WSJDLIVE 2016
OCTOBER 24-26, 2016
The Montage
Laguna Beach, California
On October 24 – 26 2016, The Wall Street Journal hosted WSJDLive, and brought together an unmatched group of CEOs, founders, investors and luminaries to explore the most exciting tech opportunities emerging around the world.
As we look to next year, we will be reconvening in Laguna Beach on October 16-18, 2017. We will also be launching WSJDLive in Asia, June 8-9 2017, and assembling influencers from around the globe to discuss the latest developments in tech emanating from, and impacting, the Asia Pacific. Request your invitation.
2016 SCHEDULE2016 SPEAKERS
Brian is co-founder of WhatsApp, the communication service that serves more than a billion users worldwide. Along with co-founder Jan Koum, he is responsible for the overall strategy for WhatsApp and leads engineering. Prior to founding WhatsApp, Brian was an early employee at Yahoo, where he served as the vice president of engineering until 2007. Before Yahoo, he also had engineering roles at Apple and Adobe. Brian holds a B.S. in Computer Science from Stanford University.
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Fan Bao is the founder and chief executive officer of China Renaissance, an independent investment bank that has served the financing needs of some of China’s most successful e-commerce, gaming, social networking and mobile services companies. Fan began his career with global investment banks in the late 1990’s at the beginning of the Internet era. Inspired by his clients’ entrepreneurial zeal, Fan briefly left banking to join a young telecom software company in China as chief strategy officer. He later began China Renaissance to provide capital-raising and strategic advice to entrepreneurs using the Internet and information technology to create high-growth business models. To date, China Renaissance has advised on approximately US$24 billion in transactions, including initial public offerings, M&A and angel and venture capital fundraising.
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Marc Benioff is chairman and CEO of Salesforce. A pioneer of cloud computing, Benioff founded the company in 1999 with a vision to create a new kind of enterprise software company, with a new technology model based in the cloud, a new pay-as-you-go business model and a new integrated corporate philanthropy model. Under his leadership, Salesforce has grown from a groundbreaking idea into a Fortune 500 company, the fastest-growing top ten software company in the world and the largest CRM company.
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As Chief Strategy Officer, Stefan Blom oversees corporate strategy, competitive intelligence and corporate development globally. In his role as Chief Content Officer he has responsibility for the company’s content and distribution operations, including all licensing, original content, industry & creators relationships globally. Prior to his role at Spotify, Mr. Blom held senior positions at EMI Music, most recently as CEO and Chairman of the group’s Nordic operations, and prior to that as EVP Commercial Development in a global capacity. While at 3, a Hutchison owned telecom operator, he served as Head of Products and Services. Mr. Blom has invested in and advised companies in the media and internet space.
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Dr. Cynthia Breazeal is founder and Chief Scientist of Jibo, Inc. She is also the Associate Professor of Media Arts and Sciences at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she founded and directs the Personal Robots Group at the Media Lab. She is a pioneer of social robotics & human robot interaction and has developed some of the world’s most famous robotic creatures. Her recent work investigates the impact of social robots on helping people achieve personal goals that contribute to quality of life. She authored the book “Designing Sociable Robots” and has published over 100 peer-reviewed articles on topics including human robot interaction and robot learning. She serves on several editorial boards and is an Overseer at the Museum of Science, Boston.
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Jim is the Founder/CEO of Breyer Capital. Jim has been a lead/co-lead venture investor in over 30 internet/technology/media companies, many that have returned well over 25 times their cost. He has been ranked #1 on Forbes’ Midas List of top technology investors several times, as well as Fortune’s smartest technology investor. Jim led Accel’s investment in Facebook in April, 2005 and Etsy in 2008. Jim served on the Facebook board from 2005 to 2013, Wal-Mart Stores for over a decade, Dell, and Marvel Entertainment. He currently serves on the boards of Twenty-First Century Fox, Etsy, and Circle Financial. Jim has worked closely with IDG China Venture Capital for over a decade, and Breyer Capital plays the leading advisory role in the IDG China Venture Funds.
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Kobe Bryant is a five-time NBA Champion, two-time Olympic Gold Medalist, NBA MVP, two-time NBA Finals MVP, 15-time All-NBA player, 18-time NBA All-Star and the NBA’s 3rd all-time leading scorer. Mr. Bryant formed a multi-media content company, Kobe Inc., in 2013. Its first project, Kobe Bryant’s Muse, debuted in February 2015. Mr. Bryant created and executive produced the first-of-its-kind documentary, which earned a Clio Award in May 2015. His investment platform, Bryant Stibel, provides strategic, financial and operational support to entrepreneurs and their companies, with a focus on the convergence of technology, media and data (TMD), as well as in industries such as sports and wellness, where TMD has the potential to create massive opportunities.
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A 20-year seasoned veteran in entertainment, Troy Carter is a pioneer for entrepreneurs, investors and managers. Mr. Carter feeds his passion for culture and technology through his Cross Culture fund with 80+ investments in early stage startups – including Spotify, DropBox, Uber, Warby Parker, and Lyft. In 2015, Troy launched Smashd.co, a digital platform to inspire Millennials, entrepreneurs and tech enthusiasts by amplifying the art of hustle.
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Chris Cox leads Facebook’s Product Management, Design, and Marketing functions globally. He is responsible for the core products and features that shape the social experience for the over 1.3 billion people who use Facebook every month. Chris joined Facebook in 2005 as a software engineer and helped build the first versions of key Facebook features, including News Feed. He then became director of human resources, where he set the tone for Facebook’s culture and drove the development of its mission, values and people strategy. Chris holds a bachelor’s degree in symbolic systems with a concentration in artificial intelligence from Stanford University.
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Theresia Gouw is an engineer, entrepreneur, and investor in the new mobility space, focused primarily on Security, Data Analytics, and Consumer opportunities. Theresia is a co-founder and managing partner of Aspect Ventures and led Aspect’s investments in: Exabeam, Forescout, The Muse, SelfScore, BirchBox, and BaubleBar. Prior to co-founding Aspect Ventures, Theresia was a partner at Accel for 15 years, with a number of successful exits; IPOs for Imperva (IMPV), PeopleSupport (PSPT), Trulia (TRLA), and acquisitions of Kosmix (WMT), Xoopit (YHOO) and Zimbra (YHOO). She led the series A or seed rounds in several leading Mobile/Consumer Internet companies (Birchbox, HotelTonight, LearnVest, Trulia, Joyus) and Security Software companies (Imperva, Exabeam, ForeScout, TRUSTe). Theresia holds a ScB in Engineering from Brown University and an MBA from Stanford University.
