Speakers
Event Speakers and Bios
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Ben Bajarin Director Creative Strategies, Inc. Since joining Creative Strategies in 2000 Ben has focused his analysis and research on the consumer technology industry. He has focused on projects and developed strategies in the markets of the digital home, mobile computing, personal electronics, personal computing, the digital lifestyle and interactive entertainment media. His overarching goal with his analysis is to understand how and why consumers will use new digital technologies in their everyday lives both the present and in the future. Ben recently introduced Creative Strategies' behavioural analysis and digital home research center where the impacts of many consumer behaviours, digital home / family and digital lifestyle technologies are studied. He also recently joined SlashGear as a contributing editor providing real time analysis of the technology industries latest news, trends and events. |
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Stephen Bernardez Principal ONSET Ventures Steve Bernardez joined ONSET Ventures in 2006, bringing more than a decade of experience in the IT industry. He has had director-level management responsibility in business development and market strategy at both large technology companies and startups. Steve came to ONSET from Microsoft, where he sourced and developed go-to-market alliances with venture-backed software startups. Prior to Microsoft, Steve led the business development function at an early stage ecommerce search startup. He also was a strategy management consultant at Andersen Consulting (now Accenture) where he advised large software and hardware vendors on corporate strategies including new market entry, acquisition, and licensing strategies. At ONSET Ventures, Steve specializes in evaluating and nurturing IT investments. Steve holds B.S. and MBA degrees, both from Stanford University. |
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Savinay Berry Vice President Granite Ventures, LLC. Savinay Berry joined Granite Ventures in August 2008. He focuses on software and advanced mobile services. Savinay is actively involved with and observes on the boards of HyTrust, Crowd Science, Bunchball, and Skytide. Prior to joining Granite Ventures, Savinay held associate positions at JK&B Capital and MK Capital. Prior to that, Savinay worked in Dell Inc. in various product and business development roles, most recently as senior global commodity manager for enterprise and consumer mobile products. Prior to that, he was with Instrumented Sensors Technology, a data recording equipment startup, where he helped develop a real-time operating system for embedded data recorders. Savinay received his M.B.A. from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, where he was a Director of the Venture Capital Club and won the Sustainable National Venture Capital Competition. He also has a Masters degree in Engineering Management from the McCormick School of Engineering & Applied Sciences at Northwestern University and a Master's of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from Michigan State University. He received a B.S. degree from University of Pune, India. |
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David Blumberg Managing Partner Blumberg Capital David Blumberg is the Managing Partner of Blumberg Capital. David has been investing in early stage technology companies for more than 24 years. His current investment focus includes Digital Media, Social Media, Mobility, SaaS/Technology Enabled Services and Internet. Prior to founding Blumberg Capital in 1991, David managed technology investments with Claridge Investments, Adler & Co., Apax, and T. Rowe Price Associates. David launched the business development efforts for Check Point Software Technologies. David earned his AB in Government, cum laude, from Harvard College and his MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and INSEAD. David speaks French and is proficient in Hebrew and Spanish. David serves as a member or observer on the Board of Directors of CaseStack, DoubleVerify, Correlix, isocket, Hootsuite Media, and Legolas Media. He is a member of the Pacific Council on International Policy. Past Investments: Check Point Software Technologies [CHKP], Teva [TEVA], Creo - Acquired by, Eastman Kodak [EK], DSP Group [DSPG], Electronics For Imaging [EFII], AbirNet - Acquired by Computer Associates [CA], Conduct Software - Acquired by Hewlett Packard [HPQ], Allerez - Acquired by Hewlett Packard [HPQ], Vista Research - Acquired by McGraw Hill [MHP], IP Infusion - Acquired by ACCESS Co., Ltd. [TSE:4513], and Siperian - Acquired by Informatica [INFA]. |
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| Michael Bramlage Director of Product Management for Ovi Store Nokia Michael Bramlage is Director of Product Management for Ovi Store at Nokia. He heads the team responsible for strategic planning, product roadmap, feature design, and user experience for the next-generation of Ovi Store as well as its companion service for developers and publishers, Ovi Publish. Bramlage joined Nokia in 2009, and was previously responsible for product management in Microsoft’s Online Services Business. While there, he was instrumental in advancing the unit’s strategies in social network data portability, web services platforms, and instant messaging interoperability. |
