2008 Speakers

Jonathan Abrams

Jonathan Abrams is an award-winning serial entrepreneur, the founder & CEO of the new online event service Socializr, and co-owner of San Francisco nightclub Slide. Jonathan was hailed as "The Social Pioneer" by Vanity Fair in June 2008 for creating the pioneering social networking service Friendster.

Phyllis Albritton

Phyllis Albritton is the interim executive director for the Colorado Regional Health Information Organization. Prior to this position, Ms. Albritton was the Executive Director of the Delta Dental of Colorado Foundation where she facilitated increasing community activities that prevent oral disease and advance the science and practice of oral health care in Colorado. Other projects for which Ms. Albritton has experience developing new programs include Colorado’s Children’s Basic Health Plan (low cost health insurance for uninsured children) and the federal E-Rate program (telecommunications discounts for schools and libraries)

Terry Ash

Terry Ash is co-founder EVP /sales of VMIX Media, a software as service company which provides media ingestion and serving to 200 media sites. Formerly he was VP of Special Markets at Universal Music Group and EVP of Sales at Universal Net Group directing over $200 million per year in sales. Mr. Ash was SVP of sales at mp3.com when the profitable company was sold to Universal. His prior positions included 18 years in traditional broadcast.

Dave Balter

Dave Balter is the founder and CEO of BzzAgent, Inc., the advertising industry’s only cross-continental word-of-mouth media channel. He launched BzzAgent in 2002, and today nearly 500,000 consumers have joined the company’s network, which spans North America and the United Kingdom. Since its launch, BzzAgent has been featured everywhere from the CBS Evening News to the BBC to The New York Times Sunday Magazine. Dave co-founded the Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA), and he currently serves on its Executive Council and as Chair of the Association's International Committee. The author of two books on the subject, Grapevine and The Word of Mouth Manual: Volume II, Dave lectures around the world on trends in word of mouth and social media. In 2008, Dave was recognized as a Future Legend by the AdClub and he was named to the 40 under 40 list by The Boston Business Journal and Advertising Specialty Institute. Dave also sits on the advisory boards of Crowdsprout, a collaborative commerce start-up, and the Boston Boys & Girls Club Marketing and Communications Committee.

Keith Berets

Keith Berets is a partner in the Technology Transactions and the Trademark, Advertising & Copyright practice groups, and a member of the Cooley Godward Kronish Business Department. He joined the firm in 2000. Keith focuses on technology and intellectual property transactions, including outsourcing, consulting, licensing, distribution, development and transfer agreements; information technology, electronic commerce, Web and Internet transactions and intellectual property counseling. His practice also includes trademark, internet, false advertising, unfair competition, trade secret and copyright litigation, counseling and prosecution, and advice on brand selection, advertising and promotions, and other proprietary rights. He represents leading IT firms and Internet companies, software developers and distributors, Internet service providers, information systems, network systems, hardware and communications companies and other technology companies in connection with the commercialization of their technology products and services. He has also been involved in numerous legal actions to protect the trademarks, trade secrets and copyrights of his clients. Prior to joining Cooley's Colorado office, Keith Berets was an associate at Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal in Chicago. He received a JD cum laude, in 1997 from the University of Wisconsin Law School where he was elected to Order of the Coif, was a teaching assistant for the Legal Research and Writing Program and the Senior Articles Editor of the Law Review . He also worked as an extern for Judge Barbara Crabb in the United States District Court in the Western District of Wisconsin. He received a BA degree in Psychology from Pomona College in 1990.

Hans Peter Brondmo

Hans Peter is an MIT graduate who built his first computer at 16, wrote his first commercial software program at 17, began using the Internet in 1982 at the age of 20, studied at the MIT Media Lab, and co-founded his first company by 25. In his early 30's, he recreated himself from a highly technical entrepreneur into marketing visionary who helped transform the way leading companies communicate with their customers. He has worked with such traditional businesses as Victoria's Secret, Wegman's Food Markets, Amtrak, and Palm, as well as dotcom pioneers such as Women.com, CDNow, and eBags. Hans Peter has spent his career at the intersection of technology innovation and empowering consumers. He is a successful serial entrepreneur who is at it again. Plum, his latest company is powering social media sharing solutions for any web property, making it easy for people to share and discover anything they find on the web.

Robert Carrera

With over 20 years of healthcare experience, Rob has spent the last 15 years developing and managing ASCs, physical/occupational rehabilitation centers, diagnostic imaging facilities, and occupational medicine clinics in a multi-state region maintaining responsibility for over $150 million in annual revenue. Rob provides PINNACLE III clients expertise in operational and financial controls/management as well as business development for both our managed centers and physician partners. Rob’s innovative operational approach has created solid physician loyalty to the ancillary entities he oversees. Organizations who have adopted Rob’s recommended action plans experience increased volume and enhanced bottom line performance while maintaining a high level of customer satisfaction and quality of care. Rob has been active legislatively at the State level regarding issues affecting ASCs in Colorado, Minnesota, and Utah. He formerly served as the Colorado Ambulatory Surgery Center Association’s Vice President, and was one of its founding members. Rob received his BS in Physical Therapy from Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan.

