Russell Simmons Forbes Magazine recently named Russell Simmons one of “Hollywood’s Most
Influential Celebrities.” USA Today named Russell Simmons one of the “Top 25
Most Influential People of the Past 25 Years,” calling him a “hip-hop pioneer” for his groundbreaking vision that has influenced music, fashion, finance, the jewelry industry, television and film, as well as the face of modern philanthropy. 

From creating his seminal Def Jam Recordings in 1984, to his fashion industry changing brands including Phat Farm in 1992, Baby Phat in 2001 and current men's lifestyle brand Argyleculture, to the founding of UniRush in 2003 providing instant access to a set of basic financial services for over 48 million Americans who could not previously establish traditional banking relationships, to the 2007 publishing of his New York Times best-seller Do You! 12 Laws to Access the Power in You to Achieve Happiness and Success, to founding GlobalGrind.com, the leading online destination for celebrity entertainment, music, culture and politics for the new, post-racial America and his latest New York Times bestseller “SUPER RICH: A Guide To Having It All”, Russell is recognized globally for his influence and entrepreneurial approach to both business and philanthropy.

With many decades of successes behind him, Russell recently announced the launch of three new ventures - his original content YouTube channel, All Def Digital (www.YouTube.com/AllDefDigital) – a destination for cutting-edge urban music, comedy and spoken word programming, All Def Music – a next generation music label in partnership with Universal Music Group and created to sign, develop and promote artists on YouTube, and the recently formed NARRATIVE – a marketing, entertainment and technology agency focused on developing cross-platform, story-led experiences and solutions for brands. Employing a blend of strategy, creative innovation, product development & cultural expertise across key platforms.

Giving back is of primary importance to him in all aspects of life and as Chairman and CEO of Rush Communications he has consistently leveraged his influence in the recording industry, fashion, television, financial services, and jewelry sectors to give back. A devoted yogi, Russell also leads the non-profit division of his empire, Rush Community Affairs, and its ongoing commitment to empowering at-risk youth through education, the arts, social engagement, and promoting racial harmony and strengthening inter-group relations.

Russell is a native New Yorker who attended City College of New York. His latest book, Success Through Stillness: Meditation Made Simple (Gotham Books) was recently named a New York Times best-seller.

Russell has two daughters, Ming Lee and Aoki Lee.

Kara Swisher started covering digital issues for the Wall Street Journal’s San Francisco bureau in 1997. Her column, “BoomTown,” originally appeared on the front page of the Marketplace section and also online at WSJ.com.

Previously, Kara covered breaking news about the Web’s major players and Internet policy issues, as one of its first hires to cover the Web, and also wrote feature articles on technology for the newspaper. She has also written a weekly column for the Personal Journal on home gadget issues called “Home Economics.”

With Walt Mossberg, over the last 11 years, she has been co-producing D: All Things Digital, a major high-tech conference with interviewees such as Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and many other leading players in the tech and media industries. The gathering is considered one of the leading conferences focused on the convergence of tech and media industries. Kara and Walt also have been co-executive editors of the AllThingsD.com Web site since 2007 until the end of 2013.

Kara won a Loeb Award while at AllThingsD.com for her coverage of Yahoo. She also writes occasionally for Vanity Fair magazine, which is owned by Condé Nast.

Previously, she worked as a reporter at the Washington Post. She is also the author of “aol.com: How Steve Case Beat Bill Gates, Nailed the Netheads and Made Millions in the War for the Web,” published by Times Business Books in July 1998. The sequel, “There Must Be a Pony in Here Somewhere: The AOL Time Warner Debacle and the Quest for a Digital Future,” was published in the fall of 2003 by Crown Business Books.

Jason Spero   is Vice President of Performance Solutions at Google.  He is the Global Business Lead for Search, Display, Shopping/PLA, and Analytics offerings. Prior to this, Jason was Global Head of Mobile where he drove strategy and operations for Google’s Mobile offerings on Search, Display, and YouTube.  Jason is passionate about the transformative influence of mobility and connectivity.

Jason joined Google in May 2010 as part of the company’s acquisition of AdMob where he was Vice President and General Manager of North America responsible for strategy and operations. In this role, he also led the company’s sales, business development and marketing teams.

Jason has more than 15 years of experience in product, marketing and general management functions in mobile at Digital Chocolate and Openwave. He was also an Entrepreneur in Resident at Redpoint Ventures.  Jason holds a bachelor's degree from Amherst College and an MBA from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management. He lives in San Francisco with his wife and two daughters.

Jane Schachtel is a specialist in bringing technology to market in a world constantly changed by those technologies. As a marketer with more than 15 years’ experience in the mobile, consumer tech, and telecommunications industries, Jane cares deeply about marketing innovative products in ways that help people truly benefit from that innovation.

Jane is currently the Global Technology Lead at Facebook. In this role, she brings the perspectives of technology and telecommunications marketers into the company to guide Facebook’s understanding of and development for these important industries. She also works with those marketers to help them create meaningful influence through the ultimate beneficiaries of all technology: people.

Prior to Facebook, Jane held prominent marketing roles at Microsoft and Intuit and has advised many companies in the technology space on all aspects of branding, mobile, and digital marketing.

Bill Gross  founded Idealab in March 1996 and serves as the company's Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer. Bill founded Idealab to create and build successful businesses that capitalize on innovations in areas with significant growth opportunities, including the Internet.

A lifelong entrepreneur, Bill started several companies prior to Idealab. In high school, he founded Solar Devices, a firm that sold plans and kits for solar energy products. In college at the California Institute of Technology, he patented a new loudspeaker design and formed GNP Loudspeakers, Inc. After graduating from college, Bill and his brother Larry started GNP Development, Inc., which made a natural language product for Lotus 1-2-3 called HAL. In 1985, Lotus Development Corporation acquired GNP and Bill became a software entrepreneur at Lotus Development. In 1991, Bill started Knowledge Adventure, an educational software publisher that grew to be the third largest educational software publisher in the world and was eventually sold to Cendant Software and is now a division of Havas Interactive, which is owned by Vivendi.

Bill serves on the boards of directors of numerous companies. He is also a member of the Board of Trustees of the California Institute of Technology and of the Art Center College of Design. Bill received his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the California Institute of Technology.

Shiv Singh  is the SVP of global brand and marketing transformation for Visa.He was formerly the Global Head of Digital for PepsiCo Beverages (across paid, owned and earned media). He was responsible for all digital engagement across brand marketing, shopper marketing and foodservice marketing. He also lead the company's foray into real-time marketing and is playing an instrumental role in establishing new consumer insights and measurement methodologies for the business along with new forms of transmedia consumer engagement. Prior to PepsiCo Shiv worked at Vivaki and Razorfish Inc for over twelve years in their New York, London and San Francisco offices serving in his last role there as the Global Social Media Lead. During his tenure there, he worked with companies like Mercedez Benz, Philip Morris International, Citigroup, Microsoft, Victoria Secret and Ford Motor Company.

