The Leading Speakers Bureau

Professor of Mechanical Engineering at UC Berkeley ; The Man Behind the “Bionic Chip”

Leading a team of scientists, who believe they have discovered what they call a “bionic chip”, Professor Rubinsky joined University California, Berkeley in 1997 and currently holds the post of Chancellor’s Professor.

“The “bionic chip” is a key discovery because it is the first step to building complex circuitry incorporating a living cell” says Mr Rubinsky who created the device. Applications for the bionic chip are varied and potentially include new ways to treat genetic diseases such as cystic fibrosis or diabetes, safer methods to test new pharmaceuticals for side effects and more complex bionic electronic circuitry.

[expand title=”In detail”] As Rubinsky says “The first electronic diode made it possible to have the computer. Who knows what the first biological dioxide will make possible?” The first commercial applications could begin within the year.

Professor Rubinsky’s other fields of research span heat and mass transfer in bio-engineering cryobiology, bio-engineering, heat transfer and material processing.[/expand]

[expand title=”What he offers you”]Graduating from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1980, Professor Rubinsky has held several posts in various companies including Phillips Industries, Cryogenic Engineering Laboratory and the University of Tel Aviv .[/expand]
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Former Chairman of Microsoft India

Ravi Venkatesan is a Director on the Board of AB Volvo and Infosys Ltd. and a member of the Advisory Boards of Harvard Business School and Purdue University. He is the former Chairman of Microsoft India. Under his leadership from 2004-2011, India became Microsoft’s second largest and one of its fastest growing geographies. He was recently voted the Most Influential MNC CEO for 2011 by the Economic Times.

“One of the most influential pioneers of the Indian technology Industry”

[expand title=”In detail”] Prior to joining Microsoft, Ravi worked for over sixteen years with Cummins Inc, the world leader in engines and related technologies. As Chairman of Cummins India Limited, he oversaw the transformation of Cummins into the leading provider of power solutions and the largest manufacturer of automotive engines in the country. He is an Advisor to Raymond Ltd. and Bunge Inc. He has contributed frequently to the Harvard Business Review; some of his articles include, “Strategic Sourcing – to Make or Not to Make” and “Cummins Engine Flexes its Factories. Ravi was awarded Purdue University’s Distinguished Engineering Alumnus award for the year 2011.[/expand]

[expand title=”What he offers you”]Ravi takes a highly customised approach to each presentation he delivers, ensuring a topical focus for each client that is unique, conversational and an excellent tie-in with the overall event. He advises audiences on a wide range of business topics especially the emergence of new technologies.[/expand]

[expand title=”How he presents”]Ravis’ highly personalised, unforgettable presentations are memorable insights into his unique viewpoint of the technology industry. A fascinating speaker, he talks in detail about the challenges and successes of Microsoft India and inspires audiences around the globe.[/expand]
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Europe’s only Professor for Computer Gaming

Prof. Linda Breitlauch is Europe’s only Professor for Computer Gaming. She is currently the Head of the Game Design Program at the MediaDesign Hochschule, Düsseldorf teaching media theory, design and multimedia dramaturgy. She has helped pioneer work into the combination in a novel way of two gaming traditions, which have been mutual exclusive till now: outdoor games and computer games.

“Linda Breitlauch gives a very realistic overview of modern game development practices”

[expand title=”In detail”] Prof. Linda Breitlauch became a games enthusiast in the days of the early consoles. She has pioneered the framework of her study screenplay and dramaturgy in the Film and Television College in Potsdam. Among other things in the Brandenburg University of Applied Sciences she studied “Interactive Storytelling” at great length. [/expand]

[expand title=”What she offers you”]Prof. Breitlauch offers insights into the developments in the computer games industry. Her realistic overview opens audience’s minds to realistic conflicts, witty challenges, many-sided strategies and varied game contents.[/expand]

[expand title=”How she presents”]Linda Breitlauch’s fascinating presentations are filled with ideas on her passions – adventures, strategy games and role plays. She also looks at the new challenges game design is facing and into the role of women in games, their emotional effects and the thought processes behind the active rolls from feminine figures in the games.[/expand]
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Founder of WordPress and Automattic

Mat Mullenweg is the founding developer of the popular open-source blogging software. After quitting his job at CNET, he has devoted the majority of his time to developing a number of open source projects and is a frequent speaker at conferences, such as Canada’s Northern Voice and the WordCamp events organized around WordPress software. In late 2005, he founded Automattic, the business behind WordPress.com and Akismet.

