Hall of Fame Reception

Maria Azua
Vice President of Technology & Innovation CIO Office, Distinguished Engineer, IBM
Maria was hired by IBM in 1989 for her expertise in ORACLE databases and UNIX. Since then Maria has worked in a variety of projects including Image Plus, Point of Sales solutions, DOS, AIX, Microkernel, OS/2, Banking and Financial solutions (IFS), and cross industry solutions. Her breadth of knowledge expands from Operating Systems/device drivers to e-business.

In her IBM early career Maria developed and designed operating systems (UNIX, DOS, OS/2, Microkernel), device drivers, and Boot-Mangers.

However, Maria has reinvented herself into a solutions architect for e-Businesses and she has provided technical leadership to large IBM customers, in the financial markets, including Bank One, Bank of America and HSBC. She has designed IT solutions for the largest banks in the world and has proven her leadership in the Java Web server arena by having designed high-availability WebSphere servers with millions of consumers on production today.

Maria has a long history of technical contributions in Java design and e-business solutions that have allowed million of people to do "home banking". She is currently the SWG Financial Sector and Industry Standards Architect manager. Maria leads the overall SWG Industry Standards efforts and is the chairwoman of the Industry Solutions Architecture Board.

Maria«s extensive computer science background allowed her to make significant technical contributions in the area of Telecommunications, web servers, Transcoder technology, Java JVM, and data manipulation. Maria has 27 patents, 59 pending patents, and has achieved the 21st level Invention Plateau. Her patents cover a wide spectrum of technology including Tele-communications, web servers, Transcoder technology, Java implementation/enhancements, and data manipulation.

Maria is active in the community and she likes to mentor other technical people in the community. She has a very long list of proteges that she mentors and she is an active member of the IBM Multicultural community, La Red Familiar , LatinNet and other groups. She has made presentations to IBM professionals to educate and guide them on how to write patents and succeed in a technical career. Also, she is interested in the next generation and has made several presentations to middle school students to encourage them to follow a career in science and engineering.

Maria graduated Magna Cum Laude from University of Puerto Rico in 1982 and was awarded the "Facundo Bueso" medal given to the student with the highest g.p.a. in the physics department. She obtained a MS in Computer Science from University of Miami and MBA from Florida Atlantic University. Maria is an IBM certified IT Architect and certified Project Manager (PMP).

Francoise Barre-Sinoussi
Director of the Regulation of Retroviral Infections Unit, Institut Pasteur
Professor Fran¨oise Barrˇ-Sinoussi, co-discoverer of the virus responsible for AIDS, is totally dedicated as a scientist and human being to fighting this terrible disease.

Fran¨oise joined the Institut Pasteur in Paris in the early 70s. Her research quickly turned to a particular group of viruses, the retroviruses. Her knowledge in this field led her to discover the AIDS virus in 1983. This discovery quickly made available to the world the crucial diagnostic tests needed to control this disease.

She now runs an important Research Unit, which works on the impact of the innate defences of the host in controlling HIV/AIDS, as well as mother to child transmission. She has co-authored over 200 scientific publications.

In the course of her career, Fran¨oise has constantly sought to share her knowledge. She has participated in over 250 international conferences and has trained many young researchers

Fran¨oise has always actively contributed to several scientific societies and for committees at the Institut Pasteur and for other AIDS organizations, such as the National Agency for AIDS Research in France. She has also been implicated at an international level, notably as a consultant to WHO and UNAIDS-HIV.

Fran¨oise has initiated since the 80s collaborations with developing countries where she has managed with dedication multidisciplinary networks. She constantly works on establishing permanent links between basic research and clinical research with the aim of achieving concrete improvements in the areas of prevention, clinical care and treatment.

Throughout her career she has been guided by the values of Louis Pasteur, which she has adopted to constantly bring together research, public health and teaching.

Kim Jones
Vice President of Global Education and Research, Sun Microsystems
As Vice President of Global Education, Government and Health Sciences at Sun Microsystems Inc., Kim Jones leads a diverse organization committed to providing advanced technologies and services to key constituencies in the public sector. Her team is responsible for sales of Sun products and services into a variety of communities, including higher education, research, primary and secondary schools (K-12), defense and security, public safety, state and local government, healthcare and life sciences. Specific functions within Kim's organization include sales, strategic planning, marketing, business development, external research, programs and collaborations.

Prior to accepting this role in 2006, Kim was the Vice President of Global Education and Research and established Education as an independent Line of Business for Sun. In this capacity, she managed a worldwide staff of more than 300 employees in Europe, Asia, Latin America and the United States. Kim was promoted to this position from her role as Director of International Sales Development, where she drove industry sales development for Sun's international market, including Education, Telecommunications, Financial Services, Manufacturing, Government, Transportation, Petroleum and Healthcare. In this role, Kim managed two International Enterprise Centers in Geneva, Switzerland ,and Menlo Park, California, that supported the field sales teams located within the countries.

Kim is active in driving policy initiatives, evidenced by her testimony before the Congressional Web based Education Commission. She is also regularly featured as an honorary speaker on the impact of technology in education at influential meetings around the world, including NCTET, Sun Education Research Council Meetings and other education symposiums.

Having been with Sun since 1987, Kim brings with her a wealth of experience in various sales, business development, marketing, management, and senior leadership positions. Kim has been in the technology industry for over 20 years. Prior to joining Sun, she held a number of sales, marketing and management positions at Wang Laboratories and Xerox Corporation.