Shiv is the author of the book, "Social Media Marketing for Dummies" and has written for the Harvard Business Review online, Ad Age magazine, Mashable and other publications. He has also served on the Grand Jury of The Effies Worldwide among other global marketing award juries. He sits on the advisory board of Buddy Media and a few startups currently in stealth mode. He got his Bachelors in Business Adminstration from Babson College and his MSc. from the London School of Economics.

Rich Wong joined Accel as a Partner in 2006. Rich led Accel’s investment in Angry Birds (Rovio) and serves on the boards of Atlassian, the leader in software for streamlining product development; SunRun, the leading provider of residential solar power; MoPub, a leader in mobile ad platforms; Qwilt, a provider of video optimization technology, among others. Rich previously led Accel’s investment and served on the Board of Admob (acquired by Google), as well as 3LM – Three Laws of Mobility, an Android enterprise startup (acquired by Motorola Mobility).

Prior to Accel, Rich was SVP/GM of Products at Openwave While at Openwave, Rich founded and chaired the Messaging Anti Abuse Working Group, a consortium of ISPs and technology providers working together to combat internet abuse. Previously Rich was the Chief Marketing Officer at Covad Communications, the DSL provider. Preceding Covad, he was a management consultant for McKinsey & Company, focusing on software and consumer technology. Rich started his career as a Brand Manager at Procter & Gamble.

Leena Rao is a partner leading content at Google Ventures. Previously she was the managing editor for TechCrunch, where she spent five years writing about startups, tech, and business.

Leena graduated from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University, where she studied business journalism and videography. From 2004 to 2007, she helped lead Congresswoman Carloyn Maloney’s community outreach and relations efforts in New York City. She graduated from Columbia University in 2003, where she was the captain of the women’s varsity tennis team.

Chris Barton co-founded Shazam Entertainment, where he served as Business Development Director.

Marc Hale  leads App Re-Engagement Sales for the West and APAC regions at TapCommerce, a Twitter company. Prior to joining TapCommerce, Marc was responsible for establishing Flurry’s business in the Southwest region of the US. He has held various positions at major media publishers and ad networks, resulting in over eight years of digital experience across social, video, and mobile marketing. Marc has a BS in Supply Chain Management with a specialization in International Business from Michigan State University. Follow him on Twitter at @marcwilliamhale.

Eric Singley  joined Yelp in November 2007 as a Product Manager focused primarily on Yelp’s search and consumer products. Starting in 2008, he was the first product manager and designer for Yelp’s apps for iPhone, Android and iPad. He now oversees all of Yelp’s consumer-facing products including mobile, web, search and international.

Prior to Yelp, he worked as a product manager, UI designer and software engineer. Eric holds a B.S. in Computing & Information Systems and a minor in Psychology from Northwestern University.

Jim Menard has served in various senior management roles at The Weather Company – managing the company’s B2B Aviation, Energy, Media, UK, Meteorology, and QA groups. Today, Jim serves as SVP and General Manager of The Weather Company's popular Weather Underground consumer web and mobile properties.

Prior to The Weather Company, Jim pioneered the use of on-air computer graphics in the television broadcast industry and held the anchor chair for the first three years of MSNBC’s weather coverage.  

Aki Iida As head of Zappos Mobile, Aki leads the design, development and execution of all mobile technology products. Aki has been part of Zappos since its infancy, having played a large role from developing the fulfillment center software to many of the website projects and innovative features. Prior to Zappos, Aki worked at LinkExchange and Microsoft and lived in many parts of the world.

Diana Stepner is the Head of Future Technologies at Pearson. She is a Silicon Valley native who is passionate about creating compelling digital experiences. Most recently, she was responsible for the European product operations of career site Monster Worldwide and for product management at travel company Cheapflights. She was also a Senior Strategist for Emerging Media at Razorfish and worked at Salesforce.com in the User Experience team. She has a Master of Information Management and Systems from UC Berkeley with a concentration in human-computer interaction and an MBA from Boston University.

Rob Wilk 

is the VP of sales at Foursquare. Rob has more than 17 years of advertising and media experience, in which he’s spent the past 13 years specifically focused in digital on both the agency and publisher sides.

Prior to Foursquare, Rob directed a team of 60 U.S. and Canada based employees who were tasked with driving optimal search performance for some of Yahoo’s biggest advertisers with revenue on pace to exceed $1 billion. He oversaw the field search account management team, the global search account management team and the award-winning search optimization and strategy team.

Rob, who has worked in various search sales roles over the past decade, joined Overture (now Yahoo) as one of the company’s first 10 employees in the New York office. In addition to search sales and account management positions, Rob was also a founding member of Razorfish’s highly regarded search practice.

Rob is a nationally recognized search expert and has spoken at SES, SMX, The Search Insider Summit and many more. He is also the co-chair of the SEMPO NY Tech Meetup.

Evan Schwartz is the CEO and Founder of ActionX, the leading mobile customer acquisition and retargeting platform for retailers and subscription brands to drive mobile revenue. Evan founded the company in January of 2012, and was previously the Entrepreneur in Residence (EIR) at Clear Channel Communications. The Makegood recently spoke to Evan about ActionX’s new platform and its benefits.

Suraj Shetty  leads the company’s Mobility Solution for the Service Provider sectors globally. Throughout his 17+ years tenure at Cisco, Shetty has held a variety of senior management roles in Engineering and Marketing, in turn giving him broad experience across Cisco’s products and solutions as a whole.

As a member of Cisco’s Mobility Business Group, Shetty is part of the senior leadership team that determines the company’s Service Provider Mobility Business strategy. He is chartered to create and implement a holistic mobility solution approach, positioning Cisco's growth strategy and cultivating opportunities in new and existing markets. His team works closely with global Service Providers to translate their customer’s future care about and business strategy to relevant technology architecture. Shetty is a recognized Cisco spokesperson among press, industry analysts, and investors.

Prior to joining Cisco, Shetty was a Senior Consulting Engineer at Eicon Technology, focused on Systems Network Architecture (SNA) gateway and routing solutions. Shetty holds a Master of Science degree in electrical engineering from the University of Texas at San Antonio and a Bachelor of Engineering degree in electronics and communications from Karnataka University in India. He lives in Los Altos, California with his wife and two children.

Monica Ho is Vice President of Marketing, xAd. Based in New York City, Monica is responsible for developing and leading the marketing functions at xAd, as well as overseeing the company’s communications and strategically positioning it in the local-mobile marketplace. One of the largest local-mobile ad networks in the U.S., xAd ranks and delivers ads based on nearly 30 relevance factors, including a consumer’s actual location, preferences and search behaviors.