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Doug Bremicker VP Business Development Weather Center Doug Bremicker is a veteran in the locations, applications and content space globally. Most recently, he served as Vice President of Global Sales for Jentro Technologies based in Munich Germany. At Jentro, Bremicker was responsible for global sales efforts in off-board navigation and content for wireless carriers, connected devices, LBS and telematics. His background also includes 20 years experience with Motorola in wireless solutions, software and applications to both carriers and enterprise clients globally. Bremicker hold a bachelor’s degree in Accounting and an MBA from Lake Forest Graduate School. |
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Mark Donovan |
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Jay H. Eum Co-Founder and Managing Director TransLink Capital Jay H. Eum is a co-founder and Managing Director of TransLink Capital. Jay is responsible for TransLink's investments in Carbonite, Melodis and XSigo as well as supporting TransLink's portfolio companies with their customers and partners primarily in Korea. Most recently, Jay was the head of Samsung Ventures America. He was responsible for starting up the U.S. operations for Samsung Venture Investment Corp., the venture investment arm of Samsung, and leading their U.S.-based investments and portfolio management. Under Jay's leadership, Samsung Ventures America grew to a team of five investment professionals and invested over US$80M in 27 U.S.-based start-up companies. Jay directly led several successful Samsung Ventures' investments including AnalogTech (NASDAQ: AATI), Athena Semiconductor (acquired by Broadcom), DivX (NASDAQ: DIVX), Intellon (NASDAQ: ITLN, acquired by Atheros), MontaVista (acquired by Cavium), Pure Digital (acquired by Cisco), and Techwell (NASDAQ: TWLL) and Teknovus (acquired by Broadcom). Jay also led investments in Continuous Computing, GCT Semiconductor, InPhi, Intematix, Sandbridge and SiBeam. |
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Aaron Forth Director of Product Design Intuit Personal Finance Group Aaron brings more than 10 years’ of product development and product management experience to his role. Prior to joining Mint, Aaron held several leadership positions at eBay and Half.com (acquired by eBay Inc.). Most recently, as Director of Advertising, Aaron was responsible for product strategy, design and product development. Aaron has a background in multivariate testing used to drive analytically based decisions around product design, improved user experience and strategic partnerships. Prior to working in advertising, Aaron managed Internet marketing and product management teams, focused on search engine marketing, search engine optimization and affiliate marketing. Aaron’s career in software was established at Kana Communications, Inc., a CRM software start-up. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Earth Sciences from University of California, Berkeley. |
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Michael Greer VP of Product Development The Onion Inc. Michael Greer has led digital product growth for The Onion and its partner brand the A.V. Club for the last 5 years. He is charged with delivering their comedy in its many forms to a hungry and tech-saavy world. His team has established The Onion as a successful mobile app presence on many platforms, and successfully integrated sponsors into satirical humor for the mobile mass audience. Greer joined The Onion from Time Warner, where he managed the information architects at Time Inc Interactive on such digital brands as People, EW, and InStyle. |
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Kent Griffin Sr Product Manager PayPal Kent Griffin is a Sr. Product Manager at PayPal and manages the mobile SDK products. He currently focuses on how to make payments easy for mobile developers and as well as creating new ways for developers to monetize apps. He has been with PayPal for over six years, and was a founding member of their mobile group. Prior to PayPal, Kent helped developed full-service solutions for other financial service providers. He holds both a bachelor’s and master’s degree from Stanford University. |
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Raghav Gupta CEO GeoGroups Raghav Gupta founded GeoGroups in 2008 with the aim of creating the perfect geosocial experience. Prior to that, Raghav was a research scientist at eBay where his expertise in high performance computing, coupled with a keen interest in user-experience led him to invent, evangelize, and successfully deliver a series of game-changing innovations that quickly changed the face of eBay's search engine. His work at eBay led to 13 patents either as primary or co-inventor. |
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Eric Hernaez CEO Netmobo Eric Hernaez is CEO of Netmobo, a company providing infrastructure-as-a-service solutions to mobile app developers. Eric was a founder of Solegy LLC, where his team built and deployed one of the first commercial IMS (Internet Multimedia Subsytem) implementations. Eric is also an advocate of open source software, and co-founded OpenSBC, a popular open source SIP Session Border Controller for VoIP. Prior to Solegy, Eric held leadership positions in several innovative telecom and Internet start-ups including telic.net, Linkon Corporation and Sequel Communications. |