Vince Chirico

Vince currently heads up both the Mountain States and Southwest Regions for Google. He consults with key business decision makers to assist with mitigating pain points and achieving sales and marketing objectives. In addition to his daily sales responsibility, Vince is a steward of the Google value proposition and helps evangelize Google’s story for all marketers. Prior to assuming responsibility for the Mountain States and Southwest Regions, Vince headed up the US travel practice in the East for Google. Vince has over 10 years of experience in the travel industry having worked on both the supplier and distribution sides of the business. Prior to joining Google, he spent two years as Cendant’s Vice-President of Strategy, Marketing and Product Development in their Travel Distribution Services division and nearly eight years with Delta Air Lines in multiple posts, most notably General Manager of eBusiness Development where he headed up strategy and business development for delta.com and served as Delta’s lead in the creation of ORBITZ.com. Vince graduated summa cum laude from Temple University with an undergraduate degree in business administration in 1986 and earned an MBA from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business in 1991. He works out of Google's Denver, CO offices where he lives with his lovely wife Kristina and dog Orion.

Tom Ciancio

Tom Ciancio has over 15 years of management experience and leadership in IT. He has been directly involved in establishing organizations, improving organizational efficiencies, implementing necessary organizational processes and procedures, and making necessary organizational and process changes to improve customer satisfaction. One particular area of expertise is in his application development and networking technologies. Tom has strong contract negotiation skills. His direct customer relations management experience is committed to building a customer-centric organization that is responsive to customers' needs. His experiences range across a variety of industries: from telecommunications to IT services to military support services.

Peter Cobb

Peter is a Co-founder and Senior Vice President for eBags, Inc. During his tenure he has been responsible for marketing efforts including online and offline advertising, public relations, and the affiliate program. Peter also heads up the company’s Global Technology Services efforts involving building and managing e-commerce websites for global brands such as Tumi.com. Peter's career path has included Director of Marketing for Samsonite, Vice President, Australian Equity and the Director of Marketing, Ben Hogan Golf. Peter says eBags gives him the opportunity to marry his passion for luggage with the potential of the Intertet to create something that has never been done before. In 2003, he was named Colorado Marketer of the Year by the American Marketing Association. He was formerly responsible for marketing at Samsonite and received his MBA from Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Graduate Management.

Dan Daugherty

Dan Daugherty is the Founder and CEO of Rent Marketer, a distribution platform and advertising network for rental properties. Prior to Rent Marketer Dan spent four years with Google where he led the operations team for the Mountain States Region. He helped to grow the region from $1 million in annual sales to over $100 million within the four years in operation. Dan is also active in residential real estate investing and received his business degree in International Business from Ohio Wesleyan University.

John Eckstein

Mr. Eckstein focuses upon the general representation of technology-based companies and venture capital funds, investors, investment bankers, financial advisors, and financial institutions. He works with complex legal structures in entity and project financings. He also provides advice regarding finance and governance matters to individual officers and directors of such companies. His legal training is in securities, tax, finance and corporate law. He works in the application of technology to the business of energy and is actively involved in legal and public policy aspects of energy, biomedical, and IT/software. Mr. Eckstein has been chair of the Colorado Advanced Technology Institute and a member of technology advisory committees to several Colorado governors; he has been chair of the Colorado Biotechnology-Medical Technology Roundtable and president of the Colorado chapter of the Federal Bar Association and of the Denver chapter of the Licensing Executives Society. Mr. Eckstein has been listed in Who's Who in American Law, Colorado Super Lawyers, Corporate Counsel Black Book, and Who’s Who in High Tech in Denver/Boulder.

Marwan Forzley

Marwan is the founder and CEO of eBillme, and has been the driving force behind the company's strategic vision and partnerships. Prior to founding eBillme, Marwan was Director of Business Development at Nokia, where he focused on large-scale eCommerce infrastructure, mobile payments and content delivery. Before joining Nokia, Marwan acted as product and solution manager at Vienna Systems, a startup that was eventually acquired by Nokia. Marwan is respected as an expert in alternative payments, articulating the evolving dynamics of the industry with major publications including: Internet Retailer, Forbes, Business Week, American Banker, Associated Press, CNN Radio and eCommerce Times.

Matt Galligan

Matt Galligan is the CEO and Co-Founder of Socialthing, Inc., a company that was chosen to be part of the inaugural year of TechStars, a program that provides seed capital and mentorship for startups. Socialthing, Inc. produces Socialthing!, a first-of-its-kind digital life manager that pledges to make your online life easier. Currently in private beta, Socialthing! created a strong buzz at South by Southwest (SXSW) in 2008, and since then, the Socialthing! team has been working hard on creating, and releasing version 2.0 of their digital life manager. Matt’s background is in graphic design and user interface, working for MonsterCommerce, now Network Solutions, based out of St. Louis, MO. He got his start in computers and design while working for Evans Services, Inc., a disaster restoration company out of Illinois before he turned 16.

