Speakers

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Sumaya Kazi, CEO & Editor-in-Chief, YoProCo.com

Sumaya Kazi is an award-winning entrepreneur and consultant advising top global brands and startups on new media strategy and implementation. Her clients include mobile advertising networks, social media platforms, lawyers, media companies and Fortune 500 technology companies. She is the CEO & Editor-in-Chief of YoProCo.com where her team is focused on building the CNN for young professionals worldwide. Sumaya has been recognized by BusinessWeek as one of America's "Best Young Entrepreneurs," CNN as a "Young Person Who Rocks," and by Silicon Valley Business Journal as a "Woman of Influence".

 

 

Safwan Shah, President, Infonox

Safwan Shah is an industry expert in payments, transaction processing, risk management and self-service delivery systems like ATM’s and Kiosks. His current focus is in the area of social media and spends his time providing strategic advisory and consulting services with occasional investments in startups.

Most recently, from 1999 to 2009, Safwan Shah was the President of Infonox, a company he founded and then made into a leader in delivering multiple, end-to-end, payment services to casinos, banks, retail and money transfer businesses. Under Safwan Shah’s entrepreneurial leadership, Infonox developed and successfully operated financial payment platforms that touch over 100M consumers and settle over $25 Billion annually. In 2008, Infonox, a successful, market leading, company was acquired by TSYS (NYSE:TSS) as the best in class technology platform for expanding their global payment processing and merchant acquiring business.

Before Infonox, Safwan held research positions at BioServe Space Technologies (a NASA center for commercial development of space) and was an integral part of a number of landmark experiments that have been flown in the US Space Shuttle Program.  As early as 1997, in the pure Internet, social media space, Safwan Shah co-founded Chowk.Chowk, which means town square or intersection, remains the premier social website used by English speaking people of India and Pakistan for discussion and dialog on political and social issues. Several million people annually visit Chowk and it is recognized as the independent voice of reason and peace in a region engulfed in decades of conflict.

Safwan Shah has a Masters in Electrical Engineering and Doctorate in Aerospace Engineering from University of Colorado at Boulder. In 2009, Safwan attended the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University and completed the Stanford Executive Program (SEP).

 

 

 

Monis Rahman, Chairman and CEO, Naseeb Networks

Mr. Monis Rahman is Chairman and CEO of Naseeb Networks, a leading provider of recruitment, social networking, classifieds and related services in Pakistan.  Under his leadership, Naseeb Networks launched ROZEE.PK, Pakistan’s most powerful recruiting platform, which is used today by over 27,000 employers, 1.4 Million registered professionals and 85 HEC accredited universities.  He leveraged the company’s initial success to raise a historic round of venture capital investment from two leading Silicon Valley funds – ePlanet Ventures and Draper Fisher Jurvetson. He has also served on the Central Executive Committee of the Pakistan Software Houses Association (P@SHA).   He is the recipient of International Data Group CIO Pakistan Pioneer in Innovation 2008 Award.

 

 

Naeem Zafar, Founder, Concordia Ventures

Naeem Zafar is a member of the faculty of Haas Business School at the University of California Berkeley, where he teaches Entrepreneurship and Innovation as part of the MBA program. He founded Concordia Ventures, a company focused on educating and advising entrepreneurs on all aspects of starting and running a business (www.ConcordiaVentures.com). He was the president and CEO at Pyxis Technology, Silicon Design Systems and Veridicom, a Bell Labs spin-off that invented the silicon fingerprint sensors. Naeem has held senior marketing and engineering positions at Quickturn which had an IPO in 1993, XCAT and Honeywell.

 

 

Dr. Ahmad Jan Durrani, Vice Chancellor and Professor of Engineering at LUMS

Dr. Ahmad Jan Durrani is Vice Chancellor and Professor of Engineering at Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS), Lahore, Pakistan since July 1, 2008. With research, teaching, and academic administration career spanning over 25 years, Dr. Durrani has served in various capacities at Rice University, Houston, Texas.  He was chair of the civil engineering department at Rice University for six years and served as associate dean of engineering for three years. He is a Fellow of the American Society of Civil Engineers and the Founding Director of the Rice Global Forum on engineering and construction. He has extensively researched and published in the areas of earthquake resistant design of built infrastructure and seismic hazard mitigation.

 

 

Umair Khan, Founder and CEO, SecretBuilders.com

Umair is founder and CEO of SecretBuilders.com, one of the fastest growing virtual worlds for children and young adults. Umair Khan is also a Venture Partner with The Entrepreneurs’ Fund (TEFIII), an early stage, software-focused venture fund. Previously, Umair co-founded Clickmarks Inc., a Silicon Valley based enterprise software company. As CEO of Clickmarks Umair grew the company through $27 million in venture funding from investors such as Vodafone, DFJ, and Mitsubishi to its acquisition by Semotus Inc. Umair is also founder and chairman of Verisium, a Silicon Valley based software testing tools company, and of Folio3, a services company providing offshore operations incubation to startups and other small companies. 

 

 

 

Idris Kothari, VP of Engineering, Vertical Systems Inc

Idris Kothari has 30+ years of experience in the high-tech industry. He co-founded a number of successful Silicon Valley start-ups in Network security, PC Chip-sets and Hospitality Services. He held various senior management positions as CTO, VP Engineering and product development. He also served on the Board of Directors of these start ups. He was co-founder of VIA Technology that developed one of the first fab-less semiconductor product lines for the PC market in 1987. He co-founded VPNet, where development of initial VPN HW accelerator systems helped define the Virtual Private Network space. He was also co-founder of Vertical Systems Inc, a hospitality service business providing key software technologies for travelers through 1000 systems installed around the globe. He developed key technologies in self healing PC’s – remote monitoring / updates and micro-charging infrastructure over the internet.

