Business & Entrepreneurship

Session 1
Mike holds his Masters from UC Berkeley's Rausser College of Natural Resources in Development Practice and his BS in Marketing, Environmental Policy & Management from the University of Pennsylvania. He is the CEO of Pezzy Pets where he is building a supply chain of small-scale fishermen across Mexico and the US to turn overly abundant, invasive fish species into single and limited ingredient pet treats. Mike previously worked for the UN in Mexico as well as rural development projects in Central America.

Session 3
Oren is the CEO, Literally Media, the largest online publisher of humor and entertainment content, has spent over 20 years building and scaling content and operations for prominent brands. He joined Literally Media from Condé Nast, where as President of their entertainment division, he oversaw the film, TV, and video business for all Condé Nast brands, including Wired, Vanity Fair, Vogue, and The New Yorker. He led CNE's growth in viewership to more than 1 billion video views a month and over 40 million YouTube subscribers. He also led the launch of GQ Sports -- a GQ spinoff dedicated to the world of athletes -- and the first ever 24/7 linear TV channel for Bon Appetit. Oren previously served as Head of Programming at Tastemade, a food and travel network for the mobile generation. At Tastemade, he oversaw editorial strategy, content development, creation, and distribution; and worked with Tastemade’s brand partners to align them with premium, custom content solutions. Prior to Tastemade, Oren was Head of Audience and Marketing at ZEFR where he was responsible for growing ZEFR’s global audience and leading strategic planning and marketing programs. In previous positions, Oren was Senior Vice President and General Manager at Demand Media Entertainment and Senior Director of Business Development for the Yahoo Media Group, where his primary focus was negotiating all business deals for Yahoo News and Yahoo Finance. There, he managed over 50 key partnerships, including The Associated Press, Reuters, ABCNews, FOX, CBS, USAToday, The Weather Channel, CNN, and Huffington Post. Oren holds his JD in Law from UC Berkeley College of Law and his BS in Business Administration from UC Berkeley.

Session 5
Gert is a digital shaper and innovation thought leader renowned for creating business incubators and innovation programs. Currently, he serves as a lecturer in Entrepreneurship & Innovation at UC Berkeley and selected Swiss universities. He earned his MBA from SMU Cox Business School in Dallas, TX, followed by post-graduate courses at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology and the Zurich University of Teacher Education. Gert holds a Bachelor’s degree in Marketing from HWZ University in Zurich. As the founder of USA Launching Pad, he helps foreign companies accelerate and de-risk their US expansion while generating leads and building sales. He has advised on innovation programs and new business building to Fortune 500 corporations, regional governments, and academic institutions. He co-founded the SuperPublic smart city innovation center initiated between the City of San Francisco and UC Berkeley. With extensive international business leadership experience, Gert has also held roles such as CEO of Bluelion Incubator, a high-tech startup incubator jointly founded by the City of Zurich, ETH University and corporate partners; Vice President of Sales for Purple Labs SA in France; and Director at Nokia, where he led the team that created the world’s first app store.