Monica’s tenure in the industry includes 12-plus years of local marketing and advertising, including a solid foundation in online advertising, sales, strategy and account management. Prior to xAd, she served as senior vice president of marketing and strategy at TMP Directional Marketing, where she helped launch a digital-marketing division called 15miles.

Well regarded in the space, Monica is currently active on the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s (IAB) Local Search Committee and the Mobile Marketing Association’s (MMA) Research Committee. She is also an occasional presenter at industry conferences and trade shows. Currently, Monica lives on Long Island with her husband and two children.

Craig Palli  is a seasoned inventor and entrepreneur with a particular knack for creating client focused marketing and business development strategies for technology companies of all sizes, in all stages of growth - from inception to IPO or acquisition. As Chief Strategy Officer, Craig leads Fiksu's worldwide Marketing, Business Development and Client Services efforts spanning the Client Development and Client Performance teams who ensure client success. Craig's insight and quick wit make him a popular speaker at industry events as well as a trusted go-to source for the trade and business press. His commentary has been featured in news outlets such as TechCrunch, GigaOM, Forbes, MobileMarketer and Reuters. Before Fiksu, Craig was founder and CEO of Torrent, Inc., a manufacturer of patent-rich and ecologically friendly consumer electronics products. Previously, Craig held senior management roles at DirectoryM, Inc., a premier online advertising network for small businesses, and ValueClick, Inc., one of the world's largest integrated online marketing companies. In addition, he helped grow Be-Free Inc. from a start-up with six customers to a $3 billion market cap before its acquisition by ValueClick. Craig graduated from Carnegie Mellon University with dual majors in economics and industrial management, and holds a MBA from the F.W. Olin Graduate School of Business at Babson College.

Aurelie Guerrieri  has over 10 years of experience in mobile and digital media. She is currently advising CEOs and CXOs through critical company stages: inception, go-to-market strategy, growth acceleration, corporate development and M&A, international expansion, business development, product strategy, turnarounds. Whenever a CEO is stretched and needs more brainpower to solve strategic challenges and move initiatives forward, she steps in. She has an industry bend towards Mobile, Digital, New Media, and B2C.

Previously, she was EVP, Corporate Development at SendMe, the largest subscription mobile content publisher in the US. There, she was responsible for international expansion, as well as new business initiatives. Prior to that, she was a Vice-President & General Manager at QuinStreet, a $300+ M online marketing company (QNST). She started her career in strategy management consulting with McKinsey. She graduated with an MSc, Chemistry, in Paris, and an MBA, in Montreal.

At Women In Wireless, Aurelie is Co-Chair, Global Expansion. In this role, she helps launch, nurture and grow Women in Wireless outposts around the world. She has launched 8 Chapters and counting!

Aza Raskin  focuses on increasing the creative surface area of Jawbone while predicting the future by helping to invent it. He was named a Master of Design by Fast Company and a 30-under-30 entrepreneur by both Inc and Forbes magazines. Previously, he led Creative at Firefox, was a founder and CEO at Massive Health, and founded Songza.com. In his spare time, he creates modular cardboard furniture called Bloxes which are used everywhere from Google to Twitter. Find him at @aza on Twitter.

Neil Sweeney has excelled in the technology, media and entertainment industries for more than 15 years, holding senior positions with both venture-backed start-ups and the top publicly traded media companies. Over his distinguished career, Sweeney has led sales, business development, and strategy at top firms including: Stream the World, CanWest Media, Astral, Standard Broadcasting and CTV.

As mobile advertising began to evolve “beyond the banner,” Sweeney saw demand in the advertising industry for a firm focused exclusively on the mobile and connected device space. In 2010, he founded the award-winning mobile advertising and technology firm, JUICE Mobile. Over the past four years the company quickly gained recognition as a leading independent mobile firm.

Sweeney has earned several academic and business awards, including an International MBA from the University of Edinburgh and is currently a finalist for the 2014 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year® Awards in the Emerging Entrepreneur category for his vision, leadership and achievement in building a successful and dynamic business. 

Satya Patel is a parter at Homebrew. Prior to Homebrew, he was VP Product at Twitter, building and leading the Product Management and User Services teams. Before Twitter, he was a Partner at Battery Ventures, where he co-led the seed and early stage investing practices. He  joined Google in 2003 and was responsible for AdSense product management and partnerships. Before heading to Silicon Valley for Google,  he worked for DoubleClick, in venture capital and as a strategy consultant. His education is memorialized by a BS in Finance and a BS in Psychology from The University of Pennsylvania.

Ari Roisman is passionate about big opportunities and great ideas. He started his career by proving the commercialization value of a small nanotech startup. Within 12 months of joining the effort, the company was acquired by the world's largest materials manufacturer.

Ari has co-founded 4 profitable ventures and consulted for several others. Ari holds a B.S. and M.S. in Engineering from Washington University in St. Louis. He loves learning new things and spending time with amazing people.

Scott Swanson has served on the founding team of the interactive advertising industry’s most innovative startups. Scott was co-founder and CEO of Mobile Theory, which was acquired by Opera Software in 2012. Prior to founding Mobile Theory, he served as General Manager of the advertising network at Glam Media and was on the founding team and employee #5 at Tribal Fusion, where as Vice President of Publisher Development, he led the development of what became one of the industry’s largest and highest-grossing online advertising networks. 

Scott is a regular contributor to various trade publications including Digiday, iMedia, and Mediapost. As the President of Global Advertising Sales for Opera, Scott leads the company’s initiatives to develop innovative new mobile ad products for the company’s advertiser and agency customers.

Polly Lieberman leads Drawbridge's New York office and is responsible for deepening Drawbridge’s relationships with key advertisers and agencies on the East coast. She brings over 15 years of experience in sales leadership, having most recently led North American agency sales at Celtra. Polly was included on Business Insider’s “Most Powerful Women in Mobile Advertising” list in 2012 and 2013, and was recognized as one of Mobile Marketer’s “Women to Watch” in 2011. 

Miha Mikek co-Founded Celtra Inc. and serves as its Chief Executive Officer and President. Mr. Mikek is also a Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Amis d.o.o, (acquired in '05 by Forum Colorum, a Helios d.d. group company). He co-founded several companies in diverse industries such as IT, medical services and sports. Mr. Mikek serves as a Director of Celtra Inc. Mr. Mikek graduated magna cum laude from F.W. Olin Graduate School of Business at Babson College with an M.B.A. in 2006, where he started Celtra.

