Jimmy "Jimbo" Wales is the founder of Wikipedia.org, the free encyclopedia project, and Wikia.com, which extends the social concepts of Wikipedia into new areas.  Jimmy was formerly a futures and options trader in Chicago, and currently travels the world evangelizing the success of Wikipedia and the importance of
free culture.

In January of 2001, Wales started Wikipedia, which was originally intended to be a wiki-based site for collaboration on early encyclopedic content for submission to Nupedia, but Wikipedia's rapid growth soon outstripped Nupedia's process capacity to review new content. Wales has said that he initially was so worried with the concept that he would wake up in the middle of the night, wanting to check the site for vandalism.

In mid-2003, Wales set up the Wikimedia Foundation, a non-profit organisation based in St. Petersburg, Florida, to support Wikipedia and its younger sibling projects. He appointed himself and two business partners who are not active Wikipedians to the five-member board; the remaining two members are elected community representatives.

Wales has explained his motivations about Wikipedia in an interview with Slashdot: "Imagine a world in which every single person on the planet is given free access to the sum of all human knowledge. That's what we're doing."

Wales co-founded Wikia, Inc. with Angela Beesley in 2004 to provide community-based wikis inspired by the model of Wikipedia.

Wikia is a consumer destination site where you can read, discuss and share information and opinions on any topic and in any language. Wikia currently has over 500,000 pages of content in more than 55 languages and generates over 80 million page views per month.

When not travelling, Jimmy lives in Florida with his wife and daughter.

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Carly Fiorina is a best-selling author, sought-after speaker and business
commentator, strategic advisor to business and government and a
philanthropist.

Throughout an extraordinary career in business, she successfully blazed new trails and defied the odds. Carly Fiorina was the first and, to date, only woman to lead a Fortune 20 company. Serving as the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Hewlett-Packard Company from 1999 to 2005, she led the reinvention of the legendary company, steering it through the dot-com bust, the worst technology recession in 25 years and the controversial merger with Compaq Computer, now acknowledged to be the most successful merger in high-tech history. In keeping with more than six decades of Hewlett-Packard corporate stewardship, and during a time when corporations made up 51 of the 100 largest economies in the world, Fiorina called for a new era of leadership, one in which corporate leaders have an opportunity to redefine the role of the corporation, to use profit engines to raise the capabilities, extend the hopes, and extinguish despair of people across the globe.

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John A. Swainson is president and chief executive officer of CA and a member of the company's Board of Directors. During three decades in the Information Technology (IT) industry, John has developed a rare combination of management expertise and technology vision that he is applying to the transformation of CA.

Under John's leadership, CA has increased its global presence and focused on its core strengths in systems, networks, security and storage management for the enterprise. At the same time, John has strengthened the company's management team, simplified its business unit structure, streamlined its distribution channels and fostered greater innovation across the company. John has also leveraged CA's deep expertise and broad product portfolio to define a unique vision to unify and simplify the management of IT across the enterprise. This vision—known as Enterprise IT Management—encompasses an integrated yet modular approach across security, storage, systems, devices and network functions.

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Harpal Kumar gained a Masters in Chemical Engineering from Cambridge University and an MBA as a Baker Scholar from Harvard Business School. After working as a research scientist with the UK Atomic Energy Authority, Harpal worked for McKinsey and Co for four years, specialising in pharmaceuticals. He then became CEO of The Papworth Trust, which focuses on pioneering rehabilitation and housing services for people with acquired and congenital disabilities. Harpal then became founding CEO of Nexan Group, a medical device company creating and marketing novel cardio-respiratory monitoring technologies to reduce premature mortality in heart failure patients.

