Speakers at OPEN Forum 2004

Keynote Speakers

Peter Levine: Managing Director Mayfield; Co-founder and former EVP, Veritas. Mr. Levine predicts what is in store for Silicon Valley by examining emerging trends in technology and hi-tech financing. Peter Levine is Managing Director at Mayfield, and brings a strong engineering and operations background to Mayfield's storage, enterprise infrastructure and software focus. Prior to Mayfield, Peter spent 11 years of increasingly senior positions at Veritas Software, and left the company in 2001. Peter was a member of the team that developed Veritas' first products. His early career was spent as a software engineer for distributed computing projects at MIT's Project Athena. Peter sits on the boards of Actona Technologies, OuterBay, Mendocino Software, Zenprise, and Incipient.

Hatim Tyabji: Chairman Bytemobile; Former Chairman, Verifone; Ambassador-at-large, Benchmark Capital. Mr. Tyabji maps out the attributes of the successful entrepreneur and business leader. Hatim Tyabji is executive chairman of Bytemobile, a mobile data infrastructure company; chairman of Datacard Group, a global provider of secure ID and card personalization solutions; and ambassador-at-large for Benchmark Capital. Prev iously, he was founding chairm an and CEO of Saraide; chairman and CEO of VeriFone; and president, information systems for the Sperry Corporation. Tyabji is recognized for both his visionary innovations and his executive leadership. At VeriFone, he created the world’s first virtually run company long before the advent of the Internet. His pioneering organizational concepts are documented in two Harvard Business School cases. In 2001 he received the Point Of Sale (POS) Industry’s Lifetime Achievement award; in 2000 he was honored as the Academy of Management’s Distinguished Executive of the Year and received the Silicon India Lifetime Achievement award for excellence in business and technology. Tyabji serves on the boards of Best Buy, eFunds, Merchant eSolutions, and the Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance. He is a trustee of the Carnegie Institute and a member of the dean’s council at the State University of New York at Buffalo. Tyabji holds a B.S. and M.S. (both in Electrical Engineering) and an M.B.A. (International Business). He is a graduate of the Stanford Executive Program and was awarded an honorary Doctorate by the State University of New York.

Jerry Brown: Mayor of Oakland, Former Governor of California. Edmund G. Brown Jr., known as Jerry, was born in San Francisco on April 7, 1938. He received his B.A. degree in classics from the University of California at Berkeley in 1961, and graduated from Yale Law School in 1964. In 1969 Brown was elected to the Los Angeles Community College Board of Trustees. In 1970, he was elected California Secretary of State. Four years later, he was elected Governor. He was reelected in 1978. As governor, Brown presided over a state where 25% of the nation’s new jobs were created. He established the first agricultural labor relations law in the country, started the California Conservation Corp (CCC), enacted into permanent law the California Coastal Protection Act, successfully pushed for the country's first building and appliance energy efficiency standards and made California the leader in solar and alternative energy. He appointed an extraordinary number of women and minorities to high government positions, including the first woman, African-American and Latino to the California Supreme Court. Brown also legalized the practice of Acupuncture and strongly supported the rights of chiropractors, osteopaths and lay midwives. After leaving the Governor’s Office, Brown spent six months in Japan and worked briefly with Mother Teresa in India. He practiced law in Los Angeles and in 1989 became chairman of the state Democratic Party. He resigned that position in 1991, expressing his disgust with the growing influence of money in politics, and sought the 1992 Democratic Presidential nomination. During that campaign he refused to take contributions larger than $100 and used an "800" number to raise funds. Brown was elected Mayor of Oakland, California in June, 1998, gaining 59 percent of the vote. In 2002, he was elected to a second term. His central focus as Mayor has been to revitalize the center of the city in a spirit of "elegant density." He has also opened two new charter schools, one involving the performing arts and the other, a military academy.

