Colin Angle 

Chairman of the Board, CEO & Co-Founder, iRobot (DEMO Debut: iRobot, 2000)

Colin Angle is chairman of the board, chief executive officer and co-founder of iRobot (Nasdaq: IRBT). Angle's leadershiphas transformed the Massachusetts Institute of Technology spin-off into a $307 million business and a global leader of practical robots. One of the world's leading authorities on mobile robots, Angle is an industry pioneer with motwo decades of experience. Under his guidance, iRobot is at the forefront of the growing robot industry, delivering home and government robots that are making a difference.

A longtime sailor, Angle is known for his ability to bring together and inspire a winning crew. By setting a course of team empowerment, collaboration and innovation, Angle is enabling iRobot to deliver cutting-edge, market-leading robots that save time and lives. Today, more than 3 million iRobot® Roomba® vacuum cleaning robots – the world's first affordable home robot have been sold around the globe. More than 2,000 iRobot® PackBot® tactical mobile robots have been delivered to military and civil defense forces worldwide, performing thousands of dangerous missions while keeping personnel out of harm's way.

Angle's vision for the future of robots and his keen sense of business strategy are driving forces behind iRobot's successful identification and execution of expansion opportunities. Under Angle's leadership, iRobot has formed strategic partnerships with The Clorox Company, Deere & Company and The Boeing Company, building on decades of expertise from each partner to create new and innovative robot solutions.

In iRobot's early days, Angle and his team designed the behavior-controlled rovers for NASA that led to the Sojourner exploring Mars in 1997. Angle's team won the NASA Group Achievement Award for its accomplishments, and his name is inscribed inside the case of Spirit, the Mars exploration rover on display at NASA.

Before co-founding iRobot in 1990, Angle was president of Artificial Creatures Inc. Earlier in his career, Angle worked at MIT's Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, where he first teamed with iRobot co-founders Helen Greiner and Dr. Rodney Brooks. Angle's master thesis at MIT produced Genghis, a six-legged autonomous walking robot that is now at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C.

Angle's leadership has been recognized with numerous professional awards. He has been named a Mass High Tech All-Star, one of Fortune Small Business Magazine's Best Bosses and New England Entrepreneur of the Year by Ernst and Young with iRobot co-founder Helen Greiner. Angle has spoken at leading industry conferences, including International CES, The Wall Street Journal's D: All Things Digital, Future in Review (FiRe), Wired Magazine's NextFest and RoboNexus. Angle has appeared on CNN and CNBC, and has been profiled as an industry expert in media outlets such as Business Week, CNET, the New York Times and Newsweek. He sits on the board of directors of Axon Labs, Inc. and is active on the Robotics & Intelligent Machines (RIM) advisory board.

Angle holds a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering and a master's degree in computer science, both from MIT.

Shai Agassi 

Founder & CEO, Better Place (DEMO Debut: TopTier, 1997)

Shai Agassi is the founder and chief executive of Better Place, the leading electric vehicle services provider. He is focused on one of this century's biggest challenges, moving the world from oil-based to sustainable transportation. Agassi works with government leaders, auto manufacturers, energy companies and others to make his vision—zero-emission vehicles powered by electricity from renewable sources—a reality in countries around the globe.

This vision was inspired by a profound question posed at the World Economic Forum in 2005, "How do you make the world a better place by 2020?" With a passion for tackling large-scale challenges, Agassi sought to answer this question with a pragmatic solution to free cars from oil, reduce harmful tailpipe emissions, and usher in an era of sustainable transportation.

Agassi founded Better Place and, in 2007, officially launched the company. In 2008, Israel became the first country—and The Renault-Nissan Alliance the first carmaker—to embrace the Better Place model of building open network infrastructure to enable mass adoption of electric vehicles and delivering transportation as a sustainable service. Denmark, Australia, California, Hawaii, and Ontario have followed suit. Today, Agassi and Better Place are in discussions with many countries, carmakers and other potential partners around the globe.

