SPEAKERS

---

Jeffrey Barr of Amazon:

Amazon.com has thrown open the doors to its data and technology, and issued a challenge to software developers -- surprise us. More than 120,000 software developers are using Amazon Web Services to build their own businesses that cater to Amazon's shopping customers or retailers who sell through Amazon.com. Jeff Barr, technology evangelist at Amazon.com, will talk about the reasons Amazon decided to open up its data and technology, the challenges in doing so, and how the company is helping developers succeed as innovators and entrepreneurs. Jeff will also address Amazon's own use of Linux and OSS.

Mike Balma of HP:

Mike is an HP Linux Business Strategist within HP's Open Source and Linux Organization (OSLO). Mike has helped drive HP's strategy for Linux and open source across HP since 1999. Mike is a member of HP's Open Source Review Board that reviews HP open source projects and the use of open source software for HP commercial products. Currently, he drives HP's Linux strategy in the public sector with a focus on security related technologies and certifications.

Mike is on the board of directors for the Open-Source Software Institute whose mission is to promote open source software for government applications. Mike has represented HP at the Open Source Development Lab and the Free Standards Group.

Mike has been with HP for 23 years and has lead several HP efforts creating industry solution architectures.

Rana Dutt of Softel Solutions:

Rana Dutt is Founder and CEO of Softel Solutions, a Telecom Solution Provider specializing in large scale IP PBX deployments and hosted PBX solutions. Prior to founding Softel, he was Chief Technology Officer at Flash Networks, where he conceived a successful strategy to provide data compression solutions for Cellular Providers. Before that he was Lead Architect and developer for much of the Call Processing and Voice Mail software for Avaya's Merlin Legend PBX and Partner Key Systems, which were two of the most popular phone systems for small businesses in the U.S. Rana holds a patent in Store and Forward Technology earned at Bell Labs, and has a M.S. in Computer Science from U.C. Berkeley.

Gordon Bruce

Gordon Bruce (M.B.A.) is well known in the .tech. industry. Gordon is the Director of the Department of Information Technology and CIO for the City and County of Honolulu, the 13th largest City in the United States. He is also the Managing Member . GJB and Associates LLC, an international consulting firm providing strategic planning, business process engineering, systems integration, research, teleport consulting/management, and security consulting in government, healthcare, education, trust, commercial real estate and non-profit corporations. (The Mayor keeps me so busy I don.t have much time for my consulting firm right now).

He was formerly an adjunct professor at the University of Hawaii, and Hawaii Pacific University. He presently instructs at the Japan-America Institute of Management Science. He was the co-founder and host of ThinkTechHawaii Radio, on Hawaii Public Radio, an affiliate of National Public Radio.

He has a Masters Degree (graduating with honors) in International Business from Hawaii Pacific University. He has over 25 years of experience in the tech industry. In his past, he was the Chief Information Officer for the Estate of James Campbell, and helped pioneer that organization.s vision of a teleport and tech park in Kapolei that was awarded International Teleport Development of the Year in 2000 . the first US teleport to receive this prestigious award. He is the former CIO of the Queen.s Medical Center, one of the top 200 non-profit hospitals in the United States. He is contributing Author, Information Technology Parks of the Asia Pacific: Lessons in the Regional Digital Divide, has been featured in many technology publications, and was recently awarded the prestigious Paul C.T. Loo Distinguished Young Alumni award from Hawaii Pacific University.

Tom Welch of Linspire

Tom has had a long career in software development and technology. Since 1985 Tom has developed many commercially distributed applications in a diverse number of industries. Many of the products that Tom has developed have been best sellers and have achieved critical acclaim for their ease of use and functionality.

In 1990 Tom developed the original version of Ascend software for Franklin Covey which has been recognized with numerous industry awards and accolades. After leaving Franklin Covey in 1994, Tom started Axiom Technologies. Axiom Technologies specialized in commercial quality software development for clients such as Franklin Covey Co., Rexall Corporation, and Shaklee Corporation. The software that Tom and Axiom produced has enjoyed world-wide distribution.

Under Tom's leadership, Axiom grew to be the one of the largest software development shop in the state of Utah. Tom sold Axiom Technologies to KnowledgeTrack Corporation in 1999. After serving as CEO and President of KnowledgeTrack Professional Services Tom resigned in 2001 to become the CTO for Linspire.

Tom is active in the open source community and is a respected authority in various topics relevant to Linux and the open source world. With a strong business and technical background Tom has the unique ability to merge the technical issues of Linux on the desktop and open source software with the business needs of today.

Admiral Richard C. Macke

Admiral Macke was selected for flag rank and upon leaving the IKE reported as the Commander of the Naval Space Command where he led initiatives to enhance space support to tactical warriors. Next, he reported as the Commander of Carrier Group TWO in March of 1988, where he completed a deployment to the Mediterranean and in January 1990 was selected for sequential command and became Commander Carrier Group FOUR. Admiral Macke was then nominated by President Bush to serve in the grade of Vice Admiral as the Director for Command, Control, Communications and Computer (C4) System (J6) on the Joint Staff in the Pentagon. In December 1992, General Colin Powell chose Admiral Macke to serve as the Director of the Joint Staff.

