CALIFORNIA INNOVATION - Key Persons
Alexandra Fattal has been The Economist's Milan correspondent writing about Italian business and finance. Before moving to Italy she was online editor for the Middle East and Africa, based in London. She previously worked in The Economist's New York office, and for the European Parliament in Brussels. Alexandra studied History at Cambridge University, and International Relations at the London School of Economics.
Job Titles:
- Staff Writer at Fast Company
Elizabeth Segran is a staff writer at Fast Company, whose work has appeared in a range of publications including The Atlantic, Foreign Policy, Foreign Affairs, The Nation, The New Republic, The Chronicle of Higher Education and Salon. Her book, The River Speaks, was published in 2012 by Penguin Books.
She received her Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley in the field of South and Southeast Asian Studies with a Designated Emphasis in Women, Gender and Sexuality. She is an expert on India, having devoted a decade to studying its history, literature, culture and gender dynamics.
She is a global nomad who grew up in Brussels, Paris, Singapore, Jakarta and London before moving to New York to attend Columbia University. She currently lives in Cambridge, MA with her books, her husband and her baby girl.
Julian Bleecker (PhD) is a researcher and product designer-engineer. He has been a professor at the University of Southern California, and a designer-engineer at Nokia's Advanced Design Studio.
He is currently Founder and CTO at Omata, Inc., a product design company that has developed a modern analog-mechanical computer.
Nick Foster has over fifteen years experience in the design industry as an engineer, industrial designer and futurist for companies such as Dyson, Sony and Google. He received his MA from the Royal College of Art in London and currently lives in Oakland, where he is Head of Design for X (formerly GoogleX). His essays have been published in the Alpine Review, Core77, Blueprint, BoingBoing, Wired and Stylus.
Previously, Foster served as principal designer in Nokia's Advanced Design studio in Silicon Valley and as senior designer for Sony Electronics in London. He worked as a consultant for Seymourpowell and as a design engineer for Dyson. Foster earned his MA in design products from the Royal College of Art and his bachelor's degree in product design from Brunel University - both in England.
Job Titles:
- Environmental Strategist, Patagonia
- Writer
Nora Gallagher works for Patagonia, Inc., as a writer, editor and environmental strategist. Her books include a novel- Changing Light (Pantheon 2007), three memoirs (Knopf) and a novel-in-progress.
Her essays, book reviews and journalism have appeared in many publications including The Guardian, The New York Times Magazine, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times Magazine, Utne Reader, The Village Voice, Mother Jones, and The Los Angeles Times.
Gallagher has been a keynote speaker and given talks on radio, television and at Yale University, UC-Berkeley, and Stanford University and the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books.
Job Titles:
- Commissioner and a Professor
- Professor of Law, New York University
Robert J. Jackson Jr. is a SEC Commissioner and a Professor of Corporate Governance at New York University Law School.
His research emphasizes empirical study of executive compensation and corporate governance matters. Known for its dynamic lectures and active engagement with students outside the classroom, in 2012 he was honored with the Columbia Law School Willis L.M. Reese Prize for Excellence in Teaching.
Prior to joining the Columbia Law faculty in 2009, he served as deputy director to Kenneth Feinberg at the Department of Treasury and in the Office of the Special Master for TARP Executive Compensation. Before that, he worked in investment banking at Bear Stearns and practiced in the executive compensation department of Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen and Katz.
Job Titles:
- CEO, Enjoy Inc. and Former SVP for Retail Operations, Apple
Ron Johnson is the former chief executive officer of J. C. Penney. He was responsible for a major rebrand of J. C. Penney. Previously, he was the senior vice president of retail operations at Apple Inc., where he pioneered the concept of the Apple Retail Stores and the Genius Bar, and the vice president of merchandising for Target Corporation, where he was credited for making the store "hip." He is currently the head of Enjoy, a startup company.
Job Titles:
- Executive Director of the Zell Lurie Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies
- Professor, Ross School of Business, University of Michigan
Stewart Thornhill, Executive Director of the Zell Lurie Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies, serves as the Eugene Applebaum Professor of Entrepreneurial Studies and the Managing Director of the Zell Lurie Commercialization Fund. He joins Ross from Ivey Business School at Western University in London, Ontario, where he served as the executive director of the Pierre L. Morrissette Institute for Entrepreneurship and a member of the faculty, focused on strategy and entrepreneurship. At Ivey, he championed a number of new initiatives and has sizable experience helping entrepreneurs through his involvement in QuantumShift, an Executive Development program for high-growth entrepreneurs.
Job Titles:
- Head of Philosophy, Patagonia
Vincent Stanley, co-author with Yvon Chouinard of The Responsible Company, has been with Patagonia on and off since its beginning in 1973, for many of those years in key executive roles as head of sales or marketing.
More informally, he is Patagonia's long-time chief storyteller.