“When MC Hammer Talks, Silicon Valley Startups Listen”

MC Hammer transformed from a world-wide popular Grammy Award-winning musician to a respected entrepreneur, investor, and corporate advisor in Silicon Valley. He invested in dozens of companies over the past 29 years and supported Salesforce and other companies' growth through his role as an advisor. He has been interested in and supportive of companies not only in the music field but also in various fields that make connected life more interesting and easy. He recently joined as an advisor to SparkLabs Frontier-ASU, one of the accelerator programs of SparkLabs Group, and is continuing various activities as a strong supporter of startups.

Jinhee Ahn Kim is co-founder & CEO of UYU Ltd. UYU is a global esports organization active in fielding competitive professional teams, content creation, lifestyle merchandising, as well as ecommerce. With a highly competitive global roster, UYU has quickly established itself as a contender across numerous esports games. Working in collaboration with some of the industry’s top talents and brands, UYU continues to push the creative boundaries of gaming centric content.

Jinhee was previously co-founder & president of Snapette, the largest mobile platform for local fashion shopping, which was sold to leading eCommerce platform PriceGrabber in 2013. At the time of its sale, Snapette was VC funded and had over 2 million users and over 300 top fashion retailer and brand partners such as Nordstrom, Nine West, UNIQLO, Theory and DVF.

She began her career as a management consultant at Bain & Co., then followed her creative interests as a menswear designer at Ralph Lauren. She founded True-Learning and was also the Director of Product Development at Mindshapes, a mobile e-learning company where she oversaw the development of award winning children's educational apps.

Jinhee was selected as one of the "Most Creative People" by Fast Company. She currently serves on the Board of Directors for Harvard Alumni Association and is a board member and vice president of the Harvard Asian American Alumni Alliance. She is a board member for the Council of Korean Americans, a global network of Korean Americans working to advance issues of national importance, and is the founding co-chair for the Inspire Gala. Previously she served as the 2016 and 2017 CKA Summit & Gala co-chair.

Jinhee received her A.B. in economics from Harvard College, A.A.S. in fashion design from Parsons School of Design and J.D. from the University of Hawaii.

Christine is the CEO and Founding Partner of 500 Startups. Since the firm’s inception in 2010, she grew 500 Startups to over $500M committed capital, 2,300+ portfolio investments, 100+ team members, 25 accelerator batches, and a vibrant community of founders spanning more than 75 countries around the world.

Christine spent her entire professional career building and investing in Silicon Valley. From 2003 to 2010, Christine held product marketing and operating roles at Google, focusing primarily on monetization and developer products. She was part of the original technical support team that helped launch Google AdSense, an advertising program for website publishers which now accounts for a significant part of Google’s revenue. During her tenure at Google, Christine also drove developer and syndication marketing at YouTube post-Google acquisition. Christine also oversaw marketing for YouTube’s APIs and developer tools, and she collaborated with numerous developers and early-stage startups integrating YouTube into their products.

Christine holds a B.A. in Cognitive Science, with a concentration in Cognitive Psychology, from the University of California at Berkeley. While at Berkeley, she was accepted into the prestigious Undergraduate Research Apprentice Program for Psychology. She was also a National Merit Scholar.

In Sik Rhee began his career as a successful entrepreneur and transitioned to an early stage technology investor and mentor.

In Sik co-founded Kiva Software in 1995, where he developed one of the industry’s first Java application servers. Kiva was acquired by Netscape Communications in 1997 for $180 million. In 1999, In Sik co-founded Opsware (Loudcloud) — a pioneer of cloud computing – which IPO’ed and was acquired by HP for $1.6 billion in 2007.

As an investor, In Sik started as an angel/mentor then eventually found professional footing as a venture capitalist – first at Accel Partners, then Rembrandt Venture Partners, and currently as General Partner of Vertex Ventures US. Vertex US is an early stage VC with $300M under management and invests in startups focused on Enterprise B2B markets.

In Sik has a BS from UC Berkeley EECS and currently serves on the Executive Advisory Board for the College of Engineering.

Katherine is a Principal at Notation Capital, a New York-based venture capital fund that focuses on investing in software companies at its earliest days. Katherine began her career in law and prior to Notation was the Director of Business Development at an NYC-based tech startup. Katherine grew up between China and Hong Kong and holds a BA in International Relations from Johns Hopkins University and a JD from Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law.

Patrick is Managing General Partner of Xfund. Prior to Xfund, Patrick was a partner at NEA and led the firm’s consumer and seed investment practices. He is a director of 23andMe and Philo, and led investments in Guideline, Halo Neuro, IFTTT, Landit, Nebula Genomics, NewtonX, Rock Health, ThirdLove, and Zumper. Past investments include Segment (acquired by Twilio), Kensho (acquired by S&P Global), Plaid (acquired by Visa), Pulse (acquired by LinkedIn), Loopt (acquired by Green Dot), GoodGuide (acquired by Underwriters Laboratories), Ravel Law (acquired by Lexis-Nexis), Xfire (acquired by Viacom), and Xoom (NASDAQ: XOOM). Prior to joining NEA, Patrick helped to grow ZEFER, an Internet services firm (acquired by NEC) to more than $100 million in annual revenues and more than 700 people across six global offices. Prior to ZEFER, Patrick was with McKinsey & Company, where he specialized in hardware, software, and services companies.

Patrick received a joint JD-MBA degree from Harvard Business School and Harvard Law School, where he served as an Editor of the Harvard Law Review. Patrick was a Commonwealth Scholar at Oxford University, where he earned a Master of Science degree. Patrick earned his A.B. degree at Harvard College in Environmental Science. He is a member of the New York and Massachusetts bars, was an elected director of the Harvard Alumni Association, and a member of the Committee to Visit Harvard College. He is also an Associate of the Creative Destruction Lab at the University of Toronto.

HanJoo Lee is a Serial Entrepreneur and a startup investor. He is passionate about Cloud, Startups and Global Entrepreneurship.

He co-founded Hostway with his college friends in 1998. HanJoo played active role in Hostway’s growth both in the US as well as internationally. He successfully exited the Hostway US business by selling the majority stake to a private equity firm in the US.

