ullrich associates

Home

About Kathryn Ullrich      Career Development        Coaching Services      Lessons Learned         Book         Contact

Panelists Bios

CEOs at the Top, UCLA Anderson School of Management, November 13, 2008
Panelists

Gregory Andrews, former CEO of Macquarie Americas Parking
Over the past 25 years, Mr. Andrews has assisted both small and midsize businesses during periods of rapid growth and organizational development. Mr. Andrews joined Marwit Capital, a middle market private equity firm, in February 2008 as an Operating Partner and currently shares responsibilities over the fund’s largest platform investment, Traffic Control and Safety Corporation.

In 2003 Mr. Andrews joined Macquarie Americas Parking Corporation as CFO, where he oversaw the national expansion of the company’s airport parking subsidiary. In 2004, he was promoted to CEO and assisted Macquarie in the successful IPO of Macquarie Infrastructure Company. During his tenure, revenues grew from $20 million to over $80 million. From 2001-2002, Mr. Andrews spearheaded the financial turnaround of a regional office for a subsidiary of Manpower, Inc. In 2000, Mr. Andrews was responsible for the integration of four internet technology companies for a division of Guitar Center. From 1987 to 2000 he held CFO positions for both public and private retail companies.

Mr. Andrews holds a BS in Accounting from Boston College and received an MBA from UCLA Anderson School. Mr. Andrews is a CPA and a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants.

Bear Barnes, Chief Shoe Seller of TOMS Shoes
Bear Barnes, 44, is the Chief Shoe Seller of a young company called TOMS Shoes.  TOMS mission is simple.  For every pair purchased, TOMS gives a pair of shoes to a child in need. One for one. Over the next year TOMS success will allow the company to give away over 300,000 pairs of shoes. Before heading to TOMS, Bear spent five years as the CEO of Starving Students, the largest moving company in California.  Starving Students employs 1,000 people in 9 states and last year performed over 55,000 moves. Prior to Starving Students, Bear founded and ran Flying Colors Painting, the largest house painting company in Connecticut, earning a spot on the Inc. 500 and employing over 350 painters.

Bear is a member of the Los Angeles Chapter of YPO, a soccer coach and a marathon runner - Boston, NYC & LA and now resting on his laurels. He got his undergraduate degree from Brown University and earned an MBA from UCLA. He lives in Century City with his wife of 17 years, Ilana Cass, a cancer surgeon at Cedars Sinai Hospital, and their three children, Roxanne (age 9), Leila (7) and Leo (5).

Tim Pulido, President of Mimi’s Café, a division of Bob Evans Farms
Tim Pulido joined Mimi’s Café in December 2007 where he is re-energizing a $450MM business with 140 restaurants in 22 states. Tim came to Mimi’s after serving two years as CEO of Shakey's USA, an iconic restaurant brand which pioneered the pizza category. Prior to joining Shakey’s, Tim was President and COO of a division of Carlson Companies, Inc., Pick Up Stix, a quick casual Asian themed restaurant concept with 100 locations. Tim spent three years with the McDonald’s Corporation as Global New Concept Development Officer. Tim enjoyed a 20 year illustrious career with the PepsiCo organization from 1981- 2000, starting on the traditional CPG side as a brand marketer in the snack division. Over a ten year time frame Tim held a variety of positions from Product Manager Fritos, Senior Director National Marketing, Pizza Hut, VP New Concepts, Pizza Hut to VP/GM of the Florida Division of Pizza Hut USA. In 1992 Tim was appointed Division VP, Northeast, Pizza Hut USA where he ran a $500MM plus business comprised of 850 corporate and franchise units before becoming Chief Marketing Officer for Pizza Hut USA and then Regional President, Europe & Africa, for PepsiCo Restaurants International.

Tim holds a Bachelors degree in Food Science & Technology from UC Davis and a MBA in Marketing and Finance from UCLA Anderson Graduate School of Management.  Tim and his wife of 27 years live in San Juan Capistrano, California and have three children ages 26, 23 and 18. In his free time, Tim enjoys biking, fishing and tennis.

Ella Williams, Aegir Engineering & Technical Services
Ms. Williams started Aegir Systems nearly twenty years ago with little more than the management training provided by the U.S. Small Business Administration, a strong desire to succeed, and strong personal ethics learned from her mother. She recalls her mother’s words: “Quality is important. If you want things to last, start with the best”. Ms. Williams never forgot this ideal, and when she started Aegir, she took it to heart. As a service company, Ms. Williams realized that you are only as good as your people, therefore to offer the best quality service, you must start with the best people. She attracted and assembled one of the most dynamic group of people in the industry and together they continue to grow and be awarded contracts from the defense, transportation, security & facilities sector.

Aegir has received several awards from the SBA including “Small Business Subcontractor of the Year”, “Small Business Prime Contractor of the Year” for three years, and “8(a) Graduate of the Year-1998”. In addition, Aegir has been awarded the “Outstanding Women-Owned Business Enterprise”, and the “Minority Business Enterprise of the Year for 1997” from the Department of Transportation Federal Transit Administration. Ms. Williams has been the recipient of the: “Entrepreneur of the Year” presented by AT&T; “Business Person of the Year” presented by Business Digest; “Woman of Distinction” presented by the Girl Scouts; and “Women of the Year” presented by Camarillo Women’s Day.

There is just no easy way to describe this incredible woman. Mother, Businesswoman, Dynamic Public Speaker, Mentor, Role-Model to women, the black community, and the business world.

SDForum Tech Women's Program, November 6, 2008
Panelists:

Elisha Finney, SVP and CFO at Varian Medical Systems
Elisha Finney was named vice president, finance and CFO of Varian Medical Systems in April, 1999.  In January, 2005, she was promoted to SVP and given the additional responsibility of managing the Corporate Information Systems group.  Today, Ms. Finney manages a staff of approximately 250 people worldwide.  Her management responsibilities include corporate accounting; corporate communications and investor relations; internal audit; regulatory affairs; risk management; tax and treasury, business development, and corporate information systems. Ms. Finney joined Varian as risk manager in 1988 and has assumed a wide variety of finance functions over her last 20 years with the company.  Prior to joining Varian, Ms. Finney was with the Fox Group in Foster City, California and Beatrice Foods in Chicago, Illinois.

She holds a BA degree in risk management and insurance from the University of Georgia as well as an MBA degree from Golden Gate University in San Francisco where she received the 1992 “Outstanding Graduate Of The Masters Programs in Finance” award. Ms. Finney lives in Hillsborough, California with her husband and two children.

Jessica Denecour, Vice President and CIO at Varian Medical Systems
Jessica Denecour provides leadership for Varian's worldwide Information Technology organization. Prior to joining Varian in January 2006, she served in a variety of management positions over a 20+ year career at Agilent Technologies and Hewlett Packard. Most recently, she held the position of Vice President of Applications and Solution Services and prior to that the Vice President of Global Infrastructure and Operations Services, both at Agilent. Denecour received her BS in Business Administration and Management Information Systems from California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo.

Olivia Dillan, VP Engineering and Services at AtHoc
Olivia Dillan is responsible for all aspects of AtHoc’s engineering and product development. Olivia has been responsible for many successful, award-winning products in the areas of security, e-commerce, application servers, database management systems, application development tools, and new media tools and applications. Prior to AtHoc, she served as group vice president of technology and services of PGP Corporation, where she was responsible for delivering PGP's award winning products, as well as technical support. Olivia remains an active member of PGP’s technical advisory board. Prior to PGP, she held senior executive positions, including: vice president of engineering at ServGate, co-founder and COO at Model N, vice president of engineering at the NetDynamics business unit of Sun Microsystems, vice president of the new media tools & applications division at Oracle, vice president of product development at PGP Inc., and vice president of core product development at ASK/Ingres (now Computer Associates). Olivia graduated summa cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts in Computer Science from Hunter College in New York.

Lori Rhodes, Vice President Sales and General Manager at M Squared Consulting
Lori leads M2's Strategic Solutions Group (SSG), one of the firm’s core business units, working with major high-technology accounts. SSG develops innovative, client responsive engagement solutions and delivery models for its clients. Prior to joining M2 in 2001, she spent 10 years at Xerox Corporation in business development, talent development, and management positions. In her community, Lori has been involved in the Ruby Hill Giving Thanks Charity fundraising event for nine years, serving as sponsor, president, and board chairman. She earned a bachelor’s degree from California State Polytechnic University.

Cynthia Holladay, Principal & CEO of UpRight Marketing
Cynthia Holladay is founder of UpRight Marketing, where she serves in interim VP of marketing and communications roles for nonprofit and technology firms.  Prior to starting UpRight in 2001, she was VP of Marketing at Vuent, a software startup launched from HP Labs and SVP Marketing at Epiance, an enterprise software company with development teams in India and the US. Cynthia led product development and product management divisions at Aspect Communications; professional services and international sales teams at BACHMAN Information Systems, and was lead database administrator in IT for the 11th largest US bank. Cynthia was a two-term president of the American Marketing Association of Silicon Valley and led the chapter to earn AMA’s highest national award in 2002. She is in her fifth year serving as Steering Committee Chair of the Computer History Museum Fellow Awards in Mountain View.  Cynthia has a Bachelors degree in music from USC and a Masters degree from the Boston Conservatory of Music.

Back to Top

Getting to the Top in Marketing, UCLA Anderson School of Management, October 7, 2008
Panelists:

NancyJane Goldston
As Founder and CEO of The UXB/Digitaria, NJ’s main functions are to guide each of the group’s creative and branding strategies for business growth. She brings over two decades of marketing, branding and strategy insights to clients ranging from multi-billion dollar corporations, to businesses that are fledgling and privately held. Clients have included LowerMyBills.com, MP3, Munchkin, Inc., SGI, Bamboo Pet, Aqua Mix, Swatfame, Cleatskins, David Orgell, Crustacean Restaurants and ddsWebLink. Before founding The UXB, NJ held a variety of executive positions including serving as CMO and EVP of WeddingChannel.com, SVP Marketing, Licensing & Merchandising for Universal Studios and MGM/United Artists, as well as senior positions with American Express, Della Femina McNamee (Boston), and Lippincott & Mercer. NJ is also a co-founder of ClubMom.com, is a member of the prestigious International Academy of Visual Arts (IAVA), a judge for the 2007 Communicator Awards and recently served on the International Marketing Council for Moët Hennessey. NJ has a MBA from New York University Stern School of Business and a BFA from New York University Tisch School of the Arts.

Trish Halamandaris
Trish serves as VP Worldwide Marketing for Mobile and Gaming Consoles at Disney. Prior she was VP Marketing and Carrier Sales for the Disney Interactive Media Group’s mobile content division, mDisney, leading consumer marketing, carrier sales and market research efforts. mDisney publishes Disney-branded mobile games, graphics and tones based on popular Disney characters and franchises. Trish has more than a decade of experience in marketing and brand-building, most recently serving as VP Worldwide Marketing for consumer and interactive products at MGM. Her background also includes work on acclaimed marketing campaigns such as Electronic Arts’ launch of The Sims and Vespa Scooters’ brand reemergence into the U.S. market. Trish has an MBA from UCLA Anderson School and a BS from UC Berkeley. 