 

 

Leila Chirayath Janah, CEO, Samasource

Leila Chirayath Janah first developed the idea behind Samasource while working as a management consultant at Katzenbach Partners (now Booz & Co.), where her clients included global leaders in the outsourcing and telecom sectors and a number of prominent non-profits. Along with Professors Thomas Pogge and Aidan Hollis, she founded Incentives for Global Health and helped produce a plan for incentivizing the development of new drugs for neglected diseases. Leila authored background papers for the World Bank's Development Research Group and Ashoka on equity and social rights.

 

 

Jeff Clavier, Founder, SoftTech VC

Jean-Francois “Jeff” Clavier is the Founder and Managing Partner of SoftTech VC, one of the most active seed stage investors in Web 2.0 startups. Since 2004, Jeff has invested in more than 70 consumer Internet companies in areas like social media, communities, search, gaming or consumer infrastructure, almost exclusively in Silicon Valley. With over 20 years of operational, entrepreneurial and venture capital experience, Jeff was recognized as one of the 13 "Web 2.0" King Makers, and in 2008, BusinessWeek named him one of "The 25 Most Influential People on the Web".

 

 

Saad Khan, Partner, CMEA Capital

Saad joined CMEA Capital in 2007 as a Partner and leads the firm's software and Internet investments, and their seed initiatives. Saad led CMEA's investments and serves on the board of portfolio companies Pixazza, Blekko, Jobvite, and Evolution Robotics. From prior affiliations, Saad also serves on the advisory board for Lending Club, and is a founding member of the FilmAngels.

Prior to joining CMEA, Saad was a Venture Partner and led the advisory services group at Garage Technology Ventures (GTV), a seed and early stage venture capital firm. During his career at Garage, Saad worked with many emerging technology, software, and digital media companies including TripleHop (acquired by ORCL), cFares, and Pandora.

Before GTV, Saad worked for IBM research's alphaWorks team and in Strategic Planning and Business Development for the Buena Vista Internet Group at the Walt Disney Company. Saad received a B.S. degree in Symbolic Systems and an A.B in Economics with Honors in Science, Technology, and Society from Stanford University. He is a Charter Member of TIE and currently an advisor at the Stanford D.School.

You can follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/saadventures or at www.saadwired.com and www.cmea.com/blog.

 

 

Maurice Gunderson, Senior Partner, CMEA

Maurice Gunderson, Senior Partner, joined CMEA Capital in 2006 to focus on investments in new and innovative energy sources and technologies. Maurice is a specialist in thermodynamics and energy technologies. Throughout Maurice's career, he has been instrumental in the development of cryogenic equipment, engines and energy conversion systems, turbo-machinery, and control systems for process plants and pipelines. Previously, Maurice co-founded Nth Power, a venture capital firm specializing in investments emerging from the global restructuring of the energy industry. Maurice spent more than 20 years developing energy products and launched five successful companies. Maurice also has served on the board of directors of over twenty energy technology companies. He currently serves on the boards of Amerigon, Inc. (Nasdaq:ARGN), and CMEA Capital portfolio companies Superprotonic, Inc., CFX Battery, Inc., and NuScale Power, Inc., and is an expert team member at Scion-Sprays, Ltd. in the UK.

 

 

Osman Rashid, CEO and Co-founder, Kno, Inc

Osman is a serial entrepreneur who is currently the Co-founder and CEO of Kno, Inc. Osman has left a strong impact on the world of education as the founding CEO of Chegg. As CEO of Chegg, he grew the company 100x since it launched the textbook rental model in 2007, and made it scalable before handing the day to day responsibilities over so that he could focus on Kno. For his leadership and vision in creating a world-class consumer focused, data driven, marketing and logistics operation from scratch, Osman was named the 2009 Entrepreneur of the Year for the coveted Northern California region by Ernst & Young. Osman’s first entrepreneurial start-up was eBot, Inc., an email management company which he started eighteen months out of college, and which was sold in less than year. After that, he held key positions in marketing and sales for a leading call-center company and Chordiant, a publicly-held enterprise software company focused on customer management.

 

 

Rehan Jalil, President, Wichorus

Rehan has over 15 years of technical management and sales experience in telecommunications, networking and multi-core processors. Prior to WiChorus he was the chief architect for Aperto Networks and played diverse leadership roles in technology and sales. He led development of multiple generations of broadband wireless silicon, carrier-grade wireless telecom equipment, and also brought in multi-million dollar orders in his sales role. At Sun Microsystems, he helped develop one of the industry’s earliest advanced multi-core multithreaded processor for throughput computing and graphics applications. At Siemens, he managed large-scale projects related to system-level design and implementation.

 

 

Omar Khan, Founder, Carbonated.tv

Founder of carbonated.tv, a media aggregation and production company focusing on content delivery on mobile and tablet devices. He is a board member of Rivepoint, a startup featuring mobile coupons. He is also the co-founder of Netpace Inc. a software consulting company focusing on enterprise application development. An avid follower of international news & politics, He is the anchor/director of a current affairs program called ‘The Truth Serum’. Previously he was the host and executive producer of ‘Jaiza’, a popular weekly talk show highlighting the ‘Pakistani-American Perspective’ that aired on a global Pakistani satellite channel for 4 years.

 

 

Michael Tanne, Founder and CEO, Wink

Michael Tanne has been involved with building search engines for a long time, starting at Verity where he directed product management. He started Wink in 2005, compelled by a belief that people could provide valuable input that would make search better. Prior to Wink, Michael was CEO of X-Degrees, and was a founder of AdForce (IPO 1999) which was ultimately sold to CMGI. Michael serves on the Board of Cloudmark, a leading provider of anti-spam solutions. He is a Founder and Board Member of Full Circle Fund, a Bay Area non-profit that engages emerging business leaders in philanthropy through grants and hands-on assistance to promising organizations.