In 2012, he co-founded SparkLabs along with 5 other co-founders. SparkLabs is both an accelerator and a VC.

His latest venture is Bespin Global co-founded in 2015. The company is a cloud managed service provider (MSP) operating in Korea, China and Dubai. It helps mid to large enterprises adopt both private and public cloud services through professional services, managed services and OpsNow, a proprietary multi-cloud management platform. The company has grown to over 850 employees with more than 880 customers.

Lastly, he was born and raised in Korea and he is married with three children. He graduated with a B.A. in Biological Sciences from the University of Chicago.

John Wood is the founder of Room to Read. An organization that believes World Change Starts with Educated Children®, Room to Read seeks to transform the lives of millions of children in developing countries by focusing on literacy and gender equality in education.

At the age of 35, John left an executive career track at Microsoft to form Room to Read. The business acumen honed there, combined with his passion to change the world, makes John a unique and inspiring speaker with universal appeal.

He is the author of Leaving Microsoft to Change the World, a memoir that was named by Amazon as one of the Top Ten business narratives of 2006. The book and was featured on The Oprah Winfrey Show and led to John’s lifelong dream – a television interview with Charlie Rose.

At the invitation of former President Bill Clinton, John served three terms on the Advisory Board of the Clinton Global Initiative. He was chosen as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum and was named by Goldman Sachs as one of the world’s 100 Most Intriguing Entrepreneurs. He received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Tribeca Film Festival, is a Henry Crown Fellow at the Aspen Institute, and along with Malala Yousufzai was awarded the World’s Children’s Prize, often called the Children’s Nobel Prize, by the Queen of Sweden. John was chosen for the first-ever Microsoft Alumni of the Year award, given by Bill and Melinda Gates.

John has been a three-time speaker at the Clinton Global Initiative and a five-time winner of Fast Company Magazine’s Social Capitalist Award. He has been honored by Time Magazine’s “Asian Heroes” Award and is a Henry Crown Fellow at the Aspen Institute. He was selected by Barron’s as one of the “25 Best Givers” in 2009 and 2010, ranking 11th and 9th on the list, respectively.

John holds a master’s degree in business administration from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University, a bachelor’s degree in finance from the University of Colorado, and honorary doctorates from McGill University and the University of San Francisco.

Frank is the Co-Founder & Partner at SparkLabs Global Ventures and a Partner at SparkLabs, Asia’s premier accelerator based in Seoul.

Frank is also the Co-Founder and CEO at SmartUp.io, a fast-growing Micro-Learning platform used by startups, business schools and corporates. SmartUp has been featured in “Best New Apps” by Apple UK and US in July and October 2015. Frank was selected as part of the 2012 Wired UK Top 100 in tech, and Vanity Fair’s The Next Establishment list 2010.

Previously Frank was with Horizons Ventures (HK), representing them on the boards of Spotify, Siri, Summly, Affectiva, Bitcasa, Fixmo, DoubleTwist, Ginger, Desti and Magisto.

Frank started with Ericsson in 1994 as a coder and troubleshooter, lived in Singapore and HK, and then joined Hutchison Whampoa in 2001 and was responsible for the technical integration of the first 3G(WCDMA) networks around the world, launched under the Three(3) brand in multiple countries in 2003. He then ran the Three Groups’ global handset business, and developed and launched a range of products (Skypephone and INQ1), which pioneered mobile and internet communications.

Jonathan Cheng is the Seoul bureau chief for The Wall Street Journal, overseeing the Journal's coverage of the Korean peninsula, including North Korean politics, South Korean politics and South Korean conglomerates like Samsung, Hyundai and LG.

Previously, Mr. Cheng was a markets reporter in New York, covering trends in the financial markets, with an emphasis on stocks. He started his career as a reporter in the Journal's Hong Kong bureau, where he covered politics, corporate news, markets, real estate and casinos.

Mr. Cheng speaks English, Chinese, French and Korean. A native of Toronto, Canada, Mr. Cheng graduated from Princeton University with a degree in history.

Elaine Ramirez is a Seoul-based freelance journalist covering Korean technology, startups and business. Formerly a business reporter and copy editor at The Korea Herald, she writes for Forbes Asia, Bloomberg BNA, Mashable, Quartz, Nikkei Asian Review and others. She also curates Startup Seoul, an English-language news digest on Korea's startup scene. Follow her @elainegija.

For more than 15 years, Kurt Hoppe has focused on emerging product and service innovation at the intersection of Connected Consumer IoT devices, digital services and Tier-1 service providers, developing and launching award-winning value-added services for more than 75 million users worldwide.

Kurt currently leads global business innovation efforts at General Motors, driving rapid prototyping and in-market testing of new Connected Car services that are adjacent to traditional GM and OnStar businesses.

Prior to General Motors, Kurt was Vice President of Applications & Services at Prodea, the international IOT Platform company, creating a compelling portfolio of multi-screen media & entertainment, home automation, eHealth and eGovernment services for the world’s leading service providers and their subscribers.

Before that, Kurt was Head of Smart Home Solution Development and Product Innovation for LG Electronics North America, where he founded a team to create consumer and service provider solutions across 5 LG product business units. Kurt also led LG strategic go-to-market engagements for Smart TV, wearables, and multi-screen solutions.

Kurt has held business development, product marketing, and product management leadership roles at Paul Allen’s Digeo/MOXI, 2Wire, Amdocs and Netscape, working with global customers such as AT&T, Verizon, Best Buy, British Telecom, Time Warner Cable, Chrysler, Telstra, and DISH, to name a few.

Kurt graduated at the top of his Computer Science class at the Royal Military College of Canada and studied Human Computer Interaction at the University of British Columbia.

Ray Ozzie is an independent software entrepreneur and pioneer in social productivity, an area more known in the field as Computer-Supported Cooperative Work. He recently founded and serves as CEO of Talko, a startup focused on a new generation of mobile communications apps and services. Through late 2010 he was Chief Software Architect of Microsoft, the company’s most senior technical strategy & architecture role previously held by Bill Gates.

