2013 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.

A freelancer who has written for The Washington Post, Kotaku, the Huffington Post and Consumerist, PHIL VILLARREAL is a reporter for the Arizona Daily Star and author of the book “Secrets of A Stingy Scoundrel”. Follow him on Twitter @philvillarreal.

KAMILLE D. WHITTAKER is the associate editor for Atlanta Tribune: The Magazine, Atlanta’s authority on business, economics and politics. Jamaica-nurtured, California-reared and now Atlanta-grounded, she has spent over a decade primarily researching, reporting on and curating editorial coverage on the community and economic development of her multiple sites of “home” and the communities that comprise them. Kamille began editing manuscripts for The Journal of Education for Business and The Journal of Economic Education at the D.C.-based Heldref Publications, an academic publisher. Since, she has worked with The Washington Post in conjunction with Newsweek magazine (formerly WPNI), and as a national correspondent for the National Newspaper Publishers Association, and its more than 200 member publications. Kamille is also co-editor of The Liberator Magazine, an international print and online journal for stories and expressions of art, culture, education, economics and politics.

BERNHARD WARNER is a veteran journalist, author and digital content strategist who helped conceive, launch and write the “Very Near Future” blog for Bloomberg Businesweek in January 2013. He is also an experienced media trainer, public speaker and former university lecturer and has worked in newsrooms across the United States and Europe as an investigative reporter and columnist, plus as an editor and “start-up content” specialist. Bernhard’s writing has appeared in Reuters, Slate.com, Bloomberg Businessweek, Time, Quartz.com, The Guardian, Times of London, The Industry Standard, New York Magazine and Ad Age, to name a few. He co-launched blogs and columns for The Times of London, Slate.com’s The Big Money and Bloomberg Businessweek, has written for magazines, newspapers, online and also worked as a stand-in producer for documentary filmmakers. He is co-author of “#FAIL: The 50 Greatest Social Media Screw-Ups and How to Avoid Being the Next One.” Today, he is an independent journalist and communications/content strategist, living in Rome. He tweets (mostly in English) at @BernhardWarner.

PAMELA HULSE ANDREWS, based in Bend, Oregon, is the CEO, founder and owner of Cascade Publications Inc., which publishes both the print and online versions of Cascade Business News (Central Oregon’s bi-weekly business newspaper), Cascade Arts & Entertainment (Oregon’s only arts and culture magazine) and several annual publications including Pacific Crest Directory, Redmond Visitors Guide and Sunriver Magazine. Pamela’s diverse business background gives her a broad perspective on the arts and business community and the economy of Oregon. She has championed the cause of growing the arts in the high desert region and played a leadership role in connecting the dots between arts and economic vitality, as well as furthering cultural tourism. She writes an assortment of monthly and weekly columns on local arts, politics, business and the economy, taxes, creativity and developing entrepreneurship.

ANDREA HANIS is the planning editor-business at the Chicago Tribune, where her responsibilities include managing daily in-depth coverage of economic issues; a weekly series profiling top executives, and a variety of special projects, including new content initiatives. Andrea was an assistant managing editor at Crain’s Chicago Business from 2004 to 2011, during which she founded and edited the award-winning Business of Life section. Previously, she was an editor at the Chicago Sun-Times and the Louisville Courier-Journal. Andrea is a graduate of the Indiana University School of Journalism. She tweets on a variety of topics @AndreaHanis.

Currently a contributing editor for Chip Design Magazine, DAVE BURSKY has over 40 years experience working as an engineer and editor. Dave is president and founder of PRN Engineering Services, a technical writing and market consulting company and from 2006 through early 2011 was the technical editorial manager at Maxim Integrated Products. Prior to Maxim, Dave had over 33 years of experience as an editor, writing for publications such as Electronic Design and EE Times. In 2005 he was inducted into the Communications Society Hall of Fame for lifetime achievement at the City College of New York. Additionally, in 1988 he was described by an article in the San Jose Mercury News as one of the 100 most influential people in Silicon Valley. Dave has served on the program committees of numerous IEEE and commercial conferences, and has authored six books on topics ranging from personal computers to semiconductor memories. Dave holds both Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in electrical engineering from the City College of the City University of New York.

