Bright Buffalo Niagara is very excited to have some of the most creative people in industry and investing speaking at this year's events. Following are bios of just a few of the people speaking or leading a Bright event,  including The Bright Forum Keynote Speaker, Hatim Tyabji (below) as well as Katherine Mott, Robert Okabe and Bill Payne.

Hatim Tyabji - Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Bytemobile, Inc.

Hatim Tyabji’s life and career are embodied in the words of the playwright George Bernard Shaw: Some men see things as they are, and say, “Why?” I dream of things that never were, and say, “Why not?”

As chairman and CEO of VeriFone (NYSE), Tyabji created the world’s first virtual company a decade before the advent of the Internet and two decades before the publication of Thomas L. Friedman’s The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century. Tyabji is a recipient of the Academy of Management’s Distinguished Executive of the Year Award, the Silicon India Lifetime Achievement award, and the Point Of Sale (POS) Industry’s Lifetime Achievement award.

After three heart attacks and open heart surgery, Tyabji was told by his cardiologist that he would never ski again. Less than three years later, mind triumphed over matter, as he returned to the slopes and renewed his passion for the sport. In 2005, he completed one of the world’s highest bungee jumps at Victoria Falls on the border of Zambia and Zimbabwe. The same year, he dove among 16-foot great white sharks in the waters off Cape Town, South Africa. Tyabji has also gone cliff jumping and recently took trapeze lessons.

Living life to the fullest, both intellectually and physically, Tyabji has been relentless in his pursuit of excellence. He is committed to a system of values inculcated in him at an early age. He has instilled these values at the core of several successful companies under his leadership. Tyabji’s pioneering organizational practices are documented in two Harvard Business School cases.

Tyabji is chairman and CEO of Bytemobile, progenitor of the Fourth Wave of Computing — the Mobile Internet. He is also chairman of Jasper Wireless. Tyabji serves on the boards of Best Buy (NYSE), Merchant eSolutions, Sierra Atlantic, Touch Networks (Australia), and the Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance. He is ambassador-at-large for Benchmark Capital.

Tyabji previously served on the following boards:

• Public companies: Ariba, Bank of America Merchant Services, Deluxe Corporation, eFunds, Novatel Wireless, PubliCard, and SmartDisk Corporation

• Private companies: Saraide (chairman and CEO), Datacard Group (chairman), DepotPoint, Impresse, and Norand Corporation

• Carnegie Institute

• Dean’s Council, Leavey School of Business, Santa Clara University

• Dean’s Council, School of Engineering, State University of New York (SUNY), Buffalo

Tyabji holds a B.S. and a M.S. in Electrical Engineering and a M.B.A. in International Business. He is a graduate of the Stanford Executive Program and was awarded an honorary doctorate by the State University of New York.

In 2007, Tyabji published Husband, Wife & Company: An Honest Perspective on Success in Life and Work, a book on the complex interrelationships between family and career. Rich in human anecdotes, historical and literary metaphors, and real-world examples of corporate leadership, the book captures the spirit of Tyabji’s personal and professional life. This spirit combines an abiding courage to dream with discipline, decisiveness, unshakable ethics, and integrity.

Listen to Tyabji present the keynote at TIEcon, 2006

Browse Fast Company's Archive of coverage on Tyabji.