2016 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.

ANGELA NATIVIDAD is the author of Generation Creation, an AdVerve Media production. She covers European advertising for AdWeek, and co-founded Hurrah.fr, the premier creative agency for the esports market. She lives in Paris. Follow her on Twitter at @luckthelady.

A former marketing professional in both Toronto and Chicago, KIM COOK has spent the last ten years as a freelance journalist based in New York, covering international and national design, décor and lifestyle stories for several print and digital entities. Her regular “Right at Home” columns for the Associated Press focus on trends and topics across the Home categories. She writes about design directions, and profiles industry professionals, for both the National Kitchen & Bath Association’s Innovation + Inspiration magazine and the American Association of Interior Designers NY Metro magazine. Kim was also part of the judging panel for NY Now’s Best New Products awards this summer.

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 more than 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. Whittaker began editing and proofing 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. Whittaker also served as co-editor of The Liberator Magazine with her fellow Howard University alumni, and happily mothers two teenage daughters — Kamani and Kennedi.

KAT BRYANT is a copy editor at the Bismarck Tribune. Previously, she held numerous editorial positions at the Phoenix Business Journal and the Silicon Valley Business Journal from 1989 to 2015, earning several industry awards for editing, headline writing and design. She also does freelance editing and proofreading for various forms of media. She attended the University of Arizona in Tucson, where she worked full time for four years on the student daily newspaper and discovered her true calling.

NICOLE FALLON is the managing editor of Business News Daily, a resource for small business owners and aspiring entrepreneurs. She has been covering business and career trends since 2010, when she started out as a freelancer for BND. Prior to joining the staff full-time, she spent a year as the editor of a cooking and nutrition website. Nicole holds a Bachelor’s degree in Media, Culture and Communication from New York University.

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.

NAOMI EIDE is the associate editor for CIO Dive, responsible for covering the enterprise tech industry, from the rise of the cloud to Big Data in business. Prior to joining CIO Dive, she spent time covering federal contracting and Maryland state news. Naomi holds a B.A. from Providence College and a master’s degree from the University of Maryland’s Philip Merrill College of Journalism.

CHRIS MATYSZCZYK is the president of creative consultancy Howard Raucous LLC and the creator of the Inc column Absurdly Driven and the CNET News column Technically Incorrect. In 2013, he was named by Mediapost as the Most Influential Person on Madison Avenue, with Barack Obama coming in 16th. In an advertising career spanning London, Singapore, Warsaw, New York and San Francisco, Chris helped build brands and businesses and won some of the most prestigious creative awards in the world. His campaign against domestic violence in Poland was a national phenomenon and gained worldwide attention, being featured on the front-page of the New York Times. Since leaving the agency world, he’s continued advising brands large and small, as well as speaking and writing. In January, he gave a speech at CES in Las Vegas, with David Copperfield as a member of the audience. (No pressure.)

BARBARA KRASNOFF is senior 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.

THORNTON MAY is a futurist, a cognitive scientist and an anthropologist studying the value-producing behaviors of the various “tribes” comprising the modern enterprise. His book, The New Know: Innovation Powered by Analytics analyzes what organizations know; how they come to know and how they act upon what they know and don’t know. Passionate about obliterating digital ignorance from the executive suite he currently serves as Co-Director of the Innovation Lab at the Olin College of Engineering; Executive Director of the CIO Solutions Gallery at the Ohio State University College of Engineering. The editors at eWeek honored Thornton, including him on their list of ‘Top 100 Most Influential People in IT.’ The editors at Fast Company labeled him ‘one of the top 50 brains in technology today.’ http://www.thorntonamay.com

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.

Bio and photo coming soon

MARK HUFFMAN is a reporter for ConsumerAffairs.com. Since 2004 he has covered issues ranging from consumer product defects to developments in consumer technology. In 2007 he served on a Federal Trade Commission workshop panel examining negative option marketing practices. He has been a correspondent for Marketwatch.com, Westwood One Radio Networks and Associated Press Radio. He has also been a science and technology writer for United Press International and written about technology for Reuters New Media. He has been interviewed as a source on stories for NBC News, Forbes, Smart Money, and The Wall Street Journal. He received a B.A. degree from the University of Kentucky.

MATHEW SCHWARTZ is an award-winning journalist with two decades of experience in magazines, newspapers and online media. He has covered the information security and privacy sector throughout his career, as well as working as a photojournalist and travel writer. Before joining Information Security Media Group in 2014, where he now serves as the Executive Editor for Data Breach Today and for its European news coverage, Schwartz was the information security beat reporter for InformationWeek and a frequent contributor to DarkReading, amongst other publications. He lives in Scotland. Find him on Twitter at @euroinfosec.

