We’re pleased to confirm the following disruptive participants for TechCrunch Disrupt NYC:
CEO, AOL
Tim Armstrong was appointed CEO and Chairman of AOL in March 2009. Before becoming the CEO of AOL, Armstrong presided over Google’s North American and Latin American advertising sales and operations teams. His team provided customers with local partnerships as well as centralized sales and services. They worked with some of the world’s most widely recognized brands and advertising agencies in addition to some of the fastest growing medium-sized companies. Armstrong joined Google from Snowball.com, where he was vice president of sales and strategic partnerships. Prior to his role at Snowball.com, he served as director of integrated sales & marketing at Starwave’s and Disney’s ABC/ESPN Internet Ventures, working across the companies’ Internet, TV, radio, and print properties. He started his career by co-founding and running a newspaper based in Boston, MA, before joining IDG to launch their first consumer Internet magazine, I-Way. Armstrong is an investor in Patch and sits on the boards of the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), the Advertising Council, and the Advertising Research Foundation.
President, Global Sales Operations and Business Development, Google
Nikesh oversees all revenue and customer operations, as well as marketing and partnerships. Since joining Google in 2004, he has held several positions with the company. Most recently, he led Google’s global direct sales operations. He also developed and managed the company’s operations in the European, Middle Eastern and African markets and was responsible for creating and expanding strategic partnerships in those regions for the benefit of Google’s growing number of users and advertisers. Prior to joining Google, he was chief marketing officer and a member of the management board at T-Mobile. While there, he spearheaded all product development, terminals, brand and marketing activities of T-Mobile Europe.
Founder, Glam Media
Samir Arora helped found Glam Media as a better way for premium brand advertisers to connect with audiences online. Under his leadership, Glam Media has grown from a tiny startup with a reach of 100,000 monthly unique visitors, a network of 12 publishers and its owned and operated site Glam.com, to become the #1 online environment for women and one of the Top 10 Media Companies in the US, with over 80 Million unique visitors a month. A technology industry veteran, Arora is a serial entrepreneur who was at Apple Computer in its early years and was CEO of NetObjects, where he drove the creation of the first website-building product, NetObjects Fusion. Arora also currently serves as chairman of Information Capital LLC, a venture-capital fund that invests in leading-edge “big idea companies” in consumer publishing, media, and technology.
CEO, Yahoo!
On January 13th, 2009, Carol Bartz was named the new CEO of Yahoo, succeeding outgoing CEO & Founder Jerry Yang. Prior to joining Yahoo as CEO, Carol Bartz was executive chairman of the board of Autodesk, Inc. Bartz was chairman, president and CEO of Autodesk for 14 years and stepped down in April, 2006. During her tenure, the company diversified its product line and grew revenues from $285 million to $1.523 billion in FY06. Bartz previously held positions at Sun Microsystems, most recently serving as vice president of worldwide field operations and an executive officer of the company. Before joining Sun, she held product line and sales management positions at Digital Equipment Corporation and 3M Corporation.
CEO, betaworks
John Borthwick is CEO of betaworks. betaworks is new form of internet media company. Prior to betaworks John was Senior Vice President of Alliances and Technology Strategy for Time Warner Inc. John’s company, WP-Studio, founded in 1994, was one of the first content studios in New York’s Silicon Alley. John holds an MBA from Wharton (1994) and an undergraduate degree BA in Economics from Wesleyan University (1987).
Chief Product Officer, ComScore
Eric Bosco is the Chief Product Officer at ComScore, . He previously worked as the SVP of Operations and Product Management at AOL Advertising on Platform A, where he led the advertiser, publisher and campaign operations and was responsible for product management and integration.
Prior to joining Advertising.com, Eric was vice president of communications and community products at AOL, where he was responsible for the development of AOL’s instant messaging, email and social networking platforms. Eric joined AOL in 1996 and was one of the original creators of the AOL Instant Messaging (AIM) system. Prior to AOL, Eric was a senior engineer at Oracle Corporation in Silicon Valley.
Eric holds a BS in computer science engineering from the University of Pennsylvania and masters degree in computer science from Stanford University.
General Partner, Flybridge Capital Partners
Jeff Bussgang is a General Partner at Flybridge Capital Partners whose investment interests and entrepreneurial experience are in consumer, Internet commerce, marketing services, software and wireless start-ups.
Jeff currently represents the firm on the boards of BzzAgent, ClickSquared, DataXu, digital Arbor, i4cp, Mall Networks, oneforty, Ready Financial, SimpleTuition, and Transpera and was previously a director at Brontes Technologies (acquired by 3M) and PanGo Networks (merged with InnerWireless).
Before joining the firm in January 2003, Jeff co-founded Upromise (acquired by Sallie Mae), a loyalty marketing and financial services firm that currently manages $20 billion in college savings assets, where he served as President, Chief Operating Officer and Board Director.
CEO & Founder, Mahalo
Jason McCabe Calacanis was CEO and co-founder of Weblogs, Inc., a network of widely read blogs including Engadget – ranked # 1 by Technorati, Joystiq, Autoblog, and Blogging Baby. Founded in January 2004, Weblogs, Inc. became a wholly owned subsidiary of AOL in November of 2005. Calacanis maintained editorial supervision over Weblogs, Inc. as a senior vice president of AOL. In June 2006, Calacanis relaunched Netscape, the iconic browser owned by AOL and was named its general manager. As of June 2008 Jason is now CEO and Founder of Mahalo, Inc., a user-powered search engine.
CEO, OpenSky
John Caplan is the founder and CEO of OpenSky, a NYC based company reinventing retail. OpenSky’s mission is to re-align commerce around relationships. The company has created the world’s first relationship commerce platform that allows consumers to conveniently buy directly from bloggers and tastemakers they trust. Prior to founding OpenSky in April 2009, John served as the CEO of Ford Models, Inc. At Ford he launched the Ford media business, tripled the business and sold the firm to a private equity buyer in December 2007. Prior to Ford, John served as President of the About.com Networks Group. John started his career in advertising, launching major consumer brands including Arizona Iced Tea and the roll-out of Starbucks.
Reporter, New York Times
David Carr writes the Media Equation column for the Monday Business section of the New York Times that focuses on media issues including print, digital, film, radio and television. He also works as a general assignment reporter in the Culture section of The Times covering all aspects of popular culture. For the past 25 years, Carr has been writing about media as it intersects with business, culture and government.
Founder & CEO, Coalition Media Group
Troy Carter is the Founder, Chairman and CEO of Coalition Media Group. He manages multi-platinum Grammy award winner Lady Gaga, among other recording artists. Coalition is a talent management and full-service film and television production company. Carter began his career in Philadelphia working for Will Smith and James Lassiter’s Overbrook Entertainment. In 1995 he joined Bad Boy Entertainment where he worked in the marketing department under Sean “Diddy” Combs and worked with groundbreaking artists such as Notorious B.I.G. Carter formed the boutique urban talent management company, Erving Wonder, in 1999. Erving Wonder quickly became one of the preeminent artist management firms, representing hip-hop / R&B stars Eve, Floetry, and Nelly, among others. In 2004 Erving Wonder was acquired by the Sanctuary Group. Carter formed Coalition Media Group in 2007, where he continues to successfully grow his company and their roster.
Founder, Revolution
Steve Case is the founder of Revolution, a company that seeks to drive transformative change by shifting power to consumers. Revolution’s mission is to partner with entrepreneurs in building businesses that give people more choice, control, and convenience in important areas of their lives. Prior to starting Revolution, Steve was the co-founder, chairman, and CEO of America Online, Inc. (AOL) and, later, the chairman of AOL Time Warner. As the co-founder of AOL, Steve played an integral role in building the world’s largest Internet company and helped transform how people communicate, learn, and conduct business. AOL brought millions of Americans their first connection to the Internet.
