MENTORS & COMMITTEE - U.S.A.
Andrea Litto
Since 1994, Andrea has become increasingly integrated in the startups and innovation community of Silicon Valley. Working along side her equally entrepreneurial husband, she gained firsthand experience of the many challenges that startups face.
Through her catering business in the Valley, she has hosted events in collaboration with several high profile companies in the area, and knows many of Silicon Valley’s prominent entrepreneurs.
Andrea believes innovation will always save the day. Her goal is for SiliconHouse to be the ‘home away from home’ for all visiting professionals and students from around the world.
Wedge Martin
Wedge Martin is the former CTO and Co-Founder of Badgeville and currently Co-Founder of GeoPapyrus, an augmented reality platform which aims to bring social networking back into the real world by fusing social media with physical surfaces viewable by mobile devices. Previously, he developed web applications and constructed high availability platforms for Shopping.com (now Ebay), Reuters NASDAQ, the DoE, IBM, and Cisco. He also designed the energy communications network for the power deregulation effort in California, and extended the network to cover the western half of the US. Martin loves working with web app platforms, databases, and wide area networking and was a pioneer in the VoIP industry helping to build the first SaaS based iPBX system, now sold as 8×8.
Robson Ribeiro
Robson is an executive and entrepreneur that founded his first digital media company at age 20 and one of the first Internet Service Providers in Brazil in 1996. As a business executive, Robson ran RealNetworks business in Latin America, was President and COO at an early stage NETFLIX business for Latin America in 2002 and then became Director of International Business based in Milan, for a digital media company.
Robson led the start of several digital music portals and helped develop DRM standards for the music industry in the U.S., Italy, Mexico, Chile, Argentina and Brazil. In the broadcast industry, Robson was CIO for Mix Communications Group in Brazil, being responsible to design, budget and implement a tapeless TV system for the company. Robson has lived in Brazil, U.S.A (Seattle, Palm Beach and Miami) and Italy (Milan) and speaks 5 languages.
Taciana Mello
Taciana is a Marketing & Communication executive that has developed most of her career in multinational companies such as Ford Motor Company, Continental Airlines and PwC (PricewaterhouseCoopers). As a seasoned integrated marketing strategy and communications professional, she has supported different types of organizations to innovate in the way they provide services by improving the customer experience through design thinking and other tools.
The deep interest about learning and experiencing innovation ecosystems came with the challenge of implementing the PwC Innovation Program, in Brazil. Since then, she is a strong believer that innovation is the most relevant and sustainable path through which we can grow, develop and tackle the world’s most relevant issues. Taciana has been involved in problem-solving methods like Design Thinking – key to innovation – at UC Berkeley and Stanford and learned how creative confidence and empathy are game-changers.
Angelika Blendstrup
She holds a Ph.D. from Stanford University and a Master’s from UC Berkeley. Angelika coaches international executives and entrepreneurs on US business communications in Silicon Valley and delivers classes at Stanford University’s Continuing Studies, Haas Business School and UCLA Anderson School of Management. Angelika is the author of They Made It! – featuring interviews with major foreign-born leaders of Silicon Valley, and co-author of Communicating the American Way.
Christophe Goudy
Christophe Goudy is the Senior Vice President at Hotwire PR and holds more than 15 years of experience in public relations and marketing development for international technology companies and startups. Professional, passionate for PR, creative and with a strategic, result-driven mind, he always focused on reputation and relations. In addition, he has broad experience in corporate communications. Christophe has been working for various companies such as Garmin, GoPro, Toshiba, Inrix, Western Digital, Yahoo!, InMobi, Nikon, BlackBerry, Jabra and Novell.
Dan Pulcrano
Dan Pulcrano is CEO and Executive Editor of the Silicon Valley-based Metro Newspapers Group, that includes Metro SiliconValley, Metro Santa Cruz and the North Bay Bohemian.
Dan has been involved in Los Gatos media for a quarter of a century. He co-founded and edited the Los Gatos Weekly and negotiated the purchaseof the Times Observer and merger with the Weekly in 1991. That was the birth of Silicon Valley Community Newspapers, which Pulcrano served as CEO and Executive Editor of for ten years.
He continues to oversee Metro’s three weeklies, as well as a global network of city guides as LosAngeles.com and SanFrancisco.com.