Nina L. Smith
As President of the Business Management Division for Sage Software, Nina is responsible for the company’s success in serving small and midsized businesses with core business management products and services that encompass accounting, customer relationship management, manufacturing and distribution. She previously served as CMO for Sage Software, defining the company’s marketing strategies and guiding the company’s multi-year corporate re-branding effort. Nina joined Sage Software in 2001 from Webtrends Corporation where she was CMO. She previously spent 19 years at Xerox Corporation where she held a variety of senior management positions, including CMO. In that role, she was responsible for integrating Xerox marketing efforts worldwide as well as global advertising, brand management, research, events, and marketing strategy. She also served as VP Marketing and Strategy for small and medium business operations, and VP and GM of mid-range printing products. Nina serves on the board of Output Links. She lectures frequently on marketing, mentoring, and general business topics, and is featured in the book, The One to One Manager: Real World Lessons in Customer Relationship Management, by Don Peppers and Martha Rogers, Ph.D. She is a business graduate of the University of Redlands.

Back to Top

April 1, 2008, Getting to the Top as COO/General Manager, UCLA
Panelists:
o Bruce Crair, President and COO at Local.com
Bruce brings to Local.com over 20 years of senior management experience leading public and private high technology companies. From 2003 to 2005, Bruce served as co-founder and COO of ZeroDegrees, Inc., an Internet company that provided online social networking services to business professionals, which was sold to IAC/InterActiveCorp. Bruce served as president for Sprint PCS/Cox Communications PCS from 1995 to 1998, where he successfully built the wireless voice business in Southern California from inception to a leadership position in the PCS market. From 1999 to 2001, Bruce was president and COO for eVoice, Inc., an integrated IP telephony services company, which was purchased by America Online in 2001. Bruce received his B.S. degree in Physics from the United States Naval Academy and a M.B.A. in Corporate Strategy and International Business from the University of California, Berkeley.

o Bob Holden, General Manager at eBay
Bob has been with eBay for 6 years and in his current role, he is responsible for identifying new features and functionality that will continue to improve the user experience for renters and property owners on Rent.com.  He co-leads the company and is directly responsible for the Product Management, Technology/Engineering, Internet Marketing, Brand Marketing and Creative Services functions. 

Prior to joining Rent.com in September 2006, Bob was the General Manager of eBay Express, eBay’s newest shopping destination for today’s busy shoppers.  The eBay Express launch was eBay’s largest initiative of 2006 and the site successfully launched at the end of April 2006 and was accompanied by a significant television ad campaign during the holiday season of the same year. Bob also worked at eBay in the category management organization where he was general manager of the Sports Categories. 

Bob holds an MBA from Stanford University and an undergraduate degree in Mechanical Engineering from Cornell University..

o Stephen Torres, COO at DRI Energy
Stephen Torres is the Chief Operating Officer (COO) of DRI Energy.  Prior to joining DRI, Mr. Torres served as Executive Vice-President of Magnetek, Inc. and President and General Manager of its Alternative Energy division.  Before Magnetek, Mr. Torres served as the Vice-President of the Western Region for FuelCell Energy, a world leader in the development of fuel cell generators.   Prior to joining FuelCell Energy, Mr. Torres spent three years at Capstone Turbine Corporation, a leading developer of power generating MicroTurbine systems, as its Director of Distribution Channels. Initially, Mr. Torres helped developed the commercialization and distribution strategy for Capstone MicroTurbines, a disruptive technology in the power generation business.

Earlier in his career, Mr. Torres worked for Deloitte Consulting, a leading worldwide management consulting firm, advising primarily manufacturing clients on supply chain and sales management issues.  He has also held marketing and sales positions with Procter and Gamble and General Electric.

He also maintains his involvement with the community, serving as a Board Member for the Clean Power Campaign, and in the Advisory Board of The Riordan Programs at the Anderson School of Management at UCLA. Mr. Torres received a Mechanical Engineering degree from the University of Washington and an MBA from the Anderson School of Management at UCLA. 

o Raquel Catherine Dueñas, CEO at The Big Picture Show
Raquel-Catherine Dueñas is a co-founder, President and COO of The Big Picture Distribution Company where she’s been responsible for building a film library of over 300 titles in active distribution. Formerly she was VP Business Development of Cinema Entertainment/Alpha Media. In this capacity she oversaw concept development, as well as market strategy, development, and implementation for cable television ventures, and film distribution. She served as VP of Market Development and Public Relations at ICTV, where she spearheaded strategic relationships with film studios and cable television networks. Dueñas was responsible for marketing, public relations, and promotions areas for News Corps' Fox Kids Latin America and Fox Latin American Channel. She streamlined marketing efforts for Canal Fox and Fox Kids and spearheaded cross-promotions with other divisions. She oversaw PR efforts for the launch of the networks in Latin America. Dueñas began her cable television career at News Corp, as Manager of Affiliate Sales for Latin America and was responsible for due diligence in the acquisition of Prime Deportiva (Fox Sports), as well as carriage deals for Fox Sports and Canal Fox with MSOs. She was directly involved in building a sales infrastructure for the networks which included setting-up regional offices in Argentina, Brazil, and Mexico. Dueñas served as a Marketing Analyst for Buena Vista Home Video's European division where she implemented marketing for Walt Disney Cartoon Classics, and evaluated sales performance of Disney's video distribution franchises.

She holds an MBA from UCLA Anderson School and undergraduate degrees in economics and romance languages from University of Chicago. She is actively committed to initiatives relieving the plight of at-risk children on a global basis, and is on the Board of Advisors of Spirituality For Kids.

Back to Top

March 25, 2008, Getting to the Top as COO/General Manager, Stanford
Panelists:
o Steven Aldrich, VP Strategy and Innovation at Intuit
Steven Aldrich is VP of Intuit’s Small Business Division Strategy and Innovation team, helping to accelerate Intuit’s growth by solving important customer problems with a focus on inorganic growth through partnerships and acquisitions. As a General Manager, he recently led the QuickBooks Industry Solutions and QuickBooks Point of Sale teams to several successive years of significant employee engagement increases, customer experience improvements, and revenue growth. From 1995 – 2000, Steven was President of Quicken Insurance, a business he co-founded and sold to Intuit in 1996. Steven has lead many Intuit teams that have created significant growth for the company.

Steven has extensive experience in financial services and technology and was named in Institutional Investor’s 1997 list of the top 20 most influential people in financial services on the Internet.  He worked in the investment banking division of Alex Brown & Sons and for McKinsey & Company. Steven was recognized as an Arjay Miller Scholar while completing his MBA at Stanford Graduate School of Business, and he holds an AB in Physics from University of North Carolina. Steven is President of the Board of the Bay Area Glass Institute and enjoys spending time with his wife Allison and their son, Jackson

o Gordon Chapple, CEO and President of nSpired Natural Foods, Inc.
Throughout his career, Gordon Chapple has been responsible for establishing and executing business strategy, brand building and profit optimization projects for major food, non-food and technology companies. Most recently, he has been CEO and President of nSpired Natural Foods Inc., acquired by Hain-Celestial in March 2008.  Prior to nSpired, Chapple was President and COO of Nancy’s Specialty Foods, Inc. where he successfully executed the sale of the company to H.J. Heinz in August 2005. Prior, he was COO at PrivateExpress, Inc., responsible for building this internet startup offering secure on-line communication services to the medical, financial and legal communities. Chapple came to this role after being EVP of the North American Consumer Division at Packard Bell. Chapple was the Managing Director responsible for leading consulting projects for consumer packaged goods and technology industries at Dechert-Hampe & Company.  Earlier in his career, Chapple was VP of Marketing and Sales for Del Monte Foods, Inc. after being a Brand Manager at the Clorox Company. Chapple received a BA in Biology from UC Santa Barbara and a MBA in Marketing from UC Berkeley.

o Kevin Kennedy, CEO and President of JDSU
Kevin Kennedy joined JDSU as CEO in September 2003 and has been a member of the Company's Board since November 2001. Previously, he served as COO of Openwave Systems, Inc. from August 2001 to September 2003. Prior to joining Openwave Systems, Kennedy spent seven years at Cisco Systems, Inc., most recently as SVP of the Service Provider Line of Business and Software Technologies Division, and seventeen years at Bell Laboratories as well. In 1987, Kennedy was a congressional fellow to the US House of Representatives Committee on Science, Space, and Technology. He currently serves as Chairman of the Board of Directors of Rambus Corporation and is a member of the Board of Directors of KLA-Tencor Corporation. Kennedy is a member of the Board of Regents of Loyola Marymount University.

Kennedy holds engineering degrees, including: a B.S. from Lehigh University in Pennsylvania and an M.S. and Ph.D. from Rutgers University. He also completed the Executive Business Program at the University of Michigan in 1992. Kennedy was an adjunct professor at Rutgers from 1982-1984 and has published more than 30 papers on computational methods, data networking, and issues of technology management. In 2006, Kennedy was honored by the School of Engineering at Rutgers as their alumnus of the year and awarded an Alumni Medal of Excellence. He is a co-author of Going the Distance, a book published by Prentice Hall.

o Soon Yu, General Manager of Chiquita
Soon Yu is a general manager at Chiquita Brands International where he overseas emerging businesses, innovations, business development and corporate marketing.  In this role, he manages the strategic growth and brand initiatives for the North American business units, including Fresh Express Salads, Chiquita Bananas & Fresh Produce, Verdelli Brands and Chiquita Healthy Snacking.

Previously, Soon worked at the Clorox Company as a venture partner and general manager in the new ventures group. Before Clorox, he served as vice president of marketing at Adspace Networks Inc., a builder of digital display networks. Soon also served as a partner and marketing practice lead at Blacksquare. Prior to that, he founded gazoontite.com, the leading retail brand for allergy prevention products.

Soon received his MBA from Stanford University and a BS in Electrical Engineering from UC Davis.

Back to Top

February 12, 2008, Getting to the Top as Entrepreneurs in Service Businesses, Stanford
Panelists:
o Steven Sarver, Co-Owner, San Francisco Soup Company
Steve Sarver is owner with his wife Jennifer of the San Francisco Soup Company. Starting with their first restaurant in 1999, the company has had great success in growing this owner-operated business to fourteen restaurants in the bay area and a wholesale business selling branded or bulk products to 100 up-scale supermarkets in Northern California. Prior, Steve worked in brand management at Clorox working in the home cleaning division and Glad division. Before business school, he worked in systems and operations for GJM Manufacturing which did overseas manufacturing of lingerie primarily for Victoria's Secret. Steven has a BA/BS from University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

o Jane Williams, CEO, Sand Hill Advisors
Jane has over thirty years of experience in the investment field. Prior to co-founding Sand Hill Advisor’s predecessor firm in 1982, Jane was a Registered Representative with Merrill Lynch. She originally joined Merrill in 1974 and has the distinction of being the first woman hired in a professional role within the Merrill Lynch system headquartered in Ottawa, Ontario. Before joining Merrill Lynch she held the position of Economist with the Economic Council of Canada, where she co–authored a book on banking innovation.

oMike Handelsman, General Manager for BizBuySell
As General Manager, Mike oversees BizBuySell’s operations, including the business-for-sale marketplace, Franchise Directory, and other BizBuySell products.  Mike brings over 15 years of strategy, marketing, operations and business management experience to BizBuySell, including 8 years with online technology and/or real estate companies.  Prior to joining BizBuySell, Mike served as the head of Marketing and/or Product Management for HomeGain, AllPosters.com, and Pictopia.com, and was the Vice President of Business Development for BabyCenter.com.  Prior to his online experience, Mike began his career in Brand Management with Procter & Gamble, and also worked as a Management Consultant with McKinsey & Company in Chicago and San Francisco.
Mike is a graduate of Duke University, and holds a MBA from the Harvard Business School.

oGlenn Gow, Founding Partner at Crimson Consulting
Glenn Gow founded Crimson in 1991. Under his leadership, Crimson became one of the fastest-growing companies in the U.S., achieving "Inc. 500" status in the process. Glenn’s primary goal is for Crimson to achieve Extreme Client Satisfaction. Everything else follows from Crimson’s successful achievement of that goal. Glenn oversees the work of Crimson’s teams and manages engagements as well.
Glenn is interviewed regularly by the business press, and has been cited in publications including B2B Marketing, Business 2.0, CIO, Inc., InfoWorld, Network World, Red Herring, Sales & Marketing Management, the San Jose Mercury News, the San Francisco Chronicle, and Upside. He’s also spoken at Harvard Business School, the MIT/Stanford Venture Lab, the Northern California Venture Capital Association, the Silicon Valley American Marketing Association, the Silicon Valley Association for Software Engineers, and the Software Development Forum, as well as on CNET radio and webcasts.
Prior to founding Crimson, Glenn served in sales and marketing roles at Oracle and Bell Atlantic (now Verizon). He traces his career in technology back to the early 1980s, when he worked as a computer programmer for Procter & Gamble. Glenn earned an MBA from Harvard Business School in 1985, and received a BS in Quantitative Management from the University of Florida in 1980.

