Andy Bechtolsheim
Founder and Chief Development Officer, Arista Networks
As Chief Development Officer, Andy Bechtolsheim is responsible for the overall product development and technical direction of Arista Networks.Previously Andy was a Founder and Chief System Architect at Sun Microsystems, where most recently he was responsible for industry standard server architecture. Andy was also a Founder and President of Granite Systems, a Gigabit Ethernet startup acquired by Cisco Systems in 1996. From 1996 until 2003 Andy served as VP/GM of the Gigabit Systems Business Unit at Cisco that developed the very successful Catalyst 4500 family of switches. Andy was also a Founder and President of Kealia, a next generation server company acquired by Sun in 2004. Andy received an M.S. in Computer Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University in 1976 and was a Ph.D. Student at Stanford University from 1977 until 1982.
Ian Blaine
CEO, thePlatform
Ian Blaine is CEO and co-founder of thePlatform and has been at the forefront of online video for more than a decade. Under his leadership, thePlatform has become the leading “white-label” video management and publishing company for many of the largest media and entertainment companies, including 5 of the largest TV service providers in the North America. In June 2006, Ian led thePlatform through the acquisition by Comcast and now also serves as Senior Vice President in Comcast Converged Products. Immediately prior to forming thePlatform, Ian successfully launched and sold an Internet company called Uniplanet to NBCi in 1999. Before that, he was at Aldus/Adobe Systems in product development and product management roles.
Adam Bosworth
Founder and CTO, Keas
Adam Bosworth is a technology leader and innovator who was instrumental in building numerous technology products, including Google Health, Microsoft Access, Microsoft Internet Explorer and BEA WebLogic Integration and Workshop. Adam founded Keas in 2008 to help people improve their lives by helping them to be healthier, and to help employers have a healthier, happier and more productive workforce. Adam received a bachelor’s degree in history from Harvard University.
Bob Bowman
CEO, MLB.com
Bob Bowman joined MLB Advanced Media LP, the interactive media and Internet company of Major League Baseball, as its first President and CEO in 2000. MLBAM was created when the owners of the 30 MLB Clubs voted to centralize Baseball’s Internet operations under one roof. Prior to joining MLBAM, Mr. Bowman was President/COO of ITT Corporation and also had served as Treasurer for the State of Michigan (1983-91). Mr. Bowman also worked with Goldman Sachs, and served in the US Department of the Treasury as Special Assistant to the Assistant Secretary for Domestic Finance. A Milwaukee native, Mr. Bowman graduated from Harvard College and received his M.B.A. from The Wharton School. He serves as President of the Michigan Education Trust.
David Card
Research Director, GigaOM Pro
David Card has been following the intersection of technology, media, and consumer behavior 20+ years at GigaOM Pro, Jupiter Research, IDC and Forrester. At Jupiter, Card headed up digital media and marketing research, and acted as VP, research development. At IDC he was lead Microsoft and consumer Internet analyst. Aside from GigaOM, Forrester and Jupiter Forums, Card has spoken at major industry events such as E3, the Newspaper Association of America’s new media conference, the PBS/NPR new media forum, Texas University’s Online Journalism Symposium, Digital Music Forum East, Digital Hollywood, the Inverge conference, and Software Marketing Perspectives. He is frequently quoted in the traditional and online press and has appeared on ABC World News Tonight, ESPN, and NPR.
Brian Chesky
CEO and Co-Founder, Airbnb
Brian drives the company's vision, strategy and growth. Always pushing the status quo, Brian aims to disrupt the industry with ideas that change the way people live. To grasp the full impact and experience of Airbnb, Brian rid himself of an apartment and lived in the homes of the Airbnb community since for 6 months in 2010. He is committed to assembling a passionate, top tier team to deliver on this promise. Before Airbnb, Brian ran an industrial design shop in Los Angeles; even these days he is rarely seen without a drafting pen and sketch book in hand. Brian holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in industrial design from the Rhode Island School of Design.
Tom Conrad
CTO and EVP of Product, Pandora
Tom Conrad leads Pandora’s product organization, including product management, user interface design, software development and, network operations. Tom has led numerous engineering and product design teams across several applications. Before joining Pandora, Tom was VP of Engineering at Kenamea and was responsible for the design and development of an award-winning messaging system. Tom previously was the Technical Director for the video game, "You Don't Know Jack." Past experience includes positions at Berkeley Systems, Relevance Technologies, Documentum, Pets.com, and Apple Computer. He holds three U.S. patents and a B.S. in Computer Engineering from the University of Michigan. Tom holds both technology and music close to his heart. He likes to say the only instrument he plays well is his stereo.
