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Eric Bohren -- CFO, Vice
President of Business Development, PERSIST Technologies,
Inc.
Debra Chrapaty - CTO, Organic
Thomas B. Shepard - Executive VP,
Global Partnerships and Sponsorships, Visa International
Lynn Upshaw - Founder of Upshaw &
Associates, a leading brand consultancy, and noted branding
author and speaker
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 ERIC
BOHREN |
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Over the last 12 years, Eric has been involved
in over 35 M&A; and private equity transactions with a wide range
of technology and services companies. Currently, he serves as
CFO & Vice President of Business Development of PERSIST Technologies,
Inc., a newly funded enterprise software startup. Previously,
Eric worked at E*TRADE Group as Director of Venture Capital
and Corporate Development where he led investments in early
stage private companies and worked with E*TRADE and its portfolio
companies on business development and transactional issues.
He also served as interim CFO of E*Offering, led its $50M venture
funding effort and its $350M sale to WIT Soundview. Previously,
Eric was a consultant with Booz Allen & Hamilton, an investment
banker with Broadview International, and an independent consultant
where he advised technology companies on a broad range of strategy,
growth and M&A; initiatives. Eric holds an MBA and MA in international
management from the University of Pennsylvania and a BA from
the University of California at Berkeley.
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| DEBRA
CHRAPATY |
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Debra Chrapaty is the Chief Technology Officer
at Organic, a leading digital services firm. Formerly, Debra
was President of AllBusiness, where she was responsible for
all areas of enterprise management. She lead AllBusiness's rapid
growth and expansion and maximized the company's productivity
and operational efficiency. Prior to AllBusiness, she was Chief
Operating Officer at Bigvine. Debra came to Bigvine from E*Trade,
where she served most recently as Chief Media Officer, leading
the company's Digital Financial Media initiative. During her
tenure at E*Trade, she also served terms as President of Technologies,
Senior VP of Technologies and Chief Information Officer and
won InformationWeek's CIO of the Year Award.
Prior to E*Trade, Debra served as Chief Information Officer
of the National Basketball Association (NBA). She has also worked
at Bertelsmann CIS as Director of Internal Systems Consulting,
with EMI Records Group and with financial giants like the Federal
Reserve Bank of New York and Chase Econometric/IDC. Debra earned
her BBA in economics at Temple University and her MBA in information
systems at New York University.
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| THOMAS
B. SHEPARD |
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Thomas Shepard is the Executive Vice President
International Partnerships and Sponsorship at Visa International,
where he leads strategic development, negotiation, and organization
of global and multi-regional merchant partnerships in both the
physical and Internet environments. He is also responsible for
global strategy, development, and deployment of Visa's global
sponsorships in the event marketing arena. In 1998, Mr. Shepard
was awarded International Partnership Marketer of the Year by
SME International.
Prior to joining Visa, Mr. Shepard was EVP/Partner at Millsport,
where he was responsible for the strategic direction and supervision
of event marketing programs for a variety of clients including
Visa International, Visa USA, and Visa Asia-Pacific, American
Airlines, Bank of America, Doubletree Hotels, and Apple Computer.
Mr. Shepard also held the position of Senior Vice President
of Mountain Operations at Crested Butte Mountain Resort in Colorado,
where he worked for twelve years, concurrently serving as Executive
Director of the U.S. Alpine Ski Championships from 1987-1991.
Mr. Shepard received his B.S. in Biological Science from the
University of Connecticut.
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| LYNN
UPSHAW |
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Lynn Upshaw is principal of Upshaw & Associates,
a national brand and marketing consulting practice. He has also
served as a senior consultant to Interbrand Corporation and
BridgeStrategy management consultancy. Mr. Upshaw was formerly
Executive Vice President/Brand Marketing and Managing Director
of Interactive for Ketchum Communications Worldwide.
During his 25+ year career, he has consulted with business-to-business
and consumer marketing brand teams in such corporations as Visa
International, SBC Communications, 3Com Corp., esurance.com,
Blue Cross of California, Bayer Corporation, ConAgra, Kentucky
Utilities, Pacific Telesis, Bank of America, Thomson Newspapers,
Miller Brewing, Outrigger Hotels & Resorts, The Clorox Co.,
and DHL Worldwide Express. He has also served as a faculty member
of the Bell Atlantic Marketing Leadership Institute, will be
a member of the adjunct faculty at the Haas School of Business
at University of California/Berkeley beginning in the Fall of
2001.
Lynn Upshaw has authored books on branding including Building
Brand Identity: A Strategy for Success in a Hostile Marketplace
(John Wiley & Sons), that is in use in corporations and universities
around the world, and was recently translated into Chinese for
distribution in Asia Pacific, and has also authored articles
for numerous leading publications including Brandweek, Advertising
Age, The Journal of Brand Management - UK, The Design Management
Journal, and Marketing News.
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