Speaker/Panelist Biographies

John Villasenor

John Villasenor is a nonresident senior fellow in Governance Studies and the Center for Technology Innovation at the Brookings Institution. He is also a professor of electrical engineering at the University of California, Los Angeles. His current research interests lie in the technologies and policy implications associated with how information is acquired, processed, stored, and delivered.

Professor Villasenor's research addresses the technology and policy challenges associated with trends such as the move to cloud computing, the continued miniaturization of electronic circuits, the globalization of technology product design and manufacturing, and the increasing demands on wireless spectrum resources. His work spans multiple scales, ranging from the design of chips in which the circuit features are thousands of times smaller than a human hair to the challenges of building next-generation wireless cellular networks that can span hundreds of square miles. Professor Villasenor holds a B.S. from the University of Virginia, and an M.S. and Ph.D. from Stanford University.

Olaf Barthelmai

Olaf Barthelmai is a Tax Partner with Cherry, Bekaert & Holland, and a leader with the Firm’s International Tax group. He has over 20 years of experience helping both large and mid-size businesses untangle the complex foreign and domestic tax issues associated with international expansion. Olaf offers specialized services to clients in need of international tax planning, IC-DISC creation and operation, global operations structuring, expatriate and foreign national returns, and dividend repatriation, among others.

Michael Kuhn

Michael Kuhn practices in the areas of commercial, corporate and employment law, with a strong emphasis on international matters. He represents U.S. companies engaged in projects in the U.S. and abroad as well as European companies with business interests in the U.S. Mr. Kuhn has represented a variety of emerging technology companies including biotech, high-tech manufacturing, software and microelectronics. Mr. Kuhn is a member of the bars of Virginia, New York and Germany.

Gary Gilmore

Gary Gilmore has 15 years’ experience in interactive and print advertising. As Creative Director of Access, an agency in Roanoke, Virginia, Gary oversees the creative development of all interactive work. Gary started his career working with the Agricultural Department of Virginia Tech creating dynamic web sites and then moved into the advertising agency arena. He serves as lead for national and international clients such as Optical Cable Corporation and TMEIC and has developed scores of complex database-driven interactive projects. Gary has earned many honors for advertising and interactive design, and has been named Advertising Person of the Year by the Roanoke chapter of the American Advertising Federation. Gary has also served an adjunct faculty member of Virginia Western Community College in Roanoke teaching web design along with various print classes.