Back to Top

February 5, 2008, Getting to the Top as Entrepreneurs in Service Businesses, UCLA
Panelists:

o Steve Brodhead, Business Broker at Business Team
Steve is a premier sales/marketing/advertising specialist who has held senior executive and management level positions - including consultant to executive management - in some of the country's largest and most respected advertising and marketing firms; among them DDB and davidandgoliath. He is a business broker with Business Team, helping business sellers prepare and present their businesses for sale in the most advantageous and discreet way possible.
Steve is also Chairman of the Board of the Advertising Industry Emergency Fund (AIEF), an ad industry non-profit that assists people in times of life crisis. He was an instructor/judge at the AAAA's Institute for Advanced Advertising Studies at Loyola Marymount University for seven years and has been an active member of the Los Angeles Ad Club, Western States Advertising Agencies Association as well as having served on the EMBA Alumni Board at USC. He is a magna cum laude graduate of the Executive MBA program, Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California.

o Paul Habibi, Principal at Habibi Properties
Paul is Principal and Co-Founder of Habibi Properties, LLC, which acquires, develops and manages multi-family and mixed-use projects throughout Southern California. Paul frequently serves as a consultant to large and small real estate firms, nationally and globally, and provides expert witness support in matters related to real estate and accounting. In addition, he is a lecturer in real estate at the UCLA Anderson School. He teaches courses in real estate investment and development, advises field study teams, and frequently speaks on a wide range of real estate topics through the Ziman Center for Real Estate. Paul previously held positions as an Investment Banking Associate at Banc of America Securities, Manager of Transaction Support with The Walt Disney Company, and Audit Manager with Arthur Andersen. Paul holds an MBA with High Distinction from the University of Michigan, under merit scholarship, and a BA in Economics and Accounting from UCSB. He is a licensed CPA and Real Estate Salesperson in the State of California.

o Jarl Mohn, of Advisory Board for Cappello Capital; former CEO of Liberty Digital
Mr. Mohn was the founding President and CEO of Liberty Digital, a public company that invested in mid-stage interactive television, cable networks and internet enterprises. Prior to Liberty Digital, he created E! Entertainment Television serving as President and CEO from January 1990 to December 1998. Mr. Mohn was formerly Executive Vice President and General Manager of MTV and VH1, from 1986 to 1990.

Mr. Mohn currently serves on the following corporate and not-for-profit boards: E.W. Scripps, a media company with a large portfolio of newspapers, television stations, internet properties and cable networks; XM Radio, a satellite radio broadcasting service; CNET, an online publisher of special interest content including technology, computers, consumer electronics, gaming, music, photography, television and others; MobiTV, a provider of television programming and channels over Sprint, Cingular, T-Mobile and other carriers; KickApps, an applications company that provides the tools that allow web publishers to create community and social networking on their sites; Azureus, a peer to peer network for low cost, high quality secure distribution of high resolution and high definition video; American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Southern California, Chairman since 1994; Southern California Public Radio KPCC, Trustee; World Presidents Organization, Los Angeles Chapter, Chairman; and, USC Annenberg School for Communication, Board of Councilors.
Originally from Doylestown, Pennsylvania, Mr. Mohn attended Philadelphia’s Temple University where he studied mathematics and philosophy

o Kerry McCluggage, Chairman of Allumination FilmWorks
McCluggage has been in the entertainment business since 1978. In 1980, he became Universal Television’s youngest VP. During his stint at Universal, McCluggage oversaw the development and production of such television hits as Magnum P.I., Murder, She Wrote, The A-Team, Miami Vice and Law & Order. He joined Paramount in 1991, where he developed the original plan for UPN and oversaw its 1995 launch. As chairman of the Paramount Television Group, he aided in the development and production of JAG, Deadwood, the Emmy Award-winning series Frasier and the magazine show Entertainment Tonight, among many others.

o Dennis A. Tito, Founder, Chairman and CEO of Wilshire Associates Incorporated
Dennis A. Tito is a founder, Chairman and CEO of Wilshire Associates Incorporated. A native New Yorker, Mr. Tito earned his B.S. from New York University College of Engineering in astronautics and aeronautics, and an M.S. in engineering science from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He later finished course requirements at the University of California, Los Angeles' Anderson School for a Ph.D. in finance. Mr. Tito became the world's first paying space traveler in 2001, when he flew with a Russian crew aboard a Soyuz spacecraft to the International Space Station.
Mr. Tito, who started his career as a rocket scientist, worked for five years for the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in the 1960s. There, he applied computing technologies to help plot the trajectories for the Mariner spacecraft mission to Mars. After helping to found Wilshire Associates in 1972, Mr. Tito created the index now known as the Dow Jones Wilshire 5000 Composite Indexsm, the broadest measure of the U.S. securities markets and is credited with helping to develop the field of quantitative investment analysis, using mathematical tools to calculate market risks.

Back to Top

October 23, 2007, Getting To The Top - CEOs at the Top, Stanford
Panelists:
o Shellye Archambeau, CEO of MetricStream
As the CEO of MetricStream, Shellye Archambeau is responsible for running all facets of the business. Ms. Archambeau has a proven executive management track record and over 20 years of experience driving sales growth in the technology industry. Prior to joining MetricStream, Ms. Archambeau was Chief Marketing Officer and Executive Vice President of Sales for Loudcloud, Inc, responsible for all global sales and marketing activities. At Loudcloud she led the transformation into an enterprise-focused company while growing sales 50% year over year. Previously, she served as Chief Marketing Officer of NorthPoint Communications, where she led the design and implementation of all sales and marketing strategies. Ms. Archambeau also served as president of Blockbuster, Inc.'s e-commerce division and was recognized by Internet World as one of the Top 25 'Click and Mortar' executives in the country in June of 2000. Ms. Archambeau spent the prior 15 years at IBM, holding several domestic and international executive positions. Ms. Archambeau serves on the board of directors of Arbitron, Inc. and the Forum for Women Entrepreneurs and Executives. She earned a B.S. degree at the University of Pennsylvania, Wharton School of Business.

o Terry Austin, President & CEO, MarketLive
Terry Austin became part of the MarketLive team in the Spring of 2007, bringing with him over 20 years of leadership experience with growing companies in the technology sector. Prior to joining MarketLive, Terry served as President of Worldwide Marketing and Sales for Good Technology, Inc., a Motorola Company, and a leading provider of mobile computing solutions to the enterprise market. He joined Good Technology in January 2003 shortly after the company's initial product launch. He led direct sales, channel sales, professional services, corporate marketing and product management. Terry successfully led the company through five major product releases and the acquisition and growth of over 10,000 enterprise customers. Prior to Good Technology, he was President of European operations for Manugistics. Preceding this position, Terry led the North American Supply Chain Line of Business for Accenture. Terry brings a unique combination of vision, operational excellence and a customer-oriented focus to MarketLive. This, plus his vast experience working for multi-national enterprises, will be of immense value to the company and its customers as it continues to invest in development of state-of-the-art Online Retail technology and services. Terry received a B.S. in Operations Research and Industrial Engineering from Cornell University.

o Stephen DeWitt, CEO of Azul Systems
Stephen provides the overall strategic leadership and visionary direction as CEO of Azul Systems. Stephen has a dynamic reputation and proven track record of undeniable achievements throughout the systems, networking, and consumer software industries.
Before joining Azul Systems, Stephen was VP and GM of Content Delivery and Edge Computing for Sun Microsystems, where he joined following the acquisition of Cobalt Networks. As Cobalt's President and CEO, Stephen guided his team from its earliest stages of development through a period of rapid growth, including the initial release of the company’s first server appliance. While at the helm, Stephen also led Cobalt through one of the most dramatic IPOs and drove its successful merger with Sun Microsystems. Prior to joining Cobalt, Stephen held a seat on the executive staff at Cisco Systems as VP and GM of the Enterprise Network Management Business Unit and VP of Enterprise Marketing. Before Cisco, Stephen was VP of Marketing for Symantec Corporation, a leading consumer software company. Stephen also served as General Manager of the Canadian subsidiary of Symantec based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Stephen holds a Bachelor's degree in Finance and Economics from Babson College in Wellesley, Massachusetts.

o Ihab Abu-Hakima, President and Chief Executive Officer, Meru Networks
Prior to joining Meru Networks, Ihab Abu-Hakima served as a Senior Vice President at Proxim Corporation where he managed a number of functional organizations and strategic initiatives ranging from Worldwide Marketing, Corporate Development, International Sales and Global Strategic Accounts.
Before Proxim, Ihab served as a vice president and general manager, for Silicon Graphics Computer Systems, Inc. (SGI). At SGI he managed various divisions including the Strategic Business Analysis and Business Computing divisions.
Ihab also held various management positions at Hewlett Packard in the areas of computer systems and network products professional services business and started his career at the Bechtel Corporation.
Mr. Abu-Hakima holds an M.B.A. degree from McGill University and a B.Eng. Electrical Engineering degree, with honors, from McGill University.

