Innovator Stories (Video)

In this UC Santa Barbara Innovator Stories program, Tony Rodoni, a former Global Sales Leader at Salesforce, talks about how he went from being an engineer to sales by focusing on customers, their needs and how he could help solve their problems. Series: "Innovator Stories: Creating Something from Nothing" [Business] [Show ID: 38309]

As the first-ever Chief Client Officer of Baker Botts, a global law firm, Catherine Zinn is laser-focused on servicing the client. She ensures that her company is proactive and relentless in its focus on client satisfaction and in its growth in key markets. Zinn was recognized as a "Woman of Influence" by the "Silicon Valley Business Journal," as a "Woman of Achievement" by "Legal Momentum" and a "Top 100 Woman in Law" by "Women Who Lead" in 2021. Series: "Innovator Stories: Creating Something from Nothing" [Business] [Show ID: 38307]

Bianca Valenti is a professional big-wave surfer, business innovator, and environmental activist. Valenti is leading movements focused on pay equity and growth opportunity in sport. Series: "Innovator Stories: Creating Something from Nothing" [Business] [Show ID: 36440]

Anna Fraser has served as Sonos' Chief People Officer since January 2017. She leads the company's recruitment, development, engagement, and retention strategies in addition to cultivating the Sonos culture across 15 offices globally. Before joining Sonos, Anna served as Director and Chief of Staff for Google's People Operations function, responsible for people strategy and employee experience for over 70,000 global employees. Series: "Innovator Stories: Creating Something from Nothing" [Business] [Show ID: 36442]

Matt Beane is an Assistant Professor in the Technology Management Program at the University of California, Santa Barbara and a Research Affiliate with MIT's Institute for the Digital Economy. Matt studies deviance in work involving machine intelligence - and specifically robotics. He asks questions like "How do workers, organizations and even AI engage in deviance, and what happens when they do?" Matt has done extensive field research on robotic surgery, robotic materials transport, and robotic telepresence in healthcare, elder care and knowledge work. Series: "Innovator Stories: Creating Something from Nothing" [Business] [Show ID: 36438]

Heather Hochrein is founder and CEO of EVmatch, a nationwide network for sharing and renting private EV charging stations. The goal is to increase the adoption of electric vehicles, thereby decreasing carbon emissions from the transportation sector. She is well versed in clean technology and previously spent five years in leadership roles at Rising Sun Energy Center. She holds a BS from UC Berkeley and a master's in Energy and Climate from UC Santa Barbara. Series: "Innovator Stories: Creating Something from Nothing" [Public Affairs] [Business] [Show ID: 36308]

McCormick PR specializes in brand building through high impact media and analyst relations. Laura McCormick has represented many high-profile brands in Tech, eCommerce, Retail, Hospitality, Lifestyle, Travel and Arts and Culture. She works independently, with a distributed team of engagement-specific experts. Series: "Innovator Stories: Creating Something from Nothing" [Show ID: 35467]

Craig Harris, former Peace Corps worker, turned his passion for non-profits into a multi-hundred million dollar data company. Craig has nearly 20-years of successful entrepreneurial leadership experiences. Prior to launching HG Insights, Craig served as the Founder and CEO of NOZA, which he led through a successful acquisition by Blackbaud in 2010. Series: "Innovator Stories: Creating Something from Nothing" [Show ID: 35562]

In 2015, Emma Rose Cohen and several friends launched Save The Mermaids, a nonprofit focused on educating young (and old) people about the dangers of ocean pollution and how each of us can do our part to combat it. Thus, it’s not surprising that Emma’s passion to clean up our oceans resulted in her Co-founding FinalStraw - the world’s first collapsible, reusable straw, which sports the tagline, #SuckResponsibly. Series: "Innovator Stories: Creating Something from Nothing" [Show ID: 35563]

Kevin Zhang looks for interdisciplinary entrepreneurs solving big problems in healthcare and the life sciences. He's also a passionate gamer and invests in interactive media platforms, tools and content. Prior to joining Upfront in 2012, Kevin was at The Boston Consulting Group, where he advised on strategy, M&A and operations for technology, healthcare, and industrial goods clients in the US and Asia. Previously, Kevin worked at Verscend Technologies, a healthcare software startup in Boston, focusing on data analytics product development selling into payers and providers. Kevin studied Biology at Harvard College. Series: "Innovator Stories: Creating Something from Nothing" [Show ID: 35468]

