October 10-11, 2007
The Friday Center
Chapel Hill, NC
Featured Speakers
Edward Iacobucci
President & Chief Executive Officer
DayJet Corporation
Founder and former Chairman, Citrix Systems
A visionary high-tech entrepreneur and system software guru, Iacobucci’s technology career began at IBM where he led the OS/2 Design Team. In 1989 founded Citrix Systems which grew to $500 million in revenues by 2000 when he left to plot his next challenge, having been recognized as the top entrepreneur in the world with the prestigious CNN, USA Today and Ernst & Young “International Entrepreneur of the Year” award. Today Citrix has $1.1 billion in annual revenue.
In January 2002, Iacobucci co-founded DayJet Corporation to bring affordable and accessible “Per-Seat, On-Demand” jet travel to many more people and organizations. Tapping into cutting edge aeronautics and software technologies, DayJet’s mission is to offer an affordable, on-demand airborne shuttle service to white-collar professionals who are weary of the airlines' overnight-stay requirements, incessant delays and security hassles.
Iacobucci is a graduate of the Georgia Institute of Technology where he serves on the School of Engineering Advisory Board.
Ron Louks
Vice President, CTO
Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications (USA) Inc.
Panel Speakers
Eric Auchard
Chief Technology Correspondent
Reuters
Eric Auchard is the chief technology correspondent for Reuters, one of the world's largest providers of news and information. He has traveled widely in Asia, Europe and the United States as part of his job. He is currently based in San Francisco. Eric's primary focus is covering consumer Internet trends, the venture capital industry and emerging technologies from Silicon Valley.
He acts as a reporter, blog editor and sometimes Web technician. Eric is active in several projects to help make Reuters journalism more interactive and Internet-savvy. He sits on Reuters' venture board, which funds new technology projects inside the company.
Eric grew up in what we now call Silicon Valley, where he became familiar with the industry’s cycle of boom and bust. In the late 1980s, he worked for a pioneering venture capital firm before he turned to writing. He began covering politics for Reuters in 1992, then switched to technology writing in 1993.
You can read some of his latest stories here.
Donna Bogatin
Founder and Chief Analyst
InsiderChatter.com
Donna Bogatin, Founder & Chief Analyst, InsiderChatter.com, has been probing the business heart of the Internet for more than ten years. Donna advises Internet companies on business planning and development and is the founder of her own Web venture, directional media property UrbanSavings.com.
As Adjunct Professor of Information Systems, Donna has instructed at the New York University Stern Graduate School of Business Administration on how companies of all sizes can best use the Web to gain strategic advantage. Prior to becoming an Internet entrepreneur, Donna was an international investment banker and served as Director of M & A for Societe Generale Securities Corp. Donna holds an M.B.A., an M.A. and B.A. from New York University and is fluent in the French language.
Don Dodge
Director, Business Development, Emerging Business Team
Microsoft Corporation and author of the blog, The Next Big Thing
Don Dodge is a veteran of five start-ups including Forte Software, AltaVista, Napster, Bowstreet, and Groove Networks. Don is currently Director of Business Development for Microsoft's Emerging Business Team. The goal is to help VC's and start-ups be successful with Microsoft, and together, provide great products for our customers. He writes a daily blog, Don Dodge on the Next Big Thing.
Don has been in the software business for more than 20 years. He started his software career with Digital Equipment, aka DEC, in the database group. He worked with 5 software start-ups over the next 12 years. Forte Software was the first multiplatform object oriented development environment. AltaVista was the first search engine on the web. Napster was the first P2P file sharing network. Bowstreet was the first web services development environment. Groove Networks was the first secure P2P collaboration platform. Now he is at Microsoft... “the biggest start-up in the world”... working with VC's and start-ups in the greater Boston area.
David Horowitz
Principal
Comcast Interactive Capital (CIC)
David Horowitz is a Principal at Comcast Interactive Capital (CIC), Comcast Corporation’s venture capital. Horowitz joined CIC in 2000. David is responsible for sourcing and identifying new investment opportunities, conducting due diligence on pending investments, and advising and serving on the Board of Directors of CIC portfolio companies.
Prior to joining CIC, David worked in investment banking at Bear Stearns, advising clients in the Media & Entertainment sector that included cable, broadcasting, publishing, education, marketing and new media, among others.
