The Digital Home Highway: Speakers

Mark Cook manages the integration of Kodak’s consumer digital products and services into a cohesive, whole offering for consumers. He has been involved with online photographic consumer services and consumer digital imaging since the beginning of the category, and directed product marketing and marketing activities for Kodak’s initial online consumer service, Kodak Picture Network and Kodak Photonet Online.

Mark Gray, Kasenna
Chief Executive Officer

Mr. Gray joins Kasenna after a successful tenure with Pluto Technologies, a manufacturer of standard and high definition digital video server products, where he was founder, Chairman, and CEO. He served in this capacity until September 2000 when the company was acquired by Avid Technology, Inc.

Previously, he served as Chairman, President, and CEO of Chyron Corporation, a publicly traded corporation listed on the New York Stock Exchange. From August 1989 through June 1993, Mr. Gray held several senior executive positions at Sony Corporation of America, starting as President of the Computer Peripherals Systems Company. In April 1990, he became President of Sony Communications Products Company, which included Sony Broadcast and Sony Pro-Products divisions. At the time of his departure from Sony, he served as Executive Vice President and General Manager of the Business and Professional Group, which included all Sony professional electronics companies. From 1986 through 1989, Mr. Gray was Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Pinnacle Systems Inc., which subsequently made a successful public offering. Prior to 1986, he was General Manager of the Studio Products Division of Ampex Corporation having spent previous years with the Harris Corporation and Tektronix, Inc. His career in broadcast electronics followed a successful career in television production and he was responsible for many programs that won numerous awards and honors including three Emmys.

Mr. Gray holds a Bachelors Degree in Electrical Engineering, a Masters Degree in Communication, and is a graduate of the School of Executive Development at Babson College.

Idan Kessel has 18 years of business development and technical expertise in the cable and telecommunications industries. Mr. Kessel is a former GM of GADLine Americas , prior to which he was Executive VP of Cabletec, a Colombian telecomm and CATV technology distributor. In addition he served as international sales manager and RD manager at RIT technologies (NASDAQ RITT) telecommunications division. Mr. Kessel holds an MBA from the University of Boston, and a B.Sc.EE from Ben Gurion University, Israel.

Peter Lee, The Walt Disney Company
Vice President Business Development New Technology

Peter Lee is Vice-President, Business Development New Technology, at The Walt Disney Company in the Corporate Strategic Planning and Corporate New Technology Departments. His responsibilities include creating new businesses for Disney in digital content consumption/delivery and leading the company’s unilateral content protection efforts for all Disney assets worldwide. He recently was a Media Industry Consultant, where he worked for Disney and Fox as an executive consultant in the area of video-on-demand. Prior to this he was the President/CEO of GeoVideo Networks (a Lucent Technology company), the COO/CTO of MyPotential (a well-being company chaired by Deepak Chopra), and CTO/co-founder of Hitplay Media (targeted ad insertion and streaming media content provider). The majority of his career was at IBM, where he was the Global Development Executive for Broadcast and Advertising. His roles at IBM included positions in the Watson Research Center, Federal Systems Division, Media Marketing, and the Interactive Television Group. He has an MS degree from USC and a BS from UCLA. He has eight patents granted and multiple patents pending in the areas of digital ad insertion, content distribution, and portable media players.

Chris Parkerson, RSA Security
DRM Evangelist

Chris Parkerson is the DRM Evangelist at RSA Security. In his role, Chris is responsible for market strategy for RSA DRM solutions. Chris has worked with several pioneering companies in data integration, content management, and Web Services technology prior to joining RSA.

He has worked as a product manager for two Valley start-ups including Vianeta Communications which provides XML-based solutions for health information management and Ipedo which provides XML-based solutions for content and data integration and management. Prior to the move to the West, Chris was a product manager for eXcelon Corp. where he was responsible for the first XML database, XIS, and first XML application development environment, Stylus Studio, on the market. Chris has spoken at numerous industry events including Digital Hollywood, the RSA Conference, Jupiter Content Management Conference, and numerous XML and Web Services technology events. Chris graduated from Boston University with a BS in Computer Systems Engineering.

Neil Smith is the General Manager of AOL’s Digital Media Services group overseeing the AOL Digital Services initiative to expand members’ access to AOL's premier broadband entertainment content and services beyond the PC. The DMS group is focused on making AOL's content and features "always available" to users wherever they want and on multiple devices -- a key differentiator for AOL in the digital services space.

Neil joined AOL in 1996 and has worked on various company initiatives during his tenure including managing AOL's marketing relationships with major PC-industry companies like Dell, Gateway and Microsoft and the introduction and marketing of AOLTV.

Prior to joining AOL, Neil was an Account Supervisor at TBWA/Chiat/Day Advertising where he worked with clients like Nissan and the YMCA on their marketing strategies and campaigns. He is a graduate of Virginia Tech.

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