Power Networking Group

The Power Networking Group is a program to assist members in reaching out to external businesses, organizations, and individuals in an effort to foster contacts and improve business leads in an efficient, effective and dynamic setting.

The core committee, of approximately six to twelve members of different industries or professions, will aid in identifying interested individuals who would like to leverage their business goals and network with other professionals.

Mission Statement

We believe this program will offer our members an opportunity to introduce themselves to each other, promoting collaboration, business opportunities and the exchange of expertise, information and leads. We will be contacting other organizations such as other local and European Chambers of Commerce.


The core committee will work to engage a wide variety of individuals from an array of disciplines and host a convivial and fruitful meeting. We will draw on contacts from the core members and the Executive Director for contacts with outside organizations. We hope this Power Networking Event will be a worthwhile and quality experience for our members.

Members

Chair:
Theresa Gibbons

Theresa Gibbons currently works as a Contracts Manager procuring software, hardware, consulting and other services on behalf of Union Bank of California. This includes advising bank divisions on sourcing vendors, RFPs, RFIs, due diligence, negotiating and executing contracts, and vendor performance monitoring. Union Bank of California is a wholly owned subsidiary of Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi - UFJ.

Previously Ms. Gibbons was a compliance officer for a mortgage lending company and a local retail bank. Prior to this she negotiated global treasury service products for Bank of America and UCC Article 9 security/collateral agreements for asset securitizations

After graduating from Seattle University School of Law, Ms. Gibbons clerked for a judge, was an Assistant Attorney General for the State of Washington, and was in private practice before joining Bank of America in the commercial loan group. During her university studies, she attended her junior year abroad at l'Université Aix-Marseille III in Aix-en-Provence and before attending law school she studied for the year at l'Institute Catholique in Paris.

Core Members:

Patrick Patterson



John-Erick Forge
Europacifica
Twenty five years of international experience in the creation, management and reengineering of high technology organizations, ranging from small start-up to large public multinational, companies or divisions of such. Founder and first CEO of three successful companies, and CEO or COO of four other companies operating in various fields ranging from artificial intelligence development to online advertising marketing, communications, and advanced healthcare IT systems.
Dr. Forge is currently Managing Director at IG Partners, Vice President at Boma Systems, and chairman of EuroPacifica.
Dr. Forge was previously the first president of MGN Inc., the company that develops and supports the prime commercial websites of the LVMH group, including eluxury.com, sephora.com and DeBeers.com.
In 1993 Dr. Forge founded Kensoft, Inc. Among the customers Dr. Forge was involved with were very large organizations like SITA-Equant (Paris, France), Thomson-CSF (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia). Smaller customers include Broadvision (Mexico City, Mexico),  3Net (Sacramento, California), HSDC (Oakland, California).
From 1981 to 1986, Dr. Forge was COO of ExperTelligence Inc., based in Santa Barbara, CA. The company was the first one to develop artificial intelligence products for the Apple Macintosh: a Lisp compiler and a series of expert systems which were used by companies and agencies like US West, Lockheed, NASA, CIA etc.
Prior to ExperTelligence, Dr. Forge founded U3S Corporation which he sold to the French conglomerate Thomson-CSF.
Before becoming a US citizen, Dr. Forge worked in Paris (France) where he created the CXP (Centre d’ Experimentation des Progiciels) which became a leading organization in France and was recently acquired by the Giga Group and now part of Forrester Research.
Dr. Forge has a Certificate in Physics from University of Paris Orsay, an MBA (International Marketing and Information Systems) from HEC (Paris France), and a Doctorate in Economics and Computer Sciences from the University of Paris (France).
Dr. Forge Published a book on the PL/1 language and multiple articles in technical journals. He is listed in the Official French Dictionary as the inventor of the word “progiciel” (software package).

Ronald Kravitz
Liner Yankelevitz sunshine & Regenstreif LLP

Ronald S. Kravitz is a partner in the San Francisco office of Liner Yankelevitz Sunshine & Regenstreif LLP. He is a co-chair of the Civil Procedure sub-committee of the ABA Employee Benefits Committee and a chapter editor for the ABA publication Employee Benefits Law. Mr. Kravitz received his J.D. from Temple University School of Law in 1986 and began his legal career as an Attorney Advisor for the U.S. Department of Justice. With more than 20 years of experience as legal counsel in complex business litigation matters, his practice has been focused primarily on ERISA, employment, intellectual property, and securities-related matters since 1992. He has represented numerous fiduciaries, third-party plan administrators, broker-dealers, and registered representatives in connection with plan administration and investment matters. Mr. Kravitz has served as lead or co-lead class counsel in numerous ERISA class actions throughout the country.
 