Tom Williams 

Brian Wong  is the co-founder and CEO of Kiip, which was named one of the world’s 50 Most Innovative Companies by Fast Company in 2013 and has raised $15.4 million in funding. After skipping four K-12 grades, Brian received his Bachelor of Commerce from the University of British Columbia at age 18, and shortly after became one of the youngest people to ever receive venture capital funding. He has been named to Business Insider’s Top 25 Under 25 in Silicon Valley, 30 Under 30 in Advertising and 18 Most Important People in Mobile Advertising; and Forbes’ 30 Under 30 in 2011 and 2012.

Sundeep Madra 

Osama Bedier Osama Bedier is former Vice President of Payments at Google and head of Google Wallet. He previously held the position of Vice President of the Platform & New Ventures at PayPal. Osama Joined eBay/PayPal in 2002 - since then, he has held multiple engineering and product development management responsibilities including next generation eBay re-Architecture, International Product development, Merchant Services Technology, and most recently all product development.

Prior to PayPal, Osama ran technology for CoolCast, Inc., served as Sr. Manager of eCommerce at Gateway and managed a web team at AT&T.

TJ Nahigian serves as the Chief Executive Officer of Jobr, Inc. Mr. Nahigian is an Associate at Accel Partners. He is a part of the investment team. He joined Accel in 2011 and focuses on early and growth investments in software, Internet and digital media companies. He was an Associate at Summit Partners LLP. He was active in Summit Partners' investment activities in North America, Europe, and Asia. Mr. Nahigian worked with growth-stage companies primarily in the SaaS, e-commerce and gaming sectors. At Summit, he was responsible for sourcing, evaluating and executing growth equity investments ranging in size from $5 million to $500 million. Prior to Summit, Mr. Nahigian worked for The Walt Disney Company in the Media Networks Strategy Group, Merrill Lynch & Co. in the Private Banking Investment Group, and at Five S Capital. Mr. Nahigian earned a B.B.A. degree, with distinction, from the Ross School of Business at University of Michigan, where he founded Ann Arbor Marketing.

Zain Jaffer is the CEO and Founder of Vungle, the leading in-app video advertising platform. He was named one of Forbes 30 Under 30 in 2012 and Vungle was highlighted as one of the 15 hottest pre-IPO ad tech companies by Business Insider in 2013. The company has received $25.5 million in funding from Google Ventures, AOL Ventures, Thomvest Ventures, Crosslink Capital and others.

Maureen Morrison covers agencies and fast food at AdAge.

Vasu Prathipatti is the CEO of Adtrib - not the world's first but aiming to be the world's last marketing journey platform. He graduated from Wharton Undergrad in 2013. Adtrib started as an academic research project with Professor Hosanagar (Co-founder of Yodle) and Professor Fader (Head of Wharton Customer Analytics). After graduating from Wharton in May of 2013, he was compelled to first productize this interesting research and then build a compelling business around it. Vasu takes pride in his ability to jump into the unknown and pick up skills on the fly.

Nadeem Kassam is a wellness champion, founder of Basis Science, and the visionary behind BioBeats and our concentration on heart data. He was recently inducted into StartupHealth's inaugural class of Healthcare Transformers. He has spent the better half of the last decade running Zynik Capital, which focuses on start-ups and organizations with high growth potential. He holds a B.A. from Babson College with a focus on entrepreneurship.

Rytis Vitkauskas is co-founder and CEO of YPlan, the world’s first mobile-only event booking app. Previously, he was Vice President at Summit Partners, responsible for software and technology investments from 2008-2011. Rytis started his entrepreneurial journey at the age of 14, founding his business in computer assembly, repair and network maintenance in Lithuania. Rytis holds a BA with distinction (top 5%) in Integrated Social Sciences from Jacobs University and an MBA with distinction (top 7%) from Harvard Business School. Rytis is also a published author of two books, and organiser/mentor of several youth mentorship programmes

Mark Daniel

Mark Phillips joins the HotelTonight team as CMO with nearly 20 years experience building and developing global consumer and technology brands. Most recently, Phillips led marketing for Beats Music, the subscription-based music streaming service that was recently acquired by Apple. He built up their marketing team and successfully launched the service in January of 2014 with a partnership with Ellen DeGeneres, a Super Bowl spot and brand and performance campaigns featuring Trent Reznor. Prior to Beats, Phillips was VP of Brand Marketing at King.com, where he helped guide Candy Crush’s meteoric rise and build King’s brand before the company went public in April 2014. Phillips also brings an international background in advertising and marketing to HotelTonight, including leading Adidas’ marketing campaign for the London 2012 Olympics and their highly-awarded global ‘Impossible is Nothing’ campaign. 

Matt Barr is responsible for the delivery and development of the emerging payments strategy across U.S. Region, including MasterPass, MasterCard Digital Enablement Service (MDES), contactless and EMV adoption.

Matt has held this role since 2014. In his previous role as Head of Market Development and Innovation based in Sydney, he was responsible for the development of emerging payment services, including both mobile and e-commerce payments, in the Australasian markets. Matt was instrumental in establishing the Australian market as a key lead market across contactless, MasterPass and commercial mobile NFC solutions.

Prior to joining MasterCard in 2011, Mr. Barr was an Executive at Telstra, where he was responsible for core mobile services product development.

Mr. Barr has also worked in Retail Banking, New Media and Management Consulting in a broad career that has provided invaluable experience in the definition and delivery of technology and service based innovation.  

Mr. Barr holds an Honours Degree in Electrical Engineering from Canterbury University, New Zealand, and, as a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University, a Bachelor of Arts in Politics, Philosophy and Economics, and an MSC in Economics.

Jeff Bercovici is a senior editor at Forbes, where he covers technology with a focus on social media and digital media. He has covered media, entertainment and hte business of culture for more than a decade, holding staff positions at AOL, Conde Nast Portfolio, Radar and WWD. His journalism has appeared in The New York Times, GQ, Playboy and Details. Originally from Wisconsin (Go Pack Go), Jeff is a graduate of Cornell University.

David Berkowitz  is Chief Marketing Officer at agency MRY, where he spearheads marketing operations, directs the agency's communication strategy, and gains visibility for its clients such as Coca-Cola, Visa, and Bayer. Previously, he spent seven years at agency 360i, ultimately serving as Vice President of Emerging Media, having co-founded the agency’s social media practice in 2006 and led the Startup Outlook initiative.

He has spoken at more than 225 events around the world, including South by Southwest (SXSW) in Texas, Digital Age 2.0 in Brazil, Crowdsourcing Week in Singapore, and the keynote at Interactive Marketing Summit 2013 in Turkey. He has also been the featured speaker at corporate summits at the headquarters of Google, Coca-Cola, Cox Communications, and About.com.

David has written more than 500 bylines for outlets such as Advertising Age, The Economist, Mashable, and Mediapost. He has authored his own MarketersStudio blog since 2005. He has spoken at more than 200 events globally. While working as an editor at research firm eMarketer, he interviewed 175 executives and authors about technology and business.

