Autumn 2014

We're pleased again to be able to offer we this unique class that you will find at no other university on the planet. Come listen to these eminent leaders discuss their vision of the future of software-powered businesses. The class is open to all Stanford students.

Course Outline

The course consists of an introductory lecture designed to frame cloud computing from a business and technology point of view. The remaining lectures will be delivered by guest lecturers who will introduce their particular company and discuss the implications of cloud computing from their unique perspective.

Guest Lecturers

  • Jay Flatley. Since 1999 Jake has served as President, Chief Executive Officer and a member of the Board of Directors of Illumina, Inc., a leading developer, manufacturer and marketer of life science tools and integrated systems for the analysis of genetic variation and function. Jay has helped guide the company to over $1.6B in revenue.
  • Kathryn Gould. A physicist turned venture capitalist, Gould recently made Forbes Magazine's "Midas List" of Tech's Best Venture Investors. Early in her career, Gould switched from engineering to marketing roles when she realized product managers were having more fun. Then, as vice president for marketing at Oracle in the company's early days, she found that for her, the real fun was in building businesses. She joined a Silicon Valley venture capital firm, and in 1995, co-founded her own. Foundation Capital now invested in about 50 companies.
  • George John. George is founder and CEO of Rocket Fuel, Rocket fuel recently went public and provides artificial intelligence advertising solutions that transform digital-media buys into self-optimizing engines that learn and adapt in real time. He earned his bachelor’s, master’s, and doctorate degrees in the department of computer science right here at Stanford University.
  • Adam Pisoni. Adam Pisoni co-founded Yammer and sold it to Microsoft for $US1.2 billion five years later. Yammer, is a social networking tool to foster collaboration inside companies and is being integrated into the Microsoft Office suite.
  • Amit Singh. As President, Google Enterprise, Amit has responsibility for products like Google Apps, Maps, Commerce Search, Chromebooks and Google's cloud platform to businesseses, education and governments.
  • Tony Zingale. Tony has been in the Silicon Valley for over 30 years, starting as a sales manager at Intel. He recently took Jive Software public. Jive makes enterprise social software designed to make it easier for workers to communicate and collaborate. It’s one of the largest companies in that space, with 850 customers worldwide.

Background

The course is not technical, but of course assumes you have interest in the high technology business either from a consumer or enterprise point of view. For CS/EE students this is a unique way to learn about the business side of technology from some of the leaders in the industry. For the MBA students this is a way for you to understand this important sector of the economy. And for the MD, JDA, Art History or Journalism student consider registering as a way for you to get exposed to an area that will affect you in your personal and professional life.