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Michael Grimes is a Managing Director of Morgan Stanley and is Head of Global Technology Investment Banking. Michael has 29 years of technology investment banking experience and has served clients including Airbnb, Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, Microsoft, Pandora, Twitter, Uber, Zappos, Accenture, Akamai, Dell, EMC, FireEye, HP, Intel, Lucent, Oracle, Palo Alto Networks, Splunk, Success Factors, and Seagate. Mr. Grimes holds a BS degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the University of California at Berkeley. He is a member of the Board of the recently created Management, Entrepreneurship, & Technology (M.E.T.) Program at the University of California at Berkeley and a member of the Board of the Jerome Fisher Program in Management & Technology (M&T) at the University of Pennsylvania.
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Bill Gurley has spent over 15 years as a General Partner at Benchmark, joining in 1999. He led Benchmark’s investments in and holds board seats with Uber, Vessel, Hacker One, Stitch Fix, GrubHub, Nextdoor, OpenTable, Zillow, Brighter, DogVacay, Linden Lab, Sailthru, and Scale Computing. His prior experience includes four years on Wall Street as a research analyst, he was a design engineer at Compaq Computer, and he served in the technical marketing group of Advanced Micro Devices’ embedded processor division. Bill maintains a blog on the evolution and economics of high technology businesses called Above the Crowd. Bill has a BS in computer science from the University of Florida, and an MBA from the University of Texas. He is also a Chartered Financial Analyst.
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Reed Hastings co-founded Netflix in 1997. In 1991, Reed founded Pure Software, after a 1995 IPO, and several acquisitions, Pure was acquired by Rational Software in 1997. He served on the California State Board of Education from 2000 to 2004. He is currently on the board of educational organizations including CCSA, DreamBox Learning, KIPP, Pahara, and the Hispanic Foundation of Silicon Valley. Reed is a board member of Facebook, and was on the board of Microsoft from 2007 to 2012. Reed received a BA from Bowdoin College in 1983, and an MSCS in Artificial Intelligence from Stanford University in 1988. Between Bowdoin and Stanford, Reed served in the Peace Corps as a high school math teacher in Swaziland. Reed is married with two children.
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Taavet Hinrikus is co-founder and CEO of TransferWise, the international money transfer platform. TransferWise customers send £500m every month using the platform, and it’s attracted $91m from investors such as world’s largest VC firm Andreessen Horowitz, Sir Richard Branson, Peter Thiel and Max Levchin, the co-founders of PayPal. Prior to starting TransferWise, Taavet was Skype’s director of strategy until 2008, starting as its first-ever employee. One of the World Economic Forum’s Tech Pioneers, Taavet is an adviser to Prime Minister of Estonia on the digital agenda. He’s also a mentor and angel investor; his investments include Tweetdeck, Mendeley, OMGPOP, Property Partner, Sunrise, Improbable and Mapillary.
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Jen-Hsun Huang co-founded NVIDIA in 1993 and has continued to serve since then as president and CEO. Huang has received the Dr. Morris Chang Exemplary Leadership Award from the Global Semiconductor Association in recognition of his contributions to driving the development, growth and long-term opportunities of the fabless semiconductor industry. He has also received the Daniel J. Epstein Engineering Management Award from the University of Southern California, and an honorary doctorate from Oregon State University. He was named to the U.S. Immigrant Entrepreneur Hall of Fame when it was established in 2012. In 2015, Harvard Business Review named him one of the world’s 100 best-performing CEOs over the lifetime of their tenure. He holds a BSEE from Oregon State and an MSEE from Stanford University.
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Award-winning actress and New York Times bestselling author Kate Hudson added entrepreneur to her long list of accomplishments in 2013 when she co-founded Fabletics to provide stylish, functional and affordable activewear to women around the world. Fabletics has since become one of the fastest-growing fashion brands, with over one million VIP members and more than a dozen retail stores across the country. As co-founder and face of Fabletics, Ms. Hudson continues to drive the brand’s vision and creative strategy, inspiring women to empower themselves by getting active, not as a fad or a quick fix, but as a way of living that promotes health, community, determination, passion and joy.
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Andy Jassy leads the Amazon Web Services business (AWS) and the Technology Infrastructure organization for Amazon.com. He has been a member of Amazon.com’s senior executive team since 2002 and has held several key leadership positions since he joined Amazon in 1997. He authored the business plan for Amazon’s entry into the Music business and served as both its Director of Product Management and General Manager; started and built the Customer Relationship Management team; served as Director of Marketing; worked as Technical Assistant to Founder and CEO Jeff Bezos; and most recently, Mr. Jassy started and continues to lead the Amazon Web Services business. Mr. Jassy earned his bachelor’s degree from Harvard University and his MBA from Harvard Business School.
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Steve Jurvetson is a partner at the venture capital firm DFJ. His current board responsibilities include Planet Labs, SpaceX, Synthetic Genomics, and Tesla Motors (TSLA). He was the founding VC investor in Hotmail, Interwoven (IWOV), Kana (KANA), and NeoPhotonics (NPTN). He also led DFJ’s investments in other companies that were acquired for $12 billion in aggregate. Steve was chosen by Deloitte as “Venture Capitalist of the Year”, by Forbes as one of “Tech’s Best Venture Investors”, by the VC Journal as one of the “Ten Most Influential VCs”, by Fortune as part of their “Brain Trust of Top Ten Minds” and “The Valley’s Sharpest VC” on the cover of Business 2.0.
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Alex Karp is co-founder and CEO of Palantir. He has a Ph.D. from the University of Frankfurt and a Law Degree from Stanford. He resides in Palo Alto and is a practitioner of Chen-style Tai Chi.
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Jan Koum is the co-founder and CEO of WhatsApp, a communication service that he co-founded in 2009. He is responsible for setting the overall direction and strategy for WhatsApp. Together with his co-founder Brian Acton, Jan is also responsible for the design and interface of WhatsApp’s service and the development of its core technology and infrastructure. Jan grew up in Ukraine before he immigrated to California in 1992, where he studied at and later dropped out of San Jose State University.
