Wharton Business Technology Conference 2009

Larry Cornett

VP, Consumer Products, Yahoo!

Dr. Larry Cornett is the vice president of the Yahoo! Search consumer products division. In this capacity, he is primarily responsible for the Yahoo! web search experience and heads up a multinational team of product managers, designers, and developers focused on creating a world-class search experience.

Prior to this role, Dr. Cornett was a Director at eBay, where his team focused on multiple products for Tailored Shopping Experiences, Platform, and International sites. Earlier in his career, he was a designer at Apple Computer, where he worked on the Finder, OS, and International software; and IBM, where he worked on database and development tools. He was also the principal consultant for MindSpan Design, an interaction design agency where he worked on desktop, web, and mobile solutions for a variety of clients.

Dr. Cornett received his Ph.D. from Rice University, where he designed and developed a coaching system for training software users. He holds multiple patents, which include design work on web-based products and hardware solutions.

Vidhi Kastuar

Business Incubation Manager, Emerging Technologies Group, Cisco Systems

Vidhi Kastuar is a Business Incubation Manager in Cisco’s Emerging Technologies Group. As part of the Business Incubation team she is responsible for cultivating a steady stream of new businesses that can drive Billion dollars plus worth of revenue in five to seven years and take Cisco into new adjacent markets. Prior to joining Cisco, she worked in product development at Larsen and Toubro Infotech and later worked as product manager at Impac Medical Systems, where she led the design and development of leading edge solutions that streamline clinical and business operations for Oncology. Ms. Kastuar holds an MBA from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania and a Bachelors degree in Computer Science and Engineering.

Mitchell Kick

Vice President, Strategy and Operations, Global Ecosystem and Partner Group, SAP AG

Mitchell Kick brings more than 15 years of consulting industry experience to his role as Vice President of Strategy and Operations for SAP's Global Ecosystem and Partner Group. In this position, Mr. Kick directs SAP's strategic efforts to maximize the value and impact of its partner ecosystem.

Prior to his current role, Mr. Kick served as Vice President of SAP Business Consulting. Previously he was a lead partner for Accenture and Gemini Consulting.

Mitchell Kick holds a bachelor of science degree in electrical engineering from the University of Pennsylvania, and a master of business administration degree and master of science degree in engineering from MIT's Sloan School of Business.

Mike Milinkovich

Executive Director, Eclipse Foundation

Mike Milinkovich is a 20-year industry veteran with both hands-on and leadership experience in all aspects of the business including engineering, development management, product management, training and services, business development, marketing, mergers and acquisitions, and intellectual property management and licensing. Currently, he is the Executive Director of the Eclipse Foundation, Inc., a not-for-profit corporation supporting the Eclipse open-source community and commercial ecosystem. Under his leadership, Eclipse has grown into one of the world's most successful open source communities with more than 185 corporate members worldwide, 90+ open source projects and over 1,000 committers.

Most recently, Mr. Milinkovich was a Vice President in Oracle's Development Group, where he led the Application Server Technical Services team, comprised of highly technical experts who support Oracle's application server strategic customers and partners. Prior to Oracle, Mr. Milinkovich was Vice President of Worldwide Services for WebGain and President of WebGain Canada. His career also includes IBM, Object Technology International, and The Object People. Mr. Milinkovich earned his Master of Science degree in Information and Systems Sciences and a Bachelor' of Commerce degree from Carleton University. He lives in Ottawa, Canada.

Chris Stakutis

Vice President of Emerging Technology, CA, Inc.

Chris Stakutis is currently Vice President of Emerging Technology with CA focusing on new and pervasive devices that are providing volumes of information and connections. Chris is a renowned inventor with over 20 patents, 2 published books, numerous articles, and often seen speaking on the dramatic changes pervasive technology is bringing.

Prior to CA, Chris was CTO of IBM/Tivoli's Advanced File System market initiative which focused on bringing real-time file system management capabilities across the enterprise. Chris was the founder and CTO of SANergy, sold to IBM in 2000. SANergy was the first shared-SAN file system technology to use a split-data/meta-data approach to high-speed data sharing.

Chris's background is largely in real-time operating systems and process controls. At Mercury Computers, he was one of the lead architects for the massively parallel operating system used today by high-end defense and imaging applications. Prior to that, Chris was the lead architect at Precision Robots developing applications to operate a chorus of robots in a wafer handling environment. Many years at MIT/Lincoln-Labs gave Chris a broader understanding of the science of engineering coupled with the value of commercialization.

Michael Chui

Senior Expert, Senior Manager, McKinsey Technology Initiative (Moderator)

Michael Chui is a Senior Expert and Senior Manager of the McKinsey Technology Initiative, based in San Francisco, CA, where he directs research on the impact of technology on business and the economy. During his six years at McKinsey, he has led engagements serving the High Tech, Media and Telecom industries on strategy, innovation and product development, IT, sales & marketing, M&A and organization.

Michael holds a B.S. in Symbolic Systems from Stanford University and earned a Ph.D. in Computer Science and Cognitive Science, and a M.S. in Computer Science, from Indiana University. His Ph.D. dissertation, entitled “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For: Web Searching as Query Refinement,” examined Web user search behaviors and the usability of Web search engines.

Prior to joining McKinsey, Michael served as the first Chief Information Officer of the City of Bloomington, Indiana, where he re-architected the enterprise architecture using Open Source technologies and led a project that resulted in Bloomington becoming the first community in the world to offer both live and archived video streaming of public meetings on the Web.

Before that, Michael was founder and executive director of HoosierNet, Inc, a nonprofit cooperative Internet service provider that provided dial-up and broadband access to the Internet to consumers, nonprofits, governments and businesses.

Jonathan Appavoo

Research Scientist, IBM T.J. Watson

Jonathan is a Research Scientist at IBM's T.J. Watson Research Center in New York. Jonathan received his Ph.D in Computer Science from the University of Toronto in 2005. His work focused on scalable systems software for large-scale, general purpose multi-processors. Specifically, he worked on an object model for systems software construction which permits and encourages fine grain control of sharing and attendant communication costs. He first pursued this work in the University of Toronto, Tornado operating system and then in the IBM K42 operating system. Jonathan's current research interest is in exploring structure in the complete execution of a modern computer including the stochastic interactions with the software, data and exogenous events. He is interested in how the structure can be defined, quantified and exploited. In 2007, along with his colleagues Volkmar Uhlig and Amos Waterland, he established Project Kittyhawk to explore conjectures about Global Scale computers and computation. The project takes a holistic approach to the provisioning online computational capacity influenced not only by technical aspects but also socio-economic aspects. The goal is to explore computation as a more basic commodity for the construction of various digital products and services including cloud computing itself.

Anthony Arrott

Special Assistant to the CTO, Trend Micro Inc.

Anthony Arrott brings more than 25 years experience to his position of Special Assistant to Trend Micro’s Chief Technology Officer, Raimund Genes. In this role, Dr. Arrott is responsible for managing the company’s threat analytics operations and threat data sharing agreements with outside organizations.

Dr. Arrott joined Trend Micro through its acquisition of InterMute, where he served as Director of Threat Research. Previously he worked as a business planning consultant to new ventures at New City Studies; and also as a management and technology consultant at Arthur D. Little. Earlier in his career, Dr. Arrott founded a scientific instrumentation company, Payload Systems, where he also served as President.