Conference Speakers
Aaref Hilaly	Co-founder and CEO, Centerrun
Adnan Durrani	Venture Partner, Blue Chip Venture
Ahmed Khaishgi	Co-Founder, Squaretrade
Dr Ali Minai	Prof. University of Cincinnati
Amra Tareen	Partner, Sevin Rosen
Arif Janjua	Partner, SDG; Former SVP Infospace
Asif Alam	Reuters, Association of Pakistani Professionals
Ayaz Haque	Director, DFJ ePlanet
Azim Nanji	Professor, Stanford University
Awais Leghari	Federal Minister for Information Technology, Pakistan
Basil Hashem	Co-founder and VP, Centerrun
Brett Haan	Director, Bearing Point
Bob Williams	General Partner, Bay Partners
Debbora Ahlgren	GM/VP, Sales & Support, Agilent Technologies
Faruq Ahmad	Vice President, C.M. Capital
Faysal Sohail	General Partner, CMEA Ventures
Hammad Nasar	Art Entrepreneur, UK
Hasan Rizvi	VP, Oracle
Hassan Abbas	Visiting Fellow Harvard University
Hasnain Aslam	EVP, The Resource Group
Imran Qidwai	Founder, ICE2go, Inc.
Imran Sayeed	CEO, Netnumina
Jayaram Bhatt	CEO, Zenprise
Joanna Wang	Investment Manager, Agilent Ventures
Kevin Sachs	Vice President, Strategic Marketing & Alliances, Solectron
Mamoon Hamid	Co-founder, Rotee San Francisco
Nadeem Elahi	VP, The Resource Group
Nazim Kareemi	CEO, Canesta
Omar Khan	Founder & President, Jaiza; Co-CEO Netpace
Omar Saeed	CEO & Founder, Enpointe Global Systems (EGS)
Ram Nidumolu	Founder & CEO, Gandiva, Inc.
Rina Raman	Director App Eng., Xilinx
Safi Qureshi	Founder, Irvine Ventures
Shahid Khan	Managing Director, BearingPoint, Inc.
Umair Khan	Founder & CEO, Clickmarks
Waheed Qureshi	Chairman & CTO, Zenprise
Zia Chishti	CEO, The Resource Group, Founder Align
Zia Iqbal	CEO, Barbedwire Technologies

Brief Bio of Speakers

Aaref Hilaly:  Co-founder and CEO, Centerrun       Top

As Co-Founder, President and CEO of CenterRun, Aaref led the company from inception in 2000 to its acquisition by Sun Microsystems for $66M in August 2003. CenterRun became a leading provider of application provisioning software to enterprise data centers, with customers such as Genentech, First American, Kaiser Permanente, Staples, and VeriSign. The company was financed by Sequoia Capital, Crosslink Capital, and others. Prior to co-founding CenterRun, Aaref worked in corporate and business development at ExciteAtHome. Aaref joined ExciteAtHome from The Boston Consulting Group (BCG), where he led projects advising Fortune 500 companies on a variety of sales, marketing and product development issues. Aaref earned an MBA from Harvard Business School with high distinction as a Baker Scholar. He holds a BA Honors from Oxford University and was awarded a Fellowship to McGill University, where he completed his Masters in Economics.

Adnan Durrani:  Venture Partner, Blue Chip Venture       Top

In addition to being Blue Chip's Venture Partner, Adnan is President of Condor Ventures, Inc., an investment banking firm that specializes in technology and consumer product companies. Adnan has over 24 years of experience in the investment industry. In the 1980s, Adnan was a Senior Vice President with Lehman Brothers and a Senior Vice President with Oppenheimer & Co. Furthermore, Adnan is also an entrepreneur, having been founder of Vermont Pure Holdings, Ltd. (VPS, Amex) as well as a partner in Stonyfield Farms, Inc. (a leading yogurt brand). Adnan received a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering and the Graduate School of Business at Columbia University.

Ahmed Khaishgi:  Co-Founder Squaretrade       Top

Ahmed Co-Founded SquareTrade SquareTrade which is a leading provider of online trust infrastructure, including merchant verification and reliability programs, and the world's largest online dispute resolution service. Prior to co-founding SquareTrade, Ahmed was an engagement manager at McKinsey & Company in New York, where he led the team that created the company's internal e-commerce implementation capabilities. Ahmed graduated from Harvard Business School as a Baker Scholar, and has an undergraduate degree in Computer Engineering. Before business school, he was a systems analyst at Procter & Gamble where he implemented a large ERP system.