Harpal joined Cancer Research Technology Limited (CRT) in October 2002 to effect the merger of the former technology transfer companies of the Imperial Cancer Research Fund and Cancer Research Campaign. He became Chief Operating Officer of Cancer Research UK in July 2004, responsible for the strategic direction and operational management of the charity. He subsequently became Chief Executive in April 2007. Harpal is a Board Member of the National Cancer Research Institute and the UK Clinical Research Collaboration and a Trustee of the Institute of Cancer Research. He is Chairman of the Beatson Institute of Cancer Research and the Gray Laboratory Cancer Research Trust. He also sits on the Cancer Reform Strategy Advisory Board.

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Peter Guber is the Chairman and CEO of the Mandalay Entertainment Group, which specializes in motion pictures, television, sports entertainment and new media. Over the course of his illustrious thirty year career, Guber's films have earned more than $3 billion worldwide and more than 50 Academy Award nominations, including the Best Picture Oscar for Rainman. He is a sought after speaker, and appears every Sunday morning on as the co-host of the critically acclaimed AMC cable show, 'Sunday Morning Shootout', which is based on his best selling book. Guber is a full professor at the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television and has been a member of the faculty for over 30 years.

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A Silicon Valley icon and philanthropist for the past three decades, Steve Wozniak 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. For his achievements at Apple Computer, Steve was awarded the National Medal of Technology by the President of the United States in 1985, the highest honor bestowed on America’s leading innovators.

In 2000, Steve was inducted into the Inventors Hall of Fame and was awarded the prestigious Heinz Award for Technology, The Economy and Employment for “single-handedly designing the first personal computer and for then redirecting his lifelong passion for mathematics and electronics toward lighting the fires of excitement for education in grade school students and their teachers.”

Making significant investments of both his time and resources in education, Wozniak “adopted” the Los Gatos School District, providing students and teachers with hands-on teaching and donations of state-of-the-art technology equipment. Wozniak founded the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and was the founding sponsor of the Tech Museum, Silicon Valley Ballet and Children’s Discovery Museum of San Jose.

Steve Wozniak is currently executive vice president, chief technology officer and chief visionary officer for Jazz Technologies, Inc. (formerly Acquicor Technology Inc.), which recently acquired Jazz Semiconductor. He co-founded the company with two other former Apple executives, Gilbert F. Amelio and Ellen M. Hancock. The company produces analog and mixed-signal semiconductor devices using specialty process technologies, including silicon germanium processes. Integrating analog and digital components on a single, mixed-signal semiconductor enables smaller and more highly integrated, power-efficient, feature-rich and cost-effective semiconductor devices.

Steve is also a published author with the release of his autobiography, iWoz: From Computer Geek to Cult Icon, in September 2006 by Norton Publishing.

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Richard Branson was born in 1950, and educated at Stowe School, where he established a national magazine called Student at the age of sixteen.  He started a Student Advisory Centre aged 17 to help young people.   In 1970 he founded Virgin as a mail order record retailer and shortly thereafter opened a record shop in Oxford Street, London.  During 1972 a recording studio was built in Oxfordshire where the first Virgin artist, Mike Oldfield, recorded "Tubular Bells" which was released in 1973.   The equity of Virgin Music Group - record labels, music publishing, and recording studios was sold to THORN EMI in 1992 in a US$1Bn deal.
 
Virgin Atlantic Airways, formed in 1984, is now the second largest British long haul international airline and operates a fleet of Boeing 747 and Airbus A340 aircraft to New York, Miami, Boston, Los Angeles, Orlando, San Francisco, Hong Kong, Johannesburg, Tokyo, Las Vegas, Delhi, Lagos, Port Harcourt, Shanghai and the Caribbean.
 
During 1997 Virgin took over Britain’s two most run-down rail franchises, CrossCountry and the West Coast Main Line. Virgin is currently engaged in a £2 billion fleet replacement programme to create one of the most modern rail networks in the world by the end of 2004.
 
