TEDMED's Leadership Team
A team of experienced executives and longtime members of the TED community, all focused on driving innovation.
- Jay Walker
Chairman - Jose Suarez
Chief Executive Officer - Jon Ellenthal
President - Marc Hodosh
Host, Partner & Co-Creator - Shirley Bergin
Chief Marketing Officer - Gloria Hernandez
Director of Operations & Client Services - Lisa Shufro
Director, Programming
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Jay WalkerChairman |
Jay Walker, Chairman of TEDMED, LLC is a longtime TEDster and TEDMED supporter, having made over a dozen well-received presentations at the two conferences. One of America's best-known business inventors and entrepreneurs, Jay has founded multiple successful startup companies that today serve more than 75 million customers and holds more than 200 U.S. patents. He is chairman of Walker Digital, a privately-held R&D lab founded in 1994 and based in Stamford, Connecticut. The company specializes in creating innovative applications that work with large-scale digital networks such as the Internet. Jay is best known as the founder of Priceline.com, the "name your own price" service that has brought a new level of value to the travel industry.
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Jon EllenthalPresident |
Jon Ellenthal is the President of TEDMED, LLC and a passionate member of the TED community, having participated in several TED and TEDMED conferences in recent years. He is also Chief Executive Officer of Walker Digital and is responsible for the P&L of all business operations, research and development, and IP portfolio licensing. He also oversees finance, legal and administration. Jon has 25 years' experience building and leading early stage companies with transformational business concepts to positions of industry leadership and large-scale customer bases. Prior to joining Walker Digital, Jon was the CEO of Synapse Group, Inc., a direct marketing subsidiary of Time Warner responsible for more than 30 million customers. Jon is a member of the Board of Directors of Affinion Group, Inc., a publicly traded customer engagement and loyalty company.
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Jose SuarezChief Executive Officer |
Jose Suarez is CEO & partner of TEDMED, LLC. He is an enthusiastic, long-distance runner with a coveted silver buckle from the prestigious Western States 100 Mile Endurance Run. Jose has been passionate about TEDMED's mission and philosophy since participating in his very first conference. Jose is a long-time friend and partner of Jay Walker, founder of Walker Digital, LLC, where Jose served as President & COO for 8 years and managed the creation of more than 1,000 innovations. During his tenure at Walker Digital, Jose brought many of these innovations to market through licenses and strategic partnerships generating over $250 million in royalties and investments from industry leaders. Jose is CEO & founder of Suarez & Associates, LLC, a business advisory and investment firm and yappr.com, a free, online learning site. Jose was born in El Salvador and emigrated to the United States during his country’s civil war to attend college. He graduated valedictorian with a 4.00 grade-point-average from Virginia Tech holding a B.S. in Industrial Engineering and Operations Research. He also holds a Master's degree in Business Administration from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Now a U.S. Citizen, Jose lives in Fairfield, CT with his wife Trish and one son.
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Shirley BerginChief Marketing Officer |
Shirley Bergin is the Chief Marketing Officer of TEDMED, LLC and of Walker Digital and is an active member of the TED community having participated in many TED conferences in recent years. Shirley's 20 years' experience includes driving marketing strategies for leading global pharmaceutical brands including Pfizer and Wyeth. She has also worked with leading digital enterprises such as AOL, InterActiveCorp, Cendant Corporation and Priceline.com. Shirley has developed and executed innovative marketing strategies across a variety of verticals for start-ups and established firms alike, successfully reinventing and introducing brands.
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Marc HodoshHost, Partner & Co-Creator |
Marc Hodosh is Host, Partner and co-creator of TEDMED. Previously, Marc led the Archon X PRIZE for Genomics, a $10 million competition to inspire rapid and cost-effective genome sequencing technology, which followed the highly successful $10 million Ansari Space X PRIZE. He has been a consultant to inventor Dean Kamen at DEKA Research & Development and is also Chairman of Dean's FIRST Robotics competition in Boston, inspiring thousands of high school students to pursue careers in science & technology. Marc also founded and sold ID One, which specialized in facial recognition technology for the U.S. military and intelligence communities. Earlier, he led business development at Viisage Technology, a publicly traded, biometric and secure ID company.
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Gloria HernandezDirector of Operations & Client Services |
Gloria Hernandez has been instrumental in organizing and administering the TEDMED conferences for the past two years, managing everything from volunteers and security to communication and registration systems, speaker and sponsor relations, venue relationship management and customer service management. Prior to becoming involved in TEDMED she helped organize other conferences in cooperation with the founders of TEDMED. Her background in finance includes founding and running her own multi-asset management company, focusing on U.S. and foreign investment opportunities in real estate and capital markets. Gloria received her MBA from the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business.
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Lisa ShufroDirector, Programming |
Lisa helps to create the TEDMED program, with an eye for the bridge between art and science. She has over 20 years of performance and teaching experience, and connects TEDMED speakers with a talented network of visual, performance, and communication artists to help them hone and polish each presentation. Following her career as a Yale-degreed professional violinist, she joined the business world as a project manager, helping launch and develop new businesses for several Fortune 100 corporations including amazon.com and TimeWarner. She has also extended her skills at conceptualizing and executing ideas about the brain-body connection as a certified instructor on the faculty of the Feldenkrais Institute of New York. Having recently visited Buenos Aires, Lisa is now determined to learn to tango.
