Nilofer Merchant is the CEO of Rubicon Consulting and a noted strategist, global high-tech industry thought leader and trusted advisor to an elite set of entrepreneurs, officers and CEOs. Rubicon's founder, she has built a distinguished team of fellow strategists who collaborate with a wide range of Silicon Valley executives at client firms such as Adobe, Autodesk, Cogito, Hewlett-Packard, Pinnacle, Riverside, SAP, Symantec, VA Software, VMware and other firms. The proprietary Rubicon methodology Nilofer developed continuously delivers significant material results to clients, driving revenue growth, market share-price and profits. It resulted in an additional $28 million in profit over 6… months for one industry leader.Merchant founded Rubicon in 1999 after gaining fifteen years of operational experience in key leadership positions at iconic technology firms such as Apple, Autodesk, and GoLive (later acquired by Adobe). The experience she gained in pricing, product management, the channel, sales, marketing and revenue generation prepared her for the interdisciplinary deep listening and precise questioning that are at the heart of Rubicon's work today. Through her many successes (and some losses), Nilofer has honed her multidisciplinary approach for assessing a business situation clearly, applying critical wisdom, and defining a strategic direction. Her ability to put business history in context enables her to discern the right future moves. Nilofer's writing and ideation abilities have led to syndication with major business publishing entities. At conferences her energetic, approachable and pragmatic keynote speaking style helps people connect to her viewpoint whether their role is that of board member, grad student, engineer, marketer or business leader. Nilofer's forthcoming book on strategy will be published by O'Reilly Media in 2009. She has been published in AdAge, ChiefMarketer, MarketingProfs, RainToday, SandHill.com, The Pragmatic Marketer and many other publications. A keynote speaker at conferences for The Anita Borg Institute, Women in Technology International and SoftSummit, her speaking style is approachable and interactive. Audiences find her presentations practical, visionary and insightful. She has also spoken at Stanford University's School of Business, Santa Clara University's Leavey School of Business, AJAXWorld, EMC, PDMA, the SAP Research Forum, Symantec, and frequently gives private presentations for organizations. She holds an M.B.A. from Santa Clara University, a B.S. in Economics from University of San Francisco, and is an Interaction Associates-certified Instructor of Facilitative Leadership. Nilofer sits on Santa Clara University's Leavey School of Business Advisory Board. She contributes to her local church's strategy and stewardship plans, and has held the position of Chair of Community Fundraising and been a Board Member of the Cupertino YMCA. Early on, she was a Governor-appointee to the California Community College Board of Trustees - a position she held for an unusually long 3-year term. Nilofer and her husband enjoy the challenge of integrating the complexities of their respective high tech careers and personal interests with the demands of parenting.