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Speaker Bios
Keynote Speakers
Breakout Session Speakers
Keynote Speakers
Steve Ballmer
Chief Executive Officer, Microsoft
Steven A. Ballmer is Chief Executive Officer of Microsoft Corporation, the world's leading manufacturer of software for personal and business computing. Ballmer joined Microsoft in 1980 and was the first business manager hired by Bill Gates. Since then, Ballmer's leadership and passion have become hallmarks of his tenure at the company.
Ballmer and the company's business and technical leaders are focused on continuing Microsoft's innovation and leadership across the company's core businesses. Microsoft's goal is to provide an integrated platform to enable a seamless experience across a wide range of computing and non-PC devices and services. Variously described as ebullient, focused, funny, passionate, sincere, hard-charging and dynamic, Ballmer has infused Microsoft with his own brand of energetic leadership, vision and spirit over the years.
Ballmer was born in March 1956, and grew up near Detroit, where his father worked as a manager at Ford Motor Co. He graduated from Harvard University with a Bachelor's Degree in mathematics and economics. While in college, Ballmer managed the football team, worked on the Harvard Crimson newspaper as well as the university literary magazine, and lived down the hall from fellow sophomore Bill Gates. After college, he worked for two years at Procter & Gamble Co. as an Assistant Product Manager and, before joining Microsoft, attended Stanford University Graduate School of Business.
Dan’l Lewin
Corporate Vice President, Strategic and Emerging Business Development, Microsoft
Dan'l Lewin, Corporate Vice President for Strategic and Emerging Business Development, is responsible for Microsoft Corp.'s global relationships with startups, venture capitalists and the business relationships with industry partners such as Adobe Systems Inc., Sun Microsystems Inc. and IBM Corp. Based in Silicon Valley, Lewin also has executive and site responsibility for the company's operations in Mountain View, CA, which currently employ 2,000 people.
Strategic and Emerging Business Development consists of three groups: the Emerging Business Team, the Local Software Economy (LSE) and the Strategic Relations Group, whose common goal is to support software startups and established companies working on the Microsoft platform while helping develop and grow local software economies worldwide. Through the Microsoft Startup Accelerator Program, Microsoft BizSpark Program, and the LSE's Microsoft Innovation Center Program, Lewin's groups help accelerate startup success in more than 60 countries. Lewin has spent more than 30 years as a Silicon Valley-based executive leading sales and marketing divisions for companies including Apple Computer Inc., NeXT Inc. and GO Corp. Before joining Microsoft, he was CEO of Aurigin Systems Inc., a startup that pioneered intellectual property asset management, and he has consulted for emerging companies, venture capital firms and corporate joint ventures.
Lewin serves on the boards of the Churchill Club; Software Development Forum; American Electronics Association; Santa Clara University Center for Science, Technology and Society; and the Tech Museum of Innovation, where he serves as chairman of the Tech Museum Awards program. He is also on the Corporate Advisory Board of the National Venture Capital Association. He holds an AB in politics from Princeton University.
Bob Muglia
President, Server and Tools Business, Microsoft
Bob Muglia is President of the Server and Tools Business (STB) at Microsoft. STB is chartered to deliver on Dynamic IT, Microsoft's initiative focused on helping customers deliver technology innovation that helps IT pros and developers create highly-optimized and agile infrastructures that continuously align to changing business needs. As STB business leader, Muglia is responsible for developing and marketing Microsoft's infrastructure and developer software. This integrated set of products provides the foundation for IT operations, security, application development and integration. The infrastructure and developer software portfolio includes Microsoft Windows Server, SQL Server, Visual Studio, Virtualization products, System Center management products and the Forefront line of business security products, among others.
Muglia is a member of Microsoft's Senior Leadership Team that is responsible for shaping the company's business and technology strategy. Before he was named President of STB in January 2009, Muglia was Senior Vice President for the business group.
Since joining Microsoft in January 1988, Muglia has served in a variety of positions, including managing the development of the MSN network of Internet services and Microsoft Office family of business productivity applications, Windows Server applications, and productivity appliances such as Pocket PCs, eBooks and Tablet PCs. In addition, Muglia helped to bring together the Visual Studio family of developer tools and drove the Win32 API, customer requirements and product specification for the Microsoft Windows NT operating system.
Before joining Microsoft, Muglia was a Development Manager at ROLM Co. He holds a Bachelor's Degree in computer science from the University of Michigan.
Tami Reller
Chief Financial Officer and Corporate Vice President, Windows Business Group, Microsoft
As Chief Financial Officer and Corporate Vice President, Windows Business Group, Tami Reller is responsible for the business performance and marketing for the Windows business, including Windows Client, Windows Live, and Internet Explorer.