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Terry Hsiao CEO Hook Mobile Hsiao, a well-recognized entrepreneur, brings extensive expertise and experiences in the wireless industry to the company. Prior to founding the company he was COO and GM International at Way Systems, having brought the company from pre-revenue to more than $10M. Terry founded InphoMatch (now Sybase 365) the pioneer in mobile messaging with annual revenue of $100M. Terry has worked either in or with mobile carriers throughout his career including 6+ years at Nextel from 1993-2000. Prior to founding InphoMatch, Terry managed the founding and operations of Nextel Partners (since acquired by Sprint) wireless venture from the business plan, raising capital, development of operating structures, to IPO all in approximately 18 months. At MIT's Sloan School of Management he concentrated on growth strategy and entrepreneurship. Terry also holds a BSEE with Honors from Rutgers University. |
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Terry Hughes Head of Market Development Widality Terry has been in the wireless industry for over 20 years, including 7 years at Vodafone Europe, 2 years at a San Francisco-based dot-com, and several years in mobile start-ups. A Brit, Terry moved to Canada to live and work in 2005. Terry's roles have included VP Sales, Director of Business Development, Head of Professional Services, and General Manager. Terry’s company Widality was acquired by Wmode, and Terry is now Head of Market Development at Wmode, responsible for delivering Wmode’s solutions to the app value chain. Widality was one of the most successful B2B app developers with an award-winning call tagging service on BlackBerry. Terry took Widality from an idea in the founder’s head all the way through to a successful exit in 4 years, learning an enormous amount about the challenges within the app economy along the way. As a well-known thought leader in the wireless industry, Terry is regularly invited to present at conferences. Terry has a BA in Business Administration and a degree in Electronics and Communications Engineering. |
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David Jones VP of Marketing Shazam David brings to Shazam over 20 years experience in marketing, business development, and product and business strategy. Prior to joining Shazam, David was Vice President of Global Marketing at Friendster. David also held several marketing and general management roles at eBay Inc, including roles focused on scaling the number of active members of the eBay community. David was also the director of eBay's media and entertainment businesses in the United States. Prior to eBay, David was the Vice President of Business Development at Blue Wireless and an associate partner at the management and technology consulting firm of Arthur D. Little. David holds a B.A. from Stanford University in Quantitative Economics With Honors & Distinction, 1990. |
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Steve Klebe VP Business Development and Strategy BilltoMobile As the Vice President of Business Development and Strategy for BilltoMobile, a pioneer in mobile billing for ecommerce transactions, Steve is responsible for the overall strategy and execution of developing and managing partnerships with merchants and channel partners. Passionate about evolving the options available to both consumers and merchants in the ecommerce payment industry, Steve continues to explore innovative solutions for the rapidly growing realm of digital content and online services communities and beyond. He returns to BilltoMobile after a stint as senior vice president of business development for Vindicia, an on-demand billing company. While at Vindicia, Steve was responsible for building and managing the relationships with reseller and complimentary infrastructure partners. Steve is a proven industry veteran with more than 30 years of experience in sales, business development, strategic alliances and product marketing in electronic payments, authentication and fraud prevention. He has worked in a variety of senior management roles at companies including VeriFone, CyberSource and RSA, and has driven numerous innovative payment solutions from infancy through their mainstream stage, including Visa’s equity investment in CyberSource and the co-branded product – the CyberSource Advanced Fraud Screen enhanced by Visa. A trusted advisor in the industry, Steve has taught classes at the NACHA Payments Institute and served on the board of directors of the Electronic Transactions Association, as well as the advisory boards of the Direct Response Forum (DRF), the Electronic Funds Transfer Association (EFTA) and the LOGIN conference. Steve graduated from Northeastern University, Boston with a Bachelor of Science with honors in Business Administration. |
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Brian Knapp Chief Operating Officer Loopt At Loopt, Brian is responsible for business development, as well as legal affairs, data privacy matters, regulatory and policy efforts, and financial matters. He was previously an associate with Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati with a focus on intellectual property technology transactions. Prior to earning his law degree, Brian held senior positions in business development and marketing with companies such as Barnes & Noble.com, Dun & Bradstreet, and AllBusiness.com. Brian has a Bachelor of Arts in Business Administration from the College of William & Mary and a Juris Doctor, cum laude, from the University of San Francisco School of Law. |
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Thorren
Koopmans Director of Operations Appboy Thorren Koopmans oversees operations for Appboy, an online social network that connects members of the mobile app community. His experience with web technologies spans two decades dating back to the early nineties and the days of text-based Internet and early graphic browsers. As an early adopter of technologies, Thorren is well versed in many areas relevant to the mobile industry, from social networks to mobile handsets. |
