CHRIS CANAZARO
Director, Silicon Valley Bank
Chris Canazaro leads the Silicon Valley Bank relationship banking team working with companies in the innovation economy across Oregon & Idaho from day one through IPO.
Chris started his banking career in Portland after finishing his MBA at the University of Oregon in 2012. Prior to business school Chris was a Quality Engineer working on government projects across the U.S. for Bechtel. He graduated with a degree in economics from Florida State University in 2004. When not at work or studying for Level III of the CFA exams, Chris can be found wandering around the northwest in search of the next great IPA or Pinot Noir with his wife Renee and (very) old lab Cooper.
BEN ERTISCHEK
Founder & CEO, CSquire
Ben Ertischek’s fundamental belief for building successful businesses can be tied to one of his favorite quotes by Arther Ashe – “To achieve greatness, start where you are, use what you have, and do what you can”. As an executive with more than 20 years of responsibility for Finance, Accounting, IT Systems & Applications, Strategy and Business Development, Ben thrives on building businesses by nurturing ideas and people working in collaborative teams. His passion and commitment to evolve ideas, develop people and build successful businesses is second only to his ability to think outside the box, challenge the status quo and cast a vision for what can be. Named CFO of The Year by the Portland Business Journal, Ben played a key part in moving a small, family owned construction software business to a mid-sized private company with more than $150 million in revenue. Ben and his wife Kristen live in Portland, Oregon and are proud parents of 4 children.
ELISABETH RICHARD
Vice President and CIO, Greenbrier
Elisabeth Richard is currently CIO at VP / CIO at Greenbrier Companies. With over 20 years of expertise in IT Strategy and execution, she has led operational improvement and transformational global initiatives to support market expansion and improve operational performance. Prior to Greenbrier, Ms. Richard worked at Visa leading the reengineering of Sales, Service, and Marketing to support a new go-to market strategy. While at Visa, she led product evaluation, definition of value maps, implementation strategy and execution with a focus on security, mobility, self-service, and customer experience. While at Gap, Ms. Richard led the IT strategy and execution for the launch of Gap brand into China and expansion of the Franchise business to 26 countries. In this role, she led the selection of the application footprint and the implementation to support stores in Shanghai and Beijing. She established an IT sourcing model to support business operations in International locations: Europe, Japan, China and led teams in these geographies. Ms. Richard served as the London based International CIO and was a member of the Gap Europe Leadership Team. In this role, she created an International Retail center of excellence to support business growth. Ms. Richard holds a Bachelor of Sciences in Business.