There’s no such thing as a wrong note, and to focus on people first – Mullenweg

[expand title=”In detail”] As a high school student, Matt Mullenweg worked on open-source software projects in his bedroom. Seven years later, he still does most of his work from home. Mullenweg, 25, is the founder of Automattic, the company behind the open-source blogging tool WordPress and a handful of other software projects. WordPress.com powers 12 million blogs, including those of The New York Times, which invested in Mullenweg’s company last year. Although Automattic’s headquarters is within walking distance of Mullenweg’s San Francisco apartment, he rarely visits the place. Instead, he spends his days either traveling the world to meet WordPress fanatics or holed up in his home office, where he often blasts Jay-Z and writes software code into the wee hours.[/expand]

[expand title=”What he offers you”]Matt Mullenweg looks at the changing face of the the social media and the change in the balance of power with the impact of social networking. He helps IT Small and medium enterprises, entrepreneurs and companies to design and develop innovative ways of engaging with consumers, customers and citizens to seize these opportunities. He advises organisations about consumer empowerment.[/expand]

[expand title=”How he presents”]In his invaluable presentations, Matt challenges preconceptions on global branding, customer relationship and permission marketing, and the importance of corporate reputation, expertly looking at all the trends. He is without doubt one of the most insightful commentators on social media and marketing and an excellent speaker.[/expand]
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Technology Evangelist, Amazon Web Services – APAC (Asia Pacific) at Amazon.com, & Author

Simone Brunozzi is a technology enthusiast, involved in IT and computing since an early age. He joined Amazon.com in 2008 in the role of Web Services Evangelist, travelling across Europe and vicinity to showcase the innovative new solutions by Amazon Web Services and help developers build businesses and applications. He has followed the “Cloud Computing” paradigm shift since 2006, and believes that it is going to replace the traditional computing model.

Simone Brunozzi is at the heart of technological changes today”

[expand title=”In detail”] Prior to joining Amazon, Simone had his own business focusing on web applications as founder, project leader at UbuntuSemplice and owner of wedoit s.a.s.. He also served as a professor of Programming Languages and Compilers at Perugia University and worked as a network and system administrator at the University for Foreigners in Perugia. Simone has a Computer Science degree and spent six months at UC Irvine, California, where he studied the American approach to business and science. He gained early programming experience at the Ministry of Aerial Defense in Rome, Italy. His experience also includes being a Second Life blogger and technical writer for Punto Informatico.[/expand]

[expand title=”What he offers you”]Why is Cloud Computing so important for the Enterprise? What’s the value in it, and what slows down adoption? AWS Technology Evangelist for EMEA, Simone Brunozzi, provides details and examples that can help understand the value proposition of Cloud Computing. He thrives on opportunities to explain services and “marketing” aspects of Evangelism, including social media (Facebook, Twitter, FriendFeed, Second Life, etc.) to audiences, meet new people and have fun doing it.[/expand]

[expand title=”How he presents”]Simone Brunozzi is passionate about technologies that will profoundly change our lives in the years to come and is in constant contact with the fast-changing world of Avatars and virtual experiences and his exciting presentations open our eyes to changes that will affect us.[/expand]
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Pioneering Robot Scientist, Founder & Director of RoMeLa

Dr. Dennis Hong is an Associate Professor and the founder and Director of RoMeLa (Robotics & Mechanisms Laboratory) of the Mechanical Engineering Department at Virginia Tech, that has pioneered several breakthroughs in robot design and engineering. He has also pioneered various innovations in soft-body robots, using a “whole-skin locomotion” as inspired by amoebae. Marrying robotics with biochemistry, he has been able to generate new types of motion with these ingenious forms.