Chris Glode

Chris Glode leads the Product Management organization for Useful Networks, tasked with bringing compelling location-aware mobile applications, advertising, and aggregation platform solutions to market. Prior to joining Useful Networks, Chris worked in OSS and BSS software and consulting for Communications Service Providers.

Andy Graziano

Andy Graziano is a member of the Colorado Governor's Office of Information Technology and the Chief Information Officer for Health Care Policy & Financing. In this role he is responsible for the strategic architecture, enhancement and operation of all computer systems and infrastructure that deliver Medicaid and Child Health Programs for the State of Colorado. The integrated performance of these complex information systems enables the delivery of billions of dollars worth of healthcare services to Colorado citizens. Previously Mr. Graziano was the Sr. VP of Information Technology for Centric Health Finance, a company that delivers unique financial solutions to providers in the Oncology, Rheumatology and Nephrology specialties. His career is punctuated by leadership and technical management experience within the U.S. Navy, biotechnology, engineering and health care industries. Mr. Graziano has an engineering degree from the United States Naval Academy, a Masters in Information Systems from California Lutheran University and is a certified Project Management Professional.

Dave Haucke

As ISYS Search Software's vice president of global marketing, Dave is responsible for the development and execution of the company's worldwide marketing efforts. He has more than 12 years' experience serving as a marketing communications and public relations professional, working exclusively in the technology industry and providing PR services for companies that include Qwest Communications, eToys and Cirrus Logic. Prior to joining ISYS, Dave served as a senior consultant for VisiTech Public Relations, where he led the firm's editorial efforts. Before this, he worked as a marketing manager for eBags.com, where he was part of the original team that launched the company and helped it achieve significant growth during its early years. While at eBags, he co-managed the company's public relations and branding efforts, as well as produced much of its website content and marketing communications material. Dave has presented on a variety of search-related topics at several industry conferences, including the Enterprise Colorado State University with a bachelor's degree in technical journalism.

Tim Higgins

Tim Higgins founded Indigio nine years ago with the idea of helping companies make online channels a bigger part of their business. Mr. Higgins has nineteen years of IT and Consulting experience related to enterprise application development and Internet technology and implementation. Mr. Higgins has worked with many Fortune 500 companies, assisting them with large scale systems development and deployment, both from a business strategy perspective as well as from IT integration and deployment perspective. Mr. Higgins strength lies in translating the formation of a business objective into the execution of a solution, and takes pride in directing the largest full service interactive agency in the Rocky Mountain region. Recently Indigio Group, Inc. merged with Bridgeline Software, expanding Bridgeline Software's presence into Denver, Colorado and the Rocky Mountain region.

Joe Hodas

Joe Hodas is the Vice President of Corporate Communications for Consumer Capital Partners and leads the firm’s internal communications and national public relations. With over a dozen years of public relations and corporate communications experience, Mr. Hodas has developed an expertise in building brands and strengthening corporate reputations through earned media and integrated marketing communications. In addition, Mr. Hodas has advised organizations on crisis communications, media training and reputation management. Mr. Hodas previously served as the Sr. Director of Corporate Communications for Frontier Airlines. In addition, Mr. Hodas has several years of experience in high-tech PR, including his work with both public and privately held clients during his three years with Ogilvy Public Relations, as well as his tenure as director of corporate communications for Denver-based Web hosting firm, Verado, Inc. He holds a Master of Science degree in communications from the University of Denver and a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from the University of Texas.

Dr. J. Glen House

As an undergraduate in the Biomedical Science program at Texas A&M University, Dr. House suffered a snow-skiing accident which resulted in a broken neck (C7 complete). At that time he was planning on going to Dental School to pursue a career in oral surgery. Because of his limited hand dexterity that was no longer an option. Instead he attended the University of Washington School of Medicine and then a residency in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at Baylor College of Medicine. After his residency he completed an additional year of fellowship training in Spinal Cord Medicine at the Kessler Institute for Rehabilitation. Dr. House is now Board Certified in both Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation and Spinal Cord Medicine and serves as the Medical Director of the Center for Neuro & Trauma Rehabilitation at Penrose Hospital in Colorado Springs, CO as well as serving as Co-Founder and Chief Medical Officer at Disaboom.com.

Karl Jacob

Karl was an Entrepreneur in residence at Benchmark Capital, founder of a software company named Dimension X which was sold to Microsoft, CEO of Keen.com which became Ingenio.com among other companies. Wallop.com is Karl's latest innovative work.

Marion Jenkins

Marion Jenkins is founder and CEO of QSE Technologies, Inc. He has over two decades of executive management experience in a variety of high-growth technology and communications companies. He has served as a chief information officer, chief operating officer, vice president of sales and marketing, vice president of sales operations and chief technology officer. Jenkins is a nationally-recognized author and speaker on the role of technology in healthcare, and is a contributing author to the book, “Business Driven Information Technology,” published by Stanford University Press and used as an MBA textbook in business schools around the country. Jenkins holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Utah State University, and Masters and PhD degrees in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University.