Eduardo Prisco Ramos
Consul General Eduardo Prisco Paraiso Ramos holds a degree in journalism from the Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro. As a career Diplomat since 1974, he has held posts in Paris, Panamá and London. In the Brazilian Foreign Service he has worked in the fields of trade promotion, technical and educational cooperation, administrative planning and human resources.
He held positions at the Ministry of Foreign Relations as a General Manager of Administrative Planning and as Director-General of the Foreign Service Department. Before he became Consul General of Brazil in San Francisco he was Ambassador of Brazil to Panamá and to El Salvador.
Gary Kramen
As an entrepreneur, inventor and investor, Gary Kremen has over 25 years experience with startups and emerging growth companies. He is a founder of several companies including Match.Com and Clean Power Finance.
Kremen is an angel investor in several startup companies. He also sits on the board of numerous companies and organizations such as Crowdflower, Watersmart Software, CapGain Solutions, The Purissima Hills Water District and University of California at Merced.
Luis Buhler
Luis Buhler serves as a consulting CFO and strategic financial advisor for a variety of Silicon Valley companies. As Principal of Rockledge Associates, Luis has helped his clients complete a number of financial transactions involving venture capital, angel investment and venture debt. In addition, Luis has advised his clients on exit strategy & M&A discussions.
Luis also served as Deputy Secretary of the California Trade and Commerce Agency and acting executive director of the California Infrastructure and Economic Development Bank where he helped California successfully compete for investments from the Gap, Inc. and Boeing Corporation. Luis began his career in finance with Cummins Engine Co. in Indiana and Brazil and in community affairs with Levi Strauss & Co. in San Francisco. Luis earned an MBA and BA from Stanford University and an MA from Occidental College. He was a recipient of a Coro Foundation Fellowship and served as Board Chair of the Coro Center for Civic Leadership in San Francisco.
Marcio Saito
Marcio Saito moved from Brazil to California in 1993 to help set Cyclades (the first Brazilian technology startup to thrive in Silicon Valley). He was one of the pioneers in the Open Source Software movement and helped to design the first Internet data centers. Always involved in the entrepreneurship ecosystem, today he is interested in Social Media and focus on B2B solutions. Marcio blogs in Portuguese (http://DiretoDoVale.com) and English (http://MarcioSaito.com).
– Instructor/Coach: Stanford University (SCPD Innovation/Entrepreneurship Program)
– Blogger: DiretoDoVale.com (Entrepreneurship from Silicon Valley to Brazil)
– Mentor/Advisor: RFideas (Data Center, IoT), Hands-On TV (Media)
– Advisor, Investor, Fundraising: TrustVox (e-commerce platform), Ledface (Knowledge Crowdsourcing)
– Coordinator: BayBrazil Mentorship Program (Non-profit)
– Entrepreneur: Tenduit SW (Data Center), Coffee Bean Technology (Social Media Marketing)
Rajat Kuver
Rajat P. Kuver has over 20 years of experience as an immigration attorney. He received his law degree from Wayne State University Law School in Michigan in 1993. He also holds a Master’s Degree in International Business Law from Central European University in Budapest, Hungary.
He also taught business law at Golden Gate University in San Francisco, California, from 2003 to 2011. He is a member of both the California Bar and the Michigan Bar. He is also a member of the Santa Clara Bar Association and the American Immigration Lawyers Association.
He has published articles on Immigration Law, Export Licensing Law and Internet Privacy Law in prestigious Lexis/Nexis law journals.
Richard Weyhrauch
Richard Weyhrauch has participated in the life of Silicon Valley for more than forty years. He has a PhD in mathematics from Stanford and started his work life at the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (SAIL). He has published over 100 articles on subjects ranging from the correctness of programs to theories of consciousness to bioinformatics algorithms. He is currently president of IBUKI, a company that started its life selling LISP compilers and has recently become involved with natural language processing and will soon offer eBooks under the imprint Speculum Mundi Press. He has consulted for many well known Bay Area companies on both technical issues (including for example: systems integration, bioinformatics, databases, data mining, …) and business development.
Roger Royse
Roger Royse is the founder of Royse Law Firm, PC, a business and tax law firm withoffices in Northern and Southern California and an organizer of Silicon ValleyFoodtech and Silicon Valley Ag-Tech. Roger is a frequent speaker, writer, radioguest, blogger and panelist for bar associations, CPA organizations, andbusiness groups. Roger is a Northern California Super Lawyer and is AVPeer-Rated by Martindale Hubbell, has a “Superb” rating from Avvo and is arecipient of the Intercontinental Finance 2013 500 Leading Lawyers Award.
