2012 Panel  

Nilofer Merchant

 Corporate Director, (NASDAQ: EPAX) the Ambassadors Group

Nilofer Merchant inspires fearless cultures.

When fear rules, ideas are stifled, innovation stagnates. Remove that fear and you'll see people thrive. And companies will have more great ideas realized. And our economy will have that propellant that enables greatness. Fearlessness brings results.

Nilofer's career began at Apple and she has since been a CEO, run Fortune 500 companies, led successful start-ups, and launched over 100 products that account for $18B in revenues.

She’s written O'Reilly's most successful business book to date "The New How." Top marketing blogger Seth Godin described her book as both “provocative and practical.” In her work, she helps organizations close the Air Sandwich, the proverbial gap between strategy and execution. Using her trademarked methodology, MurderBoarding™, organizations can make the tough choices necessary to pick and align on the best strategy.

A top management thinker, Nilofer has headlined alongside Malcolm Gladwell, Simon Sinek, Arianna Huffington, Margaret Atwood, and the like. She delivered at global venues like TEDIndia, technology conferences like Web 2.0, corporate events like’s Cisco Partner Velocity events, Industry venues like Parc’s Innovation series, National HR conferences galore, and local but well-attended venues like TEDx. That’s why Harvard Business Review has asked her to be a regular columnist.

She has extensive fiduciary and governance experience. She currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Ambassadors Group (NASDAQ: EPAX), advises two privately held social commerce start-ups, and serves on the Board for the Leavey School of Business at Santa Clara University.

Linda Amuso

 President, Radford, an Aon Hewitt Company

Linda E. Amuso is a highly recognized thought-leader and an expert in the field of executive and employee compensation design for the technology and life sciences industries. For 20 years, Linda has worked directly with senior management and Board of Directors on developing and implementing executive and equity compensation strategies, effectively linking performance management strategies to salary systems, and designing annual/long-term incentive plans. Since joining Radford in 2005, Linda has been instrumental in building Radford's consulting practice and expanding Radford's services globally.

In 1993, Linda co-founded iQuantic, Inc. (acquired by Buck Consultants in 2001), and was a key contributor in building the organization into a national compensation consulting business. She also led the expansion of iQuantic's business into the life sciences industry, offering consulting and survey support. At Buck Consultants, Linda held a number of leadership positions including Western Region Compensation Practice Leader, National Leader for the Biotechnology Sector and Northern California Market Leader.

Linda advises more than 30 companies a year ranging from pre-IPO to public companies on issues of governance, executive and equity compensation. She currently advises Amylin Pharmaceuticals, eHealth, Flextronics and Synopsys, among others.

Linda earned a bachelor of science from Ithaca College and a master of arts in industrial and labor relations from Cornell University. She speaks on compensation and corporate governance issues frequently, and has been quoted in national business press, including the Wall Street Journal. Linda is based in San Francisco.

Barb Stinnett

 Founder & Managing Partner, Timmaron Group, LLC

Barbara Stinnett is a seasoned operating executive with over 25 years experience in both the technologies enterprise and consumer markets, having P&L experience globally, building start ups to running businesses in excess of $4B with 3,000+ employees globally. She is recognized for building strong customer facing organizations, having the ability to create strategies with crisp sales execution plans, being customer centric, leading change management while incorporating operational best practices, and bringing innovation to the companies served. She has a successful track record in transitioning businesses from being product oriented, to value added providers of global solutions, giving companies a competitive advantage in their markets, delivering profitable, consistent results

As a keynote speaker and advisor to several firms in the technologies market, she is a motivational leader, who’s developed best practices while at Hewlett Packard, and has expertise that has progressed through her career, holding positions including CEO, President, COO, CSO, EVP, and Founder of her own firm. She has held executive roles and board seats on firms such as HP, Sybase, Oracle and Cisco, and several midcap software and consulting companies.

In addition, she has led multiple emerging companies through challenging transitions, small and large, including leading the integration effort for HP/Compaq, and directed global business units, determining where it makes sense to use direct resources, and where to build out and engage partner firms, such as VARs, SI’s, OEM’s and ISV’s. . Understanding how to expand companies internationally is a unique skill that is called upon regularly in her business.

Barbara has extensive practical knowledge, a pragmatic approach, and content expertise in global marketing, sales & services, including subject matter expertise in business intelligence & analytics, social collaboration, unified communications, media and entertainment, and global supply chain and manufacturing. She has led and managed geographic, multi-industry, and cross business segment teams in consumer, commercial, and government sectors.

Barbara holds degrees in Computer Science and International Business (languages and negotiations focus) from the University of Wisconsin. She continues to serve on both public, private and nonprofit boards, is chairwoman for the CEO Council of Silicon Valley (CEC), certified by the National Association of National Directors (NACD), an active member and mentor as part of the Women’s Corporate Directors, and of Watermark, formerly, the Women’s Forum for Entrepreneurs & Executives (FWE&E).

Panel Facilitator

Wendy Beecham

Managing Director Executive Education, UC Davis Graduate School of Management

Wendy Beecham, Managing Director, Executive Education at the UC Davis Graduate School of Management leads the development of customized executive education programs specially tailored to the needs of organizations and companies, including industry-specific programs such as the UC Davis Wine Executive Program, taught by world-renowned faculty and leading industry experts. Beecham brings over 25 years of corporate leadership experience to the role.

Most recently, she was CEO of Watermark (formerly the Forum for Women Entrepreneurs and Executives) an organization of experienced women leaders in the San Francisco Bay Area. She led a transformation of Watermark, where she re-named and re-branded the organization, retooled their mission, upgraded program quality, and added new member benefits including the Watermark Institute Board Access™ Program empowering women to seek public and private board seats.

She has held a variety of senior roles including senior vice president at LexisNexis Group and managing director of London-based Sweet & Maxwell Group, a legal division of the Thomson Corporation. She was also president and founder of Flawless Leadership, a consulting firm that coached C-level business leaders on executive performance. In addition, she was chair for two CEO Peer Groups with Vistage International, the world's largest CEO membership organization.

Beecham serves on the board of Granicus, Inc., an equity-backed award-winning provider of software-as-a-service for the government market. She is also on the Advisory Board of Dynamic Results , an international consulting firm and Illuminate Ventures, a fund focused on investing in US based, early stage high growth technology companies, led by talented and diverse teams, particularly those that are inclusive of women entrepreneurs.

She was recently honored with the 2011 Alum of the Year award by the College of Information at the University of North Texas. She also has been honored with the 2010 Women of Influence award from the San Jose Business Journal honoring 100 women of influence in Silicon Valley, and was a recipient of the 2010 History Makers Award.

Beecham graduated with a Masters of Information Science from the University of North Texas and a Bachelor of Science from Texas Woman’s University