Speaker Biography
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Former California State Controller and Founder of The Westly Group
Steve Westly is the CEO and Founder of The Westly Group, which helps entrepreneurs build great companies in the Clean Tech space.
Prior to founding The Westly Group, he served as the Controller and Chief Fiscal Officer of the state of California - the world's sixth largest economy. As Controller, he chaired the State Lands Commission and served on 62 other boards and commissions, including CalPERS and CalSTRS, the nation's two largest public pension funds, which together invest more than $350 billion. During his four-year term, Mr. Westly spearheaded innovative tax programs that helped close the State's budget deficit. He also led an effort to commit more than $1 billion to clean technology investments.
Before running for office, Mr. Westly helped guide the online auction company eBay through a period of rapid growth, serving as the Senior Vice President of Marketing, Business Development, M&A, and International. He helped bring eBay to Europe and Asia, and developed the marketing and acquisition strategies that paved the path for the firm's exponential growth.
He also served as a senior executive for a number of Silicon Valley companies over a 20-year period, including WhoWhere, the nation's leading personal search directory, and Codd & Date, a relational database consulting firm with offices in five countries.
Mr. Westly began his career in Washington, D.C., where he worked first on Capitol Hill and later in the Office of Conservation and Solar at the U.S. Department of Energy. He then returned to California to become special assistant to the president of the California Public Utilities Commission. While there, he published two books on alternative energy and the utilities.
He has a Bachelor of Arts from Stanford University and a Master's in Business Administration from Stanford's Graduate School of Business, where he served on the faculty for five years.
Mr. Westly and his wife Anita have started The Westly Foundation, a philanthropic organization providing support in education, health, and global security.
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Anchor / Reporter - KTSF Mandarin News
Ling-Chia Ku, with more than 11 years of media reporting experience, is a reporter and anchor for KTSF Channel 26 TV. In addition to covering Bay Area news, Ling-Chia Ku is also anchor and editor of KTSF's Mandarin weekend news on Sunday. As a member of the "Under The Same Sky" news division, she has produced features and political events in Asia. Before moving to San Francisco in 2001, she worked for six years in media mainly as a political reporter. One area of specialty for Ling Chia includes political special reports and features in Taiwan. Since she was a high school student, Ling-Chia Ku wanted to be a reporter. She started her media career at a radio station covering Taipei City Hall news. With the rapid growth of cable TV in Taiwan, she began to devote herself to the TV media and worked for several mainstream TV stations in Taipei, such as Super TV, CTV and Power TV. After moving to SF, she worked for CH 66(KPST) as a reporter and back-up anchor, and then joined KTSF in 2002. With her solid training and background, she is a professional who does her best with all that she attempts. When she isn't working as a journalist, she enjoys her free time reading, shopping, watching movies and traveling. Her dream is to travel all around the world.
