Forest learned the term "making the connection" from a Tom Cahill travel story on spelunking (the sport of cave exploration)--the objective: never exit a cave from the same opening that one enters. Fascinated by this credo, Forest never backtracks when he travels and has stumbled upon countless magical travel moments in the many countries he has visited and in his overseas expat living tenures in China, Spain, and Chile. Forest was a Sr. Director in the Microsoft Server & Tools Division, and later the GM of Business Development for Asia based in Beijing, China, where he drove adoption of Microsoft user experience and web technologies with the region's top consumer websites and digital agencies. As a product manager at Macromedia he led technology innovations in the Flash product line that have revolutionized web video. Forest formerly worked in the visual effects and CGI industry, as both a founder/CEO of successful software startup Puffin Designs, and adding glamour to his geek credibility, as visual effects editor/animator at George Lucas' Industrial Light and Magic. He is fluent in Spanish and can negotiate to buy cheap consumer goods in Mandarin. He holds a BA in History from UCLA.

In business as on vacation, Adam enjoys making connections when traveling. For him, discovering a great boutique hotel is like making a new friend: it has a personality and a soul, and you can establish a lifelong bond with it. Traveling allows him to connect with the exotic in a meaningful way. Adam, a global marketing innovator and sales leader with 15 years of experience in pioneering companies, excels in connecting inventive products with customers and finding new markets. As Director of Business Development in the Microsoft Entertainment and Devices Division, Adam launched Microsoft Surface, a revolutionary touch-enabled tabletop interface into 20 global regions across the hospitality market. With Sony Corporation he held various positions in the USA, Japan, and Mexico where as Director of the Entertainment division he introduced the PSP and PS2 video game lines to millions of ecstatic Spanish-speaking gamers. Adam has lived extensively in Japan, Spain, and Mexico and is fluent in Japanese & Spanish. He holds a BA in History from the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management.

Since Dennis Wu blazes trails in technical achievement, when he’s on vacation he prefers to relax and have fun with his family. He loves a hotel that works hard on the back-end to manifest the best of its location and surroundings so he can just kick back and enjoy. Dennis is the very model of a modern startup CTO: a seasoned Silicon Valley technology leader with fresh and creative ways of approaching problems using cutting-edge digital developments. He has 18 years of experience in online advertising/marketing, search, enterprise systems, and database architecture. As the co-founder and CTO of Evincii, he built killer online/mobile applications and a buzzed-about pay-per-performance advertising network for major consumer goods companies. Before that, he combined his talents in engineering, internet architecture and managerial skill to first develop knowledge-based data integration technology for Cadabra, then engineered several key advertising systems for Overture and later Yahoo! Dennis received his Masters degree from Stanford University and Bachelors degree from National Taiwan University, both in Computer Science. He is a bilingual Mandarin/English speaker.

Cameron Steele relishes an all-sensory-consuming travel experience in Burma: crawling through the jungle, hearing the hailed opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi give a speech from house arrest, riding night trains and walking along the Bagan Pagodas barefoot in complete silence. Cameron brings this commitment, passion and concentration to buuteeq along with multi-disciplinary experience from Silicon-Valley as venture capitalist, operating executive, and adviser. He worked as a VC partner with San Francisco Equity Partners, and served as CFO and VP of corporate development for their portfolio company Penguin Computing. Cameron also served as managing director/equity research analyst with RBC Capital Markets, and held marketing and finance/planning roles at Verity Software and Oracle, respectively. Cameron “habla un poquito Español”, and holds an MBA from the Tuck School at Dartmouth and a BA in Political Science from Stanford.

Brad spent his twenties on the road in North America, performing as a professional musician in over 600 shows from dive bars to the Hollywood Bowl. His passion for creating good experiences for audiences has extended to the world of software, where he has spent two decades focused on making technology work better for the people who use it. Working closely with engineering, he will drive continued innovation and advancement of the cloud-based buuteeq system, creating excellent user experiences for hotel owners and their customers. Brad has a B.S. in computer science and was previously a director at Microsoft, responsible for Azure, Silverlight, .NETa nd Expression Studio for several years. Before then he was the first product designer hired at Macromedia (now Adobe) where he worked on the Flash family of products and was a founding member of the user experience consulting team, creating better UX for Global 1000 clients. Brad also spent eleven years as a software engineer and leading user-interface teams in the development of commercial client/server and web applications. He has also recorded and released several nationally distributed albums.

