Juergen Urbanski

is Managing Director and Principal of TechStrategy Partners.  He possesses more than 14 years of operating experience in technology, telecom, media and financial services across North America, Latin America and Europe.

His recent consulting work includes:

• For the largest enterprise business applications vendor, he identified and evaluated the top 10 trends that will shape product strategy beyond 2012
• For a top three infrastructure software provider, he instituted a new product life cycle model, restructured global pricing, and overhauled messaging as well as associated collateral
• For a top five consumer video site, he detailed a strategy for expanding into adjacent markets and drove initial business development efforts with partners along the video value chain

Previously, he was General Manager of Sequoia Capital-backed wireless company FON in charge of the North American business.  At FON, he set up US operations and was also a frequent media and conference spokesperson (incl. NY Times, BBC, Red Herring, PC Magazine).

Before joining FON, Juergen was Director of Marketing with Network Appliance.  At NetApp, he had worldwide responsibility for strategy, offering creation, demand generation and partner programs of NetApp’s Consulting and Integration business, which he grew from $20m to over $60m in revenue.

Prior to Network Appliance, he spent four years with McKinsey and Company’s Silicon Valley office.  At McKinsey, he served software, hardware and IT services clients and managed joint McKinsey-client teams on a range of strategy, business development, marketing and sales topics including:

• For a global top three applications software vendor, he clarified the vertical product strategy and reformulated its ISV partnering strategy.  He then tested the attractiveness of the new program with 35 ISVs in the US and Europe and determined worldwide additional revenue potential of $100 million annually
• For a global top three software company, he improved partnering with OEMs by identifying operational cost savings of $20 to 40 million annually for each of several large partners
• For a new business within a large applications software company, he created and implemented a repeatable account acceleration program

Juergen is fluent in six languages and holds a Bachelor of Arts from the European School of Business (ESB) in Germany and a Master of Business Administration with a major in Finance from the WhartonSchool.  He also serves on the board of Creative Community Catalysts.

George Gilbert

is a Co-founder and Principal of TechStrategy Partners (TSP), a strategy consulting firm to the technology industry.  He has 20 years experience in the software industry, both as a Wall Street financial analyst and in product management and marketing.  George is well-regarded throughout the industry for his strategic insights and is a frequent speaker at conferences.

As Principal of TSP, George served the largest global business applications vendor on a variety of business strategy issues including:

• Synthesized and analyzed a review of the highest priority new product opportunities available to the company in a study that was reviewed by the CEO and the entire executive staff
• Developed a set of requirements and a business plan for how to dramatically expand the installed customer base by reaching "information" workers, beyond the traditional "back office" workers
• Collaborated with a new division to plan how to penetrate the application platform business dominated by IBM

Previously, George was the lead enterprise software analyst for Credit Suisse First Boston, one of the leading investment banks to the technology sector.

• During 7 years as an analyst, Mr. Gilbert covered at various times Microsoft, Oracle, BEA, Veritas, SAP, PeopleSoft, JDEdwards, i2 Technologies and Siebel, among others
• George assisted numerous clients in the capital raising process including Actuate, Baan, CommerceOne, E.piphany, i2 Technologies, JDEdwards, Retek, and Selectica
• In the annual client polls in Institutional Investor magazine, Reuters and Greenwich, he reached the top ranks in only three years.  His coverage of the enterprise applications industry was widely considered the most comprehensive and the first to explain the potential size of the industry.  In addition, he was the first to issue sell recommendations before each of the vendors peaked at the height of the bubble in the late 1990's

Prior to being an analyst, George worked at Microsoft as a product manager on Windows Server. Before that, he spent 4 years in product management and marketing at Lotus Development on the Notes team. There he initiated the first systematic customer feedback process. Prior to that, he was part of Lotus' strategic planning and development group.  As part of the strategic planning process, he was co-credited by senior management with identifying the need for compound documents, in what became the precursor to the transformation of the product line from individual products to an integrated suite.

George received his BA in economics from HarvardUniversity.