This edition of Lost Voices from unsung entrepreneurs looks at Ng Poon Chew, an entrepreneur and social activist. Ng Poon Chew immigrated to the US in 1881 at the age of 14. He was an author, publisher and advocate for Chinese American civil rights. He published the first Chinese language daily newspaper to be printed outside of China. UC Santa Barbara theater student Martin Wong performs with the coaching of Fang He, IHC Research Fellow at UC Santa Barbara. Then, hear from today's co-sponsors: Impact, an affiliate marketer in Santa Barbara and Tapjoy, a mobile advertising platform. Series: "Innovator Stories: Creating Something from Nothing" [Show ID: 35445]

Since its beginning in 1999, the UCSB New Venture Competition provides a unique opportunity for UCSB students to learn how to start a business. This eight-month educational experience, with activities and curriculum spanning the entire academic year, culminates with the finals where the student teams present an investor pitch to a panel of judges for prize money. Series: "Innovator Stories: Creating Something from Nothing" [Business] [Show ID: 35006]

2018 Daytime Emmy Winner for best original song and 2015 Daytime Emmy Nominee, Eve Nelson brings her musical alchemy to each project, evidenced by her body of work tackling many genres of music. Working closely with artists has given her music scoring, producing and songwriting a refreshingly new perspective. Series: "Innovator Stories: Creating Something from Nothing" [Business] [Show ID: 34904]

Jenny Du is is the Vice President of Operations at Apeel Sciences, where she is responsible for leading the company’s efforts in Regulatory Affairs & Compliance, Manufacturing, Quality, Supply Chain, Logistics, IT, Facilities and EH&S. Series: "Innovator Stories: Creating Something from Nothing" [Business] [Show ID: 34905]

Diane Flynn is Cofounder and CEO of ReBoot Accel, designing work cultures that support and advance women. ReBoot Accel has assisted over 2500 women interested in resuming careers after time out of the workforce. Series: "Innovator Stories: Creating Something from Nothing" [Business] [Show ID: 34903]

Bridget “Biddy” Mason, born a slave in Mississippi in 1818, achieved financial success that enabled her to support her extended family for generations, despite the fact that she was illiterate. In a landmark case, she sued her master for their freedom, saved her earnings, invested in real estate, and became a well-known philanthropist in Los Angeles, California. Series: "Innovator Stories: Creating Something from Nothing" [Business] [Show ID: 34785]

Ning Wang is a seasoned executive with P&L responsibilities of several SaaS and technology businesses. She also holds a PhD in physics from UC Berkeley. Ning is currently CEO of Offensive Security. Series: "Innovator Stories: Creating Something from Nothing" [Business] [Show ID: 34784]

After 15 years running Partner Management at Yahoo, Josh Cobb became the President of the America's for Media.net, the worlds #2 largest advertising technology company, after Google. He is also a member of the Santa Barbara Angel Alliance, an angel investor group focused on startup and early-stage companies. Series: "Innovator Stories: Creating Something from Nothing" [Business] [Show ID: 34783]

Shannon Jessup is a sales and marketing executive with a 20-year track record of top performance with mobile, internet and technology companies. She started her career in sales at IBM. Shannon makes her home in Santa Barbara, CA with her husband and three children. Series: "Innovator Stories: Creating Something from Nothing" [Business] [Show ID: 34782]

Al Ferrer is the President/CEO of Linea Consulting, a multi-national Major League Baseball interpreter provider. Linea also researches, analyzes, interprets and presents advanced sabermetrics. Clients have included the Los Angeles Dodgers, Angels, New York Yankees and the top sports agents in the country. Series: "Innovator Stories: Creating Something from Nothing" [Business] [Show ID: 34374]

Peter Biggs experienced the transition from slavery to freedom a decade before the outbreak of the Civil War. Jarred Webb portrays the historical figure who lived in Los Angeles and was one of only twelve people in Los Angeles marked 'Black' on the 1850 US Census. Webb is then joined Dan Lynch (UCLA History) to discuss the high (and low) points of his life. Series: "Innovator Stories: Creating Something from Nothing" [Humanities] [Business] [Show ID: 34370]

Dafina Toncheva invests in emerging technologies in the enterprise space with focus on Enterprise SaaS applications and security. She recounts her personal history; born and raised in Bulgaria with its political instability and financial hardships and her road to success. Series: "Innovator Stories: Creating Something from Nothing" [Business] [Show ID: 34369]

