Panels 

• Tomorrow's Video Game Landscape: Activision, Riot Games, Mayfield Fund, IGN, Gaikai
• Media Investing: Kleiner Perkins, Blumberg Capital, Warburg Pincus, Zelnick Media
• The Socialization of Music: Facebook, Songkick, turntable.fm, Pandora
• The Reinvention of Traditional Media: 20th Century Fox, Comcast, Sharp TV
• Social, Local, Original: Content Monetization Strategies: Facebook, foursquare, BBDO, YouTube
• The Rise of Mobile: Why the Future of Media is in Your Pocket: Pulse, Milk Inc, Airbnb, Rhythm NewMedia  
• The New Business of the News Business: Washington Post, TechCrunch, GOOD Magazine, AOL Patch

 

Tomorrow's Video Game Landscape

 

Brandon Beck, Co-Founder and CEO, Riot Games

Brandon Beck is co-founder and CEO of Riot Games, a video game development company and publisher headquartered in Los Angeles with global operations in Europe and Asia.  Prior to founding Riot, Brandon worked at Strategy Consulting Firm Bain & Company, where he focused on media and entertainment, technology, and consumer products and worked in Bain’s private equity group.  Brandon helms strategy and business direction for Riot and under his leadership, Riot Games has made an exciting entrance into the video game market, becoming one of the world's leading online game developers and publishers.  Riot's first title, League of Legends, is a free, online multiplayer game that has received acclaim from critics and players alike.  With a community of millions of active players who log more than a billion playtime minutes each month, League of Legends is one of the industry's top gaming titles.

 

Tim Chang, Managing Director, Mayfield Fund

Tim is a proven venture investor and experienced global executive.  He was named on the 2011 Forbes Midas List of Top 100 Dealmakers, was featured by The Deal as one of five emerging VCs to watch and by the AlwaysON Hollywood IT List recognizing technology leaders in the digital entertainment industry.  Tim invests in the mobile, gaming, digital media and enterprise applications sectors and co-leads Mayfield Fund’s investment practice in China.

Some of Tim’s notable investments in the U.S. include ngmoco (acquired by DeNA), Playdom (acquired by Disney), leaders in mobile and social gaming, and Iridigm Display Corporation (acquired by Qualcomm). His other U.S. investments include Badgeville (gamification as a SaaS platform), Basis (mobile health monitoring), BranchOut (career networking on Facebook), and Lumos Labs (brain wellness games).  Some of Tim’s notable investments in China include AdChina (leading ad-network), Lashou (leading deals site), and PCH International (leading supplychain management company). 

Tim holds an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business, where he was an Arjay Miller Scholar, and an MS in Electrical Engineering/System Engineering and a BS in Electrical Engineering from the University of Michigan.

 

Coddy Johnson, COO, Activision Worldwide Studios

Coddy Johnson is the Chief Operating Officer of Activision Studios at Activision Blizzard, the world’s largest independent video game publisher.  In that role he oversees the strategy, planning and operations of Activision’s software and game development, including 24 studio production facilities located across four continents with over 2,000 employees. Prior to that, Coddy served as Senior Vice President and Chief of Staff to CEO Bobby Kotick, acting as a right hand for operational, organizational and strategic initiatives. 

 

David Perry, CEO and co-Founder, Gaikai.com

David Perry is the CEO and co-founder of Gaikai.com, a company that’s developed a cutting-edge video game streaming technology allowing the highest quality games to run in a browser with just one click. Previously, David was Chief Creative Officer of Acclaim.com, directing 'free-to-play' games. David has developed over 100 games including the hits ‘Earthworm Jim’ and ‘The Matrix’ series. He sits on the Advisory Board of the Game Developers Conference and is a regular speaker at conferences and universities including TED, Hollywood & Games Summit and MIT.

 

Roy Bahat, President, IGN Entertainment

Media Investing

 

David J. Blumberg, Managing Partner, Blumberg Capital

 David Blumberg is the Managing Partner of Blumberg Capital. David has been investing in early stage technology companies for more than 24 years. His current investment focus includes Digital Media, Social Media, Mobility, SaaS/Technology Enabled Services and Internet.

Prior to founding Blumberg Capital in 1991, David managed technology investments with Claridge Investments, Adler & Co., Apax, and T. Rowe Price Associates. David launched the business development efforts for Check Point Software Technologies.

David earned his AB in Government, cum laude, from Harvard College and his MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and INSEAD. David speaks French and is proficient in Hebrew and Spanish.