Anthony Arrott holds a bachelor of science in physics and physiology from McGill University; as well as a master of science in aeronautics and astronautics, and a doctorate in biomedical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He has contributed articles to such publications as BusinessWeek, Wired, SDA Asia, SearchSecurity, AME Info, and Tech Republic.

Recent speaking engagements include RSA Conference/Europe (October 2008).

Mark Canepa

President and CEO, Extreme Networks

Mark Canepa is the president and chief executive officer of Extreme Networks(r). Prior to joining Extreme Networks, Canepa was with Sun Microsystems and served as executive vice president of the Network Storage Products Group. Before that, he served in multiple vice president and general manager roles at Sun, after joining the company in 1996. Canepa's previous experience also includes several general manager positions at Hewlett-Packard Company, including development and marketing of the firm's workstation products. Canepa's educational background includes both a B.S. and M.S. in electrical engineering from Carnegie Mellon University, and he has also completed the University of Pennsylvania's Advanced Management Program at the Wharton School.

Vance Checketts

Chief Operating Officer, Decho, an EMC Company

Vance Checketts joined EMC in October 2007, when the company acquired Utah-based Berkeley Data Systems, where he was Mozy’s Chief Operating Officer. In his current role, Mr. Checketts is responsible for all Mozy operations including engineering, datacenters, sales, marketing, and customer support. Prior to joining Mozy, Mr. Checketts held senior management positions at Aberdeen Group and Oracle.

Barry Lynn

Chairman and CEO, 3tera Inc.

Barry Lynn, Chairman and CEO of 3tera, Inc., has a storied career in data center innovation and a deep understanding of enterprise customers and applications. He has over 37 years of executive experience in the IT and financial services sectors in Fortune 100 companies and as an entrepreneur. Early in his career, Barry was with Wells Fargo, where he was executive vice president and head of Investment Operations before becoming chief information officer (CIO) of Wells Fargo and Company and president of Wells Fargo Technology Services. In 1995, while at Wells Fargo, he built the world's first Internet online banking system. Barry was also president of Wells Fargo Securities Clearance Corp. and founder and president of Wells Fargo Securities, Inc. Prior to 3Tera Barry founded Be eXceL management, Inc., a management consulting firm, which incubated early stage technology companies. Additionally, Mr. Lynn is a general partner of SVP II, a fully invested venture fund managed by Shoreline Venture Management LLC. Barry Lynn served as Chairman and CEO of PRIVACI, a provider of anonymous purchasing and personalized services for consumers on the Internet. He was Director of Merant PLC, a public software company, prior to its acquisition by Serena. Mr. Lynn is currently on the Boards of Directors of Alacritech, Attune Systems and Layer 7 Technologies.

Karthik Hosanagar

Professor of Information and Operations Management, Wharton School (Moderator)

Kartik Hosanagar is a professor of Information and Operations Management at the Wharton School. Professor Hosanagar´s research interests are in Internet commerce with a special emphasis on Internet media and Internet marketing. His research has received several awards, including the William Cooper award for best thesis in Management Science (2004) and the best paper award at the Consortium on Technology Policy and Management. Prof. Hosanagar is a cofounder of Yodle Inc and serves on the advisory boards of several other startups.

Michael Aronson

Managing Director, MentorTech Ventures

Founding shareholder and/or co-founder of 5 successful software companies, 2 were acquired by public entities, 2 by private investors, 1 has NYSE-listed corporate investor. Investor in 2 additional software companies, 1 was acquired by public company, 1 had successful IPO.

Over 25 year career as entrepreneur and investor with significant expertise in company formation around business school concepts, software development, capital raising, strategic alliances and joint ventures, financial reporting and tax issues, executive compensation, employment matters and copyright law.

Co-founder, CFO, EVP & Board Member of SMG, Inc., a $28M simulation software company, named three times to‚ Inc. 500‚ fastest growing companies list.

Board, Executive and Investment Committee Member for 15+ years, Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Southeastern Pennsylvania. Chairman of LP advisory board of Rustic Canyon SBIC Venture Fund. LP and GP positions in three Israeli early stage technology funds. Broad business school alumni network.

Thatcher Bell

Principal, DFJ Gotham

Thatcher is a Board Observer with Lumeta and Worktopia.Thatcher’s background includes venture investing, operating and consulting roles with software, Internet, and financial services companies. Prior to joining DFJ Gotham, Thatcher was a Senior Analyst at North Hill Ventures, the venture capital affiliate of Capital One Financial. While at North Hill, he evaluated investments in financial technology, enterprise software and technology-enabled services companies, and was a deal team member for DealerTrack (NASDAQ: TRAK), Compete (acquired by TNS), Higher One, and Exchange Solutions.

Before joining North Hill, Thatcher was Manager of Business Development at OpenPages, an enterprise software vendor, where he oversaw an acquisition and developed channel partnerships in the U.S. and Europe. Previously, he was the third employee at SharkTank, an online marketplace connecting lawyers and potential clients. Thatcher began his career as a consultant at Ernst & Young (now Cap Gemini Ernst & Young), working on competitive strategy and process improvement projects in the financial services, telecommunications, and health care industries.

Thatcher has a B.S. cum laude in Engineering from Cornell University and an M.B.A. with honors from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. While at Wharton he was a Summer Associate with Silicon Alley Venture Partners (now Greenhill SAVP) in New York, an early-stage, internet- and technology-focused venture capital firm. Thatcher also serves on the Board of Directors of the Children’s Museum of the Arts in New York City.

Philip Bronner

General Partner, Novak Biddle

Philip Bronner joined Novak Biddle Venture Partners in 1999 and is focused on investments in information technology. Prior to joining Novak Biddle he founded a media technology company. In addition, he served as a management consultant with McKinsey & Co. in New York advising high-tech clients on corporate strategy and worked as a software engineer at IBM.

At Novak Biddle, Phil serves as a director for Approva, Vision Chain, InGrid, Netcordia, Webs, Clearspring, Clear Standards and Social Gaming Network. He also leads Novak Biddle’s investment in Panasas and is a board observer for Specktrum K12. Past board or board observer seats include: Logic Library (acquired by SOA Software), AnswerLogic (acquired by Primus Knowledge Systems), and N.E.W. Customer Service Companies.

Phil earned a BS in Computer Science from Carnegie Mellon University; a Juris Doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Law; and a Master of Business Administration from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Phil currently serves on the Alumni Advisory Board for Carnegie Mellon’s School of Computer Science and is a board member for In2Books, a Washington, DC-based reading and literacy program.

Mark Iwanowski

Venture Partner, Trident Capital

Mark Iwanowski joined Trident Capital as a Venture Partner in 2005. Mark has twenty-five years of experience successfully leading multiple global businesses in the high tech industry for both commercial and government customers. Mark was most recently Senior Vice President Global IT for Oracle Corporation, the world's largest enterprise software provider with $15B in revenue. Mark was responsible for managing Oracle's IT systems in 100+ countries around the globe. Additionally, he was responsible for the integration of Oracle's Global IT services with Oracle's Global Product Support to ensure the delivery of consistent, high-quality services to Oracle On Demand customers. Prior to Oracle, Mark managed a Systems Integration, ASP and Outsourcing business for SAIC, the world's largest private system integrator.

