"Value of the Valley" Panelists
Ephraim
Schwartz
Editor-at-Large, InfoWorld
Bio Coming Soon
Aliza Peleg
Managing Director, SAP Labs North America
Aliza Peleg is Managing Director of SAP Labs North America, headquartered
in Palo Alto, California. In this role, Aliza is responsible for the strategy
and operations of the lab, bringing increasing value to SAP Global Development
and to SAP’s customers in North America. Aliza
joined SAP in March 2001 after SAP acquired TopTier Software, where she had
been General Manager of TopTier Israel for five years. Prior to joining TopTier,
Aliza was Director of Business Development at Scitex Corporation and Marketing
Manager at Apple Computer.
Aliza obtained her B.A. in Mathematics & Computer Science, and an M.B.A. from Tel-Aviv University. Aliza began her professional career in Development, and grew into a variety of leadership positions in both Marketing & Product Management. In the second half of her career, Aliza held several senior management positions in Business Development and Operations. Aliza has spent approximately half of her professional life in Israel, and the other half in the United States.
Brian Behlendorf
Founder & CTO, CollabNet
Brian Behlendorf founded CollabNet,
with O'Reilly & Associates, in July
1999. The company provides tools and services based on open source methods.
Before launching CollabNet, Behlendorf was co-founder and CTO of Organic
Online, a Web design and engineering consultancy located in San Francisco.
During his five years at Organic, Behlendorf helped create Internet strategies
for dozens of Fortune 500 companies. During that time, he co-founded and contributed
heavily to the Apache Web Server Project,
co-founded and supported the VRML (Virtual Reality Modeling Language) effort,
and assisted several IETF working groups,
particularly the HTTP standardization effort. Before starting Organic, Behlendorf
was the first Chief Engineer at Wired Magazine
and later HotWired, one of the first
large-scale publishing Web sites. Behlendorf is also Director of the Apache
Software Foundation.
Steve Mezak
Founder & CEO, Accelerance
Steve Mezak founded Accelerance in 2001 to share his expertise in successfully
integrating in-house and outsourced development teams (both on and offshore)
for dramatic cost and time savings. As an internationally acclaimed speaker
and consultant, Steve has shown hundreds of software executives how to use outsourced
development as a major strategic advantage for developing their software. Steve
brings a wealth of practical information to his clients, helping them review
in-house versus outsourced development options and using his field-tested services
to deliver risk-free outsourcing.
Steve is a veteran of six startups, including Aspect Development, sold to i2 for $9B, and Digital Market, sold to Agile Software for $75M. His roles have ranged from technical lead to CTO and CEO. He has over 25 years of software development experience moving from writing software code to responsibility for managing software teams and budgets. Steve has a BS in Computer Science from Worcester Polytechnic Institute and studied at UC Berkeley and City University in London.
R. Sean Randolph
President, Bay Area Economic Forum
Sean Randolph was appointed President of the Bay Area Economic Forum on June
1, 1998. The Bay Area Economic Forum, a CEO-level public-private organization
of business, government, university, labor and community leaders works to foster
a competitive economic environment in the San Francisco Bay region, including
San Francisco, Oakland and the Silicon Valley. The Economic Forum produces analytical
reports on key economic and policy issues impacting the California and Bay Area
economies, including transportation, housing, energy, water, scientific research
and development, international trade and state and local governance, and mobilizes
community leadership around targeted policy initiatives.
Dr. Randolph previously served as director of international trade for the State of California, where he developed trade strategy and directed international business programs to stimulate exports and introduce California companies to overseas markets.
Before service with the state, Dr. Randolph was Managing Director of the RSR Pacific Group, an international business consulting firm specializing in Asia and Latin America. From 1988–92 he served as International Director General of the Pacific Basin Economic Council, a 15-nation, CEO-level international organization of leading U.S., Asian and Latin American corporations.
His professional career also includes extensive experience in the U.S. Government, including the U.S. Congress staff (1976–80), and the White House staff (1980–81). He served in the U.S. State Department on the Policy Planning Staff, as Special Adviser for Policy in the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, and as Deputy/Ambassador-at Large for Pacific Basin affairs (1981–85). From 1985–88 he also served in the U.S. Department of Energy as Deputy Assistant Secretary for International Affairs, where he managed non-proliferation, collaborative research, producer-consumer, energy security and global oil and gas issues.
Dr. Randolph holds a JD from the Georgetown University Law Center, a Ph.D. from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, a B.S.F.S. from Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service, and studied at the London School of Economics. He is a member of the District of Columbia Bar Association, the International Institute for Strategic Studies, the Council on Foreign Relations, and the Pacific Council on International Policy, and currently serves on the Board of Directors of the U.S. National Committee for Pacific Economic Cooperation, the Pan American Society of California, the Bay Area World Trade Center, the University of San Francisco Center for the Pacific Rim, the Southwest Center of Environmental Research and Policy, and the Headlands Institute.
Dr. Randolph speaks frequently before business and government audiences, and writes for U.S. and international media on global, national, state and regional economic and policy issues.
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