Speakers
Confirmed Speakers Include:
Michele Azar, Vice President, Emerging Channels, Best Buy Co., Inc.
Geoff Bremner, President and CEO, Modern Climate
Chad Dickerson, CTO, Etsy
Marc Frons, CTO, The New York Times
Allon Gladstone, Alcatel-Lucent, Senior Manager, Application Innovation Suite
Quentin Hardy, Sr. Editor and Silicon Valley Bureau Chief, Forbes
Scott Kurnit, Founder and Former-CEO, About, Inc.
Paul Lentz, Vice President, Strategic Partnerships, CBS Interactive
Laura Merling, Founder, Stretta Group
Oren Michels, CEO, Mashery
John Musser, Founder, ProgrammableWeb.com
Richard Nucci, CTO and Co-Founder, Boomi
Jeremy Thomas, Director, Product Development, Active.com
Heidi Tucker, Vice President, Business Development, Hoover’s
Fred Wilson, Managing Partner, Union Square Ventures
Michele Azar
Vice President, Emerging Channels, Best Buy Co., Inc.
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As Vice President of Emerging Channels for Best Buy Co., Inc., Michele Azar leads new business efforts including the launch of Best Buy’s Open API business called Best Buy Remix, Community Forums, and Mobile Commerce. Throughout her 12 year career at Best Buy, she has held P&L responsibility for Computer peripherals and Hardware business units and led through 3 large scale transformations. In 2007, Azar moved to the web division to lead web 2.0 strategy, digital densification, and new growth opportunities beyond existing channels.
Azar keynotes on how Best Buy uses open, social approaches to empower employees, serve customers, and capture new growth; a recent Ignite talk highlights how Best Buy used open social approaches to mint the world’s foremost brand ambassador community. Earlier in her career, Azar held P&L responsibility for businesses at Target Corp-Dept Store Div. And The Gap, Inc.
Azar has a bachelor’s degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a master’s in business administration from the Executive MBA Program at the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University.
Geoff Bremner
President and CEO, Modern Climate
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Geoff Bremner is President and CEO of Modern Climate. He joined the consumer-centric advertising agency in 2001, then named Wolfmotell.
As President and CEO, Geoff fosters strong relationships with the agency’s clients and works with them to define revenue-producing strategies. He understands client opportunities and challenges on both a daily and long-term basis.
He joined Modern Climate to lead business development, and in his first year signed five major accounts, including United Health Group, General Mills, and Best Buy. Geoff is also proud to have evolved the agency’s St. Jude Medical business into an Agency of Record partnership in just over three years. In 2008, after helping to substantially grow the client and employee rosters, Geoff was asked to lead Modern Climate.
Geoff is known as a hard-working leader who won’t settle and can’t rest until objectives are met. He’s proud that Modern Climate provides jobs for great people while creating progress for great clients.
Prior to Modern Climate, Geoff earned a variety of impressive stripes. At Camworks, a technical web agency, he was VP Client Services. When Zamba Solutions acquired Camworks, Geoff assumed a senior business development role. Prior to both companies, he worked at St. Louis-based Emerson Process Management, and led the interactive marketing team.
Marc Frons
CTO, Digital Operations, The New York Times
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Marc Frons was named chief technology officer of digital operations for The New York Times Company in June 2006. In this role, Marc oversees technology and product development at NYTimes.com while continuing to be involved in broader digital strategy initiatives at the company.
Marc previously worked at Dow Jones & Company from 2003 until 2006, where he was most recently vice president and chief technology officer for its Consumer Media Group, responsible for online product development and applications. Before that, he worked at AOL Time Warner from January 2002 to June 2003, first as vice president and general manager of AOL Personal Finance and then as consulting editor for CNN Money.
From 1995 to early 2002, Marc was editor and chief technology officer of SmartMoney.com. He also held a variety of senior editor positions at Business Week from 1984 until 1995. He began his career at Newsweek in 1979.
Marc has received several awards, including the American Society of Magazine Editors (ASME) National Magazine Award for Best Interactive Design in 2001, an Online News Association Award in 2000 for Best Interactive Design, and the Web Marketing Association Award for Best Investing Web Site in 1999.
Allon Gladstone
Senior Manager, Application Innovation Suite, Alcatel-Lucent
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Allon heads Alcatel-Lucent’s location based services (LBS) partnerships working with leading mobile application vendors, advertising agencies and networks, and premium content providers to position location services with carriers worldwide.
