Member Bios

	Dr. Soonhoon Bae, Korea Dr. Soonhoon Bae is a respected technology voice in Korea. He is currently a visiting professor at the Korea Advance Institute of Science and Technology, but his career has spanned business and academics from executive positions at Daewoo to professorships at MIT and Stanford. Dr. Bae is known as an advocate for the diffusion of IT and technology training within Korea, and in the past, has worked with Korea’s Ministry of Information and Communication to reform Korea’s telecommunications infrastructure and plan for the Internet. Dr. Bae currently sits on several advisory boards for start-up technology companies, in addition to S.C. Johnson and Citigroup. He is highly interested in how consumer behaviors will change with broadband technology, IT and broadband technology expansion in Korea, and how technology companies can better address the Asian market and its consumers.
	Jim Blasingame, US Jim Blasingame is the creator and host of the nationally syndicated, weekday radio/Internet talk show, “The Small Business Advocate,” and author of Small Business Is Like A Bunch Of Bananas. He brings the GCAB a comprehensive background in small business issues, and an intense passion for small business, which is evident in his extensive multi-media activity. Fortune Small Business identified Blasingame as one of the 30 most influential people in America representing small business, and he is a 2002 nominee for the SBA's Small Business Journalist of the Year award.
	Mark Boleat, United Kingdom Mark Boleat is a consumer policy and business representation consultant and a board member of the National Consumer Council (NCC), a non-departmental public body advocating consumer rights for more than 25 years in the United Kingdom. He brings to the GCAB the European consumer perspective of technology and related issues. And, as a small business owner, he understands the technology needs of small businesses.
	Dr. William Halal, US William Halal is a professor of management at George Washington University and on the board of directors of the World Future Society. He is an authority on emerging technology, strategic management and institutional change, a renowned author and developer of the GW Forecast - an electronic network of global experts who forecast emerging technology trends. Halal brings an expertise on future technologies and trends.
	Vicky Hung, China Vicky Hung is the chief operating officer of China Media Assets and senior vice president of global products for chinadotcom Corporation Limited, Asia’s leading Internet company. She helped chinadotcom Corporation Limited obtain its listing on the NASDAQ in July 1999. She is also founder of hongkong.com Limited, which she led until it was listed on the HK GEM board in March 2000. Hung’s knowledge of consumer technology trends in China and Hong Kong, along with her passion for new technologies and understanding of how consumers are using them, will provide the GCAB with a valuable perspective.
	Ken McEldowney, US Ken McEldowney is executive director of Consumer Action, a San Francisco-based consumer advocacy and education membership organization. He can offer the GCAB consumer perspective on technology solutions and the challenges consumers face with other industries. Consumer Action has worked on food, insurance, utility, privacy, toxics, health care, banking and telephone issues for 30 years. He chairs consumer-focused committees with the California Public Utilities Commission and the FCC.
	Enrico Mercanti, Italy Enrico Mercanti has launched four start-up companies in Italy, including two on-line banks. He is the managing director of the Italian on-line bank of Commerzbank, one of Germany’s and Europe’s leading private banks. His background has focused on consumer technology needs and he has served in consumer marketing positions for computing companies, such as Compaq, Dell and Siemens Nixdorf.
	Guangnan, Ni, Beijing, China Professor Ni is a well-known computer technologist, member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE), and currently works as a professor at the Institute of Computing Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). Guangnan Ni graduated from Nanjing Institute of Technology in 1961. He presided over the research and development of the Associate (Legend) Chinese Character System and Legend-series PC during his employment as Chief Technical Officer from 1984-1995 at Legend, which was recently renamed Lenova. He won the first prize for the State Award for Scientific & Technological Achievement in 1988 and 1992, has published more than 50 academic papers, and trained dozens of doctoral and master students. In 1990, Professor Ni was honored as an Expert of Outstanding Contribution (Young and Middle-aged Group) by the China State Council. In 1993, he was elected as a representative of the Eighth National People's Congress, and was one of the first academicians to be nominated to the Chinese Academy of Engineering, in 1994. In addition, in 1995 Professor Ni won an Award for Excellence from the Chinese Institute of Engineers in the U.S. He was also appointed a member of the Ninth National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference in 1998. Since 2002 he has been the president of the Chinese Information Processing Society of China.
	Tricia Parks, US Tricia Parks is the founder and president of Parks Associates, a consulting firm providing competitor, technology and consumer research to help clients deliver products and services that improve the quality of their customers’ lives. She brings to the GCAB research-based knowledge of consumers and emerging technologies. Parks also founded Wiring Americas' Homes, a consortium advocating for improved wiring capable of handling future digital needs in North American homes, now under the auspices of the Home Automation Association.
	Jose Ramalho, Brazil Jose Ramalho, a technology writer and syndicated columnist, reaches more than a million readers each day through columns and articles in three Brazilian publications: Folha de São Paulo, O Estado de Minas and Diário de Pernanbuco. Ramalho brings to the GCAB a breadth of experience in technology issues as they relate to the South American consumer. He has a practical knowledge of the technology market along with 17 years of professional experience working with and researching the Internet and technology issues.
	Dr. Carlos Scheel, Mexico Dr. Carlos Scheel is a professor at the Graduate School of Business (EGADE) of the Monterrey Institute of Technology in Monterrey, Mexico. He is also a Senior Research Fellow with the Innovation, Creativity and Capital (IC2) Institute of the University of Texas at Austin. Scheel is currently working with the IC2 Institute on the strategic uses of information technology and telecommunications in developing countries.
	Dr. Bernd Skiera, Germany Dr. Bernd Skiera is a professor and holds the first Electronic Commerce chair at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe-University in Frankfurt, Germany. He has been recognized and honored for his research and writings, including the “eBusiness Germany Award 2001,” and for best paper at the “INFORMS Marketing Science and the Internet Conference — Understanding Consumer Behavior on the Internet.”
	Dr. Hideyo Waki, Japan Dr. Hideyo Waki is a professor in the Information and Telecommunication Department at Tokyo Denki University. He studies computer architecture and local area networks. He was chairman of Open MPEG Windows® Forum Japan and participated on the advisory committee of Windows World/Tokyo. He was also an advisor of Windows Consortium Japan, OS/2 Consortium Japan, NetWare Consortium Japan, Useware Association and Desktop Management Task Force (DMTF) Japan. He is a vice chairman of Intelligent TV Forum Japan.
	Dr. Barry Wellman, Canada Dr. Barry Wellman is a sociology professor at the University of Toronto, as well as director of the University’s NetLab. Wellman studies social networks, collaborative work and the integration of the Internet into daily life. Last year, Wellman was awarded the Outstanding Lifetime Contribution Award by the Canadian Sociological and Anthropological Association. Wellman has co-edited a new book, The Internet in Everyday Life, to be published by Blackwell this summer. He will bring knowledge on technology and its impact on society from his research.