Charles Geschke

William K. Bowes Lifetime Achievement Award Honoree

CO-FOUNDER AND CO-CHAIRMAN; ADOBE SYSTEMS

Dr. Charles Geschke co-founded Adobe in 1982 with Dr. John Warnock, driving technology innovations that forever transformed how people create and consume content across every screen. A respected and inspiring industry leader, Geschke was instrumental in developing some of the software industry’s most pioneering technologies.

Through his vision and passion, Geschke helped build Adobe from a start-up into one of the world’s largest software companies. Today, he and Warnock are co-chairmen of Adobe's board of directors and continue to shape direction for the company with more than $4 billion in annual revenue.

Geschke has served as chairman of the board with Warnock since September 1997. He was chief operating officer of Adobe from December 1986 until July 1994 and president from April 1989 until his retirement in April 2000. Prior to co-founding Adobe, Geschke formed the Imaging Sciences Laboratory at Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) and was a principal scientist and researcher at Xerox PARC's Computer Sciences Laboratory. 

Among many awards, Geschke, along with Warnock, was the recipient of the National Medal of Technology and Innovation, one of the nation's highest honors bestowed on scientists, engineers and inventors.  Geschke holds a Ph.D. in computer science from Carnegie Mellon University as well as a master's degree in mathematics and an A.B. in classics, both from Xavier University.

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The Honorable James C. Hormel

Champion of Civil Rights and Social Justice

FORMER AMBASADOR TO LUXEMBOURG

James C. Hormel has devoted his life to the advocacy of basic human rights, social justice and the well being of all individuals creating, funding and initiating major programs addressing these concerns and seeking to involve others in public service.  He is recognized nationally for his ability to bring together people of different backgrounds and perspectives to form bridge-building coalitions based upon shared values and mutual interests.

Hormel is an alumnus of Swarthmore College, where he has been a member of the Board of Managers since 1988, and where he has established a faculty chair in social justice.  He received his J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School, where he subsequently was Assistant Dean and Dean of Students.  He is a life member of the Visiting Committee of the Law School.  In 1986, he established the James C. Hormel Public Service program at the law school to encourage law students to go into public service.

Hormel served as United States Ambassador to Luxembourg from June 1999 to December 2000. He was alternate representative of the U.S. delegation to the 51st United Nations General Assembly in 1996.  He also was a member of the U.S. delegation to the 51st U.N. Human Rights Commission, which met in Geneva in early 1995. Also in 1995, and again in 1997, he served on the Western States Regional Selection Panel for the President's Commission on White House Fellowships.  In 1995, he participated in the President's Conference on the Pacific Rim, and the following year, he was a member of San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown's Economic Summit.  From 1994 through 1997, he served on the Board of Directors of the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce. He is Chairman of Equidex, Inc., a San Francisco-based firm that manages his and his family's investments and philanthropic activities.

For more than 25 years, Hormel has been instrumental in developing resources for organizations serving people affected by HIV and AIDS, substance abuse, and breast cancer. He has served as a member of the board of directors of The American Foundation for AIDS Research and the Human Rights Campaign Foundation.  He was a founding director of the City Club of San Francisco, a club created to bring together community leaders of diverse backgrounds.

Currently, he is a member of the Board of Directors of People For the American Way, Board of Governors of The Commonwealth Club of California, Board of Trustees of Grace Cathedral, Board of Managers of Swarthmore College, a life member of the Board of Governors of the San Francisco Symphony, and a Trustee Emeritus of The San Francisco Foundation.

In 1995, he received the Silver Spur Award for Civic Leadership from the San Francisco Planning and Urban Research Association and the Tiffany Award in recognition of his philanthropic achievement.  In 1996, the National Society of Fundraising Executives named him Outstanding Philanthropist.  The Human Rights Campaign honored him with the Lifetime Achievement Award in 2001.

Hormel's dedication to public service also is reflected in his political activities.  In 1992, he was a member of the Democratic Platform Committee and a Clinton delegate to the Democratic National Convention in New York.  In 1996, he returned as a delegate to the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.  He was a member of the host committee for the 1984 Democratic National Convention in San Francisco.

Hormel has five children, fourteen grandchildren, and seven great-grandchildren.  He currently resides in San Francisco with his husband, Michael P. Nguyen.

 

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Robyn Denholm

EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT, CHIEF FINANCIAL AND OPERATIONS OFFICER; JUNIPER NETWORKS

As Chief Financial and Operations Officer at Juniper Networks, Robyn Denholm is responsible for the company's finance, administration and business operations, which include; planning, IT, real estate, investor relations, internal audit, manufacturing operations, and business transformation functions. She chairs Juniper’s Operating Committee, and oversees operational excellence programs, partnering with the executive team to ensure a uniform, efficient and scalable infrastructure for the entire company.

