Culture

Jennifer Pahlka is the founder and executive director of Code for America. She recently served as the U.S. Deputy Chief Technology Officer in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. She is known for her TED talk, "Coding a Better Government," and is the recipient of several awards, including MIT's Kevin Lynch Award, the Oxford Internet Institute's Internet and Society Award, and the National Democratic Institute's Democracy Award. Pahlka spent eight years at CMP Media, where she ran the Game Developers Conference, Game Developer magazine, Gamasutra.com and the Independent Games Festival.

Ben Horowitz is the cofounder and general partner of Andreessen Horowitz, a Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm that invests in entrepreneurs building the next generation of leading technology companies. The firm's investments include Airbnb, GitHub, Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter. Previously, he was cofounder and CEO of Opsware, formerly Loudcloud, which was acquired by Hewlett-Packard for $1.6 billion in 2007. Horowitz writes about his experiences and insights from his career as a computer science student, software engineer, cofounder, CEO, and investor in a blog that is read by nearly 10 million people. He has also been featured in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, the New Yorker, Fortune, the Economist, and Bloomberg Businessweek, among others. Horowitz lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with his wife Felicia.

Jennifer Carolan is Managing Director of the NewSchools Seed Fund, which she co-founded to make investments in early-stage education technology companies with potential for big impact in K-12 education. Carolan began her career as a teacher in traditional district schools where she became interested in differentiated learning. After studying master teachers at Stanford School of Education, she published her research on differentiation in Education Leadership. She is most interested in the intersection of technology, differentiated instruction and access. Carolan is on the Boards of: BetterLesson, Education Elements, EdSurge, Equal Opportunity Schools and FreshGrade. She still teaches sometimes, most recently Innovations in Teaching 338 at Stanford's School of Education/d.school and a home math camp for her kids and their friends. She has three children who attend a charter school in Los Altos, California.

Lew Cirne is the founder and CEO of New Relic. Cirne discovered the joy of building software in 1982 when he received his first computer as a Christmas gift from his parents. Three decades later, Cirne has been recognized as the creator of the multi-billion dollar Application Performance Management (APM) market, and the founder of two companies that have realized an aggregate enterprise value of over $1 billion. A developer at heart, Cirne still devotes time each week to building software alongside the world class engineers at New Relic. He's also a guest lecturer at Harvard and Stanford, and is the subject of a Harvard Business School case study, used each year to teach students the principles of successful entrepreneurship. Cirne has an AB in Computer Science from Dartmouth College and serves on the boards of New Relic and the Thrive Foundation for Youth.

Matt Rogers is founder and VP of Engineering at Nest Labs, creator of the Nest Learning Thermostat. By applying modern design and technology, Nest has made the thermostat sexy and revitalized a stagnant - yet very important - industry. Rogers is responsible for all product development at Nest, ranging from mechanical design to software to web services, and everything in between. Prior to Nest, Rogers was responsible for iPod software development at Apple, from concept to production. He was one of the first engineers on the original iPhone, and involved in the development of 10 generations of iPod, five generations of iPhone, and the first iPad. He earned his BS and MS degrees from Carnegie Mellon University.

Susan Koger is the co-founder and chief creative officer of ModCloth, an online retailer known for its innovative social shopping experience, unique apparel and decor, and wide range of styles sourced from independent designers around the world. As ModCloth's CCO, Koger employs her creative edge and love for vintage to inform all things ModCloth: from its careful curation of goods to the look and feel of the site and mobile apps. In 2013, ModCloth was recognized as one of Fast Company's "Most Innovative Companies," and Koger was listed in Forbes' "30 Under 30" and Refinery29's "30 Under 30: San Francisco."

