Speakers

Aileen Lee (Founder, Cowboy Ventures)
Aileen Lee is the founder of Cowboy Ventures, a digitally-focused seed stage fund. Aileen has also been a partner with the venture firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB) since 1999.She has been lead or supporting partner in backing a broad variety of companies including Bloom Energy, Blue Nile, Callaway Digital Arts, Good Technology, One Kings Lane, Plum District, Rent the Runway, Shopkick, Tellme and Trendyol. She was also founding CEO of RMG Networks, the leading digital out-of-home media company, backed by KPCB. Prior to joining KPCB, Aileen held roles at Gap, The North Face, Odwalla and Morgan Stanley. She has degrees from MIT and Harvard Business School. Follow her on Twitter at @AileenLee.

Alexandra Johnson (Managing Director, DFJ VTB Aurora)
Alexandra Johnson is a Managing director of DFJ VTB Aurora, a venture group specializing in investments in Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States. It represents a strategic partnership between two of the world’s most respected financial institutions: Silicon Valley’s Draper Fisher Jurvetson and Russia’s VTB Capital. Alexandra invests in a broad range of companies targeting enterprise software, material science, cleantech, and industry innovation. She has grown a variety of product and technology-enabled business services startups and emerging technology companies in the U.S and Russia. Previously, Alexandra was a founder and managing director of Landbridge Capital, an investment firm targeting U.S.-based companies commercializing Russian technology. Prior to forming Landbridge Capital, she was CEO of venture-backed Libritas (acquired in 2001). Alexandra received an M.A. with honors from the Far Eastern State University, Vladivostok and a Ph.D. from University of St. Petersburg. She also has an MBA from UC Berkeley.

Ann Miura-Ko (Partner, FLOODGATE)
Ann Miura-Ko is a partner at FLOODGATE, where her investment interests include capitally efficient software and technology enabled services. In addition to serving at FLOODGATE, Ann is currently a Ph.D. candidate in the Management Science and Engineering Department at Stanford University, where her research focuses on mathematical modeling of computer security. As a part of the program, she teaches several courses in Stanford’s renowned Technology Ventures Program, including Technology Venture Formation, High-tech Entrepreneurship, and the Mayfield Fellows Program. Prior to joining FLOODGATE, Ann served as an analyst at Charles River Ventures. During her tenure at Charles River Ventures, Ann sourced the enterprise content integration company Venetica, which went on to be acquired by IBM. Follow her on Twitter at @annimaniac.

Christine Herron (Director, Intel Capital)
Christine Herron is a Director with Intel Capital. She is also a Venture Advisor at 500 Startups and an advisor to StartX. Previously, Christine was a Principal with First Round Capital, an early-stage venture capital firm, where she worked with companies such as BillFloat, Double Verify, Get Satisfaction, Mint, and Xobni. As a Director at Omidyar Network, she developed the Media practice strategy and led deals such as Common Sense Media and Socialtext. Prior to Omidyar Network, Christine held operational roles with Mission Research, NetObjects, and Microsoft, and was the founder and CEO of Mercury2, a SaaS developer of international e-commerce applications. She started as an investor with Geocapital Partners, where she funded early Internet and network infrastructure businesses including Netcom and AXON Networks. Christine earned degrees from both Stanford University and Columbia University. Follow her on Twitter at @christine.

Duane Forrester (Sr. Product Manager, Bing)
Duane Forrester is a Senior Product Manager with Bing’s Webmaster Program. Previously, he was an in-house SEM running the SEO program for MSN. He’s also the founding co-chair of SEMPO’s In-House SEM Committee, was formerly on the Board of Directors for SEMPO and is the author of two books: How To Make Money With Your Blog & Turn Clicks Into Customers. Duane was a moderator at Search Engine Forums, maintains his own blog at TheOnlineMarketingGuy.com, and used to write monthly for Search Engine Land. Follow him on Twitter at @DuaneForrester.

