DOUG HENTON, President and Founder of Collaborative Economics, is acknowledged on the national scene as one of the foremost interpreters of the Silicon Valley economy. He was among the principle founders of Joint Venture: Silicon Valley Network in 1993, and his firm has worked with Joint Venture to prepare the Index since 1995.

TIM DRAPER is the Founder and Managing Director of Draper Fisher Jurvetson, considered one of Silicon Valley’s most prominent and successful venture capital firms. An outspoken advocate of entrepreneurs and free markets, Mr. Draper’s early involvement was instrumental in the successes of Hotmail and YahooMail. He founded or co-founded Wasatch Ventures, Timberline Ventures, and the Polaris Fund, to name only a few of his ventures; he has also served on the California State Board of Education.

JAGDEEP SINGH is Co-founder, President & CEO of Infinera, the billion-dollar optical equipment maker that was one of Silicon Valley’s hottest IPOs in 2007. He was named telecom’s Executive of the Year by industry journal Light Reading. A graduate of Stanford and a serial entrepreneur, Mr. Singh also founded OnFiber Communications and Lightera Networks.

The Honorable CHUCK REED was elected 64th Mayor of San Jose in 2006, after winning two terms on the San Jose City Council. A graduate of the United States Air Force Academy, he served in Thailand during the Vietnam War, then completed degrees from Princeton and Stanford Law School. As an attorney Mr. Reed specialized in land use, real estate law, environmental law, and commercial litigation. As Mayor Mr. Reed introduced the Reed Reforms to bring more openness and fiscal responsibility to city politics, and unveiled a 10-point Green Vision for San Jose.

STEPHEN LEVY is Director and Senior Economist at the Center for Continuing Study of the California Economy. Since 1969 he has advised public institutions and private companies that require detailed projections and a careful demographic analysis of growth in the Golden State. Dr. Levy created the California Budget Challenge for NextTen, and serves as an advisor on the 2008 Index of Silicon Valley.

REBECCA SALNER (moderator) is assistant managing editor of The San Jose Mercury News, and is responsible for the paper’s business and technology reporting. At the Mercury since 1982, she has at various points supervised national and foreign coverage, as well as local news. A resident of Campbell, Ms. Salner wrote previously for The San Francisco Examiner.

TOM GAGE is CEO of AC Propulsion, Inc., a company dedicated to commercializing electric propulsion for automobiles. He gained his professional experience planning regulatory strategy at Chrysler Motors in Detroit, and later consulting in the Global Automotive Practice at SRI International. Regarded as an expert in the “energetics” of automobile propulsion, he also provides frequent commentary on market trends, and the role of public policy in the evolution of automotive technology. Educated at Stanford and Carnegie Mellon, he is a 25-year member of the Society of Automotive Engineers.

FELIX KRAMER is the founder of California Cars, an effort to put plug-in hybrids on the map through demonstrations, advocacy, and buyer’s clubs. In his role as founder Mr. Kramer led the PRIUS+ campaign, converting the popular Toyota into a prototype grid-connected “PHEV,” and in April 2006 he became the world’s first non-technical consumer owner of a plug-in hybrid. As a result of his leadership, PHEVs are now broadly supported by corporate, government, media, and citizen groups, and CalCars is working toward a future in which millions of autos are charged off-peak, providing distributed storage for a power grid fueled by renewable sources.

BYRON SHAW, General Motors Corporation, is responsible for the technology efforts of the Detroit automotive giant in Silicon Valley. Previously the technical director of BMW’s Technology Office in Palo Alto, he is also the co-founder and CTO of a photovoltaic solar start-up, where he led the development team through the product launch and early-stage funding. His career also includes a stint in the Stuttgart Germany research labs of Daimler Benz.  Dr. Shaw is considered an expert on reduction of cold-start emissions, the subject of his doctoral dissertation at Berkeley.

MATT NAUMAN (moderator) is the cleantech and energy reporter at the San Jose Mercury News. From 1991 to 2007 he served as the Mercury’s auto editor, driving at least 100 cars on test drives every year. He serves on the jury that awards the North American Car of the Year, and his reporting covers alternative-energy start-ups, well-established energy institutions, and the state’s public utilities commissions.

