Erika Valdez

Erika Valdez is a recent graduate of the MBA program (May 2009) at the H-E-B School of Business & Administration at the University of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio, Texas, USA. She is a research assistant and intern who focuses on women entrepreneurs for Sramana Mitra on Strategy and a research assistant for the Center for Medical Tourism Research. Erika is a regular contributor to the Medical Tourism Magazine. She can be reached at eri.valort(at)gmail(dot)com.

Bibby Gignilliat

Bibby transformed a career in marketing at Williams-Sonoma, Inc. into an enormously satisfying career in professional cooking. She launched her formal training at Tante Marie’s Cooking School in San Francisco. She has taught cooking classes at HomeChef® and at Tante Marie’s and currently teaches at Sur La Table, Ramekins and Draeger’s. In 1999, Bibby founded Gourmet Gatherings®, which in 2006 became Parties That Cook. She has appeared on the Today Show, the Food Network and CNBC. Her company has been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Better Homes & Gardens, Bon Appetit, Cooking Light, Gourmet Magazine, Southwest Airlines Magazine and Business 2.0. She recently authored Sumptuous Small Plates recipe deck and was awarded Entrepreneur of the Year by the Small Business Network in San Francisco and she received the Rising Star Entrepreneur Award from the National Association of Women Business Owners.

Bob Walsh

Bob Walsh is the author of “The Web Startup Success Guide” (on sale July 22, 2009), produces a weekly podcast for startups, The Startup Success Podcast, and is launching this month a new productivity/learning app for startups, StartupToDo.com. Bob is the author of four other books, including Micro-ISV: From Vision to Reality, co-moderates the Joel on Software’s Business of Software forum and consults with startups and microISVs on better explaining their applications and services.

Sal L. Arnuk and Joseph Saluzzi

Sal Arnuk is partner, co-founder and co-head of equity trading of Themis Trading LLC. Mr. Arnuk has extensive experience in equities trading and is an expert in electronic trading. Prior to Themis, Mr. Arnuk established an equity agency trading business (OTC and Listed equities) at Smith Jacobs & Company in 2000. Prior to Smith Jacobs, Mr. Arnuk worked for more than 10 years at Instinet Corporation, where he headed the team responsible for equity sales and trading for major institutional money managers. Mr. Arnuk graduated from New York University’s Stern School of Business with an MBA in Finance and received a bachelor’s degree in Finance from SUNY Binghamton University.

Joseph Saluzzi is partner, co-founder and co-head of equity trading of Themis Trading LLC, a leading independent agency brokerage firm that trades equities for institutional money managers and hedge funds. Mr. Saluzzi is a frequent speaker at industry conferences on issues involving market access, algorithmic trading and other sell- and buy-side concerns. He has provided expert commentary for media outlets such as BBC Radio, Bloomberg Television, CNBC, Fox Business, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Reuters, Associated Press, Los Angeles Times and Bloomberg News. Mr. Saluzzi also has written articles for Traders Magazine, Dow Jones and Journal of Investment Compliance.
Prior to Themis, Mr. Saluzzi headed the team responsible for equity sales and trading for major institutional accounts at Instinet Corporation for more than nine years. He graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with an MBA in Finance and received a bachelor’s degree in Finance from New York University.

Saad Fazil

Saad Fazil does freelance writing for VentureBeat and is the founder of Whizner Consulting, a technology strategy consulting firm. Prior to consulting, he held business analyst, product management, and sales consultant positions at Kayak.com, Oracle, and Alcatel. He received his MBA from MIT’s Sloan School of Management. He blogs at IT Valley and tweets at @sfrocks.

For fun, he loves to travel, run, and snowboard. You can find more details about him on his personal website, Planet Saad.

Jim DeBetta

Jim’s career in retail began at an early age with the family store, Edison and Kellogg, a fireplace and home hardware company. After graduating from college, Jim went home to help expand the business. For nearly 20 years, he has been a leading consumer products business advisor to inventors and start-ups alike. During that time, DeBetta has helped successfully launch multiple companies and sold millions of dollars of products for his clients.

As the founder of DeCavi Corp, Jim has helped hundreds of inventors and start-ups learn how to get their consumer products developed and sold to the likes of Target, Wal-Mart and many other retail outlets nationally. DeBetta recently merged his firm with the Slingshot Product Development Group, which employs a team of 35 engineers, designers, and marketing experts who help anyone from individual inventors to Fortune 500 firms. Jim is the founder of the Academy for Entrepreneurs, an online resource on all aspects of bringing products to market.

Timothy Smith

Tim Smith is Senior Vice President at SunGard Securities Finance, where he is responsible for the Astec Analytics suite of products. Tim has spent 25 years in the securities lending industry with experience in all sides of the business. After leaving the London School of Economics, he joined the Royal Bank of Scotland Group in London. In 1986 he joined Banque Arabe et Internationale d’Investissement and was responsible for sourcing and managing the securities borrowing needs for their hedge fund team. He continued with this function with Kleinwort Benson Securities Limited in 1988 and was also responsible for their treasury operations. In 1989, he joined Security Pacific National Bank, subsequently bought by BankAmerica, where he ran the international custodial lending program. In 1994, he joined Pershing to manage their international securities borrowing business in London, New York and Hong Kong. In 1998, he moved to the then-parent company AXA to establish the global securities lending function for the Investment Management business in 10 countries. In 2005, he moved to the USA with Data Explorers Inc as President.

Steve Monas

Steve Monas is a web and business development strategist, having devised and operated several highly successful start-ups in the publishing, video, music and film industries over the past 15 years, and is co-author of the book, Shoestring Venture: The Startup Bible. Monas uses his marketing and ecommerce expertise serving as a marketing consultant for such institutions and businesses as Pepperdine University; partnering with the Graziado School of Business & Management’s business program, Soyo Group, Lip Ink, and Laser Eye Center. As an established author, Monas has published YourSpace and Chemistry and Numbers. Monas serves on the Carlsbad Chamber of Commerce and enjoys an active lifestyle of surfing and hiking.