Fran Maier (Founding Team, Match.com; Founder & Chair of the Board, TRUSTe)
Fran Maier is Founder and Chair of the Board of TRUSTe. Since 1994, Fran has focused on building online brands and enhancing consumer trust online. She drove the expansion of TRUSTe’s business, product portfolio and brand. In 2008, under her leadership, the company secured significant investment capital to transform TRUSTe from a non-profit industry association to a for-profit growth enterprise. As a co-founder and general manager of Match.com, Fran established credibility, safety, and trust in online dating, making Match.com the leading online dating service. In executive marketing roles at Women.com and Kmart’s BlueLight.com subsidiary, Fran both established online start-up brands and brought blue-chip offline brands onto the Internet. Earlier in her career, she held brand management roles at the Clorox Company and California’s Automobile Association. Follow her on Twitter at @franmaier.

Freada Kapor Klein (Partner, Kapor Capital; Founder, Level Playing Field Institute)
Freada Kapor Klein, Ph.D. is a Venture Partner at Kapor Capital. She invests in women entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs of color whose IT start-ups aspire to generate economic value and positive social impact. Kapor Capital’s investment sectors include, but are not limited to, education, health, and consumer finance. Freada is the founder of the Level Playing Field Institute, which promotes innovative approaches to fairness in higher education and workplaces. The Institute’s Summer Math and Science Honors Academy (SMASH), a three-summer high school program serving under-represented students of color, is in the process of scaling nationally. The Academy works to ensure racial equity within the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. The Institute’s workplace programs have conducted landmark research, including the 2011 study The Tilted Playing Field: Hidden Bias in IT Workplaces. Freada’s book Giving Notice: Why the Best and the Brightest Leave the Workplace and How You Can Help Them Stay (Jossey-Bass 2007) combines quantitative research on who leaves corporate America and why, with stories of day-to-day experiences detailing the human and financial cost. Freada is also a Trustee of the Mitchell Kapor Foundation and the UC Berkeley Foundation. Follow her on Twitter at @therealfreada.

Hetal Pandya (Co-Founder, Easilydo)
Hetal Pandya is a mobile entrepreneur with more than 15 years of experience in the industry. She is also a mom with far less experience. She co-founded Easilydo as she has always had a passion for mobile products that enabled people to simplify their lives. She enjoys marketing and developing mobile products that people use every day. Most recently, she served as the Director of Product Management and Marketing at Nuance Communications where she built a $30M+ revenue mobile care product portfolio from concept. She has also built products from scratch at Microsoft (Tellme Networks) and Nortel Networks. She holds a MS in Electrical Engineering from the University of Texas, Dallas and a MBA from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business. Follow her on Twitter at @spicycarot.

Jessica Scorpio (Co-Founder & Director of Marketing, Getaround)
Jessica Scorpio is a Founder and Director of Marketing at Getaround, leveraging the 1B+ cars on the planet to create a cleaner, smarter and more efficient transportation system through a marketplace for peer-to-peer car sharing. Prior to launching Getaround, she completed the inaugural Graduate Studies Program at Singularity University (SU ‘09), a new school launched by Ray Kurzweil, Peter Diamandis, NASA, and Google that focuses on inspiring a cadre of leaders to understand and facilitate the development of exponentially advancing technologies in order to address humanity’s grand challenges. Jessica also worked in the Government of Canada for a number of years, as a political aide to the Minister of International Cooperation, Secretary of State (Foreign Affairs and International Trade), and as a writer in a branch of the Prime Minister’s Office. Jessica is also the former Founder and CEO of IDEAL, a not-for-profit network for entrepreneurs and young leaders. Follow her on Twitter at @jessicascorpio.

John Paul Farmer (Senior Advisor, White House Office of Science & Technology Policy)
John Paul Farmer serves as Senior Advisor to the US Chief Technology Officer Todd Park in the White House Office of Science & Technology Policy. In this role, John spearheads a set of Administration-wide innovation initiatives, including the Presidential Innovation Fellows program. Previously, he served as Senior Advisor for Healthcare Reform at the US Office of Personnel Management, focusing on economic issues, health information technology, and healthcare delivery system reform. Prior to Washington, John worked in New York in the investment management industry for Credit Suisse and Lehman Brothers, where he founded and co-led a new business unit. He also played professional baseball as a shortstop in the Los Angeles Dodgers and Atlanta Braves minor league systems, where he compiled a .344 career batting average. Originally from Pittsburgh, PA, John earned his MBA with honors from Columbia Business School and his AB with honors from Harvard University. Follow him and his colleagues on Twitter at @WhiteHouseOSTP.