Dr Ali Minai:  Prof. University of Cincinnati       Top

Dr Minai directs the Complex Adaptive Systems Laboratory at the University of Cincinnati, and has a secondary appointment as Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering. He joined the University as an Assistant Professor in 1993. Before that, he spent eight years at the University of Virginia, first as a graduate student in Electrical Engineering, and then as a Research Associate in the Department of Neurosurgery, working on computational models of learning and memory in Dr. William B Levy's laboratory. He has done significant research is in the areas of complex and biomorphic systems.

Amra Tareen:  Partner, Sevin Rosen       Top

Since joining Sevin Rosen Funds in early 2000, Amra Tareen has focused on telecommunications and networking, with a particular interest in networking technology and researching investment opportunities in cable and broadband. Her previous experience includes management positions at leading communications companies Lucent Technologies and Ascend Communications, where she played a key role in growing Ascend's DSL business. She is currently sits on the boards of Clovis, Lambda Optical Systems, and Lemur. Amra Tareen holds a BA in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from University of New South Wales in Sydney Australia, and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Arif Janjua:  Partner, SDG; Former SVP Infospace       Top

CEO of iDrive, a storage solution provider for communication service providers and other enterprises. Previously, President, Consumer Services and EVP Corporate Development at Infospace.

Asif Alam:  Reuters, Association of Pakistani Professionals       Top

Syed Asif Alam is currently working with Reuters where he is responsible for the system architecture of market data systems. Prior to joining Reuters, Asif worked for Sanwa Financial Products, Japanese investment bank, heading the global systems and networking for New York, Hong Kong and London office. Shortly after 9/11, Asif cofounded the Association of Pakistani Professionals (http://aopp.org), with the objective to engage media in a proactive manner to help create a better understanding about Pakistan.

Awais Leghari:  Federal Minister for Information Technology, Pakistan       Top

Mr. Awais Ahmad Khan Leghari, the Federal Minister for Information Technology; Government of Pakistan, hails from a notable political family of Dera Ghazi Khan, an underdeveloped area of the southern Punjab. Mr. Awais Ahmad Khan Leghari was born on 22nd March 1971. Mr. Awais Ahmad Khan Leghari had his early education at Aitchison College Lahore. He passed Higher Senior Cambridge Examination in 1988. Mr. Leghari got his masters in Economics (Game Theory) from the University of Rochester, New York State USA in 1994.

Ayaz Haque:  Director, DFJ ePlanet       Top

Director DFJ ePlanet; former Director of Corporate Advisory, Crosby Holdings; former Associate Director, Peregrine Investments; formerly with Bear Stearns &Co.

Azim Nanji:  Professor, Stanford University       Top

Azim is a Visiting Professor of Islamic Studies at the Stanford University’s Department of Religious Studies.

Basil Hashem:  Co-founder and VP, Centerrun       Top

Basil recently co-founded a Silicon Valley startup, CenterRun (acquired by Sun Microsystems), and was Senior Director of Product Management there. CenterRun is the leading solution for application provisioning and now a core element of Sun's N1 data center automation vision. Prior to that, Basil worked in the Product Management area at AOL and joined AOL through the acquisition of Netscape. He was responsible for building and shipping multiple software products and services including the Netscape web servers. Prior to Netscape, Basil was a management and technology consultant with KPMG. He started his career as a software engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. He holds an MBA from the University of Southern California and a BS in Computer Science from UCLA.

Bob Williams:  General Partner, Bay Partners       Top

Prior to joining Bay Partners, Bob worked in 5 different startups over a 20 year period spanning timesharing, enterprise software and networking. His track record as an entrepreneur includes 3 IPOs and 1 acquisition. Among the more notable companies Bob helped to build were Ingres, Verity, and NetManage where he held senior executive positions in Marketing and Business Development. He is known to the entrepreneurs he works with as being an active and pragmatic board member, technically savvy, and someone who pays close attention to strategic marketing issues. Bob holds an undergraduate degree from Dartmouth College and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Bob is a member of the National Public Radio President's council and a member of the Silicon Valley Bank Venture Advisory Board.

Brett Haan:  Director, Bearing Point       Top

Brett Haan is a Director at BearingPoint, Inc. (NYSE: BE - News), one of the world's largest business consulting and systems integration firms.