Kimberly Johnson

Kimberly is a daily business writer focused on coverage of technology, biotechnology, telecommunications, cable and satellite television. She is responsible for breaking news involving companies such as EchoStar Communications, Qwest, Liberty Media, Sun Microsystems, Comcast and Amgen. For the last three years, Kimberly has reported local and national news out of the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Enterprise reporting efforts include coverage of Phillip Anschutz’s media holdings the decline of technology companies headquartered along the Front Range, Amgen’s drug development pipeline and effects on Colorado, the technology transfer efforts at Colorado universities and has landed several breaking news stories on page one of the newspaper, including coverage of HP’s pretexting scandal and how the Internet has affected Colorado’s public libraries. She currently serves as editor of the Sunday real estate page, working with a team of freelance writers to develop stories about real estate investments and trends.

Jeffrey Kalmikoff

Jeffrey is your average 29-year-old tattooed metal-head with an eye for design and nose for tomfoolery. Most of any time not spent with his wife and small family of cats is spent as partner and chief creative officer of the Chicago-based, community-business-centric skinnyCorp. The focus of his work is design and strategy for skinnyCorp's numerous community-based web projects. These projects range in scale from Threadless, a multi-million dollar tee shirt business and ongoing open-call for tee shirt design submissions which sells more than 90,000 tees per month and has over 800,000 registered users, to YayHooray, a just-for-fun design and technology community site with only a few thousand members. His work has been published numerous times, and he's had the pleasure of speaking for students and peers all over the world from MIT to the University of Copenhagen to CNN to NPR.

Alan D. Khalfin

The co-founder of MixMatchMusic, Alan is a musician and a producer. He has played music since childhood and is an accomplished drummer, guitarist, keyboardist and singer. Alan was inspired to start the company through his love of music and a desire to safeguard the rights of artists in the digital music age. He received his Juris Doctor in 2007 from Santa Clara University School of Law. His studies focused on Intellectual Property, Internet, and Entertainment law, and in his third year, he wrote a research article entitled "Digitalization and its discontents: Safeguarding artists' rights in the digital music age." Prior to founding MixMatchMusic, Alan was a business consultant to The Bayliens, Throw Me the Statue, and Cait La Dee. Alan also worked as a radio DJ for KSCU (103.3 FM, San Jose) from 2005-2006, spinning several shows per week, and as a production assistant for Noa Noa Music in 2004 (LA). He has traveled extensively throughout the world and speaks fluent Russian and French.

Greg Kostello

As CEO and Founder of VMIX Media, Inc., an interactive media platform that bridges the gap between content creators, publishers and distributors online, Greg Kostello brings more than 20 years of experience in technology development and management. Previously, Greg was President of Vivendi-Universal Net Technologies where he integrated the advances made in technology from MP3.com into the music industry’s commercial systems. Previous to the sale of MP3.com to Vivendi-Universal in 2001, Greg was Executive Vice President of Technology for MP3.com where he was instrumental in growing its Web site into the Number 1 music community on the Internet with more than 30 million registered visitors. He is also the co-founder of DIgitalStyle which was acquired by Netscape/AOL in 1997. His extensive knowledge and expertise within the technology industry also includes past positions at leading companies such as Apple Computer and Netscape. Greg has also founded or participated in five other early stage startups. Greg Kostello graduated from UC Irvine with a degree in Information and Computer Science. He served on the UCSD Connect Leadership Council from 1999-2001.

Dr. Mark Levine

Mark A. Levine, MD is the Chief Medical Officer for the Denver Region of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. He has practiced primary care internal medicine in Colorado for many years and continues to be clinically active. He received his undergraduate degree from Rutgers College and his medical degree from Temple University with postgraduate training at Temple University, the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Colorado. He co-founded the Colorado Patient Safety Coalition, served as President for several years and currently sits on its board of directors. He has previously served as Associate Medical Director of the Colorado Foundation for Medical Care and as Executive Medical Director of Healthcare Colorado. Dr. Levine has an enduring interest in medical ethics and professionalism. He has served as Vice Chair of the Rocky Mountain Center for Healthcare Ethics and as Chair of the Advisory Committee on Organizational Ethics for the Center for Bioethics and Humanities at the UCDHSC. He is Vice-Chair of the American Medical Association's Council on Ethical and Judicial Affairs and serves on the Oversight Body of the Ethical Force program of the AMA's Institute of Ethics. He has been a member of the Advisory Board of the Center for Bioethics and Humanities since 2003.

Alfred Lin

Alfred joined Zappos.com in 2005 and is responsible for all financial, administrative, and warehouse operations. Alfred focuses on bringing focus, strategy and financial discipline in order to grow the business efficiently and profitably. Prior to joining Zappos.com, Alfred served as VP of Finance and Business Development at Tellme Networks, helping grow that business from $0 revenue to over $120M in recurring revenue per year, 30% cash margins and a $0.5B estimated contracted revenue backlog. Prior to joining Tellme Networks, Alfred co-founded Venture Frogs with Tony Hsieh. Venture Frogs is an incubator and investment firm that invested in Internet startups, including Ask Jeeves, Tellme Networks, and of course, Zappos.com. Prior to Venture Frogs, Alfred served as VP of Finance and Administration at LinkExchange, where he managed the sale of the Company to Microsoft for $265M. Alfred met Tony Hsieh (CEO) in college, when Tony was running a pizza business and Alfred was his #1 customer.

