Mark Kortekaas - Senior Vice President & CTO, CBS Interactive
Mark Kortekaas is currently responsible for all technology aspects for the national web sites: cbs.com, cbsnews.com and cbssports.com. In this role he reports to the Chief Operating Officer of CBS Interactive.
At CBS he has also been responsible for all Information Systems operations for the CBS Corporation, overseeing data center operations, data/telecom networking, corporate messaging, data security, desktop and call center support. In this role Mark reported to the Chief Information Officer, CBS Corporation, as Vice President Operations.
Prior to joining CBS, Mark was Senior Vice President for Technology at Sony Online Entertainment, a leading online entertainment and games company. He was directly responsible for all technology operations and development for The Station@sony.com, one of the world's most popular game destinations on the Internet. He oversaw the creation of a robust, highly scalable game platform that supported millions of customers of dozens of online games, including the online phenomenon, Everquest, along with Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy! Online.
Earlier as a software programmer Mark helped develop the technology behind several initiatives at NBC which led to the development of NBC.com, MSNBC.com and CNBC Desktop Video.
Mark has a Bachelor's of Fine Arts Degree in Photography from New York University. In addition, he holds a Master's of Science Degree from the Media Laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Though Mark's programming today is best defined as "crappy perl hacks", he remains a firm believer in open source technologies. He has been a user of Linux since it's earliest days and requires his system admins to install emacs despite their arguments that vi works better.
A native of Chicago, Mark lives in Connecticut with his wife Marina and their two children.
Jeff Ma - With a tremendous passion for sports, Jeff co-founded PROTRADE in 2004 and is a tireless evangelist for the PROTRADE mission. He has done consulting
work for a variety of professional teams including the San Francisco 49ers
and Portland Trail Blazers and is currently leading PROTRADE's new video
effort called DoublePlay TV. His analysis has been featured in many media
outlets including ESPN, MLB.com, Sports Illustrated and Sirius Radio. He has
been the technology lead for two internet startups and was an options trader
on the Chicago Board of Options Exchange. He gained notoriety as the
protagonist, under the name Kevin Lewis, in the New York Times bestseller
Bringing Down the House, the story of the MIT blackjack team. Jeff is a
graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a degree in
mechanical engineering.
MODERATOR
Chris Lee, a 23-year veteran of fantasy sports, is the author of “The Winner’s Guide to Fantasy Baseball” and is working on a book tentatively titled “The Winner’s Guide to Ranking and Valuing Players for Fantasy Football” that is scheduled for completion and publication later this spring. He is the Publisher for the Rivals.com’s Vanderbilt site, VandySports.com, and has done freelance work in covering college baseball, college football, college basketball and professional hockey for the Associated Press, The Nashville City Paper, CSTV.com, The SportsXchange and other media outlets over the past two years. He received an M.A. from Lipscomb University in Business Administration in 1993 and an M.B.A. from Middle Tennessee State University in 1999. He lives in Nashville, Tenn., is employed full-time by O’More College of Design as its Dean of Enrollment and a Professor of Economics and is engaged to be married to Kristin Ann Eberhardt on March 1.