Concurrent Session #1:
GETTING READY FOR THE BIG ONE:
How Do We Make Silicon Valley the World's Best Example of Planning & Preparation?

Silicon Valley residents watched with horror at the breakdowns occurring in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. Will we experience a similar fate when “The Big One” visits its destruction on Silicon Valley? As a region, what is the state of our readiness? Joint Venture is working to make our region the world's best example of planning.

The Honorable STEVE POIZNER left Silicon Valley for Sacramento when he was elected California State Insurance Commissioner in 2006. He now oversees the largest consumer protection agency in the state, and recently has been our State’s point person with the Southern California wildfires. Prior to his election, a company Mr. Poizner founded pioneered GPS technology which enables responders to pinpoint emergency locations.

Mr. Poizner will be joined by Silicon Valley leaders who are working to locate a state-of-the-art disaster support center at Moffett Field: Bruce Lee (Santa Clara County), Robert Dolci (NASA/Ames Research Center), and Russell Hancock (Joint Venture: Silicon Valley Network).

Concurrent Session #2
'SMART' HEALTH:
How Can Silicon Valley Use Technology to Change Health Care?

How is it that in Silicon Valley, where we invented the technologies that make information ubiquitous, our health care system is still unconnected? Joint Venture is working to make electronic medical records a reality—secure, accessible to any authorized person, and therefore improving patient outcomes and introducing new efficiencies to the healthcare sector.

JEFF RIDEOUT is Chief Medical Officer at Health Evolution Partners. He was previously Managing Director for BC Ziegler’s new HealthVest Venture Fund and global leader for Cisco System’s Internet Business Solutions Group Healthcare Practice, and served as the Cisco’s Chief Medical Officer. Dubbed “Dr. InfoTech” by Business Week, Dr. Rideout is considered Silicon Valley’s leading advocate for electronic medical records.

KENNETH D. GRAHAM, a seasoned health care executive, began his tenure as El Camino Hospital's CEO in mid-2006. Before coming to El Camino Hospital, he served for 12 years as president and CEO of Overlake Hospital Medical Center in Bellevue, WA. He also served as assistant executive director at Long Beach Community Hospital, associate administrator at Grossmont Hospital in the San Diego area and in a number of senior executive positions with the Daughters of Charity National Health System, West Region.

Mr. Graham and Rideout will be joined by other health care leaders who are working through Joint Venture to make Silicon Valley a pioneer in the use of electronic medical records, including David Katz, Executive Director, Joint Venture's Smart Health Initiative.

Concurrent Session #3
CLIMATE PROSPERITY:
How Silicon Valley Can Provide a Model for Climate Protection and Economic Growth

Previous generations saw economic growth and environmental protection as conflicting objectives. Today Silicon Valley is showing how an aggressive environmental agenda—focused on clean tech innovation, sustainability, and green mobility—can also grow the regional economy. How can Silicon Valley organize as a region to significantly reduce our carbon footprint and become the world’s center for alternative fuel technologies?

The Honorable CHUCK REED is the Mayor of San Jose. In 2007 he released his Green Vision, a 10-point, 15-year plan for carbon reduction, sustainability and economic growth. The provisions include reducing per capita energy use by 50 percent, receiving 100 percent of electrical power from clean, renewable sources, and creating 25,000 clean tech jobs to establish Silicon Valley as the world center of clean tech innovation.

WILLIAM F. MILLER is co-founder and chair of Nanostellar, Inc., a Silicon Valley company using nanotechnology to reduce exhaust emissions, enabling automakers and power generators to save money and exceed stringent control requirements. Dr. Miller is also the Herbert Hoover Professor of Public and Private Management at Stanford University, former Stanford University Provost, and President of SRI International. He has served on the board of Pacific Gas & Electric Company, and played a role in the founding of the first Mayfield Fund.

WILL TRAVIS is the executive director of the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission (BCDC), the state agency that regulates development in the Bay and along its shoreline. With 240 square miles of low-lying filled land surrounding the San Francisco Bay, Mr. Travis has become the leading advocate for a regional plan to address the impact of rising sea levels from global warming.