Donald Lutz

Donald Lutz has enormous depth and breadth in Microsoft architecture as well as having over 20 years experience in designing and building large enterprise systems. Donald specializes in providing companies real-world SOA solutions implementing both BizTalk and integrated, orchestrated web services using the Microsoft .NET framework. Donald’s thought leadership enables him to creatively and effectively drive business solutions through technology. Technically, his expertise with system architecture and programming ensures project success. Donald is founder and CTO of Technetronic Solutions, Inc. which provides infrastructure and application services. He is a regular guest on Network World’s Converging Microsoft podcasts. Recently, Donald has focused attention on the areas of energy monitoring and management. His team at Technetronic Solutions will strategize with companies to reduce energy consumption and improve operational efficiencies through the deployment of building monitoring equipment, build out of analytic solutions, and automation of business processes and controls.

Max Mancini

Max Mancini joined eBay in December 2003 and is the senior director of Disruptive Innovation. He is responsible for leading the eBay Marketplaces global web services platform and strategy, including technical APIs, developer marketing, PR, certified provider program, evangelism and solutions marketing. The program currently has over 50,000 developers who have over 4,200 active applications built on the platform and delivers more than 25% of the eBay Marketplaces listings. In the Disruptive Innovation role, I am responsible for establishing eBay Marketplaces innovation program and strategy; managed the disruptive innovation team focused on building concepts related to our next generation buyer applications and social commerce applications and established a new product process to rapidly iterate on innovation ideas and product experiments to support innovation, product velocity and flexibility. Max graduated from Santa Clara University with a BS in Computer Science and an MS in Engineering Management.

Jeanine Martin

Jeanine Martin has been in the healthcare-technology industry for the past 10 years. Some of her National not-for-profit Board affiliations in the industry are: Past President of the International Association of IT Professionals, Past President of Women in Technology International, Founding President of Women in Technology of TN, Founding Officer of the TN Health Information Management & Systems Society, Founder of the National Healthcare Information Technology Summit, Former National Director of Marketing for the National Project Management Institute Project Management-Healthcare SIG, Member of the Nashville Healthcare Council, Member of the Leadership Healthcare Council, Member of the T.I.G.E.R. Initiative (Technology Informatics Guiding Education Reform), Member of the HIMSS RHIO Federation Roundtable, Member of the HIMSS RHIO HIE Tech Best Practices Task Force, Member of the HIMSS Nursing Informatics Task Force, Member of the HIMSS-Cisco Community for Connected Health, Member of the HIMSS-AMDIS Physician Community PHR Task Force and Member of the SoCal HIMSS Chapter Board of Director & RHIO Co-Chair. She currently is a US Health Provider Strategist at Microsoft. She was a member of Microsoft 5-Year Strategic Planning Committee. She is the HIMSS Liaison for the Microsoft Healthcare User Group Advisory Committee. She formed National Clinical Council.

Margi Mellott

Margi Mellott is the Staff Operations Manager for the Projects and Program Delivery (PPD) office in Sun's Information Technology Operations department. Margi is responsible for the business management and operational excellence within the PPD team, including the budget, goals, communications, meeting facilitation and strategy management. Margi joined Sun in 1999 and has found many opportunities to expand her leadership potential in Sun IT, IT Operations, Marketing, Services, and Professional Services Delivery. Prior to this role, Margi was the Operations Manager for the Professional Services Delivery organization where she was responsible for resource management, procurement, financial management (budgets and forecast), goal management, third party product / labor partner management, and relationship management with the sales organization. Margi holds an Associates degree in Computer Networking, a Bachelors degree in Business, with a focus in Information Systems, and will complete her general MBA in October, 2008. Margi also teaches Computer Networking and UNIX Systems Administration for an online college in Denver. Prior to Sun, she worked for Professional Networking and Technology Associates and the IT department for the corporate offices of Rock Bottom Restaurants.

Michael Moe

Michael Moe is a founding partner of ThinkPanmure and was formerly Director of Global Growth Stock Research and a Managing Director at Merrill Lynch. Prior to joining Merrill Lynch in 1998, Michael was a Senior Managing Director and Director of Growth Stock Strategy at Montgomery Securities. Michael has been named to Institutional Investor's "All American" research team and has been awarded "Best on the Street" by The Wall Street Journal. He has also testified in front of the U.S. Congress on the subjects of education technology, the new economy and initial public offerings, and he has also appeared before the President's Information Technology Advisory Committee. Michael is frequently cited in publications such as The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times for his opinions on growth companies. Michael also appears regularly on financial programs on CNBC and CNN and is a contributor to the AlwaysOn Network — a blog site about new media technology and venture capital news. Michael earned his BA in Political Science and Economics at the University of Minnesota. He is a member of the New York Society of Security Analysts, a member of the San Francisco Analyst Society, on the Board of Directors for the National Football Foundation & College Football Hall of Fame, and is a past advisor for the Center for Innovation. In 2007 he published his first book, Finding The Next Starbucks: How to Identify and Invest in the Hot Stocks of Tomorrow.