JACK M. GERMAIN has been writing about computer technology since the early days of the Apple II and the IBM PC. Over the past four decades, Jack has worked on both sides of the editorial desk for numerous organizations as writer and editor. His feature articles, technology blogs, and specialty columns are published by ECT News Network. Jack writes for TechNewsWorld, The E-Commerce Times, LinuxInsider, and CRMBuyer, and blogs about technology and education issues for Hackcollege.com.

Bio and photo coming soon

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.

HUGH MCINTYRE is a freelance journalist who covers all things related to the music industry, primarily for Forbes. He has also written for several dozen other publications, including Billboard, Mashable, The Huffington Post, MTV, Mic, and Noisey, to name just a few.

KEVIN CASEY writes about technology and business for a wide variety of publications and companies. He won an Azbee Award, given by the American Society of Business Publication Editors, for his InformationWeek.com story, “Are You Too Old For IT?”. He’s a former community choice honoree in the Small Business Influencer Awards. Find him on LinkedIn and Twitter.

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.

MARI EDLIN is editor of Population Health News, Healthcare Innovation News and Accountable Care News. A graduate of Stanford University, she has more than 25 years of experience in journalism and has been a freelance writer since 1988. She has specialized in healthcare since 1993, writing regularly for Managed Healthcare Executive, to which she contributes a monthly article on pharmacy issues, Drug Topics and other national healthcare and pharmaceutical trade publications. She also works closely with many companies and organizations, helping to develop issue briefs, white papers and reports. She serves on numerous media panels and has taught a variety of communications workshops at Stanford University.

DOUG CANTOR is a senior editor at Inc.com. Over his career, he has served as an editor at Bloomberg Businessweek, Popular Science, and Esquire, and written for publications including Men’s Journal, ESPN The Magazine, Departures, BlackBook, Time Out New York, Mental Floss, and many others. Doug holds a B.A. from Vanderbilt University and a master¹s degree from Northwestern University¹s Medill School of Journalism.

Bio and photo coming soon

MELANIE WADDELL is the Washington Bureau Chief for Investment Advisor magazine and ThinkAdvisor.com, part of ALM Media LLC. She has been a columnist for Investment Advisor since 2002, has served as New York Bureau Chief for the magazine, and has been a financial journalist/editor since 1994. Her column, The Playing Field, appears in Investment Advisor Magazine and on ThinkAdvisor.com, and she also writes for ALM’s National Law Journal and Law.com. Early in her career, Melanie covered financial issues at American Banker in Washington. Since 1997, she has been covering investment-related issues, holding senior level editorial positions at American Banker/Thomson Media/Thomson Financial in both Washington and New York. After seven years at Thomson, now Reuters, Melanie joined Investment Advisor. Melanie holds a Bachelor’s degree in English from Towson University; while at Towson, she interned at The Baltimore Sun and its suburban edition.

Bio and photo coming soon

MICHAEL BURKE is an award-winning journalist who has been covering all facets of business for The Journal Times of Racine, Wis., for 16 ½ years. Racine, a metropolitan area of about 120,000 people between Milwaukee and Chicago, is a hotbed for manufacturing and home to such companies as SC Johnson and Modine Manufacturing and the Case IH agriculture and construction machinery brand. Most recently, Burke won first place for Business Reporting in the Wisconsin Newspaper Association’s 2013 Better Newspaper Contest for his series “The Job Skills Gap.” Burke also hosts a weekly online business interview show called “Money Talks.” Before covering business, Burke covered both government and education.

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. For many years, he wrote “The Corporate Curmudgeon,” and he continues to write “JT and Dale Talk Jobs” with employment expert, Jeanine “JT” O’Donnell. Their work appears weekly in dozens of newspapers, including The Denver Post, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Arizona Republic and Houston Chronicle.

ANNLEE ELLINGSON is a staff writer at L.A. Biz, Los Angeles’ digital bureau at American City Business Journals, where she covers entertainment and technology. Other chapters of her life include a decade all-told in various editorial positions at BoxOffice Magazine, a trade publication for the motion-picture exhibition industry. She’s also written about film for the Los Angeles Times, PasteMagazine.com, Moving Pictures magazine, and Los Angeles Weekly. A Midwest transplant to Los Angeles, she holds a Master of Professional Writing from the University of Southern California.

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.