Debbora Ahlgren:  GM/VP Sales & Support, Memory Test -- Automated Test Grp       Top

Debbora Ahlgren is both a serial entrepreneur and what she likes to call an "intra-preneur". Following an early career in applications engineering, sales and marketing with Schlumberger and GenRad, in 1988, she co-founded FAI Technology Marketing, a strategic marketing consultancy that served technology leaders including Hewlett-Packard, Xerox, IBM and NEC. In 1995, she returned to Schlumberger for the opportunity to co-found Schlumberger Advanced Business and Engineering Resources (SABER). She served as the Marketing executive of this start-up for five years growing the group to $150 million in global revenues before leaving to join yet another start-up, this time as President. While at High Connection Density, here in Sunnyvale, she developed their IP licensing business model and secured venture financing from both corporate venturing sources and from Taiwanese investors. Debbora has also served as a Venture Partner for Propel Partners in Palo Alto, CA. She is presently Vice President and General Manager of Worldwide Memory ATE sales, service and support for Agilent Technologies, Incorporated.

Faruq Ahmad:  Vice President, C.M. Capital       Top

Vice President, C.M. Capital. Previously, he was co-founder of PenWare, a venture backed software company in mobile computing, which he left after a successful acquisition had been completed. Previously, he held management and senior operating positions with technology companies facing rapid growth and change. These included Intel, with its pioneering digital telephony chipsets; Sprint, during its rapid expansion into the long distance business; and AT&T, at the time of its breakup. Mr. Ahmad has a B.S. degree in Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, an M.S. degree in Computer Systems from Stanford University, and an M.B.A. degree from Stanford University.

Faysal Sohail:  General Partner, CMEA Ventures       Top

General Partners with CMEA Ventures. Recently SVP Numerical Technologies. Previously President & CEO of Cadabra Design Automation and SVP of Synopsys Corporation.

Hammad Nasar:  Art Entrepreneur, UK       Top

Hammad Nasar is the Chief Marketing Officer and Director, Corporate Development at Brainpower, provider of enterprise-wide investment analytics, attribution and decision-support solutions to global asset managers. Prior to joining Brainpower, Mr. Nasar worked as a management consultant in London, firstly with Booz Allen Hamilton and then on an independent basis. Earlier in his career, he spent time at the National Investment Trust and ANZ Grindlays Bank in Karachi, Pakistan and with KPMG Peat Marwick in London. Mr. Nasar is a Chartered Accountant and holds an MBA (with honors) from IMD, Lausanne, Switzerland.

Hasan Abbas:  Visiting Fellow Harvard University       Top

Hasan is conducting research in contemporary topics like: Kashmir - Conflict resolution; Rise of extremism in Pakistan; Political situation in Afghanistan. He holds Masters degree in Political Science, LLM (International Law) from the University of Nottingham, and MALD from Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University.

Hasan Rizvi:  Vice President, Server Technologies, Oracle Corporation       Top

Previously, Co-founder and CEO of Karient Inc. Formerly, co-founder and Vice President at Corio.

Hasnain Aslam:  EVP, The Resource Group       Top

Hasnain is currently Executive Vice President and Head of Acquisitions & Investments at The Resource Group (TRG). TRG makes investments in US-based human capital intensive business services (such as call center companies) and increases the profitability of its portfolio companies through labor arbitrage realized by moving a portion their back office operations to Pakistan. At TRG, Hasnain is responsible for sourcing, structuring, negotiating and completing all acquisitions and investments. With over $55 million in consolidated revenues and 1,500 employees worldwide, TRG is the largest IT-enabled services company in Pakistan. Hasnain also sits on the Boards of three of our portfolio companies. Prior to co-founding TRG in 2002, Hansain was the Director of Business Development at Align Technology. At Align, in addition to being responsible for all M&A activity, Hasnain oversaw the development and operations of our offshore call center in Lahore, Pakistan. Prior to Align, Hasnin was an Associate in JPMorgan’s Telecom Media & Technology Investment banking group. At JPMorgan, Hasnin worked on ten completed M&A transactions with an aggregate value of over $20 billion and numerous equity & debt financings with a total value of over $25 billion. Hasnain has AB (Hons) in Economics from Harvard University.