Prior to her current role, Reller was the Corporate Vice President and Chief Financial Officer for the Windows Division. She was responsible for the division's financial reporting, budgeting, forecasting, financial planning, and corporate development for Windows Client, Windows Live, and Internet Explorer.
During the past seven years, Reller has worked in a variety of marketing, finance, and R&D leadership roles, and has led Microsoft Business Solutions (MBS), which develops and markets Microsoft Dynamics products. In that role, she helped firmly establish Microsoft in the business applications category, leading teams in Copenhagen, Denmark; Fargo, North Dakota; and Redmond, Washington. During that time, she also co-led the integration of Great Plains and Navision a/s into Microsoft. Reller joined the company following its US$1.1 billion acquisition of Great Plains Software Inc. in 2001.
Reller began her career at Great Plains in 1984 while still in college. She held a number of hands-on leadership roles at Great Plains across sales, marketing, and finance, including Vice President of Finance during the company's successful initial and secondary public offerings. She was promoted to Chief Financial Officer of Great Plains in 1999, a position she held until the successful acquisition of Great Plains by Microsoft.
A native of Grand Forks, North Dakota, Reller earned her Bachelor's Degree in Mathematics from Minnesota State University-Moorhead, and her MBA from St. Mary's College in Moraga, California.
Breakout Session Speakers
Todd Brix
Senior Director, Mobile Services and Platform Product Management, Microsoft
Windows Marketplace for Mobile and WM 6.5: Seize the Possibilities, Realize the Profit
Todd Brix leads Product Management for the Windows Marketplace for Mobile and Microsoft My Phone mobile services and the Windows Mobile developer platform in Microsoft’s Mobile Communication Business.
In this role, Todd leads the team responsible for defining and driving product strategies, partnerships, service launches, and marketing and operations execution for new mobile services being released with the first generation of Windows phones, later this year.
Todd has worked at Microsoft for 10 years in a variety of product management, marketing and planning roles in the Windows Server, Windows Embedded and Windows Mobile business groups. Prior to Microsoft, Todd worked at Intel, Silicon Graphics, and a semiconductor start-up and is a graduate of Harvard Business School and the University of Washington.
David Greschler
Director, System Center Marketing, Microsoft
Microsoft's Virtualization Strategy
David Greschler is Director of the Integrated Virtualization and Management Strategy at Microsoft. David was the co-founder of Softricity, developer of SoftGrid and the originator and leading vendor of the application virtualization industry, which was acquired by Microsoft in July 2006. With more than 20 years of pioneering experience in the computer field, Greschler has held various positions at the MIT Media Lab and The Computer Museum, and holds numerous virtualization patents. Greschler has a Bachelor’s Degree from Brandeis University.
Prashant Ketkar
Director, Product and Field Marketing, Windows Azure, Microsoft
Microsoft Cloud Computing Strategy with Windows Azure
Microsoft Online Services: How Partners Can Make Money with the Cloud
Prashant Ketkar is the Director of Product and Field Marketing for Windows Azure. Prior to his current role, Prashant led the Enterprise Partner Strategy team in the Information Worker (Office) team. He has over 10 years of industry experience in technology product marketing, branding and product strategy.
Barney Pell
Partner, Search Strategist and Evangelist, Microsoft
Bing: A New Approach to Internet Search
Barney Pell, Ph.D. is currently Partner, Search Strategist and Evangelist at Microsoft. In this role, he helps influence vision and strategy for Microsoft in the core areas of search, semantic and linguistic technology.
Dr. Pell joined Microsoft when they acquired his company, Powerset, in August 2008. Dr. Pell founded Powerset in 2005 after spending a year as Entrepreneur in Residence at Mayfield, a top venture capital firm in Silicon Valley. Powerset licensed and commercialized natural language technology developed over 30 years at Xerox PARC, raised over $15M in VC funding, grew to 70 people, and launched a natural-language based search engine that read each sentence in Wikipedia and answered user queries in plain English. Dr. Pell served Powerset as Chairman, CEO, and CTO.
Before joining Mayfield, Dr. Pell worked for NASA Ames Research Center as a Principal Investigator from 1993-98 and, from 2002-2004, as Area Manager of an 80-person organization responsible for innovation in autonomous systems, human-centered computing, spoken dialog systems, search, collaboration, and the semantic web. Highlights of innovations during Dr. Pell’s career at NASA include the development of the Remote Agent, the first AI system to fly onboard a deep space probe, mission critical software to support planning and science collaboration for the Mars Exploration Rovers mission, and Clarissa, the first spoken dialog system to fly in space.
