Spring 2009

Joan Blades, MoveOn.org and MomsRising.org
Co-founder in 1987 with her husband Wes Boyd of Berkeley Systems, a San Francisco Bay area software company known for marketing the After Dark screensaver and the You Don't Know Jack trivia game. After selling Berkeley Systems in 1997 for $13.8 million, Blades and Boyd founded the liberal political group MoveOn.org.

Pete Vlastelica, Yardbarker
Co-Founder of Yardbarker, a sports site that enables sports fans to write and discuss sports with other fans, bloggers as well as professional athletes.

Dave Evans, Evans and Associates
An experienced Silicon Valley entrepreneur, Dave Evans traces his professional roots to the early days at Apple (where he was a key leader of the efforts to bring to life the mouse and wysiwyg printing) and EA.
http://decalberkeley.nfshost.com/98
http://www.stanfordalumni.org/news/magazine/2002/marapr/features/mouse.html

Rob Chandra, Partner at Bessemer Venture Partners
Rob Chandra is a Partner in Bessemer's Menlo Park office. Since entering the venture capital industry in 1996, Rob has been involved with 21 early-stage investments that have gone public or been acquired by public companies.

Mike Fleiss, Next Entertainment
Having achieved runaway success in the television medium as one of the most prolific creators/executive producers of prime time television in a generation, top reality producer Mike Fleiss and his company, Next Entertainment, are also busy feature filmmakers.

Jeff Housenbold, Shutterfly
As Shutterfly’s President & CEO, Jeffrey Housenbold leads the Company’s strategic direction and growth. Jeffrey is a new-media visionary with a successful track record of building online consumer franchises by artfully combining commerce and community.

Hiten Shah, KISSmetrics.com
Hiten Shah is the founder of three companies, ACS, CrazyEgg, and KISSmetrics.

Sylvia Paull, Gracenet
Sylvia Paull is a leading Silicon Valley public relations entrepreneur. She founded Gracenet, a networking group for women in high tech with chapters in San Francisco and Los Angeles, and is also on the advisory board of BlogHer.

Alisa Yaffa, Entrepreneur
Alisa Yaffa was the business co-founder and chairman of the board of Synplicity, which she took public in October 2000 and sold to Synopsys in May 2008 for $227M.  Ms. Yaffa holds the distinction of being the first woman co-founder, CEO, and chairman of the board of a U.S. Electronic Design Automation company.

Jonathan Hull, Writer and Entrepreneur, WereYouThere.com
After a career as a former TIME magazine bureau chief in Jerusalem and Chicago and a bestselling novelist, Hull launched WereYouThere.com to create a site to create conversations about the moments in life that matter, while building a fascinating social archive of the experiences that shape our lives - and history.

Click here for a listing of the Fall 2008 guest speakers.