Moderator:
Barbara Lewis, MarQuant Analytics
Bob Foster,
Adjunct Associate Professor, The Anderson Graduate School of
Management at UCLA
Bob Foster teaches High Technology Strategy, Business Plan Development
and management consulting Field Study. He is a member of the
Decisions, Operations and Technology Management faculty. He
taught half time for 16 years, while a full time executive,
and then joined the faculty full time in 1999.
He created and teaches the popular High Technology Management
Strategy course each year, teaching it to over 500 students
during the past 12 years. The course was recognized by Business
2.0 magazine as one of the reasons Anderson was selected as
one of "the 20 tech-savviest business schools" in
the U.S.
He has taught Business Plan Development every year since 1999,
part of the school's Price Center for Entrepreneurship. This
entrepreneurship program at Anderson is recognized as one of
the leading programs in the world, with the Financial Times
naming it the "#1 program in the world". He is also
the faculty advisor for the school's Venture Capital Investment
Competition team.
Bob has taught Field Study every since 1983, advising over 100
management consulting field studies, most of them for high technology
firms such as Microsoft, Intel, Qualcomm, Nokia and Hewlett-Packard
as well as many startup technology firms. His teams have won
many awards for outstanding consulting studies.
He is Executive Director of the Center for Management in the
Information Economy, which focuses on analysis of business models
and best practices in high technology business.
During a 17-year period from 1983 to 1999, he was president/CEO
of four different high technology firms. Products include software
(enterprise resource management, financial applications, customer
relationship management, digital mapping, GPS), factory automation,
industrial machinery, map publishing and composite plastics.
For seven years Bob was President of Thomas Bros. Maps, the
second largest map publisher in the U.S. He managed its conversion
to digital mapping, introduced digital maps on CDs and the Internet.
For 13 years he worked at Xerox Computer Services, initially
as VP of Software Development responsible for 300 programmers
and analysts. Later he was VP of Marketing and Sales with a
staff of 500 and 100 direct salesmen. XCS was a startup division
that grew to a profitable $100 million division.
Cori E. Hartje - Microsoft Corp.
Cori
E. Hartje serves as director of marketing and readiness for
the Worldwide Licensing and Pricing Group at Microsoft Corp.
Hartje is responsible for overseeing Microsoft's mission to
reach into new markets with licensing programs and support new
business models. Hartje manages strategy for communications,
marketing, new sales program rollouts and field readiness for
Microsoft licensing. The group she leads is responsible for
several licensing Web sites, analyst and press relations, and
implementing sales tools that answer presales questions from
the field and generate customer price sheets for Microsoft's
largest customers worldwide.
One of Hartje's
key responsibilities is to lead the Licensing Advisory Council,
whose membership includes customers from around the world. Hartje
gathers feedback and input from council members and shares it
with appropriate parties at Microsoft with the goals of getting
customer input into future strategies and delivering better
service to the global marketplace.
Hartje joined
Microsoft in 1990 as an area sales representative. From 1991
to 1995 she served as education sales manager for the Mid-America
District education sales team. She served in account executive
positions from 1997 through 2000, when she was named regional
director for Microsoft's Education Solutions Group, a position
in which she managed a sales team that spanned 18 states and
8,000 accounts.
Before joining
Microsoft, Hartje worked for Washington University in St. Louis
and the Springfield Public Schools in Springfield, Mo.
Hartje has
completed significant doctoral studies in computer education
and educational technology from Nova Southeastern University.
She has a master of arts degree in education with a concentration
in staff development and leadership from Washington University
and a bachelor of science degree with majors in social studies
and elementary education from Evangel University in Springfield,
Mo.
Aaron
Katz - Salesforce.com
Aaron Katz joined salesforce.com in 2002. As Regional Vice
President of Corporate Sales, Katz is responsible for managing
the acquisition and retention of a customer base exceeding 1,500
companies.
Salesforce.com
is the worldwide leader in on-demand customer relationship management
(CRM) services. More companies trust their vital customer and
sales data to salesforce.com than any other CRM company in the
world. Founded in 1999, salesforce.com has been steadily improving
and expanding a suite of on demand solutions over the past five
years. In 2004, PC Magazine selected salesforce.com as its "Editors'
Choice" for the third-straight year; InfoWorld named salesforce.com
a Technology of the Year for 2004; and Gartner has labeled salesforce.com
as the "Future of Software."
Clara Martin - Cadence Law Group
Clara Martin is a partner and co-founder of the Los Angeles
law firm Cadence Law Group LLP. She practices in the areas of
corporate and technology transactions. She takes pride in developing
close and long-term relationships with her clients. For clients
without in-house law departments, Clara and the Cadence Law
Group often serve this role on an "outsourced" basis.