He is frequently quoted online and in print, having appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Reuters, the New York Post, the Associated Press, and USA Today. Ad Age, Ad Week, and PR Week have all named him among the most influential advertising and marketing professionals on Twitter.

He has a BA in Psychology from the State University of New York at Binghamton and served on his alumni association's Board of Directors and then chairing the Metro New York chapter. He currently lives in New York City.

Nabeel Hyatt is a Venture Partner focusing on hardware and software consumer services. He has led Spark’s investments in Coin, Hey, Picturelife, Postmates, and Thalmic Labs (Myo).

Prior to joining Spark, Nabeel spent 15 years as a startup founder, CEO and head of product at the confluence of design and technology. Most recently, Nabeel served as General Manager at Zynga (NASDAQ: ZNGA), joining pre-IPO. Previously, Nabeel was Founder, CEO of Conduit Labs, a pioneering venture backed social gaming company acquired by Zynga in 2010.

Prior to that he was an early member and VP Product at MIT Media Lab spinoff Ambient Devices, where he was a nominee for Top Innovators Under 30 by MIT Technology Review. Ambient was an “Internet of Things” pioneer, developing consumer products sold everywhere from the Museum of Modern Art to Radioshack.

Earlier in his career, Nabeel served as Chief Product Officer at Teamtalk.com plc (LSE; TTK) and internetsoccer.com, a public media company that was one of the most trafficked content sites in Europe in the late 90s and a pioneer of long tail content production.

Nabeel received a B.A. in Design from Maryland Institute, College of Art and studied Computer Science at Purdue University.

Vijay Chattha  is the head of VSC Consulting, a boutique marketing and public relations firm focused in the South Asian-American and mobile technology markets. Since 2002, VSC Consulting has generated over five billion estimated media impressions for a variety of clients-landing the firm in the top rung of boutique PR firms in the United States. Vijay has been cited in India Journal and IndUS Business Journal as one of the top PR executives in the wireless industry. Prior to VSC, Vijay spent over six years developing projects for the lifestyle-driven market of converging technology and entertainment. In 1998, he co-founded UrbanGroove Networks, which encompass thirteen lifestyle related media resources, including philly2nite.com, which soon became the largest independent network of nightlife-related Web sites in the world. Additionally, Vijay headed development coordination for the creation of the first long-term Sikh art exhibit at the world's largest museum complex, the Smithsonian Institution. Vijay's fundraising ability, PR experience, and execution skills enabled the museum to net over one million dollars in private donations, corporate sponsorship, and key media placements in The Washington Post, Hollywood Reporter, Reuters, and The Associated Press. The four-year project culminated in an opening ceremony that was the most attended in the history of the National Museum of Natural History. Vijay received a double major in International Relations and South Asian Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. He co-developed his first start-up at the Wharton School of Business as a student of New Product Development, Advertising Management, and Entrepreneurial Venture Initiation. While studying International Economics at the London School of Economics, he worked at Sony Music UK in urban marketing. Vijay also worked for DefJam Recordings, a division of Seagram/Universal/Polygram. Vijay's work experience has earned him coverage in The Industry Standard, The Washington Post, India Today, The Wharton Journal, The Pennsylvania Gazette, and The Los Angeles Times. He is often invited to speak on emerging marketing concepts and has addressed the Wharton School of Business and the Berkeley Haas School of Business. In November 2004, he was named to the Advisory Board of the Craigslist Foundation and is a member of the South Asian Journalists Association and South Asian Media and Marketing Association. Additionally, Vijay was named one of the top two young professionals of the year at the 2006 PRWeek Awards.

Joe Braidwood is the Chief Marketing Officer of SwiftKey, a language technology and software start-up based in London, UK.

At SwiftKey, Joe primarily works on the promotion and development of the company's popular keyboard application for Android, SwiftKey. He also represents SwiftKey at public events and trade fairs, and works alongside the firm's co-founders on company strategy. Joe was hired by SwiftKey CEO and co-founder Jon Reynolds, whom he studied with at Cambridge.

Before joining SwiftKey, Joe worked as a writer/editor for the News Corporation global wire project, NewsCore, where in addition to being a journalist, he took a prominent role in setting up the technology behind the service. He also worked as a journalist for Sky News in London from 2007-2009, where he specialised in online news writing and video production, as well as social media strategy. In 2007, under Joe's direction, Sky News became the first news source to be officially featured by Twitter.

Joe holds a masters degree in law from the University of Cambridge and a masters in public policy from Brown University.

Doug Simpson is a Co-Founder of Navdy, Inc. and serves as its Chief Executive Officer.

Kurt Workman is Founder at Owlet Baby Care.

John Krystynak  has a track record of working with successful startups from formation to IPO. He joined internet advertising pioneer NetGravity as their first engineer in 1995, and worked there until its IPO and subsequent sale to DoubleClick. John was an early employee at VMware, where he ran product marketing for 5 years. In 2011, he co-founded AppLovin, a startup that develops innovative ad solutions for mobile.

Oskar Serrander currently leads East Coast operations for Quixey, leveraging his passion for mobile innovation to form creative partnerships. He came to Quixey from Spotify, where he spent 5 years developing advertising and marketing partnerships. Originally from Sweden, Oskar also spent 4 years as an account director at ad agency Carat, driving marketing projects for domestic and multinational brands across multiple verticals and across all media disciplines. He earned his M.S. in Business Administration & Economics, Marketing, Management from Uppsala University, Sweden.

Jeremy Ozen is a co-founder and operates as President of Vistar Media. As President, Jeremy is responsible for finance, strategy, partnerships, and marketing. He has spearheaded Vistar's measurement and attribution capabilities, enabling Vistar to be the first company delivering closed loop ROI to clients buying Mobile and Digital Out of Home. He brings extensive experience working with digital and mobile agencies to create scalable solutions for marketers. Jeremy is a consistent contributor to Mediapost, Ad Age and other media periodicals and is seen as a leading voice around topics related to programmatic and location based media.

Ioannis Verdelis is the co-founder and COO of Fleksy, San Francisco-based startup bringing disruptive innovation to the computing and mobile markets. Syntellia is inspired by the application of artificial intelligence to everyday technology. Its first product is a revolutionary keyboard that makes typing on a touchscreen so easy that users don’t even have to look at the screen.

Prior to founding Fleksy, Ioannis worked in global real estate and corporate consulting. He is a member of many entrepreneurial organizations, including the Young Entrepreneur Council, Empact Sphere, Startup America, and more.

Sharon Weinbar invests in Mobile and Internet companies at ScaleVP. She sits on the boards of Actiance, Applause, BeachMint, Everyday Health, PlayPhone, and Reply.com.

