Paul Folino

Chairman of the Board, Emulex

Paul Folino serves as chairman on the board of directors for Emulex, a NYSE publicly traded corporation with a market capitalization of over $800 million and over 86 million shares outstanding. He retired as executive chairman of Emulex in November 2011 after joining the company as president and chief executive officer in May 1993. Folino also sits on several non-profit boards including Chapman University, California State University, Fullerton, Orange County High School of the Arts, and The New Majority, as well as the Commercial Bank of California, Microsemi Corporation and CoreLogic in the corporate sector.

Folino was recognized as the 1999 Orange County Co-Entrepreneur of the Year for technology as well as Ernst & Young’s 2000 Orange County Director of the Year for high growth technology. More recently, he was recognized in 2006 by the Los Angeles Times as "one of the top 100 most influential" people in Southern California and "Orange County Philanthropist of the Year" by the Association of Fund Raising Professionals.

After graduating from Central Washington State University with a Bachelor of Arts degree (cum laude) in social sciences, Paul received his Masters of Business Administration degree at Seattle University, while working full time at The Boeing Company in Materials Management. Paul has left his mark of excellence on many companies throughout his career: Xerox Corporation, Eczel Corporation, and the Thomas-Conrad Corporation where he was promoted to president and chief operating officer of the company which during his tenure was recognized from "INC. Magazine" as one of the top ten fastest growing privately held corporations in America. 

Jim McCluney

Chief Executive Officer, Emulex

Jim McCluney joined Emulex in November 2003 as president and chief operating officer and was subsequently appointed to the position of president and chief executive officer in September 2006. During his tenure at Emulex, Mr. McCluney was instrumental in formulating Emulex's strategy for growth and executing on three strategic acquisitions, ServerEngines, Aarohi Communications and Sierra Logic, which have positioned Emulex for entry into new high-growth market segments.

Prior to Emulex's acquisition of Vixel Corporation in November 2003,McCluney served as Vixel's chairman, president and chief executive officer. From October 1997 to January 1999, he served as president and chief operating officer of Crag Technologies, formerly Ridge Technologies, a storage system manufacturer. From October 1994 to September 1997, McCluney served in various executive positions at Apple Computer, including senior vice president of worldwide operations and vice president of European operations.

McCluney is heavily involved with Project Tomorrow, a business and education non-profit collaborative dedicated to enhancing K-12 science education in Orange County schools, is on the board of the Mind Research Institute, a non-profit focused on improving K-12 math education in America, is on the Dean’s Advisory Board of University of California, Irvine’s School of Engineering, is the chairman of the University of California, Irvine’s CEO Roundtable, is on the board of OCTANe, a networking organization for Orange County's information technology and biomedical industries, and on the board of PBS Socal. McCluney holds a Bachelor of Arts degree with honors in business and administration from Strathclyde University in Glasgow, Scotland.

Jeff Benck

President and Chief Operating Officer, Emulex

Jeff Benck joined Emulex in May 2008 as executive vice president and chief operating officer (COO) and was subsequently appointed to the position of president and COO in August 2010. Benck oversees the company's engineering, marketing, business development, operations and sales organizations. Benck also plays a key role in contributing to the corporate strategy and is focused on diversifying the Emulex product portfolio and delivering growth through the deployment of converged networking.

Previously, Benck served as president and chief operating officer at QLogic. Prior to joining QLogic, he spent 18 years at IBM, most recently serving as vice president of xSeries, BladeCenter and Retail Store Solutions development. While at IBM, Benck's focus included growth initiatives, product development, marketing and strategy, portfolio management and customer relationships. Benck is widely known for his role in establishing IBM's blade server product line. His BladeCenter team received IBM's highest honor with the IBM Chairman's Award for Client Excellence. Benck is on the board of the Discovery Science Center. Benck holds a Master of Science degree in management of technology from University of Miami and a Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical engineering from Rochester Institute of Technology. Benck is also a distinguished inventor in the computer systems field and holds 6 US patents.

Mike Rockenbach

Chief Financial Officer and Executive Vice President, Emulex

Mike Rockenbach joined Emulex in 1991 and has served as executive vice president and chief financial officer since 1997. From 1991 to 1996, Rockenbach served in senior finance and accounting positions within the Company. During his tenure Rockenbach's contributions include driving several key financing transactions as well as analysis and integration of strategic acquisitions. Mike Rockenbach was also instrumental in the Company's move from the NASDAQ to the NYSE in 2003.

Prior to joining Emulex, Rockenbach's experience includes various manufacturing finance and financial planning positions at Western Digital Corporation. Rockenbach holds bachelors' degrees in both accounting and finance as well as a master's degree in International Business from California State University, Fullerton.

Dr. Joseph Arnold

College of the Arts Dean, California State University, Fullerton

Dr. Joseph Arnold's extensive work in the Southern California arts community includes reviewing for Art Week, editing two books by Broadway director Jose Quintero, and co-founding the Playwright-in-Residence program for the California State University Summer Arts' Theatre Project with Edward Albee and Arthur Kopit. His directing credits include the CSUF productions of The Manager and Grasmere, both performed at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. Grasmere was also produced at the Egyptian Arena Theatre, Los Angeles, and the Cherry Lane Theatre in New York.

Dr. Arnold earned his Ph.D. at the University of Illinois, chaired the CSUF Department of Theatre & Dance from 1986-1991, and is an accomplished actor and playwright whose work has been performed throughout the United States. He has served on the Board of Directors for the Orange County Black Actors Theatre, the Jose Quintero Foundation for Theatre Arts and Poets Reading, Inc. and currently serves as Dean of the College of the Arts.

Evan A. Senn

Local Artist, Contributor to Artillery Magazine and Arts Writer for KCET

Evan Senn is an art critic and writer in the Orange and Los Angeles counties. Evan currently wears many “hats” for Artillery Magazine, and also works as an arts writer for KCET’s newest project, Artbound. She is also a recurring contributor for the OC Art Blog and received her M.A. in Art History from California State University, Fullerton in 2011. Her writing may have set her a blaze, but her passion and drive for art in So Cal fuel her fire.

Richard Chang

Arts and Entertainment Writer/Visual Art Critic, The Orange County Register

Richard Chang is an arts and entertainment writer and the visual art critic for The Orange County Register, where he has worked since February 2000. He specializes in visual art, but has also written about television, movies, film festivals, the performing arts and Southern California media. He also does art news and reviews for the national magazine ARTnews. Richard has worked at a few different newspapers, including The Santa Fe New Mexican, The Bakersfield Californian and The Albuquerque Journal. He has freelanced for a number of other publications, including the San Francisco Bay Guardian and Asian Week.

Richard teaches an arts and entertainment journalism and writing workshop at UCLA. The course is designed for students who wish to write about A&E for The Daily Bruin. He has taught courses in journalism and writing at California State University, Fullerton and Los Angeles Valley College. His experience in radio includes stints at KQED in San Francisco, KALX in Berkeley, KUCI in Irvine and radioinvasion.com. Richard graduated from Brown University with honors in English and American Literature and received a master’s degree in journalism from UC Berkeley.