Marty Cagan

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Closing Keynote: Product Leadership Fireside Chat

Before founding the Silicon Valley Product Group to pursue his interests in helping others create successful products through his writing, speaking, advising and coaching, Marty Cagan served as an executive responsible for defining and building products for some of the most successful companies in the world, including Hewlett-Packard, Netscape Communications, and eBay.

Marty began his career with a decade as a software developer at Hewlett-Packard Laboratories conducting research on software technology, and building several software products for other software developers.

After HP, Marty joined a then young Netscape Communications Corporation, where he had the opportunity to participate in the birth of the Internet industry. Marty worked directly for co-founder Marc Andreessen, where he was vice-president for Netscape’s platform and tools, and later e-commerce applications, and worked to help Internet start-ups and Fortune 500 companies alike to understand and utilize the newly emerging technology.

Marty was most recently senior vice-president of product and design for eBay, where he was responsible for defining products and services for the company’s global e-commerce trading site.

During his career, Marty has personally performed and managed most of the roles of a modern software product organization, including product management, software development, product marketing, user experience design, software testing, engineering management, and general management.

As part of his work with SVPG, Marty is an invited speaker at major conferences and top companies across the globe.

He is also the author of the books INSPIRED: How to Create Products Customers Love and EMPOWERED: Ordinary People, Extraordinary Products.

Marty is a graduate of the University of California at Santa Cruz with B.A. degrees in Computer Science and Applied Economics (1981), and of the Stanford University Executive Institute (1994).

Ann Yauger

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Closing Keynote: Product Leadership Fireside Chat

Ann Yauger is AVP, Product Management leading a group of product teams responsible for the upper funnel shopping experience on carmax.com.  Ann joined CarMax in 2005 as the Director of carmax.com and has driven the vision, strategies, team organization and practices that have produced numerous technology innovations that deliver exceptional customer experiences for online customers and the associates that support them.   Ann drove the transformation of the carmax.com team into a digital product organization, establishing the culture, principles and practices to drive rapid innovation and modern technology solutions.

Prior to CarMax, Ann was VP, Account Management at The Martin Agency, where she developed Marketing campaigns for numerous national and international brands.

Ben Nelson

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Session: RVA Start-Up Founders Panel

Ben Nelson has spent his career working for multiple federal government agencies and Fortune 100 companies and has personally seen how technology impacts our lives at the highest levels. He supported the United States Marine Corps during Operation Enduring Freedom and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) during the Hurricane Katrina response. Today, Ben finds solutions for wonderfully complex, technical business challenges through the creation of digital products and focuses on fostering truly diverse and inclusive cultures.

Most importantly, Ben is a husband, father of five, musician, Hokie, servant leader, and loves to support local RVA businesses!

Carly Buxton, PhD

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Session: RVA Start-Up Founders Panel

Dr. Carly Buxton is a Certified Lactation Counselor, Postpartum Doula, and the CEO/Co-Founder of Nessle, a digital health platform that connects parents to experts for tailored guidance throughout the journey of parenthood. Also a user experience research consultant and historian, Carly is passionate about bringing empathy to user design and historical practice.

Paige Wilson

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Session: RVA Start-Up Founders Panel

Paige is a native of Richmond, Va. and spent the bulk of her career in the large corporate arena, holding senior positions in a number of notable Richmond companies, including Bank of America, Dominion Energy and Heilig-Meyers, where she was Treasurer and CFO. She later moved into investment banking, most recently as a Managing Director with Truist. After struggling with the demands of caring for her aging mother, she made a bold move, left her large corporate career and became an entrepreneur.

Naborforce is a high-growth startup and has received national recognition for its disruptive solution that utilizes technology to harness the strength of community, addressing one of this country’s most pressing social issues as the number of older adults in the U.S. triples over the next few decades.

Paige is a graduate of the University of Virginia, has one daughter. She was recently appointed by Governor Youngkin to serve on the Commonwealth Council on Aging.