 

 

Babur Ozden, Advisor to Start-Ups; Former CEO emerging market companies

an internationally acclaimed mobile applications provider (acquired by Avanzit MCE: AVZ); President of DataCert, world’s no 1 provider of legal online billing (acquired by CCH Wolters Kluwer Wolters WLSNC: NA); CEO of LenSec, no 1 provider of web-based video surveillance platform to Public School Districts in the USA; and CEO of Superonline, the most recognized Internet brand in Turkey (acquired by Turkcell NYSE:TKC). His experience spans mobile, web, Internet, consumer, enterprise, USA, Europe, and Asia. Babur holds an undergraduate degree in Computer Science from the University of Texas at Austin and MBA from Rice University, and currently advises BroadVision (NASDAQ:BVSN), Transpera and Hakia.

 

 

Ethan Casey, Author

of two travel books about Pakistan: Alive and Well in Pakistan (2004, called "magnificent" by Ahmed Rashid and "intelligent and compelling" by Mohsin Hamid) and Overtaken By Events: A Pakistan Road Trip (2010). From his base in Seattle, he has made writing, publishing and promoting his books (and, by extension, a more nuanced and human portrayal of Pakistan than we see in most US media) into his main career. In the 1990s he was an Asia-based correspondent for leading newspapers including The Globe and Mail and the Boston Globe, but as the economic foundation of media industries has changed, Ethan has changed his approach as a practitioner - without changing his core values or goals. Visit his website: www.aliveandwellinpakistan.com

 

 

Zainab Jeewanjee, Sales Director, Go One Global Corp

Zainab Jeewanjee is Sales Director at the Insurance aggregator Go One Global Corp and heads operations at Insure1234.com. She is also a blogger for the Foreign Policy Association of America where she writes regularly on U.S. - Pakistan relations. Zainab graduated from Santa Clara University with a degree in Political Science and completed a thesis entitled U.S. Foreign Policy to Pakistan: 3 Instances of Bilateral Cooperation from Partition Through the Cold War. She will continue her studies in politics with a Masters in International Relations from the Korbel School, Denver University beginning Fall 2010.

 

 

Salman Khan, Founder, Khan Academy

Salman Khan is the founder and faculty of the Khan Academy--a collection of 1400+ videos and software that is the most used k-12 and college educational resource on the Internet. It has recently been profiled on CNN, NPR, and the PBS NewsHour and Salman envisions it becoming the world's free virtual school.
Salman will talk about his experience leveraging technology for high social impact, why he chose the not-for-profit route, and the repercussions his type of effort will have on education in particular and social entrepreneurship in general.
Before the Khan Academy, Salman was an analyst and portfolio manager at several Bay Area hedge funds. He has also worked product management and technology at Oracle Corporation and Xerox PARC. Salman holds an MBA from Harvard Business School. He also has an M.Eng. in electrical engineering and computer science, a B.S. in computer science, and a B.S. in mathematics from MIT.

 

 

Elon Boms, Founder and Managing Director, Launch Capital LLC

Elon Boms venture capital experience includes structuring bio-tech, consumer products and software development deals; he also has significant finance, consulting and marketing experience. Most recently, Boms was a managing consultant at Fidelity Investments where he worked primarily on strategy initiatives for financial investments in emerging markets. Prior to his work with Fidelity, Boms worked in Corporate Finance for Citigroup. He began his career as a brand manager at Georgia Pacific Company’s Dixie Foodservice division, where he assumed responsibility for $25M in capital investments and engineered a complete profit turnaround for the paper cup business.

 

 

Ann Miura-Ko, Partner, Floodgate Ventures (formerly Maples Investment)

Ann Miura-Ko is a partner at FLOODGATE where her investment interests include the innovations in e-commerce, security, and big data. In addition to serving at FLOODGATE, Ann is finishing up a Ph.D. in the Management Science and Engineering Department at Stanford University, where her research focused on mathematical modeling of computer security. She also teaches High Tech Entrepreneurship with Steve Blank in Stanford’s renowned Technology Ventures Program and is a frequent lecturer in courses such as Technology Venture Formation, High-tech Entrepreneurship, and the Mayfield Fellows Program. Many of her students have gone on to secure Angel and VC funding for their ideas. Prior to joining FLOODGATE and her stint at Stanford, Ann worked at Charles River Ventures and McKinsey and Company.

 

 

Stephen Ciesinski, VP, Corporate Strategic Programs, SRI International

Stephen Ciesinski has overall responsibility for SRI's commercial R&D business development, international offices, innovation programs, corporate energy and automotive sector initiatives, strategic marketing, and other corporate programs. Ciesinski’s professional experience includes a variety of industries and businesses-consumer products, semiconductor capital equipment, telecommunications, mobile/wireless, applications software, Web 2.0, open source, medical devices, and many others. As a corporate officer, board member, advisor and investor, he has participated in or managed numerous strategic events, including new business formation, major product launches, private financings, IPOs, M&A transactions, and leveraged buy-outs. Over the course of his career Ciesinski held executive management positions with Applied Materials, the global manufacturer of semiconductor capital equipment; Octel Communications, the worldwide leader in voice-messaging products; Resumix, Inc., the inventor of Web-based personnel recruiting applications; and Laszlo Systems, a pioneer in Web 2.0 software and provider of complex Internet applications to Global 2000 and telecommunications service operators. He started his career at Procter & Gamble, was a consultant with Booz, Allen & Hamilton, and also served as a venture partner with Earlybird Ventures.

