author of the Amazon Best Seller Women of Influence, proving you don't have to follow the rules to make a difference and lead with impact.


Lalia Helmer

Founder & Principal, Luminis Coaching

124C-028 - Proven Mind Tools to Pursue Your Passion, Bounce Back From Failure, and Reach Success

213C-039 - Become Your Best: An Appreciative Approach on Improving Perfomance

228C-080 - Proven Mind Tools to Pursue Your Passion, Bounce Back From Failure, and Reach Success

316C-106 - Do You Have What It Takes to Be an Entrepreneur?

Lalia Helmer, the founder and principal of Luminis Coaching, offers coaching, training, and facilitation. Her mission is to help individuals and organizations build on their strengths to create value and excellence for themselves and those they serve. Ms. Helmer works with small businesses, community organizations, non-profits, and business philanthropy. Her focus is on using Positive Psychology and Appreciative Inquiry in coaching and facilitation. She holds an M.S. in Education from Hunter College, and an M.A. in Organizational Psychology from Golden Gate University.


Gabrielle Hildebrand

Principal, Wild and Brilliant

228C-073 - Standing Your Ground: Managing Emotionally Charged Situations

222C-063 - Standing Your Ground: Managing Emotionally Charged Situations

303C-085 - Release the Grip of Your Inner Critic

326C-125 - Mastering Context to Achieve Effective Business Communication

Gabrielle Hildebrand has coaching certifications from the Hendricks Institute and Bay Non-Violent Communication. At the Hendricks Institute, she co-directed the Leadership and Transformation Program and provided advanced skills sessions. In addition to her private coaching practice, Ms. Hildebrand teaches and sponsors Hendricks-based workshops in the San Francisco Bay Area. Her forte is translating cerebral concepts into tangible experiences that generate epiphanies.


Janet Janssen

Principal, Sales Consulting & Coaching Services

114C-018 - Seven Seconds to Making A Great and Lasting Impression

219C-049 - Seven Seconds to Making A Great and Lasting Impression

222C-068 - Career Choices: Creating Focus in a World of Bright Shiny Objects

305C-097 - Changing Habits is Changing our Minds

Janet Janssen is a distinguished Toastmaster International speaker, coach, and trainer. She has provided successful coaching circles with WITI for five years and in her Power Play Purpose business for nine years, helping project managers, leaders, and everyday professionals learn the skills on how to go after what you want in life-career. Her programs include sales and goal achievement strategies and tactics, positive mindset principles, and public speaking and storytelling skills. Her work uses positive psychology, neurolinguist, and practical hands-on practices. She is a member of the Women's Networking Alliance since 2012, Scotts Valley Chamber of Commerce Board member, and monthly Strictly Business columnist, at the Press Banner.


Ahalya Kethees

Founder, Lead with Brilliance

303: How To Create a Killer Personal Brand

316C-107 - Find Your Dream Job: A Proven Framework

305C-093 - How to Create a Winning Personal Brand That Gains You Respect and Influence

326C-122 - How to Create a Winning Personal Brand That Gains You Respect and Influence

Ahalya Kethees is a facilitator and certified coach who works with executives and emerging leaders in the tech industry. She helps her clients add more value through a clear and compelling vision and strategy; high-performing teams; and an inspiring culture. Her Silicon Valley clients include Google, Facebook, NetApp, Oath (a Verizon company), Equinix, Amplitude Analytics, and Plaid. Before moving to the Bay Area, Ms. Kethees worked with clients from a range of industries including GE, Cadillac Fairview, Teranet, and Deloitte. She did this work as the youngest consultant at the fastest-growing human capital consulting firm in Canada.

Ms. Kethees has completed over 4,000 hours of coaching and trained over 1200 leaders on influence, communication, executive presence, and productivity. She has also interviewed and facilitated sessions with over 500 executives on their business strategies and top leadership challenges. She became a certified coach through the Coaches Training Institute in her mid-20s and brings over a decade of experience in organizational development and executive coaching to Silicon Valley's leaders. Ms. Kethees graduated from the Ivey School of Business in Canada and is an active member of the International Coaches Federation - SF Bay Area Chapter and the Forbes Coaches Council.


