Our event is all about inspiring our high school audience to take what they hear from our keynote speakers and create ideas worth spreading of their own. We are featuring 5 keynote speakers, one of whom is a high school student herself, and a Mentor Luncheon where attendees discuss careers, ideas, and more with professional in varied fields during a lunch provided with the ticket.

The Harker School
500 Saratoga Avenue
San Jose, California, 95129
United States

Ajay Shah

Ajay Shah founded Shah Capital Partners in 2004 and joined the Silver Lake team in 2007 as the Managing Partner to found and develop the firm's middle market strategy, Silver Lake Sumeru. Prior to founding Shah Capital, Mr. Shah founded and managed the Technology Solutions Business of Solectron, a $2 billion business. Mr. Shah was the CEO of Smart Modular Technologies, a company that he co-founded in 1989 and led through its public offering in 1995. He managed its growth to over $1 billion in revenues and directed its acquisition by Solectron Corp. in 1999 for over $2 billion. Mr. Shah serves on the board of directors of Flextronics, TES, CMAC, Ingenient, Magellan, Mobile Messenger, AVI-SPL, Inc., Power-One, Inc., and is chairman of the board of SMART Modular. Mr. Shah has had years of experience in entrepreneurship and business, and consequently possesses nuggets of wisdom that he shares in his TEDx Talk.

Cammie Dunaway

Cammie Dunaway joined KidZania in October 2010 as US President and Global CMO. KidZania is a location based entertainment concept focused on children’s role-playing activities. A seasoned executive with more than 25 years of marketing and general management experience, Dunaway previously served as Executive Vice President for Nintendo. There she oversaw all sales and marketing activities for the company in the United States, Canada and Latin America. Before joining Nintendo, Dunaway was Chief Marketing Officer for Yahoo!, where she ran consumer, enterprise, and partnership marketing initiatives, from brand and marketing communications to product planning and positioning to execution of customer acquisition and retention strategies. Having shown her leadership skills through executive positions at top corporations, Ms. Dunaway possesses a wealth of experiences concerning gender equality in the workplace to share with all audiences.

David J.F. Gross

David J.F. Gross is one of Faegre & Benson’s lead trial lawyers in complex intellectual property cases. Mr. Gross was recognized as one of 50 “Rising Litigation Stars” by The American Lawyer based on his track record of high profile IP litigation victories, as well as his prominence as a national speaker on trial practice and patent litigation. Mr. Gross is a national lecturer on patent law and trial advocacy, and he is the co-author of The Power Trial Method, a trial practice book published by the National Institute for Trial Advocacy (NITA). Having had years of experience in the courtroom and a winning track record, Mr. Gross has proven that he is an expert on the essentials of communication.

Deborah Perry Piscione

Deborah Perry Piscione has launched three successful companies and detailed her research and experiences in her New York Times best-seller Secrets of Silicon Valley: What Everyone Else Can Learn from the Innovation Capital of the World – the most extensive book ever published explaining why that region is the entrepreneurial mecca of the business world. In her groundbreaking new and bestselling book, The Risk Factor: Why Every Company Needs Big Bets, Bold Characters and the Occasional Spectacular Failure, Deborah takes a comprehensive look at this crucial, undervalued leadership behavior and outlines how leaders must pivot to support risk-taking across the organization, rather than mitigating it. She fully customizes her presentations to focus on the areas of risk that are most important to your audience’s needs. You will experience a hard-hitting, yet entertaining lesson in how to adapt to the demands of an increasingly fast-paced, agile and unforgiving world.

Samantha Madala