Jennifer Aaker

A social psychologist and marketer, Jennifer Aaker is the General Atlantic Professor of Marketing at Stanford University's Graduate School of Business. Her research spans time, money, and happiness. She focuses on questions such as What actually makes people happy, as opposed to what they think makes them happy? How do small acts create significant change? and How can those effects be fueled by social media? She is widely published in the leading scholarly journals in psychology and marketing, and her work has been featured in a variety of media including The Economist, The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, BusinessWeek, Forbes, CBS MoneyWatch, NPR, Science, Inc., and Cosmopolitan.

A sought-after teacher in the field of marketing, Professor Aaker teaches in many of Stanford's Executive Education programs, as well as MBA electives including Building Innovative Brands, How to Tell a Story, and The Power of Social Technology. Recipient of the Distinguished Teaching Award, Citibank Best Teacher Award, George Robbins Best Teacher Award, and both the Spence and Fletcher Jones Faculty Scholar Awards, she has also taught at UC Berkeley, UCLA, and Columbia.

A homegrown Californian, Jennifer has studied at the Sorbonne, and counts winning a dance-off in the early 1980s among her most impressive accomplishments.

Andy Smith

An economist and tech marketer by training, Andy Smith is a principal of Vonavona Ventures, where he advises and bootstraps technical and social ventures with guidance in marketing, customer strategy, and operations. Over the past twenty years, he has served as an executive in the high tech industry leading teams at Dolby Labs, BIGWORDS, LiquidWit, Intel, Analysis Group, Polaroid, Integral Inc., and PriceWaterhouseCoopers.

As a guest lecturer at Stanford's Graduate School of Business, Andy speaks on social technology, engineering virality, and brand building, with a focus on applying technology to address real problems. He is a contributor to GOOD Magazine, where he writes on businesses that embrace and integrate a social mission. He has also spoken at World 50, Marketing Week, Intel, TechCore, and Interbrand, and is on the boards of 140 Proof, ProFounder, LIF Brands, Everywun, and One Family One Meal. Andy earned his MBA at UCLA's Anderson School and holds an economics degree from Pomona College.

A gardener, gadgeteer, and serious tech geek, Andy is the creator of "The No Cookie Diet" (which he's still on two years later). Once bumped from a flight that tragically crashed, he has since learned to accept travel mishaps, and most everything else, with equanimity.

Spouses and coauthors, Jennifer and Andy live in Lafayette, California, with their two little dudes and a princess.