Tuesday, September 24 10:45 AM - Noon Session D: DVD Advances - Playback Device or Platform? The explosive and overnight growth of the DVD industry has been about a decade in the making. Surprising to all however, is the prospect that the DVD may also be the stealth development of a next generation entertainment platform for the consumer. The DVD device may no only be a playback system for movies, but an introduction to a new and evolving media-rich environment, a portal to the Internet, a partner to the video game industry, merging PC capabilities into the next generation of devices. DVD may be the most popular movie device in the home today, but tomorrow it may be much more. Jim Wallace, VP Business Development & North American Sales, Planetweb Jim Wuthrich, Vice President Worldwide Interactive Marketing, Warner Bros. Steven Jean, Director, Product Planning, DVD, Philips Electronics Dr. Levy Gerzberg, co-founder, Zoran Corporation Reed Hastings, CEO & co-founder, Netflix Terry M. Leeder, Vice President, Sales and Marketing, Cirrus Logic Robert Ferrari, Principal and founder of Global Resources & Associates, Moderator Reed Hastings, Chief Executive Officer and Co-founder, Netflix: Reed founded his first company, Pure Software, in 1991, after inventing the company's initial product, Purify. As CEO, he led Pure Software to go public in 1995, completed several acquisitions and made it one of the 50 largest public software companies in the world by 1997. Pure was acquired in the spring of 1997 by Rational Software. In the fall of 1997 Reed and his cofounders started Netflix. In addition to business, Reed is active in Silicon Valley politics. In 1997, he led a business coalition that got California to pass a strong charter school law. In 1998, he served for a year as CEO of TechNet, the high-tech industry's foremost political advocacy group. Governor Davis appointed Reed to the State Board of Education, where he serves as President. He was a co-chair of the victorious Proposition 39, along with John Chambers, John Doerr and Governor Davis, which makes it easier to pass local school bonds to build more classrooms. Reed is a co-founder of Aspire Public Schools, NewSchools.org, and EdVoice.org. Reed received an MSCS. degree from Stanford University in 1988 and a BA from Bowdoin College in 1983, and holds several patents. Between Bowdoin and Stanford, Reed served in the US Peace Corps at a rural high school in Swaziland. Dr. Levy Gerzberg, co-founder, Zoran Corporation: Prior to co-founding Zoran Corporation in 1983, Dr. Gerzberg served as Associate Director of Stanford University’s Electronics Laboratory, where he managed the operations of the laboratory, conducted research, and taught. Dr. Gerzberg has over 25 years experience in the high technology industry in areas related to ICs, software, and systems utilizing digital signal processing for use in communications, consumer electronics and PC markets. He holds a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University, an M.S. in Medical Electronics, and a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Technion, the Israel Institute of Technology. As a recognized expert in his field, Dr. Gerzberg has been invited to deliver numerous talks on technical, business, and entrepreneurial topics. He is the author or co-author of over 50 technical papers on topics related to the design of integrated circuits, device physics and fabrication, digital signal processing, and related applications. Dr. Gerzberg, as a co-inventor, has been granted patents for innovative semiconductor designs. Jim Wallace, VP Business Development & North American Sales, Planetweb: Mr. Wallace joined Planetweb in 1999 with fifteen years management experience in the Consumer Electronics, Computing and Embedded markets. At Planetweb, he served first as Director of Marketing and more recently as the Director of Business Development, helping to shape the company’s strategic direction and establishing many key strategic alliances in the Consumer Electronics market. Wallace also represents the company on several influential industry standards bodies. Prior to joining Planetweb, Mr. Wallace was the Director of Marketing at 3dfx where he managed the graphics chip supplier’s worldwide marketing efforts in both the consumer and OEM markets. Wallace also held several marketing management positions at HP from 1995 through 1998 where he helped position the company for growth in the consumer and retail markets. Prior to 1995, Wallace spent ten years in various management positions at Pioneer Electronics, USA, successfully positioning the company's product offering to the consumer market. During his career, Wallace has consistently been recognized for his effective and breakthrough marketing campaigns winning numerous awards including Gold Effies, several ICON Awards including the Grand ICON, Cannes Lions, many CLIO awards including the Grand Clio and was selected as one of "The Marketing 100" by Advertising Age magazine. Mr. Wallace holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree from Long Beach State University. Terry M. Leeder, Vice President, Sales and Marketing, Cirrus Logic: Terry Leeder was named the Vice President of Cirrus Logic Sales and Marketing in July 2002. Mr. Leeder first joined Cirrus Logic as Vice President, Worldwide Sales in June 1999. Mr. Leeder has more than 30 years experience in semiconductors and held a number of key management positions with various technology companies. As Vice President, Marketing, Applications and Japan Sales at Power Integrations, Inc., he developed and implemented a new market strategy that leveraged the company’s "smartpower" technology and refocused its market segments, efforts that resulted in a successful IPO in 1996. He also established the sales office in Japan and subsequent Power Integrations, K.K. entity to serve major Japanese customers. Most recently, he was President and CEO of Medianix Semiconductor, Inc. He founded, funded and built Medianix to develop, manufacture and market application-specific DSP integrated circuits for the PC multimedia and consumer markets. Mr. Leeder is a graduate of Salford University in Manchester, England. Jim Wuthrich, Vice President Worldwide Interactive Marketing, Warner Bros.: Jim Wuthrich joined Warner Home Video in 1998 and is responsible for the division’s Internet strategy, including DVD-ROM. An early proponent of combining the community aspects of the web with movies, he and his team developed the "virtual theatre" whereby DVD-ROM users could watch movies while chatting online with the film’s creators. He is a member of the DVD Forum’s Ad Hoc group studying next generation set top DVD players. Prior to his tenure at Warner Bros., Wuthrich managed an interactive services company and set product strategy for Hallmark Cards. He holds a degree in business from the University of Wisconsin—Madison. Robert Ferrari, Principal and founder of Global Resources & Associates: Bob Ferrari is a 12-year veteran of the digital entertainment and convergence industries. His expertise has been focused on the development, sales and marketing of emerging hardware, software, and applications for consumer and commercial markets. As a pioneer and evangelist in his field, Bob offers a wealth of experience, insight, and relationships within a broad range of emerging sectors. Bob is the principal and founder of Global Resources & Associates Inc - a business development firm based in Boston. The firm offers strategic planning, corporate development, sales, product marketing, and Mar/Com services on an outsourced basis. Bob has been fortunate to serve and steer the strategic direction of global public companies, as well as a broad range of small to medium size start-up companies. Bob’s core management tenures include executive positions such as: Chief Strategy Officer/EVP Sales & Marketing at Merinta Inc – a software infrastructure company; Vice President of Sales & Marketing at Philips Electronics - a global leader in semiconductors, electronics and digital entertainment; and VP of Business Development at ZipLink Inc – a North American network operator and applications provider. Bob gives back to his industries of focus by continually contributing his time and insight. He is an active industry speaker, panelist and moderator for many industry events. He also supports many industry organizations and media publications with insight and guidance.