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Dr. Kai-Fu Lee is the Chairman and CEO of Sinovation Ventures which is an early-stage investment company targeting the next wave of Chinese high-tech companies and mentoring the next-generation of Chinese entrepreneurs. Prior to Sinovation Ventures, Dr. Lee was Vice President of Google, President of Google China. Previously, he held executive positions at Microsoft, SGI, and Apple. He received his Bachelor degree from Columbia University, and Ph.D. at Carnegie Mellon University. He has an Honorary Doctorate Degree from the City University of Hong Kong and is a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). Dr. Lee was the Vice Chairman of the Committee of 100 and selected in 2013 by Time as one of the 100 most influential people in the world.
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Jenny Lee joined GGV Capital in 2005 and was instrumental in setting up operations in China. Jenny invests in consumer internet and SaaS companies, especially those in the mobile, social, IoT, finance, and education sectors. She led GGV’s investments in hiSoft (NASDAQ: PACT), 21Vianet (NASDAQ: VNET), SinoSun (SHE: 300333), YY (NASDAQ: YY), andUCWeb (acquired by Alibaba). Jenny currently serves on the boards of eHang Technology, Zepp, Chukong Technologies, Kingsoft WPS, Yingying Finance, 51zhangdan, and Xiaozhan. Jenny holds MS and BS degrees in Electrical Engineering from Cornell University and an MBA from Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. Jenny has been on the ForbesMidas List for four years running and was #10 on the 2015 list, the highest ranking ever for a woman.
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Jean LIU is the President of Didi Chuxing (Didi Kuaidi), the world’s largest mobile transportation platform based in China. Jean joined DiDi in July 2014 from her previous position as Managing Director at Goldman Sachs (Asia). Jean was ranked one of Fast Company’s top five “The World’s Most Creative People in Business in 2016,” and was also listed as one of Fortune’s top five 2015 global “40 Under 40” business leaders. Jean is a member of the Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Alumni Association Council, and a member of the Board of Directors of ONE Foundation. Jean earned a B.A. from Peking University and an M.S. from Harvard University, both in Computer Science.
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John Maeda is an American executive spearheading a new convergence across the design + technology industries. He recently joined Automattic as Global Head of Computational Design + Inclusion, and previously served as Design Partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, a world-leading venture capital firm. An internationally recognized speaker and author, his books include The Laws of Simplicity, Creative Code and Redesigning Leadership. He holds degrees in Electrical Engineering + Computer Science from MIT, an MBA from Arizona State U, and a PhD from University of Tsukuba in Japan.
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Maja Matarić is Chan Soon-Shiong Professor of Computer Science, Neuroscience, and Pediatrics, founding director of the Robotics and Autonomous Systems Center and Vice Dean for Research at USC, and founder and CSO of Embodied, Inc. Her PhD and MS are from MIT, and BS from Kansas University. She is Fellow of AAAS, IEEE, and AAAI, recipient of the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics & Engineering Mentoring, Anita Borg Institute Women of Vision for Innovation, NSF Career, MIT TR35 Innovation, and IEEE RAS Early Career Awards, is active in K-12 outreach, and authored “The Robotics Primer”. Her research is developing socially assistive robots for convalescence, rehabilitation, training, and education for children with autism spectrum disorders, stroke and traumatic brain injury survivors, and individuals with Alzheimer’s Disease.
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At 19, Jessica O. Matthews invented the SOCCKET, an energy generating soccer ball that provides off-grid power for the developing world. At 22, she founded Uncharted Play, a renewable energy company specializing in motion-based, miniaturized power systems. At 26, Ms. Matthews became a Co-Founder and Executive Director for KDDC, a 30 megawatt hydropower dam in Nigeria—one of the first to be privatized in the country. She has a degree in Psychology and Economics from Harvard University, and an MBA from Harvard Business School. She was featured in Forbes 30 under 30 list in 2014, Black Enterprise’s Innovator of the Year in 2013, Scientist of the Year by the Harvard Foundation (2012), and one of the “10 Most Powerful Women Entrepreneurs” by Fortune (2011).
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Mickey McManus is a visiting research fellow at Autodesk, and Principal and Chairman of the board at MAYA Design, a design consultancy and innovation lab. He’s a pioneer in pervasive computing, collaborative innovation, human-centered design and education. Mickey holds nine patents in the area of connected products, vehicles and services, and spearheaded the launch of MAYA’s Pervasive Computing practice. In 2012, Mickey the award-winning book Trillions: Thriving in the Emerging Information Ecology, which serves as a field guide to the future, where devices outnumber people, and computing will be freely accessible in the ambient environment.
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Ben Milne is the founder and CEO of Dwolla, a payments startup building the ideal API to move money. Under Mr. Milne, the Des Moines-based company has raised over $35 million from investors, like Andreessen Horowitz and Union Square Ventures, and has been recognized by Fast Company as one of the world’s “50 Most Innovative Companies of 2014”. Mr. Milne has been named as one of Forbes’ “Disruptors of the Year” and has appeared on Inc. Magazine’s in its annual 30 under 30 collection, Bloomberg TV, and The TODAY Show. In 2013, he was recognized for his work by MIT Technology Review’s in its annual “Innovators Under 35″ list.
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Rupert Murdoch is Executive Chairman of 21st Century Fox, the world’s premier portfolio of cable, broadcast, film, pay TV and satellite assets spanning six continents. Mr. Murdoch also serves as Executive Chairman of News Corp, a global, diversified media and information services company focused on creating and distributing authoritative and engaging content. In 1954 Mr. Murdoch took control of News Limited, whose only key asset at the time was the number-two daily newspaper in Adelaide, South Australia. Since then Mr. Murdoch drove the expansion and development of the company by acquiring and launching media properties around the world in newspapers, book publishing and film, as well as cable, broadcast and pay television. 21st Century Fox and News Corp were created in 2013 following the separation of the assets of the former News Corporation. Mr. Murdoch has been awarded the Companion of the Order of Australia (A.C.) for services to the media and to newspaper publishing in particular.