Liz Wiseman teaches leadership to executives around the world. She is the president of the Wiseman Group, a leadership research and development firm headquartered in Silicon Valley, California. Some of her recent clients include: Apple, Dubai Bank, Genentech, Nike, PayPal, Salesforce.com and Twitter. She has been listed on the Thinkers50 ranking and named one of the top 10 leadership thinkers in the world. She is the author of Multipliers: How the Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter, a Wall Street Journal bestseller and The Multiplier Effect: Tapping the Genius Inside Our Schools. She has conducted significant research in the field of leadership and collective intelligence and writes for Harvard Business Review and a variety of other business and leadership journals. A former executive at Oracle Corporation, she worked over the course of 17 years as the Vice President of Oracle University and as the global leader for human resource development. She is a frequent guest lecturer at BYU, Harvard, the Naval Postgraduate School, Stanford and Yale. Liz holds a Bachelors degree in Business Management and a Masters of Organizational Behavior from Brigham Young University.

Julia Hartz hopes to inspire people to live more by building the world's largest marketplace of live experiences. Since founding Eventbrite in 2006 with Kevin Hartz and Renaud Visage, the company has generated over $3 billion in gross ticket sales, with more than $200 million tickets processed to events and experiences around the globe. A key to this growth and success is the people of Eventbrite (fondly referred to as The Britelings), which has grown to nearly 400 employees in six offices around the world. Hartz cultivates and advocates for Eventbrite's award-winning culture (voted "Best Places to Work in the San Francisco Bay Area" five years running). She has been honored as one of Inc.'s 35 under 35 in 2014 and Fortune's Most Powerful Women Entrepreneurs in 2013. Hartz is also a frequent speaker on live experiences, consumer trends and entrepreneurship, and has been recently featured in Forbes, Fortune, Bloomberg and Inc. Magazine. Previous to Eventbrite, she was a TV development executive at MTV and FX Networks.

Kevin Hartz is co-founder & CEO of Eventbrite, the self-service ticketing platform that has issued nearly 60 million tickets worldwide. He was previously co-founder and CEO of Xoom Corporation, an international money transfer company, servicing more than 30 countries worldwide; and co-founder of ConnectGroup, a startup providing high-speed Internet access to the hotel industry. ConnectGroup was acquired by Lodgenet (NASDAQ: LNET). Hartz holds a BAS from Stanford University, as well as an MA from Oxford University. He is an early stage investor and advisor/mentor to startups including PayPal, Pinterest, Lookout, Milo (acquired:eBay), TripIt (acquired:Concur) Airbnb, and Yammer. Kevin lives in San Francisco with his wife and two young daughters.

Jennifer Scott Fonstad is a founding partner of Aspect Ventures, and a respected mobile and software investor with special interests in Enterprise and Mobile Applications, Application Services, and Healthcare IT. She serves as Chairman of the Board of Flurry, and on several other private boards including iCix, Intematic, and Nantero. As a partner and Managing Director at Draper Fisher Jurvetson (DFJ) for 17 years, her investment successes included NanoString (NSTG), athenahealth (ATHN), Lumenos (acquired by WellPoint,WLP), Achex (acquired by First Data, FDC), and NetZero (UNTD); Fonstad was also part of the investment team for Goto.com, acquired by Yahoo (YHOO). At DFJ, Fonstad led the formation of and sat on the investment committees of several DFJ affiliate funds and served as an advisor to the DFJ China, Vietnam and Israeli teams. She also co-founded the Broadway Angels group and works with a number of seed stage companies including GemShare, UrbanSitter, Butterfly Health, and BitSight. Fonstad's success as an investor has landed her on the Forbes Midas List twice as well as an AO Power Player 2012 and 2013. Fonstad graduated Cum Laude from Georgetown University and holds an MBA with Distinction from the Harvard Business School. Before joining Bain & Company, she spent a year teaching math to high school students in sub-Sahara(n) Africa. With an active commitment to service, Fonstad is a member of the Board of Trustees for the Castilleja School and is Chairman of the Board of the Somaly Mam Foundation. She was also a founding member of Mitt Romney's Senate campaign staff and served on the Economic Policy Committee advising Meg Whitman's bid for Governor of California. A mother of four, Fonstad spends weekends running around with her children.

