New Zealand and Australian women in Silicon Valley

Women Ceo Entrepreneurs Reveal Business Strategies For Valley Success

Australian and New Zealand women in Silicon Valley

San Francisco, November 14, 2002.The powerful U.S-based Australian and New Zealand technology networking group, ANZA Technology Network, has partnered with leading business groups SDForum and Forum for Women Entrepreneurs to present the secrets of success for New Zealand and other foreign women entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley.

The “International Women CEOs on Building a Business in Silicon Valley” (November 20, 2002, Palo Alto) features women entrepreneurs from around the globe and how they mange the unique challenges of doing business in the Valley - as business people and women.

ANZA Tech Net Chairman, Guy Manson, said talented people continue to come to Silicon Valley to find success. Competing in the Valley isn't easy, and arriving from a different country adds a set of cultural challenges on top of the existing hurdles.

“Many would argue that women have yet another set of challenges to overcome to make it in this high-paced land of innovation,” Mason said.

He said this is a unique opportunity where three of the premier U.S networking groups are coming together to showcase how women entrepreneurs from Australia, New Zealand and India are making a difference and growing their companies in the Valley.

Susan Hailey, CEO of The Forum for Women Entrepreneurs (FWE), the premier U.S. organization focused on female entrepreneurs and leaders in high growth companies said they were delighted to co-sponsor its November networking event with ANZA Technology Network.

"FWE shares several members in common with ANZA and recognize that many innovative companies in Silicon Valley were started or led by female entrepreneurs from Australia and New Zealand. We hope to encourage and actively assist more women from these countries as they grow their companies in the U.S,” Hailey said.

"ANZA shares the same values as FWE, namely, to promote entrepreneurship in each of our countries and to make the process of moving people and ideas between our markets a success.”

The panel of women CEOs includes:

Anu Shukla (India) - the founder and CEO of Rubric, Inc., a Silicon Valley Internet software company that pioneered an explosive new industry category: Enterprise Marketing Automation (EMA).

Linda Jenkinson (New Zealand) - the founder and CEO of LesConcierges, the largest concierge and personal assistance company in the United States.

Jennifer Zanich (Australia) - the CEO and founder of Halyard Inc., a venture development company that develops business and market strategies, assists raising capital, develops strategic partnerships, provides interim management and mentors existing management teams.

Punita Pandey (India) - the founder and CEO of netCustomer, Inc. Pandey saw a great new opportunity in marrying the collaborative power and ubiquitous reach of the Internet with around-the-clock offshore delivery model to efficiently extend complex business operations.

Registration
The cost is $20.00 for members and $30.00 for non-members. Registration can be made via the SD Forum registration site at: https://www.123signup9.com/Member?PG=1854182300&P=185419116471300

Venue

The event will be held November 20th, 6-9 pm at the Garden Court Hotel in Palo Alto (520 Cowper St at University Avenue, Telephone (650) 322-9000 ).

About ANZA Tech Net

ANZA Technology Network is a non-profit organization backed by, Macquarie, Silicon Valley Bank and Intel, National Office for the Information (NOIE), and Investment New Zealand.

ANZA Tech Net is a powerful network of companies and executives who operate in the Australian, New Zealand & US technology sectors, and provides its rapidly growing 2,500 membership with tangible benefits in the areas of information exchange, networking, idea sharing, and business development. The corporate mission is to assist companies to build a network of contacts that help them prosper in the US. Whether companies are looking for service providers, partners, investment bankers, venture capitalists, or fellow Australian or New Zealand executives, the ANZA Tech Net role is to provide a network of people and companies operating in this space.

About SD Forum

The not-for-profit Software Development Forum (SDForum) is the leading Silicon Valley software organization with deep ties to entrepreneurs, developers, venture capitalists, industry experts and major technology companies. With a 10,000-person reach, 2000 individual members and 20-30 events each month, SDForum is a leading source of information, education and connection for people seeking to build a business and career in Silicon Valley.

About Forum for Women Entrepreneurs

Founded in 1993, the Forum for Women Entrepreneurs (FWE) is the premier entrepreneurial service organization for women building and leading high-growth technology and life science companies. FWE’s mission is to accelerate women's opportunities to start, manage and invest in market-leading companies. FWE is headquartered in the Bay Area and has chapters in Seattle, Colorado, Texas, San Diego and Los Angeles as well as Paris, France. From January 1999 through December 2001, FWE members raised over $1.1 billion for their businesses nationwide.

