Speakers

Kris Appel is the founder and President of Encore Path, Inc., created in 2006 to commercialize new, research-based stroke technologies developed at the University of Maryland, Baltimore. Encore Path launched its first product, the Tailwind arm rehabilitation device for stroke survivors, in summer 2009. From 2003 – 2006, she was the VP of US Operations for e4e, a global technology services company. She managed over 500 employees in three locations, providing high-end contracted technical support services to US-based technology companies. Prior to joining e4e, Ms. Appel spent 17 years at the National Security Agency in various operations and management roles. She served as internal communications director for the Director of NSA, as well as the chief of operations policy.

Kris holds a Master’s Degree in Romance Linguistics from the University of Michigan, and is a 2006 graduate of the ACTiVATE women’s entrepreneurship program at UMBC. She is the 1st place winner of two business plan competitions, and is the founder of the Apple Harvest Giving Circle, which raises funds for educational and health-related charities.

Catherine Ashcraft is a Senior Research Scientist with the National Center for Women & Information Technology at the University of Colorado Boulder. She conducts research, publishes, and presents on issues related to gender, diversity, and information technology. She also consults with NCWIT’s Workforce Alliance, an alliance of more than 30 high-tech companies, identifying and disseminating effective practices for gender reform. Catherine has published widely and presented at numerous national and international conferences on issues related to diversity, technology, and popular culture. Her most recent work includes the recently released report Women in IT: The Facts and Who Invents IT?: An Analysis of Women’s Participation in Information Technology Patenting. Her past research appears in a variety of interdisciplinary journals, including Teachers College Record, American Educational Research Journal, Anthropology & Education, Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, Men & Masculinities, and Youth & Society. Before coming to NCWIT, Catherine served as Assistant Professor of Multicultural Education at Western Washington University, where she researched, taught, and spoke about the ways in which schools and workplaces reproduce inequalities in terms of race, class, and gender.

Irene Au is dedicated to raising the strategic value of design and user research within software companies through better methods and practices, processes, leadership, and quality. She is Director of User Experience at Google, where her team is responsible for design and user research for Google's products worldwide. Prior to Google, she spent eight years at Yahoo! where she was Vice President of User Experience and Design. At Yahoo!, Irene established the interaction design and user research practice, and led product and platform design efforts worldwide. Irene also headed up the Product Practices team which coached teams on Agile development practices and developed product operations programs to help business units deliver on corporate strategy. Prior to Yahoo!, Irene was at Netscape Communications, where she was an interaction designer and led cross-product design efforts on Netscape's browser, mail/news client, and page editor. Irene holds a master's degree in human-computer interaction from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She earned a bachelor's degree in electrical and computer engineering from the University of South Carolina, where she graduated magna cum laude.

Kristine Brandt, Director, is involved in the quantitative and qualitative analysis of prospective partnership fund investments. Prior to joining Sovereign Financial Services (now Invesco Private Capital) in 2000, Kristine was the Director of Operations for AddHealth, Inc. a private health care management firm located in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. She was involved with all phases of the company from start-up through to an eventual sale to a large preferred provider organization. Kristine also served as an equities analyst for Briefing.com, an on-line provider of financial analysis and commentary. While working at Briefing, she was responsible for research, analysis and dissemination of real-time market information. Kristine serves on several partnership advisory boards including .406 Ventures, Catterton, Eureka, Lovell Minnick, Pfingsten, Salix Ventures, Spire Capital, Technology Crossover Ventures and Valor Equity Partners.

Kristine received her M.B.A. with a concentration in Finance from the University of Denver and earned a B.S. in Psychology from St. Lawrence University in 1992. Kristine is a member of the Financial Management Association National Honor Society and PsiChi, the Psychology National Honor Society.

Simone Brummelhuis is the founder and CEO of The NextWomen, the First Women’s Internet Business Magazine and Community. Educated at University of Amsterdam and Columbia University Law school in NY, she worked for 10 years as an international lawyer in Amsterdam and NY before becoming an entrepreneur by setting up her own B2B publishing company. Thereafter, as co-owner and managing director IENS, she developed this start-up into the no. 1 user generated content restaurant guide in The Netherlands. She is owner of Europeanmuseumguide.com. She is in the jury of the yearly Accenture Media Innovation Awards, she presents the internet program SHE (interviews with business women) on Blueshotstv, she is on the UK Advisory Board of Astia.org, and on the Advisory Board of Trapezia, the European Investment Fund. She is a frequent moderator and speaker through TheNextSpeaker on (female) entrepreneurship and women in business networks.

TheNextWomen.com is the first award-winning online Women’s Business Magazine and Networking Forum, with a focus on startups and growing businesses, led, founded or invested in by women. It brings news on business, events, funding and tech from a female angle and interviews and profiles Female Internet Heroes, making them notable and quotable. TheNextWomen has the vision to become the international Female 'Business Week', both online on the i-pad and in print, while connecting women-led companies with each other, investors and experts through its TheNextWomen Business Club.

It is developing an online technology tool to inform, support and connect its international network of high-growth female entrepreneurs, female and male investors and supporting business consultants to accelerate growth of women-led businesses. The NextWomen run Pitching & Funding events – Dragon’s Den for women-led companies – Kitchen Dinners for leading entrepreneurs and other high profile networking events. It has developed an international paid mentoring programme to connect entrepreneurs with serial entrepreneurs and experts.

Before joining Polyvore, Sukhinder was CEO-in-Residence at Accel Partners. From 2005-2009 Sukhinder was President of Asia Pacific and Latin America for Google, where she built the company’s presence from inception to scale across 40 domains and 103 different countries. Sukhinder first joined Google in 2003 as the General Manager for Google Local & Maps. From 1999-2003, Sukhinder was Co-founder and SVP of Business Development at Yodlee, a leading provider of software to the financial services industry, and previously worked for Amazon.com, News Corp and Merrill Lynch. Sukhinder has served on the board of J.Crew, and is currently a board member at A Woman’s Nation and Jobtrain. As someone who loves the “thrill of the hunt”, Sukhinder finally decided to make her passion for fashion and style a full-time job in joining Polyvore.

Shaherose is currently at Opinno a global network of incubator spaces, entrepreneurs and investors. At heart she is a mobile and telephony junkie. She’s led new consumer products at Ribbit (BT). Previously, she was Director of Product Management at JAJAH (sold to Telefonica/O2). Prior to that, she was at TiE overseeing governance and operations of 40+ entrepreneurship centers. She aspires to pour her entrepreneurial spirit into launching mobile solutions for emerging economies. Shaherose holds a B.A. in Business Admin from The University of Western Ontario’s Richard Ivey School of Business.

Andrea Davies Henderson, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor in the History Department at the California State University, Northridge. She recently served as Research Director for Stanford University’s Clayman Institute for Gender Research. She holds a B.A. in Women’s Studies and Comparative Religion from Harvard, and a M.A. in Religious Studies, and a Ph.D. in History from Stanford University.

Professor Dezsö teaches the Global Economic Environment course in the MBA program at University of Maryland’s R. H. Smith School of Business. His research examines the impact of top executives on firm performance, and the moderating effect of executives’ demographic characteristics and experience. In addition, his applied game theory research examines issues related to firm reputation and technology adoption. His research appears in the Journal of Economics and Management Strategy. Professor Dezsö joined the R. H. Smith School of Business in 2007, after a year in economic consulting. He completed his Ph.D. at New York University’s Stern School of Business. He also holds an M.A. in economics from the Central European University in Budapest, Hungary, and a B.A. in business from the “Babes-Bolyai” University in Cluj, Romania.

