Richard Stallman, President, Free Software Foundation

Richard Stallman launched the development of the GNU operating system in 1984. GNU is free software: everyone has the freedom to copy it and redistribute it, as well as to make changes either large or small. The GNU/Linux system, basically the GNU operating system with Linux added, is used on tens of millions of computers today. Stallman has received the ACM Grace Hopper Award, a MacArthur Foundation fellowship, the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s Pioneer award, and the the Takeda Award for Social/Economic Betterment, as well as several honorary doctorates.

Barton George, Group Manager, GNU/Linux Strategy and Product Management

Barton is responsible for Sun’s GNU/Linux strategy and product management. He is a member of Sun’s Open Source group and manages Sun’s relationships with Linux vendors such as Red Hat, Novell and Ubuntu. He has also recently taken on management of the company’s relationship with the Free Software Foundation.

Barton has been at Sun for over 10 years in a variety of roles from advertising to manufacturing operations to product management. He is co-author of the book “Hello World(s) — From Code to Culture : A 10 Year Celebration of Java Technology.” Prior to Sun Microsystems, Barton worked at Johnson & Johnson consumer products in product management. He started his career at Sony in Tokyo in their workstation division.

Originally from Honolulu, Hawaii and a graduate of Punahou school, Barton holds a Master’s of Business Administration from Harvard Business School. He received his undergraduate degree from Williams College in English.

Dave Roberts, Vice President Strategy and Marketing, Vyatta Inc.

Dave has almost two decades of experience in networking, computer engineering and strategic product development. Prior to his current role as Vice President of Strategy and Marketing at Vyatta, Dave was the co-founder, CTO, and Vice President of Strategy at Inkra networks where he provided the product and strategy direction that captured a tier-one customer base including IBM, EDS, AT&T, and NEC. Prior to Inkra, Dave was Vice President of Product Management for Nortel Networks, responsible for product strategy and definition related to the company’s line of Layer 2 and Layer 3 Ethernet switches and campus ATM switches. Additionally, Dave forged key strategic alliances and OEM relationships. Dave has also held management positions at Bay Networks, Rapid City Communications, Cabletron Systems, and ZeitNet, Inc., where he spearheaded Gigabit Ethernet and ATM product lines and strategic marketing initiatives. Dave began his career with engineering positions at Hewlett-Packard. Experienced in numerous networking and software technologies, Dave holds five patents, with more pending, and is the author of three books. Dave holds a B.S. degree in electrical and computer engineering from the University of California, Santa Barbara.