Mike Galgon is a Seattle-based entrepreneur and technology investor. Mike co-founded aQuantive in 1997, serving as its president, Chief Technology Officer, and Chief Strategy Officer until its acquisition by Microsoft in 2007. After the acquisition, Galgon served as CVP, Advertising Strategy for Microsoft through early 2009. He has remained active with the next generation of digital marketing companies, serving on the boards of Market Leader (NASDAQ: LEDR), Krux Digital, Energy Savvy, Buddy TV, and buuteeq. Beyond digital marketing, Galgon is an active social investor, predominantly through Global Partnerships a Latin America-focused microfinance organization. Prior to founding aQuantive, Mike served as an officer in the U.S. Navy from 1990 to 1994 and spent one year as a full-time volunteer with Volunteers in Service to America.

Charles brings over 20 years of technology business experience with a strong focus on cloud services and platforms. Recently, he was vice president of product management for Mozy, a cloud backup service. Previously, Charles held a variety of senior leadership marketing, business and strategy roles at Microsoft, and as general manager of Platform Strategy, he marshaled the company’s broad developer ecosystem strategy and helped rebuild the company’s developer franchise for the Internet era with .NET. He also worked on Flight Simulator, Windows 95 and Internet Explorer versions 3 and 4.

Cristian is the CEO and Chairman of Equitas Capital, an international investment firm based in Santiago, Chile, specializing in venture capital and early stage private equity for companies in IT services, sustainable conservation, clean technologies, and sciences. He sits on the board of several privately held companies and is chairman of Latinvalley, eClass and Equitas Management Partners. An advisor to international venture capital funds and multi-national investors, Cristian is currently the Vice-Chairman of the Board of Trustees of LASPAU (Harvard University affiliate). He maintains partnership at the law firm Eyzaguirre & Cia. Cristian graduated from Yale Law School in 1998 (LL.M.) and has been admitted to practice law in New York and in Chile.

Brian is a founder of buuteeq inc., and the CEO of RedSAFI, a digital creative agency with offices in Austin Texas and Beijing China. Formerly at Microsoft Corp, Brian led the worldwide marketing team for the Microsoft Expression family of design tools, and managed the Silverlight business unit. He managed teams with DHL Worldwide, and probably helped save lives as Lead Project Manager for a web startup that connected medical experts in developed countries with practitioners and patients in remote locations worldwide. Brian earned his MBA, a M.S. in Information Systems, as well as a B.S. in Biology from the University of Texas.

Sanjay is an entrepreneur and angel investor based in Chennai, India. Previously, Sanjay was a Corporate Vice President at Microsoft Corporation. Sanjay holds board and advisor positions at several privately held companies. He is on the Executive Board of the MIT Sloan School for the Europe, Middle East, South Asia and Africa Region. Sanjay has a master's degree in engineering from MIT, a master's degree in management from the MIT Sloan School of Management, and a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from Anna University in Chennai, India.

Barbara is the General Manager of the Garden Court Hotel, a luxury boutique hotel in downtown Palo Alto. For the past eleven years in this role, Barbara has participated in the hospitality industry’s evolution: reinventing the way it does business without changing its ultimate product. Her knowledge and wisdom in successful hotel business operations, marketing, and her attention to exceeding customer’s expectations and delighting guests make her an important mentor to the buuteeq management team.

A native of Belgium, Gaelle loves to travel and found her way to Chile as a backpacker soon after she finished college (she considers hiking the Inca Trail on her honeymoon one of her travel highlights). She was having so much fun exploring South America that she decided to stay in the region and now calls Santiago home. Gaelle worked at LAN Airlines for 8 years in various strategy and research roles, including Investors Relations, Financial & Tax Planning, Industry Research, Traffic Rights, and most recently as Director of Business Development concentrating on M&A analysis for regional airline acquisitions. Previously she worked in private equity at Westsphere Capital in New York where she monitored investments in Argentina and Colombia, and in research and project management with Grupo CB and EuroChile in Santiago Chile. Gaelle is fluent in French, Spanish, and English, and when the occasion calls for Dutch she can hold her own. She holds a Master in International Business & Management from ICHEC University in Brussels.

