Victor B. Lawrence
Batchelor Chair Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering
Stevens Institute of Technology
Fellow, IEEE, and Member of the National Academy of Engineers
Victor Lawrence has made a significant impact on the global telecommunications industry in the last 30 years. His
pioneering work paved the way for many developments in broadband, DSL, HDTV technologies, and wireless data
transfer. His advancements in V-series modem technology and international standards have had a global impact,
enabling the interoperability of computer networks worldwide. Formerly vice president of advanced communication
technology at Bell Labs, Dr. Lawrence currently serves as the associate dean and Batchelor chair professor of electrical
and computer engineering and founding director of the Center for Intelligent Networked Systems at Stevens Institute
of Technology. He is the chairman of the Broadband Advisory Council, advising the government of South Africa
on strategies to increase the rate of broadband penetration. He is chairman of Baharicom Development Co. and a
chief proponent and architect of Uhurunet, the first broadband submarine fiber optic cable network that will be the
cornerstone of trans-African telecommunications and Internet infrastructure. He is a director of Telkom SA.
tara Lemmey
Chief Executive Officer
Lens Ventures, LLC
Tara Lemmey leads Lens Ventures, an innovation, investment, and strategy firm that helps companies create options
for next-generation growth by providing them with a unique approach to new markets. Established companies such
as American Express, Nokia, and Intel look to Lens for innovation, while new companies such as Ribbit, Redux, and
Center are part of the Lens innovation portfolio. Ms. Lemmey is a member of the Embassy of the Future Commission,
where she serves with 26 former ambassadors to bring innovation to the State Department. She is on the faculty of the
Center for Integrative Medicine at the University of Arizona, and is an emeritus board member of the AIGA Center
for Brand Experience. Ms. Lemmey was the technology co-chair of the Markle Task Force on National Security in
the Information Age. Earlier she was president of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. She is currently writing a book,
Resilience: How to Surf the Circumstance.
Lawrence Lessig
Professor of Law, Stanford Law School
Founder, Center for Internet and Society
Lawrence Lessig, a professor of law at Stanford Law School and founder of the school’s Center for Internet and
Society, teaches and writes in the areas of constitutional law, contracts, and the law of cyberspace. Before joining
the Stanford faculty, he was the Berkman professor of law at Harvard Law School and a professor at the University
of Chicago. He clerked for Judge Richard Posner on the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals and Justice Antonin Scalia on
the U.S. Supreme Court. For much of his career, Prof. Lessig focused on law and technology, especially as it affects
copyright. He represented website operator Eric Eldred in the groundbreaking case Eldred v. Ashcroft, a challenge to
the 1998 Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act. His current academic work addresses a kind of “corruption.”
Prof. Lessig is the author of Code v2 (2007), Free Culture (2004), The Future of Ideas (2001), and Code and Other Laws
of Cyberspace (1999).
max LeVchin
Founder, CEO, and Chairman
Slide, Inc.
Max Levchin is the CEO and visionary behind Slide, the world’s largest social entertainment company and developer
of the most engaging applications on social networks. Mr. Levchin is also the co-founder of PayPal and an expert in
combating online fraud. Before starting Slide, he incubated several other startups, including Yelp, which he currently
serves as chairman. Mr. Levchin started PayPal in 1998, took the company public in 2002, and then sold it to eBay for
more than $1.5 billion; at that time he was 26 years old. Originally from Kiev, Ukraine (then part of the Soviet Union),
he moved to Chicago at the age of 16 and later received his BS degree in computer science from the University of
Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Mr. Levchin serves on the boards of several other companies and trains for triathlons
when he’s not focused on Slide’s business.