Michelle Dipp, M.D., Ph.D., is the Vice President of GSK’s Centre of Excellence for External Drug Discovery (CEEDD). In her role, Dr. Dipp manages the day-to-day operations of the CEEDD, which is working to develop a network of external alliances with world-class biotech companies to bring breakthrough medicines into the GSK pipeline. Dr. Dipp is based at Sirtris, a GSK company in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Prior to managing GSK’s CEEDD, Dr. Dipp was the vice president of corporate development at Sirtris, which is focused on discovering and delivering small molecule drugs to treat diseases of aging. Dr. Dipp played a leading role in orchestrating the successful acquisition of Sirtris by GSK in June 2008 for $720 million.

Dr. Dipp also serves as the President of the Healthy Lifespan Institute, a non-profit organization dedicated to extending healthy lifespan by studying, educating and testing the rapid advances in the science and medicine of aging.

Before joining Sirtris as a founding employee, Michelle worked in healthcare private equity at The Wellcome Trust, London. Dr. Dipp did her post-doctoral research in the departments of Pharmacology and Cardiothoracic Surgery, John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford. She has published several papers in peer-reviewed journals in the pulmonary field and is the author of a recently published book titled “Pulmonary Hypertension and Hypopxic Pulmonary Vasoconstriction.” She holds an M.D. and a Ph.D. in pulmonary physiology from the University of Oxford.

Elizabeth L. R. Donley, J.D., M.B.A., M.S. is a founder and Chief Executive Officer of Stemina Biomarker Discovery. Ms. Donley is a patent attorney who served as General Counsel and Director of Business Development for the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF) for more than eight years.

During her tenure at WARF, Ms. Donley also served as Managing Director of both WARF subsidiaries: WiSys Technology Foundation (WiSys) and WiCell Research Institute (WiCell). WiSys provides patenting and licensing services to all of the UW System. WiCell distributes Human Embryonic Stem (HES) cells, trains researchers worldwide and conducts important research involving many aspects of HES cell research.

Prior to joining WARF in 1998, Ms. Donley practiced law with the law firm of Quarles & Brady in the areas of intellectual property law, business transactions, securities and corporate law.

Ms. Donley has a law degree from the University of Wisconsin Law School, an M.B.A. in finance from the UW-Whitewater and an M.S. in bacteriology from the UW-Madison.

Nick Donofrio is a 44-year IBM veteran who led IBM’s technology and innovation strategies from 1997 until his retirement in October 2008. He also was vice chairman of the IBM International Foundation and chairman of the Board of Governors for the IBM Academy of Technology. Mr. Donofrio’s most recent responsibilities included IBM Research, Governmental Programs, Technical Support & Quality, Corporate Community Relations, as well as Environmental Health & Product Safety. Also reporting to Mr. Donofrio were the senior executives responsible for IBM’s enterprise on demand transformation. In addition to that strategic business mission, Mr. Donofrio led the development and retention of IBM’s technical population and enriched that community with a diversity of culture and thought. In 2008 IBM Chairman Sam Palmisano elected Nick IBM Fellow, the company’s highest technical honor.

Mr. Donofrio joined IBM as a college co-op student in 1964 and worked on the memory technology for the legendary IBM System/360 mainframe computing system. After being hired full time at IBM in 1967, he spent the early part of his career in integrated circuit and chip development as a designer of logic and memory chips. He held numerous technical management positions and, later, executive positions in several of IBM’s product divisions. He has led many of IBM’s major development and manufacturing teams—from semiconductor and storage technologies, to microprocessors and personal computers, to IBM’s entire family of servers.

He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1967 and a Master of Science in the same discipline from Syracuse University in 1971. In 1999 he was awarded an honorary doctorate in Engineering from Polytechnic University, in 2002 he received an honorary doctorate in Sciences from the University of Warwick in England, in 2005 he was awarded an honorary doctorate in Technology from Marist College and in 2006 he received an honorary doctorate in Sciences from the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. Pace University awarded him an honorary doctorate in Sciences in 2009.

Mr. Donofrio is focused sharply on advancing education, employment and career opportunities for underrepresented minorities and women. He served for many years on the Board of Directors for the National Action Council for Minorities in Engineering (NACME) and was NACME’s Board chair from 1997 through 2002. He also served for several years on the Board of Directors for INROADS, a non-profit organization focused on the training and development of talented minority youth for professional careers in business and industry. He presently is co-chair of the New York Hall of Science.

In 2005, Mr. Donofrio was appointed by the U.S. Department of Education to serve on the Commission on the Future of Higher Education, a 20-member delegation of business and university leaders charged with developing a new national strategy for post-secondary education that will meet the needs of Americas diverse population and also address the economic and workforce needs of the country’s future.

He is the holder of seven technology patents and is a member of numerous technical and science honor societies. He is a Fellow of the Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers, a Fellow of the U.K-based Royal Academy of Engineering, a member of the US-based National Academy of Engineering, a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a member of the Board of Directors for the Bank of New York/Mellon, a member of the Republic of China’s Advisory Board of Science and Technology, a member of the Board of Trustees at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, a member of the Board of Directors of Liberty Mutual, a member of the Board of Directors of AMD, a member of the Board of Managers of Delphi Corporation and a Senior Fellow of the Kauffman Foundation.

Esther Dyson is the court jester of the Internet, present everywhere but with no institutional position to protect. While continuing a long career analyzing, investing in and nurturing Internet start-ups, she recently added space travel and genetics to her portfolio. She recently finished a six-month stint training as a cosmonaut at Star City in Russia, as a backup to Charles Simonyi, the creator of Microsoft Word. Apart from this brief sabbatical, she is an active board member for a variety of startups, including 23andMe, Airship Ventures, Boxbe, Eventful, Evernote, IBS Group, Meetup, NewspaperDirect, Voxiva, WPP Group (not a start-up!) and Yandex. Her past investments have included Medstory (sold to Microsoft), Flickr and del.icio.us (sold to Yahoo!), Brightmail (sold to Symantec). Her current investments include Ameritocracy, BlogAds, FluidInfo, Fon, LinkedIn, Linqia, Mashery, Organized Wisdom, PatientsLikeMe, ReframeIt, Rezzit, SkyGrid, Space Adventures, Technorati, ThingD and Xcor Aerospace. She also sits on the boards of several nonprofits, including the Eurasia Foundation, the Santa Fe Institute and the Sunlight Foundation. She is a member of the NASA Advisory Council and chairman of its Technology and Innovation Subcommittee, and is one of 10 individuals who have published their genomes online for the Personal Genome Project.

Henry Etzkowitz is Faculty Research Fellow at Stanford University and Visiting Professor at Edinburgh University Business School. Henry is President of the Triple Helix Association and General Advisor to the International Triple Helix Institute, LaSalle University, Madrid. His most recent book is The Triple Helix: University-Industry-Government Innovation In Action London: Routledge, 2008. His next work is Gender Dynamics in Science and Technology: The Vanish Box Phenomenon, (co-authored with Marina Ranga) for Cambridge University Press.

Caterina Fake is an American businesswoman and entrepreneur.

She is the co-founder of Hunch, a site that is building the "taste graph" for the internet, mapping every person to every entity, and their affinity for that entity. It launched in June 2009.

Fake co-founded Flickr, the popular photo-sharing service which ushered in the so-called Web 2.0 integrating features such as social networking, community open APIs, tagging, and algorithms that surfaced the best, or more interesting content. Flickr was acquired by Yahoo! in 2005. At Yahoo! she ran the Technology Development group, known for its Hack Yahoo! program, a stimulus to innovation and creativity, and Brickhouse, a rapid development environment for new products.

Prior to Flickr, she was Art Director at Salon.com and heavily involved in the development of online community, social software and personal publishing. She joined the board of directors of Creative Commons in August 2008 and in May 2009 received an Honorary Doctorate from RISD.

