David Bradford is the Chief Executive Officer of Fusion-io which has developed what many have hailed as the “World’s Fastest Storage Device.” The award-winning ioDrive is a solid state storage device that accelerates data flow through any corporate enterprise. David joined Fusion-io as a Consultant in June of 2008, as Senior Vice President in September of 2008, and as Chief Executive Officer and Board Member in February of 2009.
David brings nearly 30 years of experience in technology leadership to Fusion-io. He is a proven business leader who has used innovation and foresight to play a significant role in shaping the expansive growth of the world of Information Technology. From 1985-2000, he served as Senior Vice President and General Counsel of Novell, Inc. the world leader in computer networking software. Mr. Bradford helped lead Novell from start up through a series of acquisitions, public offerings and business development activities which led to its place as a multi-billion dollar corporation. His responsibilities at Novell spanned four different divisions including Legal, Government Relations, Business Development and Security. During his last three years at Novell, Mr. Bradford reported to Eric Schmidt, now Chairman and CEO of Google.
From 2001 to 2008, Mr. Bradford was actively engaged in a variety of work including serving as a Partner with one of the Top Ten Law firms in the Country, Greenberg Traurig, as General Counsel of Dynix Corporation, the world’s leading supplier of Library Software, and as General Counsel to the Governor Elect of Utah, Jon M. Huntsman, Jr. Additionally, he served as CEO, Founder and Advisor to multiple Web 2.0 and social networking companies. Mr. Bradford has also been very active in the private equity markets and continues to serve as a Senior Advisor to Huntsman-Gay Equity Partners.
Paul Levy is an expert in free speech issues arising on the Internet and has argued numerous cases as a public interest attorney at the public interest firm Public Citizen. He is a renowned public speaker on internet issues, including trademark and copyright.
He has litigated cases in state and federal courts throughout the country about the identification of anonymous Internet speakers. His Internet practice also includes the defense of trademark and copyright claims brought as a means of suppressing critical web sites. His cases in this area, such as Bosley Medical v. Kremer and Lamparello v. Falwell, have established the right to create Internet “gripe” sites that include the trademark names of companies in their domain names and meta tags. For the past two years, Mr. Levy has chaired the subcommittee on domain name litigation of the American Bar Association’s Intellectual Property Section.
Mr. Levy has also argued scores of cases in the United States Court of Appeals (three en banc). Moreover, he has argued four cases in the Supreme Court of the United States, and has written briefs for parties in seven other cases. One odd aspect of his Supreme Court practice is that each of these eleven cases has been decided 9-0 — win or lose.
David Kelly is a partner and chair of the trademark and copyright practice group at Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner, LLP in Washington, DC. He serves an international clientele on a wide variety of trademark, Internet, and unfair competition issues, with a focus on litigation, disputes, and strategic counseling.
Mr. Kelly has developed a particular expertise in handling Internet trademark and domain name disputes. He has acted as lead counsel in more than thirty litigations in the U.S. involving domain names and Internet trademark issues, including in rem cases. Mr. Kelly has handled more than 200 complaints under the Uniform Dispute Resolution Policy and similar polices. Mr. Kelly was selected in 1999 to serve on the Panel of Neutrals assembled by WIPO to decide complaints under the Uniform Dispute Resolution Policy.
Brock Blake is the CEO of FundingUniverse, Inc. His primary role with the company is to lead the strategy and execution of the FundingUniverse team. The company was established in 2005 to help make the angel investing and small business financing industries more efficient by increasing the amount of completed deals across the nation. Blake also co-founded KnowMarketing LLC, an online referral business network, in 2004.
Blake has received several awards of recognition on behalf of the FundingUniverse team including the # 2 Startup to Watch Award from Business Q Magazine and Utah Technology Council’s 2007 Emerging Executive of the Year. At age 24, Blake was recognized by Utah Business Magazine as one of the Top 40 Under 40 business professionals in Utah, and his peers selected him to vSpring Capital’s v100 list in 2006, 2008, and 2009.
Paulo Parente Marques Mendes is a partner and principal of the Brazilian law firm Di Blasi Parente Vaz e Dias & Associados in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. His experience encompasses a variety of national and international technology and intellectual property matters, involving trademarks, patents, designs and copyrights. He is involved in advising and assisting clients in issues primarily related to Competition Rights and Consumer Rights, Trademark Rights, Image Rights, copyrights, and Sport Rights.
Mr. Mendes is a member of the Brazilian Bar Association (OAB), Rio de Janeiro, where he was special counselor for Intellectual Property matters from 1991 to 1997. He has been a member of the Directive Counseling Brazilian Intellectual Property Association Directive Counseling since 1994 and also a member of its Executive Committee since 2004.
Charles Mudd currently teaches privacy and technology courses at John Marshall Law School in Chicago, Illinois. He has taught Privacy in Cyberspace at the University of Connecticut School of Law as well as United States Government and United States History at Quinnipiac College and Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis.
