A broad array of business leaders and innovators will be participating in this weekend's Innovation Summit 2010 in Healdsburg.
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Omar Ahmad | Co-Founder & CEO, SynCH Energy Corporation
Omar Ahmad is a 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. 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 an avid photographer, pilot and mountaineer with successful summits of Mt. Kilimanjaro and Mt. Elbrus.
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Angelika Blendstrup, Ph.D. | International Executive Communication Coach, US Business
Angelika Blendstrup, Ph.D. is a business communication coach who helps foreign-born executives understand the differences and nuances of American business culture and the US English language, to communicate well and understandably in their jobs. She is the founder and principal of Blendstrup & Associates, whose focus is on coaching foreign-born professionals in accent reduction, presentation skills, cross cultural communications, and how to work successfully in the US business culture. Blendstrup & Associates also works with clients on personal branding and interviewing skills in order to make them more competitive in the job market. Her clients range from private counseling to working with Silicon Valley companies, such as DreamWorks, Sun Microsystems, HP, Tibco and Roche. Angelika speaks Spanish and Portuguese as well as French and German, and holds an M.A. in Comparative Literature from the University of California, Berkeley, and a Ph.D. in Bilingual, Bicultural Education from Stanford University.
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Enzo Carrone Ph.D. | Deputy Head of Control Department & Safety Systems Manager, Stanford Linear Accelerator Center
For months he did nothing but spend nights in a crammed control room, looking at screens and panels full of lights and switches, deciphering what was happening behind a radiation shielding concrete wall. Enzo Carrone was designing the control system of a particle detector at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research in Geneva, Switzerland. Five years and a Ph.D. later, he met up with an italian entrepreneur who wanted to build a revolutionary open-architecture MRI scanner, and wanted to bring the product to market; following a dream of exporting basic research to business, Enzo went ahead and did it. Right now, he is busy with another dream: building the world’s most powerful X-Ray Laser; as Deputy Head of Controls Department at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (Stanford), Enzo provides diagnostics, safety systems and the dashboard for a machine so revolutionary to be compared to the invention of the optical microscope. What will be its impact on our lives?
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Gary Chevsky | VP, YouSendIt | Wine Aficionado
Gary Chevsky is the VP of the online file-sharing and sending company, YouSendIt. An avid writer, Gary writes not about wine, but about life – made better by wine. A meal without wine is a lost opportunity. Gary lives, loves, eats, drinks, and makes friends. He is “Iron Chevsky”, WSET-certified wine aficionado and software industry executive. Back in the early days of the internet, he was known for being the founding member of the team: Ask Jeeves. These days he loves to explore the world of wine, and ponder about the meaning of it all.
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Jim Chu | CEO, LifeGivingForce
Jim Chu, CEO of LifeGivingF0rce, brings seasoned experience in international corporate marketing, disaster relief in the developing countries, and launching profitable startups. Jim headed marketing and business development for Cisco Systems covering Latin America and Canada with annual revenues of $140M. Since 2005, he has been investing in, building, and leading startups in the Bay Area, both bootstrapped and venture-funded. In addition to his fluency in French, his experience living in West Africa working for Doctors Without Borders is an asset to developing in-country operations and negotiating the NGO environment in Haiti. Recently Jim has been going into Pakistan to help set up water filtering equipment, so that the people affected by the earthquake have clean drinking water.
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Rooly Eliezerov | Co-founder & President, Gigya
As President of Gigya, Rooly supervises overall product strategy and development. He is a veteran of the Internet advertising and marketing industry, with a focus on product development. Before joining Gigya Rooly served on the board of Metacafe, held the position of General Manager at SmartShopper, and was the VP of Products & Marketing at Hotbar. Rooly holds a Bachelor of Architecture degree from the Pratt Institute in New York City.
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Mark Kithcart | Marketing Director, Democrasoft
Mark Kithcart is the Marketing Director for Democrasoft, joining them in 2009. Mark has over 17 years in leadership, management and marketing, for major public companies such as Agilent Technologies and Bechtel Corporation, as well as multiple start-up companies. Most recently, Mark was the Director of Marketing for an Internet start-up that became one of the most trafficked online sites in the world within 12 months. At Democrasoft, Mark oversees and is responsible for all online and offline marketing efforts and building solid relationships with users of Democrasoft’s premier product, Collaborize. Mark has a degree in Engineering from Cal Poly and is a graduate of USF’s MBA program and can be found online creating communities and conversations that enable the creation of value and progress.
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Paul Mabray | Chief Strategy Officer, VinTank
Paul has been in the wine and spirits industry for over seventeen years. Currently the Chief Strategy Officer of VinTank, Paul has worked for Napa Ale Works, Niebaum~Coppola, WineShopper/Wine.com and also was the North American Beverage Consultant for Sumitomo Corporation of America from 2002 through 2005. He founded Inertia in 2002 as one of the first major companies established to bridge the barrier between wineries and their customers. A key contributor to the Inertia blog, a two time American Wine Blog Awards finalist, he has also been a guest lecturer at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, UC Davis and many other symposiums, seminars, blogs, and periodicals for his leadership in the wine industry.