Agassi's visionary leadership with the Better Place model has been recognized widely. TIME Magazine named him to the 2009 TIME 100, the world's 100 most influential people, and one of TIME's "Heroes of the Environment 2008." Fast Company placed him third on its "100 Most Creative People in Business" list. Most recently, Scientific American Magazine named him to the 2009 Scientific American 10, a select group of 10 people who have demonstrated outstanding commitment to assuring the benefits of new technologies and knowledge will accrue to humanity.

Before founding Better Place, Agassi was president of the Products and Technology Group at SAP AG and a member of the software company's executive board. He led global development of SAP's product line and portfolio of industry-specific solutions.

Agassi remains an active member of the Forum of Young Global Leaders of the World Economic Forum, where he focuses on climate change, transportation and other key issues. He is also a member of the Copenhagen Climate Council and the advisory board of the Corporate Eco Forum.

Marc Benioff 

Founder & Chairman, Salesforce.com (DEMO Debut: Salesforce.com, 2000)

Marc Benioff is chairman and CEO of salesforce.com. He founded the company in 1999 with a vision to create an on-demand information management service that would replace traditional enterprise software technology. Benioff is regarded as the leader of what he has termed "The End of Software," the now-proven belief that multi-tenant, cloud computing applications democratize information by delivering immediate benefits at reduced risks and costs.

Under Benioff's direction, salesforce.com has grown from a groundbreaking idea into a publicly traded company that is the market and technology leader in enterprise cloud computing. For its revolutionary approach, salesforce.com has been lauded as one of BusinessWeek's Top 100 Most Innovative Companies, named No. 7 on The Wired 40, and selected for the past two years as a Top Ten Disrupter by Forbes. The product has won the Software &Information Industry Association Codie Award for Best CRM for the past six years, and the Codie Award for Best On-Demand Platform in 2007, as well as multiple "Editor's Choice" designations from PC Magazine. Benioff has been widely recognized for pioneering innovation with honors such as the 2007 Ernst &Young Entrepreneur of the Year, the SDForum Visionary Award, Alumni Entrepreneur of the Year by the University of Southern California (USC) Marshall School of Business, and being ranked No. 7 on the Top 100 Most Influential People in IT survey by eWEEK, and one of the Top 10 Greatest IT Chief Executives by VNU. He was appointed by President George W. Bush as the co-chairman of the President's Information Technology Advisory Committee and served from 2003-2005, overseeing the publishing of critical reports on health care information technology, cybersecurity, and computational sciences.

Throughout his career, Benioff has also been committed to using information technology to produce positive social change. In 2000, he launched the Salesforce.com Foundation—now a multimillion-dollar global organization—establishing the "1/1/1 model," whereby the company contributes one percent of profits, one percent of equity, and one percent of employee hours back to the communities it serves. Benioff authored The Business of Changing the World, in which 20 great leaders reveal how businesses can go beyond writing a check and leverage the full scope of their resources to make a difference. Compassionate Capitalism, also authored by Benioff, is the first-ever best-practices guide for corporate philanthropy that illustrates the success of the integrated model. Acknowledging his commitment to building partnerships between business and society to improve the state of the world, the members of the World Economic Forum named Benioff as one of its Young Global Leaders, and in 2007 the Committee Encouraging Corporate Philanthropy presented Benioff with the coveted Excellence in Corporate Philanthropy Award. In 2008, for his thought and action leadership in corporate responsibility, CRO Magazine named Benioff CEO of the Year.

Prior to launching salesforce.com, Benioff, a quarter century veteran of the software industry, spent 13 years at Oracle Corporation from 1986-1999. In 1984, he worked as an assembly language programmer in Apple Computer's Macintosh Division. He founded entertainment software company Liberty Software in 1979 when he was 15 years old. Benioff received a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the University of Southern California in 1986.