Jack Dorsey
Co-Founder and CEO, Square
Jack Dorsey is the creator, co-founder, and Executive Chairman of Twitter, Inc. and the co-founder and CEO of Square, Inc.
Tony Fadell
Founder and CEO, Nest Labs
Tony is founder and CEO of Nest Labs. The Nest Learning Thermostat learns human behaviors and preferences, automatically adjusting the temperature so you can stay comfortable while saving energy and money. Previously, Tony led the team that created the first 18 generations of the iPod and the first three generations of the iPhone. Before Apple, Tony built the Mobile Computing group at Philips Electronics. Tony has authored more than 75 patents. He graduated from the University of Michigan with a bachelor's degree in computer engineering.
Katie Fehrenbacher
Senior Writer, GigaOM
Katie Fehrenbacher has been covering cutting-edge technology, startups and entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley for more than 7 years. She is the founding Editor of Earth2Tech, which she launched in July 2007. Prior to starting Earth2Tech she was a Staff Writer for GigaOM where she covered wireless and broadband technology. She has been a reporter at Red Herring, an editor at Engadget and began her career as a reporter in the Silicon Valley bureau of the largest Japanese daily newspaper, the Yomiuri Shimbun.
Venky Harinarayan
SVP Walmart Global eCommerce and Head, @WalmartLabs
Venky Harinarayan (@venky13) co-founded Kosmix with Anand Rajaraman. Upon the acquisition of Kosmix by Walmart, Venky is SVP Walmart Global eCommerce and Head of @WalmartLabs, which innovates at the intersection of mobile, social and retail. Anand and Venky co-founded Cambrian Ventures and are among the handful of preferred angel investors in Facebook (2005). Venky and Anand also co-founded Junglee (1996) and pioneered Internet comparison shopping. After Amazon’s acquisition of Junglee in 1998 for over $250 million, Venky helped create Amazon.com’s marketplace business, and the concept underlying the Amazon.com Mechanical Turk technology. Venky holds both doctoral and masters degrees in computer science from Stanford and UCLA (respectively), and a bachelor’s degree in computer science from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras.
Derrick Harris
Staff Writer, GigaOM
Derrick Harris has been covering the distributed computing space since 2003, when he began reporting on grid computing for a publication called GRIDtoday (later renamed On-Demand Enterprise). Derrick joined GigaOM as a contributing writer in 2009 and was one of the original curators for GigaOM Pro, where he continues to serve as a Senior Curator and analyst. Derrick holds a juris doctor degree, cum laude, from the William S. Boyd School of Law at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
Drew Houston
Founder and CEO, Dropbox
Drew Houston is CEO and co-founder of Dropbox, and has led Dropbox's growth from a simple idea to a service relied upon by millions around the world. Drew leads all of Dropbox's activities, and is actively involved in its business and product decisions. Before founding Dropbox in 2007, Drew attended MIT's Course 6 (Computer Science). He took a quick leave from school to form Accolade, an online SAT prep startup, and also worked as a software engineer for Bit9. Drew has recently been named one of Fortune magazine's '40 under 40'. He was also named "Twentysomething Entrepreneurs" by Businessweek, as well as Inc. Magazine's "30 under 30" for 2011.
Mathew Ingram
Senior Writer, GigaOM
Mathew Ingram is a senior writer with GigaOM. Prior to that he was an award-winning journalist with the Globe and Mail who spent the past 15 years writing about business, technology and new media as a reporter, columnist and blogger. Until January 2010 he was the Globe’s first online Communities Editor, helping the paper and its staff understand and appreciate the benefits of social-media tools such as blogs, comments and Twitter. He also launched the Globe’s ground-breaking Public Policy Wiki, writes for the Nieman Journalism Lab at Harvard University and is one of the founders of Mesh, Canada’s leading Web conference.
Salim Ismail
Executive Director, Singularity University
Salim Ismail is a sought-after speaker, strategist and entrepreneur based in Silicon Valley. He travels extensively addressing topics including breakthrough technologies and their impact on a variety of industries. Salim spent the last three years building Singularity University based at NASA Ames and before that built and ran Brickhouse, Yahoo’s internal incubator. His last company, Angstro, was sold to Google in August 2010. He has a unique perspective and track record on how to innovate, how to turn cutting edge ideas into thriving startups and how to apply leading edge thinking to invigorate entire industries.
Ryan Kim
Staff Writer, GigaOM
Ryan has covered personal technology and wireless for the San Francisco Chronicle before joining GigaOM. He is based in New York and covers a number of topics including mobile development, app economies and East Coast start-ups.