Shabbir Latif

Coach / Trainer / Facilitator

219C-053 - Emotional Intelligence: Dealing with Difficult Behavior

305C-099 - Creating Opportunities: Finding a Way Out of No-Way Situations

Shabbir is an Advanced Trainer and Practitioner in the field of Emotional Intelligence, certified by Six Seconds Emotional Intelligent Network (www.6seconds.org). He is also certified to administer Six Seconds EI (SEI) assessment.

Dr. Latif is a mentor, coach, speaker, trainer, and author. Since 2007, his clients have ranged from senior executives of large corporations and government organizations, to at-risk youth in high school (both in the classroom and in wilderness therapy programs), and staff and inmates at a maximum security prison. His passion is to study latest research in brain/neurosciences. In 2004, he earned an M.S. in Therapeutic Recreation, specializing in "Experiential Education" pedagogy. Before 2003, for over 25 years, he had a very successful career as a computer chip design engineer with a Ph.D. in Electronics Engineering from U.C. Santa Barbara.


Bernie Maloney

Agile Coach, Persistent Systems

114: Using AGILE Methodologies to Create Influence, On Demand

213C-034 - Create Influence, On Demand

316C-113 - Create Influence, On Demand

Bernie Maloney is an international Coach, Speaker and Trainer who has helped grow businesses to beyond $100M, leading through influence more than direct authority. He teaches Agile Product Development at Stanford Continuing Studies and consults with early stage startups, drawing on over 25 years experience with firms such as Bell Telephone Laboratories, Hewlett-Packard, TiVo, and Good Technology.

A Certified Trainer of Neuro Linguistic Programing, Mr. Maloney coaches private clients to breakthrough results by releasing limiting beliefs and choices, seeking to accelerate the genius in each of the leaders, teams, and businesses with whom he engages.


Trixi Menhardt

Principal, Red Pants Coaching

222C-069 - Women Returning to Work

Trixi Menhardt is an ACC-ICF coach specializing in career coaching for people in transition, such as recently relocated or women who take a break from their career. Prior to becoming a coach, she worked in corporate business development with a global reach, enjoying her career while being a mother.

Ms. Menhardt has lived and worked in Europe, Asia, and North America; in 2013, she returned to California after three years in India. Along the way, her horses taught her to listen, to be patient, and always to end on a good note, which works equally well with small children and irate corporate clients. Her passion is to guide women and men to finding happiness in their careers - because we all have to make a living, and imagine what it would be like if we can enjoy the journey.


Tanya Monsef-Bunger

Global Executive Coach / Facilitator

114C-019 - Being a Leader - With or Without the Title (OR: How to Influence without Authority)

213C-040 - Collaboration: Making Powerful Requests

316C-108 - Teams: The Art of Delivering Uncomfortable Communications

Tanya Monsef-Bunger is a global business consultant and executive coach. She has 25+ years of success in Silicon Valley high tech, startup, and non-profit organizations in the areas of finance, marketing, and strategy; as well she has coached and delivered programs with leaders from 40+ countries.

Ms. Monsef-Bunger designs leadership training, leads workshops, provides one-on-one coaching, and facilitates conversations to clients around the world. She speaks globally about the power of leading from authenticity as a way to create harmony in the workplace. An adjunct professor at Santa Clara University (SCU), Ms. Monsef-Bunger is active in global leadership projects: chair of board for Global Women's Leadership Network, co-founder of SF Turkish Women's International Network chapter, advisor for Turkish Women's Initiative, and program director of the Global Fellows program at SCU.


