Speakers
Entrepreneurship Week at Stanford features more than 80 speakers, panelists, and coaches on call. The lineup of speakers for the GSB eConference on Friday, Feb 26 can be found here.
Here are bios for some of the other speakers you will see at E-Week:
Steven G. Blank
The Secret History of Silicon Valley
Named by the San Jose Mercury News as one of the 10 Influencers in Silicon Valley, Steve Blank spent 21 years founding and working with eight high-technology companies. He is a serial entrepreneur whose most visible success story was E.piphany Software. He is author of Four Steps to the Epiphany, a book that details his customer development methodology for startups. He now teaches at Stanford, U.C. Berkeley, and the Columbia University/Berkeley Joint Executive MBA program; serves on the California Coastal Commission; and is very involved in other land preservation organizations.
MC Hammer
The Power of Social Technology
MC Hammer is best known as a Grammy award-winning rapper, entertainer and dancer. He is also an entrepreneur, ordained minister, and mentor to many up-and-coming artists, with deep involvement in introducing them to the power of social media in building their own brands. He is considered a forefather and innovator of pop rap and continues to have the best-selling rap album of all time. He is the co-creator of the dance website, DanceJam, still performs at concerts, and is involved in many social media, ministry and outreach activities.
Stephanie Sharron
Legal Tips for Startups in Today’s Economy
Stephanie Sharron is a Partner in Orrick's Silicon Valley office, where she is co-chair of the technology transactions and licensing practice. She is a senior advisor to software, new media, e-commerce, Internet, cleantech, semiconductor, and life sciences companies. Stephanie also advises on the commercial technology and intellectual property aspects of mergers, acquisitions, asset spin-off transactions and private equity investments. She holds a B.S., Biology and Political Science, UCLA. She earned her J.D. from Cornell Law School.
Rodrigo Jordan
Creating and Leading Entrepreneurial Teams
Nominated by Time magazine in 1995 as "one of the 100 young leaders for the new millennium," Rodrigo led the first successful South American expedition to Mt Everest and K2. A civil and industrial engineer, Jordan earned a Ph.D. in Organizational Administration from Oxford University and is a lecturer at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile and the School of Engineering at University Alfonso Ibañez. His company, Vertical, and charitable foundation, Fundación Vertical, deliver outdoor education and training services to corporations and individuals, particularly children from inner-city areas.
Jonathan Wolfson
Biofuels and Bioproducts: The Road to Commercialization
Jonathan Wolfson is the CEO and co-founder of Solazyme. He was previously a VP at 7thOnline (supply chain software) and co-founder, President/CEO of InvestorTree (financial software and services). He has also worked as an investment banker for Morgan Stanley and as a business/legal analyst for Triarc Companies. Jonathan holds board and advisory positions with a number of organizations, including the Clean Economy Network and Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO). He was recently given the “Green Leap” Award by the Clinton Global Initiative. Jonathan holds J.D. and M.B.A. degrees from NYU.
Steve Case
Building a Revolution: Lessons in Entrepreneurship, Innovation, and Leadership
Steve Case is Chairman and CEO, Revolution, which seeks to drive transformative change by shifting power to consumers. Steve was previously the co-founder, Chairman and CEO of America Online and, later, the Chairman of AOL Time Warner. He is also Chairman of the Case Foundation and Accelerate Brain Cancer Cure (ABC2). He was a founding organizer of Business Strengthening America and has served as vice chair of the Committee to Encourage Corporate Philanthropy. Steve was inducted into the Academy of Achievement in 1999 and is very involved in environmental issues.
Gina Bianchini
Gina Bianchini is co-founder and CEO of Ning, having led it from inception in 2004 to its current position as a top 100 global website and one of the world’s most valuable startups. She has been featured on Fortune’s “40 under 40,” Huffington Post’s 10 technology “Ultimate Game Changers,” the New York Times, and Forbes. Gina was previously co-founder and President of Harmonic Communications and held positions at CKS Group and Goldman Sachs. She graduated with honors from Stanford University and received her M.B.A from Stanford Business School.
Judy Estrin
Judy Estrin is CEO of JLABS, LLC, and the author of Closing the Innovation Gap. Estrin co-founded 7 successful technology companies and became Cisco’s chief technology officer in 1998. Estrin has been named to Fortune Magazine’s list of the 50 most powerful women in American business and sits on the boards of The Walt Disney Company and FedEx Corporation as well as the privately held Packet Design, Inc. She holds a B.S. degree in math and computer science from UCLA, and an M.S. in electrical engineering from Stanford University.
