About
the Speakers
Rick
Sharga, President & CEO, CJ Patrick Company
Rick
Sharga is the Presidet & CEO of CJ Patrick Company, a consulting
firm that helps B2B and technology companies create or re-create
a position of competitive advantage, and then leverage it in their
markets. Over the past
20 years, Rick has developed corporate and product branding strategy
for
companies such as DuPont, Philips, Honeywell and JD Edwards; and
orchestrated international sales and marketing programs for companies
like
Fujitsu, Hitachi, Sybase and Toshiba.
Carol
Kurimsky, VP of Marketing, Best Software, Inc.
Carol is Senior Vice President of Marketing for Best Software
in the Irvine Spectrum. A classically trained marketer, Carol
started her marketing career at Procter and Gamble, became Director
of International Marketing at Pizza Hut, and later worked at Quaker
Oats and ConAgra Foods as VP of Marketing for Orville Redenbacher
Popcorn before moving to Best Software almost five years ago.
Best Software specializes in business management software for
small and medium size businesses. Their products include Peachtree,
ACT!, and a large number of market-leading products in the accounting,
HR and CRM software space.
Larry
McIntosh is chief marketing officer for Foundstone. He leads
Foundstone’s marketing initiatives by leveraging the company’s
capabilities and domain expertise to position Foundstone as the
leader in enterprise security software and services. His messages
uniquely resonate with customers, prospects, and employees.
McIntosh brings more than 22 years of executive marketing experience
to Foundstone with deep knowledge from the software, e-commerce,
technology and corporate sectors. He served as group vice president
of corporate marketing for HNC Software Inc. (NASDAQ: HNCS). He
successfully transitioned this public company from a niche, custom
analytics provider to a leading enterprise software company. His
strategy raised the profile of the company for a successful near-billion-dollar
merger with Fair, Isaac & Co (NYSE: FIC). Prior to HNC, McIntosh
led strategic marketing efforts for the Internet’s most comprehensive
shopping network, CBS StoreRunner Network Inc.
McIntosh also
serves as a board member of the Andre Agassi Charitable Foundation
for assisting underprivileged, abused and abandoned children.
Raymond
W. Baird II, President, RiechesBaird
Ray
Baird is a recognized expert in the development and execution
of strategic branding programs. He serves as president of RiechesBaird,
the branding firm he co-founded in 1994 with partner Ryan Rieches,
CEO. Together they have built RiechesBaird into an internationally
recognized leader in business-to-business branding, developing
strategic initiatives for clients such as Toyota, Mag-Lite, Toshiba,
Sony and Bosch. The firm has been named among the top 25 business-to-business
agencies in the United States for three consecutive years by b2b
Magazine and has been named the 2002 "Business of the Year"
by the Irvine Chamber of Commerce and the City of Irvine.
Beyond research
and strategic development, Ray is directly involved with key account
direction, management and implementation. He directs the agency's
team of business-to-business specialists to handle all aspect
of strategic planning, media, public relations and e-business
initiatives.
Ray joined
MAGNET in 1995 with partner Ryan Rieches. He currently serves
on the executive board of the Orange County chapter of the American
Red Cross, and has sat on the executive boards for the Orange
County Homeless Task Force, the Association for Corporate Growth
and the United Way. In addition, Ray works with a number of not-for-profit
organizations in Orange County, including The Joyful Child Foundation
in memory of Samantha Runnion. Ray is a frequent lecturer on challenger
branding and related marketing topics at industry events.
