Judge Bios

Contestants will complete a series of business-pitching tasks in front of celebrity judges. Those judges are:

Holly Files (September 23rd, October 14th contests only)
Holly Files is a principal at Stephens & Associates, a consulting company focusing on the areas of customer operations, information technology and organizational development. She works with start-ups/early stage organizations and companies going through significant change events (acquisitions, re-organization, etc).

Prior to Stephens & Associates she was SVP of WW Support, Services & IT for NetIQ, overseeing all facets of the business that touched NetIQ’s customers. Previous to NetIQ, she was CIO of 800.com, VP of WW Client Services for WebTrends and held various operations and support management roles at Radiant Systems, Sequent Computers, Clientele Software, Fourth Shift Software and ParcPlace-Digitalk.

Kathi O'Neil
Portland Picks founder, Kathi O'Neil, started her career in Manhattan with Hearst Magazines and The Hearst Corporation. As a native Oregonian, O'Neil and her husband returned to Portland in the early 90's. There O'Neil started Westover Media, a full-service marketing firm whose partial list of clients include: Elle, In Style, Lucky, Tom's of Maine, Oprah, Gourmet, The New Yorker, Town and Country, Vogue, Vanity Fair, Conde Nast Traveler, W and Health, to name a few.

O’Neil is also the founder of Portland Picks, a subscription-driven weekly newsletter delivered to subscribers each Friday via email. It is a fun and sassy newsletter of City Secrets delivered straight to the inboxes of Portland’s finest.
Portland Picks is a full-service site, giving you the skinny on all of the happenings in the city and surrounding areas, with the occasional essential online destination. Portland Picks is “Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice.”

O’Neil is also actively involved with OHSU Center for Women’s Health and is Co-chair of the Riverdale School Foundation. O’Neil was a Featured Lady on Ladies Who Launch and is actively involved in promoting women and business.

Denise Barnes
Denise Barnes joined Babcock & Jenkins in 1998 and is the chief operations officer and general manager.

Barnes has over 20 years high-tech marketing experience. Prior to joining Babcock & Jenkins she was VP of Operations and Marketing for Creative Multimedia, a pioneer in branded CD-ROM and online content working with brands such as Sports Illustrated, Golf Digest, Travel & Leisure, Blockbuster Entertainment, Billboard Magazine and many others. Before joining Creative Multimedia she drove marketing efforts for E-Machines, an early pioneer in Apple Macintosh peripherals which was later sold but the brand remains strong.

(NEW) Gillian Floren (October 12th contest final only)
Gillian Floren is the publisher of Oregon Business magazine and executive editor for its parent company, Mediamerica. She was editor of Oregon Business for six years before being named publisher last year.

Gillian is an Oregon native (born in Hillsboro) who returned to her home state seven years ago after two decades away. She spent half of that time in Durham/Chapel Hill, North Carolina, where she served as editor of The Independent, a news weekly specializing in advocacy journalism focused on local political, social and cultural issues. The weekly won numerous national awards for its investigative and local reporting under her editorial leadership.

During her years as a journalist, Gillian’s seen both sides of the editorial desk, having been reporter, writer and editor. Holding a master’s in journalism from the University of North Carolina, she has taught journalism courses for Duke University’s young writers program, Linfield College and the University of Asmara, Eritrea, in Northeastern Africa.

She is an American Leadership Forum senior fellow, and serves on the boards of the Oregon Independent Colleges Foundation and the Portland YWCA, as well as the Concordia School of Business Management board of visitors.

(NEW) Brenda Meltebeke (October 12th contest final only)
Brenda is a Partner at Ater Wynee LLP. Brenda Meltebeke has a broad securities law practice, including venture capital financings, mergers and acquisitions, public and private offerings of securities, and state and federal regulation of securities. She is chair of the firm’s Business Department.

Brenda also has substantial experience in general corporate law representing emerging growth companies in a variety of matters, including forming and dissolving corporations, and negotiating and documenting various contractual arrangements such as shareholder, investor rights and voting agreements.

She is on the Steering Committee for the Women’s Investment Network, on the Advisory Board for the Link for Women, a board member of the Software Association of Oregon and on the Startup Services Committee at Oregon Entrepreneurs Forum.