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KEYNOTE Masaaki Maeda President & CEO NTT Docomo USA, Inc. Masaaki Maeda is currently the President & CEO of NTT DOCOMO USA, a wholly owned subsidiary of NTT DOCOMO Inc, Japan’s leading mobile telecommunications company. He concurrently holds the title of Associate Senior Vice President in NTT DOCOMO overseeing new business development in the Americas. Mr. Maeda began his career in the Japanese telecommunications industry at the Technical Development Department of NTT (Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation). In March 1994, he moved to NTT DOCOMO, the mobile arm of NTT which was spun off from its parent company in 1992. In October of 2004, Mr. Maeda launched NTT DOCOMO USA’s “namikiteru®” service, a public wireless LAN access service catering to the needs of Japanese corporate clients in North America later followed by “namimail®” service in 2005, a software application which allows users to read and write Japanese on BlackBerry® handheld devices. In September of 2009, Mr. Maeda opened the first NTT DOCOMO customer-service counter in the continental US aimed at providing a seamless user experience to customers travelling in North America. Currently, Mr. Maeda is spearheading the company’s development of US-Japan partnerships to promote a new generation of wireless products and services which includes smartphones, electronic readers, and Android™ applications. Mr. Maeda holds a bachelor and a master’s degree in electrical engineering from the Tokyo Institute of Technology. In addition, he received an MBA from MIT’s Sloan School of Management in June 2002. |
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Larry Marcus Managing Director Walden Venture Capital Larry's focus is consumer services and digital media. He serves on the Board of Directors of Pandora (internet radio), Melodis (Sound Search Technology and Applications), Telekenex (IP Voice and Data Services), Comedy.com (purveyor of funny), and Real Girls Media (women's community site - Observer). Non Portfolio: Board of Advisors to Dealmaker Media (early stage focused events) and JazzSchool in Berkeley CA. Prior to joining Walden, Larry was a leading equity research analyst at Alex. Brown / Deutsche Bank and prior to that Robertson Stephens & company, both in San Francisco. Larry was among the first equity analysts to cover PC and video games, followed by internet media and enhanced TV (e.g. Scientific Atlanta, General Instrument, Gemstar, Wink). Through a hands on, product oriented approach, he developed a successful methodology and track record of backing companies at early stages of adoption that would eventually achieve mass market success, including Pandora, Netflix, CBS Marketwatch, Maxis, Women.com, Terayon, Edmark, Activision and Spectrum HoloByte. Prior operating experience includes product and marketing consulting for both Digidesign and Maxis, media planning at a major New York ad agency and general management in computer services retail. |
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Joe Monastiero VP Business Development appMobi Joe Monastiero manages all sales and business development activities for appMobi. He also works closely with the CTO on product definition and features, roadmapping and strategic directions. Prior to co-founding appMobi, Joe spent most of the past 20 years as a serial entrepreneur and sales and marketing executive in Silicon Valley, with 6 different start-ups. He was a co-founder of Intervideo, makers of WinDVD, a company that filed a successful IPO and was subsequently acquired by the Corel Corporation. |
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Alex Pachikov VP of Business Development Evernote Alex is a specialist in emerging trends in the computer, web, and mobile industries. He brings a decade's experience in technology evangelism with the goal of promoting partnerships and integration for complementary products and services. He maintains an in-depth understanding of the mobile market and manages relationships with most major mobile device manufactures and carriers. He has been involved with Evernote from the very beginning – holding positions ranging from web-developer, IT manager, project manager, and currently, as a vice-president of business development, he maintains worldwide partnerships for Evernote with companies such as Sony, Samsung, Fujitsu, HP, and others. Alex holds a BA degree in Astronomy and Sociology from University of Colorado, Boulder. |
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Gerry Purdy, Ph.D. Principal Analyst MobileTrax Gerry Purdy, principal analyst with MobileTrax, is interested in moderating a panel session at the Mobile Apps Conference in October in San Francisco. As an expert in the mobile and wireless technology space, he's well versed on all the topics being discussed (per your list) so feel free to place him where you need him most. With more than 16 years covering the technology sector as both an industry analyst, journalist, and venture capitalist, Dr. Purdy has a deep background he can pull from to provide these panel sessions with vision, insights and historical background few others can offer. Mobile is where Gerry eats, sleeps and breathes, so you couldn't find a more qualified speaker on this topic. |
