Activate New York: speakers
Allison Arden, vice president & publisher, Advertising Age
Allison Arden Photograph: unknown/AdAge
Allison Arden was named Vice President/Publisher of Advertising Age in 2007 & added the title of Managing Director of Internet Week, upon Crain's 2012 acquisition of the festival the celebrates evolution and innovation in business and the thriving tech community in New York City. Since joining Crain in 1996, Ms. Arden's primary focus has been on aggressively expanding Advertising Age's portfolio of products into conferences, custom content, research and digital with an eye toward innovation and creativity. Products launched under Allison's leadership include Ad Age's Global Cover Competition, Small Agency Conference & Awards, and the Ad Age Goodworks Effie in partnership with the Effie Awards.
Allison is the author of The Book of Doing, a book created to help democratize creativity and empower personal exploration. Ms. Arden is a graduate of the University of Maryland and the proud mother of Max, 12 and Maya, 9. Allison is a two-time finisher in the ING New York City Marathon. She serves on the Board of Directors for the American Advertising Federation (AAF), and VCU BrandCenter. Allison was inducted into the AAF's Advertising Hall of Achievement in 2009.
Yochai Benkler, co-director, Harvard University's Berkman Center for Internet and Society
Yochai Benkler Photograph: Yochai Benkler
Yochai Benkler is the Berkman professor of Entrepreneurial Legal Studies at Harvard, and faculty co-director of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society. Since the 1990s he has played a part in characterizing the role of information commons and decentralized collaboration to innovation, information production, and freedom in the networked economy and society. His books include The Wealth of Networks: How social production transforms markets and freedom (Yale University Press 2006), which won academic awards from the American Political Science Association, the American Sociological Association, and the McGannon award for social and ethical relevance in communications. His work is socially engaged, winning him the Electronic Frontier Foundation's Pioneer Award for 2007, Public Knowledge's IP3 Award in 2006, and the Ford Foundation Visionaries Award in 2011. It is also anchored in the realities of markets, having been cited as "perhaps the best work yet about the fast moving, enthusiast-driven Internet" by the Financial Times and named best business book about the future in 2006 by Strategy and Business. Benkler has produced reports or served in an advisory capacity for a range communications and intellectual property regulators and policy makers at the national and international levels. His work can be freely accessed at benkler.org.
Michael Bloom, CEO, Guardian US
Michael Bloom Photograph: MB
Michael Bloom is the CEO of Guardian News & Media, U.S. In this capacity, he leads the company's business and commercial operations and drives digital innovation across the web, mobile, tablet and emerging platforms.
Bloom is a veteran internet entrepreneur and senior operating executive who co-founded his first company, Stockpoint.com, in 1995 and later served as President of iAmaze, Inc., an early web platform company acquired by AOL.
At AOL, Bloom served as Vice President & General Manager, AOL Products, where he led several product divisions. He subsequently spent 5 years at Viacom / MTV Networks where he served as Senior Vice President & General Manager, Digital Media, and built the company's digital music business from the ground up and led all aspects of strategy and operations.
Before joining the Guardian, Bloom served as the Chief Digital Officer of Wenner Media / Rolling Stone. He is an advisor to technology startup companies and non-profit organizations and lives in the New York area with his wife and two children.
Pierre Chappaz, founder and CEO, Ebuzzing
Photograph: Pierre Chappaz
Pierre is one of the Europe's leading entrepreneurs having spoken at many of the top marketing and tech conferences such as Le Web and DMEXCO. Pierre held various marketing and communications positions at Toshiba, Computer Associates and IBM before founding the price comparison site Kelkoo in 1999, which he sold to Yahoo in 2004 for €475 million. Briefly president of Yahoo Europe, Pierre Chappaz created Wikio in 2005, a recommendation based search engine and participated in the launch of Netvibes.
Wikio merged with Ebuzzing in 2009, a social media and video platform created by Bertrand Quesada in 2007 with the help of Pierre Chappaz. Pierre, as CEO, has helped turn Ebuzzing into one of Europe's most successful Internet start-ups, making $52 million in revenue last year.