CEO, PCH International
Liam Casey is the founder and CEO of PCH International, a venture-backed supply chain management company focused on the consumer electronics, personal computer, medical device, and telecommunication industries. PCH’s clients include industry-leading multinationals based in Silicon Valley and across North America. Liam founded PCH in 1996 and has grown the business to well over $100 million in revenue and over 800 employees in PCH’s operations in China, Ireland, UK, US, and South Africa. Liam is widely recognized as a business thought leader on international trade and business in China, earning him the nickname “Mr. China”. In 2007, he was awarded Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year in Ireland. He is a frequent guest speaker at corporate leadership events, trade shows, and Asia and Ireland-focused business forums. Liam is currently the Mayor of the People’s Republic of China on FourSquare.
Partner, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers
Chi-Hua Chien is a Partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. He joined the firm in 2007 and focuses on investments in the iFund (mobile applications), consumer web, and consumer services. He led or co-led the firm’s investments in Booyah, Chegg, Reputation Defender, and Working Equity. Prior to KPCB, Chi-Hua was at Accel Partners where he focused on software as a service and digital media. Chi-Hua originated Accel’s investments in AdECN (acquired by MSFT) and Facebook, while also working on the firm’s investments in BitTorrent, fbFund, Glam, Trulia, and YuMe Networks.
President, Condé Nast Digital
As President of Condé Nast Digital, which she has led since its inception in 1996, Sarah Chubb oversees 26 award-winning Web sites in a diverse range of categories, as well as the development of digital reader apps for magazines including GQ, Vanity Fair, Glamour and The New Yorker. Under Ms. Chubb’s direction, Condé Nast Digital sites have won numerous industry accolades, including nearly a dozen Webby Awards, ASME awards for General Excellence Online and Mobile Media, and a PC Magazine award for Top 100 Classic Web Sites. In addition, Ms. Chubb has successfully steered Condé Nast Digital sites through many technological innovations and enhancements, including video, mobile features, and numerous multiplatform content-distribution deals. She was also responsible for several high-profile acquisitions and the development of Epicurious TV the first television program to be spawned from the Web. Ms. Chubb is an industry advocate and pioneer. Under her leadership, Condé Nast Digital became a founding member of the Online Publishers Association (OPA), where she remains a member of the Executive Committee. In addition, she serves on several boards, including those of the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and New York University’s M.S. in Publishing. She is also a trustee of the Victoria Foundation. Ms. Chubb has been involved in new and traditional media for over 20 years, at Condé Nast’s Allure and Vogue, and as a member of the launch teams for Elle and New York Woman. She holds a B.A. degree in English and American Literature and Language from Harvard University and currently lives in Manhattan with her husband and two children.
Managing Partner, SoftTech Venture Capital
Jean-Francois “Jeff” Clavier is the Founder and Managing Partner of SoftTech VC, one of the most active seed stage investors in Web 2.0 startups. Since 2004, Jeff has invested in more than 20 consumer Internet companies developing new concepts (such as social media) or revisiting “old” ideas with a new set of economics and technologies. In 2007, Jeff was recognized as one of the 13 “Web 2.0 King Makers” by Business 2.0, and is often noted for his investments in categories such as “passion-centric communities,” or for having already sold five of his companies in the past two years through successful M&As.
Prior to founding SoftTech VC, Jeff spent more than 16 years in the enterprise software world as an entrepreneur, senior executive and venture capitalist. Throughout his career, he was exposed to global markets leading development teams in Europe and on Wall Street, designing products sold internationally and investing in software infrastructure startups across the U.S. and Europe.
In 2000, Jeff became President of RVC Capital, the firm managing the Reuters Greenhouse Fund with $600M invested in 82 companies, including Yahoo, Verisign, Phone.com and Infoseek. He joined the venture arm of Reuters from the company’s product development division, where he was leading a 250+ staff in Paris, London and New York, and was responsible for the Risk Management and Desktop products. Jeff joined Reuters through the acquisition of Effix Systems, a Paris-based startup company he helped develop in 1989 while still in school.
Angel Investor, SV Angel
Ronald Conway has been an active angel investor for over 15 years. He was the Founder and Managing Partner of the Angel Investors LP funds (1998-2005) whose investments included: Google, Ask Jeeves, Paypal, Good Technology, Opsware, and Brightmail. Ron was recently named #6 in Forbes Magazine Midas list of top “deal-makers” in 2008 and is actively involved in numerous philanthropic endeavors. Ron is Vice Chairman of the UCSF Medical Foundation in SF, Board Member of The Tiger Woods Foundation, and SF Homeless Connect, and on the Benefit Committee of Ronald McDonald House, College Track, and the Blacked Eyed Peas-PeaPod Academy Foundation.
SVP, Chief Consumer Engagement Officer, Pepsi
As Senior Vice President, Chief Consumer Engagement Officer of PepsiCo Americas Beverages, Frank Cooper III is charged with leading the development of a new consumer engagement model for PAB and creating breakthrough marketing programs across the PAB portfolio. In addition, he has direct oversight of key operational areas across PAB that determine consumer engagement, including Digital, Media, Sports, Multicultural and Entertainment. Prior to his current position, Cooper served as Chief Marketing Officer, Sparkling Beverages for Pepsi-Cola North America (PCNA), where he played a critical role in transforming the company’s soft drink portfolio. Before joining Pepsi, Cooper worked in other entertainment and technology businesses for some of the world’s most iconic brands including Senior Executive at Motown, Tommy Boy & Def Jam Records; co-founded UBO.com; and Vice President of Interactive Marketing at AOL. Cooper holds a Juris Doctorate degree from the Harvard Law School, where he served as the Supreme Court Editor of the Harvard Law Review and currently serves as Chairman of the American Advertising Federation (a leading advertising trade association with over 40,000 members) and is a member of the Board of Directors for Business for Diplomatic Action.
VP Product, Facebook
Christopher Cox is the Vice President of Product at Facebook, where he is responsible for organizing Facebook’s product strategy and overseeing the product management and design functions. Christopher joined Facebook in 2005 as a Software Engineer and was instrumental in implementing first versions of key Facebook features, including News Feed and Inbox. He then became Director of Human Resources where he drove the development of Facebook’s mission, values, and people strategy. Christopher holds a bachelor’s degree in symbolic systems with a concentration in artificial intelligence from Stanford University.
Co-founder, foursquare
Dennis Crowley is a co-founder of Foursquare, a location-based social networking service. Previously, he co-founded Dodgeball, a network of the same nature which sold to Google in 2005. He has been named one of the “Top 35 Innovators Under 35” by MIT’s Technology Review magazine (2005) and has won the “Fast Money” bonus round on the TV game show Family Feud (2009). His work has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Wired, Time Magazine, Newsweek, MTV, Slashdot and NBC. He is currently an Adjunct Professor at NYU’s Interactive Telecommunications Program.
Founding Partner, CODE Advisors
Fred Davis previously founded the leading music law firm of Davis, Shapiro, Lewit, Montone & Hayes. He represented some of today’s most successful stars in rock, hip-hop and pop for the firm. He is also one of the leading experts in the burgeoning area of digital music, rights and distribution. Davis has been on the front lines of the Recording Industry’s tumultuous attempt to harness the power of the Internet by monetizing the explosion of interest in digital music downloads and subscription.
Associate, DFJ Gotham Ventures
Mark Davis is an Associate at DFJ Gotham Ventures. He works closely with DFJ Gotham portfolio companies ViVOtech and Drop.io.
Mark is the author of Get Venture, a blog that addresses industry topics and offers guidance to entrepreneurs on how to raise venture capital. Before joining DFJ Gotham, Mark was an active entrepreneur and advisor. He was the Founder and CEO Zotspot, an internet search destination, and an advisor to numerous startups. In addition to his entrepreneurial endeavors, Mark consulted at both KPMG and Bain & Company to approximately fifty Fortune 1000 and private equity clients on the strategic and financial attractiveness of acquisition targets representing a cumulative transaction value in excess of $6.5 billion.