Mark was also a principle in Quantum Magnetics, an industry leader in explosive and illegal drug detection technology. Mark held executive positions with Raytheon and Honeywell. At Raytheon on, he was responsible for top line growth in the Submarine Signal Division where he managed a $200M sales and R&D budget. While at Honeywell, Mark was responsible for the turn around of the company's marine robotics business unit back to profitability. Mark currently serves on the Board of Directors of several Trident portfolio companies including RoyaltyShare, Inc., MegaPath Networks, Xunlight Coporation and is the CEO and a member of the Board of KSR, Inc. He also serves on the Board of Advisors for Tricipher and formerly for Webify (acquired by IBM). Mark holds a B.S. in engineering/business from the University of Pennsylvania, a master's degree in engineering from California Institute of Technology and an M.B.A. from National University and has received multiple management excellence awards throughout his career.

Jeff Karras

General Partner, Levensohn Venture Partners

Jeff Karras joined Levensohn Venture Partners in January 2001 and specializes in digital media and security. Before joining LVP, Jeff was a Group Product Marketing Manager at Sun Microsystems, where he was a key strategic driver behind their Portal Server product line. Prior to Sun Microsystems, Jeff was a Principal Consultant with PricewaterhouseCoopers' Strategic Change Group, where he provided strategic guidance across a variety of industries including telecommunications, software, energy and financial services.

In the past, Jeff has worked closely with a number of LVP portfolio companies including Atheros, Veraz Networks, Covigo, Rapt, and Reconnex. Currently, Jeff is a board observer at ShotSpotter and holds board seats at Plum and Sim Ops Studios. In addition, Jeff is an active member of the Board of Trustees for Astia. Jeff received a BS in Commerce from the University of Virginia and an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Brian O’Malley

Principal, Battery Ventures (Moderator)

Brian joined Battery in 2004 and focuses on investments in the Enterprise Software, Consumer Internet and Specialty Retail markets. He is on the board of Meez and TradeKing, and is actively involved with Bazaarvoice, Coupa, Insitu (acquired by Boeing) and World Golf Tour. Prior to Battery, Brian was an Associate with Pequot Ventures, where he invested in software and services, including applications, middleware and vertical solutions.

Earlier in his career, Brian spent several years at Bowstreet, Inc. (acquired by NYSE: IBM), as Director of West Coast Technical Sales and the Business Development team's Technical Evangelist. Earlier in his career, Brian assisted founding teams at Matrics, Inc. (acquired by NYSE: SBL) and Compoze Software (acquired by NASD: BEAS) with go-to-market strategy and initial fundraising activities. He also worked for Cap Gemini Ernst & Young's Center for Business Innovation and was a web developer for Motorola Computer Group. Brian mentors students in UC Berkeley’s Center for Entrepreneurship Studies, and is a judge in Wharton's and Stanford’s Business Plan Competitions. He graduated from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania with a BS in Economics.

Jon Herrmann

Executive Director, Campus Philly

Jon has served as Campus Philly’s founding executive director since 2001, following a position as the Marketing Manager at philly2nite.com. As the head of Campus Philly, Jon has been recognized by regional organizations for outstanding leadership: Philadelphia Business Journal’s 40 under 40 (2005), Leadership Philadelphia’s 101 Top Connectors (2006), and the Philadelphia Eagles’ 75 Greatest Living Philadelphians (2007).

With an undergraduate degree from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, Jon has served as a member of the City of Philadelphia's Children's Commission, an advisor to Philly's More Fun Alliance (organized by Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corporation), past treasurer of the West Philadelphia Cultural Alliance, and a volunteer for Kol Tzedek Synagogue.

On the side, Jon has occasionally been known to design web sites or volunteer for his wife's synagogue Kol Tzedek. He thinks you should vote in the next election, you should check out the water ice at Fred's on 54th Street and Chester Ave, and you should get 30 of your dearest friends to sign up for Campus Philly's list serve.

Neel Premkumar

Founder, CreativeHub.com

Neel Premkumar is the Founder and CEO of CreativeHub, a virtual advertising agency with presence in 100+ countries around the world. CreativeHub provides design and advertising services to various corporations and advertising agencies. Prior to founding CreativeHub, Neel worked in Brand Management at Wyeth Consumer Healthcare, with responsibilities for the $80M Advil Respiratory brand. Neel has also worked in both Category Development and Sales at Wyeth, as well as in Venture Capital, at Osage Ventures. Neel completed his MBA from The Wharton School of Business, Advanced Marketing Studies from The University of Chicago, and B.S.B.A. from Georgetown University. He is a professional tennis instructor, a Padi-certified scuba diver, and an avid world traveler; with home base in NYC, where he and his wife reside.

Christopher Stanchak

Founder and CEO, TicketLeap.com

Chris Stanchak is the Founder and CEO of TicketLeap.com. He is responsible for the company's overall leadership, strategy and direction. Prior to TicketLeap, he worked at GSI Commerce, a global eCommerce leader, where he managed the National Hockey League's online operations.

Chris Stanchak founded TicketLeap.com while he was a student of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. The company was launched in 2003 from within the Wharton Venture Initiation Program incubator and has since moved its headquarters to Center City Philadelphia. The company is strategically located in Center City to leverage the pool of graduates from the surrounding universities.

TicketLeap.com is web-based event ticketing solution designed for small to medium sized events and organizers. The solution is ideal for events or venue managers who want to reduce administrative burdens, improve revenue controls, and enhance customer convenience. TicketLeap enables patrons to easily and quickly purchase tickets in a secure environment.

TicketLeap started as a bootstrap operation but in the last two years Chris has led the company through over $2m in venture capital raises from MentorTech Ventures, Seneca Advisors, Ben Franklin Technology Partners and other private investors.

Chris is an honors graduate of The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He lives in Center City Philadelphia - just two blocks from TicketLeap headquarters. He is an active member of the technology entrepreneurship community in Philadelphia.

Wim Sweldens

Vice President, Alcatel-Lucent Ventures, Alcatel-Lucent

As Vice President of Alcatel-Lucent Ventures, Dr. Wim Sweldens is responsible for the company’s internal venture selection and transition process as well as for the execution of ventures within Bell Labs. One example of a recently launched venture under Mr. Sweldens’ management is Alcatel-Lucent’s 3500 Nonstop Laptop Guardian.

Mr. Sweldens has been with Bell Labs since 1995, having previously served as Vice President for Computing Sciences Research at Bell Laboratories. He is the inventor of the lifting scheme, a new wavelet construction and transformation method that has been included in the JPEG2000 standard. In 1999, MIT's Technology Review magazine named him as one of “The 100 Most Promising Young Innovators.” In 2003 he was elected to fellow of the IEEE in recognition of his contributions to multi-resolution methods for image and 3D geometry compression.

Wim Sweldens holds a doctorate in philosophy degree in computer science from Belgium’s Katholieke Universiteit.

Simon Williams

CEO and Founding Partner, SmithBayes

Simon Williams is the CEO and a founding partner of SmithBayes, a software and services firm that spun-out from McLaren, the Formula 1 racing team, applying race strategy technology to complex, real-time decision making in Global 2000 firms. Simon is responsible for overall strategy, general management, sales and marketing, product management and led financing that raised $4m in venture capital investment. As a result SmithBayes launched a category defining product that was voted finalist in the CNET ‘Business Application of the Year’ 2008 awards and has established a client base that includes Boeing, BP, BT, Pfizer, Rolls-Royce, Verizon and Unilever.

