2012 judging panel

LARA STARR has been the producer of Consumer Talk with Michael Finney on ABC affiliate KGO News and Information 810 AM in San Francisco since 2009, helping listeners become informed consumers and be treated well when they spend their hard-earned dollars. Lara scours the web for stories, companies, organizations and individuals who have information and advice to share. In addition to producing at KGO, Lara has current and prior experience in book publishing, events, software and consumer products. She’s also the author of several cookbooks, including The Party Girl Cookbook, The Frugal Foodie Cookbook and The Star Wars Cookbook: Wookiee Pies, Clone Scones and other Galactic Goodies.

DOUG CANTOR is the senior technology editor at Bloomberg Businessweek. Prior to his current position, he was a senior editor at Popular Science, where he edited features as well as the National Magazine Award-winning How 2.0 section. He also served an as editor at Esquire for two years. Doug holds a B.A. from Vanderbilt University and a master’s degree in magazine publishing from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism.

BARBARA KRASNOFF is features and reviews editor for Computerworld and has been an editor and writer of technology features and reviews since the Intel 286 microprocessor was considered innovative. Before joining Computerworld, she worked for numerous technology publications, including PC Magazine, Personal Computing, PC Sources, Computer Shopper, Portable Computing, and InformationWeek. She is also the author of a number of speculative-fiction short stories.

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.

CAROLYN HORWITZ is executive editor of Entrepreneur magazine, based in Los Angeles. She previously covered the international music business as managing editor at Billboard and served as managing editor of luxury lifestyle magazines for the Boston and Washington, D.C., markets. Additionally, she has edited and co-written several books on international architecture and interior design, including Dealer’s Choice: At Home with Purveyors of Antique and Vintage Furnishings.

JENNIFER WANG is a staff writer for Entrepreneur magazine in Southern California, where she has had the delightful task of covering startups and entrepreneurship over the last four years. She started writing about business in 2004, while working at the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, and shortly after graduating from Duke University with a double major in English and Economics.

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.

BRYAN EDGE-SALOIS has been a part-time, professional freelance writer covering PC technology and games for more than 15 years. He currently covers PC technology, toys, games, and video games for Examiner.com. Bryan is also a video game industry vet, a former IT professional, and even an occasional video game author/writer (Westward III: Gold Rush, Defender Chronicles 2).

CHRISTOPHER NULL is an award-winning journalist who has been covering business and technology for 20 years. A veteran of PC Computing, Yahoo! Tech, and New Architect and the founding editor in chief of Mobile PC Magazine, there is no segment of the high-tech universe he hasn’t covered. Today he continues to cover business and technology topics for Wired and PC World, among other publications, while running his own custom blogging company, Null Media, which provides turnkey editorial services to corporate clients, including Intuit. Based in San Francisco, Null also pens the regular personal technology column for Executive Travel Magazine.

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.

SHEL ISRAEL advises businesses of all sizes on communications strategies, almost always connected with social media. He writes The Social Beat for Forbes.com and has contributed previously to BusinessWeek, Dow Jones, Fast Company and American Express Open Forum. He has published four books, including “Naked Conversations–How Blogs Are Changing the Way Businesses Talk With Customers” and “Twitterville.” He is currently collaborating with Robert Scoble on a new book, “The Age of Context: How It Will Change your Work & Life.”

MIGUEL RAJMIL was born in Argentina and has been living in New York City since 1980. He is a professional photographer who loves everything about technology. His weekly column in Spanish for Fox News Latino educates the Latino community in the U.S. and Latin America about the latest advances in the tech and gadget world. Miguel is on a first name basis with Fedex and UPS delivery people as he is constantly reviewing and testing the newest products.

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.

PAT KENEALY has been evaluating and explaining computer and media technology companies for 35 years as an editor, publisher, media exec and venture capitalist. For 26 of those years, Pat has worked at IDG, the global I.T. media conglomerate, where he was variously president of DIGITAL NEWS, CEO of PC WORLD, CEO of IDG itself, and a general partner of IDG Ventures. Now a managing director at IDG Ventures USA in San Francisco, Pat is an active investor in early-stage I.T. and consumer-facing Internet content, service and commerce companies. Pat currently sits on the boards of IDG, Olive Media and Parkme.com, and is a board observer at Yesware.com.

IVAN BERGER has just completed his fiftieth year of writing about technology. He’s been inducted into the Consumer Electronics Hall of Fame for his work with Lancelot Braithwaite at Video magazine. At Popular Mechanics, he was one of the first general-magazine editors to cover home computers; he’s also been an editor at Popular Electronics and, for nearly 20 years, Audio. His articles have appeared in The New York Times, Wired, Popular Photography, Playboy, Reader’s Digest, Road & Track, and hundreds more. Currently, he contributes to the Productopia blog, Digital Photography Buyers Guide, IEEE Institute, and others.

