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Behind the Scenes of Successful Startups
Tuesday, June 22, 2010

This is an interactive panel discussion and networking event for MBA alumni from Wharton, Columbia, Berkeley Haas, Harvard and Stanford.

• Veteran entrepreneurs from esteemed business schools reveal the keys to their success
• Glean insights on navigating the perils of the startup
• Reenergize your entrepreneurial aspirations
• Meet like-minded entrepreneurs
• Expand your network
• Share your best practices through the evening’s interactive format
  

Panel Members
John-Bernard Duler: Founder of Esurance - Wharton Business School
Pete Slosberg: Creator of Pete’s Wicked Ale & Founder of Pete's Brewing Company & Cocoa Pete's -Columbia Business School
Gregg Brockway: President & Co-Founder of TripIt, former co-founder of Hotwire - Harvard Business School
Jack Kloster: Co-Founder & COO of Yardbarker - UC Berkeley Haas
Sami Inkinen: Co-Founder & COO of Trulia - Stanford Graduate School of Business
 
MODERATOR: Bambi Francisco Roizen, Founder & CEO of Vator.TV

Register Online
Date: Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Time: 6:00pm-6:30pm Registration, 7:00pm-8:00pm Panel Discussion and Q&A, 8:00pm - 9:00pm Networking
Location: The University Club, 800 Powell Street, San Francisco, CA 94108
Registration: $15 + $1.81 processing fee (note: this inter-MBA school event does not qualify for WCNC Gold Ticket benefits)


Biographies:

John-Bernard Duler: John-Bernard is well known in the insurance industry as the founder of Esurance (www.esurance.com). John-Bernard founded Esurance in 1998 and served as Chairman and CEO until the sale to the White Mountains Group and remained a director until 2002. With revenues today in excess of $1B, Esurance is still the fastest growing insurance company.

In 2003, John-Bernard founded a boutique insurance brokerage and benefits consulting company based in San Francisco (www.DulerUSA.com), serving growing companies throughout the US.  Prior to his startups, John-Bernard was an executive with CIGNA Worldwide (now ACE Ltd.). In 1994 Duler was promoted to Vice President and General Manager, West Coast operations, overseeing offices in 11 Western states. Prior to arriving on the West coast, Duler led worldwide marketing, sales, and business development for CIGNA’s Global Risk Management, from the company’s headquarters in Philadelphia, PA.
 
John-Bernard received a Master of Science in engineering from the Ecole des Mines in France and an MBA in Finance from the Wharton School.  Duler received his Associate in Risk Management designation from the Insurance Institute of America. He is an advisor to the French Ministry of Economy and Finance.

Pete Slosberg: Pete is the face behind one of the most recognized craft beers in America. He is the creator of Pete’s Wicked Ale and founder of Pete’s Brewing Company, which at its height was a $70 million publicly held company that carved a permanent niche in America's gigantic beer industry. Inc. magazine named Pete's Brewing Company one of their "Top 100 Companies" for three straight years. A true defender of the brew, Pete Slosberg gave a face to the craft brewing movement and authored a best selling book, Beer for Pete’s Sake. After selling Pete's Brewing Company, Pete has followed his passion for chocolate and founded Cocoa Pete’s Chocolate Adventures. Pete received his B.A. from Columbia College and his MBA from Columbia Business School.

Gregg Brockway: Gregg is the President and co-founder of TripIt . As an online travel industry veteran, former co-founder of discount online travel company Hotwire and former president of Expedia's luxury travel company Classic Vacations, Inc., Gregg knows the ins and outs of booking and planning travel online. When he realized the rapidly growing number of online travel options and sites was beginning to conspire against his own attempts to easily plan trips, he knew that non-online-travel-experts must be having a heck of a time keeping it all straight. Thus the idea for TripIt took shape.

Prior to his work in the online travel industry, Gregg was a director at the private equity firm Hellman & Friedman and worked in the merchant banking group at Morgan Stanley & Company. Gregg received his MBA from Harvard Business School and has been a featured speaker at numerous industry conferences, including TravelCom, Internet World, eTravel, EyeForTravel and others on the topics of travel, e-commerce and revenue management.

Jack Kloster: Jack is COO and co-founder of Yardbarker . Jack’s focus is on successfully executing the Company’s near term strategy while positioning Yardbarker’s people, products and processes for large-scale growth. Jack has also handled all traditional CFO responsibilities including finance, analytics and human resources for the business.

Before founding Yardbarker, Jack spent seven years in the field of corporate turnaround, guiding mid- to large-cap distressed companies’ return to profitability. During this time Jack developed expertise in customer/product profit optimization, corporate strategy, and change management in hyper-fluid environments.

Jack has an MBA from the Haas school of business UC Berkeley (focus on Entrepreneurship and Management of Technology), a BS from Rutgers College and received his CPA certification from the state of New York.

Sami Inkinen: Sami is the Co-Founder and COO of Trulia . He brings to Trulia solid management and consulting experience in technology and software development. He has worked on Microsoft's strategy team for MS Office, on various business development initiatives for Nokia, and as a consultant for McKinsey & Company within the software, telecommunications and government sectors.

Sami combines his Blue Chip experience with an entrepreneurial background, including the successful launch and sale of his first company, Matchem, a wireless software provider enabling television broadcasters to deliver interactive programming to target audiences in Europe and Asia via innovative cell phone technology.

Sami received his Master's in Engineering Physics from Helsinki University of Technology and his MBA from Stanford University. Sami is also a competitive endurance sports athlete with three Hawaii Ironman triathlon finishes and was ranked as #2 triathlete in his age group in the U.S. in 2009.

Bambi Francisco: Bambi is CEO and Founder of Vator.tv , the professional network for launching ideas and innovation. Vator.tv is a web platform for anyone, across all industries, at any stage, to share ideas, products, services and businesses with the rest of the world, mainly through video. People use Vator.tv to get their ideas or needs discovered or to find, discover and connect with others in networks of interest.

Bambi is a veteran editor, columnist, and correspondent, covering the technology and Internet industries for 15 years. Her newsletters reached 400,000 subscribers interested in her thoughts on Internet trends and investing across public and private companies. She's appeared on Fox News, CNBC, and CBS as a commentator on the Internet.

She was also the morning business anchor for KPIX, the CBS San Francisco affiliate. She was a founding producer at CNNfn, where she created business programming including programs on new ideas and innovation.

She was named to the "blue-chip" financial reporting all-star team in 2000 by The Journal of Financial Reporters, the business news industry's leading organization. She was also named the top 10 most influential journalists on the Web by Adweek.

She blogs at http://www.bambi.blogs.com/ .