Katrina Kaposts Smith - President
Katrina Smith wishes everyone enjoyed their jobs as much as she loves hers. Getting paid to talk to nice people on the phone – who can beat that? And, what could be better than getting to know hundreds of great speakers, each at the peak of their profession, in fields from nanotechnology to mountain climbing?

Katrina worked as an agent at Keynote for several years before becoming the owner, operating manager, HR director, speaker manager, staff-party scheduler, and general complaint department. She still works with a treasured group of clients, and wouldn’t give up being an agent for all the tea in China: being an agent is much more fun than paperwork.

She graduated from Yale University in 1994, loves all kinds of music from opera to blues to techno, speaks a variety of foreign languages, is an occasional practitioner of various martial arts, and has a husband and two wonderful sons who make everything else pale in comparison.

Kaaren Cheney - Director, Speaker Services
Kaaren Cheney feels like one of the really lucky ones. She has spent the last 13 years in a job that she absolutely loves. In fact, for over 20 years, Kaaren, a UCLA graduate in psychology and sociology, has been a successful sales executive. She considers what she does fun, and would do it for free, even if she won the lottery! She also really loves the many long-term relationships that she has built with both clients and speakers.

Kaaren is known around Keynote for her positive attitude, her determination, and her ability to cut straight to the important issues when booking a speaker. She also has an immense knowledge base of speakers and their styles and abilities. No one zeroes in on the right speaker faster than Kaaren!

Kathleen Mozena - Events Director
Kathleen Mozena has been in the meetings business for nearly 20 years. She graduated from the University of Oregon with a degree in Communications, the perfect major for her future career. She enjoys working with speakers because it enables her to get to know the best and the brightest in a variety of fields, and because it helps her stay current on all of the latest business trends and topics that are important. She likes to be “in the know!” Kathleen’s favorite types of speakers are those with good humor and energy, who genuinely want to make a positive difference in people’s lives.

Kathleen leads an incredibly active life. She enjoys the outdoors and most types of athletic endeavors, including hiking, golf, volleyball, and running. Kathleen also enjoys good food and dining with friends, travel, the arts, music, theater, and dance. Her preferred travels include everything from a weekend getaway to the local wine country or to Lake Tahoe, to more extensive trips to Europe, particularly to her roots in Ireland and Italy, and to France, where she was an exchange student. Kathleen is one of 8 children and is active in a wide variety of associations and organizations (including Toastmasters and MPI – she is both a CTM and a CMP) so Kathleen does not lack for family and friends to join her!

Sean O’Keefe - Events Director
A graduate of the University of Toronto, Sean O'Keefe first started booking speakers from a small log cabin in the wilds of Vancouver, British Columbia. After a particularly wet BC winter, Sean's cabin washed up on the Gulf coast of Texas, where he continued his work in the speaking industry, albeit this time with air conditioning.

After one meeting planner asked Sean what the biggest local attraction was and he couldn't remember the Alamo, he was strapped to the back of a Longhorn and run out of town. This time Sean took refuge in the cool climate of Northern California and the warm arms of Keynote Speakers, Inc.

Between bookings Sean toils as a published songwriter and spends time with his wonderful wife, two beautiful daughters and the family cat, who lets them live with her.

In his spare time Sean sleeps.

Debra Stern - Events Director
Debra Stern grew up in a beautiful northern Michigan lakeside community, where her family owned a small resort. At an early age Debra began acting as the social director of the family business. When guests arrived she would greet them, give directions to area hot spots, provide a tour of the property and offer to help them plan their time while in the area. A budding events director at the age of 13!

Debra's love for music led her to Nashville, where she began her booking career in the music business. She worked in music publishing, artist management and development, artist booking, and music & movie script pitching. She even produced artist showcases at the famed Hard Rock Café. Debra is also a trained singer. During her 14 year stay in Nashville she had the opportunity to sing on numerous albums and also sang with a group called Praise. One day Debra received a call from a talent agency that handled speakers, and thus began her career as a speakers' agent.

After spending 3 years as a speakers bureau agent in Nashville, Debra relocated to the San Francisco Bay area to join Keynote Speakers. In her spare time she enjoys sightseeing, movies, theatre, live music events, and visiting with friends.