Imran Qidwai:  Founder, ICE2go, Inc.       Top

Mr. Qidwai is the founder, CTO and VP of Engineering of ICE2go, Inc., an early stage startup in Boston focused on mobile and wireless value added services. He was most recently Director of Messaging Technology at NMS Communications, Framingham, MA (www.nmss.com), where he was responsible for driving the company's strategy and development of text messaging platforms for the wireless market. In 1999, Mr. Qidwai co-founded and was Vice President of Engineering at MessageMachines, Inc., a Boston-based startup that was acquired by NMS in April 2002. Work experience includes Lotus (IBM), Digital Equipment (HP/Compaq), SoftLinx, Philips, and International Computers. Mr. Qidwai holds a Master's degree in Computer, Information and Control Engineering from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor; a post-graduate diploma in Digital Electronics from Philips International Institute of Technological Studies, Eindhoven, the Netherlands; and, a B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from Peshawar University in Pakistan.

Imran Sayeed:  CEO, Netnumina       Top

Sayeed has over ten years of experience with software development in general, and over eight years of experience helping enterprise customers with middleware and business-critical solutions. Previously, as a founder of Open Environment, Sayeed helped pioneer multi-tier client server technology, and grew the company from a 10-person startup to a $30M worldwide leader in the middleware market. Prior to founding netNumina, Sayeed was a Senior Enterprise Architect at Borland where he helped to formulate their overall technology and product strategy, while leading key aspects of their Internet strategy. Sayeed came to Borland through its acquisition of Open Environment. Sayeed has written and spoken extensively in leading industry conferences and trade journals over the last 8 years on B2B E-commerce, Object-oriented technologies and multi-tier client-server. Sayeed serves on the Advisory Board of several public and private software and wireless companies. Sayeed also holds a patent on technology for providing secure financials transactions over the Internet that he jointly developed with Citigroup. Sayeed attended Brown University where he majored in Engineering, and Harvard University, where he did post-graduate work in business, marketing and product development.

Jayaram Bhat:  CEO of Zenprise Inc.       Top

Jayaram Bhat is the CEO of Zenprise Inc., a recent startup funded by Mayfield Fund and Bay Partners. Prior to Zenprise, Jayaram consulted with CEOs of Information Technology companies in developing and managing the execution of breakthrough business strategies as well as helping to raise venture funding. Recent clients include VA Software (Nasdaq: LNUX), Euclid, CenterRun Software, and Tealeaf Technology. Between 1993 and 2001 Jayaram was the Vice President of Marketing of Mercury Interactive Corporation. As a member of Mercury Interactive's executive team, Jayaram helped lead the company from a pre-IPO stage with $13 million annual revenues to a dominant enterprise infrastructure software powerhouse with $361 million revenues in 2001 and a 60%+ market share with a market capitalization of over $6Billion. Prior to Mercury Interactive, Jayaram served in various marketing and sales management positions at Cadence Design Systems, EDA Systems, and Daisy Systems. He started his career in 1980 at Intel as the product manager of the Intel 286 processor. Besides Zenprise, Jayaram serves on the boards of Tealeaf Technology and Electric Cloud. Jayaram holds a BS in Electrical Engineering and a MS in Operations Research from universities in India and an MBA from the University of Texas at Arlington.

Joanna Wang:  Investment Manager, Agilent Ventures       Top

Joanna leads Agilent Ventures investments in wireline communications and semiconductor industries. She focuses her broad investment experience on opportunities and challenges of today’s dynamic networking industry. She works closely with Agilent’s extensive resources to help early-stage companies develop innovative technologies that transform the communications landscape. Before joining AV, Joanna was a member of Agilent’s Corporate Development team, focusing on technology M&A. Prior to joining Agilent, Joanna’s experience included early-stage venture investment with BioAsia; investment banking with Bear Sterns, where she focused on financing alternatives for emerging technology companies worldwide; and commodity/foreign currency trading at Chicago Board of Trade. Joanna holds an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Kevin Sachs:  Vice President, Strategic Marketing & Alliances, Solectron       Top