GEOFFREY JAMES writes the world’s most popular sales-oriented blog, Sales Source on Inc.com, which has won awards from both the Society of American Business Editors and Writers and the American Society of Business Publication Editors. Unlike other sales blogs, Sales Source is 100% independent, which frees Geoffrey to present readers with the best ideas from top experts and executives. A veteran journalist, Geoffrey has also published hundreds of articles in dozens of national magazines, including Men’s Health, Wired and Brandweek.

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.

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 knowledge 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.

PAUL GILSTER has for the last 23 years written a regular column on computers, which appears in The News & Observer (Raleigh, NC). He also focuses on space technology and its implications as one of the founders and lead journalist of the Tau Zero Foundation, and tracks ongoing developments in interstellar research from propulsion to exoplanet studies on his Centauri Dreams Web site (www.centauri-dreams.org). In past years, Paul has contributed to numerous technology, business and science magazines and publications. Paul is also the author of seven books, including Digital Literacy and Centauri Dreams: Imagining and Planning for Interstellar Flight.

SAMARA LYNN has nearly twenty years experience in information technology. She has several technology certifications, a Bachelor’s degree from Brooklyn College and was a technology editor for the CRN Test Center. She is currently the lead analyst of networking and business at PCMag.com where she reviews technology including wireless routers, servers, business applications and also writes opinion and analysis pieces on the tech industry. Her “Windows Server 2012 Up and Running” book is due to be published from O’Reilly in December 2012.

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, Jeff can be found on the Black Enterprise Tech Advisory Board, at a bar sampling foreign beers, or on Twitter doing twittery things.

An award-winning journalist, editor 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, AllBusiness.com and InformationWeek/TechWeb, he was also a contributing editor to the MIT Sloan Management Review and editor-in-chief of Electronic Entertainment magazine. He is currently business editor at ReadWriteWeb covering how technology is transforming the way we do business.

BRIAN BANDELL is a senior reporter at the South Florida Business Journal. Over the past 11 years, he has won 10 awards each from the Florida Press Club and the Society of Professional Journalists, including a First Place Green Eyeshade for his coverage of Medicare Fraud in Miami. He is also a novelist with Silver Leaf Books, having recently released science fiction thriller Mute.

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.

TERESA NOVELLINO’s brimming closet reveals the occupational hazards of years spent covering the retail and luxury industries maybe a little too closely. Before joining the Upstart Business Journal, she swam with sharks at a Tahitian pearl farm and tramped through Colombian emerald mines on business trips as executive editor of National Jeweler. Previously, she helped connect the dots between digital and TV as a web producer for Good Morning America. After getting an MA in journalism from Syracuse University, Teresa worked as a general assignment newspaper reporter.

JON SWARTZ, USA Today’s award-winning technology reporter and Pulitzer Prize nominee, covers Silicon Valley trends and social media, and profiles CEOs. A high tech journalist since 1987, Jon has written for Forbes, The (London) Independent, London Times, San Francisco Chronicle and New Orleans Times-Picayune. He has won numerous journalism awards and is a two-time finalist for the Loebs, the Pulitzers of business reporting. He has been nominated four times for the Pulitzer Prize. Jon is co-author of Zero Day Threat: The Shocking Truth of How Banks and Credit Bureaus Help Cyber Crooks Steal Your Money and Identity and author of Young Wealth. Jon appears regularly on NBC-Bay Area’s Press:Here technology show.

ALICE TRUONG is a technology reporter, focused on gadgets reviews and coverage. She contributes to USA Today, Forbes, Discovery Channel and Yahoo! Tech, among other outlets. Prior to living in San Francisco, she was a real estate reporter for the Wall Street Journal in Hong Kong. Follow her on Twitter @alicetruong.

HEATHER CLANCY is an award-winning business journalist in the New York area with more than 20 years of experience covering technology’s role in transforming business and culture. She writes daily for ZDNet Small Business Matters and SmartPlanet, and her articles have appeared in AllBusiness.com, Entrepreneur, Fortune Small Business, GreenBiz.com, The International Herald Tribune and The New York Times. Prior to becoming a full-time commentator, speaker and technology messaging specialist, Heather was editor at Computer Reseller News.

TODD ZUNIGA is the creator and host of Literary Death Match, an event featured in 44 cities worldwide, creator of 4thString.com and the founding editor of Opium Magazine. His fiction has appeared here and there online and in print. He lives between Los Angeles, and guest rooms all over Europe.