Susan Crawford, professor, Cardozo School of Law
Susan Crawford Photograph: Susan Crawford
Susan Crawford is a professor at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, a fellow at the Roosevelt Institute, and a co-director of the Berkman Center. She is the author of Captive Audience: The Telecom Industry and Monopoly Power in the New Gilded Age, and a contributor to Bloomberg View and Wired. She served as Special Assistant to the President for Science, Technology, and Innovation Policy (2009) and co-led the FCC transition team between the Bush and Obama administrations. She is a member of Mayor Michael Bloomberg's Advisory Council on Technology and Innovation.
Jim Daily, Jim Daily, executive vice president of sales, Ebuzzing
Jim Daily Photograph: Ebuzzing
Jim Daily, Ebuzzing's US General Manger, is an expert in online video advertising. With over 8 year's industry experience Jim previously worked in sales at Undertone and as Director of East Coast Sales for Break Media. Jim joined Ebuzzing in June 2013 to launch and grow the company's operations in the US.
Kate Darling, research specialist, MIT
Kate Darling Photograph: KD
Kate Darling is a Research Specialist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Media Lab and a Ph.D. candidate in Intellectual Property and Law & Economics at the ETH Zurich. After graduating from law school, she went on to pursue her passion for innovation policy at the intersection of law and technology. Her work has covered economic issues in copyright and patent systems, and she now also increasingly writes and lectures about robots, with a particular interest in social and ethical issues. After her doctorate is completed in 2013, she will be working on the intersection of law and robotics as a fellow at the Harvard Berkman Center for Internet and Society.
Chris Dixon, general partner, Andreessen Horowitz
Chris Dixon Photograph: Noah Kalina/Chris Dixon
Chris was the cofounder and CEO of two startups, SiteAdvisor and Hunch. SiteAdvisor was an internet security company that warned web users of security threats. The company was acquired by McAfee in 2006. Hunch was a recommendation technology company that was acquired by eBay in 2011.
As an investor, Chris cofounded Founder Collective, a seed venture fund, where he made early stage investments in GroupMe, Buzzfeed, Betaworks, and MakerBot. He's also been an active angel investor, making personal investments in technology companies including Foursquare, Kickstarter, Stripe, Warby Parker, Pinterest, OMGPOP, Behance, Stack Overflow, and others.
Chris started programming as a kid, and was a professional programmer after college at a high-speed options trading firm, Arbitrade. He has a BA and MA in Philosophy from Columbia and an MBA from Harvard. When he's not meeting with entrepreneurs, he's often writing blogs about his theories and experiences of investing and building startups at http://cdixon.org/
Stacy Donohue, director, investments, Omidyar Network
Photograph: guardian.co.uk
Stacy leads Omidyar Network's government transparency initiative in the United States. In this role, Stacy works to encourage accountability and effectiveness in government by increasing people's access to credible information about government activities and money in politics.
Prior to joining Omidyar Network, Stacy spent nine years at Hewlett-Packard in senior roles spanning strategy, corporate development, and merger and acquisition transactions. Previously, Stacy was a project leader at the Boston Consulting Group, where she provided analysis and consulting for clients across multiple industries from healthcare to financial services. Stacy is a board member for Code for America, Global Integrity, and the Sunlight Foundation.
David Edelstein, senior vice-president, global programs, Grameen Foundation
David Edelstein Photograph: Frank Huster/DE
Over the past five years, David has lead the transformation of the Grameen Foundation into a global organization recognized for its innovative solutions to address some of the most persistent problems in developing countries. These solutions, enabled by mobile phones and other technologies and often incorporating financial services, have proven that market failures can be overcome by working directly with the poor to develop impactful and sustainable business models.
Previously, at Microsoft, David designed technology-enabled business models to deliver affordable technology products to people in emerging markets. At McKinsey & Company, he worked extensively in the telecommunications and consumer goods sectors, with a focus on creating business strategies tailored to the needs of consumers and businesses in developing countries.