Ozzie came to Microsoft in 2005 through the acquisition of Groove Networks, a company he founded in 1997 to focus on software and services for small-team dynamic collaboration. Prior to Groove, in 1984 Ozzie founded and led Iris Associates, the creator and developer of Lotus Notes. A decade later, Iris was acquired by Lotus and then by IBM. Under his leadership during that period, Lotus Notes grew to be used for communication & social productivity by hundreds of millions at most major enterprises worldwide. Before creating Notes, he worked on 1-2-3 and Symphony at Lotus, on VisiCalc and TK!Solver at Software Arts, and on operating systems at Data General.

Ozzie studied computer science & engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, where he has been honored as a distinguished alumnus. It was there where he first took in the significance of online community and social interactive systems as a systems developer on the seminal PLATO project.

Honored as one of seven Windows Pioneers by Microsoft, Ozzie was named Person of the Year by PC Magazine, and has been inducted into the Computer Museum Industry Hall of Fame. He has been honored as a World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer and has received numerous awards including the IEEE Computer Society's W. Wallace McDowell Award and the SDForum Visionary Award. In 2004 Ozzie was inducted as a member of the National Academy of Engineering, and in 2010 he was named as a fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences.

He currently serves on the board of directors of the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), has served as a member of the National Research Council's Computer Science and Telecommunications Board, and was a member of the NRC committee that produced the landmark CRISIS report on the societal impact of cryptography.

Microsoft Buys Another Ray Ozzie Company  [Fortune]  Dec 22, 2015

A TALKO CONVERSATION WITH RAY OZZIE  [The New Yorker]  September 24, 2014

Ray Ozzie’s New Venture Talko Launches An App For Collaborative Voice Communications  [TechCrunch]  Sep 22, 2014

Peter Guber is Chairman and CEO of Mandalay Entertainment Group. Prior to Mandalay, Guber was Chairman and CEO of Sony Pictures Entertainment, Chairman and CEO of Polygram Entertainment, Co-Founder of Casablanca Record & Filmworks and President of Columbia Pictures. Guber produced or executive produced (personally or through his companies) films that garnered five Best Picture Academy Award nominations (winning for Rain Man) and box office hits that include The Color Purple, MidnightExpress, Batman, Flashdance, The Kids Are All Right and Soul Surfer. Mandalay's most recent release, The Birth of a Nation, recently premiered at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival and swept the two top prizes - the U.S. Dramatic Audience Award and the prestigious U.S. Dramatic Jury Award. The film sold to Fox Searchlight for a record breaking price.

Peter Guber is Owner and Co-Executive Chairman of the 2015 NBA Champion Golden State Warriors, an Owner of the three-time National League West Champion, Los Angeles Dodgers, and an Owner and Executive Chairman of Major League Soccer's Los Angeles Football Club (LAFC). He is an Owner of Dick Clark Productions a leading independent producer of television programming including such perennial hits as the American Music Awards, Golden Globe Awards, and So You Think You Can Dance. He is an investor, board member and Chairman of the Strategic Advisory Board for NextVR. Peter Guber is Co-Executive Chairman, with Ted Leonsis, of the new eSports ownership group, aXiomatic, which purchased the controlling interest in Team Liquid, one of the most successful global esports team franchises. He is Chairman of Mandalay Sports Media and a full professor at UCLA.

Peter Guber is a noted author with works including Shootout: Surviving Fame and (Mis)Fortune in Hollywood, which became a 7 year television series on AMC which he hosted. Guber wrote the cover article for the Harvard Business Review titled, The Four Truths of the Storyteller. Guber's most recent business book, Tell To Win - Connect, Persuade, and Triumph with the Hidden Power of Story, became an instant #1 New York Times bestseller.

Peter Guber and Bruce Stein see bright future in esports business  [ESPN]  Nov 1, 2016

Warriors Co-Owner Peter Guber Makes Bel-Air’s A-List Of Mega Water Wasters  [CBS]  Sep 20, 2016

Peter Guber says VR will become as big as reality  [Fortune]  May 16, 2015

Dr. Catherine Mohr is currently the Director of Medical Research at Intuitive Surgical, where she develops new surgical procedures and evaluates new technologies for improving surgical outcomes.

An expert in the fields of robotic surgery and sustainable technologies, Dr. Mohr is passionate about realizing the potential benefit that appropriately applied technologies can have in our society. She has had numerous articles published and been featured in the news many times.

Robot-Assisted Surgery Praised Despite High Cost  [The Korea Bizwire]  May 27, 2016

The Future of Surgery Is Robotic, Data-Driven, and Artificially Intelligent  [SingularityHub]  Oct 11, 2016

Intuitive Surgical Exec: Here Is Why Robotic Surgery Is Useful  [Forbes]  JUL 17, 2014

Bin Lin co-founded Xiaomi Corporation with famous angel investor Lei Jun in April 2010. He is now President of Xiaomi Corporation and is in charge of Xiaomi’s day-to-day operation, business and product strategy, and supply chain management.

Bin Lin worked at Google Inc as Engineering Director from 2006 to 2010. He founded and led the product development and engineering effort for Mobile, Android apps, and Music at Google China office. Bin and his team successfully launched many Google products including many versions of Google Mobile Maps (GMM) on Symbian/J2ME/iPhone/Android, Mandarin voice search, mobile verticals such as video, dictionary, finance, local, etc., Android Pinyin IME, Android Dictionary, Android News and Weather widget, Google Music (free streaming and download of legal music online), Google Pinyin IME, and various oneboxes. Under Bin’s leadership, Google’s mobile search traffic in China grew from 200k to 26M (SRPV) in 3 years, and GMM usage grew from 0 to 13M (MAU) in 3 years.

Prior to joining Google, Bin worked at Microsoft from 1995 to 2006 and held various senior positions. In 2003 he served as Development Director of Microsoft and co-founded Microsoft’s Advanced Technology Center (ATC) in Beijing. He helped grew the center to over 400 people in 3 years. From 2000 to 2003 Bin was Senior Development Manager at Microsoft Research Asia (MSRA) and was in charge of MSRA’s technology transfer effort. From 1995 to 2000 Bin was Software Design Engineer and Development Lead at Microsoft Redmond headquarter. Throughout the entire 11-years of career at Microsoft, Bin made significant contribution to many Microsoft products including Exchange, Windows, IE, Office, Tablet PC, MSN, Xbox, etc. He received Microsoft’s GoldStar Award in 2004.