Mr. Mudd lives with his wife, Katherine, in Chicago, Illinois where he established and continues with his own law practice. Charles also serves as President of Privacy Innovations Inc., a privacy consulting firm.
Charles is admitted to the Supreme Court of the United States as well as the Sixth and Seventh Circuits of the United States Courts of Appeals. He is admitted to the trial bar of the United States District Court, Northern District of Illinois. He is also admitted to the bars of the Northern District of Indiana, Central District of Illinois, Northern District of Florida, the District of Colorado, and the District of Utah.
Pete Ashdown is currently the CEO of XMission which continues to be the largest independent ISP in Utah. While at the University of Utah, Mr. Ashdown was hired by local computer graphics firm Evans & Sutherland as a computer operator and administrative assistant. After Mr. Ashdown’s mother Greta died in 1990, his father urged him to start his own business. In 1993, at the age of 26, Mr. Ashdown formed the ISP XMission with an investment from his father, and in 1994 left Evans & Sutherland. XMission is Utah’s first independent and oldest Internet service provider.
Steve Spencer, president and CTO of Twelve Horses has spent more than 20 years in the technology industry providing leadership for public companies such as Unisys, Critical Path, and dotOne Corporation, He has developed partnerships and architected large scale technology solutions for such companies as Premier Global Services, MCI Worldcom, Sprint, Pitney Bowes, Computer Associates, Qwest and Microsoft. Spencer also co-founded Seek Mobile Interactive, as well as Mediaport, where he and his team were the winners of the 2002 Utah Entrepreneurial challenge.
Spencer is actively involved in the Utah Technology Council (UTC), Utah Entrepreneurs Organization (EO), and serves on the Board for the Westminster College Institute for New Enterprise. He is also co-founder of the Utah New Media Conference (UNMC), and is founder and director of the Utah Tech Spotlight. He has been a business plan judge and mentor at many Funding Universe events, Westminster College business plan competitions, and for multiple top 10 teams in the Utah Entrepreneurial Challenge.
Under Spencer’s leadership as president, the company has been voted one of the “Top 30 Innovative Companies in Utah” by Utah Business Magazine (2009), Technology Company of the Year” by the Technology Business Alliance of Nevada (2007), and “Small Business of the Year” by the Economic Development Authority of Western Nevada (2005). In addition, Spencer was personally named one of vSpring Capital’s “Top 100 Venture Entrepreneurs” for 2009, Utah’s “40 under 40” for 2008, and #1 on the “five to watch in 2008″ by the local Blogging community.
Mr. McCue is a partner and the Practice Group Leader of the Lewis & Roca’s Intellectual Property and Technology Practice Group in Las Vegas, Nevada. He has extensive experience litigating cases involving trademarks, copyrights, trade secrets, patents, and rights of publicity in federal courts throughout the United States and before the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board of the United States Patent and Trademark Office. In addition to litigation, Mr. McCue provides trademark and copyright prosecution, counseling, clearance, transactional, and enforcement services. Mr. McCue oversees a domestic and international trademark portfolio in excess of 1,500 trademarks.
Mr. McCue has been quoted by Computeruser.com, California Lawyer, Las Vegas Review-Journal, In Business, and Nevada Business Journal. In addition, he has been interviewed on “Celebrity Justice” and “Tech TV.”
Lee Livingston leads Fibernet, one of Utah’s first Internet service companies, and he has been an integral part of the company’s successful strategies and growth, including implementation of the PCI compliance policy. Part of Fibernet’s growth includes a Fibernet Data Center built in 2002 — one of the first of its kind in Utah. What’s more, Livingston was named Utah Valley’s “Best Boss,” according to BusinessQ’s survey. His employees called him loyal, kind, honest, motivational, honorable and reliable.
Doug Bush is a partner in Arent Fox’s Intellectual Property practice group in Washington, DC, and has extensive experience with Internet and e-commerce related issues as well as considerable experience drafting complex agreements pertaining to intellectual property rights. Mr. Bush’s practice is both multidisciplinary and international in scope. Over the past several years, he has developed large-scale programs for policing and tracking infringements on the Internet and dealing with them in a cost effective manner.
Laurie S. Hart is a shareholder in and a Director of the Salt Lake City law firm of Callister Nebeker & McCullough and has been practicing law for 23 years. Her practice specializes in the areas of corporate transactions (including mergers and acquisitions and banking), media law, and estate planning and administration.
Ms. Hart speaks frequently to professional and civic groups and regularly publishes articles on a wide variety of legal tops. Ms. Hart holds an associate degree as a Legal Assistant from Utah Technical College at Provo, a bachelor’s degree in Finance from Brigham Young University and a J.D. degree, cum laude, from J. Reuben Clark Law School.
A representative of the Utah Governor’s Office will be presenting a brief State of Utah Technology Address. Confirmation of the actual presenter is dependent on scheduling of the confirmation hearings for Governor Huntsman’s appointment as U.S. Ambassador to China. Details will be forthcoming.