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Satya Nadella is Chief Executive Officer of Microsoft. Before being named CEO in February 2014, Mr. Nadella held leadership roles in both enterprise and consumer businesses across the company. He joined Microsoft in 1992. Most recently, Mr. Nadella was executive vice president of Microsoft’s Cloud and Enterprise group. In this role he led the transformation to the cloud infrastructure and services business, which outperformed the market and took share from competition. Originally from Hyderabad, India, Mr. Nadella lives in Bellevue, Wash. He earned a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Mangalore University, a master’s degree in computer science from the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee and a master’s degree in business administration from the University of Chicago.
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Dr. Dava Newman was nominated in January 2015 by President Barack Obama and confirmed by the U.S. Senate in April 2015 to serve as the Deputy Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. She was sworn in on May 15 and began her duties with the agency on May 18. Along with NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, Newman is responsible for providing overall leadership, planning, and policy direction for NASA. Newman also is responsible for articulating the agency’s vision and representing NASA to the Executive Office of the President, Congress, heads of federal and other appropriate government agencies, international organizations, and external organizations and communities. Prior to her tenure with NASA, Newman was the Apollo Program Professor of Astronautics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
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Nelson Peltz is Chief Executive Officer and a founding partner of Trian Fund Management, L.P. (“Trian”). Mr. Peltz, along with Peter May and Ed Garden, founded Trian in November 2005. Trian invests in underperforming and undervalued public companies and looks to work constructively with the management and Board of Directors of those companies to create shareholder value through a combination of strategic re-direction, improved operational execution, more efficient capital allocation and stronger focus. Mr. Peltz serves as the non-executive Chairman of The Wendy’s Company. Mr. Peltz is also a director of Mondelēz International, Inc., Sysco Corporation, and The Madison Square Garden Company. A native of Brooklyn, New York, Mr. Peltz attended The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
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Richard Plepler is chairman and CEO of Home Box Office, Inc., HBO and Cinemax have over 131 million subscribers worldwide. HBO programming is sold into over 150 countries. He was named to this position in January 2013. Under his leadership, HBO’s original productions continues to produce some of the most critically respected programming on television, including “Silicon Valley,” ”Veep,” “Girls,” “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver,” “True Detective,” “The Night of,” “Any Given Wednesday” with Bill Simmons, and “Game of Thrones.” This past year HBO was recognized with a record 43 Primetime Emmys, the most of any network in 40 years. Mr. Plepler also recently spearheaded the development and launch of HBO Now, the network’s standalone streaming service.
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Ginni Rometty was appointed President and CEO of IBM effective January 1, 2012. She became Chairman of the Board of Directors on October 1, 2012. Mrs. Rometty began her career with IBM in 1981 in Detroit, Michigan. Since then she has held a series of leadership positions in IBM, most recently as Senior Vice President and Group Executive, IBM Sales, Marketing and Strategy. Prior to this, Mrs. Rometty served as Senior Vice President, IBM Global Business Services, where she led the successful integration of PricewaterhouseCoopers Consulting. In prior leadership roles, Mrs. Rometty served as general manager of IBM Global Services, Americas, as well as general manager of IBM’s Global Insurance and Financial Services Sector.
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Sheryl Sandberg is chief operating officer at Facebook, overseeing the firm and business operations. Prior to Facebook, Sheryl was vice president of Global Online Sales and Operations at Google, chief of staff for the U.S. Treasury Department during the Clinton administration, a management consultant with McKinsey & Company, and an economist with the World Bank.
Sheryl received a BA in economics summa cum laude from Harvard University and an MBA with highest distinction from Harvard Business School.
She is the author of the number-one best seller Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead and founder of LeanIn.Org, a global community committed to empowering all women to achieve their ambitions. Sheryl serves on the boards of Facebook, the Walt Disney Company, SurveyMonkey, Women for Women International, and ONE; is a member of the fund-raising council of the Second Harvest Food Bank; and co-chairs the StandUp for Kids campaign.
Sheryl lives in Menlo Park with her son and daughter.
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As President and CEO of PayPal, Dan Schulman is focused on transforming financial services to make life easier for billions of people around the world. Dan previously served as Group President of Enterprise Growth at American Express where he led global strategy to expand the company’s alternative mobile and online payment services. Prior to joining American Express, Dan was President of the Prepaid Group at Sprint Nextel Corporation following its acquisition of Virgin Mobile USA, Inc., where he led the company as its founding CEO. Earlier in his career, Dan was President and CEO of Priceline Group, Inc. He began his career at AT&T, ultimately serving as President of the Consumer Markets Division. Dan also serves on the boards of Flextronics and Symantec.
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Shane Smith is the founder and CEO of VICE, the global youth media brand. Under Mr. Smith’s guidance, VICE, initially launched in 1994 as a punk magazine, has expanded and diversified to become the world’s leading youth media company; operating an international network of digital channels, a television production studio, an in-house creative services agency, a feature film division and a 24-hour linear television network in the U.S. and Canada called VICELAND. Mr. Smith has been awarded numerous journalism and media awards, including the Cannes Lions 2016 ‘Media Person of the Year.’ VICE has also won an Emmy Award, two Peabody Awards.
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Ben is the Co-founder and CEO of Pinterest – the world’s catalog of ideas – where he helps 100M+ people discover and do the things they love. He oversees the product and a company of more than 800 in offices around the globe. Ben graduated from Yale and currently lives in San Francisco with his wife and two sons.
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Paul E. Singer is the founder and president of Elliott Management Corporation, a New York–based trading firm. Launched in 1977 with $1 million of capital, total assets under management for the Elliott funds have grown to approximately $28 billion today. Elliott also has affiliated offices in London, Hong Kong and Tokyo. Mr. Singer is on the boards of Harvard Medical School and of Commentary Magazine, and on the advisory board of the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions at Princeton University. He is also chairman of the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research. Mr. Singer is co-founder of Start-Up Nation Central, an organization inspired by the book “Start-Up Nation: The Story of Israel’s Economic Miracle”.
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Randall Stephenson is chairman and chief executive officer of AT&T. Since being named to that position in 2007, AT&T has invested to become a global leader in providing integrated communications services to businesses and consumers, from video entertainment, high-speed Internet and mobility, to IP network services and the Internet of Things. Randall began his career with the company in 1982. He served as chief financial officer from 2001 to 2004, and chief operating officer from 2004 to 2007. He was appointed to AT&T’s board of directors in 2005.
