Strategy

Susan Desmond-Hellmann, MD, MPH, is chancellor of the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). At UCSF, Desmond-Hellmann, an oncologist and renowned biotechnology leader, also holds appointment as Arthur and Toni Rembe Rock Distinguished Professor. The recipient of numerous honors and awards, Desmond-Hellmann was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and was elected to the Institute of Medicine in October 2010. Before joining UCSF, she served as president of product development at Genentech, a position she held from March 2004 through April 30, 2009. In this role, she was responsible for Genentech?s pre-clinical and clinical development, process research and development, business development and product portfolio management. She also served as a member of Genentech?s executive committee, beginning in 1996. She joined Genentech in 1995 as a clinical scientist, and she was named chief medical officer in 1996. In 1999, she was named executive vice president of development and product operations. During her time at Genentech, several of the company?s patient therapeutics (Lucentis, Avastin, Herceptin, Tarceva, Rituxan and Xolair) were approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and the company became the nation?s No. 1 producer of anti-cancer drug treatments.In November 2009, Forbes magazine named Desmond-Hellmann as one of the world's seven most "powerful innovators," calling her "a hero to legions of cancer patients." She completed her clinical training at UCSF and is board-certified in internal medicine and medical oncology. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in pre-medicine and a medical degree from the University of Nevada, Reno, and a master?s degree in public health from the University of California, Berkeley. Prior to joining Genentech, Desmond-Hellmann was associate director of clinical cancer research at Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharmaceutical Research Institute. While at Bristol-Myers Squibb, she was the project team leader for the cancer-fighting drug Taxol.Desmond-Hellmann also has served as associate adjunct professor of epidemiology and biostatistics at UCSF. During her tenure at UCSF, she spent two years as visiting faculty at the Uganda Cancer Institute, studying HIV/AIDS and cancer. She also spent two years in private practice as a medical oncologist before returning to clinical research.

Dr. Constantz specializes in novel, high-performance cements. He is the inventor on more than 60 issued U.S. patents, as well as many pending U.S. and foreign patent applications on the subject. Prior to founding Calera, he was the founder and CEO of three successful medical device companies: Norian, Skeletal Kinetics, and Corazon. His bone-fracture cements can be found in most orthopedic operating rooms in the Western world. A Consulting Professor at Stanford University, Dr. Constantz has taught courses in biomineralization, carbonate sedimentology, and bone mineralization, and has conducted numerous seminars and Continuing Medical Education courses on the use of cement in bone fracture management. He serves on the board of directors of the Stanford Environmental Molecular Science Institute and is affiliated with the Woods Institute for the Environment, where his expertise is carbon dioxide sequestration in concrete and the built environment. Dr. Constantz received B.A., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees at the University of California, and received a post-doctoral appointment at the U.S. Geologic Survey and a Fulbright Scholarship at the Weizmann Institute.

Aaron Levie, co-founder and CEO of Box.net, leads an organization seeking to let everyone have the freedom to share content, from anywhere, through the power of cloud computing. Beyond individual users and small businesses, Box.net has also shown the value of their platform to a growing number of enterprise customers.

Mr. Piacentini has served as Senior Vice President, International Retail for Amazon.com since January 2007. From November 2001 until December 2006, Piacentini served as Senior Vice President, Worldwide Retail and Marketing and, from February 2000 until November 2001, he held the position of Senior Vice President and General Manager, International. Prior to joining Amazon.com, Piacentini was Vice President and General Manager of Apple Computer Europe, where he headed operations for Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. Piacentini joined Apple Computer in 1987. He held several financial management positions through 1993, including Sales Director for Apple Italy in 1994 and General Manager for Apple Italy in May 1995. Piacentini holds a degree in economics from Bocconi University of Milan. An Italian national, he has traveled and worked extensively across Europe, Asia, and North America.