Dada Nabhaniilananda

Mindfulness and Creativity Consultant, The Monk Dude

104: Breaking Through Bias: Retraining the Brain to Ignite Innovation

305C-094 - Mindful Innovation: Leading Creative Breakthroughs in Your Organization

336C-132 - Create the Next Big Thing: for Product Development Executives

Dada Nabhaniilananda is a yoga monk, a keynote speaker, an author and a musician. He teaches a holistic lifestyle centered around meditation, yoga, and social service, believing that service to the community and engagement in progressive social and environmental action are an integral part of a full spiritual life. A journey of self-discovery took him away from his home in New Zealand at an early age, and ultimately to India. He has been guiding and teaching students all over the world for more than 30 years.

He has appeared on stage with the Dalai Lama and spoken for TEDx, Google, Facebook, Cisco, and Intel, about using meditation to develop such leadership qualities as creativity, compassion, and wisdom.


Rajkumari Neogy

Principal, Disruptive Diversity

Rajkumari Neogy works with individuals and organizations to make transformative and sustainable shifts. She is fascinated by workplace culture, especially in the tech arena. Over the last 20 years, she has worked with organizations worldwide such as Cisco Systems, Facebook, Sony, Adobe, JVC and Amazon. She is the author of The WIT Factor: Shifting the Workplace Paradigm by Becoming Your Optimal Self.

As a Certified Master Trainer and Neuro-Linguistic Programmer holding a Master's Degree in Transformative Leadership Development from the California Institute of Integral Studies, Ms. Neogy sits comfortably at the intersection of neuroscience, technology, and culture. Possessing a rare blend of techno-babble and touchy-feely, she believes that the qualities of passionate self-reflection and dedicated curiosity (two sides of the same coin) define true leadership.


Manuela Pauer

Career & Leadership Coach, Pauer Coaching

124C-023 - Secrets to Happiness: Be Happier at Work and in Your Life

219C-047 - Secrets to Happiness: Be Happier at Work and in Your Life

305C-096 - How to Find Your Ideal Career

346C-144 - How to Build Better Relationships by Avoiding the 4 Behaviors that Sabotage Them

Manuela Pauer is a Career and Leadership Coach in Silicon Valley. She works with professional women in their mid-career who are craving more meaning, fulfillment, and happiness. Through her signature "Create a Career and Life You Love" program, she helps them uncover their purpose, passions, and strengths and clearly define what they want to do, so they can create a fulfilling career and life they love. Manuela has over 20 years of experience in helping professionals thrive in their life and career. She is an ICF-certified Professional Certified Coach (PCC) and holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from UC Berkeley. She had a successful corporate career spanning Strategy Consulting at Bain & Company, Product Management and Strategic Development at a Silicon Valley startup, and Executive Director of Product Management and Strategic Planning at AOL.


Judy Peebles

Principal, The Knowledge Series

104C-005 - Mind over Money

336C-134 - Who Says? You're Not the Boss of ME!!

Judy Peebles - an international speaker, trainer, and coach - is creator of The Knowledge Series™, High Heeled Haven™, The Journaling Jenius™, and Journaling Jems™. An NLP Master Results Coach and Performance Consultant, Ms. Peebles is known for her dynamic and playful style while delivering interactive presentations and trainings designed to be not only informative, but transformational.

After a successful corporate career, Ms. Peebles now works with driven, tenacious individuals and groups, who are committed to their own success, and looking for that extra edge and guidance to assist them to reach the next level.


Tim Peek

CEO, PeekDisruption

222C-064 - Creating a Context for Success (for You and Your Team)

228C-074 - Moving from Blame to Action: How to Take Healthy Responsibility

303C-086 - Working Above the Line: How to Drop Fear and Open to Learning

326C-126 - Working Above the Line: How to Drop Fear and Open to Learning

316 - Leading Above the Line: Ditching Fear in Favor of Learning

An Emmy Award-winning NBC News executive, Tim Peek is expert at leading through disruptive change, skills he refined in his role as director of transformation at NBC during the early years of the Internet revolution. His focus is on activating strategy in teams by aligning personal motivation with organizational goals. Mr. Peek is a mentor to startups in the US and Asia through the SparkLabs and MergeLane accelerators. He's also founded numerous internal and free-standing startup operations since he formed his own construction company as a high school student.