Denholm has over 15 years of senior leadership experience. Prior to joining Juniper in August 2007, Denholm served as Senior Vice President, Corporate Strategic Planning at Sun Microsystems where she was responsible for Sun's corporate strategic planning, corporate operating system, global sales and service administration function, and customer advocacy initiatives. She also led Sun's business transformation initiative and chaired their Global Diversity program. Denholm joined Sun in 1996 and served in executive assignments that included: Senior Vice President of Finance; Vice President and Corporate Controller (Chief Accounting Officer); Vice President of Finance, Service Division; Director Shared Financial Services APAC and Controller, Australia/New Zealand. Denholm began her career in Australia serving at Toyota Motor Corporation for seven years and at Arthur Andersen and Company for five years in various finance assignments.

In August of 2014, Denholm was appointed to Tesla Motors’ Board of Directors and chairs their Audit Committee. From 2008-2013, she served on the Board of Directors of Echelon Corporation.

Denholm was recognized by the National Diversity Council as one of the top 50 Most Powerful Women in Technology in 2014 and 2015, named to the Silicon Valley Business Journal’s Women of Influence list and in 2011, was a Bay Area CFO of the Year finalist. In 2010, she was on the Profiles in Diversity Journal’s Women Worth Watching list and won the 2009 Institutional Investor All-America Executive Team Leadership and Investor Relations Award. Denholm has served as a steering committee member for the Wall Street Journal CFO Network since its inauguration.

Denholm is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Australia and holds a bachelor's degree in economics from the University of Sydney and a master's degree in commerce from the University of New South Wales.

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Elizabeth Holmes

FOUNDER AND CEO; THERANOS

Laboratory tests drive 70% of all clinical decisions in health care. Elizabeth Holmes has invented and developed a laboratory diagnostic testing system that makes lab tests more efficient, affordable, convenient, accessible, and less painful.  She is also leading a movement toward transparency in pricing and direct access to testing.  Once health care information becomes accessible, Holmes envisions a system based on preventive medicine, versus the status quo of diagnosis and treatment only after symptoms have developed and it is often too late.  Valued at $10 billion, the company’s cutting edge technology is increasingly disrupting the $75-billion diagnostic lab test industry and this double bottom-line company is, in essence, working to democratize access to health information.

Elizabeth Holmes founded Theranos in 2003 to shift America’s health care paradigm from one focused on reactive care to one in which early detection and prevention are a reality.  By improving individuals’ access to lab tests, Theranos makes actionable health information available to people at the time it matters, empowering them with the information they need to own their health.

Theranos is revolutionizing diagnostic testing through technological innovations that have made it possible to quickly process a full range of laboratory tests at prices that are 50% to 80% below Medicare reimbursement rates. Theranos is making the diagnostic testing industry more transparent by publishing all its prices, charging everyone the same prices, and voluntarily submitting all of its tests to the FDA for review.

In 2015, Ms. Holmes worked with leaders in Arizona to pass the first law that expressly recognizes individuals’ right to directly access laboratory tests without first obtaining an order, which often requires  justifying a health concern or relying on insurance eligibility.

Elizabeth serves as a U.S. Presidential Ambassador for Global Entrepreneurship, and she is a member of the Harvard Medical School Board of Fellows.  She is the recipient of numerous honors, including the 2015 TIME 100 Most Influential People in the World.

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Dr. Charles Munger, Jr.

Physicist and Politcal Activist

Charles Munger earned his Ph.D. in physics from UC Berkeley in 1987. Together with two colleagues, he developed the technique for constructing the first atoms made entirely of anti-matter. For the last five years has worked on developing an experiment to detect the electric dipole moment of the electron, as a probe of CP-violation that might occur outside the Standard Model of particle physics.

Dr. Munger was the lead supporter of Proposition 11, which in 2008 ended gerrymandering by moving the power to draw the electoral districts for the state Assembly and Senate from the California legislature, and into an independent and new Citizens Redistricting Commission. Charles was also the co-author, proponent, and lead supporter of Proposition 20, whose passage in 2010 ensured that the Citizens Commission would also draw California’s 53 Congressional districts. Voters now pick their representatives, instead of incumbent representatives picking their voters. Dr. Munger helped defeat attempts at repeal (Proposition 27) and also legal attacks, sponsoring successful briefs in cases before both the California and the U.S. Supreme Courts.  He also defends every case filed against California’s “Top-Two” primary.

Charles is active in reform within the Republican Party, having served as Chairman of the Santa Clara county party, and as a delegate and a committee chair within the state party.

From 2003-7 Dr. Munger served under the State Board of Education on the Curriculum Commission, chairing the subject-matter committees both in Mathematics and Science, which oversee the public process for adopting Math and Science curricula and instructional materials for grades K through 8 in California’s public schools.   He participated in developing California’s first state curriculum for environmental education.