Mark earned his B.A. in Economics, cum laude, at Duke University and his M.B.A. at Columbia Business School, where he was the Early Stage President of the Private Equity and Venture Capital Club and an InSITE Fellow.
CEO, Hunch, & Angel Investor
Currently Chris Dixon is CEO & Co-founder of Hunch. Previously he was CEO & Co-founder of SiteAdvisor (acquired by McAfee). He is a personal investor in early-stage technology companies, including Skype, TrialPay, DocVerse, Invite Media, Gerson Lehrman Group, ScanScout, OMGPOP, BillShrink, Oddcast, Panjiva, Knewton, and a handful of other startups that are still in stealth mode.
Developer Advocate, Google
Don Dodge is a veteran of five start-ups including Forte Software, AltaVista, Napster, Bowstreet, and Groove Networks. Don was recently Director of Business Development for Microsoft’s Emerging Business Team. Don is now a Developer Advocate at Google helping developers build applications on Google platforms. Don has been in the software business for more than 25 years. He started his software career with Digital Equipment, aka DEC, in the database group. He was part of the leadership team of five software start-ups. Forte Software was the first multiplatform object oriented development environment. AltaVista was the first search engine on the web. Napster was the first P2P file sharing network. Bowstreet was the first web services development environment. Groove Networks was the first secure P2P collaboration platform. Don spent 5 years at Microsoft as a developer evangelist to the startup community. Don is now a Developer Advocate at Google. He writes a daily blog, Don Dodge on the Next Big Thing.
Partner, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers
John Doerr is a partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. Together with KPCB’s partners, John has backed many of America’s best entrepreneurial leaders, including: Larry Page, Sergey Brin, Eric Schmidt: Google [GOOG]; Jeff Bezos: Amazon [AMZN]; Scott Cook, Bill Campbell: Intuit [INTU]; Andy Bechtolsheim, Scott McNealy, Bill Joy, Vinod Khosla: Sun [SUNW]; And the founders of Compaq, Cypress, Macromedia and Symantec. These ventures have created more than 150,000 new jobs. In 1974 John joined a small chipmaker, Intel, just as they invented the legendary 8080 microprocessor. (He feels he was very lucky, in the right place at the right time). He worked in engineering, marketing and became a top-ranked sales executive. John joined KPCB in 1980 and soon started Silicon Compilers, a VLSI CAD software company, and @Home, the first broadband cable Internet service. Eric Schmidt calls John “one of Google’s best board members.” And Jeff Bezos says, “Doerr (and Kleiner) is the center of gravity in the Internet.” John has also been part of several big failures, most famously GO Corporation, chronicled by Jerry Kaplan in the book “Startup.” John holds patents for computer memory device inventions. He earned a BS and MS in Electrical Engineering from Rice University and an MBA from Harvard.
Co-founder and CEO, Square
Software engineer Jack Dorsey is the Co-Founder of Twitter, and was the CEO until October 2008. Dorsey had the original idea for Twitter while still at Odeo, a podcasting startup which was a project of Obvious Corp. He is now the chairman of Twitter. In May 2009, Dorsey announced his latest startup, Square. Square, originally code-named Squirrel, is a mobile payment startup with both an app and a piece of hardware that allows the iPhone to accept credit card payments.
Jared Friedman
CTO, Co-Founder, Scribd
Jared Friedman is Chief Technology Officer and Co-founder of Scribd. He is responsible for overseeing all aspects of Scribd technology, engineering, and monetization. Jared started to build Scribd during his junior year at Harvard University by converting a dorm room closet into a data center. Today, Scribd is the world’s largest social publishing and reading site with over 50 million unique readers every month and tens of thousands of documents uploaded daily. Prior to Scribd, Jared worked at Cycorp, Inc., a leader in artificial intelligence, and studied Computer Science at Harvard University. His favorite Scribd document is High Performance Websites.
Partner, First Round Capital
Chris Fralic is a Partner at First Round Capital, an early stage venture capital firm with offices in Philadelphia, San Francisco, and New York. Chris has 25 years of technology industry experience, with significant Internet business development roles since 1996. Prior to joining First Round in early 2006, Chris was VP of Business Development at social bookmarking and tagging company del.icio.us through the Yahoo! acquisition. Chris was also one of the early employees and VP of Business Development at Half.com starting in 1999, and after the eBay acquisition spent six years with eBay in a variety of entertainment, business development and media roles. Chris earned his BS in Finance from Villanova University and his MBA from St. Joseph’s University in Philadelphia.
President, Consumer Applications Group, AOL
Brad Garlinghouse is President, Internet and Mobile Communications at AOL since September 2009. Until 2008 Brad served as SVP of Communications & Communities at Yahoo, which includes the world’s most popular webmail product, Yahoo Mail, Messenger and Groups. During his tenure, Brad has also overseen the primary starting points to the Yahoo network, including Yahoo.com and My Yahoo. Prior to joining Yahoo, Brad served as CEO of Dialpad Communications. Earlier in his career, Brad led VC investments in communications and Internet businesses at @Ventures. He also spent time in leadership roles at @Home Network and SBC Communications.
Co-President, JEGI
Tolman Geffs, a Co-President with JEGI, represents online media, interactive marketing services, and technology companies, as well as broader media businesses seeking to expand in high growth new media markets.
Prior to joining JEGI in 2004, Mr. Geffs was CEO of Internet Broadcasting Systems, a national network of 70 local television Web sites operated in partnership with NBC, Hearst, The Washington Post Company and other major broadcasters.
Previously, Mr. Geffs held a series of senior executive positions in magazine publishing. He began his career in the M&A department of Lehman Brothers, and also consulted for media companies with McKinsey & Company. Mr. Geffs earned an MBA from Harvard Business School as a Baker Scholar and a BA in English and a BS in Engineering Physics with Honors from the University of California at Berkeley. Mr. Geffs is the son of a noted author and media entrepreneur of the same name.
User Experience and Design Expert
Katie started her career in Seattle, working to produce and publish print and web content for clients including Microsoft, Intel, and Expedia. She joined Amazon as the managing editor of the e-Cards business and led large cross-functional and customer experience initiatives including the Amazon.com Kitchen Store, re-launch of Tab Navigation, Target.com, and the Amazon Services e-Commerce platform. In 2005 Katie moved to work on the Apple Online Store team as a Sr. Manager focused on content and customer experience, collaborating with engineering, marketing, and design teams to improve online shopping for Macs and iPods. Katie joined Facebook in early 2006 and led the product management, design and user experience teams. She played an integral part in launching the News Feed and Mini Feed products, making Facebook available to all users (beyond college and high school), opening up the Facebook Platform to application developers, and the Facebook redesign. In August of 2008 she set out on building a design and consulting business with her co-founder, designer, and husband. She then rejoined Owen Van Natta at Myspace in July of 2009, a job she would leave in February 2010 after Van Natta’s departure.
CEO, Funny or Die
Dick Glover is President and CEO of the Or Die Networks, which includes FunnyorDie.com, ShredorDie.com, EatDrinkorDie.com, PwnorDie.com and KungFuTodd.com.
FunnyorDie.com, launched in April of 2007, is one of the most visited comedy sites on the web according to publicly available data at www.quantcast.com.
Prior to Funny or Die, Glover was Vice President of Broadcasting and New Media for the National Association of Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR) and for NASCAR Digital Entertainment. At NASCAR, Glover ran the Los Angeles office overseeing all television, new media businesses, entertainment programming and promotion on behalf of the sport. A 20-year veteran of broadcasting and media, Glover was previously an Executive at the Walt Disney Company in various Senior Management roles in their ABC and Internet Groups. Glover also spent seven years with ESPN, most recently as Executive Vice President, Programming where he was responsible for all aspects of ESPN, Inc.’s domestic programming efforts, which included ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNEWS, ESPN Classic and ESPN.com. He was the executive in charge of the planning, development and launch of ESPN.com in 1994 and was instrumental in the site’s impressive growth to its current position as an industry leader.