In 2003, the combined sales of the different Virgin holding companies exceeded £4.7 billion. In addition to his own business activities Richard is a trustee of several charities including the Virgin Healthcare Foundation, a leading health care charity which was responsible for the launch of a health education campaign relating to AIDS in 1987.    His help in the initial funding of Charity Projects helped that organisation to raise over £100 million through campaigns such as Comic Relief and many other charities.  In the summer of 2004, Richard launched Virgin Unite as a vehicle to pull together all the resources of the Virgin Group internationally and most importantly Virgin’s best asset – it’s people, to tackle some of the tougher challenges facing the world today, in particular, Malaria, HIV/AIDS and TB.
 
Since 1985, Richard has been involved in a number of world record breaking attempts.  In 1986 his boat, "Virgin Atlantic Challenger II" rekindled the spirit of the Blue Riband by crossing the Atlantic Ocean in the fastest ever recorded time.  This was followed a year later by the epic hot air balloon crossing of the same ocean in "Virgin Atlantic Flyer" which was not only the first hot-air balloon to cross the Atlantic but was the largest ever flown at 2.3 million cubic feet capacity and reached speeds in excess of 130 miles per hour (209 k/ph).


In January 1991, he crossed the Pacific Ocean from Japan to Arctic Canada, the furthest distance of 6,700 miles again breaking all existing records with speeds of up to 245 miles -per hour, in a balloon of 2.6 million cubic feet.  Between 1995 and 1998 Richard Branson, Per Lindstrand and Steve Fossett (who joined the team after the sad death of Alex Ritchie), made a number of attempts to circumnavigate the globe by balloon.
 
In December 1999 Richard Branson was awarded a knighthood in the Queen’s millennium  New Years honours list for “services to entrepreneurship”.  


Richard currently lives in London and Oxfordshire, and is married with two children.

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John F. Killian is President of Verizon Business, which provides global telecommunications services to large business and government customers. He comes to this role after serving as senior vice president and chief financial officer for Verizon's Domestic Telecom group.

Killian began his communications career 27 years ago and has held positions of increasing responsibility in operations and finance, including: district manager-Budgets for New England Telephone, and district manager-Financial Assurance from 1981 to 1983 with AT&T; general manager - operations for Eastern Massachusetts from 1983 to 1985; division manager - Market Planning for NYNEX from 1985 to 1987; president of Rhode Island, for NYNEX - New England from 1987 to 1991; and vice president - Massachusetts, for NYNEX-New England.

In 1995, Killian was appointed president and chief executive officer of NYNEX CableComms Limited, responsible for all activities for one of the largest telecommunications, information services and entertainment companies in the United Kingdom. After the Bell Atlantic / NYNEX merger in 1997, he served as group president-International Telecommunications for Bell Atlantic. He was then appointed vice president - Investor Relations and was the corporation's primary liaison with the investment community.

After the Bell Atlantic / GTE merger in 2000, Killian was appointed senior vice president - Customer Operations for Verizon's National Operations Group, responsible for domestic telecom national operations in the northern half of the United States. He subsequently served as senior vice president and controller for Verizon, responsible for corporate-wide accounting, public finance reporting and budget analysis.

Prior to joining AT&T in 1979, Killian worked as a certified public accountant for Peat, Marwick, Mitchell & Co. in Providence, Rhode Island.

Killian received a Bachelor of Science degree - Magna Cum Laude, from Providence College in 1977, where he received "The Wall St. Journal Award" and "The Rhode Island Society of Certified Public Accountants Award." He also received a master's degree from Bentley College.

Killian currently serves on the Board of Directors at ConEdison, Inc. and is a Trustee on the Boards of Providence College and the National Urban League.

He is married with two children.

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Warren East became Chief Executive Officer of ARM in 2001, after seven years in a variety of executive positions at the company. Before joining ARM, he was with Texas Instruments where he contributed to a range of projects in the areas of analogue telephony, local area networks, before moving later to work on the Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) business.