 

 

Dr Jahanzeb Sherwani, Founder and CEO of iTeleport LLC

Dr Jahanzeb Sherwani is the Founder and CEO of iTeleport LLC, an iPhone startup whose flagship app iTeleport has been among the top 100 grossing apps in both the iPhone and iPad App Stores.  iTeleport (formerly Jaadu VNC) is a revolutionary application that lets users control their computers from anywhere in the world -- and provides a rich display of the remote desktop, along with full mouse and keyboard control.  The company's vision is to enable people to access their stuff from anywhere -- their music, their videos, their files, and even their webcam stream -- to any device they're using.  Dr Sherwani is also Adjunct Faculty at Carnegie Mellon University, where he works on voice applications for low-literate users in the developing world, which was also the focus of his PhD dissertation.

 

 

Kate Fiandaca, Recruiter, GreeneSearch

Kate Fiandaca is a technical recruiter with GreeneSearch. She works with candidates that are seeking the challenge and excitement of a startup, and that are passionate about technology. She is always open to networking and connecting with top engineering and technical talent. GreeneSearch's client companies are some of the most exciting startups in the San Francisco Bay Area. Many are backed by top VC firms including Sequoia, Benchmark, Greylock, and Accel. With over 25 active clients, some current and past customers of GreeneSearch include Facebook, Mint, social gaming startups and advertising/marketing startups.

 

Mark Gorenberg, Managing Director, Hummer Winblad Venture Partners

Mark joined Hummer Winblad Venture Partners in 1990. He has served as a board member for start-up and public software companies, including AdForce, HomeGrocer, NetDynamics, Omniture, Infopia, Lathan, kwiry, Tizor and Scopus Technologies. Currently, he serves as a Director of Aria Systems, Cenzic, Crowd Factory, ontheFRONTIER, Replay Solutions, and Sonatype.

Mark is also a member of the Board of Trustees for Massachusetts Institute of Technology Corporation and The H. John Heinz III Center for Science, Economics and The Environment.

Prior to joining Hummer Winblad Venture Partners, Mark managed a number of new media areas and was a member of the original SparcStation I team at Sun Microsystems. He received a BSEE from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, an MSEE from the University of Minnesota, and an MS in Engineering Management from Stanford University.

 

 

Ellen Shulman, Associate, Lee Hecht Harrison & Career Coach, Careers In Touch

Ellen is an Associate at Lee Hecht Harrison and career coach in private practice at Careers In Touch. She counsels individuals who are career changers or in career transition.  Her clients are from a variety of Silicon Valley industries including IT, Bio Tech, Financial Services, Manufacturing and Retail.  Her area of focus is in strategic job search planning, personal branding and tactics utilizing web 2.0 strategies.  Prior to becoming a career consultant Ellen worked as a Senior Consultant and Manager to Strategic Mindshare, a boutique consulting firm specializing in consumer products and services, a Fashion Buyer with experience in importing goods from Asia and Europe and an Adjunct Assistant Professor at the Fashion Institute of Technology in NYC.  Ellen holds a BA in Communications from the University of Wisconsin (Madison) and MA in Career Development from John F. Kennedy University.

 

 

Richard Lowenthal, Founder and CEO, Coulomb Technologies

Richard Lowenthal is the CEO of Coulomb Technologies, which he co-founded in 2007. From 1998 until 2007 he was instrumental in starting several companies, including Lightera, Pipal Systems and Procket Networks. From 1996 to 1997, Mr. Lowenthal was vice president and general manager of Cisco's WAN Access Products Division. From 1990 through 1995, Mr. Lowenthal was vice president of research and development for StrataCom, a telecommunications equipment company. Prior to StrataCom, Mr. Lowenthal was co-founder and vice president of engineering for Stardent Computers, and vice president of engineering for Convergent Technologies.

Mr. Lowenthal is also a former Mayor of Cupertino, California, and has been heavily involved in the non-profit world. He has a BS degree in Electrical Engineering from UC Berkeley.

 

 

M. Raghib Hussain, Co-founder, Cavium Networks

Raghib has been in high-tech industry for about twenty years. He is one of the founders of Cavium Networks, where he is currently serving as Chief Technology Officer and Corporate Vice President of Software Engineering at. Prior to Cavium Networks, Raghib has held senior technical roles at Cisco, a network equipment company and Cadence Design Systems, an EDA design services company. Prior to that, Raghib served at VPNet, an enterprise security company, of which he was an beginning team member. At VPNet, he was a key contributor to the design of the first commercial IPSec based VPN gateway. Raghib has 11 issued and multiple pending patents. He received a BS degree in Computer Systems Engineering from NED University in Karachi, Pakistan, and an MS degree in Computer Engineering from San Jose State University. Raghib also Chairs EEMBC Networking Benchmark Group, he is on the board of trustees of PACC and ING.

 

 

Rajesh Setty, Entrepreneur, Speaker, Author, Investor

Rajesh Setty is an entrepreneur, author and speaker based in Silicon Valley. Rajesh is involved in multiple startups in US and India in some combination as a board member, advisor and/or operating executive. Rajesh has written and published nine books with his first book being published at the age of thirteen. Rajesh has been blogging since 2003 and has published more than 1400 articles on entrepreneurship, leadership and simply living a life beyond code. You can read more about him at http://www.rajeshsetty.com/about and you can see his blog at http://www.lifebeyondcode.com

 

 

Cindy McCreery, Hollywood Writer

An accomplished Hollywood Screenwriter  Cindy McCreery is a graduate of the Walt Disney/ABC Feature Writing Fellowship program. She has worked with Disney, New Line Cinema, Nickelodeon Films, National Geographic Films, Warner Brothers. Her on-screen writing credits include FREE WILLY: ESCAPE FROM PIRATES COVE, BABY BOOM for MGM, RISING STAR and others.

