Theme: Innovation

In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized (subject to certain rules and regulations).

1280 Johnson Avenue
San Jose, California, 95129
United States

Arnon Kraft

Arnon Kraft has over 15 years of global business leadership and management. For the past four years Arnon manages a Strategic Sourcing group at Microsoft out of Redmond, WA. Prior to that, Arnon held several executive level positions spanning from Sales & Marketing, Business Development to Operations and Technology, in various consumer electronics companies such as SanDisk, modu mobile and msystems. Arnon is also a guest speaker in the fields of Operational Strategy and Talent Development in various forums, including at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. Arnon served in the Israeli Navy for seven years as a Lieutenant in the Navy’s CIO unit, holding technological and leadership positions. Throughout his career Arnon focused on and developed an expertise in strategic planning and execution, organizational leadership and management, partner relations and team & talent development.

Joseph Prabhakar

Joseph Prabhakar is the CEO of Power Communication Corp. a San Francisco based leadership and communication training company. Joseph helps leaders communicate authentically and powerfully to their teams and customers. Utilizing principles from the theatre, martial arts, presence and mindfulness research, neuro-linguistic programming, positive psychology and neurosciences Joseph offers programs that are both powerful and engaging to his clients. Joseph teaches ‘Business Storytelling’ to students and corporations across the world. He has conducted his popular workshops at UC Berkeley, Oracle, Stryker Pharmaceuticals, Visa, State of California, and Project Happiness among other places. Joseph has consulted for Fortune 50 companies across multiple verticals. In TEDxLynbrookHighSchool Joseph shared his unique experiences in storytelling.

Kathryn Cox

Kathryn Cox is a former journalist, Legislative Policy Analyst, and youngest appointee to the Executive Leadership team of the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice. Previously, Kathryn has worked with Nobel Prize winner Muhammad Yunus, Rudy Guiliani, and White House Advisor David Gergen with HSM Global at events like the World Business Forum New York and Milan, World Innovation Forum in New York and ExpoManagement in Madrid. In recent years, she has worked as a consultant for clients to re-engineer their business in New York City. She is most known for her work in marketing with Ferrari, Maserati, and luxury brand innovation centered partnerships and now serves as the Director of Marketing for the Silicon Valley based Addario Lung Cancer Foundation, one of the largest philanthropies devoted to identifying solutions to make timely and meaningful changes that turn lung cancer into a chronically managed disease by 2023 through research, early detection, education, and treatment.

Linda Yao

Linda Yao is a senior at Lynbrook High School, and the co-founder and CEO of Simple Wardrobe, a microfinance based clothing company that strives to offer trendy and affordable women’s attire. In the past, Linda has also guest-spoken at Monta Vista’s Microfinance Night and studied speech and debate at Oxford University. As a whole, Linda has realized the importance of innovation throughout her experiences.

Murali Krishnamurthy

Murali Krishnamurthy started his career as a Senior Software Engineer at various companies including Intel Corp., Concurrent Computer Corp., Amdahl, Sybase and BMC Software. Murali joined the Sankara Eye Foundation as a full time Executive Chairman in June 2009. Since its inception in 1998 SEF progressed from one Eye Hospital performing around 8,000 FREE Eye Surgeries to eight Eye Hospitals collectively performing over 150,000 FREE Eye Surgeries in 2013. Millionth eye surgery was performed in March 2013. Murali received the “Distinguished Alumnus” award from NIT Trichy for his work at Sankara Eye Foundation and the award was given by India’s ex-president Dr. Abdul Kalam on February 26, 2014 at NIT Trichy, Tamil Nadu, India. SEF’s Goal is to build at least one Sankara Eye Hospital per state in India by the year 2020 and play a substantial role in eradicating curable blindness in India by 2020 – Vision 20/20 by 2020.

Opher Brayer

Currently, Opher Brayer is the head of the Brayer Group and owns a school for talent and career development. He trains over 300 people including children, employees and managers of large corporations and start ups per year. In addition, Opher owns a management consulting company and advises successful businesses, corporations and business people around the world, helping them with their goals, and to raise their Unique Talent Proposition. He has written more than 100 methodologies, which he uses to develop talent in people of all ages. Opher is in the process of launching his latest innovation: The Talent Academy, a worldwide off and online talent development academy. Opher’s fervor for teaching and learning is highly apparent in everything he has set out to do thus far in his life. He looks forward to many more years of instilling multi-talent in the world and believes, “Every day is a celebration because I am going to teach, learn and affect lives.”

Shane Cragun

Shane Cragun brings twenty-five years of expertise in the areas of leadership, strategy, business transformation, process redesign, culture, high performance teams, change management, and execution. With the publication of his recent book The Employee Engagement Mindset, he has also become an authority on the topic of Employee Engagement. Shane has consulted, trained, and coached a wide array of organizations ranging from the Fortune 500, to midsize, and to smaller firms. Shane’s new global management consulting firm - SweetmanCragun - launched in February 2015 and will create new intellectual property in four primary areas: Leadership, Innovation, Change, and Shared energy. Shane will spend his time chiefly on scoping and managing client engagements, increasing the global scope of the firm, product creation, and new intellectual property creation. His formal title is Chief Executive Officer and Founding Principal.