Events

Paul Johnson, was named superintendent of Los Gatos Union School District in May 2018.  He was previously superintendent of the Mill Valley School District in Marin County for seven years. He was also superintendent of the Loomis School District near Sacramento.  He started his education career in 1987 as a teacher in Riverside and also worked as an assistant principal, principal and assistant superintendent.   He and his wife Debbie made the move to the Bay area.  

In 1973, I settled in Los Gatos with my husband, Ira, and quickly became involved in community issues. I was a member of the Los Gatos Planning Commission between 1980 and 1988, often serving as either Chair or Vice-Chair. During my tenure, the Commission developed new zoning ordinances, the Hillside Plan, the Downtown Specific Plan, and a revised General Plan to protect our hillsides, historic homes, neighborhoods and local businesses.

I am a native of Northern California and grew up on a farm in Stockton where I went to the same one-room school house that my father had attended. I moved to the Bay Area and obtained the following degrees and credentials:
 B.A., English, University of California at Berkeley 1966
 Secondary and Community College Teaching Credentials, San Jose State University 1968 &
1974
 M.A., Political Science, San Jose State University 1974
 J.D., magna cum laude, University of Santa Clara School of Law 1978
 Harvard Law School, Mediator Certification 1994
 Harvard Law School, Negotiation Certification 1995

Formerly a high school English teacher, I have been an attorney since 1978. I serve as Special Counsel to the law firm of Hoge, Fenton, Jones & Appel where, in addition to my civil litigation and mediation practice, I am regularly appointed by state and federal courts to resolve disputes without trial as a judge pro tem, a special master, a judicial arbitrator and a mediator. For three years, I have been selected by my Northern California colleagues as a "Super Lawyer," and, in 2003, my volunteer services to the legal profession and the community earned me the Bar Association's highest honor, the Bryl Salsman Award.

In 2007/08 and in 2012/13, I served as Mayor of Los Gatos and during my tenure on our town council, I have represented Los Gatos on regional bodies including the Association of Bay Area Government (ABAG) General Assembly, the Guadalupe West Valley Water Shed Advisory Committee, the Santa Clara Valley Water District Commission, the Housing and Community Development Advisory Committee, and the Santa Clara County Cities Association City Selection Committee.

Additionally, I have served on the Town Council’s Policy, General Plan, Finance, Conceptual Development and North 40 Advisory committees, and Highway 9 projects.
All that I do for our Town is a product of the passion I have always had for our community as reflected in the following Sunset magazine passage written in 1915:

"To see Los Gatos is to love the town. To enjoy the privilege of a few days' or weeks' stay within the gates of that beautiful city of 3,500 souls is to wish to come again. And to become a permanent resident there is to lie in paradise, if such there be on this earth.”

Lloyd Russell will interview Rayme about the ins and outs writing and publishing process in the digital age with time for audience questions.  

Born in San Francisco, Rayme Waters grew up in Northern California and the city of Linköping, Sweden. Her short stories, from the collection The Island of Misfit Girls, have been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and a Dzanc Award and awarded a storySouth Notable Story distinction. Rayme’s debut novel, The Angels’ Share, is the story of a young woman rebuilding her life while working at a small Sonoma County winery. She lives with her family in Palo Alto, California where she is working on her next novel, Quicksilver. 

Read a Q & A with Rayme Waters.
Follow Rayme on Facebook & Twitter

Abstract
John Markoff will speak on covering artificial intelligence and robots for the New York Times and other publications. He began reporting on Silicon Valley in 1977 and shifted his focus to machine intelligence beginning with the Pentagon's self driving vehicle grand challenge in 2004. He broke the story of Google's self driving car program in 2010 and his story on the rapid advances in neural networks appeared on the paper's front page in 2012.

BIO:
John Markoff, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, wrote for The New York Times’ science and technology beat for 28 years, where he was widely regarded as the paper’s star technology reporter. He is currently a Fellow at Stanford University’s Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences. He has been a lecturer at the University of California at Berkeley School of Journalism, and an adjunct faculty member at the Stanford Graduate Program on Journalism. In 2013, Markoff was part of a Pulitzer Prize-winning team for Explanatory Reporting “for its penetrating look into business practices by Apple and other technology companies that illustrates the darker side of a changing global economy for workers and consumers.”

His books include: The High Cost of High Tech (with Lennie Siegel); Cyberpunk: Outlaws and Hackers on the Computer Frontier (with Katie Hafner); Takedown: The Pursuit and Capture of America’s Most Wanted Computer Outlaw (with Tsutomu Shimomura); What the Dormouse Said: How the Sixties Counterculture Shaped the Personal Computer Industry; andMachines of Loving Grace: The Quest for Common Ground Between Humans and Robots. Markoff is currently working on a biography of Stewart Brand.

Markoff continues to work as a freelance journalist for The Times and other organizations and volunteers at the Computer History Museum.

Netflix leads the transition to a pure streaming (internet) entertainment world but big competition in Disney, Apple, Warner, and Fox are racing to catch up.  Will Netflix maintain it's lead?  Was does it take to succeed in this new world of scale and global tastes?  David Wells, former CFO of Netflix and 15 year veteran will speak to the evolution of our entertainment world away from the cable and satellite system that saw it expand from 3 broadcast networks to over 100+ specialty channels.  What's next in the world of streaming?

BIO:
David Wells served as Netflix’s CFO for 8 years, retiring in early 2019 after nearly 15 years with the company and having served as VP of Financial Planning and Analysis prior to CFO.  His responsibilities included strategic planning, corporate development, and a number of operating duties including customer service and real estate.

Prior to joining Netflix, Mr. Wells served in progressive roles at Deloitte Consulting for 6 years and in the non-profit world before getting his MBA.  Mr. Wells joined the Board of public ad tech company, The Trade Desk, in January 2016 and private fintech Transferwise in January 2019.  He also serves as an advisor to several growth stage private companies.  

His focus is currently on how to best bring his skills to the NGO and non profit world.  Mr. Wells holds a joint MBA/MPP Magna Cum Laude from The University of Chicago and a Bachelor's Degree in Commerce from the University of Virginia.  He loves spending time with his wife and 12 year old daughter doing anything outside.