Thuc Vu
A Carnegie Mellon undergraduate and Stanford PhD specialized in machine learning and artificial intelligence, Thuc Vu is passionate about applying computer science to solve real-world problems, especially in social media. With a strong background in back-end and algorithmic components, he was the key player in the success of Katango, which he co-founded, and was acquired by Google, where he is currently working at the Android team on mobile solutions and frequently travels back to Vietnam to teach Entrepreneurship and Computer Science at John von Neumann Institute (JVN) of Vietnam National University Ho Chi Minh City.
MENTORS & COMMITTEE - EUROPE
Giorgio Valle
Giorgio Valle retired in November 2012 from University of Milano, Italy. After graduating in Electronics Engineering at Polytechnic of Milano, he has been in the Faculty of University of Bologna, University of Calabria, and Research Associate at University of Michigan. He is now active in Entrepreneurship Education projects in European Community Research Programs. He is also director of MasteriDTV, www.mmschool.eu/masteridtv, which continues internationally the experience started in 2005/6 at the University of Milano with a Master in Televisione Digitale Interattiva, which is now focused on a personalized educational program specific to a 3-months project work as a Research & Development exercise towards employment opportunities.
Jean François Catz
Jean-Francois (aka Jfc) is a senior Mobile Apps & Enterprise Mobility Management specialist, with expertise in VoIP, Social Business tools, network & business service management, iOS Platform, as well as quality of mobile UX.
Jfc has more than 25 years of experience in Software Product Management and Pre-Sales in the Telecom environment.
Jfc is an entrepreneur and a startup guy. He’s currently Product Manager at OpenPeak, a leading provider of Enterprise Mobility Management solution, making it easy for businesses to secure and manage business data on mobile devices. Prior to OpenPeak, he was a Senior Voice Platform Manager at Dolby Laboratories in San Francisco. Jfc is also part of the Micromuse alumni, where he was Director of Product Management for IP Convergence Service Assurance Solutions (VoIP, IPTV, IMS). Jfc also held several product management positions for other startups, including 8×8 Inc, where he served as the Vice-President of Product Management.
Jfc also designed and developed the first personal wiki for iOS and has a lot of expertise in mobile software integration. Jc is really an Internet Software technologies lover, with strong Technical and Communication skills and a lot of experience in customer facing meetings, trade shows and product demonstration. He is a technical evangelist, filling the gap between technology and business. Jfc is currently based in France.
MENTORS & COMMITTEE - BRAZIL
Fredric Litto
Fredric Michael Litto (B.A., UCLA, 1960; Ph.D., Indiana U., 1969). Professor Emeritus at University of São Paulo, was Full Professor of Communications of the University of São Paulo and the Founder and Scientific Coordinator of the University´s research laboratory “The School of the Future”.
Fredric holds two Jabuti Prizes of the Brazilian Publishers Association: “Distance Learning – the State of the Art” (2009), co-authored with Marcos Formiga, and “Learning at Distance” (2010). He currently serves as Member of the Board of Trustees of the ICDE.
Carlos Alberto Barros Costa
Carlos Alberto Costa is an executive and entrepreneur with more than 25 years of experience in IT. He is one of the pioneers in the development of Information Security in Brazil. He is a well-known expert in strategy, design, implementation, and management of Information Security.
Carlos was partner in Accenture and the regional leader of Information Security in Latin America and previously was the Director responsible for South Region at Modulo Security. He founded Open Communication Security in 2001, being its CEO for 6 years. He actively participated in the major security projects in Brazil: Brazilian Payment System (SPB); Electronic Elections; PKI-BR; Electronic channels: ATMs, Internet Banking, Call Centers, etc. being the pioneer in the development of OTP for mobile phones, security plug-in and generation of computer’s DNA
A Bachelor in Computer Science and Pos-Graduated in Organization, Systems & Methods at UFPE, he also holds an MBA degree in International Executive MBA from USP / FIA, extensions at the University of Cambridge – England, École de Management de Lyon Executive Education Centre – France, and Vanderbilt University – USA.
Who are the executives, entrepreneurs and advisors of SiliconHouse team that provide support on workshop and mentoring sessions.