Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger named Tom Campbell California's Director of Finance in November, 2005.

Campbell has been a law professor at Stanford University and, more recently, the Dean of Berkeley's Haas School of Business. He was elected five times to represent the Silicon Valley area of California in Congress.

A native of Chicago, Campbell earned his bachelor's and master's degrees in economics at the University of Chicago, and a law degree from Harvard in 1976. He returned to the University of Chicago, earning a PhD in economics there in 1980. His dissertation was the first quantitative measurement of discrimination against women in federal civil service employment.

Robert V. Dickinson has been the President and Chief Executive Officer of California Micro Devices Corp. since April 2001. From August 1999 to April 2001, Mr. Dickinson was Vice President and General Manager of the Optical Storage Division of Cirrus Logic, Inc., a semiconductor manufacturer, where, starting in 1992, he served in several other senior executive roles including President of cirrus logic subsidiary in Japan from 1992 to 1996. Prior to cirrus logic, he held senior management positions at Western Digital Corporation, a semiconductor and disk drive manufacturer, from 1988 to 1992, following its acquisition of Verticom Inc., where he served as President and Chief Executive Officer from 1987 to 1988.

Mr. Kannappan serves as President and Chief Executive Officer of Plantronics and has been a member of the Board since 1999.

Jack Harding brings 20 years of executive management experience in the electronics industry to eSilicon. Prior to eSilicon, Harding served as President and CEO of Cadence Design Systems. During his tenure, Cadence was the world's largest supplier of electronic design software. Previously, Mr. Harding was President and CEO of Cooper & Chyan Technology, which was acquired by Cadence in 1997. Harding also served as EVP of Zycad Corporation. He began his career at IBM.

From 1998 – 2006 Richard Lowenthal provided business formation consulting services for high technology startup firms as sole proprietor of Berteleda Consulting. Through his consulting firm he has been involved in starting several companies including Lightera, Pipal Systems and Procket Networks.

From 1996 to 1997, Mr. Lowenthal was Vice President and General Manager of Cisco's WAN Access Products Division. From 1990 through 1995, Mr. Lowenthal was Vice President of Research and Development for StrataCom, a telecommunications product development and manufacturing company. From 1985 to 1990, Mr. Lowenthal was co-founder and Vice President of Engineering for Stardent Computers, a high performance computer company in Sunnyvale, California. Prior to Stardent, Mr. Lowenthal was Vice President of Engineering for Convergent Technologies of San Jose.

Mr. Lowenthal is also a former Mayor of Cupertino, California and has chaired the boards of several organizations including the Rotary Club of Cupertino, Cupertino Community Services, Fremont Union High Schools Foundation, and the Santa Clara County Libraries Joint Powers Authority. He is chair-elect of the YMCA’s of Santa Clara Valley.

Mr. Lowenthal has a BS degree in Electrical Engineering from UC Berkeley. He is 55 years old and lives with his wife Ellen in Cupertino, California. He is a father of 2 and an avid golfer and bicyclist. He is a member of the Cupertino Rotary, the Cupertino Chamber of Commerce, and the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers.

Steve Specker is president and CEO of the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), which was established in 1973 as an independent, nonprofit center for public-interest energy and environmental research. Its members produce more than 90 percent of the electricity generated in the United States.

Dr. Specker has an exceptionally strong technical and business background and an in-depth knowledge of the electricity industry. His 34-year career has spanned nearly every dimension of the business. Prior to joining EPRI in September 2004, he served as president of Specker Consulting, LLC, where he provided operational and strategic planning services to technology companies serving the global electric power industry.

In January 2003, Dr. Specker retired from General Electric (GE) after 30 years of leadership in various executive roles, including president of GE's Nuclear Energy division, president of GE Digital Energy, and vice president of global marketing for GE Energy.

Dr. Specker began his career in 1970 as a nuclear engineer for the Tennessee Valley Authority in Chattanooga, Tennessee. He holds a B.S. in engineering science and an M.S. and Ph.D. in nuclear engineering, all from Iowa State University.

Daniel J. Warmenhoven has been Chief Executive Officer of Network Appliance Inc., a network data storage company, since October 1994. Mr. Warmenhoven served as the President of Network Appliance Inc. from October 1994 to May 2000. Prior to joining Network Appliance Inc., Mr. Warmenhoven served in various capacities, including President, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Network Equipment Technologies Inc., a telecommunications company, from November 1989 to January 1994. He has held senior positions with both Hewlett-Packard Co. and IBM Corp. Mr. Warmenhoven served as a Chairman of the Board since May 7, 2003 and Director of Redback Networks Inc. since April 1999. Mr. Warmenhoven has been a Director of Network Appliance Inc. since October 1994. He also serves on the Board of Directors of two private companies. Mr. Warmenhoven holds a B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from Princeton University.