As a conscious leadership coach, Mr. Peek teaches organizations how to increase learning speed and creative iteration by focusing on the quality of their connection, their full-body intelligence, and healthy responsibility. He holds at Bachelor's degree in Sociology from Colorado College and a Master's degree in Journalism from Northwestern University.


Theresa Pidcock

Founder, Theresa Pidcock Consulting, L.L.C.

346: Take Your Power Back! How To Communicate Effectively in the Workplace

213C-031 - How IQ Got You in the Door and EQ Will Get You to the Top!

219C-041 - Communication: How What You DON'T Say Could Be More Important Than What You DO Say!

228C-071 - Burned Out? Embracing the Meltdown May Be the Best Thing You've Done for Yourself All Year!

305C-091 - Think You Need the Title to Be a Leader? Think Again!

Theresa Pidcock is an executive advisor and leadership/life coach. After working as a corporate Regional Vice President and in executive management for over a decade, she started her own executive advising and consulting business to help others solve problems that plague them every day. She helps clients strategize on issues, including team building, morale, strategy, sales, leadership, recruiting/hiring/interviewing, and problem-solving.

Ms. Pidcock works with individuals in two main capacities to address both business and personal goals: Strategic Corporate Advising, where she coaches and consults with C-level, senior business professionals and entrepreneurs on identifying business needs and gaps, defining strategies to address change and solve problems; and Leadership/Life Coaching, providing in-depth research analysis with special emphasis on those seeking senior management and government positions.


Mike Robertson

Principal, IsThisMikeOn.com

336: No Power and No Point: Why Your Slides Suck and How To Make Them Soar

Mike Robertson is a speaker who's also been a musician, a graphic designer, a magician, and a minister ... and all those paths sharpened the skills that he now uses every day in inspiring and nurturing creativity in people who may feel "stuck in a rut."

Mr. Robertson views his presentations as works of art, designed to entertain, inspire, and dazzle audiences with humor, insight, and a unique artistic approach to the visuals which accompany his words. He specializes in using technology in innovative and creative ways to communicate a powerful message.


Kristy Rogers

Founder & Leader, KristyRogersConnects

213C-033 - How to Have a Partnership Mindset with Customers, Colleagues and Coworkers

228C-075 - How Women Can Better Support Women: A Real Power Tool in Business

336C-135 - Beyond Networking: How to Truly Connect and Build a Network

346C-143 - Beyond Networking: How to Truly Connect and Build a Network

326 - Creating Connections and Building Business Alliances

Kristy Rogers leads the Be Business Friendsâ„¢ movement. She's not talking about being friends-at-work; she's talking about raising your consciousness to honor results and relationships when interacting with others. Her Business Friends Philosophyâ„¢ comes from 24 years of leading and producing monthly networking events, 15 years of learning partnership distinctions, and 6 years of success mindset studies. Kristy Rogers is connecting personified. Who would guess that she once felt shy, insecure, and a bit socially ungraceful? Now an influential, award-winning community leader, Kristy was recognized as one of the Silicon Valley Business Journal's Women of Influence, named Managing Director of the Year for her work with the San Jose eWomenNetwork chapter, and voted Royal Schmoozer by the Silicon Valley/San Jose Chamber of Commerce. She was named one of the "Best Business Connectors in the San Francisco Bay Area" by the US Small Business Conference. In 2017 she was awarded a Peacemaker Award from the Global Prosperity and Peace Initiative. Kristy holds a B.S. in Business Administration, International Business from San Jose State University, where she was an Alpha Phi.


Sheryl Root

Director/Assoc. Professor, Carnegie Mellon, President and CEO, RootAnalysis

219C-057 - Create Roadmaps to Achieve Your Career Goals

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.


