Keynote Speaker - Rich Karlgaard

Rich Karlgaard is the publisher of Forbes---the world's most popular business and financial magazine, read by 4.5 million people per issue. He also is the author of Life 2.0 How People Across America Are Transforming Their Lives by Finding the Where of Their Happiness, which was a 2004 Amazon and Wall Street Journal business best-seller.

In every issue of Forbes, Karlgaard writes a column called Digital Rules. It appears in the front pages of Forbes, directly after columns by Steve Forbes and Caspar Weinberger. In his Digital Rules column, Karlgaard writes about technology, entrepreneurship, regional and economic development, and the future of business and work. He also lectures on these subjects and is a regular guest on the Fox News Channel's Forbes on Fox.

Karlgaard joined Forbes in 1992 to start Forbes ASAP, a technology magazine, along with Forbes CEO and editor-in-chief Steve Forbes, and the futurist and writer George Gilder. At Forbes ASAP, Karlgaard commissioned original works by Tom Wolfe, Gore Vidal, John Updike and other notable American writers.

Karlgaard is an accomplished entrepreneur. He has co-founded two companies (Garage Technology Ventures, in 1997; and Upside Magazine in 1988) and one civic organization (the 2500-member Churchill Club in 1985). For the latter, he was a co-winner of the Ernst & Young Northern California "Entrepreneur of the Year" award.

His current board-of-director affiliations include Forbes.com, Garage Technology Ventures, and Extend America.

Karlgaard was raised in Bismark, North Dakota, and graduated from Stanford University with a B.A. in political science. Currently, he lives with his wife and two children in Northern California. When he is not working or spending time with his family, he likes to fly his airplane around the country and meet the people who make America unique and great.

Luncheon Speaker - Randal J. Kirk

Randal J. Kirk is chairman, president and chief executive officer of New River Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and has overseen the most successful initial public offering (IPO) in the United States since the company went public in 2004. He is also founder and has served as chairman and senior managing director of Third Security, LLC, an independent private investment and advisory firm, since 1999.

Kirk has more than 20 years of experience in the health-care industry. He began his professional career in the private practice of law. Kirk co-founded General Injectables & Vaccines, Inc., a pharmaceutical distributor (GIV), in 1983 and served as chairman of the board of GIV prior to the sale of that company in 1998. Previously, Kirk served as a member of the board of directors of Scios, Inc. (previously traded on NASDAQ and recently acquired by Johnson & Johnson) between February 2000 and May 2002. He has served on the board of directors of Harvest Pharmaceuticals Inc., a pharmaceutical company, since December 2002 and on the Virginia Bioinformatics Institute Policy Advisory Board since March, 2004.

Kirk also currently serves in a number of additional capacities: chairman of Biological & Popular Culture LLC, an automated proactive notification software and service company, since September 2002, and Chairman of its predecessor from October 1999 to September 2002; member of the board of directors of Howe and Rusling, Inc., a registered investment advisory firm, since December 2001; member of the board of directors of Michael W. Cook Asset Management, Inc., a registered investment advisory firm, since January 2003; and as chairman of the board of directors of Clinical Data, Inc. (NASDAQ SC: CLDA) since December 2004 and a member of this board of directors since September 2002.

Kirk has also served on the board of visitors of Radford University since July 2003 and on the board of directors of the Radford University Foundation, Inc. since September 1998. Kirk received a B.A. in Economics from Radford University and a J.D. from the University of Virginia.