Rearden Commerce™

Corey Billington is a consulting associate professor at Stanford University's Engineering School. He teaches computer simulation, inventory theory, operations management, and supply chain management to MBA, MS and IE candidates, and industry executives. He also guest lectures at the business schools of Arizona State, MIT, Northwestern, and Santa Clara University.

Before joining the academic world, Corey Billington spent 15 years at Hewlett-Packard in strategic planning and supply chain management roles. As the Vice President of Supply Chain Services, he was responsible for HP's corporate procurement and the company's $2 billion e-supply chain activities. He and his team developed processes that allowed HP to vastly increase the efficiency and profitability of its printer and computer business lines. Also, Corey and his group pioneered methods, such as buy-sell programs, to safeguard HP's outsourced supply chains and to significantly reduce corporate tax rates. The innovation of these methodologies was noted by Purchasing Magazine, which awarded HP its Medal of Excellence.

Corey earned BS degrees from both Claremont McKenna College and Stanford University, and then went on to pursue an MS and PhD at Stanford in Industrial Engineering and Engineering Management. He is the author or contributor to scores of strategic supply chain research papers and other publications as well as a frequent conference presenter.

Michael Dearing has worked on courses such as Creating Infectious Action and Creating Mass Market Experiences. Michael's current research interests include process design for new product development, "productizing" emerging technologies, consumer marketing and retail technology, product strategy and pricing.

Before joining the d.school in 2006, Michael spent nearly seven years at eBay, serving most recently as Senior Vice President & General Merchandise Manager. In that role, he led category management, product marketing, seller development, eBay Stores, and direct-to-consumer marketing for eBay North America. Michael and his colleagues were also responsible for the launch and growth of many new merchandise categories and new businesses such as Buy-it-Now, eBay Stores, and ProStores. Prior to eBay, Michael held leadership positions at Bain & Company, Filene's Basement, The Walt Disney Company, and Industrial Shoe Warehouse.

Michael holds an AB in Economics from Brown University and an MBA with Distinction from Harvard Business School. He is a member of the Economic History Association and the Business History Conference.

Ken Eaton was responsible for the direct sourcing of products globally for Wal-Mart's retail stores in the United States and around the world, including Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, the United Kingdom, Germany, China, Korea, and Japan (partial interest). He had 1200 associates in his organization, at 20 sourcing offices in 17 different countries, Their mission was to work directly with suppliers and factories to develop global buying plans for Wal-Mart retail stores. Eaton reported directly to Mr. Tom Coughlin, Vice Chairman of the Board of Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.

Ken joined Wal-Mart in 1987, working in the beginning stages of HyperMart / Supercenters. He served Wal-Mart Stores as Vice President and Divisional Merchandise Manager, Accessories and Intimate Apparel; Vice President and Divisional Merchandise Manager, Men and Boys Apparel Mart Stores; and Vice President and General Merchandise Manager for Jewelry and Shoes Merchandising. In 2001, he became the Senior Vice President and Managing Director of Wal-Mart Global Procurement.

John Hagel has over 25 years of experience as a management consultant with a focus on defining actionable business strategies to create business value, accelerating near-term performance improvement goals, and targeting longer-term growth options.

Prior to forming his own consulting practice, John served as Chief Strategy Officer for 12 Entrepreneuring, a San Francisco-based operating company building businesses in web services technology. While there he helped launch Grand Central and Oxygen Software. Prior to that he founded and led McKinsey's strategy and e-commerce practices, where he served a broad range of clients across the world. Earlier, he was Senior Vice President of Strategic Planning for Atari, Founder and CEO of the Sequoia Group, and a Consultant with BCG.

John has a BA from Wesleyan University, BPhil from Oxford University, and JD/MBA from Harvard University, and is the author of three successful business strategy books.

Paul Melchiorre, currently Vice President of Global Channels and Alliances for Ariba, brings more than 20 years of technology and management experience to the advisory board. Paul joined Ariba in 1998 as Vice President of Operations for the Americas. He built the sales, services, channels, and alliances organizations that took Ariba from zero revenue to $700 million in annual sales.

Previously, Paul was Senior Vice President for Global Accounts at SAP America, Inc., where he helped grow revenues six-fold and oversaw several strategic business units. Paul also served as Regional Vice President of MAI Basic 4 and held management positions at ADP.

Paul received a BS from Villanova University and an MBA from Drexel University.

Alex Mendez has been a General Partner of Storm Ventures since October 2000. Previously, he was an investor and CEO/Chairman of Sanera Systems (acquired by McData) and served on the McData Board of Directors until 2007. He was also an investor and board member of Airespace, which was acquired by Cisco. His investment focus is on wireless, computing and storage data centers and Web 2.0 and Enterprise software. Alex spent twenty-one years in high tech at ROLM, IBM, Stratacom, and Cisco, holding several executive positions, most recently as an SVP/GM at Cisco. He was part of the founding team of Stratacom, which Cisco acquired.

Alex holds a BSEE from Stanford University and an MBA from Santa Clara University.

Peter Sealy is the founder, CEO and majority shareholder of The Sausalito Group, Inc. and specializes in business and marketing strategy and expert witness testimony. His background includes over 20 years at The Coca-Cola Company where he held a variety of key positions, including CEO, and was responsible for the now-famous "Always Coca-Cola " advertising campaign. Peter was also President of Marketing and Distribution at Columbia Pictures where his releases included GhostBusters, La Bamba, Karate Kid, Stand By Me and Tootsie.

Peter served as Adjunct Professor of Marketing and Co-Director of the Center for Marketing and Technology at the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley. In 2004, he joined the faculty of the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University, and in the summer of 2007, he assumed the position of Adjunct Professor of Marketing at the Peter F. Drucker Graduate School of Management at Claremont Graduate University. He is currently a board member and advisor at a number of technology companies.

Peter earned his PhD at the University of California, Berkeley.

Julius Genachowski, a cofounder of LaunchBox Digital, played a key role in building IAC/InterActiveCorp (Nasdaq: IACI) into one of the world's largest e-commerce and media companies. From 1997 to 2005, Mr. Genachowski served in senior executive positions at IAC, including Chief of Business Operations, General Counsel, and member of the Office of the Chairman.

Before joining IAC, Mr. Genachowski was Chief Counsel to the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission. Prior to that, he served as a law clerk to U.S. Supreme Court Justice David H. Souter, retired Justice William J. Brennan, Jr., and Chief Judge Abner J.Mikva of the U.S. Court of Appeals. He has served as an aide to U.S. Senator (then Representative) Charles E. Schumer and to the Iran-Contra Committee. Mr. Genachowski served on the Board of Directors of Expedia, Inc., Hotels.com, and Ticketmaster while each was a publicly traded company.

He holds a B.A. from Columbia College and a J.D. from Harvard Law School.