Allon has over 10 years experience in telecommunications & applications, having worked with the top service providers in the world, overseeing network deployments worth billions and representing Alcatel-Lucent Bell Labs in various organizations including ITU, FCC, 3G Americas, supporting US Trade delegations and contributing to the Bell-Labs Technical Journal.
Quentin Hardy
Sr. Editor and Silicon Valley Bureau Chief, Forbes
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Quentin Hardy is National Editor for Forbes Media, responsible for cover stories and features for Forbes magazine and stories, a column and videos for the Forbes.com website. He was a Silicon Valley Bureau Chief Forbes magazine from April 2002 until last January.
Quentin is a regular on “Forbes on Fox,” a weekly business news show on Fox News Channel, as well as shows on CNBC and other television channels. He hosts numerous panels on technology and business at events around the U.S., and teaches at the University of California, Berkeley.
Prior to joining Forbes, Quentin spent eight years at The Wall Street Journal. While based in the Journal’s Tokyo bureau from 1991 through 1994, he reported on the Japanese banking crisis and market collapse. From 1994 until 1999, he covered the wireless industry and Silicon Valley culture from the paper’s San Francisco office. He also worked at AP/Dow Jones newswire in Tokyo from 1988 to 1991, covering Asian energy markets and natural resources.
Quentin is a graduate of Kenyon College and has a Masters degree from the University of London. In 1995 he was awarded a Knight-Bagehot Fellowship from the Columbia University School of Journalism.
Scott Kurnit
Founder and Former-CEO, About, Inc.
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Scott Kurnit founded and served as chairman and CEO of About, Inc. as it grew to a public market value of $1.7 billion and was the 5th largest of all Web properties. About invented the forerunner to Google’s Adsense in Sprinks (Purchased by Google in 2003) and the first family of ad networks in Luna. About Japan had its IPO in 2005 reaching a value of $1.5 billion. Scott sold About to Primedia in 2001 for $724 million. About is now owned by the New York Times Company, who launched About China in 2008.
Scott currently serves on the Boards of Brightcove, Dotomi, Goodmail, Mashlogic, OpenSky, SendMe Mobile and The Paley Center for Media. He is an advisor to About, Appssavvy, Black Arrow, Mashery, SmartBrief and Tapulous.
Scott has founded four companies, all of which continue operating today. He’s a holder of four patents, led the team that embedded the first web browser into an online service, started the first Pay Per View cable network and co-led the team that implemented the first use of national caller ID. He was also the youngest program director in the PBS system and served as program director for Qube, the world’s first fully interactive cable system. He was president of Showtime Event Television when it generated the largest one night gross in the entertainment business and aired the first rock concert (broadcast in 70 countries) from the former Soviet Union.
Scott has worked at the highest levels of Warner, Viacom, News Corp., PBS, IBM, and MCI. He received his Bachelor of Arts in Sociology and Communications from Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts.
Paul Lentz
Vice President, Strategic Partnerships, CBS Interactive
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Paul Lentz, vice president of strategic partnerships, works with partners in Europe and North America who build their own products around CNET Content Solutions content, supplement that content with their own, or serve as distributors and resellers of that content on behalf of CNET Content Solutions. In addition, he manages business development and syndication of content from CBSNews.com and CNET.com (the bulk of which runs through the CNET API).
Prior to this role, Paul directed development of CRM applications for publishing companies and non-profit organizations. He holds a BA in French from Kenyon College and a MFA from Sarah Lawrence College. He is fluent in French and English and working on bits of German.
Laura Merling
Founder, Stretta Group
The use of APIs as an internal and external business growth tool is rapidly moving from a novel concept to a business imperative. Laura Merling is a thought leader in this fast-changing environment.
Laura has worked in the trenches with executives, developers, and thought leaders in markets ranging from telecom and media to travel and retail, helping them develop tailored strategies that maximize the benefits of API publishing.
Laura has spent 20 years in high tech marketing and business development and most recently has served as VP of Sales and Marketing at Mashery, the industries leader in API Management Infrastructure. She has recently launched Stretta Group, a strategic consulting firm focusing on the next generation of “connected services.”