Back to Top

October 4, 2007, Getting To The Top - CEOs at the Top, UCLA
Panelists:
o Greg Waldorf, Chief Executive Officer, eHarmony
Greg became CEO of eHarmony in 2006 and has overall responsibility for leading all aspects of eHarmony's business. The founding investor in eHarmony, Greg has been closely involved with the company since its inception in 2000, recruiting several members of the executive management team and contributing to many areas of the company’s development and growth. In 2006, under Greg’s leadership as CEO, eHarmony set new performance records in all key financial metrics and membership levels.
Over his 25-year career, Greg has extensive experience working with high growth companies as an entrepreneur, investor, and executive. He has been cited on matters relating to technology and investing in numerous print publications, from the Wall Street Journal to the New York Times, and has made frequent broadcast appearances on CNN and CNBC.
An entrepreneur at the age of 13, Greg’s first business endeavor was a software consulting company he founded in Los Angeles. While in college, Greg had clients located around the country from New York to Hawaii.
Greg holds a BA from the University of California at Los Angeles, and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. He was a founding member of the Stanford Graduate School of Business Management Board and a co-founder of Startup, an East Palo Alto non-profit that has provided business training for nearly 500 aspiring entrepreneurs since 1994. Greg presently serves on the Board of Overseers of the Hoover Institution at Stanford University in addition to several private company boards.

o Alex Dodd, President and CEO at M Squared Consulting, Inc. (M2)
Alex brings an excellent blend of consulting experience and business leadership to fully expand M Squared into the future. His focus is on building the strong relationships M Squared has with its clients, consultants and employees. Prior to his appointment, Alex was a Partner at Bain and Company in London, England, where he spent over 10 years specializing in strategy and operations issues. Alex previously also held the position of CEO at Cummins Diesel Engine Company in South Africa where he was responsible for growing and expanding the company. Most recently he served as CEO of Option One Home Medical Equipment headquartered in Orange County, California. Elected a member of the Board of Directors of M Squared, Inc., he lives in San Francisco with his family and is an alumnus of the University of London where he received an honors degree in Civil Engineering and Masters in Management Science.

o Larraine Segil, Board Member Citizens Communications; former CEO/founder
Larraine is a seasoned senior executive with general management experience, and a world renowned level of expertise in the creation, implementation and management of complex business alliances in multiple industries including healthcare, technology, consumer products, manufacturing, aerospace, financial services and more. She also has startup and turnaround experience, and a strong track record for speedy and innovative problem solving, enabling buy-in for complex change management and cultural change efforts.
Ms. Segil is a member of the Board of Citizens Communications (Stamford CT), a Fortune 1000 company where she sits on the Nominating and Governance Committee and on the Audit Committee.
Ms. Segil is Partner Emeritus and was formerly owner and director of Vantage Partners, a privately held consulting firm with expertise in building competency in both internal and external relationship management. Vantage Partners evolved out of the Harvard Project on Negotiation. Its partner/directors have authored many books including “Getting to Yes” and “Difficult Conversations”. Segil has served Global 100 and Fortune 500 companies assisting them to create and manage their critical business relationships with suppliers, alliances, joint ventures or channel partners. She now consults individually with senior executives
and companies worldwide.
Ms. Segil is a senior research fellow at the IC2 Institute at the University of Texas, Austin; serves on the Entrepreneurs Board for the UCLA Anderson School of Management, is on the board of The Los Angeles Regional Technology Alliances (LARTA) representing 35,000 Southern California early stage technology companies, and has been recognized by The Financial Times Knowledge Dialogue Group and The Corporate Strategy Board as a thought leader in alliances. Ms. Segil teaches executive education at The California Institute of Technology, (Caltech), Pasadena CA, where she has presented a two day program on
‘Global Alliances’ for the past 23 years.
Born in South Africa, Ms. Segil immigrated to the USA in 1974. She was formerly CEO of an advanced materials company providing products and services to aerospace and electronics manufacturers worldwide. She co-founded a California Thrift and Loan company as well as a series of free standing ambulatory care clinics providing medical services, and previously practiced international corporate law.
Prior to joining Vantage Partners, Ms. Segil co-founded The Lared Group, an international consulting firm helping companies develop and maintain successful domestic and global business alliances.
Ms. Segil is a regular commentator for CNN and CNBC and presents keynotes on domestic and global alliances, mergers, and critical customer supplier, channel, and outsourcing relationships. Ms. Segil is the author of numerous books, including: Intelligent Business Alliances, Fast Alliances.com: Power Your EBusiness, Dynamic Leader, Adaptive Organization: Ten Essential Traits for Managers, and Partnering – The New Face of Leadership. Her latest book, Measuring the Value of Partnering, is the first on Alliance
Metrics. She has also authored a novel, published by Penguin Books. Ms. Segil holds MA, JD and MBA degrees.

o Mark Amin, Vice Chairman, Lions Gate Entertainment
Mark Amin is currently Vice Chairman, member of the Board of Directors and one of the largest shareholders of Lions Gate Entertainment, the leading independent producer and distributor of films in the United States. Recently, Lions Gate has been responsible for distributing many acclaimed films such as Best Picture Academy Award® Winner Crash, Fareenheit 9/11, and Akeelah and the Bee.
In 2001 Mr. Amin formed privately held Sobini Films, to independently finance and produce motion pictures. The company maintains a first-look deal with Lions Gate.  Sobini just completed production on Peaceful Warrior, based on a best selling novel by Dan Millman, starring Nick Nolte and Amy Smart.   In 2004, Amin wrote the story and produced Paramount’s The Prince & Me, starring Julia Stiles and Luke Mably.
Mr. Amin founded and currently serves as chairman of CinemaNow,Inc  which has become the leading provider of feature films thru the internet and video on-demand through the internet. CinemaNow’s major shareholders include Lions Gate, Microsoft, Cisco, MenloVentures and Blockbuster.
Mr. Amin’s film credits as Executive Producer include Frida, starring Salma Hayek, which received six Academy Award® nominations and Eve's Bayou, starring Samuel L. Jackson and Lynn Whitfield, which received seven Image Award nominations including Best Motion Picture. Amin has received credit in over fifty feature films ranging from low budget independents to television films and major studio productions.
Mr. Amin founded and acted as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Trimark Pictures, from 1985 to October 2000, when the company merged with Lions Gate Entertainment.  Trimark Pictures was a leading publicly traded, independent film production and distribution company in the entertainment industry throughout the 1980’s and 1990’s.
Mr. Amin graduated from University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) with a Masters of Business Administration in 1975. He was previously awarded a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics by the University of Kansas. Mr. Amin was born in Rafsanjan, Iran, and lived there until the age of 17, when he moved to the United States.
Mr. Amin is a member of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences and the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.  He currently resides in Los Angeles, California.

Back to Top

May 31, 2007, Getting To The Top in Sales & Business Development, UCLA
Panelists:
o Chris Staskus, VP Sales at CrownPeak
With more than 20 years of experience managing and selling enterprise software, Chris brings to CrownPeak extensive solutions-selling expertise and a proven track record of building and managing successful sales organizations. Most recently, Chris was Vice President of Sales for Vendavo, a private enterprise software company which has grown its sales over 100% for the past 2 years. Prior to Vendavo, he held Sales Management positions with Clarify, Sybase and Digital Equipment Corp. Chris holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Marketing and Finance from Chico State University.

o Joe Wingard, Vice President, Merrill Lynch Global Private Client
Joe is the Vice President and International Financial Advisor with Merrill Lynch's Global Private Client Group. Prior to joining Merrill, he led three international lines of business for a major Fortune 100 information systems company and served on the graduate faculties of three leading Universities. Joe graduated magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from UCLA where he received BA, MA, MBA and Ph.D. degrees. He has authored over 100 technical and scientific publications and presentations, has completed the College for Financial Planning CFP Professional Education Program, holds registrations with the National Association of Securities Dealers and the major exchanges, and he is designated to serve the wealth management needs of Merrill Lynch International Clients. Joe has served as Vice President on the International Board of the Association for Corporate Growth (ACG), President of ACG Los Angeles and the Los Angeles Venture Association. In addition, he started and annually co-chairs the highly regarded ACG Los Angeles Business Conference.

o Todd Laurence ('92) – Director of Sales, i2
Todd is Director of Sales, North America for the Retail Business Unit at i2 Technologies, a $250M provider of supply chain software and consulting solutions. Prior sales positions include Director of Sales for a supply chain optimization startup, and Global Account Manager at Oracle. Todd transitioned to enterprise software sales when he joined Oracle in a Pre-Sales role as a manufacturing expert, after seven years in high tech manufacturing and sourcing. Todd started his career at Andersen Consulting (now Accenture) in New York. Todd has a BA in Economics from Princeton and an MBA with Carter Fellow honors from UCLA Anderson School of Management.

o Steven Kuo –SVP, Business Strategy and Technology Operations, Jamster/Fox Mobile Entertainment
Steven Kuo is one of the founding members of the Fox team that launched Mobizzo last year, the first broad based, direct-to-consumer mobile storefront and portal backed by a major entertainment conglomerate, featuring the best of Fox & News Corp properties as well as aggregation of third party mobile content.  Steven was responsible for business & technology operations for the new venture.  To drive the strategic direction and expansion of Fox’s mobile efforts, Steven was a key architect of the Jamba joint venture, which he drove to completion on January 31, 2007 — with News Corporation acquiring a controlling interest in Jamba from VeriSign, creating the pre-eminent vertically integrated mobile content and distribution company.  He now oversees corporate development and business operations.
Prior to this, from 2004 to 2005, Steven was Senior Vice President, Digital Media & Technology for Fox Television.  He was responsible for developing business opportunities for Fox involving emerging digital distribution platforms like video on demand, digital video recorders, Internet Protocol-based media, and new digital devices, while likewise identifying digital content generation, content protection and similar production-related opportunities.
Steven served since 2000 as Senior Vice President of Business Development for Fox Television, a collection of Fox’s television-related businesses ranging from broadcast and cable businesses to production and syndication.
Steven initially joined the former corporate entity Fox, Inc. in 1992 as a business development analyst and later attended The Anderson School Master’s Program at University of California, Los Angeles. He rejoined Fox in 1996 as Manager, Business Development for Fox Television, and subsequently rose to Director, Vice President and ultimately Senior Vice President for the collection of Fox Television assets. During that time, Steven contributed to numerous Fox Television, Fox Entertainment Group and News Corporation transactions and the launch of significant new businesses.  These include but are not limited to the online and wireless extension of “American Idol”; News Corp’s 2003 acquisition of leading DBS provider DIRECTV; the re-launch of Foxsports.com, resulting in the fastest growing sports news site on the Internet; and acquisitions of the Los Angeles Dodgers, the former SpeedVision (now SPEED Channel), Chris-Craft Industries, and International Family Entertainment, among many other business activities. Before joining Fox, he worked in various capacities for such leading technology companies as GeoWorks, Honeywell, and Apple Computer, Inc.
Steven is a member of the Fox Entertainment Group Diversity Advisory Board and the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, and holds an MBA from The Anderson School at UCLA in addition to a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering and computer science from the University of California at Berkeley.

