Jeff Erickson
CEO, Erickson Barnett
Jeff brings more than 25 years experience in the technology arena. His diverse background includes stints at big businesses such as Merrill Lynch and Andersen Consulting, entreprenerial ventures like Erickson Barnett and Parcel Plus, and a list of clients that falls everywhere in between.
He is the CEO and co-founder of Erickson Barnett and works with clients on everything from strategic planning to messaging to information architecture. Jeff is a graduate of Virginia Tech.
Kristi Hedges
Principal, The Hedges Company
Kristi Hedges is the founder of The Hedges Company, a leadership development firm that coaches leaders in companies ranging from venture-backed emerging enterprises to the Fortune 500. By approaching communications as the cornerstone of great leadership, Hedges has developed a unique methodology adapted specifically to the needs of CEOs, entrepreneurs and top executives to give them transformational tools for motivating and inspiring others.
Previously, Kristi was co-founder and principal of SheaHedges Group, one of the top technology PR firms in the Washington, DC, area, which she successfully exited in 2007.
Kristi has been named one of Washington's "Women Who Mean Business" by the Washington Business Journal. In 2003, she was named by PR News as one of the top public relations professionals nationally. She has also been recognized as a top 25 Woman-Owned Business in Washington by the Washington Business Journal.
Kristi is a founding columnist for Entrepreneur.com's site WomenEntrepreneur.com. Her monthly Leadership Factor column provides advice to women entrepreneurs on a host of leadership issues.
Beyond her work with The Hedges Company, Kristi is active in the greater Washington area business community, lending support for entrepreneurs and frequently speaking on topics related to business and marketing. Kristi is a board member of Mindshare, a program that supports technology entrepreneurship, and a past board member of the National Association for Women Business Owners (NAWBO), and the Reston Chamber of Commerce Incubator Program.
Tim Hill
President, Professional Education Solutions, Blackboard
As president of professional education solutions, Tim leads the overall product, operations, sales, marketing and consulting efforts for corporate, government, associations and for-profit education clients.
Tim joined Blackboard in 2004 as senior vice president, global marketing. In his two years at the marketing helm, Blackboard launched a global rebranding effort including a new web presence, introduced BbWorld, the company's global user conference format, expanded the BbConnections client community initiative/web portal, and launched corporate marketing and demand creation programs internationally. With more than two decades of experience in sales and marketing strategy development and execution, Tim has been named one of the "Top 10 U.S. Marketers" by Crain's Business Marketing; one of the "Top 100 Executives" by Ad Age and won "Product Launch of the Year" award from Marketing Computers (for the Iomega zip drive).
Prior to joining Blackboard, Tim served as principal of Hill Partners, Inc, a consulting firm specializing in the development and implementation of corporate branding, identity, strategy, product marketing, and international expansion. Before founding Hill Partners, Tim served as vice president of worldwide marketing and international sales at SAGA Software (Software AG Americas.)
Among his many notable career achievements, Tim was instrumental in repositioning SAGA from a legacy mainframe software provider to a leading business solutions software provider resulting in a successful IPO on NYSE. While chief marketing officer & vice president of worldwide sales at Iomega Corporation, Tim was the driving marketing force behind the development, marketing and success of the zip, jaz and ditto personal storage products.
Jim Ivers
Chief Marketing Officer, Triumfant, Inc.
Jim Ivers is responsible for worldwide marketing activity, product marketing and product management at Triumfant. Ivers has over 25 years of experience in the IT industry with a background that spans corporate positioning and messaging, branding, press and analyst relations, lead generation, product marketing, competitive analysis and sales support.
Prior to Triumfant, Ivers served as the Chief Marketing Officer of Vovici, a leader in Enterprise Feedback Management. Ivers also served as the senior vice president of marketing for Cybertrust, providing strategic marketing support to position the company as a leading provider of information security.
At webMethods, Ivers served as VP of corporate marketing and VP of product marketing. Earlier, Mr. Ivers spent 15 years with Information Builders, where he held a variety of roles in marketing and professional services.
Mary Knebel
Vice President, Business Development, Alarm.com
At Alarm.com, Mary is responsible for leading the company's efforts in business development, public relations and marketing alliances.