This year, under Warren’s leadership, ARM is celebrating ten years of ARM Powered mobile phones and the shipment of over ten billion processors by its customers. It is also the fifteenth anniversary of the launch of the ARM7 processor core, which is today the most widely used processor core on the planet. In addition to driving more than 90% of today’s mobile phones, ARM technology can be found at the heart of most advanced digital products – from wireless, networking and consumer entertainment solutions to imaging, automotive, security and storage devices. With current product development cycles, technology developed by ARM today will be enriching the lives of consumers over the next decade or more.

Warren is a chartered engineer, FIEE, a Companion of the Chartered Management Institute and a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering. He is a non-executive director of Reciva Limited and of De La Rue plc.

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Charles Giancarlo is President & Chief Executive Officer of Avaya, responsible for the overall strategy, direction and operations of the corporation. Avaya is a leading global provider of business communications applications, systems and services.
Giancarlo is a seasoned industry executive with more than 25 years of experience in the communications industry. Earlier in his career, he held a number of senior executive roles at Cisco Systems, most recently as Executive Vice President and Chief Development Officer, and President of Cisco-Linksys. During his 14 years at Cisco, Giancarlo led many of the company's key business and technology initiatives.
Giancarlo holds a B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from Brown University, an M.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of California at Berkeley, and an M.B.A. from Harvard University.

Enrique Salem serves as chief operating officer, with responsibility for global product development, sales, marketing and IT.

Most recently, Salem served as group president, Worldwide Sales and Marketing, and managed global sales and partner programs, marketing, communications and branding. Previously, Salem was group president, Consumer Business Unit, with responsibility for the overall consumer business worldwide. In this role, Salem was responsible for engineering, sales, alliances, marketing, public relations and customer care.

Prior to that, Salem was Symantec's senior vice president of Security Products and Solutions, leading Symantec's security product group including both enterprise and consumer. Before that, he led the Network and Gateway Security Solutions group.

Before joining Symantec, Salem was president and CEO of Brightmail, the leading anti-spam software that was successfully acquired by Symantec in 2004. Before Brightmail, he served as senior vice president of products and technology at Oblix Inc., where he spearheaded corporate strategy and development by leading the company's engineering, product management, and technology groups. Before Oblix, he was vice president of technology and operations at Ask Jeeves Inc., where he was responsible for the engineering group and the company's entire IT operation. Prior to that, he led the security business unit at Symantec, helping to grow the unit's revenue from $200 million to $460 million over a three year period.

Earlier in his career, Salem was a vice president at Security Pacific Merchant Bank, where he led projects for the development of real-time trading systems.

Salem received a bachelor's degree in computer science from Dartmouth College. He was named 2007 Corporate Executive of the Year by Hispanic Net as well as 2004 Entrepreneur of the Year by Ernst and Young.

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Sharon Greene is Managing Director of RISC International, a Consumer Behaviour and Trends consultancy assisting global companies to design long term strategies through interpreting consumer behaviour information and anticipating future consumer trends around the world.

Every year, RISC International's permanent field research investigates lifestyle, values, attitudes and consumption patterns/behaviour of approximately 35 000 people in the same 11 markets, in Western and Eastern Europe, North and Latin America and Asia. Since 1986, RISC International has thus conducted more than 1,500,000 interviews in more than 50 countries around the world.

This unique capability allows not only to precisely quantify complex consumer behaviour information across the world, but also to consistently compare historical and geographical facts, in turn enabling accurate anticipation of future consumer trends.

A multi-cultural business leader, Sharon has built a career combining far-reaching marketing expertise, in particular in Convergence Technology sectors. Born and educated in Ireland, Sharon first worked as a designer in Italy, before converting to a career in sales and marketing in London. In 1995, she moved to France where she completed an MBA and took a marketing role in the financial sector in Paris. At the end of the 90's, she joined an Interactive (Web) Agency as Director of the Consulting Department.

Sharon joined RISC International in 2004 as head of the Convergence Technologies Group, and became the company MD in 2006. Sharon holds both positions and works with global Technology, Telecommunications and Electronics companies putting consumer understanding at the heart of their business and product strategy.