Back to Top

May 22, 2007, Getting To The Top in Sales & Business Development, Stanford
Panelists:
o Robert Cruz, Sales & Business Development, Eneterra Solutions
Robert Cruz is VP for Business Development at Enterra Solutions, an early stage firm providing compliance and security automation solutions for companies in critical infrastructure industries. Robert is responsible for the company's commercial sales, business development, and alliance activities. With over 15 years in technology sales and business development management, he has experience in the development of indirect channel strategies, execution of complex VAR, reselling and OEM agreements, strategic alliance management, as well as direct sales management. Prior to joining Enterra, Mr. Cruz was the Director of Strategic Alliances for FileNet Corporation, where he provided executive leadership for the company's strategic alliances, leading up to the company's acquisition by IBM. Before joining FileNet, Mr. Cruz served as Managing Director for BroadVision Latin America, where he built the company's operations in Latin America from scratch to over $10M in 2 years. Prior to this, Robert was BroadVision's first Director of Strategic Alliances, where he build and managed the firm's technology relationships, contributing to its growth from $20M to over $300M. Earlier in his career, he was at Sun Microsystems and Hewlett-Packard. Mr. Cruz graduated from the Stanford GSB class of 1991.

o Veronica O'Shea, VP & GM, Professional Services, Oracle Corporation
Veronica O'Shea has over 20 years of experience in enterprise solution sales, sales management, and executive roles in Sales, Marketing and Professional Services. Formerly, she led North American Sales for the Service Management Business Unit at BMC Software for several years. As a founder and Vice President of Sales for Accelerant, LLC she drove several operational turn-arounds, funding and liquidating events with clients such as Vitria, Octopus (acquired by Ask Jeeves) , Vianeta (acquired by Spheris), Atrenta (obtained series C funding). Her passion for sales excellence is focused on "fact based pipeline management". She has over a decade of experience working with Oracle Corporation leading both license sales and Professional Services, and several years in sales management at Dun and Bradstreet Corporation, Vantive/PeopleSoft and with early/mid stage software vendors focused on key vertical market dominance and spanning the systems management, database, and applications arenas.

o Larry Westphal, Owner, State Farm Insurance Agency
Larry Westphal has over 30 years of sales and sales management. Larry began his career with Xerox in Milwaukee Wisconsin . He was recruited and relocated to Atlanta with NCR where he opened the new Office Systems Division. While at NCR he was both a District Manger and Regional Manager covering eight southern states. Next Larry joined IBM in Atlanta as Manager of Major accounts. He was transferred to California where he became Manager of Business Development for the National Sales Division. He was promoted to run southern California as a Branch Manger and later returned to northern California as Director of Brand Management. After leaving IBM Larry was recruited as Vice President Sales and Marketing Services for Applied Voice Technologies, a pre-IPO Company. After the company went public, Larry joined The Octel Corporation to manage the Western Region. Octel was acquired by Lucent and Larry went on to become a VP Sales for the Western Region. Larry was recruited by Vantive, a CRM Software company, as part of a turn-around team to be VP Sales North America. Vantive was later sold to Peoplesoft. Larry joined Telera as their first VP of Sales. Telera was sold to Quest and Larry went to join another pre-IPO company White Pajama as its Worldwide EVP Sales and Marketing. Larry joined State Farm as an independent agent and established his business in downtown Oakland . Larry is married and is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin .

o Andy Wiedlin , Regional VP Sales, Yahoo
Andy Wiedlin is the regional vice president of northwest sales at Yahoo! He leads a team of seasoned media sales professionals focusing on Fortune 200 accounts. Top accounts include Visa, Microsoft, Schwab, Cingular, Adidas, Nike and Experian. In addition to his responsibilities as Northwest Sales Vice President, Andy is on several task forces including Audience Engagement Strategy, Social Networking Monetization, and Mobile Sponsorship Development. Prior to joining Yahoo! in 2003, Andy was a sales director at iVillage & BlueMountainArts, and the VP of Sales for WeddingChannel.com. Before diving into online in 1999, Andy spent several years with AT&T International/Bell Labs. He spent 10 years working abroad, primarily in Japan and Australia . Andy has a Master's Degree in Pacific International Affairs (with a focus on Marketing and Japanese Language) from the University of California , San Diego.

o Katherine Rice Stout, VP Business Development, Williams-Sonoma
Katherine is the Vice President of Business Development and Business Sales for Williams-Sonoma, Inc. In this role, Katherine is responsible for new channel growth as well as for driving major strategic initiatives across the Williams-Sonoma, Inc. brands, which include Williams-Sonoma, Pottery Barn, PB Kids, PB Teen, west elm and Williams-Sonoma Home.  In addition, Katherine manages the business to business channels across all of the brands which include the WSI cross-brand designer program, home furnishing sales, gift card and incentive programs, business gifts and other areas.  Prior to her position at Williams-Sonoma, Katherine was a general manager and strategic advisor to the CEO at Sunkist in Southern California.  Prior to Sunkist, Katherine was a  Manager at Bain & Company, a global management consulting firm, where she focused on the retail and consumer products industries. Katherine started her career in investment banking in New York at Kidder, Peabody and spent time in brand marketing at Clorox. Katherine holds a BA from Vanderbilt University and an MBA from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business.  Katherine is originally from Texas and currently resides in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Back to Top

April 19, 2007, Getting to the Top in Venture Capital
Panelists:
o Dana Kibler, Vice President, GRP Partners
Dana joined GRP Partners as a Vice President in 2004 from The Walt Disney Company’s Corporate Finance group, where she was primarily responsible for the evaluation and execution of structured finance transactions. Prior to Disney, Dana worked for five years in investment banking for Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette and then Credit Suisse First Boston, most recently as an Associate. Her responsibilities included capital raising as well as merger and acquisition advisory services for specialty retailing, healthcare, lodging, and broadcasting clients. While in business school, Dana worked for the private equity firm Shamrock Capital Advisors researching investment opportunities and for eStyle evaluating strategic initiatives.
Dana received her MBA from the UCLA Anderson School of Management, where she was a Price Center Venture Fellow. She received a BS in Finance from the University of Arizona.

o Jeri Harmon , Managing Director, Allied Capital
Ms. Harmon, Managing Director in the Los Angeles office, has been employed by the Company since 2004. She currently serves on both the Management Committee and the Investment Committee. Prior to joining Allied Capital, Ms. Harman served as a Managing Director and Principal for American Capital Strategies, Ltd., a business development company, from 2000 until 2004. She worked as a Managing Director and Head of Private Placements for First Security Van Kasper from 1996 to 2000 and a Managing Director of Coopers & Lybrand from 1993 to 1996. From 1982 to 1993, Ms. Harman held various senior level positions in the private placement arm of The Prudential Insurance Company of America . She has served on the Board of Directors for the Association of Corporate Growth since 2000. Ms. Harman earned her B.S. from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and her M.B.A. from the University of California-Berkeley.

o Kevin Jacques, Partner, Palomar Ventures
Kevin brings 15 years of operational, strategic, and investing experience to Palomar Ventures, which he joined as partner in July 2006. His career has traversed widely across the information technology sector, including operating and investing experience in enterprise and infrastructure software, enterprise services, wireless, online consumer commerce and information services. Prior to joining Palomar, Kevin was the CEO of GlobeRanger, a leading RFID middleware company based in Texas . Before joining GlobeRanger, Kevin spent nearly six years as a partner with Sevin Rosen Funds, a Texas and California-based early stage venture firm with nearly $2 billion under management. While at SRF, Kevin led investments or played an active role with several companies, including TruLogica (acquired by Hewlett Packard), Fuego (acquired by BEA), InnerWireless, Traq Wireless, Clearlinx, and MetaCarta. Earlier in his career, Kevin served as Director of Corporate Strategy and Product Development at online software reseller Beyond.com. Prior to this, Kevin spent seven years with The Boston Consulting Group, where he completed strategic and operational projects for clients in the desktop software, semiconductor, networking hardware, financial services, automotive, and petrochemical industries. Kevin holds a BS in Industrial Engineering from Stanford University and an MBA from the Wharton School . Kevin currently serves on the boards of MetaCarta and Traq Wireless.

o Paul Wolf, Managing Partner, Century Park Capital Partner
Paul is one of the founders of Century Park Capital Partners and has been with the firm since its formation in 1999.  He offers nearly 15 years of experience in principal investing, mergers and acquisitions, raising debt and equity capital, and corporate alliances for transactions including acquisitions, leveraged buyouts, ESOPs, recapitalizations, and growth financings.  Previously, Paul was a Senior Vice President with Houlihan Lokey Howard & Zukin where he was involved with the firm's private equity investments through Churchill ESOP Capital Partners. In that capacity, he originated, processed, and negotiated buyouts, recapitalizations, growth financings and ESOP transactions for private middle-market companies. He also was responsible for the origination and execution of middle market buyouts, recapitalizations, and growth financings. Prior to joining HLHZ, Paul was a Director at Warner Brothers Studio Store group where he established joint ventures with international partners.  Paul also served as a Vice President in the Los Angeles office of Fleet Capital where he originated and underwrote leveraged loans for privately held and publicly traded companies. Paul earned a B.A. degree in Biology from the University of Kansas and an M.B.A. from The Anderson Graduate School of Management at UCLA.

o David Min, Principal, Steamboat Ventures
David Min is a Principal at Steamboat Ventures and has been with the company since its founding in 2000.  David has over 16 years of experience in media and entertainment and technology. He currently serves on the board of Industrious Kid and provides board oversight for Steamboat's investment in Voodoovox. Prior to Steamboat, David worked for over 5 years in various capacities in corporate strategic planning at The Walt Disney Company. Earlier in his career, David worked as a producer and screenwriter in television and motion pictures for Warner Brothers and as a Creative Executive in motion picture development for Imagine Entertainment. Throughout his career, David has worked with all of the major Hollywood Studios including CBS, Miramax, Sony Pictures, Universal and his past experience also includes working with the industry leading pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline. David received a BS in Biology and a BA in Telecommunications from Indiana University , and he will be receiving his MBA from UCLA Anderson in 2007.

Back to Top

March 27, 2007, Getting to the Top in Venture Capital
Panelists:
o Russell Hirsch, General Partner, Prospect Venture Partners
Russell is a Managing Director of Prospect Venture Partners. Russell co-founded Prospect Venture Partners II and III, as dedicated life science funds with over $1 billion in capital under management. Prior, Russell was a member of the Health Care Technology Group at Mayfield, where he worked from 1992-2000. Prior to Mayfield, Russell was at UC San Francisco where he was engaged in biomedical research. His work, published in a variety of respected journals, focused on important aspects of hepatitis B viral replication. Russell serves or has served on the Board of Directors of Intuitive Surgical, Sunesis, Valentis, Opus Medical, Orquest, Visiogen, AVEO Pharmaceuticals, Hansen Medical, Portola Pharmaceuticals, Baxano, Dfine and several other privately-held companies. Russell serves as the Vice Chairman of the BOD of Interplast and on the Genetics Advisory Council of the Harvard Medical School-Partners Healthcare Center for Genetics and Genomics. Russell holds an M.D. and Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the UC San Francisco and a BA in Chemistry from University of Chicago .

o Claude Leglise, Managing Director, WI Harper Group
As Managing Director at WI Harper, Claude Leglise combines extensive global venture investing experience with a long track record in technology marketing and operations, gained during his 23 year career at Intel. He was most recently VP of Intel Capital. There, he was responsible for making over 150 equity investments, including Cambridge Silicon Radio, SuSe, MVS Net, Japan Communications, and Techfaith Wireless, in 25 countries. In 1982, Leglise started his Intel career in marketing for the Microprocessor Division, where he launched Intel's first 32-bit microprocessor, the 386, and pioneered the branding of microprocessors. Leglise spent 12 years in general management positions, first leading the design and marketing of the world's first million-transistor microprocessor, the i860. He started Intel's collaboration with the software industry and managed the growth of the Developer Relations Group. As VP of the Home Products Group, he built a $125M consumer business and served on Intel's Executive Staff. Leglise is a board member of SupportSoft and of the Yellowstone Historic Center . Leglise received a MS in Electrical Engineering from Ecole Nationale Supérieure d'Arts et Métiers and an MBA from Stanford University.

o Chris Moore, Partner, Redpoint
Chris Moore is a Partner with Redpoint Ventures focusing on consumer Internet, online marketing and business services opportunities. Prior to joining Redpoint, Chris evaluated Internet opportunities for IVP, a firm he joined in 1999.  He currently serves on the board of directors of Right Media and Azureus , and is actively involved with Redpoint's investments in Efficient Frontier , and Oodle.  Chris was also actively involved with Redpoint's investment in MySpace . Prior to joining IVP, Chris led business development for wine.com and held various product management positions with Peapod. Previously, Chris evaluated and executed Internet and media investments for Ameritech. He began his career as a financial analyst in the M&A and LBO groups of Wasserstein Perella & Co. Chris holds a BA in Mathematics and Economics from Dartmouth College and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

o Patrick Von Bargen, CEO of the Kauffman Fellows Program at the Center for Venture Education
Patrick Von Bargen serves as CEO of the Kauffman Fellows Program at the Center for Venture Education, a prestigious 24 month educational fellowship in the venture capital industry. Previously, Patrick served as Managing Executive for Policy and Staff at the US Securities and Exchange Commission where he managed all facets of the policy agenda. Prior to his SEC appointment in 2003, Patrick was VP of the Council on Competitiveness, the only national organization of CEO's, university presidents and labor leaders focused on economic policy. From 1999-2002, Patrick served as the founding Executive Director of the National Commission on Entrepreneurship, an all-entrepreneur board created to educate policymakers on the role of entrepreneurs in the US and global economy. Patrick also served as the Chief of Staff for US Senator Jeff Bingaman for 12 years. Early in his career, he worked in venture capital with Sequoia Capital and spent five years providing legal advice to VC firms and CEOs of startup companies. Patrick graduated in the Charter Class of the Yale School of Management; holds a JD from Stanford Law School ; and a BA in history, summa cum laude, also from Stanford.

