The NetSquared 2007 Project Intro Presentations - Part 2.
In May 2007, 350 invited participants gathered in Silicon Valley to accelerate the 21 Projects that have been selected by the NetSquared community as having the greatest potential to leverage the social web to create social change.
Representatives from each N2Y2 Featured Project had 5 minutes to deliver their best elevator pitch during the Project Intro Presentations.
Bio
Linda Alepin
Linda Alepin is Founding Director of the Global Women's Leadership Network (GWLN) sponsored by the Leavey School of Business and the School of Engineering at Santa Clara University.
Prior to running this not for profit, her business background includes wide ranging experience in consulting to and managing IT companies. She was founder, CEO and President of an early Internet software company. As VP of Corporate Strategy at Amdahl, she led a successful turnaround – the company returned to profitability in less than one year from a $750 million loss. She worked for IBM in various positions after graduating from Stanford University.
Deron Beal
Deron Beal founded the Freecycle Network on May 1st, 2003. He now also fills the position of Executive Director.
During and previous to this, he spent 2 1/2 years with RISE as its Enterprise Manager. RISE runs a recycling and transitional employment program in downtown Tucson.
Before that, he worked with a conservation group called Native Seeds/SEARCH as its Director of Foundation Giving & Venture Philanthropy, and prior to that, as its Development Director.
Deron has a BS in Foreign Service from Georgetown University and an MBA in International Management from Thunderbird. He spent several years living, studying, and working in Germany. Currently living in Tucson, he looks forward to learning Spanish.
Eduardo Bejar
Eduardo Bejar is a professional in the field of technologies with 12 years of experience in the development of computer science tools, networks and connectivity, qualification, support and technical attendance, as well as in processes of citizen participation and empowering communities with the help of the technologies.
With formation in Information systems, Electronic Government, Public Policies and Internet, Bejar has written diverse articles with respect to the digital divide and he is a university professor in subjects of electronic businesses and development of tools Web.
Daniel Ben-Horin
Daniel Ben-Horin, CompuMentor's President and Co-CEO, feels very fortunate that his job has evolved since 1987 to allow him to spend the bulk of his time thinking about social change this organization can work to enact.
The rest of Ben-Horin's time is spent trying to sell his ideas to the people at CompuMentor who have to implement them and the people outside who need to be convinced to be partners and/or funders of the projects.
After graduating from college in 1969, Daniel spent 7 years as a journalist (Arizona Republic, New York Times, New Times) in Arizona. During this time, he realized that as much as he liked to write and edit, he was more interested in how to use his skills for social change.
Gradually, his work moved in the direction of becoming an organizer, administrator, fundraiser, and what would today be called a social entrepreneur. He worked for Pacific News Service, directed Media Alliance in the early 80's, wrote fiction, took a couple of basic programming classes and, in 1987, founded CompuMentor with the notion that people who understood technology were an undervalued but potentially tremendous resource for social change organizations.
Peggy Duvette
Peggy Duvette directs the WiserEarth and ResponsibleInvesting.org projects. She has worked with NCI for three years, overseeing numerous web application development projects, and managing international research and technology teams. She holds an MBA with honors from San Francisco State University, and an MA in transport and logistics from Huddersfield, England.
Melinda Kramer
Melinda Kramer, communications and outreach coordinator, is the founder and director of Women's Earth Alliance, an international organization linking and empowering grassroots women environmental advocates into collective action. From East Africa, to China, to the Russian Far East, Melinda has worked around the world with grassroots NGOs pursuing environmental justice and sustainable local economies.
Sam Mwangi
Sam Mwangi has worked as a print journalist in Kenya and in the USA. He taught at Rockhurst University in Kansas City for three years before coming to K-State. He also has worked as a visiting professor and UNESCO consultant in the Caribbean. His research focuses on international communication, media and democracy. He is the coordinator of the International Media and Democracy project.
Dan Newman
Dan Newman, Co-Founder and Executive Director of MAPLight.org, a nonpartisan nonprofit illuminating the connection between money and politics in unprecedented ways.
He received a MA in Psychology from the University of California at Berkeley, where he attended on a National Science Foundation Fellowship, and a BA in Biomedical Ethics from Brown University.
Angela Seifer
Angela Seifer has over ten years nonprofit capacity building experience. Prior to joining Grassroots, Angela served as the Executive Director of the Ohio Community Computing Network.
She is a nationally-recognized nonprofit technology expert and has received a number of honors including the John Glenn Social Capital and Midwest Community Networking Awards. Angela currently serves on several voluntary boards, including the International Advisory Council for the Public Interest Registry (PIR.org), OCCN and CTCNet.
Michael Yutrzenka
With over 13 years experience at Cisco Systems, Michael Yutrzenka brings with him a broad understanding of Cisco and the community in the role of Executive Director of the Cisco Systems Foundation.
Mr. Yutrzenka joined Corporate Philanthropy in June 2000, focusing on helping the nonprofit sector by leveraging Internet technology and building partnerships. In April 2001 he took on the development, implementation and management of the Community Fellowship Program, which was one of Cisco's solutions to assisting non-profit organizations during the economic downturn. This program has evolved into the Leadership Fellows Program, and has been incorporated into Cisco's executive leadership training. With Mr. Yutrzenka's leadership, the Cisco Systems Foundation and Corporate Philanthropy focus on employee involvement in the community, and the importance of community engagement in building well-rounded corporate leaders.
Mr. Yutrzenka also serves on the board of Network for Good and the Second Harvest Food Bank of Santa Clara and San Mateo counties, and acts in advisory roles with other non-profit organizations. Prior to joining Corporate Philanthropy, Mr. Yutrzenka held roles at Cisco in business development, channel partnerships and global strategic account management. Mr. Yutrzenka has over 20 years of international experience. He previously held positions in customer support, systems analysis, engineering and management and, immediately prior to Cisco, was Vice President, International Sales for Arix Corporation. Mr. Yutrzenka earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science from the University of North Dakota.
Stu Zeiger
Stu Zeiger is the Director of Information Technology at Big Brothers Big Sisters of America. Since joining the national team in September, 2000, he has brought vision, experience, creativity and energy to the mission of leveraging technology throughout the entire Big Brothers Big Sisters network.
Zeiger has more than 33 years of IT experience and has managed operations, development, service, support and planning organizations.
Prior to joining BBBSA, he worked for Bridge Information Systems and ADP Brokerage Services where he was Senior Director of Product Management. In this capacity, he was responsible for determining the content of all new Financial Services software releases and for assuring that all parts of the organization were prepared to support these changes (e.g. training, help desk, documentation, etc.).
Zeiger is a graduate of Harvard College.
member. 