Jon Nordmark

Jon Nordmark founded eBags.com in early 1998. During the following months, Jon recruited four other people who ultimately became his co-founders. As a startup company in a startup industry, the Company, which raised $30 million in 1999, pioneered two concepts. First, eBags introduced drop-ship to the bag industry, allowing eBags to showcase 600 brands and 33,000 products while operating with a negative cash conversion cycle. Second, it pioneered a Web 2.0 concept, being one of only five retailers worldwide collecting product reviews from shoppers as late as 2004. As of 2008, during Jon's tenth year as CEO, shoppers had posted more than 1.5 million product reviews on eBags.com. Those same shoppers were ordering more than $100 million worth of product per year from eBags. Between 2000 and 2008, while weathering the 2000 recession, the dotbomb, and the 2001 terrorist attacks, the Company's compound annual growth rate was 33%. The Company became cash flow positive in mid-2002, and has remained positive since. During fiscal 2008, eBags posted a 4.2% EBITDAA. Prior to founding eBags, Jon spent 11 years at Samsonite, ultimately serving as Senior Marketing Director for North and South America overseeing 20 distribution channels, design direction, presentations, pricing, P&L's and forecasts for more than 1,500 products. He graduated magna cum laude from the University of Colorado's business school.

Steve Papa

Steve founded Endeca in 1999 to use innovative technology to solve a long-standing class of business problems that stem from information overload. He has since led it to become one of the fastest-growing software companies in the world, with five consecutive years of more than 100% revenue growth. Prior to Endeca, he was an early team member of Inktomi, the pioneer in large-scale parallel web search, and worked at Teradata, the world leader in large-scale structured data warehouses.Steve holds a B.S. in Operations Research and Economics from Princeton University and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.

Vipanj Patel

Vipanj serves as Chairman of Taaz. He also serves as Managing Partner of iSherpa Capital, an early stage venture capital firm. Vipanj sits on the board of numerous private companies.

Krista Paul

Krista Paul is the co-founder and CEO of Travelfli, Inc. She has a strong background in Sales, Marketing and Internet technologies. She graduated #1 From the Leeds School of Business with a Summa Cum Laude designation.

R.J. Pittman

R.J. is currently working for Google on a broad range of products, driving innovation for company's next generation consumer search properties. Previously, he was the co-founder and CEO of Groxis, the advanced search engine technology company that created the industry’s first graphical information interface, the GII, to hundreds of prominent content services including Google, Yahoo, and Amazon. Mr. Pittman has spent the last two decades building Internet software companies to help accelerate the evolution of a commerce-enabled Web. He has applied this experience to the creation many pioneering Internet companies and projects in the field of web search, social networking, e-payments, and online trading. R.J. has raised $50M in venture capital for the companies he has founded or co-founded since 1992, completing two IPOs, and the sale of two other companies. Mr. Pittman has also led e-business transformations at large multi-billion dollar corporations including Mckesson (NYSE: MCK), and Interface Global (NASDAQ: IFSIA). R.J. is best known as a highly technical company chief executive, product innovator, and business development maverick applying his balance of deep technical expertise and product vision with sound business principles that keep his ventures well grounded for success.

Jeff Powers

Jeff with co-Founder Vikas Reddy, created Occipital, a company dedicated to revolutionizing the way we think about digital photos. One of ten TechStars 2008 companies, Occipital recently demonstrated a prototype which applies modern computer vision to organize and visualize a stream of digital photos. Jeff holds a BSE in Electrical Engineering and a Master's in Intelligent Systems (A.I.) from the University of Michigan. He has worked at the Department of Defense and at the blogging startup, Xanga.com.

Kevin Raasch

As the Co-Founder and Executive Vice President, Kevin Raasch leads the company's Marketing and Sales Departments, plays a key role in product and business strategy, and provides consulting for clients. Raasch joined the company in 1988, bringing eight years of experience in event management, facility scheduling, and catering from Colorado State University's Lory Student Center. Raasch studied electrical engineering at Colorado State University and received a bachelor's degree in accounting (1991) and an MBA in marketing (1999) from the University of Colorado.

Steven Reading

Founder and Chief Business Officer at Dogster.com and Catster.com, Steven Reading Oversees Revenue, Partnerships, Business Development, Sales, Marketing and Legal matters. He was Born and Raised in London is a Lawyer by training and has made San Francisco his home since 1994.

Rob Reuteman

Rob Reuteman has been business editor of the Rocky since 1997. He is serving a second term on the board of governors for the Society of American Business Editors and Writers. He has been an editor at the Rocky since 1983, working previously as city editor, national editor and state/regional editor.

Laura Roden

Laura Roden founded VC Prive to provide a channel to provide private investors - accredited individuals, foundations, and endowments - with information about, and access to, high quality venture capital funds as investment vehicles. VC Prive is the only institutional intermediary in this niche. Laura's prior experience includes running The Angels Forum private investor group, running the Silicon Valley Association of Startup Entrepreneurs (SVASE), 15 years of raising and spending corporate and venture capital as CFO of both large and startup communications companies, and teaching finance fundamentals at San Jose State University. She received both her AB and MBA from Harvard.