James Cullen - Events Director
James, who is originally from Long Island, NY, was brought into the entertainment industry by his love of music. Wanting a change of scenery from the northeast, he packed his bags for a move to Washington State, where he began his work in the music business promoting and booking entertainment for shows and corporate events.

Later, James relocated to Southern California, to be closer to the heartbeat of the industry. There, he started his own agency and promotion company, which included guitar legends Dick Dale and Gary Hoey. James then joined forces with a major agency in LA, where he represented popular artists including Gordon Lightfoot, Judy Collins, Don McLean, Paul Rodgers, Dave Mason, and others. James' next step brought him to focus on talent buying for various venues such as casinos, major clubs, performing arts centers, and outdoor municipal events.

Then, one of James' colleagues recommended looking into speakers bureaus – another avenue to book a different type of “talent.” One thing led to another and in late 2007, James and his wife Susan made the big move to Northern California to land at Keynote Speakers.

Today, James says of his move, “This is a great company. I am proud to be working with the excellent clients and speakers at Keynote – and my co-workers are amazing. The people at this organization aspire to such a high degree of professionalism and integrity. This, for me, is extremely motivating and very inspiring.”

Lori Young - Speaker Information Administrator
Lori has a passion for details, which is why she is in charge of speaker materials at Keynote. Ever since the advent of email, speakers send new updates and changes to their materials more often than ever, which keeps Lori busy making sure her colleagues have the correct information at their fingertips. Lori is proud of being a team player, and she enjoys the whirlwind of helping co-workers get information instantly; she claims to never have a dull moment! She also enjoys the widely diverse array of speakers she handles.

Outside of the office, Lori’s passion is her creative outlets. She is an expert seamstress and pursues many types of hands-on crafts and hobbies. Lori is Keynote’s most coveted “Secret Santa” gift giver, because her recipient can always count on something exquisite, hand-made, and thoughtfully personalized.

Her other love is traveling with friends and family, a pursuit that began when her children were in elementary school. As her boys grew older, her travels expanded, so now she and her friends get together to party and travel several times each year.

Sue Rouquette - Office and Logistics Manager
Sue Rouquette never thought that she would find a job that draws from her experiences managing organizations in the high tech field, at the same time offering a fun and exciting opportunity to work with clients and speakers in meeting their event expectations. Having spent most of her career in operations management roles, Sue is very comfortable and happy helping meet the unique and special requirements that every event offers. Sue enjoys a challenge and works well in an environment that thrives on “good” stress.

Sue has held senior level management roles related to logistics, training, purchasing and planning. In these roles, she has had an opportunity to attend many types of events and she has heard many keynote speakers. She understands how important the details are in making an event successful.

Sue is married and the mother of one son and two dogs. She and her husband enjoy cooking, gardening, traveling and baking birthday favorites for all of her Keynote Speakers’ co-workers.

Karen Campbell - Contracts Administrator
One of the things that makes Karen Campbell’s job so enjoyable is her daily interaction with Keynote’s clients and speakers. Karen is responsible for Keynote’s contracts and accounting functions. She teams up with Keynote’s clients to work through the contract process, making sure that the needs of both organizations are met. Because of the diversity of types of organizations that book speakers, and because of the wide variety of individual speakers available, this is sometimes a challenging process! But having worked in the high tech industry for many years, Karen is no stranger to deadlines and challenges. As well, working with so many diverse speakers and knowing their individual stories makes her job that much more interesting.

Spending time with family and friends is very important to Karen. She also enjoys reading murder mystery books, whether at home or at the cabin, and she loves spending time outdoors, hiking or camping. She appreciates that Keynote Speakers recognizes the importance of a life-work balance, which enables her to enjoy the best that each offers.

Peter Gunardi - IT
Peter Gunardi brings to Keynote Speakers his sense of professionalism and his passion for computer science, derived from his extensive studies in various high tech fields.

As Keynote's go-to guy for all IT issues, Peter handles the website administration and maintenance on all the computer systems. Concentrating on the technical aspect of the company, Peter enjoys the challenge of implementing Keynote's ongoing "one step ahead" mindset, making sure the company is on the cutting edge of current technology.

In his spare time, Peter "spoils a good walk" with a game of golf, when he and his wife aren't enjoying their passion for traveling and for taking numerous photos of their newborn baby daughter.