Joy Higa is Vice President, Health Care Reform at United Healthcare where she manages federal health reform policy and implementation.
She previously served as deputy chief of staff to the California State Controller from 2004 to 2006 and chief deputy cabinet secretary in the Office of the Governor during 2003.
Joy Higa received her bachelor of arts degree from Cornell University.
Tien Tzuo is the Chief Executive Officer at Zuora, Inc.
Tien was one of the "original forces" at salesforce.com, which he joined in 1999 as the 11th employee, when the company was still operating out of a house on Telegraph Hill in San Francisco. In his 9 years there, Tien held a variety of executive roles in salesforce.com's technology, marketing, and strategy organizations, including building out the product management & marketing organization, serving as salsforce's first Chief Marketing Officer, and most recently as Chief Strategy Officer.
Tien personally oversaw the vision, direction, and design of the first 17 releases of salesforce.com's award winning product line, including overseeing the launch of salesforce.com and the AppExchange. In 2004, Tien was named CMO of the Year Finalist by the CMO Council and BusinessWeek Magazine. Tien is also widely recognized as one of the thought leaders in the software-as-a-service industry. His podcast on the Secrets of Salesforce is widely cited and has been downloaded over 250,000 times.
Tien Tzuo holds a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from Cornell University and a master's in business administration from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
Lena Kannappan is the Founder, President & CEO of FuGen Solutions, an independent provider of managed identity services.
Lena Kannappan has held both senior technical and managerial roles in various software industry segments including Digital Identity Management systems, Telecommunications Convergence services and applications, and E-Commerce applications.
Before founding FuGen Solutions, Kannappan was the Director for Identity and Messaging group at France Telecom R&D driving the efforts around Address Book, IM, Presence, SMS, Geo Location services and Social Networking looking at subscriber identity and privacy related issues. Kannappan chaired multiple industry standards committees including Liberty Alliance and Open Mobile Alliance in the areas of Federated Identity Management and Web Services Security. Prior to France Telecom, Kannappan was the Technology Strategist at Oblix (acquired by Oracle) where he worked with number of enterprise vendors to bring the architecture integration models including the first enterprise SSO integration for Siebel systems.
Lena Kannappan holds a Masters in Electrical Engineering from Anna University, Chennai, India and Bachelors in Electronics and Instrumentation from Annamalai University, Chidambaram, India.
Jay H. Shah currently serves as Hersha Hospitality Trust's Chief Executive Officer and as a member of its Board of Trustees. Shah is involved in all areas of the business with a particular emphasis on investor relations, capital transactions and acquisitions.
Previously, Shah served the Company as President and Chief Operating Officer and prior to that he served as the Managing Director of the Hersha Group, a private affiliate of Hersha Hospitality Trust that provides hotel management, development and construction management services to hotel owners.
Prior to joining the Hersha organization, Shah was principal in the law firm of Shah & Byler, LLP, a real estate and construction specialty practice, which he founded. Shah was previously a consultant with Coopers & Lybrand LLP, a legislative assistant to the late Senator John Heinz and worked with the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office.
Jay Shah received a Bachelor of Science degree for the Cornell University School of Hotel Administration, a Law degree from the Temple University School of Law and an M.B.A. from the Fox School of Business at Temple University.
Gautam Chandra joined Washington Gas in 2002. In his current role as Vice President, Mr. Chandra is responsible for directing corporate-wide initiatives to improve the operating and financial performance of the company. In addition, he also oversees the company's non-utility operations and facilities and fleet operations.
Prior to joining Washington Gas, Chandra was founder and CEO of an energy company until its sale to another large energy company in 2001.
Gautam Chandra holds a Bachelor of Science in mechanical engineering from Virginia Tech and a Masters in Business Administration from the Johnson School of Management at Cornell University.
Nikki Daruwala is Director of the Social Responsibility program at American Rights at Work. Prior to this position, she was Manager for Advocacy and Social Policy at Calvert, a leading socially responsible mutual fund company. Daruwala is a founding member of the Child Labor Coalition, and has served as Chairperson of the Indigenous Rights Committee and the Diversity Committee at the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility and on the Shareholder Advisory and Policy Committee Board of the Social Investment Forum. She currently serves on the Advisory Committee for the Institute for Women's Policy Research. Daruwala is a graduate of Ithaca College and holds an MS in Industrial and Labor Relations from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst.
Linda Choong is Senior VP, Global Retail Development for the National Basketball Association.
As senior vice president of the NBA's global retail development group, Linda Choong manages the global multi-channel retail businesses for the NBA, WNBA, and NBA Development League. Choong oversees the strategy and execution for league-branded retail, e-commerce, and direct-to-consumer channels. Her areas of responsibility include merchandising, traditional and digital marketing, operations and international expansion. Choong joined the NBA in 1998 to help establish and open the flagship NBA Store on Fifth Avenue, the first retail store to be owned and operated by a North American professional sports league. Choong has also been responsible for the completion of the league's e-commerce partnerships and has overseen several site launches and redesigns.
In July 2008, Choong oversaw the opening of the NBA Store's first retail locations outside the U.S., with two stores in Beijing, China. She also introduced a new global retail design with a new store in Shanghai, China during the 2010 Shanghai Expo. Choong has held several positions at the NBA, including vice president of retail, senior director of retail, and director of e-commerce business operations.
Prior to joining the NBA, Choong was the director of planning at A|X Armani Exchange, where she was responsible for merchandise planning for the U.S. business and served as the primary lead for four Asian buying offices. Before that, she held various planning positions at Ann Taylor.
Choong received a bachelor's degree in design and environmental analysis from Cornell University.
Wen-fei Uva is a Senior Extension Associate at Cornell University. Her research interest is in market development for horticultural products and sustainability of horticultural businesses. She is currently developing an extension and applied research program on marketing of horticultural products including fruit, vegetable and ornamental horticulture crops. This program is designed to enhance the competitive position of the New York fruit, vegetable, and ornamental horticultural industry through targeted, curriculum-driven educational programs. Wen-fei Uva received her B.S. from National Taiwan University and her M.P.S. and Ph.D. from Cornell University.