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Dr. Astro Teller oversees X, Alphabet’s moonshot factory for technologies that could solve huge global problems. Before joining X, Astro was the co-founding CEO of Cerebellum Capital, Inc., the co-founding CEO of BodyMedia, Inc., and co-founding CEO of SANDbOX AD. Astro taught at Stanford University, was an engineer and researcher for Phoenix Laser Technologies, Stanford’s Center for Integrated Systems, and The Carnegie Group Incorporated. He holds a Bachelor of Science in computer science from Stanford University, Masters of Science in symbolic and heuristic computation, also from Stanford, and a Ph.D. in artificial intelligence from Carnegie Mellon University, where he was a recipient of the Hertz fellowship. Astro holds many U.S. and international patents in hardware and software technology. He is a novelist and screenwriter.
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Marni Walden is executive vice president and president of Product & New Business Innovation. She is responsible for developing growth businesses in emerging areas like the Internet of Things and digital media, and telematics. She also oversees the company’s Strategy Development and Planning group. Before being named to her current position in February 2015, she was in charge of developing innovative products across the company’s wireless, wireline, IP and cloud networks and platforms. Previously, Ms. Walden served in various roles in Verizon Wireless, including chief operating officer, chief marketing officer and president of Verizon Wireless’ Midwest area. She received a Bachelor of Arts degree from California State University at Chico State.
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Susan Wojcicki is CEO of YouTube, where she oversees content, business operations, engineering, and product development. Prior to joining YouTube in February 2014, Susan was Senior Vice President of Advertising & Commerce at Google, where she oversaw the design and engineering of AdWords, AdSense, DoubleClick, and Google Analytics. She joined Google in 1999 as the company’s first marketing manager and led the initial development of several key consumer products including Google Images and Google Books. In 2002, Susan began working on Google’s advertising products and over the next 12 years she led teams that helped define the vision and direction of Google’s monetization platforms. Susan graduated with honors from Harvard University, holds a master’s in economics from UC Santa Cruz, and an MBA from UCLA.
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Anne co-founded 23andMe in 2006 after a decade spent in healthcare investing, focused primarily on biotechnology companies. 23andMe has built one of the world’s largest databases of individual genetic information. Under Anne’s leadership 23andMe has made significant advances in bringing personalized medicine directly to the public. Anne graduated from Yale University with a BS in Biology.
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Michael J. Wolf is co-founder and managing director of Activate, the leading strategy and technology consulting firm to media, technology and entertainment companies worldwide. He is a business strategist whose focus is on helping senior executives exploit growth opportunities and define the future of their businesses – to win in the dynamic media and tech ecosystem. Previously, Michael was president and COO of MTV Networks, a $7Bn media company, and a managing partner at McKinsey & Co. In 2012 he joined the Yahoo! board as an activist director and was responsible for appointing Marissa Mayer as CEO.
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Nick Woodman is the founder and CEO of GoPro. Established in 2002 to help athletes document themselves in action, GoPro has become a widely adopted solution for professionals and consumers alike to capture and share their lives and passions. Mr. Woodman graduated from the University of California, San Diego with a B.A. in Visual Arts and the intention to succeed as an entrepreneur. After founding two companies, he set out on a five-month surf trip to inspire his third entrepreneurial endeavor. He returned with the motivation for GoPro’s first product, the 35mm HERO. GoPro began trading as a public company on NASDAQ in June 2014. Nick resides in Woodside, California with his wife, Jill, and their three sons…all of whom surf.
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Niklas Zennström created Atomico in 2006 to help entrepreneurs primarily outside Silicon Valley to scale their businesses domestically and globally. Atomico has invested in more than 50 companies on four continents. Before starting Atomico, Mr. Zennström co-founded Skype, where he held the position of CEO from its inception until September 2007. In 2005, Skype was sold to eBay Inc for $3.1bn, the largest European venture capital exit to date. He also co-founded Kazaa, Joost and Joltid. In 2007, he co-founded Zennström Philanthropies, to combat climate change, improve the state of the Baltic Sea and encourage social entrepreneurship. Mr. Zennström holds dual degrees in Business and MSc Engineering Physics/Computer Science from Uppsala University in Sweden, and he spent his final year at the University of Michigan.
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John Zimmer is the co-founder and President of Lyft Inc. John’s interest in peer-to-peer transportation began at Cornell’s School of Hotel Administration. Upon learning that only 20% of seats in cars on highways are occupied, he began working on ways to use existing information infrastructures to solve the problem of unused and empty seats. After graduating first in his class, John spent two years at Lehman Brothers before leaving to rideshare his way from New York to San Francisco to join co-founder Logan Green in launching Zimride, and eventually Lyft.
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2016 FEATURED PARTICIPANTS
Venkat Achanta is Senior Vice President, Chief Data and Analytics Officer at Neustar, Inc. Prior to Neustar, Mr. Achanta was Chief Data Officer and Head of the Data and Analytics group at Walmart. While at Walmart, Mr. Achanta spearheaded the data fabric, advanced analytics platforms and decision services groups globally. Prior to Walmart, Mr. Achanta was Global Head of Analytics and Big Data at AIG. Mr. Achanta was Vice President, Enterprise Data Services at Capital One and Vice President, Global Product Development and Delivery at Experian. Mr. Achanta holds a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science and Engineering from Andhra University in India and a Masters of Business Administration (MBA) from UCLA.
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Ebbe Altberg is the CEO of Linden Lab, developers of Sansar, a new platform that will democratize the creation of social VR experiences. The company has over a decade of success with Second Life, the largest user created virtual world. Ebbe spent time in the startup space as COO of BranchOut and previously was SVP of Media Products at Yahoo!, leading the teams that created the Yahoo! homepage, news, sports, finance and entertainment products and platforms. In 2000, as Chief Product Officer at Ingenio Inc., Ebbe created innovative telephony and marketplace products, leading to the acquisition by AT&T interactive in 2007. Ebbe began his career at Microsoft, ultimately overseeing teams that created Microsoft Office products.