She has won many awards, including BusinessWeek's Best Leaders of 2005, The 2010 Most Influential Women in Technology, and an Honorary Doctorate from RISD in 2009. In 2006, she was named to the Time 100, Time Magazine's list of the world's 100 most influential people, and appeared on the cover of Newsweek the same year. She sits on the board of Etsy, and advises many startups and new businesses.

Brad Feld has been an early stage investor and entrepreneur for over twenty years. Prior to co-founding Foundry Group, he co-founded Mobius Venture Capital and, prior to that, founded Intensity Ventures, a company that helped launch and operate software companies and later became a venture affiliate of the predecessor to Mobius Venture Capital.

Brad currently serves on the board of directors of Gist, Gnip, Oblong, Standing Cloud, and Zynga for Foundry Group. Previously, Brad served as chief technology officer of AmeriData Technologies. AmeriData acquired Feld Technologies, a firm he founded in 1987 that specialized in custom software applications. Brad had grown Feld Technologies into one of Boston’s leading software consulting firms prior to the acquisition. He also directed the diversification into software consulting at AmeriData, a $1.5 billion publicly-traded company which was acquired by GE Capital in 1995.

In addition to his investing efforts, Brad has been active with several non-profit organizations and currently is chairman of the National Center for Women & Information Technology. Brad is a nationally recognized speaker on the topics of venture capital investing and entrepreneurship and writes widely read and well respected blogs at www.feld.com and www.askthevc.com.

Notable companies that Brad has invested in and/or sat on the boards of include Abuzz (acq. NYT), Anyday.com (acq. PALM), Critical Path (CPTH), Cyanea (acq. IBM), Dante Group (acq. WEBM), DataPower (acq. IBM), FeedBurner (acq. by GOOG), Feld Group (acq. by EDS), Harmonix (acq. VIA), NetGenesis (IPO), ServiceMagic (acq. IACI), and ServiceMetrics (acq. EXDS).

Brad holds Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees in Management Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Brad is also an avid art collector and long-distance runner. He has completed fifteen marathons as part of his mission to run a marathon in each of the fifty states.

Dr. Patricia (Patti) Fletcher, Global Field Organization, SAP Patti has held a variety of leadership positions at SAP including sales, product, and strategy management positions over the last 12 years. Prior to joining SAP, Patti was a management consultant in Europe and Asia, helping her clients in various stages of transformation including M&A activities and market development. Patti holds a doctorate of management in organization management from the University of Phoenix, MBA, and a BSBA. Patricia graduated Magna Cum Laude with an MBA from the Richmond School of Business in London, England, and Magna Cum Laude with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Business Administration from the University of Phoenix. Patti has written extensively on the topic of enterprise resource management (ERP), human capital management, women in technology, and value-based governance.

Mary Kathleen Flynn is a senior editor and senior video producer at The Deal, where she anchors an online video show, which won an award for the best regular small b-to-b online video program of 2008 from Media Business. Flynn covers technology deals and dealmakers, especially Web 2.0 entrepreneurs and venture capitalists. Prior to joining The Deal, Flynn was an on-air correspondent for CNN and CNNfn, where she co-hosted “Digital Jam,” a daily TV show dedicated to technology news. Previously, she was an on-air reporter covering the Internet and technology for MSNBC, where she was a member of the cable network’s launch team and made regular appearances on NBC and CNBC programs, including “Today” and “The News with Brian Williams.” Past positions include: senior editor at U.S. News & World Report, associate editor at PC Magazine, new products editor at Datamation magazine and editorial assistant at Random House’s Ballantine Books. Flynn received a bachelors of arts in English from Vassar College. She lives in New York and Vermont and is married to technology reporter John R. Quain, a regular contributor to The New York Times, CBS and Fox Business.

Francine Gordon, Ph.D. is an international consultant and trainer who helps companies become more innovative with a focus on the people side: corporate culture, teamwork, and personal creativity. Having started her career as one of the first two women on the faculty at Stanford Graduate School of Business (GSB), she's had a lifelong commitment to supporting advancement of women in organizations. At GSB, she co-organized one of the first conferences on the subject of facilitating advancement of women into management aimed at male executives with the objective of making companies better places for women - and men- to work. That effort was turned into one of the early books on the topic, BRINGING WOMEN INTO MANAGEMENT. Her volunteer activities include founding and chairing SDForum Tech Women, a group that supports advancement of women in technology and encourages girls to pursue education to prepare them for careers in technology. Combining her interests of women and innovation, Francine has created a field of Womennovation and is currently doing research for a book on gender and innovation.

Her work history includes 5+ years as manager with Boston Consulting Group working with large international corporations in diverse industries, Director of HR at UB Networks (a subsidiary of Tandem Computers), Director of Marketing at Pac Bell, and General Manager of a professional repertory theatre. Francine has an M.A. and Ph.D. in Organizational Behavior from Yale University.

Penny leads FirstRain with a passion for growing companies in new markets. As CEO since 2005, she has transformed FirstRain into the leading provider of intelligent business search - search, analytics and reporting for business professionals solving the web information challenge facing institutional investors, marketing and sales professionals. Prior to FirstRain, Penny was CEO of Simplex Solutions, an electronic design automation company serving the global semiconductor industry. As CEO, she grew Simplex from a few engineers in 1996 to a high-growth, profitable software company. She led the company to very successful IPO in 2001 and through the sale of the company to Cadence Design Systems in 2002. Penny then worked at Cadence as Chief Marketing Officer and General Manager of a major division of the company. From 1988 to 1996, Penny was an early employee and senior executive at Synopsys. She started her career in 1982 as an R&D engineer with Texas Instruments and then Daisy Systems and she holds a BA with Honors in Mathematics from Cambridge University. Penny serves on the boards of JDSU and Rambus.

Jennifer Hill is the Chair of the Astia NYC Advisory Board, a non-profit organization that propels women’s full participation as entrepreneurs and leaders of high-growth businesses, fueling innovation and driving economic growth. Jennifer was formerly Astia’s Vice President – New York who led Astia’s New York City operations. Jennifer is an attorney specializing in venture finance, mergers and acquisitions, emerging companies and technology transactions, previously at Fenwick & West LLP, a national law firm providing comprehensive legal services to the technology and life science industries. In addition, Jennifer practiced with Linklaters LLP - an international legal advisory firm, where she focused on capital markets and project finance.

Jennifer’s passion for innovation, entrepreneurship and economic development began prior to her career in law, when she joined a dynamic Austin-based enterprise software company as the Director of Strategic Alliances and later became the U.S. Manager of Business Development for an international publicly traded UK-based e-commerce company.

She is fluent in Spanish and holds a JD cum laude from the Northwestern University School of Law, an MBA from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management, and an AB in International Relations from Stanford University with Honors. She has a published article in the Northwestern Journal of Technology and Intellectual Property, frequently appears as a guest commentator on MSNBC’s Your Business, and contributes content as a member of the AOL Small Business online “Board of Directors”.

Sabrina started Horn Group in 1991 with the vision to build a communications agency that would break new ground in technology markets, employment practices and client service. Today she continues to guide the firm’s evergreen mission and values, overseeing operations, business strategy and development, and providing counsel to clients.

Sabrina has served as a Board Member on the Council of PR Firms (www.prfirms.org), Software Industry Information Association (www.SIIA.org), and is frequent speaker at technology and marketing industry conferences around the country. Sabrina has authored several research papers including “Public Relations for Emerging Growth Technology Companies,” and “Advertising in the People’s Republic of China.” Sabrina has received accolades for Best U.S. Employer, www.workingwoman.com, and has been consistently recognized by PR Week, Holmes Report and Inside PR as one of the PR industry’s most successful entrepreneurs and innovators. Previously, Sabrina worked at Blanc & Otus and Edelman Public Relations, both in San Francisco. She has a MS in Public Relations from Boston University and a BA in American Studies from Hobart and William Smith Colleges.

