TTCER

Bret Comolli

Chairman, Asurion

Bret serves as the Chairman of Asurion overseeing the growth and success of Asurion’s strategies and business operations. He brings more than thirty years of proven leadership, business management and consulting experience to Asurion’s executive team. Bret’s prior business experience includes CEO, COO and General Manager positions at companies such as Excite@Home, Kendara, Risk Management Solutions and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. He also worked at McKinsey & Company, consulting to Fortune 500 companies on strategic, operational and organizational issues. Bret is currently a member of the Stanford University Board of Trustees, sits on the Board of Directors of Stanford Health Care, and serves on the Stanford Business School Management Board. Bret graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point with a Bachelor of Science in engineering and earned an MBA from the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University. Bret serves as an officer of the Board of Directors for CTIA - The Wireless Association.

Jim Ellis

Director, Asurion

Mr. Ellis is a Lecturer in Management at the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University. He is currently teaching two strategic management courses that center around the early stages of the entrepreneurial process. These courses include Formation of New Ventures (S353), and Managing Growing Enterprises (S355). Mr. Ellis takes a personal interest and enjoys participating in and contributing to the learning process faced by each of his students.

Prior to coming to Stanford, Mr. Ellis held a number of positions with both large and small companies. In 1995, Mr. Ellis cofounded Asurion with Kevin Taweel to provide value-added solutions for the wireless communications industry. Previously responsible for Asurion’s sales and marketing efforts, Mr. Ellis is an active member of the company’s board of directors. Mr. Ellis has also held positions as a research associate at the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University and as a consultant with IMG and Cresap, McCormick, and Paget. He is a member of a number of Boards of Directors including BUILD, Asurion, Service Source Inc., Memento Press, Half Moon Bay Brewing Company, and Southern California Risk Management Associates. Mr. Ellis holds an MBA from Stanford University and a bachelor’s degree with high honors in economics from Dartmouth College. He is also a recipient of Ernst and Young’s prestigious Entrepreneur of the Year award.

Gerald Risk

Vice Chairman, Asurion

Gerald Risk most recently served as Vice Chairman of Asurion, the world’s largest provider of technology protection services, partnering with the world’s top companies and brands to serve over 200 million customers globally. Prior to serving as Vice Chairman, he served as Asurion’s President from 2009 to 2013 and Asurion’s Chief Financial Officer for the 10 years prior to that. Before joining Asurion, Gerald helped a wide variety of clients, from Fortune 500 firms to early stage start-ups, execute their strategic and financial plans as an investment banker with Goldman, Sachs & Co. in San Francisco, Hong Kong and New York. He has also worked for Hambrecht and Quist and the private investment arm of Toronto Dominion Capital. Gerald is an active mentor of entrepreneurial leaders in the for-profit and non-profit worlds. In this capacity, he currently serves on the Board of Directors of Carillon Assisted Living (provider of assisted living services in the Southeast), HealthCPA (provider of medical expense management services for consumers), and QMC Telecom (cell tower operator in Brazil). Gerald holds an MBA from the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University, where he was an Arjay Miller Scholar and where he served as a case writer for Jack McDonald, the Stanford Investors Professor of Finance. He holds a Bachelor's Degree in Commerce with honors from Queen’s University in Canada where he was on the Dean’s List.

Kevin Taweel

CEO, Asurion

Since co-founding Asurion in 1994, the company has grown from 40 to 16,000 employees, becoming the world’s largest provider of technology protection services, partnering with the world’s top companies and brands and serving over 275 million customers. Previously, Kevin was chairman and president of investment firm Mill River Corporation and worked in mergers and acquisitions for Salomon Brothers. Kevin and his Asurion co-founder received the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award in 2001. Kevin is a faculty member at the Stanford Graduate School of Business where he teaches entrepreneurship courses in the MBA program, from which he graduated in 1992. He is also a member of the school's advisory council and has served on its management board.

Kevin received a Bachelor`s degree in Mechanical Engineering from McGill University. He serves on the board of directors for ResponseLink, and East West Institute (EWI). He is also on the board of trustees for the California Institute of Technology (Caltech).