Michael M. Crow became the 16th President of Arizona State University on July 1, 2002. He is guiding the transformation of ASU into one of the nation’s leading public metropolitan research universities, one that is directly engaged in the economic, social, and cultural vitality of its region. Under his direction the university pursues teaching, research, and creative excellence focused on the major challenges and questions of our time, as well as those central to the building of a sustainable environment and economy for Arizona. He has committed the university to global engagement, and to setting a new standard for public service. Since he took office, ASU has marked a number of important milestones, including the establishment of major interdisciplinary research initiatives such as the Biodesign Institute; the Global Institute for Sustainability; and MacroTechnology Works, a program integrating science and technology for large-scale applications, including the Flexible Display Center, a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Army. Prior to joining ASU, he was executive vice provost of Columbia University, where he also was professor of science and technology policy in the School of International and Public Affairs. As chief strategist of Columbia’s research enterprise, he led technology and innovation transfer operations, establishing Columbia Innovation Enterprises (now Science and Technology Ventures), the Strategic Initiative Program, and the Columbia Digital Media Initiative, as well as advancing interdisciplinary program development. A fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration, he is the author of books and articles relating to the analysis of research organizations, technology transfer, science and technology policy, and the practice and theory of public policy.

Diana Wells, president of Ashoka, joined the organization in the 1980s after graduating from Brown University with a degree in South Asian Studies. As an undergraduate, her year-long study abroad in Varanasi, India led her to see the need for local solutions to solve global problems. This insight brought her to Ashoka and inspired her to create one of Ashoka's core programs, Fellowship Support Services, (now Fellowship) which not only supplied Ashoka’s social entrepreneurs with a wide array of information, resources and services, but at the same time connected them to one another and their ideas in a globally expansive context. Taking a leave to pursue a Ph.D. in anthropology, she was named both a Fulbright and Woodrow Wilson scholar. Her ethnographic research focusing on understanding how social change happens as a local articulation of a global social movement resulted in her dissertation: 'Between the Difference: The Emergence of a Cross Ethnic Women’s Movement in Trinidad and Tobago.' Having her PhD in hand, Diana returned to Ashoka to provide leadership for the worldwide process of sourcing and selecting leading social entrepreneurs as Ashoka Fellows. In addition she was given strategic and operational responsibility for Ashoka’s geographic expansion and the significant increase of Fellow elections; to its current total of 1800. She has contributed to the field of social entrepreneurship by implementing a widely respected tool for "Measuring Effectiveness", which is one of the first standard tools to measure the impact of social entrepreneurship. She is on the Advisory Board for Center for the Advancement of Social Entrepreneurship (CASE) at Duke’s Fuqua School of Business and on the Board of GuideStar International. Her Ph.D. is from New York University (2000), and her undergraduate degree from Brown University (1988). She has taught at Georgetown University on Anthropology and Development and has both authored and edited numerous journal and book publications including two compilations on social movements in the United States. Most recently, Diana was celebrated as one of 10 winners of the first annual Women to Watch award, by Running Start, a Washington, DC based organization that empowers young women to be political leaders. She lives in Arlington, VA with her husband Paul, her son Toby and her mother Elaine.

Amy Stursberg is the executive director of the Blackstone Charitable Foundation. Since joining the Foundation, Stursberg has been responsible for the creation of a programmatic plan for the Foundation and the distribution of funds. Prior to joining The Blackstone Foundation in 2008, she served on the Spitzer administration transition team. She had been a consultant to the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation managing the award of $35 million in cultural enhancement grants and $30 million in community grants in Lower Manhattan. Prior to that Stursberg worked at the September 11th Fund serving as a consultant to the Chair of the Board, Program Director for Economic Development and Revitalization, and then as the last Director of the Fund, overseeing its final distribution of funds. Stursberg has also held positions in the Office of Management and Budget for the NYC Mayors Office and at the Department of Health and Human Services in Washington DC. She has also worked as a university administrator and foundation officer. Stursberg currently serves on the boards of the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, Clemente Soto Velez Cultural Center, Tectonic Theater Project, Children for Children and serves on the Divisional Board for Trauma and Domestic Violence for the Jewish Board of Family and Children’s Services. Stursberg received her BA from the University of Michigan with Honors and holds a Masters in Public Policy from the John F Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