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Bruce E. Aust is Vice Chairman of Nasdaq, where he works closely with Nasdaq’s Global Listing Services unit to assist clients and prospects worldwide. Mr. Aust also serves as President of the Nasdaq Entrepreneurial Center, located in San Francisco, which opened in September 2015. The Entrepreneurial Center is a new non-profit organization established by the Nasdaq Educational Foundation to engage emerging entrepreneurs through events, hands-on mentorship and education. Prior to joining Nasdaq in 1998, Mr. Aust spent 12 years at Fidelity Investments in a variety of sales, trading, and management positions in Dallas, Boston, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. Follow Bruce Aust on Twitter: @Bruce_Aust
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As UCLA’s CEO, Gene Block oversees all aspects of the campus’s three-part mission of education, research and service. A champion of public universities, Chancellor Block has served on national associations and advisory boards including the Association of American Universities, the NCAA, the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities and chairman of the Association of Pacific Rim Universities. He has called for UCLA to deepen its engagement with Los Angeles, a city that offers a microcosm of the global community, and to increase access for students from underrepresented populations. An advocate of interdisciplinary scholarship, he emphasizes broad-based, campus-wide planning. Chancellor Block holds faculty appointments in psychiatry and biobehavioral sciences in the David Geffen School of Medicine and in integrative biology and physiology in the UCLA College.
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Jean-Pierre Bokobza is a member of Accenture Digital’s leadership team with overall responsibly for geographic sales on a global basis. His career with Accenture spans 30 years, leading many parts of the company’s business through disruptive change. In particular, Mr. Bokobza led the charge on the importance of data, building Accenture’s end-to-end suite of industry and functional analytics services and designing go-to-market strategies across Europe, Africa, Latin America, and Asia-Pacific.
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Sponsor
As Global Director, Neil is responsible for uncovering and fostering all partnerships, client relationships and developing consulting opportunities. Additionally, he leads all Designworks’ operations, giving him visibility into the execution of all design programs. Prior to Designworks, Neil was the General Manager of the frogdesign Austin Studio. He was the President of an alternative fuel start-up, T3 Motion, Inc., quickly taking it public. As Director and GM at Porsche Design, California he led teams in the design and development of the Carrera GT and Cayman and at A.T. Kearney he led strategic consulting engagements for automotive clients. Neil graduated from the University of Southampton, England with a bachelor’s degree in business and economics and an MBA from the University of Southern California.
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Sponsor
Paul Cheesbrough is Chief Technology Officer for News Corp. He most recently served as Chief Information Officer for News UK. In this role he was responsible for the organization’s technology strategy, delivery, transformation programs and digital products. Mr. Cheesbrough led enormous change at the company, moving it to more cloud-based technologies and putting innovation and engineering at the heart of the business. Before joining News UK, Mr. Cheesbrough served as Chief Information Officer at the Telegraph Media Group, where he pioneered the development of a wide range of new digital products. Prior to the Telegraph, he was the Controller of Digital Media for the BBC, having started his career in IBM within its media division.
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Phil Chen is a serial entrepreneur whose career surfed three technology waves in ebooks, mobile, and now VR/AR. In 2005, he was VP of Product of the Alex eReader that licensed to B&N to become the nook. In late 2007, he joined HTC, shipped world’s first android phone, led acquisition of Beats by Dre in 2011, and helped grow HTC’s market cap from $2B to $35B from 2007-2012. In 2014, he founded VR/Vive at HTC and most recently founded the first VR/AR fund Presence Capital and joined Horizons Ventures as Advisor investing in VR/AR and AI. He also serves on the board of several companies including Improbable in London, Soul Machines in New Zealand, and Eyeway in Israel, an advisor to Lytro in Silicon Valley.
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Aparna Chennapragada is a Director of Product Management at Google and Technical Assistant (TA) to the CEO. She most recently led Google Now, digital assistant that proactively brings information to you through the day. Having led multiple efforts across Google Search and YouTube over the years, she is excited about the potential of AI and algorithms in powering useful everyday products. Aparna has over 15 years of experience in the tech industry, as a computer scientist, engineer and product leader, starting with helping build world’s first content delivery services at Akamai technologies. She has a Masters in Management and Engineering from MIT, Masters in Computer Science from University of Texas at Austin and a Bachelors in Computer Science from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Madras.
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Stephen DeBerry is the founder of Bronze Investments and formerly a partner at Kapor Capital, Investment Director at Omidyar Network, and Trustee and Member of the Investment Committee at The California Endowment. He runs the Bronze Venture Fund. Mr. DeBerry earned a Bachelor’s degree in Anthropology with highest honors from UCLA as well as Master’s in Social Anthropology and MBA degrees from The University of Oxford. He is a Marshall Scholar and Aspen Institute Henry Crown Fellow. In 2013 he was a member of Expedition Denali, the first African-American mountaineering team to ascend Denali, the highest mountain in North America. The film An American Ascent documents that expedition. He lives in the San Francisco bay area with his wife and two daughters.
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Co-Founder and Co-CEO Adam Goldenberg launched TechStyle Fashion Group in 2010 with partner Don Ressler to challenge the status quo in fashion by integrating data and technology into the entire business cycle – from product design and manufacturing to distribution and customer service. Since then, TechStyle has become one of the fastest-growing fashion companies ever, with four thriving brands (JustFab, ShoeDazzle, Fabletics and FabKids) and over 4 million active VIP members. Goldenberg’s entrepreneurial career began at the age of 17 when he built and sold his first company to Intermix Media where he was named Chief Operating Officer. Following the acquisition of Intermix by News Corp., Goldenberg and Ressler created Intelligent Beauty, an e-commerce brand incubator platform, which later served as the launching pad for TechStyle.
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Jeff Green is CEO and co-founder of The Trade Desk, Inc., a global demand-side platform. In 2004, Mr. Green created the first online ad network – AdECN – where he led all strategy, product, and business development as COO. AdECN launched commercially in the UK in 2006, in the US in early 2007, and was acquired by Microsoft that same year. The Trade Desk was recognized in late 2014 by Outside Magazine as one of the best places to work in America, and earned the same recognition for its New York office by Crain’s New York Business. In 2015, Ernst & Young named Jeff and his co-founder Dave Pickles Entrepreneurs of the Year for the Greater Los Angeles region.
