Michael Bernard, CEO The Bampton Group
The Bampton Group is a transatlantic venture management and advisory firm focused on the global expansion of technology businesses. Michael has over thirty years of experience developing and leading US and international sales and business development operations for both US and non-US companies. A serial entrepreneur, Michael has started more than six companies. He has been a board member and senior manager of a wide range of privately held and publicly traded technology businesses.
As part of his long-term interest in startups and supporting entrepreneurs, he also provides mentoring and advisory services to startup CEOs in the US, Europe and Latin America. These firms represent a diverse mix of technology, such as clean tech, video analytics and enterprise software, and more traditional businesses, such as printing and catering.
James P. Chappell, Managing Partner, Double Eagle Management Group
Jim Chappell sees the forest AND the trees. With more than 25 years of experience in the high technology industry, Jim has built a successful track record as a senior executive who effectively combines big picture thinking with the knowledge of the internal workings of an organization. Incisive decision-making mixed with collaborative management skills is critical to his ability to marshal an organization’s resources to align with on-going change events that affect the customer life cycle and create significant value for the company’s stakeholders.
Dan Gordon, Co-Founder, Gordon Biersch Brewing Company
Dan Gordon has earned a reputation for being one of America’s premier brewing engineers during his 20-year tenure at Gordon Biersch Brewery. Dan personally supervises the 114,000 square foot state-of-the-art brewing and bottling facility built in 1997 in San Jose, California.
Dan is the first American in more than 40 years to graduate from the prestigious five-year brewing program at the world-renowned Technical University of Munich in Weihenstephan, West Germany. As part of his training, Dan interned at the famed Spaten Brewery in Munich and Anheuser Busch.
Following graduation, Dan returned to his native California and joined forces with restaurateur Dean Biersch to open the first Gordon Biersch Brewery Restaurant in Palo Alto in 1988. In addition to his brewing resume, Dan is also a talented chef and is the creator of the trademarked and wildly popular Gordon Biersch Garlic Fries™.
Bruce JM Knopf, Director Asset and Economic Development, County of Santa Clara
Bruce is responsible for implementing the County’s program for regional economic development. The County collaborates with the 15 cities located within its boundaries for mutually beneficial economic development activities, as well as with other entities such as Joint Venture Silicon Valley Network, the Silicon Valley Leadership Group, and with educational and nonprofit institutions.
Bruce is also responsible for County asset development, such as the lease or sale of surplus County land for commercial or residential development for the purpose of generating new revenues for the County.
Greg Meyer, Community Relations Manager, Meriwest Credit Union
A lifelong resident of the San Mateo Peninsula in California’s San Francisco Bay Area, Greg Meyer has spent over 30 years in commercial and consumer banking and has been an auditor, operations manager, branch manager and community relations director. After 27 years in commercial banking, he joined Meriwest Credit Union in 2007 to be their Community Relations Manager. In this position he works to create relationships with community organizations and schools that serve the public’s need to understand financial services.
Kris Stadelman, Director of North Valley (NOVA) Workforce Board
The City of Sunnyvale named Kris Stadelman the new director for the North Valley (NOVA) Workforce Board. Stadelman comes to NOVA after nine years as the chief executive officer for the Workforce Development Council of Seattle – King County, Wash.
NOVA is a nonprofit, federally-funded employment and training agency that provides customer-focused workforce development services. NOVA works closely with local businesses, educators and job seekers to ensure programs provide opportunities that build the knowledge, skills and attitudes necessary to address the workforce needs of Silicon Valley.
Brad Vernon, Senior Architect/Engineer, Alcatel-Lucent
Brad’s passion for technology has allowed him to work NASA Ames Research Center, Institute of Research and Learning (IRL) and the NASA funded Digital Clubhouse Network. Brad CTO at StudioFX an early broadcaster of original television content before founding Shark Media a web design and development house.
Most recently Brad has been sharing his technological skills with Alcatel-Lucent working in the OpenAPI Service group as Senior Architect/Engineer.