As a music supervisor and executive on such films as The Big Lebowski, Sweet Home Alabama and Dead Man Walking, Dawn Solér joined ABC Studios in 2006 to bring her extensive film experience to the world of television. Once there, she established a full-service music department that manages every musical component on all of its shows -- the hiring of music supervisors and composers, budgets and integrating music from programming into marketing. Series: "Innovator Stories: Creating Something from Nothing" [Humanities] [Business] [Show ID: 34368]

Prior to becoming a professional poker player, Annie was awarded the National Science Foundation Fellowship. Through this fellowship, she studied Cognitive Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania, which eventually led to her current book, Thinking In Bets. Here, Annie explores bad experiences as opportunities to learn from. Series: "Innovator Stories: Creating Something from Nothing" [Humanities] [Business] [Show ID: 34445]

Bing Chen is a digital media pioneer and entrepreneur. As a founding architect behind YouTube's multi-billion dollar global digital creator and influencer ecosystem, he was responsible for numerous groundbreaking initiatives that engaged more than 500 million content creators worldwide. Here Chen shares his three rules of job networking. Series: "Innovator Stories: Creating Something from Nothing" [Business] [Show ID: 34036]

Since its beginning in 1999, the UCSB New Venture Competition provides a unique opportunity for UCSB students to learn how to start a business. This eight-month educational experience, with activities and curriculum spanning the entire academic year, culminates with the New Venture Finals, where the finalist teams present an investor pitch to a panel of judges for prize money. Series: "Innovator Stories: Creating Something from Nothing" [Business] [Show ID: 33938]

Randy Modos is the president and a founder of PayJunction, where he provides vision and leadership for the company as it pioneers green payment technology and delivers operational efficiencies for businesses. The founders of PayJunction took an inspired idea and grew it into a company that process over $4 billion annually. But it’s one thing to create a world-class product, it’s another to leverage your core beliefs into a revolutionary approach. PayJunction is a leader in ethical payment processing and prioritizes long-term relationships over short-term profit. Modos has been a champion of this approach over PayJunction’s 18 years in business. Series: "Innovator Stories: Creating Something from Nothing" [Business] [Show ID: 33673]

Eytan Elbaz is an American entrepreneur and investor best known for co-founding Applied Semantics. In 2003, Applied Semantics was acquired by Google for $102 million in a deal that included pre-IPO Google company stock. As part of the acquisition, Elbaz served as Head of Domain Channel at Google from 2003 to 2007. Eytan is an Angel investor and founder of many Los Angeles companies, most notably Scopely, a mobile gaming startup. He is also the founder and Chairman of the Board of Render Media, a new-age digital media start up. Series: "Innovator Stories: Creating Something from Nothing" [Science] [Business] [Show ID: 33473]

With over twenty-five years of sales and operations experience within the technology sector, Lars Nilsson is a global leader in enterprise software and selling solutions. He is currently the VP of Global Inside Sales for Cloudera, the company that has revolutionized enterprise data management by offering the first unified platform for data management and analytics. He explores his professional wins and his personal losses. Series: "Innovator Stories: Creating Something from Nothing" [Business] [Show ID: 33675]

Hans Swildens is the CEO and Founder of Industry Ventures and manages the overall business. As an early pioneer of the modern secondary market for venture capital, he created new ways to get liquidity for venture capital investments prior to an IPO or M&A event. Additionally, he was early to support the development of a new class of venture capital partnerships focused on seed and early stage investing during the last decade. He directs the firm’s investment processes, operations and limited partner relationships. Series: "Innovator Stories: Creating Something from Nothing" [Business] [Show ID: 33676]

Elizabeth Cholawsky is a seasoned executive leader in the technology industry with a strong focus on growing successful SaaS-based (software as service) businesses. Most recently, she was CEO of Support.com, where she transformed the business from being solely reliant on outsourced services revenue to selling a SaaS product that intelligently ran large contact centers. Series: "Innovator Stories: Creating Something from Nothing" [Science] [Business] [Show ID: 33674]

Despite being retired for nearly a decade, until very recently, Annie was the world's winningest female poker player. In 2004, she bested a field of 234 players to win her first World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet. The same year, she triumphed in the $2 million winner-take-all, invitation-only WSOP Tournament of Champions. Prior to becoming a professional poker player, Annie was awarded the National Science Foundation Fellowship. Through this fellowship, she studied Cognitive Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania, which eventually led to her current book, Thinking In Bets, which combines her academic studies with real-life decision making experiences at the poker table. Series: "Innovator Stories: Creating Something from Nothing" [Business] [Show ID: 33474]