Mara Segal

VP of Product and Marketing, Samsung Accelerator

219C-058 IoT Office Hours: Open Forum on Startups & Accelerators

Mara Segal is an entrepreneurial executive devoted to building great brands and innovative consumer technology experiences. Ms. Segal utilizes her multidisciplinary background in product development, UX/design management, strategy, and branding to create value in today's crowded marketplace. Currently Ms. Segal is VP of Product and Marketing at the Samsung Accelerator where she leads the product team responsible for software on the Family Hub connected refrigerator (CES Innovation Award winner 2016), following an acquisition by Samsung Digital Appliances.

Previously, Ms. Segal was founder/CEO of U*tique, an automated retail/connected store company that was backed by top venture capital firms and acquired in 2013. She has a professional foundation in brand strategy and global qualitative market research for major brands (Pepsi, Unilever, Yahoo!). She received her BA with Honors in Architecture from Yale University.


Joie Seldon

Principal, Joie Seldon EQ Executive Coaching & Consulting

124C-024 - Getting My Sanity Back: What's at the Heart of Work/Life Balance

219C-048 - Powerful Presence: Embodying Your Power as a Leader

228C-077 - The Power of Emotionally Intelligent Leadership

326C-128 - Getting My Sanity Back: What's at the Heart of Work/Life Balance

Joie Seldon is an innovator in Emotional Intelligence and the founder of WINGS Professional Success Program, which integrates one's skills, talents, experience, ambition, and innate personality into effective leadership. She addresses the interpersonal aspects of business by teaching clients how to utilize their emotions as a powerful tool for building leadership skills while reducing stress and frustration.

For 15 years, Ms. Seldon has helped business professionals step into their personal power, improve relationships and take effective action, coaching coached clients at AT&T, PMI, Blue Shield, Wells Fargo, and more. She holds a master's degree in Somatic Counseling Psychology and is the author of "Emotions: An Owner's Manual" coming out in July.


Ruth Simone

Executive Coach, Luminare Coaching & Consulting

222: Leadership Essentials: Executive Presence, Influence, and Persuasion

114C-012 - Essentials for Your Strategic Career

305C-095 - Leadership Presence: Your Career Advantage

326C-124 - Envision, Imagine, Embody: Your Life's Calling

Ruth Simone is dedicated to high-trust client relationships. She has collected a rich palette of leadership skills from extensive experience in managing teams for the development of office buildings in San Francisco's Financial District. Subsequently, she founded, developed, and sold her wealth management business, and launched Luminare Coaching and Consulting in 2004 to serve Silicon Valley leaders.

Ms. Simone has presented at the San Francisco Business Round Table, Microsoft's Certified Solution Partners, Right Management, and the Northern CA Business Marketing Association. She serves on the Watermark Strategic Development Board, and offers Pro Bono Advising for ASTIA's entrepreneurial teams. She is a Certified Integral Coach of New Ventures West in San Francisco, and a long-term member of the International Coach Federation. Ms. Simone enjoys mentoring, community development, and all things cultural.


Abha Singhvi

Life / Organizational Coach

104C-010 - Interview Skills: Take the Lead and Get the Job!

316C-114 - Creating Results through Clear and Powerful Requests and Promises

228C-076 - Creating and Building a Winning Team!

Abha Singhvi is a Life/Organizational Coach and a Business Consultant, passionate about empowering her clients to discover their unique gifts and live their life with purpose. As well, she is currently an adjunct professor at Santa Clara University. Ms. Singhvi brings her experience from founding two successful businesses. She was co-founder and VP of Finance and Administration at Paperfly. And, as founder and CEO of Stratascape, she was responsible for all aspects of the business and eventually sold the company to TMP Worldwide (now Monster.com).

Ms. Singhvi has been a supporter and has worked with non-profit organizations throughout her career. She is co-founder of Global Women Leadership Network and serves on the boards of Maitri, and Arati For Girls. She holds an MBA from Sacred Heart University, CT, and certifications in Life and Organizational coaching from JFK University, CA .