As well as being a founding partner of Aspect Ventures, Theresia Gouw is an engineer, an experienced entrepreneur, and successful investor in the new mobility space, focused primarily on Consumer, Social Commerce, and Security opportunities. Prior to co-founding Aspect Ventures, Gouw was a partner at Accel for 15 years, with a number of successful exits, including IPOs for Imperva (IMPV), PeopleSupport (PSPT), Trulia (TRLA), and acquisitions of Kosmix (WMT), Xoopit (YHOO) and Zimbra (YHOO). Gouw serves on the boards of several private and public companies. She led the series A or seed rounds in several leading Mobile/Consumer Internet companies (Birchbox, HotelTonight, LearnVest, Trulia, Joyus) and Security Software companies (Imperva, ForeScout, TRUSTe). As an entrepreneur, Gouw was founding VP of Business Development & Sales at Release Software, a venture-backed company that provided SaaS to enable digital rights management and payment technologies for the software industry. Earlier, she worked at Bain & Company and as a product manager at Silicon Graphics. She holds a ScB in Engineering from Brown University, magna cum laude, and an MBA from Stanford University. Gouw serves as a Fellow on Brown University's Corporation Board, vice-chair of DonorsChoose.org and at Stanford co-teaches a course on Venture Capital at the GSB. She also serves on the GSB Advisory Council and DAPER investment fund.

Leah Busque is founder and CEO of TaskRabbit. A vision for revolutionizing the way people work led Leah Busque to pioneer the concept of "service networking." Her passion for product innovation and devotion to user experience have propelled TaskRabbit into a leading role in the collaborative consumption movement. Since bootstrapping TaskRabbit in 2008, Busque has expanded the company nationally, grown the team to more than 60 employees, raised nearly $40 million in venture funding from venerated investors like Shasta Ventures, Lightspeed Ventures, and Founders Fund, and inspired legions of startups to launch in the collaborative and service networking space. Fast Company named her one of the "100 Most Creative People in Business," and her achievements have been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Wired, and Time. Under her leadership, TaskRabbit has gathered accolades as a finalist in the Crunchies and Mashable Awards, and was named "The Next Big Thing in Tech" by the New York Times. Prior to founding TaskRabbit, Busque was a Software Engineer at IBM, working in the Messaging and Collaboration Software Development Group. Busque lives in San Mateo with her husband, TaskRabbit's VP of Technology Kevin Busque, and a cuddly black lab named Emerson. She graduated Magna Cum Laude from Sweet Briar College, where she earned a B.S. in Mathematics and Computer Science.

Ed Catmull, Ph.D, is co-founder of Pixar Animation Studios and President of Walt Disney and Pixar Animation Studios. Previously, Catmull was Vice President of the computer division of Lucasfilm Ltd., where he managed development in the areas of computer graphics, video editing, video games and digital audio. Catmull has been honored with five Academy Awards, including a Technical Achievement Award, two Scientific and Engineering Awards, and one Academy Award of Merit for his work. In 2009, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences awarded Catmull with the Gordon E. Sawyer Award for his lifetime of technical contributions and leadership in the field of computer graphics for the motion picture industry. He also received the ACM SIGGRAPH Steven A. Coons Award for his lifetime contributions in the computer graphics field, and the animation industry's Ub Iwerks Award for technical advancements in the art or industry of animation. Catmull is a member of The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, the Visual Effects Society, and the University of California President's Board on Science and Innovation. Catmull was honored with the Randy Pausch Prize from Carnegie Mellon University's Entertainment Technology Center in 2008, and was selected as the recipient of the IEEE Computer Society's 2008 Computer Entrepreneur Award. Catmull has a bachelor's degree in computer science and physics and a doctorate in computer science from the University of Utah. In 2005, the University of Utah presented him with an Honorary Doctoral Degree in engineering.