Ann Miura-Ko is a co-founding partner at FLOODGATE, where her investment interests include innovations in ecommerce, security, and big data. In addition to serving at FLOODGATE, Miura-Ko is a lecturer in the School of Engineering at Stanford University, where she also received her PhD focused on mathematical modeling of computer security. She teaches High-tech Entrepreneurship with Steve Blank and she is a frequent lecturer in courses such as Technology Venture Formation, High-tech Entrepreneurship, and the Mayfield Fellows Program. Many of her students have gone on to secure Angel and VC funding for their ideas. Prior to joining FLOODGATE and her stint at Stanford, Ann worked at Charles River Ventures and McKinsey and Company. Miura-Ko grew up in Palo Alto, California and, as a result, she was exposed at an early age to the world of start-ups, technology, and venture capital. She developed an early passion for robotics and went on to major in electrical engineering at Yale University, where she received her BS degree. For her senior project, she was part of a five-person team that designed four robots to autonomously play soccer. That team placed fourth at the second annual Robocup competition held in Paris, France in 1998.

Dan Rosensweig serves as President and Chief Executive Officer of Chegg.com, where he oversees the overall business operations and executive management. Dan brings successful, high-growth consumer business experience to Chegg, having served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Guitar Hero and Chief Operating Officer at Yahoo!, where he was responsible for product development, marketing, international operations, and North American operations. Prior to Yahoo!, Dan also served as President of ZDNet, where he managed its successful merger with CNET. Dan received a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science from Hobart College in Geneva, New York. When Dan isn't attending a Springsteen concert or enjoying quality time with his wife and two daughters, he participates on the Advisory Board of the non-profit DonorsChoose.org, and contributes as a member of the Executives in Residence program at Columbia University. He also resides on the boards of directors of both Adobe Systems, Inc., and Katalyst Media, Ashton Kutcher and Jason Goldberg's social media company.

Chi-Hua Chien is a co-founder and managing partner of Goodwater Capital. Prior to co-founding Goodwater, Chien was a general partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. And before that, Phe was an associate at Accel Partners, where he originated the venture capital firm's investment in Facebook. Chien was an early employee or co-founder of four startups, including Coremetrics (acquired by IBM), where he led the marketing and inside sales teams, served as interim CFO, and was appointed to the Office of the President. In addition, Chien serves on the board of directors of charity: water, imoji, Stash, Tilt, Weee and Zumper. He previously served on the boards for Klout, Spotify, Twitter and many other tech ventures. Chien fell in love with startups at Stanford University, where he earned a B.S. and M.S. in industrial engineering, a B.A. in economics, and an MBA. At Stanford, he was named a Mayfield Fellow, President's Scholar, and Arjay Miller Scholar. He enjoys staying close to the Stanford community and co-teaches an undergraduate technology-entrepreneurship course at the School of Engineering.

Amit Chatterjee is CEO and Founder of Hara, a provider of environmental and energy management solutions. Prior to founding Hara, he led SAP's Governance, Risk and Compliance unit. Mr. Chatterjee developed strategic and leadership experience while at McKinsey & Co., working with clients such as SAP, Cisco, and Oracle. Chatterjee holds a B.A. degrees in Political Science and Chemistry from UC Berkeley, with graduate studies at Stanford University. Mr.Chatterjee is a thought-leader on green economy innovation, energy independence, and entrepreneurship. He has participated in prominent conferences such as the United Nations Copenhagen Climate Change Conference, and he has been a featured participant at Fortune Brainstorm Tech, Aspen Institute?s Clean Energy Economic Forum, and the Corporate Leaders Group on Climate Change Conference. Mr. Chatterjee is the author of The Post Carbon Economy, and he sits on the board of the Corporate Responsibility Officers Association.

Mark Suster is a serial entrepreneur who grew up in Northern California. After graduating from UCSD (economics) and University of Chicago (MBA), he joined Andersen Consulting (now Accenture) in Los Angeles to build computer systems for large corporations. There, he focused mostly on computer networking but had stints with programming, database design, system modeling, and testing. In 1994 he transferred within Accenture to their technology center of excellence in Sophia Antipolis, France, where he traveled extensively throughout Europe. Suster started his first company in 1999 while headquartered in London - a SaaS platform for large-scale engineering and construction projects including the London Underground, Thames Water, BNP Paribas, and all of the top German construction firms. The company grew to have offices in seven countries before it was sold in 2005.. He then launched his second company, Koral, in San Mateo, California, which later sold to Salesforce.com, where he became VP Product Management. This company now forms what is known as Salesforce Content. Suster joined GRP Partners in 2007 as a General Partner. He focuses on early-stage technology companies usually focused on Series A or seed investments.