TRACY MAYOR has covered technology as a reporter, writer and editor since the Apple Lisa was in beta. She is currently online and print features editor at Computerworld, where her work has won multiple ASBPE awards. She specializes in long-form journalism that explores the relationship between people and technology. Previously, she was a long-time contributor to CIO Magazine, and was on staff at Lotus Magazine, PC Week, Tele and Microcomputing. Her writing has been published in The Boston Globe, Writer’s Digest, Boston Magazine, Brain, Child Magazine and online on Salon, The Rumpus and the New York Times’ Motherlode blog, and she is the author of the parenting humor book “Mommy Prayers.” She tweets tech topics @CW_Tracy and lifestyle and culture observations @mommyprayers.

THORNTON MAY is a columnist at Computerworld, futurist, educator, and author of “The New Know: Innovation Powered by Analytics.” His extensive experience researching and consulting on the role and behaviors of “C” level executives in creating value with information technology has won him an unquestioned place on the short list of serious thinkers on this topic. Thornton combines a scholar’s patience for empirical research, a stand-up comic’s capacity for pattern recognition and a second-to-none gift for storytelling to address the IT management problems facing executives. eWeek honored Thornton, including him on their list of Top 100 Most Influential People in IT, and Fast Company labeled him ‘one of the top 50 brains in business.’ He serves as executive director and dean at the IT Leadership Academy in Jacksonville, Florida; futurist – External Technology Advisory Board at the Olin College of Engineering; and co-founder of the CIO Solutions Gallery at the Fisher College of Business (Ohio State University).

AARON ELSTEIN writes a blog called In The Markets for Crain’s New York Business and covers all aspects of Wall Street. He has been covering the beat since 1996, when the Dow Jones Industrial Average was at 5600. Before coming to Crain’s New York Business in 2003, he wrote “Heard on the Street” columns at the Wall Street Journal, covered bank mergers for American Banker, and got his start reporting on downstate Illinois graft and corruption for Illinois Times in Springfield. His articles, columns and blogs have won numerous awards over the years, including from the Society of American Business Editors and Writers, the Society of Professional Journalists, the Alliance of Area Business Publications and the Jesse H. Neal National Business Journalism Award. He lives with his wife and son in Washington Heights and spends much of his free time worrying about the Red Sox. Check out his blog, In the Markets, to get his insight on the financial sector. You can also follow him on Twitter @InTheMkts.

Photo and bio coming soon

RICK WHITING has been with CRN and CRN.com since November 2006, originally as a senior editor and more recently as feature/special projects editor. Before that he worked at UBM’s InformationWeek magazine from 1998 to 2006 as a senior editor and, later, news editor. Other publications he has held writer/editor positions with include Software Magazine, Electronic Business Magazine and Computer System News. Before moving into trade publishing, Whiting was a newspaper reporter at the Daily Transcript in Dedham, Mass. from 1980 to 1986. He holds a bachelor of arts degree in English and political science from the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth and an MBA from Babson College.

DON BAKER is editor of the Dayton Business Journal for American City Business Journals. Don was named editor in January 2006 and originally started with ACBJ in 1999 as a reporter, with his other positions including senior reporter, associated editor and managing editor. Prior to joining ACBJ, Don worked for daily newspapers that included The Cincinnati Post, Springfield News-Sun, Middletown Journal and Xenia Gazette. He is a 1995 graduate of Ball State University and has won numerous statewide and national awards for his reporting and editing.

Photo and bio coming soon.

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.

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.

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.

Based in San Francisco, ALICE TRUONG is a staff writer for Fast Company. As a special contributor for USA TODAY, she wrote a column and hosted a web show about gadgets. She previously reported in Chicago, Washington D.C., New York and most recently Hong Kong, where she (left her heart and) worked as a staff reporter for the Wall Street Journal. Follow her on Twitter @alicetruong.

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.