CEO, Idealab
Bill Gross is a lifelong entrepreneur and proponent of solar power. While still in college, Mr. Gross founded Solar Devices, a firm that sold plans and kits for solar energy products. As the CEO of the technology incubator Idealab, Mr. Gross has founded several extremely successful companies, including Overture (acquired by Yahoo!), CarsDirect, and Picasa (acquired by Google). Idealab recently moved into the renewable energy market with Energy Innovations, a sister company to eSolar that focuses on the retail rooftop solar market. Mr. Gross sits on the Board of Directors of the California Institute of Technology, where he obtained his BS in Mechanical Engineering.
VP, Engineering, Google
Vic joined Google in 2007 as a Vice President of Engineering, responsible for mobile applications and developer evangelism. In addition, he is responsible for product management and marketing for mobile products at Google. He also oversees applications development. Previously, Vic spent 15 years at Microsoft, where he worked on a variety of products and operating systems, including Windows 3.0, NT, Windows XP, and Vista. He was recognized by MIT as a “Young Innovator under 35″ for his work in sparking the Microsoft’s change from Win32 to the .NET programming model. Most recently, Vic was General Manager of Microsoft’s developer outreach efforts worldwide, including evangelism and strategy for products like Windows Vista, Visual Studio, Microsoft Office, Microsoft CRM, and Windows Mobile. Vic holds two patents in the area of distributed computing and identity-based access to cloud resources.
Co-Chairman, Center for the Edge, Deloitte
John Hagel III is the Co-Chairman of the Deloitte Center for the Edge. John is a recognized thought leader on the intersection of technology and strategy. Throughout his career, he has influenced corporate strategies as a management consultant, author, speaker and entrepreneur. Since 2001, he has been an independent consultant and writer. Prior to that, he held significant positions at leading consulting firms and public and private companies. From 1984 to 2000, he was a principal at McKinsey & Co., where he was a leader of the Strategy Practice. In addition, he founded and led McKinsey’s Electronic Commerce Practice from 1993 to 2000. He has also served as chief strategy officer of 12 Entrepreneuring, Inc. and senior vice president of strategic planning at Atari, Inc. Earlier in his career, he was a consultant at Boston Consulting Group and founded Sequoia Group, Inc., a systems house that sold turnkey computer systems to physicians. Hagel is the author of a series of best-selling business books exploring the intersection of technology and business strategy, beginning with Net Gain, published in 1997, and including Net Worth, Out of the Box and The Only Sustainable Edge. He has won two awards from Harvard Business Review for best articles in that publication and has been recognized as an industry thought leader by a variety of publications and professional service firms.
Founder, Trident Design
Chris Hawker, a serial inventor with more than 20 consumer products on the market, is the founder and president of industrial design firm, Trident Design, LLC. Hawker has invented or designed products including the Onion Goggles (so you don’t cry when you chop onions), the Thirsty Light (a digital sensor which blinks when plants need watering) and the PowerSquid (winner of the 2006 CES Best of Innovations and People’s Choice Award). Hawker and his team work with companies of all sizes, including independent inventors, to create emotionally engaging, beautifully designed products that address life’s everyday problems. Hawker is a director at the United Inventor’s Association where he works to educate inventors on the art and business of inventing.
Co-founder & CEO, Meetup
Scott Heiferman is Co-Founder & CEO of Meetup, the world’s largest network of local community groups. Over 50,000 Meetups (self-organized community events) happen each week. Millions of people in over more than 100 countries “use the internet to get off the internet” using Meetup, which is built on the idea that every town needs support groups, playgroups, bookclubs, business circles, running groups, community action groups, etc. Previously, Heiferman co-founded Fotolog, a photo sharing network where over 30 million people have uploaded nearly a billion photos. He also founded i-traffic, a top online ad agency in the 90s. He then fled the ad industry and was influenced by 9/11 to start Meetup. Scott graduated from The University of Iowa. He is an angel investor in Betaworks, Founders Collective, Virgance, 20×200, and others. Scott received the Jane Addams Award from the National Conference on Citizenship and was named an MIT Technology Review “Innovator of the Year”. He’s @heif.
Founder, Managing Director, FirstMark Capital
Rick Heitzmann is a Founder and Managing Director at FirstMark Capital. Mr. Heitzmann joined FirstMark, formerly Pequot Ventures, in 1999, where he focuses on investments in emerging media and advertising and data and information services. Rick has led or co-led many investments in the consumer technology market including StubHub (acquired by eBay) and US Search / First Advantage (acquired by First American). Previously, Rick was a founding member of the senior management team at First Advantage. At US Search, Rick, as the Senior Vice President of corporate development and member of the Board of Directors, led the public company turnaround. Mr. Heitzmann graduated from Georgetown University with a B.S. in Business Administration and earned his M.B.A. from The Harvard Business School. Rick sits on the Board of Directors of Clickable, Live Gamer, Riot Games and weplay. Rick is also on the Board of Directors of the New York Venture Capital Association.
Co-Director, Gary Sanchez Productions
Chris Henchy runs Gary Sanchez Productions, a production company co-founded by comedians Will Ferrell and Adam McKay, which partnered with Sequoia Capital to launch FunnyOrDie.com Henchy was involved in the creation of the website and is integral in its ongoing commitment to showcase the best comedy on the web.
Henchy has been a writer and producer on such shows as “Entourage”, “Life with Bonnie” and “Spin City”. He also created ABC’s “I’m With Her” and most recently produced a comedy pilot for HBO entitled “East Bound and Down.” He has also written the feature film “Land of the Lost” for Will Ferrell and Universal Pictures.
Born in New York City, Henchy resides in Los Angeles, with his wife, actress Brooke Shields, and their two daughters.
CEO, Citysearch
Jay Herratti is the Chief Executive Officer of Citysearch, a leading provider of local search services and an operating business of IAC. In this role, he has been charting the growth of Citysearch’s web presence, its distributed local advertising network and its mobile strategy. Mr. Herratti also oversees local search properties Urbanspoon and InsiderPages.com.
Mr. Herratti previously served as the Senior Vice President of Strategic Planning for IAC, where he worked with IAC’s senior leadership to drive key initiatives across the company’s then 60+ interactive businesses. While at IAC, he also briefly served as interim CEO of IAC Advertising Solutions. Prior to that, Mr. Herratti served as the Senior Vice President of Strategy and Business Development for IAC’s TV and Web electronic retailer HSN. Before joining IAC, Mr. Herratti held the position of Senior Vice President of E-Business Strategy and Development for Federated Department Stores. Prior to that, he held senior level positions with e-tail start-up Boo.com, The Boston Consulting Group and GE Capital.
Mr. Herratti has a B.S. in Business & Management from the University of Maryland at College Park, and an MBA from INSEAD in Fontainbleu, France.
CEO, Huffington Post
Eric Hippeau is CEO of the Huffington Post, a leading news and opinion site which in four years has become an influential media brand — “The Internet Newspaper.” Hippeau joined HuffPost in June 2009. Prior, Hippeau was managing partner at Softbank Capital, a New York and Boston-based venture capital fund specializing in early stage investments in technology and digital media. Hippeau joined Softbank Capital in 2000 from Ziff-Davis, Inc., where he was Chairman and CEO. During his career at Ziff-Davis, Hippeau was early to recognize the growth potential of online media. Under his stewardship, ZDNet became one of the few successful examples of a strong online business model evolving from traditional magazine content, and he was instrumental in SoftBank’s first investment in Yahoo! in 1995. Hippeau was also responsible for founding ZDTV, a cable channel dedicated to technology and the Internet. Hippeau serves on the boards of several public and private companies, including Yahoo!, Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide, Thumbplay, The Huffington Post, and BuddyMedia, He is also on the investment committee for the SB Asia Infrastructure Fund. Hippeau graduated from the Lycee Francais de Londres and attended the Sorbonne University.
