Welcome: Why is this Conference So Important?

Anno Saxenian
Dean
UC Berkeley School of Information

AnnaLee (Anno) Saxenian is Dean of the School of Information and she holds a joint faculty appointment in the School of Information and the Department of City and Regional Planning at the University of California, Berkeley. Her scholarship focuses on regional economies and the conditions under which people, ideas, and geographies combine and connect into hubs of economic activity. She is a member of the Apple Academic Advisory Board, and has served as Chair of the Advisory Committee for the National Science Foundation Division of Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences (NSF-SBE). 

She is author of the internationally acclaimed Regional Advantage: Culture and Competition in Silicon Valley and Route 128 (Harvard, 1994) which argues that Silicon Valley’s adaptive capacity derives from it decentralized industrial and social structures that support rapid information exchange and innovation.  She is also the author of The New Argonauts: Regional Advantage in a Global Economy (Harvard, 2006), Silicon Valley's New Immigrant Entrepreneurs (Public Policy Institute of California, 1999), and Local and Global Networks of Immigrant Professionals in Silicon Valley (PPIC, 2002) She has published widely in journals of economic geography, regional economic development, and industrial change. She holds a Ph.D. from MIT, a Master's from U.C. Berkeley, and a BA from Williams College.

Holly Liu
Founder
Kabam

Holly Liu is the cofounder of Kabam, Inc., a billion dollar company, and previously served as its chief of staff and the general manager of Kabam’s Casual Games Studio. She led the design for Kabam’s award-winning "Kingdoms of Camelot" franchise and was the founding mobile designer for extension Kingdoms of Camelot: Battle for the North, which was the top grossing app on iOS in 2012. As chief development officer, Liu is in charge of developing Kabam internationally through key relationships, starting with China. She has significant business strategy and product management expertise from tenures with AOL, Accenture, and Arthur Andersen. Liu holds a BA in communications and East Asian studies from UCLA and a master’s in information management and systems from UC Berkeley.

Dr. Laura Tyson
Distinguished Professor of the Graduate School and Director of the Institute for Business & Social Impact
Berkeley Haas School of Business

Dr. Laura D. Tyson is a Distinguished Professor of the Graduate School and Director of the Institute for Business & Social Impact at the Berkeley Haas School of Business. She chairs the Blum Center for Developing Economies Board of Trustees. From 2002-2006, she served as Dean of London Business School and from 1998-2001 she served as Dean of the Berkeley-Haas. Tyson was a member of the US Department of State Foreign Affairs Policy Board and a member of President Obama’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness and the President’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board. She served in the Clinton Administration as the Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers (1993-1995) and as Director of the National Economic Council (1995–1996). She is a member of the Board of Directors of AT&T, CBRE Group Inc. and Silver Spring Networks. Tyson is board member of the non-profit Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB). She is the co-author of Leave No One Behind, a report for the United Nation’s High-Level Panel on Women’s Economic Empowerment.

Professor Oscar Dubón, Jr
Vice Chancellor for Equity and Inclusion
UC Berkeley

Oscar Dubón is the Vice Chancellor for the Division of Equity and Inclusion at UC Berkeley. He was appointed by Chancellor Carol Christ in July 2017.  In this role, he leads efforts to advance the university's commitment to uphold diversity, equity, and inclusion as central tenets to institutional excellence including academic scholarship, building community, and providing a campus environment that welcomes and supports all students, faculty, and staff.

Dubón also leads the campus-wide Diversity Initiative that will build on the 2009 UC Berkeley Strategic Plan for Equity, Inclusion, and Diversity to make scholarship and pedagogy more inclusive; expand the pathways and broaden access for all students, including traditionally underrepresented students, beyond merely compliance; and advance and sustain a healthy campus climate.

Dubón is a faculty member in the Department of Materials Science & Engineering and a Faculty Scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. His dedication to engineering reaches beyond the professional realm. While research has always been his passion, people have always come first.  As a graduate student, a professor in the College of Engineering, and an administrator at UC Berkeley, his commitment to access and inclusion for all members of the campus community has deepened over time and become an integral part of his work.

In his previous role of Associate Dean in the College of Engineering, Dubón led college-wide efforts to foster a more welcoming and diverse engineering community. He provided oversight of Engineering Student Services, which offers academic advising and leadership and professional development to more than 3,000 engineering undergraduates. He also established the Center for Access to Engineering Excellence that focuses on student engagement, academic excellence, and leadership development while cultivating diversity and inclusion in the college.

Dubón's research focuses on elucidating the relationship between defects and properties in materials and exploring ways to engineer the electrical, optical, and magnetic properties of new semiconductors that may be used in future electronics.  He is the recipient of the 2000 Robert Lansing Hardy Award from the Minerals, Metals & Materials Society, a 2004 CAREER Award from the National Science Foundation, and the 2004 Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE).  He has co-authored more than 130 publications in peer-reviewed journals and conference proceedings and three book chapters. 

The vice chancellor has a BS from UCLA (1989), and an MS (1992) and PhD (1996) from UC Berkeley. He held postdoctoral positions at Harvard University and Berkeley before joining the UC Berkeley faculty in 2000.