Past Event
Mehdi Salour, Vice President of Network Operations at 8x8 Inc.
Salour most recently served as 8x8's Vice President of Service Delivery and Support where he played an instrumental role in developing the CRM (Customer Relationship Management) strategy while 8x8 was transitioning from an OEM technology company to a customer-centric service provider. Prior to that, Salour served 8x8 in various other positions including IT Network Engineer, Network Operations Engineer, Manager of Technical Support and Director of Technical Support.
As Vice President of Network Operations, Salour is responsible for production network operations and Quality Assurance programs. Salour also oversees 8x8's Network Operations Center (NOC) in Sunnyvale, California which monitors the company's voice and video networks on a 24x7 basis.
Salour holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering and an M.S. degree in Software Engineering with concentrations in networking software and security.
Quick facts:
Have been part of the 8x8’s technical team since the inception of the 8x8’s Voice over IP service (2002). 8x8 is the 2nd largest independent VoIP provider in the United States.
Played an instrumental role in designing and building 8x8’s highly reliable and scalable production network infrastructure providing VoIP services to more than 20,000 businesses
Overseeing the operations of 8x8’s production network
8x8 Inc. (Nasdaq:EGHT), provider of innovative cloud communications and computing solutions, leverages its patented software technologies to deliver high quality voice solutions and integrated messaging and video to businesses of any size with employees in any location on a wide variety of business telephony, web and mobile platforms. 8x8 also offers managed hosting and cloud-based computing services.
In 2010, 8x8, Inc. was ranked 214 on Deloitte's Technology Fast 500(TM), Deloitte's ranking of 500 of the fastest growing technology, media, telecommunications, life sciences and clean technology companies in North America. Rankings are based on percentage of fiscal year revenue growth during the period from 2005--2009. 8x8 grew 464% percent during this period.
VoIP : The Truth By Guest Speaker Mehdi Salour
James Stanford, Founder & President of Social Ventures Inc.
James Stanford is an experienced entrepreneur with over 25 years of experience in developing start-ups as well as managing entire units at fortune 100 companies. Under his leadership Logitech’s Strategic OEM business grew to be the number one PC-OEM manufacturer worldwide. His global experience spans four continents through his key roles at Toshiba America, Jtec Australia, Toshiba Japan, and Alcatel-Lucent Turkey. In addition to post-graduate study at Harvard University, he holds an M.B.A. from the University of San Francisco, a Masters in Engineering from Cornell University, and a B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from Widener University, and an Advanced Studies degree in Electronics from the prestigious Bogazici (Bosphorus) University in Turkey.
Tom Vellaringattu , President & CEO of Worldviewer Inc.
Tom is the founder of SocialPulse.com and many other social media sites. He is a seasoned entrepreneur, experienced in website development, Search Engine analysis, web site traffic analysis, web site user interface and advertising revenue.
Tom (Thomas) Vellaringattu has a vision to change the way internet is used by individuals and businesses currently. He wants to create social capital for individuals while they interact online. Tom (originally from Kerala, India) was introduced to computers in 1983 while he started to work with an IBM PC in Saudi Arabia. His family and he immigrated to US in 1987 and he studied mainframe programming in New York and worked for Doubleday Book and Music Club, First Chicago Trust Company and for Smith Barney (formerly a unit of Citibank) in New York as programmer and systems Analyst. He left Smith Barney in 1998 to start Worldviewer.com, Inc. helping small businesses and communities to effective use the net. In 2005 he moved to Silicon Valley. In 2010 he started working on SocialPulse.com an online social platform to create social Capital.
Leo Madrid, Founder and CEO of S.C.R.E.A.M., iNC.
After a successful 10 year career as Navy engineer, Leo
worked as a consultant and sales engineer for the semi-conductor and telecommunications industry. Following his passion for fine art and excellence he left the corporate world to promote art and quickly became a director to one of the largest galleries in the United States. There he would deal in the works of Pablo Picasso, Marc Chagall, Salvador Dali, Rembrandt, Andy Warhol and a myriad of historically important and contemporary artists. During that time his passion for contemporary art grew and he had decided to dedicate his talent to promoting living artist. The S.C.R.E.A.M. iNC. is a great illustration of the power of social networking in creating a business and promoting arts. Its Facebook page was established less than a year ago and it has already became the favorite place for contemporary art for more than thousand people.
Social Ventures By Guest Speaker James Stanford
S.C.R.E.A.M_iNC By Guest Speaker Leo Madrid
In this session we had the opportunity to meet with Raymond Smith, the Entrepreneurship Program Coordinator at the and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) Nickolas Turner, Business Relationship Associate with the Plug and Play Tech Center .
The LLNL is one of the premier scientific centers in the country, creating many ground braking discoveries and technologies. The LLNL is also a leader in technology transfer to the private sector. The lab has active commercial licenses with 625 companies, 117 of which are in California.
The Plug and Play Tech center is an entrepreneur-centered community of over 280 startup companies. It has become one of the most fertile grounds for starting and growing technology startups in the Bay Area.
The event also featured a special presentation by a team of graduating MBA students based on their capstone business plan project. The business plan being presented is built around a sensing technology developed and patented by the LLNL. Our colleagues have developed an exciting and original application of a technology that has the potential to improve the life of millions of people around the world.