Kim serves on the Board of Trustees for the Western Governors University, the Board of Directors for the Global Education Learning Community (GELC), the Sun Foundation and the World Bank Institute Advisory Council. She also participates in the Business Higher Education Forum, and sits on Sun's Diversity Council. Most recently, Kim was elected a member of the Board of Directors at John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

In 2001, as testament to her superior performance, Kim received the Sun Leadership Award and served on Sun's leadership council. She also received the prestigious YWCA Award for Women in Business. Kim graduated with honors with a Bachelors of Arts degree from University of California, San Diego.

Nor Rae Spohn
Vice President, Business Imaging and Printing, Hewlett Packard
Nor Rae Spohn is vice president and general manager for HP's personal LaserJet Solutions for Hewlett Packard.

Nor Rae joined HP in 1980 as a R&D engineer and the disc drive division.She moced the LaserJet business in 1988 as a project manager responsible for the printer firmware in the LaserJet HP printer, HP's first personal LaserJet printer. Nor Rae continued her involvement in personal LaserJet prionters as project manager and section manager for personal LaserJet printers, including the best-selling LaserJet 4L and the HP LaserJet 1100 printer.

Nor Rae was named R&D manager for the personal LaserJet division in 1998 and was responsible for the development of the HP 3100 and 1100A, which launched HP into the personal laserjet multi-function space.Nor Rae was promoted to the product generation general manager for the personal LaserJet division in 2001. In that role, Nor Rae was responsible for product development for more than 22 million Personal LaserJet printers since 2001.

Nor Rae holds a Bachelor's of Science from Iowa Sate University in Computer Science and a Master's degree from Stanford in Electrical Engineering. She serves on a multiple community boards, including chair of Idaho Science, Mathematics and Technology Coalition; board members of the Treasure Vallet Mathematics & Science Center; member, advisory board, Boise State University School of Engineering, Nor Rae and her husband have two sons and reside in Boise, Idaho

Been-Jon Woo
Director, Technology Integration, Intel
BJ was born in and grew up in Taiwan . She moved to the US after finishing her Bachelor degree from National Taiwan University . She earned her PhD in Physical Chemistry at the University of Southern California . In 1983 BJ joined Intel as a Process Development Engineer. In BJ's 20+ years at the forefront of silicon technologies, she concentrated her work on semiconductor technology development. She progressively advanced from an individual contributor's role to being a technical manager, and now holds the position of Director of Technology Integration in Intel's Santa Clara Development facility. BJ's innovations AND technical leadership have spanned the development of Non-volatile memory as well as microprocessor logic technology. Along the way BJ has been awarded thirteen patents and been a presenter and publisher at two of the most significant technical conferences; The International Electron Devices Meeting and the VLSI symposium. BJ's work in the semiconductor industry has enabled Intel to be a technology leader. Her efforts have resulted in the advancement of devices we use in our everyday lives ranging from personal computers, cell phones and digital cameras. BJ has been a key contributor to the profound human condition advancement of technology through out her work in the semiconductor industry.

In the 1980's, BJ concentrated on Non-volatile technology development, and accumulated 13 patents for her work. In the 1990's and early 2000's, BJ shifted her focus into driving Intel's microprocessor performance and cost, leading teams to push microprocessor "Gigahertz" (GHz) clock speed and new generations of silicon technologies.

In 2002, BJ took a career excursion, and joined a new silicon foundry in Shanghai , China , as Vice President of Technology Development. There she started from scratch and built a technology development organization, co-led a brand new semiconductor factory startup, and successfully introduced advanced silicon technologies to manufacture a wide spectrum of products, ranging from computer chipset, read-only memory (ROM), Flash memory, to random access memories (RAM). In 2004 BJ moved back to the US and rejoined Intel as Director of Technology Integration and Development, responsible for driving multiple leading edge non-volatile-memory technologies concurrently, with amazing effectiveness. The new business and organization insight she acquired from her China experience has visibly added to her leadership in advancing the organization and the technologies.

BJ is an extremely well regarded role model among women engineers in Intel. She has amassed a very loyal following, and has an excellent drawing power among woman engineers and managers. Woman engineers looked up to her for her career success, her leadership, her technical ability, and her success in balancing work and home life. Many come to her for advice, and she readily and unselfishly give them all help. Her presence, success, and warmth are powerful motivator and inspiration to women engineers who work with or know of her.

BJ's 20+ years at the forefront of silicon technologies has been instrumental in enabling Intel's continuous achievement to stay on the famous "Moore's Law", and industry mandate, predicted by Intel founder Gordon Moore in late 1960's, to double the miniaturization of silicon devices every two year. This continuous miniaturization and advancement of silicon technology has had a profound effect in all of our daily lives, enabling the advancements in every aspect of electronics, ranging from personal computer, internet, cell phones, to everything electronic.

As an immigrant to the US from conservative Taiwan, as a young adult after college, she had to overcome language barrier and cultural difference to get assimilated into the new land. She chose a career dominated by male her, and believed she had to work harder and deliver more to secure respects among her male counterpart. As a wife and mother of two daughters, she had to make choices as she tried to balance work and family life. This was especially difficult for an Asian woman who was raised with the value primarily as a family woman. She credits her supportive husband in helping her through difficult times and decisions, sharing family and child-raising responsibilities throughout, and enabling her to strike a successful balance between work and home. Still there were very tough moments and tough choices she and her husband had to make. BJ is very generous in sharing her experience and advices with fellow women colleagues and friends who seek consultation from her.

BJ embodied the Intel value of risk taking when she and her husband moved overseas to broaden her career portfolio. As a result she was rewarded with a fulfilling and highly beneficial leadership and business experience invaluable to her present and future career.