Julie Zhuo (Director of Product Design, Facebook)
Julie Zhuo is the Director of Product Design at Facebook focusing on News Feed, notifications, and new mobile initiatives. She has been at Facebook since 2006 where she’s seen the site grow from 8 million users to over 1 billion. She is an inventor of Facebook Platform and Facebook Connect, and was the primary designer on the external Like button, commenting widget, and other Facebook social plugins across the web. Julie graduated from Stanford with a B.S. and M.S. in Computer Science, where she was a Mayfield Fellow and coordinated the well-known CS198 program of student Computer Science instructors. In her spare time she enjoys writing and photography. Follow her on Twitter at @joulee or subscribe to her at www.facebook.com/julie.

Kara Swisher (Founder & Co-Executive Editor, AllThingsD)
Kara Swisher started covering digital issues for The Wall Street Journal’s San Francisco bureau in 1997. Her column BoomTown originally appeared on the front page of the Marketplace section and also online at WSJ.com. Previously, she worked as a reporter at the Washington Post. Currently, Kara co-produces and co-hosts “D: All Things Digital”. She is the author of “aol.com: How Steve Case Beat Bill Gates, Nailed the Netheads and Made Millions in the War for the Web,” published by Times Business Books in July 1998. The sequel, “There Must Be a Pony in Here Somewhere: The AOL Time Warner Debacle and the Quest for a Digital Future,” was published in the fall of 2003 by Crown Business Books. Follow her on Twitter at @karaswisher.

Linda Franco (Co-Founder & CMO, MACHINA)
Linda Franco is Co-Founder of MACHINA, a fashion brand that integrates technology into its designs creating wearable technology. Linda founded her first company at the age of 20, when she co-founded The Gyzu Experiment, a new media and web design company. Later initiated with Plan de Escape, a project where people jailed for crime in a prison for violent delinquency received workshops about fashion, marketing and trends. The project culminated in a fashion brand where inmates could use the bran as a path towards rehabilitation after leaving prison. Her current startup MACHINA received seed capital from Telefónica Móvil. MACHINA entered the Wayra academy last November as Wayra’s first generation in Mexico City. In 2012, MACHINA participated in Campus Party Brazil, TechCrunch Disrupt San Francisco, IXEL MODA Cartagena Colombia, Tedx, an International Free Software congress and more. Follow her on Twitter at @LindaLFranco.

Lynda Weinman (Co-Founder & Executive Chair, lynda.com)
Lynda Weinman is the co-founder and executive chair of lynda.com. A self-taught computer expert, author, educator, and entrepreneur, Lynda is an expert in web graphics and design. She has authored many best-selling books, including the very first industry book on web graphics, designing web graphics. A former faculty member at Art Center College of Design, and special effects animator and motion graphics director in the film industry, Lynda has taught at UCLA, the American Film Institute, and the San Francisco State Multimedia Studies Center, as well as consulting with and conducting workshops for Adobe, Microsoft, Hallmark, and Disney. Follow her on Twitter at @lynda.

Michelle Zatlyn (Co-Founder & Head of User Experience, CloudFlare)
Michelle Zatlyn is the Co-Founder and Head of User Experience of CloudFlare, the web performance and security company. Michelle creates products people love. Prior to CloudFlare, she worked at Google and Toshiba and launched two successful startups. In 2012, CloudFlare was selected by the Wall Street Journal as the Most Innovative Internet Technology company, and named a Technology Pioneer by the World Economic Forum. Today CloudFlare accelerates and protects more than 80 billion page views for more than 700 million unique visitors every month. Michelle holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry and a minor in Management, with Distinction, from McGill University. She also holds her MBA from Harvard Business School and was awarded the Dubliner Prize for Entrepreneurship. Michelle is an experienced public speaker, frequent panelist and sits on the Open Internet Advisory Committee for the FCC. Follow her on Twitter at @zatlyn.