Tristan Walker is the Founder & CEO of Walker & Company Brands. Prior to his founding Walker & Company he was an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Andreessen Horowitz. Prior to his time at Andreessen Horowitz, he was the Director of Business Development for foursquare, where he oversaw strategic partnerships and monetization. In this role, Walker managed integrations with large brands and media entities including American Express, The New York Times, CNN, MTV, Starwood Hotels & Resorts, and Starbucks. He has been named to Ebony Magazine's 100 Most Powerful People list, The Hollywood Reporter's Digital Power 50, and Black Enterprise's 40 Next. He is also the Founder and Chairman of CODE2040, a program that matches high performing black and latino undergraduate and graduate coders and software engineering students with Silicon Valley start-ups for summer internships. Walker holds a bachelor's degree in economics from Stony Brook University, where he graduated as valedictorian, and an MBA from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business. He currently lives with his wife in Palo Alto, California.

Cameron Teitelman is the Founder and CEO of StartX, a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit that runs an accelerator for Stanford affiliated entrepreneurs. Under his management, StartX has supported more than 370 founders building 157 companies. In September 2013, Teitelman secured a $3.6 million grant for StartX and launched the Stanford-StartX Fund with the university and Stanford Hospital & Clinics. The fund distributes an average of $3 million in funding for StartX companies, monthly. To date, Teitelman has raised $6 million in funding for the organization, which he began as an undergrad in 2009. Prior to StartX, Teitelman also founded a startup called the Essential Card, a campus discount card. Teitelman received a Bachelor's of Science degree in Management Science & Engineering from Stanford University in 2010.

Milton B. McColl, M.D. has a combined 25 years of healthcare operating and investment experience. He is the CEO of Gauss Surgical, Inc. an early-stage medical device company developing a mobile platform for real-time monitoring of surgical blood loss. Prior to joining Gauss Surgical, Milt was a Venture Partner at New Leaf Venture Partners, where he focused on venture and early-stage medical device investments. NLV invests primarily in companies focused on clinical-stage biopharmaceutical products, early-stage medical devices, and molecular diagnostics, and currently manages more than $1.5 Billion in assets. At NLV, Milt served on the boards of Interlace Medical (acquired by Hologic), IlluminOss, and Glumetrics. Prior to joining New Leaf, Milt was President of the Neurovascular Division of Boston Scientific Corporation (BSC). Milt initially joined BSC in 2001 following the acquisition of Embolic Protection, Inc (EPI) where he served as Vice President and General Manager for the Embolic Protection Franchise, part of the Interventional Cardiology division of BSC. Milt joined EPI in 2000 as one of the first employees assuming the position of Vice President of Clinical, Regulatory and Quality Affairs and Medical Director. During his time there he managed the design, implementation and successful completion of the FIRE Clinical trial, an 800 patient pivotal study which led to the FDA clearance of the FilterWire EX Device. Previously, Milt was the President and Chief Executive Officer of Genitope, Inc. an early stage biotechnology company focusing on patient-specific therapies for lymphoma which eventually became publically traded. Before joining Genitope, Milt was President and Chief Executive Officer of CSFluids, Inc. (later renamed Eunio), a development-stage company offering a surgical treatment for Alzheimer's Disease. Prior to that he was Vice President of Regulatory Affairs, Quality Affairs, Clinical Affairs and Chief Medical Officer for Gynecare, Inc. (eventually acquired by Johnson and Johnson) and Director of Marketing for Origin Medsystems (acquired by Guidant Corporation). Milt began his career as a professional football player with the San Francisco Forty-Niners and Los Angeles Raiders from 1981 to 1989. He was a member of two Super Bowl Championship teams for the Forty-Niners and was a special team's captain. Since 1997, he has also served first as president and later as an executive board member for the Stanford University DAPER Investment Fund, a VC and investment vehicle fund benefiting Stanford University's athletic department. Milt earned a B.S. in Biology from Stanford University and his M.D. from Stanford University School of Medicine.

