Keynotes


Thursday Keynotes
Sponsored by findmypast.com


Dennis Brimhall

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Dennis C. Brimhall is currently the President and CEO of FamilySearch International. FamilySearch International is a worldwide organization helping individuals find, preserve, catalogue, and search genealogical information. FamilySearch International is sponsored by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He was formerly the President and Chief Executive Officer of University of Colorado Hospital from 1988 to 2005. From 2005 to 2008, he was president of the Kentucky Louisville Mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. This was a volunteer assignment. A native of Provo, Utah, Mr. Brimhall earned an undergraduate degree in zoology from Brigham Young University in 1972 and a master’s degree in management from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University in 1974. In 1974, he joined the University of Utah as Assistant Administrator, and then became Associate Administrator.

Syd Lieberman

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Syd is a nationally acclaimed storyteller, an author, and an award-winning teacher. Many of his best-loved stories deal with growing up in Chicago and raising a family in Evanston, Illinois. Syd is also known for his original historical pieces. He has received commissions to write stories for some of America’s leading institutions and agencies, including the Smithsonian; Historic Philadelphia, Inc.; NASA; and the U.S. Capitol Visitor Center. His work has garnered awards from the American Library Association, Parents' Choice, and Storytelling World. Syd was one of six tellers featured on the television special The Call of Story. He has also performed numerous times at the Timpanogos and National storytelling festivals.

D. Joshua Taylor

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D. Joshua Taylor, MA, MLS, is the Business Development Manager—North America for brightsolid online publishing, the creator of findmypast.com. A nationally known and recognized professional genealogist, lecturer, genealogical author, and researcher, Taylor is the current president of the Federation of Genealogical Societies (FGS) and the former Director of Education at the New England Historic Genealogical Society. Taylor holds an MLS (Archival Management) and an MA (History) from Simmons College, and is the recipient of numerous awards and honors, including the Federation of Genealogical Societies Award of Merit, and the Rubincam Youth Award from the National Genealogical Society. Taylor was also a featured genealogist on NBC's Who Do You Think You Are?


Friday Keynotes
Sponsored by Ancestry.com


Jyl Pattee

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Jyl Johnson Pattee is the founder of Mom It Forward Media, a digital agency and network of social media influencers. She is also the co-founder of the evo Conference and was on the founding board of the Social Media Club of Salt Lake City. Currently, she sits on the Mom Advisory Council for ONE.org, is a Shot@Life Champion with the United Nations Foundation, was named one of Parent Magazine’s Top 10 Power Moms, and is on Babble’s list of Top Twitter Moms. In a past life, she was an award-winning copywriter, designer of corporate training programs for Fortune 100 companies, and PTO president. Offline, Jyl is married to @TroyPattee; a mom to two boys; loves large amounts of cheese, dancing, and traveling; and lives in the beautiful Rocky Mountains.

Tim Sullivan

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Timothy Sullivan has served as the President and Chief Executive Officer and as a director of Ancestry.com, Inc. since September 2005. Prior to joining Ancestry.com, Mr. Sullivan was Chief Operating Officer and then President and CEO of Match.com from January 2001 to September 2004. From May 1999 to January 2001, Mr. Sullivan served as Vice President of E-commerce for Ticketmaster Online-Citysearch, Inc. From June 1991 to May 1999, Mr. Sullivan held multiple positions at The Walt Disney Company, including Vice President and Managing Director of Buena Vista Home Entertainment Asia Pacific from July 1997 to May 1999. Mr. Sullivan holds an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School and was a Morehead Scholar at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.


Saturday Keynotes
Sponsored by MyHeritage.com


David Pogue

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David Pogue is the weekly personal-technology columnist for The New York Times and a monthly columnist for Scientific American. He is also an Emmy Award-winning tech correspondent for CBS Sunday Morning and the current host of NOVA ScienceNow, in which he offers an edgy take on science as he is immersed in hilarious and dangerous situations. With over three million books in print, Pogue is one of the world's best-selling how-to authors. He has written or co-written seven books in the For Dummies series (including Macs, Magic, Opera, and Classical Music). In 1999, he launched his own series of complete, funny computer books called the Missing Manual series, which now includes 120 titles. Merging his musical background with his scientific knowledge, David Pogue delivers unique presentations that generally end with him sitting at a piano performing a couple of his famous tech-industry song parodies—“Don’t Cry For Me, Cupertino” and “I Got YouTube” being some of his more popular ditties.

Gilad Japhet

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Gilad Japhet is the Founder and CEO of MyHeritage, the popular online family history network. A rare mix of hardcore genealogist, hands-on technologist, and visionary, Gilad is one of the most influential people today in the advancement of online genealogy. Gilad grew MyHeritage from a one-person startup based out of his living-room into the world’s second largest genealogy company with 72 million registered users, 1.5 billion family tree profiles, 150 employees and 8 acquisitions, including Geni.com. Driven by a passion to make family history more accessible and rewarding for families around the world, Gilad masterminded the development of innovative matching technologies for family trees and historical records that are redefining the industry, and social collaboration tools that are bringing genealogy into the 21st century. Before founding MyHeritage, Gilad played instrumental roles in product development at BRM Technologies (acquired by Symantec) and BackWeb Technologies (NASDAQ). A father of three adorable children, Gilad holds a B.Sc. Summa Cum Laude in Computer Science from the Technion, Israel Institute of Technology.