Bin is also Visiting Professor at Zhejiang University (Hangzhou, China), Zhongshan University (Guangzhou, China), Nankai University (Tianjin, China), and Tongji University (Shanghai, China).

Bin received MS in Computer Science from Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA in 1992, and BS in Electronics and Information System from Zhongshan (Sun Yet-Sen) University, Guangzhou, China in 1990.

Bin Lin on Xiaomi’s Growth Beyond Phones  [Wall Street Journal]  Oct. 28, 2015

Xiaomi's Bin Lin Says Chinese Smartphone Maker May Enter the U.S.  [recode]  OCT 21, 2015

Xiaomi CEO Calls His Business an 'Internet Company'  [Wall Street Journal]  10/21/2015

The Director of the Martin Prosperity Institute at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management, Global Research Professor at New York University, and the founder of the Creative Class Group, which works closely with governments and companies worldwide, Richard Florida is perhaps the world’s leading urbanist, “as close to a household name as it is possible for an urban theorist to be in America,” according to The Economist. Esquire has included him on its annual list of “The Best and the Brightest,” and Fast Company dubbed him an “intellectual rock star.”

Florida is the author of several global best sellers, including the award-winning The Rise of the Creative Class (“one of the best business books of all time”—800-CEO-READ), and is a senior editor for The Atlantic, where he co-founded and serves as Editor-at-Large for Atlantic Cities, the world's leading media site devoted to cities and urban affairs. Florida appears regularly on CNN and other news broadcasts and is a regular contributor to the op ed pages of major newspapers and magazines. TIME magazine recognized his Twitter feed as one of the 140 most influential in the world.

Florida previously taught at Carnegie Mellon and George Mason University, and has been a visiting professor at Harvard and MIT. He earned his Bachelor's degree from Rutgers College and his Ph.D. from Columbia University.

ALL HAIL THE CREATIVE ECONOMY  [The Korea Bizwire]  06.02.2017

The re-education of Richard Florida  [HOUSTON CHRONICLE]  October 24, 2016

A world-famous urbanist says New York is becoming a “gated suburb”  [QUARTZ]  October 14, 2016

Maria G. Gotsch is President and Chief Executive Officer of the Partnership Fund for New York City (www.pfnyc.org), which is the investment arm of the Partnership for New York City. The Fund, which has raised over $100 million, has built a network of top experts from the investment and corporate communities who help identify and support New York City’s most promising entrepreneurs in both the for-profit and non-for profit sectors. In addition to leading the Fund’s operations, Maria has spearheaded the creation and operation of a number of the Fund’s strategic initiatives, including: FinTech Innovation Lab; New York Digital Health Accelerator; NYCSeed (seed financing for IT/digital media companies); BioAccelerate Prize NYC (proof-of-concept funding for university-based biomedical research); Arts Entrepreneurial Loan Fund (low cost loans for mid-size arts groups); and ReStart Central and Financial Recovery Fund (assistance and funding for small businesses impacted by 9/11/01).

Prior to joining the Fund in 1999, Maria was a Managing Director at BT Wolfensohn (now part of Deutsche Bank), providing strategic and financial advice related to mergers, acquisitions, dispositions, joint ventures and the development of business strategies. Before starting with Wolfensohn, Maria worked at LaSalle Partners in the New York area and for Merrill Lynch Capital Markets in New York and London. Maria has an MBA from Harvard Business School and a B.A. from Wellesley College. She was also the recipient of a Fulbright Fellowship to study international relations at the Institut Universitaire de Hautes Etudes Internationales in Geneva, Switzerland.

Maria also is a member of the boards of Reach Out and Read of Greater New York (children’s literacy non-profit), the New York Venture Capital Association and the Lang Fund and serves on the business advisory board of ProPublica (investigative journalism non-profit).

State Focus: New York – Accelerating Biotech Innovation In The Empire State  [Business Facilities]  May 12, 2016

Accenture & Partnership Fund for NYC Gear Up for FinTech Innovation Lab; Ignite Fintech Innovation  [Crowdfund Insider]  October 21, 2015

Partnership Fund for NYC Expects a Spring of FinTech, Life Sciences, & More  [XCONOMY]  March 18th, 2013

Robert Scoble is an Entrepreneur in Residence at Upload VR, and will be launching his own business inside the "world's best Virtual Reality media company."

As Startup Liaison for Rackspace, the Open Cloud Computing Company, Robert Scoble traveled the world looking for what's happening on the bleeding edge of technology for Rackspace's startup program. He's interviewed thousands of executives and technology innovators and reports what he learns in books ("The Age of Context," a book coauthored with Forbes author Shel Israel, has been released at http://amzn.to/AgeOfContext ), YouTube, and many social media sites where he's followed by millions of people.

Robert is a geek who grew up in Silicon Valley (his dad was an engineer at Lockheed) and since 1985 he has been building online communities. In 2000 Robert started his technology blog, http://scobleizer.com, and his life has been on a rocketship ever since. In 2003-2006 he worked at Microsoft as an evangelist and one of the five guys who started Microsoft's famous Channel9 video community.

Q&A: Tech evangelist Robert Scoble predicts mixed reality devices will largely supplant smartphones  [GeekWire]  February 10, 2017

Robert Scoble on the future of VR, why Jack needs a new board, and how Orwell’s 1984 is now  [The Next Web]  Nov 4, 2016

Robert Scoble: Here’s Why Virtual Reality Will Change Everything  [Huffington Post]  09/15/2016

Pavan is a serial entrepreneur and angel investor who enjoys working on great ideas with great teams. His investments include Neoteris (acquired by Juniper), myCFO (acquired by Harris), Sigaba (acquired by Proofpoint), Benu, Infoaxe and Trackle (where he was the founding CEO). Previously, he was the Chairman and CEO of Cendura Corporation which he co-founded in 2002. He grew the company into one of the market leaders for data center automation software with an installed base that included several Fortune 500 companies. Cendura was acquired by CA (formerly Computer Associates) in 2006.