Marc Andreessen is perhaps best known for being the Co-founder of Netscape Communications Corp. He has also served as Chief Technology Officer of AOL (after AOL acquired Netscape). In addition, he is Co-founder and Chairman of Ning and an investor in several start-ups, including Digg, Plazes, and Twitter. He is a General Partner at Andreessen Horowitz, and Andreessen sits on Facebook's board of directors. Born in rural Cedar Falls, Iowa, in 1971, Andreessen has always had a deep interest in computers. By the sixth grade, he'd created a virtual calculator to do his math homework. By seventh grade, he was writing his own games for his family's Commodore 64 computer. In 1992, while working at the the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA), Andreessen developed Mosaic, a visual browser to help navigate the emerging volumes of information available on the young Internet. Later, Mosaic changed its name to Netscape and became one of the most popular Web browsers to date. Andreessen holds a degree in Computer Science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Tom Conrad has worked for Pandora since 2004, and he currently serves as the company's CTO. At Pandora, he leads the design, development, and technical operations teams. He is also currently an advisor at Worldly Developments. Previously, Conrad was the VP of Engineering at Kenamea, an AJAX framework organization that helped people build rich internet applications. He was also an engineer at Documentum, a Senior Engineer at Apple, and the Director of Engineering for Pets.com. Conrad has earned his BS in Computer Engineering from the University of Michigan.

John Seely Brown is a visiting scholar and advisor to the Provost at University of Southern California (USC) and the Independent Co-Chairman of the Deloitte Center for the Edge. Prior to that he was the Chief Scientist of Xerox Corporation and the director of its Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) - a position he held for nearly two decades. While head of PARC, Brown expanded the role of corporate research to include such topics as organizational learning, knowledge management, complex adaptive systems, and nano/mems technologies. He was a cofounder of the Institute for Research on Learning (IRL). His personal research interests include the management of radical innovation, digital youth culture, digital media, and new forms of communication and learning. John, or as he is often called, JSB, is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Academy of Education, a Fellow of the American Association for Artificial Intelligence and of AAAS, and a Trustee of the MacArthur Foundation. He serves on numerous public boards (Amazon, Corning, and Varian Medical Systems) and private boards of directors. He has published over 100 papers in scientific journals and was awarded the Harvard Business Review's 1991 McKinsey Award for his article, "Research that Reinvents the Corporation" and again in 2002 for his article "Your Next IT Strategy." In 2004 he was inducted into the Industry Hall of Fame. With Paul Duguid he co-authored the acclaimed book The Social Life of Information (HBS Press, 2000) that has been translated into nine languages with a second addition in April 2002. With John Hagel he co-authored the book The Only Sustainable Edge, which is about new forms of collaborative innovation. And in 2010, he authored The Power of Pull: How Small Moves, Smartly Made, Can Set Big Things in Motion with co-author Lang Davison. JSB received a BA from Brown University in 1962 in mathematics and physics and a PhD from University of Michigan in 1970 in computer and communication sciences. He has received five honorary degrees including: May 2000, Brown University awarded him an honorary Doctor of Science Degree; July 2001, the London Business School conferred an Honorary Doctor of Science in Economics; May 2004, Claremont Graduate University granted him an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters; May 2005, University of Michigan awarded him an Honorary Doctor of Science Degree; and May 2009, North Carolina State University awarded him an Honorary Doctor of Science Degree.

Liz Tinkham is the global managing director for the management consulting organization in the communications and high tech group at Accenture. Working for Accenture for more than 25 years, she has focused particularly on customer relationship management and data service strategy. Twenty-one of her 25 years has been spent with her current group. Her career has taken her from Chicago, San Francisco, and Florham, NJ. According to a company profile at Accenture.com's career site, one of the most challenging aspects of her professional life has been trying to keep up with the constant changes in the markets and technology. She credits her success with willing to be flexible in roles and assignments and not trying to over-design what she will do next. Tinkham has earned a Bachelor of Science in aeronautical and astronautical engineering, Ohio State University, in Columbus, Ohio. She also serves on the board of The Enterprising Kitchen and the Women's Board of the Adler Planetarium.

