Management

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Rob Nail, CEO

Rob attended the 9-day Executive Program of Singularity University in February 2010 and was blown away! He subsequently joined forces with the Singularity University team as an Associate Founder and currently functions as the CEO.
When not cheerleading for the team, he is masterminding a forum to catch and propel the amazing ideas and people that come out of SU. If he’s not doing that, he’s riding something, building something, starting something, or advising something.

Prior to Singularity, he co-founded Velocity11 in 1999, building automation equipment and robotics for cancer research and drug discovery. After being acquired by Agilent Technologies in 2007, he traded the CEO role for a General Manager role attempting to be a catalyst for change at a big company. He gave up in 2009 to go surfing. He is also a co-founder of Alite Designs – working to refresh the outdoor consumer industry and is a Board member of Light & Motion – building high-end dive housings and lighting and bike lights.

Emeline Paat-Dahlstrom, VP, Operations

Emeline has degrees in Physics, and Earth and Space Science, and attended the ISU summer program as a student in Strasbourg, France. She has been involved with the International Space University for 20 years serving as full time and volunteer staff for nine ISU summer programs around the world in different operations and academic capacities.

Previously, Emeline has worked as the Director of Program Development and Research and Director of Operations for Space Adventures Ltd, a space tourism company sending private citizens to the International Space Station. She has also worked as a space consultant working on proposal management and research for government and private space and aerospace companies. Emeline is co-author of the book Realizing Tomorrow: The Path to Private Space Flight for the Outward Odyssey Book Series, University of Nebraska Press.

Gabriel Baldinucci, VP Strategy and New Venture Development

Gabriel was previously a Vice President on the new ventures team at Sir Richard Branson’s’ Virgin Group. During his five year tenure, Gabriel often worked directly with Mr. Branson and conceived and developed new business opportunities in health & wellness, travel, retail, IT services, and media. Gabriel was most recently a Managing Director at Palm Ventures in Greenwich, CT and his past experience also includes two years with Goldman Sachs’ Investment Management Division in New York.

Gabriel started his entrepreneurial career in high school by founding and successfully selling a local pizza restaurant chain. He has been quoted in Forbes Magazine and his work on entrepreneurship has been published by the Family Office Association. He is personally an investor or advisor for several startup companies and he holds a BA in Economics from Duke University and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Vivek Wadhwa, VP Academics and Innovation

Vivek Wadhwa is Vice President of Academics and Innovation at Singularity University; Fellow, Arthur & Toni Rembe Rock Center for Corporate Governance, Stanford University; Director of Research at the Center for Entrepreneurship and Research Commercialization at the Pratt School of Engineering, Duke University; and distinguished visiting scholar, Halle Institute of Global Learning, Emory University.

Wadhwa oversees the academic programs at Singularity University, which educates a select group of leaders about the exponentially growing technologies that are soon going to change our world. These advances—in fields such as robotics, A.I., computing, synthetic biology, 3D printing, medicine, and nanomaterials—are making it possible for small teams to do what was once possible only for governments and large corporations to do: solve the grand challenges in education, water, food, shelter, health, and security.
In his roles at Stanford, Duke, and Emory universities, Wadhwa lectures in class on subjects such as entrepreneurship and public policy, helps prepare students for the real world, and leads groundbreaking research projects. He is an advisor to several governments; mentors entrepreneurs; and is a regular columnist for The Washington Post, Bloomberg BusinessWeek, and the American Society of Engineering Education’s Prism magazine. Prior to joining academia in 2005, Wadhwa founded two software companies.

Salim Ismail, Global Ambassador, Founding Executive Director

Salim is a sought after speaker, strategist and entrepreneur – his last company, Angstro, was acquired by Google in August 2010. Salim spent two years as SU’s founding Executive Director and currently serves as its Global Ambassador focusing on its global presence. Prior to that, Salim was a Vice President at Yahoo and the Head of Brickhouse, Yahoo’s internal ‘ideas factory’ where game-changing ideas were brought in, built and launched. He also serves as co-founder and Chairman of Confabb.com, co-founded PubSub Concepts and is also on the board of Breakthrough, a global human rights organization focused on violence against women, racial justice, and immigrant rights. He Twitters his thoughts at @salimismail and blogs infrequently at www.salimismail.com

Susan Fonseca, Strategic Partnerships & Founding Member

Susan is a Founding Member of Singularity University (SU). She organized SU’s 2008 Founding Conference, helped source 1.5M seed funding, and negotiated a 5-year partnership with NASA. Susan spearheaded SU’s TED09 public launch and executed SU’s inaugural Graduate Studies and Executive Programs. Today, SU Alumni are in 60+ countries around the world.