NANCY MCFADDEN is Senior Vice President of Public Affairs for PG&E Corporation. She is responsible for managing the company's federal, state and local government relations, and philanthropic and community initiatives, while helping guide its efforts to be a national environmental leader. Before joining PG&E, McFadden spent nearly two decades as a key legal, policy, and political strategist in Washington, D.C. and Sacramento, most recently as senior advisor and deputy chief of staff to Governor Gray Davis. Prior to working in Sacramento, McFadden served for eight years in the Clinton Administration as deputy chief of staff to Vice President Al Gore and general counsel for the U.S. Department of Transportation.

TOM MCCALMONT is the President, CEO and Co-Founder of REgrid Power, a leading solar integrator that designs and builds solar power systems for both residential and commercial customers throughout Northern California. An electrical engineer, a NABCEP certified PV installer, and a prolific inventor with 13 U.S. patents, he has a successful track record of creatively applying new technology to solving real world customer problems. Tom is also a founding member and Executive Chair of SolarTech, a cross-functional industry coalition dedicated to reducing existing technical barriers and encouraging the proliferation of solar power.

Mayor Reed, Dr. Miller and Mr. Travis will be joined by Joint Venture vice president Seth Fearey who manages the Silicon Valley Climate Protection Task Force.

Concurrent Session #4
TURNING EL CAMINO REAL INTO A GRAND BOULEVARD:
How Can We Make Silicon Valley a Showcase for Urban Planning and Design?

You could say El Camino Real is our region’s “Main Street.” It is a thoroughfare winding its way through 19 Peninsula and Valley cities, and the road presents one of our most significant opportunities for housing and transit-oriented development. But everybody agrees the road is frumpy, and doesn’t reflect our region’s dynamic profile. Why? What is being done about it? How do we accelerate the pace of change?

Michael Freedman is acknowledged among the world’s experts on urban revitalization. Founding partner of Freedman Tung & Bottomley, he is renown for his strategies to revive stagnant commercial corridors and workplace districts. His worldwide credits include Mountain View’s downtown turnaround, and the renaissance taking place in Redwood City.

Mr. Freedman will be joined by leaders of the Grand Boulevard Task Force, a project led by Joint Venture in partnership with SAMCEDA, SamTrans, and the Valley Transportation Authority.

The Honorable ROBERT REICH
22nd Secretary, United States Department of Labor
Professor, Goldman School of Public Policy, University of California at Berkeley

Robert B. Reich is Professor of Public Policy at the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley. He has served in three national administrations, most recently as Secretary of Labor under President Bill Clinton. He is the author of eleven books including The Work of Nations, which has been translated into 22 languages, and his most recent, Supercapitalism.

As the nation’s 22nd Secretary of Labor, Mr. Reich implemented the Family and Medical Leave Act, and led a fight against sweatshops in the United States and illegal child labor around the world. He also headed the administration's action to raise the minimum wage.

and

The Honorable JOHN TAYLOR
President’s Council of Economic Advisors, 1989-1991
Mary & Robert Raymond Professor of Economics, Stanford University

Professor John B. Taylor is the Mary & Robert Raymond Professor of Economics at Stanford University. He served in the White House with President George H. W. Bush as a member of the United States Council of Economic Advisors; from 2001-2005 he served as Undersecretary for International Affairs at the United States Treasury.

Professor Taylor is the recipient of numerous awards for his public service and economic research, including the Alexander Hamilton Award for overall leadership in international finance. He is also widely known as the originator of the “Taylor Rule” for monetary policy. His most recent book is Global Financial Warriors.

KARA SWISHER (moderator) is co-producer and co-host of “All Things Digital,” a high-tech confab organized by the Wall Street Journal. She began covering digital issues for the Wall Street Journal’s San Francisco bureau in 1997, where she also wrote her “BoomTown” column appearing on the front page of the Marketplace section; today an online-only version of Boomtown appears on a new Dow Jones-owned tech and media site. Before joining the Wall Street Journal she wrote for The Washington Post.