Bill Pence is Executive Vice President, Chief Operating Officer and Chief Technology Officer of WebMD. He has served as Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer of WebMD since November 2007 and has also served Chief Operating Officer of WebMD since May 2012.
Before joining WebMD, Mr. Pence had served as Chief Technology Officer and Senior Vice President at Napster since 2003. From 2000 to 2003, Mr. Pence was the Chief Technology Officer for Universal Music Groupâ€[TM]s online initiatives and for the pressplay joint venture with Sony. That joint venture later served as the basis for the relaunched Napster service. Previously, Mr. Pence spent more than a decade at IBM, where he held various technology management positions in research as well as in the software division, focused on guiding research and development and commercializing technology for IBM product divisions.
Bill Pence received a Bachelor of Science in Physics from the University of Virginia, and a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Cornell University.
H. Alex Ruiz Senior Vice President of Client Services at Tenthwave Digital LLC, a nationwide firm specializing in social marketing, digital strategy and website design and development. Ruiz has been working in digital marketing for 15 years - ever since the concept of using the Internet to connect with customers was first developed. Ruiz began his career in account management at K2 Design, one of the first boutique digital agencies. Since then, he's worked building digital and social marketing campaigns for brands like Jim Beam, Birds Eye, adidas, American Express and the Wall Street Journal. Ruiz has worked at a host of digital marketing agencies including 360i, Digitas, i33 communications, K2 Design and Dennis Interactive. Alex Ruiz received his undergraduate degree from Cornell University.
Bob Forness is a Managing Partner of alTreo. He has 23 years of international experience launching, growing, acquiring and restructuring insurance and reinsurance companies. His areas of expertise include underwriting, business development, operations, capital raising, strategy and M&A. His international market expertise spans the US, Lloyd's/London, Bermuda, Europe, Asia, Australia, and the Caribbean.
Forness has product experience in property catastrophe, marine, construction, transportation, general and professional liability, worker's compensation, financial institutions, life & health, and alternative risk. His work experience includes eight years with Prudential Insurance, four years at Odyssey Re and eight years at the Imagine Group.
Bob Forness has resided in the US, London and Bermuda, and holds a BS from Cornell University and an MBA from Columbia University.
Michael J. Beller is President and CEO of Lightship Partners.
Mr. Beller has led start-up, turnaround, and high growth organizations as a COO, CIO, and consultant. This experience has involved developing business technology and operating strategies combined with "in the trenches" execution and leadership.
Mr. Beller was recently featured in a cover story in Retail Information Systems News magazine for IT's role in business strategy, listed #4 in Apparel Magazine's list of Top 50 Innovators, nominated for ComputerWorld magazine's list of Premier 100 IT Leaders, and won the Smart Enterprise magazine award for Outstanding Achievement in Enterprise IT Management.
Mr. Beller has held various senior executive and consulting positions including CIO and EVP of Strategy Management for a national specialty retailer, Chief Operating Officer for a pharmaceutical packaging and distribution company, and COO and CIO for a venture backed technology re-manufacturing and e-commerce start-up.
Mr. Beller has also held senior positions with consulting firms that included Accenture, Technology Solutions Company, and Diamond Management and Technology Consultants. At Diamond, Mr. Beller was a founding partner and helped lead the company through a successful IPO.
Mr. Beller received a Bachelor of Science degree in Operations Research and Industrial Engineering from the Cornell University College of Engineering.
Donald Gulbrandsen is the founder of Gulbrandsen Technologies and Gulbrandsen Chemicals. Gulbrandsen Technologies manufactures water treatment products, intermediates and electronic etchants. Gulbrandsen Chemicals manufacturers chemical intermediates, fine chemicals and catalysts used in the process industry.
Donald Gulbrandsen is a graduate of Cornell University.
Ed Abel is the founder of ABEL Business Institute.
Abel has invested more than three decades learning how to build a successful, thriving business. At age 24 with a $5,000 loan and the energy and passion of a young entrepreneur, Ed was ready to take on the world. And he did, only to emerge seven years later at the top of a $36 million organization with 585 employees. Inspired by the challenges that led him to success, Ed went on to build other multi-million dollar businesses, yet he missed the passion he experienced "in the trenches" of his formative years.