Highlights:
LLNL overview and Licensing Process by guest speaker Raymond Smith
Judith Sim: CMO of Oracle Corporation. Ms.Sim leads worldwide marketing and customer programs for Oracle, the largest business software company in the world. Ms.Sim is responsible for all demand generation and awareness programs, including advertising, public relations, events marketing, customer relationship marketing, brand management, partner marketing, and field marketing execution. She is also responsible for global customer advocacy, an initiative at Oracle that drives corporate focus on user group relationships, customer feedback, and product enhancement programs. Ms.Sim works closely with the sales management teams globally to align both the sales and marketing organizations behind key strategic initiatives for building on Oracle’s industry leadership. She has helped launch, manage, and run many of the key events for Oracle over the years, including Oracle OpenWorld, the largest technology and applications customer event for the enterprise software industry. Launched in 1995, Oracle’s user conferences have grown from 5,000 people run once a year to a conference of 40,000 people, with additional global conferences in every region. Ms.Sim has spent the bulk of her professional career with Oracle, attesting to the consistency of brand that Oracle maintains in the marketplace. She has grown with the company and is now helping to oversee the consolidation and maturing of the software industry and the integration of Oracle’s strategic acquisitions.Highlights:
Sean Murphy: the president of SKMurphy. SKMurphy provides strategic advice on company development, product planning, and new product introduction. Its focus is on early customers and early revenue for software startups. Sean has worked in a variety of roles in the last twenty-five years: software engineer, engineering manager, project manager, business development, product marketing, and customer support. Sean holds M.S. in Engineering-Economic Systems and B.S. in Mathematical Sciences from Stanford university.Anurag Mairal: a veteran entrepreneur, who has successfully launched several startups. Anurag currently holds following positions:
.Co-Founder and Executive Vice President at Orbees Medical
.Associate Director at Stanford India Biodesign, Stanford University
.President and CEO at Gurome, Inc.
Education:
.MBA marketing , University of California, Berkeley
.Post-Doctoral Fellowship Porous Media , University of Michigan
.Post-Doctoral Fellowship Membrane Science , Universiteit Twente
.Ph. D. Chemical Engineering, University of Colorado at Boulder
Peter Molloy: a teaching faculty at UC Berkeley. He is also the former President and principal owner of the Farmhouse Foods Company. Peter was also General Manager of MJB Rice Company prior to founding Farmhouse. He has spearheaded the growth of several major businesses and successfully introduced a variety of new products.
Dan Himelstein: has been a senior executive in both academia and business and has worked in a variety of organizational settings. Dan has served as Executive Associate Dean of the School of Business and Management at the University of San Francisco and was Chairman and Co-Founder, Enfocall, Inc. Dan holds B.S. in Business Administration from UC Berkeley and MSc in Economics from The London School of Economics & Political Science.Highlights:
Farmhouse Foods Company by guest speaker Peter Molloy.
10 Early Mistakes Entrepreneurs Make by guest speaker Sean Murphy.
Allen Peterson: an angel Investor, Certified Management Consultant (CMC), Certified Strategic Planning Facilitator, and advisor. Allen founded Peterson Associates and joined Keiretsu Forum in 2002. Previously was president of Kewill ERP—a software company with 9,000 manufacturing customers. Allen is also a member of Keiretsu Forum, Institute of ManagementConsultants (was President—Northern California Chapter) and a Partner in the Strategic Planning Alliance and an associate of SalesBrain. Allen has an MBA from UC Berkeley and a BS Electrical Engineering from Oregon State University. Randy Hawks:
an VC & a Managing Director at Claremont Creek Ventures, bringing more than 25 years of technology industry experience as a senior general manager and venture investor to the group. Randy invests in Information Technology and has a special interest in Sensor Networks and Security. In the years prior to co-founding Claremont Creek Ventures, Randy was a General Partner at Novus Ventures and a Venture Partner at Horizon Ventures. Before his venture capital career, Randy had startup experience as CEO at Captiva Software and as COO at Identix (from its founding through IPO and life on NASDAQ). He served as Senior Vice President at AT&T Paradyne and as a Vice President of Marketing and Division General Manager at ITT Information Systems (Qume).Highlights:
Event
California State University East Bay, East Bay SCORE
Agenda
presentation
When
Monday, April 6th
Event: CSUEB and Hayward Chamber of Commerce worked together to offer free assistance to help local businesses of tri-valley to write a business / marketing plan. As a co-affiliate partner, California State University East Bay Entrepreneurship Association also participated in this event.
California State University East Bay Entrepreneurship Association had its kick off meeting on February 11th in VBT meeting.
The following attendees were present:
University professors:
- Asst Prof Brian Mckenzie
- Prof Gregory Theyel
- Prof Glen Taylor
Guest Speaker: Bea Millslagle, National Sales Director, Marykay
Also about 15 students were present.
The meeting was started by Felix Shen followed by a presentation by Jag Virk.
Food and drinks were served followed by presentation by Bea Millslagle.
A surprise prize was announced for an audience who asked the best question.
Event feedback from professors were extremely positive.