Jim Whitehurst was named President and Chief Executive Officer of Red Hat in December 2007. Before joining Red Hat, Whitehurst held various positions at Delta Air Lines, most recently as chief operating officer, responsible for operations, sales and customer service, network and revenue management, marketing and corporate strategy. Prior to joining Delta, Whitehurst was a partner at The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and held various leadership roles in their Chicago, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Atlanta offices. A native of Columbus, Georgia, Whitehurst graduated from Rice University in Houston, Texas, with a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science and Economics. He also attended Friedrich-Alexander University in Erlangen, Germany, holds a general course degree from the London School of Economics and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Santokh S. Badesha is a Xerox Fellow and manager of open innovation for the Xerox Corporation. Badesha is responsible for leading inter-organizational efforts with both internal and external value chain partners, building academic and industrial partnerships, and providing critical technical support for product programs. These strategic partnerships design and execute front end research to design, develop and deliver functional materials, components, and marking subsystems. Badesha holds 168 U.S. Patents which have also been filed in multiple foreign countries. This makes him the most prolific inventor ever in the history of Xerox Corporation. He has an additional 45 U.S. patent applications on file with the U.S. Patent Office. In addition, he has over 55 peer reviewed key scientific publications and presentations in international scientific journals and professional society’s conferences. He was named Fellow by the Royal Society of Chemistry, Chartered Scientist by the Science Council of U.K., and received a proclamation from the Mayor of Rochester, N.Y. He received the Distinguished Inventor of the Year Award from the Rochester Intellectual Property Law Association and was named Chairman to the Board of the Center for Advanced Materials Processing, Clarkson University. Badesha is also a recipient of 2009 Chester F. Carlson Lifetime Achievement Award of the Society for Imaging Science and Technology for his technical contributions in the area of novel materials as integrated functional surfaces in electrophotographic surfaces. Recently, Dr. Badesha represented Xerox Corporation at the White House to receive the National Medal of Honor in Science and Technology from the President of United States.

Mitzi M. Montoya, is the executive dean of the College of Technology & Innovation at Arizona State University. Montoya is responsible for research administration and faculty development in the college. She also provides leadership on the development of innovative STEM-based educational programs in the college. Montoya teaches graduate courses in technological entrepreneurship, product innovation, management of technology, and marketing. She has delivered courses on these topics in England, Brazil, Italy, Egypt, Russia, Japan, among other countries. Montoya’s research interests lie at the intersection of technology, marketing and virtual team dynamics. Her research focuses on innovation processes and strategies and the role of technology as an enabler of collaborative, distributed team decision-making. She focuses particularly on the dynamics and performance of globally distributed work teams. Her publications have appeared in Management Science, Journal of Marketing Research, Marketing Science, Academy of Management Journal, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Decision Sciences, MIS Quarterly, the Journal of Product Innovation Management, among others. She has been the recipient of competitive research grants from the National Science Foundation, Department of Education, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Advanced Practices Council of the Society of Information Management, Product Development and Management Association, as well as foundation grants from several firms. Montoya’s industry experience includes work with companies such as Xerox, The Dow Chemical Company, IBM, Nortel, MeadWestvaco, GlaxoSmithKline, Eli Lilly, Esai, Raytheon, Martin Marietta Materials, Center for Creative Leadership, EDUCAUSE, ABB, John Deere, DaimlerChrysler, Allied-Signal, Cotton Incorporated, Koch/INVISTA, EQUATE (Kuwait), among others.

As vice president, creative strategy, Matthew leads the Insight, Strategy & Innovation team (ISI) at Marriott International. He is responsible for developing strategies and innovations that deepen guest loyalty, build competitive advantage and drive profitable growth across Marriott’s portfolio of brands. Matthew joined Marriott in 2000 as director, concept design, and was later promoted to senior director, design strategy. During this period, he architected the development of an integrated F&B design and operations strategy called Momentum, as well as a companion concepting tool called C3. In 2005, Matthew was promoted to vice president, restaurants and bars where his focus expanded to global food & beverage operations, beverage program management and the oversight of high profile halo hotel projects worldwide. Born in Hong Kong and raised in the United States, Matthew spent six years in Asia working with Elite Concepts, a restaurant concept development and management company, where he was involved in numerous projects in Hong Kong, Macao, China, Indonesia, Singapore and the Philippines. Matthew holds a Bachelor of Science Degree with Distinction from the School of Hotel Administration at Cornell University where he studied restaurant development and marketing. Prior to Cornell, Matthew studied classical French cooking at L’Ecole de Gastronomie Française Ritz-Escoffier in Paris, France.

Considered one of Intel's visionaries charting future directions for industry and computing, Chris S. Thomas directs a worldwide team of solutions architects establishing technology solutions for Intel’s “Next Billion” customers. His team develops strategies and architectures for education, health care, small business and other areas. He engages governments, industry, NGOs and development agencies worldwide in effective use of IT for emerging markets and is an active participant in world economic forum IT, internet and cloud computing activities. Thomas is well known for driving computer industry standardization and next generation solutions, including founding the Distributed Management Task Force (DMTF), directing Intel’s Distributed Enterprise Architecture Lab, and architecting core technologies behind the LANDesk™ Management Suite. He is also co-author of the book “Mashup Corporations” providing a very human perspective of the implications of Web2.0 and Services Oriented Solutions. Thomas is a member of the Board of Directors of Agilix Labs Inc. developing the BrainHoney™ Learning Environment for occasionally connected and mobile learning and a member of the advisory board of the Community Health Awareness Council (CHAC). Thomas received a BS in Computer Science and a BA in Spanish from Carroll College in Waukesha, Wisconsin.

Rob Pegoraro writes the Fast Forward column, a weekly look at computers, the Internet and consumer electronics, and the Help File Q&A feature. Online, he writes the Faster Forward blog, hosts Web chats and holds forth on Twitter. Pegoraro has been with the Post since 1993, in which time he has sorted mail and answered phones, written for many other sections (so far, his byline has appeared in National, Metro, Style, Sports, Health, Food, Home, Weekend, Real Estate, Outlook, Sunday Arts, Sunday Source, Travel, Book World and the Magazine), and made it on the front page twice.