SPEAKER BIOGRAPHIES

Anu Shukla (India)

Anu Shukla is the founder and CEO of Rubric, Inc., a Silicon Valley Internet software company that pioneered an explosive new industry category: Enterprise Marketing Automation (EMA). Shukla has 17 years of successful experience in the high tech industry. Rubric EMA is used by F500 and e-commerce companies to drive revenue and build customer relationships. Rubric was acquired for $366 million in February 2000. Prior to Rubric, Shukla was the VP of Marketing and Product Strategy at Versata, Inc. (NASDAQ: VATA). While there she helped create the strategy that moved the company into becoming an e-business development solutions provider. Before Versata, Shukla was the Chief Operating Officer at mFactory, Inc., where she raised significant capital for the company and successfully launched a multi-media authoring tool. The company was acquired by Quark. Shukla was Vice President of Worldwide Marketing and Product Management at Compuware/Uniface Corporation, where she successfully positioned the company and its application development tools for the enterprise marketplace. She played a major role in Compuware's $433 million acquisition of Uniface. At Uniface, Shukla was VP Worldwide Marketing and Product Management. During her five years there, Uniface sales grew from $10M to over $85M. Prior to Uniface,. Shukla held senior marketing positions at Unify Corporation and California Micro Devices. She has spoken at many investment and industry conferences and she currently serves on the Boards or Advisory Boards of several software companies. Shukla has a MBA, marketing emphasis, from Youngstown State University. She holds a Bachelor's Degree in History with honors from St. Stephen's College in New Delhi, India.

Linda Jenkinson (New Zealand)

Linda Jenkinson is the founder and CEO of LesConcierges (www.lesconcierges.com), the largest concierge and personal assistance company in the United States. Prior to this she was CEO of iSaySo, and co-founder and CEO of Dispatch Management Services Corp. Jenkinson took DMSC public in 1998, growing its revenues to more than $220 million through a combination of internal growth and acquisitions to become the worlds largest on-demand courier company. For 10 years prior to DMSC, Jenkinson was involved extensively in management consulting for major international companies.

Jennifer Zanich (Australia)

Jennifer Zanich is the CEO and founder of Halyard Inc., a venture development company that develops business and market strategies, assists raising capital, develops strategic partnerships, provides interim management and mentors existing management teams. She is currently working with Viasense, a spin out of Berkeley which has converted a biological model of vision into a revolutionary new video codec and PipeDream which is applying natural language technology to new classes of business processes.

Zanich’s entrepreneurial spirit brought her to Silicon Valley in pursuit of venture capital for Club Golf International. A web services venture she started and grew to over 15,000 members in the first three months. Club Golf provides golfers an online handicapping system, tournaments, travel, golfing equipment and accessories.
Zanich went on to become a General Partner and co-Founder of EcomCo, a specialist venture fund and incubator for new rich media services and applications based on Digital Rights Management technologies.

Previously, Zanich spent over 8 years at Microsoft, as a senior executive, where she was responsible for introducing two of the most controversial lines of business for Microsoft – the Office bundle and Pay-for-Support. Her final year at Microsoft was working for the coveted Advanced Technology Group on the development and the introduction of MSN worldwide.

More recently, Zanich has been an investor, advisor and Acting VP Marketing for an ambitious wireless start up, SkyPilot Network, which is building a nationwide wireless broadband network using a mesh topology in the unlicensed spectrum.

Zanich received a GMQ and GDM both as part of the Executive MBA program from the Australian Graduate School of Management, University of New South Wales, Sydney Australia. Jennifer was also a founding member of the Business Software Association of Australia, an organization established to combat software piracy.

Punita Pandey (India)

Punita Pandey is the founder and CEO of netCustomer, Inc. Pandey saw a great new opportunity in marrying the collaborative power and ubiquitous reach of the Internet with around-the-clock offshore delivery model to efficiently extend complex business operations. Leveraging her extensive experience in software development, call centers, Internet startups, and strategic consulting, Pandey founded netCustomer in 1999. Prior to founding netCustomer, Pandey held various positions at companies such as Healtheon, Deloitte Consulting, Tandem Computers, McDonnell Douglas, and Tata Consultancy Services.

Pandey is a frequent industry spokesperson. She has spoken at leading conferences such as COMDEX, Internet World, Strategic Research Institute, International Quality and Productivity Council (IQPC) and leading professional associations. Pandey has been a guest speaker at Stanford Business School, Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley, San Jose State University, and California State University, Monterey Bay. Her leadership was highlighted in a Stanford case study on netCustomer.

Pandey serves on the Board of Directors of Silicon Valley Indian Professionals Association, a long-standing organization with a member base of over 1500 technology professionals. She serves on the Summit Circuit Advisory Board, an international organization with a mission to provide strategic vision to the contact center community. She is the chairperson of the Founders Forum at the Software Development Forum, a leading bay area software and Internet organization with over 2000 members.

Pandey holds a bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering from BITS, Pilani, India and a master's degree in Business Administration from University of California, Berkeley.

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