As CEO and Executive Director, Chris is responsible for managing the SVForum strategic direction and all major initiatives. Most recently, Chris was President & CEO of SVASE, the Silicon Valley Academy of Startup Entrepreneurs, where he extended the value and reach of the organization through the introduction of programs such as Launch: Silicon Valley, First Impressions workshops and the Startup Advantage 12 week course. Prior to SVASE Chris held senior management positions in the US and Europe at ZF Micro Devices, Avnet, The Access Group and Mostek. Chris is also a Board member of the Mission College Center for Innovation and Technology and a member of Sand Hill Angels. Chris received a BSc in Computer Science from The University of Manchester, UK.

Saeed Amidi is the Founder, President and CEO of Plug and Play Tech Center and General Partner in Amidzad. The fund has been investing in technology companies for over 15 years and it holds successful investments in over 70 technology companies some of which are: PayPal, Powerset, Danger, Bix, Powerset, DropBox etc. Saeed is a serial entrepreneur and a seasoned executive with over 28 years of experience in founding, operating, and growing successful companies. He has successfully started and grown businesses both nationally as well as internationally in countries like: Spain, Italy, France, Austria etc.

Saeed's recent passion is inspiring and helping entrepreneurs and startups out of universities. In this respect, he is working closely with MIT, Cornell, Harvard, Stanford, Berkeley, Santa Clara, Wharton, and Dartmouth to identify great entrepreneurs with a passion to execute on their ideas. Saeed is an active member of the technology community and a frequent contributor to numerous charitable foundations. He is also an active member of the Young Presidents Organization (YPO), a world-class network of Fortune 500 CEOs, accomplished serial entrepreneurs, and veteran financial executives.

Tom has 30+ years of experience as an entrepreneur, operational executive and venture capitalist.He has helped many companies build the market strategy, management team and financing around their core technologies. He has been a board member or CEO of six venture backed companies. Dr Rice has a BS and PhD from Stanford and an MS from MIT. He is interested in software, data analysis, clean technology, and technically-innovative startups.

A passionate, pragmatic, and articulate business executive in high-technology. Experienced in developing and scaling businesses from concept to market leader. Proven by founding Insights OnDemand and developing Siebel's vertical industry business unit for financial services from scratch to over $300 million in revenue in 5 years. Serving as President of Plug and Play Tech Center, a business accelerator focused on funding, accelerating, and scaling over 300 technology startups.

Nathan Gold founded The Demo Coach in 2000. He has given 14,000 software and hardware product demos during his career. He has worked with small and large companies--such as Bill.com, Education.com, U3, SanDisk, Symbol Technologies, Nokia, and IBM--on how to deliver more compelling and memorable demos. Nathan started The Demo Coach because he believed he could help other people learn to give more compelling and memorable demos. Since then, he has coached companies like Cisco Systems, SanDisk Corporation, Symbol Technologies, Extensity, Logica PLC, Education.com, Bill.com, U3, Nokia, and IBM.

Alireza is in charge of Investment and due diligence for Plug and Play's Venture Group where he is responsible for supporting the firm's investment and venture capital partners. Alireza also is responsible for, sourcing, analyzing, performing due diligence and supporting start ups at Plug and Play Tech Center.

Tom Kosnik is a Fenwick and West Consulting Professor, Stanford Technology Ventures Program (STVP), at Stanford School of Engineering. He is also an International Advisor for National University of Singapore Entrepreneurship Centre. Teaching: His courses include Global Entrepreneurial Marketing, High Tech Entrepreneurship, New Venture Creation, Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders Program, Strategy for Technology Companies, and Global Project Coordination.

Based in the San Francisco Bay Area, Alfonso leads UZ's Marketing & Sales worldwide. He has 14-years experience in the field of Online Marketing, Web Design and User Experience, having worked for companies such as Dell Computers, Icon Medialab (now LBi) and Proxicom's venture in Spain (now Indra). He also co-founded Xperience Consulting, one of Europe's most experienced usability consultancies. He teaches usability and web design courses at various universities and academic institutions, and is a frequent speaker at conferences.

Mahsa Aliaskari leads our Los Angeles immigration group. She represents national and international employers before the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and the U.S. Department of Labor in connection with immigration-related employment matters. Mahsa focuses her practice on business professionals across a number of industries, including health care, finance, trade, retail, manufacturing, technology and entertainment. Her practice consists of managing business immigration matters and providing immigration counsel to address the visa and work authorization needs of U.S. and global personnel including professionals, managers and executives, treaty investors/ traders, essential workers and persons of extraordinary ability. Mahsa has expertise in counseling foreign nationals and companies that are establishing new U.S. ventures requiring the temporary or permanent transfer of employees to the U.S. In addition, she provides counsel to EB-5 investors as well as EB-5 Regional Centers.