Ricky Engelberg, senior director of innovation for digital sport, Nike
Ricky Engelberg Photograph: Nike
Ricky Engelberg is the Senior Director of Innovation for Digital Sport at Nike. In his prior role as Experience Director his team was responsible for the end to end Experience for the entire Nike+ family including products such as the Nike+ Fuelband, Nike+Running, Nike+ Basketball and Nike+ Kinect Training from idea creation to launch. Ricky has been at Nike for over 11 years working in various roles in digital including leading Digital Innovation and Digital Marketing globally as well as helping drive key partnerships with companies such as Facebook, Path, Google, EA and Apple. He also spent almost 3 years working in Asia Pacific focused on Digital Communication and Marketing with a focus on the Beijing Olympics.
Janine Gibson, editor-in-chief, the Guardian US
Janine Gibson Photograph: Janine Gibson
Janine Gibson is editor-in-chief of the Guardian US, the Guardian's New York-based digital newsroom, where she leads a staff of reporters and editors who cover American news for an online, international audience. Under Gibson's leadership, the Guardian has seen an increase in traffic of 25% year on year. The US site has won a range of prestigious awards, including three prizes for interactives at The Malofiej Awards and first place in the "explanatory reporting" category at the 2012 Online Journalism Awards.
Previously, Gibson was executive editor of Guardian.co.uk. Under her leadership, Guardian.co.uk was named best newspaper website at the 2009 Webby awards, won two awards for data journalism at the inaugural Online Media Awards, as well as two prizes at the 2011 Webby Awards and 6 awards from the Association of Online Publishers.
Gibson began her career working for Televisual, first as staff writer, then as news editor and finally deputy editor. She joined the weekly trade newspaper Broadcast in July 1997 as international editor and moved to the Independent as media correspondent a year later. In 1998, she joined the Guardian as media correspondent and by 2000 was appointed editor of the market-leading MediaGuardian. She helped launch the section's spin-off website, mediaguardian.co.uk, which quickly established itself as the breaking news source for the media industry.
Rachel Haot, chief digital officer, City of New York
Rachel Haot Photograph: Rachel Haot
Rachel Haot is the Chief Digital Officer for the City of New York, leading NYC Digital, part of the Mayor's Office of Media and Entertainment. The mission of NYC digital is to realize Mayor Bloomberg's digital roadmap for New York City, a plan to fulfill the City's digital potential.
Prior to this role, Rachel was an independent digital strategy consultant, and Founder and CEO of GroundReport, a global, crowdsourced news startup. She has also served as an Adjunct Professor at Columbia Business School, specializing in social media and entrepreneurship.
A lifelong New Yorker, Rachel attended public schools and graduated magna cum laude from New York University with a BA in History. In 2012 she was named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum, and serves on the digital advisory board of Women@NBCU and the NY/NJ 2014 Super Bowl Social Media Advisory Committee.
John Havens, founder, The H(app)athon Project
John Havens Photograph: John Havens
John C. Havens is a contributing writer for Mashable, frequent speaker, and author of the upcoming book, Hacking Happiness — Why Your Personal Data Counts and How Tracking it Can Change the World (Tarcher/Penguin, March 2014). He is also the Founder of The H(app)athon Project, a non-profit organization, "Connecting Happiness to Action one phone, one heart, and one city at a time" through the use of interactive, sensor-based smartphone surveys. A former EVP for a top-ten global PR firm and ongoing marketing/PR consultant, he has counseled clients like Gillette, HP, and P&G on emerging and social media issues, and has been quoted on issues relating to technology, business, and well-being by USA Today, Fast Company, BBC News, Mashable, The Guardian, The Huffington Post, Forbes,INC, PR Week, and Advertising Age.  Havens was also a professional actor in New York City for over 15 years, appearing in principal roles on Broadway, television, and film.
