StudentPlanet Board of Directors
Stephen Furney-Howe
Steve Furney-Howe is a Vice President of Corporate Development for Sun Microsystems, focused on managing Sun's overall business relationship with Fujitsu Limited. Furney-Howe has spent 15 years in various executive positions at Sun Microsystems during which time he lived in Japan for six years and had a total of 13 years experience building, developing, and managing business operations in the Asia-Pacific region. Prior to joining Sun, Furney-Howe was a principle in Knowledge Edge, Inc., a professional services organization focused on corporate and marketing strategy development. Furney-Howe started his professional career working for the California Coastal Commission, developing and managing coastal land use policies. While at the Coastal Commission, he co-authored the California Coastal Access Guide, published by the University of California Press. Furney-Howe holds B.S. and MBA degrees from Stanford University.
Mark Opperman
Mark Opperman is a former executive of Sun Microsystems with extensive international experience in Europe, Asia, and Australia. At Sun, he spearheaded the development of Sun's Java business in Asia-Pacific and was based in Tokyo for three years. In addition to Tokyo, he has lived and worked in London, Beijing, Lausanne, and Paris. Prior to joining Sun, Mr. Opperman taught at Beijing University, designed tools for embedded game software development, designed systems for automated quality assurance testing of the Apple Lisa, programmed head-up displays for NASA, and programmed the tracking system for NASA's Voyager mission. In 2000, he established the Oumu Foundation to enable virtual exchanges between students in China and the U.S. using the internet and digital video technology. He holds a B.S. from Stanford University in Mathematical Sciences and a M.S. in Computer Science from the University of California at Berkeley.
Laarni von Ruden
Laarni von Ruden is a CPA with a private practice in Palo Alto, California focusing on nonprofit organizations, small businesses, and special government districts. She received her Masters in Accounting from Northeastern University and a B.A. in Chinese Studies from Wellesley College. She serves as treasurer and as the chairperson of the Not for Profit and Governmental Accounting Committee of the MidPeninsula Chapter of the California Society of Certified Public Accountants. She also serves on several boards of not for profit organizations in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Advisory Board
John Basset
John Basset is an attorney with Niven & Smith in San Francisco. He has a J.D. from the University of California Hastings College of the Law and a B.A. from Stanford University.
Jili Jiang
Jili Jiang is an author and founder of East-West Exchange, a company that promotes and facilitates cultural and business exchanges between China and western countries. For over twenty years she nursed the memories of her childhood, and finally brought them to life in Red Scarf Girl, her first book in 1997. In 2001, her adaptation of the classic Chinese story, Magical Monkey King--Mischief in Heaven was first serialized in over 100 newspapers. The story was published in book form in 2002. In addition to writing, she gives speeches about her book and the life in China. She has visited hundreds of schools, conferences and conventions and talked to thousands of people in the past seven years since her first book was published. She also devotes her time to various cultural exchange programs, including bringing American entertainers to participate art festivals in China; sending doctors to China to study alternative medicine, and organizing groups to have a cultural trip to China.
Kelly Kobza
Kelly Kobza graduated from the California Institute of Integral Studies with a B.A. in Integral Studies. After teaching for several years in private education, Kobza joined the Palo Alto Unified School District for four years, as a teacher in the Connections program. She is a member of the National Consortium for Teaching about Asia, and currently works TEFL International in Seville, Spain. A mindful, compassionate and deeply committed educator, she has traveled in Asia and is dedicated to facilitating understanding in youth of many cultures.
Margot Landman
Margot Landman is the Senior Director for Education Programs at the National Committee on United States--China Relations. Previously, she directed the Teachers Exchange Program from the American Council of Learned Societies and was Assistant Director of the East Asian Institute at Columbia University (1992-95), Associate Director of the East Asian Legal Studies Program at Harvard University (1991-92), and Program Coordinator for the Committee on Legal Education Exchange with China, based at Columbia Law School (1987-1991). Landman was among the first Americans invited to teach in China after diplomatic recognition (1979-81), and she stayed on in China for a third year to continue her Chinese language study and to work at the newly established CBS News bureau in Beijing. Upon her return to the United States, she began working in educational and arts exchange between the U.S. and China (1983-86). She received her B.A. in Chinese language and history from Brown University and her master's degree in international affairs from Columbia University.
Paul Mooney
Paul Mooney is an American freelance journalist who has reported on China, Taiwan and Hong Kong since 1985. At various times, he has been on staff at Newsweek, the Far Eastern Economic Review, Eastern Express and Knight-Ridder Financial News. His articles have appeared in leading publications around the world, including Newsweek, the Far Eastern Economic Review, Asiaweek, the International Herald Tribune, South China Morning Post, San Francisco Chronicle, Boston Globe, Washington Post, Asian Wall Street Journal and many others. Mooney, the author of three travel books on Taiwan and China, has been based in Beijing since 1994.
Gary Mukai
A specialist on social studies curriculum development, Gary Mukai is the director of the Stanford Program on International and Cross-cultural Education (SPICE), Stanford University. He has worked at Stanford for 16 years. Prior to this, he was a teacher in Japan and California. Mukai's area of interest is curriculum development on Asia, U.S.-Asian relations, and the Asian-American experience. He is a graduate of U.C. Berkeley and Stanford University. He has published elementary and secondary school curriculum on areas such as history, environment, media, international security, economics, civil rights, and migration.
Michael Rubin
Michael Rubin is an author, editor, strategist and teacher of nonlinear editing and personal digital video technologies. He has worked at Lucasfilm, SonicSolutions, and CMX as well as an instructor for the Editor's Guild in Hollywood and UCLA Extension. Rubin has lectured internationally on nonlinear editing at the EFFECTS conference in Hamburg, Germany, the International Television Symposium in Montreux, Switzerland, and for the Directors Guild in Hollywood, California. He is the author of five books on digital video and editing, including The Little Digital Video Book and iLife '04 Apple Training Series. He is also CEO and co-founder of Petroglyph, the pioneer of "paint-your-own" ceramics studios. He holds a B.S. from Brown University. Today, Rubin continues to teach, write and consult.
William Schaffer
William Schaffer lives in the San Francisco Bay area. He is a graduate of Columbia University and Harvard Law School. After working as a lawyer for the Department of State he worked for several years as a consultant to developing countries in the fields of management development and alternative energy. He then worked for seventeen years in international sales in the computer hardware and software industry. He is now a full-time writer, and has four published books, as well as articles written for various publications, including The Wall Street Journal.