2011 judging panel

MICHAEL COHN, editor-in-chief of AccountingToday.com, has been covering business and technology for a variety of publications since 1985. Prior to joining Accounting Today and WebCPA, he worked for Red Herring, Internet World, Beyond Computing, Accounting Technology and PC Magazine, and freelanced for a variety of other business publications. A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania with a BA in English, he studied accounting at the Wharton School of Business, and currently lives in New York City.

An award-winning journalist and Web consultant, FREDRIC PAUL has been covering business and technology for three decades, in print and online. In addition to holding senior positions at CNET, PC World, PC/Computing, and TechWeb, Fred has focused on small business as founding editor and Vice President of Content/Programming for the original AllBusiness.com and founding editor of bMighty/InformationWeek SMB. He was also a contributing editor to the MIT Sloan Management Review and editor-in-chief of Electronic Entertainment magazine.

JACK M. GERMAIN has been writing about computer technology since the early days of the Apple II and the IBM PC. His news, feature articles and specialty columns appeared in more than two dozen print and electronic publications on three continents. Over the past four decades, he has worked on both sides of the editorial desk as a staff writer and an editor. He currently writes for TechNewsWorld, The E-Commerce Times, LinuxInsider, MacNewsWorld, and CRMBuyer, published by ECT News Network.

FRANK J. OHLHORST is an award winning technology journalist and professional speaker with over 25 years of experience in the technology arena. Frank has written for several leading technology publications, including ComputerWorld, TechTarget, PCWorld, ExtremeTech and Toms Hardware. Frank has also contributed to business publications, including Entrepreneur and BNET, and to multiple technology books, and has written several white papers, case studies, reviewers’ guides and channel guides for leading technology vendors.

PAUL TAYLOR is Financial Times’ New York-based business technology and telecoms editor. He is responsible for The Connected Business section, writes a ‘How To’ column on technology for SMB’s and executives, and launched FT’s Personal Technology column in 2002. In his 35 years at the FT, Paul has been local government correspondent, assistant news editor, Americas page editor, New York correspondent, foreign news editor, SE Asia business correspondent and management writer. Paul graduated from Oxford University with a degree in Politics, Philosophy and Economics and has a postgraduate diploma in journalism from Cardiff University.

bio coming soon.

KEITH GRIFFIN, currently a contributing editor to the Hartford Business Journal, is a veteran journalist with more than 30 years’ experience at local, regional and national publications. He was a founding editor of four lifestyle magazines and an award-winning business writer for the Connecticut Law Tribune. In addition, he is a guide for About.com and has been a contributing automotive journalist for publications including The Boston Globe.

KENNETH I. WERNER serves as senior analyst for Insight Media and is the founder and principal of Nutmeg Consultants. As a founding editor and contributor for Insight Media’s Display Daily and editor of Information Display Magazine from 1987 to 2005, he is recognized as an authority on the display industry. He regularly addresses technical and trade organizations in the Americas and Asia on display technology, the display industry, or display and component sourcing, authors industry reports and chairs industry symposiums.

TRANG HO has been covering exchange traded and mutual funds for Investor’s Business Daily since 2005 and is president of the Los Angeles chapter of the Asian American Journalists Association. Before the newspaper, she worked at a public radio station in Southern California as a reporter and producer. She has also worked as a newscast producer in Palm Springs. She has a BA in Sociology from UC Berkeley and an MA in Communications and Journalism from The Ohio State University, where she was a fellow in the Kiplinger Public Affairs Journalism Program.

MICHAEL BOLAND is program director for BIA/Kelsey Group’s Mobile Local Media practice. Since 2005, Mike has been instrumental in covering the local online space, a frequent speaker at top industry conferences including BIA/Kelsey events and Search Engine Strategies, and an author of several in-depth reports on the changing local media landscape including online video, social networking and mobile. He contributes regularly to Search Engine Watch and Huffington Post. Before joining BIA/Kelsey, Mike was editor of Innovation World’s TechAlert and San Francisco-based freelance writer for business and technology magazines, such as Red Herring, Business 2.0, Mobile and Digitalife. Michael began his career as a staff reporter for Forbes magazine.