John Hendra, UN assistant secretary-general, deputy executive director for policy and programme, UN Women
John Hendra, Deputy Executive Director of UN Women Photograph: UN Women/Catianne Tijerina
John Hendra is Deputy Executive Director for Policy and Programme at UN Women, where he leads the agency's global policy work and its programmes in over 70 countries and manages the Bureau supporting policy analysis, research and programme management. Since 2012 he has served as Co-Chair of the UN Development Group (UNDG) MDG Taskforce and also as a member of the Senior Coordination Group of four UN Assistant Secretary-Generals tasked by the UN Secretary-General to coordinate UN System support to Member States to formulate the post-2015 development agenda. His 28 year career in the UN spans roles in four different regions including 13 years as UN Resident Coordinator in Latvia (1993-1997), Tanzania (2002-2006) and Vietnam (2006-2011), where he lead a very successful UN reform effort at country level – the 'Delivering as One' Initiative. Mr. Hendra has also served at UN headquarters as Director of Resource Mobilization (1998-2002) and Deputy Director of UNDP's Bureau for Resources and Strategic Partnerships (2000-2002). He has a Masters in International Development Studies from the University of Toronto and an Honors BA in Political Studies from Queen's University, and in 2009 was selected to serve as a Yale World Fellow.
Chris Hughes, co-founder, Facebook & editor-in-chief, The New Republic
Chris Hughes Photograph: Jason Gardner/Chris Hughes
Chris started his career in his Harvard dorm room where he co-founded Facebook along with roommates Mark Zuckerberg and Dustin Moskovitz. Obsessed with consumer technology from a young age, Hughes was responsible for user experience and product development for Facebook in the early years of the social web.
In 2007, he became Director of Online Organizing for Barack Obama's presidential campaign, creating a social network that empowered Obama supporters to create tens of thousands of grassroots groups and events, and to give over $500 million online. The average online donation was $80.
As Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of The New Republic, Hughes is transitioning a nearly 100-year-old media company to the digital age, while holding onto its uncompromising focus on quality journalism about politics and culture. Integrated across mobile, tablet, web, and print, The New Republic is setting the standard for how mid-sized, traditional media brands can transition to the participatory web.
Hughes is also an independent investor in technology and media companies, a trustee of the Knight Foundation, and a board member of GiveDirectly.  He has been named a Young Global Leader for the World Economic Forum and one of Forbes' 30 under 30 in the media category. Hughes graduated manga cum laude from Harvard in 2006 with a degree in History and Literature.
Ben Huh, founder and CEO, Cheezburger
Ben Huh Photograph: G. Kenny Hornung/Ben Huh
Ben Huh is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Cheezburger.  The former journalist turned successful entrepreneur has been credited with pioneering Internet culture as entertainment, crowdsourcing, and bringing Internet memes to the mainstream.
Since first acquiring I Can Has Cheezburger? in 2007, Huh has grown the media company to now include more than 50 online humor sites that generate more than 400 million page views monthly.  His Internet culture empire includes popular sites such as FAIL Blog, The Daily What, Know Your Meme and Memebase.  Cheezburger has also released five books, two of which are New York Times bestsellers, and was the focus of the LOLwork reality television series, which aired on the Bravo network in 2012.  
Jeff Jarvis, professor, CUNY Graduate School of Journalism
Jeff is the author of Public Parts: How Sharing in the Digital Age Improves the Way We Work and Live and What Would Google Do? He directs the Tow-Knight Center for Entrepreneurial Journalism at the City University of New York Graduate School of Journalism. Jeff was founding editor of Entertainment Weekly magazine, TV critic for TV Guide and People magazines, Sunday editor and associate publisher of the New York Daily News, and a columnist for the San Francisco Examiner.
David Karp, founder and CEO, Tumblr
David Karp Photograph: Tumblr
Tumblr founder David Karp was born and raised in New York City, attending the Bronx High School Science before dropping out at age 15. An internship at Frederator Studios led to a gig leading product at UrbanBaby. When CNET acquired the company in 2005, Karp started his own development agency, Davidville. In 2007 his team launched Tumblr, now the home and platform for more than 140 million creators. Tumblr serves an audience of more than 300 million people worldwide.