Founder, American Innovative
Adam Hocherman founded the consumer electronics company American Innovative in 2003 when he had an idea for a better alarm clock. That product led to a line of alarm clocks, then kitchen cooking timers and most recently the successful Onaroo line of “Smart products for children and their parents.” Nearly seven years later, Hocherman has built a network of overseas manufacturing partners located primarily in Shenzhen, China and has become a resource to seasoned product designers and budding entrepreneurs alike, who are interested in development mass produced consumer electronic items. He recently authored a three-part series for CrunchGear titled, “Going It Alone: How To Make Your Stuff In China.” He is a patriot, a small business owner AND an advocate of how Chinese and American entrepreneurs can work together for the greater good of both countries in the new global economy.
Co-president, Myspace
Mr. Hirschhorn joined Sling Media in December, 2006 to preside over the newly created Sling Media Entertainment Group. The Sling Media Entertainment Group was formed to define and create even richer and more engaging experiences for Slingbox customers as well as their family and friends. Mr. Hirschhorn is tasked with delivering entirely new applications and services enabled by the Slingbox’s marriage of familiar TV programming and richly interactive Web-connected devices. Before joining Sling Media, Hirschhorn was a Founding Partner at TripleH Media Advisors, a digital media consultancy. Before TripleH, Jason was Chief Digital Officer at MTV Networks. At MTV Networks, Jason was responsible for the company’s digital media businesses and interactive strategy. In April 2009, Hirschhorn joined MySpace as its Chief Product Officer and in February 2010 was promoted to co-President.
Co-founder, Andreessen Horowitz
Ben Horowitz is a co-founder of the venture capital fund, Andreessen Horowitz. Horowitz was a co-founder and CEO of Opsware (formerly Loudcloud), which was acquired by HP in 2007, and Horowitz was appointed vice president and general manager of Business Technology Optimization for Software at HP. Earlier, he was vice president and general manager of America Online’s E-commerce Platform division, where he oversaw development of the company’s flagship Shop@AOL service Previously, Horowitz ran several product divisions at Netscape Communications.
Global Executive Director, Advertising and Branding, GE
As GE’s Global Executive Director, Advertising and Branding, Judy Hu has taken a complex array of technologies and forged a simplified global message for GE that can be seen in groundbreaking advertising, Olympic marketing, and the launch of GE’s newest business initiatives. Uniting jet engines and ultrasounds, locomotives and lab research under one brand takes imagination. That requisite imagination literally leapt onto the page and online in 2003 when Judy launched the now-familiar global campaign, “Imagination at Work,” introducing a new vision for GE while simultaneously integrating the company’s vast R&D investments, high-tech products and solutions and services businesses. The campaign has won over 100 awards globally, including Gold and Silver Effies, Silver and Bronze Cyber Lions at Cannes, National Gold Addys, and NY Ad Week’s “America’s Favorite Ad Slogan” contest. Building on that success, Judy launched GE’s “ecomagination” campaign, which encompasses all of GE’s energy efficient technologies, and positioned GE as a leader in environmental issues. This was followed by “healthymagination,” which focuses on bringing better health to more people through improving access and quality and reducing costs. With a Harvard degree and an MBA from Yale, Judy began her career editing and designing trade books before moving into advertising at Leo Burnett in Hong Kong and DMB&B, where she rose to Senior Vice President. A member of the Board of Directors of the Ad Council and the Association of National Advertisers, some of Judy’s most recent recognitions include the “Gertrude Crain” award from American Business Media in 2009 and the Advertising Women of New York “Changing the Game” award in 2008. (Extended bio on Crunchbase.)
Mike Hudack
CEO, Co-Founder, Blip.TV
Mike Hudack is CEO and co-founder of blip.tv. He’s responsible for blip’s overall strategy and operations. Prior to blip.tv, Mike worked as a developer and systems administrator at a number of New York-based companies, including Time Inc. and the National Hockey League. Mike also ran a successful blog about the war and politics for several years.
Chris Hughes
Founder & Executive Director, Jumo
Chris Hughes has spent his career developing technologies to make social communication and political organizing easier and more efficient. After co-founding Facebook in 2004, Chris worked first as the site’s spokesperson and later as a product manager specializing in user experience. In 2007, Chris went to work on President Barack Obama’s presidential campaign as the Director of Online Organizing, where he was charged with developing web technologies to engage and empower supporters. Chris oversaw the development of the on-site network My.BarackObama.com along with the campaign’s distributed presence on all other networks across the web like Facebook and Twitter. After working in 2009 in venture capital for the firm General Catalyst Partners, he is currently embarking on a new initiative called Jumo to use the social web to foster long-term relationships of responsibility between individuals and organizations working to change the world.
Senior Vice President, Peacock Equity Fund
Megumi Ikeda is Senior Vice President of the Peacock Equity Fund. The fund invests in high growth, new media companies that have a strategic fit with NBC Universal. The fund’s portfolio companies include Greystripe, the Rubicon Project, Ramp, Trion, Healthline, Bigpoint, Blogher, and 4Info. Megumi is based in London and focuses on investments in the EMEA territories. Megumi previously worked at NBC Universal as the VP of Strategic Initiatives and New Media and in NBCU’s corporate development group. Prior to her work at NBCU, Megumi held positions at Conde Nast Publications, where she was the International Business Manager for Wired, and at Dow Jones & Co., where she was a financial
correspondent in Tokyo, Japan. She holds an MBA from UCLA and a BA from Columbia College, Columbia University.
Co-president, MySpace
Michael Jones is the co-President of MySpace. He is the former CEO of Userplane and former Senior Vice President of AOL. He brought Userplane from a startup services business to an applications provider and an AOL subsidiary. At AOL, Jones a Senior Vice President and manages Userplane within the Products division. He coordinates with other AOL subsidiaries and internal brands to enable distribution of Web applications to publishers under the Userplane brand. After leaving AOL Jones started Tsavo, a web media company that launched with a rumored $20m in financial backing. His time as Tsavo’s CEO was short as MySpace’s new CEO made Jones his first hire in 2009, making him COO. In February of 2010, Owen VanNatta stepped down as CEO and Newscorp promoted Jones to co-President. Jones’ opened his first Web consulting business during his junior year of college, and eventually migrated his practice into PBJ Digital, a 40-person firm that served an estimated 200 companies, including Sony and UPN. After selling PBJ Digital, Jones and his partners, Nate Thelen, Kevin Prentiss, and Javier Hall, formed Userplane. Jones has a Bachelor of Arts in International Business and Marketing from the University of Oregon and was named the Universities Student Entrepreneur of the Year in 1997.
CEO, Etsy
Rob grew up in his father’s wood shop, learning to make furniture at a young age. After dropping out of high school once, and college twice, he moved to Brooklyn and founded Etsy (www.etsy.com) in 2005. Etsy is both a handmade marketplace and a vibrant community, helping hundreds of thousands of entrepreneurs to make a living. In 2009, nearly $200 million in goods was sold on the site. Rob wholeheartedly recommends dropping out of school to pursue your dreams. People and dreams are much more important than degrees.
Co-founder, Blippy
Philip Kaplan (@pud) is the co-founder and president of Blippy. Prior to Blippy, Philip was founder and CEO of AdBrite, one of the largest Internet ad networks, and remains chairman. Philip founded several other businesses including Fuckedcompany.com and PK Interactive, a software company that developed web-based applications for Fortune 500 clients. Philip is the bestselling author of F’d Companies: Spectacular Dot-com Flameouts (Simon & Schuster). He advises numerous companies and has been on the Board of Advisors of the Syracuse University iSchool since 2006.