Determined to find a way to educate and advise others in the construction and sustainability of a vital business, he founded ABEL Business Institute. Over the course of this process, he developed The SkillPreneur Business System, a systematic approach to the construction, maintenance, and growth of a business--an approach that has become the philosophy and methodology of ABEL Business Institute.
Ed Abel is an adjunct professor of entrepreneurial studies at New York University (NYU) as well as the Director of the business division at the Institute for Professional Excellence in Coaching (iPEC). At iPEC, Ed directs the business division that is responsible for supporting the graduate coaches in their business development process.
Jacqueline Novogratz is the Founder and CEO of the Acumen Fund. In this role, Jacqueline Novogratz is responsible for the vision behind Acumen Fund's unique approach to using philanthropic capital to invest in scalable businesses that serve the poor with life-changing goods and services.
She has led the Acumen Fund team since its launch in 2001, and under her leadership Acumen Fund has invested $40 million in over 35 companies serving 25 million low-income customers in the developing world (as of April 2009). Prior to Acumen Fund, Jacqueline Novogratz founded and directed The Philanthropy Workshop and The Next Generation Leadership program at the Rockefeller Foundation. She began her career in international banking with Chase Manhattan Bank and she founded Duterimbere, a micro-finance institution in Rwanda.
Jacqueline currently serves on the Board of the Aspen Institute as well as the advisory councils of Stanford Graduate School of Business and MIT's Legatum Center. She is an Aspen Institute Henry Crown Fellow, a Synergos Institute Senior Fellow and has received honors including Ernst & Young's 2008 Entrepreneur of the Year Award, the 2009 CASE Leadership in Social Entrepreneurship Award and AWNY's 2009 Changing the Game Award.
Jacqueline Novogratz has an MBA from Stanford and a BA in Economics/International Relations from the University of Virginia. She is the author of the bestselling memoir, The Blue Sweater: Bridging the Gap Between Rich and Poor in an Interconnected World, published in early 2009.
Jeff Broadhurst is the President and CEO of Eat'n Park.
Jeff Broadhurst joined Eat'n Park Hospitality Group as Director of Business Development for Parkhurst Dining Services in 1996, following a 5 year career with Federated Investors in their Chicago and Kentucky markets. In 2002, he was promoted to President of Parkhurst Dining Services, and in 2006, took over the responsibilities of President of Eat'n Park Restaurants. In 2008, Jeff became President and CEO of Eat'n Park Hospitality Group.
Jeff received his undergraduate degree at the Cornell University Hotel and Restaurant School in 1991 and a Masters in Business Administration from the University of Pittsburgh Katz School of Business in 1992.
Throughout her career, Pelin Wood Thorogood has been in the forefront of emerging technologies and trends. During her more than 15 years as a high technology marketing executive, Pelin has led the go-to-market strategy for WebSideStory's on-demand online marketing suite (acquired by Omniture), extended Peregrine Systems' enterprise software business (acquired by HP) into the web-based employee self service (ESS) category, and in the mid 90s, launched one the very first mobile B2B applications designed for the Windows CE platform. Her success with venture backed start-ups, rewarding creativity and speed, as well as public companies that thrive on process and fiscal discipline underscore the diversity of her skills and the strength of her approach. Currently Pelin sits on boards and advises new media and cloud computing companies focused on solving sales and marketing problems - Online Marketing and Media Company Online Marketing Connect; Sales Intelligence CompanyInsideView; Inbound Marketing Company Eightfold Logic, Content Delivery Network Limelight Networks; Web Analytics Consulting Company Technology Leaders; - and serves a virtual Entrepreneur-in-Residence for Cornell's Johnson Graduate School of Management. Pelin was also instrumental in defining theSales 2.0 Movement. She is a regular speaker and author on Social Selling, Establishing a Culture of Measurement, and Sales and Marketing Alignment and is recognized for her passion for the subjects by technology analysts and pundits alike. Most recently, Pelin was the Senior Vice President of Marketing for WebSideStory, a leading provider of real-time, multi-channel analytics solutions. Pelin holds a Bachelor of Science in Operations Research, Master of Engineering and MBA degrees, all from Cornell University. Her comments are from the November 2010 Strategic Marketing Conference sponsored by the Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management at Cornell University.