Alain Megias



International Trade; Corporate Restructuring
Mr. Mégias’ practice focuses on global corporate restructuring projects, corporate law, international contracts, and other cross-border business law issues.
He earned his DESS from the University of Clermont-Ferrand School of Law, before going on to receive his LL.M. from the University of San Diego School of Law in 2002. Mr. Mégias is admitted to practice in France (Paris) and California.


Alexis Vaernewyck


Jean-Bernard Duler
Duler & Company

John-Bernard Duler is the founder of Duler & Co., a boutique insurance brokerage based in the San Francisco Bay area.
Duler has specific expertise in the services, software, life science, technology, and construction industries, with a deep knowledge of the needs of closely held companies.
Duler has 23 years of experience in the insurance industry, both in Europe and in the US. He had also first hand experience as an insurance buyer when he served as CEO of two VC-backed companies.
Most recently Duler was Chairman & CEO of Formatics Technologies, an enterprise software start-up spun off from SAIC, the largest private technology and R&D consulting firm in the US.

 

Remi Vespa

Venus Software Corporation

Remi Vespa has a proven track record of 25 years in the software and semiconductor industries, including more than 10 years of experience at the CEO level. He has solid knowledge of all aspects of company management, with special emphasis on business development and operations management.
Remi acquired his in-depth experience in the major market places (North America, Europe and Northern Asia), where he promoted breakthrough solutions to a wide range of companies, ranging from small start-ups to Fortune 500.
Remi currently serves as President of Favic LLC, a consulting company based in San Francisco. His former positions include CEO of Silicon Recognition, a semiconductor company located in the Silicon Valley, Senior Vice-President at Dynasty Technologies, a Texas-based leading provider of high-end software solutions for mission critical applications, and Vice President of Groupe IBSI, the then arm of France Télécom in the Systems Integration arena.


Dominique Piotet

BNP Paribas - L'Atelier

Dominique in the US has launched Atelier BNP Paribas North America, the high tech studio for a changing world, in 2006, as a greenfield company. A full subsidiary of the famous European bank, BNP Paribas, Atelier has been created in France in 1978, and is now doing business in Europe, Asia (based in Shanghai) and North America. Atelier is a consulting company dedicated to innovation and new technologies. Atelier has also a showroom in San Francisco, and a dedicated website in English : www.atelier-us.com.
Dominique is also a regular correspondent in the newsletter of Atelier, a monthly columnist in the French economic newspaper La Tribune, a keynote speaker in conferences for IBM, Oracle, SAP, Microsoft…and a co-presenter of “L’Atelier numérique”, a famous French weekly radio show dedicated to new technologies. Before joining BNP Paribas, Dominique was head of the e-business team of a consultancy firm, helping Fortune 500 companies in the field of energy, media and finance with their Internet strategy. Prior to that, he was head of the Internet strategy of the French Post, and an associate professor at the Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris. He holds a Masters degree from Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris and a Masters degree in economics from La Sorbonne.


Chloé Soroquère
Chloe Soroquere is a seasoned marketing and sales management executive with more than 25 years of experience in the consumer banking, financial services and student loan industries.
Chloe spent most of her professional career with Wells Fargo. During her tenure at Wells Fargo, she was responsible for the product development and marketing of several consumer and business banking credit products. She also has an extensive sales management career with student loan institutions such as Wells Fargo, KnowledgeFirst, Inc., Fleet Bank, and Student Capital Corporation.
Chloe was also the Vice President and marketing, sales and training manager for ELM Resources, the student loan industry's only mutual benefit corporation which, through its members-lenders, guarantors, and loan servicers, administers a common, open, and universal data exchange network that seamlessly links diverse computing platforms..
From 1995 through 1999, she served on the Board of Directors of ELM Resources and was Secretary of the Board from 1997 to 1999.
Most recently, Chloe was the Senior Vice President, Marketing and Brand Manager for Brazos Higher Education Service Corporation, Inc. (BHESC), the largest not-for-profit holder of federally guaranteed education loans in the United States, with assets in excess of fifteen billion dollars.


Eva Voisin


Severine Corruble