CEO, Clickable
David S. Kidder is co-founder and CEO of Clickable, a Web service that brings simplicity to online advertising. Prior to Clickable, Kidder co-founded SmartRay Network, a mobile advertising delivery pioneer acquired by LifeMinders. Previously, David helped lead corporate development at THINK New Ideas, a publicly traded e-business and interactive advertising firm. Prior to THINK, Kidder founded Net-X, a Web authoring and Internet advertising services company, acquired by Target Vision. Kidder is a graduate of the Rochester Institute of Technology, and received ID Magazine’s International Design Award and Ernst and Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year Award in 2008. Kidder is founder of GoodAdds.org, a nonprofit cause-marketing platform created in partnership with GE and Millennium Promise. He also is the creator and co-author of the two-time New York Times bestselling book series, The Intellectual Devotional, published by Rodale.
Senior Editor, Internet & Technology, Fortune Magazine
David Kirkpatrick specializes in the computer and technology industries, as well as in the impact of the Internet on business and society. His book, The Facebook Effect, about Facebook’s history and how it is changing behaviors across societies worldwide, was recently published. He maintains a blog at facebook.com/thefacebookeffect. Kirkpatrick began writing about computing and technology for Fortune in 1991. In May 2008 he published “Microsoft After Gates,” a definitive account of Microsoft’s prospects and challenges as its founder stepped away. Other recent Fortune features have examined MySpace, Second Life, and Technology in China. Known for his weekly “Fast Forward” column on a wide range of tech topics, Kirkpatrick is regularly ranked one of the world’s top technology journalists. He created Fortune’s Brainstorm conference series in Aspen starting in 2001, and was program director for Brainstorm Tech. Kirkpatrick appears regularly at conferences worldwide and on TV, radio, and Net video. He is a member of the World Economic Forum’s International Media Council and the Council on Foreign Relations.
Partner, Sequoia Capital
Mark Kvamme is a venture capitalist at Sequoia Capital focusing on enterprise data management software and consumer media and advertising services investments. Kvamme currently sits on the boards of AdBrite, Cast Iron Systems, Funny or Die, LinkedIn, Mark Logic, Motosports, Popular Media, and Searchme.com, and Strongmail.
Prior to joining Sequoia in 1999, Mark was Chairman of USWeb/CKS and Chairman and CEO of CKS Group prior to the merger with USWeb. Earlier in his career Mark was a Director of International Marketing for Wyse Technology, the President and CEO of International Solutions, and was a founding member of Apple France.
SV Angel
David Lee is an angel investor at SV Angel, an angel investment firm, where he is partners with Ron Conway. SV Angel focuses its investments on early-stage consumer media companies.
He focuses on investments within the consumer Internet, mobile, video and other IT industries. Prior to SV Angel, he was at Google, where he led new business development efforts in video, media and content/data partnerships. After Google, he led all business development-related efforts for StumbleUpon.
Recently he was a partner at Baseline Ventures and also an attorney at Morrison and Foerster representing high-tech companies in commercial transactions. He is a graduate of Johns Hopkins, NYU (JD) and Stanford (MSEE), where he was a National Science Foundation Graduate fellow. He is an individual investor in Square, WePay, Chomp and EQAL; an adviser at ScanScout and Rupture (acq. by EA); and on the board of directors of BookFresh.
CEO, Gilt Groupe
Susan Lyne is Chief Executive Officer of Gilt Groupe, an ecommerce company whose event-based sales model is changing consumer behavior and redefining luxury shopping. From November 2004 to July 2008, Ms Lyne was President and CEO of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia. In that capacity, she steered the company’s recovery and return to profitability, led by a three-fold increase in advertising revenue. Before 2008, Susan spent eight years at Disney/ABC, rising to President of ABC Entertainment where she oversaw the development of shows such as Desperate Housewives, Lost, and Grey’s Anatomy. Ms Lyne’s early career was spent in the magazine industry, including The Village Voice and Premiere Magazine. Ms. Lyne is a Board of Director for AOL and The New School and lives in New York City.
Founder, GigaOm
Om Malik is the founder and senior writer for GigaOm. Before launching his own publishing venture, Om was a senior writer for Business 2.0 magazine covering telecom and broadband stories. He has also accepted the post of Venture Partner at True Ventures.
VP, Search Product and User Experience, Google
Marissa leads Google’s product management and design efforts for search and search properties as well as the overall user experience, including the Google.com homepage. Google’s search product portfolio includes web search, images, news, books, products, maps, toolbar, iGoogle, and more. Marissa joined Google in 1999 as Google’s first female engineer and led the user interface and web server teams at that time. Today, she continues to work with the company’s user experience team, and developing designs and setting standards for the look-and-feel that keep the company’s products simple, intuitive, and useful.
Marissa received her B.S. in Symbolic Systems and her M.S. in Computer Science from Stanford University. For both degrees, she specialized in artificial intelligence.
Founder, Tunerish & VP Marketing, Plaxo
John McCrea is the vice president of marketing for Plaxo and the entrepreneur behind Comcast’s soon-to-launch stealth startup, Tunerfish. John has been a web entrepreneur since 1994. While at Silicon Graphics (SGI), he launched two early Internet businesses: WebFORCE, a line of high-performance web servers, and Cosmo Software, the first creative suite of web authoring software. John also struck the very first website sponsorship deal, and coined the term “Powered by…” as the de facto standard for such promotions. In 1998, John co-founded Affinia, a pioneer in contextual web advertising. John joined Plaxo in 2006, as the company’s first VP of marketing, where he led a brand and product turnaround that paved the way for the company’s acquisition by Comcast in 2008. John earned an M.B.A. from Stanford University and an S.B. from Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
CEO & Founding Partner, Digital Sky Technologies
Yuri Milner is a Russian investor and entrepreneur. Key investments include Mail.ru, Forticom, Vkontakte.ru, and Astrum Online Entertainment. In May 2009, his investment company, Digital Sky Technologies, made a $200 million investment in Facebook. Milner is CEO and Founding Partner of DST. At DST, Yuri led the investments in over two dozen leading Internet companies and raised over $1bn in 8 rounds of financing. Currently, Yuri serves on the board of directors of Mail.ru, vKontakte and Forticom. Before DST, Yuri held various management positions in Russia, including the CEO of Mail.ru between 2001 and 2003, where he turned the company around operationally and positioned it to become the #1 Russian speaking website.
Managing Partner, Founders Fund
Sean Parker is a serial entrepreneur and a managing partner at the Founders Fund. As one of the two founders of Napster, Sean helped architect and manage the peer-to-peer file sharing application to become one of the largest on the net. Parker subsequently helped found and manage Plaxo, a VC-backed contact management application company. More recently, Parker worked as the Founding President of Facebook before moving on to join up with Peter Thiel at The Founders Fund, a seed-stage venture capital firm. Parker also recently led the move to launch Causes, a new developer application that organizes individuals’ charitable giving on Facebook.
Chief Content Officer, Bloomberg
Norman Pearlstine joined Bloomberg L.P. in June 2008 as Chief Content Officer, a newly-created position. In this role Pearlstine is charged with seeking growth opportunities for Bloomberg’s television, radio, magazine, and online products and to make the most of the company’s news operations. Prior to joining Bloomberg, Pearlstine was a Senior Advisor to The Carlyle Group’s telecommunications and media group in New York. Before joining the private equity firm, Pearlstine had spent nearly four decades working as a reporter and editor. In January 2005, the American Society of Magazine Editors named Pearlstine the recipient of its Lifetime Achievement Award and inducted him into the Magazine Editors’ Hall of Fame. He was honored with the Loeb Lifetime Achievement Award for Distinguished Business and Financial Journalism in 2000. He received the National Press Foundation’s Editor of the Year Award in 1989. Pearlstine is President and CEO of The American Academy in Berlin. He also serves on the boards of the Carnegie Corporation, the Committee to Protect Journalists, the Tribeca Film Institute, and the Watson Institute for International Relations. He serves on the advisory board of the City University of New York’s Graduate School of Journalism. He is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Pearlstine is the author of OFF THE RECORD: The Press, the Government, and the War over Anonymous Sources, published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux in June 2007.