Amit focuses on early to late stage venture investments across a wide range of sectors at NVP, with an emphasis on consumer Internet. Prior to joining NVP, Amit spent four years at Google, where he was an associate product manager and a business analyst. As a product manager, he contributed to the development of Google Images, helped launch Google's Brazil offices and internationalized several products. In his role as a business analyst, Amit supplied the business and sales teams with critical analytics to make informed business and sales decisions.

Amit was born and raised in Brazil and has lived throughout India and the U.S. He is fluent in Portuguese and Hindi and advanced in Spanish and Urdu. Since 2000, Amit has led Hospital for Hope (hospitalforhope.org), a non-profit focused on developing infrastructure in rural India. He has also scaled Mt. Kilimanjaro in Africa, is on the Board of "Founders Hookup," connecting business and technology individuals, and is a frequent speaker on startups, venture capital, and global trends.

Amit holds an MBA from Harvard Business School as well as a master of science degree in biomedical informatics and a bachelor of science degree in computer science (major) and biology (minor) from Stanford University.

Todd Rumberger Jr. works with start up and emerging growth stage companies in the internet, software, communications, semiconductor, media and entertainment industries, and with the venture capital firms, other private equity investors and investment bankers involved in such companies. Formerly with a Silicon Valley based venture capital firm, his practice focuses on representing start-up and emerging growth companies in matters ranging from formation, capitalization, and key executive employment matters to early and later stage financings (convertible debt and preferred equity), strategic partner and customer agreements, and acquisitions. Todd also handles general corporate matters and transactions, with wide-ranging experience in domestic and international mergers and acquisitions, buy-outs, complex commercial joint ventures and strategic partnering (with a special emphasis on Russia and Eastern Europe), and commercial space ventures.

John McIntyre is Senior Director of the Citrix Startup Accelerator. Located in Silicon Valley John leads the team chartered to invest in and develop of early stage entrepreneurs globally.

Will Lowry is a Director at AT&T responsible for Solution Design, Innovation, and Rapid Prototyping for Consumer products and services. He has deep knowledge and expertise in mobile product technologies with a focus on interoperability and the customer experience. His team partners with numerous technology providers to discover and evaluate new technologies and their potential application in product innovation. Currently, Will's efforts focus on realizing mobile and converged products and services to take advantage of AT&T's multiple consumer facing platforms and services. Additionally, Will works with Atlanta start-ups and universities including Georgia Tech and the University of Georgia.

Francesco Rovetta is Director of Business Development at PayPal Mobile, responsible for extending the reach of mobile payments to new channels and platforms.

Before joining PayPal, Francesco was Director of eBay Mobile, responsible for leading his team in experimenting with technologies and creating solutions to extend the eBay user experience through mobile devices. Previously, Francesco was licensing director at Skype, handling the licensing of audio and video technologies. Prior to joining Skype in 2005, Francesco worked for Alcatel where he held different global positions in marketing, strategy and business development within Alcatel's mobile, broadband and consumer businesses. Francesco graduated in International Economics at Bocconi University in Milan, Italy and he is an avid surfer.

Ankit is the CEO of Micello, Inc. which he founded in 2007. Micello is building the worlds largest collection of indoor maps. He is responsible for setting the overall direction and product strategy for the company. Micello's customers include mobile carriers, mapping and navigation companies, retailers, hospital groups and application developers. The company has 35 employees, is headquartered in Sunnyvale (USA) and has offices in Tokyo (Japan), Ahmadabad (India) and Chennai (India). Ankit attended the University of California, Davis and studied chemical engineering.

Jonathan is a partner at Hanson Bridgett. Jonathan represents entities and their investors in connection with business and intellectual property transactions, including formation, finance, contracts, licenses, joint development agreements, mergers and acquisitions, intellectual property licenses, e-commerce, technology-related matters and general corporate law. Jonathan also represents non-profits, trade associations and standards-setting organizations. He has a special affinity for, and expertise in, social entrepreneurship enterprises.

Byron Shaw, General Motors. Dr. Shaw received his B.S. and M.S. in mechanical engineering from MIT, as well as a B.S. in German language and literature. He earned his Ph.D. in mechanical engineering/controls from UC Berkeley. He worked at BMW managing advanced technology, for which he coordinated all university research in the US and was the technical manager of a 30-person engineering and marketing team and a $4 million budget.

Peter Delevett covers venture capital and startups for the San Jose Mercury News. He's covered Silicon Valley since the dot-com era, and his "Wiretap" column long has been required reading for tech-lovers around the world. During his Merc tenure, Peter also has run the paper's Peninsula bureau in downtown Palo Alto and headed up its coverage of state and local politics. On the side, he's an award-winning travel writer and drinks a lot of coffee. Follow him at @mercwiretap.