Monisha Perkash (Co-Founder & CEO, LUMO BodyTech)
Monisha Perkash is Co-Founder and CEO at LUMO BodyTech which uses smart sensors and software to help people improve their health. Their first product is the LUMOback posture sensor and app. Monisha previously served as CEO and Co-Founder of TuitionCoach (acquired by SimpleTuition in 2009), where she oversaw the financing, launch, and general management of the start-up. After the acquisition, she stayed on with SimpleTuition as VP Products. She has also held leadership positions at Siebel Systems, Pensare, and AmeriCorps. Monisha has an MBA from Stanford and a BA from Yale. She enjoys spending time with her family, playing tennis, skiing, running and dancing. Follow her on Twitter at @mperkash.

Naomi Gleit (Senior Director of Product Management, Facebook)
Naomi Gleit is the Senior Director of Product Management for User, Growth and Engagement at Facebook. As the second most tenured employee, next to Mark, she has worked on programs like internationalization intended to break adoption barriers, as well as the data-driven optimization of flows like registration, new user experience, and friend finding. She enjoys routines, cooking, and volunteering both locally and abroad.

Paula Long (Co-Founder & EVP Products/Strategy, EqualLogic – acquired by Dell; Co-Founder & CEO, DataGravity)
Paula Long is the Co-Founder and CEO of DataGravity. Prior to DataGravity, she co-founded storage provider EqualLogic, where she was EVP of Products and Strategy. EqualLogic was acquired by Dell for $1.4 billion in 2008. Paula remained at Dell as VP of Storage, focused on the EqualLogic product line until January of 2010. She has held numerous technical leadership positions at a variety of technology companies, including Heartland Robotics as Vice President of Product Development. Paula serves on the Board of Directors for SugarSync, and an advisory board member for several storage related startups. Paula has won multiple awards for entrepreneurship, including New Hampshire High Tech Council Entrepreneur of the year award, the Ernst & Young’s 2008 Northeast Regional “Entrepreneur of the Year” and National Finalist for the same award.

Rashmi Sinha (CEO & Co-Founder, SlideShare – acquired by LinkedIn)
Rashmi Sinha is a designer and entrepreneur. She co-founded SlideShare in 2006. SlideShare is the world’s largest community for sharing presentations. Slideshare was acquired by Linkedin in May 2012. In 2012, Rashmi was named as one of ten Fortune Magazine Most Powerful Women Entrepreneurs. She also has been named the World’s Top 10 Women Influencers in Web 2.0 by Fast Company and is a frequent speaker at conferences such as Web 2.0 Expo and Future of Web Apps. Rashmi has a PhD in Cognitive Neuropsychology from Brown University and conducted research on search engines and recommender systems at UC Berkeley. You can read her blog at here or follow her on Twitter at @rashmi.

Sally Buberman (Co-Founder, Wormhole IT)
Sally Buberman is the co-founder of Wormhole IT, an Argentine-US company that has created the most awarded and popular Web Conference and Online Education Platforms in Latin America. Sally is regularly invited to speak at the most prestigious universities and industry events around the world, highlighting the role of young female entrepreneurs in the tech sector. She was recently selected as Endeavor Entrepreneur. Among other activities, Sally is also an International Judge at Microsoft Imagine Cup, the European Comission E-Skills Week Competition, Intel Challenge and TIC Americas of the OAS. Follow her on Twitter at @SallyBuberman.

