Special Guests
Ralph louRa
Senior Vice President, Information Technology
Medicis
Ralph Loura is responsible for Medicis’ worldwide use of information technology. In this role, he leads Medicis’
information technology team and directs the company’s strategic technology initiatives to build a systems
infrastructure that can drive new efficiencies while continuing to support the company’s goal of delighting its
customers. Since joining Medicis in 2006, Mr. Loura has been instrumental in shaping IT’s direction. Under his
leadership, Medicis has implemented SAP across finance, purchasing, supply chain, and HR functions, and has
performed vital systems infrastructure improvements and a series of process improvements designed to enable the IT
organization to transform its core operations into a strategic competitive advantage for the company. Before joining
Medicis, Mr. Loura held a variety of IT executive leadership positions at Symbol Technologies (CIO), Cisco Systems
(director), Lucent Technologies: Bell Labs Research, and AT&T Network Systems. He received a master’s degree in
computer science from Northwestern University.
KeeRti MelKote
Founder and Vice President, Products and Partnerships
Aruba Networks
Keerti Melkote is responsible for Aruba’s product roadmap and technology partnerships. He has 15 years of technology
and marketing experience in both enterprise and service provider networking. Before founding Aruba Networks,
Mr. Melkote held senior management positions at Tahoe Networks, a cellular/3G data networking systems company
now part of Nokia, and Shasta Networks, a broadband IP subscriber management systems company now part of
Nortel. Mr. Melkote was at Cisco Systems during the LAN switching era in the mid-1990s, where he was responsible
for the definition and launch of Cisco’s high-end enterprise LAN switching systems. Before Cisco, Mr. Melkote was
responsible for deploying high-performance LAN and ATM backbone infrastructure at Intel. He holds an MSEE from
Purdue University with an emphasis on distributed systems and TCP/IP networking.
JeRRold J. “JeRRy” pellizzon
Chief Financial Officer
Ceradyne, Inc.
Jerry Pellizzon, since joining Ceradyne in 2002, has managed its financial growth to its present estimated annual
$750 million of revenues, from $60 million. Mr. Pellizzon led the negotiations for five acquisitions that, in addition
to organic growth, also contributed to Ceradyne’s growth. To also support Ceradyne’s growth, he was responsible for
three public financings to raise $238 million of capital and negotiated a $160 million credit facility. Mr. Pellizzon’s
career of more than 30 years includes positions as CFO and COO for high-growth companies in the consumer
packaging, industrial, and manufacturing industries. A member of a roundtable panel sponsored by the Wall Street
Journal for business performance issues, Mr. Pellizzon received a bachelor’s degree in economics from UCLA in 1975.
He was named Orange County’s 2007 CFO of the Year.
paul touw
President and CEO
XOJET
Paul Touw is a successful entrepreneur with a track record for developing new markets by discovering greenfield
opportunities to eliminate operational inefficiency. As an executive with optimization technology leader Rasna, Mr.
Touw helped position the company for its successful merger with Parametric Technology Corp. He then eliminated
procurement inefficiency through software, and founded Ariba Inc. to capture and define the market, leading
to a successful public offering in 1999. An instrument-rated pilot and jet owner, Mr. Touw recognized dramatic
inefficiencies used to manage and deliver private aviation to companies and individuals and founded XOJET to bring
greater customer value to the industry. Through operational scale, technology innovation, and a modern customer
service culture, Mr. Touw has led XOJET to become the leading provider of private jet travel for frequent fliers
worldwide, with the highest revenue-earning utilization of any retail operator.