Between positions at NASA, Dr. Pell spent 4 years in startup companies. From 1998 to 2000, Dr. Pell was Chief Strategist and Vice-President of Business Development for StockMaster.com, a provider of internet-based stock-market analysis tools. Dr. Pell helped StockMaster.com grow from $500,000 to $5 million in revenue in 2 years, when the company was acquired by Red Herring Communications in July, 2000. From 2000 to 2002, Dr. Pell was Vice President of Strategy for Whizbang! Labs, a pioneer in machine learning and natural language processing for search engines. Whizbang was most well-known for creation of the Flipdog job search engine, acquired by Monster.com.
Erynn Petersen
Principal Platform Evangelist, Advertising Platform Evangelism, Microsoft
Welcome to the Microsoft Advertising Platform
Erynn Petersen is Principal Platform Evangelist and runs the Advertising Platform Evangelism team at Microsoft. In her role she works with partners and developers to educate them on current and planned capabilities of Microsoft ad platforms, generating new ideas for the use of ad technologies that can inform future development and integration opportunities. She began her career at Amazon.com, where she worked in product management and business development for several products and services including the zShops launch team, Amazon.com Auctions, and Friends & Favorites. Prior to Microsoft, Erynn was CEO of Sonition, an auction automation technology firm, which she co-founded in 2001. Sonition was built around a real-time internet broadcasting technology that allowed remote market participation in live auctions. The company broadcast over $200 million in inventory in 3 years, setting records for internet real estate and commercial auctions, and was a leader in delivering online marketing and advertising to the auction industry.
Mark Relph
Senior Director, Windows Ecosystem, Microsoft
Windows 7 Demonstration and Opportunities
As Senior Director of the Windows Ecosystem Strategy Team, Mark’s mission is to build a rich ecosystem of hardware and software partners for Windows, by supporting world class compatibility and demonstrating that hardware and software innovation is a differentiating asset of the Windows franchise. Mark is also focused on ensuring developers embrace Windows and building a clear message to developers & ISVs why their long term bet for their business is the Windows platform.
Previously, Mark was the Vice President of the Developer & Platform Group for Microsoft Canada, focused on stimulating the early adoption of Microsoft’s web platform and Software + Services strategy. His team worked to enhance the ecosystem of ISVs in Canada, including working with startups and the venture capital community. Finally, Mark’s group worked with technology students and academic institutions across Canada to ensure that the next generation of ICT professionals is prepared for the future.
Mark has held several other positions at Microsoft Canada, as Group Manager of the Developer Evangelism Team and the Manager of the Network Service Provider Solutions Team. Previously, Mark was a Business Development Manager working with Canadian technology startups and venture capital firms.
John Richards
Senior Director, Windows Live Platform, Microsoft
Windows Live: Partners at the Center
John Richards is Senior Director of Windows Live platform. In this role, he is responsible for building an eco-system of partners around Windows Live, the largest global online communication and sharing service. Prior to his current role, Richards managed the Communication and Collaboration marketing team at Microsoft with responsibility for creating and articulating a single cross-company marketing effort. Prior to Microsoft he spent almost 5 years at McKinsey & Co in the Silicon Valley office.
Stephan Schirrecker
Director, Product Management, Business Online Services Marketing, Microsoft
Microsoft Online Services: How Partners Can Make Money with the Cloud
Stephan Schirrecker started his career at Microsoft in 1987 as Software Development Engineer for Microsoft Corporation in Redmond, working on MS-DOS and MS Windows. In 1990, Schirrecker returned to Europe to fulfill his military duty in Germany. In 1992, he joined Novell in Dusseldorf and managed product marketing for Network Management and Internet product lines across EMEA. In 1998, Schirrecker returned to Seattle to start iTango Software, a start-up specializing in Web-based applications – raising $15M and growing the company to 100 people. In 2000, he was hired as Vice President of Marketing at nCompass Labs, a leader in Web Content Management software, acquired by Microsoft in 2001. At Microsoft, Schirrecker ramped up the hosting business from $50M in 2001 to $500M in 2007. Schirrecker joined the Microsoft Online team in September 2007 as Director of Partner Strategy. Schirrecker holds a Master’s Degree in computer science from Toulouse, France. His biggest passions are ancient history, foreign cultures, and playing with his 2-year old son and 5-year old daughter.
Stefan Weitz
Director, Search, Microsoft
Bing: A New Approach to Internet Search
Stefan Weitz is a Director of Search at Microsoft and is charged with working with people and organizations across the industry to promote and improve Search technologies. While focused on Microsoft’s product line, he works across the industry to understand searcher behavior and in his role as an evangelist for Search, gathers and synthesizes feedback to drive product improvements. Prior to Search, Stefan led the strategy to develop the next generation MSN portal platform and developed Microsoft’s muni WiFi strategy, leading the charge to blanket WiFi across metropolitan cities. A 12-year Microsoft veteran, he has worked in various groups including Windows Server, Security, and IT. Stefan is a huge gadget ‘junkie’ and can often be found in electronics shops across the world looking for the elusive perfect piece of tech.
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