Before SmithBayes Simon was a Partner in Kleindahl Partners, a London based boutique consulting firm applying options pricing, risk evaluation, dynamic scenarios and portfolio analytics to strategic business development.

Prior to this he founded Nerve Wireless, a software firm that developed a multi-channel collaboration platform for structured deals within investment banks, whilst he sold to a major software firm.

He was VP Strategy & Technology at ABN AMRO Bank in Amsterdam responsible for identifying, developing and implementing new internet products and services into the corporate market.

Simon started his career at Reuters, where he had a number of roles including Global Product Manager responsible a portfolio of internet-based products and European Project Manager for Reuters FX trading systems across EMEA.

From his early experiences of FX trading at Reuters through to the application of Formula 1 technology to corporate decision making at SmithBayes Simon has demonstrated an interest and thought-leadership in ‘agile strategy’ - the ability to learn and adapt faster as real world events unfold around you - and has lectured on this subject at London Business School. He has featured regularly in the press, including the BBC, Financial Times, Time magazine, BusinessWeek, CNBC and has recently published an article in Strategy Magazine (Issue 17 September 2008).

Steven L. Woda

Founder, Chairman and Senior VP of Product & Strategy, buySAFE, Inc.

Steve fell victim to e-commerce fraud in 2000 when he purchased a PDA on eBay that never arrived. Recognizing the need for a better trust and safety model for online shoppers, Steve turned his frustration into inspiration by founding buySAFE, the world's leading e-commerce trust and safety company. He developed and refined the business plan and product prototypes for buySAFE while earning his MBA at the Wharton School, where the venture became a finalist in the School’s prestigious business plan competition.

Today, buySAFE is the world's leading e-commerce trust and safety company having guaranteed more than 110 million item listings and 18 million ecommerce transactions. The buySAFE service in available on thousands of e-commerce storefronts, and directly on consumer desktops via the buySAFE Shopping Advisor. The company's mission is to make every online transaction trusted, reliable and risk-free.

As founder, chairman and senior vice president for product and strategy, Steve is responsible for leading its business intelligence, strategic planning, professional services, creative design, and product management teams. He is a recognized expert and regular public speaker on the subjects of e-commerce, Internet safety and information economics, and he was appointed to the Virginia Joint Commission on Science and Technology’s Cybercrimes Advisory Committee in 2006. Steve is also the inventor on two pending patent applications.

Prior to founding buySAFE, Steve was both a vice president of Assurance Capital Corporation and a director of the Financial Risk Solutions practice within the Rutherfoord Companies, one of the largest privately-held insurance brokerage firms in the United States. At USF&G Insurance, he managed a $1.5 billion portfolio of surety bond guarantees and built the business from $3 million to more than $12 million annual revenue in two years. Steve began his career at Travelers Property & Casualty, and also worked at PayMyBills.com, an online bill management service and idealab! company.

Jeffrey P. Bodle

Partner, Morgan Lewis (Moderator)

Jeffrey P. Bodle is a partner in Morgan Lewis's Business and Finance Practice and its Securities Practice. Mr. Bodle is also a member of the firm's Life Sciences interdisciplinary practice initiative. Mr. Bodle focuses his practice on meeting the business and legal needs of emerging growth companies in the life sciences and technology sectors and of venture capitalists and other investors in emerging growth companies. He coordinates all aspects of the representation of these companies and investors.

Mr. Bodle also concentrates his practice in venture capital, corporate finance, and merger and acquisition transactions, and in corporate and securities law. He has represented companies, investment banks, and venture capital firms in a variety of complex transactions, including public and private offerings of equity and debt securities, acquisitions and dispositions of public and private companies, joint ventures and other strategic partnerships. Additionally, he regularly counsels boards of directors and senior management of companies on governance, disclosure, securities law compliance, and transactional matters, as well as on general corporate matters.

Mr. Bodle earned his J.D., magna cum laude, from Villanova University School of Law in 1999, where he was managing editor of business and research for the Villanova Law Review. He earned his B.A. from Villanova University in 1995. Mr. Bodle is admitted to practice in Pennsylvania.

Philip Berne

Editor-in-Chief, infoSync World (Moderator)

Philip Berne is Editor-in-Chief of infoSync World. He joined the 10-year old technology site in 2006 and quickly became infoSync's leading analyst for cell phones and connected mobile devices. InfoSync World is one of the leading sites on the Web for hardware reviews and hands-on news coverage. Before coming to infoSync World, Philip joined the technology journalism field at the infamous etown.com in 2000. After a short time at a number of technology sites, including etown.com and the IT Insider Series, a project from the editors of PC Magazine, he took a hiatus from tech journalism to work as an English teacher in inner-city high schools in Brooklyn and Boston. Philip earned his master's degree from Carnegie Mellon in Literary and Cultural Theory. His work at infoSync currently entails expanding the site's scope into the furthest reaches of consumer electronics, while focusing on wireless broadband and location-based technologies that will shape our mobile future.

Eric Blumberg

President/CTO, Founder, Smarter Agent

Mr. Blumberg takes the strategic visions of the company and translates them into Smarter Agent’s groundbreaking wireless location-aware mobile products and services. Smarter Agent is the primary driver taking the massive real estate industry mobile. Smarter Agent was named by CTIA, the telecom industry association as the best GPS application. Mr. Blumberg has a Masters in Architecture from the University of Florida and a degree in Economics from the University of Wisconsin.

Muzibul Khan

VP of Product Development, Samsung

Dr. Muzibul Khan is vice president of product management and engineering for the wireless terminals division of Samsung Telecommunications America. As Samsung's lead engineer and product planner, Dr. Khan works closely with carriers and technology partners to define and develop innovative handsets with intuitive features that complement carriers' service offerings and are easy for consumers to use.

Before joining Samsung, Dr. Khan was with Lucent Technologies/Philips Consumer Communications for six years. He served as technical manager responsible for Systems Engineering, Standards and Regulatory Compliance for wireless terminals and infrastructure products. Prior to this position, Dr. Khan was an associate professor of electrical engineering at Lakehead University, Canada.

Dr. Khan obtained his doctorate degree from Concordia University in Adaptive Error Control Coding for Satellite communications. He has authored more than 30 technical publications and received two patents with several patents pending. Dr. Khan received his bachelor's and master's degrees from the Electrical Communications Institute, St. Petersburg, Russia.

Derek Kuhn

Vice President, Emerging Technology and Media, Alcatel-Lucent

Derek Kuhn brings nearly 20 years of experience to his current role as Vice President of Emerging Technology and Media for Alcatel-Lucent. In this role, Mr. Kuhn is responsible for global business and technology strategy for Alcatel-Lucent products and services in the areas of emerging technology and media.

Prior to the merger of Alcatel and Lucent Technologies, Mr. Kuhn was Senior Director of Alcatel Strategic Solutions, a role that encompassed the company's IP Video, IPTV and broadband entertainment strategy, strategic partner development activities, and media and analyst relations. He was also Alcatel's primary liaison with the film, television, and gaming content community.

Mr. Kuhn has also held senior positions in marketing, business development, and product management for both wireless and wireline multimedia delivery solutions at Alcatel.

