| Keynote Speakers |
Chris Foster
Deputy Secretary,Business and Economic Development,MD
Topic: Why Maryland for Business. |
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As Maryland’s Deputy Secretary of Business and Economic Development, Christopher C. Foster is responsible for the day-to-day
operations of the state’s commerce department with a budget in excess of $100 million. Mr. Foster also serves as the state’s
Chief Technology Officer, where he manages the Early Seed Stage Venture Fund. He has an extensive background in software
design and applications, engineering and physics, and will serve as the central point person to spur Maryland's growth as a major
center for intellectual capital.
Mr. Foster most recently served as president and chief executive officer of Professional Development Solutions, a health care
benefits software development company that developed web-based health care benefits administration software targeted toward
insurance brokerage companies. His current position is the culmination of a career in which he has been president of a health-care
software firm, a chief technology officer, an aviation logistics manager for a U.S. Marines Corps multi-billion dollar aircraft
procurement program and was Military Associate Chairman of the Electrical Engineering Department at the U.S. Naval Academy.
As Chief Technology Officer of an internet based software company, he oversaw the design and development of an online
portal product that offered web-based applications including sales force automation, project management, content publication and
distribution, file sharing and individual and group calendaring.
Mr. Foster also served as an Aviation Logistics Manager for the U.S. Marine Corps and had responsibilities for programs including
the V-22 Program Task Force, a multi-billion dollar aircraft procurement program. In that position, he also worked as a Science and
Technology and Logistics subject matter expert for congressional testimony to the House and Senate Armed Forces Committees and
the Joint Chiefs Requirement Council. |
Sudhakar Rao
Principal Secretary to CM. Govt of Karnataka
Topic: Why Karnataka for Business. |
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Mr Sudhakar Rao is the Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister of Karnataka. He joined the IAS in the year 1973 after Masters in Economics from the Delhi University. He also has a Masters degree in Public Administration from the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University.
Mr Sudhakar Rao has had a distinguished career in public service which has included the positions of Principal Secretary to Finance and Home Departments of the Karnataka Government, Chairman of Bangalore Development Authority, CMD of Karnataka Urban Infrastructure Development & Finance Corporation as also Director in the Prime Minister’s office, Government of India, where he was involved in policy making for social development in the country. He is on the Board of several top public undertakings
like Karnataka Power Corporation Ltd, Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation, Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation and Krishna Bhagya Jala Nigam Ltd.
Mr Sudhakar Rao is well known to Kannadigas in North America as he was the Minister
of Economics in the Embassy of India during the years 1996 to 2000. His responsibilities included promotion of foreign investments in India, promotion of Indian investments and joint venture proposals in the USA, liaising with IMG and the World Bank and various agencies of the US Government.
Mr Sudhakar Rao has been a fellow at the Centre of Population & Development Studies at Harvard, Fellow at the National Defense College in New Delhi and Adjunct Professor in Economics at the College of Business Administration at the Old Dominion University. Mr Rao started his career as lecturer in economics at the Delhi University. |
Gururaj " Desh " Deshpande
Founder and Chairman Sycamore Networks,Inc.
Topic: Chasing a Dream in the Land of Opportunities |
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Gururaj "Desh" Deshpande is co-founder and chairman of Sycamore Networks, Inc. Dr. Deshpande is an influential technology
entrepreneur and visionary whose companies and ideas often reshape entire industries. Led by Dr. Deshpande's vision and
direction, Sycamore has helped create a fundamental paradigm shift in the role and architecture of the optical network --
transforming a once static optical infrastructure into an intelligent and dynamic network foundation for the delivery of new services.
Sycamore's equipment is currently carrying voice and data traffic in the networks of the world's largest service providers.
Dr. Deshpande is also widely respected for his contributions to education and the greater community. Numerous business and
industry publications in both the US and his native India have recognized Dr. Deshpande with awards. Dr. Deshpande is
frequently invited to deliver keynote addresses at business, technology, education, and government conferences.
Dr. Deshpande serves as a member of the MIT Corporation, and his generous donations have made possible MIT's Deshpande
Center for Technological Innovation. The Deshpande Center was created to serve as a catalyst for innovation and
entrepreneurship by supporting research and collaboration among entrepreneurs, young companies, and MIT students, alumni,
and faculty.
Prior to co-founding Sycamore Networks, Dr. Deshpande was founder and chairman of Cascade Communications Corp. Between
1991 and 1997, Cascade grew from a one-person startup to a company with $500 million in revenue and 900 employees. In June
of 1997, Cascade was acquired by Ascend Communications for $3.7 billion.
Prior to Cascade, Dr. Deshpande co-founded Coral Network Corporation in 1988. Previously, he served in various management
positions for Codex Corporation, a subsidiary of Motorola. Before joining Codex, Dr. Deshpande taught at Queens University in
Kingston, Canada.
Dr. Deshpande holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, an M.E. in Electrical Engineering from
the University of New Brunswick in Canada, and a Ph.D. in Data Communications from Queens University in Canada. |
BV Jagadeesh
GM and VP Citrix Systems - Application Networking Group
Topic: Building and leading a scalable company |
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B.V. Jagadeesh is group vice president and general manager of the Application Networking Group for Citrix. Prior to his tenure with
Citrix, Jagadeesh served as president and CEO of NetScaler, Inc., a privately held leader in high performance application networking.
Citrix acquired NetScaler in 2005 for $325M. A well-regarded technology industry visionary and veteran, he guided NetScaler to
continually grow quarter after quarter while attracting the best-in-class managerial and engineering talent to the company.
Jagadeesh was also co-founder and CTO for Exodus Communications. During his tenure at Exodus, he successfully helped the
company grow from start-up to a leader in the Web co-location market and was instrumental in leading its highly successful initial
public offering (IPO). Jagadeesh has also held various management and engineering positions at Novell and 3Com.
Jagadeesh has spoken at numerous IT industry and business conferences such as Network Outlook, The Economist IT Strategy
Conference, TiEcon, Wharton Technology Conference, and Electronic Commerce World on topics ranging from next generation
networking technologies to strategic IT investments. In addition to NetScaler, Jagadeesh remains a venture partner at Gabriel
Venture Partners and is an active member of TiE (The Indus Entrepreneurs). His philanthropic interests include supporting causes
for the advancement of education in the U.S. and India.
Jagadeesh believes that it is most important to give back to those sectors which helped him and the likes of him to rise to their
present stature. And hence Jagadeesh has been a dominant Philanthropist in the Indian community. He is also involved in many
more initiatives, most of them related to education and enhancement of quality. BV has also initiated entrepreneurial awards in
several universities across India to promote creative thinking and to enable entrepreneurial activitiy right from the college days itself.
He also believes in helping budding entrepreneurs set up their establishments like he was helped once before when he
was all fired up with just an idea. BV is involved with angel investing and mentoring in several companies in US and in India.
He holds a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from Bangalore University and a master's degree in electrical
engineering from University of Bombay, India. |