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Nilofer Merchant | CEO, Rubicon | Author, The New How
CEO, Author and Strategist, Nilofer is a leading authority on creating business strategy to win markets – and is the author of The New How. Having worked inside and outside major corporate brands like Adobe, Apple, Nokia and others, Nilofer has honed her collaborative approach to solving tough problems. As Rubicon’s founder and CEO, she leads a distinguished team of operational veterans. Her firm is hired by global brands such as Hewlett-Packard, Pinnacle, Logitech, Openwave, Symantec and others to create the solutions to win markets. Her keynotes attract SRO crowds at business leadership events, technology expos, women’s conferences and universities – ranging from AjaxWorld to CTIA and PBWC to Stanford. Having won multiple awards for her insights on applying strategic thinking and innovation, she’s been quoted or published in major business publications such as BusinessWeek, Entrepreneur, Fortune and The Wall Street Journal. Nilofer earned her MBA from Santa Clara University, a BS in Economics from University of San Francisco and is a certified Instructor of Facilitative Leadership from Interaction Associates.
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Jeremiah Owyang | Partner, Altimeter Group
Jeremiah Owyang is a Partner focused on customer strategy at Altimeter Group and author of the popular blog “Web Strategy” – which focuses on how corporations connect with their customers using web technologies. The Web Strategy blog is read by 70,000 unique visitors per month, and is rated as the Top Industry Analyst blog by Technobabble of Edelman. Hailing from enterprise web management, a former Industry Analyst at Forrester Research. Jeremiah consults and speaks on the topics of disruptive technologies for brand related customer strategies. He was featured in the 2009 “Who’s Who” in the Silicon Valley Business Journal. Jeremiah earned a Bachelors Degree in Business Administration with a focus on Marketing from San Francisco State University.
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Dr. Natalie Petouhoff Ph.D. | Chief Strategist, Weber-Shandwick
Dr. Natalie joined Weber-Shandwick’s Digital Communications group as their Chief Strategist, in a practice-wide role in support of client growth, practice development and thought leadership. Previously Dr. Natalie has guided CRM, Customer Service, Social Media professionals as well as C-level executives to develop a business strategy formulated to incorporate the most important asset of a company –their customers. Dr. Natalie is also a highly sought after TV and radio segment commentator. Dr. Natalie has been quoted in the NYTimes, USAToday, Bloomberg-BusinessWeek, CRM Magazine and Peppers and Rogers 1-to-1 Magazine.
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Shana Ray, Founder of Two Five Media
In 2008, Shana Ray started Breath(e) Media, a social media consulting agency which grew into a full service agency called Two Five Media. She currently helps Wine County brands promote themselves online by working with brands such as Hewlett Packard, Rodney Strong Vineyards, Michel-Schlumberger, Sift: a Cupcakery, downtown Santa Rosa and Segehsio Family Vineyards, to name
a few.In addition to running her own Marketing Agency, she now works at Democrasoft, a local company which created Collaborize, an online decision making application.
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Rich Reader | CEO, VineBuzz
Rich Reader is a Social CRM consultant, video and social media producer in the wine industry. He vlogs as VineBuzz. Rich also produces media for SCRM forums operating inside Cisco Telepresence Centers around the world. Mr. Reader has been producing print, TV & radio broadcast, cable, satellite, data services, IT, online media and communities for over 30 years. He participates actively in the Social Media Club, TEDxBayArea, Social CRM Pioneers, the Society for New Communications Research, Cheers Napa Valley, Sonoma Facebook Wine, Napa Facebook Wine. Rich created the Facebook Wine Aficionado private group.
Mr. Reader earned his master’s degree in Industrial Organization from the Graduate School of Economics at Boston University.
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Margot Sinclair Savell | VP of Measurement & Strategy Practice, Weber Shandwick
Margot Sinclair Savell is the vice president of Weber Shandwick’s Measurement & Strategy Practice in Seattle. Her work measures the competitive digital landscape for clients, in addition to providing strategic counsel and thought leadership. She is also the author of Weber Shandwick’s 2009 white paper, “Do Fortune 100 Companies Need a Twittervention?” in addition to articles about social media measurement for PR News. A former national journalist, Margot has been writing about wine since 1997. At that time, she managed the website of KOIN-TV, the CBS affiliate in Portland, OR. Living in Oregon wine country, prompted her to write a wine column on the website. Ten years later, she started her popular wine blog, Write for Wine, which is a now well-known brand on Twitter and Facebook.