Previously, Mr. Kuhn held management positions with Newbridge Networks, subsequently acquired by Alcatel, and with Castleton Network Systems, subsequently acquired by Newbridge. Mr. Kuhn began his career as a consulting engineer with Totten Sims & Hubicki.

Derek Kuhn holds a bachelors degree in engineering from Carleton University. He has served as the Chairman of the Broadband Services Forum, an independent, non-profit trade association that works with the service provider and content community to deliver content-rich consumer and business services. Recent speaking engagements include: NAB, NCTA, CTAM, Digital Hollywood, iHollywood, ISPCON, Streaming Media, NXTcomm and VON events.

Dr. CJ Rhoads

President and CEO, Enterprise Technology Management Associates

Dr. Chris J. Rhoads (“CJ”) is President and CEO for ETM Associates, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in enterprise, technology, and management issues. Rhoads is a dynamic speaker and flourishing author on leadership and improving business through information technology. More than a hundred of her articles have been published over the past five years, many of which have been repeatedly reprinted and translated into several different languages. Recently she wrote her fourth book, Entrepreneur's Guide to Managing Information Technology and became the series editor for Praeger Publishing, a scholarly press.

Rhoads developed her extensive knowledge through a combination of startups and Fortune 500 companies in the financial industry. Prior to starting ETM Associates, she served as Chief Technology and Operations Officer for CommerceLinks.Net, a startup specializing in Live Video Customer Service technologies where she designed and wrote a patent for the technology. During the height of the Internet bubble she utilized her talents as Chief Technology Officer of Millstar, an E-commerce software development company specializing in on-line catalogs of highly complex product sets for click and mortar companies. Her large company experience was garnered previously as Vice President of First USA/Bank One and MBNA/Bank of America where she provided internal consulting to senior management on technology decision making topics and project management. Today her clients are usually smaller technology firms where she provides leadership and strategic guidance, or larger Fortune 500 companies where she provides needed help in managing information technology issues.

Rhoads is also an Associate Professor in the College of Business at Kutztown University, where she continues her research on technology leadership topics. She pioneered a research-based method of teaching technology called the OPIRT™ method. She is also a Sam M. Walton Free Enterprise Fellow for SIFE, an entrepreneurial student club. In December of 2008 Kutztown University presented her with the John P. Shellenberg award for Excellence in Teaching. Rhoads has a Doctorate in Educational Technology from Lehigh University with a minor in Business Administration, and a Master's degree from Temple University in Educational Psychology with a focus on Instructional Design.

Rhoads started her career by building Computer Educational Services, a highly successful computer training and consulting firm which she profitably sold and which eventually merged into Verso Technologies, a publicly traded company.

Personally, she enjoys practicing taijiquan (a Chinese martial art), hiking, bike riding, golfing, and reading science fiction. She lives in Yellow House, PA with her husband of almost 25 years.

Christopher Smith

Senior Director of Research and Development, BlackBerry Development Platform, RIM

Christopher Smith is Senior Director of Research and Development for the BlackBerry Development Platform at Research in Motion. He joined RIM in 2001 and has held senior technical leadership roles in BlackBerry Retail Software, BlackBerry Infrastructure and the Advanced Technologies Group prior to joining the BlackBerrt Platform organization. Chris has spent the last nine years building groundbreaking mobile solutions and has developed a deep and broad understanding of the mobile landscape across device, server and infrastructure components. Prior to joining RIM Chris lead development of the e-mobility Access Server (e*Touch) at Nortel Networks. He was also a member of the first Internet/Java practice at IBM Global Services in Stockholm, Sweden. Chris has studied at the University of Western Ontario and the University of Waterloo in his native Canada.

Alisa Bowen

Managing Director, Consumer Media, Thomson Reuters

Alisa Bowen is currently Managing Director, Consumer Media, for Thomson Reuters overseeing sales, marketing, product development and operations for our advertising-supported web, mobile and ipTV propositions in 12 languages and 17 markets globally. Prior to her current role, Alisa was head of product management for the Consumer Publishing business. Before moving to New York, she was general manager of Reuters European consumer publishing business overseeing product, sales and marketing. She started her career with Reuters nearly 7 years ago, in television and has been instrumental in Reuters evolving multi-media strategy since then. Before joining Reuters, Alisa was a public relations and communications consultant specialising in major corporate change programmes. She began her career in media relations and worked extensively with global media and entertainment brands. Alisa holds an MBA with distinction from London Business School. She is Australian, lived in the UK for ten years and is now based in New York.

Bradley D. Daniels

Vice President and Director, Consumer Products Engineering, Digital Home Group, Intel Corporation

Brad Daniels has been with Intel for over 20 years. Prior to his current position in the Digital Home Group he has held a variety of engineering and management positions. His past includes work on 8 and 16 bit micro-controllers, the 80960 processor, graphics, and Intel chipsets. Brad is currently chartered with delivering the HW and SW building blocks to allow Intel's entry into the consumer electronics market. This includes responsibility for the architecture, design, validation, SW drivers, and manufacturing of CE SOC devices.

In addition to the SOC's responsibilities, the organization also delivers the tuner and demod technologies/devices that allow broadband content reception across such mediums as Terrestrial, Cable, and Satellite. The SOC devices include a high performance processor, graphics, multi-stream HD video decode, encode, HD audio, security, and a host of I/O peripherals. Brad received a bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering from Arizona State University in 1984. Outside of work he enjoys a variety of outdoor activities; he coaches youth baseball, and enjoys spending time at home with his family and friends.

Jesse Haines

Head of Marketing, Google Traditional Media

Jesse Haines leads the Traditional Media Marketing team at Google. She is responsible for setting Google's national marketing strategy for the company's TV, Audio, and Print Ads products. Prior to joining Google, Marmon was the VP of Brand Development for Tommy Hilfiger's womenwear division. She also worked for as a consultant at Bain & Company. Jesse holds an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Brown University.

Charlie Herrin

SVP, Integrated Experience Design & Product Development, Comcast Interactive Media, Vice President, Business Development, Comcast Cable Communications

Charlie Herrin serves as Senior Vice President of Integrated Product Development and Design for Comcast Interactive Media. In this role he is responsible for developing and growing cross-platform products and business opportunities for Comcast high-speed data and interactive media services. His focus is developing how newer interactive mediums and devices can be leveraged to deliver compelling entertainment and information services.

Since joining Comcast Cable in 1999 Charlie Herrin has made significant contributions to the overall growth of the Company by building innovative entertainment and communications features.

Previously at Comcast Interactive Media (CIM) Herrin was responsible for the implementation of new online features and revenue streams, as well as the day-to-day management of Comcast's award-winning portal, Comcas.net, with over 15.4 million unique visitors per month. Herrin also managed the engineering and design team that built Fancast, the newly launched entertainment destination where users can find, watch and manage their entertainment content. The site also offers over 3,000 hours of free full length streaming television shows and full length movies.

Mr. Herrin also serves as Vice President of Business Development for Comcast Cable, leading the cross-platform development and growth of Comcast’s new products and business opportunities with a key responsibility of unifying features and products between set tops and the web.

Mr. Herrin graduated with honors in Economics from the University of Washington and resides in Wayne, Pennsylvania with his wife and four children.