Founder & Chairman, Social Gaming Network
Shervin Pishevar is a visionary technology entrepreneur, published researcher and technology incubation expert and who has raised nearly $40M in venture funding for his start ups. He is the founder and executive chairman of SGN, one of the leading social and mobile gaming companies. Currently, Shervin is an active angel investor or advisor in such companies as Aardvark, Thread.com, Gowalla and Kissmetrics. Previously, Shervin was the founding president and COO of Webs (formerly Freewebs), one of the largest social publishing communities in the world with over 30 million members and growing, with one million members added every 60 days. He has also co-founded such companies as Hotprints to revolutionize the personal printing and direct marketing world and Hyperoffice, a leading SaaS provider for small businesses. Shervin was a member of the Technology, Media and Telecommunications (TMT) policy working group that helped create the Obama Technology and Innovation Plan.
CEO, DailyBooth
In March 2010 Brian Pokorny became the CEO of Dailybooth. Brian Pokorny was previously a general partner at SV Angel, where he focused on consumer-Internet investments including within social media, mobile, and real-time data companies. Brian is an angel investor in Twitter, OMGPOP, Square, Tweetdeck, Dailybooth, Bump, Blippy, Milo, Posterous, Chomp and has advisory positions with Ooyala, Spotzer, Stitcher, and Rupture. Prior to SV Angel, he was a founding team member and partner at Baseline Ventures, a leading seed-stage investment firm, and earlier spent 3.5 years at Google within various positions. (Extended bio on CrunchBase.)
Founder, 4chan
Christopher “moot” Poole is the founder of 4chan—a simple, image-based bulletin board. Since its inception, 4chan has grown from a niche site targeting anime fans, to one of the largest and most influential communities on the ‘Net. Commanding over 9 million users a month, many popular viral videos, phenomena and memes get their start on 4chan.
In 2009, moot was selected by TIME Magazine’s editors as one of the “TIME 100”: an annual list of “The World’s Most Influential People,” in the Builders & Titans category. In addition, readers voted moot as “The World’s Most Influential Person” in an online poll conducted on TIME.com. This year he was a featured speaker at the TED 2010 conference, held in Long Beach, California.
CEO, OMGPOP
Dan Porter is CEO of the social games company OMGPOP. With over 3 million members and a million games played every day across multiple platforms the company has grown almost ten times in the last year. Previously he was the SVP corporate development managing investments for Richard Branson and the Virgin Group. Dan started out working with bands at RCA Records, was a public school teacher and President of the Teach For America program and President of Ticketweb which he sold to IAC. He has an AB from Princeton University and an MA from New York University and has studied at Berkelee College of Music as well as at INSEAD.
Founder, Qatalyst
Frank is a founding member and CEO of Qatalyst. Frank has advised technology companies since 1981, and successfully built and led global technology banking franchises for Morgan Stanley, Deutsche Bank and Credit Suisse. Over the past three decades, Frank and the teams he has led have advised on more than 400 mergers and acquisitions with an aggregate transaction value over $500 billion and on more than 350 financings that raised over $65 billion for technology companies worldwide. Frank led the IPOs of Amazon.com, Cisco, Intuit, Linear, Netscape, ST Microelectronics, Synopsys, SynOptics and Xilinx, among many others. He advised Apple on its $400 million acquisition of Next (which resulted in Steve Jobs’ return to Apple); Ascend on its $3.7B acquisition of Cascade and its $24 B sale to Lucent; Brocade on restructuring and completing its $2.6B acquisition of Foundry; Data Domain on its $2.4B acquisition by EMC; Google on creating an alternative to Microsoft’s $45B hostile takeover of Yahoo!, among many other transactions.
Chethan Ramachandran
Ceo, Co-Founder, Turiya Media
Chethan Ramachandran is the CEO and co-founder of Turiya Media, an early stage company that applies predictive data mining to online games. Turiya’s technology enables game publishers to predictively segment and target users by behavioral characteristics. Turiya was recently named top start-up at the GamesBeat@GDC competition. The company is backed by FirstMark Capital, Metamorphic Ventures, Accelerator Ventures, and TriplePoint Capital.
Prior to starting Turiya, Chethan spent three years as a partner at a boutique investment fund where he structured, launched, and ran new technology joint ventures. Prior to that, he was part of the founding team and Director of Business Development of a venture backed startup focused on applying predictive analytics to information security. Chethan also has previous experience in technology investment banking and strategy consulting.
Avner Ronen
Founder, Boxee
Avner Ronen is the founder and CEO of Boxee, a freeware media player software platform. Prior to founding Boxee, Avner co-founded Odigo, an instant messaging service. Avner worked with the Odigo team from its founding in 1998 until its purchase by Comverse in 2002 for $20M. Avner stayed on with Comverse as the VP Corporate Strategy & Business Development until early 2007.
Host, Charlie Rose Show
Charlie Rose is an American television interviewer and journalist. He entered television journalism full-time in 1974, when he became the managing editor of the PBS series Bill Moyers’ International Report. He currently hosts the Charlie Rose Show, where he has developed a reputation as a skilled interviewer.
General Partner, Spark Capital
Bijan Sabet is a General Partner at SendMe, and Tumblr.
Prior to joining Spark, Bijan was Senior Vice President, Corporate Development of GameLogic after serving as an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Charles River Ventures (CRV). Before his work at CRV, Bijan was Vice President, Business Development and Product Management at Moxi Digital where he was responsible for establishing and managing strategic relationships with cable and satellite operators as well as driving product strategy.
Previously, Bijan was an early member at WebTV Networks, which introduced the first true convergence digital consumer product, combining Internet TV, interactive TV, digital TV, Digital Video Recording, and games into an integrated consumer electronics devices.
Congressional Candidate, New York
Reshma Saujani is running for Congress in New York’s 14th congressional district. Her parents, originally of Indian origin, barely escaped the brutal regime of Idi Amin in Uganda and came to the United States with almost nothing. Reshma paid her way through college with student loans, receiving her undergraduate degree at the University of Illinois, her Masters in Public Policy from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, and her law degree from Yale University. She was an associate at Davis Polk & Wardwell while volunteering on social justice cases, including asylum cases to ensure legal representation for the most vulnerable defendants. She worked with community organizers to register young voters across New York City and volunteered with the New York Bar Association after the enactment of the Patriot Act to offer free legal services to documented immigrations in Queens. Before running for Congress, she was deputy general counsel of the liquid markets business at Fortress Investment Group. Throughout her campaign, Reshma has focused on comprehensive immigration reform and the need for innovation and entrepreneurship to create jobs. She also has pledged not to accept any corporate PAC money because she’s committed to ending special interest influence in politics.
Editor, Scobleizer
Robert Scoble is an American blogger, technical evangelist, and author. He is best known for his popular blog, Scobleizer, which came to prominence during his tenure as a technical evangelist at Microsoft. Scoble joined Microsoft in 2003, and although he often promoted Microsoft products like Tablet PCs and Windows Vista, he also frequently criticized his own employer and praised its competitors like Apple and Google. Scoble is the author of Naked Conversations, a book on how blogs are changing the way companies interact with customers, and is currently working on his new project Building43.