David serves as a member or observer on the Board of Directors of CaseStack, DoubleVerify, Hootsuite Media, Madvertise, Legolas Media, Mobile Spinach, VideoGenie, Parse.ly, CoverHound, Addepar, and CredoRax.  He is on the Board of The Lincoln Club of Northern California and is a member of the Pacific Council on International Policy.

 

Chi-Hua Chien, Investment Partner, Kleiner Perkins Caufield Byers

Chi-Hua Chien joined Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers in 2007. A partner at the firm, he focuses on investments in consumer web and mobile. Chi-Hua serves on the board of directors or works closely with the teams at Booyah, Chegg, Erly, GOGII, Home Value Protection, Klout, Path, Reputation.com, Spotify, Twitter and Zaarly.

Before coming to KPCB, Chi-Hua worked with Accel Partners as a venture advisor and associate, with a focus on software as a service, consumer Internet and online advertising infrastructure. He originated Accel’s investments in Facebook and AdECN (acquired by Microsoft) and worked on the firm’s investments in AdMob, BitTorrent, fbFund, Glam, Trulia and YuMe Networks. Before becoming an investor, Chi-Hua was an early employee or co-founder of several startups, three of which achieved successful exits between US$30 million and US$300 million. Chi-Hua was the director of marketing at Coremetrics (acquired by IBM), where he led the marketing and inside sales teams and served as interim CFO for Coremetrics through two rounds of venture funding. He also was part of the early teams at MyListo (as a founder) and eCoverage.

Chi-Hua has an M.S. degree in industrial engineering, a B.S. degree in industrial engineering and a B.A. degree in economics, all from Stanford University. At Stanford, he was named a Mayfield Fellow and President’s Scholar. Chi-Hua also earned an M.B.A. from the Stanford Graduate School of Business, where he was an Arjay Miller Scholar. Chi-Hua was named one of the Top VCs Under 35 by VC Journal and a member of the Elite Eight VCs To Watch by Forbes.

 

Mark Colodny, Managing Director, Technology, Media and Telecommunications, Warburg Pincus

Mark M. Colodny joined Warburg Pincus in 2001 and focuses on TMT investments in media, Internet and information companies. Mr. Colodny also leads the firm’s West Coast office. Previously, he served as senior vice president of corporate development at Primedia where he ran the mergers and acquisitions group. He began his career as a journalist at Fortune magazine. Mr. Colodny received an A.B. from Harvard University, an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School and a J.D. from Harvard Law School. He is a director of A Place for Mom, CAMP, Evidon, GlobalSpec, iParadigms, MLM Information Services, Multi View, OnTargetJobs and Spigit. Mr. Colodny is also chair of ProPublica’s Business Advisory Board.

 

Jim Friedlich, ZelnickMedia

Jim Friedlich is both a private equity investor in later-stage media companies and an angel investor in seed and early stage ventures.

From 1985-2000, Jim served in a series of senior roles at The Wall Street Journal, including that of Group Publisher for Europe, Asia, and the Americas, and Board Director of CNBC.

In 2001 Jim joined ZelnickMedia as one of four founding partners. The media and entertainment-focused private equity fund has investments in an array of businesses including Alloy Media and Marketing ("Gossip Girl"), Take-Two Interactive ("Grand Theft Auto"), and ITN Networks.  Jim serves as Operating Partner focused on next-generation publishing, digital marketing, and information services. He is Chairman of Naylor LLC, a web publisher serving the trade association market, as well as Senior Advisor to AlixPartners, a leading restructuring and enterprise improvement firm.

Jim is an angel investor and/or board member of AdSafe Media, Business Insider, Lerer Media Ventures, LocalVox, and Remember.com.

Jim attended Dartmouth College, Wesleyan University, and the Stanford Graduate School of Business. He has published feature  stories in the San Jose Mercury News and San Francisco Chronicle.

Richard Yen, Director, Private Equity, Saban Capital

Richard Yen is a Director at Saban Capital Group based in the Venture Capital and New Media Group.  In this capacity, he focuses on venture investment opportunities in the digital media, consumer Internet and mobile sectors for the firm.  Mr. Yen also works actively with the firm's portfolio companies and advises them on their digital media strategies.

Prior to joining Saban Capital Group, Mr. Yen was a Principal at Blueprint Ventures in San Francisco where he established the firm's digital media and Internet investing practice.  Prior to that, Mr. Yen was at Rustic Canyon Partners, a technology venture capital firm in Santa Monica where he focused on early-stage software and wireless investments.  In his prior operating roles, he served as Director of Technology for ShockMarket, a consumer Internet startup in the Silicon Valley; Vice President of Intelligent Technologies for Merrill Lynch; and Director of Engineering for D. E. Shaw & Co.