Prior to ScaleVP in 2001, Sharon was Vice President, Marketing for Critical Path and Amplitude Software. She spent most of the 1990’s at Adobe Systems, starting as Product Manager for Asian Products and later led marketing for many of Adobe’s applications, and spearheaded numerous cross-product initiatives. Before her technology line experience, Sharon practiced strategy consulting at Bain & Company for nearly five years.

Sharon holds an A.M. and an A.B. in Engineering from Harvard University, and an M.B.A. from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Sharon also serves on the board of directors of the non-profit Myelin Repair Foundation and on Microsoft’s Venture Advisory Committee. Sharon is a 2013 “AlwaysOn Power Players in Digital Media Winner” and she was also recognized by the Huffington Post as one of the “Top 25 Women in Tech to Follow on Twitter”.

Alexandre Douzet is the Chief Executive Officer of TheLadders, the premier online job-matching service for career-driven professionals, where he is responsible for the company strategy, global business operations, and product development. He co-founded the company in 2003 with Marc Cenedella and Andrew Koch, and grew the member base to more than 6 million since inception. Alex is based in the New York headquarters.

Under Alex’s leadership, the company has seized the mobile disruption with its native iOS mobile app that eliminates the need for keyword searches and, instead, delivers tailored job matches based upon members’ profiles, expertise, and desired career moves. Developed with a feature-lean approach, TheLadders’ app, “Job Search by TheLadders,” available for free on the App Store℠, provides an unprecedented way to identify job matches on-the-go, discover new job opportunities, and retrieve information on the competition via TheLadders Scout. With this proprietary, competitive-analysis tool, job seekers on TheLadders are able to assess their competition for a job -- before they even apply -- via a snapshot of other professionals who already have applied to the job-listing of interest.

As Executive Vice President from 2003 to 2008, Alex grew TheLadders’ subscription base from zero to more than 2 million members. Additionally, Alex has authored An Investigation of Pay per Click Search Engine Advertising: Modeling the PPC Paradigm to Lower Cost per Action. Before TheLadders, Alex was Director of Online Marketing at HotJobs, as well as Manager of Marketing Planning and Analysis for BMG Direct.

Alex holds an MBA in general management from INSEAD, an MS in direct marketing from New York University, and a BS in business administration from the University of Lyon III in France. During his NYU studies, he received the prestigious Lester Wunderman Award, which recognizes creative leadership, marketing innovation, and online excellence. A competitive athlete, Alex finished the 2012 Ironman U.S. Championship in 12 hours, 12 minutes and 21 seconds.

Heather Menery  has been in the mobile industry for over 9 years. As VP of Emerging Solutions at PubMatic she leads the sales efforts for PubMatic's mobile and video offering globally. Before PubMatic, Menery was working with brands and agencies as Sales Director at Velti/Mobclix and prior to Velti was Senior Account Executive at Jumptap. While at Jumptap, Heather received Jumptap's first President's Club Award as the number-one sales executive. Menery was also part of Enpocket's Ad Operations team, launching some of the first mobile campaigns for Fortune 500 brands. After Enpocket’s acquisition by Nokia, she helped certify best- in-class partners for Nokia Interactive and represented Nokia on the Mobile Marketing Association Consumer Best Practice Committee. She is currently an Adjunct Instructor at NYU's School of Continuing and Professional Studies, teaching "Mobile Marketing: Reaching the Third Screen." Menery was selected by Mobile Marketer as one of the Mobile Women to Watch in 2011.

Alex Bell is an electrical engineer who has designed a Hydrogen Motorcycle as well as a crowd sourced algorithm for tracking New York city subways. He is the founder and CEO of Signal360, the leading proximity marketing technology provider. Alex created Signal360's first beacon over 4 years ago and has always been building the technological bridge from the digital to physical worlds. Signal360 is deployed with many of the top NRF100 and continues to win RFPs by providing the complete solution for retailers.Alex Bell is an electrical engineer who has designed a Hydrogen Motorcycle as well as a crowd sourced algorithm for tracking New York city subways. He is the founder and CEO of Signal360, the leading proximity marketing technology provider. Alex created Signal360's first beacon over 4 years ago and has always been building the technological bridge from the digital to physical worlds. Signal360 is deployed with many of the top NRF100 and continues to win RFPs by providing the complete solution for retailers.

Jason Jacobs is the co-founder & CEO of RunKeeper, a mobile fitness platform that incorporates a unique blend of tracking, sharing, analytics, and coaching to enable runners and other fitness enthusiasts to get motivated, stay motivated, and improve their results over time.

RunKeeper started with a smartphone tracking app for runners and cyclists, and built up a large, passionate global community of millions of users. Over time, they’ve expanded to enable 3rd party apps, devices, and services across a broad range of health categories to tie into the platform via their Health Graph API, enabling users to keep all of their health information in one place.

Prior to founding RunKeeper, Jason worked for 10 years in VC-backed technology companies, always longing for the day when he could start his own. He holds an MBA from Babson College and a BA from Wesleyan University.

Henry Cipolla  co-founded Localytics in 2008. He leads the Localytics engineering team and oversees the technology vision for Localytics. Before Localytics, Henry spent several years in the Windows Core OS division at Microsoft, contributing to its app analytics service, where his team received several Microsoft Engineering Excellence awards including the prestigious Chairman's award. His development experience covers many areas including software and systems for banks and universities. As a mobile platforms and big data expert, Henry has spoken at industry conferences including the Verizon Developer Conference and Xconomy Mobile Madness. He graduated from Boston University with a Bachelor of Arts in Computer Science.

Farhan Thawar  As Vice President of Engineering, Farhan is responsible for engineering and client engagements in Pivotal Labs Toronto office where the company’s clients work closely with Labs to deliver mobile and server applications using highly disciplined agile development processes.

Farhan Thawar joined Pivotal Labs through the acquisition of Xtreme Labs in October, 2013 where he was the Vice President of Engineering at Xtreme Labs. Prior, Farhan held senior technical positions at Achievers, Microsoft, Celestica and Trilogy. In addition to being a programming and engineering guru, Farhan also uses his wealth of industry and mobile expertise to mentor aspiring mobile and tech startups. Farhan has been named one of “Toronto’s Top 25 Most Powerful People”, and is a well-known and respected figure in Toronto’s tech community.

Farhan holds a degree in Computer Science from the University of Waterloo and an MBA in Financial Engineering from the University of Toronto.

Josh Elman is a partner at Greylock. He joined the team in 2011 and invests in entrepreneurs building new consumer products and services. His areas of focus include social networks and platforms, mobile apps, new media, and marketplaces. Josh specializes in designing, building, and scaling consumer products, having been part of multiple companies that have grown to over 100 million users.