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Rebecca Kaden joined Maveron in 2011 while she was earning her MBA at Stanford. Now a partner in the San Francisco office, Forbes has named Ms. Kaden to its annual list of top “30 under 30” in venture capital, and Craig Newmark named her one of “5 Women Investors You Need to Know.”
Ms. Kaden identifies emerging consumer-focused entrepreneurs building great new technology enabled brands. She has led or sourced Maveron’s investments in Earnest, Eargo, Darby Smart, Dolls Kill, Instamotor, Periscope (acq. Twitter), Way Up, Newsle (acq. LinkedIn), Dia & Co, and others.
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Steffen Kiedel joined Eyeo, the company behind Adblock Plus, as CFO in early 2016. Previously, he served as CFO at Wunderlist, eventually negotiating the sale of that Berlin-based company to Microsoft. At Eyeo Steffen is responsible for finances and the new Flattr Plus project, which lets users fund the content they love easily and automatically. Steffen previously worked in finance and strategy positions at Deutsche Lufthansa and Roland Berger Consultants. Steffen lives in Berlin with his wife and three kids.
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Linda is Etsy’s COO, bringing more than 20 years of experience in operations, international marketing, business development, public relations, and customer service. Prior to joining Etsy in 2016, Linda was COO of Evernote, where she oversaw worldwide operations, and led cross-functional teams in offices across 7 countries. Previously, Linda was based out of Hong Kong and led global marketing, business development, and customer service for Alibaba.com. She has also held leadership positions in communications firms including Fleishman-Hillard, Text 100, and Schwartz Communications.
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Jenny Lefcourt is a partner at Freestyle, a $60M seed stage fund in San Francisco. Jenny invests in next-gen commerce, marketplaces, real estate technology and SaaS. Freestyle has led investments in companies such as Intercom, Patreon, Apple Pie Capital and Digit. Jenny has personally led the firm’s investments in Narvar, BetterUp, Nestio, TrueFacet, Crexi, Riffsy, and others. Prior to joining Freestyle, Jenny cofounded WeddingChannel.com in 1998 (sold: KNOT), cofounded Bella Pictures (sold: CPI) and has personally invested and/or advised start-ups such as StyleSeat, Minted, and MainStreetHub. Jenny earned her BSE at Wharton and attended Stanford’s Graduate School of Business.
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William Santana Li is a seasoned entrepreneur, intrapreneur and corporate executive. He began his career at Ford Motor Company where he founded and served as COO of GreenLeaf LLC, a Ford subsidiary that became the world’s 2nd largest automotive recycler. Bill was recruited by SOFTBANK Venture Capital to establish Model E Corporation as its President and CEO. He subsequently co-founded Build-To-Order Inc. (BTO) as its President and CEO. He also founded Carbon Motors, and as its Chairman and CEO, focused it on developing the world’s first purpose-built law enforcement patrol vehicle. Mr. Li earned a BSEE from Carnegie Mellon University and an MBA from the University of Detroit Mercy.
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Bill founded Royole in 2012 with several of his Stanford friends with the mission to improve the way people interact with and perceive the world. The key technologies developed in the company include world’s thinnest 0.01mm flexible displays, flexible sensors, and 3D virtual mobile theater. Based in Silicon Valley, California, Hong Kong, and Shenzhen, China, the company is led by a team of technologists and professionals from top research institutes and technology companies and has filed hundreds of patents since its inception. Royole is one of the fastest growing tech startups and is valued over $3 Billion with innovations that are fundamentally changing the technology industry.
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Matt Mahan is co-founder and CEO of Brigade, the world’s first network for voters. Brigade, which raised a $9.5MM Series A from investors led by Sean Parker, Marc Benioff, and Ron Conway, is the only social platform built to help voters take back control of their democracy and elect politicians who will keep their promises. Brigade gives our users the tools to work with fellow voters to influence the policies and elections that affect their lives. Matt previously served as CEO of Causes, the world’s largest online campaigning platform with 186 million registered users in 156 countries. Mr. Mahan grew up in Watsonville, California’s strawberry capital, and is a Teach for America alum and former Harvard student body president.
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Steve is the RVP of Sales for the West Region at NetJets where he oversees all retention, new owner acquisition and business development efforts for the territory. Steve Manages a team of 20+ Sales Professionals ranging from Minnesota to California. Steve has been with NetJets for 8 years and in the Private Aviation Industry for 12+ years total. Prior to moving to Los Angeles to manage the West, Steve was VP of Sales covering the Mid-Atlantic territory for NetJets/Marquis Jet, and held several Management positions in the Hospitality industry including Director of Development for Harrah’s Entertainment, at the time the largest casino gaming company in the world. Steve is a graduate of the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University.
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Alexandre Mars is a serial entrepreneur and philanthropist. Over the past 15 years, he launched and sold several companies in Europe and the United States in the business and technology sectors. His last two startups, Phonevalley (a mobile marketing agency) and ScrOOn (a social media management system), were sold to Publicis Groupe and Blackberry. In 2014, he founded Epic Foundation to bridge the gap between a new generation of individual and corporate donors and organizations supporting children and youth globally. Epic is developing new tools focused on enhancing how donors select, monitor and experience their impact. He is regularly quoted by the Financial Times, Le Monde and Bloomberg and is an active member of the Global Philanthropists Circle at Synergos, Young Presidents’ Organization and Nexus.
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Emily Melton is a partner at DFJ where she focuses on consumer and mobile technology, healthcare technologies and marketplaces. Her investments include Elation Health, Livongo, Redfin, Shift, and Wellframe. Emily started her career at DFJ and spent eight years at the firm where she sourced and became actively involved in consumer and enterprise investments including Meebo (acquired by Google), Flux (acquired by MTVNetworks), Kudo (acquired by Google), Redfin, ShareThis, and RichRelevance. Emily spent a year with Mayfield Fund where she was involved in creating the firm’s mobile and consumer investment strategy. Recently, she was an advisor to Pulse Networks (acquired by LinkedIn), HealthTap, and PoshMark. She holds a BA with honors and distinction in political philosophy and an MBA, both from Stanford University.
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Dr. Mosca is an award-winning researcher whose cutting-edge work on quantum computing has been published widely in top journals and textbooks. He is globally recognized for his drive to help academia, industry and government prepare our cyber systems to be safe in an era with quantum computers. He is a co-founder of the Institute for Quantum Computing, and a founding member of the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics. He co-founded evolutionQ Inc. to help organizations evolve their quantum-vulnerable systems and practices to quantum-safe ones.
