Speakers
Kevin Surace
CEO of Serious Materials, a noted speaker and writer on climate change and the built environment, is on a mission to significantly reduce the use of fossil fuels and their effect on the environment. Kevin leads Serious Materials in its mission to reduce energy usage and CO2 generation of the world’s largest contributor, our buildings. By developing new materials and processes that require little energy to manufacture, and advanced products which dramatically improve the insulation and comfort of homes and offices, a worst-case climate and energy catastrophe can be avoided.
Before joining Serious Materials in 2002, Mr. Surace held executive and technical positions with Perfect Commerce, General Magic, Air Communications, National Semiconductor, and Seiko-Epson. He received his degree in electrical engineering technology from Rochester Institute of Technology where he currently serves on the Board of Trustees, and has been awarded multiple patents. Mr. Surace also serves on the boards of FreeLight, Array Converter, Zeta Communities, and Integrity Block; and chairs the Sunnyvale Mayoral Green Ribbon Committee.
Tara ‘miss rogue’ Hunt
Tara Hunt is a true pioneer in online marketing and one of the most respected authorities on online communities—how they are evolving, how they are changing both culture and business, and how businesses must behave in order to succeed in the participatory web economy. For her work in this area, Fast Company magazine named Tara to its 2009 list of the Most Influential Women in Technology in 2009. She is one of the most respected and cited thought leaders in community marketing—how to delight and enchant the people in the communities your company serves with products, experiences and communications that honor the expecations of online customer communities. Tara is the author of The Whuffie Factor: Using the Power of Social Networks to Build Your Business, a breakthrough book on community marketing. It provides the strategic map and specific tactics for success in the new economy and its elusive, lucrative world of online communities. She was instrumental in making BarCamp, an international network of user-generated conferences, a worldwide phenomenon. An active promoter of the Coworking movement, in which independent workers share workspace, she speaks frequently at conferences around the world, including Mesh, the Future of Web Apps, ETech and Web 2.0 Expo. She blogs at horsepigcow.com.
Check out the special rendition of Makin’Whuffie created for AZEC09 by Norris Krueger.
Michelle King Robson
Michelle is the Founder and Chairman of EmpowHer, which is a unique online resource dedicated to helping women improve their health and well-being. She started the company following her own personal struggle with a debilitating health issue that left her feeling hopeless and alone. In EmpowHer, Michelle has built a company that provides women with the most comprehensive and up-to-date information available on womens health, as well as a forum for women to connect and share stories of struggle and hope. Michelle is also an active philanthropist and community volunteer whose work on various women’s and children’s causes as well as the arts has earned her numerous awards and citations. Most recently, she was awarded the 2009 Health Communications Award by the National Osteoporosis Foundation. Michelle resides in Phoenix, Arizona with her husband Ed and daughter Amanda. Since launching in December 2008, EmpowHer has grown to 500,000 unique individual women per month and has been selected as one of Google News’ elite news sites covering womens health.
Howard Lindzon
Howard Lindzon has over twenty years experience in the financial community acting in both an entrepreneurial and investing capacity. Mr. Lindzon spent the last ten years managing his hedge fund, Lindzon Capital Partners, and is Partner and Principal of Knight’s Bridge Capital, a private equity firm based in Toronto.
Mr. Lindzon has tremendous insight into new media and is a very active angel investor in the financial and internet business sectors, invested and involved with over 30 companies. He sold his startup videoblog Wallstrip to CBS Corp. and has made many successful angel investments including: Rent.com, (sold to Ebay in 2005 for $415 million), Golfnow.com (purchased by Comcast in June 2008), Lifelock (lead investors include Bessemer Venture Partners and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers), and Internet Brands (NASDAQ). His new media and internet business investments include: MyTrade.com (purchased by Think or Swim in December 2008, NASD SWIM), Limos.com (sold December 2008), Covestor.com, Blogtalkradio.com, Foodzie, and Tweetdeck, to name a few. Mr. Lindzon is actively involved in his latest venture, Stocktwits, an open, community-powered investment idea and information service built on the twitter platform. Mr. Lindzon received an MBA at Arizona State University and an MIM from The American Graduate School of International Management