DALE DAUTEN has been researching achievers and innovation since his days at Arizona State and at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business. His early work prompted a government publication to call him a “guru” to White House staffers, and during the past four decades, his six books have been published in a dozen languages and have developed a large following worldwide. Dale writes newspaper columns nationally syndicated by King Features. Until recently, he wrote “The Corporate Curmudgeon,” and he continues to write “JT and Dale Talk Jobs” with employment expert, Jeannine “JT” O’Donnell. Their work appears weekly in seventy newspapers, including The Denver Post, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Arizona Republic and Houston Chronicle.

JONATHAN ROUBINI is editor in chief and technical director of LabReviews.com, bringing to the site more than three decades of hands-on experience. Previously, Jonathan was lead analyst of the mobile category at PC Magazine, quickly gaining recognition in the wireless industry thanks to his extensive knowldge of PDAs, cell phones and their accessories. Prior to that, Jonathan was software project leader at PC Magazine Labs, where he pioneered several new testing techniques for always-evolving software packages. Jonathan graduated with a B.S. in Information and Decision Systems from Carnegie Mellon University.

KEITH SHAW has been a fan of computers, technology and video games for four decades and his obsession with technology, both small and large, has grown into the multimedia empire that is Cool Tools. In the 90’s, Shaw took a side trip to the world of newspaper journalism, and worked at a variety of newspapers in New York, Florida and Massachusetts. In 1997, he combined his love of technology with his journalism skills, working at Computerworld before joining Network World in 1999 as the company’s product reviews editor. In 2000, Shaw took over the Cool Tools column, which continues to appear in the print version of Network World. Shaw has a bachelor’s degree in newspaper journalism from Syracuse University.

JEFFREY L. WILSON’s love of all things shiny/digital has lead to jobs penning gadget- and video game-related nerd-copy for E-Gear, Game Theory with Scott Steinberg, Laptop, LifeStyler, Parenting, PC Magazine, Sync, Wise Bread, and WWE. Besides serving as software analyst at PCMag.com and overseeing the editorial content at 2D-X.com, he hosts New York City’s monthly Bits and Bytes video game media and public relations meetup.

bio and photo coming soon.

KELLY GILBLOM is an award-winning staff writer for the Puget Sound Business Journal, covering banking, finance and wealth management. Previously she worked for Columns, the University of Washington Alumni Magazine and myfinances.co.uk, a London financial news website. She graduated from the University of Washington with bachelor’s degrees in economics and journalism.

SUSAN WILSON is a recovering attorney who has been using computers since 1982 and has been writing on technology, particularly green technology, for two decades. Over the years she has owned both Macs and PCs, though unfortunately the PCs integrate best with both her budget and office. Currently a senior writer at Tech.Blorge, Susan adores gadgets, the newer the better. Her current favorite is her rooted Nook Simple Touch. She has also had two Blackberry Curves, an AximX51v, several Palms, a Handspring, a few Sony Clie’s and her current rooted LG Ally Android phone.

A ceaseless appreciation for interactive entertainment is what drives ROBERT ‘DesertEagle’ ALLEN, Tech-Gaming.com’s editor and podcasting personality. Having written over six hundred reviews, and interviewed a wide swath of the industries’ luminaries, Robert aspires to share his appreciation for the medium with an ever-growing audience of gamers. When a controller isn’t in his hand, he can usually be found clutching a dry-erase marker- instructing classes in writing, communication, and technology at two southern California colleges.

MICHAEL L. BERMAN has more than 40 years’ experience writing and editing for The Hartford Courant, The Norwich (CT) Bulletin, The Journal of Commerce and The Middletown (CT) Press. Mike’s Techtalk column was syndicated by the Scripps Howard News Service from 1995 to 2000 and now appears as a computer and technology blog on www.scrippsnews.com. You can also visit Mike’s consumer technology website at www.jocgeek.com.

CORRINA LAWSON is a core contributor to Geek Dad on Wired.com and an editor of its sister site, GeekMom. She also writes for Sequential Tart, a webzine about comics and pop culture written solely by women. Corrina is a former newspaper reporter with a degree in journalism from Boston University and more than 20 years reporting experience, who following the birth of her twins, has also turned to writing fiction.