Julien Reininger

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Session: RVA Start-Up Founders Panel

Joe Belsterling

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Session: RVA Start-Up Founders Panel

Joe Belsterling is the current CEO of MajorClarity by Paper Inc., an academic planning and career exploration platform serving nearly 5,000 schools nationwide. He previously has consulted schools and organizations on building entrepreneurship programs for students, worked on political campaigns, and done various advisory work including helping the U.S Department of Education build better resources and guidelines for schools conducting EdTech pilots. Joe is a graduate from the College of William & Mary.

Matthew O'Connell

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Session: Branching Out: Product Discovery & Decision Trees

Matt O’Connell co-founded Vistaly.com, a tool for product teams to connect strategy, research, and ideas within a clear visual map. Matt initially served six years in the US Navy among the intelligence and special projects communities. Post-service, he transitioned into a career in software engineering, working within several startups and Fortune 500s. Outside of work, Matt spends his time with his three children and a fantastic wife.

Aaron Forrester

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Session: Product Ski Slope: Growing Your PM Career + Helping Others Develop Theirs

Aaron joined CarMax in 2019 as a Sr Manager in Product Design. He helped scale the product design practice from 15 associates to nearly 50. Innovation and design strategy are his passions, alongside developing talent. Now, as a Director of Product Design, he gets to put all of these passions to work, helping drive the future customer experiences for Carmax.

Before coming to CarMax, Aaron was a professor at Virginia Commonwealth University in Da Vinci Center for Innovation. He taught graduate and undergraduate courses in product design, idea generation and validation, and venture creation and helped write the university’s courses for Human Centered Design. Aaron was born and raised in the Pacific Northwest outside Portland, Oregon. He studied art from a young age and found interest in all types of mediums. He got his BS in graphic design and MFA in drawing and photography from Radford University.

Antony Pegg

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Session: Building a Fan Base

Antony Pegg has over twenty years’ experience in technology and product leadership roles, beginning as a systems architect and DBA in Professional Services. He has held Product Director level positions within MapQuest and Verizon, and was involved in Developer and open-source mapping comunities. In each position, he built and mentored high performing teams to contribute towards significant growth and cost reduction, as well as product optimization and delivery. Prior to Fandom, he was vice president of digital product management at Hasbro for Dungeons & Dragons Beyond (DDB), the leading digital toolset for the popular D&D game.
Antony is a joint inventor of 11 patents in mapping display, geocoding, search/query analysis, and horizontal data access. Outside of work, Antony is a rabid role playing game (RPG) and Arsenal FC fan.

Lauren Thacker

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Session: The Power of Design: Transforming Mundane Software into Engaging User Experiences

Lauren Thacker is a business owner, UX consultant, and product designer with extensive experience in B2B eCommerce and enterprise custom software. She sits on the RVA Design Group Board and dedicates her time to educating the community on the significance of UX, design, and technology.

Jessica Hall

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Session: Artificial Intelligence + Product Panel

P. Bradley Robb

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Session: Artificial Intelligence + Product Panel

Bradley Robb is a seasoned product manager with a passion for making things easier. With a focus on narrow natural language applications, Bradley has been shipping AI-products for the past seven years. When he’s not busy changing banking for good, you can find Bradley tending to his small farm outside Richmond, on the James rowing crew kayak, or on top of a mountain.

Jen Finn

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Session: Artificial Intelligence + Product Panel

Chat GPT summary of Jen Finn’s CV: Jen is a tech-savvy executive, strategic advisor, angel investor, and founder with over 30 years of experience in driving digital transformation and creating innovative digital products. From her early days designing custom software to leading major operational overhauls at Capital One, Jen has always had a passion for reimagining experiences and creating value with new technologies. She is currently the Co-Founder/CEO of Project Mongoose, where she’s helping real estate developers deliver game changing services and experiences for multifamily properties and their residents by embracing AI capabilities. With a sharp focus on small businesses and entrepreneurs, Jen serves on advisory boards for several startups and is actively promoting the expansion of RVA’s entrepreneurial ecosystem. Whether testing new ideas with customers, mentoring young innovators, or advocating for gender and ethnic minorities in venture, Jen’s energy and passion are contagious.

Alex Otanez

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Session: Artificial Intelligence + Product Panel

Travis J. Bjorklund

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Session: Artificial Intelligence + Product Panel