For over a decade Chris Larsen has focused on using the Internet to make consumer lending more efficient, fair, honest, open, and trustworthy.

Prior to Prosper, Mr. Larsen co-founded and served as Chairman and CEO of E-LOAN. Under Mr. Larsen's leadership, E-LOAN closed over $27 billion in consumer loans, and was consistently ranked as one of the nation's most trusted consumer brands. E-LOAN earned consumers' trust by taking radically pro-consumer actions such as being the first company to provide consumers with access to their credit scores, and playing a critical role in the passage of the strongest consumer financial privacy protection law in the nation. Mr. Larsen led E-LOAN through a successful IPO in 1999, and oversaw the company's acquisition by Popular, Inc. in 2005.

Mr. Larsen holds an M.B.A. degree from Stanford University and a B.S. degree from San Francisco State University, where he was named the 2004 Alumnus of the Year.

James MacGregor is publisher of the Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal, a position that provides him a unique perch from which to observe the many aspects of the Silicon Valley economy.

MacGregor came to the Business Journal in August, 2007, from a sister publication, the San Francisco Business Times. As director of advertising sales there, he won the parent company's Eagle Award three of the past four years. That's the highest honor from American City Business Journals, which owns 41 business journals. MacGregor, 38, grew up near Toronto, and graduated from Bishop's University in the province of Quebec. His career took him west, as a sales consultant in Vancouver, British Columbia, at Seaboard Advertising and Rogers Broadcasting. Later, he was general manager of Obie Media Corp. in St. Louis before joining the San Francisco Business Times in 2002.

When it comes to reducing our dependence on foreign oil, providing an alternative to skyrocketing gas prices and curbing climate change, the U.S. Senate did America a disservice this week when it fell 10 votes short of extending the Renewable Energy Tax Credit. The credit is an essential tool to expand the solar and wind energy industry while it is in its infancy. The failed vote will certainly place the industry in critical condition and could well put people employed in the solar and wind energy fields out of work. Extension of the broader research and development tax credit was also blocked, as part of the same proposal.

Here is the list of the 44 Senators that voted no, and the 6 that were non-voting. Let these senators know it's time for America to break its dependence on foreign oil. Let them know their support is needed for renewable energy.

Nays
Alexander (R-TN)
Allard (R-CO)
Barrasso (R-WY)
Bennett (R-UT)
Bond (R-MO)
Brownback (R-KS)
Bunning (R-KY)
Burr (R-NC)
Chambliss (R-GA)
Coburn (R-OK)
Cochran (R-MS)
Coleman (R-MN)
Collins (R-ME)
Cornyn (R-TX)
Craig (R-ID)
Crapo (R-ID)
DeMint (R-SC)
Dole (R-NC)
Domenici (R-NM)
Ensign (R-NV)
Enzi (R-WY)
Grassley (R-IA)
Gregg (R-NH)
Hagel (R-NE)
Hatch (R-UT)
Hutchison (R-TX)
Inhofe (R-OK)
Isakson (R-GA)
Kyl (R-AZ)
Lugar (R-IN)
Martinez (R-FL)
McConnell (R-KY)
Murkowski (R-AK)
Roberts (R-KS)
Sessions (R-AL)
Shelby (R-AL)
Specter (R-PA)
Stevens (R-AK)
Sununu (R-NH)
Thune (R-SD)
Vitter (R-LA)
Voinovich (R-OH)
Warner (R-VA)
Wicker (R-MS)

Non-voting
Byrd (D-WV)
Clinton (D-NY)
Graham (R-SC)
Kennedy (D-MA)
McCain (R-AZ)
Obama (D-IL)

Teresa Briggs is the managing partner of Deloitte & Touche Silicon Valley. She served on the Board of the Boys and Girls Club of San Francisco for nearly a decade, and is now passionate about 1st ACT Silicon Valley--a cross-sector collaboration in art and technology.

Teresa also recently participated in the Leadership Group’s Annual CEO/Elected Official Cycle-To-Work Day Challenge to help curb Climate Change, riding from Redwood shores to downtown San Jose and back.

Teresa Briggs is the managing partner of Deloitte & Touche Silicon Valley. She served on the Board of the Boys and Girls Club of San Francisco for nearly a decade, and is now passionate about 1st ACT Silicon Valley--a cross-sector collaboration in art and technology.

Teresa also recently participated in the Leadership Group’s Annual CEO/Elected Official Cycle-To-Work Day Challenge to help curb Climate Change, riding from Redwood shores to downtown San Jose and back.