Mike Cassidy 

Co-Founder & CEO, Ruba, Xfire, Direct Hit, and Stylus Innovation (DEMO Debut: Xfire, 2005)

Visual travel guide and tour site Ruba helps travelers all over the world share their favorite places and experiences. Xfire helps gamers play online with their friends much more easily. Xfire is also an instant messenger and peer-to-peer file download system designed just for gamers. Xfire has over 10 million registered gamers in over 100 countries. Viacom/MTV acquired Xfire for $110 million. Direct Hit was a revolutionary Internet search engine whose customers included MSN, Lycos, AOL, and dozens of others. Ask Jeeves acquired Direct Hit for $500 million. Stylus Innovation's flagship product was the award winning computer telephony software Visual Voice. Mike is on the Board of Advisors of Jazz at Lincoln Center and is on the Visiting Committee Board of the MIT Media Lab. Mike studied jazz piano at the Berklee College of Music. Mike has a BS and MS in Aerospace Engineering from MIT. He graduated from Harvard Business School.

Ed Colligan 

Former President and CEO, Palm, Inc. (DEMO Debut: Palm, Inc., 1996)

Ed has been instrumental in building Palm's business and culture since 1993. During the last four years as CEO, Ed drove Palm's global leadership in innovative mobile products, such as the company's groundbreaking Palm webOS platform and Palm Pre phone, and was responsible for company strategy. Prior to being named president and CEO, Ed was senior vice president and general manager of the company's Wireless Business Unit.

Ed has been part of starting or founding five technology companies in Silicon Valley, including Handspring, Inc., the company behind the design and development of the Treo smartphone. As president and chief operating officer, he designed the marketing strategy for Handspring's handheld computers and smartphones.

Earlier in his career, Ed was vice president of strategic and product marketing at Radius Corporation. During his six years there, he helped make Radius the brand leader in Macintosh graphics, graphic imaging, and hardware development.

Ed holds a bachelor's degree from the University of Oregon.

Donna Dubinsky 

Founder, CEO & Board Chair, Numenta (DEMO Debut: Palm, Inc., 1996)

Numenta Founder Donna Dubinsky serves as CEO and Board Chair. She brings business operations leadership and experience to the Numenta team. Numenta also marks the third venture where Donna has teamed with Jeff Hawkins. Donna first joined Jeff in 1992 to become president and CEO of Palm, a position she held through Palm's acquisition by U.S. Robotics and subsequently 3Com Corporation. In 1998, Donna and Jeff co-founded Handspring, creator of the category-defining Treo smartphone. In October 2003, Handspring merged with the Palm hardware group to create a new company, palmOne, Inc. ( now called Palm, Inc.). Previously, Donna spent 10 years at Apple Computer in a variety of sales, sales support and logistics functions both at Apple and at Claris, Apple's software subsidiary.

Donna holds a B.A. from Yale University in History, and an M.B.A. from the Harvard Business School. She currently serves on the board of the Peninsula Open Space Trust and is a Trustee of the Computer History Museum and Yale University.

Diane Greene 

Entrepreneur, Founder & Former CEO, VMware (DEMO Debut: VMware, 1999)

Diane Greene is currently a member of the Board of Directors of Intuit, Unity3d, and MIT. She was CEO of VMware from 1998 to 2008, taking the company from founding to $1.8B in revenues years and creating the market for mainstream virtualization.

In 1995 Greene co-founded and was CEO of VXtreme, a video streaming company bought by Microsoft in 1997. Prior to that, she held technical leadership positions at Silicon Graphics, Sybase and Tandem. Greene has also run several international sailing and windsurfing championships. Greene's degrees include mechanical engineering, naval architecture and computer science from the University of Vermont, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of California Berkeley, respectively.