Thomas Ryan

Tom's been working on the web since '96 when he started an indie music download company called Cductive, which was bought by eMusic. He also worked at Virgin Mobile USA and EMI Music, where he oversaw the company's global digital business. Tom's spent most of his career helping grow companies that bridge the creative world and technology / web world.

Heather Sachs

After owning her own firm for five years, Heather joined HSR to further the mission of solid public relations and to help clients manage all channels of their internal and external communication. She has a unique and well rounded public relations perspective and is passionate about effective communication. From the creation of a strategic plan to coordinating/directing media training, crisis communications, thought leadership initiatives, and media relations, Heather has a proven knack for keeping her clients message on target and in front of the right audiences. A 12 year veteran of the public relations profession, Heather has been creating, managing and executing both regional and national public relations campaigns for a variety of clients. Among the clients she has helped create successful communications campaigns for are Centura Health, Colorado Department of Transportation, American National Bank, and General Motors. Heather is actively involved in the local community having served on the board of directors of CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates) for the last four years. Heather is a graduate of Colorado State University.

Mark Schroeder

Home&Abroad founder and CEO Mark Schroeder was previously the CEO and co-founder of both Digital Creators and e-vitro. Digital Creators was sold in 1998 to TeleTech, Inc (TTEC). e-vitro was merged into Tenet Healthcare's (THC) e-learning subsidiary, DigitalMed, in 2001. Schroeder has also been an award-winning Lecturer at the University of Colorado, where he taught Comparative Literature and Digital Design.

Munjal Shaw

Munjal Shah is Co-founder and CEO of Riya Inc (makers of Like.com). Together with Burak Gokturk and Azhar Khan, he co-founded the company in August of 2004. Munjal is a serial entrepreneur who focuses on building companies from zero to millions in revenue. Prior to Riya he was co-founder and CEO of Andale Inc, a provider of software to eBay merchants. While he was CEO, Andale grew from 0 to double digit millions in revenue. Munjal started his career in artificial intelligence, writing software for Agouron Pharmaceuticals that predicted the efficacy of anti-HIV drugs. BusinessWeek declared Munjal one of the Top 10 up and coming CEOs in 2001. Munjal has been quoted of hundreds of magazines including the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, Business 2.0, and many others. Munjal has won a Demo God award for the launch of Riya (like.com) in 2006. Munjal sits on the advisor board to a number of very early stage startups including: Yousendit, Auyptima (sold to Oracle), Pubmatic, and MesmoTV. Munjal is very active in the Entrepreneurial community. In 1996 he co-founded Round Zero, a very popular networking forum during the first Internet boom. He is a charter member of TIE (The Indus Entrepreneur) in Bangalore. He received his Masters in Computer Science from Stanford University and his Bachelors in Computer Science from the University of California, San Diego.

Pete Sheinbaum

Peter A. Sheinbaum is the CEO of DailyCandy, Inc. In 2000, DailyCandy hired Mr. Sheinbaum to assist with the launch and development of DailyCandy.com. In 2003, he was named COO of DailyCandy and in 2005 named CEO. In August 2008 DailyCandy, Inc. agreed to be purchased by Comcast Interactive Media, a division of Comcast Corporation. Prior to DailyCandy, Mr. Sheinbaum held the following positions: Director & CRM Practice Leader for Empower Solutions (ERP & CRM software consulting and implementation), COO of AlexBlake.com (retail e-commerce), and Manager of E-Commerce for E! Television Networks. Additionally, Mr. Sheinbaum has served on several boards and advisory committees as well as investing in, and mentoring, a variety of technology start-ups. Mr. Sheinbaum holds a BA in Economics from Colgate University and an MBA from The Anderson School at UCLA. Prior to graduate school he worked as a financial analyst and associate in both commercial banking (Chemical Securities) and private equity (Lehman Brothers), respectively.

Craig Smith

Craig Smith was appointed Chief Executive Officer of ServiceMagic in January of 2008. A member of the ServiceMagic team since 2000, Craig began his career in strategic financial planning and progressed into his current role as CEO. He previously acted as the vice president of business development where he was charged with overseeing the company's Internet marketing approach and was responsible for consumer acquisitions and cultivating new strategic business partnerships. Prior to joining ServiceMagic, Craig worked for El Pomar Foundation as a member of a three-person asset management team, controlling over $475 million in assets. El Pomar selected Craig as part of an exclusive management training and professional development program focused on growing the next generation of business and community leaders. Craig has been a featured industry speaker within the local marketing industry, appearing in venues such as Kelsey's Directory Driven Commerce. He received a bachelor's degree in finance from the University of Colorado.