“An exceptional scientist and speaker”

[expand title=”In detail”] Dennis Hong received his B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison (1994), his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Mechanical Engineering from Purdue University (1999, 2002). Dr. Hong also has a number of patents for novel robot locomotion mechanisms and devices for medical applications. TEAM DARwIn for RoboCup 2007 where he served as the advisor, was the first and only team from the US ever to qualify for the RoboCup humanoid division, and TEAM Victor Tango for the 2007 DARPA Urban Challenge (an autonomous vehicle race in the urban environment) where he served as the co-team leader, won third place with a cash award of $500,000. His senior design teams have been winning top prizes year after year at various design competitions. He is also a serious gourmet chef and a magician performing annual charity magic shows and lectures on the science of magic.[/expand]

[expand title=”What he offers you”]Named as one of Popular Science’s Brilliant 10, Dr. Hong’s research expertise lies in the area of novel robot locomotion mechanisms, design and analysis of mechanical systems, kinematics and robot mechanism design, humanoid robots, and autonomous systems. He expertly guides his audiences through his projects on robot locomotion and mechanism design at prestigious events worldwide including TEDxNASA in 2010.[/expand]

[expand title=”How he presents”]Dennis Hong is a captivating, engaging and passionate speaker, who enthuses about his pioneering scientific breakthroughs.[/expand]
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Founder and Former CEO of Ebookers

Dinesh Dhamija is a business entrepreneur. He is best known as the founder of the successful online travel agency Ebookers. Dinesh was awarded the 2003 Entrepreneur of the Year award by the Management Today magazine. More recently, he was the founder and chairman of the Copper Beech Group, a firm involved in residential property development in Romania and education infrastructure in India.

“I see travel as a dream of everyone, you are selling something to people that lets them go across the world”

‘Selling travel, is selling dreams, and yet visiting another country, benefits a person, by allowing him to think laterally”

[expand title=”In detail”] Having gained a Master of Arts Degree in Law from Cambridge University, Dinesh’s first employment was with IBM. However Dinesh was keen to establish his own business and soon decided on the travel industry as his chosen sector. Over the next 20 years he gained the travel expertise, business management experience and supplier contacts which have been so critical in the ebookers success story. By 1999 he realised that the internet was where the future lay, and set about raising the funds to launch websites across Europe. Ebookers rolled out across Europe and quickly established itself as the leading online travel agency in Europe.[/expand]

[expand title=”What he offers you”]Dinesh inspires business leaders to adopt a creative an innovative management approach and gives tools and insights for managing business from his experience.[/expand]

[expand title=”How he presents”]His presentations are always customised to fit the needs of the clients to whom he is speaking. His messages are powerful and effective, delivered in his personal, yet highly professional style.[/expand]
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Founder of Mira, Co-Founder of Square & Third Degree

James McKelvey is the co-founder of Square, a new mobile payment platform. A revolutionary service that enables anyone to accept credit cards anywhere. His other company Mira, started out as a software company. Eventually, Mira was refocused as a digital publishing company, providing services and conferences. Currently, the company provides online submission management, peer review, conference planning services and traditional print and electronic publishing services for more than 100 organisations from numerous disciplines.