Bob Kerrey, executive chairman, Minerva Institute for Research & Scholarship
Bob Kerrey Photograph: BK
January 1, 2011, Bob Kerrey completed his tenure as seventh President of The New School, a university founded on strong democratic ideals and daring educational practices, an environment that was well suited for his leadership.  He also served as New School's President Emeritus from January 1, 2011 to January 31, 2013.
Prior to coming to The New School Bob Kerrey represented Nebraska in the United States Senate.  For two terms, Senator Kerrey emphasized the direct connection between citizens and their laws, and made a concerted effort to allow Nebraskans to participate in writing laws that defined the quality and inclusiveness of their health care system, their schools and the safety of their communities. He served on the Senate's Agriculture and Forestry Committee, Senate's Appropriations Committee, Senate's Finance Committee, and last but not least on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence where he worked to restructure our intelligence agencies to improve their capacity to meet the threats faced by our country. Prior to serving in the U.S. Senate Bob Kerrey served a single term as Nebraska's Governor. He established a reputation as a fiscal conservative who regularly crossed political party lines for the good of Nebraska and the Country.
Bob Kerrey served three years in the United States Navy. While in Vietnam, he was wounded, permanently disabled from the injury, and from this injury received a great gift:  Sympathy for those who are suffering and an appreciation for the capacity of government to save your life. Before his time in the Navy Bob Kerrey attended the University of Nebraska graduating in January 1966 with a BS degree in pharmacy.  He was born in Lincoln and attended public schools there.  In 2002 he published a memoir "When I Was A Young Man."
 
Bob Kerrey is married to Sarah Paley and lives in New York. The couple has a 12-year-old son, Henry, and Mr. Kerrey has two children from his previous marriage, Ben and Lindsey Kerrey, and four grandchildren.
Rebecca MacKinnon, senior research fellow, New America Foundation and co-founder, Global Voices
Rebecca MacKinnon Photograph: Brooke Bready/Creative Well
Rebecca MacKinnon is a Senior Research Fellow at the New America Foundation where she conducts research, writing, and advocacy at the intersection of networked technologies, human rights, and corporate accountability. She is author of the award-winning book, Consent of the Networked: The Worldwide Struggle For Internet Freedom (2012) and co-founder of Global Voices Online, the citizen media network and digital rights advocacy organization.
A founding board member of the Global Network Initiative, a multi-stakeholder organization that advances corporate responsibility and human rights in the technology sector, MacKinnon also serves on the Board of Directors of the Committee to Protect Journalists. She is concurrently an adjunct lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania Law School and affiliate at the Annenberg School for Communication'sCenter for Global Communications Studies where she leads a new project, Ranking Digital Rights.
Susan Markham, director, women's political participation, National Democratic Institute (NDI)
Susan Markham Photograph: Susan Markham
Susan Markham serves as NDI's director of women's political participation supporting the aspirations of women around the world to be equal and active partners in shaping and leading democratic societies.
Previously, Markham worked at EMILY's List where she managed its Campaign Corps program and later the Political Opportunity Program (POP) supporting women candidates running for state and local office. Ms. Markham started her political career as a fundraiser. Since that time she has served as the finance director for the Ohio Democratic Party, executive director of Participation 2000 and campaign manager for four statewide campaigns. She also acted as director of Senate services at the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.
She has a B.A. in political science and international studies from the Ohio State University and a master's degree in public policy and women's studies from George Washington University.
Ziv Navoth, advisor, Tech City UK, founder and CEO, Paragraph
Ziv Navoth Photograph: ZN
Ziv Navoth is the founder and CEO of Paragraph. Previously he was Senior Vice President of Marketing & Partnerships at Aol. Ziv joined Aol through its acquisition of Bebo, where he was responsible for marketing, business development and mobile, and a member of the executive team that led the negotiations and eventual sale of the company to Aol for $850M.
Before joining Bebo he founded Verve, a boutique management consultancy offering strategic advisory services to leading companies in the US, UK and elsewhere. Before this he ran Startup Station, an internet accelerator he founded in 1999 and sold to a UK public company. He is the author of Nanotales, a collection of short stories, and lives with his wife and two daughters in New York City.
