7:30 – 8:00 am Continental Breakfast
8:00 – 9:30 am Program

Board resolve can be critical to the development of an effective ethical culture — defined as the values that inform the behavior toward the organization's stakeholders. In this session, features of an ethical culture were examined, along with its value to the bottom line, company brand and reputation. Examples of effective board involvement were also explored, that still hold management responsible for operational execution and performance.

OUR PANELISTS

Steve Gomo has served as a director of SanDisk since 2005. He was CFO from 2002 until his retirement in 2011 at NetApp, Inc., a storage and data management company. He was also CFO of Gemplus International S.A. from 2000 to 2002, Asera, Inc. in 2000 and Silicon Graphics, Inc. from 1998 to 2000. Previously, Steve spent 24 years at Hewlett-Packard Company serving in various finance, financial management, manufacturing and general management positions.

Penny Herscher leads FirstRain with a passion for growing companies in new markets. As CEO since 2005, she has transformed FirstRain into the leading provider of solutions that find and transform high-value, business web content into actionable intelligence for marketing, sales and finance professionals around the globe. Prior to FirstRain, Penny was CEO of Simplex Solutions, an electronic design automation company serving the global semiconductor industry. Penny serves on the boards of JDSU and Rambus.

A native of the UK and a graduate of Oxford University, Chris Kenber has had a 40-year career in sales, marketing and management, the last 20 as a CEO of public and private companies. Starting his career at IBM in the UK, Chris moved to the USA to launch IBM's entry into retail and supermarket point of sale, helping to grow this business to more than half a billion in sales. Chris has been an inside director of a number of private health care and related institutions in both the US and UK.

Catherine Lego is the founder of Lego Ventures LLC, a consulting services firm for early stage technology companies formed in 1992. From 1999 to 2009, she was the general partner of The Photonics Fund, LLP, an early stage venture capital investment firm focused on investing in components, modules and systems companies for the fiber optics telecommunications market, which she founded. She currently serves on the boards of directors at SanDisk and Lam Research.

MODERATOR

Jim Balassone, executive-in-residence, directs the business ethics programs of the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics, Santa Clara University. Jim works with corporate boards, executive teams and nonprofit advisory boards on business ethics challenges, organizational obstacles to ethical behavior, and campaigns to improve ethical culture. His business career spans IBM, Hitachi Data Systems and several hi-tech start-ups.

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