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Liza Sperling | Brand Advocate, Voice of the Customer & Early Adopter, Lithium Technologies | Scout Labs
Brand Advocate, Voice of the Customer & Late Blooming Early Adopter. Strategic approach to engaging companies, customers & consumers by leveraging online communities and social media platforms, including using Scout Labs & Lithium Technologies platforms. Leveraging Social Media to optimize multiple areas and processes, including: branding, campaigns, customer experience, product, marketing & support area. Driving brand loyalty and sales with social media and online communities. Consultative sales expertise with an emphasis on use case for various business units. Before moving to the Bay Area, Liza spent 10 years on Wall Street experience and garnered hands-on entrepreneurial experience co-founding and raising start-up capital for a Hedge Fund
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Susan Thomas | President, Trainer Communications
Susan Thomas established Trainer Communications in 1995 to support some of the most prominent emerging technology companies with cutting-edge marketing communications services. Since that time, the agency has become the seventh largest privately held communications agency in the greater Bay Area and one of the Top 10 agencies to work for in the United States (according to a 2004 Holmes report). In recent years Trainer Communications has won numerous industry awards including the prestigious Anvil awards and the Bulldog Award. Trainer Communications has played an integral role in generating high-profile publicity for more than 150 startups.
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Victor Tsaran | Senior Accessibility Program Manager, Yahoo!
Growing up in a Ukranian orphanage, Victor is now an extremely talented computer engineer in the U.S. He’s an accomplished musician and songwriter, and he also happens to be blind. Victor runs Yahoo’s accessibility program – making it easy for people with all kinds of disabilities to access and enjoy Yahoo! Victor’s made it his mission to educate Yahoo’s designers and engineers, helping change their assumptions that accessibility somehow requires sacrifice or compromise. On the contrary, Victor argues that accessible design is better for everyone. Victor is a true innovator who’s opening eyes to a more accessible Web 2.0 world.
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Hardy Wallace | Merch-man, The Natural Process Alliance Winery.
The NPA is a small, eco-driven, hyper-local, winery with zero marketing budget and a self-imposed limited distribution of 100mi that has reached millions of people in the past six months. Between cleaning barrels, bins, and miscellaneous cellar work, Hardy Wallace is responsible for sales and marketing for the 4 person NPA winery. In the past months, the NPA has been on NPR, MSNBC, on the board in Times Square, filmed with Gary Vaynerchuk, and has had feature stories in 100′s of news outlets worldwide. With a commitment to organic and biodynamic farming, natural winemaking, and reusable packaging (stainless steel water bottles and kegs), the tiny NPA has gone from obscurity, to what has been called “one of the hottest wineries in the country” and the “greenest winery in America”. Wallace is also the author of the mysteriously popular Dirty South Wine and in 2009 was hired by Murphy-Goode winery as their winner of “A Really Goode Job”.
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Gigi Wang | Managing Partner of MG-Team.Venture Partner for iGlobe Partners
Ms. Wang is a Board Member & Chair Emeritus of the MIT/StanfordVenture Lab (VLAB), a high tech forum in Silicon Valley promoting entrepreneurship. She has an international background in marketing, sales and strategy for mobile, Web services and telecom companies. She is Managing Partner of MG-Team, LLC, a consulting company focusing on strategic marketing and international business development. She was SVP of Marketing and Alliances for July Systems. She also started up ISP marketing for Ascend Communications (acquired by Alcatel-Lucent). As an Internet pioneer, she launched the TRUSTe Internet privacy program in the mid-90’s and also started up Pacific Internet in Singapore (IPO’d on NASDAQ in 1999). Ms. Wang has a BS and MS in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University and MBA from the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley. She currently sits on the board of the Wireless Communication Alliance.
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Naeem Zafar | Professor, Haas Business School, U.C. Berkeley
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 is a frequent lecturer on the topic of entrepreneurship and innovation. He is frequently invited by the US State Department to travel and lecture internationally. He has spoken about innovation in Japan, Turkey, Pakistan, India, Singapore, Netherlands, China and the UK. Naeem did six startups and 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 published five eBooks on entrepreneurship (available from www.NaeemZafar.com) and his book “7-Steps to a Successful Startup” is available as an iPhone app and on Amazon.com. Naeem is a charter member of TIE, and the president of OPEN Silicon Valley. Naeem obtained an Sc.B. degree in electrical engineering from Brown University (magna cum laude), and a MSEE from the University of Minnesota.
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Looking forward to speaking in a panel with great friends and knowledgeable wine peeps: Paul Mabray, Frank Gutierrez and Hardy Wallace and meeting new peeps like Margot Sinclair Savell & Gary Chevsky (among others)

Angelika Blendstrup, Ph.D. is a business communication coach who helps foreign-born executives understand the differences and nuances of American business culture and the US English language, to communicate well and understandably in their jobs. She is the founder and principal of Blendstrup & Associates, whose focus is on coaching foreign-born professionals in accent reduction, presentation skills, cross cultural communications, and how to work successfully in the US business culture. Blendstrup & Associates also works with clients on personal branding and interviewing skills in order to make them more competitive in the job market. Her clients range from private counseling to working with Silicon Valley companies, such as DreamWorks, Sun Microsystems, HP, Tibco and Roche. Angelika speaks Spanish and Portuguese as well as French and German, and holds an M.A. in Comparative Literature from the University of California, Berkeley, and a Ph.D. in Bilingual, Bicultural Education from Stanford University.
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