In the position of Chief Learning Officer for Sun Microsystems, Karie Willyerd leads an organization responsible for employee, customer, partner and Sun community learning. For these distinct constituencies, she is responsible for product and technical training, executive learning, business, management and professional skill development, and sales and service learning around the globe.

Beach Pace is the Executive Director of City Year Silicon Valley. Beach has experience in the Pharmaceutical industry, and is a West Point graduate.

Andy Ball is the CEO of Webcor, builders of many of California's landmark buildings over the past 30 years.

Gary Richards writes the popular transportation and highways column "Mr. Roadshow", appearing in the San Jose Mercury news.

Joseph Laia, a veteran of the semiconductor chip equipment industry, is president and CEO of Miasolé, the leading developer and manufacturer of innovative thin film copper-indium-gallium diselenide (CIGS) solar cells. Miasolé is working to expand its operations to deliver cost-effective solar cells worldwide.

Dr. Richard Levy heads Varian Medical Systems, a 1 billion company providing high energy radiation machines and associated hardware and software for treating cancer, and x-ray tubes for diagnostic radiology. With over 3,500 radiotherapy systems in place delivering treatments to more than 1,000,000 cancer patients per year, the company holds a clear leadership position in this technology, which is used to treat over 50% of all cancer patients in the U.S. Varian Medical Systems also ranks as the world’s largest merchant supplier of X-ray tubes, including products for use in CT scanners, mammography units, and other diagnostic systems.

Terry Clark formed Finelite in 1991 as a privately held independent company. Finelite designs and manufactures high performance, environmentally sustainable lighting systems for offices and educational facilities.

Mark Thompson has been a President and Chief Executive Officer of Fairchild Semiconductor International Inc. since May 4, 2005. Dr. Thompson is responsible for all manufacturing, technology and quality initiatives at Fairchild.

As San Francisco’s youngest mayor in 100 years, Gavin Newsom has brought fresh ideas and renewed energy to the City and County. He has earned a reputation as an innovator on issues ranging from homelessness to the environment, healthcare to education.

He was early.

Unconventional for an elected official, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom arrived - not late, not on-time, but early for our meeting at 1590 KLIV for a special taping of "The CEO Show" with more than a dozen Silicon Valley CEOs.

The unfortunate attitude of too many in public office follows from California Assembly Speaker Jesse Unruh's famous maxim that "The biggest waste of time is to be on time." I much prefer Louis XIV's refrain that "Punctuality is the politeness of kings."

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Gavin Newsom, San Francisco Mayor, appeared on a special taping of "The CEO Show" on Thursday March 6 with show host and Silicon Valley Leadership Group CEO Carl Guardino. A live studio audience was on hand to ask questions.

See photos from this event.

Founder, CEO and Board Chair of Numenta, Donna Dubinsky's career spans many technologies and her insights into the past, present and future of computing and of our Valley make for a fascinating show.

Recently, my guest on “The CEO Show” was Chris McCormick, the Hawaii Ironman Triathlon World Champion.

His reputation with some in the media is that of a brash and overconfident athlete that can make others bristle.

My experience was exactly the opposite.

Yes, Chris McCormick is confident. I have not met a world-class CEO or a world class athlete that does not have confidence in themselves and their abilities. Yet he was also amazingly thoughtful, articulate and gracious. The former accountant with a degree in Economics from New South Whales combines a one-two punch of a big heart and a smart head every time he races.

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Richard Cerussi is President and General Manager of NBC11, one of the Bay Area's leading network television stations. Cerussi was named President in 2007, after a successful career as EVP of NBC's national sales organization. NBC11 bills itself as "The San Jose News Channel", as its news reports primarily cater to Silicon Valley viewers.

A leading figure in the European technology community, Pierre Haren is chairman and chief executive officer of ILOG. Haren cofounded ILOG in 1987, and after seeing quick growth in Europe, launched fully owned subsidiaries in Singapore, the United States and Japan. ILOG products include the market's leading business rule management system (BRMS), as well as innovative optimization and visualization software components.

Chris McCormack is an Australian triathlete, known affectionately to the triathlon community as Macca. McCormack began competing on international-distance courses in 1996, winning both the 1997 Triathlon World Championships and the 1997 ITU World Cup Series; to date, no-one else has won both titles in a single year.

After shifting focus to longer distance racing he displayed exceptional aptitude for the distance winning many races. McCormack won Ironman Australia in 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2006. Twice he has finished the Quelle Challenge Roth, an Iron-Distance triathlon in under 8 hours, a feat only 5 other athletes have completed. In 2007 he won the Ironman World Championships in Kona Hawaii after 6 attempts at the race coming as close as second, within 2 minutes of the winner, in 2006. (Wikipedia.org)

On Friday, February 15 a special taping of "The CEO Show" featured world-champion triathlete Chris "Macca" McCormack in the KLIV studios with show host and Silicon Valley Leadership Group CEO Carl Guardino. The special taping -- with a live studio audience asking questions of Chris and Nic Sims of Specialized Bicycles -- was preceded by a reception and autograph session benfiting the March of Dimes and HAND.

See photos from this event.

If one word best describes one of last night's guests on "The CEO Show," that certainly encapsulates the spirit of Sam Liccardo, downtown Councilmember in the City of San Jose.

This Harvard trained Lawyer, who worked for years in the office of the District Attorney prosecuting crimes against kids, and additional years as a federal prosecutor, has invested his life to public service rather than seeking private gain.

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San Jose City Councilmember Sam Liccardo and Ritchie Commercial CEO Mark Ritchie discuss the future of San Jose and its downtown - will we continue to build high-rise developments? Will BART come to downtown anytime soon? What is the future of San Jose State University and its interactions with the City? Answers to these questions -- and listener's too -- make for a spirited conversation.

Jeffrey Sosnaud is the CEO of the CORO Foundation, which trains ethical, diverse civic leaders nationwide. Coro leaders develop skills; master tools needed to engage and empower communities; gain experience in government, business, labor and not-for-profit community organizations; and participate in special community and political problem solving processes.

A special Presidential Primary Election show with two top political strategists: former Republican State Assemblyman and tech executive Jim Cunneen, now a partner at California Strategies, and Garry South, Democratic strategist of numerous Presidential, U.S. Senate and Gubernatorial Campaigns.

Like the highway 101 morning commute, the congestion was almost overwhelming. But rather than freeway lanes, the congestion was on the telephone lines, when the san jose mercury news' "mr. Roadshow" - Gary Richards - was my most recent guest on "the Ceo Show" last Tuesday on 1590 KLIV radio.

For the thousands who read his popular six-day per week column but have not met him in person, he is as thoughtful and down-to-earth in the flesh as he appears on the printed page.

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