Sabrina enjoys cooking, running, and playing with her two daughters.

Ms. Hudson leads two nonprofit organizations: the Angel Capital Association (ACA), the professional alliance of angel groups in North America, with 20 affiliates and 150 member groups representing 6,500 individual accredited investors, and the Angel Capital Education Foundation (ACEF), which provides information, education, and research about angel investing to investors, policy makers, university leaders, entrepreneurial support professionals, and entrepreneurs. ACEF was founded by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation in 2005 and spun out of Kauffman as an independent charitable organization in March, 2007. Ms. Hudson led the angel initiative at the Kauffman Foundation that resulted in ACEF and also oversaw many of the Foundation’s entrepreneurial education and mentoring programs designed to ensure that more entrepreneurs develop sustainable, innovative businesses. Ms Hudson has worked in the entrepreneurial support field for more than twenty years. She holds a B.A. in Economics and Political Science from the University of Kansas and an M.A. in Public Policy from Rutgers University.

Jalak is currently Senior Vice President at the New York City Investment Fund (NYCIF) where she oversees technology and digital media venture investments. Jalak spearheaded the formation of NYCSeed in 2008, a seed fund dedicated to funding early stage tech entrepreneurs in NYC, and sits on its Investment Committee and Venture Advisory Board. She is a current investor in outside.in, Imagespan, Thumbplay, TXVia, Partsearch and Marketing Technology Solutions.

Prior to NYCIF, she was a Principal at New Venture Partners, a $300 million early stage venture fund which commercializes technology out of corporate labs. At NVP, she founded and served as interim CEO of Real Time Content (spun out of British Telecom) and was a Director of Procelerate Technologies, a SaaS workflow management tool for the aerospace industry. She also incubated a range of other technologies, including speech recognition/NPL, wireless infrastructure, 3D displays and recommendation engines. From 1999-2003, Jalak was at Intel Capital in Silicon Valley, where she invested in enterprise software and Internet startups globally, including Viacore (sold to IBM), Demantra (sold to Oracle), Extricity (sold to Peregrine), Yodlee and Zinio.

Freada Kapor Klein, founder of the Level Playing Field Institute (www.lpfi.org), is a nationally recognized authority on issues of bias, harassment, and diversity, with more than 30 years’ experience in the field. She co-founded the first organization in the United States to focus on sexual harassment in 1976.

Dr. Kapor Klein has worked on several groundbreaking studies of bias and harassment, including for the United Nations, the World Bank, a portfolio of venture-backed start-ups, the NYC Bar, the American Medical Women’s Association, and numerous proprietary studies for corporations and professional services firms.

She designed LPFI’s Corporate Leavers study examining the human and financial toll of unwanted turnover. Its focus is women, people of color, and LGBT professionals who quit their jobs due to the cumulative impact of hidden bias and hidden barriers. Freada’s book, Giving Notice: Why the Best and the Brightest Leave the Workplace and How You Can Help Them Stay, was published in 2007.

In addition to her work with the Level Playing Field Institute, Freada is also the President of Klein Associates, Inc. (www.kleinassociates.com), a Trustee of the Mitchell Kapor Foundation (www.mkf.org), and a Venture Partner at Kapor Capital (www.kaporcapital.com), investing in start-ups with a social impact.

Karen Kerr is the US Head of Business Development at Intellectual Ventures. Karen comes to IV with over 15 years of experience as venture investor in early stage technology companies. She founded Agile Equities, a venture development company, where she advised venture firms, university technology transfer offices, and start-up companies. Previously she was a Managing Director at ARCH Venture Partners and an associate at both Patricof & Co Ventures and ARCH Development Corporation. Karen is a director of the National Association of Seed and Venture Funds and a member of both the National Science Foundation SBIR/STTR Advisory Committee and the Florida Technological Research and Development Authority Advisory Board. She is a Trustee of Bryn Mawr College and serves on the Physical Sciences Division Visiting Committee at the University of Chicago. Ms. Kerr previously served as director of the Chicago Public Education Fund and as a senior advisor to Akoya Capital in Chicago. She is a member of the C200 leading business women and in 2000 was selected by Crain’s Chicago business as one of the 40 under 40 leading business professionals in Chicago. Karen holds a Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry from The University of Chicago and an A.B. in Chemistry from Bryn Mawr College. She was a member of the Charter Class of Kaufman Fellows.

Daphne Kis is the CEO of She Writes, an online community and workplace for women who write, with over 8000 active members from all fifty states and more than thirty countries. Right now, emerging writers and established bestsellers are finding services, support and actionable advice on She Writes. In the future, a linked network, She Reads, will empower women writers further by connecting them directly to readers in a marketplace distinguished by its commitment to the production and distribution of high quality content.

Daphne has spent the last few years as a strategic business advisor with expertise taking early stage entrepreneurial ideas through the many phases of raising capital and clarifying and executing on strategy. She continues to advise Startl.org, a platform for identifying talent and advancing products for the future of learning; paidContent, a Guardian UK company; Cerego, a Japanese company with a proprietary adaptive learning platform and DailyGrommet, a site that specializes in citizen commerce. She is committed to women and entrepreneurship and serves on the boards of several women-led companies, as well as Canadian web analytics company, iPerceptions. She is also a managing director of Golden Seeds, a women’s investing network.

Until 2007, Daphne was VP of Business to Business Programs at CNET Networks. In 2004,CNET acquired her company, EDventure Holdings where she had served as president and ceo, and as publisher of Release 1.0 and executive producer of PC Forum, since 1991.

Nick Leiber is Small Business Editor at Bloomberg Businessweek. Under his leadership, the channel won the 2007 Jesse H. Neal Award for Best Online Series. It also won two 2009 American Society of Business Publication Editors Gold Awards for Best Web Microsite and Best How-to Podcast. Previously, Leiber was the managing editor for the Spanish-language Web site Gomaespuma in Madrid and the assistant managing editor of O, The Oprah Magazine in New York. He graduated from Vassar College with a double major in Spanish and Italian.

Susan spent more than two decades as a media executive before joining Gilt Groupe in September 2008. Most recently, she served as president and CEO of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia (MSLO), where she led the company's recovery and return to profitability. During her tenure, MSLO significantly expanded its merchandising business, launched a successful new content website, and diversified its brand portfolio with the acquisition of chef Emeril Lagasse's company.

Before joining MSLO, Susan spent eight years at Disney/ABC, rising to president of ABC Entertainment, where she oversaw the development of shows such as Desperate Housewives, Lost, and Grey's Anatomy. Prior to her role as president, she ran the network’s longform division, fielding a schedule of original movies and miniseries that regularly dominated the ratings and earned numerous awards, including a Peabody, Golden Globe, Humanitas and multiple Emmys. Susan’s early career was spent in the magazine industry. She was managing editor of New Times and the Village Voice and, in 1987, created and launched Premiere magazine. The Wall Street Journal named Susan one of its "50 Women to Watch" in 2006. She is a director of CIT Group and serves as a trustee of the New School and the Posse Foundation.

Lori Nishiura Mackenzie is Associate Director of the Clayman Institute for Gender Research at Stanford University. The Institute advances research and ideas to restructure society so women and men flourish. Lori built the Clayman Institute Gender News service to translate academic research into fuel for top media outlets and thought leaders. Lori has a BA from University of California, Berkeley, an MBA from the Wharton School of Business a the University of Pennsylvania and 15+ years experience in marketing (Procter & Gamble, eBay, PayPal, Apple Computer, and CafePress). Lori’s expertise is utilizing product marketing principles to promote the wide-scale adoption of causes.