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Mihir Shat Vice President, Mobile Groupon Mihir Shah is the Vice President and General Manager of Mobile at Groupon. Prior to its acquisition by Groupon, he was CEO and Co-founder of Mob.ly/Goodrec. Mihir also served in key product leadership roles at Yahoo!, most recently as Senior Director of Product Management for Yahoo! Search. Mihir was responsible for the US Web Search product and also helped launch Yahoo’s first mobile search products. Before joining Yahoo!, Mihir was Director of Product Marketing at Grand Central, where he helped launch one of the first Web Services networks for businesses. He also served as Director of Product Management at Respond.com, a lead generation service for local businesses. Mihir started his career as a management consultant at R. B. Webber & Company. At Webber he worked with a number of startups and Fortune 500 technology companies to develop go-to-market strategies across a wide range of high-tech product segments. Mihir holds a B.S. in Computer Science and Electrical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. |
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Bruce Taragin Managing Director Blumberg Capital Bruce has 17 years experience as a venture capital investor, entrepreneur, technology investment banker and corporate attorney. Prior to joining Blumberg Capital in 1998, Bruce co-founded and held several senior management positions within technology companies including Charles River Computers. Bruce also structured and managed early-stage technology transactions at Hambrecht & Quist, Mayer Brown & Platt and Bankers Trust Company. A native of New York, Bruce earned his BA in Finance and Communications, cum laude, from Yeshiva University, and his MBA and JD from Fordham University. Bruce serves as a member or observer on the Board of Directors of DoubleVerify, CaseStack, Insightix, LiteScape, Correlix, Nolio, Revionics and Sweepery. He also serves on the board and the investment monitoring committee of the Jewish Community Foundation of Northern California. Past investments: eVoice - Acquired by AOL [TWX], PureSight - Acquired by Boston Communications Group [BCGI], Vista Research - Acquired by McGraw Hill [MHP], IP Infusion - Acquired by ACCESS CO., LTD [TSE: 4813], GO Networks - Acquired by NextWave Wireless [WAVEX], and Siperian - Acquired by [INFA]. |
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Asokan Thiyagarajan Director – Platforms & Technology Strategy Samsung Telecommunications America Asokan Thiyagarajan serves as the Director of Platforms and Technology Strategy at Samsung Telecommunications America, responsible for recommending strategies to address technology and market trends as well as strategic alliances. He is a respected speaker at international conferences on technology. He authors technology and visionary articles for leading magazines around the world. Asokan has over 21 years of international experience in high technology sectors, developing software and communication systems. Asokan has skills blended in technology, business, engineering and management, and is very effective in Technology Management. Highly analytical and an industry visionary, Asokan is a sought after global high-tech industry thought leader and trusted strategic advisor by companies. Prior to Samsung, Asokan held a variety of senior technology management positions in brand name high-tech companies like Motorola, Nokia, Ericsson, Compaq (HP) and some for start-ups as well. He is a serial entrepreneur and pioneering high tech inventor. He presently serves on the board of directors/advisors of some technology start-ups. Asokan holds a Bachelors Degree in Computer Science, from Madurai University, India. |
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Tina Unterlaender Account Director AKQA Mobile Tina Unterlaender is a noted expert on mobile marketing and smart phone applications. As Account Director of AKQA Mobile, she has led the creation of numerous well-known mobile campaigns, including Gap 1969 Stream, one of the first commercial apps built for the iPad. Other mobile campaigns include Gap StyleMixer, Targets Gift Globe, Mc Donalds The Lost Ring and several campaigns for Visa, including the 2008 Beijing Summer and the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics campaigns. A native German, Unterlaender joined AKQA from New York-based MindMatics, where she was the Director of Mobile Marketing. Her responsibilities included mobile applications, messaging and campaigns for clients such as Boost Mobile, Shell, NBC, and New Line Cinema. |
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Eric Wise President ISBX Involved in interactive Marketing and Development (Mobile/Web/Video Production) since early 1997, Eric has conceived and developed strategy for countless projects for Fortune 1000 companies such as American Honda Motors, Anheuser Busch, The Coca-Cola Company, Disney, Sony, and Warner Bros. Over the years Eric has been involved in a number of start-ups, midsized, and publicly traded companies ranging from pure technology/software development to content/media development and professional services. Prior to working in the interactive arena, Eric spent 7 years at Warner Bros Television working in a creative and technical capacity on over 20 on-air television projects. As the President of ISBX he has helped lead the team to the closing of an angel round, a half dozen fortune 1000 clients (as well as a number of mid-sized clients), and postive cash flow within the first year of doing business with 25 employee in the US and Philippines combined. |
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