Oren Michels
Co-founder and CEO, Mashery
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Mashery’s co-founder and CEO has a record of success in a variety of executive positions spanning multiple industries. Oren Michels co-founded and managed WiFinder, an international provider of directory services for public access wi-fi hotspots. He has served as president for two companies: Colt HR, a leading provider of mid-market benefits administration software and services; and Winebid.com, a leading online wine auction service. He also served as president and CEO of The Groundlings, a Hollywood-based entertainment production company, and has held COO positions at manufacturing companies. Prior to joining Mashery, Oren worked as vice president of business development at Feedster, where he managed the company’s activities in China and negotiated partnerships with AOL, Real Networks, and Mitsui.
Oren began his career as a software designer for Hughes Aircraft. He holds a BS in Electrical Engineering from MIT and an MBA in finance and entrepreneurial studies from UCLA’s Anderson School.
John Musser
Founder, ProgrammableWeb.com
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John Musser is the founder of ProgrammableWeb.com, the leading online resource for APIs, mashups, and the web as platform. He is a frequent conference speaker and analyst on open API strategies and trends. During his 20-year career he has shipped six award-winning software products in three industries working with companies including Electronic Arts, Credit Suisse, MTV and Bell Labs.
He has taught at Columbia University, the University of Washington, and has written for a variety of technology publications on software development, most recently as author of “Web 2.0: Principles and Best Practices” published by O’Reilly Media.
Richard Nucci
CTO and Co-founder, Boomi
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Rick is the Co-founder and CTO of Boomi where he is responsible for product management and engineering. He is considered an industry expert on SaaS & Cloud integration , multi-tenant architecture, and API design and best practices. Boomi has a patent pending for Rick’s innovative Atom technology that powers Boomi AtomSphere, the company’s software-as-a-service offering. In his role at Boomi, Rick is constantly engaged with customers and partners to ensure alignment between business needs and Boomi’s product strategy.
Prior to founding Boomi, Rick worked for EXE Technologies, a market leading supply chain execution software company, in the areas of product development and implementation. It was in this role that Nucci learned first-hand the cost and complexity of integrating disparate applications and business partners. With over 10 years of experience in application and data integration, Rick applies this experience to deliver the company’s integration solutions.
Jeremy Thomas
Director, Product Development, Active.com
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Jeremy Thomas is the Director of Product Development for active.com, The Active Network’s flagship web property. Additionally, Jeremy oversees the development of several other websites including ihoops.com and eteamz.com. He is spearheading the use of cloud computing within his company and is driving an initiative to make Active Network data accessible through a public API.
Jeremy is a co-author of Enterprise 2.0 Implementation, a McGraw Hill book about how companies can innovate and gain operational efficiency through social computing. Prior to joining The Active Network, Jeremy was a Manager with BearingPoint in Melbourne, Australia, where consulted several large companies on incorporating enterprise search and social technologies into their infrastructures.
Jeremy blogs at http://community.active.com/blogs/productdev and http://socialglass.com. Follow Jeremy on Twitter at http://twitter.com/jgrahamthomas.
Heidi Tucker
Vice President, Business Development, Hoover’s
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Heidi Tucker serves as Vice President of Business Development at Hoover’s, a D&B Company. In this role, she is responsible for driving all business development efforts, including identifying and building new alliances, partnerships, and acquisitions.
Prior to this, Heidi was Senior Vice President of Enterprise Sales at First Research, where she led the company’s North American expansion into new sectors: telecom, technology, and business services. Prior to joining First Research, Heidi was president of Off My Ears, a marketing and business development consulting practice. Previously, she was Vice President of Marketing for Courtlink Corporation, now a division of LexisNexis. She also spent 18 years with Bank of America, holding many roles in finance and marketing, culminating in the role of Senior Vice President of Marketing for Bank of America’s Small Business Banking division.
Heidi holds an MBA from the University of Washington and a BA in International Relations and Economics from Mills College. She is currently president of the board of International Ballet Theatre and a member of the Board of Directors of Girl Scouts of Western Washington. Heidi has also been a member of two international diplomatic trade delegations: Baltics (2005) and China (2008).
Fred Wilson
Managing Partner, Union Square Ventures
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Fred Wilson has been a venture capitalist since 1987. He currently is a managing partner at Union Square Ventures and also founded Flatiron Partners.
Fred has a Bachelors degree in Mechanical Engineering from MIT and an MBA from The Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania.
He blogs at avc.com.