Gwen Martin is Executive Director and Director of Research for the Center for Women’s Business Research, a national non-profit focused on providing data-driven knowledge to advance the economic, social and political impact of women business owners. She has twenty plus years’ experience in research related to education, entrepreneurship, small business, and economic development. Prior to joining the Center, Martin was Director of Community Enterprise & Entrepreneurial Development and the Director of Business Research & Information Development Group with the University of Missouri. Before moving to the university, Martin was Manager of Research & Evaluation for the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. Her early career includes owning a small business and learning first-hand the challenges and opportunities of a woman-owned business.

Her research findings have been instrumental in program, product, and service creation and enhancement for small business owners and entrepreneurs and those who support entrepreneurship. Martin’s work has been funded by the numerous governmental agencies, foundations, entrepreneurship programs, and non-profit organizations. Her research includes over 150 studies and she is a frequent presenter at local, regional and national conferences.

Dr. Jana Matthews, founder and CEO of The Jana Matthews Group, is an international expert on entrepreneurial leadership and business growth. Based in Boulder, Colorado, she works with corporate executives all over the world to unlock the growth potential of their companies. One client company grew from 30 – 300 companies in a three year period and now has a market cap of nearly $1B. The founder of four companies, Jana is the co-author of 50 articles and seven books including Leading at the Speed of Growth, Building the Awesome Organization, and Lessons From The Edge. She has a doctorate from Harvard, was a senior member of the founding team of the Kauffman Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership, has been Visiting Professor at Babson, University of Auckland and Peking University, and a global thought leader for SAP and Microsoft. In 2009, Pink Magazine listed her as one of 18 Women Business Gurus.

Heidi S. Messer Co-founder, CEO; World Evolved, LLC Co-founder and former President and COO; LinkShare Corporation Heidi Messer is the co-founder and CEO of World Evolved, LLC, a start-up headquartered in NYC. Prior to World Evolved, Ms. Messer co-founded LinkShare Corporation, host to one of the largest international affiliate marketing networks. Ms. Messer served as President and COO from the mid-nineties through the company’s 2005 sale to Rakuten for $425 million. Prior to LinkShare, Ms. Messer practiced corporate law with Baker and Botts, L.L.P. Ms. Messer received a B.A. degree from Brown University, graduating Phi Beta Kappa and magna cum laude. She obtained her J.D. from Harvard Law School graduating cum laude. Ms. Messer, an acknowledged authority on online marketing, has been cited in the New York Times, Chief Executive Magazine, the Nikkei, Women’s Wear Daily and Internet Retailer. Ms. Messer has also appeared on national television and radio programs including Business Talk Radio, Fox News, CBS Morning News and the Fox Morning Show.

Jo Anne Miller, Partner, Milk Street Ventures: Prior to joining Milk Street Ventures, a secondary direct venture capital firm, Jo Anne was a Principal at Nokia Innovent, a seed-stage investing team within the Nokia strategy organization. In this role, Ms. Miller was responsible for management of the portfolio and the Nokia business relationships. Prior to Nokia, Jo Anne was the President and CEO of Gluon Networks, a start-up providing next-generation converged voice and data switching and management systems for local telephone service providers. Jo Anne has more than 29 years of telecommunications and computer industry experience, including senior executive, engineering management, and research roles at JetCell, an indoor wireless/VoIP company (acquired by Cisco Systems), AirNet Communications, a wireless infrastructure company, Tellabs, and AT&T Bell Laboratories. Ms. Miller has a BS in Mathematics from the University of Michigan, an MS in Computer Science from the University of Colorado and an MBA from the University of Chicago. Jo Anne is also an angel investor with SandHill Angels and leads the Golden Seeds - San Francisco Angel Investor Forum. She serves on the boards of Synergy,Inc., Inteliinet Technologies, Astia and MentorNet.

Amy Millman has established a successful career as an advocate working for and with business and government officials to develop and implement national business development and policy initiatives. In 2001, she co-founded non-profit venture Springboard Enterprises whose mission is to facilitate women entrepreneurs’ access to the equity markets. The organization hosts educational programs and forums to provide women entrepreneurs with access to investors and information about sources and uses of equity capital.

Previously, Amy served as the Executive Director of a federal government commission focused on developing policy and initiatives concerning women’s business ownership. Earlier in her career, she represented the interests of several corporate and industry groups before the legislative and executive branches of the federal government. She is a graduate of Carnegie Mellon University and holds a masters degree from The George Washington University. She and her family reside in the Washington, D.C. area.

Lesa Mitchell is a vice president with the Kauffman Foundation.

She has been responsible for the Foundation’s frontier work in understanding the policy levers that influence the advancement of innovation from universities into the commercial market and the new relationships between philanthropy and for profit companies. Under Mitchell’s leadership, the Foundation is defining and codifying alternative commercialization pathways, and identifying new models to foster innovation. Mitchell was instrumental in the founding of the Kauffman Innovation Network / iBridge Network, the Translational Medicine Alliance, the National Academies-based University-Industry Partnership and leader in the replication of innovator-based mentor programs across the U.S. In addition, Mitchell serves on the boards of the Regenerative Medicine Foundation and the University of Kansas Institute for Commercialization.

Prior to joining Kauffman, Mitchell spent twenty years of her career in global executive roles at Aventis, Quintiles, and Marion Laboratories and ran an electronic clinical trials consulting business in support of global pharmaceutical clients.

The Kauffman Foundation
The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation (www.Kauffman.org) works with partners to encourage entrepreneurship around the world. The Kauffman Foundation is working to further understand the phenomenon of entrepreneurship, to advance entrepreneurship education and training efforts, to promote entrepreneurship-friendly policies, and to better facilitate the commercialization of new technologies by entrepreneurs and others that have great promise for improving the economic welfare of the world.

The Foundation works with leading educators and researchers nationwide to create awareness of the powerful economic impact of entrepreneurship, to develop and disseminate proven programs that enhance entrepreneurial skills and abilities, and to improve the environment in which entrepreneurs start and grow businesses.

Diane Mulcahy is an Adjunct Lecturer in the Entrepreneurship division at Babson College, where she teaches in the MBA program, and is an Executive in Residence at the Babson College Fund, a diversified equity portfolio of the College’s endowment assets.

Diane was most recently a member of McKinsey & Co.’s Corporate Finance practice, where she worked globally with clients and teams on issues such as IPOs, privatizations, investor communications and financing. Before joining McKinsey, Diane was a venture capital investor for seven years. She was Vice President and an officer of American Century Ventures, Inc., a $100 million start-up corporate venture fund for an affiliate of JP Morgan. Her portfolio companies included Archipelago (merged with the NYSE), Euronet (NASDAQ: EEFT), StarMine (acquired by Reuters), Tradepoint (acquired by virt-x) and WR Hambrecht. Before that, Diane was a Vice President at Bessemer Venture Partners, a leading venture capital firm in Boston, in their healthcare practice. She was active in Bessemer’s investments in Advantage Schools (acquired by Mosaica), Datamedic (acquired by InfoCure), and Vista Hospice Care (NASDAQ: VSTA). Diane is the author of two books on venture capital. Her most recent book, Venturing Forward, is geared towards an audience of entrepreneurs and is a practical guide raising equity finance.

Pam Nesbitt is Senior Technical Staff Member at IBM, currently on assignment in Corporate Technology, where she facilitates assessments for the Technology Team, the board of senior executives that advise the CEO on the technical strategy for IBM’s hardware, software and services businesses. Her previous activities include software development and solutions delivery to clients. Ms. Nesbitt has won a number of awards for her work including the 2001 Texas Interactive Media Achievement Award for the creation of a game-based virtual reality offering for SW product training. She has also received recognition for other work, including two Brandon Hall Excellence in Learning Awards, and several significant IBM internal awards. Ms. Nesbitt has presented at international conferences and has published in several journals. She has 105 patents pending with the USPTO.