Kathryn Peters, co-founder, TurboVote
Katy Peters Photograph: Katy Peters
Kathryn Peters is co-founder of TurboVote, a service that brings the awesomeness of the Internet to the process of voting. Her belief in better democracy has taken her from campaign organizing in rural Missouri to a Master's in Public Policy at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government to political rights monitoring with the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission to teaching digital security for political activists with the National Democratic Institute. In 2011, Kathryn was honored as one of Forbes magazine's "30 Under 30" in the field of law and policy.
Chuck Porter&, chairman, Crispin Porter + Bogusky and chief strategist, MDC Partners 
Chuck Porter Photograph: Chuck Porter
Chuck was co-founder and creative director of Crispin & Porter Advertising in Miami in 1988.  Today, the agency has offices in Miami, Boulder, Los Angeles, London and Gothenberg, Sweden, and in 2010,Crispin Porter + Bogusky was selected by Advertising Age as Agency of the Decade.  In addition to his role at CP+B, Chuck is Chief Strategist for MDC Partners, CP+B's parent company.  He has served as Co-Chairman of Advertising Week in New York, as well as Chairman of the American Association of Advertising Agencies. Along with Martha Stewart and Michael Dell, he was named one of Inc. Magazine's "Entrepreneurs We Love".
Ben Rattray, founder and CEO, Change.org
Ben Rattray Photograph: Ben Rattray
Ben Rattray is the founder and CEO of Change.org, the world's largest petition platform. He has been named one of Time's 100 Most Influential People in the World and one of Fortune's 40 Under 40 rising young business leaders.
Since its founding in 2007, Change.org has achieved international prominence, attracting 35 million users from every country, hundreds of thousands of user-generated petitions, and coverage in every major media outlet, including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today.
Time Magazine writes: "Rattray's site has quietly enabled tens of thousands of people, many with little exposure to social activism, to launch homegrown crusades on issues ranging from corporate malpractice to immigration reform without ever gathering in a park or square. By marrying one of the world's oldest organizing tools, the petition, to one of its newest, the social-media loop, Change.org is putting companies and governments under tremendous pressure to change their policies, sometimes in a matter of a few weeks or less, and it has invited everyone around the globe to participate."
Jordan Raynor, co-founder, Citizinvestor
Jordan Raynor Photograph: JR
Jordan Raynor is a co-founder of Citizinvestor - a crowdfunding and civic engagement platform for government projects.
Prior to Citizinvestor, Jordan served on the executive team at Engage, leading a team of digital strategists responsible for premier political brands like John Boehner, Paul Ryan and the Voting Information Project. In 2010, a project initiated and developed by Jordan led to Foursquare's first "I Voted" badge.
Jordan was recently named one of four appointees to the State of Florida's User Experience Task Force. He has twice been selected as a Google Fellow and served as a White House intern in 2006.
David Risher, president and co-founder, Worldreader
David Risher Photograph: David Risher
David served as an executive at Microsoft Corporation and oversaw the development and marketing of Microsoft Access and Microsoft Investor, then served as Amazon's first Senior Vice President for US Retail where he helped grow the company from a small bookstore into the world's largest internet retailer. He is a Draper Richards Kaplan Social Entrepreneur and a Microsoft Alumni Integral Fellow, and serves on the Advisory Board of Barcelona's ESADE Business School.
Mood Rowghani, partner, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers
Mood Rowghani Photograph: Mood Rowghani
Mood Rowghani joined Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers as a partner in 2011. He focuses on investments in the firm's digital practice, targeting high-growth Internet companies that have achieved strong adoption and scale.
Before joining KPCB, Mood worked for five years at Summit Partners, where he led the firm's Internet and digital media practice in North America. Mood was actively involved across Summit's Internet portfolio, including serving as a director at Announce Media, where he helped lead the take-private acquisition of Answers Corp. (Nasdaq: ANSW). Earlier in his career, Mood was with Highland Capital Partners, where he was actively involved with Vistaprint (Nasdaq: VPRT) and Coremetrics (acquired by IBM). He also spent two years at McKinsey & Co., where he served Global 1000 clients in the high-tech industry.