Jim Lanzone
President, CBS Interactive
Jim Lanzone is President of CBS Interactive, a division of CBS Corporation (NYSE: CBS) and a top 10 global Internet property with over 250 million users per month. Jim is responsible for the strategy and operations of CBS Interactive worldwide. Prior to joining CBS Interactive, Lanzone was co-founder and CEO of Clicker.com, the leading Internet television guide. Clicker was acquired by CBS in March 2011. Lanzone is the former CEO of Ask.com (formerly Ask Jeeves), a top 10 global Internet property acquired by IAC/InterActiveCorp in 2005. Before moving to Ask, Lanzone was co-founder and president of eTour.com, a website discovery service that was acquired by Ask in May 2001. Lanzone holds a B.A. from UCLA and J.D./M.B.A. from Emory University.
Ryan Lawler
Staff Writer, GigaOM
Ryan Lawler has spent the last 5 years covering business, technology, and telecom-related subjects for a variety of publications based in New York. He’s the newest staff writer for GigaOm and NewTeeVee, but spent the previous two years following online video and digital media trends at Contentinople. Prior to that, Ryan covered telecom infrastructure for Light Reading.
Ed Leonard
CTO, DreamWorks Animation
As Chief Technology Officer for DreamWorks Animation SKG, Ed Leonard is responsible for the overall technical direction of the Company. During his tenure, he has spearheaded a number of advancements and innovations for DreamWorks Animation. Prior to his ten year history in the entertainment industry, Leonard held several engineering positions in the aerospace industry specializing in visual and simulation systems research. He holds degrees in Computer Science/Math from Cal Poly Pomona.
Matt MacInnis
CEO and Founder, Inkling
Raised in rural Nova Scotia, Matt attended Harvard where he earned a degree in Computer Engineering and Chinese Language. He moved to California and pursued an eight-year career at Apple where he managed the company's international expansion into international education markets. During that time, Matt saw a lot of misuse of technology in the classroom, and in 2009 his frustration drove him to start Inkling. His technical foundation, coupled with his Apple experience, positioned him well to build the company. With a vision for reinventing the textbook, Matt has led Inkling into partnerships with the world's largest publishers, building engaging, interactive learning content from the ground up for iPad. Both Matt and Inkling are based in San Francisco, CA.
Om Malik
Founder, GigaOM
Om Malik has more than 15 years of experience as a journalist covering technology and business news. He was part of the founding team of Forbes.com as a Senior Editor. He then went on to become a senior writer at Red Herring during its glory days before joining Business 2.0 in March 2003, covering telecom, innovation and broadband stories. His contributions have been published in The Wall Street Journal, The Economist and MIT Technology Review. Additionally, Om is the author of “Broadbandits: Inside the $750 Billion Telecom Heist.” He is also the recipient of many industry awards, including Excellence in Journalism from the Society of Professional Journalists in 2001 and the Gold Award from American Society of Business Publication Editors in 2001.
Michael Moritz
General Partner, Sequoia Capital
Michael Moritz is a Managing Member of Sequoia Capital. He joined Sequoia Capital in 1986 and has served on the boards of Flextronics, Google, PayPal and Yahoo!. He is currently a Director of 24/7 Customer, GameFly, Green Dot, Kayak, Klarna, LinkedIn, and Sugar Inc. Prior to joining Sequoia Capital, Moritz co-founded Technologic Partners and was a correspondent for Time, where he was the San Francisco bureau chief. While at Time he wrote two books – “Going For Broke, The Chrysler Story,” and “The Little Kingdom, the Private Story of Apple Computer.” Moritz graduated from Christ Church, Oxford in 1976 with a MA in History and is an Honorary Student of the College.
Frank Moss
Co-Founder, Bluefin Labs and, Professor of the Practice, Director of New Media Medicine, MIT Media Lab
Frank Moss has had a 30-year career as a high tech and biotech entrepreneur. He served as Director of the MIT Media Lab from 2006-2011 and is currently Professor of the Practice there, where he heads the New Media Medicine group. He is also a co-founder of Bluefin Labs. Moss is author of the forthcoming book “The Sorcerers and their Apprentices: How the Digital Magicians of the MIT Media Lab are Creating the Innovative Technologies That Will Transform our Lives” (June 7). Moss served as CEO and chairman of Tivoli Systems Inc, which he took public in 1995 and subsequently merged with IBM in 1996. Moss holds a BSE from Princeton University in Aerospace and Mechanical Sciences and a PhD from MIT in Aeronautics and Astronautics. He is also a member of the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences leadership advisory council; he also serves on the leadership advisory council of the Mayo Clinic Innovation Center.