Her prior in-house experience lends itself to an understanding
of how to balance business and legal needs in a practical, results-oriented
fashion. She has experience reporting to boards of directors
and functioning as a facilitator of complex corporate decision-making
processes. Similarly, for clients with the benefit of in-house
law departments, she routinely assists in strategic transactions
or on "overflow" of more day-to-day projects. Technology
transactions constitute a large portion of Clara's practice.
She assists both vendors and customers with software licenses
and software development agreements, hardware and maintenance
contracts, internet and e-commerce matters, technology transfer
and commercialization, patent licensing and intellectual property
protection strategy. Her practice also includes the area of
entertainment technology, working with producers and distributors
of digital content as well as video game and game platform developers.
Clara also has experience assisting universities and school
systems in technology, IP commercialization and copyright related
issues.
Her corporate
work includes clients from a broad range of industries including
aerospace, automotive, entertainment, technology, biotechnology,
medical devices and health care. Clara has experience in structuring
and negotiating mergers and acquisitions as well as strategic
alliances. She works with growth companies, large and small,
in their debt and equity finance needs, venture capital and
private offerings.
Prior to
forming Cadence Law Group in August 2003, Clara was a partner
in the Los Angeles office of Shaw Pittman LLP and, prior to
that, a founding partner in the Los Angeles firm of Klein &
Martin LLP, which merged with Shaw Pittman in July of 2001.
Clara was formerly in house counsel with responsibility for
mergers and acquisitions activity at AlliedSignal (which has
since merged with Honeywell and operates under that name). Clara
and her Cadence
Law Group partner, David Oshinsky, are co-authors of a treatise
for the California Continuing Education of the Bar titled "Internet
Law and Practice in California" published in June 2004.
Russ
Reeder -- CEO, Chairman and Founder
Prior to founding RightsLine, Russ Reeder spent 12 years in
information technology, both in sales management and software
development. Reeder led the sales teams for several ERP and
point solution vendors, including holding executive positions
at Oracle Corp. He also spent several years in systems development
and leading the build of financial and manufacturing applications
for FORTUNE 500 companies. Reeder also held an executive position
at RightWorks, a start-up backed by Sequoia Capital, where he
established B2B web portal strategies for cutting-edge technology
companies including Applied Materials, Embion.com, Fasturn.com,
and financial organizations including Silicon Valley Bank. Reeder
sits on the board of the Business Advisory Council, is an elected
official in Los Angeles' Neighborhood Council and is on the
board for the Young Entrepreneurs Organization (YEO) Los Angeles
Chapter. Reeder holds a BS degree in Computer Information Systems
from James Madison University.
Lori Sea -- Senior Director of Business Operations, Best
Software
Lori has been with Best Software for almost seven years in the
Finance and
Operations organizations. During her tenure, she has directed
revenue
activities, including forecasting, tracking, recognition, and
sales employee
compensation. She has played a key role in developing business
models and
proposals to drive profitability and growth. Her responsibilities
also
included increasing business visibility through development
of web-based
tools and system enhancements and providing operational support
for sales
and marketing programs.
Lori is
currently Senior Director of Business Operations, tasked with
implementing best practices and standards across Best's Mid-market
division, including gaining commonality across diverse pricing
rules and promotion Practices.
For over
25 years, Best Software has been providing business and accounting
software, including human resources, payroll, fixed assets,
customer
relationship management, and e-commerce solutions. Best manufactures
such
products as ACT!, Peachtree, MAS 90, ACCPAC, and Timberline.
Moderator:
Barbara Lewis - MarQuant Analytics
Barbara Lewis began her career as a journalist writing for The
Wall Street Journal among other publications. After working
in the marketing department at service companies, she started
a marketing company in 1990. When she graduated from the UCLA
Anderson School of Management 1995, she teamed up with her classmate,
Dan Otto, a former aerospace engineer, to form Centurion Consulting
Group. The two offer strategic planning, marketing, operations
and financial advice, as well as computer modeling to help executives
make better decisions.
After six
years in business and "selling hours" as consultants,
Barbara and Dan decided to commercialize a computer model and
begin licensing their proprietary software. They formed MarQuant
Analytics last year. Their clients include OgilvyOne Worldwide,
Allstate, Wachovia Bank and the Allant Group. MarQuant currently
has four software products, all of which optimize the marketing
budget and increase profits and customer lifetime value. Barbara
is an instructor at Mount St. Mary's College,