 

 

Salman Ullah, Co-founder, Merus Capital

Salman co-founded Merus Capital in November 2007. Previously he was Vice President of Corporate Development at Google, where he spent three years managing a worldwide team responsible for all of Google's acquisitions and investments. Prior to Google, he spent over seven years at Microsoft in several roles including General Manager of Corporate Strategy and Managing Director of Corporate Development.

Earlier in his career, he was an Engagement Manager at McKinsey in Chicago where he spent four years working in the technology and consumer goods sectors. He was also a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow in physics at the University of Virginia and the University of Chicago.

He holds an undergraduate degree in physics from the University of Oxford, and a Ph.D. in theoretical physics from Stanford University.

 

 

Riaz Karamali, Partner, Sheppard Mullin

Riaz has structured and negotiated numerous complex, long-term technology-based and service-based alliance agreements relating to business process outsourcing, information technology infrastructure outsourcing, manufacturing outsourcing, research and development outsourcing, software application development and management, software OEM transactions, internet search and display advertising alliances, university technology transfer transactions and traditional corporate joint ventures. Riaz has extensive experience in assisting clients with the legal and strategic aspects of all phases of outsourcing transactions including the planning of the request for proposal to potential vendors, evaluation of vendors, the negotiation of the transaction documents, transition planning, relationship governance and the handling of contractual disagreements.

Riaz also has extensive experience in corporate law, venture finance and mergers and acquisitions. Riaz has worked with hundreds of start-up and emerging companies, guiding them from their pre-founding stages through their angel and venture capital financing rounds, significant commercial contracts and strategic alliances to their ultimate exit transactions. He has acted as outside general counsel to many such privately held companies in a wide range of industries including Internet, social gaming, biotechnology, semiconductor technology, medical devices and consulting. Riaz has significant experience with cross-border transactions involving numerous countries including Australia, Bahrain, the Cayman Islands, China, Dubai, Egypt, France, Germany, India, Israel, Jordan, Luxembourg, Malaysia, the Netherlands, Pakistan, the Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Spain and Switzerland. He has studied at J.D., Columbia Law School, 1988, and received a B.A., Rice University, 1985.

 

 

Imran Sayeed, Senior VP, Keane

Imran Sayeed leads all commercial sector industry practices for Keane, a global BPO and IT Services company with ~14,000 professionals worldwide. Sayeed came to Keane through its acquisition of netNumina, a boutique technology strategy and consulting form that he founded and grew from a 15 person startup to one of Computerwold's Top 100 emerging companies. He is currently the chairman of OPEN global. Sayeed attended Brown University where he majored in Engineering, and Harvard University for post graduate work. Imran is also a senior lecturer at the MIT Sloan business school.

 

 

Athena Katsaros, Leadership Trainer, Executive and Team Coach

Athena Katsaros is a partner in IdeaTribe. She is a leadership trainer and an executive and team coach. She works with executives who are committed to being exceptional leaders, visionaries, and catalysts for change in their organizations. In her work with teams, Athena uses a powerful methodology that helps teams create greater alignment, accountability, and performance. her training programs focus on leadership, coaching, and teamwork.

Athena is a featured speaker at conferences and events, including the Microsoft's Women's Leadership Conference in October 2009.

Her experience includes 20 years as a marketing strategist for Fortune 500 companies including Cisco Systems, Xerox, Hewlett Packard, and BankAmerica. In this role she planned, developed and directed complex projects, including national and international training programs, multimedia marketing campaigns, and large conferences and events.

As a member of the Executive Committee for the Business Council for Peace, Athena co-develops and delivers training and mentoring programs for businesswomen in Afghanistan and Rwanda. She has also provided leadership development training for Jordanian business women.

Athena is a co-founder of IdeaTribe (www.ideatribe.com) and a member of the faculty of The Coaches Training Institute, a worldwide training organization headquartered in San Rafael, California. She is also on the faculty of the Artemis program at the Thunderbird School of Global Management in Phoenix, Arizona. Athena holds a Bachelors degree in International Politics from UCLA and a Masters in International Business from the Monterey Institute of International Studies. She is a certified leader of Creativity in Business and a Certified Professional Coactive Coach.

 

 

Noosheen Hashemi, Philanthropist

Noosheen Hashemi is a philanthropist with a passion for entrepreneurship and economic development. Since 2003, she has led her family's charitable giving as President of The H.A.N.D. Foundation, which has committed significant resources to research and capacity building. The foundation's programs include Forsat.org, an online educational resource to promote entrepreneurship and free markets in Persian-speaking countries, and the H.A.N.D. Research Foundation, an online resource for studying Iran's economy. Ms. Hashemi is the founder and Chairman of the PARSA Community Foundation, the first Persian community foundation in the United States and the leading Persian philanthropic institution practicing strategic philanthropy and promoting social entrepreneurship around the globe.

Between 1985 and 1995, she worked at Oracle, where she took active part in the meteoric rise of the software industry. She was appointed Director of Finance and Administration in 1988 and Vice President in 1990. In 1991, she won Oracle's "Against All Odds Award" for her role in the company's financial turnaround. In 1993, she became Vice President of Marketing and Business Development for Oracle's worldwide education business. From 1996 to 1997, Ms. Hashemi was Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Quote.com, an Internet finance portal. She holds a B.S. in economics from San Jose State University and an M.S. in management from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business, where she was a Sloan Fellow.

