The Darden Business Technology Club provides a forum for students interested in understanding the role and opportunities that technology creates for improving the performance of organizations of all types.
The Darden Business Technology Club provides a forum for students interested in understanding the role and opportunities that technology creates for improving the performance of organizations of all types.
Co-founder and President, Satisfaction Unlimited
Lane Becker is co-founder and President of Satisfaction Unlimited, a web startup developing tools to encourage and foster new methods of communication and collaboration between companies and their customers
Previously, Lane was co-founder of Adaptive Path, a user experience strategy, research, and design consultancy, known for, among other things, coining the terms "blog" and "Ajax." While with Adaptive Path, Lane ran the consulting business and, as the creator of the New Ventures program, developed strategic partnerships with early-stage startup companies to provide them with long-term support for their product ideation, design, and launch strategies.
As a consultant specializing in organizational strategy and design team integration, Lane has worked with companies as varied as NPR, PBS, Princess Cruises, McGraw-Hill, the National Gallery of Art, and the United Nations. As a speaker, Lane has provided training and direction to numerous organizations, including the Bank of America, The Washington Post, Visa, and Cathay Pacific Airlines, as well as speaking at conferences such as O'Reilly's Open Source Conferences, the University of California at Berkeley's Haas School of Business >play conference, and South by Southwest Interactive.
Principal, MarketBridge
Jeff Bradbury is a Principal with MarketBridge's North American Consulting Group. This business unit provides consulting services to leading global corporations to optimize Marketing Effectiveness and Sales Productivity.
Jeff's current position is a natural extension of his past ten years experience with leading telecommunications and high tech firms:
Jeff's specific expertise span sales and marketing strategy development; integrated account management including pilot design and execution; quantitative analysis to develop analytical models identifying buyer preferences, customer segmentations, and channel econmics; sales channel design and operations to include requirements for and integration with e-business and CRM systems; business process design; and new product design and development.
Throughout Jeff's years of experience he has advised and supported senior level clients at leading global organizations, including: BT, AT&T, Cable & Wireless, Bell Canada, IBM, Unisys, SAP, Symantec, Cisco, Monster.com, Bank of America, The Office of the President of the United States of America, the US State Department, and the Department of Education.
Prior to his position at MarketBridge, Jeff was a Manager with KPMG Consulting's High Tech practice, leading project teams as large as 50 professionals worldwide. Before that, Jeff was an IT and Communications manager for the operations directorate of the Joint Staff, Department of Defense.
Jeff holds an MBA, magna cum laude, from The School of Business and Public Management, George Washington University, Washington DC and a Bachelors of Science from the U.S. Naval Academy.
President, CEO and Lead Search Strategist, Search Mojo
Janet Driscoll Miller brings over eight years of search engine marketing experience to Search Mojo and is considered a leading expert in her field. Prior to founding Search Mojo in 2005, Janet was the Director of Internet Marketing at WebSurveyor Corporation, an online survey company. At WebSurveyor, Janet increased the company's Google Page Rank from 5 to 9, increased the #1 rankings on Google by 900%, and decreased pay per click advertising spend while doubling conversion rate.
Prior to WebSurveyor, Janet was the founder of empower marketing, inc., an interactive marketing firm based in Denver, Colo. Before starting her own firm, Janet served as the Sr. Marketing Communications Manager at Software AG, where she coordinated advertising, interactive marketing, events and branding efforts. She has over ten years of technology marketing experience and additionally has held marketing positions at Call Technologies and Telos Corporation. Janet graduated from James Madison University with a degree in communications and graphic arts.
Janet is a certified Google AdWords Professional and a Yahoo! Ambassador.
Senior I.T. Director for Global R&D and New Product Development, Campbell Soup Company
Eric is the Senior I.T. Director for Global R&D and New Product Development. He is responsible for all systems and technology that support product development, ideation, and innovation. He also leads the Vendor Management Office responsible for all I.T. spending, and has led the corporate RFID program for the past 3 years. Previously, he was responsible for Sales & Marketing I.T. within Campbell USA and the Director of Global Supply Chain Strategy.
Prior to Campbell's, he was a Director of Business Development at ICG Commerce, an eProcurement consulting company. He has also worked at A.T. Kearney focusing on Supply Chain and Strategic Sourcing engagements, and at Merck & Co. where he held various positions in pharmaceutical manufacturing and industrial engineering.