Mr. Yen earned a BS in Electrical Engineering/Computer Science from UC Berkeley and an MBA from the UCLA Anderson School of Management, both with high honors.  Mr. Yen is a graduate of the Kauffman Fellows Program.

The Socialization of Music

Seth Goldstein, Chairman, turntable.fm

Seth creates and invests in really awesome companies. Most recently he and Billy Chasen created turntable.fm, an addictive social music service. 

In 1995, Seth founded Sitespecific, which pioneered online advertising solutions for companies like Duracell and Travelocity. It was acquired by CKS Group in 1997. In 1999, Seth joined Fred Wilson as Entrepreneur in Residence at Flatiron Partners where he built a practice in “pervasive computing,” investing in companies Kozmo, Modo and Vindigo.  In 2002, Seth created Majestic Research, the first Wall Street research firm to mine primary data for hedge funds to forecast the financial performance of public companies.  Majestic Research was acquired in 2010 by Investment Technology Group (NYSE: ITG).  In 2005, Seth started Root Markets with renowned Salomon Brothers trader Lew Ranieri and the Chicago Board of Trade to create the first financial exchange for online mortgage leads.  Seth started SocialMedia.com in 2007 which makes ads more relevant across the Web with a unique social advertising platform.  SocialMedia was acquired in 2011 by LivingSocial.  

In 2007, Seth created the pre-eminent start-up ghetto Pier 38 in SanFrancisco, which houses Dogpatch and dozens of other startups.  In 2010, Seth co-founded Stickybits, which connects digital media to real-world objects via barcodes. Seth has served on the board of the Internet Advertising Bureau, where he co-chaired its Social Media committee and helped architect the first set of best practices in social advertising.  Seth was the original investor in Web 2.0 pioneer del.icio.us which was acquired by Yahoo! in 2005, and was one of the first investors in Etherpad which was purchased by Google in 2009.

Mr. Goldstein holds a BA in Literature from Columbia University’s Columbia College. Following school in 1993, he started Riverbed Media, which created interactive projects with contemporary artists Robert Wilson and William Forsythe.  Seth lives in Marin, CA with his wife and two sons. You can follow Seth on Twitter at @seth 

 

Mike Harkey, US General Manager, Songkick

Ferrell, born in Beaufort, S.C., and raised in Orange Park, Fla., earned a bachelor's degree from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. He began his career as a sportswriter at The Florida Times-Union in Jacksonville and The St. Augustine (Fla.) Record. He moved to the Greensboro News & Record to become a news and sports designer, and later became the deputy design director for news at the (Raleigh) News & Observer. He joined The Washington Post in 2004, and has held a variety of positions in print and digital. He has spoken on digital storytelling at a number of national conferences, won several Society for News Design awards and designed the investigative project "Angler: The Cheney Vice Presidency, which won the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting. He currently leads a team responsible for the site, editorial and product design of washingtonpost.com; design of the company's mobile site; and its applications for iOS and Android. At Stanford, his concentration is on redesigning the internal relationships of news companies to create and sell people-centered digital journalism products.

Ann Friedman, Executive Editor, GOOD Magazine

 

Ann Friedman is the executive editor of GOOD magazine and the curator of LadyJournos!, a website that highlights the work of women journalists. Prior to that she was deputy editor of The American Prospect. During her tenure, the magazine was awarded the Utne Independent Press Award for Best Political Coverage. Ann spent six years as one of the editors of Feministing.com, a widely read feminist blog. She has also been the Prospect's web editor, an editorial fellow at Mother Jones, managing editor of AlterNet.org, and a reporter for several local newspapers in Missouri and Iowa. She is a graduate of the University of Missouri-Columbia School of Journalism.

Warren Webster, President, AOL Patch

 

Ann Grimes, Director, Stanford Graduate Program in Journalism

Ann Grimes is a former staff writer and editor for The Wall Street Journal where she covered technology and business. As Deputy Bureau Chief in San Francisco, she oversaw the newspaper's coverage of Silicon Valley during the 1990's dot-com boom and bust. While at Dow Jones & Co., she also worked on developing new-media strategy.  Earlier, Grimes was on the editorial staff of The Washington Post. As the Deputy National Editor responsible for coverage of the federal government, she ran a national news section that covered the political spectrum. Starting out, she wrote about social issues in Chicago and contributed regularly to The New York Times. Grimes is the author of Running Mates, a book about the 1988 presidential campaign published by William Morrow & Co. and a Book-of-the-Month Club selection.  She is the recipient of several journalism awards including the Society of Professional Journalist's Peter Lisagor Award for Exemplary Journalism, the Education Writers Association National Award, and two Chicago Newspaper Guild Awards. She was a 1997-1998 John S. Knight Fellow at Stanford. A former teaching fellow at the University of California, Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, Grimes teaches classes in public issues reporting, business, technology and new media. She has a B.A. in English Literature from Georgetown University and an M.A. in Humanities from the University of Chicago. 