Mood has a B.A. degree from the University of Texas and an M.B.A. from Stanford University's Graduate School of Business.
Mark Thompson, CEO and president, The New York Times Company
Mark Thompson Photograph: Kevin Percival/New York Times
Mark Thompson became president and chief executive officer of The New York Times Company in November 2012. Before joining the Times Company, Mr. Thompson served as Director-General of the BBC since 2004, where he reshaped the organization to meet the challenge of the digital age, ensuring that it remained a leading innovator with the launch of services such as the BBC iPlayer. He oversaw a transformation of the BBC itself, driving productivity and efficiency through the introduction of new technologies and bold organizational redesign. Between 2002 and 2004, Mr. Thompson was CEO of Channel 4 Television Corporation in the United Kingdom.
Erin Vilardi, founder, Women's Leadership Works
Erin Vilardi Photograph: EV
Erin Vilardi is the founder of Women's Leadership Works. She also directs leadership development for The Athena Center for Leadership Studies at Barnard College, Columbia University. Her work focuses on developing Athena's CORE10 – a innovate set of leadership competencies for 21st century women leaders – as well as professional education programs and strategic partnerships.
She spent the last 18 months traveling to a dozen international cities teaching leadership, from Cairo to Dublin to Mexico City. Formerly Vice President of Program and Communications at The White House Project, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization working to advance U.S. women's leadership, she created Vote, Run, Lead – the largest national political training program readying women for public office and civic life – training over 14,000 women since 2004.
Werner Vogels, chief technology officer, Amazon.com
Werner Vogels Photograph: Werner Vogels
Dr. Werner Vogels is Vice President & Chief Technology Officer at Amazon.com where he is responsible for driving the company's technology vision, which is to continuously enhance the innovation on behalf of Amazon's customers at a global scale.
Prior to joining Amazon, he worked as a research scientist at Cornell University where he was a principal investigator in several research projects that target the scalability and robustness of mission-critical enterprise computing systems. He has held positions of VP of Technology and CTO in companies that handled the transition of academic technology into industry.
Dr. Vogels holds a Ph.D. from the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam and has authored close to 80 articles for journals and conferences, most of them on distributed systems technologies for enterprise computing.
Jasmine Whitbread, CEO, Save the Children International
Jasmine Whitbread, Save the Children International Photograph: Douglas Fry/SC
Jasmine was appointed the first international chief executive officer of Save the Children in 2010.  Save the Children is the world's leading independent organisation for children operating in 120 countries with annual revenues of $1.6 billion.
Jasmine's career was initially in the private sector, with a background in international marketing in technology, rising to managing director at Boston-based Thomson Financial (now Thomson Reuters).  She moved to West Africa with Oxfam in 1999 and was promoted to international director before being appointed as CEO of Save the Children UK in 2005.
Jasmine became a non-executive director of BT Plc in 2011.  Earlier this year the BBC named her one of the 100 most powerful women in the UK and she was also featured in the CNN International Leading Women series. 
Jasmine graduated from the University of Bristol in 1986 and completed the Executive Program at the Stanford Graduate School of Business in 1997.  She holds dual British/Swiss nationality and is married with two children.
Jasmine is a non-executive director of BT Group Plc and a governor of the Dragon School.
Zach Sims, co-founder and CEO, Codecademy
Zach Sims Photograph: Julia Robbs/Zach Sims
Zach is the co-founder and CEO of Codecademy, a company dedicated to teaching the world skills that help them make things and find jobs.  Codecademy has millions of users across the world and has raised money from investors including Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers, Index Ventures, Richard Branson, and more.  He is also a Venture Partner at Bowery Capital.  Zach worked with GroupMe (acq. by Skype), drop.io (acq. by Facebook), and AOL Ventures before dropping out of Columbia University to start Codecademy.  Zach was named to Inc. Magazine and Forbes Magazine's 30 Under 30 lists, as well as voted one of TIME Magazine's 100 Most Influential People in 2013.
More speakers to be announced