David holds a Bachelor of Business Administration with highest honors from the University of Michigan with a concentration in Accounting and Finance. David serves on the Board of BlackArrow, Home Décor Products, Visible World, and XOS Technologies. David is also actively involved in a number of other CIC portfolio companies including Entropic Communications, Exent Technologies, Intellon Corporation, and Revver. David was previously involved in CIC’s investments in Linkshare (acquired by Rakuten) and Nuera Communications (acquired by Audiocodes).
V. Rory Jones
Partner
Business Intelligence Associates LLC
Leveraging Market Strategy to maximize cash flow and business value has become a passion for Mr. Jones. Since the 1980s he has helped large and mid-sized clients find and exploit market Profit Pools; creating billions in additional cash flow.
Previous to Business Intelligence Associates, Mr. Jones was a Partner and practice leader in the Business Strategy practice of PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). He also led several strategy consulting practice areas at PwC; including Shareholder Value, eMarkets and the Technology sector. Before joining PwC, Mr. Jones managed consulting projects at Marakon Associates, where he served consumer, health and pharmaceuticals clients. Prior to that, he was New Product Manager with Thomson Consumer Electronics in Europe.
Mr. Jones earned his MBA from the University of Chicago, and his BSc (hons) in Electronic Engineering from the City University in London. He has published many papers and speaks regularly on shareholder value creation and Convergence / Technology markets. John Wiley & Sons recently published his book, The Executive Guide to Boosting Cash Flow and Shareholder Value.
Greg Pelton
Senior Director, Technology Center
Cisco Systems, Inc.
Greg Pelton is Sr. Director of the Technology Center within Cisco’s Corporate Business Development organization. The Technology Center is an innovation engine, driving corporate initiatives, incubating disruptive technologies and developing strategies to enter new markets.
Greg is a ten-year Cisco veteran and has helped launch numerous new businesses including IP Telephony, Wireless, Mobile Networking, IPTV, Home Networking and Telepresence. His current efforts focus on enabling new vertical markets for networking and next generation collaboration services. He holds 5 patents and has filed a dozen more.
Prior to Cisco, Greg held leadership roles at Nortel where he helped create Nortel’s first international digital telephony switch, their first SS7 network products and built an R&D lab in Germany as part of a joint venture with Daimler-Benz.
Heather Rebuelta
Investment Manager
Motorola Ventures
Heather Rebuelta joined Motorola Ventures in 2005 and is an Investment Manager based in Boston, MA. In this role, Heather identifies, executes, and manages private equity investments to accelerate access for all of Motorola's existing and future businesses and markets.
Heather’s experience includes financing early-stage to middle-market technology companies at Silicon Valley Bank. At SVB she was responsible for identifying and executing debt and equity transactions as well as portfolio management. Subsequent to Heather’s tenure at SVB, she worked with Foothill Capital Corporation (now Wells Fargo Foothill) in the firm’s Specialty Finance Group financing distressed and underperforming companies. Most recently she worked with Kayne Anderson, an investment firm managing over $4 billion in alternative investments. In Kayne Anderson’s private equity arm Heather specialized in middle-market growth equity investments and buyout transactions.
Heather earned her MBA at the University of Chicago with concentrations in Strategy, Finance, and Entrepreneurship and her bachelors at the University of California at Los Angeles.
Frank Stasio
Host, “The State of Things,”
North Carolina Public Radio, WUNC
Frank Stasio is the host “The State of Things,” a talk show broadcast daily at noon on North Carolina Public Radio, WUNC.
He has worked as a newscaster and replacement program host for National Public Radio and NPR member stations, and regularly anchored live special events broadcast by NPR.
In addition to his on-air credits, Stasio also conducts journalism training workshops for broadcast professionals, and audio theater workshops for young people. He has created audio drama workshops, allowing young people to design write and produce their own radio plays.
Internationally, Stasio helped to develop news programming for fledgling radio stations in Kosovo and Poland and has also worked in Albania leading workshops and on-the-job training sessions for radio professionals and University students.
He has two grown children and now lives in Durham with his wife Joanne.
CLICK HERE to see last year’s impressive line-up of speakers!