Kevin Sachs is Vice President for Strategic Marketing and Alliances at Solectron, a leading provider of design, manufacturing and integrated supply chain services to electronics companies. Kevin is responsible for the continuing analysis and evolution of Solectron's business strategy, for developing strategic alliances and partnerships with other companies to improve Solectron's offering and market position, and for strategic diligence related to potential mergers and acquisitions. Prior to joining Solectron, Kevin spent six years with McKinsey & Company, where he was engaged in launching new businesses, developing operations strategies, advising management teams on organization structures and providing strategic planning counsel to high-tech companies. Kevin earned a bachelor's degree from Williams College and an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Mamoon Hamid:  Co-founder, Rotee San Francisco       Top

Mamoon is one of the three co-owners of "Rotee". Rotee opened its doors on March 31st, 2004 in the Lower Haight district of San Francisco. Rotee is a casual dining restaurant that serves authentic Pakistani/Indian cuisine in an edgy Lollywood style. After only two months, Rotee has been nominated for “Best of Indian Food” and “Best of Cheap Eats” award in the Bay Area by Citysearch.com. Prior to starting Rotee, Mamoon spent the last six years in various engineering and marketing roles at Xilinx Inc. In his last role, Mamoon was a Sr. Manager in the Vertical Markets group, in which capacity he was responsible for generating new business from consumer electronics and automotive electronics suppliers worldwide. Mamoon holds a BSEE from Purdue University and an MS in Management Science from Stanford University. He is presently attending Harvard Business School where he will be 2nd year student this coming Fall. In addition to Rotee, over the summer Mamoon will also be working as an associate at a local VC firm, Voyager Capital, looking to fund early stage technology startups.

Nadeem Elahi:  VP, The Resource Group       Top

As VP Operations at the Resource Group, Nadeem manages company's portfolio of investments which includes 6 companies primarily in the teleservices industry with total revenues of $60 million (annual) and over 1200 employees. Previously, Nadeem co-founded FTA Direct, a provider of B2B software solutions for the global textiles industry. Nadeem also worked as an associate at Terra Lycos in Asia/Pacific focused upon acquisitions of portals and other content providers in East Asia. Prior to Lycos, Nadeem overlooked plant operations for Tanveer Textiles, a textile processing, family business based in Karachi, Pakistan with a labor force of over 500 personnel. Nadeem has a bachelors degree in Mathematics & Economics from Brown University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Nazim Kareemi:  CEO, Canesta       Top

Mr. Kareemi co-founded Canesta in 1999. He has many years of experience in the high technology industry in engineering and management positions, and has been a successful entrepreneur, building and growing emerging technology companies with unique cultures. Prior to Canesta, he founded PenWare in 1992 and raised VC funding. He attracted and retained some of the best people in the industry to develop award-winning software. PenWare established itself as a leader in spreadsheets for mobile devices; its OEM customers included Sony, Motorola and Sharp. PenWare also acquired another company to successfully enter retail point of sale terminal market and became public in 1996. PenWare changed its name to Atpos and was later acquired by Symbol Technologies, Inc. Nazim has a SB in EE from MIT and an MSEE and Engineer's degrees from Stanford University.

Omar Khan:  Founder & President, Jaiza; Co-CEO Netpace       Top

Founder & President of Jaiza. A unique talk show focused on 'Bringing you the Pakistani-American Perspective' also the co-CEO of Netpace Inc. A wireless applications development firm. A 14 year veteran of the Silicon Valley. He is a featured speaker on emerging technologies at International Universities and has received various exceptional achievement awards during his tenure at Cisco Systems and Pacific Bell. Former President Pakistani Engineers and Scientists Association 1995-96. Involved in Pakistani U.S Community activities for the past 20 years.

Omar Saeed:  CEO and Founder, Enpointe Global Systems (EGS)       Top

Omar Saeed is CEO and founder of Enpointe Global Systems (EGS). Mr Saeed has over 14 years of technology management and entrepreneurship experience. He holds an MBA from Harvard University and a BS from Brown University.

Ram Nidumolu:  Ph.D., Founder and CEO, Gandiva, Inc.       Top

Ram has over 15 years experience in researching, designing and implementing business process software solutions for the high tech industry. He has worked at top-ranked business schools in the U.S., consulted for several businesses and organizations in the enterprise software and application development industries, and trained over 2500 management specialists. He has several leading edge thought publications in the area of business process management and knowledge management. He has a bachelor's degree in Communications Engineering from the Indian Institute of Science, an MBA in Marketing from the Indian Institute of Management, and a Ph.D. from the UCLA Anderson School of Management.