 

 

Amy Plemons, TV Producer

Amy Plemons is an Emmy nominated television producer with 15 years of experience as a broadcast journalist and content provider. She's clocked time at an international cable network (TechTV) and a competitive top ten newsroom (CBS 11 Dallas). She now produces technology and environmental lifestyle programming for both the web and international syndication. As larger audiences turn from traditional to digital media, Amy has seen firsthand both the opportunities and challenges content producers face in this new information age.

 

 

Awais Khan, Partner, Ackrell Capital

Mr. Awais Khan is a partner at Ackrell Capital. He is focused on media and clean technology and has engaged in numerous cross-border transactions . Prior to Ackrell Capital, Awais was a Director of the Venture Capital Practice at KPMG where he was engaged in various strategic and commercial analyses of industries for institutional client's pursuit of potential acquisition candidates. Awais is also the contributing editor for AlwaysOn and is the chair of the editorial panel to evaluate and select a yearly list of top 100 emerging companies.

 

 

Farzana Ali, President & Principal Consultant

With over 18 years experience as an Organizational Training and Development professional, Farzana's forte is human capital, performance management, strategic planning, and the development of business systems and processes. She is an accomplished instructor, facilitator, and presenter who has designed and deployed numerous human resource and operational systems, supported by customized training programs and modules. Prior to launching CONSULTANTS for Systems, Talent and Organizational Development LLC, Farzana has completed projects within the manufacturing and service industries including hospitality, customer call centers, human resources consulting, and newspaper printing plants, with employees ranging from 120 to more than 14,000. Her special talent and experience is in mentoring and developing diverse people in multi-cultural environments both domestically and internationally. She has been an enabler of successful careers and leadership skills among numerous individuals at different levels. Accredited in Human Resource Management from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), London, UK, and in Training and Development from the American Society for Training and Development (ASTD), Farzana is a certified European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM) Assessor and Lead Auditor of ISO 9001:2000, and holds a Bachelor's degree in Commercial Arts. Her passion is training, and she is driven by the potential of the human spirit to learn and to improve!

 

 

Azhar Husain Zeeshan, Entrepreneur

Azhar has over 9 years of experience as a software engineer in web development, embedded middleware and multi-platform network management systems. He is a budding entrepreneur and has founded Zaaviya (www.zaaviya.com), a web and mobile solutions company. Prior to Zaaviya, he worked at Cisco Systems, Luminous Networks and Net Access Communication Systems. He received a BS, Computer Sciences and Engineering from GIK Institute of Engineering Sciences & Technology in Topi, Pakistan. He likes the outdoors and is an avid news reader frequently sharing his insights on issues ranging from local and global politics to international development. He is also working to launch a news portal in the near future.

 

 

Faraz Hoodbhoy, Founder and CEO of PixSense

Faraz is a 3rd generation, dyed-in-the-wool entrepreneur with unparalleled experience in the Pakistan-Silicon Valley corridor. With 15 years of global business experience gathered in over 40 countries, Faraz is, most recently, the founder of PixSense. PixSense is a successful mobile social media business with deployments across the globe including Indonesia, Malaysia, Norway, Vietnam, and the Philippines. With significant operating experience gathered in Silicon Valley, Faraz has raised over $15M in venture capital as a Silicon Valley entrepreneur. His career spans multiple functional roles from software and product design and development, to business development and sales, to executive management. Faraz has held operational roles that have varied from temp to CEO at organizations that include Microsoft, Capgemini/Ernst and Young, the United Way, Data Communications & Control, Clickmarks, NextBrick, Unisys, and of course, PixSense.

Faraz has particularly strong ties with the Pakistani technology sector, having worked there for several years and having helped build three world-class engineering teams there. An expert in mobile and imaging software, Faraz continues to contribute to professional and trade publications and co-authored one of the first books on XML, "Applied XML - A Toolkit for Programmers" (John Wiley & Sons). Faraz lives in Santa Clara with his wife and 2 children, is a horrible but die-hard golfer, a semi-decent squash player, and is a cigar aficionado.

 

 

Omar Ahmad, Co-founder and CEO of SynCH Energy Corporation

Omar Ahmad is a respected Silicon Valley technology visionary and seasoned entrepreneur with a diverse portfolio of successful startups. He is co-founder and CEO of SynCH Energy Corporation, a renewable energy startup. Prior to founding SynCH Energy, Mr. Ahmad founded two startups,TrustedID and Logictier, and served in key leadership positions for companies including Grand Central Communications, Napster, Netscape, @Home Network, and Discovery Channel Online. Mr. Ahmad also proudly serves as the current Vice-Mayor of the City of San Carlos where his primary policy focus is centered on budget reform and fiscal sustainability. He is also active on several boards and commissions, and in 2009 was elected by the Council of Cities to serve as a director for SamTrans and the Joint Powers Board (CalTrain). Prior to his election to the City Council in 2007, Mr. Ahmad served on the San Carlos Economic Development Advisory Commission. He is frequently called upon to speak on topics including leadership, innovation in relation to startups, copyright/IP issues, and internet infrastructure and security. He is also the Co-Founder and Chairman of Webmonsters, serves on the Board of Advisors for the National Youth Science Camp Alumni Association, an advisor for Pacific Community Ventures, and member of the UF College of Engineering Dean's West Coast Advisory Board.