Prior to that, he co-founded Healtheon (now WebMD [WBMD]) in 1996 along with Jim Clark, founder of Silicon Graphics & Netscape Communications, and served as its Chief Technology Officer and General Manager/EVP of its Internet Operations. In his General Management role, he was responsible for WebMD’s entire suite of products including its Internet-based ehealth services. During his tenure, Pavan led the company’s transformation from a concept to the worlds largest e-health company approaching a billion dollars in annual revenues, over eight thousand employees and several billion in market capitalization. Pavan’s role was extensively profiled in the bestseller “The New New Thing” by Michael Lewis.

Prior to WebMD, Pavan worked at Silicon Graphics, where he was the General Manager for the company’s Interactive Media Group and was responsible for deploying Time Warner, Inc.’s Interactive TV project in Orlando, Florida. The Time Warner project is widely recognized as the most prominent and sophisticated ITV system ever created and has been the foundation of several advanced technologies and companies (eg. Tivo). Pavan holds a B.S.E.E. from the Indian Institute of Technology (Kanpur) and an M.S.C.S. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Pavan serves on several Corporate Boards and Advisory Boards. He also served on the board of the US India Business Council from 1999-2009. He is a member of the Band of Angels and TIE Angels.

Kai Huang was co-founder and CEO of Blue Goji, an interactive fitness company that brings motivation and fun to health and fitness. Prior to Blue Goji, he co-founded video game publisher RedOctane and was President and CEO from 1999 to 2009. RedOctane was the publisher of Guitar Hero, which went on to become a multi-billion dollar global video game franchise and was acquired by Activision in 2006.

Prior to RedOctane, Mr. Huang was co-founder and CEO of Adux Software, which was sold in 1999. Mr. Huang started his career as a consultant with Accenture in the San Francisco office.

Blue Goji to Demonstrate Active Virtual Reality Enhancement for Award-Winning Goji Play Game System at VRLA in Los Angeles (Aug. 5-6) and GamesCom in Cologne (Aug. 18-21)  [Business Wire]  August 03, 2016

Exclusive: Huang Brothers’ Next Project, Blue Goji, Will Layer Games on Top of Cardio Fitness  [All Things Digital]  JULY 29, 2013

Blue Goji launches its cardio exercise Goji Play games that will keep you on a treadmill  [VentureBeat]  DECEMBER 12, 2013

Justin Kan is an internet entrepreneur and partner at seed fund Y Combinator. Justin has founded many companies including Kiko, the first AJAX web calendar and Justin.tv, a live video streaming platform. His attempt to broadcast his entire life at Justin.tv popularized the term “lifecasting”. The company decided to transition to providing a live video platform so anyone could publish a live video stream. Justin.tv, the platform, launched in 2007 and was one of the largest live video platforms in the world with more than 30 million unique users every month.

Justin Kan launches video Q&A app Whale  [Techcrunch]  Oct 31, 2016

Y-Combinator’s Justin Kan Is A Snapchat Life Coach For Thousands Of People  [Techcrunch]  Oct 31, 2016

Berkeley Forum announces spring 2017 speaker lineup  [The Daily Californian]  Jan 22, 2017

Kathryn Minshew is the CEO & Founder of TheMuse.com, a career platform and job discovery tool helping 1 million people a month find inspiring careers at thoughtful companies. Kathryn has spoken at MIT and Harvard, appeared on The TODAY Show and CNN, and contributes on career and entrepreneurship topics to the Wall Street Journal and Harvard Business Review. She was recently named to Forbes’ 30 Under 30 in Media for the second year in a row, as well as Inc.’s 15 Women to Watch in Tech. Before founding The Muse, Kathryn worked on vaccine introduction in Rwanda and Malawi with the Clinton Health Access Initiative and was previously at the management consultancy McKinsey & Company. Follow her on Twitter @KMin

Minshew’s Manhattan: Why The Muse CEO ditched San Francisco for N.Y.C  [New York Business Journal]  Sep 9, 2016

How Kathryn Minshew, CEO and Founder of The Muse, Gets It All Done  [New York Magazine]  Sep 27, 2016

The Muse Raises $16 Million To Make Its Career Platform More Personal  [Forbes]  Jun 22, 2016

Jon Jashni is a media investor and content producer who recently founded Raintree Ventures, an investment and incubation fund operating in the entertainment space. Jashni is also an advisory board member of Evolution Media Partners, a joint-venture with TPG Capital and Creative Artists Agency.

Previously, Jashni was President and Chief Creative Officer of Legendary Entertainment. He joined the company in January 2006 and was integrally involved over a ten year period in evolving the company from a film-financing entity into a leading, diversified, multi-platform media company.

Jashni was essential to Legendary’s building, through complete or joint ownership, a library of marquee media properties and establishing itself as a trusted brand which consistently delivers high-quality, commercial entertainment; including some of the world's most popular intellectual property. In aggregate, Legendary Pictures-associated productions have realized grosses of more than $12.5 billion worldwide at the box office.

As one aspect of his duties at Legendary, Jashni oversaw the development and production of such film projects as WARCRAFT, KRAMPUS, CRIMSON PEAK, GODZILLA, the Jackie Robinson biopic 42, AS ABOVE/SO BELOW, CLASH OF THE TITANS, 300: RISE OF AN EMPIRE and PACIFIC RIM.

Prior to joining Legendary, Jashni was President of Hyde Park Entertainment, a production and financing company with partnership deals at 20th Century Fox, Disney and MGM. While there, he oversaw the development and production of SHOPGIRL, DREAMER, WALKING TALL and PREMONITION. Before joining Hyde Park, Jashni was a producer on the successful romantic comedy SWEET HOME ALABAMA and, as a senior production executive at 20th Century Fox, oversaw the highly-profitable EVER AFTER.

Jashni has co-produced two films that received a total of three Academy Award® nominations: the critically acclaimed drama THE HURRICANE, which garnered a Best Actor nomination for star Denzel Washington, and a non-musical reinterpretation of ANNA AND THE KING, which starred Jodie Foster, and earned two Oscar nominations.

Jashni is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the Producers Guild of America in addition to serving as a Trustee of the American Film Institute. He holds a BS in Corporate Finance from the University of Southern California and an MBA in Organizational Behavior from UCLA's Anderson School of Management.