Dan Kuzmic

Partner, Bain & Company’s Technology, Media and Telecom Practice

Dan Kuzmic is a Partner in Bain & Company’s Technology, Media and Telecom Practice. He joined Bain in 1999 and has worked in Bain’s Chicago, Boston, Amsterdam and New York offices.

His focus is telecom and media clients with special emphasis on the evolution of digital media business models. His recent work includes development of a comprehensive digital growth strategy for one of the world’s most renowned newspapers. Dan has also lead media projects across a diverse set of topics and industry segments including B2B media publishing, radio syndication, satellite radio and music publishing.

In addition to his media clients, Dan has worked with the largest wire line and wireless telecom operators in the world to develop growth strategies both domestically and internationally, improve operating performance, evaluate and execute major acquisitions and infrastructure investments.

He is also experienced in Bain’s pro bono investments leading a team for the NYC Department of Education which created New York’s first performance measurements system for all support organizations that assist teachers in helping the city’s youths succeed.

Dan earned his MBA from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University in 2000. Prior to Kellogg, Dan was a Captain in the US Air Force and received his Bachelors of Science from the USAF Academy in 1993.

Vic Odryna

Co-Founder and CEO, ZeeVee

Vic Odryna is co-founder and CEO of ZeeVee, a company that is bridging the last fifty feet between the computer and the HDTVs in the home. Vic most recently served as executive director of strategic planning for Idearc Media, home of Superpages.com and marketing services for small businesses. Prior to Idearc (a Verizon spinoff), he was the president and CEO of Inceptor, a leading provider of search marketing technology and services. Inceptor helped clients such as the Home Shopping Network, CVS, Best Buy and Lawyers.com achieve success online. While at Inceptor, Vic also served on an advisory council to Google in search marketing. Inceptor was acquired by Verizon in 2006.

Previously, Vic was a senior vice president of global marketing for Avocent, the world leader in datacenter management products. While there, he led the creation of the Avocent brand, the result of a merger of two public companies. Vic joined Avocent with the acquisition of PixelVision in 1999. He founded PixelVision in 1991, a pioneer in flat panel monitor technology whose products can still be seen populating the NYSE trading floor. PixelVision quickly grew to be ranked #25 on Inc. magazine’s prestigious list of the 500 fastest growing private companies. 

Vic earned bachelor’s degrees in electrical engineering and computer science, as well as a master’s degree in computer science from the University of Connecticut.

Marc Siry

Vice President of Product Design, NBC Universal

Marc Siry is the Vice President of User Experience and Product Design for NBC Universal in New York City. Marc leads a team that provides creative, design and development services to over 30 NBC Universal Businesses, including Bravo, USA Network, SCIFI and Universal Pictures/Home Entertainment.

Prior to his current position, Marc served as the Vice President of Product Design for the NBCU/News Corp joint venture now known as Hulu, where his focus on the consumer viewing experience laid the groundwork for the service's post launch growth and success under its independent management team.

Marc has also held interactive media leadership positions at America Online and Fox Broadcasting. Marc has an eclectic background in design and creative direction, having worked on everything from games for Barbie to presentations for the Pentagon.

Marc attended the University of the Arts in Philadelphia and the School of Visual Arts in New York City. He lives with his wife and son in New Jersey, and splits his spare time between riding motorcycles and pontificating on interactive media.

Saul J. Berman

Global & Americas Leader for the IBM Strategy & Change Consulting Group, IBM Global Business Services (Moderator)

Saul J. Berman, Ph.D. is the Global & Americas Leader for the IBM Strategy & Change Consulting group within IBM Global Business Services (GBS). In this role he works closely with major corporations around the globe on strategic business issues. He leads a worldwide team of IBM consultants focused on delivering business value through business, technology and operations strategy engagements as well as organizational change initiatives.

Prior to this role, Dr. Berman was the Lead Strategy Partner for the Media and Entertainment Practice as well as a Global Strategy & Change Services Leader at IBM GBS. Before joining IBM, Saul was the Global Strategic Change Leader at PwC Consulting. He was also previously with The Boston Consulting Group, and a divisional Vice President with Broadway Department Stores and an Assistant Professor of Management at the University of Southern California.

Dr. Berman has more than 25 years of consulting experience advising senior management of large corporate and start-up organizations. He has directed engagements addressing issues of strategy, organization, and operations. He has worked extensively on issues of competitive positioning, differentiation, new business plans & strategies, new business models, growth, operational & cost improvement, operations/manufacturing strategy, organizational design and enterprise transformation. His clients have included most of the major media companies as well as internet companies, telecommunication companies, consumer goods manufacturers, retailers and automotive companies in the United States, Japan, Europe and Australia.

Dr. Berman holds a Ph.D. in Management and Information Systems and a MBA in Production Systems and Operations Research from the Graduate School Business at Columbia University in New York. He obtained a Bachelor of Science in Economics at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.

Elissa Coughlin

Director of Sales Strategy and Development, Joost

Elissa Coughlin joined Joost in 2008 as Director of Sales Strategy and Development. In this role, she is responsible for optimizing the advertising opportunities on Joost.com. Elissa joined Joost after almost five years at Google. Among her accomplishments at Google was the development of the SuperBowl XLI and XLII packages, which created the opportunity for sponsors to extend their investment into and measure brand response across TV, search, display and online video via YouTube.

Prior to Google, she worked at OMD, Omnicom Group, where she managed new business. Elissa helped secure OMD's first global relationship with McDonald's. Also at OMD, Elissa worked on the national broadcast buying team for PepsiCo. Elissa graduated Magna Cum Laude from Northeastern University with a bachelor's degree in business administration and a concentration in marketing.

Tom Gorke

Vice President of Digital Distribution, MTV Networks

Tom Gorke is Vice President of Digital Distribution for MTV Networks. In his role, Gorke is responsible for developing content distribution strategies across existing and emerging online platforms and for structuring distribution deals with online portals, video aggregators, electronic sell-through providers, and other emerging media platforms across MTV Networks’ diverse brands, including: CMT, COMEDY CENTRAL, Logo, MTV, Nickelodeon, The N, Spike and VH1, among others. Based in the company’s New York City headquarters, Gorke reports to Alice Kim, Senior Vice President of Digital Distribution & Partner Relations for MTV Networks.

Most recently, Gorke served as Director of Digital Operations and Distribution Development for MTV Networks. In that role, Gorke played an integral role developing strategy and forming partnerships across a variety of digital initiatives including digital music, content distribution, search and social media.

Prior to joining MTV Networks in 2005, Gorke served as Manager of Strategy and Investments for Viacom Interactive Ventures. He began his career as an investment banker at Alex. Brown as a financial analyst in the Consumer Group.

Gorke holds both an M.B.A. and a B.S. in Economics from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Myles Presler

Engagement Manager, Media and Entertainment Practice, McKinsey & Company

Myles Presler is an Engagement Manager in McKinsey & Company’s Media and Entertainment Practice. He has significant recent experience in advertising sales strategy and operations across both traditional and new media clients. Recent engagements have ranged from developing go-to-market, category and account strategies to designing pre-and post sales support infrastructures. He has also served a number of non-media clients on a broader range of sales and marketing topics including pricing, channel strategy, and marketing operations.

Prior to joining McKinsey, Myles worked for several years in the non-profit and public sectors. Most recently, he was a law clerk to the Alaska Supreme Court. Prior to graduate school, Myles started and led a community development organization in North Carolina, where he also spent many years working with the homeless community.