Smita Saxena is Co-founder and CEO of SpotOn Computing Inc., which was founded in July of 2012. Saxena previously founded Accevia, Inc which was part of StartX's inaugural class. Accevia was a secure platform for independent financial advisors to communicate with clients. The platform allowed clients to automatically upload their portfolios and received automated performance reports. She received her Masters in Financial Mathematics from Stanford University and her Bachelors in Mathematics & Economics from the University of Toronto.

An alumni of the 2011 StartX session, Joseph is a passionate entrepreneur with industry experience in computer vision, software/web development, integrated circuits, finance, telecom, and embedded systems. Joseph has an MS in Computer Science from Stanford University with expertise in robotics, A.I., and computer perception and was employee #3, #7, and then #15 at a variety of startups prior to starting WiFiSLAM.

Hemant Shah is President and CEO of Risk Management Solutions. Since co-founding RMS in 1989, Shah has become widely recognized within the global insurance industry as a proactive and influential leader. Based in California, he was named one of North America's "100 Most Powerful People in the Insurance Industry" (Insurance Newscast, 2005, 2006), one of "35 Rising Stars" (Business Insurance, 2002), a "Leader of the Future" (Global Reinsurance, 2000) and also listed as one of the industry's Top 40 Most Influential (Global Reinsurance, 2008). Shah serves on the Board of Overseers of St. John's School of Risk Management and Actuarial Science (College of Insurance), is a Director of the RAND Center for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence, a Director on the Board of RAND's Institute for Civil Justice, and a Director of the Singapore-based Institute for Defense and Strategic Studies.

William Hsu is co-founder and managing partner at MuckerLab. He has spent his career as both a startup entrepreneur as well as an executive of a Fortune 100 company. Prior to MuckerLab, Hsu was the SVP and Chief Product Officer of AT&T Interactive where he owned P/L, Product Management, Product Marketing, and UX responsibilities for all digital advertising initiatives for greater AT&T. In three years at AT&T Interactive, he doubled revenue to over $1B and helped established AT&T Interactive as the 9th largest digital media company (ahead of Facebook), the largest digital local advertising company (ahead of Groupon), and the second largest mobile advertising company (behind Google) in the United States. Almost 13 years ago, as a 23-year old, he was the founder and EVP of Product Development for BuildPoint, the leader in providing bidding management and marketplace services to the commercial construction industry. Hsu helped the company grow to over 250 employees and raised over $50M in venture capital. The company was acquired in 2004. In between, Hsu has led product teams at eBay, Green Dot (GDOT), and Spot Runner. Hsu holds a B.S. in Industrial Engineering from the Terman School of Engineering at Stanford University and a MBA from the Wharton School of University of Pennsylvania.

Nate Ruess, lead singer of the multi-platinum, Grammy award winning indie-rock band fun., has been performing since he was a teenager, first as the lead singer of The Format. While touring with The Format, Ruess met Jack Antonoff on tour, who was leading his own band Steel Train at the time. In 2008, Nate and Jack decided to combine forces, and along with Andrew Dost, became fun. The band's critically acclaimed sophomore album, Some Nights, featuring the chart-topping singles "We Are Young," "Some Nights," "Carry On," was praised by The New York Times for its "grandiose pop tunes with complex structures, soaring hooks, and pensive verses." In 2013, fun. took home two Grammy Awards (Best New Artist and Song Of The Year) and Some Nights was certified platinum. In addition to his success with fun., Ruess collaborated with pop singer Pink in 2013 on the pop ballad, "Just Give Me A Reason." The single was nominated for two 2014 Grammy Awards (Song Of The Year and Best Pop Duo/Group Performance).