Before joining Greylock, Josh spent 15 years in product and engineering roles at leading companies in social, commerce, and media. Most recently, Josh was the product lead for growth and relevance at Twitter, growing Twitter's active user base by nearly 10x.

Prior to Twitter, Josh worked on the platform at Facebook and led the launch of Facebook Connect. Earlier in his career, Josh was an early employee at LinkedIn and helped establish early models for user growth and launched the first version of LinkedIn Jobs.

Josh also held roles leading product management for Zazzle, and leading product and engineering for RealJukebox and RealPlayer at RealNetworks.

Josh holds a BS in Symbolic Systems with a focus on Human Computer Interaction from Stanford University.

Shaherose Charania is passionate about open innovation in mobile and telephony startups. She is currently running Founder Labs - a pre-team, pre-idea incubator for new mobile startups and also is a mentor with 500Startups.

Recently she was at Opinno, an open innovation network and also consulted at Ribbit (acquired by British Telecom) on various consumer products and market launches. Previously, she was Director of Product Management at Talenthouse where she lead the company's product from concept to initial alpha launch.

Before that she was at JAJAH (acquired by Telefonica/O2) as the Director of Product Management and Marketing.

In parallel, Shaherose is perhaps best known as the CoFounder and CEO of Women 2.0, media company focused on the intersection of women, entrepreneurship and technology. She has led its growth to include tens of thousands of participants, hosting monthly networking events globally and engaging entrepreneurs and investors from top Venture Capital firms and Angel circles. Over the years she has seen over 300 early stage startups through Women 2.0 and has a strong interest in supporting the entrepreneurial ecosystem.

Shaherose holds a B.A. in Business Admin from The University of Western Ontario's Richard Ivey School of Business and completed an international exchange program at ESADE in Barcelona, Spain.

Adam Marchick is the CEO and co-founder of Kahuna, a mobile marketing automation company based in Palo Alto, CA. Before Kahuna, Adam was an early member of the growth team at Facebook and funded mobile enterprise companies at Menlo Ventures and Bain Capital Ventures. As a 15 year mobile veteran, Adam serves as an advisor to Heads of Mobile around growth, engagement and revenue.

Adam received his BS in Computer Science from Stanford University, then went back to get his MBA at the Stanford Graduate School of Business a number of years later.

Michael Katz is responsible for creating and overseeing the execution of mParticle's vision of becoming the premier mobile data solution.

Prior, Michael was a VP of Optimization & Analytics at Yahoo where he came via the acquisition of interclick, the company he founded.

As former CEO & co-founder of interclick, Michael led the business as it grew organically to $140M in revenue, while expanding gross margin % and EBITDA before its sale to Yahoo for $270 million in 2011. Michael was also responsible for building and maintaining analyst, auditor, and investor relationships.

Prior, he was an Analyst at Accenture and ZEFER.

Michael earned B.S. degree in Finance and Economics from Syracuse University.

Mark Ghermezian: Born into a family of entrepreneurs (his father being responsible for the two largest shopping centers in North America – Mall of America and West Edmonton Mall), Mark Ghermezian has been interested in keeping the family tradition alive from a young age. By starting his first company at the age of the 13, followed by leading the way in indoor advertising via Flush Media (which he started in high school), rapidly growing his first mobile company (XE Mobile) senior year of college and investing in SAAS and CRM solutions like Rockbot, Swarm Mobile and Piqora, Mark Ghermezian has proven himself a passionate, committed marketing pioneer in the mobile industry. During a time where most people were narrowly concentrating on acquiring users and installs, he had the foresight to create Appboy, a company focused on sustaining and growing audience engagement through marketing automation, segmentation and multi-channel messaging (expanding beyond the ubiquitous push notification with email and in-app solutions).

Appboy is now the leading platform for Marketing Automation for Apps, and as the CEO at the helm, Mark has assembled a whip-smart team of mobile marketing experts who under his visionary leadership have tackled longstanding mobile issues in the fields of publishing, retail, gaming and more.

Born into a family of entrepreneurs (his father being responsible for the two largest shopping centers in North America – Mall of America and West Edmonton Mall), Mark Ghermezian has been interested in keeping the family tradition alive from a young age. By starting his first company at the age of the 13, followed by leading the way in indoor advertising via Flush Media (which he started in high school), rapidly growing his first mobile company (XE Mobile) senior year of college and investing in SAAS and CRM solutions like Rockbot, Swarm Mobile and Piqora, Mark Ghermezian has proven himself a passionate, committed marketing pioneer in the mobile industry. During a time where most people were narrowly concentrating on acquiring users and installs, he had the foresight to create Appboy, a company focused on sustaining and growing audience engagement through marketing automation, segmentation and multi-channel messaging (expanding beyond the ubiquitous push notification with email and in-app solutions).

Appboy is now the leading platform for Marketing Automation for Apps, and as the CEO at the helm, Mark has assembled a whip-smart team of mobile marketing experts who under his visionary leadership have tackled longstanding mobile issues in the fields of publishing, retail, gaming and more.

Benjamin Habbel is the CEO and Co-Founder of VOYAT Inc, an innovative social CRM for the travel industry.

Prior he served as the Chief of Staff to Marissa Mayer at Google Inc, managing communications and special projects. He led strategic product marketing initiatives for Google Search and Android, bringing products to market on a global scale.

Benjamin’s a longtime evangelist for DLDconference.com, Europe's leading conference experience, and is a member of the Sandbox Community as a Global Changemaker under 30. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Hotel Management and Business Administration from Copenhagen Business School and participated in the Wharton Executive Program at the University of Pennsylvania.

Matthew Schnittker  began his association with Walt Disney Animation Studios in 1998, and currently serves as a Manager in the Systems department. His first film contribution was on Disney's ambitious 2000 animated feature, "Dinosaur," and he most recently worked on the Studio's feature release, "Big Hero 6". Schnittker has been involved in both traditional 2D, and fully digital 3D animation pipelines. He has contributed to several Disney patents and won an International 3D Society Lumiere Award for his work on 3D Pipelines. He currently is a manager in technology systems focusing mobile communication tools.

Curtis Lee is the founder of Luxe Valet, the  first and best parking on-demand service. Currently in private beta in San Francisco. first and best parking on-demand service. It is currently in private beta in San Francisco.

Ryan Sarver is a Partner at Redpoint Ventures. Mr. Sarver focuses on investments in social applications and platforms, as well as software as a service at the firm. He serves as a Director of Product Development of Skyhook Wireless, Inc. He was the Head of Platform at Twitter. Mr. Sarver serves as a Member of Industry Advisory Board of resolute.vc.is a Partner at Redpoint Ventures. Mr. Sarver focuses on investments in social applications and platforms, as well as software as a service at the firm. He serves as a Director of Product Development of Skyhook Wireless, Inc. He was the Head of Platform at Twitter. Mr. Sarver serves as a Member of Industry Advisory Board of resolute.vc.