Back to Top

February 8, 2007, Getting to the Top in Consulting
Panelists:
o Andrew Gengos, VP Strategy & Corporate Development at Amgen
Andrew Gengos is Vice President of Strategy and Corporate Development, and is responsible for facilitating the development of Amgen's corporate strategy, managing M&A initiatives, and supervising venture capital investing. His biopharmaceutical experience includes executive-level positions at Dynavax Technologies and Chiron Corporation. Before joining Amgen, Andrew was Vice President, Chief Business Officer, and Chief Financial Officer for Dynavax. Prior to Dynavax, he was Vice President of Strategy and Corporate Development for Chiron. Before moving into the biopharmaceutical industry, Andrew was a Senior Engagement Manager for McKinsey & Company in Los Angeles , working primarily on healthcare-related projects. Andrew received his bachelor's degree in chemical engineering from MIT and his master's of business administration from the Anderson Graduate School of Business at UCLA.

o Jim Howard, CEO at CrownPeak
Jim is focused on advancing CrownPeak's leadership in the software-as-a-service market. Under Jim's leadership since its founding in 2000, CrownPeak has become the market leading company in the content management software services sector. In the past four years, CrownPeak has experienced explosive growth, with over 90% year-to-year CAGR. CrownPeak has also sustained over 93% customer retention over four years. Jim's professional background combines extensive startup experience with years of software development and professional services delivery and management. He has spent the past nine years working with web content management and search technologies. Jim previously held senior executive positions in professional services management, sales, and operational management with companies such as USWeb, MarchFIRST, and successful startup, W3-design.

o Lisa Leight, Partner at Stanton Associates
Lisa Leight is a partner with Stanton Associates, a management consulting firm that delivers solutions for growth and profitability to mid-market corporations. She provides expertise in the areas of marketing, product management, and strategy to the firm's clients. Lisa has a background in marketing and consulting. In marketing, Lisa was Vice President of Marketing for E Team, Inc. In this role, she transformed the marketing department from an underperforming unit to a high performance team focused on demand generation to drive revenue and building awareness of the company as a thought leader in industry worldwide. She was also responsible for product management, and led the redesign effort for a major 2.0 release. Prior to this, Lisa was Vice President of Product Management for BizBuyer.com, an online business marketplace. In this role, she was responsible for creating an exceptional user experience for buyers and sellers of business products and services. Previously she worked as a management consultant for both McKinsey & Company and Ernst & Young. As part of McKinsey's Chicago office, Lisa provided consulting in the areas of marketing, strategy, and operations to Fortune 500 clients, including Kraft, Allstate, Ralston Purina, Kodak, and Continental Baking Corporation.  As a Senior Consultant in Ernst & Young's San Francisco office, Lisa worked with technology and other clients. Lisa has a BA from Stanford and an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business.

o Vikas (Vik) Thakur, SVP Business Transformation Group at Countrywide
Vikas Thakur is Senior Vice President of the Business Transformation Group at Countrywide. The Business Transformation Group is Countrywide's internal consulting group and specializes in bringing cross-divisional strategic projects to fruition. Prior to joining Countrywide, Vik was a Senior Manager at Deloitte Consulting in Houston and a partner at Avvantica Consulting in Dallas . At Avvantica Consulting, Vik worked on strategic projects for mid-market clients in the Texas market. At Deloitte Consulting, Vik specialized in transformational change initiatives for clients in the energy industry. His clients included ExxonMobil, Occidental Petroleum, Shell, Baker Hughes, Alpha Natural Resources and British Petroleum. Prior to Deloitte Consulting, Vik worked in finance for ExxonMobil and First Interstate Bank of California . Vik holds an MBA in Finance from the Anderson School of Management at UCLA and a Bachelors of Science in Applied Mathematics from UCLA.

Back to Top

January 30, 2007, Getting to the Top in Consulting
Panelists:
o Jim Clayton , President of SymphonyRPM
Jim Clayton brings extensive experience in building new companies to the leadership team at SymphonyRPM. As a principal with Symphony Technology Group, a venture fund affiliated with Bessemer Venture Partners and Accel Partners, he lent his expertise to numerous portfolio companies, including Qiva, Trigo Technologies, and ePIT Systems. Prior to that, Jim was an Engagement Manager with McKinsey & Company and a member of its Corporate Finance and Strategy Practice. At McKinsey, he worked with clients in a variety of industries, including transportation, energy, technology, and finance. Jim attended the University of Texas, where he earned a BA degree in Business Administration and a law degree. .  .

o Alex Dodd, President and CEO of M Squared Consulting
Alex brings an excellent blend of consulting experience and business leadership to fully expand M Squared into the future. His focus is on building the strong relationships M Squared has with its clients, consultants and employees. Prior to his appointment, Alex was a Partner at Bain and Company in London , England , where he spent over 10 years specializing in strategy and operations issues. Alex previously also held the position of CEO at Cummins Diesel Engine Company in South Africa where he was responsible for growing and expanding the company. Most recently he served as CEO of Option One Home Medical Equipment headquartered in Orange County , California. Elected a member of the Board of Directors of M Squared, Inc., he lives in San Francisco with his family and is an alumnus of the University of London where he received an honors degree in Civil Engineering and Masters in Management Science.

o Raffi Kassarjian, Vice President Innovation Management at Fair Isaac.
Raffi is Vice President of Innovation Management. As part of Fair Isaac's EDM Technology and Custom Solutions group, Raffi is responsible for identifying high-potential technologies within the company and nurturing their development into new products and services. He has also held many market and product leadership roles at Fair Isaac, including the launch of the company's first ASP service. Prior to joining Fair Isaac in 1999, Raffi served as Senior Manager in Accenture's strategy group, where he led strategic consulting engagements for global 1000 clients in eCommerce, financial services, insurance and telecommunications. He also served as Director of International Business Development for a leading software company in Armenia , as well as Senior Associate for a consulting firm focused on developing European and Asian markets for US high technology companies. Raffi holds a Bachelor's and Master's of Business Administration degrees from Stanford University.

o Avanish Sahai, Vice President Marketing at BDNA
Avanish brings over 18 years of experience in envisioning and delivering compelling technology-based business solutions to Global 2000 enterprises. After many years in consulting, he has been a senior executive at various VC backed technology companies. Avanish is currently VP Marketing at BDNA, provider of IT management solutions to global enterprises and major government agencies (backed by Crescendo Ventures and Newbury Ventures). He was also interim CEO of Cogency Software (Apex, Altos, Bain and Bank of America), where he repositioned the company to target the fast-growing hedge fund marketplace. Formerly, he was VP Marketing and Products at Blazent (Bain, Benchmark and Pequot) and also vice president and general manager at Impresse (Kleiner and Benchmark). He previously served as a management consultant with McKinsey where he helped establish and co-led the Software and Services practice. He began his career at Oracle Corporation as a senior design engineer and product manager. Avanish received his MBA from UCLA Anderson, his MS in Computer Engineering from Boston University , and his BS in Electrical Engineering from the University of São Paulo, Brazil, where he grew up.

Back to Top

November 16, 2006, Getting to the Top in Marketing
Panelists:
o Lyle Kan , EVP Customer Experience Marketing at Countrywide Financial
Lyle Kan is EVP, Customer Experience Management for Countrywide Financial Corporation, a diversified financial services provider and member of the S&P 500. Kan is responsible for helping Countrywide's divisions develop greater customer loyalty through an enhanced customer experience. Prior to joining Countrywide, Kan served as General Manager of the Los Angeles office of Brierley & Partners, a loyalty and direct marketing agency.  He also served as EVP and COO of MySmart.com, a smart card solutions provider.  Kan was an Associate Partner with Andersen Consulting as a leader in their Customer Relationship Management practice.  In addition, he was a Market Manager with Pizza Hut and a Senior Engagement Manager with McKinsey & Company.    Kan began his career with Procter & Gamble, where he served as a Brand Manager.   Kan has a BA in Biochemical Sciences from Harvard College and an MBA from Harvard Business School .  .

o Glenn Lunde, SVP and CMO for Panda Restaurant Group
Glenn Lunde is SVP and CMO for Panda Restaurant Group, and leads the branding, marketing, advertising, field marketing and restaurant opening initiatives for the company's more than 800 locations. Glenn has created a strategic plan to make Panda Express one of the Top 100 most admired brands in America, by creating a remarkably differentiated brand that is loved by guests, associates, business partners and communities. Lunde has an outstanding track record of innovation and leadership in the restaurant industry.  Earlier, he was SVP, Chief Marketing and Concept Development Officer at Round Table Pizza.  In this role, Lunde led brand strategy, concept development, advertising, media, field marketing, new products, consumer research, purchasing, franchise sales and franchisee relations. He also spent seven years at Taco Bell, where he was one of the key leaders who helped shape the “Taco Bell Turnaround” that enabled the company to evolve to their current position of market leadership.  Lunde has a bachelor's degree in Economics and Psychology from Stanford University and he also earned an MBA from the Anderson Graduate School of Business at UCLA .

o Todd Rowan, SVP Marketing at Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment.
Bio coming soon

o Moderator: Kathy Ullrich, President and Executive Recruiter at Kathryn Ullrich Associates, Inc.
Ms. Ullrich specializes in the recruitment of senior level executives for enterprise software, high technology, and consulting companies. Ms. Ullrich has seven years of executive search experience with her own firm and Russell Reynolds Associates. Earlier in her career, she was Director of Product Marketing at Siebel Systems, responsible for the communications industry vertical. She joined Siebel from Accenture, where she was a manager in strategy consulting. She began her career in an engineering management development program with GTE and engineering assignments at Motorola. Kathy Ullrich has an MBA with top honors from the UCLA Anderson School of Management. She has a BS, cum laude, in electrical engineering from University of Michigan. She co-founded Professional Area Network for Women in Technology (PANW), a non-profit with the mission to advance women in technology, now the Alliance of Technology and Women (ATW) Silicon Valley chapter (www.atwinternational.org). She was previously VP of the Board of Directors for the UCLA Anderson School Alumni Association, MBA Alumni Class President, Member of the Board of Directors for the University of Michigan Alumni Association, Regional Director for the Silicon Valley chapter of WITI, and a selected participant for Leadership California.