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Peter Naylor is the SVP of Advertising Sales at Hulu where he oversees the company’s advertising sales and sales operations functions. Prior to Hulu, Naylor was an EVP of Digital Media Sales for NBCUniversal (NBCU) where, during his tenure, he ran digital advertising sales for NBCU’s entertainment, news and sports digital properties. In the advertising community, Naylor served as the Chairman of the Board of the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) in 2012 and sat on the board for over ten years. Naylor is the recipient of the 2015 ASPY Industry Luminary Award and the 2014 ad: tech Industry Achievement award. Currently, Naylor is the founding chairman for the IAB’s Video Center of Excellence.
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Nonny de la Peña is the founder and CEO of Emblematic Group, the next-generation syndicated news network for VR. A Yale Poynter Media Fellow and former correspondent for Newsweek, she is known for creating the genre of immersive journalism and pioneering walk-around virtual reality with the first ever VR documentary Hunger in Los Angeles at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival. Emblematic creates volumetric news and branded virtual reality experiences with organizations including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Google, Associated Press, The World Economic Forum and Standard Chartered Bank. In 2016, the Knight Foundation awarded Emblematic a grant to produce a series of VR documentaries in partnership with Frontline.
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Nick Rappolt is co-founder and CEO of Beyond, an experience design agency created in 2010 with funding from parent company, Next 15. As CEO, he is responsible for clients – which include Google, Virgin and Novartis – and people across four global offices. Previous to this, Mr. Rappolt’s career has spanned roles in PR, advertising and digital marketing, working with brands including Apple, GE and Accel. His PR agency, Credo, was acquired by Bite Communications in 2005.
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Maria Renz is a vice president at Amazon and currently serves as technical advisor to the CEO, Jeff Bezos. During her 17 years at Amazon she has led teams of 1-500+ across many Amazon retail categories ranging from Healthand Personal Care, to Books, and Shoes. She launched Subscribe & Save, a customer favorite feature, and challenged her team to think big by increasing our presence in Canada, launching the Amazon Campus initiative and laying the groundwork for Amazon Mexico. She has also held roles with several Amazon subsidiaries including CEO of Quidsi. Maria also founded MyHabit, a fashion flash sale site. Maria holds an MBA from Vanderbilt University and a B.S. from Drexel University.
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As the President of Global Media and Communications, Joy Tan is responsible for setting and executing the media and communications strategy for the company. Prior to this position, Ms. Tan was responsible for the corporate branding efforts and led the brand transformation initiative to build Huawei into a global brand. Ms. Tan joined Huawei in 2007 and was responsible for integrated marketing communications efforts for the US market before taking the corporate positions. Prior to Huawei, Ms. Tan worked at several large companies including Verizon and TXU Energy. Ms. Tan studied Biology at Tsinghua University in China, holds a Master’s Degree and Ph.D candidacy in Neuroscience from University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and MBA in Marketing from University of Texas at Dallas.
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Andrew Thompson is Co-Founder, President and CEO of Proteus Digital Health. He is also a Co-Founder and Board Member of Summit Schools, a leading Charter School organization with an acclaimed track record and unique digital platform, featured in the Davis Guggenheim movie “Waiting for Superman”. Mr. Thompson is active in digital humanities innovation as a Member of the Stanford University Libraries and Academic Information Resources Council and with Cambridge University. He is a Co-Founder of Parker Library Online – a leading destination for digital medieval studies. He holds master’s degrees in Engineering (Cambridge), Education (Stanford) and Business (Stanford GSB) and has a successful 25 year track record starting and building technology based healthcare companies in Silicon Valley.
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Bradley Tusk is the founder and CEO of Tusk Holdings, the parent company of Tusk Strategies, Tusk Ventures, Kronos Archives, the Ivory Gaming Group and the Tusk Montgomery Family Foundation. Bradley served as Mike Bloomberg’s campaign manager in 2010. In 2016, he advised Bloomberg on a potential presidential run. Mr. Tusk served as spokesman and senior advisor to Commissioner Henry Stern in the New York City Parks Department. He served as Communications Director for U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer, before becoming Special Advisor to Mayor Bloomberg at City Hall. From 2003-2006, Bradley was Deputy Governor of Illinois. Bradley received his B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania in 1995 and a J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School in 1999.
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Henrik Werdelin is the co-founder of Bark & Co and Managing Partner of Prehype, a venture development firm headquartered in New York with offices in Copenhagen, London and New York. Prehype co-creates new ventures and incubation programs with corporations and VCs. They have launched venture backed startups like BarkBox and ManagedByQ. Mr. Werdelin been involved in a range of startups and corporate incubations as either founder, investor or advisor; including HotPotato (now by Facebook), GoTryItOn (now Rent the Runway), NewSmart (incubated with NewsCorp), ReadMill (now DropBox), Betabox (incubated with Mondelez) and Sunrise (now Microsoft). He was the Entrepreneur in Residence with Index Ventures and ran product development for MTV International. Mr. Werdelin is Danish but lives in the U.S.
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Jenny Zeng is the Managing Partner of MSA, founded by Ms. Zeng in 2011. MSA focuses on direct investments in the Chinese consumer, TMT and healthcare sectors and invests in growth to late equity stages.
Prior to MSA, Ms. Zeng founded a boutique financial advisory firm, which provided a range of corporate advisory, and private placement services to blue-chip Chinese clients. During this period, she pioneered the promotion of angel investments in China. She also co-founded the first China-focused fund of funds.
Prior to founding Maple Valley, Ms. Zeng was the first ever executive director of the China Venture Capital Association.
Mr. Zeng is a founder of the Harvard Innovation Lab, a collaboration and education platform designed to foster entrepreneurship and innovation across Harvard.
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Past HIGHLIGHTS




STARTUP SHOWCASE
On Tuesday night, a panel of judges including Kate Hudson, Co-Founder of Fabletics, Theresia Gouw of Aspect Ventures and Nick Woodman of GoPro, challenged seven Startup Showcase finalists to prove their company is the next big thing. One entrepreneur, was selected by audience vote and was featured in the Journal’s special report.













