Keynotes & Plenary Sessions
Keynote Speakers
Plenary Sessions
Confirmed Keynote Speakers
DUY-LOAN T. LE, Senior Fellow & World Wide Advanced Technology Ramp Manager, Texas Instruments
Thursday, September 30th at 8:45 AM in rooms Centennial I-IV
Duy-Loan Le came to America with nothing but the clothes on her back at the age of 12. Four years later, Duy-Loan graduated as Valedictorian of her high school at 16. In 1982, she graduated from The University of Texas in Austin with BSEE Magna Cum Laude and started as a memory design engineer at the age of 19 with Texas Instruments. Duy-Loan received her MBA from The University of Houston in 1989. She is currently the World Wide Advanced Technology Ramp Manager, overseeing development projects using innovative technology, at Texas Instruments.
In 2002, Duy-Loan became the first Asian and the first woman to be elected to the rank of Senior Fellow (equivalent to a Senior Vice President on the management track), joining four men who held this prestigious title worldwide at the time at Texas Instruments (TI). Today Duy-Loan remains the only woman to hold this title in TI’s 80 years of history. Duy-Loan holds 23 patents with 7 pending applications. She has been featured in IEEE (the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) SPECTRUM, Asian Enterprise trade journals, a book titled “The Pride of Vietnamese”, and numerous local and international newspapers. Duy-Loan serves on the Board of Directors for National Instruments, a publicly traded company on NASDAQ headquartered in Austin. Duy-Loan is a registered Professional Engineer (PE) and is frequently invited to speak at Fortune 500 companies.
Duy-Loan has a very long list of accolades. Her favorites include Women in Technology International (WITI) Hall of Fame, National Technologist of the Year, TimesPeople, Asian American Engineer of The Year, Who’s Who in the World, Women of Vision: Leadership, PINK’s Top 15 Women in Business, VANG’s Golden Torch with United States Congressional Recognition for Civic Leadership. One of TI’s DSP chips, under Duy-Loan’s leadership, was recognized in 2004 Guinness World Records.
Duy-Loan’s service to the community is extensive. Among the many things that she does in America and internationally, she most enjoys providing education assistance for children and supporting social economic developments projects in 12 different countries through two 501c3 organizations, the Mona Foundation and the Sunflower Mission.
Duy-Loan Le has been married to her husband Tuan N. Dao for 27 years. She has two boys, Quy-Dan 16 and Quy-Don 13. She enjoys deep-sea fishing, reading, movie, classical music, painting, and playing poker. Duy-Loan also holds a black belt in Tae-Kwon-Do and has won several medals and trophies in the state of Texas.
CAROL BARTZChief Executive Officer, Yahoo!
Thursday, September 30th at 7:00 PM in rooms Centennial I-IV
Carol Bartz is the chief executive officer and a director of Yahoo!. Previously, Bartz served as executive chairman of the board of Autodesk, Inc. In April, 2006, she stepped down as chairman, president and CEO of Autodesk after 14 years with the company. During her tenure, the company diversified its product line and grew revenues from $285 million to $1.523 billion in FY06.
Bartz previously held positions at Sun Microsystems, most recently serving as vice president of worldwide field operations and an executive officer of the company. Before joining Sun, she held product line and sales management positions at Digital Equipment Corporation and 3M Corporation.
Bartz holds an honors degree in computer science from the University of Wisconsin. She was granted an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from the New Jersey Institute of Technology, an honorary Doctor of Science degree from Worcester Polytechnic Institute and an honorary Doctor of Letters degree from William Woods University.
BARBARA LISKOVInstitute Professor Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, MIT
Friday, October 1st at 8:45 AM in rooms Centennial I-IV
Barbara Liskov is an Institute Professor at MIT and also Associate Provost for Faculty Equity. She is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a fellow of the ACM.
Professor Liskov received the ACM Turing Award in 2009, the ACM SIGPLAN Programming Language Achievement Award in 2008, the IEEE Von Neumann medal in 2004, a lifetime achievement award from the Society of Women Engineers in 1996, and in 2003 was named one of the 50 most important women in science by Discover Magazine.
Her research interests include distributed systems, replication algorithms to provide fault-tolerance, programming methodology, and programming languages. Professor Liskov’s current research projects include Byzantine-fault-tolerant storage systems, peer-to-peer computing, and support for automatic deployment of software upgrades in large-scale distributed systems.
