Widgets Growing Up

Alex Bard is the President & CEO at goowy media, where he is responsible for the corporate vision, product strategy, and marketing/business development initiatives. Currently, he also works inside AOL’s product group helping guide the vision and strategy for AOL’s Widget initiatives. Previously, Alex was part of the founding team of two other Internet communication companies including eAssist Global Solutions and eShare Technologies. Alex holds a BA in Finance from the State University of New York at Stony Brook.

• Web site

Tariq Krim is the Founder and CEO of Netvibes. He created one of the first online messaging systems in France while attending elementary school. Prior to Netvibes Tariq founded popular French blog GenerationMP3. He is consistently recognized as one of the most influential people in the European web space. He was the exclusive overseas correspondent in Silicon Valley for the French newspaper La Tribune during the .com bubble.

• Web site

Hooman is the founder & CEO of Clearspring Technologies, the leading provider of online widget syndication services. At Clearspring, he is actively involved in shaping product and marketing initiatives. He was recently named one of Tech’s Best Entrepreneurs in BusinessWeek and was nominated for Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year. Hooman is a frequently requested speaker in the areas of social networks, syndication, and digital media. When he is not busy building a better web, you can find him writing his blog Widgify. Radfar graduated magna cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania with degrees in Economics and Computer Science. He holds an M.S. from Carnegie Mellon University where he researched Social Networking Theory.

• Web site

Gary Benitt is currently a Senior Technical Director at AOL. Prior to AOL’s acquisition of Goowy Media, Gary was Goowy’s COO, responsible for the day to day operations of the company, with a focus on the business and technology aspects of the business. Previously Gary co-founded eAssist Global Solutions where he held the positions of VP of Client Operations and Support and VP of Technology. In these roles, Gary managed client implementations and development of eAssist’s award winning contact center products, respectively.

Gary was responsible for launching the first version of the product in an ASP environment in under four months and then releasing the productized software model. Gary holds B.S. degrees in Finance and Information Systems from NYU’s Stern School of Business.

• Web site

Rooly has more than nine years of executive experience in Internet marketing and advertising, with a focus on product development. Previously, he served on the board of Metacafe, and held positions as a GM at SmartShopper and as VP of Products & Marketing at Hotbar.com. Rooly holds a Bachelor of Architecture degree from the Pratt Institute in New York City.

Ganesh Sivaraman heads the global marketing of Web Technologies & Applications for S60 and has been instrumental in creating the excitement & awareness of the highly-acclaimed Web Browser & Web Runtime for S60. Prior to joining S60 marketing team, Ganesh was in charge of product management of S60 Rich Call and had the global responsibility for product creation, management and strategic direction. He also represented Nokia as the lead delegate in mobile standardization bodies, such as SyncML and Open Mobile Alliance (OMA), as co-chairman in SyncML and vice-chairman in OMA Data Synchronization groups. Ganesh has been with Nokia since 2000 and has a master’s in science degree in Electronics.