 

 

Dilip Saraf, Career Coach

Dilip G. Saraf is an executive, career, and life coach at Career Transitions Unlimited. As the LinkedIn's #1 coach he has worked with over 4,500 clients globally since he became a career coach, his fifth career. He has authored five books on career transition, career management, and succeeding in the corporate world. Dilip is extensively published on various forums, practices in the Silicon Valley, and works with clients globally. Visit www.dilipsaraf.com

 

 

Misbah Naqvi, Business Development Manager, Acumen Fund

Misbah is Business Development Manager at Acumen Fund, a global non-profit social venture fund which invests patient capital in enterprises that bring affordable goods and services - healthcare, housing, water, energy, agriculture - to the poor in Pakistan, India and East Africa. Acumen Fund raises philanthropic funds from individuals and institutions in the US, Pakistan and other countries and directs it as patient capital towards investments which are high risk, with expectations for outsized social impact and near-market financial returns, over a long time horizon. Investments are combined with a significant amount of management support, to build capable and competent management teams to sustain the work at these companies.

As Business Development Manager, Misbah's primary responsibility is building an engaged community of partners around Acumen Fund's work and fundraising to support Acumen Fund's mission.

Misbah joined Acumen Fund in Pakistan in 2006, focusing on managing portfolio investments and building an investment pipeline. She also led Acumen Fund's community building initiatives in Pakistan, managing fundraising, business development and knowledge and communications activities, before joining Acumen Fund's New York team in 2008.

Prior to joining Acumen Fund, Misbah spent over 8 years in a variety of positions at Citigroup Pakistan, most recently as Public Affairs Officer, managing external and internal communications, community affairs and PR activities. Misbah also worked in Citigroup's Corporate Banking and Transaction Management and e-Banking Groups.

Misbah holds an MBA and a BA (Honors) in Business Administration from the Institute of Business Administration at the University of Karachi, Pakistan.

 

 

Ashish Mathur, Executive Director, South Asian Heart Center

Ashish Mathur is the co-founder and Executive Director of the South Asian Heart Center at El Camino Hospital in Mountain View, CA, leading the advocacy, education, research, and collaboration, to reduce the high and disparate incidence of heart disease in the South Asian community. Prior to leading this effort, Ashish has over 25 years of industry experience in the software industry. During this time, he has been a successful entrepreneur and an executive at many technology companies including Selectica, Pure Atria, Network Equipment Technologies, and ROLM Corporation. Ashish holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai and an M.S. in Computer Science from the University of Southern California.

 

 

Imran Maskatia, Lead Program Manager, Microsoft's Media Platforms Business

Imran Maskatia is a Lead Program Manager for Microsoft's Media Platforms Business. He focuses on the next generation of interconnected media experiences across TVs, PCs, Mobile Devices, and Game Consoles. Over the past 12 years, he has designed and developed interactive media experiences for Microsoft's service provider customers, including Comcast, Verizon, AT&T, and others around the world. Previously, Imran spent time at various startups in the valley, IBM, and also built networked entertainment technologies at Digital Equipment Corporation's Network Systems Laboratory in Palo Alto. He received a BS and an MS from Stanford University, focusing on Human-Computer Interaction. In his spare time, he enjoys working with Muslim community organizations, spending time outdoors, playing video games, and learning useless trivia - resulting in an appearance on Jeopardy! last year.

 

 

Mir Ibrahim Rahman (MIR), CEO of GEO TV Network

has been at the helm of affairs of Pakistan's fastest growing and most popular media brand for over 8 years. A former Goldman Sachs investment banker, specializing in media and telecom, Mir has overseen the launch and growth of GEO from a 5 member operation out of a hotel to a 2,500+ strong South-Asian content producer and broadcaster with 10 channels globally. Mir graduated Suma Cum Laude from Babson College in 2000 and co founded GEO when he was just 25. His alma mater has dubbed MIR the “Robin hood of Information” for Pakistan, helping bring ground-breaking consciousness to social political discourse. Mir is currently working on a MPA at Harvard - where he is also serving on the admissions committee and on the Board for Harvard’s South Asia Initiative.

 

 

 

Deepika Bajaj, Founder and President, Invincibelle

Deepika Bajaj is Founder and President of Invincibelle, a company empowering women and a diverse, multigenerational work force to thrive in a multicultural world. Bajaj is also co-founder of ActiveGarage, the company behind 99tribes.com, a Twitter discovery search engine, helping people find and discover people who share common interests. Prior to starting her company, Bajaj spent more than eight years in telecommunications consulting and corporate marketing. She has served on the Boards of various professional organizations, including the National Society of Hispanic MBAs and Women in Intel. The author of DiversityTweet: Embracing the Growing Diversity in Our World, she is at work on a second book about her experiences as a global citizen and what is shaping the new voice of diversity. Her upcoming new ebook “PINK and Grow RICH” speaks of 11 UNREASONABLE RULES for success for women leaders who live and work in a multicultural world. She speaks and consults on diversity, blogs at www.deepikabajaj.com and writes a column on social media for ActiveGarage. She is the winner of 2010 IWE Entrepreneurship Achievement Award. Bajaj received a bachelor's degree from Bangalore University in India and an M.B.A. in marketing from Fordham University in New York.

 

 

 

Zia Yusuf, Entrepreneur in Residence (EIR) at Sutter Hill Ventures and Norwest Venture Partners

Zia Yusuf is currently an Entrepreneur in Residence at Sutter Hill Ventures and Norwest Venture Partners and is Founder & CEO of Fallen Leaf Advisors - a software and technology strategy & advisory firm. He is also a Consulting Associate Professor at Stanford University where he co-teaches a course titled "Software Design Experiences" with Hasso Plattner (founder of SAP) and Prof. Terry Winograd.

Prior to his current role Zia was an Executive Vice President at SAP AG and a member of the firm's Senior Executive Team (SET). In his most recent role at SAP he founded and led the Global Ecosystem & Partner Group that managed 7,500 SAP partners, all its online communities with 2.5mm members, a $125 million venture fund, the EcoHub partner exchange and several other teams.