Susan is titled “Founding Architect” for her role in building the initial DNA that is SU.

Susan is also the founder of Women@TheFrontier, an explosive forum highlighting female change-agents that are leveraging exponential technologies and innovative platforms to address global grand challenges.

An anthropologist and lawyer, prior to SU Susan negotiated diplomatic and international collaboration with Central American Presidents, Ambassadors, U.S. State Officials and Industry CEOs that culminated in the successful vote and passage of the U.S. & Dominican Republic – Central American Free Trade Agreement (DR-CAFTA). In addition, Susan has produced technical and scientific conferences (e.g., Life Extension Conference, Singularity Summits, Aging Conference and Convergence).

Susan’s focus is to create strategic alliances and global networks that empower, inspire and drive positive change.

Kip Stringfellow, Dir. International Development

Kip Stringfellow believes in the power of entrepreneurship to solve global challenges. He currently is Director of International Development at Singularity University where he develops partnerships, creates new SU programs abroad, and coordinates SU’s Global Impact Competitions. Prior to joining SU in 2009, he lived in China where he worked in marketing consulting and also started several businesses as an entrepreneur.

Kip is a graduate of the University of Michigan where his main focus was studying the process of globalization through economic, historical, political, and cultural contexts. He is very interested in global trends and understanding what factors are shaping the future. He is passionate about developing ideas, projects, and businesses that aim to create positive impact on an international level.

Email: kip (at) singularityu.org

Kathryn Myronuk, Dir. Research

Kathryn Myronuk does research and forecasting with an emphasis on rapidly changing technologies. She has worked as a consulting research analyst and knowledge sommelier in Silicon Valley, primarily for technology start-ups, throughout the past decade. Her research and analysis has covered diverse technology topics such as network storage, mobile devices, mobile commerce, security-focused ISP services, telephony services, telephone directory services, and email and antispam services. Other topics have included automotive safety devices, medical records and privacy, and more.

In 2004-2005 she was a research analyst for Ray Kurzweil’s book “The Singularity is Near” (September 2005), working on charts, endnotes and references. She has also researched chart updates and has been a researcher and writer for KurzweilAI.net (editor Amara Angelica), where she reviewed between 100 and 300 news items per day to find developments that exemplify exponential change.

Before joining Silicon Valley, Kathryn worked as an energy economist doing energy-related studies including demand side management, energy use load profiles, and cost-benefit analysis of air pollution control.

She was educated at the University of California, Davis, and holds degrees in Biology and in Economics. This cross-disciplinary background has been invaluable in her work on the intersection of technologies that is at the core of exponential change.

Nhu Anh Can, Dir. Operations

Nhu Anh Can is the Director of Logistics at Singularity University and has been with the university since the first Graduate Studies Program launched in the summer of 2009. She concentrates on the logistics and operations of each program along with being the NASA liaison. When she is not at SU, Nhu Anh is involved with other amazing non-profits. She volunteers at Girls For A Change, an organization that empowers young girls to be social change agents. Nhu Anh mentors the Steering Committee of high school girls and is actively involved in planning events with the organization. She is also involved with Asian Americans/Pacific Islanders in Philanthropy (AAPIP), a national membership organization dedicated to advancing philanthropy in Asian Americans/Pacific Islanders communities.

Matt Rutherford, Dir. Media

Matt Rutherford is the former Technology Producer and Web Strategist at Charlie Rose, and founder of StudyShed, a provider of innovative rich media platforms for educational video. At Charlie Rose, he project-managed the major re-launch of CharlieRose.com, and produced interviews with Jeff Bezos, Richard Branson, Walt Mossberg, and numerous others. He has spoken on the future of new media at conferences and universities, such as Contentonomics and OCAD, Canada. Previously, he was part of the Cannes Titanium Lion winning advertising team at Droga5, working on the UNICEF account.