Eric has a B.S. from Drexel University and an MBA from the Darden School at the University of Virginia. He is currently pursuing 6 Sigma certification and is in the Fellows Program at the Irwin L. Gross Institute for Business and Information Technology (IBIT) at the Fox School of Business at Temple University.
Managing Partner, Communications Industry, Accenture
Mr. Elron is the Managing Partner for the Communications Industry in Accenture's $4.0B Communications & High Tech Global Operating Group. In this role, Mr. Elron oversees the development of Accenture's strategies and capabilities for serving the wireline, wireless and cable segments. Accenture's clients in these segments include most of the world's largest service providers. He was appointed to this role in January, 2004.
Since joining Accenture in 1995, Mr. Elron held leadership positions in the Firm's Strategic Information Technology Practice, and in 2001 was named the Global Managing Partner for the Strategy Service Line of Accenture's Communications and High-Tech Operating Group. He has also led Accenture's Technology Advisory Board, which provides technology recommendations to the Firm's CEO.
Mr. Elron began his consulting career in 1984, at Nolan, Norton &Co., a Lexington, Massachusetts consulting firm that focused on the effective adoption of Information Technology. In 1990 Mr. Elron joined Coopers and Lybrand's InfoCom consulting practice, where he served communications clients globally. He was elected to the Coopers and Lybrand partnership in 1992.
Mr. Elron has worked extensively in North America, Europe and Asia, and has supported most large global communications carriers. His recent research activities have focused on the effects of adopting the Internet Protocol and related technologies on carriers and on their customers. He is a member of the IEEE and ACM, and has been published extensively in the U.S. and abroad. He is also serves as the advisor for the telecommunications and information technology industries for the World Economic Forum.
Vice President of Strategic Marketing, Hillcrest Labs
As Vice President of Strategic Marketing for Hillcrest Labs, Chad's responsibilities include business development, strategic planning and market analysis. Prior to Hillcrest, Chad was the Director of Strategic Development for TVGateway LLC where he was responsible for strategic planning, business development and financial management. Chad worked with TVGateway's investors to execute its spin-off, reshape its strategy and complete multiple financings and acquisitions. He became involved with TVGateway while a Principal of Katalyst LLC, an operational consulting and venture capital firm. At Katalyst, Chad advised eight technology companies on financial and business strategy. Previously, he was an Associate with the investment banking firm of Houlihan Lokey Howard & Zukin where he gained expertise in valuation and merger and acquisition transaction advisory. Chad earned a Bachelors of Science in Commerce with Distinction from the University of Virginia, with concentrations in finance and marketing. Chad is a CFA charter holder and a member of the CFA Institute.
Senior Director IT, Capital One
Mike joined Capital One in 2001 and has held a series of positions leading support teams that provide availability and reliability services for over 150 business applications. A founding member of the Integrated Production Support (IPS) team, he assumed overall leadership of IPS in 2004. IPS currently has 145 people assigned, composed of associates, contractor and off-shore resources. Leveraging the ITIL framework, and partnering with other IT teams, Capital One has been able to reduce high severity incidents by a factor of 10 in the last three years and reduce support costs by ten percent per year each year.
Prior to joining Capital One, Mike served as a Deputy Commissioner for the Virginia Department of Social Services for 4 years. Prior to that he enjoyed a long career in the U.S. Navy, including serving as Commanding Officer of a nuclear powered attack submarine and of a major Naval shore installation.
Mike currently resides in Fairfax, Virginia with his wife, Marina. Their two daughters enjoy careers in New York and Colorado.
Senior Group Manager of Supply Chain, Target
Rick Post has spent the last fifteen years leading technological innovations at one of the nation's largest retailers. As the Senior Group Manager of Target Technology Services, Rick is responsible for the Supply Chain System for Sourcing and Merchandise Presentation. Previously, Rick led the Engineering & Innovation for Store Operations division and managed the Measurements & Analysis group. He is a Certified Public Accountant as well as a Certified Information Systems Auditor. Rick attended Bethel University.
Founder & CEO, Rimm-Kaufman Group
Alan Rimm-Kaufman leads the Rimm-Kaufman Group, a direct marketing services and consulting firm founded in 2003.