Kim Coalson is Senior Vice President for Appfolio's MyCase, case management software that serves the legal industry. Kim ensures that the MyCase team delivers an outstanding customer experience and provides software that supports the success of solo practitioners and small law firms. Kim joined the AppFolio team in 2011 as Vice President, Value Added Services for AppFolio Property Manager, where she launched and grew customer services. Prior to AppFolio, Kim served as Vice President of Marketing for Mindflash.com, from 2008 to 2010, where she was responsible for customer acquisition, web presence and customer research. Series: "Innovator Stories: Creating Something from Nothing" [Business] [Show ID: 33472]

Brian is a computer programmer, entrepreneur, consultant, Angel investor, author and free software advocate. He was the original author of the GNU Bash shell and the primary maintainer of bash until early 1993. Brian also built the first interactive online banking software in the US for Wells Fargo in 1995 and he created an open source election system in 2008. Fox co-wrote a New York Times piece in 2017 with former CIA head R. James Woolsey advocating open source election systems as a means of securing US elections against Russian interference. Series: "Innovator Stories: Creating Something from Nothing" [Business] [Show ID: 33471]

Meredith Amdur is an investor, advisor and “execupreneur” in a range of data-driven enterprise and consumer software application businesses. She talks with UCSB students about leading high-tech ventures from startup to IPO. She is currently the CEO of Rhetorik Solutions & Wanted Technologies and an angel investor. Series: "Innovator Stories: Creating Something from Nothing" [Business] [Show ID: 33059]

Alexander Fang is an entrepreneur with a track record of building teams that take ideas from the research laboratory through commercialization. He talks with UCSB students about how an academic transitioned his research into a commercial solution potentially worth billions. Series: "Innovator Stories: Creating Something from Nothing" [Business] [Show ID: 33058]

Two-time Grammy nominated / multiplatinum music producer for top talent such as Pink, Eminem, and The Black Eyed Peas talks to UCSB students about specific pain-points within the music industry as inspiration for Partner.ly, an experiential marketing agency. Series: "Innovator Stories: Creating Something from Nothing" [Business] [Show ID: 33057]

Kelly Ferguson is the Director of Santa Barbara and Ventura Counties Energize California Program, an initiative of the Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator. She is a lifelong Green Entrepreneur and Eco Warrior. She works to accelerate clean energy development by supporting energy entrepreneurs and startups and helping them get access to the business and technical resources they need to bring new technology to market. Series: "Innovator Stories: Creating Something from Nothing" [Public Affairs] [Business] [Show ID: 33056]

Bruce Heavin, co-founder Lynda.com, talks to UCSB student about taking the business from a garage to a $1.5B LinkedIn acquisition, and how he lives a fulfilled life, in spite of sudden, massive wealth. Series: "Innovator Stories: Creating Something from Nothing" [Business] [Show ID: 33055]

Since its beginning in 1999, the UCSB New Venture Competition provides a unique opportunity for UCSB students to learn how to start a business. The culmination of the program is New Venture Finals, where the finalist teams present an investor pitch to a panel of judges for prize money. Series: "Innovator Stories: Creating Something from Nothing" [Business] [Show ID: 32748]

Upon graduation from UCSB, Doug Otto decided he wanted to surf, rather than taking a job. To pay his bills, he began making flip flops in his garage. He turned this humble beginning into Deckers Brands, an International, public company, generating billions in sales from brands it owns such as UGG, Teva, Sanuk, HOKA, and Ahnu. Series: "Innovator Stories: Creating Something from Nothing" [Business] [Show ID: 32699]

What happens when you put together a Forbes 30-Under-30 awardee with a Founder who Mark Cuban gave $1M on Shark Tank? Throw in another young creator of a Chinese/American reality show featuring NBA stars and you have a lively, informative discussion of the challenges associated with creating a venture right out of college. Eric Posen is the Co-Founder & Chief Product Officer at Naritiv. Jeff Overall is the Founder and CEO of PolarPro. Michael Zhang is the Chief Sales and Marketing Officer and Co-founder at Unirui Entertainment. Series: "Innovator Stories: Creating Something from Nothing" [Business] [Show ID: 32698]