Technical Executive Plenary Panel: Collaborative leadership in driving innovation
Thursday, September 30th at 1:45 PM – Location: Centennial I-IV
Moderator: Rebecca Norlander, Executive in Residence, Illuminate Ventures
Confirmed Panelists:
- Amy Alving, Chief Technology Officer, SAIC
- Kelli Crane, Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer, Thomson Reuters
- Kalpana Margabandhu, Director of WebSphere Development, IBM India Software Lab
- Romea Smith, Senior Vice President – CA Technologies, Support
Session details: This plenary panel will provide an executive perspective on what skills are the most important for success in technical careers in industry, the key to successful technology leadership, and the career path for becoming a technology executive in the era of collaboration. In particular, the panelists will discuss:
- What advice do executives have for women who are considering the industry executive path? What lessons have they learned on their road to becoming an executive?
- How have they broken barriers to advancement?
- What should women consider in their career planning if they wish to become technology executives?
- What are the specific skills that women who want to become successful industry technologists should develop? What are the most important characteristics of successful technology executives?
- What is the role of collaboration in career success? Are women more suited to collaborative leadership?
- What are some of the ways executives leverage collaborative innovation models such as open innovation, crowdsourcing, employee-driven innovations, and open source?
- Are the leadership skills needed for success different across industry and geography? How will these skills evolve in the future?
Bios:
REBECCA NORLANDER
Rebecca started as a Software Design Engineer at Microsoft in 1991. Since then, she has traveled the company through various development organizations, most recently as General Manager of the System Protection Team in Windows. In the interim, she has played various technical roles in the Office team, the COM team, and the IE team, and as the leader of Microsoft Windows XP SP2. In November 2006, Rebecca became Technical Assistant to the Chief Software Architect of Microsoft, Ray Ozzie. In 2009 she became Partner Engineering Manager, Micrososft Online Advertising Platform. She keeps coming to work because she is passionate about the positive potential of software in the world. Rebecca graduated with a BA in Computer Science in 1991 and she was a lead speaker at the 2002 Grace Hopper, Women in Computing conference.
AMY ALVINGChief Technology Officer, SAIC
Dr. Alving is the Chief Technology Officer and Senior Vice President at Science Applications International Corporation. She leads SAIC’s Office of Technology, which is responsible for the creation, communication and implementation of SAIC’s technical and scientific vision and strategy. She has a diverse background in government and academia, with over 15 years of accomplishments in the areas of technology and national security. Prior to joining SAIC she served as the director of the Special Projects Office at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, where she was a member of the Senior Executive Service. In this role she was responsible for strategic planning, operations, finances, security, program development and execution. She was a White House Fellow (1997-98) serving at the Department of Commerce. Prior to that, she was an associate professor of aerospace engineering at the University of Minnesota, where she taught graduate and undergraduate students in mechanics, fluids, and experimental methods, served as a thesis advisor to graduate students, and conducted independent, basic research. Dr. Alving graduated from Stanford University with a B.S. in mechanical engineering and from Princeton University with a Ph.D. in mechanical and aerospace engineering. She carried out post-doctoral research in Berlin, Germany. She is a member of the Naval Research Advisory Committee and has been a member or advisor to the Army Science Board, Defense Science Board and National Academies studies. She has been on the Board of Directors of the Fannie and John Hertz Foundation and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
KELLI CRANESenior Vice President and Chief Information Officer, Thomson Reuters
As CIO of Thomson Reuters, Kelli Crane spearheads the development and implementation of a global information technology plan that aligns with the business strategy and leads the organization in implementing advanced enterprise information systems across its vertical businesses. She plays a key role in driving the execution of strategic initiatives and coordinating and tracking major technology projects, bringing Thomson and Reuters together under one technology umbrella. Ms. Crane has been with the company for 23 years, holding positions in technology and operations. She received her MBA from Texas A&M – Corpus Christi Branch, where she focused on computer application and a BS in business administration with a concentration in marketing from Northern Michigan University in Marquette, Michigan.
KALPANA MARGABANDHUDirector, WebSphere Development, IBM India Software Lab
Kalpana Margabandhu has 28 years of industry experience and has been with IBM for last 17 years. She is the Director of WebSphere Development, in IBM India Software Lab. She is a co-chair for WIT Executive Steering Committee, Member of the Global Women’s Council, GMT (Growth Market Team) Ambassadors for Gender Diversity, Member of the India Leadership Forum and also participates in external Women’s forum like NASSCOM, CII.
Kalpana has received several awards in recognition of her leadership with the India Software Lab, and was named the recipient of the IT People Award for Women Leadership in 2007 and the Women In Leadership (WILL) Women’s Choice Award in 2008.
She is also on the Board of IBM India.
ROMEA SMITHSenior Vice President – CA Technologies, Support
Romea Smith was appointed Senior Vice President – CA Technologies Support in April 2008. Since joining CA Technologies in May, 2000, Romea has been instrumental in enhancing CA Technologies’ ability to provide quality technical support and has been the driving force in improving customer satisfaction and employee experience.