Rimm-Kaufman is a regular speaker at industry events, including Jupiter Media's Search Engine Strategies; the DMA's Annual, Catalog, Net.Marketing, and NCDM shows; NRF's Shop.org; eTail; NEMOA; and DMD NY conferences.
Rimm-Kaufman writes the internet retailing column for Catalog Success. He co-wrote the online marketing chapter of Katie Muldoon's The Catalog Strategist's Toolkit. He has been quoted on internet marketing in DM News, Internet Retailer, Catalog Age, Direct, Business Week, and The New York Times. He serves as a contributing reviewer for online marketing for the academic journal Management Science. He has also taught for Marketing Profs.
Rimm-Kaufman blogs at rimmkaufman.com/rkgblog.
Rimm-Kaufman has judged Catalog Age's annual I-Merchant Awards and Catalog Awards multiple years, and served on the programming committee for the DMA's Annual Catalog Conference. Rimm-Kaufman is a Fellow at the Center for the Management of Information Technology (CMIT) at the University of Virginia's McIntire School of Commerce. Rimm-Kaufman guest lectures at UVA on database marketing, internet marketing, and applied statistics at UVA's McIntire School of Commerce and UVA's Darden Graduate School of Business Administration.
Prior to founding the firm, Alan Rimm-Kaufman was the vice president of marketing for Crutchfield Corporation. During Rimm-Kaufman's five years at Crutchfield, company revenues grew 48%, reaching $192 million in 2002. Internet revenues grew over 450%, reaching $80 million in '02. During this period, Crutchfield earned "best of the web" commendations from Time Magazine, Internet Retailer, BizRate, Forbes, and US News & World Report. In Catalog Age's first State of Search Engine Marketing Report in 2003, the search engine marketing program Rimm-Kaufman established won the #1 ranking for indexation, surpassing larger online brands like Dell (ranked 2nd), Staples (6th), IBM (9th), and Land's End (10th).
Rimm-Kaufman holds a doctorate degree in operations research with a focus on applied statistics from MIT's Sloan School of Management, and a BS degree with high honors in applied mathematics from Yale University.
Director of Product Management, Microsoft adCenter
Doug Stotland works on search strategy and is responsible for marketing adCenter, Microsoft's next generation advertising platform, to advertisers. Prior to joining MSN, Doug held product management positions in the Microsoft Office and developer tools businesses. Doug has worked in high tech for over 15 years, starting as a software engineer after graduating from Northwestern University. Doug previously served as the Vice President of Sales and Professional Services at AskMe Corporation. Prior to AskMe, Doug led the product management team as Director of Product Management at Centerwheel.
Doug also holds an MBA from the Darden School at the University of Virginia where he was in Section D.
Managing Director IT Development, FedEx Services
Steve Streitmatter is the Managing Director of IT for Handheld Scanning Development at FedEx. In his current role Streitmatter is responsible for providing strategic direction for the design and development of the technical application that provides real-time tracking capabilities for FedEx Express. The application is used daily by over 42,000 FedEx Express couriers and package handlers. FedEx Express is the world's largest express transportation company delivering an average of 3.3 million packages a day to 220 countries around the world.
Prior to his current position, Streitmatter was responsible for the design and development of an internal website that helped increase the FedEx Sales team's effectiveness by providing Sales Force Automation and Sales Compensation capabilities. The website was an integral part of a corporate focus on Customer Relationship Management and facilitated the FedEx Sales team in targeting key customer segments.
Streitmatter has been a member of the FedEx team for over 20 years. During his career his responsibilities have included strategic roles in the research and development of package scanning, package labeling, radio frequency identification, and the fedex.com infrastructure.
Streitmatter earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science from the University of Colorado. He and his family currently reside in Memphis, Tennessee.
President and CEO, ODIN technologies, Inc.
Mr. Sweeney is a proven entrepreneur and technology visionary with a history of building successful companies. He is well recognized as a thought leader in the RFID industry, and has recently had a patent approved, with several other patents in various stages of approval. Mr. Sweeney is the author of RFID for Dummies published by John Wiley & Sons and Wiley's CompTIA RFID+ study guide. He has been interviewed by CIO Magazine, The Washington Post, Fortune Magazine, and ABC News, among others. He is a frequent speaker at industry conferences and web casts. His combination of technical and business acumen help him form the vision and shape the direction of the emerging RFID industry. Mr. Sweeney's involvement in many governing bodies and standards committees effectively transfers those ideas into policy.