“Jim McKelvey has altered the way money changes hands”

[expand title=”In detail”] James serves as his own patron of the arts, using proceeds from his successful commercial enterprises to fund his passion – glassblowing. For 20 years, he has worked to capture the magic of glass in his art. As Chairman of the world’s largest gathering of glass artists in 2006, he strove to surprise and challenge other artists with his innovative glass faucets.[/expand]

[expand title=”What he offers you”]Combining energy with his practical experience working with executives and various companies, James provides audience member with real world solutions to real business problems.[/expand]

[expand title=”How he presents”]James’ high-energy style and power-packed presentations have built his reputation as a speaker who really delivers.[/expand]
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Co-founder of Apple Computer

A Silicon Valley icon and philanthropist for more than thirty years, Steve Wozniak has helped shape the computing industry with his design of Apple’s first line of products the Apple I and II and influenced the popular Macintosh. The Apple II eventually became one of the best selling personal computers of the 1970s and early 1980s. In February 2009 Steve Wozniak joined Fusion-io, a data storage and server company, in the USA as their chief scientist.

“Never trust a computer you can’t throw out a window”

[expand title=”In detail”] In 1976, Steve Wozniak founded together with Steve Jobs Apple Computer Inc. After leaving Apple in 1987, Wozniak was involved in various business and philanthropic ventures, focusing primarily on computer capabilities in schools and stressing hands-on learning and encouraging creativity for students. In 2001, he co-founded Wheels of Zeus to create wireless GPS technology and in 2006 he co-founded Acquicor Technology, a shell company for acquiring technology companies and developing them. [/expand]

[expand title=”What he offers you”]One of the most influential pioneers of the technology industry, Steve Wozniak takes a highly customized approach to each presentation he delivers, ensuring a topical focus for each client that is unique, conversational and an excellent tie-in with the overall event. With inventions and machines that are credited with contributing greatly to the personal computer revolution started in the 1970s, Steve delivers high content talks from his unique perspective of the modern technological panorama.[/expand]

[expand title=”How he presents”]Having never written an entire speech out in advance, Steve Wozniak’s highly personalised, unforgettable presentations are memorable insights into his unique viewpoint of the computer industry.[/expand]
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Renowned European Hacker, OPSA, OPST, ISECOM International Trainer & Worldwide Security Researcher

Raoul Chiesa is a cybercrime advisor. As well as being the Founder (former CEO, CTO), Strategic Alliances Director at @ Mediaservice.net, he is a founder member of CLUSIT – the Italian Information Security Association – and he is a Board of Directors member at ISECOM, CLUSIT, OWASP Italian Chapter, Italian Privacy Observatory (AIP/OPSI). Both Raoul and its security team work on research areas such as X.25 and PSDN networks, VoIp Security, Malware Analysis, Social Engineering, SCADA & Industrial Automation, Home Automation, Satellite communication, Mobile Security, SS7 threats and much more.

“One of the first hackers in Italy”

[expand title=”In detail”] After being among the first Italian hackers back in the 90’s (1986-1995), Raoul decided to move to professional InfoSec, founding in 1997 @ Mediaservice.net Srl, a vendor-neutral and well known security consulting company. His career also includes working as HITB CFP Reviewer & Technical Board (Panel) at Hack in the box Jobs, Partner, Southern Europe and Africa Referent at TSTF.net Telecom Security Task Force and Speaker at APWG. Since 2003 he started cooperating with the UN agency “UNICRI” (United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute) and nowadays his role at UNICRI is “Senior Advisor, Strategic Alliances and Cybercrime Issues, Technical Contact Officer”.[/expand]

[expand title=”What he offers you”]Raoul “Nobody” (his hacking name) Chiesa helps companies manage privacy & security related issues. His mission is to verify and improve the security posture of IT infrastructures and services on which core business depends. He explains and analyzes most of the false myths surrounding the hacker’s world and tells you some of the funny things that have happened along the way, trying to let the audience deeply understand such a complex and constantly changing phenomenon. He brings audiences into an unsual world, where today’s new Crime Lords, along with Governments and Military forces, are starting something never seen before, while “working” from two totally different PoWs and scenarios.[/expand]

[expand title=”How he presents”]With vast technical knowledge, Raoul Chiesa delivers fascinating and memorable presentations, backed up with quality content and examples of his experiences in yesterday’s and today’s cyber world.[/expand]
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