Prior to joining Alarm.com, Mary was co-founder and CEO of LaunchFuel, Inc., a technology consulting firm which specialized in commercializing intellectual property originating from leading research institutions and agencies. Previously, Mary was a senior engagement manager at Proxicom and was responsible for leading technical and creative teams for strategic accounts. Prior to Proxicom, Mary was marketing director for PSINet's wholesale division.
Mary is a 2001 graduate of the Mindshare program and was selected to present at Springboard 2000, a national venture forum for women entrepreneurs. She is a founding member of several advisory boards including VA Tech's VTKnowledgeworks, George Mason University's Executive MBA Program, MITRE Corporation's Tech Transfer Program, and the Reston Chamber of Commerce Incubator.
Jen Norman
Managing Associate, Korn/Ferry International
Jen Norman is a Managing Associate at Korn/Ferry International, a premier global provider of talent management solutions. A 20-year software sales and marketing industry veteran accustomed to leading fast-paced change, Jen's on-target assessments quickly produce talent focusing on clients, innovation and profitability. As a member of the firm's Technology Practice, Jen specializes in serving clients in the technology industry. Jen conducts assignments for CEOs, COOs, CFOs, CIOs, members of boards of directors, and senior functional and operations executives including sales, marketing and finance.
Most recently, Jen was a Director at CTPartners. Previously, Jen worked in various marketing positions at Convera, Trusted Computer Solutions, Cigital, Baan and Software AG.
She is active in a variety of professional and nonprofit organizations including the Northern Virginia Technology Council and March of Dimes. She recently completed a term as a board member of Women in Technology serving as communication chair.
Michele Perry
Chief Marketing Officer, Sourcefire
Michele serves as chief marketing officer. In her role, Michele is responsible for overseeing all of Sourcefire's marketing and product management functions, including branding, public relations, and lead generation. A 20-year marketing and business executive, Michele drives Sourcefire's branding and marketing campaigns and establishes programs that contribute to the growth of the company's customer base.
Previously, Michele held senior marketing and management positions at USinternetworking, Software AG and IBM, as well as operating her own strategic marketing and business development consultancy, MPB Strategies, which specialized in providing consulting and strategy services to fast growing companies. At USinternetworking, she led her team in creating a new business category which contributed to the company's efforts to complete an initial public offering (IPO) and drove first year contracts to $158 million.
Brian Reed
Chief Marketing Officer, Boxtone
As BoxTone's Chief Marketing Officer, Brian Reed brings more than 16 years of experience in strategy, product, and marketing in the technology industry. Brian oversees the strategic direction and positioning of BoxTone, including market strategy, go-to-market activities, product marketing, product management and marketing communications.
Prior to BoxTone, he was the Vice President of Marketing and Business Development at Cesura, where he helped reposition the business and transition the product portfolio to a managed service (MSP) and drove rapid new market entry in the SAAS, Web 2.0 and on-demand marketplace through innovative marketing techniques. Prior to Cesura, he was the Vice President of Marketing and Exective Member of Board of Directors at FormScape (now BottomLine Technologies), where he led the innovation of the new market category for Document Process Automation and drove value to achieve successful investor exit of 5X. Brian's prior experience includes Vice President of Product Management and Marketing roles at DataDirect Technologies (now Progress Software), MERANT and INTERSOLV - all industry leaders in enterprise-grade middleware and application development tools.
Brian is a BME/EE graduate of Duke University and a member of the CMO Council.
Elizabeth Shea
President and CEO, SpeakerBox Communications
For more than twenty years, Elizabeth Shea has seen innovation at many stages. She joined Apple Computer early in her career and shared its passion for changing the world one person at a time. Fast forward twenty years and she's still driven to make a difference for technology pioneers and thought leaders, helping to shape the industry's next icons.
Shea spent the first half of her career in Silicon Valley, working for Apple Computer, SuperMac Technologies and Momenta Computer. She relocated to the east coast to work for top-tier technology integrators that sold Oracle, Apple, Silicon Graphics, Compaq and Sun Microsystems solutions.
She co-founded SpeakerBox Communications as SheaHedges Group over ten years ago, and built SpeakerBox into the notable technology PR firm it is today. Shea is a graduate of Santa Clara University's Leavey School of Business with a degree in marketing.