Selina Tobaccowala (Founder, Evite.com & SVP Product & Engineering, SurveyMonkey)
Selina Tobaccowala joined SurveyMonkey in October 2009 and is currently responsible for the Product, Engineering, and Marketing teams. Selina and her team build and manage the world’s largest online survey platform that scales across 55 different languages, 29 currencies and handles over 2M survey responses a day. Previously Selina was Senior Vice President of Product and Technology at Ticketmaster’s Europe division, where she managed the 200-person Product, Technology and Operations team. Prior to that, Selina was Vice President of Online Product and Technology at Entertainment Publications, where she led the company’s online sales and technology initiatives. In 1997, Selina founded Evite.com, an online invitation service that lets users organize an offline event online, and which currently sends over three million invitations per month. As VP of Engineering for Evite.com, she led the company’s development and operations and played a key role in setting the strategic direction with the board of directors. In 2001, Evite.com was sold to Ticketmaster. She holds a BS degree in Computer Science from Stanford University. Follow her on Twitter at @selinato.

Scott Kupor (Managing Partner, Andreessen Horowitz)
Scott Kupor is the Managing Partner at Andreessen Horowitz, where he is responsible for all aspects of running the firm. He previously worked as vice president and general manager, Global Customer Support & Software-as-a-Service at Hewlett Packard. Scott joined HP in 2007 as part of the $1.6 billion acquisition of Opsware, where he was senior vice president of Customer Solutions. Scott joined Opsware shortly after the company’s founding and held numerous executive management positions and led the company’s private financing activities as well as its initial public offering in 2001. Prior to Opsware, Scott represented software companies in both financing and mergers and acquisitions transactions at Credit Suisse First Boston and Lehman Brothers. Scott graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Stanford University with a bachelor’s degree in public policy with honors and distinction. He also graduated Order of the Coif and with distinction from Stanford Law School and is a member of the California Bar Association.

Shaherose Charania (Co-Founder, President & CEO, Women 2.0)
Shaherose Charania is currently the President and CEO of Women 2.0. In parallel, she leads Founder Labs, an early stage incubator focused on new mobile ideas and is a mentor with 500 Startups. At heart she is a mobile and telephony junkie. She’s led new consumer products at Ribbit (BT). 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 Talenthouse and JAJAH (sold to Telefonica/O2). Shaherose holds a B.A. in Business Admin from The University of Western Ontario’s Richard Ivey School of Business. Follow her on Twitter at @shaherose.

Sukhinder Singh Cassidy (Founder & Chairman, JOYUS)
Sukhinder Singh Cassidy is Founder and Chairman of JOYUS. Prior to founding JOYUS in January 2011, she’s spent 18 years as a leading consumer internet and media executive at global and early stage companies including Google, Amazon, Polyvore, Yodlee and News Corporation. Most recently, she served as CEO and Chairman of the board at the leading social commerce site, Polyvore, and CEO-in-Residence with Accel Partners, a leading global consumer internet venture capital firm. From 2003 to 2009, she was a senior executive at Google; as President of Asia Pacific and Latin America, she was responsible for all of Google’s commercial operations in both regions built the company’s physical presence from inception to a multi-billion dollar business across 40 domains and 103 different countries throughout APAC and Latin America. She currently serves on the boards of TripAdvisor (TRIP) and Formspring, as an Advisor to Twitter, and on the Advisory Council for Princeton University’s Dept of Computer Science. She has also been a board member of J. Crew Group. Follow her on Twitter at @SukhinderSingh.

Vivek Wadhwa (Fellow, Stanford Law School; VP Research, Singularity University)
Vivek Wadhwa is Vice President of Academics and Innovation at Singularity University; Fellow, Arthur & Toni Rembe Rock Center for Corporate Governance, Stanford University; Director of Research at the Center for Entrepreneurship and Research Commercialization at the Pratt School of Engineering, Duke University; and distinguished visiting scholar, Halle Institute of Global Learning, Emory University. In his roles at Stanford, Duke, and Emory universities, he lectures in class on subjects such as entrepreneurship and public policy, helps prepare students for the real world, and leads groundbreaking research projects. He is an advisor to several governments; mentors entrepreneurs; and is a regular columnist for The Washington Post, Bloomberg BusinessWeek, and the American Society of Engineering Education’s Prism magazine. Prior to joining academia in 2005, Wadhwa founded two software companies. Follow him on Twitter at @wadhwa.