Warren Packard
Entrepreneurship at the Intersection of Three Cs: Cleantech, Computing, and the Cloud
Warren Packard is a Managing Director at Draper Fisher Jurvetson. Prior to joining the firm, Warren co-founded Angara Database Systems, which was acquired by Personify. He was previously an Associate at Institutional Venture Partners and a Senior Principal Engineer in the Advanced Product Development Group at Baxter International. Warren is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Stanford University and holds a BS and MS in Mechanical Engineering. He received his MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business where he was an Arjay Miller Scholar.
Aaron Forth
From Shaky to Solid in a Sour Economy: The Mint.com Story
Aaron is Vice President, Product, at Mint.com. Prior to joining Mint, Aaron held leadership positions at eBay and Half.com (acquired by eBay Inc.). He has a background in multivariate testing used to drive analytically based decisions around product design, user experience and strategic partnerships. In his early career, he managed teams focused on search engine marketing, search engine optimization and affiliate marketing. He began his career in software at Kana Communications, Inc. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Earth Sciences from University of California, Berkeley.
Isadore Sharp
GSB Entrepreneurship Conference Keynote
Isadore Sharp is the Founder, Chairman and CEO, Four Seasons Resorts and Hotels. What started as a 125-room motor hotel in Toronto in 1961 has become one of the most respected brands in the world, with a reputation for superior quality and service. He has authored, Four Seasons: The Story of a Business Philosophy. Isadore is Honorary Director of Scotiabank, Director of Clairvest Group Inc., and is involved in a number of philanthropic organizations. He graduated in architecture from Ryerson Institute of Technology and has received several honorary degrees.
Clara Shih
GSB Entrepreneurship Conference
Clara Shih is founder and CEO of Hearsay Labs, which provides software to securely manage and measure a company’s presence across social media. Her bestselling book, The Facebook Era: Tapping Online Social Networks to Build Better Products, Reach New Audiences, and Sell More Stuff is being used at the Harvard Business School. Clara has previously worked with Salesforce.com, Google and Microsoft. She has a BS in computer science/economics and MS in computer science from Stanford, as well as a MS in internet studies from Oxford.
Michael Arrington
GSB Entrepreneurship Conference
J. Michael Arrington is a serial entrepreneur and founder of TechCrunch. He began his career as a corporate and securities lawyer at two prestigious firms, and co-authored a book on IPOs. In 1999, he joined RealNames as VP Business Development and General Counsel. He has co-founded several other startups, including Achex, now the back-end infrastructure to Western Union online. Time magazine has named him as one of the world's 100 most influential people. Michael holds an economics degree from Claremont McKenna College and his JD from Stanford Law School.
Theresa Lina Stevens
Pitching and Presenting Workshop: How to Make Your Story Compelling
Theresa Lina Stevens is CEO of Lina Group, a strategic marketing firm focused on technology companies, and works with the Stanford Technology Ventures Program (STVP) in the School of Engineering. She has served as CMO for two Internet startups and held various positions at Accenture, where she helped found the firm’s Communications industry group; as head of worldwide marketing, she helped lay the foundation for what has become a multi-billion dollar business. She holds a BS in Commerce from the McIntire School at the University of Virginia.
Forrest Glick
Pitching and Presenting Workshop: How to Make Your Story Compelling
Forrest Glick is the Director of Educational Technology for the Stanford Technology Ventures Program (STVP). He produces the Entrepreneurship Corner website, a video and podcast resource visited by entrepreneurs and students in more than 200 countries. An expert on presentation design, he is a guest lecturer in courses throughout the university. Forrest has previously held positions as a senior instructional development specialist at Harvard University and an instructional developer at Arizona State University. He earned his degree in architecture with a business minor from Arizona State University.
Kjerstin Erickson
Structures for Social Enterprise
Kjerstin Erickson is founder and Executive Director of FORGE, which she started as a student in 2003. Through partnerships with UN agencies and African governments, FORGE reaches over 60,000 refugees annually. Kjerstin has been profiled in the Wall Street Journal and is a Haas Public Service Fellow at Stanford. She has been named a "Person You Should Know" by CNN, a "Top 10 College Woman" by Glamour Magazine, and a New Leaders Council "Top 40 Leaders Under 40.” Sheholds a degree in Public Policy from Stanford University.
Sunday 2/21
Monday 2/22
Tuesday 2/23
Wednesday 2/24
Thursday 2/25
Friday 2/26
Saturday 2/27
Sunday 2/28
Entrepreneurship Week at Stanford is generously supported by
