Judges

Leaders in the field of aging, venture capitalists, entrepreneurs and industry analysts will provide valuable feedback on the entrepreneurs' boomer business plans and apps. Check back soon for the list of judges participating in the 2011 event.

Finalist Judges

Andy Cohen - CEO and Co-founder, Caring.com
Scott Collins - President and CEO, Linkage
Andy Donner - Director, Physic Ventures
Elizabeth Ford - Senior Assistant Dean, Graduate Business Programs, Leavey School of Business, Santa Clara University
Jody Holtzman - Senior Vice President, Thought Leadership, AARP
Kurt Hulander - Platform Leader, Health Solutions, Best Buy
Sarita Jain, Ph.D - Biopharmaceutical Business Consultant
Stephen Johnston - Founder & CEO, Fordcastle LLC
Nancy Kamei - Sector Director, Intel Capital
Xander Mahony - Analyst, Draper Fisher Jurvetson
Jeff Maltz - CEO & Co-Founder of SilverRide
Steve Parker - Vice President of Internet, firstSTREET
Jeff Shoemate - Vice President of Innovation and Business Development, United Healthcare
Robin Sitver - Executive Director, Business Development, Johnson & Johnson Healthcare

First and Second Round Judges

Susan Ayers Walker - Managing Director, SmartSilvers Alliance
Laura Mitchell - Vice President, Marketing, GrandCare Systems
Michael Sarfatti - Managing Director, SmartSilvers Alliance

Read More About Our Judges

Andy Cohen - CEO and Co-founder, Caring.com

Andy Cohen is the founder and CEO of Caring.com, a website to help adult children care for their aging parents. Andy has over 20 years of marketing experience at companies including SC Johnson Wax, Peapod and Intuit. Andy is a graduate of Stanford University and Northwestern's Kellogg School of Management.

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Scott Collins - President and CEO, Linkage

As President/CEO, Mr. Collins is responsible for the strategic direction & growth of the company which connects its more than 460 member locations to a broad range of resources to ensure their ongoing success. Linkage collaborates with senior living providers & thought leaders throughout the country to explore new market opportunities beyond the campus as well as innovative ways of generating revenue and containing costs.

Before joining Linkage, Mr. Collins was a Vice President & Senior Account Executive with GE Capital Commercial Asset Funding. Mr. Collins has also held senior management positions in the commercial real estate and textile industries.

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Andy Donner - Director, Physic Ventures

Mr. Donner has 15 years of investment and management experience in the information technology, healthcare and consumer product industries. At Physic Ventures, Mr. Donner focuses on investments in the Connected Health sector which includes digital media, monitoring technologies, innovative health delivery, wellness and condition management programs.

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Elizabeth Ford - Senior Assistant Dean, Graduate Business Programs, Leavey School of Business, Santa Clara University

Elizabeth Ford is the Senior Assistant Dean of Graduate Business Programs in the Leavey School of Business at Santa Clara University. She has been with the business school at Santa Clara for 20 years. In addition, she has 16 years of industry product marketing experience. Elizabeth holds a bachelor's degree from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and an MBA from Northeastern University in Boston.

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Jody Holtzman - Senior Vice President, Thought Leadership, AARP

Jody Holtzman has more than two decades of experience helping companies develop and implement competitive strategies and achieve their strategic market goals. At AARP he leads AARP's new Thought Leadership efforts which support the organization's new brand positioning around a focus on living not just aging and for people 50+ to live their best life. Previously, Jody led AARP's research, competitive intelligence and strategic analysis functions. A central focus of this research is to understand the needs, wants and preferences of AARP members and prospective members, their intent to join and renew their memberships, as well as their views regarding AARP's social mission and policy goals. Prior to that, Jody was AARP's first Director of Strategic Analysis and Intelligence where his team provided forward looking and actionable insight about AARP's external environment in support of senior management decision-making. Jody is a member of AARP's Leadership Team and Brand Council.

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Kurt Hulander - Platform Leader, Health Solutions, Best Buy

Kurt Hulander, a 10 year veteran of Best Buy, assumed the role of Platform Leader for Health Solutions in July, 2010. In this capacity Kurt is charged with developing and executing the strategic vision for Best Buy to enter and effectively participate in the healthcare industry. This involves retail solutions as well as strategic partnerships and product or program development. Previous to his current role at BBY, Kurt was a member of the Best Buy marketing group and held a variety of positions related to innovation and business development, including work on the Best Buy small business initiative and new format development.

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Sarita Jain, Ph.D - Biopharmaceutical Business Consultant

Dr. Jain has over 10 years of operating and investing experience. Most recently, Dr. Jain served as a Principal, Venture Investments, at Johnson & Johnson Development Corporation (JJDC), the venture capital arm of J&J. Prior to joining JJDC, Dr. Jain had business development roles at Renovis and PDL BioPharma, two Bay area biotech companies. She was responsible for executing new strategic partnerships and licensing agreements for products, technologies, and intellectual property to accelerate the discovery, development and commercialization of therapeutic products. Previously, Dr. Jain was a scientist at Pangene Corporation.

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Stephen Johnston - Founder & CEO, Fordcastle, LLC

Stephen Johnston has over a decade of experience working on product and business strategy and innovation in the technology, mobile and healthcare space. Before founding Fordcastle LLC in March 2010, he spent six years at Nokia, where he developed and built a number of products and services relating to new media, collaboration and innovation and was awarded two innovation awards by the CEO.