Equitas Capital is an international investment firm specialized in venture capital and early stage private equity. The firm is based in Santiago, Chile where it manages multiple funds in the fields of IT services, sustainable conservation, clean technologies, and sciences, technologies and innovation applied to natural resources.

For more than two decades, The Benaroya Company has been among the region's leading private venture capital firms. We enter into active relationships with the companies we fund — vital, promising businesses that demonstrate bold vision, great market potential, and strong financial discipline.

Auromatrix is one of the major players in the hospitality industry in India. The company owns and operates hospitality establishments and its core offerings are in the area of hotel & resort development, management and consultancy. In the past, Auromatrix partnered with Days Inn Worldwide as their Master Franchisee for India and has operated all the Sterling resort properties. Current hospitality portfolio includes Sparsa Resorts, a chain of eco-sensitive resorts; Aloft hotels, upscale business hotels in 5 locations pan India; Stargate, a chain of food & beverage outlets.

Brad is an entrepreneur and start-up investor. Brad Most recently managed a lead generation business for MSFT. He was an executive at aQuantive after their purchase of his interactive agency, i-FRONTIER. Brad co-authored Advertising on the Internet (John Wiley & Sons, 6 languages) and volunteers with nonprofits serving youth including Big Brothers Big Sisters and Spark the Wave.
Brad blogs regularly here: Practical Ideas for Entrepreneurs, Business Leaders and Managers.

Darin Brown is currently the President of Europe for Crispin Porter and Bogusky (CP+B), one of the world's most recognized and awarded advertising and digital marketing agencies with clients that include Microsoft, American Express, Domino's Pizza and Best Buy. Prior to CP+B Darin served in multiple leadership roles over the last 13 years for the digital agency known as Razorfish, leading clients like Microsoft, Levi Strauss, Visa, adidas, and Coors Brewing; driving their corporate and client strategy, and helping manage acquired businesses in Europe.

Tom is Founder and CEO of Krux Digital, a technology provider that helps web publishers protect, manage, and improve revenue from consumer data. Tom most recently served as General Manager for the Online Publisher Business Group in Microsoft's Advertiser and Publisher Solutions (APS) group. Before Microsoft Tom was the CEO of Rapt Inc. from its founding in 1999 to its acquisition by Microsoft in April 2008.

Aaron has spent 12 years working in digital marketing across the agency, publisher, advertiser, network, exchange, search, and rich media sections of the online industry. He currently serves as an advisor BlueKai and AdReady while also working on an entrepreneurial venture of his own. Most recently, he was General Manager of Advertising Strategy and Monetization at Microsoft’s Online Services Division.

Geoff is an active angel investor in the region, and has invested in over 60 Pacific Northwest technology companies during the last decade. Several of those companies have had successful exits, notably Isilon Systems (acquired by EMC), drugstore.com (acquired by Walgreens), SparkBuy (acquired by Google), World Wide Packets (acquired by Ciena), The Coffee Equipment Company (acquired by Starbucks) and Shelfari (acquired by Amazon). A current venture partner with Voyager Capital and a former venture partner with Madrona Venture Group, Seattle-based venture capital firms, Geoff is a current investor in over 40 private companies and is a current board member of six companies, including Big Fish Games, Liquid Planner, Dashwire, Bonanza, Judy's Book and Nirvaha, and is a board observer for several others. Geoff is also a long-time member and vice chairman of the Alliance of Angels, the largest angel investor organization in the Pacific Northwest.

Jeremy is the President and CEO of Groundspeak, creator of Geocaching.com which launched in 2000 as the first official website for the geocaching hobby, which enjoys over 5 million unique fans including several buuteeq employes! Previously he was a member of the US Air Force working as a Cryptologic Linguist in the Mandarin language. He has also worked as a project manager, technologist, ecommerce developer and web developer for a number of companies including General Electric. Jeremy continues to be deeply involved in the various projects at Groundspeak.