Eric Klein is a Managing Partner at Klein Venture Partners. Mr. Klein is a Partner at Lemnos Labs Inc. and was previously the Entrepreneur in Residence at the firm. He supports the Lemnos Labs core team and serves as an advisor to its supported companies. His prior experience includes work with Nokia, Apple, and Palm.is a Managing Partner at Klein Venture Partners. Mr. Klein is a Partner at Lemnos Labs Inc. and was previously the Entrepreneur in Residence at the firm. He supports the Lemnos Labs core team and serves as an advisor to its supported companies. His prior experience includes work with Nokia, Apple, and Palm.

Jeremy Black helps media and consumer properties to develop opportunities in mobile. Prior to joining Xtreme, Jeremy worked in music and live entertainment, founding a successful startup and building the sales organization for a newly acquired business unit. Jeremy holds a BA from York University, sits on the board of the Sled Island Arts Fellowship in Calgary, watches too much baseball, and is always ready to talk about Canadian politics.

Brett Kopf  is the CEO and Co-founder of Remind, a secure messaging app that connects teachers, students and parents. Brett grew up in Skokie, IL and was diagnosed with ADD and dyslexia in 5th grade. While school was challenging for him, support from his high school teacher, Mrs. Whitefield, along with his parents helped him graduate. Brett realized that if he could empower the “Mrs. Whitefields” of the world to connect with students and parents, education would improve. Therefore, Brett and his brother, David, founded Remind in 2011 to help teachers connect safely with students and parents. Since day one, they’ve worked with hundreds of teachers to understand classroom communication needs and how technology could help make their jobs easier.

Sam Chaudhary is the co-founder of Class Dojo,  a feedback platform used by more than 50 million teachers, students & parents in 180 countries to help students develop the character skills and behaviors they need for success in life - things like persistence, resilience and curiosity.is a feedback platform used by more than 50 million teachers, students & parents in 180 countries to help students develop the character skills and behaviors they need for success in life - things like persistence, resilience and curiosity.

Anmol Madan PhD, co-founded Ginger.io, Inc. and serves as its Chief Executive Officer and Data Scientist. Mr. Madan also co-founded Gingerd.io, Inc. and serves as its Chief Executive Officer. Mr. Madan earned PhD from the media lab at MIT.

Dmitri Tcherevik is the founder and CEO at MightyMeeting, a mobile collaboration and social publishing platform. Prior to MightyMeeting, Dmitri was the CTO at FatWire, a web content management specialist. Some of the world's biggest brands are using FatWire to deliver exceptional experience online. Before FatWire, Dmitri was the founder and CEO of Infostoria, a company that pioneered enterprise content mashups and developed FatWire TeamUp, a social collaboration platform that features wikis, blogs, rich media, and content sharing.

Dinesh Moorjani is currently an Executive-in-Residence at Warburg Pincus. He is the Founder and CEO of Hatch Labs, a mobile technology incubator and captive fund, which built over 10 startups from ground-up since 2010, including Tinder.

Harry DeMott attended Trinity School in New York City before majoring in Economics at Princeton University. He received an MBA in international finance from NYU Stern School of Business. Harry became an equity research analyst at First Boston (now Credit Suisse) focused on media in general and broadcasting more specifically.  He was ranked by Institutional Investor as one of the top analysts in his sector, as well as being named a top stock picker in media by The Wall Street Journal.In 2000, Harry started Gothic Capital Management, a long short equity hedge fund – focused on the media and consumer related sectors. It was here that Harry did his first two private transactions – acting as a founding investor in Titan Outdoor and dMarc Broadcasting.In 2005, Harry moved to King Street Capital Management – a large distressed debt firm where he continued to cover media – as well as gaming, lodging, leisure and restaurants. During his 3 years at King Street he continued to invest in the VC space – putting money into Pandora (NYSE:P) , Zing (sold to Dell), Armada Media, Titan TV (sold to BIM), Kyazoonga and Whistlebox – the latter 4 as sole financial partner.Most recently, Harry spent time at Knighthead Capital Management before joining Raptor in February of 2011.

David Katz leads the mobile division for Fanatics, including business management and mobile web site/app development.

Fanatics is the world’s largest retailer of officially licensed sports merchandise and operates the online stores for all major North American sports leagues (NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL, NASCAR, PGA), major media brands, over 200 collegiate and pro teams as well as the company’s own Fanatics (www.fanatics.com) and FansEdge (www.fansedge.com) brands.

An industry veteran with more than a decade of mobile experience, David came to Fanatics from Groupon where he was VP/GM Mobile and oversaw the mobile business globally. Prior to Groupon, David was at Yahoo and prior to that with McKinsey & Company in San Francisco. David has also been active in public affairs and has had roles in four US Presidential campaigns.

David received both a BA and MBA from the University of California, Berkeley.

Mike Betlzner (@beltzner) has spent over 10 years acting as a bridge between product design, strategy, management and execution. He started as a product designer at IBM, then worked on UX at Mozilla and eventually moved into a role as the Director of Firefox. Most recently he worked at Wattpad (like YouTube, but for text!) as Head of Product. He is a problem solver, a team player, an erstwhile teacher, an occasional dreamer, a full time pragmatist, and a stalwart Canadian.

Yoree Koh covers Twitter and social media for The Wall Street Journal. She previously reported from Tokyo where she most recently covered the auto and aviation industries. Prior to that Yoree was the first lead writer for the Journal’s Japan Real Time blog which covered wide-ranging topics that included politics, education, culture, sports and tech. 

Michael Seidler is Founder and CEO of Madison Alley Global Ventures, the preeminent strategic M&A and capital advisory firm for digital marketing, advertising media and technology clients. Mr. Seidler also serves as Chairman and CEO of USCVG Inc., a registered broker-dealer and FINRA member firm.

Prior to founding Madison Alley Global Ventures and its predecessor U.S. Corporate Ventures Group in 2003, Mr. Seidler supported global strategic planning and managed the investment portfolio for The Interpublic Group (NYSE: IPG), one of the largest organizations of advertising and marketing services companies.

Mr. Seidler earned his MBA from Columbia Business School which included a semester at London Business School. Mr. Seidler earned a BA from the University of Colorado at Boulder and also attended Tel Aviv University as an exchange student. He has completed Executive Education at Harvard Business School.

Mr. Seidler is Chairman of the Corporate Strategic Investors Networking Group and a frequent speaker on the topics of corporate strategic investing and strategic planning in China. He holds Series 24, 28, 63 and 79 (investment banking) FINRA regulatory licenses.

Mr. Seidler is a competitive athlete and enjoys soccer, ice hockey, skiing, triathlon, biking, and tennis, among other sports.