Zia also founded and led the Corporate Strategy Group of SAP in the Office of the CEO reporting to Henning Kagermann, CEO and Chairman of SAP AG and the Design Services Team (DST) under the guidance of Hasso Plattner, co-founder of SAP and Chairman of the Board. Zia began at SAP, in 1999, focusing on the strategic direction of the company's marketplace business. He then co-founded SAP Markets, Inc., the b2b marketplace company of SAP, and led it as VP and Chief Operating Officer. As SAP Markets expanded globally, Zia was appointed as Managing Director to lead SAPMarkets entry into Asia-Pacific.

Prior to joining SAP, Zia was in the Investment Banking Division at Goldman, Sachs & Co. where he worked on corporate finance and M&A transactions. Before that he was at the World Bank Group for several years working on health sector issues in Southern Africa and project and structured finance in Asia.

Zia holds an MBA from the Harvard Business School, an MS in International Affairs from the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University and a BA with Honors in Economics and International Affairs from Macalester College. He is also a co-founder of OPEN Silicon Valley and a past President and is a Board Member/Advisor to several non-profit organizations including Developments in Literacy (DIL), Imuka, the South Asian American Foundation (SAAF) and the Stanford-MIT Venture Lab (VLAB).

 

 

 

Premal Shah, President, Kiva

As President, Premal leads Kiva's efforts to scale its partnerships and member base. Prior to Kiva, Premal was a Principal Product Manager at PayPal, an eBay company. During his 6 year career at PayPal, Premal drove a number of key initiatives including a year long project defining eBay's role in economically empowering the global working poor. A number of corporate initiatives have come out of this effort, including PayPal's support of Kiva. Prior to PayPal, Premal was a strategy consultant at Mercer Management Consulting in New York. Premal has had a long standing interest in microfinance. In 1997, he was awarded a grant from Stanford University to research microfinance in Gujarat, India. More recently Premal co-founded the Silicon Valley Microfinance Network and spent 2 months in India working to refine / validate Kiva's model. In 2006, Premal was a featured speaker at the Clinton Global Initiative and Global Microcredit Summit. Premal graduated with a B.A. in Economics from Stanford University.

 

 

 

Saadia Ahmed, Financial Advisor, Waddell and Reed

Saadia Ahmed runs her financial planning practice in affiliation with Waddell and Reed. A seasoned professional in the financial services industry she has an MBA in Finance, is a Chartered Mutual Fund Counselor, a Registered Representative and an Investment Advisor Representative. Prior experience includes Bank of America as a financial relationship manager, and with Citibank Pakistan where she setup and managed the credit card operations. She is the Chair for OPEN Women Forum, dedicated to the promotion of entrepreneurship and leadership in the South Asian-American business community.

 

 

 

Eric Buatois, General Partner, Sofinnova Ventures

Eric Buatois joined Sofinnova Ventures as General Partner in 2001 to drive global technology investments based on his more than 20 years of international experience in the wireless industry. Prior to Sofinnova Ventures, Eric held several positio at Hewlett-Packard, Ericsson and Texas Instruments. At Sofinnova Ventures, Eric specializes in software and semiconductor investments in the wireless area. Eric currently serves as Chairman of the Board for UPEK and Crocus Technologies, and as a director for VoluBill, Catalyst Mobile, Laszlo Systems, and HelloSoft. Eric received his M.S. in Computer Science and Communications Engineering from Ecole Nationale Superieure des Telecommunications in France. He is an active board member of the International School of the Peninsula.

 

 

 

Tabreez Verjee, Board Member & Seed Investor, Kiva

Tabreez is an early investor and active member of the board of directors at Kiva (www.kiva.org) the world's first person-to-person lending marketplace for the poor. In just 4 years, Kiva has raised over $100 million for more than 300,000 entrepreneurs in 50 countries by connecting people through lending for the purpose of alleviating poverty. Kiva has been heralded as the "hottest non-profit on the planet" by FORTUNE magazine, a Top 50 Website by TIME, and featured on the Oprah Winfrey Show, CNN, Frontline, Good Morning America, the BBC, and by Bill Clinton in his recent book on giving.

Tabreez is currently President and Board Director of Betawave, the industry's first attention-based media company. Betawave partners with premium web publishers to create unique and scalable online consumer advertising experiences for brand marketers and was recently featured in Business Week and the San Francisco Business Times as a company that is changing the way that brands advertise online.

He is also a Founder and General Partner at Global Asset Capital, LLC, an investment firm with diversified interests in venture capital and private equity. In this capacity, he directed more than $500 million in committed assets across multiple venture capital funds and over 40 portfolio companies in the U.S. and Europe. Previously as an entrepreneur he co-headed Sonique, one of the first and most popular internet music applications and successfully negotiated its sale for $70 million to Lycos. Tabreez's first entrepreneurial venture was as a founder and Managing Director of Global Entertainment Capital, which raised $150 million in capital for innovative media financings and completed the first ever stand alone investment grade securitization of music royalties for heavy metal band Iron Maiden. Tabreez started his career at Bain & Company and received a bachelor of science in Engineering with honors from University of California at Berkeley. He is also a charter member of TiE, The Indus Entrepreneurs, a global, non-profit network dedicated to the advancement of entrepreneurship.

 

 

 

Dr. Ashraf Shirani, Professor, SJSU

Dr. Ashraf Shirani is a professor of Management Information Systems in the College of Business at San Jose State University. He holds a bachelor's degree from the University of Engineering and Technology, Lahore, Pakistan, an MBA in finance from the University of Arkansas, and a Ph.D. in MIS from the University of Mississippi. He teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in database systems, business systems and strategy, and business intelligence.