Karen Cone is the former Microsoft General Manager, Worldwide Financial Services Sector, and CEO and Board Director of the advisory research firm, TowerGroup. She currently serves on multiple advisory boards and is a venture partner for the MastersFund, focused on women founders in technology. Karen has also held senior executive positions with increasing responsibility and scope at IBM, MasterCard and Gartner, where she served on the Gartner International Board. She has lived and worked in the Americas, EMEA & Asia. Karen and her husband, Jeff, have three sons and four grandchildren and currently live in Seattle, Washington.
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Russell most recently served as Senior Vice President and General Manager of Cloud at Qumulo, responsible for the company’s cloud business including strategy, revenue, and go-to-market execution. Previously, he was Vice President of F5’s global cloud revenue and alliances business. Before that, Russell was GM at Amazon Web Services (AWS), where he built and ran the AWS Marketplace and AWS Service Catalog business, growing AWS Marketplace from scratch into a $1b+ business with responsibility for its business development and operations, marketing, field sales and solution architecture. Prior to that, he spent nearly six years at Microsoft in business development and enterprise sales positions.
Russell is a member of the Advisory Board for Women in Cloud, Tribute, and the Fred Hutch Computational/Data Intensive Research.
Cara South has over 27 years in IT working throughout the full lifecycle with an emphasis on new technology. She has her Master of Science in Information Systems Management from Seattle Pacific University and multiple certifications in technology ( most recent Cloud technologies). Currently, she is an IT Senior Manager at Boeing responsible for Global Cloud Services focused on providing cloud solutions for International and bridging the transition to Cloud. She is actively engaged with Women in Technology (Women in Cloud) to inspire and open the pipeline opportunities for women to attain higher paying jobs in Technology. She has 3 amazing children who everyday provide the grounding and what life is about balance. She enjoys playing guitar in her band, kayaking, hiking and camping.
Kristen Miller, Co-Founder / CEO of Stylyze, is an entrepreneur who has founded four companies in the Home Improvement/Home Décor Industry. As a co-founder of Stylyze, Kristen’s mission is provide a platform for retailers and customers that is transformative in how they create, match, and personalize design and inspiration with products.
Christine Puccio is a seasoned leader in the technology industry and a champion for diversity and inclusion. Over the past 25 years, Ms. Puccio has led high-performing sales teams and has built strategic partnerships for Fortune 500 companies such as F5, Red Hat, Sun Microsystems, AT&T and Lockheed Martin. She currently serves as F5’s Global Vice President, Cloud Alliances & Go-To-Market (GTM) Programs. In this role Ms. Puccio is responsible for partnership expansions with global cloud service providers such as AWS, Microsoft and Google. Prior to her work with F5, Ms. Puccio served with distinction and recognition as the Senior Director of Strategic Alliances at Red Hat. In 2017, she successfully launched neurodiversity at Red Hat – the first diversity and inclusion program in the company’s history. She has been featured in the media by Bloomberg, NBC15, Wharton Business School and the US Chamber of Commerce, to name a few. She has successfully completed multiple marathons including the elite Escape from Alcatraz triathlon in San Francisco. In 2020 Ms. Puccio was named a Top 10 Most Influential Women In Cloud. She and her daughter live in Oakland, California.