In 2006, Ms Nesbitt formed the Women Inventors Community which now boasts approximately 1000 members worldwide and has contributed substantially to IBM’s IP Portfolio, most notably in emerging geographies such as China and India. She is an active mentor inside IBM and without.

She holds a B.S. in Neurobiology and Behavior from Cornell University and an MCIS from Cleveland State University.

Katie is the COO at ASTIA, a global non-profit committed to building women leaders and accelerating the funding and growth of high-potential, high-growth, women-led start-ups. Katie joined Astia in mid 2009 to initially lead the showcase Astia Silicon Valley Program. In December 2009 she was promoted to COO with additional responsibilities for global programs, marketing and building Astia client management programs.

With over 20 years experience in marketing & business development for high tech companies (Fortune 500 and venture funded start ups) including HP, PeopleSoft, Convoy/NEON, Commerce One, Portal and Oracle and not-for-profit organizations including NFCO and Lancashire University Katie has been repeatedly recognized as an outstanding contributor. In 2000 she was recognized as one of the top 100 influential people in B2B.

Katie is helping with Astia’s expansion across the globe by combining her passion for global alliances and growth in women.

Catherine (Katie) Orenstein, Founder and Director of The OpEd Project, has contributed to the op-ed pages of the New York Times, Washington Post and Miami Herald. Her commentaries on women, politics, popular culture, mythology and human rights have been nationally syndicated and appear in anthologies. She has lectured at Harvard and appeared on ABC TV World News, Good Morning America, MSNBC, CNN and NPR All Things Considered. A graduate of Harvard (MA) and Columbia (MA) universities, she is the author of Little Red Riding Hood Uncloaked: Sex, Morality & the Evolution of a Fairy Tale, which explores stories told about women over 500 years across multiple continents, and how they shape our lives today. It has been translated into multiple languages and is under consideration for a television series. Newsweek called it “revelatory,” The Wall Street Journal called it “beguiling,” and feminist author Naomi Wolf called it “laid back, readable brilliance.”

Orenstein has lived and worked around the world and particularly in Haiti, where she traveled as a folklore student and journalist in the 1990s, during a time of political upheaval. As a result of that experience, she has reported extensively on Haiti; organized fact-finding delegations for journalists, scholars and lawmakers; and consulted with the United Nations human rights mission. In 1996 she worked with a team of international human rights lawyers to assist victims of military and paramilitary violence in seeking justice. She investigated tortures, rapes, political assassinations and massacres; interviewed hundreds of victims, witnesses and alleged criminals; and coordinated lawyers’ and victims’ efforts to build cases against their persecutors. She has written about some of these cases and their aftermaths in Haiti and in the United States.

Orenstein has received a Peabody-Gardner Fellowship, Tinker Grant and a Cordier Essay Prize (from Columbia University), and was a finalist for the 2004 Prize for Promise, designed “to identify young women, aged 21-35,of great promise and vision who could... become world leaders in their respective fields.” She is a fellow with The Woodhull Institute for Ethical Leadership, and a fellow of the Echoing Green Foundation, which selected The OpEd Project as one of 19 of the most innovative social enterprises worldwide, out of a pool of 1500 applicants.

Cindy Padnos is the founding managing director of Illuminate Ventures (www.illuminate.com), a high-tech focused venture capital firm based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Illuminate invests in innovative companies led by committed and talented teams, particularly those that are inclusive of women entrepreneurs. A core tenant of the firm’s strategy is that team diversity enables higher levels of innovation and overall investment performance, proof points of which are well documented in a recently released whitepaper entitled High Performance Entrepreneurs: Women in High Tech.

Ms. Padnos has a demonstrated a track record of performance both as an investor and as an entrepreneur. Prior to founding Illuminate, she was an investing director of Outlook Ventures’ early stage focused $140 million tech fund. Previously, as an operating executive, Ms. Padnos helped deliver several successful outcomes For example she was founder and CEO of venture-backed software company Vivant through its acquisition by a public company, CEO of Acumen and VP of marketing at Scopus Technology leading up to it successful IPO.

Ms. Padnos received her MBA, with honors, from Carnegie Mellon’s Tepper School of Business and her undergraduate degree, magna cum laude, from the University of Michigan. She serves as an advisor to non profits such as Astia and Women 2.0.

Based in Boston, Bryan leads Ernst & Young’s VCAG strategy, with a network of professionals in venture capital “hotbeds” throughout the Americas and globally. While delivering high quality services to our Priority VC Firms and their Portfolio Companies, VCAG also drives thought leadership programs (Quarterly Venture Capital Insights Reports and Discussions, VC Portfolio Company Compensation Surveys, Global Venture Capital Report, and other discussion materials on evolving topics) and integrates VCs and Portfolio Companies into important recognition and educational events including the Entrepreneur of the Year Awards and Strategic Growth Forum.

Penny K. Pickett is Associate Administrator for Entrepreneurial Development having completed the transition in agency leadership as Senior Advisor to the Administrator at the SBA. She served as an advisor on the President’s Transition Team in 2008. Previously, she served as president and member of the Board of Directors of the Washington D.C. Technology Council, a member-driven organization assisting with strengthening the business environment for the technology community in the Washington D.C. region. Prior to that, Pickett served as business director at the Telecommunications Development Fund. In that role, she created resources to provide technical and management support to help companies achieve their capital financing objectives. As part of that effort, she launched online courses in equity financing and corporate governance, she developed extensive referral networks of entrepreneurial resources, and she expanded investor outreach and technical assistance to entrepreneurs nationwide.

Maria Pinelli is the Americas Strategic Growth Markets Leader for Ernst & Young. In this role, she is responsible for a practice that guides the best high-growth companies to market leadership worldwide, propelling Ernst & Young into the undisputed leader advising Russell 2000® companies, IPO-bound companies, and Forbes’ largest private enterprises.

With more than 20 years of experience, Maria has in-depth knowledge of the needs and issues of companies experiencing rapid growth. She has an extensive background providing audit and advisory services to both private and public companies. Throughout her career, she has supported clients with acquisitions, due diligence, financing and IPOs. Maria has also acquired significant knowledge of the global capital markets, having lead over 20 IPOs in Canada, London, China and the US.

In her current leadership role, Maria has briefed staff members of the House Financial Services Committee, the Senate Banking Committee and the PCAOB on the trends that are driving global activity in the IPO market. She has also testified before a subcommittee of the House Financial Services Committee about the key findings of Ernst & Young’s annual IPO report, Accelerating Growth: Global IPO Trends.

Additionally, Maria frequently speaks with the media on the unique world of high-growth companies and on the impact and challenges of women entrepreneurs. She has been quoted by publications such as The Wall Street Journal, BusinessWeek, Forbes, Financial Times, Reuters, Dow Jones Newswires, Bloomberg News and many more.

Maria was recently named a Fellow Chartered Accountant (FCA), an honor bestowed by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of British Columbia. A graduate of McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada with a Bachelor of Commerce, Maria became a Chartered Accountant in 1989. She completed both the Harvard Business School and Kellogg School of Business programs through Ernst & Young.

Professor Ranga holds a European PhD and an MSc in Science and Technology Policy studies, both from the Science Policy Research Unit (SPRU), Sussex University, UK. She is also the Founder and CEO of the Triple Helix Research Group plc Belgium, a Visiting Fellow in the School of Business, Management and Economics, University of Sussex, UK and a Visiting Research Fellow at the Federal Fluminense University, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Prior to coming to Stanford, she held Assistant Professor positions in Innovation Management at Newcastle University Business School, UK, and Groningen University, the Netherlands, and research positions at SPRU, Sussex University, UK and the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium.