Rina Raman:  Director of Applications Engineering, Xilinx       Top

Rina Raman is the Director of Applications Engineering for the Advanced Products Group (APG) at Xilinx, makers of the industry leading Virtex, Virtex-E, Virtex-II and Virtex-II Pro FPGAs. The Virtex product family is the fastest growing product family (in revenue) in the programmable logic industry. At Xilinx, Rina has built and managed a successful organization of about 30 applications engineers and technical writers. She started and grew the APG applications engineering team during a time when recruiting and retaining engineers was a challenge due to the competitive environment. She hired and developed managers for both local (San Jose) and remote teams (Colorado, Utah, Europe). Her team is responsible for developing datasheets, handbooks, reference designs, application notes, and multi-function board development for all the Virtex products. Her goal is to always "Raise the Bar" in the applications world. After graduating from Syracuse University in Syracuse, NY (BSEE), Rina worked for General Motors in their Robotics Lab. Rina has over 15 years of experience in the programmable logic industry. Prior to joining Xilinx, Rina gained 11 years of experience in IC design, architecture development, logic and circuit design and simulation, layout, verification, 1st silicon checkout and production roll-out. Rina successfully lead product development teams from concept to production. This included working as a project leader and senior design engineer at QuickLogic and Altera. Eleven patents have been granted in her name. Rina has an excellent understanding of the programmable logic industry, engineering (IC design and system level), process development, project and resource management, customer support, field experience, and cross-functional team coordination. Her experience gives her a broad exposure to a variety of players in the industry. She excels at mining challenging solutions leading to international customer satisfaction.

Safi Qureshi:  Founder, Irvine Ventures       Top

Safi is Managing Partner at Irvine Ventures. Irvine Ventures is a regionally based venture fund that invests in privately held early stage internet and technology companies. Prior to this, Safi co-founded AST Research, a firm that once ranked as the fourth largest computer manufacturer in the world. It was later acquired, in the mid 1990’s, by Samsung Electronics. Safi has been rated as being one of the top 25 executives by Computer Resellers News. Safi Qureshi was appointed as a member of US President Bill Clinton's export council.

Shahid Khan:  Managing Director, BearingPoint, Inc.       Top

Shahid Khan is a managing director with the Media & Entertainment practice of BearingPoint, Inc. (NYSE: BE - News), one of the world's largest business consulting and systems integration firms. Prior to Bearing Point, Mr. Khan was Director at IBM Global Services Media Practice. Mr Khan is also President of OPEN New York.

Umair Khan:  Founder and CEO, Clickmarks       Top

Founder and CEO of Clickmarks, an enterprise software company that pioneered Presentation Level Integration (PLI), a noninvasive integration technology that refactors existing applications into re-usable components. Prior to Clickmarks, Umair was founder and Chairman of Wordwalla, a multilingual software company. Umair started his career at Intel Corporation. He has a BS in Mathematics (1992) and an MS in Computer Engineering (1995) from MIT.

Waheed Qureshi:  Chairman & CTO, Zenprise       Top

Waheed is Founder, Chairman and CTO of Zenprise Inc., a venture backed enterprise software startup. Prior to Zenprise, Waheed was Founder and Chairman of Zambeel, an enterprise-class network-attached storage vendor.

Zia Chishti:  CEO, The Resource Group, Founder Align       Top

Chairman and CEO, The Resource Group. Formerly, Founder and CEO of Align Technologies, a publicly traded medical technology company, and with Morgan Stanley's investment banking division.

Zia Iqbal:  CEO, Barbedwire Technologies       Top

Zia Iqbal is the founder and CEO. He has held management positions leading Network infrastructure divisions at tier 1 Wall Street investment banks like Goldman Sachs and Credit Suisse First Boston. Prior to founding Barbedwire, he was the VP Internet infrastructure at Bear Stearns where he drove the implementation of its global security infrastructure. He has also held Director's position at Transagon Inc., which developed secure and anonymous web surfing tools. Mr. Iqbal has published three papers in the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) journals and holds a masters degree in Computer Engineering from the University of Southern California.