Legendary Entertainment President Jon Jashni Exits To Form Raintree Ventures  [Deadline]  Feb 29, 2016

Jim McKelvey is an engineer, entrepreneur, artist, and widely known together with Jack Dorsey as the co-founders of Square, a new mobile payment platform. A revolutionary service that enables anyone to accept credit cards anywhere. His other company Mira, started out as a software company. Eventually, Mira was refocused as a digital publishing company and provides online submission management and traditional print and electronic publishing services for more than 100 organisations from numerous disciplines.

How Jim McKelvey’s Launchcode Is Helping Unconventional Tech Talent  [Fast Company]  Apr 18, 2016

Jim McKelvey donates $15 million to Washington University for new building  [St. Louis Business Journal]  Oct 28, 2016

All payments will become frictionless just like Uber’s: Jim McKelvey  [Times of India]  Feb 11, 2016

Mike Lee is co-founder of MyFitnessPal, the leading health and fitness platform. MyFitnessPal was acquired by Under Armour for $475 million in early 2015.

Prior to founding MyFitnessPal, Mike co-founded NextC, a venture-funded startup focused on building online communities., During his 20 year tenure in the technology industry, Mike has held leadership positions at several other top start-ups in Silicon Valley, including Palm, Handspring, Beyond.com, and Regis McKenna. Mike graduated summa cum laude from Princeton with a B.A. in economics.

Fast Forward With Mike Lee, Under Armour’s Chief Digital Officer  [PC Magazine]  Jan 10, 2017

How Under Armour Wants to Use Data to Make You Healthier  [Fortune]  Apr 06, 2016

I’m Mike Lee, and This Is the Story Behind MyFitnessPal  [Lifehacker]  Mar 19, 2014

Toni Ko is a Founder, CEO and Chief Creative Director at Perverse Sunglasses. Prior to founding Perverse Sunglasses, she founded the multi-million dollar cosmetics brand NYX, which was recently acquired by the largest beauty company in the world, L’Oreal, for a reported $500 million.

Discovering a gap in the cosmetics market between prestige brands sold in department stores and mass brands sold in drugstores, Ko created NYX in 1999, with the goal of delivering professional, richly pigmented products at affordable prices. Working as a one-woman show from a 600-square-foot showroom in California, Ko began selling a single item – makeup pencils. She impressively generated two million dollars in sales during her first year, and quickly grew to become a leader in the color cosmetics industry, gaining the respect of such retail giants as Target, CVS and Ulta.

Banking On Beauty: How Toni Ko Built NYX Cosmetics Into A $500 Million Brand  [Forbes]  Jun 1, 2016

How PERVERSE Founder Toni Ko Went From NYX Cosmetics Creator To Sunglass Mogul  [Bustle]  Aug 23, 2016

Peggy Cherng, Toni Ko And Celine Dion Among America’s Richest Self-Made, Foreign Born Women  [Forbes]  Jun 2, 2016

Eugene Wei is Head of Video at Oculus. A graduate of Stanford, Eugene Wei has spent his career working at the intersection of entertainment and technology. At Amazon.com he worked as a product manager on video, third party seller platform, and later AWS. He studied editing at the Edit Center in New York and then directing at UCLA Film School before returning to technology to help launch Hulu and led its product team for several years.

He also co-founded Erly with several colleagues, and after it was purchased by Airtime, he joined to Flipboard to run the product team for two years before joining Oculus as the Head of Video in 2015.

Oculus Has Hired Former Flipboard, Hulu Product Exec Eugene Wei to Run Video  [Re/code]  Feb 27, 2016

‘Game of Thrones’ 360 Facebook Video Reveals Season 6 Easter Eggs  [Inverse]  Apr 13, 2016

The NBA and Oculus just released one of the longest, most dynamic VR films so far  [The Verge]  Sep 14, 2016

Marc Randolph is a veteran Silicon Valley entrepreneur, angel investor and executive mentor. Most recently, Marc was founder of the online movie service Netflix, serving as their founding CEO, as the executive producer of their web site, and as a member of their board of directors until his retirement in 2004. Today, Netflix is the leading streaming video company with over 60 million subscribers across 40 countries and generated over $5.5 billion in revenues. In 2011, Netflix began acquiring original content and produced “House of Cards” with Kevin Spacey. They went on to product and distribute other series such as Lilyhammer, Hemlock Grove and Orange Is the New Black.

Prior to founding Netflix, Marc was on the founding team of more than half a dozen other successful start-ups in the e-commerce, media, enterprise software and portable device markets – all of which went on to IPOs or other liquidity events.

Since leaving Netflix he has been an active angel investor, executive mentor and consultant. He currently sits on the boards of Rafter, ReadyForce, Getable, and the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS); and is a mentor to the executive teams of numerous other startups.

Marc is charming, handsome and modest; and whenever possible, avoids referring to himself in the third person.

Netflix’s Marc Randolph on how an idea became a household name  [CNBC]  Jun 9, 2016

How (And When) To Take A Risk: Graduation Wisdom From Netflix Co-Founder Marc Randolph  [Forbes]  Jun 4, 2013

Andreas is Wrapp's co-founder and was its Chief Technology Ffficer (CTO) until recently. Wrapp is a leading mobile gifting service that raised over $25 million from investors such as Niklas Zennström (Skype co-founder), Reid Hoffman (LinkedIn co-founder) and Fabian Månsson (former global CEO of H&M and Eddie Bauer).

Previously Andreas was Spotify’s first employee and CTO, where he brought together the world-class tech team that designed and built the platform and product for the music service. He was at Spotify from its launch through 3 years of rapid growth. Today Spotify has over 60 million users (15 million paid) across the globe. The company recently raised US$350 million at $8 billion valuation earlier this year.

Before Spotify, Andreas worked for the Swedish online-gaming company Stardoll. Andreas is a board member and angel investor in several companies, and he is frequently hired as an advisor by promising Internet start-ups and venture capital funds.