Polly Sumner is president of global services and chief adoption officer at salesforce.com. Sumner has more than 20 years of executive management experience in the technology industry. Prior to joining the San Francisco-based salesforce.com, she has served as president of global services, consulting and industry information services at communications software and services company, Telcordia, headquartered in Piscataway, NJ. She has also worked as an independent consultant with Warburg Pincus from July 2003 to January 2006. Prior to this, Sumner also served as president of Alphablox Corporation, an analytics software company, from 2002 to 2003. During her presidency, the company grew from $5 million to $25 million in two years and was eventually acquired by IBM in 2004. She has also worked for Oracle, McDonnell Douglas, and IBM. Sumner earned a Bachelor of Arts in history and political science from Northern Arizona University and a Masters of Science from American Graduate School of International Management, in Glendale, AZ.

CEO and co-founder of Apture, Tristan Harris has been rated number 16 in Inc. magazine's top 30 entrepreneurs under 30. Based in San Francisco, Apture allows bloggers and publishers to integrate multimedia content into their sites through the use of a plugin. The Apture "'super' link button opens the door to an entire library of content in the Apture Media Hub that can be linked or embedded into the page with just one click," explains the company on its Web site. A former Mayfield Fellow with the Stanford Technology Ventures Program, he earned a Bachelor of Science in computer science from Stanford University.

Clara Shih is CEO and founder of Hearsay Social, whose predictive analytics technology helps salespeople reach out to clients at the right time with the right message while staying in compliance with industry regulations. A pioneer in the social media industry, Shih developed the first social business application in 2007 and subsequently authored the New York Times bestseller, "The Facebook Era." Her latest book, released in April 2026, is "The Social Business Imperative: Adapting Your Business Model to the Always-Connected Customer." Shih has been named one of Fortune's "Most Powerful Women Entrepreneurs," Fast Company's "Most Influential People in Technology," BusinessWeek's "Top Young Entrepreneurs," and both Fortune's and Ad Age's "40 Under 40." She was also named a "Young Global Leader" by the World Economic Forum. Shih is a member of the Starbucks board of directors and previously served in a variety of technical, product and marketing roles at Google, Microsoft and Salesforce.com. She graduated No. 1 in computer science at Stanford University, where she also received an M.S. in computer science. She also holds an M.S. in internet studies from Oxford University, where she studied as a U.S. Marshall Scholar.

Jeff Seibert is an experienced serial entrepreneur with a passion for deeply technical Internet software. His most recent company, Crashlytics, was acquired in 2013 by Twitter, where he now serves as Senior Director of Product. Seibert was the CEO of Crashlytics, which he co-founded in 2011 with Wayne Chang. Crashlytics delivered crash analysis tools for iOS and Android apps via an SDK that reached 300 million mobile devices worldwide. In 2007, Seibert co-founded Increo and served as its COO and lead architect until its acquisition by Box in August of 2009. He subsequently oversaw the integration of Increo's document preview and annotation technologies into the company's cloud-based content platform. Seibert gained experience at Apple in both marketing and engineering capacities and led Stanford University's Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders seminar series as Co-Coordinator. He was selected as a Mayfield Fellow in 2007 and received a B.S. in computer science from Stanford University in 2008. Seibert discovered his passion for entrepreneurship and programming at a young age, founding Arios Software during high school in Baltimore and dedicating countless hours to developing Mac desktop software long before it was a cool platform. Outside of work, Seibert enjoys surfing, snowboarding, hiking, and tennis.

Joshua Reeves believes in the power of software to solve complex problems and founded ZenPayroll (now Gusto) to deliver delightful, modern payroll to businesses everywhere. ZenPayroll launched in 2012 with funding from the CEOs of Dropbox, Yelp, Zuora, Box and Yammer, as well as Y Combinator, Google Ventures and Salesforce, and is now processing hundreds of millions of dollars in payroll. Reeves was selected to the 2012 Forbes "30 Under 30" list and is a regular contributor to Forbes, Entrepreneur and Business Insider. Prior to co-founding ZenPayroll, Reeves was the CEO and cofounder of Unwrap, a SaaS startup which was acquired in 2010, and he began his career as an early employee at Zazzle. He holds a B.S. and M.S. in electrical engineering from Stanford University, where he was a Mayfield Fellow and a recipient of the Terman Engineering award.

Steve Garrity is a co-founder and chief technology officer of Hearsay Social, which provides software and tools to help companies manage and measure their presence across Facebook, Twitter, and other social media. Prior to starting Hearsay, Garrity was a program manager and engineer at Microsoft in Seattle (working on mobile search, Live Mesh, and Azure .Net Services); and a product manager at Fortify Software. At Stanford, Steve was a Mayfield Fellow while studying computer science (BS '04, MS '05).