Back to Top

November 9, 2006, Getting to the Top - CEOs
Panelists:
o Tim Dick, Vice Chairman, Hawaii Superferry
Prior to founding Hawaii Superferry in 2001, Dick was founder and president of Grassroots, a political Web technology company. Previously, he was the founding CEO of worldpages.com, one of the Internet's first “yellow page” sites. He also served as a senior engineer at Beckman Instruments and was also a principal at the Boston Consulting Group where he led client engagements on a global basis, including the transportation industry. Prior to joining BCG, Dick worked with the international consulting firm of Booz Allen and Hamilton in San Francisco and London. He is currently a board member and advisor to numerous companies, including Emptor/Accept, Affinity Engines and Biopacific. He also co-founded TRUSTe.org, which has become the Internet's privacy standard. Dick earned a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from the University of California and an MBA from Stanford University.

o Craig Donato, CEO, Oodle
Craig Donato is the co-founder and CEO of Oodle, a search engine for online classified listings. Prior to Oodle, Craig was CEO of Grand Central Communications, an internet service for business-to-business integration. Before joining Grand Central, Craig was a senior vice president at Excite@Home where he oversaw the Excite Search and Community business units and managed Network Programming.  Craig holds an M.B.A. from Stanford Graduate School of Business and a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Virginia Tech.

o James Heeger, CEO, PayCycle
Jim has held a number of high tech senior management positions in Silicon Valley over the past twenty years. He is currently President, CEO and Chairman of PayCycle, the leader in on-line payroll for small businesses. Prior to PayCycle, Jim was SVP for the Creative Professional Business Unit at Adobe Systems, Inc. responsible for launching the Adobe Creative Suite. He joined Adobe from Fotiva, a photo management software and services company which was purchased by Adobe in December, 2001, where he was the president and CEO. He came to Fotiva via New Enterprise Associates (NEA) where he served as an executive-in-residence. Heeger had a long and successful career at Intuit, where he was most recently SVP and General Manager of Intuit's Small Business Division. During his seven years at Intuit, he also served as CFO, SVP of operations and customer service, and VP and General Manager of the checks and forms business. Before joining Intuit, Jim held positions from product marketing engineer to distribution manager during a ten-year career at Hewlett-Packard. He earned an MBA from the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University in 1982 and a BS in management from MIT in 1978. Jim was a Board member of Fotiva and has held Board Observer roles at Excite and MissileLock.

o Kate Purmal, CEO, U3
Kate Purmal has more than 20 years of computer industry experience as an entrepreneur, corporate executive and independent consultant. Prior to U3, her successful management consulting business landed her in roles at Adobe, CBS MarketWatch, Hewlett-Packard, Intuit, Palm and Handspring, and dozens of start-ups. Kate was a founding member of palmOne (formerly Palm Computing), where she built and ran the product marketing and strategic alliance organizations. She helped palmOne launch its platform and successful developer community which now boasts hundreds of thousands of developers. In addition, Kate has held senior roles in marketing, product marketing, business development, sales, and engineering at Interleaf, Grid Systems, and Computer Associates. Kate holds a bachelor's degree in applied mathematics from the University of California in San Diego.

Back to Top

September 7, 2006, Getting to the Top in Strategic Alliances and Channels
Panelists
o Erna Arnesen, Senior Director of Channel Marketing at Symantec
Erna has more than 25 years experience in channel, sales, and alliance management at Fortune 500 companies as well as smaller, publicly traded, entrepreneurial technology companies. Most recently, she was vice president of worldwide channels for Fujitsu Softek, with responsibility for global channel strategy and programs, and all North American sales and services, for the storage management software company As vice president, global channels at SGI, Arnesen managed and implemented a global network of channel partners, which grew to represent the majority of the company's revenue. Arnesen holds a bachelor's degree from Wellesley College and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

o Malcolm Deleo, Ph.D., Associate Research Fellow, Technology Brokerage Dept, Sourcing and Partnering Group at Clorox
Malcolm is part of Clorox's Technology Brokerage Department working within its Sourcing and Partnering Group. This group is charged with facilitating innovation into Clorox from external sources, driving technology insight identification, managing the company's technical strategic alliances and negotiating research agreements. Prior to working in this group, Malcolm integrated new technology into products while part of Clorox Home Care New Products and Technology Department. A major part of his work included the now launched the Clorox Bathroom Cleaners with Teflon Surface Protector product platform. Malcolm received his Ph.D. in Inorganic Chemistry at the University of California Santa Barbara and holds an MBA in Technology Management from University of Phoenix .

o David McCamey, Ph.D., Associate Director, HR, Global Alliance Management at Proctor and Gamble Pharmaceuticals
Dr. McCamey has worked for Procter & Gamble since 1978. Prior to P&G, he received his B.S. in chemistry and Ph.D. in analytical chemistry from the University of New Mexico . He began his career with P&G in R&D as an analytical chemist in the Food & Beverage business. He has led Health Care research projects and managed the analytical sciences organization supporting upstream Health Care research. In 1989, Dave switched careers and began special assignments in organization effectiveness, working to improve the company's overall regulatory, clinical and product development capability. Since 1997, Dave has specialized in alliance effectiveness, and is responsible for P&G Pharmaceuticals' global strategic alliance capability. He leads P&G's Alliance Effectiveness Community of Practice across all of P&G.

o Norma Watenpaugh, Vice Chairman of Association of Strategic Alliance Professionals (ASAP)
Norma is currently Vice Chair of ASAP's global board of directors. She was the founding President of the Silicon Valley Chapter. Norma is a founder of Phoenix Consulting Group, a firm that specializes in partnering and marketing consulting services and has extensive experience in developing partner strategies, alliance management tools and program design. Prominent clients include Adobe, Cisco, SAP and UPS. In her corporate career, Norma has built partner programs in startup environments and has scaled those programs to handle needs of very large partner communities. Her 25 years of professional experience includes executive positions at Sun Microsystems, Amdahl Corp. and BEA Systems where Norma architected multi-channel and alliance partner programs from the ground level. She has a BS in Physical Sciences from University of Nebraska and an MBA from Santa Clara University.

Back to Top

June 6, 2006, Getting to the Top in Public Relations
Panelists
o Elaine Cummings, Partner, Eastwick Communications
As a founding principal of Eastwick Communications, Elaine offers more than 20 years of PR savvy to her clients. Working with clients such as Adobe Systems, Business Objects, Oracle and Seagate, as well as scores of start-up companies, Elaine has been instrumental in establishing Eastwick's reputation in the enterprise and consumer markets. Whether a client is in its infancy or celebrating 25 years in business, Elaine advocates a proactive approach toward obtaining coverage and building media and analyst relations. In between her client meetings, Elaine oversees the agency's operations and staff development and training programs. Prior to founding Eastwick, Elaine spent a number of years at Regis McKenna, working with Apple Computer, supporting its corporate and education areas, Novell and a variety of start-up companies in the software and systems markets. Elaine has a BA is Psychology from UC Berkeley. She is a member of the Corporate Advisory Board of the Youth & Family Enrichment Services non-profit and an advisor to the Child & Family Institute.
o Tracy Eiler, VP Corporate Communications, Business Objects
Tracy runs corporate communications at Business Objects. With 18 years of public relations and corporate communications expertise, Eiler manages the company's relationship with the media and industry analysts, as well as advertising, collateral, brand identity, the corporate web site, and the internal web site devoted to sales support. She also recently started the company's first global events team and global lead generation campaigns initiatives. Eiler's focus is to promote the company and its products, increase awareness among key audiences, and ensure that the company's multiple communication channels have a single global voice. Prior to joining Business Objects in 1995, Eiler was vice president of Eiler Communications, a public relations firm serving a variety of software industry clients. An active philanthropist, Eiler volunteers her time providing communications counsel to non-profit organizations that promote awareness for women's issues such as breast cancer and domestic violence. Eiler holds a bachelor of arts from the University of Michigan.
o Jessica Kersey, Director Marketing Communications and PR, Polycom
Jessica Kersey is public relations professional with more than 25 years of experience in the business. When it comes to positioning your company in the right market space, the upper right quadrant, Jessica is the expert. She is currently Senior Director of Corporate Communications at Polycom with global responsibility for corporate positioning, messaging and branding, media and analyst relations, corporate marketing communications, Polycom.com, research, and the customer success program. Her experience in technology marketing, primarily in enterprise and Internet, begin when she joined PC Magazine as their PR Manager. In between she has worked at agencies such as Burson-Marsteller and Fleishman-Hillard leading accounts such as Sun Microsystems, BEA, Xerox, and MCI Small Business and led PR efforts for Novell, Acer America, Macromedia, RealNames and Mercury-Interactive. Jessica holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the College of William and Mary.
o Laurel Tielis, Author, The Girl's Guide to Getting On Top: Positioning Your Business Through Media Placements; Former President, Allure Communications
Laurel has more than 20 years of experience in communications. After a successful career as a journalist writing for WWD, the Miami Herald and People magazine, she moved into public relations. Her background in PR includes working on both the client and the agency side. She specializes in lifestyle accounts in fashion, beauty, and fitness, and served as public relations director for Stott Pilates, the third largest Pilates company in the world, and for Nature's Elements, a 45-store chain of naturally based personal care products. In 1995, Laurel became president of New York-based Allure Communications. Accounts ranged in size from comfort-footwear market-leader R. G. Barry to small business 8-Track Shoe Corporation.
An engaging style, thorough understanding of her subject matter, and a passion to help small businesses make it big, have made her a sought-after speaker. She present seminars to women's organizations, trade associations, and financial institutions. A graduate of Baruch with a degree in business administration, she has taught courses in public relations at New York's FIT and Pace University. Laurel was on the founding committee to bring Dress for Success to San Francisco; the non-profit received its 501 (c) (3) in March.