Abhi Talwalkar is president and chief executive officer of LSI. In May 2005, he was appointed to this position, succeeding Wilfred J. Corrigan, LSI's founder. He is a member of LSI's Board of Directors.

Talwalkar joined the company from Intel Corporation, where he served as vice president and co-general manager of the Digital Enterprise Group, comprised of Intel's Business Client, Server, Storage and Communications businesses. Previously, he served as vice president and general manager for Intel's Enterprise Platform Group. In this position, he focused on developing, marketing and supporting Intel's business strategies for enterprise computing.

Derek Wise, a decorated Marine, is CEO and CTO of Global Netoptex, Inc (GNi). Wise's current position is the culmination of over ten years of technical networking, communications and security experience.

His overall experience in the industry molded his philosophy of customer and employee service and openness. In his time with the U.S. Marine Corps, Wise was a team leader for multiple secure networking implementations throughout the US and Pacific regions, and served as the Information Systems Management Chief, Marine Corps Mountain Warfare Training Center. While at Enron Broadband Services he was responsible for many Western US, European, and Pacific network deployments.

In the position of Chief Learning Officer for Sun Microsystems, Karie Willyerd leads an organization responsible for employee, customer, partner and Sun community learning. For these distinct constituencies, she is responsible for product and technical training, executive learning, business, management and professional skill development, and sales and service learning around the globe.

Beach Pace is the Executive Director of City Year Silicon Valley. Beach has experience in the Pharmaceutical industry, and is a West Point graduate.

Andy Ball is the CEO of Webcor, builders of many of California's landmark buildings over the past 30 years.

Gary Richards writes the popular transportation and highways column "Mr. Roadshow", appearing in the San Jose Mercury news.

Joseph Laia, a veteran of the semiconductor chip equipment industry, is president and CEO of Miasolé, the leading developer and manufacturer of innovative thin film copper-indium-gallium diselenide (CIGS) solar cells. Miasolé is working to expand its operations to deliver cost-effective solar cells worldwide.

Dr. Richard Levy heads Varian Medical Systems, a 1 billion company providing high energy radiation machines and associated hardware and software for treating cancer, and x-ray tubes for diagnostic radiology. With over 3,500 radiotherapy systems in place delivering treatments to more than 1,000,000 cancer patients per year, the company holds a clear leadership position in this technology, which is used to treat over 50% of all cancer patients in the U.S. Varian Medical Systems also ranks as the world’s largest merchant supplier of X-ray tubes, including products for use in CT scanners, mammography units, and other diagnostic systems.

Conrad Burke brings over 17 years of proven expertise guiding innovative semiconductor and optical technologies into the commercial market.

Prior to Innovalight, Conrad was senior vice president of worldwide sales and marketing for Bookham Inc. Before Bookham, Mr. Burke was a venture partner at Sevin Rosen Funds, a leading US-based venture capital firm. His career has spanned research and development, product management, marketing, sales, general management and operations in major global organizations, NEC, AT&T, Lucent Technologies and Agere Systems. He was also the first executive hire at OMM Inc., a venture backed startup based in San Diego, California focused on developing MEMS based optical switching systems. He has deep international experience having lived in and run major divisions of these large companies in Germany, UK and Japan.

Conrad represented Innovalight at the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland in 2006 to receive The Technology Pioneer Award for Environmental and Energy Technologies.

Terry Clark formed Finelite in 1991 as a privately held independent company. Finelite designs and manufactures high performance, environmentally sustainable lighting systems for offices and educational facilities.

Mark Thompson has been a President and Chief Executive Officer of Fairchild Semiconductor International Inc. since May 4, 2005. Dr. Thompson is responsible for all manufacturing, technology and quality initiatives at Fairchild.

As San Francisco’s youngest mayor in 100 years, Gavin Newsom has brought fresh ideas and renewed energy to the City and County. He has earned a reputation as an innovator on issues ranging from homelessness to the environment, healthcare to education.

He was early.

Unconventional for an elected official, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom arrived - not late, not on-time, but early for our meeting at 1590 KLIV for a special taping of "The CEO Show" with more than a dozen Silicon Valley CEOs.

The unfortunate attitude of too many in public office follows from California Assembly Speaker Jesse Unruh's famous maxim that "The biggest waste of time is to be on time." I much prefer Louis XIV's refrain that "Punctuality is the politeness of kings."

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Gavin Newsom, San Francisco Mayor, appeared on a special taping of "The CEO Show" on Thursday March 6 with show host and Silicon Valley Leadership Group CEO Carl Guardino. A live studio audience was on hand to ask questions.

See photos from this event.