Myles holds a JD/MBA from Northwestern University.

Michael Schreiber

Vice President, Sales Business Development, NBC Universal Digital Distribution

Michael Schreiber, Vice President of Sales Business Development leads the execution of new distribution deals for NBC Universal content with Internet, wireless and emerging technology partners. He is responsible for closing distribution deals for NBC Universal offerings in electronic sell-thru (EST), video-on-demand (VOD), on-deck WAP distribution and other emerging models. He reports to Ron Lamprecht, Senior Vice President, Sales Business Development.

Most recently, Schreiber played an instrumental role in the distribution of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games on alternative platforms including Microsoft’s Xbox and Zune, AT&T, Verizon and MediaFLO resulting in the largest television and digital media event ever. And, Schreiber has been pivotal in closing NBC Universal distribution deals with Sharp and Tivo, downloadable mobile merchandise business deals with Playphone, Thumbplay and Moderati.

Previously as Director of Sales Business Development, he has secured new deals and expanded existing deals with numerous partners including Amazon, SanDisk and AT&T. In addition, he has assisted in securing content partners for Hulu such as World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) and Reveille.

Schreiber joined the Digital Distribution group from the NBC Strategic Partnership Group within the NBCU's Ad Sales division where he was Manager of Business Development focusing on CNBC’s collection of properties across the globe, structuring and closing global ad sales packages with major U.S. clients. Previous to that role, Schreiber was Manager of Business Development within the TV Stations Ad Sales Division.

A leader in the industry, Schreiber has had his work published in “Making TV A Two-Way Street: Changing Viewer Engagement Through Interaction.” And, he is a certified General Electric Six Sigma Black Belt and is also a graduate of General Electric's Experienced Commercial Leadership Program (ECLP). Schreiber graduated from the University of Virginia and has a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. He currently resides in New Jersey with his wife, Lisa and their three children.

Baljeet Singh

Product Manager, Video Monetization, Google

Baljeet Singh is Product Manager on Video Monetization at Google, responsible for the DoubleClick In-Stream, AdSense for Video, and AdSense for Games products. Prior to this role Baljeet was a Product Manager on the DoubleClick publisher products, including DART Sales Manager and DART for Publishers. Baljeet Singh has an MBA from the NYU Stern School of Business. Prior to business school, Baljeet sourced and evaluated new investment opportunities for Updata Partners, and worked for Alventive, an enterprise software startup.

Loring D. Andersen

Senior Industry Marketing Manager, High Tech & Electronics, Microsoft

Loring Andersen is Senior Industry Marketing Manager responsible for all marketing initiatives of Microsoft’s US High Tech & Electronics business. As part of this role, Loring helps High Tech customers understand the value of embracing Web and Community technologies from Microsoft and its partners to improve their business performance.

Loring brings over 25 years of extensive operating and consulting experience to Microsoft with a heavy emphasis on the High Technology sector. Prior to joining Microsoft, Loring served as Chief Operating Officer at Advanced BioPhotonics, a publically traded manufacturer of medical imaging systems. He also served as a Vice President at Arrow Electronics where he founded the company’s Digital Solutions business, one of the earliest web-based supply chain applications on the market.

Additionally, Loring has served in technical and business management roles at Fisher Scientific International, Digital Equipment Corporation and AT&T. Loring’s career also includes nine years of experience providing strategy, sales and marketing consulting services to High Tech companies as a Partner in VertiSync, Inc. and as a Senior Consultant at Lochridge & Company.

Loring holds an undergraduate degree in Physics from Dartmouth College and an M.B.A. in Marketing and Management from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.

Greg Cohn

Director of Strategy and Business Development, Yahoo!

GREG COHN is Director of Strategy and Business Development for the Yahoo! Open Strategy and the Yahoo! Developer Network, helping drive innovation and open the Yahoo! platform to 3rd-party developers, publishers, and advertisers. He is active in incubating new products, cultivating the startup community, and evangelizing new technologies both internally and externally. He has also been involved in several acquisitions, as well as being responsible for the landmark partnership with MySpace and Google to form the OpenSocial Foundation.

In a prior role at Yahoo!, Greg helped successfully launch the Yahoo! Publisher Network, and his history as an entrepreneur includes executive roles at Away.com (now a division of Cendant), Waterfront Media (publishers of the South Beach Diet online), and the Rocky Mountain regional blog network NewWest.Net, among others. His early career was in the book industry, where he edited both fiction and nonfiction and was publisher of the bestselling Let’s Go Travel Guides for St. Martin’s Press.

Greg holds a B.A. in English from the University of Pennsylvania and an M.Phil. in literature from Oxford. While he was raised on the east coast, he now divides his time between Los Angeles and San Francisco.

Jean-Francois van Kerckhove

VP of Corporate Strategy, eBay

Jean-Francois (JF) heads the Corporate Strategy team of eBay Inc., that comprises eBay Marketplaces, PayPal and Skype. JF joined eBay Inc. in June 2007. His main focus is on growth. His responsibilities include the identification and prioritization of new growth opportunities, strategic support to M&A and strategic partnership activities, acceleration of strategic x-BU growth initiatives.

Prior to eBay, JF was the Sr. VP of Corporate Strategy and Business Development for Spirent Communications where he was also in charge of Spirent’s Operational Excellence program.

He joined Spirent Communications from McKinsey & Company, where as a member of the Silicon Valley Office, he served leading High Tech companies and Private Equity firms. He was a member of West Coast Technology and Corporate Finance leadership teams. His main area of expertise focused on performance transformations, and business/ product strategy.

Prior to McKinsey, JF was a system engineering manager at DSC Communications and a research scientist at Alcatel, where he co-developed the first ADSL modems.

JF has served on the Board of multiple private companies, held leadership positions at technology standardization fora, and holds internet and communications-related patents.

Mareza Larizadeh

CEO, Doostang

Mareza is the founder of Doostang, an exclusive career network that connects elite professionals with preferred employers. At Doostang, Mareza is responsible for all things business. Mareza also actively invests in early stage companies out of Larizadeh Capital Partners, a principal investment fund whose investments include Bonobos, RockYou and Meebo. Previously he was a Vice President at Draper Fisher Jurvetson (DFJ) ePlanet Ventures. During his tenure at DFJ ePlanet the fund invested in leading Internet companies, including Skype (eBay) and Baidu (NASDAQ: BIDU). Mareza started his career at Merrill Lynch as a trader in the bank’s Global Credit Derivatives Group. Mareza is a graduate of Stanford’s Graduate School of Business and School of Engineering.

Andrew Olson

SVP, Comcast Interactive Media

Andrew Olson joined Comcast when it acquired thePlatform, a software company which he co-founded. Voted one of the top 25 Streaming Media All Stars of the last ten years by StreamingMedia.com, Andrew currently leads Comcast Interactive Media's business-to-business and software infrastructure strategy. He also continues to oversee thePlatform's operations and finances as thePlatform’s Chief Operating Officer and CFO.

Prior to founding thePlatform, Andrew worked for Microsoft's MSN division, where he was responsible for business planning for MSN .NET services (Hailstorm) and MSN Explorer. His diverse background also includes digital audio music development for top companies in the U.S. and Japan, co-founding of two biotechnology companies, and three years with The Boston Consulting Group.