ANNE FISHER writes the popular “Ask Annie” careers and workplace column, and covers management topics and trends, for Fortune.com and CNNmoney.com. She was a senior writer at Fortune magazine from 1996 to 2008, and her work has also appeared in Inc., Barron’s, and The New York Times. Anne is the author of two books, “Wall Street Women” (Knopf, 1990) and “If My Career’s on the Fast Track, Where Do I Get a Road Map?” (William Morrow, 2001). She lives in upstate New York.

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.

DAN HAAR is business and economics columnist at The Hartford Courant and commentator on Fox CT news. Dan joined The Courant as a photographer in 1981 after graduating from Wesleyan University in Middletown, Conn., with a degree in government. As a beat reporter, Dan covered Connecticut towns, manufacturing, the economy, energy, technology firms and telecom. He also covered state and national politics in 2000-01 before becoming business columnist and then business editor from 2006 to 2012. Dan was national finalist for the Gerald Loeb Award for commentary in 2005, won the Society of American Business Editors and Writers Best in Business awards for editing in 2006 and 2011 and for columns in 2008, 2010 and 2011, and received many regional and national awards for photography. Dan lives in West Hartford with his teenage daughter. He is an active volunteer for Wesleyan and SABEW and is a former captain of Wesleyan Nietzsch Factor Ultimate Club, and co-founder of the Connecticut Ultimate (Frisbee) Club, which has 450 paying members.

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.

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.

CRAIG BALLpens the award-winning Ball in Your Court column on electronic discovery for Law Technology News. Based in Austin, Craig is a a Board Certified trial lawyer, certified computer forensic examiner, law professor and electronic evidence expert, who limits his practice to serving as a court-appointed special master and consultant in computer forensics and electronic discovery. He has served as the special master or testifying expert in computer forensics and electronic discovery in some of the most challenging and celebrated cases in the U.S. For his articles on e-discovery and computer forensics, please visit www.craigball.com or his blog, www.ballinyourcourt.com.

EVAN BENN is a 2004 graduate of Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. He began his career as a news reporter for the Miami Herald, covering crime, courts and hurricanes for five years. Evan joined the features department of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch in 2009 as a writer and editor. He was the Post-Dispatch food critic, and he penned the paper’s Hip Hops beer column and helped develop a smartphone app about beer. Evan is author of the 2011 book “Brew in the Lou: St. Louis’ Beer Culture — Past, Present and Future” and serves as Esquire’s online beer columnist and a contributor to BeerAdvocate magazine. Evan moved back to South Florida in 2013 and back to the Metro desk of the Miami Herald, where he is a general assignment staff writer. He tweets @EvanBenn.

Photo and bio coming soon.

KEITH SHAW has been a fan of computers, technology and video games for more than four decades, and his obsession with technology, large and small, has grown into the multimedia empire known as Network World’s Cool Tools. In the ’90s, Shaw took a side trip to the world of newspaper journalism, working his craft for newspapers in New York, Florida and Massachusetts. In 1997, he combined his love of technology with journalism, joining Computerworld and then transferring to Network World in 1999 as the company’s product reviews editor. He has written the Cool Tools column since 2000, which now appears as a regular blog on the Networkworld.com website. For the past five years, Shaw has been the Multimedia Content Editor for IDG Enterprise, creating video content for Computerworld, CIO.com, ITworld.com, CSOonline.com, DEMO.com, NetworkWorld.com and other properties under the IDG Enterprise umbrella. He holds a bachelor’s degree in newspaper journalism from Syracuse University.

JULIE FADDA is editor of NorthBay biz magazine, a monthly, regional, business-to-business publication based in Santa Rosa, Calif., which covers anything and everything to do with business in Marin, Sonoma and Napa counties. She personally covers the wine and food industries, with a monthly restaurant review column called “Dine Wise.” She joined NorthBay biz in 2005 and, prior to that, has spent her entire career as a magazine editor and writer covering various subjects from lifestyle, to business, to software, to medicine. She is also a member of the Academy of Media Tastemakers, a judging panel for the annual Taste Awards. She earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism from San Francisco State University in 1991, with a minor in fine art.