SVForum Announces New Board Members in 2015

SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- SVForum, Silicon Valley's leading not-for-profit organization for fostering innovation and entrepreneurship, today announced changes in the lineup of its Board of Directors. SVForum has long enjoyed the leadership and insight of some of Silicon Valley’s top entrepreneurs, investors, and business leaders, and the organization is pleased to welcome three new members in 2015: Victor Hwang of T2 Venture Creation, Jitendra Kavathekar of Accenture Open Innovation, and John Wolpert of IBM Watson. After ten years of lending guidance and business acumen to the organization, longtime member and past chair Deborah Magid of IBM ended her term on the Board.

“It's an honor to have Victor, John, and Jitendra join the Board of our organization,” stated CEO Adiba Barney. “We’re very much looking forward to their insights, contributions, and guidance in the coming year as we work together to move SVForum into a vibrant new future.

“We would also like to thank Deborah for her years of incredible service,” Barney added. “SVForum would not be where it is today without her vast insight and support.”

“It’s always exciting to welcome new members to the table, and to usher in new voices and new perspectives,” said Board chair Steve Goldberg of Venrock. “We’re looking forward to a collaborative and productive year ahead.”

Stated Victor Hwang of T2 Venture Creation, “SVForum is such an important institution. More than any other organization, SVForum is the caretaker of the Silicon Valley ecosystem. It builds valuable connections, spreads brave ideas, and encourages entrepreneurial thinking. And increasingly, SVForum is helping expand the Valley’s ecosystem to the rest of the world.”

“I’m delighted to join my fellow colleagues on the Board of SVForum to help turn its extraordinary vision for how Silicon Valley innovation can power the global corporate landscape into a reality,” said Jitendra Kavathekar, managing director, Accenture Open Innovation. “It’s a tremendously vibrant time for Silicon Valley and for SVForum to engage on global scale.”

“I’m looking forward to working with the SVForum Board, and I’m anticipating a dynamic collaboration with this remarkable group of people,” stated John Wolpert of IBM Watson. “The organization has been around for decades, but continues to grow—not an easy feat in a place that evolves as quickly as Silicon Valley. I’m excited to be a part of the process, and help guide the organization into an amazing new future.”

In addition to the new members, SVForum’s current Board of Directors includes: Board chair Steve Goldberg of Venrock, past chair Debbie Brackeen of Citi Ventures, treasurer Claire Hayes of PwC, acting secretary Rachel Proffitt of Wilson Sonsini, and Board members Brian Goncher of Deloitte, Chris Yeh of PBWorks, Jeff Kuhn of FLG Partners, Kevin Surace of Appvance, Matt Thompson of Microsoft, Michael Torosian of DLA Piper, Purnima Kochikar of Google, and SVForum CEO Adiba Barney.

About the new Board members:

Victor W. Hwang is CEO and co-founder of T2 Venture Creation, a Silicon Valley firm that builds startup companies and designs the ecosystems that foster entrepreneurial innovation. T2VC mentors and invests in innovative companies with breakthrough technologies. Victor is also CEO and co-founder of Liquidity Corporation, a company that makes the world's most technologically advanced filters for healthy drinking water. Victor is Executive Director of the Global Innovation Summit, a conference on building innovation ecosystems that attracts delegates from nearly 50 countries. Victor is primary co-author of the book The Rainforest: The Secret to Building the Next Silicon Valley (Regenwald, 2012), and is also a contributing columnist to Forbes magazine, where he authors the blog Riffs from the Rainforest. He has also written for The Wall Street Journal, TechCrunch, and Entrepreneur.

Jitendra Kavathekar is the managing director of Accenture Open Innovation, which is focused on transforming technology innovation from vibrant ecosystems—such as startups, universities and corporate R&D labs around the globe—into business results for Accenture’s clients. He leads an entrepreneurial team whose mission is to build a bridge between the rapidly growing supply of innovation in the world today found in these ecosystems to the demand for that innovation from corporations, governments and organizations, helping them move forward in rapid and transformative ways. Prior to Accenture, Jitendra led organizations and business at Yahoo!, Motorola and Palm, and was CEO of Twiki, a widely adopted open source based product for enterprise collaboration. He holds an MS in Computer Science from the UW-Milwaukee and was honored with an Honorary PhD from ITU. Jitendra is also a Fellow at the Tribeca Film Festival Disruptor Foundation.

John Wolpert leads product development for the Watson Ecosystem, with responsibility for setting the development roadmap, curating and ensuring the quality of available services, and keeping the organization focused sharply on the user. He also crafts and tells the Watson story to partners, leaders, and audiences world-wide, using that regular contact with people outside IBM to gain insights for innovating and improving the end-to-end Ecosystem experience. John is a three-time entrepreneur and founder of the popular Taxi App, Flywheel. He has created new lines of business for several Fortune 100 companies, ran an international consortium of research labs, and has been an IBMer three times — in the past running the ground-breaking alphaWorks organization and the Extreme Blue incubator lab, one of the most patented labs in IBM history.

About SVForum

For over 30 years, SVForum has fostered innovation, entrepreneurship and leadership in Silicon Valley. We function as a center of knowledge and connections, covering everything from the latest tech trends to the startup and investment ecosystem. We have a long history of creating successful events, programs and conferences that educate, train, inspire, and connect technologists, entrepreneurs, corporates, investors, innovation and startup hubs, and students—in Silicon Valley, throughout the U.S., and globally. We organize about 150 different activities per year, have over 20,000 subscribers/users, and work with over 40 countries worldwide. Our partners include global leaders Deloitte, DLA Piper, IBM, Microsoft, Bank of the West, Qualcomm, and Siemens as well as leading venture capital firms, and service providers. SVForum is a fully independent 501 (c) (3) non-profit organization.

For further information, visit SVForum’s website at www.svforum.org.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20150710005602/en/

SVForum
Adiba Barney, 408-380-7241
SVForum CEO
[email protected]

Source: SVForum

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