Andrew has been a contributing writer for a number of digital media and technology publications including Keyboard and Streaming Media, and has an MBA from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a degree in voice from Musician's Institute in California.

Bob Evans

Senior Vice President, Content Director, TechWeb, a United Business Media Company (Moderator)

Bob Evans is responsible for content strategy across TechWeb's online, live event, and print brands. In this role, he oversees not only all content operations but also Audience Development and Software Development. He was editor-in-chief of InformationWeek during its years of massive growth, and has also been Editorial Director for InformationWeek and TechWeb. Evans is also an adjunct professor at Carnegie Mellon University and speaks at business and technology events.

As editor-in-chief of InformationWeek for eight years, Evans and his colleagues established InformationWeek as the unquestioned leader in the business technology field in revenue, readership, circulation, market share and authority. As the leading IT media brand, InformationWeek reaches 440,000 qualified IT decision-makers and enables the people who buy, build and manage technology, drive business innovation powered by technology. Throughout its history, InformationWeek has been recognized for its commitment to excellence and innovation.

Evans graduated from the University of Pittsburgh in1978 with a dual Bachelor of Science degree in English Writing as well as Literature. In addition, he focused on history and philosophy of science and physics.

Geoff Atkinson

SVP Marketing, Overstock.com

As VP of Tactical Marketing at Overstock.com, Geoff is responsible for the email, search and CRM marketing efforts. Since joining the company in 2005, Geoff has worked primarily on improving the customer facing search and navigation experience as well as growing the email and natural search marketing channels. He has held such positions as e-mail marketing manager and director of web site and e-mail marketing. In 2007 Geoff was selected for Advertising Age's Top 40 under 40 list, honoring young marketing leaders.

Before coming to Overstock, Geoff worked in marketing and branding at Smith Sport Optics, a manufacturer of sunglasses and goggles for sports and leisure, in Sun Valley, Idaho. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology from Dartmouth College, where he was also a member of the ski team. As a perk of Overstock's location in Utah, Geoff enjoys skiing, mountain biking, golfing and fly fishing in the mountains.

Dave Ginsburg

VP User Experience & Design and Interactive Marketing Service Offerings, GSI Interactive Leadership Team

Dave Ginsburg is a Vice President of Client Service within GSI Interactive. In this role he is responsible for achieving the highest degree of client satisfaction through service-offering solution creation and business objective alignment, design project delivery and interactive marketing campaign execution. Dave is a member of the GSI Interactive Leadership Team and Executive Sponsor of the Agency's College Hire Program. Previous to joining GSI in 2006, Dave was a Vice President responsible for the management of a $54M P&L for Thomson's Interactive Learning Group. For the ten years prior to Thomson, he was a consultant with Scient/Avenue A, KPMG and Accenture serving Fortune 100 client needs in the Media, Financial Service and Enterprise business units.

Michael Kopelman

Principal, Edison Ventures

Michael Kopelman is a Principal at Edison Ventures. He identifies and evaluates investment opportunities in Pennsylvania and Delaware. Michael also follows companies in the Financial Services and E-Commerce sectors.

Michael's background includes over ten years of venture investing, corporate finance and entrepreneurship with software, E-Commerce and financial services organizations. Michael began his career as an investment banker with Credit Suisse First Boston where he advised clients on numerous M&A and financing transactions. In 1999, Michael left CSFB to launch E*OFFERING, the San-Francisco-based online investment bank of E*TRADE. E*OFFERING was acquired one year after its launch by SoundView Technology Group (Wit Capital) for $330 million. Michael remained with the company following the acquisition and ran the firm's Internet & E-Commerce investment banking franchise.

Michael is active in regional venture, entrepreneurial and technology organizations, including MAC Alliance, M&A East and Early Stage East. He is on the Executive Board of Wharton's private equity alumni association (WPEP) and past Co-Chair of the Wharton Business Plan Competition and the Wharton Private Equity Conference. Michael received his MBA from The Wharton School and a BA in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania.

Matthew J. Mantey

Senior Vice President, Digital Marketing, Fleishman-Hillard

Matthew Mantey brings to Fleishman-Hillard’s interactive practice — FH Digital — ten years of interactive experience with expertise the areas of online communications and marketing; enterprise Web planning, e-commerce methods, user-experience design, development, and implementation; as well as research, analytics and strategic planning. Mr. Mantey has significant experience developing online media programs, including search, display, email, affiliate, social media and integrated CRM campaigns.

In his current role, Mr. Mantey has responsibility for a diverse group of experts in account planning, project management, media planning, search strategy and analytics; and is an integral part of the online marketing group working in some capacity with nearly all of the group’s clients.

The Fleishman-Hillard Washington, D.C., interactive and online communications group comprises more than 60 staff members, and is part of a larger, global interactive practice area at Fleishman-Hillard. His primary digital marketing clients include AT&T, RIM Blackberry, CDW, VISA, Novartis, ONDCP, the Library of Congress, and The National Campaign.

Before joining Fleishman-Hillard in March 2007, Mr. Mantey directed his own interactive consultancy Capital Interactive Systems and worked with a diverse set of clients on digital transformational strategies. In addition to other management positions with firms like WhittmanHart, Mantey started his interactive career at 24/7 Media, one of the first online ad networks in 1999.

Mr. Mantey is a graduate of North Carolina State University.

Sheila Normile

NPS Lead, Consumer Insights, eBay

Sheila Normile is the NPS Lead on the Consumer Insights team at eBay, the world’s online marketplace headquartered in San Jose, CA. As a voice of eBay users worldwide, Sheila is responsible for insights that drive growth across eBay’s marketplace division including eBay.com, Half.com, StubHub and other eBay properties.

Sheila brings a deep experience in brand, advertising, and retail research to eBay. Prior to joining eBay, Sheila was a member of the Consumer Strategy team at Gap, Inc, overseeing Kids and Baby strategy at Old Navy and Men’s and Brand Strategy at Banana Republic.

Before venturing into the retail sector, Sheila was an Account Planner in advertising responsible for creating marketing strategies based on consumer insights. Following stints at advertising agencies, she joined Landor Associates, an international brand consultancy where she crafted creative and brand strategies for clients including Frito Lay, FedEx, Pedigree, and Chevron Texaco.

Sheila is a graduate of Vanderbilt University with a degree in Art History and Psychology. She lives in San Francisco, CA.

Steve Ennen

Managing Director, Wharton Interactive Media Initiative (Moderator)

Steve Ennen is an award-winning media professional pioneering online strategies for more than 15 years. Ennen is former VP, Digital Business Strategies at American Business Media where, for more than three years, he advised dozens of media and marketing companies on digital transformation, video and mobile messaging, social networks and development of digital revenue strategies. Recently, he served as a consultant and business development executive for Neighborhood America, an award-winning technology company specializing in enterprise social networks. He has worked with the U.S. State Department to educate foreign publishers on digital media, is an instructor of media strategy at New York University, and has been guest instructor at Medill, Northwestern University. A former publisher and editor, Ennen launched several award winning printed and digital media products in U.S. and global markets and his essays and journalism has been published in scores of international publications. He speaks around the globe on digital transformation strategies. Ennen has an MA degree from DePaul University, Chicago; BA degrees in English and Political Science from William Jewell College, Liberty, Mo.