 

Local, Social, Original: Emerging Methods of Content Monetization

Tristan Walker, Director of Business Development, foursquare

Tristan Walker is Director of Business Development for foursquare, where he oversees strategic partnerships and monetization. In this role, Tristan has managed integrations with large brands and media entities including American Express, The New York Times, CNN, MTV, Starwood Hotels & Resorts, and Starbucks. He has been named to Ebony Magazine's 100 Most Powerful People list and The Hollywood Reporter's Digital Power 50. Tristan holds a bachelor's degree in economics from Stony Brook University, where he graduated as valedictorian, and an MBA from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business. He currently lives with his family in Palo Alto, California.

Edwin Philogene, VP Business Planning and Digital Strategy, BBDO (Omnicom Group)

Edwin Philogene is Vice President, Director, Business Planning and Digital Strategy for BBDO, the largest advertising agency network in the Omnicom Group. Within this role, he manages digital intelligence and development activity for the agency and leads its global digital innovation and education initiative, Digital Lab. Prior to BBDO, Edwin served as Manager, OEM Marketing Programs for Sirius Satellite Radio, where he supervised the company¹s integrated marketing programs in alliance with key auto partners, including BMW, Ford and Nissan. Edwin has also served as an independent consultant on mobile content strategies for America Online and as Manager, Product Marketing at telecom equipment provider Ericsson. Edwin is a graduate of Cornell University (B.S.) and The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania (MBA).

 

 

 

The Reinvention of Traditional Media

Eric Budin, VP Advanced Video Services, Comcast Cable

 Eric Budin is Vice President, Advanced Video Services for Comcast Cable, the largest video provider in the United States with more than 22 million subs.  Under his leadership, Mr. Budin’s team is responsible for identifying and developing video business opportunities, including new subscription models, advanced advertising initiatives and the development of new channels.  He previously worked on evaluating and developing new business opportunities across Comcast’s video, voice and data products, helping to launch Xfinity Home Security as well as a partnership with Skype for living room teleconferencing. Prior to joining Comcast, Mr. Budin spent 11 years in California working in business development and product management for venture-backed Internet companies, including OnLive Technologies and Worlds Inc.  He also co-founded more.com, which was a top ten e-commerce company before it was sold in 2001. Eric holds an MBA from Stanford University and a B.A. in Economics and Psychology from the University of Michigan. Eric lives in Rosemont, PA with his wife and two daughters.

Mark Pearson, Senior Vice President, Brand and Franchise Mgmt, 20th Century Fox TV

Mark Pearson is responsible for developing growth strategies for and maximizing the value of 20th Century Fox Television’s television properties.  Mark collaborates internally with the studio’s producers, creative executives and distribution divisions to identify new business opportunities.  Mark also works outside the company with the studio’s broadcast network and third party partners to maximize viewer interest in and experience of 20th’s series and products.  In his role, Mark places emphasis on digital distribution and new media.  Prior to joining 20th Century Fox Television, Mark served as Vice President, Business Development & Brand Strategy for Universal Studios and Vice President, Franchise Strategy, for Universal Pictures.  In these roles, Mark built and managed key Universal franchises including American Pie and The Fast and the Furious. Mark joined Universal Pictures as Director, Business Development and Strategic Planning where he identified, negotiated and managed investments and provided strategic and financial consulting to senior management.  Mark began his career in the music business.  He co-founded Serchlite Music where he executive produced projects for the company’s Columbia Records imprint, including hip-hop artist Nas’ debut and the Zebrahead soundtrack.  Mark earned an M.B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School and a B.A. in English and Political Science from Columbia University.