Mr. Sweeney founded ODIN technologies in 2002 by recruiting the founder of the EPC protocol Dr. Daniel Engels, the Director of MIT's Auto-ID lab. The company created the infrastructure space for RFID and continues to be the dominant player in the physics, deployment and testing of RFID systems. Their clients range from Fortune 50 leaders to the largest RFID network ever publicly competed for — the US Department of Defense' DLA — which ODIN won in May of 2006.
In the late 90's Mr. Sweeney founded ServerVault, a secure managed hosting company, and led the company as CEO, through fourteen quarters of consecutive sales growth. At ServerVault, he recruited world-class talent, developed novel technologies, expanded internationally and earned loyal customer relationships. He successfully sold ServerVault to affiliates of Western & Southern Financial Group in 2001.
Mr. Sweeney's passion for helping other entrepreneurs extends to his civic activities. He is the only North American Board member of Trinity College's (Dublin, IRL) Graduate School of Business Advisory Board, and is a member of The University of Virginia's Darden School of Graduate Business Alumni Board, where he chairs the Technology Committee. In addition his recent book and a company case study are used as curricula at both the undergraduate and graduate level.
His efforts in business and the community have been well recognized. Irish American magazine named him as one of the Business 100 leaders in the United States, the Computer Technology Industry Association (CompTIA) awarded him their annual leadership award in 2005 for his work in advancing the RFID industry. He was the former dinner co-chair for the Ireland Funds Washington DC event where he helped raise more than $1million for the US Ireland fund, and had Bono as the guest of honor.
Patrick finished second in the 1996 Olympic trials in the sport of rowing, and graduated from the Colgate Darden School of Graduate Business at the University of Virginia. He received his bachelor of science from the University of New Hampshire. He is on the advisory group for RFID Business, led ODIN to be a Founding Member of EPC Global and is a member of the AIM Global RFID Experts Group as well as being one of the key members of CompTIA's RFID+ certification cornerstone group. He believes in building companies based on innovation, integrity, hiring the best and a focus on client satisfaction.
CEO, BoldMouth
Todd Tweedy is CEO of BoldMouth, a word-of-mouth marketing firm working with vice presidents and directors of research, marketing and sales to attract and retain valuable customers by creating programs that leverage interest recognition and community participation in social networks. BoldMouth services include creating custom social intelligence research to developing community applications and using viral marketing mechanism to support new product launches and blogger outreach programs to make marketing efforts more predictable and measurable.
BoldMouth's clients include MTV Networks, Microsoft, MTV, Metagenics, Gomez.com, Black Star, Avant Interactive, and Scholastic among many others.
Prior to launching BoldMouth, Todd held a number of senior management positions both on the ad agency and client-side including work at a WPP specialized marketing agency where he served as the lead account manager marketing the first-ever disk, and web-based online travel planning products for US Airways. In addition, he developed grassroots marketing campaigns, and managed national communications outreach efforts during the largest packaged consumer product recall in US history. He's also served as VP of Marketing for a web-based provider of communications tools where he increased product registrations from less than 10,000 to nearly 1,000,000 using word of mouth marketing tactics. Mr. Tweedy also served as CEO for a business Internet infrastructure firm delivering authenticated instant messaging exchanges.
Mr. Tweedy authored the industry study Perceptions, Practices & Ethics in Word-of-Mouth Marketing that has been downloaded over 40,000 times since being published in May of 2006.
Mr. Tweedy's word-of-mouth (WOM) marketing blog — www.wordspreadsquickly.com — covers industry developments as well as techniques and tips on WOM practices. Mr. Tweedy is a member of the The Social Media Collective, an online group of industry leaders in the social media arena and a member of the Board of Directors for VBMA — Viral & Buzz Marketing Association — as well as serving as U.S. Country Director. He formerly blogged for Corante.com, a business strategy and technology application publisher, and wrote about online search and affiliate marketing related topics. Mr. Tweedy has co-chaired conferences for JupiterMedia on enterprise IM as well as working as president and chairman of the board for The New Media Society of Washington, DC. He has spoken at numerous conferences on WOM, cost effective interactive marketing, search engine marketing, and instant messaging across the United States as well as in Europe, Asia, and South America. You can reach Todd at todd@boldmouth.com or by calling 434.263.8702.
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