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Nancy Kamei - Sector Director, Intel Capital

Dr. Nancy Kamei manages minority equity investments in healthcare, life sciences, and cleantech for Intel Capital. These include Intel Capital's investments in CardioDx, Expression Diagnostics, Pacific Biosciences, and Tethys Bioscience among others. Prior to joining Intel Capital, she was an analyst/portfolio manager at Capital Group Companies ("Cap Guardian") responsible for public equity investments in biotechnology, healthcare services and facilities, healthcare information technology and consumer products. Prior to Capital, she was an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Institutional Venture Partners and a serial entrepreneur, having been on the start-up teams of four successful biotechnology companies: Onyx Pharmaceuticals (ONXX), Tularik (sold to Amgen/TLRK), GlycoGen (sold to Cytel/CYTL), and ImmuLogic (IMUL).

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Xander Mahony - Analyst, Draper Fisher Jurvetson

Xander Mahony works across sectors for Draper Fisher Jurvetson. Prior to DFJ, Xander was at Sloane Robinson, an emerging market hedge fund in London. Here, Xander concentrated on China and India, and also on technology, transportation, telecoms and luxury goods. Xander also started three companies, including an online music service with a proprietary algorithm for personalizing the price of digital music. Xander has a BA in Computer Science from Oxford University and has completed Level III of the CFA program. At Oxford, Xander was captain of the karate team, raced for the go-karting team and played basketball and soccer.

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Jeff Maltz - CEO & Co-Founder of SilverRide

Jeff Maltz is the the award-winning pioneer of senior transportation services that help seniors get things done, socialize and have enriching life experiences. Services include rides, accompaniment, travel counseling and concierge, activity planning and mobility management. Since SilverRide's launch in 2007 with a mandate to change the status quo and enable older adults to enjoy life after their "driving retirement", the Company has provided over 40,000 outings for seniors. In addition to his duties running SilverRide, Jeff serves on the boards of the San Francisco Village, a key part of the national Village movement, and the Marin Mobility Consortium, one of the leading mobility management centers in the U.S.

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Laura Mitchell - Vice President, Marketing, GrandCare Systems

Laura is the VP of Marketing and a founding member of the GrandCare team, a software development company that has created a smart home wellness assessment, social connectivity and activity of daily living monitoring technology to allow individuals to live independently with greater security and less social isolation. A significant part of her role was to bring the product to market through the development of a nation-wide dealer/distributor network and PR/marketing. Laura has spoken around the country in various venues including CES, EHX, CEDIA, ASA, AHIMA, What's Next Boomer Summit, Dominican and the National Association of Home Builders about enabling technologies for the aging population, the importance of social media in the aging industry, medication management, and technology enabled assistive living.

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Steve Parker - Vice President of Internet,firstSTREET

Steve Parker joined firstSTREET in November 2010. His 25+ year career began with a decade of consumer package goods marketing for No Nonsense pantyhose and Keebler Company. Steve then led marketing for MyPoints.com from launch through a successful IPO, served as CEO of Cogit.com and spent the last decade as an independent real estate investor, internet entrepreneur and consultant. Steve holds a MBA from Loyola University in Chicago (Beta Gamma Sigma) and a BS in Commerce from the University of Virginia.

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Michael Sarfatti - Managing Director, SmartSilvers Alliance

Michael has nearly 30 years experience in a variety of industries, including petrochemical, financial services, and information technology, holding positions in engineering, training, marketing/sales, business development and executive management, co-founding three companies involving software development and web-focused infrastructure technology. Michael also has extensive volunteer experience in a variety of professional, alumni, and social organizations. Since 1988, he has been an officer and director of the MIT Club of Northern California, a non-profit corporation, holding a variety of executive positions, including that of president, as well as serving as the regional representative to the MIT Alumni Association. Michael was also a co-founder and the first president/chair of the MIT Enterprise Forum of the Bay Area (dba MIT/Stanford Venture Lab, aka VLAB), currently serving on the organization's advisory board.

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Jeff Shoemate - Vice President of Innovation and Business Development, United Healthcare

Jeff Shoemate is Vice President of Innovation and Business Development for the senior markets segment of United Health Group, known as United Healthcare - Medicare & Retirement. In this role, Jeff leads a team responsible for development of new product and service offerings, for UHC Medicare & Retirement and the introduction of new value-added innovations to AARP, a long-term marketing partner of UHC - Medicare & Retirement.

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Robin Sitver - Executive Director, Business Development, Johnson & Johnson Healthcare

Robin Sitver is Executive Director, Business Development for Johnson & Johnson Healthcare. She is responsible for licensing, acquisitions and divestitures for the global topical health and eye care franchises. She joined J&J in December, 2006 with the acquisition of Pfizer Consumer Healthcare after a 27 year career with Pfizer where she held a variety of positions in finance, systems, marketing and international operations in the Pharmaceuticals, Animal Health Divisions and Consumer Healthcare divisions.

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Susan Ayers Walker - Managing Director, SmartSilvers Alliance

Susan Ayers Walker, a leading edge boomer, is the founder of the SmartSilvers Alliance. For the past three decades, she has been involved with implementing strategies leading to successful business partnerships and technology developments in emerging and high tech systems companies. Susan chaired for the past several years the MIT/Stanford Venture Lab (aka VLAB), a premiere technology forum located in Silicon Valley. Susan is currently the technology writer for AARP Online. Ms. Walker's inspiration for SmartSilvers developed from the many years of caring for her aging parents and intimately understanding the issues that confront care giving and the challenges ahead for the boomer and subsequent generations.

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