Hal Stern

Hal Stern is the Senior Vice President of Systems Engineering at Sun Microsystems. His responsibilities include technical leadership, training, and management of Sun's customer engineering teams in Global Sales and Services. Hal has been at Sun more than 18 years, having previously held the titles of CTO for Software, CTO of Sun Services, Chief Architect for Sun Professional Services, CTO of the Sun ONE (iPlanet) infrastructure products division as Chief Technologist of the Northeast US sales area. Hal became the first employee from the field organization promoted to the position of Distinguished Engineer in February 1995. Hal was one of the creators of the first Java Day, held in New York City in September 1995. He received a Sun President's Award in 1993 for contribution to Sun's product strategies in clustered systems. He is listed as inventor or co-inventor on several patents in the networking and security areas.

Matthew Taylor

Taylor joined ViaWest as the Vice President of Hosting and IT Operations in May 2006. Utilizing his over 16 years of technology management experience, Taylor reconstructed the hosting and IT organization to provide increased support levels for customer purchased services. He supported the migration of several key initiatives including new definition and standardization of managed services projects, implementation of best practice compliance services and new product development processes. Taylor was also responsible for integration of IT/IS functions for several ViaWest acquisitions, as well as introducing new reporting and managed services solutions to customers. Taylor began his career with General Reinsurance Corporation, becoming the youngest manager in the companies’ history. Next, he co-founded GreatLand Insurance Company, serving as both the CIO and VP of Underwriting. Taylor then accepted the role as Director of Strategic Planning for Kemper Insurance Company, founding its CIO Council. Before joining ViaWest, Taylor held roles as VP Southwest region for Agile Technologies, growing the $2 million book of business. Taylor also spent part of his career as Interim CIO for one of the world’s largest managed hosting companies managing numerous initiatives including the complete restructuring of the internal infrastructure.

Sean Tonner

Sean Tonner is the founder and President of Phase Line Strategies. Tonner offers clients expertise in developing and executing effective corporate strategies as well as providing sound political consulting. Prior to founding Phase Line Strategies, Tonner served as the Deputy Chief of Staff to Colorado Governor Bill Owens. He was responsible for intergovernmental affairs and external relations with various constituencies including political, minority, and business organizations. Over the course of his career, Tonner has worked on numerous political campaigns in the U.S. and abroad including Dole for President, Bush-Cheney, Bill Owens for Governor, Ben Nighthorse Campbell for Senate, Coors for Senate, and numerous local and state efforts. In 2002, he was named a national rising star by Campaigns & Elections magazine after he engineered a nationally recognized get-out-the-vote program that resulted in the largest gubernatorial vote received in Colorado history. In addition to his extensive political experience, Tonner has also amassed impressive corporate affairs experience developing and executing successful strategic plans for companies including Western Union, HealthOne, Wal-Mart, Noble Energy and others. At the age of 18, Mr. Tonner joined the U.S. Army and attended Reconnaissance, Airborne, Ranger, Desert, and Jungle warfare training. In addition, he served as a scout for the 24th Infantry Division in Desert Storm where he earned the Army Commendation Medal for Valor. After his service, he attended Metropolitan State College of Denver where he recently served as a Trustee.

Gregg Veltri

Gregory Veltri is the Chief Information Officer for the Denver Health Hospital and Medical Center, Colorados largest safety net health care systems. Denver Health is recognized as a leader in healthcare technology implementations, most recently as a winner of the 2007 Codman Award and recently in the August 2008 edition of CIO Magazine Denver Health was reviewed selected as one of the CIO Top 100 award winners. Mr. Veltri has over 26 years of IT leadership experience including extensive experience in the areas of technology and systems design, complex project management and business process improvement. Mr. Veltri received the Colorado CIO of the Year award in recognition of his leadership integrating technology solutions in healthcare. Mr. Veltri serves on the Board and as a past president of the Colorado Chapter of HIMSS and has authored numerous articles and presentations on various aspects of Healthcare Information Technology and obtaining value from technology investment.

Steve Ward

Steve Ward is the Vice President for Rural Health and Hospitals with the Colorado Hospital Association. He received his undergraduate degree in Business Administration from the University of Colorado, a Master Degree in Health Care Administration from Central Michigan University and is a Fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives. His healthcare career spans 25 years in rural healthcare management. In 1989 he created the Western Health Alliance Group Purchasing Organization for the benefit of Western Colorado Hospitals. Mr. Ward led an initiative to create The National Cooperative of Health Networks NCHN (currently representing 28 States and more than 400 hospitals) and was the organization’s Founding President in 1995. In the late 1990s Steve created a proprietary software company that merged with EquipMD (Atlanta GA) and sold to the Neoforma Corporation listed on the NASDAQ in 2003. Today Mr. Ward is personally engaged in an initiative to connect rural health care providers with metropolitan tertiary facilities and specialists to improve the quality of health for individuals living in Colorado. - The Colorado Telehealth Network - with 72 hospitals and more than 316 clinics participating in the initiative.

Jeff Whitton

Mike Wright

Mike is the president and founder of GRX, the leading computer and electronics recycling company in the Rocky Mountain region that offers drop-off and pick-up service. GRX is a genuine recycler (NO landfilling, NO incineration, and NO exporting to third world countries) that guarantees data destruction.