Back to Top

April 4, 2006, Getting Unstuck
Panelists
Susan Bernstein, Work from Within
Susan is a Career Management Coach and founder of Work from Within (www.WorkFromWithin.com), a career and life coaching practice that focuses on helping people to create and sustain more satisfying, energizing working lives.  She specializes in assisting people who 1) feel like they are “stuck” or have “hit the wall” in their jobs and want to figure out their next career steps, 2) seek careers that allow them greater creativity, flexibility, or authenticity, 3) crave the added energy and vitality that comes with work-life balance, and seek support in achieving it, or 4) enjoy their jobs, and want to enhance their abilities to communicate, negotiate, deal  effectively with challenging personalities, and express their fullest potential at work. In addition to assisting Work from Within clients since 2001, Susan is an adjunct career advisor at the Haas School of Business and assists their full-time, evening, weekend, and Berkeley-Columbia Executive MBA students in pursuing their career goals through targeted career planning, resume reviews, interview preparation, and networking assistance.  She also has extensive experience in working with career transitioners.  Because of her strong advocacy for experiential approaches to exploring potential new careers, she was selected by Portland-based VocationVacations to be one of their affiliated career coaches.  In that role, she assist clients to “test drive dream jobs” -- such as wine vintner, chocolatier, and hotelier – and helps them translate their experiences into tangible action steps towards a more dynamic and fulfilling career.    
Deb Colden, Executive Coach and Consultant
Deb is an independent coach and strategy consultant in the San Francisco Bay Area.   A 20-year veteran of the high tech and entertainment industries in marketing and internal management consulting, she specializes in helping high potential leaders achieve personal and professional goals with fewer struggles. Deb has extensive experience working with executives, senior managers, technology strategists, R&D, marketing and operational professionals in both small and multinational companies. Deb's clients range from small business owners to senior leaders from companies such as Hewlett-Packard Co, Agilent Technologies, AMD, Spansion, The Gap and Blue Pumpkin Software.  Not for profit clients include Habitat for Humanity and Women's Initiative for Self-Employment. Deb is known for her pragmatic and business focused approach; Clients describe her as "High-energy.”  “Thought provoking.”  “Actionable and empowering." Deb has a BA from Pomona College, an MBA from the University of Southern California and attended the Advanced Management Program at U.C. Berkeley's Haas School of Business.  She is also known for her own Creating Breakthroughs series ™ of experiential learning workshops which enable professionals to apply simple effective techniques to personal and professional strategy, planning and networking to create breakthrough results. Contact Deb at www.debcolden.com or 408-738-0540.
Lili Pratt-King, Career Advocates
Lili has been an organizational effectiveness professional in the Silicon Valley for over 25 years. For the past 13 years, she has been a career coach specializing in coaching general managers, mavericks, and high potential employees. She has been coaching in HP's Accelerated Development Program since its second year. Lili specializes in work situation that are undergoing significant change, such as promotion, IPO's mergers and acquisitions, high growth or restructuring. She is best known for guiding senior executives to define their unique management styles and to leverage this awareness to increase effectiveness and efficiency. Lili was the career strategy consultant for alumni of the Stanford Graduate School of Business for over 10 years. She was one of the founding partners of M2, an interim search management firm. For 10 years, Lili worked in executive search firms. Early in her career, she was a product manager at Levi Strauss and a consultant with Arthur Young company. Lili's clients have included Symantec, PeopleSoft, Haas School of Business, Hewlett Packard, Agilent, webTV/Microsoft, Guru.com, Tilia, Sun Microsystems, Russell Reynolds, Levi Strauss and Wells Fargo. Lili holds BA and MBA degrees from Stanford University. She is certified to interpret the Birkman Report and the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, Career Architect, the LifeStyle Inventory, PDI 360, and Assessment Plus 360. Lili can be reached at 925-872-6242 or lili@careeradvocates.com.
Jennifer Winn, Winn Performance
Jennifer is founder and principal of Winn Performance Partners, an executive development and career management firm. She specializes in helping middle and senior level executives in high-stakes environments maximize their personal effectiveness to achieve their professional career goals. Ms. Winn brings to her executive development work over 20 years of marketing, sales, project management, relationship management and strategic planning experience for companies such as Charles Schwab, First Boston, Hewitt Associates HR consulting firm, and Foote, Cone & Belding advertising agency. As Marketing Director for Charles Schwab, her exceptional leadership and managerial skills led her to receive Charles Schwab's annual "Excellence in Service" award. This honor was the result of her leadership of an enterprise-wide initiative that increased the number of qualified retail leads by over 40%. In addition to her extensive business experience, Ms. Winn has over 12 years of experience as a professional actor and singer, performing in stage, film, radio and TV productions. She often draws upon her theatrical training and expertise to help clients strengthen their presentation and communication skills, and to enhance their ability to perform effectively under pressure. Ms. Winn has an MBA from Stanford Business School, a BA in Theatre from the University of Missouri, is a graduate of CoachU, and is a Certified Five O'Clock Club Career Counselor. She is trained and/or certified in numerous executive development tools, including Myers-Briggs Type Indicator®; Insights Discovery Preference Evaluator®; DISC Style Analysis; Benchmarks®, Skillscope® and other 360o feedback instruments. Jennifer can be reached at (925) 314-9660 and at jennifer@winnperformance.com.

Back to Top

March 7, 2006, Getting to the Top in Marketing
Panelists
Tom Bobich, General Manager and Chief Services Officer, Visage Mobile.
Tom is responsible for all operations and client management at Visage Mobile, the pioneer MVNE (Mobile Virtual Network Enabler) in the burgeoning market for private label wireless services. Previously, in seven years with AirTouch Cellular, Tom helped the company grow from four markets to 17 states and eventually facilitated the brand's evolution into Verizon Wireless. As Managing Director, Brand Development and Direct Marketing, Tom developed and implemented the AirTouch brand and introduced sophisticated customer relationship management capabilities. Immediately after business school, Tom worked with The Clorox Company, managing both mature established businesses and new product development as a Brand Manager. Tom began his professional career with Andersen Consulting (now Accenture), working primarily in information strategy and systems implementation. Tom holds a BA from Loyola Marymount University and an MBA from Stanford GSB, Class of '87.
Melissa Dyrdahl, SVP Corporate Marketing and Communications, Adobe Systems, Inc.
Melissa is responsible for Adobe's corporate brand and integrated marketing efforts worldwide. She drives the company's corporate positioning, branding and identity, public relations, customer engagement marketing and vertical marketing, ensuring that Adobe maintains a strong connection with its customers and constituents. Her marketing leadership and vision have helped Adobe become one of the world's most recognized and trusted software industry brands. She joined Adobe in 1994 as a founding member of the Home and Office Products Division, where she led worldwide marketing for consumer and small and medium business products, and was promoted to her current position in 2000. Prior to joining Adobe, Dyrdahl was director of worldwide sales operations at Claris Corp., the software subsidiary of Apple Computer Inc., and held several marketing management positions at Hewlett-Packard Company. Dyrdahl attended San Jose State University, where she majored in advertising.
Judy Kirkpatrick, VP International Development, eBay
As VP of International Development at eBay, Judy is responsible for innovating emerging new eCommerce experiences for our International markets.  In this role, Judy is responsible for all business, marketing, product management, and product development functions.  Prior to Judy's role in International Development, she was VP of Global Product Management where she was responsible for all product management functions for eBay's 33 worldwide locations. Prior to joining eBay, Judy was VP, Strategic Alliances at Palm, Inc. a leader in mobile computing, and was responsible for developing alliances with leading enterprise software providers including BEA,  IBM, Sun, and Siebel Systems.  Before Palm, Judy was General Manager of MightyWords.com, a Barnes & Noble company, pioneering a digital marketplace for authors and readers.  Before MightyWords, Judy was Director of Internet Marketing at Adobe Systems where she was responsible for the launch of Adobe Acrobat. Judy began her career as a sales executive with NBI, Inc., a manufacturer of word processing and office automation systems.  Judy attended the University of Wisconsin, Madison where she majored in Business with an emphasis on Marketing.
• Denise Peck, VP Marketing Operations, Cisco Systems, Inc.
Denise is responsible for driving marketing excellence through processes, systems, and teamwork at Cisco. During her five years at Cisco, she has held executive positions in marketing, engineering services, and information technology. Prior to joining Cisco, Ms. Peck held several senior marketing management positions over 13 years at Sun Microsystems spanning investor relations, third party developer programs and hardware and software marketing, including the launch of Sun Solaris and Sun Press. She holds a B.A. in Economics from U.C. Berkeley, and an MBA from Stanford University. She was a past TWIN award winner presented by Women in Industry.
Marlene Williamson, VP Americas Marketing, Symantec
Marlene Williamson is Vice President of Americas Marketing at Symantec, the world's leader in information security and availability software. Her team has demand and awareness generation responsibilities for the United States, Canada and Latin America across the enterprise, mid-market, small business and consumer markets. Prior to joining Symantec she was VP of Marketing at Polycom, PlaceWare and IBM. Additionally, she has held consumer and enterprise marketing leadership positions at Apple and Acer. She has been named “Guerrilla Marketer of the Year” by the American Marketing Association and “High Tech Brander of the Year” by Marketing Computers Magazine. She holds a BS in journalism degree from Ohio University where she graduated summa cum laude. Additionally, she holds an MBA in marketing from DePaul University. She is a founding member of Silicon Valley's Women In Technology organization.

Back to Top

February 7, 2006, Getting to the Top in Product Marketing/Product Management
Panelists
Rita Iorfida, VP, Product Marketing, Liquid Engines
    Rita Iorfida oversees product direction and strategy, product management, and product marketing at Liquid Engines as VP Products. She comes to the role with more than 20 years of software industry experience, most recently as VP of Product Management at INEA Corporation, a performance management software provider focusing exclusively on the financial services industry. Before joining INEA, Ms. Iorfida spent nine years at PeopleSoft, where she became VP for PeopleSoft Financial Management Solutions after holding various management roles in customer services, professional services, and sales. Ms. Iorfida also worked for Dun & Bradstreet Software as Client Engagement Manager. Ms. Iorfida earned an Honors BA from the University of Toronto and an MA in information science from the University of Western Ontario.
Rich Mironov, Former VP Marketing, Airmagnet
Rich Mironov has worked with technology companies in Silicon Valley in Product Marketing/ Management roles since 1981, most recently as VP Marketing at Airmagnet, a Wi-Fi security and performance management start-up. Previously, he led products at several start-ups, including Slam Dunk Networks, an early entrant in web services focused on guaranteed message delivery; iPass, the world leader in Internet roaming; and Wayfarer Communications (acquired by Vantive,) a 'push' technology start-up. He also writes a newsletter about product management at start-ups (ProductBytes) and has consulted to many early stage companies on product and business models. Earlier in his career he worked at major technology corporations including Sybase, Tandem Computers and Hewlett-Packard. Rich has a BS Physics from Yale University and an MBA from Stanford, where he was named an Arjay Miller Scholar (top 10 percent of class).
Tiffany Riley, VP Marketing, Nextance
Tiffany Riley brings over ten years of enterprise marketing and product strategy experience to Nextance. A veteran of the software industry, Tiffany has successfully delivered market leadership, competitive advantage, and unparalleled brand awareness in both early stage and enterprise environments. Prior to joining Nextance, Tiffany was Vice President of Marketing at Blue Pumpkin, a leading provider of Workforce Optimization Solutions where she helped the company transition from start up stages to become an award-winning, global, market share leader. She also brings a track record of successful product and customer marketing efforts from companies such as Scopus Technologies, Siebel Systems, and Sybase, Inc. Tiffany holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of California at Berkeley.
David Straus, SVP Worldwide Sales and Marketing, Corticon
David Straus is responsible for Global Sales and Marketing for Corticon Technologies, but started his career writing software for 25 years. David combines a classic business education with an interest in technology. This guided his career into a software organization as a developer, even though he graduated from Indiana University with a B.S. in Business and Operations Research. Taking a customer value perspective on the software he aligned his career into product management and product marketing. David has held and managed all marketing roles from product strategy and product management to product and corporate marketing. With a focus on customer value, David has aligned marketing and owned revenue responsibility, the ultimate measure of product success. Over the past 25 years David has worked for Hewlett-Packard, OpenVision Technologies which was acquired by Vertias Software, TSW International which was acquired by the Indus Group, OnDemand, a company that he founded in the 1997, which was acquired by Chordiant Software, and most recently at Corticon Technologies a Gartner Leader in the Business Rules Management market.

 

info@ullrichassociates.com