Professor Ranga is a member of the Gender Advisory Board of the UN Commission for Science and Technology for Development since the Board’s inception in 1995, and a member of the UN Economic Commission for Europe’s Expert Group on Innovation and Competitiveness Policies since 2007. She is also a consultant for the European Commission in several projects, such as the PRO INNO TrendChart, ERAWATCH Research Inventory, METRIS (Analysis of Social Sciences and Humanities in the EU27 countries), and the European Observatory of Research Universities.

Her research interests include national and regional innovation systems, Triple Helix interactions and the evolution of the entrepreneurial university, as well as the gender dimension in innovation, technology transfer and entrepreneurship. She led and/or contributed to various research projects for the European Commission, United Nations, national and regional governments, examining knowledge flows in the European Research Area based on university patenting in the 27 EU countries, research policies in the top 10 non-European R&D spenders, the use and effect of New Instruments in the European Commission’s 6th Framework Programme, the economic impact of large-scale research facilities, the effects of size on research performance, creation of high-tech valleys in Lithuania, linkages between small firms and knowledge institutions in Northern Netherlands, entrepreneurship policies and practice for Northeast England. Recently, she was involved in an EU-funded study on the participation of women in technology transfer and entrepreneurship in four European countries (UK, Germany, Finland and Romania) and chaired the Special Track on Gender, Science, Technology and Innovation and a Gender Expert Panel in the Triple Helix VII International Conference (Glasgow, June 2009).

Professor Ranga authored several articles in prestigious academic journals such as Research Policy, Scientometrics, Technology Analysis and Strategic Management, Science and Public Policy, etc., book chapters and research reports on the European entrepreneurial university and Triple Helix interactions, as well as the gender dimension in innovation, technology transfer and entrepreneurship (e.g. the book chapter ’The Coming Gender Revolution in Science’, in the New Handbook of Science and Technology Studies, Cambridge: MIT Press, co-authored with Etzkowitz et al). She is the Guest Editor (together with Prof. Henry Etzkowitz) of a Special Issue on Gender and Technology that will be published soon in the Journal of Technology Management and Innovation.

During her fellowship at Stanford, Professor Ranga will be writing a book together with Prof. Henry Etzkowitz, “The ‘Vanish Box’ of Women in Science: From Academia to Technology Transfer”, which analyses a significant phenomenon emerging at the intersection of science and economy in the Knowledge Society: many highly skilled female scientists take up careers in technology transfer and other science-related professions that provide not only new career paths, but also more favourable work conditions than academia.

Janice Roberts is a global communications executive and entrepreneur. She invests in networking components and systems, mobile communications and consumer-oriented companies.

Prior to joining Mayfield, Janice built a successful early-stage investment portfolio as president of 3Com Ventures. She also led 3Com’s global marketing and business development operation and ran a number of the company’s new business initiatives, including the highly successful Palm Computing subsidiary. Previously, Janice was managing director and president of BICC Data Networks LTD., which was acquired by 3Com in 1992.

Janice holds an honors degree in commerce (economics and finance) from the University of Birmingham in the United Kingdom. She serves on the advisory board of the INSEAD Business School U.S. Council and supports the Entrepreneurs Foundation and the Forum for Women Entrepreneurs.

Fun Facts
Born and raised in a small village in rural England near Stonehenge, and have family there and in New Zealand.

Love the outdoors - hiking, horseback riding, biking, skiing (especially Whistler and Park City).

Reading - the first thing I do everyday is read the Financial Times online!

As Senior Vice Provost for Science and Engineering, Dr. Dianne Rekow leads the transition of the Polytechnic Institute of NYU (previously, Polytechnic University) into a School of NYU. Her portfolio also includes enabling and developing research collaborations among faculty at NYU schools (including School of Medicine, College of Dentistry, College of Nursing, FAS, CIMS, Poly and others), particularly research collaborations that lead to grant proposals for Centers in science and engineering. In addition, she has responsibility for the planning and development of an engineering program at NYU-Abu Dhabi, and is also engaged in the plans to develop NYU as a Global Network University.

Dr. Rekow is a professor of orthodontics and of basic science and craniofacial biology at NYU College of Dentistry. She has been practicing orthodontics since 1985, and is an internationally known authority on the development of new materials and products for use in esthetic and restorative dentistry. Dr. Rekow holds a Doctor of Dental Surgery (D.D.S.) degree, an M.S. degree in mechanical engineering, a Ph.D. in biomedical engineering, and a certificate in orthodontics, all from the University of Minnesota, as well as an M.B.A. from the College of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Dr. Rekow publishes and lectures extensively on orthodontics and on dental materials and techniques, and is working on establishing guidelines for the use of new, advanced ceramic materials for use in crowns. Dr. Rekow also is researching the use of bio-engineered tissue to facilitate the growth of replacement bone in people who have been disfigured by disease.

Andrea is a managing partner at Tier One Partners, an award-winning, boutique public relations agency that offers clients a unique ‘all senior, all the time’ model. A full-service public relations and marketing communications firm, Tier One is comprised of partners with deep experience in the technology, consumer technology, financial services, professional services and consumer retail markets.

Before joining Tier One, Andrea served as director of marketing and public relations for AuctionDrop, a well-funded Silicon Valley start-up. Her clients have included Astia, Dialpad (acquired by Yahoo), GrandCentral (acquired by Google), Insider Pages (acquired by CitySearch), Norstrom.com, Netscape and The Motley Fool. Andrea currently focuses on Internet, mobile, consumer and green technologies. She holds a master’s degree in public and international affairs from the University of Pittsburgh, and a bachelor’s degree from Tufts University.

I have been a senior executive and serial entrepreneur in healthacare IT for over 25 years. My experience spans general management, strategy, sales, product management, and business development. I have a particular love for and talent in operations and efficient execution. With my co-founder we bootstrapped an application software company from a month-to-month one room office to a successful IPO during the (first?) heyday of healthcare IT in the mid-90s. Since then I’ve led a for-profit startup within a not-for-profit professional association, started and sold a company in healthcare financial processing, and now work within a public company launching an online medical education subsidiary.

Linda Rottenberg is CEO and Co-founder of Endeavor, a global non-profit that is transforming emerging markets by establishing High-Impact Entrepreneurship as the leading force for sustainable economic development. Headquartered in New York, Endeavor has Country Affiliates throughout Latin America, Africa and the Middle East with expansion planned for Asia. In the past decade, Endeavor has screened more than 20,000 entrepreneurs and certified 500 with High-Impact potential. The Endeavor Entrepreneurs have created over 100,000 jobs and annually generate more than $3 billion.

Prior to co-founding Endeavor, Linda held various roles at Ashoka, the leading financier of social entrepreneurs. Previously, she helped design and build the first interdisciplinary law school in Argentina and managed Yale Law School programs in Latin America.

Named by US News & World Report as one of “America’s Best Leaders,” Linda is the subject of 3 Harvard Business School and Stanford Graduate School of Business case studies. Dell, Inc featured her as one of five “Heroes” for its global ad campaign honoring entrepreneurs, and Thomas Friedman’s bestseller The World is Flat 2.0 contains a chapter featuring Linda, in which Friedman dubs Linda a “Mentor Capitalist” and hails Endeavor as “the best anti-poverty program of all.” She has been profiled in Time, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Forbes, Fortune, Fast Company, Inc., and the Economist.