Wrapp: Zennstrom-Backed Startup Reinvents The Gift Card  [Forbes]  Jan 2, 2012

Timekit wants to make it easy to build your own online booking system  [Techcrunch]  Jan 17, 2017

Ken Segall is an advertising executive and the man who put the 'i' in iPad. He worked side-by-side with Steve Jobs for 12 years as the advertising creative director of both NeXT and Apple. Segall was instrumental in seeing Apple grow from near bankruptcy to become the world’s most valuable company. Currently, Segall does creative work, branding and product naming for major brands, and regularly blogs about technology and marketing.

To Steve Jobs, ‘simplicity’ wasn't just a design principle. It was a religion and a weapon. The obsession with simplicity is what separates Apple from other technology companies. It's what helped Apple recover from near-death in 1997 to become the most valuable company on Earth in 2011, and guides the way Apple is organized, how it designs products and how it connects with customers. It's by crushing the forces of complexity that the company remains on its stellar trajectory. As Creative Director, Segall played a key role in Apple's resurrection, helping to create such critical ad-campaigns as 'Think Different' and coming up with the 'i' before Apple's key products. As an advertising executive by trade, Segall previously worked as a global creative director at Dell, IBM, Intel and BMW before joining Apple.

The simple secret to Apple’s success  [Metro]  May 27, 2016

One on One: Ken Segall, the Man Who Put the ‘i’ in iMac  [New York Times]  JULY 6, 2012

Jed McCaleb is the CTO and cofounder of Stellar.org, where he leads technical development. Jed believes in consciously leveraging technology to reduce inefficiency and improve the human condition. He created eDonkey, one of the largest file-sharing networks of its time, as well as Mt. Gox, the first Bitcoin exchange and in 2011, Ripple. Ripple is now the 4th largest cryptocurrency in the world. Recognizing that the world’s financial infrastructure is broken and that too many people are left without resources, he cofounded Stellar Development Foundation in 2014. Jed is also an advisor to MIRI, which researches artificial intelligence for positive impact.

Patrick is the creator of Qtum, which is 12th largest cryptocurrency in the world and one of the leaders in China. He is graduated from Draper University and dropped out of his doctoral degree from the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Previously employed by Alibaba, and committed to the blockchain technology development, with abundant blockchain industry development experience.

Founded and exited two companies in Japan, then got his MBA in Belgium after which he joined a large financial institution, performing a variety of roles ranging from COO of the consumer finance business line to head of platform innovation for the brokerage and crowdfunding platform. In 2016, he left the bank and co-founded SettleMint.

Nadav is the Founder & CEO of Dharma Labs - a SparkLabs Global, Polychain Capital, and YCombinator backed R&D shop focused on building blockchain-based credit infrastructure. Nadav is the Project Lead of Dharma - a protocol for generic, tokenized debt agreements - and was formerly an engineer at both Coinbase & Google. Nadav graduated from Stanford University with a BS in Computer Science.

Dr Hui Lei is Director and Chief Technology Officer of IBM Watson Health Cloud, an IBM Distinguished Engineer, and an IBM Master Inventor. He also holds honorary professor titles at Sun Yat-sen University, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, and The Huazhong University of Science and Technology. Previously he was Senior Manager, Cloud Platform Technologies at the IBM T. J. Watson Research Center, and led IBM’s worldwide research strategies in cloud infrastructure services and cloud managed services. He received his PhD in Computer Science from Columbia University.

Dr. Lei's technical vision and creative contributions have influenced many commercial software products and services, which range across big data and cognitive solutions, cloud service offerings, middleware platform for mobile and pervasive computing, and e-business tooling. His work has resulted in over 70 patents, has been widely cited in the scientific literature, and has received extensive media coverage.

Dr. Lei is a Fellow of the IEEE, Editor-in-Chief of the IEEE Transactions on Cloud Computing, and a past Chair of the IEEE Computer Society Technical Committee on Business Informatics and Systems. He has taken part in many international conferences as a steering committee chair, general chair, technical program chair, or keynote speaker. He was recognized with an IEEE Computer Society Technical Achievement Award in 2017 and an IEEE Computer Society Distinguished Service Award in 2014.

Brian​ ​Tubergen​ ​is​ ​the​ ​co-founder​ ​and​ ​VP​ ​of​ ​Product​ ​at​ ​CoinList.​ ​CoinList​ ​is​ ​a​ ​financial services​ ​company​ ​for​ ​the​ ​next​ ​generation​ ​of​ ​technology​ ​companies.​ ​CoinList​ ​emerged​ ​as​ ​an independent​ ​company​ ​from​ ​AngelList​ ​and​ ​Protocol​ ​Labs’​ ​collaboration​ ​running​ ​the​ ​Filecoin token​ ​sale.​

They​ ​are​ ​building​ ​the​ ​leading​ ​platform​ ​for​ ​token-based​ ​financial​ ​services,​ ​starting with​ ​being​ ​where​ ​the​ ​world’s​ ​best​ ​digital​ ​assets​ ​run​ ​their​ ​token​ ​sales. Prior​ ​to​ ​CoinList,​ ​Brian​ ​was​ ​the​ ​director​ ​of​ ​product​ ​at​ ​AngelList.​ ​He​ ​led​ ​the​ ​team​ ​responsible for​ ​over​ ​$850​ ​million​ ​in​ ​investments.​ ​Before​ ​that,​ ​Brian​ ​worked​ ​at​ ​Facebook​ ​and​ ​was​ ​the​ ​top Computer​ ​Science​ ​student​ ​at​ ​Princeton.

Patrick​ ​is​ ​the​ ​creator​ ​of​ ​Qtum.​ ​He​ ​is​ ​graduated​ ​from​ ​Draper​ ​University​ ​and​ ​dropped​ ​out​ ​of​ ​his doctoral​ ​degree​ ​from​ ​the​ ​Chinese​ ​Academy​ ​of​ ​Sciences.​ ​Previously​ ​employed​ ​by​ ​Alibaba,​ ​and committed​ ​to​ ​the​ ​blockchain​ ​technology​ ​development,​ ​with​ ​abundant​ ​blockchain​ ​industry development​ ​experience.

Dr. Lawrence Wee is a data science practitioner andinnovatorinthehealthsciences.HeiscurrentlyChiefData Scientist at Allianz Asia-Pacific where he directs the development of data-driven innovation platforms for the APAC markets. He works closely with the different stakeholders of the industry, co-creating solutions in the intersection​ ​of​ ​fintech,​ ​insurtech​ ​and​ ​healthtech.