Matt was born in Singapore and grew up in Houston, TX and London. He received a Double First in Chinese Studies & Politics from the University of Cambridge, and was awarded a scholarship to Harvard University to complete a Master’s in Middle Eastern Studies. As part of his language studies – and broader curiosity – Matt has lived or traveled in China, Taiwan, North Korea, Cambodia, Syria, Iran, Pakistan, Guatemala, and across Europe and North America.
Matt comes from a documentary film and photography background (www.mattrutherford.co.uk). He has been a guest author on TechCrunch, and has photography and print articles published by BBC News Online, the Times of London, and Horizon magazine.

Ross Shott, Dir. Executive Relations

Over 25 years Mr. Shott has led military units, manufacturing plants, service operations, retail establishments, construction projects, and distribution chains. He has worked with companies ranging from 20 to over 8,000 employees. He uses his unique blend of strategic foresight education and practical management experience to coach executives in enterprise transformation through leading from the future.

Tracy Nguyen, Social Media Marketing

Tracy holds an interdisciplinary degree in Media Studies at UC Berkeley and has a research background working for a variety of non-profit companies including CARE International, Bay Area Wilderness Training, Silicon Valley Leadership Group, the Alcohol Policy Network, and the Harvey Sleep and Psychological Disorders Lab at UC Berkeley. Upon graduation, she spent a year at a start-up South Korean Biotech before joining the team at Singularity University. She currently leads the Social Media efforts. She works directly with Academics, Operations, and Marketing to assist with curriculum and program planning, faculty recruitment, and social media outreach.

Robin Farmanfarmaian, Project Manager, FutureMed

Robin Farmanfarmaian has spent most of her career working with non profits and in the health and wellness sector. She is currently FutureMed’s Program Manager, which brings together her experience in medicine and technology with her expertise in events. She is also the Director of Operations for IntelliMedicine and President of San Francisco Ballet ENCORE!, as well as a Trustee for San Francisco Ballet.

Previous work in health and medicine focused on health data, PHRs, and genetic testing. Robin was recently Social Media Director and CFO (Chief Fun Officer) at HealthTap, a start up company in health and technology where she came on board at the inception. She worked in marketing at Medem (now MedFusion), focusing on their physician websites and PHRs. She also spent 2 years as the Nutrition and Health Advisor at CyGene Laboratories.

Robin is beginning her third term as President of San Francisco Ballet ENCORE! and was the Opening Gala Co-Chair last year. She spent 4 years on the Advisory Council and as Volunteer Coordinator for San Francisco Opera’s BRAVO!, concurrent with 5 years as a Director at Ad Valorem. Last year she was on the Leadership Team and Volunteer Coordinator for TEDx Silicon Valley. She has served as an Advisor for multiple other non profits, including Samasource, New Scholars, CCFA, children’s charities and helps interview underprivileged high school students for college scholarships.

Robin earned her B.S. in Hospitality Management at Boston University and attended Harvard’s Women and Power Executive Program for female executives.

Randi Willis, Academic Program Manager

After graduating from the American International University in London with degrees in History and Economics, Randi went to work for a a chartered airline based in London and with operations across Europe. Almost two years ago she decided to return to school to pursue a degree in Applied Physics.

Her current interests lie in 3D animation, especially particle systems and simulation. She is also working on several multimedia marketing projects for companies across the US.

Joy Leon, Financial Controller

Joy has a BS in Accounting and MBA in Business. She joined SU in 2011 as the Financial Controller. Joy worked in the non-profit sector for over 10 years in Controller and Finance Director Roles. During the last 4 years, she worked in startup companies primarily as a Finance Consultant. Joy was born in the Philippines, and spent 10 years in New Zealand before settling in the Bay Area. She loves to cook and create new recipes for her family.

Roy Natian, IT & AV Manager

Roy Natian received a BS in Mathematics from UCLA, and is currently taking a hiatus from higher education to fulfill the IT & AV Manager role at SU. He also fills a “Jack of all Trades” role at SU designing web and promotional materials for events, programs, and conferences; providing technical support for computer applications; and contributing to the planning and interior design of various campus events. Before joining SU, he fulfilled marketing, IT, and Analyst positions at Center for Inquiry, Cornerstone OnDemand, and Bestcovery.com.