Sue Steinfeld

Principal, Sue Steinfeld Coaching

114C-020 - Managing Up! Get Back in the Driver's Seat

336C-140 - Speak Up! Be You! Be Heard! Present like a Pro

346C-148 - Managing Up! Get Back in the Driver's Seat

303C-081 - Managing Up! Get Back in the Driver's Seat

Sue Steinfeld is a Leadership and Business Success Coach, supporting leaders and entrepreneurs to increase their impact. She works collaboratively with clients in the areas of leadership development, relationships, increasing clarity, goal setting, and strategy. Ms. Steinfeld supports clients to lead from a place which honors their values and personal mission. She brings 16 years of experience leading teams for Whole Foods Market, Northern CA as the Director of Technology & Director of Learning and Development. Her education includes an M.A. in Psychology from Boston College; as well, she is a Certified Coach through Coach Training Institute (CTI).


Laura Vella

Coach, Love Your Life

124C-030 - They'll Think You Are a Mindreader: It's Just a New Way of Listening

316C-110 - They'll Think You Are a Mindreader: It's Just a New Way of Listening

Laura Vella is a leader and trainer of coaching skills. She is currently coaching at the managerial level within Beyond 12, a non-profit organization that helps schools provide students with the academic, social, and emotional support they need to succeed in higher education. Beyond 12's mission is to dramatically increase the number of low-income, first-generation, and historically under-represented students who graduate from college.

Ms. Vella utilizes 1:1 coaching to work with her clients, seeking to influence every aspect of their lives more powerfully. Clients and workshop participants speak positively of her ability to bring levels of insight and awareness they hadn't thought possible.


Yael Wagner

Chief Product Officer

219C-051 - New Employee Accelerator

305C-100 - Breaking Silos while Climbing Up

With over 20 years in tech product management and marketing, Yael Wagner has lived and worked in Israel, Canada, China, and while in the US, New Jersey, Massachusetts, New York, and since 2006, Silicon Valley, with companies large and small, including Lucent, Avaya, Lifesta, Amdocs, and Sun Microsystems, leading and launching hardware, software, mobile, and enterprise platform products. This rich and diverse experience gives Ms. Wagner depth and insights that she uses to continually drive success, of products and people alike.


Gail Whipple

Principal, Spark Studio

104C-009 - Being Brave and Brilliant

326C-129 - Creativity and Courage

336C-139 - Being Brave and Brilliant

Gail Whipple is a transformational coach as well as a communications and change consultant. Passionate about quickening the creative spark and heroic journey inherent in each person's life, she works with individuals and businesses to foster creativity and innovation at work, home, and community; also to marketing materials, employee relations and community relations. In addition to coaching, she has written and produced advertising for well-known US national brands, and for a San Francisco TV station.

Ms. Whipple holds a master's degree in transpersonal psychology (MTP) from Sofia University. She is an Associate Certified Coach (ACC) with the International Coaching Federation, and a mentor coach at Reciprocoach, an international group of professional coaches.


Lynn Witham

Principal, Witham Associates

114C-016 - Navigating Culture in the Workplace: Working with Colleagues of Diverse Cultures

Lynn Witham is an international business consultant and President of Witham & Associates, with over 23 years of experience working in the Pacific Rim, the Middle East, Europe, North America and Latin America. She specializes in the design and delivery of training, consulting and research tailored to the specific business challenges of MNCs and organizations working across cultures.

Ms. Witham has worked with over 90 multinational corporations and has served as the Crosscultural Consultant for the Medical Operations Team that is responsible for investigation of psychological issues on the International Space Station. Since 1993, she has led a team of intercultural specialists in conducting crosscultural training and consulting for NASA for the US and International Partner Astronauts and support personnel. Her specialties include global team development; management training and coaching; change and transition management; and selection, preparation and coaching of expats.


Program Director

Peggy Kilburn

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

Hall of Fame Awards Induction Banquet

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.


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