Anne-Marie Roussel, Head of Acquisitions and Partnerships, Sharp Laboratories of America

Anne-Marie Roussel is Head of Acquisitions and Partnerships for Sharp Labs of America, based in Silicon Valley, She manages Sharp’s corporate venture activities in Social TV and Mobile Media in the U.S. Anne-Marie joined Sharp in 2011, with over 15 years of experience as a technology executive.  Prior to Sharp, Anne-Marie managed the Digital Media and Mobile Communications portfolio for Microsoft, based in Silicon Valley. As such, she evaluated investment and partnership opportunities for Microsoft’s Entertainment Division and product groups such as Xbox, XboxLive, Zune and MediaRoom.  Prior to Microsoft, Anne-Marie was Vice President at Gartner Group in Paris for ten years. Anne-Marie was responsible for the creation and launch of several flagship products, including: “Gartner’s Cool Vendors List”—a yearly round-up of the best and brightest startups in IT; and “Gartner Invest”—an advisory service for investors in tech.  In her spare time, Anne-Marie is a wine aficionado and entrepreneur, contemplating a wine-and-tech oriented venture still in stealth mode. 

 

The Rise of Mobile

 

ANKIT GUPTA

CO-FOUNDER AND CTO, PULSE

Ankit Gupta is Co-Founder and CTO of Pulse, a highly popular news reading app on iOS and Android devices. Pulse currently has over 12m users as it provides a visually pleasing yet efficient experience to consume content from a variety of sources. Ankit graduated from IIT Bombay ('08) with a Bachelors and Stanford University ('10) with a Masters in Computer Science.  

 

Ujjal Kohli

Chief Executive Officer, Rhythm NewMedia

Ujjal Kohli co-founded Rhythm NewMedia, Inc. in 2005 and serves as its Chief Executive Officer. Rhythm provides mobile video advertising solutions. Ujjal has over 25 years of experience in general management, engineering, marketing, strategy, M&A, and venture capital.  Prior to founding Rhythm NewMedia, Ujjal was CEO and a Co-Founder of Meru Networks (Nasdaq:MERU). Previously, Ujjal was EVP of Marketing & Sales for AirTouch Cellular, a $3.5 Billion revenue wireless carrier. As CMO, Ujjal led the creation and development of the AirTouch Cellular brand at its inception. Ujjal also led AirTouch Business Units in Northern and Southern California as VP/GM, and oversaw Strategy, M&A and Product Development in his six years at AirTouch Cellular. Before AirTouch, Ujjal was with McKinsey in their technology practice. Ujjal started his career at Intel Corporation, first in engineering and subsequently in marketing.  Ujjal is a private investor/advisor in several start-ups including ByteMobile, Bridgewave Communications, Jasper Systems, EAS Inc, & Funamobl.  Ujjal holds a B.Tech. in Electrical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology (Delhi), an MS in Electrical Engineering from the University of Rochester and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

 

AMBER REYNGOUDT

ENGINEER, MILK INC.

Amber Reyngoudt is an entrepreneur and an engineer.  She joined Milk Inc., a mobile app incubator in San Francisco founded by Digg co-founder Kevin Rose, as an iOS app developer in early 2011 after having co-founded Skull Ninja, a social web incubator.  Milk recently launched its first iPhone app called Oink.  Prior to the startup life, Amber worked as a software engineer and manager within larger corporations including MySpace, Hitachi, Intel, and Nortel.  Amber is passionate about the mobile space and has spent the last few years focused on building mobile products.

 

JOE ZADEH

PRODUCT LEAD, AIRBNB

Joe Zadeh (a.k.a. "Joebot") is Product Lead at Airbnb where he focuses on how to bridge the online and offline worlds to enable world-class experiences.  Part of his efforts include keeping engineering and design tightly integrated to create great products.  He joined Airbnb as the third engineer at a time when the entire product development team worked out of a bedroom in a San Francisco apartment.  In a previous life, Joe was a scientist and holds a Ph.D. in Bioengineering from Caltech and a B.S. in Computer Science from Northwestern University. 

 

ANNEKE JONG | MODERATOR

STANFORD GRADUATE SCHOOL OF BUSINESS, CLASS OF 2012

VICE PRESIDENT OF BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT, BRE.AD

Anneke Jong is a second-year MBA with a passion for all things digital, particularly social tech and new media.  She is a founding team member at Bre.ad where she and her team are creating a new digital marketing tool for social media.  She is a columnist for The Daily Muse, and her writing on tech and entrepreneurship has been published in Forbes, The Huffington Post, Women 2.0, and CBSnews.com.  As a performance storyteller, she's performed on stages across the country for The Moth, TEDx, and the NPR show "Snap Judgment."  She shares her musings on her blog (www.annekejong.com) and you can follow her on Twitter at @annekejong.