Dr. M. Elisabeth Paté-Cornell, the Burt and Deedee McMurtry Professor in the School of Engineering at Stanford University, is widely recognized as a leader in engineering risk analysis and management. Her research has focused on inclusion of both technical and management factors in probabilistic risk analysis models with applications that include the NASA shuttle tiles, offshore oil platforms, and medical systems. Since 2001, her research has also examined the possibilities of terrorist attacks on the United States. Elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 1995, to its Council (2001-), and to the French Académie des Technologies (2003), Dr. Paté-Cornell has received many of the highest honors in her field. She sits on many advisory boards, including the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board (2001-2004; 2005-), the Advisory Council of NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab. (2002-), the Boards of Trustees of the Aerospace Corp. (2004-), and of InQtel (2006-). She also chaired the Board of Advisors of the Naval Postgraduate School from 2004 to 2006. Dr. Paté-Cornell was born in Dakar, Senegal, in 1948. She attended public high schools both in Dakar and in La Rochelle, France. Her undergraduate degree is in mathematics and physics (BS, Marseilles, France, 1968), and her first graduate degrees are in applied mathematics and computer science (MS and Engineering Degree, Institut Polytechnique de Grenoble, France, 1970; 1971). In 1971 she came to study and live in the United States, where she has been a citizen since 1986. She received a Masters degree in Operations Research (OR) in 1972 and a Ph.D. in Engineering-Economic Systems (EES) in 1978, both from Stanford University. She then was an Assistant Professor of Civil Engineering at MIT, before joining the Stanford faculty in 1981, where she became Professor (in 1991) and then Chair (in 1997) in the Department of Industrial Engineering and Engineering Management (IEEM).

Danish-born David Heinemeier Hansson is the programmer and creator of the popular Ruby on Rails web development framework and the Instiki wiki. He is also a partner at the Web-based software development firm 37signals, based in Chicago. Ruby on Rails provides a "basic development environment" for programmers, according to Wikipedia.org. Based on the programming language Ruby (developed by Japanese programmer Yukihiro Matsumoto in 1995), Ruby on Rails focuses on user interface and "convention over configuration"; meaning, developers can focus on the unique qualities of their Web site or program rather than the building blocks that every application may require. Released in 2004, Ruby on Rails has been incorporated into many applications used by some of the biggest companies, from Twitter to Apple's 2007 release of Mac OS X v.10.5 "Leopard." Aside from his development of Ruby on Rails, Heinemeier Hansson also works as a partner for Web-based software development firm 37signals. Joining the company in 2003, he has helped develop Basecamp, Campfire, Backpack and other Web-based applications. Working in similar ways like Web-based e-mail services like Yahoo! e-mail and Google's Gmail, 37signals hosts a broad range of IT services for companies, including project management to information-sharing. The firm's software has been used by Kellogg's, Sun Microsystems and even Obama '08. Hansson received his bachelor's degree from the Copenhagen Business School in 2005. In that same year, he moved to Chicago and received Hacker of the Year honors for his work on Ruby on Rails from Google and O'Reilly Media. He runs a blog called LoudThinking.com.