Helen Greiner 

CEO of Droid Works, Inc. (DEMO Debut: iRobot, 2000)

Helen Greiner (born Dec. 6, 1967) is CEO of The Droid Works, Inc, a startup company whose mission is to be a "SkunkWorks" for robotics. She is co-founder of iRobot which she transformed, with business partners Colin Angle and Rod Brooks, from a Massachusetts Institute of Technology spin-off into a ~ $300 Million business and the global leader of practical robots. Ms Greiner served as President of iRobot until 2004 and Chairman until October 2008. Specifically, she developed the strategy for and led iRobot's entry into the military market place. At iRobot, she created a culture of practical innovation and delivery that led the creation and deployment of the PackBot, PackBot EOD, PackBot MTRS, Aware Robot Operating System, and participation in many DARPA, Army and Navy research programs. She also ran iRobot's financing projects which included raising $35M venture capital and a $75M initial public offering. She was most recently led iRobot's investment in a deployable Flash LADAR and acquisition of Nekton, a UUV company. Greiner holds a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering and a master's degree in computer science, both from MIT.

Helen is highly decorated for her visionary contributions in technology innovation and business leadership. She was named by the Kennedy School at Harvard in conjunction with the U.S. News and World Report as one of America's Best Leaders and was honored by the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International(AUVSI) with the prestigious Pioneer Award. She has also been honored as a Technology Review Magazine "Innovator for the Next Century," invited to the World Economic Forum as a Global Leader of Tomorrow, and has been awarded the DEMO God Award at the DEMO Conference. In 2003, she was named one of the Ernst and Young New England Entrepreneurs of the Year and has been inducted in the Women in Technology International (WITI) Hall of Fame. Her 20+ years of experience in robotic technology includes work at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and MIT's Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. Helen is a Trustee of the Boston Museum Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), National Defense Industrial Association (NDIA), and the Massachusetts Technology Leadership Counsel. Ms Greiner serves as the elected President and Board Member of the Robotics Technology Consortium - a 120 member industrial/academic group. She recent was presented with an honorary degree by WPI in 2009.

Jeff Hawkins 

Founder, Numenta (DEMO Debut: Palm, Inc., 1996)

Jeff Hawkins is well known as co-founder of two companies, Palm and Handspring, and as the architect of many computing products such as the PalmPilot and Treo smartphone. Throughout his life Jeff has also had a deep interest in neuroscience and theories of the neocortex. His interest in the brain led him to create the non-profit Redwood Neuroscience Institute (RNI), a scientific institute focused on understanding how the human neocortex processes information. While at RNI, Hawkins developed a theory of neocortex which appeared in his 2004 book, On Intelligence.

With the team of Dileep George and Donna Dubinsky, Hawkins founded Numenta in 2005 to develop a technology platform derived from his theory. It is his hope that Numenta will play a catalytic role in creating an industry based on this theory and technology.

Jeff Hawkins earned his B.S. in electrical engineering from Cornell University in 1979. He was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2003.

Subrah Iyar 

Founder &Former CEO, WebEx (DEMO Debut: WebEx, 1999)

Mr Subrah S. Iyar is a leading visionary, pioneer and technopreneur in the Software-as-a-Service industry (SaaS) having co-founded WebEx Communications with Mr. Min Zhu in 1996, and leading the business as the Chairman &CEO through the IPO on NASDAQ in 2000 and its recent acquisition by Cisco in 2007 for US $3.2 billion in an all-cash transaction.

WebEx Communications was one of the most successful companies in Silicon Valley history and represents many pioneering achievements. The partnership of the founders represented a unique example of immigrants from China &India collaborating to produce a winning Leadership team. WebEx was the first company to offer web-conferencing services over the Internet and became a global brand leader in Web Communication Services. WebEx also spawned a variety of innovative usages including Distance Learning, Online Sales & Support, Remote Design, etc. that have had tremendous positive impact on the global business community. Mr. Iyar led WebEx through a continuous cycle of innovation and growth launching it's services from ground zero in 1999 to over $400 million annual revenues, 25% operating margins and a 67% market share in 2007. At the time of the acquisition, WebEx had over 3,000 employees operating from Silicon Valley with 3 software design centers in China and 1 in India. He is currently working with Cisco's CEO Mr. John Chambers as the Chief Strategy Officer to establish Cisco as a leader in the Software as a Service (SaaS) arena through it's WebExConnect platform. He has also helped Cisco forge relationships with the Dubai Real Estate Board, Verizon, BT and is currently in discussions with SingTel.