Recognition and awards include:
“Innovator for the 21st Century” —Time Magazine
“America’s Best Leaders” 2008, US News & World Report
First female chair of the World Economic Forum on the Middle East (2007)
“Global Leader for Tomorrow,” “Young Global Leader” & “Leading Social Entrepreneur” —World Economic Forum
Dell “Hero” featured in a global ad campaign, “Take Your Own Path”
Asper Award for Global Entrepreneurship (2009)
Veuve Cliquot Business Woman of the Year (2008); 10 Women to Watch of 2008 - Running Start); Person of the Year —Office of Women in International Trade (2007)
100 Bold Innovators of 2003 —MIT Technology Review
25 Next-Generation Leaders to Watch —Latin Finance and America Economia
The Most Important Not-For-Profit Leader in Latin America —Poder-BCG Business

Linda is a member of YPO, the World Economic Forum Global Agenda Council on Entrepreneurship, and The Council on Foreign Relations. She received her J.D. from Yale Law School and B.A. magna cum laude in Social Studies from Harvard University. She lives in New York with her husband Bruce Feiler, best-selling author of “The Council of Dads, Walking the Bible, America’s Prophet”and other best-selling non-fiction books, and their identical twin daughters, Eden and Tybee.

Megan Scheffel is a senior relationship manager for Silicon Valley Bank, a member company of SVB Financial Group. In this role, she manages the office and leads the team that is dedicated to serving emerging, growth and established technology and life science companies based in the Washington D.C. Metro area. Scheffel also works closely with a number of private equity and venture capital clients and plays a role in the bank’s business development efforts. Scheffel is active in supporting entrepreneurial organizations and events throughout the Washington D.C. area. Scheffel earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration, specializing in finance, from the University of Colorado in Boulder. Outside of work, Megan has 2 small children with interests in sports and most outdoor activities.

Prof. Schraudner’s research is currently focused on “Gender and Diversity in Organisations” at the Institute of Machine Tools and Factory Management of the Technische Universität Berlin, Germany. One of her key interests is including the gender perspective in research and the innovation process. Her focus is to develop strategies to guarantee effective and result-oriented cooperation among researchers, decision makers, funding institutions and other financial contributors in these fields. Martina Schraudner has been named a member of the innovation committee of the German government, and has undertaken first steps in establishing gender mainstreaming strategies for research institutions in Germany.

Dr. Schraudner, a biologist, became Professor at the Technische Universität Berlin after having worked for six years in the headquarter of the Fraunhofer Gesellschaft. There she is still responsible for developing concepts for Fraunhofer institutes especially in “life sciences” including strategic planning.

Anu Shukla Founder & CEO, KM Inc. Anu Shukla is a serial entrepreneur currently working on her fourth startup. Prior to this, she was the Founder & CEO of Offerpal Media , where she currently serves on the Board of Directors. She was the founder and CEO of Mybuys Inc. Mybuys is a venture-backed company in the eCommerce personalization market. Prior to Mybuys, Anu pioneered the category of Internet Marketing Automation as founder and CEO of Rubric, Inc. Rubric was acquired in 2000 for $366 million. Prior to Rubric, Anu has held a variety of executive roles including the VP of Marketing and Product Strategy at Versata (VATA), and Vice President of Worldwide Marketing and Product Management at Compuware/Uniface Corporation (CPWR). Anu has served on the Board of Directors of the International Museum of Women (imow.org) and the Advisory Board for the Leavey School of Business, Santa Clara University. She was named to the Computer Industry “Dream Team” by Business 2.0 magazine in 2004, awarded the YSU Distinguished Alumni award in 2005, and the Entrepreneur of the Year by the Washington D.C. based Dialogue on Diversity organization in 2005. In 2007 Anu was awarded an Honorary Doctorate degree from Youngstown State University in recognition of her business achievements.

Jeanne M. Sullivan has been investing in and growing tech companies since 1990! She has 18 years of private equity experience and has spent 28 years in the technology sector encompassing both extensive operating and investing experience with technology companies. Jeanne is a co-founder and General Partner of StarVest Partners, L.P. a New York City based venture capital firm with over $400 million under management. The firm invests in technology-enabled business services companies. As a General Partner of StarVest Partners and previously with Olivetti Ventures, Ms. Sullivan has served on the boards of many technology company boards. Ms. Sullivan has extensive experience creating “go to market” plans for expansion stage companies. Her expertise also includes strategy, a keen understanding of the technology landscape and industry trends. Prior to her venture experience, Jeanne gained her operating experience with AT&T and Bell Labs while serving in product management and industry marketing roles.

Ms. Sullivan is a sought-after industry speaker on the subject of investing in and building technology companies and has served as an adjunct professor of marketing at the graduate level. Her credentials also include: lousy but passionate golfer, Yankee baseball and sports addict, and oldest of eight kids where she learned the most about managing people and getting results.

Cris Valerio is the Host of BLOOMBERG TELEVISION®'s small business and entrepreneurship show, "Venture." Cris joined Bloomberg after working in local television. At Bloomberg she has covered commodities for our Spanish-language channel, she was our affiliate reporter and was the NYSE reporter until her recent transfer to San Francisco where she covers tech, Silicon Valley, and VC firms.

Alexa von Tobel is the Founder and CEO of LearnVest, the leading independent personal finance website for women. Alexa came up with the idea for LearnVest in 2006, during her senior year at Harvard when she realized she, and most of her peers, had never had any formal education about how to effectively manage their finances. Alexa searched for reliable financial guidance and consistently came up overwhelmed or disappointed. Thus, the LearnVest mission was born—to make trusted personal financial information accessible to millions of women.

Since its debut as a TechCrunch50 Company in September 2009, LearnVest has helped over 100,000 women gain control of their finances. The company recently closed a $4.5 million series A round of funding led by Accel Partners (an investor in Facebook, Kayak.com, Glam Media, Etsy and more). Alexa has successfully enlisted the support of an impressive line-up of industry experts for LearnVest’s Board of Advisors including: Lee Barba (Former CEO, Investools/thinkorswim), Ann Kaplan (Former Partner, Goldman Sachs), Catherine Levene (Former CEO, DailyCandy), and Betsy Morgan (Former CEO, The Huffington Post).

Sharon Vosmek is CEO of Astia, a global not-for-profit organization with a distinct focus and mission—to propel women’s full participation as entrepreneurs and leaders in high-growth businesses, fueling innovation and driving economic growth. Headquartered in San Francisco, Astia serves entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley, New York, London and Mumbai, as they access capital, grow their businesses and develop the leadership of the women on the founding team. Astia provides innovative programs and access to a rich network that delivers measurable impact to the start-ups it serves. www.astia.org

Vivek Wadhwa is a tech entrepreneur turned academic. He is presently a Visiting Scholar at UC-Berkeley, Senior Research Associate at Harvard Law School and Director of Research at the Pratt School of Duke University. Wadhwa also writes for publications such as BusinessWeek and TechCrunch. His research has focused on U.S. competitiveness, globalization, entrepreneurship and immigration.

Dr. Telle Whitney has served as President and CEO of ABI since 2003. Whitney has 20 years experience in the semiconductor and telecommunications industries. She has held senior technical management positions with Malleable Technologies (now PMC-Sierra) and Actel Corporation, and is a co-founder of the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing Conference. Dr. Whitney served as the ACM Secretary/Treasurer in 2003-2004, and is currently co-chair of the ACM Distinguished member committee. She was a member of the National Science Foundation Committee for Equal Opportunity in Science and Engineering (CEOSE) and is a co-founder of the National Center for Women and Information Technology. She serves on the advisory boards of Caltech’s Information Science and Technology (IST), CalIT2, and Illuminate Ventures. Telle has received numerous awards including the ACM Distinguished Service award and the Marie Pistilli EDA award. Dr. Whitney received her Ph.D. from Caltech, and her bachelor’s degree at the University of Utah both in computer science. Telle is a runner, and lives in the Santa Cruz mountains. She makes jewelry in her not so spare time.