Admiral Macke was nominated and confirmed for the four star grade of Admiral and left the Joint Staff to become the Commander in Chief, US Pacific Command in July 1994. He commanded all the United States Military Forces in a region encompassing over 50 percent of the earth's surface until his retirement in January 1996.

Following retirement, Admiral Macke became the Senior Vice President, Pacific Rim Operations for Wheat International Communications Corporation headquartered in Reston, Virginia. The Hawaii Office, under his direction, became the revenue leader for the company. He now has started his own company, Warrior Information Technologies, LLC, in Hawaii where he resides with his wife Susie.

Click here for a complete bio.

John H. Terpstra of PrimaStasys

John H Terpstra is CEO/President with PrimaStasys, Inc. A company that mentors Information Technology companies and facilitates profitable change in practices.

John is a well known contributor and visionary in the open source community with a very active commercial focus. He is co-founder of the Samba-Team, and a member of the Open Source Software Institute Advisory Board. He has worked with the LSB, Li18nux (now OpenI18N.Org), is a best selling author of "The Official Samba-3 HOWTO and Reference Guide", "Samba-3 by Example", "Hardening Linux" and has other books in production. John is a well regarded author and contributor to Linux for business web sites and magazines.

John is an accomplished presenter who has captured the minds of audiences around the world with compelling information regarding the use of Linux and Open Source software. He is a strong advocate for the sharing of knowledge without intellectual property constraint, but at the same time favors a high degree of confidentiality in respect of business methods.

John has worked with The SCO Group (previously Caldera Inc.), TurboLinux Inc., in VP level positions. Prior to moving to the USA in 1999, John founded and managed Aquasoft Pty Ltd (Aust.) for 10 years.

He has a Graduate Diploma in Marketing (with Credit), UTS Aust. and an Applied Science Certificate in Chemistry, QUT (Aust.).

Andre Hill of Novell

Andre Hill is responsible for leading the development of both Novell's technical and go-to-market programs related to enterprise Linux software and related solutions portfolio. Additionally, as Director of Novell's Linux Program Office, Mr. Hill's responsibilities include involvement in the development of product road maps, the creation of integrated solution offerings and development of Novell's overall technical Linux strategy.

Prior to joining Novell, Mr. Hill was the Practice Executive in Dell's Enterprise Solutions product organization. He was responsible for all aspects of the group's Enterprise Architecture (enterprise servers, storage, Linux, Oracle and ERP) division - including technology strategy, product bundling, customer evangelism, executive customer interaction, and engagement methodology and skills development. He was formerly the Chief Technology Officer for Dell Professional Services and Solutions organization.

Prior to joining Dell, Mr. Hill was previously the Managing Director of Lotus/IBM's Worldwide Business Solutions Division. In that role he was responsible for integrating the IBM Websphere and Lotus Domino product lines and the entire life-cycle for the division's collaboration software products. These responsibilities included oversight on systems architecture and development, product marketing and maintenance, as well as divisional profit and loss.

While at Lotus, Mr. Hill also was Chief Technology Officer for both Lotus' Worldwide Product Solutions division and its Worldwide Professional Services organization. In these roles he was responsible for, among others: integration between services and core product development, services delivery methodology, management of regionally deployed technology architects, executive relationships with Lotus' top accounts and leadership on key product or services "critical situations". He also had responsibility around Lotus' integration into the IBM's overall product and services strategy.

Mr. Hill was recognized as a distinguished scholar at the University of Maryland, College Park, where he majored in the Physical Sciences - with degree concentrations in Engineering, Computer Science and Physics.

Jim Thompson of Netgate

Jim Thompson was Director of Product Development at Vivato. Prior to joining Vivato, Jim Thompson founded and served as the chief technology officer at Musenki, a developer of secure, open-source wireless networking products targeted at original equipment manufacturers, wireless Internet service providers, and public access (hot spot) providers. Prior to that, Mr. Thompson was the chief technology officer and vice president of engineering at Wayport, where he designed and built Everywire, a series of products created to bring Internet access into public spaces. Prior to leaving Wayport, Jim architected and championed Wayport's move to a 100 percent wireless network. Jim Thompson was also founder and chief technology officer of Smallworks, an Internet security technology supplier to Cisco, Sterling Commerce (acquired by Computer Associates), Quadritek (acquired by Lucent), Competitive Automation (acquired by @Home), Wells Fargo, Cadence and Monsanto; Director of Engineering for Tadpole Technology; and Network Operations Center Manager for Sun Microsystems.

Aaron Seigo

Aaron Seigo is a full-time KDE developer, Open Source advocate, writer and public speaker with over 10 years industry experience. He is both a participant and recognized leader in the Open Source desktop community, working on projects such as the Plasma desktop and FreeDesktop.org.