Roberta Reiff Katz

Roberta Reiff Katz is Associate Vice President for Strategic Planning at Stanford University, working in the Office of the President. In that capacity, she assists with the development and implementation of a variety of new University-wide initiatives.

She previously was one of the founders and the CEO of Flywheel Communications, Inc., a company specializing in the use of technology to manage rights-related transactions and dispute resolutions.  Prior to joining Flywheel Communications, Inc., Ms. Katz was the President and CEO of the Technology Network (TechNet), a national bipartisan political network of technology industry executives.  Ms. Katz had previously served for four years as the Senior Vice President, Secretary and General Counsel of Netscape Communications Corporation. Prior to her post at Netscape, she was the Senior Vice President and General Counsel of McCaw Cellular Communications, Inc. (subsequently AT&T Wireless) and its subsidiary, LIN Broadcasting Corporation. Ms. Katz was also a lawyer in private practice, specializing in corporate law. She was a partner with the firm of Heller, Ehrman, White & McAuliffe, resident in the firm's Seattle office.

Before becoming an attorney, Ms. Katz was a cultural anthropologist. She holds a Ph.D. from Columbia University, where she specialized in issues of social and cultural change. She is the co-author of Justice Matters: Rescuing the Legal System for the 21st Century (1997), which discusses the effects of the Information Age on the American civil justice system.

Ms. Katz has been named one of "The Fifty Most Influential Women Lawyers in America" by the National Law Journal and one of the "100 Most Influential Lawyers in California" by the Daily Journal, and has been a frequent public speaker on Internet law and policy issues, legal system issues, social change issues, and technology-workplace issues.

Ms. Katz received her bachelor's degree from Stanford University, law degree from University of Washington Law School, and Ph.D. from Columbia University.