John was a founder of Marchex in 2003 and now serves as its executive vice chairman. He previously served as Marchex's President and COO. Prior to Marchex, John was a founder of Go2Net and served in various roles at the company including President, COO and as a member of its board of directors. John is also an investor and board member with several private companies in North America, including several technology companies.

Peter is founder and Managing Partner of Richmond Global, a 12 year old venture capital firm specializing in technology and communications in the U.S. and leading emerging markets. As a social entrepreneur, Mr. Kellner co-founded Endeavor in 1997, a pioneering organization promoting entrepreneurship and job creation in emerging markets. Mr. Kellner is on the board of Obopay, Inc., AdChina, Inc., and YoBrand, Inc., and the non-profit boards of Endeavor and Ashoka Youth Venture.

Clark is Chairman of Razorfish, one of the world's leading digital marketing and technology firms serving global Fortune 1000 clients, including Nike, Microsoft, Best Buy, Intel, Mercedes, JCPenney, and Dell. Follow him on twitter @clarkkokich

Andy Liu is CEO of BuddyTV, the largest independently held TV site on the Internet. He was previously CEO of NetConversions from 1999-2004 (acquired by aQuantive). In 2010, he was named Best Angel Investor by Seattle 2.0 in 2010 having invested in over 20 early stage deals including Cheezburger Network, Bonanzle, Judy's Book, and Evo Gear. Andy brings deep experience in building companies, site optimization, viral marketing, SEO, community building and product development. He is also a founder of a non-profit that is focused on technology in developing countries and is very passionate about entrepreneurship.

Greg is a Sr. Vice President at The Cobalt Group where he leads the Products and Technology teams. The Cobalt Group is a leading digital advertising platform services company focusing on the automotive vertical and was acquired by ADP Dealer Services in August of 2010. Prior to The Cobalt Group, Greg served from 2000 to 2007 as Senior Vice President at the Atlas division of aQuantive, one of the fastest-growing global digital marketing companies in the world.

Greg is an entrepreneur and leading social marketing strategist with 15 years of web publishing and solutions experience. He was a founder of StepChange Group, a social media digital agency which was acquired by Powered / Dachis Group. He was previously the VP of Sales & Solution Consulting at Unicru, where he was part of the core team focused on a successful acquisition by Kronos.

Kelly is an active entrepreneur who incubates and invests in early stage companies through Curious Office. Most recently, he is the founder of Zapd, Apple's pick for App of the Week for delivering on the promise of "a website in 60 seconds from your iPhone". Prior to Zapd, Kelly founded Inkd.com, an online marketplace for buying and selling graphic design. Kelly was also co-founder of Imagekind which was the first and largest user-generated marketplace for buying and selling art prints (acquired by CafePress) and early online video content initiative RocketVox (acquired by thePlatform (a Comcast company)). Kelly takes an active interest in product design and development and is a painter in his spare time.

Kevin is an entrepreneur with over 15 years experience in web strategy consulting. As a principal and founder at StepChange Group (acquired by Powered / Dachis Group), he has worked with more than 100 companies including leading global brands on their social media marketing strategy, technology and programs. Kevin has been at creating leading-edge web marketing solutions since 1996.

James is a seasoned entrepreneur and founder of three successful companies. He is co-founder and CEO of Avidian Technologies, creators of Prophet, the world leading CRM software built in Outlook. James is a thought-leader, sought after speaker and writer on CRM, Sales Management & groupware applications. He was a regular writer for PCWorld and has been featured in PC Magazine, Small Business Computing, Inc., Entrepreneur, CRM Magazine, Washington Post and other publications. In 2009, he was named by the SLMA as the "50 Most Influential Sales Lead Management Professional". Prior to Avidian, James was the co-founder and President of Foci Technologies (acquired by Meritage Technologies), and held positions at Arthur Andersen in New York City and Chevron Corporation in San Francisco.

Edward is the CEO of ClassifiedAds.com and previous founder of Pike Street Industries in 2002 where he served as President until it was acquired by Marchex (NASDAQ: MCHX) in 2005. Edward is an active investor and has invested in many companies including Cheezburger Network, Minted.com,Bonanza.com, and Heatmax (acquired by Kobayashi Pharm Co Ltd).