Mr Iyar is most respected for his leadership and vision in establishing and scaling the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) business model. This replaced expensive software purchases by companies allowing the smallest of companies and individuals to access the best quality of Software Services On-Demand over the Internet. He has also authored a leading book about the SaaS movement and Web 2.0 titled "Why Buy the Cow ?" which discusses the On-Demand revolution that is powering the new knowledge economy.

Mr. Iyar has been an innovator in the high tech industry for over 25 years having previously held senior positions with Intel, Apple Computer, Quarterdeck and Teleos Research. He holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Bombay and an M.S. in Computer Engineering from the University of Southwestern Louisiana.

Keng Lim 

Founder, Chairman &CEO, NextLabs (DEMO Debut: Kiva, 1997)

Keng Lim is the founder, chairman, and chief executive officer of NextLabs. As CEO he is responsible for the vision, leadership, strategic direction and successful growth of the company and its employees.

Mr. Lim is a proven entrepreneur and has built a distinguished executive management career in Silicon Valley. Over the last 18 years, he has built reputable internet and software companies including Approach Software, Kiva Software, Netscape, Escalate, and Sygate Technologies. He has been recognized by several key organizations as one of the industry's "most influential people on the Internet". ZDNet selected him as one of the "50 Smartest People" in 2000. Mr. Lim is known for his abilities to identify new markets and emerging technologies and to create new category-defining products. He holds directorships on multiple corporate boards.

Prior to NextLabs, Mr. Lim played a central role in launching Sygate Technologies, a leading provider of enterprise endpoint security and network access control software, with its founder Chris Guo in 1998. Mr. Lim served as Chairman until its acquisition by Symantec Corp. in 2005. Mr. Lim also founded Escalate in 1999, and grew it into a leading multi-channel order management software company. Escalate merged with GERS in August 2004 to form Escalate Retail. Prior to Escalate, Mr. Lim joined Netscape in 1997 as Vice President and General Manager of the Internet Application Platform &Web Server Products Division. He drove a large part of the Netscape's core infrastructure software business -- application server, web server, business process &content management, and Java script &Java development tools – and played a key role in transforming Netscape from a browser company into an infrastructure software company. Mr. Lim joined Netscape through its acquisition of application server pioneer, Kiva Software which Mr. Lim founded in 1995 and served as Chairman and CEO. At Kiva, he was credited as one of the inventors of the Java application server and the J2EE standard. Mr. Lim pursued his first startup, Approach Software, a desktop relational database management software provider, which Lotus acquired in 1993, and began his career with Oracle Corporation.

Mr. Lim holds bachelor degrees with high distinction in Computer Science and Civil Engineering from the Ohio Northern University, and a master's degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He is a member of the Engineering Honor Society, Tau Beta Pi. In addition to his professional career, Mr. Lim has been very active with the community and professional bodies in Silicon Valley. He is a frequent speaker of the entrepreneurial and high-tech industry events to share his entrepreneurial experience and vision on the evolution of the Internet and software industry.

Kevin Lynch 

CTO, Senior VP, Experience &Technology Organization, Adobe Systems (DEMO Debut: Adobe Systems (for Air/Flex), 2007)

As chief technology officer and senior vice president, Experience &Technology Organization, Kevin Lynch oversees Adobe's experience design and core technology across business units. This role includes driving Adobe's technology platform for designers and developers across desktops and devices, including Adobe® Flash® Player, Portable Document Format (PDF), Adobe Flex® and Adobe AIR™, the cross-operating system application runtime that bridges the computing power and data capabilities of the desktop with the real-time dynamic capabilities of the web. He also oversees Adobe's developer relations program, including the integration of customers and partners in the development process through Adobe Labs and customer advisory councils.