Prior to joining CA Technologies, Romea held multiple leadership positions with Sterling Software and Systems Center. Romea holds a B.S. degree in Mathematics from Prairie View A&M University.
Imposter Plenary Panel: Addressing Unique Challenges
Friday, October 1st at 1:45 PM – Location: Centennial I-IV
Moderator: Debra Richardson, Professor of Informatics and founding dean, Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences at University of California – Irvine
Confirmed Panelists:
- Fran Berman, Vice President for Research and Professor of Computer Science, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
- Diane Gonzalez, Vice President of Product Development-Shared Services & Tools, Intuit
- Yolanda Rankin, Research Scientist, IBM Research – Almaden
- Katie Siek, Assistant Professor in Computer Science, University of Colorado, Boulder
Session details: The “imposter syndrome” is a common yet typically unacknowledged condition. Those experiencing it typically have difficulties believing in and internalizing their own accomplishments despite clear evidence of success.
Although affirmative action policies have provided many opportunities for women and minorities, they often lead to resentment and exclusion. Our panelists have wrestled with such feelings. Hear how these distinguished women have coped with and surmounted challenges. They have valuable insights and life lessons to share.
Bios:
DEBRA RICHARDSON
Professor of Informatics and Founding Dean, Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences at University of California – Irvine
Debra J. Richardson, Professor of Informatics and founding dean of UC Irvine’s Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences, joined ICS’ faculty in 1987. Under her leadership as chair, ICS was promoted from department to the only computing-focused school in the University of California in December 2002, after which she served as dean through June 2010.
She is a member of the NCWIT leadership team, leading efforts at UC Irvine primarily focused on changes to undergraduate education promoting recruitment and retention of women in computing.
She received her B.A. in Mathematics from the University of California–San Diego and her M.S. and Ph.D. in Computer and Information Science from the University of Massachusetts–Amherst.
FRAN BERMANVice President for Research and Professor of Computer Science, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Dr. Fran Berman is Vice President for Research and Professor of Computer Science at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Prior to joining Rensselaer, Dr. Berman was High Performance Computing Endowed Chair at UCSD. From 2001 to 2009, she served as Director of the San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) where she led a staff of 250+ interdisciplinary scientists, engineers, and technologists. Dr. Berman has been recognized by the Library of Congress as a “Digital Preservation Pioneer”, and by BusinessWeek as one of the top women in technology. She was awarded the inaugural ACM/IEEE-CS Ken Kennedy Award in 2009 for “influential leadership in the design, development, and deployment of national-scale cyberinfrastructure.”
DIANE GONZALEZVice President of Product Development-Shared Services & Tools, Intuit
Diane Gonzalez is the Vice President of Product Development for the Shared Services & Tools team within Intuit’s CTO organization. She leads the engineering team responsible for building the next generation product infrastructure for Intuit’s Connected Services Strategy.
Prior to joining Intuit, Ms. Gonzalez was a Senior Director, Engineering at Siebel Systems responsible for Siebel’s Industry Specific Solutions. She has held a variety of senior management positions throughout her career. She has worked as an Executive Consultant with several start-ups where she functioned as the Vice President of Engineering. Ms. Gonzalez has held senior management positions at Prism Solutions, ViewStar Corporation, and Ingres Corporation. Ms. Gonzalez started her professional career at Hewlett-Packard after graduating from the University of California, Berkeley with a BA in Applied Mathematics.
YOLANDA RANKINResearch Scientist, IBM Research – Almaden
Yolanda A. Rankin is a Research Scientist at IBM Research – Almaden in San Jose, CA. Her research interests include: 1. Conceptual design and evaluation of digital media as collaborative work spaces for knowledge acquisition and situational awareness; 2. Design of complex service engagements as indicators of value co-creation.
Yolanda accumulated extensive experience in telecommunications at AT&T Bell Labs and Lucent Technologies. She managed the product development of optical networking subsystems at Luxcore Networks. Yolanda completed her Ph.D. in Computer Science at Northwestern University, attained a M.A. in Computer Science at Kent State University, and a B.S. in Mathematics at Tougaloo College.
KATIE SIEKAssistant Professor in Computer Science, University of Colorado, Boulder
Katie A. Siek is an assistant professor in Computer Science at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Her primary research interests are in how sociotechnical interventions affect personal health and wellness. Her research is supported by NIH, RWJF, and NSF including a five-year NSF CAREER award. Most recently, she received a Scottish Informatics and Computer Science Alliance Distinguished Visiting Fellowship. She completed her Ph.D. and M.S. at Indiana University in CS and her B.S. in CS at Eckerd College. Siek is a member of the ACM-W Council. She is part of a two-body opportunity and a mother. (More information: http://www.cs.colorado.edu/~ksiek)