Prior to this role, he founded the healthcare and biomedical analytics laboratory at the Institute of Infocomm Research (I2R) in Singapore, and served as principal investigator for research initiatives encompassing genomics, precision medicine, digital health and health services. After the stint at I2R, he moved on toZuellig Pharma​ ​where​ ​he​ ​took​ ​on​ ​the​ ​role​ ​of​ ​Chief​ ​Data​ ​Scientist.

Dr. Wee sits on the scientific advisory boards of several technology companies, and speaks regularly at conferences on artificial intelligence, digital technology and healthcare. He was previously the President of the Association for Medical and Bio-informatics Singapore (AMBIS), and the current vice-chair of the Chinese-American Pharmaceutical Society (CABS) Singapore chapter. He received his Ph.D.inComputational Biology​ ​and​ ​Machine​ ​Learning​ ​from​ ​the​ ​National​ ​University​ ​of​ ​Singapore.

Nick Halla joined Impossible Foods as its first employee and has helped build the company from the ground up. Nick leads corporate strategy, business development and international development. Before joining Impossible, Nick became an expert in food commercialization at General Mills, where he developed and launched several new product lines and designed large-scale food manufacturing systems.

He also has experience in agriculture, having grown up on a family dairy farm, and commercializing new technologies such as solar, energy storage and biofuels. Nick holds a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Minnesota, an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business, and an M.S. in Environment and Resources from the Stanford School of Earth Sciences.

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Elliot Han is currently Managing Director at The Argon Group, the boutique investment bank focused exclusively on the digital finance sector. He is an experienced financial and legal professional in Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) and its respective market.

Prior to Argon, he was Head of the West Coast technology equity capital markets team for Jefferies, the mid-market investment bank. Previously, he was an executive director, business unit manager and operating officer for the UK and Emerging Markets teams in the investment banking division of Goldman Sachs in London, where he focused on a variety of industries, including leading the TMT capital markets effort.

Elliot has also spent time as a corporate lawyer at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer based in New York and London. He began his professional career at Credit Suisse / Credit Suisse First Boston in their investment banking division. He was also a White House intern during President Bill Clinton’s administration focusing on domestic policy. In addition, he currently serves as an advisor & consultant to various early-stage technology companies, domestic and international.

Elliot is a graduate of Columbia University (BA), Oxford University (Master’s) and Cambridge University (law and Master’s).

Scott Crowder is currently Chief Technical Officer and Vice President, Quantum Computing, Technical Strategy and Transformation for IBM Systems. His responsibilities include leading the commercialization effort for quantum computers, driving the strategic direction across the hardware and software-defined systems portfolio, leading the agile and Design Thinking transformation, and accelerating innovation within development through special projects.

Previously, Scott was Vice President, Technical Strategy within IBM Corporate Strategy. In this role, he helped define the cross-IBM technical strategy for cloud infrastructure, workload optimized systems, Big Data and Analytics, composable services, software-defined infrastructure and cognitive solutions.

Scott joined IBM in 1995 and was the lead engineer on the industry's first logic-based embedded DRAM technology before serving in a variety of executive management roles within the semiconductor research and development organization.

Scott received A.B./Sc.B. degrees in Electrical Engineering and International Relations from Brown University and a M.A. in Economics and M.Sc./Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University.

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Simon Gustavsson, Ph.D., is quantum engineer with 15 years of experience with experimental quantum computing. He is the CEO and founder at Labber (http://quantum.labber.org), a startup company providing the interface between quantum devices and the classical electronics needed for qubit control and manipulation. He is also a Principal Investigator in the Engineering Quantum Systems (EQuS) group at MIT (http://equs.mit.edu), working on quantum control techniques and implementing small-scale algorithms with superconducting qubits. He has published more than 50 scientific articles, and his work on quantum control, coherence and quantum computation has been cited more than 1500 times.

As a child, Carl Wescott lived in Finland, Holland, Switzerland, Malaysia, and Japan. He founded his first companies in Tokyo, while in high school, and since then has had a passion for innovation and entrepreneurship. He has created other ventures in the technology, hospitality, and real estate sectors, in the United States, in Asia, and in Central and South America. More recently, he founded a winery, and sold that, before founding real estate development ventures in Ecuador, Uruguay, Panama, Nicaragua,Honduras, Guatemala, Belize, and Mexico. As an investor, Carl has been an active angel investor and a VC LP and conducted due diligence (and technical due diligence) for venture capital funds. He has invested in many technology and real estate companies, and some restaurants and films. As an entrepreneur, Carl and his teams have raised over US $450 million.

Originally a technology entrepreneur, Carl sold two software-related companies early in his career. He was a CTO and VP of Engineering for more than 15 years in the Silicon Valley. Carl was previously the founding CTO of GoingOn Networks, which provides an on-demand private academic social network. Prior to joining GoingOn, he served as President of Broadband Mechanics, which designed, built, and deployed DLAs (digital lifestyle aggregators, or branded online social networks).

He led successful DLA efforts for Ziff Davis’ www.1up.com and www.aSmallWorld.net, among other companies, beginning in 2004, well before the founding of Facebook and other prominent social networking companies. He also worked with South Korean company Cyworld to design the U.S. version of their highly profitable social networking site.

He was CTO & VP of Engineering at Tritonic, creating software for financial services customers, such as Goldman Sachs, E*TRADE, H&Q, and Robertson Stephens. While at Tritonic, he was best known for leading teams implementing & optimizing online investing systems at Charles Schwab & Co. Carl has been featured on CNN and on the cover of Internet Week for his role in the software industry and at Charles Schwab. Carl has been on many boards of directors and boards of advisors. Carl earned a BS in Symbolic Systems from Stanford University, a MS in Computer and Information Sciences from University of California-Santa Cruz, a MBA at US University, and was a PhD candidate in Computer Science at University of California-Santa Cruz. He is currently completing a DBA (Doctorate in Business Administration) at California Intercontinental University, with thesis research on The Evolution of Business Strategy for IoT, the Internet of Things.