Prior to being named CTO in 2008, Lynch served as senior vice president and chief software architect for Adobe's Platform Business Unit. Lynch joined Adobe through the company's 2005 acquisition of Macromedia, Inc., where he served as chief software architect and president of product development. He headed up the creation of the company's mobile and devices group and served as general manager of the web publishing group. Lynch also oversaw the initial development of Macromedia® Dreamweaver®, a leading web development product.

Before joining Macromedia in 1996, Lynch worked for General Magic, where he pioneered a navigational user interface for handheld communicators. Previously, he designed the user interface and developed the first Macintosh release of FrameMaker® software for Frame Technology, later acquired by Adobe. While at the University of Illinois, Lynch developed early Macintosh applications, including a desktop publishing program that introduced user interface elements in common use today.

Lynch holds three patents with others currently pending, and he is involved in Adobe's international standards efforts with organizations such as the W3C, ECMA and ISO. Lynch studied interactive computer graphics at the University of Illinois, working with artists and engineers in the Electronic Visualization Laboratory.

Teresa Meng 

Reid Weaver Dennis Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Stanford University (DEMO Debut: Atheros Communciations, 1999)

Teresa H. Meng is the Reid Weaver Dennis Professor of Electrical Engineering at Stanford University. Her research activities during her first 10 years at Stanford focused on low-power circuit and system design, video signal processing, and wireless communications. In 1999, Dr. Meng took leave from Stanford and founded Atheros Communications, where she revolutionized wireless connectivity with her development of low-cost Wi-Fi® semiconductors in the 5GHz band. Having successfully launched ATheros, Dr. Meng returned to Stanford in 2000 to continue her research and teaching at the University.

In addition to having received the DEMO@15 World-Class Innovator Award, Dr. Meng has been honored with the 2009 IEEE Donald O. Pederson Award, the McKnight Technological Innovations in Neurosciences Award in 2007, the Distinguished Lecturer Award from the IEEE Signal Processing Society in 2004, the Bosch Faculty Scholar Award in 2003, the Innovator of the Year Award by MIT Sloan School eBA in 2002, the CIO 20/20 Vision Award in 2002, being named one of the Top 10 Entrepreneurs by Red Herring in 2001, a Best Paper Award from the IEEE Signal Processing Society, an NSF Presidential Young Investigator Award, an ONR Young Investigator Award, and an IBM Faculty Development Award, all in 1989, and the Eli Jury Award from U.C. Berkeley in 1988.

Today, Dr. Meng's current research interests are in bio-implant technologies, neural signal processing and non-invasive medical treatments using focused EM energy. She has given plenary talks at major conferences in the areas of signal processing and wireless communications. She is the author of one book, several book chapters, and over 200 technical articles in journals and conferences. Dr. Meng is a Fellow of the IEEE and a member of the National Academy of Engineering. She received her M.S. and Ph.D. in EECS from the University of California at Berkeley and her B.S. from National Taiwan University.

Andy Rubin 

Vice President, Engineering, Google (DEMO Debut: Danger Research, 2001)

Andy joined Google in 2005 is responsible for the overall product strategy and development of the Android platform. Prior to joining Google, Andy was founder and CEO of Android, a company he incubated as an entrepreneur in residence at Redpoint Ventures. Android was acquired by Google in 2005. Previously, Andy was president and chief executive officer of Danger Inc. where he helped create the Sidekick, one of the first consumer data devices. Earlier, Andy was instrumental in building and shipping WebTV, the first interactive television-based Internet service, which was acquired by Microsoft in 1995. He also led the effort to ship the Motorola Envoy, one of the first wireless PDAs for General Magic, and helped design the first host-based software modem for Apple Computer. Andy began his career as a software engineer for Carl Zeiss A.G., maker of industrial and consumer optical products.

Andy is the author of numerous patents in wireless communications.