Founding Partner, CODE Advisors
Quincy Smith is a founding partner of CODE Advisors, an investment bank focused on media and technology. (Check out his recent video interview with TC.) He formerly served as Chief Executive Officer, CBS Interactive for CBS Corporation. In this role, he is responsible for overseeing the Company’s entire interactive strategy and helping to guide its implementation across CBS Corporation’s varied divisions and online businesses.
Chief Architect, Yahoo
Raymie Stata is the Chief Architect at Yahoo!. Prior to joining Yahoo!, he founded Stata Laboratories, which he sold to Yahoo! in October 2004. Prior to founding Stata Labs, Raymie worked at the Digital Equipment Corporation’s Systems Research Center, where he contributed to the AltaVista search engine. He was an Assistant Professor of Computer Science at the Baskin School of Engineering at UC Santa Cruz, and has collaborated with the Internet Archive. Rayme received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Computer Science and Engineering from MIT in 1991, and a Ph.D. in 1996, also from MIT.
CEO & Publisher, Sugar Inc.
Brian Sugar is the CEO and Publisher of Sugar Inc., the company behind PopSugar. As CEO & Publisher, Brian Sugar sets the overall direction for Sugar Inc. Prior to founding Sugar Inc., Brian served first as Vice President of Marketing then as Vice President & General Manager of 2Wire, Inc.’s media business unit. Before joining 2Wire, Brian was founder and CEO of Sugar Media, a digital media software company, which was acquired by 2Wire in October 2003. Brian was Chief Web Officer at Kmart’s BlueLight.com, Vice President of eCommerce at J.Crew, and a founder of Neptune Interactive, a Washington, DC-based ISP.
Founder, ChatRoulette
Andrey Ternovskiy is a Russian teen and student who founded and built Chatroulette!, a video chat with random (site-chosen) users, originally for him and his friends to meet new chat buddies. The micro-social site has attracted a range of attention, notably from musician Ben Folds, who improvised a musical line-up based on the ChatRoulette users that appeared on his screen during a concert in March 2010.
CEO & Co-founder, 4INFO
As the CEO and co-founder of 4INFO, Zaw Thet is helping to set the bar for how brands reach and engage consumers with content on their mobile devices. A veteran of the software/wireless industry, Zaw has a successful track record for leading companies to outstanding growth and performance. Prior to 4INFO, Zaw was part of the early social networking industry, as a Director at Spoke Software. Zaw also did a short stint at IBM, was the co-founder and CEO of GetInventory, a web-based supply chain management company, and was a special consultant to the San Francisco 49ers. Zaw has been a featured speaker within the mobile and interactive advertising industry, recently appearing at iMedia Brand Summit, and the Mobile Media Investor Conference. Zaw has an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business, where he was a Soros Fellow.
Angel Investor
Yossi Vardi is an Israeli investor most famous for being the original investor in ICQ – the first Internet-wide instant messaging system. Vardi has invested in over 50 tech companies in diverse areas of software, energy, Internet, mobile, cleantech, and others.
Vardi has been an active civil servant in Israel through projects involving energy and infrastructure. He also co-founded Alon, an Israeli oil company. Vardi acted as an advisor to the World Bank and the United Nations Development Program on issues of energy in the developing world.
Vardi has received many awards including The Prime Minister Award, The Industry Award, Entrepreneur of the Year (Tel Aviv University), and the CEO!’s Entrepreneurs Hall of Fame from the Collegiate Entrepreneurs’ Organization.
General Partner, RRE Ventures
Eric Wiesen is a General Partner at RRE Ventures. Mr. Wiesen is a Board Director of Pontiflex and Solvate and is actively involved with RRE’s investments in Adaptive Blue, Betaworks, drop.io, Hot Potato, Payfone, RoundBox and Venmo.
Prior to RRE, Mr. Wiesen worked for Updata Partners where he focused on growth-stage software investments. More recently, Mr. Wiesen was an attorney in the corporate group at Fenwick & West, a leading Silicon Valley law firm. As an attorney, he represented both startup companies and venture capital funds on a range of issues. He also represented more mature technology companies in M&A and securities transactions.
Earlier, Mr. Wiesen was a two-time entrepreneur. His first company, launched while he was an undergraduate at U.C. Berkeley, built and sold hardware and professional services to the 3D Graphics and animation communities. Later, Mr. Wiesen co-founded an enterprise software consulting firm specializing in CRM systems. He has also served as a staff attorney at a non-profit in New York, and worked in the White House during a semester in college. Mr. Wiesen holds an MBA from Columbia Business School, a JD from the University of Michigan and a BA from the University of California at Berkeley. He blogs at Fiveyearstoolate.
CEO, Gowalla
A visual designer by trade, Josh Williams is co-founder and CEO of Gowalla, a popular location-based mobile application that aims to inspire people globally to express themselves and communicate about the everyday places and the extraordinary settings they enjoy. Prior to Gowalla, he was Principal at Firewheel Design, a boutique user-interface consultancy, where his clients included Microsoft, Samsung, Hewlett Packard, Thompson Reuters and Causes. Josh lives in Austin, Texas with his wife and two daughters. Josh is also the CEO and Co-founder of Alamofire, the creators of Gowalla. Prior to Alamofire, Josh was the founder and CEO of Blinksale, which has since been acquired by Doublewide Labs.
Partner, Union Square Ventures
Fred Wilson began his career in venture capital in 1987. He has focused exclusively on information technology investments for the past 17 years…In 1996, Fred co-founded Flatiron Partners. While at Flatiron, Fred was responsible for 14 investments including, ITXC, Patagon, Starmedia, TheStreet.com and Yoyodyne. Fred currently serves on the boards of Alacra, Comscore, iBiquity, Return Path, Instant Information and Tacoda Systems.
Founder and Managing Director, ACTIVATE, Inc. Michael J. Wolf is Founder and Managing Director of ACTIVATE, a technology and strategy consulting firm which helps media, technology and communications businesses position their companies for growth. Headquartered in New York, Michael is joined by Anil Dash who is a partner. Previously, Michael was President and Chief Operating Officer of MTV Networks where he was responsible for leading all of the business, technology and production operations for the $7bn television and interactive media company. He joined MTVN from McKinsey and Co., where he was global managing partner of the Media, Entertainment and Internet practice. Before that, he was a Senior Partner, and member of the board of directors and executive management team at Booz Allen. During his career, he has directed many of transactions, strategic alignments and innovations in the content, communications and technology industries. He is a member of the boards of iAmplify, Entercom Communications and SLIDE. Author of the influential THE ENTERTAINMENT ECONOMY: How Mega Media Forces Are Transforming Our Lives (Random House), Michael, his wife and their three children live in New York.
CEO, ngmoco
Neil Young is the founder and CEO of iPhone-game maker ngmoco, which he started in June of 2008. Young started the company after 11 years working at Electronic Arts, most recently as the Group General Manager of the EA|Blueprint Studio group that included Maxis (creators of Spore™ & The Sims™) and EA’s collaborative partnership with Steven Spielberg. Neil joined Electronic Arts in 1997 as the General Manager of EA’s Origin Systems subsidiary, where he supervised the launch of the world’s first Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing game, UltimaOnline™. Prior to EA/Blueprint, Neil served both as Vice President and General Manager of EA Los Angeles (EALA) and EA Maxis, where he oversaw all aspects of the studios responsible for the blockbuster franchises Medal of Honor™, Command &Conquer™, The Lord of the Rings™ & The Sims™. In 2002 and 2003, Young also led the development of the first The Lord of the Rings games at EA Redwood Shores – The Lord of the Rings™: The Two Towers™ and The Lord of the Rings™: The Return of the King™. In addition to his other producing and management credits, he was also the creator and driving force behind Majestic™, the first Alternate Reality Game (ARG) and a pioneering internet experience that blurred the line between fiction and reality by engaging players through non-traditional gaming media.