As Chairman and CEO, Cameron Strang oversees legendary record label Warner Bros. Records as well as WMG's Music Publishing & Catalog Development division, which includes Warner/Chappell Music and Rhino Entertainment. Warner Bros. Records is one of the most successful recording companies in music history and home to some of the most influential and innovative artists of our time. Warner/Chappell Music is a global music publishing company and contains one of the world's greatest collections of musical compositions, ranging from well-known standards to new songs by emerging artists. Rhino Entertainment-which includes Rhino Records, WMG Custom Products, and WMG Film, Television & Commercial Licensing-looks after the development of Warner Music Group's vast recorded music catalog of extraordinary artists, and provides support and assistance to the company's frontline labels. Previously, Strang was the founder of Southside Independent Music Publishing, which was formed in 2004 and acquired by Warner/Chappell in 2010. Strang was also the founder of independent label, New West Records. Prior to being acquired by Warner/Chappell, Southside was a leading independent music publishing company with a reputation for discovering and developing numerous talented writers, producers and artists across a wide range of genres. Southside was founded with the signing of J.R. Rotem and, in just six years, built a roster that included Elektra Records recording artist Bruno Mars; producer Brody Brown; Nashville-based writers, Ashley Gorley and Blair Daly; Christian music star, Matthew West; and Kings of Leon. In 1995, after practicing law for a few years in his hometown of Vancouver, Strang launched New West Records. In 2001, the label released the Grammy Award-winning album Nothing Personal by roadhouse rocker Delbert McClinton, Billy Joe Shaver's critically acclaimed album, The Earth Rolls On, as well as albums from breakout artist Tim Easton and veteran Stephen Bruton. During the last decade, Strang and New West have released numerous award-winning albums and built an impressive roster that includes Steve Earle, Dwight Yoakam, Kris Kristofferson, Rickie Lee Jones, Drive By Truckers, Ben Lee, Old 97's, Buddy and Julie Miller. Strang graduated from University of British Columbia Law School in 1992. He is based at Warner/Chappell's headquarters in Los Angeles.

Sharon Vosmek has been CEO of Astia since 2007, previously joining as COO in 2004. As CEO of Astia, she has an unwavering passion and a uniquely well-suited background to drive forward the organization's mission of propelling women's full participation as entrepreneurs and leaders in high-growth businesses, fueling innovation and driving economic. Under her guidance, the Astia community of investors, entrepreneurs, and industry leaders has grown ten-fold and now spans North America, Europe, South America and India. Prior to joining Astia, Vosmek founded SJ Vosmek & Associates, a management firm that included clients such as PG&E, PacBell (now AT&T) and the University of Wisconsin Madison. She held management positions at American Express and in the office of United States Senator, Dennis DeConcini. She currently serves on the Advisory Boards of StarVest Partners and Illuminate Ventures , the Stevenage Bioscience Catalyst Experts Advisor Group, and on the "Making Value for America" expert advisory committee for the National Academy of Engineering. A sought-after speaker, Vosmek was invited to participate in The White House Women's Entrepreneurship Conference and The Presidential Summit on Entrepreneurship led by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. In January 2011, Astia was chosen to join the White House's StartUP America initiative, developed to celebrate, inspire, and accelerate high-growth entrepreneurship throughout the nation. Astia is the only organization included that focuses on women-led start ups. Vosmek has a master's degree in public policy and administration from the University of Wisconsin, Madison and a bachelor's degree in political science from Arizona State University.

Mike Olson co-founded Cloudera in 2008 and served as its CEO until 2013 when he took on his current role of chief strategy officer (CSO). As CSO, Olson is responsible for Cloudera's product strategy, open source leadership, engineering alignment and direct engagement with customers. Prior toCloudera, Mike was CEO of Sleepycat Software, makers of Berkeley DB, the open source embedded database engine. He spent two years at Oracle Corporation as vice president for Embedded Technologies after Oracle's acquisition of Sleepycat in 2006. Prior to joining Sleepycat, Mike held technical and business positions at database vendors Britton Lee, Illustra Information Technologies and Informix Software. Mike has a Bachelor's and a Master's Degree in Computer Science from the University of California, Berkeley.