Dr. Craig Barrett recently stepped down as Chairman of the Board of Intel Corporation, a post he held from May 2005 to May 2009. He is a leading advocate for improving education in the U.S. and around the world. He is also a vocal spokesman for the value technology can provide in raising social and economic standards globally. Dr. Barrett joined Intel Corporation in 1974 as a technology development manager. He was named a vice president of the corporation in 1984, promoted to Senior Vice President in 1987, and Executive Vice President in 1990. Dr. Barrett was elected to Intel Corporation's Board of Directors in 1992 and he was named the company's Chief Operating Officer in 1993. He became Intel's fourth President in May 1997, Chief Executive Officer in 1998, and Chairman of the Board on May 18, 2005. Craig Barrett was born August 29, 1939 in San Francisco, California. He attended Stanford University in Palo Alto, California from 1957 to 1964, and received his Bachelor of Science, Master of Science and Ph.D. degrees in Materials Science. After graduation, he joined the faculty of Stanford University in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, and remained through 1974, rising to the rank of Associate Professor. Dr. Barrett was a Fulbright Fellow at Danish Technical University in Denmark in 1972 and a NATO Postdoctoral Fellow at the National Physical Laboratory in England from 1964 to 1965. Dr. Barrett is the author of over 40 technical papers dealing with the influence of microstructure on the properties of materials, and a textbook on materials science, Principles of Engineering Materials. Dr. Barrett served until June, 2009 as Chairman of the United Nations Global Alliance for Information and Communication Technologies and Development, which works to bring computers and other technology to developing parts of the world. He co-chairs Achieve, Inc., is Vice Chairman of the National Forest Foundation, serves on the Board of Directors of Science Foundation Arizona and Dossia, and he has recently been appointed to the faculty of Thunderbird School of Global Management. Dr. Barrett has served on numerous boards, policy and government panels, and has been an appointee of the President's Advisory Committee for Trade Policy and Negotiations and to the American Health Information Community. He has co-chaired the Business Coalition for Student Achievement and the National Innovation Initiative Leadership Council, and has served as a member of the Board of Trustees for the U.S. Council for International Business and the Clinton Global Initiative Education Advisory Board. Dr. Barrett has been a member of the National Governors' Association Task Force on Innovation America, the National Infrastructure Advisory Council, the Committee on Scientific Communication and National Security, the U.S.-Brazil CEO Forum, and he is a past chair of the National Academy of Engineering. Dr. Barrett formerly served on the Board of Directors of the U.S. Semiconductor Industry Association, the National Action Council for Minorities in Engineering, and TechNet.

As Chief Technology Officer and Executive Vice President of Research and Development at Sun, Greg Papadopoulos directs the company's approximate $2B in R&D portfolio with an eye toward innovation, simplicity, and eco-responsibility. With more than 20 years experience in the technology industry, Papadopoulos is responsible for managing Sun's technology decisions and architecture. His team leads Sun Labs, the DARPA High Performance Computing Systems program, global engineering architecture, and advanced development programs. Passionate about technology and its possibilities, Papadopoulos supports open development models that stimulate communication, creativity, and innovation, which he promotes through his blog, Greg Matter, as well as numerous speaking engagements. During his tenure with Sun, Papadopoulos has held several positions, including Vice President of Technology and Advanced Development for the company's systems business, Chief Scientist for Server Systems Engineering, and Chief Scientist for Enterprise Servers and Storage. Before joining Sun in 1994, Papadopoulos was a senior architect and director of product strategy for Thinking Machines, where he led the design of the CM6 massively parallel supercomputer. Papadopoulos was an associate professor of electrical engineering and computer science at MIT, where he conducted research in scalable systems, multi threaded/data flow processor architecture, functional and declarative languages, and fault-tolerant computing. Papadopoulos also worked as a development engineer at Hewlett-Packard and Honeywell, where he designed flight-control systems for Boeing jetliners. He co-founded three companies: PictureTel (video conferencing), Ergo (high-end PCs) and Exa Corporation (computational fluid dynamics). Papadopoulos participates in several associations, including serving as Chairman of the Board for the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI), as a member of the Board of Trustees for the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology, and as a member of the President's Board on Science and Innovation at the University of California. Greg acts as a technical advisor for BP and Alien Technologies. He holds a Bachelor's degree in systems science from the University of California at San Diego, as well as Master's and Doctoral degrees in electrical engineering and computer science from MIT.

Robin Li is the Co-founder, Chairman, and Chief Executive Officer of Baidu, Inc., and oversees the company's overall strategy and business operations. Since founding Baidu in January 2000, Li has turned the company into the largest Chinese search engine, with over 70% market share, and the third largest independent search engine in the world. In 2005, Baidu completed its successful IPO on NASDAQ, and in 2007 it became the first Chinese company to be included in the NASDAQ-100 Index. Prior to Baidu, Li was already regarded as one of the world's top search engine experts. His hyperlink analysis, patented in 1996, is among the inventions that shaped today's search engine technology. Li worked as a staff engineer for Infoseek, a pioneer Internet search engine company, from July 1997 to December 1999, and as a senior consultant for IDD Information Services from May 1994 to June 1997. Robin Li received a Bachelor of Science Degree in Information Management from Peking University in 1991, and a Master of Science Degree in Computer Science from the State University of New York at Buffalo in 1994.