Speaker/Panelist Biographies
John Villasenor
John Villasenor is a nonresident senior fellow in Governance Studies and the Center for Technology
Innovation at the Brookings Institution. He is also a professor of electrical engineering at the University
of California, Los Angeles. His current research interests lie in the technologies and policy implications
associated with how information is acquired, processed, stored, and delivered.
Professor Villasenor's research addresses the technology and policy challenges associated with trends
such as the move to cloud computing, the continued miniaturization of electronic circuits, the
globalization of technology product design and manufacturing, and the increasing demands on wireless
spectrum resources. His work spans multiple scales, ranging from the design of chips in which the circuit
features are thousands of times smaller than a human hair to the challenges of building next-generation
wireless cellular networks that can span hundreds of square miles. Professor Villasenor holds a B.S. from
the University of Virginia, and an M.S. and Ph.D. from Stanford University.
Olaf Barthelmai
Olaf Barthelmai is a Tax Partner with Cherry, Bekaert & Holland, and a leader with the Firm’s
International Tax group. He has over 20 years of experience helping both large and mid-size businesses
untangle the complex foreign and domestic tax issues associated with international expansion. Olaf
offers specialized services to clients in need of international tax planning, IC-DISC creation and
operation, global operations structuring, expatriate and foreign national returns, and dividend
repatriation, among others.
Michael Kuhn
Michael Kuhn practices in the areas of commercial, corporate and employment law, with a strong
emphasis on international matters. He represents U.S. companies engaged in projects in the U.S. and
abroad as well as European companies with business interests in the U.S. Mr. Kuhn has represented a
variety of emerging technology companies including biotech, high-tech manufacturing, software and
microelectronics. Mr. Kuhn is a member of the bars of Virginia, New York and Germany.
Gary Gilmore
Gary Gilmore has 15 years’ experience in interactive and print advertising. As Creative Director of
Access, an agency in Roanoke, Virginia, Gary oversees the creative development of all interactive work.
Gary started his career working with the Agricultural Department of Virginia Tech creating dynamic web
sites and then moved into the advertising agency arena. He serves as lead for national and international
clients such as Optical Cable Corporation and TMEIC and has developed scores of complex databasedriven interactive projects. Gary has earned many honors for advertising and interactive design, and has
been named Advertising Person of the Year by the Roanoke chapter of the American Advertising
Federation. Gary has also served an adjunct faculty member of Virginia Western Community College in
Roanoke teaching web design along with various print classes.