Gutterman is a partner at the San Francisco and Silicon Valley offices of The General Counsel, a provider of interim in-house general counsel and attorney recruitment services. He has more than two decades of experience with internationally recognized law firms counseling small and large business enterprises in the areas of general corporate and securities matters, venture capital, mergers and acquisitions, international law and transactions, strategic business alliances, technology transfers, and intellectual property. In addition, he has held senior management positions with several technology-based businesses.
Gutterman has served in a number of capacities within the Sections of Business Law, International Law and Practice, and Science and Technology of the American Bar Association, and he is currently the co-chair of the Asia/Pacific Committee of the ABA International Law Section and a member of the Executive Committee of the Business Law Section of the State Bar of California. He received his A.B., M.B.A., and J.D. from the University of California at Berkeley, a D.B.A. from Golden Gate University, and a Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge.
He has published numerous books and articles on a diverse range of legal and business topics and has served as an adjunct professor and lecturer on corporate finance, venture capital, corporate law, Japanese business law, and law and economic development.
R. L. Smith McKeithen is an executive vice president of Cadence Design Systems Inc., responsible for Cadence’s worldwide Corporate Affairs activities, including public policy, community involvement, the Cadence Security Initiative, and related security matters. Mr. McKeithen led Cadence’s worldwide Legal Department and served as its general counsel from 1996 to 2008. A practicing attorney for over thirty years, Mr. McKeithen has served as an officer and general counsel for a number of high technology companies in Silicon Valley, including Activision, Inc., Strategic Mapping, Inc., and Silicon Graphics, Inc. Prior to his work in corporate practice, he was with law firms in New York and San Francisco. Mr. McKeithen’s public service includes serving as counsel on the Impeachment Inquiry Staff of the Committee on the Judiciary of the U.S. House of Representatives, and active duty as an artillery officer in the United States Army. He is a member of the board of directors of The Tech Museum of Innovation. Mr. McKeithen received his undergraduate degree from Davidson College and his Juris Doctor degree from Columbia Law School.
Michael O’Neill is senior vice president and general counsel at Lenovo Group Limited, and has worldwide oversight for the company’s legal, corporate governance, security and government relations activities. Prior to joining Lenovo, Mr. O’Neill was a partner at Howrey LLP, where he led the firm’s international business and opened its European office. Mr. O’Neill worked at Honeywell for 16 years in a variety of roles, culminating as vice president and general counsel for Transportation and Power Systems. Before that he served as vice president and general counsel for Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. Earlier roles included serving as vice president and associate general counsel for Corporate and Human Resources and assistant general for Government Business and Technology Centers. In addition to his legal roles, he served as vice president of Global Contract Management for 10 years. Prior to joining Honeywell, he served as in-house counsel at Westinghouse at the Defense & Electronics Center. Mr. O’Neill holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from Belmont Abbey College, both a law degree and an MBA from the University of Baltimore, and a master’s degree in Government Contracting from George Washington University. He also has served on various boards, most recently that of TRW International.
Ronald Prague is vice president and general counsel of Synchronoss Technologies Inc., a publicly-held company based in Bridgewater, New Jersey, where he is responsible for all of the company’s legal affairs. Synchronoss is a provider of on-demand transaction management software to communications service providers. Prior to joining Synchronoss, Mr. Prague held several positions with Intel Corporation, most recently as group counsel for Intel's Communication Infrastructure Group. Mr. Prague also practices law with the New York law firms of Haythe & Curley (now Torys LLP) and Richards & O'Neil (now Bingham McCutchen) where he focused on mergers & acquisition, securities, intellectual property, and litigation matters. Mr. Prague is a frequent speaker at various legal conferences and has over fifteen years of experience doing global transactions in the telecommunications market. He is a member of the board of directors of the New Corporate Counsel Association and is co-chairperson of the NJCCA Technologies Industries Committee. Mr. Prague is a graduate of Northwestern University School of Law and received a B.S., with distinction, from Cornell University.
John Stanley serves as senior counsel at Lenovo Group Limited, with responsibilities for Human Resources and general corporate matters. He joined Lenovo in May 2005, immediately following Lenovo's acquisition of IBM's PC business. Prior to joining Lenovo, Mr. Stanley was Assistant General Counsel for the Federal Communications Commission, and Legal Advisor on Competition Policy to one of the Commissioners. Mr. Stanley has also worked in private practice as an Associate at the Washington D.C. firm of Wiley & Rein, specializing in administrative law and general appellate litigation. He holds a JD from the University of Michigan Law School and a B.A. from Harvard College.
Deborah Stringer is the corporate director of Contracts and Purchasing at VT MILCOM Inc. She provides leadership to three contracts, and previously twenty-one purchasing staff located across ten division offices for an 850 employee $130M firm, specializing in communications design and installations for shore, ship, and submarines. She is an integral part of a five person proposal team responsible for the successful award of 500M and 600M IDIQ Prime Contracts. Ms. Stringer spearheaded the ISO 9001:1994 and ISO 9001:2000 contract audit, the firm’s first CPSR audit and revised the small business subcontracting process. She produced legal agreements and successfully negotiated +1000 contracts to present for USG, commercial, international, and domestic programs. She initiated monthly training programs in contracts/procurement for program, project and task managers, and contract/procurement personnel. Ms. Stringer is responsible for successful troubleshooting and negotiation of claims, settlements, and disputes for financial recovery. Before MILCOM, Ms. Stringer was the chief financial officer for ALIRON International, Inc. where she established internal audits for accounting, procurement and contract compliance for a diversified health care and telemedicine corporation, resulting in streamlined procedures, decreased indirect expenditures, recentralization of field operations and risk mitigation. From 1992 to 1998 Ms. Stringer was the chief contracting officer for PADCO. She coordinated the restructuring of an international urban planning/development firm specializing in developing country critical reform for expansion and diversification and provided strategic direction and daily management for contractual, financial, proposal, logistical, human resource and administrative divisions. Ms. Stringer was the senior cost manager of Business Development at Frank E. Basil, Inc. from 1991 to 1992 where she managed the business development cost/price bid packages for a multi-diversified international/domestic corporation, specializing in life support, environment, base operation and maintenance (BASOPS), real estate, architecture and construction services. From 1983 to 1991 she was the operations and contracts manager at Advanced Digital/Communication Systems, Inc. and the financial officer and business manager for The Van Group Inc. from 1977 to 1983. Ms. Stringer’s client experience includes the AID, CIA, DOA, DOD, Departments of the Army, Navy, & Air Force (various), DOE, DOL, DOT, EPA, FBI, GSA, HHS, HUD, IHS, International and Domestic commercial, Job Corps, JUSTICE, multilateral banks, U.S. private/commercial sector, STATE Department, Treasury Department, state, county and local governments, universities, and United Nations. Ms. Stringer was selected by the Department of Treasury to rewrite the World Bank's standard international loan contract, which was successfully approved and adopted. She received the Distinguished Service Award in 1996 from the Professional Services Council and is a founding member of the Business Alliance for International Economic Development. Ms. Stringer has initiated/conducted training seminars and briefings on procurement reform, USG regulations, best practices, cost efficiencies, systems streamlining, overhead reduction methodologies, performance based contract history and strategies, contract maximizing and requested topics for companies, clients and industry. Ms. Stringer graduated from the University of Virginia. She has professional experience in eighty countries within the NIS and Southern Caucuses, Eastern Europe, the Pacific Rim, Central and South America, Africa and the Middle East and most of the U.S.