Matt Mullenweg
Founder, WordPress/Automattic
Matt is the founding developer of WordPress, the open source blogging software that runs millions of sites around the world. In 2005, he started Automattic, the company behind WordPress.com, Akismet, Gravatar, bbPress, IntenseDebate, and BuddyPress. Matt lives in San Francisco and has a crush on Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany’s.
Richard Nash
VP, Content & Community, Small Demons
Richard Nash is VP of Community and Content of Small Demons, founder of Cursor, and Publisher of Red Lemonade. He ran the iconic indie Soft Skull Press for which work he was awarded the Association of American Publishers' Award for Creativity in Independent Publishing in 2005. Books he published landed on bestseller lists from the Boston Globe to the Singapore Straits-Times; on Best of the Year lists from The Guardian to the Toronto Globe & Mail to the Los Angeles Times; his final book was a 2010 Pulitzer Prize finalist. Last year the Utne Reader named him one of Fifty Visionaries Changing Your World and Mashable.com picked him as the #1 Twitter User Changing the Shape of Publishing.
Hosain Rahman
CEO and Founder, Jawbone
Hosain Rahman is the CEO and founder of Jawbone, a developer of popular products and services for the mobile lifestyle, and one of the largest venture capital-backed consumer electronics companies in the world. Jawbone’s premium Bluetooth headsets have disrupted the headset market; its JAMBOX wireless portable speaker is the best-selling speaker in North America; and its highly-anticipated UP by Jawbone, a comprehensive mobile health and wellness system that combines a wristband and app for your smartphone, will launch this fall. Hosain is passionate about bringing innovative, intuitive, and elegantly designed products to market that let consumers get the most out of their mobile experience.
Jody Ranck
Analyst, GigaOM Pro
Jody Ranck has a career in health, development and innovation spanning over 20 years. His current work has emphasized global health, innovation and social media in public health. He is currently on the executive team of the mHealth Alliance at the UN Foundation and consults with a number of organizations such as IntraHealth, Cisco, the UN Economic Commission for Africa, GigaOM, the Qatar Foundation International, the Public Health Institute on ehealth and innovation strategies in global health. He has a doctorate in Health Policy and Administration from UC Berkeley as well as an MA in International Relations and Economics (Johns Hopkins University, SAIS), and a BA in biology from Ithaca College. Some of his honors have included a Fulbright Fellowship (Bangladesh) and serving as a Rotary Fellow in Tunisia (Arabic and Islamic History).
Mark Rolston
Chief Creative Officer, frog
As Chief Creative Officer, Mark Rolston is responsible for driving frog’s global creative vision. Working closely with the creative leadership team, Mark orchestrates teams of strategists, technologists, designers, information architects, and analysts to produce groundbreaking work for Fortune 500 clientele. An early web pioneer, Mark co-founded frog’s digital media group in 1996, working with clients to leverage emerging technologies and setting the tone for user interface design and e-commerce platforms. Today, Mark focuses on the intersection of product, digital, and strategic design, pushing clients to offer truly convergent user experiences. Mark is an internationally recognized expert on digital media, user interface design, e-commerce, and mobile applications.
Paul Sweeting
Analyst, GigaOM Pro and Founder, Concurrent Media Strategies
Paul Sweeting is founder and principal of Concurrent Media Strategies, a research and consulting firm based in Washington, DC and specializing in media, technology and public policy issues. Prior to launching Concurrent Media he was a reporter and columnist for Variety and the editor of ContentAgenda.com, a digital media web site published by Reed Business Information. Sweeting has spent more than two decades covering the media and technology industries as an analyst and journalist, writing for leading industry publications such as Billboard, Publishers Weekly, Cablevision and Video Business. He joined GigaOM Pro as an analyst in 2009 and now serves as category curator for the Connected Consumer channel within GigaOM Pro.
Michael Wolf
VP Research, GigaOM Pro
Michael Wolf has spent more than 10 years as an industry analyst, starting at In-Stat and launching the company’s consumer networking and digital media research services, and more recently was the digital home practice director for ABI. He’s been a columnist for Network World and has written a book on home networking for consumers. At GigaOM Pro, he oversees overall research efforts and serves as curator for the Connected Consumer.’
John Markoff
Reporter, The New York Times
John Markoff, senior writer for The New York Times, writes for the paper's science section. He began writing about technology in 1976 and joined The Times in 1988. He gained some notoriety several years ago when he stated that he thought blogs might be the CB radio of the 21st century. He still believes that.
